TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2017

The Witch - Whoa! Very cool witch/folk story set in 1630's New England. Brave mo-fos, those Pilgrims.


Toho - I've never seen one second of Babylon 5, but those who have seem to either love it or hate it. I should try it?

I'd say so if you like Star Trek. 

But like most shows it doesn't really find its footing until the second season.   And B5 is one of those shows that has individual episodes but has story arcs that develop over the course of all 5 seasons.  So you can watch an episode on its own but there will usually be some exposition or hints at things that seem either superfluous or nonsensical at the time but end up being significant to the story arcs.

Unlike most TV shows the creator/writer for B5 laid out the basic framework for all 5 seasons before a single one was even filmed.

Shock Waves (1977)

A charter boat (on a 3 hour tour...just kidding) runs aground on a coral reef and our able to make it to a nearby island. Unfortunately for them the inhabitants of the island are a squad of aquatic Nazi commandos and their still living former commander (the late great Peter Cushing). I liked this a lot more than I expected. It has a pretty good cast and at 84 minutes long it just breezes by.

That's the one with "zombies" wearing underwater goggles right?  I think I saw that on either Elvira or MST3K a long, long time ago.

That's the one. No gut munching/gore, just good old fashioned strangling and drowning deaths.

After I turned off the Lions/Seahawks game I watched The Shadow Of The Cat, a 1961 movie about a cat avenging the murder of it's mistress,often showing the film from the cat's point of view.

"You Only Live Twice" (1967)


The fifth installment in the James Bond series sends 007 to Japan, where SPECTRE is stealing American and Russian space capsules right out of orbit in an attempt to start World War III. In addition to Sean Connery being his usual bad-ass self, "You Only Live Twice" features some seriously cool gadgets and hot babes (Japanese actress Mie Hama, who plays Bond's sidekick "Kissy Suzuki," fills out a white bikini most admirably) and one of the coolest "villain lairs" of the entire 007 series - a rocket launch pad hidden in a dormant volcano.
"Y.O.L.T." also marks the end of the first phase of the James Bond film series. It was supposed to be Connery's last spin as 007 but after the brief and disastrous turn by inexperienced George Lazenby in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," Sean was lured back to the role again by a big payday for 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever."

You Only Live Twice is a great film. Also, on a weird side note, both Mid Hama and Akiko Wakabayishi ( both fine looking actresses) were in King Kong vs Godzilla (1962).

Babylon 5, Season 1, Episode 11.

It's getting more interesting because I know what's coming, having already watched the entire series twice. But it's fun watching the plot points get laid in these early episodes.

007 wrote:

You Only Live Twice is a great film. Also, on a weird side note, both Mid Hama and Akiko Wakabayishi ( both fine looking actresses) were in King Kong vs Godzilla (1962).

At the end of the film the producers thank Toho Studios (the Godzilla people) for their assistance in Japan; I guess that assistance included casting help.

What's Happenin'?

The missus and I are trying out a Scandinavian TV show currently:

Midnight Sun

2 episodes in and we're quite enjoying it. Hopefully it doesn't turn to shit all of a sudden...

Charlotte Gray

The Middle
American Housewife

ROH

"Lady Cocoa" aka "Pop Goes The Weasel" (1975)

Cheap blaxploitation saga starring 70s lounge singer Lola Falana as a high maintenance gal who's holed up in a swanky casino hotel under police protection, preparing to testify against her mobster ex boyfriend. While she romances her hunky cop escort (who looks like Lionel Richie), some hit men eventually arrive courtesy of her old flame, and the chase is on.
This pic was dreadfully dull - almost nothing happens for its first hour! - and though Falana's nice to look at, her character is such a whiny, demanding beeyotch that after awhile I was rooting for the bad guys! Ignore, delete, destroy.

Big Bang Theory
Supernatural

Gotham

Doing a binge-watch of the first two seasons because we're all iced-in here; everything's closed and you can't go anywhere anyway because the roads are a hockey rink.

"Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" (1988)

It's a showdown at Camp Crystal Lake when Jason crosses paths with a troubled teenage girl who has telekinetic powers (ala "Carrie"). Finally, someone who can give him a good fight!
The seventh installment in the never ending horror series sticks to the tried and true franchise formula for most of its run time (i.e. stereotypical dumb teenagers party, have sex, get killed) but the last fifteen or twenty minutes - when Psychic Chick puts The Big J through the wringer - are some of my favorite moments in the entire "F13" saga. This is one of the few "Friday" movies that I'm not totally sick of.

"Scream Blacula Scream" (1973)


The African vampire is resurrected by a voodoo spell in this sequel to "Blacula," and he proceeds to chomp on a whole lot of people while trying to persuade a priestess (Pam Grier) to help him regain his lost humanity.
This silly but watchable blaxploitation horror has dated terribly of course, but it's worth seeing just for the performance by the late William Marshall as the vampire - the rest of the cast seems to be camping it up but he plays Blacula completely straight and intimidating, plus his deep bass voice is totally bad-ass. Cool retro stuff.

^^^ Love those Blacula movies.


Scars Of Dracula (1970)

I thought I had seen all the Hammer Dracula films but I somehow missed this one (never even heard of it). Pretty typical Hammer film, starring Christopher Lee as The Count (more loquacious in this than all the past films,save for the first) and nice eye candy.


It Follows (2014)

A girl is cursed by supernatural entity after a sexual tryst. The entity slowly relentless follows the girl in order to kill her. The only way for her to be rid of the curse is to sleep with someone else and pass it on that person. I had read numerous positive reviews on this so decided to check it out. Maybe my expectations were too high but I was a bit disappointed by it. It wasn't terrible by any stretch but it could have been better.

"Atlantic Rim" (2013)


When giant monsters rise from the bottom of the ocean and menace the East Coast, mankind's only hope is a squad of giant robots piloted by humans, including David Chokachi of "Baywatch" and rapper "Treach" of Naughty By Nature.
...in case the title (and the Z-list casting) didn't give it away immediately, this was the Asylum's cheese-and-crackers budget version of "Pacific Rim," complete with the usual terrible acting and laughable CGI effects. Lord knows I love me some giant robot action, but ten minutes into this one I was already wishing that I'd re-watched "Robot Jox" instead.

The Fall Season 2
The Unknown Known

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Atlantic Rim" (2013)


When giant monsters rise from the bottom of the ocean and menace the East Coast, mankind's only hope is a squad of giant robots piloted by humans, including David Chokachi of "Baywatch" and rapper "Treach" of Naughty By Nature.
...in case the title (and the Z-list casting) didn't give it away immediately, this was the Asylum's cheese-and-crackers budget version of "Pacific Rim," complete with the usual terrible acting and laughable CGI effects. Lord knows I love me some giant robot action, but ten minutes into this one I was already wishing that I'd re-watched "Robot Jox" instead.

I bet I'd enjoy that more than the real Pacific Rim.  Man I hated that flick!  So aggravating.  Way too much time spent on the stupid robots and the idiot humans piloting them; they could have easily trimmed at least 30 minutes of that crap.  But even worse was every time the kaiju appeared they were obscured by fog, rain, smoke, darkness, murky water or some combination of the above.  Just thinking about it pisses me off all over again; good idea wasted by poor Hollywood execution.

tohostudios wrote:

I bet I'd enjoy that more than the real Pacific Rim.  Man I hated that flick!  

Haha! Yea, I remember you ranting about how much you hated "Pacific Rim" around here.
I dunno if you'd like the Asylum's generic-brand version better, but at the very least you might get a few laughs out of it....