TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2015

The Cardinals are out on the West Coast so I was left trying to find something to watch tonight until the game began.

I settled on "Gotham". I always thought the show looked interesting based on the previews but it was a lot more violent and gory than I thought was allowable during prime time network TV.

Yeah, I liked it.

You wanna see gory TV? Watch "Hannibal", that show gets away with more than I ever thought possible.

Tonight's episode of "Gotham" had a woman carving her own eye out with a spoon then stomping on it on the floor. And to make it even better, this was done in front of Jeffrey (Re-Animator) Combs. I didn't even recognize him at first but the voice and weird way of delivering dialogue gave him away.

Nymphomaniac, all 5 hours - A.
Band of Brothers - A- so far

"The Warriors" (1979)


Believe it or not, this was my first time ever seeing Walter Hill's cult classic street-gang flick. After a NYC gang summit goes wrong, a Coney Island crew must make their way back to their home turf from the Bronx, with every other gang in the city gunning for them along the way. Great stuff, shot in a New York that was a hell of a lot scarier and dirtier than it is today.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Warriors" (1979)


Believe it or not, this was my first time ever seeing Walter Hill's cult classic street-gang flick. After a NYC gang summit goes wrong, a Coney Island crew must make their way back to their home turf in Brooklyn from the Bronx, with every other gang in the city gunning for them. Great stuff, shot in a New York that was a hell of a lot scarier and dirtier than it is today.

Awesome movie!

Required Fields wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Warriors" (1979)


Believe it or not, this was my first time ever seeing Walter Hill's cult classic street-gang flick. After a NYC gang summit goes wrong, a Coney Island crew must make their way back to their home turf in Brooklyn from the Bronx, with every other gang in the city gunning for them. Great stuff, shot in a New York that was a hell of a lot scarier and dirtier than it is today.

Awesome movie!

Agreed. Excellent film.

The first couple of episodes of Dark Matter.

Not bad.

007 wrote:

Required Fields wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Warriors" (1979)


Believe it or not, this was my first time ever seeing Walter Hill's cult classic street-gang flick. After a NYC gang summit goes wrong, a Coney Island crew must make their way back to their home turf in Brooklyn from the Bronx, with every other gang in the city gunning for them. Great stuff, shot in a New York that was a hell of a lot scarier and dirtier than it is today.

Awesome movie!

Agreed. Excellent film.

Barney Miller takes place in that time period: 1974-1982.

007 wrote:

Required Fields wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Warriors" (1979)


Believe it or not, this was my first time ever seeing Walter Hill's cult classic street-gang flick. After a NYC gang summit goes wrong, a Coney Island crew must make their way back to their home turf in Brooklyn from the Bronx, with every other gang in the city gunning for them. Great stuff, shot in a New York that was a hell of a lot scarier and dirtier than it is today.

Awesome movie!

Agreed. Excellent film.

Watching that trailer, a lot of it seems familiar but a lot of it doesn't so I'm not sure if I've seen it or not.  Guess I need to check it out.

I've actually never been a big fan of Warriors, though it has my respect for such a kinetic mashing of comic-book-violence for its era. I just find it too ridiculous to take seriously.

Robot Overlords - B+. A very British YA indie original with great effects work and rollicking dialogue that makes for a fun, if innocuous, experience. AND IT HAS THE f*cking GORGEOUS GILLIAN ANDERSON. Honestly she's the whole reason I turned the damn thing on. Ben Kingsley plays the major deficit in the movie, a terribly impotent and stupid villain. Dude is collecting a paycheck here.

I was expecting SyFy quality here and got something much more substantial.

Fear The Walking Dead series premiere. A lot of exposition in the episode (to be expected) but it really picked up in the last 15 minutes or so. Looks like it will be quite a show in the upcoming weeks.

Based on high recommendations of co-workers and it's apparently hard-core cult following, I watched Wet Hot American Summer.

I don't get it. Awful. Just awful. Why this needed to resurrected on Netflix is a mystery to me.

It's a very specific type of humor, you either get it, or you don't.

S.D. wrote:

It's a very specific type of humor, you either get it, or you don't.  

Yea, I guess. Put me in the "don't" column. For summer camp hijinks, I'll watch 'Meatballs' instead.

10 To Midnight (1983)

I actually remembered liking this film when I was about 13...I was young and stupid. A typically amateurish Cannon films production with Charles Bronson basically sleep-walking through his under-written part. Seriously, they don't spend a second on character development, they just try to pass his character off as the same guy from the Death Wish movies. Not a second of actual suspense in a film designed to be a suspense film. Lisa Eilbacher was cute and there's also a young Kellly Preston in a small role. There's copious amounts of T&A on display, strategically placed throughout the film to keep the audience from falling asleep. Plus the ending doesn't work at all, after the credits role the only possible fate for the Bronson character is to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I was only able to make it through the film by seeing how many Los Angeles locations I could correctly identify.

007 wrote:

Fear The Walking Dead series premiere. A lot of exposition in the episode (to be expected) but it really picked up in the last 15 minutes or so. Looks like it will be quite a show in the upcoming weeks.

Same here. TBH I found it a really slow start and could've benefited from more interesting characters. Other than the junkie kid, who I found the most engaging and dynamic, the other protagonists come across as forced TV tropes (tough-as-nails mom, overacheiver daughter, boyfriend trying to fit in as a father figure etc). Otherwise I enjoy the LA setting and non-decomposed dead; hoping the ensuing apocalyptic genesis will be chaos. Hoping for deeper character development, too.

Also: Blunt Talk, a new Starz show with a very funny Patrick Stewart as a declining talk show host. Stewart does an amazing job. Seth MacFarlane produces.

Death Wish 3.

Is there a negative star rating? Can you give a movie less than 0 stars? If so, Death Wish 3 richly deserves a -***1/2 rating.

That's it, I will never watch a 1980s or later Charles Bronson movie again. Now I'm going to have to see if he actually made any good movies in the 1970s or if they really just all sucked.

Quote :

Robot Overlords - B+. A very British YA indie original with great effects work and rollicking dialogue that makes for a fun, if innocuous, experience. AND IT HAS THE f*cking GORGEOUS GILLIAN ANDERSON. Honestly she's the whole reason I turned the damn thing on. Ben Kingsley plays the major deficit in the movie, a terribly impotent and stupid villain. Dude is collecting a paycheck here.

I saw this DVD in Wal-Mart about a week ago, almost picked it up cuz of Gillian Anderson (and the promise of giant robots fighting) but figured it'll probably turn up on SyFy or Netflix eventually.

Quote :

Death Wish 3.

Is there a negative star rating? Can you give a movie less than 0 stars? If so, Death Wish 3 richly deserves a -***1/2 rating.

That's it, I will never watch a 1980s or later Charles Bronson movie again. Now I'm going to have to see if he actually made any good movies in the 1970s or if they really just all sucked.

"DW3" is either the worst, most ridiculous entry in the series or the greatest, depending on who you talk to. It makes me laugh like hell, even tho it's for all the wrong reasons.

I kept running across user reviews on IMDB saying that Death Wish 3 was a lost masterpiece...I need to find out who those people are and stop them from breeding.

S.D. wrote:

I kept running across user reviews on IMDB saying that Death Wish 3 was a lost masterpiece...I need to find out who those people are and stop them from breeding.  

They probably love Killen too.

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/The-Death-Wish-Series-Bronson-at-His-Best

A year or two ago I revisited the entire "Death Wish" series and wrote a blog about it. The original is the best, "II" is the sleaziest, "3" is best treated as an unintentional comedy, and "4" and "5" are entertaining, but unnecessary.

I re-watched Death Wish 1 & 2 a few months ago.  1 is an exploitation film masquerading as social commentary and 2 is just a straight-up sleazy exploitation film.  In the grand scheme of things they probably should have never made any sequels.

What was boggling my mind about 3 is how utterly inept it is in just about every way.  Sets, costumes and production values were just a hair better than your average porno film (but not much), the action choreography is laughable, so many editing and continuity errors I just gave up counting and just about the laziest script imaginable.  When the police captain steps or squishes cockroaches at every opportunity it's pretty obvious you're not dealing with "deep thinkers" on the writing side.  Strictly low-budget amateur hour.

Charles Bronson deserved better.

"3" is hilariously awesome because of Bronson's transformation from a lone wolf with a pistol to Senior Citizen Rambo (I believe he was in his early 60s when it was made)....

Not too good, unfortunately.