Reviews

All in all the story and plotline is very formula; there are good guys that are misunderstood and bad guys that are silly and scared. The good guys chase and chase and chase the bad guys. Will they catch the bad guys? Will the bad guys confess to unbelievable crimes? Or will just once the bad guys getaway. Don't hold your breath.

There is an added wrinkle as both Detective Joe Gavilan (Harrison Ford) and his rookie partner Kasey Calden (Josh Hartnett) take care of outside interests while in pursuit.

Meantime it is fun watching this almost cartoon-like execution, as they run past all the familiar landmarks that you may recognize out and about Los Angeles, California, USA:

Beverly Hills, Hollywood & Highland, Hollywood, Los Angeles Subway System, Mt. Olympus in Hollywood Hills, Pacific Palisades, Parker Center Police Headquarters -at 150 N. Los Angeles St., Parking Lot, L. A. P. D. Hollywood Station at 1358 Wilcox Ave., Santa Monica, Venice Canals, and Venice.

As with any sequel, the viewers of the original movie may be a tad disappointed because the formula may have changed some. However, this movie can stand alone as one of the outstanding zombie movies like "My Boyfriend's Back" (1993).

Seems we have not seen the last of Bernie. Turns out he embezzled a couple of million dollars and others are out to get it. Our old friends Larry (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard (Jonathan Silverman), accused of being accomplices, found the key and once again are off to the islands. Meantime back at the ranch, Bernie is undergoing a voodoo process to track down the deposit box; this process leaves Bernie a dancing fool.

Well, it is Mel all right; he started getting gung-ho with whit Braveheart (1995) hand has been gearing up ever since. The only problem I have with this movie is I cannot figure out what he has to say even when he tells you. With the probable exception of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), most war movies just use war as a backdrop to their main purpose as in Apocalypse Now (1979) (an updated Heart of Darkness (1993)). This movie has the look and feel of an updated "Green Berets" Pluck out John Wayne and plugin Mel.

We know the base story is of the stand-off of the NVA at Ia Drang in November 1965 against overwhelming odds, with a little help of superior technology. The uniforms and equipment look pretty authentic. The terrain was well done also; it could be the real thing as much as California. Not all of Vietnam is a swamp.

Even though there is a lot of action (more phosphorus than C4) this is not just a shootemup movie. They also focused on the wives back home, showing how they had to cope with the situation. There were also some cursory sub-stories as a combat photographer getting more than he expected.

I have the same conundrum as others do that has not been there. The Vietnam I was in (67-68) had a few firefights, but most of the time it was our spies against their spies and there was no front. When we tangled both sides lost an even average of 15% but if you could find them and drop something on them you got your 15% from a safe distance. I was in the special reactionaries and trained for just the situation this movie depicts. I was the RTO and was supposed to fight out and retake the base to not let the NVA get a foothold. However, it never came.

One thing you can say about this movie is that you will get involved and almost forget that it is a movie.

Wayne Murder Case aka A Strange Adventure (1932)

However, his secretary has anticipated the reading and already switched the soon-to-be inherited diamond with a paste substitute. Silas (William V. Mong) is not that dumb and has sent for the police.

He still goes forward with the reading of his will, surrounded by relatives, associates, and the police. They all give him dirty looks and if looks could kill... Just before he signs the will Silas keels over. Everyone closes in with genuine concern that he is still alive.

Detective-Sergeant Mitchell (Regis Toomey) is assigned the case. And who should stick her nose in but a newspaper gal 'Nosey' Toodles (June Clyde)? She is determined to be the first to discover who dispatched Silas.

If you ask me there seems to be something going on between the two.

One of my favorite scenes is where the servant Jeff (Fred 'Snowflake' Toones) is confronted by a phantom waving its arms.

Another plus is that all the actors are displayed with their real names, instead of just a bunch of disembodies names scrolling on the screen.

They also hurried the story or this could have been an excellent case.

The first time I saw this was in 1967 in Vietnam. I never saw a James Colburn movie before. I still believe this is his best followed by "The President's Analyst."

Roger Miller makes the movie with his tunes and "Do unto others before they do it unto you."

Here is your chance (icky) to see Bruce Dern and Carroll O'Connor naked together. After Roger Miller's singing, I think Lewton Cole's (James Colburn) amorality is what makes the movie. Be sure to look for Fifi LaFlamme

Several stories overlap and interweave. MSgt. Henry J. Foggers (Claude Akins) is left alone in charge of the army's gold while the rest of the army is in war games. He with the help of a few acquaintances including a shoemaker deposited the gold in a safer place.

Lewton Cole is a cheap not so scruples gambler who find a map on a 20-dollar bill. Will, it cost him his life? We also see gunfights, houses of ill repute, jails, bandits, and some very fine horses.

We are left with the question of "Do we value gold too much?"

Kids with issues take amateur photos of space with a toy shuttle attached to a weather balloon. They may have made contact of some kind.

Meanwhile back at the ranch cattle have been disassembled. The local Sharif searches for a missing farmer. The farmer's wife is irradiated. To top it off the military is snooping around.

This looks like it might have made a good afternoon special. The visual recording was o.k.; it was a sort of "Blair Witch" without all the camera shaking.

Several overlapping schemes with no definitive ending other than "Watch the sky." They might have been thinking sequel.

All the actors are topnotch. You will find yourself kibitzing for both sides and cringe as they play with each other as a cat and mouse. The question is who is the cat?

This is a W. W. II film about how naive the Americans are about what is going on in Europe. When the fight and ideologies become a reality in their house, they are forced to take sides in the struggle for freedom.

Many ideological speeches take place between family members and other acquaintances; this is probably due to being an adaptation from a play. Even though on the surface this looks like an anti-fascist film, it is more complex with people that have diverse motives. However, they show that there is only one way to deal with evil so that future generations will not have to live in terror.

Produce by that famous Mashichi Nagata screenplay by Kimio Want-a-be... oops Watanabe. I only saw the English version produced at Titara Sound Studios by Jay H. Cipes and Edward Plamer. The introductory titles have names of unknown actors who play unknown characters.

Turns out we, especially Japan, have been contemplating a new powerful energy source. And given our propensity for distraction are threatening another planet, Paran. The Pairan's look like stars in their protective suits, but not enough to be accepted in our society. So, one takes on the appearance of a star of the local follies so she can worm her way into a scientist's house and discourage his efforts.

Meanwhile, as we look at stock film footage that does not match the story, a rogue planet (now keep track of this is the third planet) is speeding towards earth causing great heat, massive destruction, and screaming children.

Where are they leading us to? Watch the last five minutes and find out what all the hub-bub is about.

Ah, a love story that proves you "R" what you eat. Taken from the original story of Capulet and Montague - revised as "R" and Julie.

Before you get the feeling that this is just another cross-species love story you find it also an action movie with a fast car and guns. There is some nice music; too bad that they did not play "Muskrat Love." We even have a swimming pool scene in which they are not wearing swimsuits. The balcony scene is a tad too familiar. It is the East and Julie is the sun!

This presentation is a cut above a lot of the later zombie movies. It is a story about love and redemption. It may even have a redeeming value for us as we learn all zombies are not the same.

For DVD viewers there are the standard extras that do not add much to the experience except for the voice-over that tells what you are supposed to be seeing.

This critter was filmed in Centennial Regional High School - 880 Hudson Street, Greenfield Park, Longueuil, Québec, Canada. This is the only reason they have not been nabbed by Homeland Security.

Who are those actors? They are "ALL" secondary and never heard of.

This loud background noise takes to the foreground as filler; about 20% of the filler time.

Stay tuned for a, really, really dumb car chase.

Maybe it is just because this is hindsight but this has shades of HAL9000, with paranoid faux technology.

Be sure to wear your foil hat and do not look up while watching this movie.

They never heard of denial of service or stack execution disable (SED).

They did find a good solution to role-playing; the only winning move.

Grace (Samara Weaving) marries into a fun family with a great tradition. Looks like wedding nights are game nights as they should be. Let us see, "How About a Nice Game of Chess?," or maybe hide and seek with a tad of a twist?

Yes, this is one of those polarizing movies that you either cannot stand or you immerse yourself in and kibitz.

I do not mind telling you that it has a lot of gratuitous blood and guts. It is sort of a slasher version of "Clue"; however not quite as complex.

Se get to be familiar with quite a few unique weapons. This May be helpful in the future in case you are in the game.

Will we survive the night? Do we want to survive the night?

Duck!

Should they make a sequel or two?

This animal is a whopper in more ways than one. All you have to do is suspend any type of belief in reality and it is a lot of fun trying to outguess the next move. Even after you have seen it a million times you will find your self kibitzing "look look look it is still running." And what is Joshua doing at the back door?

A teenager, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) that is too tech-savvy for his good is searching for the new game on the net. He stumbles into the NORAD mainframe it was DARPA/net. For those with a short lifespan DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was the precursor to the internet. We all know what happens when you do this. Yep, now David with the help of his teenage sweetie, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) must worm his way into NORAD and stop the game or we are toast.

This is a fun tongue-in-cheek quasi-historical science fiction series. There are other series that duplicate and parallel including but not limited to "Eureka." Characters were exchanged with "Eureka" and "Warehouse 13."

With each adventure, the custodians of Warehouse 13 are challenged with a new form of evil that is bent on using the items in Warehouse 13 for some nefarious purpose. They must be identified and the threat neutralized preferably on the same episode; however, some problems are complex enough that they might take a couple of episodes and some bad guys are so complex that they might take odd episodes now and then.

The program is packed tight and flexible enough that you will want to re-watch this hence purchasing the DVDs instead of just going through at one time on some sort of streaming device.

You also find the voiceover interviews add quite a bit to your viewing enjoyment and help you understand what they were trying to portray in the 63 different adventures. There are many other specials on the DVD that contribute to these adventures also.

The characters speak clear enough and slow enough that you can keep up with them, however, I still like to use the subtitles as a supplement. It is also fun sometimes to use subtitles and in other languages and see how they translate or mistranslate what is being said.

"No one would have believed, in the last years of the 19th century, that this world was being watched keenly and closely by an intelligence greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own..." H. G. Wells

A tad changed to the 21st century.

The actual HG Wells story is more closely aligned with Nevil Shute's book "On the Beach." A man realizing this is possibly the end of the world observes how other people handle the possibility that this is the end of the world. There is no family conflict with nerdy kids.

The 1953 version of this film also included a love interest that was not in the original story. This later version contains several attempts for us to negotiate with the aliens and or understand from the aliens' point of view what was going on.

This latest rendition is more of a family feud that meets the aliens. It was not all bad; there were attempts to keep some of the original story and included some of the designs from the 1954 film. We are also treated to a bloodsucking scene reminiscent of the original story. Of course, Stephen Spielberg didn't want to copy the book or the original movie so the aliens pop up instead of fly down, six of one-half dozen of another.

The graphics were fairly decent and did not look like the cheat CGI that you usually see on quick movies. The background music stayed in the background where it belongs.

This is not the easiest presentation to rank as for people that like bloodsucking fast action nerdy kid's stories this could be a top star production; however, for anybody seeking any kind of depth or relationship to the original story or relationship to the original movie, this is more of a run of the mill pill. Therefore, you will understand when I give it average stars to watch ability and standing on its merit.

The original film name is more appropriate "Terrarium" (2003). (Filmed in Las Vegas and surrounding area) watch and you will see why.

A new planet has been found and looks like it can be colonized. We get the standard mix of colonizers and their backgrounds.

Their spaceship has a mishap and the potential colonizers wake up (thaw out) 15 years later to find themselves stuck in their cryo-thingies. But wait, they are not alone. Looks like they may be alien munchies. But wait, it gets weirder.

However, I am not about to give the story away. Per-say the original title may give you a clue.

Do not let tales of low budget discourage you and think of the presentation as more of a play.

Agents in a secret society of assassins are being systematically dispatched. They require someone of greater talent to squelch the culprit before they are all dispatched. Their potential recruit is Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy). The head of the society Sloan (Morgan Freeman) sends Fox (Angelina Jolie), appropriately named, as the recruiter and trainer of the newly selected assassin. She has her work cut out for her. Will Wesley ever shape up? And is there more to his missions than what they told him?

This film has lots of action which requires you to suspend the laws of physics. We also have Angela who does not distract from her character. And who can dispute that Morgan Freeman is not one of the best good guys/ bad guys?

I do not like to have the media get in the way of reviews however I have only seen this on Blu-Ray and cannot compare it to other media.

Already this series is being compared to other BBC productions. So, I will also say the there is a lot in common with Midsomer Murders (1997 TV series) that spends as much time on the family as it does on the investigation. However, it is much darker in content, not bloodier but psychologically darker.

Kurt Wallander (Kenneth Branagh) must solve seemingly unsolvable crimes. This is today and not a period piece. Of course, Wallander's job may be at the cost to his family and relationships to give this series move depth.

Right after Branagh, it was surprising to see how well David Warner played Kurt's father, Povel (1 episode, 2008).

" Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a were-rabbit when the rabbit-bane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."

This movie captures the spirit of all the traditional fur-bearing creature films. Mild-mannered Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis) experiments with the nature of rabbits and men. Little could he understand the terrible beast within us that he released on the world of man and vegetables alike.

One interesting thing about the film is good and bad guys and alike have those gnarly looking British teeth. Also, the film is full of unabashed double entendre.

Be sure to look at the DVD extras then watch the movie again.

Features: Cracking Commentary Delete Scenes How Wallace & Gromit Went to Hollywood Behind the Scenes of "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit A Day in the Life of Aradman How to Build a Bunny Stage Fright The Family Album Reviews

More rabid rabbit fun in Night of the Lepus (1972).

Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant) British industrialist is in town two days early. This is during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and there is nowhere to stay. He finds an apartment to sublet from Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar) who posted it not even dreaming that a male would answer her ad. Later Steve Davis (Jim Hutton) an Olympic competitor is also early and sublets from Sir Rutland's sublet. On top of this Christine's fiancée works at the British embassy and must maintain a proper background. Now you see the makings of a good comedy.

I learned to make coffee from this movie (a unique proportion of grounds to water) and there are many parallel mysteries as just what sport does Steve Davis compete in?

Being Grant's last movie surely did not slow him down and he has those Grant expressions down pat.

I have always enjoyed both Johnny and June. But I was not too interested in their lives. And I have to admit that this film was a bit depressing at first. It reminded me too much of Steinbeck. I started to question my purchase when before I could finish the thought, I was sucked into their lives and this movie. This adds a new perspective on classic songs. We see that they were just people and subject to personalities and environments as we all are.

You will find these songs going through your head days after viewing this movie. Note at the ending credits the real thing as the real duo sings "Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man"

This is one movie that you do not want to dive into the detail as it is fun to be surprised as it unfolds. It looks as though some lucky sod in the village has won the lottery. The trick is to find out who it was. Then if found what chain of circumstances will it trigger.

I about died laughing before the beginning credits and could not contain myself to the end. One thing led to another the snowballed out of hand. I could not believe the actors could keep a straight face.

Now before you get the wrong idea and think this is some slapstick comedy or some Monty Python script. You would be wrong. This film gives you the feeling that you are there experiencing a small snippet of real life in a small village. This has depths like "Ladies in Lavender"; there are many underlying stories of the individuals and you want to see how they play out. You will not be disappointed.

Log before "The Deep" there was "Wake of the Red Witch" A fury-filled adventure and a passionate love story with Gail Russell who says ...I can't be bought."

It is the 1860s in the South Pacific, Capt. Ralls (John Wayne,) is the skipper of the ship, Red Witch.

John pits himself up against a ruthless Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneyeand (Luther Adler), a giant (flimsy) octopus and (sturdy) Gail Russell to recover some pearls, even gold. And someone of course, is killed in the movie.

Be prepared for flash-backs, lots of them and a possible flash forward.

You get an early view of Gig Young as Sam Rosen who can be seen again in "Ask Any Girl" (1959).

All in all, it is a very watchable movie and you may be surprised that you are caught up in the story.

Deadly Messages, originally titled Ouija, was a made for TV movie which aired in 1985 on ABC

Cindy (Sherri Stoner, appropriately named for the part) erotically strokes the Ouija Board. Sprouting mumbo-jumbo about contacting the dead.

Formula movie and you can pretty much figure the plot and who is who from the beginning. However, it is well acted and without an excess of gore.

After forgetting her key, Laura Daniels( Kathleen Beller) and not being able to get her roommate Cindy to answer the door (Phone) of a third story apartment, Laura Daniels is gutsy enough to use the fire escape. You guessed it she witnesses a murder. Naturally without clues the police do not believe her. Things start to snow ball as Laura plays with a Ouija Board, and figures out she is being stalked. The whole thing would be over in 15 minutes if anyone would believe her. And there are plenty of 'Stay in the Car' type scenes. The only thing I guessed wrong was there were no scenes with jumpy cats.

Are we sure this is the end? Is anybody there?

A brand-new jumbo aircraft that fly its self is being piloted by a cowboy who hates computers. Keeping an eye on him is a rival for his girl (the other pilot). Sure, as shoot'n there is a second plane, privately owned and piloted by a 200-hour pilot sort of clips the jumbo. Turns in to the jumbo jet now has disabled the ailerons in an upward position. This is just the beginning.

This movie is closer to the original Airplane movie with the exception that all the people just half expose their past a little at a time as the disaster proceeds. The ending is predictable and the constant problems are part of the formula. However, tithe actors make a very good mix and do their jobs well enough to make you forget that it is a movie.

Jonathan Raven is a young lad learning standard Japanese defenses when he gets the news that both his parents have been dispatched by a secret group that everyone knows about called the Black Dragons. He joins the Black Dragons and becomes the only occidental to survive Black Dragon training. He turns on them unexpectedly at the last moment taking out some top dogs. Naturally this makes them extremely annoyed. By this time, he is married and has a kid that he never sees. Wife dies in child birth and the kid is sent away for safety.

This is where this story starts and in this episode Jonathan (Jeffrey Meek) is a bartender that has to protect his boss from a karetsu type take over. He enlists the help of the gun, knife, blunger, brass knuckle etc. Wielding buddy Ski (an old Lee Majors.) In the process everyone learns a lesson or two.

As with all pilots when all is settled Jonathan goes off to look for his kid.

The movie is lots of fun with formula plots and standard twists and more than natural martial arts.