Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
I never really watched Power Rangers as a kid but remember it being a big thing at the time. I saw this movie about a year ago and can't remember much so I'm going to keep this post short. I didn't bother to take copious notes on this one! Despite Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie being forgettable and stupid, it's still kinda fun as a bad movie to watch with a bunch of friends.
The production values felt more like a TV movie or direct to video than a theatrical release, which is not surprising considered it's based on a low budget TV show. This was probably done on purpose to turn a quick profit as the property was hugely popular with kids who would go see it no matter what. The tactic worked as MMPR:TM grossed over $66 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. Another reason why this movie has more of a TV look and feel is because director Bryan Spicer has mostly directed TV shows. MMPR:TM was Spicer's first theatrical film. He also directed McHale's Navy and For Richer or Poorer in the mid-90s before returning to TV where he is still active today with shows such as Hawaii Five-0.
The story about the production of MMPR:TM is more interesting than the movie itself! Read all about it here.
3/10

Godzilla (1998)

Godzilla (1998)

I have only seen two Godzilla movies so far: this one and Godzilla vs. Megalon. At some point I will watch the original film, but until then Godzilla vs. Megalon remains the best Godzilla movie I've ever seen! This is also the third movie I've seen directed by Roland Emmerich. But unlike Stargate and Independence Day, Godzilla 98 (as it is often referred to as) is awful.
Matthew Broderick plays the main character, a scientist brought in to help deal with the threat of Godzilla. Broderick is miscast and feels out of his element. I guess he was only brought in for his comedic chops, but it doesn't help that most of his dialogue isn't funny. The most infamous example is the dumb line "that's a lot of fish" which is a statement, not a joke. One of the few acting bright spots is Jean Reno, who plays a French DGSE agent who tries to help take down the creature while also covering up his agency's role in creating the monster. We also have live-action appearances from three actors who are regulars on The Simpsons: Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, and Nancy Cartwright. They do fine as usual but I found their inclusion in the movie was unnecessary and distracting. Speaking of strange acting/casting decisions, the mayor and his aide are obvious parodies of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. But as Roger Ebert himself mentioned, what is the point of doing that in a Godzilla movie if you aren't going to have the King of the Monsters stomp on them?
Although it is made clear that this is the first appearance of Godzilla in the universe of this movie, a Japanese fisherman recognizes the creature as "Gojira." I guess this was just intended as a nod to the fans but I found it confusing and out of place. As for the rest of the story, I'm just going to sum up everything, spoilers and all. Godzilla attacks New York City, is revealed to be pregnant (?!), and eventually gets killed after rampant destruction. But fear not, we have a teaser for a sequel (a Godzilla egg hatches!), which thankfully never happened.

Despite having budget that would still be quite big today ($130,000,000) the CGI hasn't aged well. This might be more of a commentary on CGI in general than the production itself since the visual effects were praised at the time. But if you compare the specials effects of this movie to Star Wars: Episode I which came out only a year later, The Phantom Menace effects still look quite good and they had to work on more types of ships and creatures than just Godzilla. But even if Godzilla had great special effects this movie would still suck!
One of the few positive things I can say about the film is that it had a clever and effective marketing campaign. It's just a shame that it didn't have a good movie to go along with it.
Godzilla has a lot of characters, tons of destruction, and weird attempts at comedy that make it an epic event movie somewhere between Emmerich's own Independence Day and Michael Bay's Transformers movies (which like Godzilla also feature Kevin Dunn). Godzilla is not just bad but is also too long which really makes the film drag at times. I'm not sure why this movie felt it needed to be 139 minutes as the plot and characters are pretty straightforward. But at the end of the day there are still enough unintentionally humorous scenes for Godzilla to be watchable for fans of crappy movies.
3/10

Steel (1997)

Steel (1997)
After DC comics killed off Superman in the 1990s, several characters stepped in to fill his void. One of these was John Henry Irons, known as the superhero Steel. DC pushed the character heavily in the 90s as he was not only involved with Superman's storyline but also had his own solo series and even appeared in Superman: The Animated Series. Michael Dorn did a good job voicing Steel in Superman: TAS and I think he could've also played the role well in a live action movie.
I love Shaq but he is pretty bad here. Of course he doesn't have much to work with other than some hilariously awful basketball puns. It's a shame that Shaq had to be in this movie and Kazaam instead of Space Jam where he would've been a good fit. 
Judd Nelson plays the villain, a corrupt military man. Although Nelson is over the top it keeps things somewhat interesting. Richard Roundtree has a small role as "Uncle Joe." I'm pretty sure that Roundtree was only brought in so that parents could listen to the Shaft theme in their heads for the rest of the movie while their kids fall asleep. As for the rest of the acting, Annabeth Gish's character functions like Barbara Gordon as Oracle in the Batman comics and Charles Napier is also in the cast.

You may have noticed that I haven't gotten to the plot of the movie yet. That is because I don't remember it. I seem to recall a subplot about a grandmother making soufflé but that's about it. Upon looking it up, the story was reminiscent of Iron Man with a weapons designer becoming a superhero and the unauthorized use of the superhero's weapons. To be fair, it has been a year since I saw the movie and I didn't take many notes. But this movie is pretty forgettable and I probably didn't think about it even a week after I saw. However, there is one part of this movie that is very memorable: the theme song! It is stuck in my head as I am writing this and I'm not ashamed because it is pretty awesome! It's too bad that it had to be used in such a bad movie. Therefore Steel has a bad case of Pluto Nash Syndrome, meaning that it's a crappy movie with good music.
Steel was directed by Kenneth Johnson who has mostly done TV work and has only two theatrical movies (the other is Short Circuit 2) to his credit. This makes sense as Steel has the look and feel of a TV movie. Johnson has some recent TV credits but, to nobody's surprise, hasn't directed a theatrically released movie since. Given the current state of superhero movies it's kinda funny to be reminded that there was a time not too long ago when not all of them had big budgets or well-known stars.
Steel is certainly bad but still in watchable territory. I'll take Steel over Kazaam any day but that isn't saying much, is it?
Steel doesn't bother to mention Superman or any other elements of the DC universe. Like in Catwoman, that is for the best. Though I kinda hope there is an alternate universe where Tim Burton's Superman Lives was actually made and features a cameo from Shaq as Steel!
3/10

Catwoman (2004)

Catwoman (2004)
Going into Catwoman I knew I was going to get a bad movie. However, I didn't know that this Catwoman was not the DC comics character but a new, very different version for the film. Halle Berry's Catwoman is named Patience Phillips and doesn't act much like the Selina Kyle of the comics. For example, Phillips is a shy artist working for a cosmetics company before she becomes Catwoman. What is the origin story of Catwoman in this movie you ask? Well, Phillips is resurrected by cats after she dies in a sewage pipe... I don't care that this is not like the comics, it's just stupid.
The story is pretty weak as it doesn't feel like there is that much at stake. A cosmetics company is going to release skin care products with bad side effects because it's cheaper than recalling the items. Sure that is deplorable, but why can't the FDA handle this? Or does it not exist in this universe?
Sharon Stone plays the main villain, Laurel Hedare, whose husband owns the cosmetics company that Catwoman works for. The owner of the company is played by Lambert Wilson, best known to me for his role as The Merovingian in The Matrix sequels. Halle Berry isn't the problem with the movie as she doesn't have much to work with, though she doesn't do a good job either. Sharon Stone could've been a great Selina Kyle Catwoman, but it's probably too late now unless she only voices the character or we get a live action adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel "The Dark Knight Returns."

Catwoman had a $100 million budget but the production values feel a lot cheaper. I'm assuming most of the budget went to Halle Berry who was coming off her role as Storm in the popular X-Men movies.
The director of Catwoman is Pitof. That's right, only one name. But at least it's still a better name for a film director than McG. It's no surprise that Pitof hasn't directed a theatrical feature film since this dud.
As you can probably guess, this movie doesn't take place in any sort of DC universe as there is no mention of Batman/Bruce Wayne let alone Gotham City. I found this odd since Batman Begins only came out a year later, but trust me, it's a good thing. People complain (usually unfairly) about Batman & Robin but at least that movie was fun. Although Catwoman is feels like a quick cash grab, it's still watchable for anyone who enjoys dumb Hollywood train wrecks. Catwoman came out same year as some much better super hero movies such as Hellboy, The Incredibles, and Spider-Man 2.
3/10

Night of the Lepus (1972)

Night of the Lepus (1972)
I've wanted to see Night of the Lepus out of sheer curiosity after I first heard about it thanks to The Matrix. A brief clip of Night of the Lepus is shown in that film when Neo is at the Oracle's house in the room with the kid bending spoons with his mind. I had to know why there was a movie with giant rabbits running around a town! I finally got around to seeing it and it met my low expectations. As you can see by the above poster, the marketing campaign for this film tried to hide the fact that it is about giant killer bunnies. Clearly they knew audiences at the time would find it ridiculous and the premise of huge mutated bloodthirsty rabbits hasn't gotten any better with age.

Night of the Lepus was directed by William F. Claxton, who mainly did TV work for shows such as The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, and Little House on the Prairie. This isn't surprising as Lepus looks and feels like a TV movie, not a theatrical release. The film is based on the 1964 novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit. Apparently the book takes place in Australia, which makes more sense than the film's setting of Arizona given the problems that country has had with rabbits as an invasive species. I guess there is a bit of commentary on animal testing as that is what causes the rabbit mutations, but it gets overshadowed by simply by the fact that we have giant bunnies killing people and running amok.

Lepus is unintentionally funny since it is a monster movie about big bunnies. The camera trick of making the rabbits look huge with miniature sets reminded me of bad 1950s sci-fi monster movies such as King Dinosaur. It looked silly for those movies and it looks even more obvious here. At least those 50s movies tended to use lizards and not cute furry creatures. Of course what is even worse are the close-ups that clearly show people in rabbit suits! Although these bunnies are depicted as vicious, shots like those above are cute and just makes the horror both humorous and surreal. While the movie has some slow parts, it's still watchable thanks mostly to the ridiculousness of the situation. There are worse films out there with killer animals (thanks Syfy channel!) but that still doesn't make Lepus any good.

Somehow a bunch of recognizable actors made it into this movie. DeForest Kelley, best known as Dr. McCoy on Star Trek, plays a college president but basically acts like Bones. Sadly this was Kelley's final non-Star Trek movie to get a theatrical release, though to be fair he was always more of a TV actor anyway.  Janet Leigh made this movie just 12 years removed from Psycho. It's a shame she went movies like Touch of Evil, Psycho, and The Manchurian Candidate to this nonsense in roughly a decade. Besides Leigh there is another Oscar nominee in the cast, Stuart Whitman. Prolific actors Paul Fix and Rory Calhoun also have roles.
3/10

M.D. Geist II: Death Force (1997)

M.D. Geist II: Death Force (1997)

As its name suggests, M.D. Geist II: Death Force is sequel to the 1986 anime M.D. Geist. I have no idea why it took eleven years to make a follow-up. You can read my thoughts on the first M.D. Geist here.
M.D. Geist II is not as fun or even as good as the first installment. However, I'd say it's still worth watching if you loved the original, especially since like the first its only 45 minutes long. For me though I found parts boring or just rehashing from the original. I did think it was cool that this time there is another Most Dangerous soldier besides Geist, although that character turned was uninteresting and somehow more unlikeable than Geist. Vaiya, pretty much the only female character in both stories, returns but doesn't really do much. There is also a new character who looks like kinda Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
While I'm glad I watched M.D. Geist II for completion's sake, I will probably never re-watch it as it's mostly more of the same but not as fun as the first. It didn't grab me at all and was kinda boring at times, which is something I cannot say about the original MD Geist!
Both M.D. Geist OVAs (original video animation) can be found at YouTube and Hulu.
3/10

Three Bad Movies

Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2012)
This is the second movie released in 2012 that I saw! I'll get to the other 2012 films I've seen in my next few posts. Of course while I saw those in theaters, this movie made its premiere on the SyFy Channel!
Jersey Shore Shark Attack is both a Jaws rip-off and parody of MTV reality show Jersey Shore at the same time. I don't think it will surprise anybody that this movie has poor acting and terrible special effects. However, I didn't expect that Jersey Shore Shark Attack would feature two actors from Goodfellas: Tony Sirico and Paul Sorvino! Both actually do a good job in their roles here considering the material. I would hope that they are getting better offers than this, but maybe these guys just have a good sense of humor.
I must mention that Joey Fatone, formerly of boy band 'N Sync, has a great cameo appearance!
Jersey Shore Shark Attack was produced by Fred Olen Ray who has directed and produced tons of low budget B-movies and exploitation flicks. I've never seen an Olen Ray movie before but keep in mind this is the guy who brought us Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and Reptisaurus!  
Jersey Shore Shark Attack is not really a horror movie but more of a comedy with jokes that are hit or miss. Some scenes like the one with Joey Fatone or the line "Is that spaghetti sauce?" (referring to blood) are hilarious. However, others attempts at humor fall flat or too padded with boring scenes.
The writing was actually better than I expected in terms of the parodies and jokes. We even have some character development and a use of Chekov's Gun, or harpoon in this case. Unfortunately the basic rule of "show, don't tell" us violated in a major way once. I guess the reason for that is that the budget didn't call for a flashback so a character just tells a long story about what happened instead!
Our main characters are Jersey Shore knock-offs who are almost as unlikeable as their real life counter-parts. Despite this face it seems that the movie thinks we should actually root for them. The attempt at solving this problem of main characters who are easy to hate is that the villains are annoying snooty, rich, yuppies but I just wanted to see everybody eaten by the albino sharks!
While this is not a good movie, I must give it some credit for being entertaining enough. Too many bad movies are just plain boring so when a dumb fun one comes around I can't hate it too much. I could even see Jersey Shore Shark Attack getting a cult following someday, though I think this movie will be forgotten about once the popularity of Jersey Shore fades away.
Oh, and I love the tagline on the above poster: "Forget The Avengers, we have a new contender for best film of the summer." That must be a joke, taken out of context, a fake quote, or the critic just got really drunk!
I'll finish this review the same way the movie ends:
Fin
3/10

No Holds Barred (1989)
I'm not a wrestling fan but have always found it interesting. Professional wrestling features good guys, heels, larger than life personalities, a mixing of reality with fantasy, has always had a large dedicated fan base. If you think about it like that it is no different from the world of film!
Although Hulk Hogan made his film debut in Rocky III as Thunderlips, No Holds Barred is the first movie to feature Hogan in a leading role. Not surprisingly Hogan plays a professional wrestler (named Rip) who is not much different from Hulk Hogan himself. A rival TV network tries to get Rip to wrestle for them but Rip refuses to break his existing contract at any price. This leads Brell, the sleazy head of the World Television Network (played by Kurt Fuller who was in Wayne's World and many other movies), to start his own wrestling competition called "Battle of the Tough Guys." This wrestlers are extremely violent and play by no rules. For some reason they even have a midget in a cage over their ring! Eventually a mysterious huge guy named Zeus wins the tournament and demands to fight Rip. Fuller's performance as Brell reminded me of Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation but as without the god powers and more of a scumbag. Brell likes to call Hulk Hogan a "Jock Ass" which is pretty funny though it gets irritating after a while. Besides Hogan and Fuller, Jesse Ventura has a cameo (as himself of course!) and I also recognized David Paymer who has been in tons of films and TV shows.
The most outrageously hilarious scene of the movie features the now infamous line, "Dookie?!"
Check it out here!
As you can tell from that clip, a lot of dialogue is grunting and yelling. I guess it makes sense in a movie about wrestling. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, but its still pretty funny.
This is the 3rd Hulk Hogan movie I've seen after Santa with Muscles and 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain. I have reviewed all on this blog and as you could probably guess, this is my favorite Hulk Hogan movie so far!
The weekend No Holds Barred came out in theaters in 1989 it debuted second in the box office behind Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!
The first act is hilarious and engaging but the movie looses steam purely from an entertainment standpoint after that. These are still some amusing parts but after that the pacing slows down and the fighting gets repetitive. Although No Holds Barred is a bad movie its still a lot of fun. I watched it with a friend who is a wrestling fan and we have a blast. This is Hulk Hogan's Bloodsport though I still prefer that Van Damme flick to this one!
4/10

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996)
Ernest Borgnine died last week at the age of 95. He is one of my favorite actors as I love his roles in The Wild Bunch, Escape from New York, and many more films and TV shows. In honor of the late, great Oscar winner I watched the MST3K episode Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders with a friend.
The framing story of this movie features Borgnine as a grandfather telling stories to his grandson. The first story involves a couple with fertility problems who meet Merlin at his store. The husband doesn't believe he is really a wizard so Merlin gives him a book of spells to prove it. The man messes up the spell, fights a cat, then turns into a baby which his wife decides to raise. Then the grandfather tells another story about a toy monkey that can kill people when it clangs its cymbals which was stolen from Merlin's shop. Merlin tries to find the toy monkey before too much damage is done!
This movie is a stinking mess but at least there is an explanation. Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders was made out of the per-existing films The Devil's Gift (1984) with new footage stitched in. The monkey story obviously looks older than the other footage. The segments with the monkey is also said to rips off a Stephen King short story and I can't say I'm surprised.
Both stories are surprisingly violent, especially for what appears on the cover to be a family fantasy film.
Although this movie is terrible, its a great MST3K episode. This one is from Season 10 so its a Sci-fi Channel Mike episode. I loved the re-curring riffs on the infertility subplot and the geriatric grandfather.
2/10

Even though all these movies sucked, at least I enjoyed watching them for different reasons!
Next Up: Summer TV shows

Spring Wrap-up Part Three

I just realized that my blog has been up for over a year! Yay! Well since I just figured this out now and am over a week late I don't have anything special planned. Maybe I'll do something next year... if I remember! But in the spirit of this blog here is another post on three very different movies as my seemingly endless quest to get caught up continues!

Saved! (2004)
Saved! reminded me of Heathers as both movies are satires that take place in high school. Jenna Malone's performance even recalled Winona Ryder in that movie. But Saved! takes a different route as it's about religion, specifically fundamentalist Christians. However I never felt that the movie was mean spirited as there are some religious characters at "American Eagle Christian High School" who are perfectly reasonable.
Saved! features one of Macaulay Culkin's first film appearances since 1994's Richie Rich. Culkin's comedic timing was very good and its nice to see him acting again even though he hasn't done much since.
Pop star Mandy Moore has a major role in the movie and she did a good job, especially for somebody who is not primarily an actress. I am surprised she would accept a villainous role given her image, but commend her for taking the risk here as it paid off.
I quite liked Saved! and found it pretty funny but I felt that its biggest weakness was its shift in tone at around the midpoint. The first half of the movie is a satire while it turns into a straight-up teen dramedy for the last half.
7/10

Alice in Wonderland (2010)
I came into this movie ready for great special effects but not much else. I pretty much got what I was expecting, although to be honest it was a little better than I thought it would be.
I liked the angle of an older Alice coming back to Wonderland. In this sense it feels more like Return to Oz meets The Chronicles of Narina than an Alice in Wonderland movie made by Tim Burton. There are already tons of TV and movie versions of this story so I guess they tried to put a different spin on it while not making it too dark, which has already been done anyway. I'm only familiar with the Disney animated version, which I love, and have never read the original Lewis Carroll stories.
When it comes to the acting Crispin Glover (who has a surprisingly large amount of screen time) did a nice job, as did Helena Bonham Carter who played the Red Queen. Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman, and Stephen Fry all provided voices which was a lot of fun. Of course this movie was advertised as a Johnny Depp film but he isn't in the movie quite as much as you would think and wasn't as over the top as I was expecting for the Mad Hatter.
Alice in Wonderland won Oscars for art direction and costume design. It was also nominated for best visual effects but lost out to Inception. Lighting and Compositing technical director Brian Blasiak also worked on Avatar (among other movies) and worked his special effects magic for this film as well. Alice in Wonderland looked fantastic in High Definition. It was marketed as a 3-D film even though it was not filmed in 3-D but was instead converted in post-production.
Usually I have some issues with CGI but this is exactly how it should be used. The real world bookend scenes were done well made and are a nice contrast to the CGI world of Wonderland. The Jabberwocky was CGI but its design appeared to be influenced by the designs of Ray Harryhausen's monsters.
While this is not a bad movie, it's not very good either and is a movie I probably will never watch again. Still, I enjoyed it more than Burton's weaker efforts like Mars Attacks! or his 2001 Planet of the Apes remake.
I was surprised that Alice in Wonderland made so much money (11th highest grossing film of all time without adjusting for inflation), especially since it didn't come out in the summer or around Christmas. I'm don't think it deserved to make $1 billion worldwide but if you look at how much those Transformers movies made I guess I'm fine with it! It was rated PG so I could see it appealing to families with older and/or younger children as well as adults which is probably why it hauled in so much dough.
6/10

Garzey's Wing (1996)
Technically this is not a movie but a three part OVA (direct to video) anime with each episode being 30 minutes long. Garzey's Wing was written and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the same man who developed the classic Gundam series. This is proof that even the best creators can have horrible misfires.
I'm not even going to bother describing the plot as Garzey's Wing is an incoherent disaster that is unintentionally hilarious due in part to a terrible dub. You can see what I mean here and here.
Garzey's Wing makes the infamous MD Geist (which I wrote about earlier) look like a masterpiece in comparison which is really saying something!
Despite being a total mess I must admit that Garzey's Wing is an enjoyable watch even though its for all the wrong reasons. If you want to watch a bad but fun anime with a group of friends this certainly fits the bill!
3/10

Four Bad Movies

Season of the Witch (2011)
Guess what, I finally saw a bad movie from 2011!
Season of the Witch was actually worse than I expected. The movie is not over the top bad but just boring and unexciting. The plot is sort of like The Seventh Seal as an action movie since we have a returning crusader and his partner who must transport a suspected witch to a monastery. I'm not going to get into how historical the movie is as even though it tries to be accurate in some ways overall the movie is pure fantasy and not really trying to be historically accurate.
Nicolas Cage was alright but he is an actor who seems to be only as good as the material he is working with. When he has a good script and director he can be great (Adaptation). But when that doesn't happen the results can be disastrous (The Wicker Man). Now one could argue that actors generally do better when the writing and directing are good and worse when its not, but Cage seems to take this to the extreme.   
Ron Perlman was fun but his character, the partner of the knight played by Cage, simply doesn't have much to do.
While I'm not an expert on cinematic techniques, there appear some obvious day for night scenes that have a bluish tint. Other times its way too dark and hard to see what is going on. I would expect this from a low budget non-Hollywood movie but Season of the Witch had a $40 million budget! I guess all the money went to the salaries of Cage and Perlman. It certainly didn't go to the CGI which looks pretty bad for a mainstream 2011 movie. 
Season of the Witch isn't that bad, but there are a lot of movies worse than it which are a lot more fun to watch. For example, see some of the movies below!
3/10

Double Dragon (1994)
Double Dragon is stupid as hell but at the end of the day its watchable and fun. I enjoyed seeing this movie a lot more than Season of Witch even though that is a better movie.
The best way to describe Double Dragon is that it is along the lines of Surf Ninjas or the 3 Ninjas series but for a slightly older audience.
This movie is based on the video game of the same name which was a beat 'em up fighting game. Just because something is popular and good in its own medium doesn't mean it will make a good film. The concept just doesn't really work as a movie even though it was a fun game. I did like how the actual arcade game showed up in the movie. That *that* fourth wall!
Our main character is Jimmy Lee (played by Mark Dacascos, a dead ringer for Brandon Lee) who along with his brother Billy Lee must stop an evil ruler named Koga Shuko (played by Robert Patrick) from gaining the other half of a talisman that will allow him to rule the world. While I love Robert Patrick for his role as the T-1000 and in two awesome episodes the 1990s Outer Limits series, he is just plain silly here and feels like a 60s Batman villain.
Alyssa Milano is better known for her work on Television but plays the female lead here. The only other movie I had seen her in is Commando as Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter! Oddly enough, like Robert Patrick she was also in an episode of The Outer Limits.
There are cameos for Vanna White and Andy Dick who appear as themselves. I'm not sure why, but this movie was so ridiculous it worked.
I was shocked to see that Paul Dini had a writing credit for the story. Now maybe he only he didn't have much to do with the final screenplay or was paid by the studio to simply deliver this dreck, but I couldn't believe that this was the same guy who won Emmy Awards for the writing on Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toon Adventures. I re-watched his shows Batman:TAS and Batman Beyond recently and they hold up very well as are surprisingly dark and adult for kids shows.
Double Dragon was a box office failure which shouldn't be a surprise. Still, if you need a fun bad movie to watch with a group of friends, this would be a fine choice.
3/10

Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)
Yongary is essentially the South Korean Godzilla. He looks a lot like Godzilla, with one of the main differences being the horns on his head. Yongary is considered to be a Kaiju film (Japanese for "strange beast" but often translated into English as "monster").
Although Yongary is a pretty bad movie, it is somewhat amusing. Yongary dances after all!
The kid who tries to befriend Yongary is pretty damn annoying but I expected that since I think these movies were meant for children and to sell toys.
The original Korean version of Yongary is lost and the film that exists is the dubbed American version. While my initial reaction to this news was "no big loss," I truly think it is a shame when any film is lost regardless of quality. Maybe a copy of the original version will turn up someday, although I'd like to see London After Midnight first!
Yongary was re-made by South Korea as Reptilian in 1999.
2/10

Wing Commander (1999)
I had actually seen this before but watched it again with some friends who enjoy bad cinema.
Wing Commander is probably one of the few movies based on a video game in which the game actually had better actors! John Rhys-Davies, Malcom McDowell, and Mark Hamill all provided voices in the games. That said, there are actually some talented actors I like in this movie such as Jurgen Prochnow and David Warner even though they just aren't given much to work with. Here is a weird piece of trivia concerning the cast: Prochnow and Warner were also both in the film In the Mouth of Madness while Wing Commander also features Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Freddy (Freddy Prinze Jr.) from the first two live action Scooby-Doo movies. There must have been a 2 for 1 sale on actors in the 90s!
Simon MacCorkindale, known for his TV work such as in the cult show Maninmal, has a small role as "Flight Boss."
Wing Commander was one of three movies that had Phantom Menace trailer attached to it and there are stories of people buying a ticket to the movie and leaving after the trailer. Today we have trailers for movie trailers on the internet. Oh how things have changed in less than 15 years!
Although this is a bad movie I'll give it credit for actually trying with its characterizations even though it ultimately fails. For example, there is a sub-plot that Prinze's character is discriminated against because he is a "pilgrim" but after awhile its just forgotten about. Wing Commander feels like Star Wars meets Starship Troopers with a World War II vibe. Although this sounds cool in theory, it doesn't work out and is a bit of a mess. There is plenty of action but its surprisingly boring. The alien bad guys (a race called the Kilrathi) are not shown until late in the movie. While this is usually a good tactic in film, the silly appearance of the Kilrathi who are basically cat people with Fu Manchu mustaches is a terrible pay-off. After all the build-up throughout the movie I just laughed when I finally saw the Kilthrai.
The director of Wing Commander was Chris Roberts, who also directed the video games. I guess the producers chose Roberts because he knew the material and to give credibility to the fans. I think this was part of the problem as directing a video game is a lot different than directing a film and Roberts hasn't directed anything since.
Like Double Dragon this is a watchable, fun bad movie. I never played the games so I can't say how close it is to the series though.
3/10

This post will have a sequel featuring four more bad movies.

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/20)

This week I saw four films. Two of them were fantastic and two were bad. I'm a firm believer that one cannot truly appreciate great cinema without watching terrible movies as well!

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction is the second Quentin Tarantino movie I've seen. I had watched Reservoir Dogs before and really liked it, so I was looking forward to this film and luckily it did not disappoint. Although Pulp Fiction has been heavily ingrained in popular culture to the extent that I was already familiar with some lines and and scenes, I was completely engrossed and found this to be an amazing film.
The weakest part of the film are the scenes featuring Bruce Willis' character talking to his wife as the movie's pace slows down to a near halt. I understand that the scenes in the hotel room were necessary and the pay-off was certainly worth the slow set-up. Although Tarantino managed to pull off a dialogue heavy movie where even conversations about a five dollar milkshake were fascinating, the chemistry between Butch and Fabienne just wasn't there.
It is hard for me to pick a favorite moment as I loved the entire movie but Christopher Walken's cameo and the scenes with Harvey Kitel were pure gold. Now I need to see more Tarantino movies!
9/10

Adaptation. (2002)
I usually don't give a movie a perfect score upon my first viewing but had to make an exception here. Adaptation is proof that films can be incredibly entertaining as well as great works of art with something to say at the same time.
Nicolas Cage was amazing in a dual role as the Kaufman twins, Charlie and Donald. I have only seen a few of his movies but Cage seems to be an actor who is only as good as his director and script. To be fair this is the case for most actors (with guys like Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price being exceptions) but Cage played down to the material in The Wicker Man (2006) so much that I could barely believe this is the same actor. Although I had never heard of Chris Cooper before, he won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Laroche.
I though it was pretty clever how Being John Malkovich, made by the same director (Spike Jonze) and writer (Charlie Kaufman), was incorporated into this movie. The reason for this was because Charlie Kaufman not only wrote the script, but is also main character in Adaptation. Spike Jonze has only directed three feature films thus far so once I see Where the Wild Things Are I'll have seen all his movies. Hopefully he will make some more! While Kaufman has written more movies than Jonze, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation the only films he has done that I have seen so far.
While all aspects of this movie were great I was most impressed by the writing. The title itself, "adaptation," has a double meaning as it refers to adapting material to another medium as well as how people adapt to life. In the film, Kaufman is trying to write a screenplay adaption of the book The Orchid Thief and then writes himself into the script. The book is a real book and Kaufman wrote Adaptation under similar circumstances! The movie is incredibly meta and even deconstructs how screenplays are written. Kaufman use of himself as a character in his own movie reminded me of how Philip K. Dick did the same in his VALIS novels, which isn't surprising since Kaufman is a PKD fan.
It is worth noting that although Adaptation is credited as being written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman, in real life Charlie does not have a twin and Donald does not exist. That didn't stop Donald from also being nominated with Charlie for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay!
10/10

Cyborg (1989)
Cyborg was directed by Albert Pyun, who has made tons of low-budget B-movies and direct-to-video films. Pyun is the guy who directed the 1990 Captain America movie as well as Alien from L.A., which was featured on MST3K.
Cyborg stars Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his earliest film roles. Van Damme's character, Gibson Rickenbacker, must help a cyborg get to a group of scientists in Atlanta as she is carrying the cure for a deadly virus which has ravaged mankind. However, an evil gang leader kidnaps the cyborg to use the cure for themselves. As you could probably guess, this movie rips off Escape from New York and The Road Warrior on its way to being a generic post-apocalyptic film. The only real difference is that Rickenbacker is a martial artist. But if I wanted to see that I would just watch Bloodsport again. Although this is a bad movie it is still watchable. The fights and special effects (such as explosions and the robotics on the cyborg) were actually pretty good. I was able to see this in High Definition and was amazed with how good it looked, especially considering it was a low-budget movie made over 20 years ago. The outside scenes looked like they could have been filmed today!
What really made this movie bad was the acting and writing. While there isn't too much dialogue the acting is over the top, even for a movie like this. The basic story makes sense but I still don't understand how Rickenbacker and the girl caught up to (and actually got ahead of) the gang. The gang traveled to Atlanta on a boat while Rickenbacker followed them by foot! Rickenbacker's back-story was interesting although derivative, but had jerky editing that made the flashbacks confusing at first.
If you like bad cinema, post-apocalyptic movies, or are a hardcore Jean-Claude Van Damme fan, you will enjoy this. Otherwise just watch Escape from New York and the Mad Max movies instead.
3/10

Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990)
Jesse "The Body" Ventura is an interesting person. The man was a Navy SEAL, pro wrestler, actor (I enjoyed his role as Blain in Predator), governor of Minnesota, television host, and author. During Ventura's film career he made the mistake of "starring" in this truly terrible film.
Pretty much everything that can go wrong in a movie went wrong in Abraxas. The acting is awful and the dialogue is repetitive and silly. The film's story is incomprehensible, but I'll try to explain it.
An alien cop named Secundus (who has Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent) comes to Earth and rapes a woman with his hand who then gives birth to the child five minutes later. Another alien cop (these cops are called "Finders" although I don't know why) named Abraxas (Jesse Ventura) sends Secundus to space jail. These space cops can live for thousands of years but it is never explained how this is possible (are they androids?) and has no relevance to the plot. Five years later, Secundus somehow escapes to Earth so that the child (called a "comater" though again, never explained why) can give him the "anti-life Equation," a concept stolen from Jack Kirby's comics. Abraxas must stop Secundus with help from his "VD box," a rip-off of Ziggy from Quantum Leap, that is attached to his arm. Confused? Join the club.
The "VD box" is just unfortunately named. You would think that somebody would have realized that when most people hear "VD" they think "venereal disease." In this movie VD is supposed to stand for "vibrational detection," which is almost as bad now that I think about it! At least lines such as "My box has VD, trust me" and "Members of our force were taught to avoid VD" are unintentionally hilarious.
Abraxas features random music that never fits the scene and always feels out of place. The head-scratching camera work, editing, and directing make you wonder if the crew rushed the production or simply showed up on set drunk everyday. This movie is incredibly dark, and I mean that literally. Lighting is almost non-existent except for some outdoor scenes. Usually it is so dark that it is hard to see anything! James Belushi has a cameo as a school principal which he did as a favor for his wife at the time who was in Abraxas as Sonia. Despite Belushi being in this movie there is no intentional humor in this movie at all and the tone is always serious. Many B-movies realize how ridiculous they are and try to have some fun with it but Abraxas takes itself way too seriously. Oh, and while I'm at it, Abraxas liberally rips off The Terminator and shamelessly uses the word "terminate" many times. This movie failed in every way possible.
Luckily I watched the RiffTrax version which features a hilarious commentary by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Tom Servo of MST3K fame. RiffTrax usually makes fun of recent good movies so its nice to see the RiffTrax crew go back to some classic MST3K material. Although this movie is terrible, I do recommend the RiffTrax for some great laughs. Check out the RiffTrax sample for Abraxas here.
Abraxas is not a well-known bad movie like Plan Nine from Outer Space, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Troll 2, or The Room but it should be up there (or more appropriately "down there") as a craptastic classic of truly awful cinema.
1/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (10/23)

Halloween (1978)

I am a Big John Carpenter fan but had somehow never seen this film before. Halloween is one of the most influential movies in the last 30 to 40 years as it is usually credited for the rise of the slasher genre. While this film has contains many elements that would eventually become cliches today, it is still am amazing film that holds up well. The great camerawork by Dean Cundey and Carpenter's directing allow the movie to rise above its low budget. That said, the low budget doesn't show much anyway since Halloween does a great job setting up the suspense and doesn't need to rely on blood and gore to be scary. Carpenter knows that what you don't see is scarier than what you do see, and uses that to full effect in this film. At its core, Halloween is about the struggle between good and evil. Although good will triumph over evil, evil always returns in some form.
Jamie Lee Curtis puts in a nice performance in what was her film debut and the role she will probably always be best known for. Donald Pleasence is awesome as usual as the doctor tracking Michael Myers. 
Although Halloween is probably Carpenter's best known movie, my favorite Carpenter film is still The Thing. Of course that is just personal preference as I love both along with all the other Carpenter films I have seen so far... except Ghosts of Mars.
9/10

Ghostbusters (1984)
I had seen this movie awhile ago but was due for a re-watch.
Bill Murray IS Peter Venkman. Although I can't imagine anybody else in this role, John Belushi was originally intended to play Venkman. Ghostbusters went through a long process of re-writes before it got made so I have a feeling that if Belushi lived and was in the movie it would be quite different. Murray and the cast made a lot of ad-libs which was a lot of fun and helped make this one of the most memorable and quotable comedies ever.
The special effects hold up well, as practical effects usually do!
One thing that surprised me was how good the writing was. Ghostbusters is not the most tightly written comedy, but its up there. Each set-up had a pay-off: Don't cross the streams, Stay Puft marshmallow man, Zuul, relationship between Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) and Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), etc. A friend recommended watching the sequel saying it was underrated, so I'll give that movie a shot when I get the chance.
8/10

Ghost Dad (1990)
I love Bill Cosby. His stand-up and television work are both great. However he just couldn't make the jump to movies. I'm not counting Bill Cosby: Himself (1983) since that is just a filmed version of his stand-up routine at the time.
I was shocked to discover that the great actor Sidney Poitier directed this movie. He has directed a few other films but this one appears to have killed his directing career as it is the last movie he has made. Ghost Dad had a decent budget ($18 million) although I'm guessing most of that went to Cosby's salary. The special effects were actually decent, but most of them were camera tricks. Although its hard to believe, Ghost Dad made over $24 million at the box office so it actually turned a profit.
While Ghost Dad is watchable, there are far better family comedies out there. For a movie called Ghost Dad starring Bill Cosby its actually not as wacky as one would expect, although there are still some ridiculous moments. Hey, at least its not Leonard Part 6!
3/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (9/25)

Ed Wood (1994)
Prior to viewing Ed Wood I had seen some Tim Burton movies I liked (Beetlejuice, Batman) and some I didn't like (Planet of the Apes remake, Mars Attacks). So far Ed Wood is by far his best that I have seen. I have only seen one Ed Wood movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and thought it was terrible. However as somebody who watches a lot of bad movies, I wouldn't call it the worst movie ever made as did have some fun, campy moments. The absolute worst movies ever made are so boring they are almost unwatchable. A few of Wood's movies were featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, although I haven't seen those episodes yet. Getting back to the movie in question, Ed Wood blew me away. Martin Landau put in an amazing performance as Bela Lugosi and certainly deserved his Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role that year. Johnny Depp was incredible as the titular character and how he didn't get an Oscar nomination is beyond me. Depp is a versatile actor and it is a shame that he didn't get an Oscar nomination until Pirates of the Caribbean. Depp has gotten a lot of wacky cartoon type character roles after the popularity of his Jack Sparrow character but he has great range as an actor and can do much more than that. Bill Murray and Jeffrey Jones are a lot of fun in supporting roles. Although the movie is about Ed Wood, people associated with him such as Bela Lugosi, Vampira, Criswell, Tor Johnson, Bunny Breckinridge all led fascinating lives and could have biopic movies of their own!
While Ed Wood was a critical success (besides Landau's Oscar it also won best Makeup) it was a commercial flop. This isn't surprising as most people wouldn't think you could make a good movie about a guy who made a lot of bad movies, but Burton still managed to make a great film.
Like most biopics and movies based on historical people and events, Ed Wood features its share of historical inaccuracies. However this was part of Tim Burton's vision as he was trying to make the movie through the eyes of Ed Wood. I think it is possible for truth to rise out of fiction and I believe it happened in this movie. While the real Ed Wood never met Orson Welles, Ed Wood did indeed idolize Welles, so I felt the scene in which they met was necessary to the movie (also it could have been a daydream since we only see those two together). Plus I think anybody who watches the film would be compelled (like I was) to do some research on the real Ed Wood as well as the other people depicted in the film. Bela Lugosi never cursed or hated Karloff, and his later years were not quite as bad as depicted in the movie. However, I wonder if Burton did this because he didn't want show Ed Wood's later years. The film covers Wood's life from just before he made Glen or Glenda to just after Plan 9 from Outer Space and while those movies were not successes, his later years were quite depressing.
Wood often gets called the "worst director of all time" which is unfair considering what he had to work with and that he never was able to focus on director since he also wrote, produced, and even acted in his films. Some people claim that the movie is too positive about Wood but since he usually gets slammed, I thought the way portrayal of Wood was fine. The film does have plenty direct criticisms of Wood like his refusal to do more than one take. Wood's optimism blinds him to these critiques and Depp sells it so well that I really wanted Wood to succeed, even though I knew that is not what actually happened.
Ed Wood was filmed in Black and White which was a great idea. Not only does it work for the atmosphere, it also gives us a hilarious meta joke in the scene in with the camera man is asked to pick a dress by color, but can't because he is color blind!
The film gives the sense that Ed Wood really loved to make movies, and from what I have read about the real Ed Wood, this certainly seems to be true. Wood didn't have the best resources but still did what he loved and for that he should be praised. It doesn't make Plan 9 from Outer Space a good movie, but the fact that people still talk about the movie and that it has almost 1,000 more votes on IMDB than Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder which came out the same year (1959) and was nominated for 7 Oscars counts for something. Plenty of people have made bad movies and didn't care about the final product, but Ed Wood did care, even though his movies weren't that good. And you have to admire the guy for giving Bela Lugosi work in his later years. Even though Lugosi was older and working with inferior material, he was still having fun being an actor as you can see from the clips on YouTube.
When it comes down to it, Ed Wood is not only about the man, but about artistic vision and creative expression. And that is why the film transcends its subject matter to be inspirational to all of us.
"Visions are worth fighting for. Why live your life making someone else's dreams?"
I think I've said enough about this movie as I can, watch it now!
10/10

Say Anything... (1989)
After watching Jerry Maguire last week I decided to see another Cameron Crowe movie. I liked Jerry Maguire a little better than this one, probably because of the sports angle, but Say Anything was still a solid movie.
John Cusack does a good job of playing Lloyd Dobler, an off-beat oddball who becomes obsessed with Diane Court. Diane's father, James Court, is played by John Mahoney (Martin Crane on Fraiser) and has a close relationship to his only daughter. Mr. Court is an interesting character as his life is falling apart (divorced, being investigated for doing bad business by FBI, only daughter about to leave home for college on fellowship) while Lloyd is wooing his daughter, and in way taking her away from him. Lloyd's sister is played by Cusack's real life sister, Joan. I always think its pretty cool when real relatives play relatives in movies and their relationship reminded me of Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko.
Crowe is a good writer and does a great job with dialogue and creating interesting characters. The film is a dramedy as it is more introspective than most teen movies, but still humorous.
The scene with Cusack holding the boombox and playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" is iconic and certainly memorable. Although when it comes to famous scenes in Crowe movies I still prefer "Show me the money!" or any scene with Spicoli and Mr. Hand.
The movie features cameos by Kim Walker (Heather Chandler from Heathers who essentially plays the same character!) and Jeremy Piven who is a real life friend of John Cusack.
Overall I liked them film as it was well written and Cusack's Lloyd was a fascinating character. While I wanted to know if the couple would end up together, the movie still didn't really grab me. Sure Mr. Court doesn't like Lloyd as he sees his daughter less because of him, but Mr. Court doesn't seem to hate Lloyd either since Diane is never forbidden to see/talk to him. Perhaps there could have been more tension in Lloyd and Mr. Court's relationship.
While Crowe had writing credits for other movies prior to this one, Say Anything was his directorial debut and its a nice first film. Crowe is certainly a good writer, but the last two movies I saw by him just aren't really my thing. I still want to see Almost Famous as I've heard that is Crowe's best. Fast Times at Ridgemont High is still my favorite movie that he has written.
Crowe might not be my favorite director, but all of his movies I've seen so far have awesome pop/rock soundtracks, which is definitely a good thing!
6/10

                                       

Major League (1989)
This weekend Moneyball came out. Although I am a huge baseball fan who loved the book and heard the movie is getting great reviews, I haven't seen it yet. Instead I finally got around to seeing Major League! It's actually sort of a fictional comedy version of Moneyball as both films are about small market baseball teams who go on improbable playoff runs. Major League was written and directed by David S. Ward, who won an Oscar for writing the screenplay for The Sting. While many comedies often put their effort into jokes, Major League focuses on the story and characters first, and lets the humor fall into place from there. The characters are interesting and likeable, which makes you root for them to win. Wesley Snipes is mostly known for action and dramatic roles in recent years, but he did a good job of pulling off a fun character. Besides Snipes, Major League also helped launch the careers of Charlie Sheen and Dennis Haysbert (Allstate Insurance commercial guy). Famous Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob "Mr. Baseball" Uecker plays the Indians announcer and he was great. Major League is a lot of fun although perhaps a bit derivative and predictable in spots. However, it is still one of the better sports-comedy movies out there. I just want to know why this movie has two sequels? And there is even news that Charlie Sheen wants to make a fourth movie!
I have read that there is an alternate ending for Major League that was intended to be the original ending but changed after reviews from test audiences. I won't say what happens but I think they should have kept that ending. The other ending isn't that different, but makes a little more sense and would have been a cool twist.
7/10

Death at a Funeral (2010)
This movie is the American remake of 2007 British film. I love the original, but figured I should still see both. I still don't see why the remake was necessary as the humor of the original was universal and not overly "British." Just release the 2007 film in American theaters!
Unlike the original, the remake has lot of pop culture references which will date the film. Now that I think about it, the Amy Winehouse joke is already dated! We also have musical cues that tell us when to laugh, which the British film did not need. This movie made a few other changes, I guess so it wouldn't be a carbon copy of the original even though it is still the same basic story. For example, Aaron (Chris Rock) and wife are trying to conceive a child. We also have Ryan (Martin Lawrence) hitting on an 18 year old girl at the funeral. In the original every subplot related directly back to the family reuniting at the funeral. Both these subplots felt shoved in just to add something new, even though there is already enough going on in the movie.
The cast is hit or miss. Danny Glover and Ron Glass (Firefly) were great but Tracy Morgan and Martin Lawrence put in weak performances. Peter Dinklage reprises his role as the midget from the original film. The part was initially written for someone of normal height, but Dinklage auditioned and got the role! Dinklage recently on an Emmy award for his work on the TV show Game of Thrones. While I haven't seen that show he was great in both versions of this movie and I'll have to see more of his work.
The remake sticks close enough to the original story. It is still funny even though its not as good as the original. There are far worse comedies out there, but please watch the original 2007 British film as it is one of the funniest and well-written comedies made in recent years.
5/10

Double Team (1997)
Double Team is a 90s action movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme and the outrageous basketball player Dennis Rodman. I have no idea who decided to let Dennis Rodman become an actor, let alone put these two together, but that person should be fired from the film business immediately. Dennis Rodman won three Razzie awards for being in this turkey: Worst New Star, Worst Supporting Actor, and Worst Screen Couple which he shared with Van Damme. Mickey Rourke plays the villain and he's actually not bad. The cast also includes Paul Freeman who is best known for playing Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark... oh how the mighty have fallen. The action scenes are decent but the acting by the two leads is terrible. The basketball one liners are so bad they are actually kinda funny. The plot doesn't make much sense but who cares, we have explosions and a lot of glass breaking for some reason! Oh and I could I forget the ridiculous amount of Coca-Cola product placement! Double Team is a great "so bad, it's good movie" as it is awful but still fun to watch. The ending features one of the most ridiculous action scenes in all of cinema and is worth watching for that alone. But unless you are a bad movie connoisseur like myself, just see the Nostalgia Critic's hilarious review here.
3/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (9/18)

Note: This week I also watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Hands of Orlac. See my last post (blogathon entry) for an in-depth review of those two films.

Jerry Maguire (1996)

This movie had some false advertising. While I liked how the film depicted the business aspect of sports, I didn't care for it when the movie shifted its focus to Jerry's relationship with his secretary. I admit that this is a matter of taste. I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at sports agents and the discussions about morals and integrity. These parts were pretty funny and gave us the film's most famous line: "Show me the money!" However, about a third of the way in the film it turned into a romantic comedy. Eventually the movie shifted its focus back to Jerry's relationship with his last remaining client, the football player Rod Tidwell. But by this point it was too little, too late despite a satisfying ending. To be fair, the romantic aspects were probably why the movie did so well financially. Those scenes were well written and acted, just not my cup of tea and not what I was expecting. I wanted to see more of Jerry working with sports stars and trying to change how agents operate. I knew from the beginning that Jerry would start a relationship with his secretary, I just thought it would be a sub-plot and not the focus of the movie. Tom Cruise created a fascinating character who is fun to watch and received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading role. The movie also got Oscar nominations for best editing, best writing, and best picture.

Cruise wasn't the only bright spot when it came to acting as all the leads were good. Jerry Maguire helped launch the career of Renee Zellweger who played Dorothy Boyd, a struggling single mother who is Jerry's secretary and love interest. Cuba Gooding Jr. was Rod Tidwell and stole every scene he was in. Gooding even won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Tidwell's wife was played by Regina King who also put in a solid performance. Jay Mohr did well in a small role as the sleazy sports agent who betrays Jerry.

Jerry Maguire is now 15 years old and the film is kinda dated since the contracts players get in 2011 are much more ridiculous than what we see here. Agents like Scott Boras ignore reality and make unreasonable contract demands, but somehow get teams to pay up anyway. If Jerry worked with guys like Boras he wouldn't just leave his company, he would leave the business!

There were tons of cameos by sports players and announcers. The movie even used archive footage from Monday Night Football which also added a sense of authenticity to the film.

Jerry Cantrell from the band Alice in Chains had a cameo as a copy store clerk, although I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because they couldn't fit Alice in Chains on an already great soundtrack. Or the simplest explanation: It was the 90s!

This is the first movie I have seen directed by Cameron Crowe. However, I have watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High and its pseudo-sequel The Wild Life which were both written by Crowe. Crowe is certainly a good writer and his directing for this film was fine as well.

Overall I would recommend Jerry Maguire, just be aware that this is a chick flick disguised as sports-comedy movie.

6/10

Time Chasers aka Tangents (1994)

This Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode has good riffs and host segments. Time Chasers is perfect for MST3K as it is bad, but still watchable. Although the movie has poor acting, editing, and directing, the time travel story wasn't as bad as I expected. The ending even reminded me of the Denzel Washington movie Deja Vu (2006). There were some good ideas here which were ruined by poor execution. Time Chasers is one of those "so bad, its good movies" that are fun to watch with a group of friends. It is also one of the better movies featured on MST3K, which isn't saying much I guess!

Time Chasers was filmed in 1990 but not released until 1994. The movie finally broke even financially when MST3K featured the movie as an episode! The cast and crew of the movie had a reunion party to watch the first airing of the MST3K episode. While some people involved with making the movie took it with stride, others were not amused. What were they expecting?! I'm guessing some of them had not seen MST3K before. The Time Chasers MST3K can be seen on YouTube.

There were a ton of great riffs but I'll pick just one: "I'll WALK back to the past!" - Tom Servo

3/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (8/7) Yeah it's late...

Thanks again to Nate and everyone who participated in the monster movies blogathon! I greatly appreciated all the wonderful comments. Sorry for the long time for an update. I was going to post Tales from the Archive Part 2 on Saturday, but then I realized that I have too much content for one article! This is a good thing, so I'm still doing further research and figuring out how to break it up and present it. So without further ado, here is the belated weekly wrap-up.

Batman (1966)
The 60s Batman TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward was quite enjoyable. Sure it was silly, but it was trying to appeal to all age groups and is responsible for bringing Batman to a larger audience. This movie was made between the first and second season, with Julie Newmar noticeably absent as Catwoman. However, Lee Meriwether did a good job filling in, and Cesar Romero (Joker), Frank Gorshin (Riddler), and Burgess Meredith (Penguin) are fun as usual. If you like the TV show you will like the movie as it is basically a long episode. I actually liked this more than Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever and Batman & Robin because it goes all out for humor while those two (especially Forever) tried to keep themselves in the Burton Batman universe. Sadly this is the only part of 60s Batman to be released on DVD. The TV show has yet to have a DVD release for unknown reasons, despite the demand by fans.
6/10

Winnie the Pooh (2011)
I saw this in theaters with my family and we all enjoyed it. It's not quite as good as the original Disney Winnie the Pooh films/shorts as its a little louder and busier at times, but its pretty close. The movie is short (just over an hour) and while I wanted more, I applaud the decision not to make it longer just to pad its running time. Instead the intent was to put out the best possible cut of the film. I noticed two pop culture references (Batman and Raiders of the Lost Ark respectively) which seemed a little out of place in a Pooh film. However, they weren't distracting if you weren't in the know, which is how reference joke should always be handled. The end credits were great and I loved the after credits scene. The short before the film, The Ballad of Nessie, was very good and the animation was straight out of 60s Disney (think Sword in the Stone). Winnie the Pooh goes back to the original A.A. Milne source material, so maybe we will see another movie in this style as there are still plenty of stories they can adapt. This movie is proof that Disney can still make a great traditionally animated film if they want to.
8/10

Dungeonmaster (1984)
Bad movies can be a lot of fun, as long as you avoid the ones that are bad because they are boring. While The Dungeonmaster is pretty damn bad, it is never gets too boring. The main reason for this is because the story is about a guy sucked into a video game (by Satan himself!) and he has to fight through a lot of different game levels. For some reason each level has a different director, but this is still not an anthology film. When a non-anthology movie has seven directors, you know its going to be bad! Besides my love of crappy 80s sci-fi/fantasy/horror flicks, the main reason I wanted to see this is because it contains the origin of the line "I reject your reality and substitute my own" which was popularized by Adam Savage of the TV show Mythbusters. In its original context it is used by the main character as a comeback, but its use in Mythbusters is much better! Richard Moll (Bull on the 80s sitcom Night Court) hams it up as the Devil, while we are also treated to a cameo by 80s metal band, WASP! For some reason this movie is also called Ragewar which makes about sense as its plot.
3/10

Death at a Funeral (2007)
Comedy is the most subjective form of creative expression. However, it is clear that Death at a Funeral is well written with fine acting performances and interesting characters. I have to rank this movie right up there with The Hangover as two of the best comedies from the last ten years. Not many movies revolve around a funeral, and of the ones that do this is probably the first comedy! I don't want to get too much into the plot as there are tons of fun surprises, but the basic story is about the chaos that ensues after the patriarch of a British family dies and his dysfunctional family and friends must come together for the funeral. Death at a Funeral had an American re-make in 2010, although I have no idea why as besides the accents and location, nothing is particularly British about this film. Believe or not, Frank Oz directed this movie. Yes, THAT Frank Oz!
9/10

Highlander (1986)
I had been meaning to watch Highlander for awhile and finally got around to it, in high definition no less! I have a good friend who loves this movie and it sounded like something I would enjoy. What struck me most about this film is how well it was directed. Not only are the scenes in Scotland beautiful, there are some fantastic cuts, great cinematography, and the action is paced perfectly. Sean Connery has a minor role, but steals the show as the mentor to Christopher Lambert's character, Connor MacLeod. I noticed that Highlander is kinda like The Terminator. But instead of soldiers from the future fighting in the present, these are soldiers from the past. The similarity is probably unintentional as they are pretty different movies, but its interesting to think about.
I've heard the sequels are terrible so I'll avoid them and stick with the original. There can only be one!
8/10

Legend (1985)
Legend is Ridley Scott's first, and so far only, fantasy film even though I would like to see him take another shot at the genre. Although the usual whipping boy from Scott's catalog is G.I. Jane, Legend isn't considered to be one of his better movies. Coming right off of Alien and Blade Runner, Legend looks spectacular (especially in High Definition/Blu-Ray). When it comes to the directing, camerawork, lighting, make-up, atmosphere, and special effects, Legend is a masterpiece and an incredibly beautiful film. However, the plot is thin and too simple, the dialogue is often silly, and the acting is hit or miss. Tim Curry is fantastic as the Lord of Darkness and genuinely terrifying with his fantastic make-up and gigantic horns. Remarkably this was Mia Sara's first film and although I have only seen her in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Timecop, this is easily her best performance. On the other side, Tom Cruise was miscast. The voice actors for the other characters, especially for the elf named Gump, are over the top which is distracting and sometimes unintentionally funny. I saw the theatrical cut (only 89 minutes) but there is a director's cut which adds about 25 minutes to the total run time. While I enjoyed Legend, it had the potential to be much better. And despite all the beautiful scenes, beware of the ridiculous amount of Tom Cruise crotch shots!
7/10

Source Code (2011)
I loved Duncan Jones' directorial debut Moon (2009) and while Source Code is a different type of film, it is almost as good! Source Code is a high paced sci-fi thriller about a man who wakes up on a train in a different body and has to figure out who planted a bomb on the train since this person has another bomb going off later int he day in Chicago. I don't want to go any further because I don't want to spoil anything. Source Code is quite different than Moon, but I think anybody who liked Jones' first film would certainly enjoy his followup. Duncan Jones is now two for two, so I can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve for his next movie!
8/10

Iris (2001)
Normally this isn't the type of movie I would seek out, but my brother wanted to watch it so I figured what the hell. Iris is the biopic (based on a book) of British author Iris Murdoch and her struggle with Alzheimer's disease. I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit, especially the acting performances from Jim Broadbent (Professor Slughorn in the Harry Potter movies), Judi Dench, and Kate Winslet. Broadbent won an Oscar for his role and the other two were nominated. Dench probably deserved to win an Oscar for this role more than for her performance as the Queen in Shakespeare in Love (only because she was barely in that film!), but whatever. Memory was one of the main themes in this film, and I liked how the flashbacks were not always in chronological order, but as the characters in the present remembered past events.
7/10

On Friday I'll post a follow-up to my Summer TV article. See you then!