Friday B-Movie Pick: Total Recall
Not the Schwarzenegger classic, but the remake that left out Mars entirely. An OK flick if you judge it on its own, but it pales to the original. Not that it didn’t try and it did have some real hat tips to the original. They also roped in the Bladerunner look and feel for the streets of “the colony”, as they were calling Austrilia in the film. There was even a Mr and Mrs Smith reference thrown in. Fun to watch for the fight and chase scenes, as well as the leading lady eye candy factor (Kate Becinsale and Jessica Biel for the double w00t!). Ok for a rental, but not worth the added cost for the less than useless Ultraviolet crap you are forced to pay for in order to get a DVD/BluRay version.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Genesis of the Daleks
Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks
Reaching back to 1975, we find this classic from the Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor, era. The Time Lords send the Doctor, Sarah and Harry back to the creation of the Doctor’s greatest enemy, the Daleks! It has that low budget mid 70s BBC look, but carries it off well. If you only know the new Doctor series (Numbers 9, 10 and 11), check this out.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Casino Royale
Not the recent Bond franchise reboot, but the 1967 comedy version. A great cast including David Niven as the original James Bond, Woody Allen as his nephew Jimmy Bond, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Orsen Wells, and a few other cameo shots by actors you should recognize. I’m a fan of the Austin Powers movies, but Casino Royale proves that you could squeeze every last drop of Mojo out of Austin, and the whole batch would not be as cool as David Niven’s mustache alone!
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Commitements
The story of a group of young Dubliners who form a Soul group. Why, because the Irish are the Blacks of Europe, and Dublin is the Blacks of Ireland. A fun film with really good music and great characters.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Expendables
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back again. OK, not a big role, but he is in this flick, along with most of the big action movie stars from the 80s, 90s, and a couple of kids who were doing action flicks in the early 00s. Don’t expect Oscar performances here, just a lot of action and explosions. The actors had a good time making this film and it shows. Fire up the popcorn and enjoy.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Halloween Classics
Next Wednesday is Halloween, so we’re going with the classics:
An American Werewolf in London
Friday B-Movie Pick: Terminal Invasion
Bruce Campbell in all his B-Movie glory! Filmed in Canada back in 2002, this low budget beauty co-stars the former ST:DS9 Dabo girl, Chase masterson as the plucky pilot. All the action takes place in a small airport terminal, were a group of hostile aliens are trying to kill everyone.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Sharpe’s Challenge
After a long break from the Sharpe series of movies, Sean Bean returns to the role of Richard Sharpe. This time he has to travel to India to save his ex-NCO, played by Daragh O’Malley. They had the budget to actually film this in India, so ya, really nice location shots, and a beautiful Indian actress to play the femme fatale. A good solid action flick set in the hayday of the British Empire. It stands alone well, but you may want to watch the entire series before watching this. I did, and it was time well spent. After watching these, you will know how to fire three rounds a minute from a musket!
Friday B-Movie Pick: Terminator 2: Judegment Day
Arnold Schwarzenegger came back. This was a well done sequel that expands on the original. This 1991 (yes, it is old enough to order its own booze) movie had ground breaking special effects. It was also a good vehicle for Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. She went through extensive training, including advanced weapons handling, to prepare for the role. Robert Patrick became a SciFi icon as the T-1000 Terminator. The movie is also noted for its use of identical twins to portray both the character and the T-1000 imitating the character. One of the pairs of identical twins was Linda Hamilton and her sister, who is a nurse.
Friday B-Movie Pick: This is Spinal Tap
Set the Wayback Machine to 1984 for this classic Rock mockumenary. Rob “Meathead” Reiner was the actual directory as the fictional director in this film about the back stage antics of the Heavy Metal Hair band, Spinal Tap. A cult comedy classic complete with a string of drummers that die of various means, including re-accuring spontainous combustion. My favorite was the one who choked to death on vomit, but not his own. Who produced the vomit remains shrouded in mystery.
The fellow who played Spinal Tap will appear again, and again, in other mockumenaries, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, for example.