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Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)
Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)
2017 | Biography, Crime, Documentary
Underdeveloped True Crime Story
Unlike a lot of the episodic true crime stories that have been on Netflix recently this one takes a one off 91 minute movie approach which leaves you wanting for more details and info. Although going for a whole full series would probably be pushing it, I really feel this story needed a bit more development. A mini series would've been preferable to the too rapid rattling through of a series of hard to believe events.

It’s pretty much all told via interviews with Jan (the victim) and her family with little from other sources. Considering most of it comes from their lips and a lot sounds incredibly naive (even for 1970s) it has a very hard to believe feel to it. Needed a lot of development on some points barely mentioned.
  
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
2018 | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
I had no expectations going into this film. The only thing I knew about it was that it was based off of a book that was originally illustrated by Edward Gorey.
It's strange that Jack Black has found his niche in making kids movies. I thought he was great as the eccentric uncle, and Cate Blanchett was a good counterbalance. Their banter was enough to keep me entertain most of the film.
Yes, the story line is very predictable, and you would think it's because there have been so many films like it before, but since the book was written in the 1970s, I'm assuming all of the other films were originally riffing off this story.
The costumes and visuals were great, and I liked the creepy vibe. Eli Roth did a pretty good job keeping it PG. It wasn't great, but I didn't hate my life while watching it.
  
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Austin Garrick recommended House (1986) in Movies (curated)

 
House (1986)
House (1986)
1986 | Comedy, Horror

"Seeing House for the first time is probably my fondest film-watching experience of the past couple of years. I’m drawn to the idea of creative purity, something House emanates in a way no other horror film I’ve ever seen does. That’s if you can even call it a horror film (the director himself doesn’t). Obayashi found his own moviemaking solution to Picasso’s lifelong goal of creating like a child: sourcing ideas for the script from his ten-year-old daughter. The result is a heartful, imaginative, creepy, weird, and wonderful dream come to life. It’s sort of like John Hughes, Miyazaki, Evil Dead 2–era Sam Raimi, and bizarre 1970s children’s TV rolled into one. The score in its more sincere moments is also incredible. I’m still in the totally infatuated honeymoon stage with this one, recommending it to people any chance I get."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Shout (1979) in Movies

Apr 15, 2019  
The Shout (1979)
The Shout (1979)
1979 | Drama, Horror
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Watchable sort-of horror movie, distinguished by a good cast. These days we'd probably call it a post-horror movie, but they didn't have those back in the 1970s (maybe it's a pre-post-horror movie). An innocent couple are terrorised by a stranger who claims to have magical powers, including a deadly shout.

No-one in The Shout behaves remotely like a real person would, and the title is a bit misleading as the actual Shout itself (while a big moment and fairly well-staged when it comes) doesn't have much to do with the plot. But it does have a very good cast and the various strangenesses of the story can be explained by the fact this is a tall tale being told by the inmate of an insane asylum. Not the great lost British horror film some would have you believe it is, but a curious and distinctive tale.
  
The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
1970 | Comedy, Horror
(The other) Young Frankenstein
At the start of the 1970s Hammer tried to relaunch both their main series with new leading men (Ralph Bates replacing Christopher Lee in this case); this was the only reboot which eventually happened. The basics of the Frankenstein story are (just about) retold; young Victor decides to make a man, if not of himself, then from some body parts.

There's no doubt that Ralph Bates could have been a brilliant Frankenstein, but not in a film with a script like this one's. The film attempts to appeal to a hip young audience by including cleavage by the yard and lots of sub-Carry On film humour; script is also thick-headed and repetitive. The moment Frankenstein's experiments included resurrecting a tortoise everyone involved should have realised there was a serious problem here. Not funny, not scary, not interesting, barely worth watching except for Hammer fans. They got Peter Cushing back for the next one.
  
Tales of the City is set in San Francisco in 1976 - three years after I was born, so how can I feel nostalgic?! This is how a feel good book should be written. I loved it.

They’re all great characters, and I warn you - this is a laugh out loud book, and when you have to explain to the 12 or 14 year old sons WHY you’re laughing, the explanations can be interesting! I feel fortunate that a friend convinced me to go and see Armistead Maupin with her at my local literature festival, otherwise I don’t know whether I would have ever picked up this book. I’d simply never heard of Maupin, and I don’t have Netflix to have heard about the TV series. Now I wish I had Netflix!

I’m glad I have book 2 waiting in the wings, because I really want to keep living in 1970s San Francisco!
  
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Biff Byford recommended Argus by Wishbone Ash in Music (curated)

 
Argus by Wishbone Ash
Argus by Wishbone Ash
1972 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Most of the albums I’ve chosen are from the 1970s – they are ones that moulded my style. So, Wishbone Ash invented twin harmony guitars in heavy rock [they were also a huge influence on Iron Maiden]. I used to go and see them when they played in Leeds or Sheffield or Barnsley – they were on circuit a lot in the early 70s. I was a bass player then, and they had a great bass player [Martin Turner] with a good style, with really cool vocal harmonies. Argus felt groundbreaking – it was a big explosion of rock and Wishbone Ash were a pretty loud band. It was a good grounding for me to learn their songs - this particular album is a concept album so you learned the whole thing. That’s how songs get into your psyche. In Saxon we used the twin guitar harmonies occasionally – we don’t want to copy anybody, but it is a theme, it is in there."

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Simon Pegg recommended Taxi Driver (1976) in Movies (curated)

 
Taxi Driver (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
1976 | Thriller

"Also, I would say probably Taxi Driver, just as a piece of acting and just fabulous scene-setting brilliance from Scorsese and characterization from De Niro. That’s one of those films I just watch in awe of all of it, because it’s just so uncompromising. I saw Avengers yesterday, and it was such a fun romp and really entertaining and decently done. That’s the kind of film adults watch today, when in the 1970s, when Taxi Driver came out, that was the kind of film that adults would watch. That and French Connection and Godfather and Bonnie and Clyde. Anything pre-Star Wars, really. The preserve of grown-up cinema in those days were genuinely grown-up movies, and that goes for everything I’m doing as well, from Star Trek to Ready Player One or even Mission: Impossible. They’re pure entertainment rather than think pieces, which is what film cinema used to be in the mainstream."

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The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
1984 | Biography, Documentary, History
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"""When it comes to documentaries, I am not a fan of current trends of reenactments and celebrities reading the words of unavailable subjects. Skip the elaborately constructed interstitial animations and give me old-school talking heads and archival footage with scripted, voice-of-God narration to help move me where you want me to go. The Times of Harvey Milk is what I’m talking about. Winner of the 1985 Oscar for Best Documentary, Rob Epstein and Richard Schmiechen’s powerful account of the assassination of San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official remains one of the most riveting documentaries ever made. It tells the story of San Francisco’s gay community and the fight for gay rights in the late 1970s through dynamic talking-head interviews, gripping archival footage, and devastating narration by Harvey Fierstein. It is also one of the very few gay-themed films to be selected for the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry."

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The People Under the Stairs (1991)
The People Under the Stairs (1991)
1991 | Comedy, Horror
8
7.3 (16 Ratings)
Movie Rating
What Lies Under The Stairs
The People Under The Stairs- is a very underrated movie. Its one of wes best work. Its thrilling, scary and horrorfying.

The Plot: When young Fool (Brandon Adams) breaks into the home of his family's greedy and uncaring landlords, he discovers a disturbing scenario where incestuous adult siblings have mutilated a number of boys and kept them imprisoned under stairs in their large, creepy house. As Fool attempts to flee before the psychopaths can catch him, he meets their daughter, Alice (A.J. Langer), who has been spared any extreme discipline by her deranged parents. Can Fool and Alice escape before it's too late?

Craven has stated that The People Under the Stairs was partially inspired by a news story from the late 1970s, in which two burglars broke into a Los Angeles household, inadvertently causing the police to discover two children who had been locked away by their parents.

Its a really good movie.