Friday B-Movie Pick: Gattaca
This 1997 film is best known for where Uma Thurman meets the man who would become her ex-husband. Other than the ex-Mr. Thurman, it really has a pretty good cast. Uma Thurman, who went on to fame in the Kill Bill movies, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, Jude Law and Alan Arkin give the movie some serious acting chops. SNL’s Maya Rudolph had a brief scene as well, one of her early “serious” acting jobs. The movie focuses on an old SciFi concept, when science allows parents to start editing their children’s genes to create “perfect” humans, what happens to those who didn’t have their genes tweaked? A good film, but not a great one.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Wrath of Khan
Let us set the Way Back Machine to 1982. Yup, 30 years ago, the best Star Trek movie ever was released. This one had the original TOS cast, with Leonard Nimoy directing, a fine looking Kirstie Alley as the Vulcan Lt. Saavik, and Ricardo Montalban as Khan. One of the reasons this movie was so cool was that they took it away from Roddenberry and put in more military style uniforms, and modeled the space battles after Age of Sail naval battles instead of cold war submarine battles. If you grew up on TNG, DS9, or Lord have mercy, Voyager, do yourself a favor and check The Wrath of Khan out.
Friday B-Movie Pick: A Derek Flint Double Feature!
Our Man Flint and In Like Flint
Double feature today! Both Derek Flint movies staring James Coburn. Coburn was an icon of cool back in the mid 60s (these movies came out in 1966 & 1967). He was also a personal student of Bruce Lee. Watch his fight scenes carefully in these films. These were the Austin Powers movies of their day. They were the best of the spy spoof genre spawned by the popular James Bond films.
Friday B-Movie Pick: X-Men First Class
If you knew nothing about the X-Men and just wanted to see an action comic book superhero movie, this would have been a decent movie. Of course, they did the standard tossing to the wind of decades of history generated by the X-Men comics. Given that, it was almost painful to watch. Some of the things they did to the Marvel Universe was on par with the fictional soap opera, The Sun Also Sets, making Montana Moorehead the daugther of Maggie.
Friday B-Movie Pick: High Road to China
From 1983 comes this action romance tail set in the 1920s. Tom Selleck plays a former WWI fighter pilot hired by a rich heiress, played by Bess Armstrong, to fly her to China in order to find her father and save her fortune. Of course, you have her father’s evil business partner who doesn’t want her to succeed so he can have all the money. A classic from the age of the VCR, recently released in DVD and Blu-ray
Friday B-Movie Pick: Cowboys and Aliens
The title pretty much sums the plot. OK, more like Cowboys vs. Aliens. Daniel Crag and Harrison Ford lead the Cowboy (and Indian) forces against the aliens. Both play hard, tough men who have a softer side, that few ever see. Plenty of action, including good special effects. This is a fun action flick that should have done better in the theaters.
Friday B-Movie Pick: 2009 Lost Memories
Good South Korean SciFi action flick. An alternate history story where a small group of Japanese change history so Japan was on the winning side of WWII. A side effect of that was Korea being part of the greater Japanese empire, and not an independent country. A “Korean” investigator working for the Japanese National Police Force stumbles on this secret and goes down that rabbit hole! Good action flick well worth the rental.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Three Musketeers
I saw the 2011 version of this classic tale last weekend, and I have a love/hate relationship with this movie. In some ways it was great Three Musketeers movie. The locations, the costumes, and the sword work was top notch. There was some brillant casting this movie as well. Notably Ray Stevenson as Porthos and Christoph Waltz as the Cardinal. James Corden as the servant Planchet was also a fine bit of casting. He really did well as the comic relief in the film.
Then there were parts that were not anywhere near the original story, not that Dumas probably wouldn’t have like them. Namely the wetsuit, used for stealthy approaches under the water of Venician canals, and the airships. Not Zeppelins, but period warships with big cigar shaped hot air ballons that allowed them to fly in a way that physics would not let them do. Oh, did I mention the really good special effects and green screen work? In case you missed this flick in the three weeks it was on the big screen, it was shot in 3D, by the director of the 3D Resident Evil movie. Said directory is married to Milla Jovovich, who was in this movie as well, playing the villainess, Milady De Winter. She was actually really good as the devious Lady of mystery, intrigue and all around femme fatale spy. The Resident Evil style stunts and fight scenes were a bit over the top though. Ya, it was cool watching her take out a half dozen Palace guards in full period dress, giant skirt and all. It just might have been cooler for Jovovich to have done the role without the stunts she is famous for. The rest of her performance in the film certainly gave the impression that she could have pulled it off quite nicely.
In all, a fine bit of B-Movie for an evening home with flatscreen and popcorn.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Scoop
Woody Allen’s latest movie. I was a bit hestitant about watching this after the horribly bad Curse of the Jade Scorpion, but I figured at worst, Scarlett Johansson might provide some decent eye candy, which she does BTW. I was pleasantly surprised that this flick was much better than the last effort I saw by the Woodman, but then that bar wasn’t set very high. At least he didn’t cast himself as the romantic lead in this one, instead taking the role of the helpful elder, sort like your goofy uncle who alway avoided those ‘respectible’ jobs. Hugh Jackman supplies the eye candy for those who aren’t into curvy blonde females. You won’t be studying this one in film school, unless you are doing a theis on Woody Allen, but this one was worth the rental and home made popcorn.
Monday Book Pick: The Steampunk Detective
The Steampunk Detective by Darrel Pitt
A light hearted hat tip to Sherlock Holmes, with a thinly disgusied WWI vet operating in a Steampunk 1920s. The author includes characters and references from multiple sources of the Holmes era, including Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The detective’s young ward, an orphaned high wire artist, is a references to Bob Kane’s best known character’s first sidekick. There have been a bunch of books lately that float on sea of historical and literary references, ranging from the extremely well done (the Anno Dracula) series, to bizarre shock lit (The Adventures of Ned the Seal). The Steampunk Detective falls somewhere in the middle of that. This book can be read by young teens (or younger), where the other two would not be a good choice for young audience.