Coming up this week #25-21

#30-26 Richard Gere is my Rollerskatin' bodyguard!

30. My Bodyguard
This movie offers more than just seeing Adam Baldwin (Serenity, Chuck) in his very first role, and Matt Dillon in one of his earliest films. It's a really well written story with plenty of 80s teens to laugh at.
The story focuses on a young man who moves to a new school and won't lie down for the current school bully. Although too little to do much on his own, he hires another student that most everyone is afraid of as his own bodyguard. The bodyguard has a troubled past and no friends. So naturally they begin to hit it off.
While the film is categorized as a drama it is a really light drama with quite a bit of comedy.
Awards:
Nominated for a WGA Award for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen.
I have to agree that the writing was really well done. It lost the award to Melvin and Howard, which I have yet to see.
Verdict: 4 stars
I originally thought this would only get 3 stars because I felt most of my enjoyment was just in seeing some of these actors in such an old role. But looking back it was really much more than that.

29. American Gigolo
Sauve or sleaze?
A young Richard Gere plays a gigolo the ladies just can't get enough of. Then he falls in love and gets set up for murder all at the same time. A bit convenient eh?
I was actually surprised by this one, though. The story stayed interesting throughout with the whole murder set up storyline.
The cheese factor is high with this one, and almost all of it falls on Gere. But I must say the man can act, which helps keep this somewhat believable, and at the least intriguing.
Awards: Nominated for 2 golden globes
Best Original Score - Giorgio Moroder
Best Original Song - Blondie (Deborah Harry) for Call Me
I really didn't really feel much eight with the overall score of the film, but the hit song by Blondie would have been impossible to ignore.
Verdict: 3 stars

28. Xanadu
Poor Gene Kelly.
As his last feature film, all copies of this one should be destroyed.
It took me five days to get through this. But, I didn't give up, and that's really too bad. But I think I can officially declare this the worst musical I have ever seen. That may or may not be related to the fact that there were more scenes taking place on roller skates than any other film EVER. And no, I don't know that for a fact, but feel free to try and prove me wrong, I think you will find it is quite difficult.
Olivia Newton-John plays a muse who is sent through a graffiti'd wall to help some poor painter open a club with Kelly.
Everything about this film screams disco ridiculousness.
Awards:
Nominated for 6 Razzies with 1 win.
I can't believe this only won one razzie. I think it should have sweeped Also nominated for worst musical from past 25 years in 2005. Although I can see how it failed to win, it was up against some big films: Glitter, Justin to Kelly, Spiceworld...
Verdict: 1 star

27. Raging Bull
A lot of this movie made me feel disjointed and uncomfortable.
My mind pounded on a major flaw in the idea that I was supposed to feel sympathy for this tortured boxer, and I didn't.
I stopped watching the movie about half-way and restarted it a few days later. Then it started to click.
I wasn't supposed to feel sympathy for him. I was supposed to be sucked into his neuroticisms, and that's probably why I was feeling so uncomfortable. It's just too well done.
Unlike watching Pacino in Cruising and the whole time my mind keeps saying, hey, that's Pacino. De Niro in Raging Bull is Jake Lamotta. After the first few scenes you really forget who you're watching. Maybe it's the fake nose that helps. The same can't be said for Joe Pesci, but that's probably more because they call him Joey, and not his acting to blame.
The boxing scenes are brutal to watch, not because of blood, but because of the emotions. De Niro's character seems to let everything in him build up until he gets in the ring and then lets it all out. Whether it's him serving the punishment, or taking it.
The scenes are brilliantly filmed, but never in a way where you feel the look of the scene was more important than the story it was telling.
I'm actually really glad I stopped watching this one and went back to it. If I hadn't I probably would have missed the great use of sound. To me, if the sound is done well, you don't really notice. but on my second viewing I was able to start picking up on some of this. Whether it was the use of music that would seem inappropriate for almost any other boxing scene, Or the sound effects used to heighten the emotion of a scene, it all added to the total experience.
Awards: Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winning 2.
Won Best actor in Leading role for De Niro. - Agreed
Won Best Film editing for the work of Thelma Schoonaker. -Agreed
Lost Best Picture to Ordinary People.
I haven't yet seen Ordinary People, but I find it hard to believe the Academy would still vote this way looking back.
Verdict: 4.5 stars
I know, I know. After such a positive review how could I not give it 5? I still don't like how it made me feel. I don't think I could sit through the entire thing again. I'm not saying it isn't a perfect example of how film should be made. It's just not a perfect film for me.

26. Bronco Billy
The movies I find the hardest to write about are ones like this. There wasn't anything too terrible about it, yet nothing that would ever make me watch it again.
In this on Clint Eastwood directs himself as Bronco Billy. A cowboy trying to keep his wild west show alive with barely an audience.
A rich daddy's girl gets left in a hotel with no car and Bronco Billy is there to haul her around with his show.
The storyline is nothing fascinating, but interesting enough to keep me watching.
Clint does a good job playing somewhat of a satire of himself I feel.
Verdict: 2 stars

#33 -#31

Tess, Fame, John Carpenter's The Fog


#33 Tess
I've enjoyed a few Thomas Hardy books, although not the one this is based on. It also received a great deal of critical praise in its time, so I was eager to see this one.
I was disappointed, but not by a great deal.
The film looked amazing. The costumes and settings looked great. The story-line was interesting, although a tad slow. But overall the pieces just didn't fall into place for me though.
Verdict
3 stars
I said I was disappointed, but I still liked the film.

#32 Fame
Okay, I almost feel a little guilty about this, but I enjoyed this one. I thought it was going to be extremely cheesy. But I really didn't think so. There were a number of laughs along with characters I actually cared about. And the music. It added a lot to the film, even though its a bit dated now.
Verdict
4 stars

#31 John Carpenter's The Fog
Wow.
I am pretty speechless with this one. I wasn't expecting much and boy was I surprised.
After watching the terrible Prom Night I thought Id be in for another lame horror film with this. But it's not.
This is an absolute marvel of a film.
I plan to watch this again and write a more detailed opinion at a later date, so for now I will just say. If you enjoy movies, see this one.
Verdict
5 stars

#34 Altered States

My senses were so assaulted I was able to watch an entire episode of Fran Drescher's The Nanny, without cringing, immediately after this film.

I will preface these thoughts with the following statement:
I am a writer. This movie is overly visual and substantially aural, with little attention paid to the words, dialogue and storyline. Therefore, I immediately find flaw with what may be, to some, an incredible film (although I doubt it).

That said, I found this movie to be ... interesting and weird. Which is not to say it wasn't fun to watch. I like interesting and weird.
I think I'll just launch into the problems I have with this movie. It feels like it is meant to stimulate your senses above all else. The dialogue uses a lot of big words, which shows you that the characters are intellectuals, but really has no more use in the film than that. In fact, a good portion of the dialogue is nothing but empty words. So much so that there are times it is unintelligble, either due to other noises, or layers of people talking over each other.

The actors do a good job, pushing the story along through a lot of expression. Not that there is much of a story. I mean once I removed all the imaging and sound and cut this movie down to it's basic storyline, it's incredibly weak.
A man experiments with hallucinations to the point they become externalized and he regresses into a caveman state, physically and emotionally.
*spoilers*
Then he takes it a step further and regresses into the time before man. All this is surrounded by a really lame story about a man and a woman who get married, are getting divorced, and then end up with each other in the end.
*spoilers over*

Verdict
2.5 stars
I almost liked it. I think it would have been better without all the noise. The visuals were interesting, although very dated now, and overused. The scene when the man regresses into a caveman and heads to the zoo is incredibly hilarious. Although it wasn't meant to be. I think that scene alone made this movie get that extra half a star, cause I could watch that scene over and over again.

Awards
Nominated for 2 Oscars - best original score and best sound.
Disagree and agree. I didn't even notice the score much, so I can't really agree that it was worthy of an Oscar nomination.
I did read that this movie was using some sort of new sound system developed by Warner and placed in certain theaters, so for the time the sound was probably all very exciting. Now though, it's all pretty much noise compared to the subtle use of surround sound that can be so artistically employed nowadays.
Nominated for a Golden Globe - New star of the year for William Hurt.
Agree. I thought his performance was subtle, yet perfect for the film. It's his acting that allows a viewer to stay with the movie throughout the assaults of image and sound.

Box Office
This movie must have had some sort of good word of mouth surrounding it. It was initially released in 3 theaters and went on to gross almost 20 million dollars, which seems pretty impressive for this style of movie. I'd love to dig up what it was that caused so many people to seek this movie out. My guess is a lot of drugs, but who knows.

#35 Song of the South

This was re-released in 1980. It is not widely available for good reason, and I didn't feel like hunting it down. I feel no loss skipping this film.

#36 Cruising

Al Pacino is Cruising for a killer.
That's the tag line to this one. And it pretty much sums it up, once you know what they mean by cruising.
Pacino is a low-on-the-totem-pole police officer who gets a chance at detective by doing some heavy undercover work. He is thrown into the Hardcore S&M homosexual scene due to his looks in order to catch a killer.
This movie has a LOT of men and a LOT of leather.
Supposedly this was very controversial when it came out due to it's portrayal of gay men, but I think, like the disclaimer said at the beginning of the dvd, this is simply one type of group the movie is portraying, not anyone as a whole.
Unfortunately, I found Pacino's acting to be sub-par for him. Which is still better than most, including the rest of the cast.
The storyline was good enough to keep me intrigued and some of the visuals were pretty stunning.
Verdict
3 stars
I liked it. Might even watch it again someday, but I don't think I could really recommend it to anyone. If you're a big Pacino fan though you wouldn't want to skip this one.

#37 The Octagon

Sit tight and wait for the fight.
This movie starts off slower than molasses dripping uphill. But I suppose the filmmakers wanted this to be more than just an action flick, so they try really hard to set the movie up and introduce the characters. Unfortunately, if they'd have just kept it all about the action it probably would have been a lot better.
The star of this film is definitely Chuck Norris. It was probably written for him to show off some skills and draw in the fans.
Not much to say for the plot. Secret Ninjas killing people. Norris must fight someone from his past. Pretty standard stuff. The movie ends strong when we finally get to see some really good fighting.
There is a lot of fun to be had with this movie though. Some pretty cheesy lines and ridiculous inner monologues
Visually it's hard to comment on this movie. I watched it on AMC. And while the visuals weren't bad, it seemed very dark,, and overly grainy for this time period, as if it was shot this way on purpose. if it was it didn't seem to add anything to the film.
Verdict
2.5 stars.
It wasn't bad, but it didn't offer much past mild entertainment. Although if I watched this with some friends the rating would probably go up, as I could see having a lot of fun with this one.

#38 The Aristocats

Good music, cute kittens, and characters that actually develop throughout the film...
still can't add up to a movie I'd be excited to show my child.
The Aristocats is definitely not a bad movie. But it's nothing too special either. It has a pretty good swingin jazz soundtrack. A good story about an upper-class mother and her three kittens that are saved by a lower class alley cat.
Unfortunately with the good things this movie had, it moves along far too slowly to keep me interested.
It's hard for me to judge the animation of this movie because I'm not that familiar with other animation of the 70s but this one seemed very stale, and didn't help with the pace.

Verdict
2.5 stars
If my daughter is really into cats or jazz I will show her this movie someday, if not I think it would bore her out of her mind.

#39 Honeysuckle Rose

Clocking in at almost a full 2 hours, Honeysuckle Rose is a struggle to get through ... If you don't like Willie Nelson.
Lucky for me I don't mind watching Willie and Family perform.
Nelson plays a traveling country singer named Buck whose long-time guitarist retires. Buck's new guitar then becomes the daughter of the old guitar player, and she seems to have a VERY large crush on Buck.
The film follows Buck and his band (Nelson's actual touring band) as they embark on their tour, leaving behind a wife and small child.
It is a story I don't find very original, but still got very sucked in.
If you don't like Willie Nelson though, I think you'd have a hard time sitting through all the performances waiting for the story to continue. Not to say the performances aren't needed, most of the time they are used to progress the story. However, I could easily see this film being cut down by a good half hour of Willie performances and not really lose much.

Verdict:
4 stars out of 5
It was nothing groundbreaking or even very original. But the story was really well told and the filming was good, especially the concert pieces.

Awards:
Nominated for a Best Music, Original Song Oscar for the song On The Road Again.
Disagree - It should have won. This is not that great of a song, but I find it funny that the song lost to a song from fame. I think you'll find this one has a bit more lasting power to it. Of course by the time the movie was coming to an end, I was a bit sick of hearing it.
Won a Worst Supporting Actress Razzie for Amy Irving.
Disagree - I thought she played the part perfectly and didn't even deserve the nomination, much less the win.

#40 Herbie Goes Bananas

Next time my wife rolls her eyes when i ask her to watch a movie with me, I think I'll just skip it.
I won't say I had high hopes for this film, but I vaguely remember seeing some Herbie movies as a young lad and enjoying them.
My guess is I never saw this film.
I didn't expect anything too deep, but did expect a light children's movie with some laughs and ridiculous situations.
I got the ridiculous situations, but no laughs were involved, at all, really. NONE.
After watching about a half hour I thought to myself, well maybe Harvey Korman can save this movie for me as his role gets bigger. Wow, did it not save anything. His acting was overwhelming and cliched, and the worst part is it was terribly unfunny. Not that he had anything to work with, so I can't blame him. He's a great character actor, and when the character is this lame, so it goes.
And yes, I am probably coming down way too hard on a "kids" movie, but I doubt there is any reason for anyone to watch this movie, child or adult, unless they are a MASSIVE Herbie fan.
Verdict
.5 star(s) out of 5.
Yeah, that's right half a star. I really never would have thought that rating was possible, but it is now after seeing this movie. I can't imagine giving it to another movie, so let's hope this one stays unique.

#41 Rough Cut

Rough Cut

Burt Reynolds stars as a savvy jewel thief who's being trapped by the police and a beautiful woman.
:First of all. I must admit I ave a soft spot for heist movies: banks, jewels or canines if you choose.
That said I slightly enjoyed this movie. Burt Reynolds is incredibly cheesy, but yet entirely enjoyable. Lesley-Ann Down plays the clepto who is blackmailed by the police into setting up Reynolds as the chief last big arrest.
The twists are somewhat predictable, but not ridiculous like many in this type of film can be.
Verdict
3 stars
Light-hearted and humorous. I could watch it again, but won't need to search it out.

#42 The Final Countdown

Lloyd Kaufman?
The man who brought me Squeeze Play, was an executive producer?
This was a pretty good sci-fi/time travel film. Definitely not the fare I'm used to when Lloyd Kaufman is involved.
A crew goes through a time-warp back to the day before Pearl Harbor was attacked. And this time the have the knowledge and the weapons to easily stop it.
The film is ll about asking the questions. Should we stop it? What will happen if we get involved in the past?
Although, probably one of the most interesting parts of this film was the use of the real battle station and planes. Not too mention a large group of non-actors upon the USS nimitz.
Watching this on Blu-Ray looked great. I'm not a big fan of planes or ships, but got really sucked in seeing these things in action here.
Maybe I'm too interested in time travel, especially when it brings up so many questions of character, and the time space continuum.
Verdict:
Overall I give this one 3.5 stars. Didn't quite love it, but definitely glad I got to see it.

Awards:
Nominated for two Saturn awards - best sci-fi picture and best actor for Kurt Douglas.
Agreed. Worth the nomination, but up against Empire Strikes Back it didn't have a chance.

#43 The Hunter

Don't bother hunting this one down.
Clever, no? No.
Okay fine, anyway...
The Hunter is Steve McQueen's final film. So it has some merit of worth solely to see that, I guess.
Unfortunately the terrible storyline makes that the only reason to watch it. Well, and a pretty decent chase on a subway.
This is much less of a movie than a series of disjointed flashes of work by a bounty hunter. This film is based on the supposed true story of a real bounty hunter. With this I am guessing they just tried to pack in a whole bunch of cool little stories wrapped in a vague reluctant father-to-be character.

The Verdict
2.5 stars
Too much happening that isn't strong enough to stand on it's own, without enough of an overall storyline to keep you interested. I almost gave up watching a number of times.

Awards:
None - agreed, no awards deserved.

#44 Hero at Large

Fun.
This was a fun movie that had a decent storyline.
John Ritter plays an actor who has to take a job dressing up as a superhero outside of a movie opening. While in costume Ritter thwarts a small time robbery and becomes a hero in his own right.
Ritter played this role way different than I expected. Although it's a very funny film, Ritter plays it almost straight.
In the end it turned what could have been nothing more than a silly movie into something a little heavier, but still quite funny.

Verdict:
3 stars
I'm not gonna go out and buy it, but I definitely thought it was a really fun movie.

#45 - The Long Riders

Stunning!
I can't believe no one has ever made me watch this. Films like these make this project so worth while.
The film tells the story of the James gang, mostly toward the end of their years robbing banks.
A wise choice by the filmmakers was using actual brothers to play the parts of the families in the gang.
The acting by everyone was superb, however, in my opinion the real star was someone I had never heard of name Pamela Reed as a prostitute named Bella Star.
This is definitely a film to check out.

Verdict:
5 stars
Loved it!

#46 The Island

“For 300 years they've avoided the garbage of civilization.”
This line makes an intro almost too easy.
Actually, this wasn't as bad as I expected. That doesn't mean it was good though.

From the trailer you see that this film is definitely an attempt to cash in on the success of Jaws. Not only is it based on a novel by the same author, Peter Benchley, but the tagline in the trailer is “Now, the most terrifying thing in the water is … The Island”.

Directed by Michael Ritchie, the film looked good and didn't feel nearly as fake as I expected it too.
I think what first seemed like rip-off shots in the film felt more like slight nods to Jaws in the end.
A caught Tuna/Marlin (the fishermen can't decide) with a large bite taken out of it.
An underwater scene of kicking legs.
And definitely lots of shots of open water, but those make sense due to the context of this film, with or without Jaws.

The movie opens with some action as the viewer learns that what will be coming from the water won't be any sort of animal, but instead vicious pirates, with an ax!
Then we get to meet the real characters of Blair Maynard (Michael Caine) and his son, Justin.
The story has a good set-up. Blair is a reporter who wants to investigate 3 years of missing boats in a certain area. His son gets dropped with him by his mother leaving for a vacation so Blair takes him with on the trip, although the two are not very close at all.

As all the missing boats have been, Blair and son are captured by the band of pirates. Blair shoots and kills one as he makes his way onto their boat. This leads to a trial for Blair and the pirates decide, rather than kill him, he must impregnate the wife of the man he killed. Okay, that's a new one. The son gets bainwashed to become an adopted son of the pirates and the movie continues in typical fashion of 'how will we get out of this alive'.

Action scenes of the pirates taking boats isn't terrible, with a rip-roaring score fitting old pirate movies. But, just when you start to get into the action they ruin it. For instance, a man on the ship attempting to fight off the pirates with nothing but his tight blue underwear and karate noises.

Where the movie really falls apart is the stilted dialogue and acting. Although Caine was nominated for a Worst Actor Razzie for this role, I can't blame him fully, I think he needed some help from the supporing chaacters, and NONE was given. One or two of the main pirates may have been decent if they had had any script to work with.

*If you plan to watch this movie and want to be surprised in any way skip down to the verdict.*

There is definitely something off about the son, I don't know if they re-recorded his lines, or overdubbed them with someone else, or if he's just an awful actor, but it is really off-putting anytime he talks. Although the true crippling part of this character is less the acting and more the writing. The son doesn't get along too well with his father, and when captured is brainwashed quite easily. Believable enough, I guess. But then the whole freaking outcome of the movie is that father and son are back together and safe, and it is all ridiculously unbelievable.

The entire movie leads up to (as if anyone is still interested in the story at this point) a final fight scene upon a coast guard boat. The pirates have just taken the ship from a much, much larger group of coast guard members. Then Blair sneaks onto the ship, after swimming from shore, finds an automatic mounted gun and just mows down the entire band of merry pirates except a few, including his son.
As I said before, Blair and son are safe and together and the viewer is left wondering what the hell just happened.

**The Verdict**
2 stars
I can't say I'm sorry I watched this movie. The cinematography looked good, and there were a number of worthwhile, if laughable scenes. However, I can't say I would recommend it to anyone, unless I know they like bad movies.

Awards:
Nominated for Razzie – Worst Actor Michael Caine
Disagree. Can't blame Caine for his supporting cast and a terrible script.

Nominated for Razzie – Worst Director Michael Ritchie
Strongly Disagree. I think Ritchie did everything he could for this. His biggest mistake was probably signing on to try and turn this script into a film in the first place.

Memorable moments and quotes:
Pirate lighting his head on fire before boarding the boat!
-Definitely unexpected

Brainwashing boy by keeping eys open with toothpicks.
-Gross. It obviously worked though.

Blair: “Its a drug called cocaine”
Pirate Woman: “What does it cure?”
Blair: “Insecurity”

Fisherman: “You don't send a proctologist to do a nose job.”

Box Office: Flop
Understandable! This had an estimated budget of 22 million and pulled in only 15.7 million.
Universal seems to have dumped a lot of money into making the next Jaws and failed miserably. Had they sold the movie on its own merits to the gore audience (this is pretty gory for its day) it may have faired better.

Overall:
If you have an obsession with bad movies or pirates hunt this film down. Otherwise, feel free to pretend it was never even made, that's what the people responsible seem to be doing. (Not out on DVD)

#47 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Re-release

Not an alien movie.
I really went in to this movie expecting it to be some sci-fi film about aliens.
Not even close. It's the story of a man, and a woman, who are driven to figure out what a recurring image in their head means while trying to grasp the reality of an alien presence. It's a character piece that still looks and sounds amazing almost 20 years later.
This is a film I had wanted to see but probably kept putting it off since there were three version and I never knew where to begin, unsure if I would want to watch every version. I'm glad I just jumped right in and finally watched this, but would choose the original now that I know I will watch all 3 versions.
The look of the film, the music and the great acting of everyone, especially Richard Dreyfuss, really made this a film you want to see projected on a giant screen. It sucks you right into the world and you really don't want to leave.

The Verdict:
5 stars
Although some parts were a little slow I found this film amazing. I will definitely have to check out the other 2 releases of this to see the differences.

Awards:
While this re-release didn't win any awards, the original release won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Sound Effects editing in 1978 and was nominated for 7 more.

Memorable moments and quotes:
Jillian ( about the police looking into her son's disappearance) “They asked me if I had seen any strangers in the neighborhood”. Laughs.

Roy: “I guarantee this whole thing is a put-on.” Then puts on gas mask anyway.

“Einstein was probably one of them”

Box Office:
Well, it came brought in 15.6 million as a re-release so my guess is they were ecstatic. I mean how much could the re-editing have cost?

Overall:
See this movie! Stands the test of time. May have to find this on blu-ray for my collection.

Bonus - Squeeze Play

B-B-B-B movie!
Boobs, Butts, Baseball and Beer.
It was raunchy, but I wouldn't call it a sexploitation film.
Made by Lloyd Kaufman during Troma's Pre-Toxic Avenger days. The story focuses on a group of men who'd rather play softball than be with their women. Of course once the game is over the adrenaline seems to turn them into incredibly horny monsters who like to grope anything they see. This leads the women to organize their own softball team to take them on.
Between this there's some good "couple" development. One falling apart and one just beginning. There's more than just the TnA to keep the viewer watching.
On such a small budget the filming looked almost good and most of the characters were pretty well played. Of course it was pretty similar characters as most Troma films, Guys who are jerks, women who are sexy, and kids who are brats.

The Verdict:
2.5 stars (out of 5)
Sexist? Sure, but at least it tells you it's sexist and the girls stand up for themselves, where most movies just show that the women like being poked and prodded.
All-in-all, this was a pretty enjoyable movie. Had some good laughs, and I actually cared about some of the characters and storyline.
I'm kind of a sucker for these late-night style comedies. As a young man just discovering the opposite sex, I would regularly try and stay up late to sneak in a few movies on USA's Up All Night. Although these were heavily edited they were great for a young man heading into puberty, and I found they were about more than just the girls, they were also about very low-brow humor. So I guess you could say I grew up on the stuff. And I still find it funny! So maybe I'm a little biased, but it was a fun movie.

Awards:
Not really the type of movie to receive or be nominated for any major awards.

Memorable moments and quotes:
"Just think about all the kids and silverware we'll have when we're married."

The wet T-shirt contest.
This was memorable to me, because as I look back it sticks out that this scene lasted a REALLY long time. Obviously Kaufman wanted to show as much T in this scene as possible, but when you watch it he keeps enough going on during the contest to make it all flow. And that is really surprising for a movie like this.

The softball announcer.
This guy added a lot of humor to the movie.

Box Office:
Ha. My guess is pretty limited to drive-in theaters in the day.
But with the obviously low budget, it probably made enough.

Overall:
If you like Raunchy sports comedies you could do a lot worse I'm sure.
I would probably never seek this out again, but if it was on TV sometime, I'd watch it.

1980 #49 - Prom Night

WHY?
Why was this film ever released?
The setup for the movie is pretty good. A bunch of kids tease a girl and she falls out a window to her death. Then 6 years later someone starts to kill off the kids on their prom night.
Unfortunately what happens during the film throws it all out the window.
The biggest problem from the beginning is trying to figure out who the characters are. Jamie Lee Curtis looks like someone's mother. Then we find out she's a teenager, but dating who we thought was her son. Then we learn who we thought was her son in the first scene is her brother, and she's dating someone else who looks way too similar to her brother. It's all very confusing for about 15 minutes or so.
Landing Curtis for this role was probably great for the production studio as I'm sure it drew people to the theater. Unfortunately it also ruined the film. She is far too prominent in the movie playing a character that should really have hardly anything to do with the story. The rest of the characters who are important hardly see any screen time before being killed off.
It's also way too easy to figure out who the killer is. Which leads to even less suspense as the film draws to its *groan* climax. But I don't want too give anything away in case someone actually wants to watch this.
The look of the film was even worse than the way the story played out. Half of the time you can't see what's going on because it's shot in the dark with a glaring light everytime there's a reflective surface.

The Verdict:
1 star (out of 5)
I really can not think of any redeeming qualities to this movie, except I had some fun watching it.Of course that was more due to the alcohol and company, then it was the movie.

Awards:
Nominated for Genie – Best Achievement in Film Editing / Brian Ravok
Disagree. I don't know much about film editing. But what I do know is that the editing of most horror films are used create suspense. There was no suspense created with this film whatsoever. And none of it even looked decent, so I'm not sure why this was nominated.

Nominated for Genie – Best Performance by a Foreign Actress / Jamie Lee Curtis
Disagree. Jamie Lee acted and looked like a mother figure to all the other characters that were her supposedly her own age. I'm sure this is partially the fault of casting, but still, there is no reason for this performance to be nominated for anything.

Memorable moments and quotes:
Wendy: “It's not who you go with, honey, it's who takes you home.”
Classic, and classy, too.

Alex: “You're my sister. I'll leer”
You know, they really didn't play out the incest angle that this brought up.

Disco scene
This was ridiculous, not only because I hate disco, but the scene added absolutely nothing to the film. Plus, Curtis dances like a robot.

Crowning of King and Queen:
This was hilarious. I can't say why, if you haven't seen it, but I hope it was meant to look as funny as it did.

Box Office:
Success?
From what I can find this film cost under 2 million to make and grossed almost 15 million at the box office. I'm sure this was a success for the studio. I can see why people wanted to see this. Horror films were really starting to take off around this time and current Scream Queen Curtis was probably a big draw. Too bad the movie couldn't deliver anything worth watching again.

Overall:
Stay away from this movie unless it's halloween and you want to watch hilariously bad scary(without the scares) movies.
One note of interest is the acting of Leslie Nielsen. It's not that great, but it is odd to see him act seriously.

1980 #50 - The Nude Bomb

GENIOUS!
Is a word I'd use to describe the original Get Smart! TV show. Unfortunately, The Nude Bomb doesn't even come close.

I won't be too worried about giving away any spoilers in this post because, well, I don't think there's enough of a plot here to give away.
The story follows Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) as he tries to stop KAOS from bombing the world with bombs that will make everyone nude. And that's about it.

The film starts out with some decent puns and one-liners, but soon falls into a cheesy action comedy. Don Adams is great, even with sub-par writing. He seemlessly picks up the role from ten years ago, and nothing ever seems forced from him. His comedic timing is perfect, like most of his work.

The rest of the cast was okay, but you definitely miss having Barbara Feldman as Agent 99. They bring in a few girls to replace her part for the movie but the main character is 22. I'm not sure who's daughter Andrea Howard is, but she should not have been given this role. She simply can not act. While the film was filled with a number of small smiles and maybe even a chucke, the only time I laughed out loud was seeing Howard's attempt to act surprised by the revealing of the bad guy. I think I may have to find a clip of that somewhere to post.

My hope to revisit the original TV show with this movie could not be satiated. The biggest fault, besides falling flat n the laughs, seemed to be a lack of new gadgets. The show always did a great job of coming up with worthless gadgets, and this movie seemed to recycle a few and come up with nothing original.


The Verdict:
2 stars (out of 5)
Don Adams saved this film from being completely worthless, but just barely.

Awards:
Nominated for Razzie – Worst Movie
Agree. This is definitely on my short list for worst movie of the year. I hope the year gets better.

Memorable moments and quotes:
Talking about the desk-car
Caruthers: “Be sure to change drawers every 6,000 miles.”
Max: “Mine or the desk's.”
Caruthers: “Depends on who's chasing you.”

Norman Saint Sauvage: “Your bogus ingenousness is straining my equanimity.”
Max: “Could you put that another way?”
Norman Saint Sauvage: “You're Pissing Me Off!”

The clone fight scene.
This scene was pretty well done. Max and Sauvage keep multiplying as they go through an instant clone machine until the entire room is filled with pairs of them fighting each other. It was pretty funny when a child came through as one of Max's clones, too, and he had to send him back in.

Box Office:
Flop
I am guessing this was a flop. I couldn't find the budget, but my guess is it was higher than the 14.6 million it brought in. I can see why this flopped. Probably grabbed people trying to relive the television show, like myself. But my guess is bad reviews killed most of the momentum for it.

Overall:
Unless you feel the need to see everything Don Adams has ever done, leave this one alone. It may also be worth a watch if you come across it late one night after heavy drinking. Alcohol would have made this much funnier I'm sure.

Week 1: The Plan

Here is the upcoming schedule for the first week.
I am starting with #50 from 1980 and working my way up Box Office Mojo's yearly box office earnings list.

Monday: The Nude Bomb - PG - Comedy
I remember watching Nick at Night as a pre-teen boy and, along with the Dick Van Dyke Show, Get Smart was a favorite to watch. Looking into this movie I do not expect it to be very good, but I am excited to see it anyway.



Tuesday: Prom Night - R - Horror
Not a huge fan of horror films, but I don't dislike them either. I usually like older ones for the campiness of them. I feel I may have to force myself to keep watching this one by the time I reach the half-way point.



Wednesday: First Family - R - Comedy
Not released on DVD I thought of just skipping it, but then saw the cast list. Gilda Radner, Bob Newhart and Fred Willard. Not to mention the comedic writing of Buck Henry, who also directed. I hunted down a VHS copy and look forward to seeing it. Hopefully it gets delivered in time, or I may have to get out of order.


Thursday: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Special Edition) - PG - SciFi/Adventure
I am making sure I watch the 1980 theatrical release of this movie for this. Having not seen the original version I won't have any comments on the changes Spielberg made. Just my thoughts on the film. This has been one I've always had on my to-see list.


Friday: The Island - R - Adventure
Not released on DVD I have found it available On Demand from Amazon. This is by far the least interesting film to me this week. I can try and muster some excitement by the fact that the writer also wrote the novel Jaws was based on, and he wrote Jeremiah of Jacob's Neck. Okay, I have no idea what that is, but it's a very intriguing title. Oh yeah, also, Pirates seem to be involved.

Well, there is the schedule. I'll try and have my thoughts posted by noon the scheduled day.

The great experiment begins!

Here it is. Day negative five.
Monday begins day 1 of 100 weeks - 80's flix.
I plan to watch the top 50 box-office movies of every year in the 80's starting with 1980.
That's 500 movies in 100 weeks.
Can my brain handle it? Will my daughter put up with me watching terrible movies night after night?
Let the experience begin!