Bandolero is kind of a strange movie, one filled with some great actors of the time including Dean Martin, Raquel Welch and James Stewart playing against type as the antagonist, alongside George Kennedy.
Earthquake is certainly one of the lesser of the disaster film of the 1970s and certainly the story and characters, despite a respectable cast, was the weaker point but I was at least impressed with some of the miniature and special effects work.
The Boston Strangler is a well done, if not methodical, crime-suspense-drama featuring a plethora of fine performances from the likes of Henry Fonda and George Kennedy, but the standout is Tony Curtis playing against type as the murderous Albert DeSalvo.
Creepshow 2 certainly isn’t as good as its predecessor (which had a fantastic line-up of actors) but this sequel is still a lot of fun with one memorable line (“Thanks for the ride, lady!”). While I wasn’t a fan of ‘Old Chief Wood’nhead’, the other two stories weren’t bad at all.
Hired to Kill is dumb, poorly written and terribly acted action film from the tail-end of the 1980s but even though it doesn’t measure up to the guilty pleasures like Cobra, Commando or Raw Deal, it still has some appeal thanks in part to a semi-hamfest performance from Oliver Reed.
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Smell of Fear is easily the weakest of the three movies with the bulk of the humor connecting in the opening and end sequences, the latter courtesy of Leslie Nielson’s physical comedy, with the middle part eliciting a couple chuckles but little else.
Naked Gun 2½ isn’t as good as the first but Nielson is still a lot of fun to watch and the jokes at least are more consistently spread out compared with Naked Gun 33 1/3. The Blu-ray released by Warner doesn’t have much to offer; the video and audio are adequate but there were no bonus features included.
The Gambler isn’t the worst film around but it’s uninspiring and lacks energy which is a shame considering the cast assembled, and that does include Mark Wahlberg, but otherwise the writing is subpar and the plot itself is just all around dull. For his part, John Goodman was a lot of fun to watch it’s just unfortunate it was more or less a cameo appearance.
Twilight Time’s release of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, a long ignored title within the MGM catalogue line, is a fun flick featuring excellent performances from Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges set against the beautifully photographed backdrop of the Midwest. The Blu-ray offers up good video/audio transfers, both certain upgrades over their DVD counterpart, but the features are limited.
