Winchester (2018)

 "Winchester Mystery House", I've been their twice; grandparents lived in San Jose. Sarah Winchester, widow and heir to the Winchester Rifle Company, thought the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles were instructing her to build a large, rambling mansion, ultimately seven stories, around 100 rooms. The building had many eccentricity's, stairwells that lead to no where, doorways that open onto precipice's', their is alot of ghost story potential here, especially as it was filmed in part at the actual house. To bad the story is dull and cliche, good actors like Jason Clark, Sarah Snook and Helen Mirran aren't given much to work with. Still it made a bunch of money, $44 million of $3.5 million. *

The Giant Claw (1957)

 Low budget sci-fi flick from Columbia in which a giant, silly looking, vulture like bird appears in Canadian air space, attacks commercial and military aircraft, and generally creates havoc. Some scientists, military officers and a beautiful woman defeat the thing in 75 minutes of run time. I spent the film ruminating about how it's events would have effected the world, one conclusion I came up with is that there would be no Big Bird on Seseme Street. *1/2

American Dharma (2018)

 'American Dharma' closes a kind of trilogy in which director Errol Morris interviews former high ranking administration officials, officials with not great reputations owing to disasters they helped oversee. While in 'Fog of War' Robert MacNamara agonizes over his role in the Vietnam War, and in 'The Unknown Known' Donald Rumsfield seems genuinely perplexed that Iraq didn't work out, in 'American Dharama' Steve Bannon calmly explains that he was right all along.

Major criticisms of this film focus on hos well Bannon comes off, and a sense that Morris didn't push him as hard as those previous interview subjects. Both Morris and myself I think were caught a little off guard, by how charming Bannon can be, how reasonable he can sound. Bannon of course, a film lover (as is made evident throughout the picture, as he discusses keynote films for his world view), know how to act.  He has placed himself firmly in a reasonable gear, as reasonable as a rabid, provaction prone, political apocolyptisist can sound, which is shockingly reasonable.

Like the 2016 election Bannon takes something that should have been a resounding lose for him, and turns it into a sort of narrow win. While Morris raises critiques a plenty to Bannon, the calm way he dismisses them serves him rather well. Something of a missed opertunity, but still a reveling portrait of how Bannon sees himself and would like to be seen. ***

The Love Witch (2016)

 Man, there's alot going on here, both stylistically and in terms of subtext. I can't do it justice, but Kyle Kallgren can, check out his video The Love Witch's Subtle Cinematic Subversion. ***1/2

Halloween 6 (1995)

 'Halloween 6' is Paul Rudd's first movie, he plays a grown up Tommy Doyle, a character from the first movie. He is one of the too many characters, who are hard to all remember and keep straight, not to mention their interrelationships, the passage of time and all the lore. Still there is an okay movie in here somewhere, too bad it got wrecked in the horrible editing. This movie would have been  almost impossible to follow without the aid of IMDB plot synopsises, because much of the plot isn't really communicated well, if at all. Not as bad as 4, but still poor. *

Curse of the Puppet Master (1998)

 Kind of a soft reboot. The owner of a museum of curiosities now has the puppets, he's trying to duplicate the formula that brings them to life. In the process he sacrifices a couple of assistants, local law enforcement is suspicious of his involvement in strange deaths and disappearances; in an interesting choice the movie decides to make the sheriff unsympathetic, he's right that the museum owner is up to something, but he's also an asshole. The soul of a man nicknamed tank ends up in a tank puppet. Very abrupt end... **

Dollman vs Demonic Toy's (1993)

 I suppose this one is pretty self explanatory. Tim Thomerson from 'Dollman' and Tracy Scoggins from 'Demonic Toy's' team up to prevent said evil playthings in another attempt to provide their evil master with a human body to inhabit. They are joined in their efforts by Melissa Behr, a leggy blond nurse who was shrunken to doll size in another movie, 'Bad Channels' (1992). It's a kind of B movie Avengers. Making generous use of footage from its three feeder movies, it's still only about an hour in length. **