TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2017

Last night, I watched a few episodes of T. and T., the show Mr. T starred in after The A-Team ended.

Dead Of Night (aka Deathdream) 1972

Directed by Bob Clark (A Christmas Story,Porky's, etc), this movie deals with a guy killed in action during the Vietnam War. After his family is notified, hours later that same night, he shows up home in uniform. However, something's not quite right with him. A nice variation on the "careful what you wish for" story, with excellent makeup effects by the great Tom Savini.

"Generation X" (1996)


The new class of super-heroes-in-training at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters battles a mad scientist who can control people's minds by invading their dreams. So...yeah, basically this is a ripoff of "A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" in X-Men wrapping.

Long before Marvel Comics' characters were sure fire box office gold, they kept farming out their properties for low budget TV movies like this. The story is weak, the sets are cheap, and the effects suck. Finola Hughes provides some eye candy as Emma Frost, but whoever is playing Banshee has the least convincing Irish accent I've ever heard and Matt "Max Headroom" Frewer is irritating as hell as the villain. "Generation X" aired on Fox as a pilot for a potential series but it never caught on (thank goodness).

It was my 9 year old's turn to pick a movie...

"Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" (2010)

Sequel to the 2003 family hit continues the ongoing battle between canines and felines, but this time the cats and dogs must put their differences aside and fight against a common enemy. The villainous Kitty Galore's plans for world domination are so extreme that they endanger both species.
Silly kid stuff packed with nods to the James Bond series (including a voice cameo by the late, great Roger Moore as the head of Feline Intelligence, "Tab Lazenby"), "The Silence Of The Lambs" and action flicks in general.

The Car (1977)

James Brolin as a small southwestern town cop up against a demonic apparently driverless car. I've seen this thing so many times and try not to miss it when it's aired. I don't think it got much love from the critics but to me it's a bonafide horror classic.

Catfish

Eureka - Season 2

Earth Live

This would be a lot cooler if they focused more on fewer animals and also had fewer commercials. I would have thought a show that NatGeo pimped out as much as they did this one would have had far fewer commercials than a normal show. You know "...brought to you with minimal interruption by..." type stuff. Nope.

"The Protector" (1985)

Two New York cops (Jackie Chan and Danny Aiello) are sent to Hong Kong to track down a kidnapped girl and end up tangling with a ring of vicious heroin smugglers. Of course, lots of bullets fly, many butts are kung-fu kicked, and lots of stuff blows up.

Jackie Chan was already a huge movie star in Asia in 1985 -- "The Protector" was intended to be his big break into the global action-film market, but it didn't catch on. It's an entertaining '80s style shoot'em up, but it would take a few more years before "Rumble In The Bronx" finally made Jackie into a cult hero in the West.

Caught up on Fear The Walking Dead

Watching "Gotham" from the beginning during my lunchtime elliptical workouts. It's amazing how much the appearances of most of these actors has changed in just a little over 3 years. It's also amazing how much of the backstory to what happened this season I forgot about.

"Flatliners" (1990)

Med students try to learn what happens after death - by experimenting with stopping their hearts and bringing each other back from the brink. Naturally, these trips to "the other side" eventually have sinister consequences.
An artsy, flashy sci-fi/horror directed by Joel Schumacher, with a great cast incl.a young Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon. Cool stuff, apparently a remake is due later this year.

Lazy Saturday Double Feature:

"Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero" (1998)

Feature-length spin off from "Batman: The Animated Series" pits the Dark Knight against Mr. Freeze, whose dying wife needs a vital organ transplant - and it turns out that Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon would be the perfect match. Nicely animated as usual, this Batman/Mr. Freeze battle is superior to the live action version that preceded it ("Batman & Robin") by a mile.

"Ninja Cheerleaders" (2008)

...as you can probably tell from the title, this is some real high-concept sh*t here.
Three honor students by day and strippers by night somehow also find the time to learn the art of ninjitsu from George Takei (yes, really). Those skills come in handy when George is kidnapped by the mob and the girls have to rescue him before they can leave for college.
... in other words, this is your basic cheap, turn-your-brain-off action comedy. Just relax and enjoy watching the three cutie-pie leads kung-fu the crap out of a bunch of dudes.

Better compared to what I was expecting.

Went to the drive in last night and caught the double feature of

Despicable Me 3

In this sequel Gru ends up losing his job with the Anti Villain League,discovers he had a long lost twin brother named Dru and ends up doing battle with a supervillain stuck in the 80s. This series has pretty much run it's course and was rather meh to me,but the kids really enjoyed so I guess it did what it set out to do.

Followed that up with the excellent Spider-Man:Homecoming. Peter Parker deals with high school and juggling his superhero schtick,while reporting his activities to Iron Man/Tony Stark's right hand man,Happy Hogan. While doing so, he stumbles upon a the Vulture and his henchmen,including one of the oldest and lesser known Spider-Man villains the Tinkerer,dealing dangerous weapons made from alien technology. An all around great film.

"Dead Silence" (2007)

After the mysterious death of his wife, a young man returns to his home town and learns of his family's connection to a local legend - the ghostly Mary Shaw, an insane ventriloquist with an army of living dolls.
Creepy-cool spook story with lotsa atmosphere and a couple of decent jump scares. Underrated.

^^^^^ Most of the newer horror films are garbage,IMO,but this one I did like.

007 wrote:

^^^^^ Most of the newer horror films are garbage,IMO,but this one I did like.

Yea, I've seen it before, but it had been a while. It was better than I remembered.

..and it scared the living sh** outta my 10 year old, too.

A Million Ways To Die In The West

I've been watching "Gotham" from Season 1 in preparation for the release of Season 3 on blu ray in August and the beginning of Season 4 in September.


I'm up to the very first episode of the show I ever saw and this is the scene that hooked me.  For one thing it's really gory for a prime time network TV show.  For another, anyone recognize the actor in the glasses?

Can't think of his name, but isn't that Herbert West from Re-Animator?

007 wrote:

Can't think of his name, but isn't that Herbert West from Re-Animator?

It sure is!  Jeffrey Combs.  Couple that gory scene with Herbert West and of course I was hooked on the series.

Glen Campbell - I'll Be Me

Contamination (1980)

An Italian produced film about an apparently unmanned ship on the Hudson River that contains strange football sized "eggs". When they burst, those in close proximity are exposed to a toxic liquid, causing the victims chest to burst open (this was not long after alien,after all). This was a bizarre movie and had some weird dialogue. The alien monster at the end was poorly rendered (looking like something from a 50s monster movie) but the chest bursting effects were rather cool looking. Don't waste your time with this one.