Friday B-Movie Pick: Marked for Death
Classic Steven Seagal from 1990. Yup, this flick is now old enought to buy booze. Great martial arts scenes though. Solid ‘don’t piss off the wrong DEA agent by making it personal’ plot line and plenty of gun-fu, but like the other three word title Seagal flicks from that era, it’s watching Seagal’s rough and tumble, definately not “hearts and flowers”, Aikido that makes the flick.
Friday B-Movie Pick: 1776
This close to July 4th, I gotta go with the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical 1776. William Daniels is quite good as John Adams, but it is Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin who steals the show.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The A-Team
For pure crunch B-Movie goodness, I’m gonna have to go with this tribute to the 1980’s TV series. There were “film critics” who complained that the movie was too fast paced, too loud and was short on plot. Dude! It’s the A-Team! It’s all about loud and fast. Plot wasn’t even in the top five! Fun was right up there with loud and fast though. This wasn’t a bloody ‘art film’ you discussed over expressos. It’s a comedic action movie that was true to the original series, right down to the cigars and Ruger Mini-14s! For extra bonus nerd points, how many of you caught the A-Team/Star Trek reference in the movie? The name of Dwight Schultz’s character from ST:TNG was briefly flashed on screen during the 3D movie scene.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Looker
Ya, it’s Friday the 13th, but I’m going to skip the obvious horror film selection, and go with this Michael Crichton classic from 1981. Sort of a SciFi suspense/thriller about your average Hollywood plastic surgeon getting caught up the murder of beautiful young actresses/models. It has a good cast, which includes James Coburn, Albert Finney and Susan Dey.
Friday B-movie: Ninja Assassin
Not a film you are going to study in film school, but a fun action flick with much, much more than its fair share of blood, gore and violence.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Tango and Cash
A popcorn worthy action flick in the cop buddy genre from 1989. Sly Stallone and Kurt Russell star as Ray Tango and Gabe Cash. Billed as the two top cops in LA, one works uptown, the other downtown. Bad guy Jack Palance frames them to get them out his hair and in prision where he can then have them killed by all the criminals they put there. Bonus star: Teri Hatcher as Tango’s sister Kiki. Geek points for having Michael J. Pollard and Clint Howard in the movie.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
I’m a Doctor Who fan going back to the early 80’s when I was watching the Tom Baker episodes on the local Community College public access channel. The new series does Christmas specials every year, and I have to say, IMNSHO, that this is the best Doctor Who Christmas special yet. They set the bar very high with this one.
This is my second “Christmas Carol” pick.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Timecop
A Van Damme classic from 1994. A good SciFi Time Travel adventure with really good fight scenes.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Eagle Has Landed.
A classic WWII Era thriller with a truly stellar cast. Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, and Donald Pleasence all make this film worth watching. Oh did I mention that Jenny Agutter is in it?
Sunday SciFi: Firefly and Serenity
Joss Whedon’s SciFi/Western series and feature film. IMNSHO, one of the best SciFi series since Babylon 5.
A really top notch cast and great writing produced a series that the fans loved and the network execs just couldn’t grok.
The result a single season, with four episodes never being aired, followed by rather brisk DVD sales and a feature film.
If you haven’t seen Firefly, do yourself a favor, block out a weekend and watch the entire season.