TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV Shows) 2020

Fade To Black (1980)



A lonely movie buff slowly descends into madness, starting with an obsession over a Marilyn Monroe look alike. Eventually, he ends up in a liking spree, dressed as characters from some of his favorite movies. It takes awhile to get going, but it's a rather interesting film.

Maniac Cop (1988)



A psychopathic cop seemingly returns from the grave and goes on a killing spree while Tom Atkins tries to stop him. Also starting b movie legend Bruce Campbell. A pretty good movie which eerily seems reminiscent of today's culture, with the police under great scrutiny and even protests. Just check out the in movie tv news soundbites.

^^ "Maniac Cop" is a fun, trashy flick. Check out "Maniac Cop 2" next, it's even better.

Night Of The Demon (1979)



An el cheapo flick about an anthropology professor leading a group of his students in an excursion into northern California in search of a murderous Bigfoot. Some decent, albeit cheap looking, gore and a decent Bigfoot costume, but otherwise a non essential watch.

Blinded by the Light

007 wrote:

Fade To Black (1980)



A lonely movie buff slowly descends into madness, starting with an obsession over a Marilyn Monroe look alike. Eventually, he ends up in a liking spree, dressed as characters from some of his favorite movies. It takes awhile to get going, but it's a rather interesting film.

I love Fade to Black. I watched that movie a hundred times when I was a kid. Ended up finding a copy on Amazon for around five bucks about ten years ago. Still good, think I'll watch it this weekend. Forgot I had it till now lol

I've had "Fade To Black" in my watch list for a long time but still haven't gotten to it. Maybe I'll bump it to the top for this year's annual Schlock-Tober Halloween horror marathon...

On topic:

"Spider-Man: Far From Home" (2019)

Picking up after the events of "Avengers: Endgame," Peter Parker/Spider-Man just wants to have a normal summer vacation with no super-hero action. A class trip to Europe sounds like the perfect diversion, but naturally trouble still finds him across the ocean, as he ends up tangling with the illusionist super-villain Mysterio.
Of course, the movie's got plenty of wall to wall action, but it's also quite funny, and its light hearted tone makes a nice counterpoint to the epic, dark-n-serious Endgame.  
Marvel's winning streak continues!

The Boys season 2 episode 5

More episodes of Married With Children from my complete series box set.

This show is over 35 years old but I'm still guaranteed at least a few laugh-out-loud moments in every episode.  The characters and relationships are timeless and there are very few pop culture or current event references so the series ages well.

"The Babysitter: Killer Queen" (2020)


In this sequel to the 2018 Netflix horror comedy hit, it's two years after the events of the first "Babysitter," and young Cole is suffering from flashbacks that are making life in high school even more hellish. The girl next door invites him for a weekend at her family's lake house to get his mind off of it, but then his undead "friends" from the first film crash the party, intending to finish the ritual they started back then.
The first "Babysitter" wasn't a classic by any means, but at least it was entertainingly dumb. This sequel is mostly just dumb. The cartoonish gore is worth a few chuckles, but otherwise this one is skippable.

Tonight I was flipping back and forth between the Cardinals game and Svengoolie's showing of "Dr. Cyclops".  I didn't even know I got this show.  It was on something called MeTV.  I stumbled across it when I fat fingered flipping between the Cardinal game and college football. 

I caught about half of "Dr. Cyclops" which was enough.  But now I need to check this channel out every Saturday to see if I always get Svengoolie.  I suspect I do and I've seen a few members post about this show several times so I'll need to check it out.

Oh man, I love MeTV. My wife and I have been watching MASH and they show the episodes back to back in order and don't cut scenes. MeTV even shows the end credits of all the shows they air.

The interesting thing for my wife and I is that we had never really seen MASH before. So it is a new show for both of us. We had seen bits and pieces over the years but never really paid attention to it.

We were talking about it and a few things we wondered: What happened to Col Blake? What happened to Trapper? What happened to Frank? What happened to Radar?

That much we knew - We assumed Col. Blake went home and Potter showed up. Same with the others. We just assumed they left. Now all of our questions have been answered thanks to MeTV.

Imagine in 2020 that you are just NOW finding out the fate of Col. Blake! It was as much of a shock to us as it would've been to original viewers over 40 years ago!

Hands down, the BEST show on TV ever and still relevant today.

When the cycle ends we will start back over with season 1. And for some reason they never show the last episode on MeTV unless it is Veteran's Day or something.

Such a great cast. So many guest stars. The other night I kept asking my wife "who is that pretty young lady?". We could not figure it out until the next episode - Rita Wilson. I had no idea she was on MASH.

And I think on Monday nights at like 2AM (or Sunday, I don't remember what night) MeTV shows Mission Impossible - another show I have never seen so I started recording it a few weeks ago and have seen 3 episodes.

I have the entire MASH series on DVD so of course I knew the answers to all those questions.  But you're right, it's a great show and because it was already set in the past it really ages well.  What's depressing is when you realize how many members of the cast have passed away.

"Kill, Panther Kill" (aka "Kommissar X: Three Blue Panthers," 1968)

An international thief escapes from police custody and heads to Canada (?), to reclaim a hoard of priceless jewels he'd stashed away before his arrest. Swingin' P.I. Joe Walker and his lunkheaded police buddy Tom Rowland just happen to be in the area for the Expo '67 World's Fair in Montreal (which provides plenty of stock location footage for padding) and they inevitably get mixed up in the shenanigans involving the thief, his double-crossing associates, and murder.
This was the fifth installment of the German/Italian "Kommissar X" series and it's clear that they were running out of gas. The "Eurospy" craze was on the way out by this point, so the globe-trotting spy-and-counterspy elements were dropped, resulting in a pretty basic slap-sticky cops & robbers action comedy.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of pretty girls to ogle while Tony "Joe Walker" Kendall and Brad "Rowland" Harris beat up an endless stream of bad guys. Below average for this series, but still an enjoyable bit of nonsense on a chilly Sunday morning.

Two And A Half Men
King Of Queens
The Flintstones

"Halloween" (2018)

Blumhouse Productions (of "Insidious" and "Paranormal Activity" fame) reboots the Michael Myers saga (for the second time) with this 40th anniversary remix that erases everything but the 1978 original from series continuity. A PTSD-afflicted Laurie Strode has spent the last four decades preparing for Michael to return to Haddonfield, and when he escapes on Halloween night she is ready and waiting to go all Sarah Connor on him in order to protect her estranged daughter and granddaughter.
...this was my 2nd viewing of this flick and while I still feel the whole exercise was unnecessary, I actually liked it better this time around.
If you must watch a "Halloween" installment at this time of year, you could certainly do worse than this one.

Maniac Cop 2 (1990)



The renegade undead cop is back again wreaking more havoc throughout New York City and is after the 2 cops (Bruce Campbell and Laurene Landon) who "disposed" of him in the first film. Also on the case is Robert Davi. Pretty fun sequel.

Maniac Cop 3: Badge Of Silence (1992)



Third and final installment in the series, with the title character brought back from the dead by a houngan to continue his rampage. He gets involved with a trigger happy cop who is severley wounded in the line of duty and left brain dead. Sensing a kindred spirit, the cop decides he wants her by his side. Robert Davi returns as the cop determined to stop him one way or another. Another fine installment in the movie series.

Robert Davi is one of my favorite TV character actors.  I think I first remember him from the show "Wiseguy" which starred Ken Wahl but I recently saw him also play a great bad guy in multiple episodes of "Stargate: Atlantis".  He tends to bring a more nuanced approach to his bad guy characters.

tohostudios wrote:

Robert Davi is one of my favorite TV character actors.  I think I first remember him from the show "Wiseguy" which starred Ken Wahl but I recently saw him also play a great bad guy in multiple episodes of "Stargate: Atlantis".  He tends to bring a more nuanced approach to his bad guy characters.

Yeah, he was the drug dealer Bond villain in License To Kill, as well.

Paranormal Caught On Camera

"Heart of Batman" (2018)

A behind-the-scenes documentary looking back on "Batman: The Animated Series," the early '90s show whose distinctive look and vibe picked up where Tim Burton's "Batman" films left off and became what some consider the best-ever adaptation of the character. Interviews with cast and crew members, plenty of trivia for Bat-geeks and animation nerds.
This was originally a bonus feature on the "Batman: T.A.S." Blu-Ray collection but it's now available for free viewing on Warner Bros.' YouTube channel.

Doomsday(2008)-a deadly virus sweeps through Great Britain, killing a large part of the population and cutting the country off from the rest of the world. Decades later, the virus has come back. Finding survivors, the government sends in a police team into the ruins of Glasgow to try to find the a scientist that maybe able to help find a cure while trying to stay alive battling the gangs that now rule the city. A mixture of Escape From New York and the Mad Max series, this movie doesn't have an original bone in it's body and doesn't pretend to. It's fast paced and violent enough to keep me fairly entertained for a couple of hours. Basically a love letter to all those cool post apocalyptic films of the early 80s we loved so much. Review based on unrated version(and it's pretty brutal). 2 out of 5

Paranormal Caught On Camera

Leatherface wrote:

Doomsday(2008)-a deadly virus sweeps through Great Britain, killing a large part of the population and cutting the country off from the rest of the world.  Decades later, the virus has come back.  Finding survivors, the government sends in a police team into the ruins of Glasgow to try to find the a scientist that maybe able to help find a cure while trying to stay alive battling the gangs that now rule the city.  A mixture of Escape From New York and the Mad Max series, this movie doesn't have an original bone in it's body and doesn't pretend to.  It's fast paced and violent enough to keep me fairly entertained for a couple of hours.  Basically a love letter to all those cool post apocalyptic films of the early 80s we loved so much.  Review based on unrated version(and it's pretty brutal).  2 out of 5

That movie's a hoot. Like you said, it's pretty much a remix of "Mad Max" and "Escape From NY" but it's lots of fun.

Everybody Loves Raymond
King Of Queens

"Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" (2020)

Margot Robbie returns as Harley Quinn in the pseudo-follow up to "Suicide Squad." After a messy breakup with the Joker, Harley strikes out on her own, eventually teaming up with three other female badasses in an all out battle against a Gotham City crime lord.
Loud, dumb, and occasionally funny, "Birds" seems to be trying to cop the comedic ultra-violent style of the "Deadpool" flicks. Margot Robbie is clearly having tons of fun beatin 'the crap out of dozens of bad guys (and of course she looks smokin' hot while doin' it) but the movie isn't nearly as clever as it thinks it is. Watchable, but disposable.