Friday B-Movie Pick: Hot Tub Time Machine
This movie was better than I expected, mostly because of good actors, including John Cusack and Crispin Glover. That and a complete irreverance for just about anything. Craig Robinson pretty much played the same character he did in Zack & Miri do a Porno, but he did it well. I watched the unrated version, so there was a fair amount of gratious nudity, which added to the mindless enjoyment of this B-Movie.
Friday B-Movie: Kick Ass
Not your typical comic book hero movie. None of the “super heros” have any powers (well, Kick Ass comes the closest, but his “powers” just allow him to take and survive your more than average ass kicking). The title hero is just an everyday high school kid who decides that he has had enough and does something about it. More than a bit violent at time, but it about putting the hurt on bad guys. The character Hit Girl steals the show though.
Three interesting bits of SciFi
Ok, one is Pulp, so call it two and half.
First, Matt Smith is coming back for 13 new episodes of Doctor Who, which, like bow ties, is cool. Not so sure about the Fez though. Johnny Johnny can pull it off, but I think River and Amy had the right idea.
Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War is coming to the screen, and it’s being done by Ridley Scott and David Webb Peoples. Those are the fellows who brought you Bladerunner.
The juicy pulp rumor is that Quentin Tarantino is working on a Shadow movie, which would be cooler than bow ties.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Von Richthofen & Brown
Set the way back machine for 1971 and dial for one of the masters of B-Movies, Roger Corman. The scenes of WWI fighter combat are the reason to watch this film. The historical accuracy is hit and miss, the planes are fantastic!
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: 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.