Alan Partridge (2013)

Original title: Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Director: Decian Lowney

Writers: Peter Baynham, Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, Armando Iannucci

Composer: Ilan Eshkeri

Starring: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney, Tim Key, Karl Theobald, Nigel Lindsay, Felicity Montagu, Dustin Demri-Burns, Sean Pertwee

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Someone is trying to kill Alan. You'll wish it was you.

Plot: When famous DJ Alan Partridge's radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I REALLY dig Coogan's work and especially as Alan Partridge but I didn't laugh hardly at all during this flick.  I feel bad about it in some weird way because I like the character so much.  It should've been more fun but I just wasn't feeling it.  The cast is fine, it looks good and so on but the laughs weren't there.  Maybe it wasn't as fun because it mostly took place inside a radio station with limited people for Alan to interact with.   Hell, I could've been in a mood or something.  I'll give it another shot someday and I'll keep watching everything Coogan does.  He's earned it.  I'm just disappointed that for Alan's first feature film this one's more of a dud than a gut-buster.

WolfCop (2014)

Director: Lowell Dean

Writer: Lowell Dean

Composers: Toby Bond, Shooting Guns

Starring: Leo Fafard, Amy Matysio, Sarah Lind, Corinne Conley, Jesse Moss, Jonathan Cherry, Aidan Devine, James Whittingham

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Here comes the fuzz

Plot: As a series of strange and violent events begin to occur, an alcoholic policeman realizes that he has been turned into a werewolf as part of a larger plan.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

The trailer looked like it could be fun but most of the laughs were in the trailer.  It's almost a one joke movie but writer/director Dean pulled more out of the idea.  A few minutes shy of an hour and a half, it felt a half hour too long.  I like Fafard in the lead and some of the characters/actors were fun but there were way too many slow spots to keep me into it.  I drifted a lot.  There's a little bit of nudity and gore.  I didn't drift during those parts.  It did well enough for a sequel that came out this year.  Maybe I'll check it out.  I'm willing to give this Canadian franchise another look.

Danger 5 (2011) TV series

Director: Dario Russo

Writers: David Ashby, Dario Russo

Composer: Dario Russo

Starring: David Ashby, Sean James Murphy, Natasa Ristic, Amanda Simons, Carmine Russo, Michelle Nightingale, Andreas Sobik, Dario Russo, Chris Asimos

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Last time it was war. This time it's personal.

Plot: It's the 1960s.  Adolph Hitler is still trying to take over the world and it's up to Danger 5 to stop them.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

This wildly creative Australian TV show nailed it with their Gerry Anderson marionette 60s TV show spoof while throwing in all manner of special effects from model work to stop motion animation.  The costumes, dialogue, edits and overall aesthetic were brilliantly executed into one funny as shit show.  The first episode of season one is a masterpiece.  The other five episodes don't hold up to the first but it's still a very fun ride.  The second season of seven episodes is set in the 1980s and does more of the same but while holding to the novelties of that decade like they did in season one with the 1960s.  I'm sad there aren't more of this series but I'm glad that these crazy kids had what it took to make what they did.  Watch the trailer above and you'll see just how insanely fun this is.  Two and a half years ago this was on Netflix.  I have no idea where it can be seen today.

An Idiot Abroad (2010) TV series

Starring: Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant

More info: IMDb

Plot: Brit Karl Pilkington has led a sheltered life. Not having done any traveling, he enjoys living within the comforts of what he knows, basically that being what is purely British. As such, his friends, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, decide to send Karl to various parts of the world to experience unfamiliar cultures. Stephen believes that travel is a life broadening venture, and hopes that Karl will indeed feel like his life is enriched by these travels. Ricky, however, hopes that Karl will hate every minute of his travels. For Ricky, this experiment is the most expensive gag for his own pleasure that he could have conceived.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yeah.

Here's another gem from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.  This one is something very different.  They get their dim and outspoken friend, Karl Pilkington, to travel around the world just to hear what stupid things he has to say.  They arrange for him to spend the night in not very accommodating places, eat strange foods and take lots of interesting day trips.  It sounds like fun but not for this cat.  Is Karl putting on a show or is he really like this.  I think he's mostly like this but that he's also aware enough to try harder sometimes to play along for the fun and give us viewers some solid entertainment at his expense.  He's very likable and the show is a great watch not only for his antics and oddly logical (in a Karl sort of way) but it's worth watching for all of the exotic locations.  Season 3 brought him a buddy in the form of Warwick Davis.  He and Karl don't see eye to eye on most things (bwahahahahaha) and Davis is much too much playing the conscience of the audience, calling out Karl whenever he says anything that not politically correct.  It feels like he's there because people found Karl too caustic, racist, what have you.  Any sensible person would see that when Karl says something harsh that it was because he's not bright and that we all know it was stupid of him in the first place.  But there are some fun moments between the two.  The show lasted (so far) for three seasons and twenty one episodes.

Parker (2013)

Director: Taylor Hackford

Writers: John J. McLaughlin, Donald E. Westlake

Composer: David Buckley

Starring: Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pierce, Clifton Collins Jr., Bobby Cannavale, Patti LuPone, Carlos Carrasco, Micah Hauptman, Emma Booth, Nick Nolte

More info: IMDb

Tagline: To get away clean, you have to play dirty.

Plot: A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of the crew's latest heist.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  I think so.

I watched this on Netflix two and a half years ago and I'm slowly trying to catch up on my posting.  Jesus I'm so fucking behind.  Watching the trailer, a lot of it looks familiar.  I remember liking Chiklis in a bad guy role, Statham is fun as usual and I recall liking the movie but that's it.  It's no longer on Netflix so I've got nothing to jog my memory and it sucks.  I reckon someday I'll give it another shot.  Filming in New Orleans and coastal Florida is usually a plus.  Then, on the other hand, maybe because I don't remember much about it says something too.  Shitballs.

Vernon, Florida (1981)

Director: Errol Morris

Composer: Claude Register

Starring: Albert Bitterling, Roscoe Collins, George Harris, Joe Payne, Howard Pettis, Claude Register, Snake Reynolds, Henry Shipes

More info: IMDb

Plot: Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

In Errol Morris' second film he basically turns his camera on some folks living in a small Florida town and lets them talk about themselves.  Anyone who has lived in and around small rural towns like Vernon will recognize these people.  Their personalities are all over these towns.  Hell, just come to one of my family reunions and you'll meet some of them.  You might look at these people and want to make fun of them.  I get it.  I've done it but when you've grown up around people like this you have a different perspective.  They're still nutty, though.

The X from Outer Space (1967)

Original title: Uchu Daikaiju Girara

Director: Kazui Nihonmatsu

Writers: Moriyoshi Ishida, Eibi Motomochi, Kazui Nihonmatsu

Composer: Taku Izumi

Starring: Eiji Okada, Shun'ya Wazaki, Itoko Harada, Peggy Neal, Franz Gruber, Mike Daneen, Shin'ichi Yanagisawa, Keisuke Soni

More info: IMDb

Tagline: What Is This Monstrous THING?

Plot: The spaceship AAB-Gamma is dispatched from FAFC headquarters in Japan to make a landing on the planet Mars and investigate reports of UFOs in the area. As they near the red planet, they encounter a mysterious UFO that coats the ship's hull with unusual spores. Taking one of the specimens back to earth, it soon develops and grows into a giant chicken-lizard-alien monster that tramples Japan.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Giant monster movies from Japan with a man in a rubber suit usually sound like fun until you force yourself to watch them from start to finish.  The monster action destroying cities, tanks, planes et al is the best part.  The human crap is just filler, killing time to get to the monster action.  This one's not much different except it benefits from have a lot of outer space stuff at the beginning.  The model work is cool. Most people would find it corny but I've got a soft spot for that stuff.  The music for this picture is uncharacteristically groovy.  It's so different than the usual fare you'd think it wouldn't work but I liked it because of that.  The English dub was good so there's that.  These types of movies were such a part of my childhood growing up in the 70s when they were only shown on TV with an English dub that I prefer seeing these goofy movies with that.  Nostalgia is a helluva thing.