INDYATMN
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| 80 54% | The Vampire Lovers (1970) - Oct 21, 2020
"Difficult to rate b/c it's got a great opening, solid performances & direction w/ beautifully composed shots, but it would also likely seem slower & much less interesting if it didn't have so many arousing scenes. If not for the fact that Skinemax almost always means junk, the best way to describe this might be Skinemax for 1970. But that's misleading. It's a genuinely erotic & well-made vampire movie. Less pretentious but as good in its own way as Daughters of Darkness."
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| 45 4% | Sleepwalkers (1992) - Oct 21, 2020
"King adaptations have a rightfully bad rep given their ratio of stinkers & this has to be 1 of the worst. So bad I wondered how King made this story work in a book & discovered it's his first direct-to-movie script. Clearly he thought he could do anything he wanted & tries to make a campy comedy horror hybrid that would stink no matter what, but makes it worse by choosing to not let the audience know it's a comedy for half an hour. Only Amick's beauty & short running time got me to the end."
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| 80 54% | Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) - Oct 20, 2020
"This seems to have a smaller budget, but the screenwriters are still doing their best to create something that's not just fun, but retains a moment-by-moment unpredictability. They do this by changing the creature once more which forces the heroes - & thankfully, the screenwriters - to put some thought in how to survive. Both Bacon & Ward are gone now but thankfully the most entertaining character - Gross' Burt Gummer - is still around. His opening scene & worm escape are standouts"
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| 83 63% | Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996) - Oct 19, 2020
"Wow, another fun ride. The writers continue the storyline in plausible ways by quickly explaining Bacon’s absence in a way that follows how the last film ended while creating understandable motivations for Ward to risk his life again. They also come up with clever ways to kill the worms & it starts to seem like they might have written themselves into a corner. So they change the monsters into something less awesome, but just as interesting & requiring new cleverness to defeat. "
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| 82 60% | Horror of Dracula (1958) - Oct 17, 2020
"Having seen Brides of Dracula a few years ago I wasn't impressed & I chalked it up to my preference for Frankenstein, but Hammer's first entry into Dracula is mostly real well done. The first half delivers a wonderful spin on the mythos as the viewer realizes the central conflicts we know are much further along than expected. The pace lags a bit after that but is mostly brisk & speeds into the last 20 minutes. There are plotholes & some of the ladies aren't as hot as expected, but it's solid."
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| 85 70% | No Safe Spaces (2019) - Oct 16, 2020
"Well done primer on what's wrong w/ Woke ideology. The cartoons are funny & it smartly includes many liberal voices. I don't rate it higher only because I'm already familiar with alot of it & that's part of the problem. Those who might benefit the most from this will dismiss it since it's hosted by 2 white male conservatives. Watching this post-George Floyd also just shows the ideology has only spread w/ mainstream media perpetuating wildly simplistic BLM narratives & more cancelations than ever"
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| 89 83% | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) - Oct 14, 2020
"While it's true that the "comedic" aspects of Willie may induce eyerolling & some of the action is far more cartoonish than Raiders or TLC, I like this more than TLC because it's entirely new & different unlike Crusade which attempts to repeat stuff from the first film to lesser effect (like the desert chase) & the last 20 minutes is filled w/ thrilling action set pieces (that rope bridge!), not riddle-solving like Crusade. This also has Short Round, a great tip of the hat to kid sidekicks. "
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| 82 60% | Creepshow (1982) - Oct 14, 2020
"As some1 w/ nostalgic fondness for fun 80s horror & comics, I’m biased & think it’s 1 of the best horror anthologies. It is great at mimicking EC comics esp in the story types (there’s gross-out; outer space threat; monsters; & vengeful dead) but that also means quality varies & many twists aren’t clever. Father’s Day’s lacks surprise & The Crate‘s is just lame. The Tide is also infinitely more disturbing before the “twist”. The standout is Jordy Verrill for its comedy & pathos"
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| 86 74% | Tremors (1990) - Oct 14, 2020
"A very fun throwback to schlocky monster movies but avoids being schlocky where it matters. The characters are 1-dimensional but likable underdogs & the monster concept is a great one. It’s basically sharks on land & some of the best parts capture the childhood memories of pretending your bed is an island you can’t fall off of. Even better, the tension is held throughout w/ the monsters getting smarter. Its done so well that when Bacon raises his foot to avoid a tentacle I laughed with glee."
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| 87 77% | Phantom of the Paradise (1974) - Oct 09, 2020
"Wow, what an experience. This is a film H'wood would've never made if not for the brief popularity of rock operas. It takes "highbrow" influences & turns them into a garish live-action cartoon about rock celebrity w/ Paul Williams' music. Any 1 of these elements is likely to turn off fans of the other 3, but all of this worked for me. I'm sure it helped that I've never seen Phantom of the Opera (which I assume this is based on) so I found it mostly unpredictable & compellingly unusual. "
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