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

Gamera -vs- Barugon


The 2nd Gamera movie is a huge leap forward. Much better sets, monster effects, everything. An interesting story. Barugon has weird powers and a great noise.

https://youtu.be/5obAvbz4zuo

Kyoko Enami is an absolute smoke-show as the obligatory Gamera Girl.

007 wrote:

My Bloody Valentine (1981)



A decades old urban legend about a deranged minor, the sole survivor of a mine collapse on Valentine's Day, who returns to town every year on the holiday to murder anyone celebrating turns out to be true. The town decides to have a big dance, setting off a series of killings and warnings to stop. The murderer has returned. Or has he? Always enjoyed this one. Its probably one of the first slasher films I had ever seen.

That movie was filmed less than an hour from where I live.

"Fuzz" (1972)

The overworked, under-staffed crew at a run-down inner city police precinct deals with a serial rapist, a pair of teenage arsonists, and a plot to murder the Mayor of Boston in this talky, overly busy police satire based on Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" novels.
"Fuzz" should've been a home run with an impressive cast that includes Burt Reynolds, Yul Brynner, Raquel Welch, and a young Tom "Alien" Skerritt, but there's so many sub-plots and irrelevant things going on that eventually the movie turns into a hopeless muddle. Skip it.

"3 From Hell" (2019)

The third and (hopefully) final installment in Rob Zombie's trailer-park horror trilogy that started with "House of 1000 Corpses" picks up ten years after the events of "The Devil's Rejects." Captain Spaulding was executed in prison, but Otis and Baby are busted out of jail by Otis' half brother Foxworth, aka "Foxy," and the trio go on the road again for another orgy of ultra-violence that ends up in a bloody final showdown in Mexico.
"3 From Hell" isn't terrible, but it was totally unnecessary and it definitely could've been at least 30 minutes shorter. If you liked the previous pair of films, you might as well watch this one too just to check it off your list. Otherwise, there's no need to bother.

Ant-Man And The Wasp:Quantumania (2023)



Ant-Man and his group end up getting pulled into the Quantum Zone where the come across the despot Kang, who had been exiled out of reality. The group gets caught up in a rebellion against Kang, who needs the group's technology and return to reality and continue his reign of terror. Fun movie with lots of action, and Jonathan Majors as Kang steals the show.

Required Fields wrote:

007 wrote:

My Bloody Valentine (1981)



A decades old urban legend about a deranged minor, the sole survivor of a mine collapse on Valentine's Day, who returns to town every year on the holiday to murder anyone celebrating turns out to be true. The town decides to have a big dance, setting off a series of killings and warnings to stop. The murderer has returned. Or has he? Always enjoyed this one. Its probably one of the first slasher films I had ever seen.

That movie was filmed less than an hour from where I live.

The remake was filmed near me. The mine is only about 15 minutes from where I live.

"Coffy" (1973)

An ER nurse (Pam Grier) goes vigilante on the local dope pushers after her baby sister OD's and thugs put her nice-guy cop boyfriend in the hospital. She uses her... errr... let's say "natural charms" to infiltrate the gangsters' organization and take it apart from the inside.
Grier is fine as hell (and frequently nude) and the early-'70s fashions and decor are a scream in this stone cold ultra-violent blaxploitation classic.

"The Puppetoon Movie" (1987)

Gumby and Pokey introduce a series of 1930s and '40s cartoon shorts by George Pal, a pioneer in the art of stop motion animation. The selections include the Academy Award nominated Tubby The Tuba and World War II parable Tulips Shall Grow. Some of the shorts have aged better than others but on a technical/artistic level they're still fascinating to watch. Cool stuff for old cartoon nerds.

"The Truman Show" (1998)

Jim Carrey stars as "Truman," a good natured, working class fellow who slowly begins to realize that his entire life is part of a reality TV show that's being broadcast to the entire world. The "Twilight Zone" worthy premise and a surprisingly deep performance by Carrey makes this comedy/drama one of Carrey's best films and proved that he could actually act, not just "act funny."

The Last Of Us

Masters Of Horror:The Fair Haired Child

Masters Of Horror:Sick Girl

The Lair of the White Worm(1988)-an unusual looking skull is unearthed in the rural English countryside. One of the neighbors, a strange and mysterious woman, steals the skull. The woman has a connection to a pagan/snake/vampire cult that goes back many years and is looking for a virgin as a human sacrifice. This film it seems has something of a cult following, but I don't consider myself to be part of that group as I thought the film was a little too weird and slow for my personal taste. On a side note, the band Celtic Frost was originally going to be doing the soundtrack for the film, but never happened. That's too bad because I would have at least enjoyed the films music! I give it 2/5 and that's being very generous.

The Winchesters

Masters Of Horror: Pick Me Up

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)



Now I have seen this one plenty of times, but I have never seen the original Japanese version until now. The Americanized version is the most heavily edited of all the original Godzilla films, with almost 10 minutes excised out. I have to say, the Japanese version is much better, with a more cohesive storyline. Its almost like seeing a totally new movie. I'm glad I was able to find this one after many years of searching for it.

007 wrote:

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)



Now I have seen this one plenty of times, but I have never seen the original Japanese version until now. The Americanized version is the most heavily edited of all the original Godzilla films, with almost 10 minutes excised out. I have to say, the Japanese version is much better, with a more cohesive storyline. Its almost like seeing a totally new movie. I'm glad I was able to find this one after many years of searching for it.

Yay!

Yes, I've been watching the Japanese version when possible during my Gamera and Godzilla binge as they are almost different movies at times.

I saw Cocaine Bear this afternoon and I enjoyed it.

M3gan (2022)



After her parents are killed in an auto accident, a 9 year old girl goes to stay with her aunt, a cyberneticist who works for a prominent toy company. Not quiet knowing how to raise a child, she and her team create an artificial intelligence machine/robot,dubbed Megan, to be her companion and protector. But as always happens in movies like this, things don't go exactly as planned and things take a deadly turn. I wasn't expecting much from this one, and have seen this type of story before, but I still enjoyed it.

^^ I watched "M3GAN" last night too. Basically a higher-tech, gender swapped "Child's Play" but it was silly fun.

"Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem" (2007)

Picking up where 2004's "AvP" left off, a Predator space ship crash lands near a small Colorado town, unleashing its payload of Alien facehuggers and a hybrid "Predalien" creature. The town is quickly overrun by Xenomorphs, and a small group of cannon-fodder human characters are  caught in the middle when the Predator home world sends out a lone "cleaner" agent to mop up the mess.
This sequel ups the carnage quotient and the body count (it was rated "R," as opposed to the original's PG-13) but the human cast are little more than cardboard cut-outs and the dark/murky lighting design makes it hard to tell what's going on at times. Watchable if you're a fan of either franchise, otherwise there's no need to bother.

"Battleship" (2012)

Hostile aliens drop into the Pacific Ocean during a joint exercise between U.S. and Japanese naval vessels. Lotsa stuff blows up. The end.
This overlong, overblown, silly as hell big budget box office bomb (based very loosely on the classic board game) starts out as a gung-ho military training porn ala "Top Gun" before turning on a dime into an aquatic "Independence Day." The plot was probably written on a 3x5 card but the cast is fine and the special effects are impressive... so if you just wanna turn your brain off and watch stuff explode for two hours straight, your (battle) ship has come in.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Battleship" (2012)

Hostile aliens drop into the Pacific Ocean during a joint naval exercise between U.S. and Japanese naval vessels. Lotsa stuff blows up. The end.
This overlong, overblown, silly as hell big budget box office bomb (based very loosely on the classic board game) starts out as a gung-ho military training porn ala "Top Gun" before turning on a dime into an aquatic "Independence Day." The plot was probably written on a 3x5 card but the cast is fine and the special effects are impressive... so if you just wanna turn your brain off and watch stuff explode for two hours straight, your (battle) ship has come in.

Back when Rihanna was still hot. That's literally my only memory of this: a hot Rihanna wearing a hat. ‍�

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (Not to be confused with Godzilla v Mechagodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla, or Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2)


1 - Hideki Matsui cameo!!!!!

2 - A big step up from Megaguirus.

3 - Much better sets, fx, everything. Godzilla looked good.

4 - Mechagodzilla looked great! Killer and menacing.

5 - The Godzilla Girl was back to par: very pretty.

6 - The acting was pretty good.

7 - I liked the Godzilla bones idea. Some ideas will be used in 2021 G -v- K.

Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes(2012)- a news reporter finds out about a man who claims to have the actual body of a bigfoot. Putting together a team, he decides to visit the man and do a story about the bigfoot. Once they arrive, they begin filming and begin to see and hear strange things. They soon discover that the fabled bigfoot, or something else, perhaps exists in the woods after all. Decent "found Footage" style film that was an okay watch. Not great, but not terrible either.2.5/5

"Superhero Movie" (2008)

A dorky high school student (Drake Bell of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh") gains super powers from a genetically-altered insect bite, and adopts the superhero identity "Dragonfly" to protect his city from the super villain "Hourglass" (Christopher "Shooter McGavin" McDonald). Fart jokes, slapstick humor and tasteless sight gags mesh with the super-heroics in this better-than-expected spoof of comic book films from the producers of the "Scary Movie" franchise.
"Superhero Movie" gets most of its inspiration from Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy but it also takes shots at the "Batman" and "X-Men" sagas along the way. It's a shame that this movie pre-dates the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because they would've had lots more material to parody!

A villain named hourglass should not be a dude!!

"Savage!" (1973)

A black American mercenary is hired by the government of an unnamed third world country to wipe out a revolutionary movement. When he learns more about the people on the "enemy" side, he realizes he's been playing for the wrong team and leads the revolutionaries against his former employers.  
A cheap but effective blaxploitation/action flick with a familiar plot, shot in the Philippines by legendary schlock meister Cirio H. Santiago (aka the Asian Roger Corman). The bullets keep flyin,' stuff keeps explodin,' and the short run time (less than 90 minutes) ensures that the movie doesn't wear out its welcome.

"The Devil's Express" (aka "Gang Wars," 1976)

Two martial artists travel from New York to Hong Kong to attend a training camp, and are followed home by a resurrected Chinese demon.  When the beast takes up residence in the subway and starts beheading random train riders, the only way to stop the demon is by defeating it in a Kung-Fu battle. I swear I am not making this plot up.
This absolutely insane mash up of Blaxploitation, martial arts, and Asian horror flicks is terrible, but the '70s NYC street scenes are a true time capsule, and the hero is played by an awesomely Afro'd dude named WARHAWK TANZANIA (!) which is the most badass action-hero name in movie history. Glorious crap!