TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV, etc.) 2023

"Tommy" (1975)

Ken Russell's film version of the Who's 1969 rock opera about a "deaf, dumb, and blind kid" who becomes a pinball wizard and eventually a messiah is still weird as hell all these years later. Essentially it's a feature-length music video with an all star cast that includes members of the Who, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Jack Nicholson, Elton John, Ann-Margret, and more. Worth sitting through for the rockin' soundtrack, and the scene where Ann-Margret freaks out and writhes around in a puddle of soap suds, beans, and chocolate.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

The Lair (2022)



Aliens rip-off set in the desert. An RAF pilot is shot down over the Afghanistan desert and is pursued by the insurgents that brought her down. Chased on foot, she comes across and abandoned Soviet bunker and seeks refuge in there. Pursued by the insurgents, a gunfight occurs, awakening strange creatures from containment tanks. She's able to escape while the creatures kill the insurgents and is eventually rescued by an American squad. However, the creatures follow them and attack the base, leaving them with damaged radio equipment and low ammo. Unable to cross the desert because of the insurgents, they decide to take the fight back to the creatures in their lair. Despite not offering anything new to the genre, it's still a pretty decent action/horror flick.

"The Lost City" (2022)

A romance novelist (Sandra Bullock) is kidnapped by a millionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) and taken to South America to help find the real-life ancient treasure she's written about in her books. The muscle-bound male model (Channing Tatum) who's portrayed the hero on all of her book covers, and who (of course) has been secretly in love with her all these years, eventually comes riding to the rescue.
This romantic adventure comedy's resemblance to "Romancing The Stone" is most likely intentional. The cast is fine (Brad Pitt almost steals the movie with a bit part as a dim-bulb mercenary), there's a few legit laughs, and the action scenes are well staged. Obviously it's more of a "chick flick," but it's relatively painless viewing for dudes, too.

"Pennywise: The Story of IT" (2022)

A thorough, entertaining documentary that looks back on the making of 1990's ground-breaking TV mini series adaptation of Stephen King's "IT," packed with behind the scenes clips and commentary from cast and crew members (director Tommy Lee Wallace, Tim Reid, Tim "Pennywise" Curry, Seth Green, etc., etc.). A cool deep dive into a cult classic that made me want to re-visit the film.

Groundhog Day

Duh!

"The Sound of 007" (2022)

Amazon Prime documentary on the importance of music in the James Bond franchise, from the elaborate orchestral scores to the iconic theme songs. Lots of classic clips and commentary from performers, producers, and crew. A motherlode of trivia for Bond geeks.

"Heavy Metal 2000" (aka "Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2," 2000)

Animated sci-fi action flick about a warrior woman (voiced by late B-Movie goddess Julie Strain) on a mission of vengeance against the space pirate (Michael Ironside) who destroyed her home world. Belated sequel to the 1980 cult classic flick based on the French comic magazine, full of animated nudity and ultra-violence. Not terrible, but nothing I'll ever sit thru again.

"Firehouse" (1987)

Three foxy young female fire academy grads are assigned to the worst firehouse in the city, which is staffed by a bunch of losers and screw-ups. Meanwhile, the neighborhood is experiencing a rash of arson fires, set by a crooked real estate developer with a plan to bulldoze the entire area.
... this lame '80s "sex comedy" feels like a bunch of random scenes punctuated by girls taking their tops off every few minutes to hide the fact that the movie has virtually no plot and even fewer laughs.
IMDb sez that Julia Roberts (!) made her film debut in a small, uncredited part in this movie, but I didn't notice her and I'm not about to sit thru it again to look for her, either.
AVOID.

"Return Of The Living Dead Part II" (1988)

Another small town is invaded by brain-craving zombies after some kids discover a barrel of the dreaded Trioxin re-animating formula that fell from an Army truck. You can probably figure out the rest.
This noticeably cheap looking sequel is pretty much a re-tread of the first film, right down to Thom Mathews and James Karen returning for another go round. Even though they're supposed to be playing different characters, they pretty much just repeat everything they did in the first movie. Watchable but not essential by any means.

Saw this on Tubi. “Contracted”. It’s basically the story of how a zombie virus started.

4 more episodes of That 90's Show.

"Romancing The Stone" (1984)

A mousy romance novelist (Kathleen Turner) is forced out of her comfort zone and into a South American adventure when her sister is kidnapped by treasure hunters. A handsome soldier of fortune (Michael Douglas) helps her save the day.
...since we've sat through two modern "R.T.S." knock-offs recently (Jennifer Lopez's Shotgun Wedding and Sandra Bullock's The Lost City), my wife and I decided to re-visit the O.G. to see how well it's held up. It's still loads of fun -- Douglas is a passable Indiana Jones wanna-be, Kathleen Turner was fine as hell back then, and Danny Devito is hilarious as one of the bumbling bad guys. Director Robert Zemeckis claims that the success of this movie made it possible for him to do Back To The Future.

"In The Mouth Of Madness" (1994)

A publishing house hires an investigator (Sam Neill) to locate their best-selling horror novelist, who's mysteriously disappeared. The search takes him to a remote New England town where the writer has been busily channeling ancient Lovecraftian horrors through his books and unleashing them into the "real" world to create murder and chaos.
Somehow I'd managed to miss this John Carpenter goodie till now (I think I may have had it confused with his earlier flick "Prince Of Darkness," which I have seen), but I'm glad I finally caught up with it because it's weird, creepy, atmospheric, and quite excellent; possibly one of JC's best. Better late than never, eh?

Finished Season 1 of That 90's Show.

Finished up Wayward Pines.

Guilty by Association (2003).



The movie is an urban crime drama in the vein of Boyz in the Hood and Menace II Society done very, very poorly. The movie has Morgan Freeman on the DVD cover, but he is only in the movie for about three minutes. He does a narration at the start, and you see him at the start where his character doesn't speak. He appears again towards the end, with scenes from the start reappearing. (When I said he is in it for about three minutes, I'm including the scenes repeated in the movie at the start and late in the movie.) Along with the narration, he probably has about three or four lines in the whole movie, yet he is on the cover of the movie as if he was the star. If you watched the trailer, you'd think that the movie was focused on him. The trailer has every scene he is involved in.

Anyways, this movie is very poor. The acting is terrible, and the production values are bargain bin. There's a scene in the movie where a little girl gets shot on a slide, but you see no blood or bullet hole whatsoever.

Spoiler:

On the plus side, this movie is pretty short. Excluding the beginning and end credits, the movie is just over an hour long.

Avoid this movie and watch Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society if you want to see the type of movie that this movie tries to be done right.

Jennifer (1978)



A scholarship recipient attends a snooty all girl private school, where she gets bullied by a clique of girls. The bullying escalates, and Jennifer (Lisa Pelikan), decides to finally fight back, using her powers to control and communicate with snakes. I saw this Carrie rip off back when I was a kid and thought it was pretty cool. However, to my adult eyes, it doesn't hold up very well. Nonetheless, it was still fun to watch it once again.

Transformers


I'd forgotten how good-looking peak Megan Fox was. Good grief.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Guest List" (2022)

This documentary about the Station Nightclub fire in Rhode Island, where 100 people were killed when a blaze broke out onstage during a Great White gig, originally aired on the REELZ cable channel. It tells the story of that awful night and the lingering effects it's had on the town, on the survivors, and the families of those who died. Pretty harrowing stuff, based on the book "Killer Show" by John Barylick, which I read about ten years ago.

I finally got around to watching this. Such a sad story.

My Bloody Valentine (1981)



A decades old urban legend about a deranged minor, the sole survivor of a mine collapse on Valentine's Day, who returns to town every year on the holiday to murder anyone celebrating turns out to be true. The town decides to have a big dance, setting off a series of killings and warnings to stop. The murderer has returned. Or has he? Always enjoyed this one. Its probably one of the first slasher films I had ever seen.

007 wrote:

My Bloody Valentine (1981)



A decades old urban legend about a deranged minor, the sole survivor of a mine collapse on Valentine's Day, who returns to town every year on the holiday to murder anyone celebrating turns out to be true. The town decides to have a big dance, setting off a series of killings and warnings to stop. The murderer has returned. Or has he? Always enjoyed this one. Its probably one of the first slasher films I had ever seen.

Classic! Saw it then as a wee lad and it terrified me.

The Haunted Palace



A telling of my favorite HPL story: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Vincent Price and the insanely good-looking Debra Paget.

"Bedazzled" (1967)

A nerdy Englishman (Dudley Moore) sells his soul to Satan (Peter Cook) in order to get the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, each of the seven wishes the Devil provides to him to make that happen fail spectacularly.
This swinging '60s comedy gets off to a slow start but picks up steam as it moves along. Moore and Cook are a great team and the late Raquel Welch (R.I.P. beautiful!) has a brief but pivotal role as one of the Seven Deadly Sins (of course, she's "Lust."). Remade in the early 2000s with Brendan Fraser in the Moore role and Elizabeth Hurley as Satan.

Smile (2022)



Sosie Bacon stars as a therapist who witnesses a patient commit suicide in front of her, after telling her that she is being tormented by something only she can see that resembles people with an evil smile. Soon, the therapist begins seeing the same things and ,trying to remain sane, tries to get to the bottom of what's going on and break the apparent curse on her. Apparently, this film did rather well at the box office and garnered rather positive reviews. Although it wasn't a terrible film, I didn't see what was so hot about it. It really has a been there, done that feel to it.