1/1/10
Star Wars
The 1977 original! The one where Han shot first! B-Movie? You betcha! Check out sets, the plot, and delicious evilness oozing out of the bad guys. George Lucas is a big film buff and this is a tip of the hat to multiple genres, including some Japanese classics and WWII flying Ace movies.
1/8/10
True Lies
From 1994 comes this action comedy, directed by James Cameron, with actual Middle Eastern Islamic terrorist bad guys with nuclear weapons! Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Tia Carrere and Tom Paxton lead the casting, and are clearly having fun with this James Cameron flick.
1/15/10
Confessions Of An Action Star
Classic low budget B-Movie mockumentary film from 2005. It "documents" the career of major action star Frank Sledge. Starting from his humble beginnings as a dancer, don't laugh, David Carradine knew absolutely zero martial arts when he landed the lead role in Kung Fu. He got the part based on his skill as a dancer and the fact that he wasn't Chinese. There is also fun poked at Steven Seagal's films, who, while an actually highly trained and experienced martial artist, had no acting background when he did his first feature film (Above the Law). This is complete with delightful cameos by actual actors talking about their work with Frank Sledge.
1/22/10
Chocolate
So-so story, slow start, and then really cool martial arts action. Yanin Vismitananda stars as Zen, the mildly retarted girl who learns kung fu by watching movies. She doesn't have many lines, but oh, she kicks a lot of ass. The fights played tribute to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. There is even a battle between her and another autistic kung fu fighter. Not very PC, but frag it, it was really well done.
2/5/10
Forbidden Planet
This SciFi classic hit the screen in 1956. It had a very good cast, including Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen as the dashing young spaceship Captain. It was also the first time Robbie the Robot was seen! Beware the Creatures of the Id!
2/12/10
Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story
This musical bio-pic mockumentary takes on multiple musical bio-pics, but mostly the very well done Johnny Cash story, Walk the Line. John C. Reilly is a great pic, since he does all his own singing and guitar playing, which he actually does quite well! The rest of the cast is quite funny and the music is really good too! Yes, I bought the soundtrack CD.
2/19/10
Love at First Bite
From 1979 comes this comic send up of the Dracula legend with a great comic cast. George Hamilton as the Count, Artie Johnson as Renfield, Richard Benjamin as the decendent of Von Helsing (who changed his name to Rosenberg for "professional reasons"), and Susan St. James as the love interest of both Rosenberg and Dracula. The movie starts out with Dracuala being kicked out of Romania by the Communist government and moving to New York City. It is a period piece (late 1970s, complete with a big dance number at a disco), but the gags are great and the cast really delivers.
2/26/10
Jake Speed
A wonderfully campy tip of the hat to the pulp novel series: The Executioner, The Death Merchant, Nick Carter, and yes, the classic are included. Doc Savage is mentioned by name!
3/5/10
The Bourne Identity
Not the big budget action flick with dumb looking dummy from Team America, but the 1989 made for TV movie version. This version had the reigning King and Queen of 1980s TV movies, Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith. Deliciouly bad, and Jaclyn Smith's performance reminded me of Sally Field's performance in Soapdish, which was made two years later.
3/12/10
The January Man
From 1989 comes this nicely done murder mystery, were tracking down the serial killer is only half the mystery. The cast is top notch. It includes Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel and Danny Aiello. They really breath some life into a so-so script and make this movie worth watching.