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

"Force Four" (1975)

A priceless African artifact is stolen in broad daylight on the streets of New York, and four of NYC's most ghetto fabulous martial artists (including the previously mentioned man with the hall-of-fame name, "Warhawk Tanzania") are hired to recover it. When this not-so-fantastic Four hits the streets, a lot of butt gets kicked.
Everybody's kung-fu fighting in this mega-cheap blaxploitation/martial arts mix which features terrible acting and voice dubbing, klutzy fight choreography, and more padding than a MyPillow --there are numerous scenes where the characters just drive around for several minutes while funky music plays on the soundtrack, and the movie ends with a five minute re-run montage of all the (unimpressive) fight scenes we've just watched. AVOID this Chop-socky junk!

"Murder In The Front Row" (2019)

An affectionate look back at the Bay Area Thrash metal scene of the early 80s, featuring interviews with and vintage clips/photos of Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, Forbidden, Death Angel, and... well, pretty much everybody else.
This is the 3rd time I've seen this extremely entertaining doc, and it's still great fun. Long time 'bangers probably won't learn anything new, but it's a nice trip down memory lane.

The Winchesters season finale

"Down" aka "The Shaft" (2001)

(ala Beavis & Butthead) "Heh heh. Shaft. Heh heh heh."
...a mechanic and a news reporter investigate a series of mysterious elevator-related deaths in a New York City office tower, and learn that the new high-tech computer that controls the lifts has become sentient - and gone homicidal. I swear, I am not making this plot up.
This is an Americanized remake of a Dutch horror film called "The Lift," written and directed by the same guy who did the original. The premise is totally absurd, of course, but the impressive cast (which includes a then-unknown Naomi Watts, the always dependable Michael Ironside and Edward Hermann, and even Ron "Hellboy" Perlman) plays it straight even as the movie gets more and more ridiculous as time goes on. Weirdly watchable, but I wouldn't call it "good" by any means.

Chris Rock - Selective Outrage stand up special on Netflix.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)



A single mother of 2 moves to a small town after her estranged father passes away. Once there, they discover that their family is connected to the Ghostbusters and dad was none other than Egon Spengler and he was still involved with the supernatural that ties into the New York City Incident (i.e. the original Ghostbusters film). This was a pretty fun film with neat little ties and call backs to the 1984 blockbuster. If you are fan of that one, you'll enjoy this one.

Red Zone Cuba (1966).



This is easily one of the worst movies ever made. Bottom five, easily.

The movie tells the story of an escaped convict and two ex-cons during the Bay of Pigs Invasion...or something like that. Try to make sense of this thing. One write-up of it said, "Follow the story of some random guys doing a bunch of pointless things in a movie that has the plot-line as coherent and understandable as George W. Bush trying to give a speech with a bowling ball in his mouth."

The acting is terrible, the editing is awful (there's a sequence where you can see a black strip in the bottom right hand corner of the screen), the production values are below the bottom of the barrel, the characters are terribly unlikeable, the pacing is agonizing, and Coleman Francis, as a director, makes Uwe Boll look like David Fincher. That's what you need to know.

The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)




Schlocky film about a "black hole" striking northern Wisconsin, opening up a dimensional doorway that unleashes ravenous spiders of various sizes, all of which have an appetite for human flesh. Sketchy science, some poor acting and bad special effects (the giant spider is a covered VW Beetle), yet somehow still watchable.

Night Of The Lepus (1972)



Keeping up the trend of embiggened animal movies, I went with this one. In an attempt to curb a rabbit infestation around ranches in the Arizona, a scientist couple use hormones to try stopping their mating cycle, since poison will affect other animals as well. However, it causes the rabbits to grow abnormally. And thanks to a couple of bratty kids, one gets loose and spreads the hormones through the wild population, creating a horde of giant vicious animals. Despite a rather silly concept, It still is a decent enough film, using real rabbits on miniature sets with a good cast, including Stuart Whitman,Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun and Deforrest "Bones McCoy" Kelley.

007 wrote:

Night Of The Lepus (1972)



Keeping up the trend of embiggened animal movies, I went with this one. In an attempt to curb a rabbit infestation around ranches in the Arizona, a scientist couple use hormones to try stopping their mating cycle, since poison will affect other animals as well. However, it causes the rabbits to grow abnormally. And thanks to a couple of bratty kids, one gets loose and spreads the hormones through the wild population, creating a horde of giant vicious animals. Despite a rather silly concept, It still is a decent enough film, using real rabbits on miniature sets with a good cast, including Stuart Whitman,Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun and Deforrest "Bones McCoy" Kelley.

Classic!!


Night...of...the Lepus!!

"Lepus" is a stone cold cheese tastic classic. I often wonder if the studio exec who green-lighted that movie, still had a job when the final product was turned in.  

World Baseball Classic - USA vs Great Britain

Inspired by 007's post, I revisited...

"Night of the Lepus" (1972)

A science project intended to reduce the wild-rabbit population in the Southwest goes wrong and results in hordes of gigantic bunnies with a taste for human flesh. Hilarity ensues.
"Lepus" has become infamous due to its ridiculous premise (Giant or otherwise, rabbits are NOT scary.  Period!), the wooden acting and the hilarious scenes of regular-size bunnies rampaging through what are obviously model-railroad sized backgrounds.
I've always imagined Janet Leigh on the phone with her agent during filming of this movie: "What the FUCK am I doing in a movie about KILLER BUNNY RABBITS? I worked with ALFRED HITCHCOCK for Christ's sake! When I'm done filming this piece of crap you are SO fired!"

Episodes of Taxi

The Last Of Us season finale

History Of The World Part I (1981)



Mel Brooks writes, directs and stars (5 different roles) in this anthology skewering different eras in history, from the Stone Age to Ancient Rome and the French Revolution. A great cast and a bunch of cameos by various comdedic actors and actresses and it has a ton of sight gags, puns and jokes flying around, but it's a bit uneven, some falling flat. Not one of Brooks' better efforts but worth a few genuine laughs.

"Rush Hour" (1998)

When a Chinese diplomat's daughter is kidnapped, a Hong Kong police inspector (Jackie Chan) is sent to the U.S. to aid in the investigation. The Powers That Be team him up with a wise ass L.A.P.D. officer (Chris Tucker) and after some inevitable culture clashing, they get down to butt kicking business. Chan's stunt work is tons of fun to watch (as usual) and Tucker channels his best Eddie Murphy impression in this kung-fu twist on the "48 HRS" buddy-cop formula. This box office smash was followed by two sequels and a short lived TV series.

"Rush Hour 2" (2001)

Chan and Tucker are back as Inspector Lee and Detective Carter, on a globe hopping adventure that stretches from Hong Kong to L.A. and Vegas as they trail a gang of Chinese counterfeiters. Just as much action packed fun as the first movie.

"Rush Hour 3" (2007)

The third go-round for Chan and Tucker (after a six year absence) sends the mismatched cop duo to Paris to unravel an assassination plot by a vicious Chinese gang. There isn't much here that you haven't already seen in the previous two "Rush Hour" movies, but Jackie and Chris are still a great team and Chan's high flying, acrobatic martial arts moves are always tons of fun to watch, of course. The climactic fight scene set at the Eiffel Tower (where else?) is particularly impressive. If you enjoyed the other two, you'll dig this installment as well.

I'm Just F*doing With You (2019)



A man and his sister, on their way to a family wedding, stop at an out of the way motel and encounter the night manager, A self styled joker who enjoys playing practical jokes on the pair. As the night goes on, the jokes get more intense and soon, it would seem there's something a lot more sinister going on. A pretty good psychological thriller, although I thought there was a glaring issue with a part of the plot. Part of the Into The Dark series on Hulu.

Episodes of Becker and Taxi

Super Hero Sunday:

"Black Adam" (2022)

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stars in this spinoff from DC's "Shazam!" as Black Adam, protector of the ancient land of Kandaqh. When he's re-awakened in the 21st century after a 5000 year sleep, his brutal methods of dealing with bad guys eventually draws the attention of the Justice Society (Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher) who try to teach him the error of his ways. After much blasting, zapping, and stuff exploding, the heroes have to settle their differences and join together in order to battle an even bigger threat. Johnson is fine as the anti-heroic lead, Pierce Brosnan is perfectly cast as Dr. Fate, and the special effects are impressive. My only major complaint is that "Black Adam" ran on a bit longer than it really needed to, otherwise it was a fun watch.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" (2022)

The fourth solo go-round for Marvel's God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) finds him dealing with the crazed supervillain God Butcher, who's tripping around the universe killing off gods one by one, and also with his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, who now commands the mystical hammer "Mjolnir" and is just as powerful as he is. As usual, the movie is full of splashy, colorful set pieces and epic battles.
Thor was never a big fave of mine during my Marvel Comics reading days but I've enjoyed each of the movies in this franchise because of their tongue-in-cheek comedic undertones. They know how absurd the Thor character is and have tons of fun with it, therefore so does the audience. Another Marvel home run.

Episode 1 of Cunk On Earth.

"Money Shot: The Pornhub Story" (2023)

This Netflix original examines the rise of XXX content farm Pornhub, which has become one of the top 10 most-viewed web sites in the world thanks to its mix of "original productions" and home-brewed adult videos uploaded by its users. It also discusses the parent company's secretive business practices and its sometimes less-than-stellar response time when dealing with content that may feature non-consensual or underage subjects. Lots of talking heads add up to a dull, fairly dry documentary.

Planet Terror

"History of the World Part I" (1981)

Mel Brooks' parody of old-fashioned historical epics is a series of sketches guiding viewers from the Dawn of Man to Biblical times, ancient Rome, the Middle Ages and ending with the French Revolution. Brooks plays several characters throughout the movie, alongside frequent collaborators like Madeline Kahn, Sid Caesar, Dom DeLuise, and Cloris Leachman. It's not quite top-drawer Mel, but there are a decent amount of laughs and some truly inspired bits (like the musical number about the Spanish Inquisition).
A new, belated sequel series is currently streaming on Hulu, but I haven't checked it out yet. I wonder if it includes "Hitler on Ice" and/or "Jews In Space," which were promised by the fake "Part II" trailer at the end of this movie?