TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2019

"Professor Marsten and the Wonder Women" (2017)

A well acted period drama based on the story of William Moulton Marston, a 1930s Harvard psychology prof whose unconventional, polyamorous (three-way) relationship with his wife and a female grad student helped inspire him to create Wonder Woman. It may not exactly be a "comic book movie," but it's well worth a watch.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Professor Marsten and the Wonder Women" (2017)

A well acted period drama based on the story of William Moulton Marston, a 1930s Harvard psychology prof whose unconventional, polyamorous (three-way) relationship with his wife and a female grad student helped inspire him to create Wonder Woman. It may not exactly be a "comic book movie," but it's well worth a watch.

I watched the movie and it was very well made. It is the origin story of the creator of Wonder Woman is the way I see it, so a comic book of sorts.

Also, if you have not checked out 'Hollywood Land' with Ben Affleck playing Superman actor George Reeve you should its worth checking out.

manny wrote:

Also, if you have not checked out 'Hollywood Land' with Ben Affleck playing Superman actor George Reeve you should its worth checking out.

Yes, I have seen that (though it's been a while), another very well done flick

"Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" (1983)

The British comedy troupe presents a series of sketches, each based on a different "stage" of life ("Birth," "Education," etc.) to try and determine the meaning of it all. Highlights include Mr. Creosote, the obese vomit machine; the Grim Reaper's visit to a dinner party; and the big "Every Sperm Is Sacred" musical number.
This one's hit-and-miss compared to the earlier Python features but MP fans will still get a fair share of laughs from it and you'll be humming the songs for days.

I totally agree; Meaning Of Life is very hit or miss. The opening "Every Sperm Is Sacred" segment is great IMO but after that it sort of tails off for me. Even the Mr. Creosote sketch is sort of a one trick pony once you've seen it. It's still enjoyable to me because I enjoy MP's humor but the uninitiated would be better off starting with Holy Grail or Life Of Brian.

And what the hell is up with that weird sketch in the middle with the guy with the long arms saying something like "...and it went wherever...I....would go...."? WTF is that?

^^ yea, its def the weakest of the Python flicks, but even at half power, anything Python is still funnier than most comedies.
I still crack up at the Mr. Creosote bit though, mostly due to Cleese's performance as the waiter ("a bucket for m'seiur... and perhaps a hose...").

"Stripped To Kill" (1987)

A police woman (Kay Lenz, foxy!) goes undercover as an exotic dancer to catch a maniac who's murdering strippers. You can probably figure out the rest.
A totally '80s time capsule from the glory days of late-night Cinemax, with plenty of skin, sleaze and violence and a great supporting cast, including. Norman "Mr. Roper" Fell as the strip club owner and Greg "B.J. and the Bear" Evigan as Lenz's partner/love interest. Fun fact: in spite of its totally exploitative soft-porn premise, this flick was co-written and directed by a woman!

Been watching a Netflix series called Dead to Me staring my beloved Christina Applegate. She's the only reason I took a chance on it, but it's actually pretty good. Mainly it's about her character dealing with the loss of her husband. So far it's only one season, not sure how many they are going to make, but it's pretty decent, and she's really good in it. Comedy/drama type of show.

Fat Freddy wrote:

^^ yea, its def the weakest of the Python flicks, but even at half power, anything Python is still funnier than most comedies.
I still crack up at the Mr. Creosote bit though, mostly due to Cleese's performance as the waiter ("a bucket for m'seiur... and perhaps a hose...").

"But m'seiur, it's only weffer-thin..." And the look on his face as he stuffs that one thin mint in Creosote's mouth then dives for cover.

"Crash and Burn" (1990)

It's the year 2030, and the staff of a remote pirate-TV broadcasting outpost in the Southwestern desert has been infiltrated by a killer cyborg, sent by the evil corporation that now controls the government. Yeah, I hate when that happens.

...this cheap post-apocalypse nonsense from Full Moon Studios was released as "Robot Jox 2" in some parts of the world, even though it has no connection to that film aside from the presence of one giant robot, which only comes into play during the last ten minutes of the movie.

If you have a weakness for Full Moon style schlock, this is watchable (barely) but everyone else can safely skip it.

Fear The Walking Dead

Watched a fascinating episode of Star Trek - Enterprise while on the elliptical today.

This one featured our old ST "friends" The Borg.
Apparently Star Fleet discovered them frozen in ice over 200 years before the Star Trek TNG series timeline started. These Borg had travelled back in time and once revived by stupid researchers, tried to conquer the Earth's known universe; including the infamous "Resistance is FUTILE! You will be assimilated" Borg line. Fortunately this pre-TNG crew manages to dispatch this version of the Borg who were experimenting with time travel. But unfortunately the Borg got off a final message to their homeworld giving the coordinates of Earth. But because the homeworld is so far away it will take 200 years to even get there.

This is why I'm really into this Star Trek "prequel". Since this series exists in the pre-anything Star Trek universe, it's interesting when they lay the foundations of stuff we ST-nerds already know happens in "future" series.

"Robot Wars" (1993)


In the future, giant robots that were once used as weapons of war are now ferrying sightseers and tourists through the desert wastelands. When one of the mechs is stolen by a rogue general planning a takeover, a hotshot robo-pilot has to get back in the saddle to stop him.

.. yeah, this is more cheesy stop-motion robot junk from Full Moon Studios, ala the cult classic "Robot Jox" and the godawful "Crash and Burn." This one falls somewhere in between those two; it's fairly slow moving for most of its short run time but the climactic robot battle scenes are fun to watch and the cast (including Barbara "Re-Animator" Crampton and Lisa "Melrose Place" Rinna) gives better performances than the movie probably deserves.

Best gag: when a tour group visits an abandoned "1990s Southwestern small town," they pass a movie theater with "Puppet Master 54" on the marquee!!

'Last Days of Mars' and still going thru Angel 'season 3'

Scarecrows
Monday Night Raw

"Arcade" (1993)

High schoolers volunteer to beta-test a new, super advanced "virtual reality" video game... whose "final boss" turns out to be a malevolent entity who wants to trap their souls in the game forever.
This Full Moon Studios cheapie has a decent concept (it's sort of like "Tron" with a horror twist) and a cast full of familiar faces (incl. Peter "A Christmas Story" Billingsley, Seth "Buffy"/"Robot Chicken" Green, and John De Lancie of "Star Trek: TNG"), but  the "V.R." computer effects, which were supposed to be this flick's big selling point, are utterly crap-tacular, even by early 90s standards. If you can get past that, "Arcade" is a silly but entertaining time capsule.

^^Keith, did you subscribe to the new Full Moon streaming service? If I'm not mistaken your last three flicks there are among many others for viewing.

Sheez, I sound like an infomercial.

corplhicks wrote:

^^Keith, did you subscribe to the new Full Moon streaming service? If I'm not mistaken your last three flicks there are among many others for viewing.

Sheez, I sound like an infomercial.

Haha! Nope, a big chunk of Full Moon's catalog is also available on the free TUBI-TV streaming service, so I've been doing a deep dive this past week. Might revisit "Doctor Mordrid" next!

Fat Freddy wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

^^Keith, did you subscribe to the new Full Moon streaming service? If I'm not mistaken your last three flicks there are among many others for viewing.

Sheez, I sound like an infomercial.

Haha! Nope, a big chunk of Full Moon's catalog is also available on the free TUBI-TV streaming service, so I've been doing a deep dive this past week. Might revisit "Doctor Mordrid" next!

Sweet! I was thinking of subscribing but you just saved me $$$. I have TUBI on my main TV, will check it out. I miss Robot Wars, enjoyed it more than Jox as a kid.

corplhicks wrote:

Sweet! I was thinking of subscribing but you just saved me $$$. I have TUBI on my main TV, will check it out. I miss Robot Wars, enjoyed it more than Jox as a kid.

I own "Jox" on DVD, it's still my favorite giant-robot movie. I think I've seen "Wars" once before (probably when it first came out on VHS in the 90s) but I'd never seen "Crash & Burn" till this past week. In the case of "C&B" I obviously wasn't missing anything, haha.

I looooove Tubi-TV, it's become my go-to streaming choice lately. They have a surprisingly good selection of quality back-catalog major studio stuff, plus plenty of sweet trashy nuggets from days gone by. They even got reruns of "MXC!"  

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Arcade" (1993)

High schoolers volunteer to beta-test a new, super advanced "virtual reality" video game... whose "final boss" turns out to be a malevolent entity who wants to trap their souls in the game forever.
This Full Moon Studios cheapie has a decent concept (it's sort of like "Tron" with a horror twist) and a cast full of familiar faces (incl. Peter "A Christmas Story" Billingsley, Seth "Buffy"/"Robot Chicken" Green, and John De Lancie of "Star Trek: TNG"), but  the "V.R." computer effects, which were supposed to be this flick's big selling point, are utterly crap-tacular, even by early 90s standards. If you can get past that, "Arcade" is a silly but entertaining time capsule.

That reminds me of a flick from a year later called Brainscan.  Starred Edward "T2" Furlong.

The Shape of Water

Godzilla - King Of The Monsters

I'm going to have to watch this multiple times before I form a final opinion.

For sure this is THE BEST the classic Toho monsters have ever looked and the FX are fantastic.
But the plot seems pretty weak after my first viewing...and I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense.

tohostudios wrote:

Godzilla - King Of The Monsters

I'm going to have to watch this multiple times before I form a final opinion.
 

Personally, I loved this flick. The plot didn't bother me and the monster action was great.

tohostudios wrote:

Godzilla - King Of The Monsters

I'm going to have to watch this multiple times before I form a final opinion.

For sure this is THE BEST the classic Toho monsters have ever looked and the FX are fantastic.
But the plot seems pretty weak after my first viewing...and I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense.  

The plot was bollocks, plain and simple.