X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Director: Brett Ratner

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Vinnie Jones

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Take a Stand

Plot: When a cure is found to treat mutations, lines are drawn amongst the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier, and the Brotherhood, a band of powerful mutants organized under Xavier's former ally, Magneto.

My Rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes. Maybe I'll hate it less each time. So far so good.

My only previous viewing of this was opening weekend at the theater and I hated it. I didn't much care for any of it except how neat it was seeing Stewart and McKellen CGI-younger at the start and how quickly Magneto turned on Mystique (which remains my favorite scene). After two home runs with the previous films I guess I was hoping for a grand slam with this third and final film in the franchise with this cast. Not much has changed except that I no longer hate it. Mystique's fate is still my favorite scene and by a long shot. I still don't like Halle Berry in this picture. I just don't think she's that good of an actress.


Enough can't be said about how much acting weight Stewart and McKellen bring to this franchise. It's pitch-perfect casting and those two go a long way in keeping this flick from being leagues worse than it already is. My biggest issue I guess is the lack of any emotional weight when certain characters snuff it, particularly the first major death. I was stunned at how little I cared and the way they build this person up suggest we're not supposed to care but I doubt that. That's a film maker's problem for neglecting it. X-MEN 3 should have been longer. I realize it's not too far from being two hours long but it needed another half hour and some tweaking with the character development. You can tell they were trying but the whole thing feels rushed and that's a damn shame because so many hundreds (probably thousands) of people worked to make the first two films the best they could and this is how the story ends.

Love Ranch (2010)

Director: Taylor Hackford

Starring: Helen Mirren, Joe Pesci, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Gina Gershon, Taryn Manning, Scout Taylor-Compton, Bai Ling, M.C. Gainey

More info: IMDb

Tagline: When It Comes To Love... Everyone Pays A Price.

Plot: In the mid-70s, near Reno, Grace Bontempo runs the Love Ranch, a legal brothel. Her husband Charlie, with big dreams, a felony record, and an aptitude for spending and infidelity, is the brothel's public face. On the day Grace's doctor tells her she has cancer in an advanced state, Charlie takes on new client, Argentine boxer Armando Bruza, Charlie's ticket to fame: he hopes to promote a fight with Ali. Because of Charlie's felonies, Grace is Bruza's titular manager. With the IRS and the church ladies circling the business, Grace takes the manager's role seriously and, along the way, Bruza charms her. Secrets play out: is there love at the Love Ranch? How will Charlie respond?

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Nope. Too many movies to get to before I die.

I don't know how this one escaped my attention but when I recently came across it in one of my bulk buys I was shocked to see that there was a recent Joe Pesci movie that also starred Hellen Mirren as a couple of pimps running a whorehouse in Nevada! That's all I need to know. And it's pretty good. If you're a fan of either actor then you're going to want to see this. Pesci plays it charming and cruel but not as bastardly as his work with Scorsese. Mirren is a beast of an actor and seeing these two play opposite each other was a treat. For the record, Hellen Mirren needs to have my babies.


See! Does that look like a broad who is 63? That's not from this movie but it was taken two years earlier. RANCH is also a pretty good crime picture that's not only well acted but well directed and the ending is very satisfying. Director Hackford has done some big pictures including THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (1997), one of the few Keanu Reeves movies I can take. Besides, this is the only picture Pesci has done since 1998! Check it out.

Drew Hastings: Irked & Miffed (2008)

Director: Michael Drumm

Starring: Drew Hastings

More info: IMDb

Plot: Drew Hastings' stand-up comedy special.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

#2 on Stand-up Comedy Month, May 2012

I've only heard the name of Drew Hastings so his routines are new to me. He's a story teller comic, with tales of his adventures with his girlfriend, being 50, having a farm, etc. Hastings is very likable and is better than average but there really wasn't much to illicit big laughs from me except for this one bit...

THAT was hilarious. Maybe it's because I can totally identify with it. I dig this guy's style and should I come across any of his other stuff I'll give it a watch.

Black History Month 2012

So I had this great idea, right, that I was going to celebrate Black History Month by watching a shitload of movies with the word "black" in the title. That's all gravy until your career gets in the way and you just don't have time to devote to your favorite hobby. Sigh. There's always next year.

1) Black Caesar (1973)
2) Black Moon (1934)
3) Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)
4) Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler (1962)
5) Abar, the First Black Superman (1977)
6) Black Snake Moan (2006)
7) Black Mama, White Mama (1972)
8) The Black Alley Cats (1973)
9) The Black Gestapo (1975)
10) Black Candles (1982)
11) Black Cobra (1987)
12) The Black Castle (1952)

Stand-Up Comedy Month - May 2012

I've been in love with stand-up comedy for decades. I started collection comedy records since the Ford administration!!! I've always been drawn to it. It looks like fun and I've always wanted to try it someday to the point of keeping a file folder of jokes, bits and things that I come up with that make me laugh. I've been working on that folder for more than 20 years and I tell myself that someday I'm just going to put together a few minutes of material and get out there and try it. I'm sure I'll fall flat on my face but that's OK. At least I will have at least tried it.

I recently bought a couple of large DVD collections that included a shitload of stand-up comedy DVDs, most of which I've never heard of. I'm going to attempt to watch them all. There are close to 40!!!! Fortunately they're short so there's hope that I can make it through to the last one and just maybe I'll find a few that are good enough to find a home in my permanent collection. I'm very picky when it comes to comedians so it'll be interesting to see how this experiment goes.

01) Eddie Murphy - Delirious (1983) (7/10)
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Eddie Murphy: Delirious (1983)

Director: Bruce Gowers

Starring: Eddie Murphy

More info: IMDb

Plot: Eddie Murphy's stand-up comedy movie debut.

My rating: 7/10

#1 on Stand-up Comedy Month, May 2012

Will I watch it again? Nah.

It's been about thirty years since I last saw this. Back then I laughed my ass off, glued it back on and this time I only laughed portion of it off. The first twenty minutes or so when he's doing impressions (very good ones, too) had me in stitches. His 'gay Honeymooners' routine is hilarious and his Jackie Gleason impersonation is frighteningly spot on (it starts at 5:45 above). I'd forgotten how good he was at shit like that. His Elvis and James Brown bits were good for a lot of laughs. But it's when he gets to the ice cream truck bit, and largely from there to the end, I just didn't find it all that funny. People cite the ice cream man routine a lot but it never struck a chord with me. Murphy owned the 80s. He was a rock star among comedians. It's nice to revisit stuff like this after a long absence but it's bitter-sweet. He used to be so good but then that's back when he often had good material to work with.

UFO's Are Real! (1979)

Director: Ed Hunt

Starring: Loonies

More info: IMDb

Tagline: We dare you not to believe after you've seen... UFO'S ARE REAL

Plot: One of many 1970s UFO documentaries, this one features lots of still photos of alleged UFOs, some UFO motion picture footage, and the usual stock footage and images acquired from government and military sources. Among the many people interviewed are UFO researchers Stanton Friedman and Ted Phillips, UFO abductees Betty Hill and Travis Walton, optical physicist Bruce Maccabee, and retired U.S. military officers Jesse Marcel and Wendelle Stevens. The documentary supports the view that alien visitors regularly come to Earth and have perhaps done so for centuries.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nope. There's more where this came from so I just GOTSTA hit those.

I came across this while reviewing STARSHIP INVASIONS (1979) and looking up the credits of the director, Ed Hunt. Naturally, I was compelled to make this the next thing I watch.

I'm sure I've said this before here but I'll say it again; I'm about 100% sure we have no evidence that aliens have visited Earth. What people claim as evidence is either faked or it's something other than a flying saucer.


Wait. Maybe I'm wrong about this.



The film makers make hay about former President Jimmy Carter's sighting experience as well as many other notable politicians, pilots, astronauts, etc. Maybe there's something to this. Politicians can't be deceived or gullible, can they?


This woman, not to be confused by the actor Pat Roach who played the bald, burly guy Indy fights at the plane in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), is under hypnosis and she spills the beans on her encounter. Am I the only one here who is afraid the film makers put themselves in grave danger by interviewing a vampire??? My ass would've been on standby with a mallet and wooden stakes.



No, of course not. Whatever. Look, this is one of a gazillion documentaries of the 1970s that focused on all kinds of horseshit like Bigfoot, The Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, etc. They're generally fun and hokey as hell and I love them but you have to take these things with a grain of salt and apply some common sense and skepticism. They're a treasure trove of logical fallacies like the 'argument from authority' which states that a statement has more weight just because it came from someone important like the UFO sighting by President Carter. Just because he held the highest office in the country doesn't make his story any more plausible than that of Otis, the town drunk in THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. Anyway, you can watch the whole thing for yourself on YouTube (above) and report back whether or not Ed Hunt and pals provide any smoking guns to the existence of aliens and their holiday plans to visit Earth.

Oh, and don't you just love the possessive use of the apostrophe in the film's title?