# Movies you've seen recently (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 29, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906 "2014-09-29T21:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 355
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7097 "2023-07-31T02:13:16Z")
**She Demons** – (1958). I’ve wanted to see this for a long time because it has a special meaning for me. As a very young kid, I went into the hospital with bronchial pneumonia and spent time in an oxygen tent. To help pass the time, I was given a magazine to look through – Forrest J. Ackerman’s _Famous Monsters of Filmland_ – and there was a TV in the room, on which I was able to watch WPIX Channel 11’s _Chiller Theater_. The feature that Saturday was _She Demons_. Obviously my parents or the Universe at large was trying to corrupt my mind and get me into 1960s Monster Culture. I didn’t recall the plot of She Demons – I recalled that it involved “island girls” wearing skimpy two-piece outfits who danced and were turned by Evil Mad Scientists into She Demons, which were basically the same island girls, only with ridiculously long fangs and fingernails and with REALLY bad complections. When I came across a used copy I had to watch it. The film stars Irish McCalla, whose only other major credit was as TV’s _Sheena, Queen of the Jungle_ in the 1950s. Here she plays the spoiled rich brat daughter of some rich guy. She and three guys – a racially diverse bunch with a black captain, an Asian guy in a Hawaiian shirt, and a White Guy Hero type – are shipwrecked on a deserted island, but manage to salvage a comically huge radio. Unfortunately, it only receives, which is how they learn that the US military intends tro use the island a a bombing target in a couple of days. Three of them take off to explore the island to see if anybody else is there (they find footprints). McCalla is frightened by a python – Sheena would be disgusted – and they end up going in circles. When they get back at last, they find that the camp has been trashed, the radio broken, and the captain has been speared with a couple of very inadequate-looking bamboo spears. They also find a body in the surf – it’s a She Demon with those ridiculous fangs and fingernails, and Kermit the Frog ping pong ball eyes. The go in search of the people who attacked, and come upon a group of non-demon shes dancing to the sound of drums (the beat of the drums conspicuously does not match the hand motions of the drummers. Well, they’re played by the “Diane Nellis Dancers”, so it makes sense that they dance for no good reason. It also kills fifteen minutes of screen time.(When I look up the “Diane Nellis Dancers”, on the internet, the only hits I get are for this movie. If they hadn’t made this piece of schlock, nobody would remember them.) When they finish their dance number, the dancers are surrounded and captured and hauled away by Evil Nazis, in full Nazi regalia, even on an apparently tropical island. Our heroes follow them. It turns out that this island is the stronghold of a Josef Mengele type named Colonel Carl Osler, who’s a doctor as well as an officer. In addition to turning beautiful (well, at least good-looking) island women into She Demons, he’s also doing a _Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus/ Eyes Without a Face_ schtick where he’s trying to restore his wife’s beauty by – I don’t know – doing beauty transfusions from the island women. His wife Mona goes around in bandages like the Invisible Man, because (as we see at the end of the flick) she looks kinda like The Red Skull. In case you’re wondering about how large the supply of Beautiful Island Women is – you probably weren’t, but I guarantee you’d eventually wonder about this – it turns out that after three days or so they de-uglify and return to normal. Except that they lose their memories. You get the feeling that Doc Osler has by now pretty much given up hope of curing his wife, and is just getting his kicks from repeatedly making she demons out of the dancers. He’s also sitting on top of a supply of hot magma, which he uses for inexhaustible geothermal energy. Presumably he uses this to run the operation, although where the Nazi soldiers live and where they get their food is never explained. When the castaways are captured in their turn and brought to Osler (These things never happened to the people on Gilligan’s Island) he sees Irish McCalla and starts thinking “trophy wife”. Although professing love for his little Red Skull, he dresses Irish up in one of her old gown (they’re the same dress size), and tries to woo her in his well-upholstered dining room. In a moment of rare intelligence for this film, she conks him on the head with the bottle og champagne he opened. Then she takes off her high heels (Osler’s wife’s), another intelligent moment, and escapes into the jungle. They chase her, and the jungle is filled with Nazi soldiers, she demons, and Itish. In the middle of all this, Mona findsher and commiserates with her. Disgusted that she can now be portrayed by Hugo Weaving, she gives Irish the key to the cage the two guys are being held in. She goes back, frees them, and they escape… …right into the hands of Colonel Osler, dressed in full Nazi uniform and with a Luger. Back in the laboratory, Irish is trapped down to a table, while the two guys are placed in a cage nearby. Osler is about to inject her with Ugly Juice when that long-promised bombing run takes place. Despite Osler’s boasting about how safe he is underground, the bombing brings down parts of the lab, freeing the two guys, who free Irish. The wall between the lab and the magma splits, and Osler gets covered in lava. Mona goes into to die with her husband, ripping off part of her bandges to show us her face. The three castaways escape, with very unconvincing stock footage of lava in the background. They go through tunnels and avoid Nazi soldiers, and eventually find their way to a rowboat and escape. White Hero Guy gets Irish McCalla, who’s no longe4r a spoiled brat. The End. The movie was made by writer/director Richard E. Cunha, who released four fantasy films in 1958. This one was on a double bill with another Cunha flick, _Giant from the Unknown_, about a giant conquistador who gets revived from suspended animation and goes on a killing spree, until he falls off a dam. This one was shown to me at the local YMCA. He also made the abominally bad _Missile to the Moon_ and _Frankenstein’s Daughter_. I saw all of these in my misguided youth. Cunha was like an even-lower budget Roger Corman or Bert I. Gordon, cranking these out at under $80,000 each. Next up – I lucked into a copy of **Caltiki, the Immortal Monster.** ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7098 "2023-07-31T03:23:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _The In-Laws_ > A very, very funny 1979 slapstick comedy with Peter Falk as a devil-may-care, maybe-retired CIA agent and Alan Arkin as the uptight dentist dad of Falk’s son’s fiancee. Zany hijinks ensue. James Hong’s in-flight safety lecture, given entirely in Mandarin Chinese, is alone worth the price of admission. I try not to indulge in too many “me, too” type posts, but dammit, this one deserves special mention and another special thanks. Peter Falk, needless to say, was terrific as always. I was less familiar with Alan Arkin, but he was brilliant and just perfect as the staidly conservative dentist who gets drawn into Falk’s increasingly outlandish hijinks. Hilariously entertaining! James Hong’s Chinese flight safety demonstration was just one of many hilarious scenes in the movie, but like the film itself, it was even funnier than I expected. It’s particularly funny for occurring on a small business jet, where of course you’d never have such a demonstration (or anyone to give it!). I nearly fell out of my chair when Hong demonstrates inflating a life vest and then, still smiling and nattering in Chinese, shows how to leap out of the plane and pantomimes a swimming motion! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7099 "2023-07-31T03:27:18Z")
**Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One** Recommended…if you have seen the others. This movie was a mess of an edit. It’s clearly a 3-hour-plus length movie that was edited down to 2 1/2 hours, which you obviously have to do for this type of movie. It suffers from this cutting down and is absolutely jam packed with plot, quick action, more plot, almost no humor, more plot, and some big action sequences. But…this was the first movie in this series where I thought, “Uh, I’ve seen this stunt before or something very similar.” Every sequence felt similar to something I’ve seen from a previous Mission Impossible movie, except for the very well done train sequence at the end. Anyway, it was still fun and I liked it, but it is the worst movie in the series except for the atrocious second film. I can see that Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie worked very hard to make this movie and put everything in it, but it ended up very poorly edited and was kind of a jumbled mess. I’ll now rank the Mission Impossible movies: 1. Mission Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol 2. Mission Impossible 1 3. Mission Impossible 5 - Rogue Nation 4. Mission Impossible 6 - Fallout 5. Mission Impossible 3 6. Mission Impossible 7 - Dead Reckoning 1 BIG GAP 1. Mission Impossible 2 - the only truly bad film in the series ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7100 "2023-07-31T03:30:13Z")
**The Howling** & **Pieces** Neither recommended at all. Two fairly famous horror movies(Howling has 7 sequels!) and both were boring and offered nothing. I’d skip both and recommend them to no one. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7101 "2023-07-31T03:40:35Z")
As I mentioned in another thread, did you notice that the thing that self-destructed after playing was a tape cassette? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7102 "2023-07-31T03:41:36Z")
No, I did not. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7103 "2023-07-31T06:27:24Z")
Good to see another MI4 fan, that one is still my favourite too. I think I’d put 5, 6 and 7 level just behind it though, with 1 next, then 3 and finally 2. But it’s been so long since I’ve seen 2 that it’s probably a little harsh for me to judge. The abiding memory is it was ‘very John Woo-ish’. I thought there was a decent amount of humour in MI7, did you not find that? The Rome car chase was very amusing and the bit on the train involving some deception (you’ll know which bit) also raised a smile or two. Some good acting from one of the cast there. I noticed the old fashioned tape recorder and thought that was a nice touch, somehow it seems more likely to be readily combustible! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7104 "2023-07-31T12:21:01Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Good to see another MI4 fan, that one is still my favourite too. I think I’d put 5, 6 and 7 level just behind it though, with 1 next, then 3 and finally 2. But it’s been so long since I’ve seen 2 that it’s probably a little harsh for me to judge. The abiding memory is it was ‘very John Woo-ish’. > > I thought there was a decent amount of humour in MI7, did you not find that? The Rome car chase was very amusing and the bit on the train involving some deception (you’ll know which bit) also raised a smile or two. Some good acting from one of the cast there. I saw MI4 in the full IMAX theater in Michigan that we had at the time. When he stepped through the open window out to the Burj Khalifa, it expanded to full Imax and the whole theater gasped/groaned/reacted in such a big way, it was terrific. My favorite scene in any Mission Impossible movie. Breathtaking. I saw Mission Impossible 2 again after not seeing it for a long time. It is atrocious. A terrible movie. Possibly one of Tom Cruise’s worst? I haven’t seen all his movies. There was humor in the new movie, but I felt scenes were edited so the movie moved through everything so quickly, a lot of it didn’t hit. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7105 "2023-07-31T13:39:25Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I felt scenes were edited so the movie moved through everything so quickly, a lot of it didn’t hit. And yet, the same stuff got repeated over and over. And over and over. Just in case. Repetition. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7106 "2023-07-31T15:34:00Z")
I just watched the RiiffTrax version of this (Even RiffTraxed, only so-so). ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7107 "2023-07-31T16:24:43Z")
_ **Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia** _ (MAX) A documentary about, well, what the title says. I played HQ a lot, and I found this quite fascinating. Lots of behind-the-scenes drama that I didn’t know about. It’s an interesting (and not necessarily flattering) look at the whole tech/app culture as well. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7108 "2023-07-31T16:34:52Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > **Annihilation** (Netflix, 2018) The blurb: > > Lena, a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband inside Area X – a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline. Once inside, the expedition discovers a world of mutated landscapes and creatures, as dangerous as it is beautiful, that threatens both their lives and their sanity. > > Meh, C grade. The acting was fine and the story had potential, but nothing of consequence happened and this event isn’t explored as much as used as a scenery backdrop. Mediocre effort in general, I guess watch this if you’re in desperate need of a sci-fi/horror flick but don’t need a good one. As ever, tastes differ. I liked _Annihilation_ very much. It had a very creepy, disorienting, almost Lovecraftian vibe and impressive sfx. Fine job by Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac and the rest of the cast. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7109 "2023-08-01T17:51:44Z")
**Spider-man Across the Spider-verse** Highly recommended. Wow, I think this is the best 2023 release I’ve seen so far. I thought this movie was incredible and, get this, I was only so-so on the first one. Just an excellent movie from beginning to end. I loved it and recommend it to everyone. See this on streaming if you miss it in theaters. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7110 "2023-08-01T18:02:26Z")
**The Third Man.** a 1949 noir thriller that came highly recommended. So I didn’t know George Orwell was an actor. He wasn’t in the film for all that long, but he stole the show every time. > You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Victims? Don’t be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays. What surprised me was the good humor sprinkled throughout, the odd SpongeBob-esque soundtrack, and the exhorbitant amount of untranslated German (I wonder if knowing the German changes the film.) I despised the character of Anna Schmidt. Leave it to a woman to abandon all reason and get people killed in the name of love. Seriously, I would enjoy noir so much more if it was less misogynistic. All in all, a great film. Stamp of approval. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7111 "2023-08-01T18:06:26Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > So I didn’t know George Orwell was an actor. He wasn’t in the film for all that long, but he stole the show every time. I don’t know if you’re serious or not. If you are, look up “George Orwell”. And “The Third Man” ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7112 "2023-08-01T18:09:54Z")
Haha, oops. I meant Orson Welles. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7113 "2023-08-01T18:43:59Z")
You blew my mind for a minute there. Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7114 "2023-08-01T19:07:59Z")
MI7.1. Glad to see it in the theater, but got a little bored in the middle during exposition. The action certainly paid off though. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7115 "2023-08-01T20:07:56Z")
George Orwell in the Harry Lime role would certainly have made for a _very_ different _Third Man_. > [@wolfpup](#): > > > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > > _The In-Laws_ > > A very, very funny 1979 slapstick comedy with Peter Falk as a devil-may-care, maybe-retired CIA agent and Alan Arkin as the uptight dentist dad of Falk’s son’s fiancee. Zany hijinks ensue. James Hong’s in-flight safety lecture, given entirely in Mandarin Chinese, is alone worth the price of admission. > > …Hilariously entertaining! James Hong’s Chinese flight safety demonstration was just one of many hilarious scenes in the movie, but like the film itself, it was even funnier than I expected. It’s particularly funny for occurring on a small business jet, where of course you’d never have such a demonstration (or anyone to give it!). I nearly fell out of my chair when Hong demonstrates inflating a life vest and then, still smiling and nattering in Chinese, shows how to leap out of the plane and pantomimes a swimming motion! Forgot to say, IMDB’s trivia page on the movie says Arkin kept breaking character and laughing as he watched Hong, so you’ll see they edited it so that Arkin usually isn’t in the shot when Hong is doing the safety demo. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/7116 "2023-08-01T21:59:42Z")
Sponge Bob type music? Does Sponge Bob have Austrian zither music? I love the score to _The Third Man._ So unexpectedly bizarre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=354) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=356)