rspress Reviews

Solarbabies (1986)

A lame duck? Or Lamer than Howard The Duck?

[5/10 · 14 December 2007]

A film about kids on skates (Gotta capture that Xanadu audience), and Alien Ball and no water. Well it seems I gave away the whole movie just in that sentence. Well there are some good things if you are a fan of Rick Springfield lookalikes.

Actually if anything makes this film worth watching it is the lovely Jami Gertz! The scene were she is in the white robe and lit from behind drove my young blood wild! For those that like the bad girl we have one of the baddest, Sarah Douglas, looking like she did not change wardrobe much from her Superman II appearance as Ursa. Looks like she traded one Phantom Zone for another.

Still it might be worth a watch just to laugh at some of the 80's-isims in the film. Like what are they making in the desert factory that burns tires......Hair gel?

Canadian Bacon (1995)

The only good Michael Moore film.

[7/10 · 17 August 2006]

I have always liked this film. It may not be the best vehicle for all the actors involved but the satire is spot on. This is the only Michael Moore film that I like, well that and his short lived series on NBC. He has shown he can be very good at satire.

I have seen all his documentaries and not only do they drop facts that are not convenient to the message, they often tear down one person, political party, corporation but gives a pass to a person that Moore likes who did or continues to do the same exact thing. His 9/11 is the perfect example of this. His documentaries are more an attempt at satire than a real truth seeking documentary.

One of the main reasons I do not care for his documentaries is that he offers no solution for the problem he is investigating. He does that for a reason as both sides of the debate would have to be explored and the facts he has hidden would have to come to light. Some people consider his films the whole story and all the facts and that is a very sad statement of the intellectual of these people.

I hope one day, when he is not the darling of the left, he will return to satire like Canadian Bacon and his TV series. This is where his talent lies and he should return to it. Until then I will have to watch the current kings of satire, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park and Team America fame and catch Canadian Bacon on cable when I can.

Vanishing Point (1971)

Great Cult Flick!

[8/10 · 31 March 2006]

If there is one thing about the film Vanishing Point it is that people have always tried to read a lot of meaning as to what it is really about. This is one of the great things about the film. One might say it is a blank canvas that you can paint your own meaning into.

That said, I will try to give you what I think the film is about. More than anything I think it is about the death of the sixties. Where the 60's were about peace, love and understanding this films shows that these are pretty much dead in the 70's. In fact you could say that this film was way ahead of its time and was pretty much right on the money.

This film really gave birth to the 70's car flicks. Just about all 70's car flicks owe it to this film for really setting the standard that they never lived up to.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from the lame remake of this film. It is not worth the film it was shot on and it was like they never saw the original movie. If they did they never got it.

Liberty Stands Still (2002)

A so-so misguided drama

[5/10 · 13 February 2006]

While a somewhat interesting drama at times it is often ruined by the preachy tone it takes with guns.

In this film the root of all evil is the second amendment. All the other ones are good but the founding fathers blew it on the second one. It is Hollywoods attempt to help spur gun control. The problem with the film is that it mentions nothing about personal responsibility and this was done on purpose. If the matter of personal responsibility were brought up then Hollywood would be one of the biggest offenders. With the high body count films....including this one Hoolywood is selling violence, gun violence for profit. If personal responsibility were brought up Hollywood would have to asks to many questions of itself. So it was dropped from the film entirely. So we have an ex-CIA sniper blaming everyone for his daughters death..despite the killer, never-mind the he was the killer of many, many people...it was his job.

We also get the blurring and distorting of the second amendment, which means that because our government has guns we should as well, lest we become under the thumb of another tyrant. Much like King George was to the colonists. It does not mean only a militia should have guns, which is what some would have you believe. When constitution was written nearly all citizens had guns...they had to, they need to put food on the table by hunting for it. Gun violence is by and large committed by those who do not follow the law or have personal responsibility. That said I am all for gun locks. If you have kids in the home and your kid dies because you did not use one you should be punished.

I think if this film would have added personal responsibility into the mix it would have been a much more interesting film. Instead Hollywood will not have anything to do with personal responsibility, it is bad for the bottom line and looking in the mirror they my find that they are the biggest offenders when it comes to gun violence. Funny how when Oliver Stone was called on this very fact he brought up personal responsibility. Tickets please!

Mothra (1961)

They Sure Hold A Grudge!

[6/10 · 2 February 2006]

It seems that every monster the pops up and destroys Tokyo is the fault of the Americans in one way or another. Mostly it is atomic bombs that hatch the beasties but this time it is American Gangster types. This is the way the Japanese thought of America before the war at it shows in this movie as well although they try to disguise it by using different names and Japanese actors for the lead roles of the villains. Still American atomic ray guns do make an appearance.

Mothra is a likable monster if not one of the lamest of them. You often expect to hear the police say as mothra is on the rampage "Mothra is a mile away, he should be here in three hours, he is lumbering this way" or "Watch out for that deadly silk......it's sticky". Also why is it that the overweight Japanese kid figures everything out before everyone else does?

Still this lays the groundwork for the later Mothra movies. The little island girls are present. They sing their mothra song. Mothra comes, cocoons, hatches and kicks silk. If you like this genre and who does not like cheap models, bad acting and equally bad special effects and photography then you won't be disappointed.

Testament (1983)

Rmember the time

[9/10 · 13 January 2006]

I don't want to say much about the film as I think it should been seen by everyone. I have never cried while watching a film but this one got me close......really close.

As other have said you won't be entertained by this film, that was not its aim. Its aim was to scare you to death and it did that very, very well. You will be drained when you are done watching and the point was that if you felt that way just watching it then imagine if you had to live it.....or die it as it were.

This film is the polar opposite of the hokey made for TV movie "The Day After". While the Day After was all about "special effects", Testaments only special effect is a bright light and someone unplugging the cable to the TV. In The Day After the people who did not vaporize were all just fine after the bomb. In Testament the blast from the bomb never touched the town. The Day After was look what we learned, we will move on. Testament was we learned nothing, these is no going on.

If you want to impress upon someone what it would be like after the bombs drop then you can do no better than showing them this film.

War of the Worlds (2005)

No-Dooz will help!

[5/10 · 13 January 2006]

In some ways this film is much better and more true to the Wells book than the 1953 George Pal classic. However Steven Spielberg kind of forgot to make people we would actually care about surviving, in fact, you want to martians to win.

You don't really feel for the family of Tom Cruise's Character in the film at all. He is slacker that really has nothing to do with his kids, the kids have all kinds of issues and are for the most part annoying and his ex-wife is a meddlesome shrew. Go Martians, Go!

What the film got right, the Martian ships. Tower tripods with a thirst for human blood. The sound they made when readying for an attack, the Jeff Wayne album was much better here and the red weed. Herein lies the problem, mans useless fight against the invaders was push to the back or not even shown in the film. Instead we get the annoying family. This is fine if you care about the people and have a good story line. Take the movie testament. They had no effects in this story about nuclear war and its aftermath, they did not need to, the story told it all.

Another problem is that the invaders machines were always here buried underground for perhaps a million years or more. Hmmm. With all those subways, oil wells, mines, geological and tectonic shifts we never bumped into any of them. If they were buried so deep so we and time would not expose them then they would have cause a lot more damage when the released themselves from their self imposed prison.

Those who know the Wells classic probably saw hope at times. The man who wants to live underground, the feeder ships, the red weed, the ferry at the river, all of these coming close to the Wells classic but all squandered in the name of Tom Cruise's face time on the screen.

You used to have good movies in you Steven......What happened.

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003)

Top Notch!

[9/10 · 9 December 2005]

This was my first Takeshi Kitano film, but it won't be my last.

I just happened to bump into this film on Encore today and I was totally impressed with the film as a whole. The highly stylized production was great and for a film of this genre the character development was great. You feel for the characters.

Top notch fight scenes and special effects abound. The is also great humor in many of the scenes. You can't help but like the blind swordsman.

The only thing that seems a little out of place is the musical number at the end of the movie, but Takeshi Kitano pulls it off with aplomb and makes it work.

I don't want to give away much about this film, as you can tell by my review, you should catch this movie or rent the DVD. You won't be sorry you did.

The Road to Wellville (1994)

Chew, Chew, Chew!

[9/10 · 23 November 2005]

I would not say this is a fact based film. With its many substories that probably did not happen but as far as Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Battle Creek San was concerned it is fairly accurate. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was pretty much as depicted in this film, a most excellent job by Anthony Hopkins. However the real Kellogg would make you eat half the Yogurt and the other half was used as an enema.

Anthony Hopkins ,Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Dana Carvey, Michael Lerner, Colm Meaney, John Neville, Lara Flynn Boyle, Traci Lind, Camryn Manheim all turn in great performances with Hopkins, Broderick, Cusack and Lara Flynn Boyle as stand outs! I am not much for period based films but the amount of talent and the accurate detail of the quack medical devices used made me change my mind, at least with this film.

That said I did not like the film when I first saw it. It was one of my wifes video picks and while I had heard of the film I did not know much about it. It had just been released to video. The problem was that so many images of the film stuck in my mind. After seeing it several more times years later I fell in love with the film and it is in my top 20 film list.

The film may be an acquired taste but chew, chew, chew and it will be good for you!

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

Allen when he was funny!

[8/10 · 20 November 2005]

I sneaked into this R rated film when I was 13 thinking this film was something it was not. However I was rewarded with a truly funny film! At that time I got most of the jokes. In all that year I probably saw the film 10 times. We had a book of passes to the theater and were such fixtures we could get into any film, sans parent.

I just watched it again on Encore. This was the first time I have seen it since I was 13 and I am amazed at how well the film still holds up. It was also amazing to see the amount of talent Allen had to work with in the film. Such as Burt Reynolds, John Carridadine, Gene Wilder, Tony Randall and the always great Louise Lasser. You can also see how some of the skits inspired Saturday Night Live which was to come years later.

If you watch the film, and you should, you will be amazed at the look of the film. It looks as thought it was made much later than 72 but I guess Allen was ahead of his time. It may also amaze some people that Allen was actually funny at one time. With this film coming at the time of Bananas and Sleeper one could not ask for a better time for Allen to make this film. It also makes you think about Allen and his foster step daughter in the context of this film.

Do yourself a favor and rent Bananas, Sleeper and this film. Catch Woody when he was funny. His one liners in this film are worth the rental price alone.

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)

Great Film

[8/10 · 28 September 2005]

While Gary Cooper was not anything like Billy Mitchell in the film that really does not matter. What does matter is that in his time he was fighting for an Air Force that would be able to defend America. He was right that at the time the armed services use of air power and the safety of the pilots was criminal, the number of Air Forces bases named for the people that died during this time can attest to that. He was also correct that the armed forces would depend on air power, a fact the armed forces ignored until nearly 1939 when Hitler proved what a modern air force could do. If it were not for the fact that private companies like Boeing were developing planes before the military were asking for them would could have been fighting the first year of WWII in biplanes.

While many of Billy Mitchell's claims may have seemed absurd at the time the showed quite an insight of how air power would develop over the next 50 years.

That being said do catch this film. The cast is top notch and their performances leave you feeling sorry for Cooper and hating Rod Stieger! This is one of my top 20 films not only for the cast and crew but for the subject matter.

Yor: The Hunter from the Future (1983)

The Evil Sith Meet He Man

[1/10 · 18 September 2005]

This film is so bad that it actually is worth watching to see what they ripped off from other films.

The last half of this film is what you really need to tune in for. When out hero Yor, played by B movie golden boy Reb Brown and his friends are transported to a futuristic city. Why do B- Movie cities of the future always look like the basement of a water treatment plant? Yor has to battle the evil emperor, who looks strangely close to the evil emperor in the star wars films and his evil robots, who also strangely look like Darth Vader.

To be fair the evil emperor has been working on new robots. These new more intelligent robots look like they have been chewing there stitches and had plastic collars put on them to make them stop. Best of all when Yor is fighting we are treated to a kicking rock soundtrack that sounds like a bad rip-off of Queens Flash Gordon soundtrack. You expect to hear "Yor, leader of the universe, Ah-ah, he'll save every one of us."

If you can stop laughing during the fight scenes notice how everyone has to stay in the same place during the laser battle to make it easy for the special effects people to draw in the laser shots. Also notice the high tech control room the rebel city dwellers are in, it also bears a strange resemblance to the control room of a water treatment plant. Yes, they have mastered gravity but they still have large analog dials.

If you liked Star Wars, He Man and the Masters of the Universe or Queens Flash Gordon soundtrack then catch this movie on cable because they ripped them all off and did a very bad job of it. Don't spend money to rent it. This movie is so bad it may make you smile!

Solaris (2002)

Don't Let The Solaris Go Down On Me.

[3/10 · 9 September 2005]

Sorry to paraphrase the Elton John song but I don't want this film anywhere near me.

I had a hard time try to classify this film. It is not really a Sci-Fi film, not really a drama, not really a physiological thriller but maybe a love story. I finally came up with a word to classify it, this is a bad film. A really bad film. Not the worst film in the world but it ranks right up there with the rank!

I have read other reviews here comparing this film to Blade Runner or 2001: A Space Odyssey. If I were Ridley Scott I would be fuming and if I were Stanley Kubrick I would be spinning like a lathe in my grave. I will even cut Mr. Clooney a break and put the blame squarely on Steven Soderbergh. He fails on so many levels with this film. At least in the other films mentioned the characters are intelligent and think for themselves...they are to coin a term 3 dimensional.

Clooney is sent to the space station that is observing Solaris as the only man who can save it. I take it they meant he was the best and brightest yet when his dead wive magically appears he does nothing to find out why, he just puts her in an escape pod and ejects her into space. The next night when she magically reappears with not a clue as to where an why she is there he totally accepts her without question. Clearly if he is earths best and brightest then nearly all people on earth go to school via the short yellow school bus. It makes you wonder how we developed the technology to make it into space at all, let alone another star system. The rest of the crew on the station are much worse but at least they have the excuse of having been there longer.

It is hard to find a level this film does work on. The only redeeming quality are some of the scenes and the way they were shot. They made nice use of color to set the present and the memories apart, which is good because without that the viewer would have lost interest in the first 15 minutes of the film.

If you want a film that makes you question reality then almost any Phillip K. Dick film will be a better bet or better yet read one of his books or short stories. If you are at the video store and this film and the Blade Runner directors cut are the only two videos in the store, just pick up Blade Runner. If you have seen Blade Runner 25 times already.....then pick it up again. I would be surprised it the film was hit by revisionist history and the credits listed the director as Alan Smithee and not Steven Soderbergh.

Bar Girls (1994)

If I were a lesbian this film would scare me straight.

[3/10 · 9 September 2005]

Thank god I am not a lesbian. If I were and these were the girls I had to choose from I would kill myself.

I am a straight man but I know a lot of Lesbian women and they are nothing like the women portrayed in this film. The dialog is idiotic and shallow. We are never quite sure if the actress even believe they are gay. What is strange is they take a few shots at guys but end up acting like the worst stereotypical male in the universe, which actually comes close to very few of the lesbians I know.

The music is so bad in the film but you actually look forward to it after a while just as an escape from the inane dialog. You almost expect to see a disclaimer at the end of the movie saying "No lesbians were used in the writing, directing, production, acting or anything at all"

I have not talked to my lesbian friend in a few months but I will ask them if they have seen this movie and discuss it with them if they have. Being a straight male I may have missed the point of this movie but I don't think so. Black, white, male, female, straight, gay or bi a bad film is a bad film and this film reeks.

Do yourself a favor if you see it in the video store don't rent it. Do a favor for everyone else and hide it so no one else can rent it either. It will be thankless but good for your karma.

Brother Bear (2003)

Typical Disney, Which Is Good!

[7/10 · 17 August 2005]

Critics did not like this film, which makes you wonder what critics are expecting from a Disney cartoon? People sitting in a darkened room mulling over their lives with a character who is the devil? This is why I discount 99 percent of what I hear from critics.

This is great Disney fare, maybe not on par with Finding Nemo, but then it is not supposed to be. It deals with an early Inuit tribe in the Great White North about 10,000 to 25,000 years ago and how they lived in tune with the earth. When one of three brothers is killed by a bear he comes back to teach his younger brother a lesson in life by changing him to a bear. His other brother thinking both brothers have been killed by bears now hunts his brother. Along the way he meets a talkative bear cub and in perhaps the best casing of the movie Rick Moranis as Rutt and Dave Thomas as Tuke reprising their Bob and Doug Makenzie Canadian roles from Second City TV and two Moose.

The only bad part of the film is the soundtrack. While the kids will love it, it will probably make most adults very ill. While Tina Tuners opening song is very good it quickly goes downhill when Phil Collins starts his crooning. You can tell Tina is a class act and Phil a classless act. If anyone has seen the South Park episode with Phil and his Oscar awards, well, you know what I mean.

If you want an enjoyable film for the kids then by all means rent this film or catch it on one of the movie channels. Ignore the critics who would rather have you watch a film that plays in two theathers across the US and has as many people in the audience. Your kids will thank you. Just turn in down when Phil starts to sing.

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

One of my favorite 50's Sci-Fi films.

[7/10 · 31 July 2005]

When I was a kid I just loved this movie and it has actually stood the test of time fairly well. Better than most of its genre. The saucer effects by Ray Harryhausen are top notch and were not really surpassed until the digital age. We are also not subject to the thinly veiled aliens are really communists. As much as I hate to say it this was a thinking mans saucer film.

Time has not been kind to all of the film and that has given it some charm of its own. The scene with the universal translator, which was a very, very large mechanical computer with lots of rotating gears and a pen that writes in cursive are all but laughable these days but must of seemed very high tech at the time.

Also minus the flying saucers we nearly have all the power that the aliens had in this film in one form or another. Right down to the enhanced vision and hearing, laser and sound weapons and various other devices.

Another plus of the film, much like independence day decades later is that the earth takes a beating before the aliens are shown the door. We even see people crushed under the collapsing Washington monument. Good Stuff!

Do catch the film if you have never seen it before. It has inspired many, many directors and producers. Tim Burton pretty much copied the saucers for his film Mars Attacks and he borrowed a whole lot more! It is worth it just to see how it influenced all these people, plus it is a pretty good, not very preachy Sci-fi film from the 50's and that is rare!

The Beguiled (1971)

A Missing Gem!

[8/10 · 31 July 2005]

It took me years to finally catch this gem of a film and it was worth the wait. In nearly all of his films Clint always plays the hero. Be it hero, anti-hero or avenging hero. In this film he is pure villain and he plays it well.

As a wounded union soldier he is brought into a confederate girls school by the students and teachers to heal. Soon after he begins to seduce the ladies no matter their age and some are quite young. He also plays upon their jealousies and pits them against each other. In the end you are never so happy to see Clint die a terrible death.

That is what makes this film such a gem. Clint has never done any other film like it and after seeing this film you wish he had. He plays the role of the villain so well it will make you wonder why he never did any more films like it. It also explains why the film is not seen very often. Most people don't want to see Clint as the villain and with Dirty Harry being released shortly after this film it has become a hidden gem. If you are a Clint Eastwood fan you owe it to yourself to see this film. You might not like what you will see but you won't soon forget it.

Tremors (1990)

Great B Movie Action

[8/10 · 22 April 2005]

This film is in my top twenty movies of all times. It is not only a pleasure to watch once but holds up will even with repeated viewings. I have probably seen this film at least twenty times and I never get tired of it.

As some have stated, on paper this film looks terrible but with a great cast and solid story and nearly non-stop action it never fails to entertain. Perhaps the best casting besides Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward as the local losers turned heroes are Michael Gross and Reba McEntire as Burt and Heather Gummer the gun toting survivalist of Perfection Valley. Michael Gross started this project a day after Family Ties stopped production and the transformation of the very liberal father in family ties to the ultraconservative Burt Gummer is a highlight of the film. Also Michael Gross is the only returning character in all of the sequels and the series.

Unfortunately the sequels don't hold up as well as the originals and tend to be worse as the numbers increase. Tremors 2 features Fred Ward and Michael Gross and much slower and not as entertaining as the first. We do get to see the progression of the Graboids which helps the plot. Tremors 3 only feature returning member Michael Gross and again yet another version of the graboids...if only the movies stopped here. Tremors 4 is best avoided at all costs and is an old west prequel to the first movie....bad...bad...bad.

Still you can't go wrong with the original, this would be on my list of Desert Island DVD's.

Hackers (1995)

Great Movie if you suspend reality!

[8/10 · 22 April 2005]

This movie is fun. It does not weight itself down with being a true to life tale of hackers. The true life of hackers is a very boring one. The film lets itself go from the true world of hackers and we get a better film in the long run. The cast gels together in a way that few other films could hope for.

Despite the films forays into sounding cool with techspeak which really makes no sense if you can suspend you dis-beliefs for a while you will find this film immensely enjoyable. Even the hacker game against the FBI agent does have its basis in fact. A writer did challenge hackers that they really could do nothing to hurt him and within 24 hours the writer had no credit and was listed as dead to all the computers that matter.

Still if you are looking for a film were you don't have to think to much and you just want some good mindless fun, you could do worse than watching this film. It is worth a look for the young miss Jolie.

RISC rules baby!

Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990 TV Movie)

Good but somewhat lopsided view of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

[7/10 · 19 April 2005]

This film pretty accurately depicts Hiroshima after the Enloa Gay drop the Atomic Bomb. If you have read the Richard Rhodes book "The Making Of The Atomic Bomb" the stories the eyewitness accounts at the end of the book will seem all to real in this movie.

The scenes of the people searching out the river and then after drinking dropping dead into the river are right out of the book, much as most of the scenes of burns, the blast effects and much more. Some scenes of course did not happen, like those of the American POW's.

In all this film does depict some of the tensions that are still felt about the bombings today. Japan still protests the bombings today and America has not apologized for dropping them. I think where this film fails is that a little one sided about the bombing. The events leading up to the bomb and the atrocities committed by Japan. The rape of Nan King, the Bataan death march, the killing of Chinese, Philippine and American civilians. Japan had launched balloon at the US to destroy or forest but only killed a group of kids. The chemical warfare in china and at nearly the same time we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima Japan already had plans to drop biological weapons on Los Angeles and San Diego, arguments between Japanese military factions over the need for submarines and planes are what stopped the biological attacks.

Instead of a what have we brought upon ourselves tone the movie has a what has America done to us tone. This may be more accurate because Japanese citizens were lied to about most of the war, which is shown in the film as an announcement after both bombings that Japan has bombed New York.

If you consider everything about the war and what Japan did to wind up in this position the film is very good. However if all you know about Japan and WWII is what you see in this film you will be given the wrong message and as it has been said before "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it".

Blade Runner (1982)

A Work Of Art

[10/10 · 10 April 2005]

Ridley Scott really outdid himself with this film. The effects for the time are nothing short of outstanding and give today's computer generated effects are run for their money.

As many have stated this is not your typical sci-fi action flick but then what Philip K. Dick story is? Like the man himself the setting is only part of the story and the self realization of his characters are main part.

The look of LA in 2020 or so is what really makes the film. Dark, wet, always raining and the inhabitants a mix of Japanese, American, Chinese and Mexican the town is overcrowded, sprawling and is a hell of its own.

It is great to see a young Harrison Ford as Deckard the Blade Runner and a drop dead gorgeous Sean Young as Rachael. Darryl Hannah and Rutger Hauer add to a fine cast. If you have never seen this film then do yourself a favor and rent it today. Better yet, buy the directors cut, you won't be sorry you did!

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

They Don't Make The Like This Anymore.

[10/10 · 18 March 2005]

I hate to use that tired old cliché but it really is true.

Cary Grant really shines in this black comedy as the nephew of two aunts whose hobby killing of lonely old men who are interested in a room at their home. Grants Mortimer Brewster is the perfection of comic timing. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair make the perfect dawdling aunts. Add in Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre and there is little in this film not to like,

John Alexander is great as Mortimer's brother Theodore who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt. The aunts have him in Panama, the basement, digging locks to bury their kills in. The action is frantic and seldom boring. For its time this film was cutting edge.

If you are the least bit interested in classic films the this is a must view. It will be on just about every film buffs top ten list, as well it should be.

Easy Wheels (1989)

A movie so bad, it is good!

[5/10 · 2 March 2005]

This is not your typical biker film. It is not your typical film period. The closest parallel would be the makers of Airplane or Police Squad do a biker film.

The leader of the Bourne Losers biker gang, Bruce (Paul Le Mat) is often so eloquent that his buddies don't understand what he his saying. They are trying to stop the The Woman of the Wolves female biker gang whose leader, She Wolf, was raised by wolfs after her parents abandoned her is in the woods while being chased by the police. The Woman of the Wolves are stealing babies and selling them to the black market.

Needless to say much trouble ensues and it is a field day for one liners, zingers and stuff you would not normally see bikers doing. Like a female biker beating a male biker after he took the baby she stole and she delivers the line "Never take a baby from Candy" while she also delivers a beating.

Not a bad film for 1989 and it will make you laugh. Check it out if there is nothing else to rent at blockbuster, you need to fill out your Netflix queue or it is on cable.

Battlefield Earth (2000)

I am not going to jump on the pan wagon for this film.

[6/10 · 23 February 2005]

Most know the backstory for this film. It was written by L. Ron Hubbard the author and basically the man behind the church of Scientology of which John Travolta and many other trendy Hollywood starts belong.

Basically the earth is taken over by very tall, very businesslike aliens bent on exploiting earths remaining population for their own gains.....sort of like mutated harvard graduates. Can the earth be saved by man animal Jonnie Goodboy Tyler? Hey L. Ron, you could have come up with better names!

All in all while this film does have its very bad moments, like the went the uneducated survivors of earth who can't read learn to fly harriers in less than a week, it does have its good moments as well. It does not fall back on the old mean aliens exterminate humans just because premise of so many other films of the genre. It also has some pretty inventive ways us humans one up the aliens. It also gets the messages across that pure greed will always be your undoing no matter who you are.

Is this film worth renting, well probably not, but if you happen to catch it on the tube it is worth a watch. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough you might wind up liking the film.

Oleanna (1994)

Somebody Had A Bad Time At College

[5/10 · 18 February 2005]

I don't know what David Mamet was trying to convey here but one thing is for sure, it sounds if someone did not have a good time at college. This film fails on so many levels you often wonder what Mamet was trying to do with the film. I feel for William H. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt the most. They both turn in good performances which is very hard considering the material. They very dry often overly convoluted dialog tries to come off as a later day Shakespeare but falls flat on its face.

It is hard to take sides in this film. Macy's character comes off as a know it all, above it all, loathsome college professor being called to the mat by a bunch of students as his tenure hearings are starting. Debra Eisenstadt's character is the leader of the "group", who often comes off as the woman scorn or a bitch out for revenge.

As it is if there was any message in this film it was trodden over and lost in the dialog. Who is right and who is wrong? Is it Macy and his the Professor is god attitude or is it Eisenstadt and her political correctness gone terribly awry portrayal? Is it both? Neither? I guess it really depends on how your own college experience was. If you did not go to college this film will make you glad you didn't. In the end you like neither person very much and wonder what the point was. If this was the point of the film it succeeded. If you are a fan of Mamet you may like this film, all others should steer clear....I wish I did!

I rated it a 5 out of 10 based solely on the actors performances. They did their best in adverse conditions. If I were to rate it based on Mamets vision...well IMDb does not have a negative scale....yet!