What did you watch this week friend? (03/17-03/23)

I can't settle down! I'm too wild and crazy!

Road House 7/10
The Burning 8/10
Daybreakers 7/10

I watched:

Confess, Fletch 2022 5/10 Jon Hamm is miscast and I didn't find this funny or entertaining. It was fairly dull.

The Small Back Room 1949 6/10 This was somewhat underwhelming. It was well acted, but felt longer than it was and wasn't as engaging or interesting as it could have been.

All Night Long 1962 6/10 Overall, I thought this was alright. The cinematography and the music were good.

Green for Danger 1946 6/10 Performances are fine and the film is alright overall.

Time Without Pity 1957 6/10 Good performance from Michael Redgrave and some effective dramatic moments.

The Hit 1984 5/10 This was boring and felt longer than it was.

Screaming Mimi 1958 6/10 I thought Anita Ekberg did a good job, but the film itself is just okay.

The Naked Kiss 1964 7/10 I thought this was well acted and interesting.

Farewell, My Lovely 1975 6/10 This was fine, but nothing exceptional.

The Big Sleep 1978 6/10 I thought this was fine, but nothing really stands out about it.

You Shouldn’t Have Let Me In 2024 5/10 A couple fun moments, but this was mostly boring.

The Inner Circle 1946 6/10 Performances are decent and the story is fine. Nothing exceptional, but still worth a watch.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire 2024 6/10 This is a significant drop in quality from Afterlife. It is nowhere near as fun and lacks the charm and humour of the previous instalment. There's a lot of characters involved and most of them don't get a chance to make much of an impact. Mckenna Grace does the best job with the material and it's worth seeing just for her. A couple cool moments, but overall it is pretty underwhelming.

A Double Life 1947 6/10 Ronald Colman is good here. The film itself is just alright.

Somewhere in the Night 1946 6/10 This was just okay.

Daybreakers 2009 7/10 This is stylish and cool with good performances, although not everything works storywise.

The burning (Friday night special): I was pretty excited for this movie because of the ratings so I had high expectations and you know what? They were all met or even exceeded! Exceeded I say! The color, the directing, the actors, the overall quality of the production; just all good. Some scenes were too dark but I preferred this movie over many, more popular, slashers from that decade (Sleepaway camp, Black Christmas…)My rating: 7.5/10"

I saw this on DVD at a place I purchase my Blu Ray's and surprised to see it after all of these decades..

Hola, amigo!

Bullet to the Head (2014) - An admirable workman effort from Walter Hill with Sly as an aging gangster. I keep thinking of that one scene in the locker room where he ends it as a musclebound behemoth who still hobbles offscreen like a tired old man. 5.5

Road House (1989) - I phoned a friend about this the other night, and right now I am of the head canon that this movie is a sequel to Lifeguard (1976) and the setup for another Sam Elliott movie. Wonderful cheese through and through. 8.5

The Burning (1981) - Quite the effective dead teenager movie that avoids most of the plodding tropes by juggling a cast of fun characters. 7

Lionheart (1990) - A fun and above average entry in the JCVD filmography. Not as insane as the heights of Sudden Death or Street Fighter, but still more respectable than Double Team. 6.5

Daybreakers (2009) - It's a little hard to separate this movie from the time I first saw it with my beau at the time. She had a huge crush on Willem Dafoe and probably still does. He along with Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill reliably awesome in this sci-fi vampire hodgepodge that features enough stylistic touches to be worthwhile. 6.5

Class of 1999 (1990) - A really strong pulpy/grindhouse popcorn classic. 7

Also this week:

Road House (2024) - There's a lot to like in this redux, and yet there is so much that just barely misses the mark. This desperately needed a script doctor to pepper in cheesy lines. Connor McGregor is particularly inspired casting (although he should have played his role ten times gayer). Also missing is an analogue to Sam Elliott's mentor character, but probably for the best. After all, who could have shown up midway through this picture as an ass-kicking elder bouncer with enough war stories to supply a second round after last call? Probably Timothy Olyphant or MAYBE Nic Cage with his Con Air hair. 6.5

Cat in the Cage (1978) - The things I put myself through for Colleen Camp. This is a perfectly fine chamber drama that uses stellar locations and actors who probably got handed their lines a couple days before shooting. 5.5

The 11th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special (2024) - A great follow-up to the esteemed canon, even if it leans into more understated comedy than last year's bonkers tribute to Pinocchio. 10

Switch (1991) - A higher class of body swap comedy. 7

Lots more, but this post will do for now...

1. Dan Vs. : Dan and his friend Chis enact numerous acts of vengeance upon the things that anger Dan. 3.5/5

2. Late Night With the Devil : a failing late night TV show host attempts to boost ratings with an psychics, skeptics, and a parapsychology who brought a possessed survivor of a death cult into studio. 3.5/5

3. Ghostbusters Frozen Kingdom: membernerries run rampant as we get a convoluted attempt at another ghostbuster sequel. 2/5

4. Cube Zero: A prequel to Cube falls into another low budget sequel trend of bad acting, poorly fleshed out ideas, and a subpar experience. 0.5/5

5. The Hobbit: it took 41 minutes before I turned to another show while running. At 41 minutes, the Dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf are still sitting in Bilbo's house singing. 2.5/5

6. Scary Movie 2: surprisingly fun and stupid movie about a group of college kids going into a haunted house. 2.5/5

7. Dawn of the Dead (1978): 4 survivors take over. Mall during a zombie apocalypse. 4.5/5

8. Night if the living dead (1990): a group of survivors hold up in a farm house during a zombie apocalypse. 4/5 (best Barbara ever!)

9. The Movie Club movies: the Burning, Lionheart, Daybreakers, and Class of 1999.
Listen to the most recent episode of my podcast: Movie Club Recap MAR 22-23 https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joseph-papp/episodes/Movie-Club-Recap-MAR-22-23-e2hgu91

If there is more, I can't remember.

Bullet to the Head (2012)
I reviewed it last week and gave it the same rating: 6.5/10. I didn’t mention how cool the fight scene between Momoa and Stallone was. I saw an interview with Sly where he mentioned that Momoa had just finished filming 'Conan' (2012) a few weeks before they shot their fight scene, so they made sure to incorporate all the sword and weapon skills he had trained for in 'Conan' into this one.

Daybreakers (2017)
Interesting story that is well directed with some very cool production design and aesthetics. Ehtan Hawke and Willem Dafoe are as good as ever. 7/10

Avenging Force (1986)
That is probably Michael Dudikoff's best film. It has a good story, decent acting, and great directing from genre legend Sam Firstenberg, who orchestrated some solid action set pieces. Also, I felt the setting of Louisiana was used to great effect, taking advantage of the urban locations like the French Quarter, and exploring the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. The score was pretty good, too; I kept the end credits rolling just to listen to the closing track. Additionally, Dudikoff works better in this film, as opposed to the American Ninja films, because he’s somehow more believable as an ex-military/Government agent guy than as a 'Ninja'—lol. They probably should have continued with this as a franchise instead of American Ninja, but hindsight is 20/20, so who knows. My only real gripe is that the 'Hunt' started a little bit too late into the film, but I can also understand that the story they were trying to tell may have required that. Overall, Avenging Force is a solid 7/10.

Lionheart (1990)
Yeah, this one doesn't hold up. The fight scenes are poorly choreographed, and the melodramatic story somehow isn't enough to inject any real stakes into the plot. Harrison Page was charismatic as Joshua; he had the chops to rise above the bland writing, but the rest of the cast didn't fare as well. Van Damme suffered from the poor fight choreography, which is precisely why you would cast him in something like this in the first place, so that was a major fail on the part of the filmmakers. 5.5/10

Class of 1999 (1990)
One of the rare films that I loved when it was first released and still totally holds up. Great cast of villains with Pam Grier looking exceptionally good and Patrick Kilpatrick as menacing as ever. 7/10

Liz and Dick (2012) 6.5/10 I was looking for Lindsey Lohan in Herbie, but came across her in this. I liked it.

Bodies (2023) Netflix mini series - Time travelling detective caper with an adult Dr Who vibe. A couple of eye rolling moments, but overall very good 7.5/10.

Movies:

-Crossword Mysteries: Abracadaver (2019)
I've noticed with these Hallmark movies that the plot isn't enough for an entire movie, the characters are all interchangeable and the movies are technically bland albeit competently made. They're just a registration of actors standing around reciting lines without anyone putting in a little more effort.

-Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss (1993)
The last Mason movie that starred Raymond Burr. I really enoyed these movies back in the 90s, but rewatching these now I got tired with the formula being the same for every single movie and was extremely annoyed with Perry pulling information about the true culprit out of his giant behind at the last moment. I would only recommend the movies starring William Katt.

TV shows

-Psych - marathon

-Dallas - marathon

-Home Improvement - marathon