Friday B-Movie Pick: Black Panther
Black Panther
There are reasons the Marvel superhero movies make money hand over fist. The built in fan base of nerds is nice, but they are actually producing good actions stories with some serious star power (Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker for example). The conflict within the royal family is sort of stuff that old Billy S. was writing to put paying butts in seats of the Globe Theater. Like DC’s Wonder Woman, this movie was a labor of love and it showed. The set and costume designing were outstanding and the action scenes were top notch. Plus this film took the formula for a good James Bond Movie to heart. The better the villain, the better the movie. Michael B. Jordan, as the unknown member of the royal family coming home to stir up trouble, was fornicating excellent. Right up to his final scene, he just owned the total bad assness of his character.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Killing Gunther
Killing Gunther
Going deep into the B-Movie roots of this list with this Drive In Theater worthy entry, Killing Gunther. This documentary style straight to cable flick is about a group of young assassins who want make their mark in the field by killing the top man in their field, i.e. Gunther. Gunther is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who doesn’t appear until two thirds into the flick, and promptly steals the movie. The only other people who you probably recognize are Hanna Simone and Cobie Smulders. Simone is mostly known for the New Girl TV series, so this was a fun summer flick for her. Smulders on the other hand is doing action movies with Tom Cruise and racking in the cash for her continuing Maria Hill character in the Marvel movies. The answer to why she was in this turkey is simple, the writer/director/star of the film, Taran Killam, is her husband. You may ask Arnold Schwarzenegger did this as well. Probably because he thought was a goof, and is at the point in his career where he can do what he wants. In all, not a bad B-Movie, for a B-Movie. The acting is deliberately over the top (it’s spoof on documentaries, so that is kinda required), the action is actually not horrible (again, B-Movie here, so don’t expect John Wick level action), and it is laugh out loud funny at times. It was shot as an action comedy, and it delivers on both. Definitely worth the popcorn and rental.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Atomic Blonde
Atomic Blonde
A fast paced action film set at the tail end of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall starts to come down during the movie. Charlize Theron plays a British agent sent into Berlin to collect the McGuffin (in this case, a list of spies, including who is actually working for whom). Add in James McAvoy as the MI6 agent in charge of Berlin, who has not just gone native, he’s gone “bloody feral.” Spectacular fight scenes, and of course, nobody is exactly what they seem. Double agents, double crosses, and of course someone seduces the beautiful French agent.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Hitman’s Bodyguard
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
An action comedy buddy story with the inspired pairing of Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. This is a funny and deliciously violent film. Reynolds is a high priced bodyguard at the top of his game, until he loses a high profile client (a well known arms dealer). Now down on his luck, he gets a call from his ex-girlfriend (an Interpol agent) who asks him to transport his arch nemesis (Jackson’t hitman character) so he can testify against a war criminal. From there, the fun really starts. Not a family film, unless your kids are old enough for an impressive amount of profanity and violence.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets
Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets
Luc Besson had a lot of fun bringing one of his favorite childhood comics to the big screen, and it show. This is a fun film. Awesome special effects, visually stunning, and gloriously true to the pulp origins of the original comic. The weak of part of the film is the two lead characters, who gave it a good try, but just didn’t nail the chemistry needed. Still worth the popcorn and rental, especially if you have a nice big screen with a good sound system.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Smokey and the Bandit
Smokey and the Bandit
A B-Movie classic. The writer and director, Hal Needham, freely, and proudly, admits that this was a low budget film that was intended for regional (i.e. Southern) appeal. It picked up some box office appeal, when Needham’s friend Burt Reynolds read the script and said that he wanted to play the Bandit. It picked up some more star power with Jackie Gleason and Sally Field. Not leaving Jerry Reed out, but he was better known for his musical career than his acting. The film was made for just over $4 million and was the second highest grossing film of 1977. This film is an American Classic. If you haven’t seen it, don’t wait. Fire up the popcorn and enjoy a film that Billy Bob Thorton claims is considered more of a documentary in the South.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Patriot
The Patriot
Going with something different for the 4th of July pick this year. Mel Gibson’s revolutionary war movie tells the tale of the war in the Southern states, and the hit and run tactics used by the American forces. Excellent movie with outstanding performances by Heath Ledger and Jason Isaacs. Star Trek fans will be happy to see Rene Auberjonois. Also featured is veteran actor Adam Baldwin, who should have played a tough guy in a Libertarian Space Western for five seasons.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Passengers
Passengers
A good solid SciFi film that combines a psychologic thriller with a love story, and throws in a locked box mystery for flavor. The setting is a colony ship taking 5000 colonists to another planet. Since the trip is 120 years long, so everybody, including the crew is in cyro-stasis. The fun starts when the ship takes some damage the automated systems cannot handle. One of the first glitches is waking a passenger up 90 years early. Yup, for the first chunk of the movie, it’s all Chris Pratt, and an android bartender. He spends a year trying to figure out what’s going on, and slowing losing it from the isolation. Add in Jennifer Lawrence’s character for reasons I’m not going to give away, and now you have the romance part. When things go start really wrong, from the accumulating damage over the previous two years, toss in a crew member waking up. He doesn’t live long, damage from multiple failures in his stasis pod, but it gives the passengers the access they need to save the ship, and the 5000 other passengers, literally at the last possible moment. It’s not great, but solidly acted and well crafted.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Suicide Squad
Suicide Squad
Probably the best DC live action movie since the latest Batman trilogy. A good action movie. Personally, I thought all the Jared Leto/Joker hype was seriously over rated after watching this film. Cesar Romero could have done it better, given the freedom of a R rating. Much better performances were given by Margot Robbie and Viola Davis. Will Smith was good playing Will Smith, which was more convincing than Leto’s Joker. Still it was worth the rental and the popcorn.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Accountant
The Accountant
Honestly, a better movie than I expected. Ben Affleck played the poker faced autistic genius who does forensic accounting for very bad people for very large amounts of money. In some ways, this movie has a similar theme to Revenge of the Nerds, i.e. don’t piss off the really smart people. Except in this case, messing with the smart kid with the nerd glasses can get you killed. Raised by his father (Army Intelligence spook) not to be a victim, the Accountant is deadly dangerous, and will feel no remorse as he shoots you through the head. The movie actually tells a good story, in which people are not what they appear to be on the surface, but face it, it’s the fight scenes that you are going to rewatch it for. Fast, in close fighting and CQB Gun Fu. Plus some nice long range Barrett Fu. One of the bad guys pulls a knife, the Accountant pulls out his study leather belt. I’ve been practicing martial arts for a long time, trust me, the guy with the knife was deep trouble. Even Anna Kendrick, who also plays an accountant (she wanted to study art, but her dad said that wouldn’t pay the mortgage), gets some good hits in, including bashing a bad guy’s arm with toilet lid. Remember kids, a true warrior uses the weapons at hand (bonus nerd points for identifying the Chuck Norris movie that is from). Kendrick’s character isn’t a dark accountant, she’s just a regular nerd accountant doing cost accounting. I’ve also taken some graduate accounting courses, so if you are going to do accounting, cost accounting is the most fun. Trust me on this one. Trust me on The Accountant too. Fire up the popcorn and enjoy.