TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2021

Kolchak:The Night Stalker

"X-Men: Dark Phoenix" (2019)

During a rescue mission in space, the X-Men's Jean Grey comes into contact with a destructive cosmic force that turns her into the most powerful being on Earth. When a race of aliens who want that power arrive to take it from her, it will require the combined strength of the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood to stop them.
The X-Men franchise has been running on fumes for a while now, and though "Dark Phoenix" is slightly better than the last couple of entries, it's still not a must-see unless you've already sat through the rest of 'em and you want to run the table.

I finished "It - Chapter Two" yesterday.

I actually liked this one better than Chapter 1.  I like the flashback scenes from adulthood back to childhood and I thought this one had great monsters scattered throughout (although the head with spider legs was an obvious ripoff of Carpenter's "The Thing" even though they did throw in the exact same line that was in Carpenter's film when the creature materialized which I guess makes it more of an "homage").  And the final giant spider/Pennywise hybrid was the stuff of my nightmares; two things I absolutely hate - spiders and clowns.

My only real complaints are that the ending of Pennywise seemed kind of weak and the whole movie was about 30 minutes too long for its own good.  Other than that though I think this will be a repeat-watch for me just to take in all the monsters again.

To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story

Started yet another Ken Burns documentary while on the elliptical today.

This one is about the Prohibition Era.  And as usual with Burns' docs, it's already fascinating. 

For instance, did you know that the hold of the Mayflower was crammed full of barrels of beer?  And now I know where the term "bootleggers" came from.  In the 1850s the governor of Maine decided that many of his state's social problems were caused by men consuming alcohol so he banned the sale of alcoholic beverages.  Former liquor store owners, with no way to earn income, took to walking around the streets of Maine towns selling sips of whiskey from flasks they had hidden in the legs of their pants.  Hence they became known as "bootleggers".

The stuff these Ken Burns documentaries unearths never ceases to amaze me.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"X-Men: Dark Phoenix" (2019)

During a rescue mission in space, the X-Men's Jean Grey comes into contact with a destructive cosmic force that turns her into the most powerful being on Earth. When a race of aliens who want that power arrive to take it from her, it will require the combined strength of the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood to stop them.
The X-Men franchise has been running on fumes for a while now, and though "Dark Phoenix" is slightly better than the last couple of entries, it's still not a must-see unless you've already sat through the rest of 'em and you want to run the table.

Sophie Turner is an abysmal "actress". How she keeps getting cast is beyond me. She has no charisma, she's stiff, her delivery is wooden. I'd say it's because she's pretty, like Megan Fox, but I don't find her to be attractive, either...

Hoosiers and sometime today 'A Quiet Place'

I thought "A Quiet Place" was decent enough but not worthy of all the praise critics heaped on it.

Children of Men

"The Church" (1989)

During the Crusades, the Knights Templar massacre an entire village of "witches" and then build a huge cathedral on top of their mass grave. In the present day, restoration work at the cathedral accidentally re-opens the tomb and lets the evil loose on a group of innocents trapped inside.
This Italian flick was co-written by Dario Argento and directed by Michele Soavi, later of "Cemetery Man" fame. Like most Spaghetti horrors, it suffers from pacing problems (it takes forever for the nasty stuff to start happening) and the usual stilted, awkward performances and dubbing, but it features lots of artsy/disturbing visuals, creepy Gothic locations and set designs, and nasty death scenes.
I saw this movie once before many years ago, when I didn't quite "get" Italian horror flicks yet. I don't think I liked it much then but I enjoyed this second viewing.

I still don't "get" Italian horror flicks.  They're either way too artsy (like Suspiria) or way too slow (like The Church).

I'm perfectly content with a collection of all the gory scenes from all of them, that way I don't have to suffer through the bad dubbing or pretentiousness or slow pacing.  There's no coherent plot to a lot of them anyway (like Phenomena - WTF is all that with insects, a psycho murderer and a killer chimp and throwing in Donald Pleasance just for the hell of it???)so a highlight reel is perfect for me.

Watched Tenet last night. It's a film about a group called Tenet who use elements of moving back in time to stop a Russian arms dealer from starting World War III.

"Killer Crocodile 2" (1990)

The construction of a new Caribbean resort is threatened by the appearance of another massive, toxic waste spawned crocodile with a taste for human flesh. A lady reporter and the lone survivor of the first "KC" movie try to stay off the menu.
This cheap, schlocky sequel is pretty much a re-run of the first movie, but the animatronic croc is pretty cool looking and the carnage count is impressive. More entertaining junk.

Finished the second season of Banshee

Yesterday Vanilla Sky and today Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

tohostudios wrote:

I still don't "get" Italian horror flicks.  They're either way too artsy (like Suspiria) or way too slow (like The Church).

I'm perfectly content with a collection of all the gory scenes from all of them, that way I don't have to suffer through the bad dubbing or pretentiousness or slow pacing.  There's no coherent plot to a lot of them anyway (like Phenomena - WTF is all that with insects, a psycho murderer and a killer chimp and throwing in Donald Pleasance just for the hell of it???)so a highlight reel is perfect for me.

Hah, I agree w/you on Argento. I dig his visual style, but he can't tell a coherent story to save his life. His habit of casting his own daughter in roles where she is constantly abused and placed in danger (like in "The Church") is a lil' weird, too. There's gotta be some "issues" there.  

...but even though so many of them are junk, I'm still drawn to the Italian horror movies. They're just so weird, awkward, and schlocky, it's like they were created by aliens who are *trying* to copy American movies but don't quite know how. Occasionally one of them *does* turn out to be a home run, though (see: Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond") which is always a nice surprise.

Guys like Argento, Soavi, etc. were artsy, but Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, Luigi Cozzi, etc., (or the no-names who made the two "Killer Crocodile" movies I've seen recently) obviously didn't care about making "art," they just wanted to crank out quick n' cheap movies with as much violence as possible. I respect that.

"The Marine" (2006)

WWE star John Cena makes his acting debut in this utterly ridiculous but highly entertaining action flick. He plays John Triton, an ex-Marine who goes all One Man Army when his wife is taken hostage by a gang of jewel thieves (led by a hilariously dry Robert "Terminator 2" Patrick). "The Marine" is predictable as hell and dumb as a box of rocks but it's also tons of shoot'em up, blow'em up fun. A guilty pleasure.

The Falcon And Winter Soldier

Kolchak:The Night Stalker

Babylon 5 - season 2

Pillow Talk and an episode of Superboy season 3

"The Last Blockbuster" (2020)

This documentary traces the rise and fall of the once mighty Blockbuster Video chain, which once boasted nearly 9000 locations around the world but now only consists of one family run franchise store in Bend, Oregon. A fun trrip down memory lane for those old enough to remember VHS and feel nostalgic for it.
Ironically, I watched it on Netflix.

Man, didn't Blockbuster even have a blimp at one point?  How the mighty have fallen.

I only ever rented from Blockbuster if the local "Ma and Pa" video store didn't have what I was looking for because Blockbuster never used to carry the unrated versions of movies.  Although back in the day I did rent a VCR from the Murfreesboro, TN store (before I bought my own) and much to my surprise I found a porno VHS tape still in it.  It was called "Cagney and Stacey" after the "Cagney and Lacey" TV show that was popular at the time.  It was about as low rent a porno as you could see but my 20-something self loved it.  Especially for free.

The Resurrection of Jake the Snake Roberts

Quote :

I found a porno VHS tape still in it.  It was called "Cagney and Stacey" after the "Cagney and Lacey" TV show that was popular at the time.  It was about as low rent a porno as you could see but my 20-something self loved it.  Especially for free.

Believe or not... I think I've seen that one

*Edit* Yep, pretty sure I did