TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV Shows) 2020

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981)

Harrison Ford makes his debut as whip crackin', pistol packin' archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones, racing around the globe to beat the Nazi regime in a search for a precious Biblical treasure. Lucas and Spielberg's ode to the movie serials of the 30s and 40s is still one of the best action/adventure movies ever made. I've lost count of how many times I've seen this, but I never get tired of it.

Locke & Key on Netflix. So far a pretty fun show.

Death Wish (1974)



Charles Bronson stars as a New York City architect whose wife and daughter are attacked by street thugs (including a young Jeff Goldblum), resulting in the death of his wife and leaving his daughter catatonic. Disillusioned by the rampant crime in the city and the perceived ineffectiveness of the law, Bronson turns vigilante and begins hunting down and killing street criminals, a la the Punisher. A rather interesting (and controversial , at the time) and entertaining film.


Death Wish II (1982)



8 years later and Bronson returns as the architect/vigilante, this time in pursuit of the street gang responsible for the rape and murder of his housekeeper and daughter. Basically a rehash of the first film, with a change in scenery (this time Los Angeles) and now more of a revenge flick, with music provided by Jimmy Page. Still, just as entertaining as the first one.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Killer Fish" (aka "Deadly Treasure of the Piranha," 1979)


"Killer Fish" is far from essential viewing, but Lord knows I've seen worse.

This was another one that was only tolerable when watched through the old MST3K filter.

"The Beastmaster" (1982)

Don "Phantasm" Coscarelli's charmingly cheesy sword and sorcery epic stars Marc "V" Singer as a swordsman who can talk to animals, on a quest to destroy the evil wizard who killed his family. Tanya Roberts' boobs and some cool creature effects helped make this '80s cable staple into a cult classic that spawned two sequels and a TV series.

Death Wish 3 (1985)



Charles Bronson returns to New York City to visit an old war buddy only to discover he's been murdered by a vicious street gang in control of the neighborhood. Initially taken in for questioning for the murder , the police chief, realizing who Bronson is, offers him a deal. He has carte blanche to take out the gang as long as the overwhelmed police get the credit. Naturally, Bronson agrees. This one really goes over the top with the 80s violence. Lots of shooting and things blowing up. Interesting little factoid, the tv news chopper reporter's description of the rioting going on the film was used as the intro to the Lizzy Borden tun Terror On The Town.


Death Wish 4:The Crackdown (1987)



Charles Bronson once again returns as the vigilante , Paul Kersey, back in Los Angeles and getting involved in taking down the city's drug trade after his girlfriend's daughter's overdose death from crack cocaine. He ends up getting financial and tactical backing from a newspaper mogul who also lost a daughter to drugs, and begins eliminating the 2 rival drug organizations, working his way to the top, and causing the mistrust between the 2 to cause them to start fighting amongst themselves. I liked this one better than part 3.

^^ I actually saw "DW4" during its theatrical run when I was in high school. Apparently there arent many people who can make that claim, cuz the film's wide release was crippled by Cannon Films' financial troubles at the time, so it only played theaters in a few major markets before going to video

King Of The Hill

I love King Of The Hill.

That's the next TV series I'm considering buying on DVD now that I've ordered Married With Children.


For some reason I find watch TV shows while I'm on the elliptical works better than watching movies.

Family Guy

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Beastmaster" (1982)

Don "Phantasm" Coscarelli's charmingly cheesy sword and sorcery epic stars Marc "V" Singer as a swordsman who can talk to animals, on a quest to destroy the evil wizard who killed his family. Tanya Roberts' boobs and some cool creature effects helped make this '80s cable staple into a cult classic that spawned two sequels and a TV series.  

God, I loved that movie as a kid. Haven't seen it in 30 years, but watching that trailer brought it all back in an instant!

Finished the first disc of "Gotham" - Season 1. 

It's funny to see the kid playing Bruce Wayne this early in the show; he hit his growth spurt during the series 5 year run and shot up like a weed.  It's also interesting to see how Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock started out as partners; they couldn't stand each other.  I also like seeing these early episodes with Ed Nygma as a forensic specialist for the GCPD; you can already see he's a little more than just "quirky" so his eventual transformation to The Riddler makes perfect sense.

I am on Season 3 of "Unsolved History" and they have switched from a sultry sounding female narrator to a guy who kind of sounds like the guy from Mythbusters. I caught the episode on the murder of Bobby Kennedy last night on the anniversary of his death no less. Kinda freaky, tbh. I also watched the one about DB Cooper. I am absolutely fascinated by anything about the Cooper case.

"Our Man Flint" (1966)

The first of two tongue-in-cheek spy spoofs starring James Coburn as super-swingin' agent Derek Flint, who's drafted by the U.S. Government to stop a cabal of mad scientists who've figured out how to weaponize the weather. One of the better James Bond knock offs of the shag-a-delic Sixties.

Since the Fox Animation Domination tonight consisted of reruns of show I've already seen I watched two episodes of Star Trek ToS.

One was the Robert Bloch-penned "Wolf In The Fold" where Scotty is the obvious suspect in the murder of several women but it's really an alien entity.

The other episode was "Gamesters of Triskelion" which is one of my favorite ToS episodes because it features "Shauna" who is basically a scantily-clad, green-haired 80's chick twenty years before the poofy hairstyle became "a thing".

No Country for Old Men

Death Wish V:The Face Of Death (1994)



I didn't even know this film existed until I started watching all the other Death Wish films and this one turned up. An aging Bronson (apparently 73 years old at the time the film was out) once again plays vigilante Paul Kersey, this time going against the mobster ex-husband of his current girlfriend (Lesley-Anne Downe) after the mobster has her disfigured and eventually killed when she agrees to testify against her ex. Standard fare ensues, with some new creative ways for Kersey to take out the bad guys. The final film in the series, and Bronson's last starring role in a theatrical film.

"The Car" (1977)

A murderous, apparently demonic automobile is cruisin' around a small Southwestern town, running over random residents, and the only one who can stop it is the local sheriff (James Brolin).
In spite of (or perhaps because of) its absolutely ridiculous premise, "The Car" actually turned out to be a pretty fun, watchable slice of '70s supernatural cheese.
Followed by a decades-too-late sequel (!), "The Car: Road To Revenge," in 2019!

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Car" (1977)

A murderous, apparently demonic automobile is cruisin' around a small Southwestern town, running over various residents at random, and the only one who can stop it is the local sheriff (James Brolin). In spite of (or perhaps because of) its absolutely ridiculous premise, "The Car" is a pretty fun, watchable slice of '70s supernatural cheese.

I loved this movie as a kid, catching it's every airing on HBO as much as possible. For awhile it was out of print and hard to find. I lucked out and found a used vhs copy at a yard sale a few years ago (still own it,too). But I watch this every chance I get. I saw that Netflix has it and immediately added it to my watch list

007 wrote:

I loved this movie as a kid, catching it's every airing on HBO as much as possible. For awhile it was out of print and hard to find. I lucked out and found a used vhs copy at a yard sale a few years ago (still own it,too). But I watch this every chance I get. I saw that Netflix has it and immediately added it to my watch list

Yeah, I saw it on Saturday afternoon TV years ago (I was probably 11 or 12) and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Obviously it hasn't aged very well at all but I dug it anyway.

The 2019 sequel looks even MORE ridiculous, but dammit I just added it to my watch list anyway, cuz I'm a glutton for punishment.

Fat Freddy wrote:

007 wrote:

I loved this movie as a kid, catching it's every airing on HBO as much as possible. For awhile it was out of print and hard to find. I lucked out and found a used vhs copy at a yard sale a few years ago (still own it,too). But I watch this every chance I get. I saw that Netflix has it and immediately added it to my watch list

Yeah, I saw it on Saturday afternoon TV years ago (I was probably 11 or 12) and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Obviously it hasn't aged very well at all but I dug it anyway.

The 2019 sequel looks even MORE ridiculous, but dammit I just added it to my watch list anyway, cuz I'm a glutton for punishment.

I watched that not too long ago, and guess what? I liked it too. And it is more ridiculous but I shut the brain off and just went along for the ride.

Fat Freddy wrote:

007 wrote:

I loved this movie as a kid, catching it's every airing on HBO as much as possible. For awhile it was out of print and hard to find. I lucked out and found a used vhs copy at a yard sale a few years ago (still own it,too). But I watch this every chance I get. I saw that Netflix has it and immediately added it to my watch list

Yeah, I saw it on Saturday afternoon TV years ago (I was probably 11 or 12) and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Obviously it hasn't aged very well at all but I dug it anyway.

The 2019 sequel looks even MORE ridiculous, but dammit I just added it to my watch list anyway, cuz I'm a glutton for punishment.

Believe it or not I actually read the book "The Car" when I was a kid.  This was back when I was a ravenous reader.  If I remember right this is one of those rare occasions where the book was essentially a novelization of the movie script; I vaguely remember something like "Based on the movie of the same name" being on the cover.

A double shot of glorious '70s cheese:

"City On Fire" (1979)

An explosion at an oil refinery creates a chain reaction of blazes that eventually threaten an entire city, which a variety of characters played by the usual assortment of Hollywood has-beens (incl. Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters, a pre-"Airplane" Leslie Nielsen, and even Henry Fonda) must struggle to survive.
This enjoyably cheap late-inning entry into the '70s disaster-movie craze (which was already on its way out by the time this was released) takes a while to get going (all the silly personal dramas between characters are obviously there just to pad out the run time), but once things started burning down and blowin' sky-high, my inner ten year old was entertained.

"The Mad Bomber" (aka "The Police Connection," 1973)

Vince "Ben Casey" Edwards is a tough L.A. cop who must capture a serial rapist (Neville Brand) because he's the only one who can help I.D. a mysterious mad bomber (Chuck "The Rifleman" Connors) in this sleazy-but-fun exploitation flick from Bert I. Gordon of "Empire of the Ants" and "Food of the Gods" fame. The movie's nothing special, but the fashions, the vintage cars and the ancient police technology are outasite, man.

The Goldbergs
Family Guy

I love this movie. I have watched it several times over the years.