What was the last movie you watched? Part 2

The Church (Italian title, La chiesa ~ 1989)

Originally intended as the third entry in Lamberto Bava's Demons series, a change of director (Michele Soavi) and several rewrites resulted in this becoming its own thing (although Demons producer Dario Argento remained onboard). In medieval Germany a group of Teutonic Knights massacre an entire village accused of witchcraft, burying their bodies in a mass grave. An enormous cathedral is built over the spot to contain the Evil (which clearly took many, many years - I guess they just kept their fingers crossed till it was finished). In the present day, restoration work at the cathedral leads to the discovery of a concealed ancient parchment, and the accidental unsealing of the grave - which causes all hell to break loose, literally!

The movie pulls an interesting switch from who seems to be the hero to who eventually steps up. In fact it takes a few unexpected turns. Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana, and a 14 year old Asia Argento head the cast, and all do well. The rest of the cast are fair/okay. The makeup and practical effects are good, although it might have been better to not show the creatures so clearly. The story jumps around here and there, but the overall plot is straightforward. However, it's slow at times, and some of the editing is a little confusing (that may be partly down to censorship cuts). The English dubbing wasn't great, either. But it has a good soundtrack (courtesy of ELP's Keith Emerson, Philip Glass, and Argento-favourites,Goblin), and certainly looks stylish. 6/10
 
THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES: MY FIRST ADVENTURE (1992/1997)

In the early 1990's George Lucas created the TV series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES. Around 2007, he edited the various one hour episodes into two hour movies. The movie compilation I watched here is a mess. It starts off with the very first episode that features 9 year old Corey Carrier as a 9 year old Indiana Jones. The second half of the "movie" is supposed to take place days after the first half...but it was filmed 5 years later. So you now have a 14 year old Corey playing the 9 year old Indiana. There are no guest star actors of note in these two episodes (later episodes feature some well known American and European actors). The episodes story lines cover a mystery around the opening of a tomb with a mummy and meeting Lawrence of Arabia as well as young Indy getting abducted into the slave trade. It was mildly interesting and mainly to be watched to see the complete Indiana Jones story.
 
THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES: PASSION FOR LIFE (1993)

This was the next compilation of 2 episodes of THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES TV series.In this one, Indy meets Theodore Roosevelt (James Gammon) on safari in Africa and then goes to Paris and hobknobbs with famous artists Norman Rockwell, Edgar Degas, and Pablo Picasso. I seriously doubt if these guys would have really spent so much time trying to impress a 9 year old. No major adventures occur
 
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THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES: THE PERILS OF CUPID (1993)

This one was a complete waste of time. The first half's story line has 9 year old Indy falling in love with princess Sophia, the daughter of Arch Duke Ferdinand and seeking advice on love from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung before sneaking into the palace to tell her. I doubt that Freud and Jung would have been that interested in discussing the philosophies of love with a 9 year old. The second half has opera composer Puccini attempting to seduce Indy's mother. A pretty boring "adventure" whose only highlight for me was having Max Von Sydow guest star as Freud.

THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES: TRAVELS WITH FATHER (1996)

Another boring compilation of the TV series episodes. It's no wonder that the series episodes with 9 year old Indy were rarely shown.In the first half, Indy goes to Russia and meets Leo Tolstoy (nicely played by wonderful character actor Michael Gough), the second half takes them to Greece, where the scenery is the highlight of the story.

THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES: JOURNEY OF RADIANCE (1994)

Just when you think the adventures of 9 year old Indy couldn't get any more boring....along comes these two episodes. 9 year old Indy goes to India and discusses the existence of various gods and religions....he then goes to China, and has the marvelous adventure of getting sick and needing acupuncture. The only highlight of this episode is that part of it was filmed at the Great Wall of China. Thankfully this was the last of the 9 year old Indy episodes.
 
THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES: SPRING BREAK ADVENTURE (1994)

Finally, 9 year old Indy is gone, and 17 year old Indy (Sean Patrick Flanery) arrives. This starts off with Indy stopping industrial spies from stealing (and destroying) a powerful electric battery that could replace the internal combustion engine and ends with Indy going to Mexico and joining Pancho Villa in fighting in the Mexican revolution.There is lots of action and fighting in these episodes with many action scenes lifted from the Gregory Peck/Jane Fonda theatrical film OLD GRINGO. He meets the historical figures of Thomas Edison, Pancho Villa, and George S. Patton. This movie compilation is highly recommended.
 
The Ghost Walks (1934)

Low budget, US 'old dark house' horror/murder-mystery/comedy. One night, during a rainstorm, a car carrying a theatrical producer, his assistant, and a budding playwright crashes into a fallen tree. The three men take refuge in a nearby mansion, whose occupier tells them that all the roads are out due to the weather, and invites them to stay the night. They prepare to sit down for dinner with the occupier and his friends, one of whom begins to ramble about the murder of her husband in that very house two years earlier. She believes his ghost walks on the anniversary of his death. Things then take a turn that must have been very unexpected at the time, and is still a surprise. What follows is uncertainty over what is and isn't real, a labyrinth of secret passages, and an escaped mental patient. The cast (no big names) are solid, although the acting is of that 'stagy' style of the period, and the script is clever (with elements that went on to appear in several of those Amicus anthology horrors of the late 60s/early 70s). Unfortunately the direction is rather staid, dialogue is sometimes muffled (possibly due to the quality of the print), and - despite the film's short (69 min) runtime - it drags at times. But it does have that moody atmosphere, unique to those old, b&w, 'stormy night' films. 6/10
 
:up::up:
none
:up:
To Catch a Killer (2023)Crime, Thriller
:up::down
No One Will Save You (2023)Sci-Fi, Thriller
Stage Fright (1950)Thriller
:down
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1964)Mystery, Thriller
:down:down
Hotel Dunsmuir (2022)Horror, Thriller
Hypnotic (2023)Mystery, Thriller
Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep (2006)Action, Horror
The Lair (2022)Horror, Action
 
Bring It On: Cheer or Die (2022)

Full disclosure: This is the only Bring It On movie I've ever seen.

I'll say this much though: it's actually better than I was expecting.

And before anyone starts questioning my sanity, I'm not even going to attempt to argue that this straight-to-video production is a 'good' movie. It's completely predictable, not even remotely scary, and the small amount of gore in the film is nothing to write home about. However, for a script that clearly started life as something else and was later retrofitted for franchise inclusion, the film is surprisingly enjoyable.

The movie scores major points for actually taking place over Halloweekend, and for a general sense of nastiness that caught me off guard. Unfortunately, it also loses points for being yet another example of a winking, smirking, post-modern meta horror-comedy that sadly has been prevalent in the slasher genre since at least Scream, going on almost three decades now...

I dunno, maybe it's because this was my first horror movie watch this year for Spooky Season but I kinda sorta enjoyed this...

6/10


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It's got a good concept but it's so ridiculously overblown and far fetched in it's execution, with a hammy performance from Ron Silver, that the potential is wasted.

5/10
 
Polaroid (2019)

Supernatural horror based on director Lars Klevberg's 2015 short of the same name. A girl named Bird (Kathryn Prescott) comes into possession of an old Polaroid camera. When she uses it to take pictures of her friends, a mysterious, blurry figure develops on the photographs behind them. Soon afterwards, they die. As Bird and her rapidly dwindling group try to unravel the mystery and solve the cause of the deaths, she discovers that whatever 'it' is is coming for her too.

Elements of this reminded me of The Ring, Final Destination, Shutter, and Lights Out. But despite it being derivative, the story isn't bad, and it takes a couple of unexpected turns (I guessed twist A - I didn't see twist B coming). There is an over-reliance on jump-scares, but there are some creepy scenes, too. The cast of 'pretty young things' do well, with solid support from old hands Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files, Return of the Living Dead Part II, Supernatural), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks, Child's Play 2, The Grudge), and Javier Botet - who seems to have just about cornered the market in spindly, jerk-motion, demonic entities. The only thing that puzzled me was the pre-credits sequence, which whilst fine in itself, doesn't really connect with the rest of the movie beyond its premise. Anyway, I'd heard bad things about this, but it was better than I expected. 6.5/10
 
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