[We nerds of a feather like things that come in sixes. So in celebration of our first six months of operation, we're presenting you with a retrospective series that looks at the best stuff we've covered in our short lifetime. In multiples of six, of course! Here are the six highest scoring movies reviewed to date by our in-house bloggers. Bear in mind, we gravitate toward cult and obscure movies, so "good" is a relative term, but the reviews should let you know what you're in for. Enjoy!]
6. Valhalla Rising
The G's Score: 9/10, "very high quality/standout in its category"
"It's a highly atmospheric, very slow and totally surreal film, with a great score and cinematography that recollects Bergman and Fellini. It's very, very artsy. But then it's also ridiculously gory. I won't get into specifics, but if you are in any way, shape or form put off by violence in film, you should avoid this one. Violence in VALHALLA RISING is intimate, cruel and over-the-top."
5.Bubba Ho-Tep
Vance's Score: 9/10, "very high quality/standout in its category"
"We know movies rely on a willing suspension of disbelief. But Bubba Ho-Tep invites you to *not* suspend disbelief, and see how far you can make it. Bruce Campbell has never been better, and Ossie Davis was a titan, so by the time these two talk about being absent fathers before heading out with their wheelchair and walker to battle a 5,000-year-old soul-sucking mummy...well, dang it, you're going to believe them and you won't be able to help it."
4. The X from Outer Space
Vance's Score: 9/10, "very high quality/standout in its category"
"This movie is bad in a very unique and magical way, and deserves to be more widely known. You could think of this as the Plan 9 from Outer Space of kaiju movies -- it's not "good" in any reasonable sense of the word, but there are definitely worse movies, and this one lives at the intersection of terrible and entertaining that makes it a truly rare bird of cult movies."
3. The Fly [1986]
Molly's Score: 9/10, "very high quality/standout in its category"
"The special effects for this movie are magnificently undated. They remain grotesque and horrifying. No really, it's seriously gross in a way that will satisfy every ten year old boy on the planet, but the love story and the conclusion -- the ultimate sacrifice -- are done so well that there is a surprising depth and sadness to the tragic path the characters follow."
2. They Live
Vance's Score: 9/10, "very high quality/standout in its category"
"There is a moment when Rowdy Roddy Piper, the WWF wrestler, walks into a bank with a gun and says "I have come here to chew bubblegum and to kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum," at which point he begins shooting the hell out of the place because his magic sunglasses allow him to see most of the customers in the bank are actually skull-faced aliens masquerading as human beings and brainwashing us through advertising."
1. La Jetee
Vance's Score: 10/10, "Mind-blowing/life-changing/best ever"
"La Jetee's real accomplishment is a lyrical and emotional evocation that is as close as anything I've ever seen to actual visual poetry. My experience of La Jetee is like my experience of T.S. Eliot or e.e. cummings. On an intellectual level I understand what's happening -- what the words and images literally mean -- but I cannot consciously account for the emotions they evoke. To try to analyze it and tear it all apart would be to rob the work of its magic. And there is a tremendous amount of magic here."