TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV Shows) 2020

I saw 'Tank Girl' years ago and yes it screams 'look how edgy we are, as only films of the 90's can

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Tank Girl" (1995)

Lori Petty ("A League of Their Own") stars as the butt kickin', punk-rock chick action heroine from a British comic book series. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, she leads a band of fellow mutants and misfits in a rebellion against the evil mega-corporation that controls the world's water supply.
This is one of those grunge-era, so-90s-it-hurts, "Greetings, fellow kids! Look how quirky and wacky we are!" kind of flicks that naturally hasn't aged very well... but Petty is a hoot and it's always good to see Malcolm "Clockwork Orange" McDowell hamming it up in a villain role.
This flick tanked (pun not intended, I swear) at the box office in '95, but it's become a bit of a cult item in the years since. Worth a look if you're in the mood for something slightly off center.
I'd bet five bucks that Gwen Stefani's entire No Doubt-era look and 'tude was inspired by Tank Girl.

I vaguely remember seeing this with friends back in the day. It was pretty schlocky then, so I can't imagine it's aged very well at all!

I found out recent(ish)ly that Lori Petty is from my hometown (Chattanooga, TN).

And now for something completely different...
"Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs" (1966)

Cartoonish Sixties spy spoof stars Vincent Price as the evil Dr. Goldfoot, a mad scientist who assassinates world leaders via bikini-clad female robots packed with explosives. A pair of bumbling European secret agents team up with their American counterpart (60s pop singer Fabian) to stop him before he can drop a "Girl Bomb" on Moscow and start World War III.

This Italian/American co-production (a sequel to the previous year's "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine") wants to be a swinging, "with-it," pop-art jam ala the "Batman" TV series. There's lots of pretty girls in day-glo colors, wacky set pieces, and a hip, jazzy soundtrack...but the movie itself is a train wreck. The utterly-unfunny Italian comedy duo of Franco and Ciccio (imagine Abbott & Costello, if they were irritating) gets way too much screen time and Fabian couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag. I'd bet this movie was probably a major influence on the "Austin Powers" series, but the difference is, "Austin" was actually funny.

Vincent Price would later call this flick "the most dreadful movie I've ever been in." I'm inclined to agree with him.

AVOID.

The Fourth Kind(2009)-a psychologist in Alaska notices that some of her patience are having similar stories about difficulty sleeping and seeing something they refer to as an "owl"during the night. When one of her patience snaps and kills his family and himself, the town sheriff thinks that she is somewhat to blame for the tragedy. Soon after, her daughter disappears and the police thinks she has something to do with that as well, while trying to convince them that she is not behind her daughters disappearance and that perhaps some kind of alien abductions are behind the strange events in the town. Claiming to be based on a true story, this was a pretty creepy little film with some good atmosphere going for it. 3/5

"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989)

In Harrison Ford's third spin as the adventuring archaeologist, Indy and his estranged father (Sean Connery, perfectly cast) race against the Nazi regime to find the Ultimate prize - the Holy Grail. As usual, lots of fists are thrown, stuff blows up, and things crash into each other. Tons of action packed popcorn fun.

"Slaughter High" (1986)

A fiery high school prank gone wrong permanently scars the campus nerd "Marty," both physically and mentally. Five years later, those responsible are invited back to their now-abandoned school for a "class reunion," and soon they're being picked off one by one by a masked slasher. Gee, I wonder who the killer's gonna turn out to be?
This ultra-cheap "Friday the 13th" knockoff was filmed in the UK with a mostly-Brit cast (including one time Hammer Horror babe and Bond Girl Caroline Munro, still looking fabulous), though they're all pretending to be Americans. The set up is cartoonishly silly and it takes for-damn-ever for bodies to start dropping, but once the kill spree begins, the pace picks up and there are some creative murder methods with nasty gore.
I was somewhat entertained, but your mileage may vary depending on the depths of your obscure 80s slasher movie addiction.

Smackdown

Coach
Becker

"Mortuary" (1983)

A young girl, despondent over her father's recent suspicious death, starts poking around the mystery with her boyfriend and they discover murderous goings-on happening around the local funeral parlor.
This cheap but effective '80s teen horror flick is notable mainly for the appearance by a very young Bill Paxton (in what I believe is his film debut) as the funeral director's creepy teenage son.  I didn't have very high hopes for this flick at first, but it turned out to be a pleasant retro-horror surprise.

This seemed appropriate for July 4th viewing...

"Uncle Sam" (1996)

A U.S. serviceman killed in Kuwait is shipped back to his home town, where he mysteriously re-animates and goes on a killing spree during the annual July 4th celebrations, murdering anyone who isn't "patriotic" enough. The only ones who can stop him, for some reason, are his annoying kid nephew and Isaac "Chef" Hayes.
This tongue-in-cheek slab of horror cheese reunites writer Larry Cohen and director William Lustig of "Maniac Cop" fame, but unfortunately it's nowhere near as good as the "MC" films. The "Uncle Sam" character looks ridiculous as hell and though the movie has a couple of good gory bits, overall it's just too goofy to take seriously.

I just started watching a series called Animal Kingdom.

Great cast. Based on a movie from Australia.

Ellen Barken plays head of household that are into crime.  Living the good life in LA.

Things change when her sister dies and teenage  son has to move in.

The kid who moves in was in Peaky Blinders. A great show imho.

Only watched one episode so far. Hooked..


https://youtu.be/eJdywN-g-YM

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (2005)

A perpetually-confused Englishman is whisked off of Earth moments before it's destroyed by aliens, and joins a crew of space-faring misfits on an adventure to find the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.
This lavish adaptation of Douglas Adams' classic comedic sci-fi novel has a great cast, impressive visuals, and a fair share of laughs, but if you're not familiar with the source material, it may feel like an elaborate private joke that you're not "in" on.

Ring of Honor

The Eagles concert from 2018 on ESPN.

Weird that this is on ESPN but I stumbled across it and I love The Eagles.

This has Glenn Frey's son on guitar and vocals for his father's hits and he's not bad.

Naked Gun

and one episode of season 4 of 'Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman'

Just got done watching a movie called Richard Jewell directed by Clint Eastwood. Based on the true story of the man that discovered the bomb at a show during the 1996 Olympics. He went from hero to the main suspect. I sat on this movie for a month before I got around to watching it, and think it was really good. Only reason why I got it was because of the director. Now I wanna read up on everything I can find about this case. Guess he died of heart failure at the age of 44.

Anyways, good flick, I would watch again.

"The Man With the Golden Gun" (1974)

Roger Moore's second turn as 007 jumps on the then-current kung-fu movie craze, as James Bond travels to Hong Kong and Thailand on the trail of Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), the underworld's most elite assassin, in order to recover a stolen solar-energy device.

"Golden Gun" has all the usual cool action sequences and exotic scenery (plus, Britt Ekland is one of the hottest Bond girls ever) but the added reliance on comedy gets tiresome after a while (and the unnecessary return of the annoying redneck sheriff J.W. Pepper from Live and Let Die is a series low point).

I don't hate "Golden Gun" but I'd have to rank this one near the bottom of the Bond pile. The series was still trying to find its groove with Roger Moore at this point.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (2005)

A perpetually-confused Englishman is whisked off of Earth moments before it's destroyed by aliens, and joins a crew of space-faring misfits on an adventure to find the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.
This lavish adaptation of Douglas Adams' classic comedic sci-fi novel has a great cast, impressive visuals, and a fair share of laughs, but if you're not familiar with the source material, it may feel like an elaborate private joke that you're not "in" on.

I didn't like that film nearly as much as the BBC series and didn't like the series nearly as much as the books.

Wrecked Neck wrote:

Just got done watching a movie called Richard Jewell directed by Clint Eastwood. Based on the true story of the man that discovered the bomb at a show during the 1996 Olympics. He went from hero to the main suspect. I sat on this movie for a month before I got around to watching it, and think it was really good. Only reason why I got it was because of the director. Now I wanna read up on everything I can find about this case. Guess he died of heart failure at the age of 44.

Anyways, good if I I would watch again.

I want to see that. I've always wanted to untangle that story too.

"Don't Go In The House" (1979)

After the death of his abusive mother, a repressed Mama's Boy builds a private crematorium in his house and starts taking his issues with women out on local females with the help of a flame thrower. Think "Psycho," if Norman Bates had a pyromania fetish.
This notorious late '70s grindhouse sickie isn't terribly gory, but it's certainly dark & disturbing, with a strong performance Dan Grimaldi as the he-man woman hater. The generic sounding title might make you expect just another junky, generic slasher flick, but "DGITH" turned out to be an effective, grimy psychological portrait of a person slowly losin' their sh*t, ala "Maniac" or "Ms. 45," not for the faint of heart. They really don't make'em like this anymore.

Over the weekend, I played a Mel Brooks hat-trick, starting with 'The Producers'. It was the original with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Despite being a huge Brooks fan, I've never seen this one. I liked it well enough. Not as good as some of his others that followed, but I still enjoyed it. Gene Wilder never fails to crack me up.
Fun Fact: Barney Martin aka Morty Seinfeld plays Nazi Hermann Goring in 'Springtime for Hitler'.

Next up, "Blazing Saddles". What more can be said about this one? It's a stone-cold classic. Fun Fact: They produced a tv pilot called "Black Bart" starring Lou Gossett Jr. as Sherriff Bart and Doc from the 'Love Boat' as his drunken deputy. Its just as terrible as it sounds. You can watch a bit of it here...

I have Blazing Saddles on dvd and the entire half-hour pilot is on there as a bonus feature. It's really cringe-worthy.

Last, but not least was "Young Frankenstein". Sorry, Fronk-en-stein. Another stone-cold classic. Between Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, I really miss Madeline Kahn. She was so great. In movies with such talent around her, she really took those roles and made them stand-out. Fun Fact: Most of the lab equipment used in the movie were the original props from the original 1931 Universal Frankenstein movie.

Finished up the Netflix series Dark, a complex German made show about time travel and alternate realities.

"The Doors" (1991)

Troubled poet Jim Morrison leads his band out of the L.A. clubs to the forefront of 60s counter culture, but ultimately pays a terrible price for fame.
Oliver Stone's lavish bio-pic of the 60s rockers features an absolutely amazing performance by Val Kilmer as Morrison, who completely loses himself in the role.
I've read that none of the surviving Doors members were happy with the film taking numerous dramatic liberties with their story. So it may not be totally historically accurate, but "The Doors" is still an intense, trippy journey back in time.

007 wrote:

Finished up the Netflix series Dark, a complex German made show about time travel and alternate realities.

I just started this last week and just finished Season 2 and will start Season 3 today. Excellent show! I watched it dubbed in English. You can watch it in English with a bad overdub or watch it in German with subtitles. I opted to watch the English version.

I have never seen Twin Peaks but read a description of this show as "imagine if Back To The Future was done by the Twin Peaks writers". So far it is really good and I have read that there will be no more seasons after 3 so I hope they tie this up with a satisfying ending.