Khyber Patrol (1954)

Director: Seymour Friedman

Writers: Jack DeWitt, Richard Schayer

Composer: Irving Gertz

Starring: Richard Egan, Dawn Addams, Raymond Burr, Patric Knowles, Paul Cavanagh, Donald Randolph, Philip Tonge, Patrick O'Moore, Laura Mason, Charlita, Robin Hughes, Gavin Muir, Richard Reeves

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Adventure charges down from the wilds of India...

Plot: Britain's control of India is jeopardized when warlords Ahmed Shir (Burr) and Prince Ishak Khan (Randolph) battle at the Khyber Pass. Enter Capt. Kyle Cameron (Egan) of the British Lancers, whose renegade style may either save the day or doom the region to chaos. When Cameron learns that greater forces are pulling the strings, he attempts to destroy Shir's rebel faction from within.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Here's one of those few old adventure movies you can find on Netflix streaming.  It's not a bad way to 71 minutes.  Richard Egan is pretty bland and that hurts.  Just imagine what Errol Flynn could have done with this.  It's fun seeing Raymond Burr all done up as a native bad guy. There's not an awful lot of action but the final act has enough thrills and spills to almost make up for that if it weren't for the very abrupt conclusion.  Clearly shot in California to fill in for the Indian mountains, it would be easy to see this as a Western if you simply substituted the Indians for Indians.  Ahahahahahahaaha.

C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004)

Director: Kevin Wilmott

Writer: Kevin Willmott

Composers: Erich L. Timkar, Kelly Werts

Starring: Greg Kirsch, Renee Patrick, Molly Graham, William Willmott, Rupert Pate, Evamarii Johnson, Greg Hurd, Ryan L. Carroll, Don Carlton

More info: IMDb

Tagline: What if the South had won the War?

Plot: Through the eyes of a British "documentary", this film takes a satirically humorous, and sometimes frightening, look at the history of an America where the South won the Civil War.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Boy, what a let down.  While I found some of this pretty clever, it wasn't nearly as fun or as biting of a satire as I would have preferred.  Blame it on my preconceptions of what this film was about (you can also blame the trailer as it makes the film look absolutely outrageous) or maybe the movie isn't as strong as it wants to be.  The best parts were discovering the many of the 'commercials' within the picture were based on actual products.  You laugh until you find out how real they were and then you're laughing in disgust. As a Southerner and as a rational person, I couldn't find much about this film to enjoy and I have no problem with folks making fun of The South. I've had 45 years of that. Sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's not.  Funny is funny no matter what the subject is.  I kept waiting for the funny or painful social comment with this film but, there was only a little bit there and not enough to justify watching it again.

The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)

Director: Don Sharp

Writers: Sax Rohmer, Harry Alan Towers, Don Sharp

Composer: Bruce Montgomery

Starring: Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Heinz Drache, Marie Versini, Howard Marion-Crawford, Tsai Chin, Ruper Davies, Kenneth Fortescue, Joseph Furst, Burt Kwouk

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Better dead than wed!

Plot: Fu Manchu and his army of henchmen are kidnaping the daughters of prominent scientists and taking them to his remote island headquarters. Instead of asking for ransom, Fu demands that the fathers help him to build a death ray, which he intends to use to take over the world. But Fu's archenemy, Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard, is determined not to let that happen.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

OK, so I really didn't like the first (of five) picture, THE FACE OF FU MANCHU (1965).   It was really slow and largely uninteresting.  I'm stymied how they were able to make five of these films since they're not that good.  At any rate, this is at least an improvement but that's not saying much.

Christopher Lee is OK but he's not really adding much to it.  I like the underground Egyptian lair vibe he's got.  That was neat but the film suffers from pacing issues like the first one only it's not as bad.  Fu Manchu is still like a low rent Bond villain and you know he's going to get away at the end so there's not much suspense in that.  Nayland Smith (Wilmer) is enthusiastic as ever to catch Fu Manchu.  There's a dusting of action but, like its predecessor, it's mostly a cat and mouse game and a not very interesting one at that.  Here's hoping the next film in the series is more fun.  That seems to be the trend so far.

American Splendor (2003)

Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Writers: Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Composer: Mark Suozzo

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar, Shari Springer Berman, Larry John Meyers, Vivienne Benesch, Barbara Brown, Earl Billings, Danny Hoch, James Urbaniak, Eli Ganias, Hope Davis, Molly Shannon

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.

Plot: An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

From the first few minutes you get an idea how fun and absurd this picture is going to be and it doesn't falter for a moment.  It's fascinating, the technique used by having both Paul Giamatti's portrayal of Pekar and the real Harvey Pekar in the same film, sometimes side by side, works both as a narrative device and for laughs.  The real Pekar is hilarious and Giamatti does him justice.  What a great actor.  All of the performances are good and fun.  James Urbaniak stands out as a young Robert Crumb.  SPLENDOR is an interesting and damn fine comic book movie that's got a lot of laughs and generates a lot of fun.  It would make a great double bill with the wonderful documentary, CRUMB (1994), a picture I haven't seen in quite some time and this picture has got me itchin' to see it again.

Chamber of Horrors (1966)

Director: Hy Averback

Writers: Stephen Kandel, Ray Russell

Composer: William Lava

Starring: Patrick O'Neal, Cesare Danova, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Laura Devon, Patrice Wymore, Suzy Parker, Jose Rene Ruiz, Philip Bourneuf, Jeanette Nolan, Marie Windsor, Wayne Rogers, William Conrad, Tony Curtis

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The year's most startling entertainment

Plot: A one-handed madman (he lost the hand while escaping a hanging) uses various detachable devices as murder weapons to gain revenge on those he believes have wronged him.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

At first this feels like a remake of HOUSE OF WAX (1953) but soon the similarities start to fade.  When Jason (O'Neal) cuts off his own hand to escape a date with the hangman, shit gets real.  He goes to New Orleans for a while to plot his revenge.  The cool thing is, he fucking gets it and each victim loses a body part with the final one expected to lose his head.  This is a pretty damn good horror/thriller and I'm surprised that he got as far as he did.  I'm really impressed.  I like the 19th century look and feel of the picture and the performances are just fine.  There's no reason, really, not to watch it for fans of 60s horror.  The Warner Bros. DVD I have doesn't include the 'Fear Flasher and Horror Horn' that's advertised in that ridiculous trailer above, thankfully. 

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Director: Adam McKay

Writers; Adam McKay, Will Ferrell

Composer: Alex Wurman

Starring: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, Chris Parnell, Kathryn Hahn, Fred Armisen, Seth Rogen, Paul F. Tompkins, Danny Trejo, Luke Wilson, Joe Flaherty, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Tim Robbins, Jerry Stiller, Vince Vaughn

More info: IMDb

Tagline: His news is bigger than your news.

Plot: Ron Burgundy is San Diego's top rated newsman in the male-dominated broadcasting of the 70's, but that's all about to change for Ron and his cronies when an ambitious woman is hired as a new anchor.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I caught this in the theater ten years ago and I thought it was pretty damn funny. The jazz club scene had me in stitches as well as Brian Fontana's (Rudd) cologne cabinet with Sex Panther (rowrrrrr).  Christina Applegate was delightfully funny.  Will Ferrell had his moments of funny as did the rest of the cast but there was something about watching it ten years later that lost the funny a bit.  The two scene cited above still make me laugh out loud and hard but there were fewer guffaws than before and I'm not sure why.  The sequel was OK and, like this original film, had its moments.  Everyone did do a fine job in conveying the 1970s.  I really dug setting the film during that era.  I guess I just wanted more laughs out of it.  Now that I've seen it twice (and the sequel), I don't think I'll feel the need to revisit it.

Fletch (1985)

Driector: Michael Ritchie

Writers: Gregory McDonald, Andrew Bergman

Composer: Harold Faltermeyer

Starring: Chevy Chase, Joe Don Baker, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Richard Libertini, Tim Matheson, M. Emmet Walsh, George Wendt, Kenneth Mars, Geena Davis, Bill Henderson, William Taylor, Burton Gilliam, James Avery, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, William Sanderson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Meet the only guy who changes his identity more often than his underwear.

Plot: Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, Los Angeles journalist, really lives for his profession. As Jane Doe, he publishes articles that have caused several heads to roll in the past. Now, Fletch is at it again: In disguise as a bum, he lives at the beach, researching drugs and their dealing. One day, Fletch is addressed by Alan Stanwyk, a rich man, who asks him, the bum, a favour. For the sum of $50,000, Fletch should kill poor cancer-ridden Mr. Stanwyk with a gun, so that his wife will get the insurance money. What the guy didn't think of was Fletch's real profession. Returning into normal life, Fletch instantly takes up research not only to find out that Mr. Stanwyk is healthy as life itself but he also runs into certain connections between drug dealing at the beach, Alan Stanwyk, his private jet, the police and a very expensive piece of Land in Utah.

My rating? 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Man, I haven't seen this since the late 80s and it's held up beautifully.  Chase is ideal in the titular role.  His throwaway lines are often hilarious and you'll miss them if you aren't listening.  The supporting cast is great too.  I'd never miss an opportunity to see Burton Gilliam.  That cat is a scream. Harold Faltermeyer's score and theme are wonderful, too.  His tunes are infectiously catchy.  Tim Matheson?  He's so fun he should be in everything.  On top of all of that, it's scripted by one of my all time favorites, Andrew Bergman.  This is one of those films that could probably qualify for a remake with some sequels every fifteen years if this original film wasn't so intimidating.  There was talk a few years ago about reviving it with Jason Lee.  He could have filled those shoes but it really needs a pro to write and direct it to make anywhere close as special as this one.  I'll have to give the sequel, FLETCH LIVES (1989), another spin now.