Saturday, June 24, 2017

Death Race 2050 2017 2 out of 10


Death Race 2050 2017  2 out of 10

I've been waiting for them to make a good remake of Death Race 2000 for a long time.   The 1975 Cult Classic featured racers in the near future of the year 2000 (LOL)  as contestants in a cross country race where they score points for running people over.   It was a strange film that starred David Carradine as a driver called Frankenstein and a Sly Stallone as Machine Gun Joe.   The original was a cheesy dark comedy that gained cult movie status.   It was a film that one wished they would remake

.....and that finally happened in 2008 starring kick ass action star Jason Statham. Unfortunately the film just didn't capture the same spirit as the original  by getting rid of the main elements of the original and turned it into basically just a care race film.  It also completely wasted Jason Statham's butt kicking talents.   Apparently this film had 2 lower budget  direct to video sequels (which I haven't seen).   

Then the other day I noticed and recorded Roger Corman's Death Race 2050.   Roger Corman wanted to bring the series back to it's campy roots and that he did.  Unfortunately the film is a complete dud.  It is just a silly super low budget remake now set in the year 2050.   The movie starts off with a terrible joke as one of he racers named Terrorist Tammy ---blows up some people in the stands before the race begins.   With all the recent terror attacks this scene was just in poor taste and not remotely funny.  I know I'm watching a movie where drivers run people over for points, but this scene just didn't sit right with me.   

The characters:  The characters in this movie are lame caricatures.  Perfectus (who has gender identification issues).   Minerva is a rapper turned racer that sings the dumbest song possible while trying to run people over.   There is a self driving car called A.B.E. that is trying to discover who he is and Tammy the Terrorist a religious cult leader.   And the star of the film Frankenstein who looks like a Mad Max wannabe.  

The Cars:  The cars in this film are so weak.  They look like they were made out of cheap plastic as part of a kids build cars reality show. 

The Movie itself:  The movie was just dull. There was nothing exciting about these cheap looking cars driving around empty streets with the occasionally running over of a small group of extras.  The movie wanted to be Mad Max -but comes off as Slighty Annoyed Max.  It was just so low budget that it had no teeth.  The plot was forgettable and I wish I had just watched the trailer and skipped the film.  I don't know how on earth they got Malcolm Mcdowell to play the president in this piece of junk.




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Wednesday, June 7, 2017

SiREN 2016 6 out of 10


SiREN  2016 6 out of 10

SiREN is a movie about a bachelor party gone wrong.  The Groom's brother decides to take him and some buddies to some random town instead of Vegas (Vegas costs to much to film in). They end up in a crappy strip club until some mysterious stranger in a trench coat invites them to something a little different.  
 They follow along a dirt road to a strange underground night club in a Church/Mansion.   This is the best part of the movie as the weird, creepy, strange supernatural night club.  It reminded me of HellRaiser: Hellworld in that it had cool elements --but it could have been a better film.   The cool set up held a lot of promise which the film fails to deliver in the second half of the movie.  The groom ends up releasing a supernatural creature  (A Siren from Mythology) and the rest of the movie is her killing people and the guy that runs the supernatural nightclub trying to get her back.  
I would have rather seen a story focused more on the supernatual night club --which could have been explored more.

It had and interesting concept which is why I give it a 6 out of 10... but it wastes some really good potential. 




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Ride Along 2014 7 out of 10


Ride Along 2014  7 out of 10

Ride Along was about exactly what you expect itwould be.  It was a good comedy with both Ice Cube as the hardened cop and Kevin Hart as the nervous (soon to be rookie) that is dating his sister.   Both actors did a good job playing the same type of characters they are used to playing.   As a buddy cop film the movie works and the two actors have a good contentious chemistry.  I enjoyed both actors performances and thought the movie had some good funny scenes.  Ice Cube's character basically takes Kevin Hart on a Ride Along to try and scare him away from being a cop and proposing to his sister.  He sets a bunch of crazy situations where Kevin Hart's character will fail--while still trying to investigate some big undercover case he has been working on.

Where the movie fails a bit is in how totally predictable the plot was. You can see the supposed twist coming from a mile and a half away.  This movie came out the same year as Let's Be Cops --which had a fresh and new take on a cop movie.   By comparison this movies big scenes just weren't big enough and funny enough.

My advice is if you like Ice Cube and Kevin Hart you will enjoy this film--since they are exactly the characters you would expect them to be....just don't expect anything special as far as the story goes.




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Tuesday, June 6, 2017

The Expendables 3 2014 8+ out of 10


The Expendables 3  2014    8+ out of 10

For this third installment the 1980's action dream team has added Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes and Mel Gibson   I'm still trying to imagine how much money these movies would have made if they could have put this cast together back in 1989.   The Expendable movies are just a fun.  These films are throwbacks to the time when action movies were the biggest movies of the summer.  

This third installment gives us more of what we got with the previous films.   A bunch of tough guys taking on an impossible job and facing off against Mel Gibson in top form as the villain.   Wesley Snipes has come out of hiding from tax evasion to co-star in the film and even jokes about it.  Then of course the addition of my favorite actor of all-time Harrison Ford joins in a role that starts out more like what Bruce Willis and Arnold's characters were in the first 2 films ---but he eventually joins in the action as a daring helicopter pilot.

The action sequences:  The action was top notch.  Michael Bay would be proud of the explosions in this flick.  Each star basically gets their moment to shine in this action packed film.  The movie starts with the crew breaking Wesley Snipes character out of a moving train jail.  Then the move on to another job that ends with one of their crew getting shot by Mel Gibson's character that is supposed to be dead.   Mel Gibson used to be an Expendable himself, but has turned evil so the rest of the story is Sly trying to bring him down.  The plot is just an excuse to get these actors into an arena for an fun action battle royale.  The whole third act of the film is one big long action scene.

I personally enjoyed Expendables 2 better because it seemed like the ending was a little better,  but I would keep watching   this franchise for as long as they keep making them, unfortunately it sounds like Sly has decided not to continue with the franchise.







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Friday, June 2, 2017

The Super, Fantastic, Terrific Podcast #25 In this Podcast we discuss Guardians Vol. 2 and Coherence plus more

The Super, Fantastic, Terrific Podcast #25 In this Podcast we discuss Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2   the low budget sci-fi film  Coherence and play the ratings games  “Who Like it More Better?" .  



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