Exodus is a lengthy (3.5 hours) and although it’s hard to watch in one sitting, it does feature some strong performances by Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint to go along with an interesting story in conjunction with the adaptation by Dalton Trumbo and Otto Preminger’s masterful direction.
Rage of Honor is a blissfully cheesy 1980s action/martial arts flick that might not feature great performances but the fight scenes aren’t terribly choreographed and it has enough of the fun factor to make it so entertaining.
I will give Mill Creek some credit for churning out these catalogue titles, especially ones, such as Double Team, Sony wouldn’t even think of releasing on Blu-ray, and with a bargain basement price of $15, and cheaper buying on Amazon, it’s not a bad deal at $2-3/movie.
LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Cosmic Clash isn’t as good as its predecessors, and obviously a far cry from the LEGO feature films, but it’s a fun movie especially for younger viewers and at only 78-minutes (w/ credits), it at least flies by.
Species was a fun guilty pleasure. No, it wasn’t great but at least it gave us a quasi-star in Natasha Henstridge and some quality effects work. The sequel was dumb but had some minor entertainment value but as Hollywood tends to do, they milk a franchise for its worth. The third and fourth movies were, frankly, crap.
The first movie was a fun guilty pleasure. Species II is just plain guilty of being a bad film all around. The writing is poor and the acting was at best phoned-in, though Natasha Henstridge at least seemed to give it her all and she might be the only reason it’s even watchable.
My Science Project is somewhat of a gem, forgotten one at that, of the 1980s overshadowed by Back to the Future, Real Genius and Weird Science, the last two interestingly coming out the same year as MSP… Although it’s not as tightly written both in terms of plot and characters, it’s still a fun little flick.
La bambola di satana might be a guilty pleasure of mine. The film isn’t very well made with one-dimensional characters, so-so performances (at best) and the plot is a bit silly culminating with a Scooby-Doo like ending; and this is not forgetting some piss-poor editing. That said, it did keep me entertained and under better talent, might’ve made for good mystery-thriller.
Weaponized is the latest gem from filmmaker Timothy Woodward Jr. who seems to churn out 2-3 movies a year with the usual suspects, with return appearances of Tom Sizemore, Johnny Messner, Danny Trejo and Michael Paré. I guess technically it’s “better” than his previous movies but that really isn’t saying a whole lot.
Just Visiting is really the typical film to come from the early 21st century and, from what I’ve read, a poor remake of the French original where it appears filmmakers brought in John Hughes to “Americanize” the story and for that, it makes for a safe but utterly forgettable movie.
No Way Out was a pleasant surprise of a thriller featuring good suspense and a solid performance by Kevin Costner with honorable mention to Will Patton. To cap things off, the ending had a nice and unexpected twist.
My All American is the clichéd sports drama but mostly well acted especially on the part of Finn Wittrock. I can’t say I recommend it considering it is the type of film that will eventually air on Spike or maybe even the Hallmark Channel in a few years but if you enjoy the genre, it might be a worthwhile rental.
Jurassic Predator, or as it was originally titled Xtinctions: Predator X, before somebody decided to utilize the French version in the hopes to capitalize on the success of Jurassic World, is a terrible film through and through; I’d say it’s SyFy quality work but that might be an insult to SyFy.
Frankenstein is an interesting re-telling of the classic story and features great performances from Xavier Samuel and Carrie-Anne Moss and although there are certainly flaws with the script and a limited budget, it’s well worthwhile watching though it seems like this would be tailored for SyFy.
Sheba, Baby isn’t one of Pam Grier’s great movies from the blaxploitation era but it’s still an entertaining and cheesy romp between the 1970s style, soundtrack and all around acting particularly on the part of D’Urville Martin and some of his cohorts (“that’s right”). This Blu-ray released through Arrow Video offers good video and audio transfers and a so-so selection of bonus material.