Monday, August 31, 2009

Movie Monday - Spiders, Confusion, Vampires & More!

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The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

The film stars some B-level 60s/70s actors like Barbara Hale (Della Street from Perry Mason), Alan Hale, Jr. (he plays the sheriff and his first line even uses the "Hi, little buddy!" catch phrase he had on "Gilligan's Island"), Steve Brodie, Robert Easton and Leslie Parrish.

A meteor crashes and giant spiders are the result. A Wisconsin town has to deal with the horrific monsters.

Well, I guess this could have been worse than it was. A bigger budget might have helped. Some of the movie was just blah, lots and lots of talk. And some of the lines were cringe-worthy. I see now that Mystery Science Theater 3000 has riffed this movie on one episode. Might be better to see it that way.

"You're so dumb you wouldn't know rabbit turds from Rice Krispies!" - Wow, what a line. I so want to hear what the MST3K crew said about that!

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Unknown (2006)

James Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, Jeremy Sisto, Peter Stomare, Bridget Moynahan

Five bloody, beaten and confused men wake up in a deserted warehouse with no memory of who they are or why they are together. They then have to try and figure out what is going on, who they are and who put them in this situation. Is it one of them?

Interesting flick, that I had never heard of before. And with the line up of actors in it, that seems odd. Definitely keeps you guessing, right up until the end.

Recommended, if you like violent, mystery, action flicks.

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The Forsaken (2001)

Kerr Smith, Brendan Fehr, Izabella Miko, Johnathon Schaech, Phina Oruche, Simon Rex

A young man is hired to drive a car cross country. After picking up a strange hitchhiker and encountering some even stranger people on the road, he soon finds out that vampires aren't just the stuff of legends.

Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, this is sort of an action/vampire flick. Some of the scenes are way too dark for me to even grasp what is going on, but overall it's not a bad story.

The end has a sort of set-up that reminded me of the TV show "Supernatural".

Recommended if you like this sort of movie.

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Miss Marple, Series IV: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (2009)

[Julia McKenzie, Sean Biggerstaff, David Buchanan, Rik Mayall]

Another great little Miss Marple movie, this time she is helping her friend's son when he becomes involved with a murder after finding a body on a cliff. The dying man's last words, "Why didn't they ask Evans?", trigger them, along with another friend, to investigate the circumstances themselves.

An interesting mystery, this story is actually a reworked Agatha Christie tale. The original didn't have Miss Marple as a character. But, rewriting aside, this was a fun story and I honestly didn't solve it myself, at all. Good stuff.

Recommended indeed.

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And an MST3K Quiz for you, with my score.




What did you get?

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7 comments:

  1. Hmm... I'll have to check out Unknown. I've not heard of that either, which probably means I was fucking around at work.

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  2. 3/10 on the quiz. I'm pathetic. SOOO glad you didn't make me watch that spider movie. UGH!

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  3. intrigued by the write up of the Unknown...willhave to check it out.

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  4. Thanks for the recommendations.The unknown seems cool.The one with vampires,perhaps too.

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  5. EPIC FAIL on the movie quiz but then I haven't seen it. I did score a pass on Satellite of love . .Lou Reed . . Awesome!

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  6. I really liked the new edition of Miss Marple mysteries.

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  7. Will definitely check out Unknown as I have not heard of it either and I love to read movie reviews (even if I don't see the movie). I had to pass on MST quiz because I don't know much about it so I didn't want to embarass myself. Next time though, I'll take the quiz.

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