Friday B-Movie Pick: Zombieland
Big time B-Movie! A horror/comedy/action film. Plenty of Zombies, shotguns and humor. Oh ya, plus the occasional young girl in a short skirt or tight jeans. Fire up the popcorn. Plus a major cameo by Bill Murry, playing himself!
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Phantom
Set the Wayback Machine to 1996 for this comic hero movie staring Billy Zane. Action and humor highlight this flick that also stars the Movie Buffy, Kristy Swanson and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Good Guys Wear Black
From the late 70s comes Chuck Norris’ first starring role. He plays a Vietnam Vet who’s unit was wiped out because politicans back home sold them out to the enemy. Years later, he gets his vengence! Bonus points for being Anne Archer’s first film role.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Dark Star
From the mind of John Carpenter comes what is considered by many the perfect Traveller Movie. The crew of this small space ship has been on their deep space mission way to long, and things are starting to get more than a bit weird.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Sherlock Holmes
Not the big budget Hollywood version that was just released on DVD/Blu-Ray, but a deliciously bad version by the same people who brought you uber-low budget Princess of Mars. I would guess that this one was done on an even lower production budget and was probably shot in about the same amount of time. The draw for SciFi geeks is Dominic Keating (best known for Star Trek: Enterprise) and Gareth David-Lloyd (who just finished up three seasons of really good SciFi in the BBC’s Torchwood). David-Lloyd played Dr. Watson and Keating played yet another brother of Sherlock Holmes. We knew about Mycroft Holmes (a founding member of the Diogenes Club) and his younger brother Sigerson. This film introduces yet another brother who’s name I can’t even remember from seeing this a few weeks ago. Even IMDB doesn’t list it. Ben Syder, in is first film role, was actually not bad as Sherlock Holmes, but again, this film isn’t high art. It’s B-Movie making at its low budget best.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Remo Williams
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Based on the long running pulp book series “The Destroyer”, Remo Wiliams: The Adventure Begins is the only screen version of the approximately 150 book series. The cast is actually pretty good, with Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, Fred Ward and for you Star Trek geeks out there, Kate Mulgrew. Don’t expect high art, but it is fun to watch.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Princess of Mars
A deliciously low budget adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic. Updated a bit, John Carter is no longer a Civil War veteran (from the losing side), but a Marine in Afghanistan. Traci Lords was the “name” actor in this flick, but poorly cast as Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium. The movie was shot on an obvious shoestring budget and was shot in an amazing short time. Just 12 days to shoot a SciFi adventure story by one of the classic writers of the genre. Ya, the acting was bad, the script so-so, and the Tharks only have two arms. Still, not too shabby for the budget they had. I’m betting most Hollywood “indies” couldn’t pull off a feature film with the time and budget constrants this crew had to work with.
Friday B-Movie: The January Man
From 1989 comes this nicely done murder mystery, were tracking down the serial killer is only half the mystery. The cast is top notch. It includes Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel and Danny Aiello. They really breath some life into a so-so script and make this movie worth watching.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Bourne Identity
Not the big budget action flick with dumb looking dummy from Team America, but the 1989 made for TV movie version. This version had the reigning King and Queen of 1980s TV movies, Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith. Deliciouly bad, and Jaclyn Smith’s performance reminded me of Sally Field’s performance in Soapdish, which was made two years later.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Jake Speed
A wonderfully campy tip of the hat to the pulp novel series: The Executioner, The Death Merchant, Nick Carter, and yes, the classic are included. Doc Savage is mentioned by name!