Flowers of Darkness (1972)

Director: William Templeton

Writer: Don Peterson

Composer: E. Robert Velazco

Starring: Paul Newman, Vernon Hann, Jack Hurst, Sherman N. Kieffer, Charles Siragusa

More info: IDMb


Plot: The life of man is poor and nasty. A few plants give temporary relief: marijuana, alcohol, and opium. After a history of opium, including the 19th-century Opium Wars, we learn of the discovery of heroin; the rest of the film examines heroin trade and addiction in the U.S. Two tons a year enter the U.S., with only 100 pounds interdicted. Most is used in New York City. Interviews with customs officials, prosecutors, medical doctors and junkies provide points of view. The harsh 1956 law and the medically-oriented law of 1966 are contrasted, with the film on the side of treatment and rehabilitation. It ends with advocating reducing use here and finding other cash crops for farmers abroad.

My rating:  6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

In 22 minutes, Paul Newman tells us about the history of the opiates and how the poppy plant gets processed to finally make it to the street and how much this stuff goes for along the way.  Then we hear from heroin addicts.  Next on Newman's Own Drug Tour we get to the law side of the story and what's being done to get these hopheads and dope fiends behind bars.  And we end up seeing what people are doing to get these folks off the drugs.  Paul Newman says we are all potential drug takers (he includes my beloved alcohol in his list of drugs).   Is it worth watching?  It's Paul Newman schooling us on drugs, the history, problems and solutions.  It's an interesting piece of school PSA film history in that you get to see vintage footage of all kinds of things, especially New York City from over forty years ago.  It's not worth much more than a look for curiosity's sake. 

Space Cowboys (2000)

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writers: Ken Kaufman, Howard Klausner

Composer: Lennie Niehaus

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James Garner, James Cromwell, Marcia Gay Harden, William Devane, Loren Dean, Courtney B. Vance, Barbara Babcock, Jay Leno, Jon Hamm

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Boys will be boys.

Plot: When a retired engineer is called upon to rescue a failing satellite, he insists that his equally old teammates accompany him into space.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably.

The cast is great and a HUGE reason to watch this picture.  Clint Eastwood is a pro no matter how you slice it and he made yet another enjoyable as hell movie.  It's got lots of laughs and it's a great time at the movies.  I first caught this one in the theater and I remember lots of people making jokes about old guys (just like in the movie) but it's THESE old guys, not the two critics from THE MUPPET SHOW.  Geez.  I'm sure ten or twenty years down the line I'll give this one another watch...when I'm closer to their age in this movie.  Ugh.  But, hey, maybe it'll inspire my AARP ass to get my buddies together and hijack a rocket.  The Warner Bros. DVD sports a nice anamorphic widescreen print with the only extras in a 7 minute conversation with the editor (Joel Cox), the Jay Leno TONIGHT SHOW segment (expanded) from the movie (13 minutes), a featurette on the effects (7 minutes), a behind the scenes featurette (28 minutes) and the theatrical trailer (anamorphic widescreen).

The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)

AKA: Big Time Operators

Director: Basil Dearden

Writers: William Rose, John Eldridge

Composer: William Alwyn

Starring: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travesr, Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers, Bernard Miles, Francis De Wolff, Leslie Phillips, June Cunningham, Sidney James, George Cross, George Cormack, Stringer Davis, Michael Corcoran

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  The Funniest Show on Earth!

Plot: A young couple inherits a debt-ridden old movie theater, appropriately nicknamed "The Flea Pit," and the three eccentric senior citizens who work there.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.

British comedies of this era aren't knee-slappers.  Well, mostly.  I can't think of any but I'm sure I've come across some that had me laughing out loud.  Anyway, this one is cute, quaint, harmless and amusing.  The performances are good, the music, story, cinematography and so on.  I really liked the setting of an old movie house.  It looks well worn and it's the kind of place I'd like to spend my remaining years.  Sure, it's old, worn and broken down but it has a charm about it that feels like an old, comfortable sofa, the kind the wife wants you to get rid of and get that upper class perrywinkle blue one that looks too regal to sit in.  Only then do you realize that all she needs to bring her senses around is to watch this movie and let her soak in why that old couch means so much to you.  But then she watches it and still doesn't get it and insists on your helping her drag it to the curb.  That doesn't sit well with you so you tell her you'll call someone over to help but it's your attorney and he shows up at the door not to help but to serve her with divorce papers.  Who's got the last laugh now?  Yeah, that's right, it's a happy ending as you slink back into that comfy couch and take a well-earned nap.  Oh, the Peter Sellers Collection DVD from Anchor Bay has a great looking anamorphic widescreen print with zero extras.

Swordfish (2001)

Director: Dominic Sena

Writer: Skip Woods

Composers: Christopher Young, Paul Oakenfold

Starring: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Sam Shepard, Vinnie Jones, Drea de Matteo, Rudolf Martin

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Log on. Hack in. Go anywhere. Steal everything.

Plot: When the DEA shut down its dummy corporation operation codenamed SWORDFISH in 1986, they had generated $400 million which they let sit around; fifteen years of compound interest has swelled it to $9.5 billion. A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell, headed by the duplicitious and suave Gabriel Shear, wants the money to help finance their raise-the-stakes vengeance war against international terrorism, but it's all locked away behind super-encryption. He brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson, who only wants to see his daughter Holly again but can't afford the legal fees, to slice into the government mainframes and get the money.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

It was OK when I saw it fifteen years ago (and then it was to see what the hubbub was about with Halley Berry baring her chest...it was nice) and it's surprisingly better now.  At least it's entertaining albeit over the top.  Travolta is in full on having-fun-Travolta-bad-guy mode and that helps.  Nothing dates a movie like technology and the computer hacking is utter bullshit but you have to take it like it's a dumb Hollywood movie.  The heist action is fun.  It's no classic but it is fun to a degree. 

Cannibal Apocalypse (1980)

Original title: Apocalypse Domani

Director: Antonio Margheriti

Writers: Antonio Margheriti, Dardano Sacchetti

Composer: Alexander Blonksteiner

Starring: John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Cinzia De Carolis, Tony King, Wallace Wilkinson, Ramiro Oliveros, John Geroson, May Heatherly, Ronnie Sanders

More info: IMDb

Tagline: An American City Terrorized by Crazed Flesh-Eating Killers ... An Unbelievable Nightmare!

Plot: Giovanni Lambardo Radice and John Saxon are Vietman vets that bring back contagious virus that turn people into cannibals when bitten.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

See!  Vietnam flashbacks!  See!  A 15 minute shootout at an indoor flea market!  See!  Not much in the way of cannibal action or cannibals in general.  For about the first hour I was getting a little cheesed because I popped this in looking for some cannibal action and there's hardly anything like that.  The title doesn't lie.  It's got an appropriately bleak ending and everything that happens before is almost futile.  The title doesn't lie so I guess it was my brain filling in all kinds of possibilities of what this would be.  I didn't see the trailer until after the film.  If you go into it looking for a horror thriller that's more like a zombie apocalypse then you're more likely to enjoy it from the beginning.  Once I realized that that was what it was (with a half hour to go) I started to dig it more.  Saxon does a fine job in the lead and there are some fun scenes (like the biker chase and subsequent flea market shootout) but it's not the kind of picture I can see anyone revisiting much or at all.  If you digs on some Italian horror/exploitation then this is a must see but you won't exactly be telling your friends about it.  The score has some nice moments.  The Studio Canal/Image DVD (from their EuroShock Collection) has a great anamorphic widescreen print.  They've lined up some great extras.  You get a 55 minute making of documentary, a 6 minute tour of the filming locations, the European theatrical trailer and Japanese teaser trailer, poster and still galleries, an alternate U.S. opening sequence and a text treatment on the film's censorship issues.

Cry Terror! (1958)

Director: Andrew L. Stone

Writer: Andrew L. Stone

Composer: Howard Jackson

Starring: James Mason, Inger Stevens, Rod Steiger, Neville Brand, Angie Dickinson, Kenneth Tobey, Jack Klugman, Jack Kruschen, Carleton Young, Barney Phillips, William Schallert

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A Los Angeles Crime Saga

Plot: A group of professional bank robbers start to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

What a cast!  Here's a good crime thriller that stays pretty solid except for one thing, the inner thought narration from Mason and Stevens.  It's the kind where they vocalize what they're thinking in terms of how to get out of this hostage situation.  Have you ever wondered why it's always a 'situation' when it comes to hostages and never anything else like a hostage kanundrum?  Anyway, the narration is annoying and it gets old fast.  The performances are good and it's great seeing Steiger not overdoing it as the villain.  Brand plays a great bad guy and he's more reserved than he became a decade later.  I'm not sure I ever saw Klugman play a bad guy but he's fun and so is Dickinson.  Hell, it's just a great cast all around and a very satisfactory ending.

Get Bruce (1999)

Director: Andrew J. Kuehn

Composer: Michael Feinstein

Starring: Bruce Vilanch, Whoopi Goldberg, Bette Midler, Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Lily Tomlin, Raquel Welch, Michael Feinstein, Shirley MacLaine, Florence Henderson, Steven Seagal, Michael Douglas, Paul Reiser, Roseanne Barr, Carol Burnett, Billy Crystal, Marc Shaiman, Tim Curry, Traci Lords

More info: IMDb

Tagline: These stars know Hollywood's best-kept secret!

Plot: Affectionate tribute to Bruce Vilanch, who writes material for celebrities who make public appearances, from Oscar hosts and award recipients to Presidents. We meet his mom and see photos of his childhood; in Chicago, he writes for the Tribune and then heads West. Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, and Bette Midler talk with him and to the camera about working with Bruce, and we also watch Bruce help others prepare for Liz Taylor's 60th, Bill Clinton's 50th, and an AIDS awards banquet where the hirsute, rotund Vilanch lets his emotions show.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Hilarious.  If you've never heard of Bruce Vilanch, you've probably seen him.  He's hilarious and but he's also incredibly skilled at writing jokes for everyone and that's not easy.  You have to consider the person's personality, profession, abilities and then there's the event they need the funny for.  Of course this breathing documentary is all about him but we gear a great deal from his friends, the top performers in the entertainment world, and you know all of them.  He's loved by everyone.  One of the MANY highlights is Robin Williams spontaneously riffing about Jack Benny and Rochester being the stars of THE X-FILES.  He slayed me.  Bette Midler...I can't get enough of her.   You're going to get a little bit of Vilanch's history but the stories from his professional years, and thankfully it's most of the film, are fucking great.  I'd love to hang around with this guy.  I usually have at least one great laugh every single day.  I think he'd shatter the bell curve.  As of 4/19 it's on Netflix.