Mitch Baker Movie Review Dump

[brain galacki]

Ha ha okay...



MUNCHIE (1992): Thanks to Some Jaboroni's recommendation / watching this on Mystery Science 3000... (I did not watch on MST3K) I watched MUNCHIE. What animal even is this? Do they ever say? I don’t know. It was just about as pure 80’s cheese as you would expect (wait… this was 1992)… okay, this was just about exactly what you would expect, except a little bit better and more enjoyable than that. A good fun and short movie to watch. 4/10

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE (1962): A nice black and white 1962 film. I watched because I came across the soundtrack. It might have seen like a horror film with the black cat on the cover, but no. I forget what role the cat even had in this. Not a lot of cat, but I remember liking it. 6/10

THE GREASY STRANGLER (2016): Ooh booy. where to begin with THIS... do not watch this. This is the type of movie you would almost tell your friends to watch just to see their reaction to it, but in a "two girls one cup" type of way (I would never tell any of you on here to watch that type of stuff). It is too vulgar of a movie for me to recommend to anybody... actually no, I told BJ to watch it after seeing and he loved it. But this movie tries way too hard to be as foul and disgusting as possible for it to really be good at all. So it gets a bad review from me. But I do gotta say the soundtrack really stood out to me as being my favorite part. (you'd know what I mean if you watch it) (or heck, don't watch this movie, just listen to the soundtrack on spotify or something) (then watch the movie if you really feel so inclined to do so from there) (but be prepared to see the most foul sh*t you've ever seen in a movie). I gave it a 3/10, but I gotta admit, this is a movie that sticks with you. It was over a month ago that I saw it, and it is still burned in my brain. So I feel like it's score truly is creeping up for me over time. 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (2017): Not as fun as good as the first one, still a fun Marvel movie that stands out from most of the rest and a good handful of laughs. Big realization for me in the opening scene they play "Mr. Blue Sky" in its ENTIRETY (almost like 6 minutes long), and like wow, that was the exact same time as our band Livin' Thing was playing and recorded that song - realizing how stupid this was for us to be playing a song at the same time big lame ol' block buster Marvel movie had it featured in it's entirety that automatically wipes out the entire "cool factor" we had going for us, we might as well have been eating McDonald's BIG MACS right on the stage for doing that in 2017. 7/10.

EXITENZ (1999): Very 1999 Cronenberg flick, I feel like I am drinking a SURGE soda or CRYSTAL PEPSI while watching this movie just by looking at it. Also reminded me of Video Drome or something like this, I get why Cronenberg movies are what they are now. People plugging nintendo plugs into an extra hole that they make in their spines. This is truly what people in 1999 thought the future of gaming was going to be like. Do we still think that way? I don't think so. 6/10 

[somejabroni]

The Greasy Strangler is a classic. I'll never look at the car wash the same again.

[jeffradon2000]

Jul 14, 2022 6:06:24 GMT -6 somejabroni said:

The Greasy Strangler is a classic. I'll never look at the car wash the same again.

If it's too much for Brian, what would it do to me???

[brain galacki]

Forum announcement update:

I have changed the name of this thread to reflect more of what it has become:

THE MITCH BAKER MOVIE REVIEW DUMP.

Just dump your movie reviews and what we have all been watching here and we can all be friends. I will be creating a separate, OFFICIAL THREAD for that MITCH BAKER MOVIE PICK OF THE WEEK, (for real this time) shortly.

[brain galacki]

IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I'VE DONE A MOVIE DUMP (even though I've still been watching movies nonstop) and nobody reads this probably but OH WELL I'm GONNA KEEP IT GOING...



976-EVIL (1988): Robert Englund’s directorial debut (the guy that played Freddy Kruger), and pretty much the only movie he’s directed looks like… looking at the cover and given the info you look at this and say “oh man, this is probably gonna be bad but maybe great.” And you know what, not bad for what it is! The typical 80’s horror high school story where there’s the leather jacket punks at the high school hanging out in the bathroom covered in graffiti (spot the big “Black Flag” spray painted on the wall), maybe they are pushing around the nerdy character, who later discovers a phone number he can dial up that gives him demon powers so he can have revenge on his nagging mom and also leather jacket bullies, the end! Spot the cutout of the “Dance Craze” movie poster in the boys hangout room! And a bunch of other horror movie posters. 5/10.

CHIP N' DALE RESCUE RANGERS (2022): Yeah, I watched this. An enjoyable watch! Somewhat better than expected, and of course geared towards not kids, but us adults in our 30's and 40's that used to watch cartoons. 7/10. 

THE LAST SHARK (1981): I was really itching to watch a shark movie, and holy heck I realized some time around now that there are HUNDREDS of shark movies being made, especially bad ones being made in modern times. Zombie Sharks, Nazi Sharks, Robo-Sharks, Sharknado, Sharkansas Women's Prison, Sharks In The Corn, The Shark Exorcist. I need something more classic, so I went to this early 80's Italian film. It still wasn't that great, but it scratched my itch. 4/10.

THE CRAWLING HAND (1963): Not a bad early 60's sci-fi film! (I guess they didn't get very ambitious with the type of monster they were going for here, since it was just a guy's hand and arm, so it wasn't like other 50's/60's sci-fi where you only see 30 seconds of the monster at the end), but boy the Mystery Science Theater 3000 banter version of this was hard to watch and MST3000 needs to tone it down, the volume of the movie was even way more quiet than their dumb characters!! (2/10)

LIQUID SKY (1982): I've entered the realm of movies that are so underground that you can not find them anywhere online... only at Recycled Records for $20. Wow, this movie was so 1980's weird alien art drugs neon grimey unique synthy fashion something else. I recommend listening to the soundtrack first and if you're into it, then watch the movie. 5/10.

[jeffradon2000]

   

I actually watched a lot of movies last week and thought I might do this thing

I'm usually too busy with projects and playing PC games late at night to watch movies. But this weekend I mainly wanted to dive into cleaning up our discogs inventory and it allows me to half watch movies while I do it while sipping my bourbon. I will say I'm a sucker for 70s/80s camp/cult movies and I wanted to catch up on some of these classics. Also kind of dipping my toe into horror a bit here since I guess all record store owners are big horror nuts, I suppose I have to start getting used to it. Also Brian may have already reviewed some of these and I didn't take the time to check on that, sorry.

They Live (1988): I was going through my usual streaming services to find something interesting and after not finding anything I remembered Tubi, so I tried that and oh boy do they have a treasure trove of movies that are exactly what I was looking for. I've never watched this before and I knew it was a classic. For a movie that came out in '88, it sure felt like a low budget 70s movie. I knew it wouldn't be a blockbuster going into it, and I liked the low budget elements of it all. I also didn't know it starred Roddy Piper. For some reason I always assumed this was a Kurt Russell film. It did have some unexpected turns like that big fight scene between the 2 guys that just went on and on. Also I thought it was pretty silly that the entire alien takeover was contingent on one thing at the end. Of course I should not try to reason with a film like this. I'm glad I finally watched it but I don't think I need to watch it again someday 6.5/10

The Toxic Avenger (1984): all right I was not expecting this film to be like this at all. I figured it might be a little raunchy but seriously?? Of course the only thing I knew going into this was the kids cartoon and the toy line. I actually watched the cartoon back in the day. I thought before watching this that maybe it would be a little raunchy like Robocop or something. It was crazy back in the 80s when Robocop came out with all that blood and gore and yet had a pretty successful toy line. Well yea I was not prepared at all. I will say it was pretty silly and had some humorous parts to it, although I couldn't watch the part about the bad guys running over a kid, that was just too unsettling for me being a parent and all. I did find it humorous whenever Toxie would say something and it was clearly and very badly dubbed and you would never see his face while he was talking. I thought the end was pretty silly when the military and the general public all came out together and cheering at the end after Toxie did that one thing. That just kind of wrapped up how silly the whole thing is. Then I found there are like 3 more sequels??!! I'm not planning on watching any of those. 5/10

Death Race 2000 (1975): With the title in mind, I was not expecting anything too deep with this movie. The premise is very much like The Running Man which has probably been a literary trope for a while, also think Smash TV in the arcade. Although now we're doing it with cars. It is a rather dystopian bizarro world and once again you need to not try to reason with it. I was not expecting to see any big stars like Sylvester Stallone. I wonder if this was before he achieved super stardom. I did find it interesting that they mixed it up so that not all the drivers were men. Also the movie wasn't as straightforward as I expected as there were little bits of plot, maybe about as deep as a video game but hey what do you expect. There was plenty of blood and gore and naked people for me not to want my mom know I watched it, but if it wasn't for all of that I could totally see little me playing something like this with my little cars back in the 80s. 6.5/10

Meatballs (1979): After watching so much dark comedy over the weekend I felt I needed a breather and Tubi delivered the Meatballs recommendation. I love old movies about summer as one of my favorite movies of all time is One Crazy Summer. I had actually watched this years ago and I remember liking it. It's still good in my opinion. It's pretty much a Bill Murray vehicle but one thing I have to say is 70s Bill Murray is much better than later Bill Murray. I love camping and this is a movie that really makes you want to get out there and camp. Of course all those girls running around in bikinis all the time are going to be covered in bug bites if this wasn't a cornball movie. This is just a fun movie and Murray's jokes are actually pretty good through the whole thing. I like that there isn't too much drama. A lot of these kinds of movies are about Oh No the Bad Guys are going to destroy everything unless we beat them at the thing!" I think that allows for more focus on the silly antics and general fun of summer camp. Maybe it wouldn't be the best to recommend this tho as the last thing we need around the record store is more pranks. Now I want to go camping 9/10

[somejabroni]

They Live is one of my favorite movies. PUT ON THE GLASSES!!

[brain galacki]

Okay WOW JEFF WOW

Toxic Avenger and Meatballs are also two movies that I had seen for the first time in my life in the last year or so. I had the same reaction as you to TOXIC AVENGER (like not at all the type of movie I was expecting), except I loved it. And I DO plan on watching the three sequels. Meatballs was cute 1980s (edit sorry, 70's) summertime fun. THEY LIVE and DEATHRACE have both been on my list for a while.

I guess I gotta get back into doing movie dumps!

[vanslater]

Looks like i do too Brian.

And Jeff, that's what Troma is all about. They have a cumming penis serpent that is in tons of their movies! it's great. Lots of kids killed, people ran over, heads getting squished, nudity, cool music. DIY til Lloyd Dies. Then DIY until Target buys Troma's catalog.

[jeffradon2000]

   

I cleaned up more discogs and watched more movies this weekend

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
As someone who seems to gravitate toward clowns, you'd think I had seen this movie a long time ago. It seems everyone these days associate clowns with IT and the idea clowns are scary and creepy. I suppose I'm old enough to remember when clowns were a regular thing everywhere. Old people were collecting clown figurines, Bozo was on tv, and Toby Twist the Clown was the biggest hit at the Casey Popcorn Festival. There was nothing creepy about any of that. Anyway, this movie was even better than I expected. Everything about this movie was silly and the practical effects were awesome. I also noticed the movie opens up with the main song which pretty much spells out what is going to happen, but it also helped to set how silly and entertaining this is going to be. Looking up the soundtrack turns out the Dickies perform the main Killer Klowns theme. Am I a Dickies fan? I'm already a huge fan of their Banana Splits cover that I found on Tik Tok. I loved this movie, it is now my favorite 80s horror movie. I was hoping there were sequels but turns out they never finished any, which seems to be a whole deal with this franchise. 8/10

Critters (1986)
I watched Killer Klowns first and then this movie the same night, which was probably a bad idea. These 2 movies were really similar. I didn't realize the Critters were also from space. I noticed in both movies the monsters indiscriminately kill people relentlessly but for some reason decide to spend a lot of extra effort to kidnap the female lead and create a whole damsel in distress scenario for no real benefit to whatever they're trying to achieve. I did like the look of the Critters themselves, that's probably the best part of the movie and how they move around like radio controlled fluff balls. Just like with Killer Klowns I was expecting a lot more blood and gore, not that I missed it. Also why did the bounty hunter guns need to extend and retract? I was wondering if Johnny Steele was actually played by a real life rock and roller, but apparently not, I feel that was a missed opportunity. I also liked the callouts to other hit movies of the era like ET and Ghostbusters, just changed a little bit. It definitely helped to make this feel like the time period. Overall it was pretty fun and I would have probably liked it better if it wasn't back to back with Killer Klowns 6.5/10

The Wanderers (1979)
Someone had told me this movie was similar to the Warriors. I love The Warriors and thought I would give this one a try. It is certainly a different movie than the Warriors, mainly due to it being a different time period. There's the worst class exercise that I've ever seen. There's Napoleon's uncle if he went even more off the rails. I was intrigued how the mafia guys interacted with the gangs, how they kind of know what's up but not dealing with the BS at the same time. I didn't pick up in the movie why they were playing football, but after reading up I realize it was all organized by the mafia guy. I did find the ending a little emotional where it all of a sudden becomes a coming of age story, fleeting youth and all of that. I suppose I'm still not ready to give up my youth. Overall I love the Warriors way more than this movie but I wouldn't say they are the same movie. 6/10

Swamp Thing (1982)
My next Tubi recommendation turned out to be Swamp Thing, and I decided to roll with it since it is a pinball after-all. Now I did know going into this that Swamp Thing is actually a DC comic book character. I was surprised to learn this about a year ago as I always assumed Swamp Thing was just a classic movie monster like Dracula or Frankenstein, which is also how its treated in pinball. Anyway, oh look there's that guy from Twin Peaks. This movie did kind of feel like a superhero origin movie. I found it interesting the female lead was really tough and she wasn't the damsel kind of girl that is often portrayed in Swamp Thing art. Although it did seem she hit it off with the guy pretty fast in the beginning, even in front of his sister! The Swamp Thing didn't really seem all that amazing, I kind of expected him to start picking off all the bad guys one by one but most of the time he just knocked them around a little and then they're back in the next scene. The story is pretty straightforward and the whole thing was an ok watch. I wondered if the actor that played Jude was in other movies or shows but apparently not. Also the Swamp Thing rubber suit costume is kind of hard to take seriously. At least now I can check off that I watched the Swamp Thing movie. EDIT: lol this morning I finally realized that Swamp Thing and the Creature from the Black Lagoon is not the same thing, so I guess I watched this movie for no reason and still haven't seen the movie the pinball is based on 5/10

[somejabroni]

Has anyone ever seen the documentary Vannin'? I'm watching it as I type and it's amazing.

[jackparanoia]

Jun 21, 2023 18:54:03 GMT -6 somejabroni said:

Has anyone ever seen the documentary Vannin'? I'm watching it as I type and it's amazing.

I haven't, but I will. It's on Tubi and multiple other free streaming apps.