The Goonies

The Goonies
(1985) [Trailer]
Director: Richard Donner (IMDB)

Another Richard Donner (check out my last review of The Toy) classic, this time it's a team up with Steven Spielberg. The Goonies is one of my all time favorites so this review is gonna be a love fest. If you're a negative dude and hate this movie, you might as well close the page. I probably have seen this movie more than any other but I've never seen it on blu-ray and it was a sort of homecoming if you will.

The Goonies centers around a group of kids in Astoria, Oregon who's parents are about to lose their homes to a new golf course. The kids......Shit I don't need give you a synopsis...you've seen this movie and if you haven't, you're an idiot.

There's so much I love about this movie. It starts right out the gate with action and grabs your attention, from there it never let's go. There's so much Spielberg all over the place, and it's awesome. Thrills, traps, adventure, pirates, freaks, geeks, and friendship all wrapped up in a neat little pill. I don't know if my love for this movie is tied to nostalgia or what, but I don't care either way.

The transfer to blu-ray is incredible. It's never looked so good.

FYI I'm gonna start calling my money 'rich stuff' from now on!

The Toy

The Toy
(1982) [Trailer]
Director: Richard Donner (IMDB)

This was a movie I loved watching as a kid. I haven't seen it in over 20 years...geez that make me sound old and shitty. I guess I am old and shitty. Fuck it. Anyways...I love Richard Pryor. Always have and always will, so I had a feeling this movie would hold up over time.

The Toy is about a rich millionaire (played by Jackie Gleason) who has a spoiled ass kid (the same kid who got his tongue stuck to the pole in A Christmas Story.) Richard Prior is an out of work writer who's cleaning up a department store owned by Jackie Gleason. One night Jackie's son sees Richard prior and decides he wants to buy him to play with. Richard reluctantly agrees. The two eventually form a friendship and start to drive Jackie Gleason crazy.

There's all the notes of a classic early 80's comedy in this and Richard Donner's direction is great. I love the psychical comedy bits and Pryor is just awesome to watch. There were some cheesy parts here and there but I got over it. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but a good watch on a lazy day. I'm glad I checked it out again, it was a good time.

12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men
(1957) [Trailer]
Director: Sidney Lumet (IMDB)

I love Sidney Lumet as a director and I've honestly enjoyed every film I've seen of his. I saw 12 Angry Men a long time ago and remember liking it quite a bit, but honestly my memory was a litte fuzzy on the movie. So needless to say when I saw it got Criterion's blu-ray treatment I was excited to pick it up and revisit this film.

12 Angry Men is about 12 jurors picked to sit in on a murder case. The defendant is charged with killing his father with a switch blade...gangsta! If convicted he'll be sentenced to death. The jury has to come back with a unanimous decision of guilty in order for him to be killed. Everyone's thinks he's guilty except one man, juror #8....Henry Fonda! The room slowly starts to turn as Henry drops logic like a Vulcan, and well...lets just say the boy doesn't get the electric chair.

This is what movies are all about. Great direction and story, with acting that is about a perfect as you can get. The movie takes place in one room primarily and is a perfect example of how you don't need crazy set pieces in order to make a winner. It's crazy to think how you can so easily get fried based on how well some slimy lawyer sells your case. This movie really shows the flaws in our justice system but also the flaws within ourselves....I know, deep right.

I would definitely recommend you not sleep on this flick if you haven't seen it yet, and the Criterion transfer to blu-ray really warms the soul.

[Rec] and [Rec] ²

[Rec] and [Rec] ² were very popular over in Europe, so much so that Hollywood decided to remake the first one into Quarantine (starring Dexter's sister.) I've been wanting to check these horror flicks out and see what all the fuss is about. Now I have and will impart my wisdom upon you.

[Rec]
(2007) [Trailer]
Directors: Jaume Balagueró (IMDB), Paco Plaza (IMDB)

[Rec] is a pretty solid horror movie in my book. It rides on the whole "found footage" wave of movies that seem to be popping up everywhere ever since Blair Witch. I know some people are tired of these kinds of films, but I enjoy them if they're done well and take a unique spin on the genre, which [Rec] does.

The story centers around some semi-annoying TV host and her camera guy who are shooting a show on firemen. They follow the firemen on a call for help at an apartment building. Shit gets real when they find out they're quarantined in the building with some not so friendly zombies and have to try and save themselves from becoming snack food for the undead.

Overall I think [Rec] is a pretty decent watch. The movie is definitely suspenseful and pretty creepy. I did have issues with the main girl, she tends to be a little over dramatic at times. I also have a couple of nit pics here and there but nothing that really ruined it for me. I would pick it up from nexflix and check it out if you're in the mood for something scary.



[Rec] ²
(2009) [Trailer]
Directors: Jaume Balagueró (IMDB), Paco Plaza (IMDB)

Unfortunately the follow up to Spain's smash hit is...not so much a smash. I really had high hopes that the directors of [Rec] would be like a fine wine and get better with age, but sadly they were more like Dr Pepper...nice and carbonated at first then flat after a while.

[Rec] ² picks up right where the first part left off. This time around a SWAT team and health inspector enter the quarantined apartment and do battle with the zombies. The team soon realize that the inspector isn't who he appears to be and has carte blanche to carry out a secret mission. This is where the movie takes a turn for the worst. The mission is to find an antidote to the infection causing these zombies...and how do they do that you ask? Well thru the power of God of course. Turns out the inpector is a priest and the zombie infection is actually a demonic plague. Now the zombies can be put on pause with a little hail Mary. To make matter worse they inject some annoying teens into the movie who just happen to find a hidden passage through the sewers into the apartment.

There's a lot I hated about this film and I could definitely lay out a list of shit that didn't work with it. Normally I love a good horror movie with religion in the fold but it seemed to not really work for this one. I really think taking that angle and also bringing the teens into the mix were pointless. They did nothing to elevate the plot, only way it down. The SWAT team were unbelievable. Real trained elite police would have acted much different. I don't know of any police agency that would have sent a team into something like that without being thoroughly briefed or only giving one guy the ability to clear them all to leave. There's some other things that boarder on spoiler territory, so I'll save it. There were some creepy moments here and there but not enough to save this flick.

Devil

Devil
(2010) [Trailer]
Director: John Erick Dowdle (IMDB)

M. Night Shyamalan (writer) is a man people love to hate. Seems recently every one of his movies are slammed hard by critics. It almost makes me want to like his movies just for spite. So did I take that direction with Devil? Read on and find out.

Devil is about five people who picked the wrong elevator to ride. The elevator resides in a building in which someone decided to jump to their death from. According to the story, when someone kills themselves, the Devil comes and kills more people...I think...I'm not sure...shit it's kinda confusing. Anyways, he comes and locks up the people in the elevator and starts to fuck them up. Now the twist is...who in the elevator is the devil? I won't spoil it for you. It's the little boy! Just kidding, there's no little boy in the movie.

I have mixed feelings on this movie, I guess my overall opinion is it's a decent flick. There's some good, not so good, and bad. The opening credits, the score, cinematography are all excellent. When the devil is finally exposed, it's definitely pretty creepy. On the other hand, some of the acting isn't the best but it's serviceable. The super religious guy is definitely a little too over the top. If he's so freaked out, why wouldn't he just peace out that place as soon as he saw the devil? There's this scene with him, involving dropping toast on the floor, it almost turns the movie into a comedy. In the end, I found it to be entertaining. Maybe if it's a option for you on a lazy Sunday afternoon give it a spin.

Exporting Raymond

Exporting Raymond
(2010) [Trailer]
Director: Philip Rosenthal (IMDB)

Philip Rosenthal is the guy who is responsible for Everybody Loves Raymond. Now you either are more then likely going to think...fuck that guy, I hate that show...or....ahhh, I love that show. Either way it wouldn't effect your enjoyment of this film. Well maybe a little, but not a lot.

The basic idea with Exporting Raymond is Phillip trying to take Everyone Loves Raymond over to Moscow and helping the Russians create their version of it (Everyone Loves Kostya). Once the US government finds out about it, they mark Phillip as a Communist, and start to track his every move....Okay I'm kidding about that. He's not a Communist and we're friendly with the Soviets now. Get your head out of the 80's! So back to the plot, Phillip finds himself a fish out of water when he's taken to mother Russia and pitted against the studio execs.

This documentary is excellent at showing the differences in Russian vs US culture. It's fun to see how something so completely simple as dressing Ray's wife in basic house clothes is a huge issue for the Russians. Or how certain jokes, which work here, completely bomb over there. I think Philip can be a little over the top from time to time but overall it's a really cool experience to see him interact, make friends, and try to win over the love of the Ruskies.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
(1975) [Trailer]
Director: Milos Forman (IMDB)

Man where to start with this one? It's been a while since I last saw this film, a little too long if you ask me...you didn't, but I'm telling you. I picked it up awhile ago on blu-ray and decided to give it another run. This is such a solid film, I would say perfect almost. I really can't think of how they could make it any better, so I guess that means it's prefect right?

This stars Jack Nicholson and a whole host of other amazing actors up in there. You got Danny Devito, you got the evil grandma from Flowers in the Attic, you got Jeff Spicoli's science teacher from Ridgemont High, you got the evil guy from Lord of the Rings, and you got Dr Emmett Brown! Definitely a pleasing line up. The story begins when Jack gets moved from a real prison into a mental ward. You're not too sure if he's really crazy or not, but then again, aren't we all a little crazy. He starts to become the alpha male of the group and also pissing off the Nursing staff quite a bit. There's a lot of depth to the story from there and I'll save you the heartache of me trying to break it down into detail.

This movie is a prefect example of a drama that infuses comedy, but not to the point where you'd say it's a comedy. It's really interesting to see Jack Nicholson at work in this film. I'm pretty sure he received an Oscar for this, which is well deserved. The shock therapy scene is insane, I can't tell if they really shocked or did something to him. It's very believable. To watch his character go from thinking, he landed himself into an easy gig, to realizing that the ward was just a fucked as prison, is a very engaging story. I can't recommend this movie enough.

Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs
(1971) [Trailer]
Director: Sam Peckinpah (IMDB)

This movie is considered a classic. It's recently been remade even. I've always wanted to check it out, but you know, I never got around to it. I found it on blu-ray for $6 and thought it was worth the risk, so I picked it up. Was my investment worth it? Don't be lazy, read on and find out.

The story centers around Dustin Hoffman and his English wifey who decide to move out to the country in England. He's a math nerd and has apparently been awarded a grant to solve algebra problems or something. So it's his feeling that moving to this quiet little town will help him work. Little does he know the locals are a bunch a fucking creeps. The movie starts off innocent enough, but after he hires the creepy locals to fix his shed (who I might add are the fucking slowest construction workers in the UK), they start to get a little to comfortable up in his digs. Things take a turn for the worst and he ends up fighting for his life, and that of his wife, when the locals decide to lose their shit one night after a jolly ole bender.

Now this movie has been out for a while so I'm going to do some SPOILERS HERE. Read on to the bottom paragraph if you don't want your Straw Dogs experience ruined.

This movie is good, but there's a lot of things that bothered me.

The Bad first.

1. Who the hell needs four guys to fix the roof of a small shed. Two max.
2. Who the hell goes hunting with those 4 guys, who you think just killed your cat and hung it in your closet.
3. Why wouldn't you just give up the creepy lunatic that the four local creeps were trying to get (fucking everyone in this town is a creep).....especially give him up after the sheriff gets blasted.

The Good Second.

1. Now I know I just said why wouldn't you give up the creep.... I'm glad they didn't, cause it made for a good climax to the film. That was just my rational side thinking. The non rational movie loving side is happy they didn't
2. The suspense leading up to, and throughout the final house raid is awesome.
3. Dustin plays a convincing spineless doormat of a man.

I think this film is pretty good, but nothing mind blowing. There's a few things that knocks it down a bit for me, but definitely way more good then bad.

Warrior

Warrior
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: Gavin O'Connor (IMDB)

I knew a lot about this movie going into it and I wasn't sure if I was gonna really like it or not. I had heard it's like MMA (Mixed Martial Arts for all you newbs) meets Rocky, and in a way I guess you could say that's true. Is that a bad thing? Who knows. I think a lot of people love to hate on MMA, probably because of all the tools that walk around with Tapout gear on and shit. However, at the end of the day it's an exciting sport, and that universe holds promise to have a really good story take place inside it.

Warrior centers around two brothers and Nick Nolte. Nick's their recovering acloholic father and they all hate each other. Liquor is a hell of a drug, and for the most part, tore their family to shit. Neither brother has spoken to each other in years and Nolte's just trying to get the fam back on track. There's a lot of twists and turns that have the two brothers eventually fitted to go up against each other in a huge MMA contest.

Trust me, there's a lot of stuff in here that's not too believable. If you were to hold on to some of those things, it could ruin the film for you. Like that fact that both brothers just happen to be no name fighters who both, through completely different events, land in the rankings to enter a huge multimillion dollar MMA event. Or that a teacher could get suspended for being in MMA outside of school. But, it's Hollywood and you gotta sweetin' up the story a bit. I honestly liked this movie a lot. It wasn't perfect, but it's extremely entertaining and I was into it from beginning to end.

Western Double Bill - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Unforgiven.

Just knocked out a seriously solid double bill featuring two of my (now) favorite Westerns: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Unforgiven. Both star your boy Clint, but both are extremely different.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
(1966) [Trailer]
Director: Sergio Leone (IMDB)

Now this is a long ass film. 3 hours long roughly. If that's not your cup of tea, I would definitely avoid it. I, however, love a good long..... flick. Especially when it delivers quality, which this here movie does, in many ways.

It centers around three main characters: The Good...Clint Eastwood aka Goldie, The Bad...Angel Eyes, and The Ugly...Tuco. There's a fortune to be found. Goldie crosses Tuco, who crosses Goldie, who crosses Angel Eyes, who crosses both of them....something along those lines...I won't ruin it for you. All you need to know is the overall story is great.

There's lots that I love about this film, first and foremost is the score. Ennio Morricone serves up one of the most classic film scores ever made by modern man, it is truly epic (I know that word is thrown around a lot, but this shit's truly epic, no joke.) Also the direction is flawless, Sergio Leone is a true master of westerns. His style dances around lots of great wide shots, cool zooms, and classic action that keeps you into the movie through the whole ride. Definitely check this film out if you haven't done so already. If you have, do it again.



Unforgiven
(1992) [Trailer]
Director: Clint Eastwood (IMDB)

I had never seen Unforgiven until the other day. It's one of those movie I knew would be good but, for whatever reason, just never got to it. I found the blu-ray used for 4 dollars at my secret spot (you wanna know where it is....yeah.....no) so I went ahead and picked it up...cause 4 bones is a deal son! Now, I'm kicking myself for sleeping on this film cause it is phenomenal.

Your boy Clint is back, much much later in life however, as a retired gunslinger who finds himself running low on funds and propositioned by a younger gunslinger to join up on a business venture that will lead to some serious scratch...if you know what I mean. He joins up and also calls on the help of Red from Shawshank to go hunt down some guys who fucked up this prostitute with a knife. The story snowballs from there, eventually Gene Hackman gets up in the mix and throws some curve balls to derail things a bit.

Your boy Clint can direct a damn movie. This film is beautifully shot and the pacing is perfect. There are a lot of things about this movie that I really enjoyed, especially some of it's undertones. I think Clint was really trying to show a film about a man who breaks down during hard times. No matter how much time passes and who he thought he became, in the end when shit got tough, he turned back into the man he really was...and alcoholic murderer...NICE!

Leprechaun 1 - 6

I sat down recently with one of East Village Film Society's toughest critics and one of my best buds, Todd Breland, with the sole intention to knock out the Leprechaun franchise. Just in case you didn't know, there were officially 6 installments in the Leprechaun universe. That's right, 6 of these fucking things. Hollywood really will green light anything.

Well let's get into it.

Leprechaun
(1993) [Trailer]
Director: Mark Jones (IMDB)

The first film in the saga and probably one of the best of the entire lot, which doesn't mean a lot. It stars Willow (who will star in all the other films), Jennifer Aniston and that guy who was a real dick in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. It's set at some run down farm house in God knows where. The protagonists show up to paint the house, which they suck at, and end up getting more then they bargained for when a Leprechaun comes to life in the basement. This movie isn't really scary and at times, is pretty funny, which is the over all tone of every film in the franchise.






Leprechaun 2
(1994) [Trailer]
Director: Rod Flender (IMDB)

This one finds the Leprechaun in L.A. It stars...no one I can think of. It's very slow to start but overall I think the Leprechaun's main objective in the film is to find a wife/sex buddy. The best part is where he uses a souped up go-cart to try and kill someone.











Leprechaun 3
(1995) [Trailer]
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith (IMDB)

In this chapter we find the Leprechaun in Las Vegas. It stars, yet again, no one you've heard of. It opens in a pawn shop with a stereotypical Indian guy who unleashes the Leprechaun after stealing his gold necklace. He then uses the internet to figure out how to kill the Leprechaun, he dies, the Leprechaun then goes on to kill a bunch of gambler degenerate types. I would say out of all of them, this is the worst. It's real boring and really ugly.








Leprechaun 4 - Leprechaun in Space
(1997) [Trailer]
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith (IMDB)

You would think that since it's set in space, it would rule, but sadly, it does not. It's another cast of no names and it's some of the shittiest acting out. Story-wise it's exactly what you would expect: they pick up the Leprechaun from an alien planet, he takes over their space ship and fucks people up. The set pieces and costumes look like hand me downs from other sci-fi shows. It has the look of a porno movie from the 90's (the golden age.) It's a really bad movie, but still better then part three.







Leprechaun 5 - Leprechaun in the Hood
(2000) [Trailer]
Director: Rob Spera (IMDB)

OK, this is a great idea for a Leprechaun movie, and they do a good job pulling it off. Totally campy and cheesy, but still a lot of fun. It stars Ice T (this is the performance that landed him the gig on Law & Order) and is centered in South Central LA. The Leprechaun's gold is stolen (big surprise), he comes back for it, smokes weed and fucks people up. Perfect. It's the best of the films, just barely edging out part one.








Leprechaun 6 - Leprechaun Back 2 Da Hood
(2003) [Trailer]
Director: Steven Ayromlooi (IMDB)

So much promise, I really was excited for this, but sadly, it's a watered down version of it's predecessor. It stars the guy from Onyx...and...no one else you've heard of. The plot is pretty much the same as the last. I feel like it's trying for 'Friday' meets 'Leprechaun', which should be amazing, but it's not. It's slow, especially to get to the Leprechaun scenes. When he arrives finally, he smokes more weed, kills a dude with a bong, and then kills even more people. The last half is pretty good, enough to secure it third place.