Tremors (1990)

... This movie actually has MORE budget then The Usual Suspect!!

Ron Underwood the director has actually done several movies I like Heart and Souls (1993) [One of my favorite Robert Downey Jr. movie], Mighty Joe Young (1998) and surprisingly, several TV Series I like, Boston Legal, Eli Stone, Reaper, No Ordinary Family, Necessary Roughness, Burn Notice, Castle etc, etc!!

Kevin Bacon (Valentine McKee) and Fred Ward (Earl Bassett) actually have good chemistry!! [The more modern term is Bromance]

I was actually surprise to see Michael Gross (the father in TV series, Family Ties) in this. His character Burt Gummer a red neck nuclear apocalypse believer.

This movie is tongue in cheek and is actually quite fun.

The perfect movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon if you have not watched it already!!

My Two Sen

Terror Train (1980)

After Jamie Lee Curtis became a silver screen scream queen in Halloween (1978), many an offer came to her. The Fog (1980) & Prom Night (1980) comes to mind.

A lesser much know movie is this one.

The highlight of this movie... surprisingly isn't Jamie Lee Curtis, but.... wait for it... Mr. David Copperfield.

Guess what character he played. He played the role of a.... wait for it... Magician!!

Pre Uni kid, all trap on a train after their finals... There are chick, booze, rock and roll or, and magic show!!

I remember watching this or RTM (that is right folks, before TV8, before NTV7, even before TV3, we ONLY had RTM) many MANY years back!!! They censored the heck out of it!!

Nothing else worth while to say except Jamie Lee Curtis is probably pretending that she never was involve with this movie...

My Two Sen.

Psycho II (1983)

Sometimes being a hit, is a curse.

For Psycho, the curse it two folds...

Anthony Perkins is pigeon hole to the Norman Bats character...

And any sequel is... doom... still born even.

If you notice the year this movie was release 23 years after the original...

The writers used that as the time Norman Bates was locked up in a Mental Asylum... and after 22 years... the doctors decided the Norman is sane...

They also managed to persuade Vera Miles to reprise he role as Lila Loomis (the sister of the victim in the original movie).

And that is where the intrigue of this movie ends...

Because Alfred Hitchcock so masterfully made the first the is absolutely not way anyone can equal... let alone surpass his in an sequels...

They start the movie but cutting in the shower scene from the first, trying to remind the audience what Norman did...

And then any chance they get, they re-shoot all the good bits in the original but with the new characters....

I need to permanent save this line, the more things change, the more things remain the same. Even the twist at the end...

As I had said, doom even at the beginning...

Universal had alot of hopes for this movie... and based on the strength of the original, this movie made USD 35 million (it cost them USD 5 million to make) and have to add, this movie you would watch and just as soon forget...

It pales in comparison to the original...

So as I had stated above, cursed...

And then Universal went ahead and made 3,4,5...

My Two Sen.

The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

This is really REALLY old movie. Not only is it black and white, it is also silent!!

Quite dedicatedly restore and the background orchestration recorded!!

This has all the elements of an Arabian night story.

A beautiful princess and cheek and handsome rouge thief who has the audacity to dream he could win the princess!! Flying carpet, magic apples dangerous quest!!

Also very interesting to see, the transition from traditional theater to cinema, which Douglas Fairbanks, whose movements were exaggerated trying to make sure the person at the back of the cinema hall can see that he is happy, sad etc...

If you are into silent movies, give this a go!!

Bring on Nosferatu!!

My Two Sen

Virtuosity (1995)

Before The Matrix (1999), before CGI was the goto technology for Special Effect, there was this little gem...

It introduces Russell Crowe to people outside of Australia and also the concept of virtual reality to the general public!!

Looking at it now... the story is still passable with some decent CGI effects!!

Densel it seem always plays the decent guy who is caught in a complex situation...

Also remember this is the early days of email adoption, so things that we take for granted now, was actually high tech then!!

This beats tech movies from the same period Sandra Bullock's The Net (1995), Angelina Jolie's Hackers (1995) and gosh even the much later Ryan Phillippe's Antitrust (2001) out of the water.

Please note this is R Rated so there are some... skin.

My Two Sen

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

An RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures production.

Interestingly, apart from movie legends like King Kong (1933) and Citizen Kane (1941), RKO was also responsible in launching careers for Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Mitchum and Cary Grant! In it's time, it was one of the big 5 movie production company in Hollywood!!

In the 80s it made a comeback with movies like Cat People (1982, which is a remake of one of their property with the same name from 1942, the 80s version had Nastassja Kinski... Anyone?? )

It still exist at this point in time, holding the rights to RKO properties, but it is a far cry from it's hey days!!

Back to The Hitch-Hiker, a suspense thriller and interestingly, the victims are two men!!! (maybe I'm too saturated with thrillers from the 70s and 80s, where all victims are chicks!! )

Director Ida Lupino, is not as masterful as Alfred Hitchcock in generating suspense.

Having said that some scenes were obviously shot in the Studio and have to add, the art direction is still impressive (the end scene, the docks)

PQ is poor. I don't think they even attempted a restoration, just a digital transfer to new media...

AQ, sound is clear, nothing spectacular.

If you want some inside of what can be passed as "bromance" in the 50s, this maybe a good reference point!!

My Two Sen

Hercules (1997)

Too many liberties were taken with Hercules' myth, not one of Disney better works...

Greek mythology is pretty well know and they... just took too many liberties...

Alan Menken post Howard Ashman, music is very gospel... to tell the story of Greek mythos.... Hm... not quite sure if t gels...

Unless you are a die hard Disney fan... I don't believe I'm gonna say this, you can give it a miss...

My Two Sen

The Haunting (1963)

A very handsome black and white movie from the 1960s.

Not to be confused with it's remake The Haunting (1999).

Directed by director Robert Wise, who apart from this movie, also directed The Sound of Music (1965) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1975).

This is a horror movie.

It is based on a book by the same name.

Synopsis

Soon after the death of her mother (whom Eleanor had taken care of for many years), Eleanor 'Nell' Lance took a vacation by involving herself in an experiment conducted by Dr. John Markway. 6 other participants were suppose to be in the experiment, but apart from Nell, only Theodora 'Theo' and Luke Sanderson arrived.

Now here is where things started to change for different viewers are the strange happenings in Hill House because of restless spirits or because of Eleanor...

Robert Wise wants his viewers to decide....

My Two Sen

Anaconda (1997)

This Adventure & Thriller is a Jennifer Lopez vehicle circa 1997, tried to do for Anacondas, what Jaws (1975) did for Great White.

In actually fact, Great White can cause a lot of damage and death to people at the beach, the Anaconda is actually almost sloth-like right after a meal and does not possess the lightning quick movements the movie suggested!! But I digress...

If I was ever in a movie, I wish (one can always fantasize ) I could have Eric Stoltz's (I was Marty McFly for two weeks) role, catatonic for most of the movie and then get paid!!

The selling points of this movie is NOT the script, but how many compromising positions can they put Jennifer in, with the skimpiest of outfits, to showcase her.... talents!!

Another selling point, surprisingly is, for it's age, it actually has decent sound, so PQ is out of the window, but SQ is actually very good!!

That's it, that's all I have to say

My Two Sen

Death Becomes Her (1992)

One of my guilty pleasure. Something I have revisited over and over again.

A nonsensical movie with surprisingly good special effects, that withstood the trial of time and also, the absolute tongue in cheek works of Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis & Goldie Hawn are simply breathtaking to watch.

The story is delightful.

The vanity and the extend in which people go to in the name of vanity is actually well portrayed here and I think the moral of the movie, I believe is still valid to this day and age!

If you like comedy dark, look no further.

I wholeheartedly give to you, this!!

My Two Sen

The Relic (1997)

Wow, for a 1997 movie, I am actually quite impress by the transfer.

Please be warned. This is a dark movie (picture and story wise) so if you cannot stand dark scenes over and over again, this is not a movie for you.The sound, kiddies, the sound is awesome. Very good workout for your subwoofer(s?). There are tiny sounds I can hear on this that I did not hear on other formats.

This actually, I feel, is an under appreciated horror movie.

It is a little out there, but the people involved really put in effort to make it entertaining.

And for me, it is!!

If you like "creature" horror, this is pretty good.

My Two Sen

The Beastmaster (1982)

Dennis Miller (comedian) jokes that the true meaning of HBO was not "Home Box Office," but 'Hey BEASTMASTER'S On!" (excerpt from DVD booklet)

Another of my guilty pleasures...

I really lost count as too how many times I have watched this!

From Video Cassettes (anyone here remember this) to DVDs (my very first DVD I bought from Amazon) and now bluray!

My copy of Dvd was released by Anchor Bay America and this bluray copy is by Umbrella Entertainment.

I am doing a side by side comparison. Here is the kicker! For most part, the aspect ration of the movie is correct in the bluray version (In the DVD version, Achor Bay supposedly used a 4:3 ration masters and put top and bottom black bar to make it seem letter box). Strangely though, the bear scene at the beginning of the dvd copy's ration looks like the correct one compared with the bluray version. So far, this is my only complain about the bluray copy and some very very brief video artifact as opposed to the scratches and dust on the DVD version. So overall, am very VERY happy with my bluray copy.

Am actually surprise to find out that prior to this the Director/Producer (Don Coscarelli/Paul Pepperman) team made three low budget movies, the most famous and expensive amongst them was, Phantasm (1979, with a budget of 500,000)!!

Beastmaster had a budget of 4,500,000 (to 9,000,000 depending on which source you believe).

4,500,000 in 1982 is worth $11,156,601.06 today, so, still amazing the amount of stuff they managed to squeeze into this movie.

Prior to this I never knew Director/Producer (Don Coscarelli/Paul Pepperman) who wrote the script, had total control of the production at the beginning of the filming of the movie to no control at the end. Don Coscarelli was banned from the editing room, by the investors of the movie (European).

Cannot talk about The Beastmaster without talking about Tanya Roberts (who had since confessed that many a man had walked up to her since to tell her how much a fan they are of her because of her "acting" talents in Beastmaster) and Marc Singer (I was in Shakespeare plays before I did this!!!)

In 1982, Tanya appear as the centerfold for Playboy the same month The Beastmaster was release at the movies. Coincident?? I think not. Alas,, the movie did not do well in the box office. But I believe with the receipts from overseas market did recuperate the initial investment. I believe they hit the jackpot, so to speak when the movie was release in Home Video and when HBO started showing it on cable, well as they say, the rest is history.

Well, back to the two leads, the movie would not have gain so much popularity without them!!

Having said that, Marc Singer did come back to do Part 2 & 3 (without Tanya), but they never managed the popularity of the original.

There are also cute animals in this so something for adults and kids.

Please do note there are some mild nudity with Tanya and the three witches, but nothing too scandalous.

If only every men have a black tiger as they wingmen when they wooing women...

Also for the vieweres with keen eye, you will also not that Q (Men In Black) is the bad guy here (Rip Torn)!!

I like this movie, even now. It is not perfect, but when you were my age when I first saw this, it damn near is...

Like always, My Two Sen.

Electric Dreams (1984)

What do you get when you crossed Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Tchaikovsky, Bach with the 80s?

Well, you get this movie!!

It is my opinion that outside of the Golden age of Hollywood, Lenny von Dohlen & Virginia Madsen probably is one of the loveliest screen couple in the movies!!

Virginia Madsen in more recent interview admitted that they were head over heals over each other during the making of the movie but alas none of them acted on their feelings after the movie!!

Believe it or not, this movie is about Artificial Intelligence in an age where there is no internet, and Personal Computer has the same processing power of a scientific calculator (no sound card, not graphic card, no USB ports etc)!! Gosh I don't believe how people in the 80s live without the internet, wikipedia, emails, ipod, smart phones and actually had actually had to talk to each other!!

Still they managed to built a "smart house" so to speak.

The PC images in the move although rudimentary in this day and age. but back then, it was state of the art!!

In the film credit, they actually dedicated the movie to UNIVAC I.!!

Love this, love this, love this. Too bad it is not out on DVD or Bluray.

My Two Sen.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Gosh, I'm on the blast from the past, trip!! For some odd reason, I have never watched this before.

I have heard about it mind you, but never watched it.

I'm sure most of you probably heard of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, and I believe this would be his most famous case! (And also the author's favorite film adaptation)

Albert Finney's (last seen in Skyfall [2012]) Hercule Poirot (a fictional Belgian detective) is impeccable!!

Just see his night "routine" before he goes to sleep and you will not help but notice, this person is immaculate in EVERY FACET OF HIS LIFE!

This movie has the whose who of Hollywood, Ingrid Bergman (I just want to be alone), Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York (Basil Exposition anyone?? ) etc, etc... No wonder the tagline for the movie was "The greatest cast of suspicious characters ever involved in murder."!!

If you have not read the book, and you like drama, for Pete's sake watch this. I promise you, you'll never guess, WHO DID IT!!

My Two Sen

The Pelican Brief (1993)

I wonder why they had stop adapting John Grisham's books.

It is a drama + investigative journalism.

It is amazing how much in 21 years things have changed.

What that had once seen as "noble" (eg. journalism exposing injustice, committed by the rich and powerful), is now seen as "unpatriotic". (Snowden anyone)

I personally feel, that the world has become much much more cynical place and that, ladies and gentlemen, is sad.

Going back to the movie, Denzel Washington has a inner calmness that gives his performances alot of gravitas!

A very young and beautiful Julia Roberts, headlines this production with a very convincing performance as Darby Shaw, the writer of The Pelican Brief!

Once she had written it and passed it to her Professor/Lover, who in turned passed it to his F.B.I. friend.... Well, lets just say, something hits the fan...

Again, I emphasize this is a drama. And a well made one at that. Not many movies are made like this nowadays. The closes would be Jack Reacher (2012) (although there are more action in Jack Reacher).

Another movie I like a couple of years from 1993 is Conspiracy Theory (1997) which I hope I can get a copy of soon to re-watch in the near future.

If you want something different from the what is made nowadays, give this a go.

My Two Sen

Conspiracy Theory (1997)

Wow, I am on a "R" binge!!

Again, a blast from the past and one I also like very much

Julia Roberts was at her peak. Mel Gibson before he is hated!! And Patrick Stewart... before he was Professor X!!

I have missed Richard Donner. John Schwartzman cinematography was great, Kevin Stitt & Frank J. Urioste edit were spot on and Carter Burwell score was lots of fun!!

Imagine Looney Tunes meets Alfred Hitchcock! That pretty much sums up this movie for me!!

If you have not watched this before, do yourself a favour and watch it!!

You know why I'm singing this when you watch the movie. Enjoy

My Two Sen

Kiss the Girls (1997)

I miss movies like this.

Decent storyline (Mystery/Thriller).

Good cast (Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd & Cary Elwes).

And the film is well executed!!

If you are into sick serial killer, this movie is for you!

I would have to say Ashley Judd probably looked her best here!!

If that is not motivation enough to watch this movie, I don't know what will!!

My Two Sen.

Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)

For me this is a blast from the past!!

I watched this when it was first release (not at the cinema, but VHS tapes).

This movie is influenced by many movie, namely, King Kong (1933), The French Connection (1971), and many other B movies.

This is an instance that a movie can be so bad that is actually becomes good!!

Cast wise, it has David Carradine (Kung Fu anyone??), Michael Moriarty & Richard Roundtree.

They did not have much (story wise) to work with and by Jove, they worked their[COLOR=black] ass off for this movie!!

For those of you who is familiar with Aztec myth, this movie takes a stab at the Quetzalcoatl myth.

So you know what that means, A Feathered Wing Serpent, in GLORIOUS STOP MOTION!!!

Good luck finding this if you are interested.

My Two Sen

Body Heat (1981)

I am on an 80s binge!!

This movie is interesting.

It is very heavily influence by Film Noir!!

Script is clever!

Every censorship that was imposed on Film Noir are broken, and broken thoroughly in this movie.

William Hurt oozes sleaze!

And Kathleen Turner just oozes...

There is even a young Ted Danson & Mickey Rourke here!!

It is my personal belief that this kinda spearhead other movies like, with mix success rate:

Angel Heart (1987)
Two Moon Junction (1988)
Night Eyes (1990)
Wild Things (1998)

One word best describe this movie. Sultry.... Very VERY Sultry.

Not suitable to view with young kids!!

My Two Sen.

She's All That (1999)

A teenage RomCom.

There are two thing that I have to say about this movie.

1) So many names in this one, Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, Anna Paquin & Usher Raymond and they were ALL so young...

2) I forgot Paul Walker was in this one. It is still sad to see him...

A simple, light, mildly amusing and predictable movie.

There is a market for this kind of movies.

My Two Sen.