Kill Bill (all of it) (2003)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Parks, and a shitload of others

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Here comes the bride

Plot: The Bride wakes up after a long coma. The baby that she carried before entering the coma is gone. The only thing on her mind is to have revenge on the assassination team that betrayed her - a team she was once part of.

Kill Bill 1 Trailer:

Kill Bill 2 Trailer:

My Rating: 10/10

Would I watch it again? Duh

I love Tarantino's films. In interviews he's a pompous, conceited egomaniac, but his films kick all kinds of ass. I saw both parts of KB four times each in the theater. I couldn't get enough. Everything about it is magnificent. The dialogue, music, story. Everything. Tarantino gets, often times, the absolute best performances out of his actors. I've never seen Uma better, and I don't recall seeing Carradine better than he is here.

Michael Parks is a character acting genius. To see him as Earl McGraw in part one and then have him turn up UNRECOGNIZABLE in part two as Esteban Vihaio and give an amazing performance in two completely different types of rolls is just...amazing.

Then there's the anti-climactic ending bothers an awful lot of people.

PULP SPOILERS

Bill is clearly advancing in his age. He does have some fight in him but he's past his prime and probably hasn't engaged in massive close combat like he's about to with Uma. He's certainly in no condition to match her considering that she's taken on dozens of highly skilled killers and beaten or killed them on her way to get to Bill. She's going to win if it came down to it. He knows it and she knows it. He has his Q&A time with Uma and starts drinking. They take the conversation outside. He's tipsy and ready to die. In a matter of four or so seconds she complies and kills him. So there's no big fight. Bill chose that death rather than fight it. He accepted his fate for wronging Uma. He deserved it and he knew it. End of story. Up to this point we had been treated to one fantastic fight after another and to have the film end this way, with the opportunity to catch our breath and absorb, was a ballsy choice and the right choice.

END OF SPOILERS...YARRRRRR!

People claim that this is Tarantino's Spaghetti Western. Where? How? He makes great use of some SW music from other films, there is a location in the American desert and this has a revenge theme but it's not a SW. Maybe someone can explain it to me. I have over 300 Spaghetti Westerns and I've watched a fair share. I don't see it.

I do have to comment on the obvious greedy bastards at Mirimax that are responsible for the release of this film on DVD. It's outrageously over-priced and the lame extras of literally fluff just don't cut it. They just released both films on Blu-ray with a list price of $35 each! Outrageous. So essentially the MSRP is 70 bucks for one film. Granted, you can get them cheaper but even at 45 for the whole thing it's just wrong. Bastards!

The Silencers (1966)

Director: Phil Karlson

Starring: Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Victor Buono, James Gregory

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Follow Matt Helm secret agent from bedroom to bedlam with guns, girls and dynamite!

Plot: In this, the first Matt Helm movie, we see Matt Helm coaxed out of semi-retirement by an attractive ex-partner. It seems that the evil Big O organization has a nefarious plan called "Operation: Fallout." If this plan comes to fruition, Big O will explode an atomic bomb over Alamagordo, NM, and start WWIII. Only Matt Helm can stop them.



My Rating: 6/10

Would I watch it again? I'd rather make a martini and remember the good times...

I love Dean Martin. I...LOVE...Dean Martin. He was "The Man". No one was as natural and smooth as a performer on screen or stage as Dean. He always looks like he's having fun and when he's in something lighthearted like this it's even better. He's clearly having a good time. I just wish I could have as much fun watching this as he had making it. But then a 6-figure paycheck at the end would have helped me a bit.

I remember seeing this a gazillion years ago and my opinion hasn't changed. There are some funny-ass moments (a bunch with one of my favorite character actors, James Gregory) but the few gems we get don't do enough to get me as comfortably through the 102 minute run time as I would have liked. He's just oozing with charisma that it's a shame he wasn't given more funny bits. Dean is a very relaxed performer and this is a very relaxed film. It's not really a bad film. It's just that it's not really a good one, either; not as good as it should have been and for a
film that spawned 3 sequels.

Great title song.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Director: Robert Hiltzik

Starring: Nobodys

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: ...you won't be coming home!

Plot: Slightly disturbed and painfully shy Angela Baker is sent away to summer camp with her cousin. Not long after Angela's arrival, things start to go horribly wrong for anyone with sinister or less than honorable intentions.



My Rating: 6/10

Would I watch it again? With the right company. Why not?

I'm not going to sugar-coat this and say it's a great movie. It's not. It's a product of its' time. There's nothing done here that hasn't been done before and since. The acting is pretty bad, sometimes, and the outfits are HYSTERICALLY bad. But I laughed my fucking ass off and had a great time. Naturally, it helps to watch this kind of cheese with friends and booze. Without that my rating and enjoyment would have probably been lower.

There is a great twist ending which is what I gather gave this film its notoriety. Unfortunately, that was the one thing I knew about the film going into it. I still had a good time playing along with the film maker's attempt to keep us guessing until the very end. I doubt the sequels are as innocent and fun as this but that's something I'm kind of looking forward to finding out for myself.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Director: Kerry Conran

Starring: Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The Battle for Tomorrow is About to Begin...

Plot: After New York City receives a series of attacks from giant flying robots, a reporter teams up with a pilot in search of their origin, as well as the reason for the disappearances of famous scientists around the world.



My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? Do the kids like to jump up and down on Angelina Jolie's lips?

I love serials of the 30s and 40s and this flick is right up my alley. It's got the look and feel for them. Fantastic. The score by Edward Shearmur is great, especially the rousing hero theme. The design of the giant robots are cool as hell. Law was a blast as the hero, Paltrow can sometimes get annoying with that pouty look (but not nearly as bad as Rene Zellwegger) and Jolie is good for a change. I think the eye patch helped a lot...less of her face is visible. And the payoff of Paltrow's obsession with her camera is tremendously funny making it easily one of the best, abrupt and original endings I've seen. I would have loved to have seen this in a theater back in the 70s as a kid. It's too bad they won't be revisiting these characters again. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Bank Job (2008)

Director: Roger Donaldson

Starring: Jason Statham

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The true story of a heist gone wrong... in all the right ways.

Plot: Martine offers Terry a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London's Baker Street. She targets a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. But Terry and his crew don't realize the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets - secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal.



My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? After some time has past

I dig a good heist film and it seems like a long time that I've seen one. Well, here it is. It even takes place in London in the early 70s. Even better. I dig it. It's a fun film but it might play a little more serious than some would want. I like the political aspect of it. The build-up and the execution are great but it's the aftermath that gets most of the screen time. It's pretty tense and, not knowing the outcome of the players this is based on, I had no idea what was going to happen to whom. Good stuff.

I know I often times will bring out something sexual to discuss in a film. It's largely for laughs if it isn't obvious. Well, I'm watching the film and there's a scene in a brothel where women are walking around completely nude. One girl serving drinks walks by pretty quickly but something was amiss. After asking everyone else if lower half looked odd no one could think of a reason. So I grab the remote and freeze that shot. Sure as shit, she's wearing a merkin, a pubic wig. Some of the actresses were shaven and that wasn't the style back then so they had to wear merkins. Classic. Chalk one up for 'ole eagle eyes.

THX 1138 (1971)

Director: George Lucas

Starring: Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Maggie McOmie, Sid Haig

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: The Future is here.

Plot: The human race has been relocated to a underground city located beneath the Earth's surface. In the underground city, the population are entertained by holographic TV which broadcasts sex and violence and robotic police force enforces the law. In the underground city, society controls all life, all citizens are drugged to control their emotions and their behavior and sex is a crime. Factory worker THX-1138 stops taking the drugs and he breaks the law when he finds himself falling in love with his room-mate LUH 3417 and is imprisoned when LUH 3417 is pregnant. Escaping from jail with illegal programmer SEN 5241 and a hologram named SRT, THX 1138 goes in search of LUH 3417 and escape to the surface, whilst being pursued by robotic policemen.



My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? Has Luca$ completely lost his credibility in exchange for a giant throat pouch? HO HO HOOOO SOLO

This is back when the man had some great ideas and a solid vision. He lost that 12 years later with the introduction to those fucking teddy bears in JEDI. But here, this is pure futuristic, paranoid sci-fi. It's quite good; definitely not for everyon'e tastes. It's slow. It's start white throughout most of it. It's cold and it's a refreshing bit of sci-fi from the greatest decade for film. It's not quite masterpiece it deserves to be but it's still an important piece of work that needs to be seen.

The French Connection (1971)

Director: William Friedkin

Starring: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: There are no rules and no holds barred when Popeye cuts loose!

Plot: Police partners Doyle and Russo put a candy store under surveillance based on a hunch that something fishy was going on. Eventually it turns out that the proprietors are involved in one of the biggest narcotics smuggling rings on either side of the Atlantic, and the cops go to work.



My Rating: 9/10

Would I watch it again? Does Paris Hilton like the blow?

I love gritty crime pictures and this one is one of the best. Hackman's a badass, though a flawed badass. The car chase is rightfully infamous. The film just ends. It feels like there's another half hour waiting but there isn't. Hackman's so focused on his obsession that he won't stop but we have to. That's where THE FRENCH CONNECTION II (1975) comes in. This is one of many great 70s American crime pictures. Check out also Roy Scheider in the not-too-shabby THE SEVEN-UPS (1973).