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The Call (Dir: Chung-Hyun Lee) [2020] Cam [2018] Camp Cold Brook [2018]
Can't Take It Back [2017] The Canal [2014] Captain America: The First Avenger [2011]
Captain America: The Winter Soldier [2014] Captain America: Civil War [2016] Captain Marvel [2019]
Captive State [2019] Carnival of Souls [1962] Carriers [2009]
Castle Freak [1995] The Cat o' Nine Tails [1971] Caught [2017]
Caveat [2020] Cell [2016] Certain Prey [2011]
The Changeover [2017] Chaos Walking [2021] Charade [1963]
Charles Beaumont: A Short Life... [2010] Chicken Run [2000] Children of Men [2006]
Children of the Corn [1984] Chimera Strain [2018] Christmas Blood [2017]
The Chronicles of Riddick [2004] Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away [2012] The Cleansing Hour [2019]
Clinton Road [2019] Close [2019] Closed Circuit [2013]
Cloverfield [2008] The Cloverfield Paradox [2018] Clown [2014]
Chicken Run [2000]

            

Although the concentration camp setting, along with several obvious references to The Great Escape struck me as a little creepy for a G rated film, this is a lighthearted and very humorous story of chickens desperately trying to escape being turned into pies. Good writing, delightful characters, excellent animation, lots of imaginative scenarios and the pie machine and final escape sequences were enormously entertaining. Beyond the setting (which kids won't understand anyway) this is easily appropriate for the whole family and kids will love it.
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away [2012]

            

A 'love at first sight' couple gets separated at the circus and must pass through various tents to reconnect providing us with a wraparound for a collage of performances from shows that CdS has performed in Las Vegas for years. Back in 2011, my wife and I saw "KA" live and it was the most amazing stage show we've ever seen, of anything. It's represented here along with "O", "Love (The Beatles)" and others making for a delightfully magical film. The months, if not years, of practice, the sets, choreography, imagination, the fantasy, simply mind boggling.
Chaos Walking [2021]

         

A sole female scout crashes on a human settled world, where men's thoughts are heard and displayed as a colorful haze around their heads and all the women are gone and she must find a way to contact her ship before the locals make things awkward. Pretty good sci fi, adventure with an ill equipped Tom Holland doing a great job of trying to lead Viola (Daisy Ridley) to safety while trying to get his brain to shut up. No surprises as things play out as expected and it feels more like a TV episode of some sci fi show. The Mrs and I liked it, though. Safe for young teens.
Caveat [2020]

         
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A man's hired to babysit a disturbed girl on an isolated island ...while locked up in a harness. Yes, it's that weird. The viewer is party to a series of events without any real background information or resolution. And those events takes place incredibly slowly ...and you know how I usually feel about that. But, in this case, every frame of this film drips with an unsettling malice as the viewer becomes an unwitting victim in the same psychological angst of the players. The supernatural element, which is not the focus of the film, adds to the atmospheric distress. Bravo!
Cell [2016]

            
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An unexplained signal transmitted over the cell phone network turns everyone into a hive-minded zombie. An unaffected man tries to find his family with the help of a few others along the way. I wish I had not seen the final scene of this movie as it angered me. But, let's pretend I didn't. Overall, pretty run-of-the-mill zombie-type movie with nothing really new about it. In fact, they really underutilized the whole hive-mind aspect of the outbreak leaving one kind of wondering what's happening and where it's going. Good performances saved it from being mediocre.
The Cat o' Nine Tails [1971]
aka Il gatto a nove code
            
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A blind puzzle solver and a journalist try to solve a series of murders before the killer racks up more victims ...including themselves. This was a pretty typical and long-winded murder mystery acted out nicely by James Franciscus & Karl Malden. Although it provided a certain level of entertainment, if wasn't anything special beyond what you'd expect in an episode of a mystery TV series. The ending wasn't very climactic, either. I know some people rave about him but I have yet to see a Dario Argento film that I liked, although this one was better than most.
Children of Men [2006]

         

18 years after the human race can no longer procreate, an everyday guy finds himself escorting the only pregnant woman on the planet to safety amidst the revolution and destruction. This is one of those films that everyone else has seen but I'm just now getting around to. And it was worth the wait. This movie works on all levels, from the exceptional acting and realistically bleak landscape to the sensational writing and directing, creating a tragic world of despair that's believable and painful making the journey fraught with tension that never lets up.
Children of the Corn [1984]

         
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A couple stumbles into a small town populated by a malevolent and fanatical cult of children. Finally got around to seeing this and I expected it to be a product of its time. And, I was right ...and less. The first 50 mins could have been condensed down to 15. In fact, at about the 50 min mark, one of our protagonist says, "Things just aren't happening fast enough", to which I blurted out, "Oh, I agree. Absolutely!" All sense of suspense had long since left the building in search of better pacing. Things picked up but the climax was all rather lame and ho hum. *sigh*
Christmas Blood [2017]
aka Juleblod
            
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Hunt for a serial killing Santa Claus who's been working on Christmas Eve for 30 years. This slasher started strong and the premise had some potential grabbing my interest. Then the film centered around a house full of victims who were all basically self-absorbed brats with no brains or charisma whatsoever. As such, I never felt any threat as I just didn't care. Also, Santa could seemingly pop in and out of reality at will. It's rare to see a film start off good and then grows consistently worse as it goes along ultimately ending in a ridiculously stupid climax. Blech!
The Cleansing Hour [2019]

         
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"The Cleansing Hour" is a live Internet show hosted by a charlatan posing as a priest performing 'real' exorcisms. Bet he didn't count on a real demon showing up! Well written, acted and constructed, this film is extremely effective and entertaining in it's exorcism calamity. Never presented too seriously, and you can tell the demon is having a monstrously good time, the film had just the right balance of dread and humor to make it well worth a watch. They truly found a way to hit us with an exorcism movie of a completely different color. Good job!
The Call [2020]
aka Kol
            

Returning to her childhood home, a woman finds a phone that allows her to speak to the home's occupant 20 years before. The new friend saves her father's life ...but the cost is staggering. Reminiscent of Frequency, but far darker, this movie's pacing and compelling story grabs hold of you and won't let go. One action after another has dire consequences leaving the viewer reeling from the complexities at play as time and reality shift willy nilly into a deeply tragic outcome ...or is it? Even the ending leaves one unsure of how it all ends. Remarkably, well done thriller.
Camp Cold Brook [2018]

         
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A paranormal investigative reality TV crew goes to Camp Cold Brook, the site of a mass murder of children 30 years ago, in hopes of creating a good enough episode to garner a 4th season. This movie is a real slow burn with few spooks or jump scares, the story's been told plenty of times before, has quite a few plot holes, logic problems and a couple glaring continuity errors ...not to mention Kevin, an arrogant jerk that no professional crew would have with them. Despite that, I liked the characters, dialog and the good production quality. Overall, I enjoyed it.
Can't Take It Back [2017]

            
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When a Facebook profile, for a girl who committed suicide, is found to still be active, a few girls post some rather scathing comments to the page without considering that you can't take it back. I was liking this film for a good distance; the characters were real and smart, the events were interesting and it appeared to be headed to a nice finale. Unfortunately, the last 30 minutes didn't meet expectations leaving me bored and edgy in equal measure and the final scene simply elicited a heavy sigh. Too bad they couldn't have made a more sophisticated endgame.
The Canal [2014]

            
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Somewhere in the ether between Sinister and The Ring lies this insidious and unnerving psychological thriller about a film archivist who watches a 1902 crime scene film that depicts a murder in his own house. This kicks off a series of events involving infidelity, murder, hallucinations, a sinister presence, demonic rituals and a descent into madness that leaves you wondering what is real and what is not culminating in a shocking, twisted climax. Sound balancing needs help - dialog too quiet, everything else too load - but a great thriller, nonetheless.
Certain Prey [2011]

         
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When Lucas Davenport investigates the assassination of a wealthy woman, he discovers that two women, a professional hit woman with over 27 kills to her credit, and a ruthless lawyer have teamed up and the body count is rising. I'm a huge fan of the Prey novel series and I never pictured Mark Harmon as Lucas Davenport. Also, it being a TV movie, I didn't expect much. Surprise! Mark did such a good job, I'll probably picture him as Lucas from now on and the adaptation, although light on substance, was extremely well cast and pretty darn good.
Charade [1963]

         
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When a man is killed and the $250k he's supposed to have stolen is nowhere to be found, some rather nefarious characters begin threatening his widow believing that she has it. But she doesn't even have a clue. This brilliant cat and mouse film - where it's hard to define who's the cat or the mouse - is brilliantly developed with superb writing, stellar performances, a little romance, and a good dose of comedy. There's few films that have as many turns and twists as this one ...you'll have no idea who to believe or trust. Classic!
Cloverfield [2008]

            

A group of friends try to survive when Manhattan is suddenly and inexplicably attacked by a massively huge monster of unknown origin. This movie should be an incredibly exciting thrill ride. However, unlike the films [REC], V/H/S/2, and As Above, So Below, which really knew how to use the hand-held camera most effectively, the camera in this film was just all over the place all the time. Rather than thrilled, I was frustrated the camera was never pointing at what I wanted to look at and it just gave me a headache.
The Cloverfield Paradox [2018]

            

With the nations of the earth on the brink of war, due to dwindling energy reserves, a space station tries to get the largest particle accelerator ever to produce unlimited free energy. This movie concerns overlapping parallel universes and the chaos that would develop. However, they focused far too much on each character's personal story (which wasn't that interesting) and far too little on how much chaos a situation like that would create. I was looking for a highly intense Event Horizon. Got a mediocre TV episode of Star Trek.
Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man [2010]

      

I've always been a big fan of Beaumont's work, especially his writing for The Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, this documentary was 99% interviews with a couple dozen people who were friends and colleagues (very poor quality, I might add) and almost totally centered around his personal life with the last 20 minutes devoted to his sickness and death. They barely even brought up his volume of work. No one, including Beaumont, is going to be interested in a story about a sick guy who died young if we don't get to appreciate the genius of his accomplishments!
Closed Circuit [2013]

            

After a truck bomb goes off in London, an arrest is made. Is he innocent? guilty? or is there something completely different going on here? This is a rather tense legal thriller where a case may become far more fatal the closer you get to solving it. It is rather slow and complicated without any real action to speak of and not particularly memorable or compelling, but it did keep me engrossed to the very end. If you like complex legal stories, this may be just what you're looking for.
Captain America: The First Avenger [2011]

            
  
The first Marvel Universe film within the MCU timeline (although not the first released), this covers the only real success of the use on the Super Soldier serum turning Steve Rogers into superhuman Captain America. Taking place mostly during WWII, the Cap and his Howling Commandos create some serious problems for the Nazi Science Division - HYDRA. Great film with lots of excitement, great characters, a lot of backstory to get the myriad timeline plots started and, of course, stunning action and spec fx.
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier [2014]

         
     
The greatest armada of flying battleships is about to be launched to protect the world ...but it may turn out to be controlled by the wrong people. This is one of the good ones! Marvel has become the undisputed masters of crashing things together. The action is just jaw-dropping. The story is complex and well constructed, the characterizations are flawless. My wife and I were on the verge of cheering many times. Great stuff!
Castle Freak [1995]

            
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Without any prior knowledge of family ties, a man inherits a castle! ...with a freak who's been locked up in the cellar for 40 years. I don't think Stuart Gordon will ever make another gore camp classic like his first two films - Re-Animator and From Beyond - but not for lack of trying. The first half of this film is rather dull and had the "get on with it" feel. But, once it got started, it wasn't bad. The freak was very freakish in looks, motion and manner and was rather fun to watch. Generally entertaining.
Caught [2017]

            
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I have a great idea for a movie. These two aliens, inhabiting human bodies, terrorize a family because they saw something in the moors even though they don't know what. That sounds great! What happens then? I don't know. What do the aliens look like? We don't have a budget for that. How does it end? I don't know. And there you have it. Great premise, great beginning, April Pearson and Cian Barry's performance was authentically alien but the film really went nowhere beyond it's premise and the ending was just horrible!
Cam [2018]

         

A girl who does sexy cam shows in chat rooms has her account hijacked by someone operating a cam bot (I'm guessing here as it's not entirely explained) that presents an exact replica or our girl. I may not be one to judge this film as the culture is so far removed from anything I would find enjoyable so, essentially, I don't get it. I was coming up with all kinds of alternatives she could have tried which would have mitigated her problem but she just kept making it worse. Her solution seemed awfully extreme as well. Just struck me as illogical and weird.
Captain Marvel [2019]

            
  
A Kree soldier, on her first combat mission, ends up on Earth and learns that everything she knows is wrong. Another fine MCU film that takes place in 1995 and gives us the origin of Captain Marvel, where she's been for the last 25 years and does a good job of tying the character into the Infinity War story ...if you watch the post-credit scene in Infinity War and the mid-credit scene in this one. Characters were great, humor was excellent, it was fun seeing Nick Fury and Agent Coulson 25-years younger, and Goose, the cat ..er Flerken, is priceless. I want one!
The Changeover [2017]

         
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A girl, who is psychic, senses her little brother is in danger. No one will heed her warnings until a toy collector stamps her brother's hand and begins to possess him. A rather slow but interesting story with not a whole lot going on. In fact, I can't really say why I liked it more than I would have thought. Story was light, characters were likable, if not really compelling and, although there were no surprises, it had a nice ending. Not great buy oddly OK.
Carnival of Souls [1962]

         
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A woman miraculously survives a car plummeting off a bridge into a river. Afterwards, she encounters one troubling event after another. I'm apparently not the norm as I really disliked this film. I figured out the whole story in the first 10 mins so there was absolutely no mystery here. The main character was unlikable and worked hard to make herself that way. The acting was totally amateurish, the dialogue was grade school level, and much time was spent filming mundane activities. It felt like a badly made Twilight Zone episode stretched out to 80 mins.
Captive State [2019]

         

A small group of humans plan an insurgent act against our alien overlords who occupied Earth 10 years ago. Much ado about ...what? An inordinate amount of the film was used to depict a group coming together to perform their revolutionary act ...which was really minor and inevitably doomed to failure. What follows was totally obvious from the start, at least it was for me, and ending with "maybe" something changed. It was all rather entertaining to watch but, when it was all said and done, the best it gets from me is ...huh.
Chimera Strain [2018]

            
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A man freezes his kids while he attempts to create an immortality gene. I cannot emphasize how depressing this film is. Everyone in it is pathological; the obsessed doctor has philosophically moral discussions with his braindead wife and plays with his dead ..er, frozen kids, the head of the research base is a sociopathical, sadistic narcissist, and a girl who says she wants to help the doctor. Yeah, right. The dialogue was written by someone who thought they were writing Shakespeare ...people don't talk like that. Overly melodramatic with a terribly sad ending.
Clinton Road [2019]

         
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A guy, his sis-in-law, a psychic, and some friends, try and find his missing wife on Clinton Road; a real place that has a reputation for being haunted ...and badly made films, apparently. Childlike writing with a liberal amount of curse words thrown into the script to make it sound "mature". Seemed like the scenes were made up as they went along causing blatant continuity errors, conversations that meant nothing and abnormal behavior. No logical explanation as to why there's a bald guy with a hammer and a little girl wandering around in the woods. Simply awful!
The Chronicles of Riddick [2004]

            

Riddick is hired to help in the war vs. the Necromongers. He's not interested but he gets dragged into it anyway. Exceptionally good sci fi with Riddick at his best. Good characters, good story, awesome special effects, and a lot of Riddick's history if you watch the extended version. In fact, I think one of the reasons this didn't do as well as it should have in theaters was because it lacked the back story found in the extended version. Find a copy! It really makes a difference.
Carriers [2009]

            
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A small group of people are trying to remain uninfected by an ultra-contagious disease that has wiped out most of the population. The filmmakers didn't appear to know what they wanted from the viewers. The lead character was an obnoxious goon whom I detested immediately and everyone else took turns doing stupid things. About half way through, the movie improved by starting to examine the morality vs survival issue in depth. Unfortunately, by that time I didn't know if I was supposed to sympathize or even care.
Clown [2014]

         
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When a clown cancels his appearance at a birthday party, the boy's father puts on a clown costume he finds in a house that he's selling ...not knowing the costume is cursed. This is a pretty creepy and disturbing movie as the father slowly transforms into a child eating monster with no apparent means of taking the costume off or stopping the horrific process. I really felt sorry for everyone involved in this one. They did an incredible job of creating a rather hopeless and sad scenario that makes you fell absolutely awful by the time it's over.
Captain America 3: Civil War [2016]

            
  


Due to technical issues, click the Letterboxd button to read review.
Close [2019]

         

Noomi Rapace is, once again, excellent as Sam, an emotionally tortured counter-terrorism and security expert hired to be a bodyguard for a young woman who's just inherited a huge mining corporation making her a huge target. Let the race for survival begin. The film has a couple plot holes and the twists in the story became more confusing than intriguing. But, it's intended to be an action film and, on that, they deliver. Never over-the-top, the action was realistic, tense, exciting with a few cool gags thrown in. Not bad!
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