2009 Friday B-Movie Picks


My Friday B-Movie picks from the Blog from 2009

1/2/09
Revenge of the Nerds
From way back in 1984, this movie teaches you it's not a good idea to piss off the smartest people on campus.
Plenty of f-bombs and gratuitous female nudity just add to the innocent college fun.

1/9/09
Rollerball
The 1975 original version. One of James Cann's best films. Dark, gritty and uber-violent.

1/16/09
SuperTroopers
This movie shows the funny side of the old saying, "There is nothing more scary than a small town police officer".
My favorite of Broken Lizard's movies. The cars are fast, the women are hot and the jokes just keep on rolling. Brian Cox show his comedy chops as their long suffering commander.

1/23/09
Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
From 1975, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman return from Young Frankenstein in this comedy about the famous detective's younger brother Siegerson. Comedy, music, dancing, and action in this one. Kahn is wonderfully funny and sexy as she plays the compulsive liar who works as a governess by day and a music hall singer by night.

1/30/09
Red Dawn
From 1984 comes this Cold War era classic with a cast of future stars, including Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey. Powers Boothe played the responsible adult, an Air Force Colonel whose F-15 Eagle was shot down after taking out several MIGs.

2/6/09
Beer for my Horses
This CMT production stars Toby Keith and Rodney Carrington as the comic relief sidekick. Surprising good for a bunch of country music stars who wanted to make a movie. Lots of cameos by other country stars such as Mac Davis (a serious 1970s flashback there), Willie Nelson (ok larger than a cameo and appears in cloud of smoke:->), Mel Tillis and David Allan Coe. The Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent has a large, but rarely speaking role, that he probably had a ton of fun with. There were a couple of "real" actors rounding out the cast as well, Tom Skerritt, Curtis Armstrong and a short appearance by the still delicious Gina Gershon.

2/13/09
Lone Wolf McQuade
Before there was Walker Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris was the rougher, dirtier Texas Ranger J.J. McQuade. He takes on evil drug cartels in Mexico with the added bonus villian of David Carradine. Star Trek fans will recognize a young Robert Beltran, who was in the worst of the Trek shows, ST: Lost in Space (also known as Voyager). Carradine had a clause in his contract for the film that said that Chuck Norris couldn't beat him in a fight. So they shot it this way, an "unbeaten", but bloodied Carradine retreats into a building after his fight scene with Norris. Chuck Norris' character then blows up the building with a rocket launcher.

2/20/09
John Carpenter's Vampires
Violence, humor, and then a lot more violence with a little bit of humor. More Vampires in the American Southwest, and James Woods is out to put 'em down.

2/27/09
Shiri
A really well done action thriller from South Korea. Excellent story, fast paced, and great action scenes.

3/6/09
So Close
Two sisters used their murdered parents technology to first avenge their deaths and then become high priced assassins. You know, that old chestnut. Through various plot twists, another attractive young asian female, this time a police detective, becomes involved (and I use the term involved on multiple levels) with the sisters and ends up teaming up with one to take down the real bad guys, and yes, once again revenge is involved. The movie has beautiful cinematography and the fight sequences are a joy to watch.

3/13/09
Shaun of the Dead
Special Friday the 13th edition of B-Movie picks brings you a comedy about zombies and English pubs.

3/21/09
Sunset
On this Saturday edition of of the Friday B-Movie Pick, Tom Mix and Wyatt Earp meet in 1929 Hollywood. Bruce Willis and James Garner star in this Blake Edwards film with the score by Henry Mancini. Gardner's portrail of Wyatt Earp reminds me (favorably) of Kurt Russell's Wyatt Earp in Tombstone.

3/27/09
A Force of One
A Chuck Norris classic from 1979. Bill "Superfoot" Wallace also has a big presence in this film. For the star power, Jennifer O'Neill does quite nicely. Eric Laneuville plays Norris' adopted son, in his second martial arts film (the first was 1974's Black Belt Jones). He later appeared as a regular in the TV series "St. Elsewhere."

4/3/09
The Killer Elite
A good Cold War era thiller. James Caan and Robert Duvall in this Sam Peckinpah flick. Excellent martial arts scenes as well. This includes some serious Gun-fu. Good supporting roles from Mako, Bo Hopkins and Burt Young.

4/10/09
Cat People
The 1982 remake of the film noir classic, complete with David Bowie doing the title song. A great cast including Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, and Annette O'Toole (That's Superboy's mom for you Smallville fans). This is a remake of the 1942 original, with plenty of casual nudity by Kinski and O'Toole and more than its fair share of gore. That includes a scene involving Ed Begley Jr.. Don't worry, it's one of the gore scenes, not one of the casual nudity scenes.

4/17/2009
L.A. Confidential
Keeping on the film noir trend, comes this classic from 1997. A great cast, a gripping story and look into the dark steamy side of beautiful, sunny, southern California. Kim Basinger won an Oscar for her role in this film. Other cast members includes: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and James Cromwell. Cromwell shows his range in this role. His other work has included Star Trek films and the "Revenge of the Nerds" films. Part the films depth is watching the growth of the characters played by Crowe, Pearce and Spacey. In all, it's a dark, well made film that tells its story through complex characters.

4/24/2009
Dragnet
From 1987 comes this comic tribute to the 1950s television show. Staring Dan Aykroyd as the original Joe Friday's nephew and Tom Hanks as his partner Pep Streebek.

5/1/2009
Rapid Fire
The late Brandon Lee and Powers Booth in a good old fashioned action movie. Bad guys, good guys, gun fu, and Kung Fu. Fire up the popcorn for this one.

5/8/2009
Galaxy Quest
A must for Star Trek fans. A cutting parady done with a lotta love. It pokes fun at the show, the cast and the fans.
It's this week's pick because I saw the new Star Trek film last night. Yes, I liked it. It grabbed you quick and didn't let go. The casting was top notch and the actors clearly were paying homage to the original cast.

5/15/2009
SpaceBalls
Yup, Mel Brooks takes on the Sci-Fi genre with Spaceballs.

5/22/2009
The Thirteenth Floor
A great flick that pokes at the concepts of reality. Before you Matrix nerds start howling, this movie is based on a book that predates that film.

5/29/2009
Constantine
Good and evil battle it out. A surprising good supernatural action flick with Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, and Shia LaBeouf. Plus Tilda Swinton in yet another gender bending role as the Archangel Gabriel. Lots of action with bad guys who are really bad, and the good guys have issues too.

6/5/2009
The Wedding Date
From supernatural action I dive deep into the pits of RomCom. Yup, having been married for a while, I've seen more than my fair share of Romantic Comedies. I'm counting this one as a B-Movie, it was shot in the UK to keep the budget down. Despite that, it has a pretty good cast of Americans, including Amy Adams when she wasn't so famous. Other yanks in the cast include Dermot Mulroney, Debra Messing and Holland Taylor. For you Disney Pirates fans, you'll recognize Jack Davenport as well. It is a fun little film with a good cast and some great comedy. It as has one of my favorite lines in a RomCom. Holland Taylor, playing the mother asks Debra Messing's character what is wrong. Messing delivers the come back with style, "Nothing a bottle of Jack and straight razor wouldn't fix."

6/12/2009
My Man Godfrey
One of my favorites from the classic Black and White era of Hollywood. A classic "Screwball Comedy" starring William Powell and Carole Lombard.

6/19/2009
The Wild Geese
Africa, the 1970s, a golden age for mercenaries. A great cast, with Richard Burton, Sir Roger Moore and Richard Harris leading the way. A solid adventure film with plenty of violence to go around.

6/26/2009
Trekkies
A way funny documentary of rabid Star Trek fans. I'm talking serious fans. Worse than me, and I own a Bat'leth. Great movie if you are into Star Trek.

7/03/2009
An American Carol
Fourth of July Weekend Special! Crocumentary filmmaker Michael Malone wants to ban the "4th of July" and is visited by the Ghost of John F. Kennedy, who tells that he will be visited by three spirits.
Very funny, and a great cast, and of course the ghost of General Patton slaps the fat bastard!

7/10/2009
Rio Bravo
A great John Wayne Western. It's now fifty years old, and is still a great movie. Good cast, besides the Duke himself, you have Dean Martin, showing that he really is a good actor, and Ricky Nelson as the cool as ice gunfighter and guitar player. Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of this film. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

7/17/2009
The Running Man
An Arnold Schwarzenegger classic from 1997. California in 2017 has become a police state in the wake of the world's economy's total collapse. The hero is wrong accused and tossed in a brutal prison along with Yaphet Kotto's character, who is there for teaching kids about the Constitution of the United States of America. Ya, I know, it sounds like where America is heading under the reign of our Dear Leader. Besides that, it's a fun film with added bonuses like Jesse Ventura, Professor Toru Tanaka, Mick Fleetwood, and great performance by Richard Dawson. It was directed by Paul Michael Glaser, From the Starsky and Hutch TV show, and choreography by Paula Abdul.

7/24/2009
Man of the House
Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Archer star in this fun bit of fluff about a grizzled Texas Ranger responsible for protecting a group of Longhorn Cheerleaders. Six Degrees of Seperation note here, the original screenplay was written by an old college friend, Scott Lobdell.

8/7/2009
Bubba Ho-Tep
Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis star in this remarkably good indie film that features the residents of a senior home battling ancient evil from the Egyptian sands. Bruce Campbell plays an old Elvis Presley impersonator, who just might be the King himself!
Ya, I know, I missed last week, so a dose of Bruce Campbell should even things up!

8/14/2009
Hexed
Before she starred in Babylon 5, Claudia Christian did this fun comedy/horror film.

8/21/2009
Commando
Yup, another fine Arnold Schwarzenegger classic from 1985. Plenty of raw violence with just a dash of casual female nudity thrown in for flavor. A cult classic of the B-Movie genre. You probably won't be studying this one in "film school", unless the class is taught by Joe-Bob Briggs.

8/28/2009
Six String Samurai
A fine B-Movie Martial Arts classic that combines Rock and Roll, post-apocalyptic SciFi, and Martial Arts. Oh ya, sprinke in a bit of Elvis Presley and Las Vegas for seasoning. It's gritty, tounge in cheek, and very low budget. Our hero is stalked by non other than Death himself (who is the Heavy Metal counterpoint to our hero's classic Buddy Holly style Rock and Roll).

9/4/2009
Murder by Death
From 1976 comes this murder mystery spoof that sends up the classic movie dectives. Sam Spade, Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora, and Miss Marple are amoung those who are spoofed. Great cast, Peter Falk, James Cromwell, David Niven and Peter Sellers are just some of the actors who obviously had a lot of fun with this flick.

9/11/2009
Celsius 41.11: The Temperature at Which the Brain... Begins to Die
A special 9/11 edition of the Friday B-Movie pick. This is an actual documentary film, with actual facts and truth, unlike the crockumentaries that Michael Moore makes.

9/18/2009
Next of Kin
Starting a run of B-Movies to honor the late Patrick Swayze is this story of why you don't pick fights with those redneck mountain boys.

9/25/2009
Steel Dawn
The next B-Movies to honor the late Patrick Swayze, is this post-apocalyptic action flick. Good martial arts scenes in this one. Not surprising, since Swayze studied both dance and martial arts while growing up.

10/2/2009
Kill the Golden Goose
My old VHS copy of this movie has the title "Kill the Golden Ninja." Not Ninja or a goose to be found in his flick. What you do find are two martial arts Masters in staring roles. American Kenpo Karate's Ed Parker and Hapkido's Bong Soo Han! A great 1970's movie with some cool martial arts action.

10/9/2009
Frank and Jesse
Back in the early 1990's, I worked on a project that produced the first commercial grade digitial video servers. One of our customers was the largest pay per view company in Canada. During the early days of their roll out, we would digitize and preview their films for quality purposes. Needless to say, I saw a lot of B-Movies while working on that project. Frank and Jesse was one of those.

10/16/2009
I’m ramping up for Holloween with this one.
Near Dark, a dark and bloody story of Vampires roaming the modern American Southwest. The cast includes Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Bill Paxton and Tim Thomerson.
The scene where they go into a feeding frenzy at a out of the way bar is worth the price of admission alone. This was one of my picks for October 31, 2008.

10/23/2009
Next in the Holloween rampup.
Transylvania 6-5000
A deliciously campy example of the B-Movie staring Jeff Goldblum, Ed Begley, Jr. Michel Richards and Geena Davis. This 1985 comedy/horror spoof tells the tail of two tabloid reporters (and not very good ones) sent to Transylvania in order to find stories that the National Star and Dan Rather would turn down.

10/30/2009
Time to wrap up the Holloween series with a triple play of classics.

Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder wrote this amazingly funny movie. One of the comedy films of all time, and filmed in glorious Black and White with a lot of the original lab props from the first Frankenstein film.

Innocent Blood, vampires, mobsters, cops, comedy and casual nudity from Anne Parillaud. There is a lot to like in this film.

An American Werewolf in London, a lighthearted look of what can go wrong when you don't stay on the road and don't "ware the moon." Just remember Jack, he didn't mean to call you meatloaf. Big bonus: Jenny Agutter!

11/6/2009
The Foot Fist Way
Oh my! I studied Tae Kwon Do back in the 70's and 80's and there is a lot more truth to this film than I am comfortable thinking about. It is very funny in spots and in the end, a story of a man finding his center and confidence in who he is, and being able to pass that message on to others.

11/13/2009
Van Wilder
This early work by Ryan Reynolds is a fitting successor to Animal House. Complete to the actor who played Otter appearing as Van's father.

11/20/2009
Strange Brew
Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis star in this 1980's comedy classic about a couple of Canadian lads out to make the Great White North safer for beer, hockey and back bacon. Oh, and don't forget beer, can't mention beer enough when talking about this movie.

11/27/2009
The Spirit
Another comic adaptation movie. This time it's Wil Eisner's classic indie comic. The cast is top notch and clearly had a lot of fun making this. Samuel L. Jackson is the villian, and Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes, well it really doesn't matter what role they play, they raise the eye candy factor a bunch of notches. The fact that they do a fine job of acting just adds to the fun factor of this movie. Eisner fan Frank Miller was behind this and it shows in his unique visual style.

12/4/2009
Bandidas
This B-Movie has some delcious eye candy by way of stars Penélope Cruz and Salma Hayek. To make it even better, that is they way they like it! This Western female buddy film costars Dwight Yoakam, Sam Shepard and Steve Zahn. It didn't get any Oscar nominations, but it was a hoot to watch. A fun action comedy that goes well with popcorn.

12/11/2009
Sukiyaki Western Django
This flick isn't just wacked, it's wiggity wacked! It's a spaghetti Western filmed in Japan, with Japanese actors speaking English, with a strong Samurai influence, with a dash of Shakespeare thrown in plus Quentin Tarantino as the only non-Japanese member of the cast.

12/19/2009
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Merry Christmas! Let us revisit this classic 1989 film starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo and Randy Quaid in one of his best known roles.


2008 Friday B Movie Picks.
2010 Friday B Movie Picks.
2011 Friday B Movie Picks.
2012 Friday B Movie Picks.
2013 Friday B Movie Picks.
2014 Friday B Movie Picks.
2015 Friday B Movie Picks.
2016 Friday B Movie Picks.
2017 Friday B Movie Picks.
2018 Friday B Movie Picks.
2019 Friday B Movie Picks.
2020 Friday B Movie Picks.
2023 Friday B Movie Picks.

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