Kalifornia is one hell of a road trip of a movie that excels thanks two amazing performances from Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis, and if this film had found any traction, Pitt at the very least should’ve gotten an Oscar nomination.
Barb Wire had the potential to be a wild, bat-s insane sci-fi actioner and instead we get a sloppily edited movie with some poor performances combined with a bad script and pedestrian directing.
Starsky & Hutch is one of the better, for what it’s worth, TV-to-film adaptations as Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were great together and the humor mostly landed and seeing this 15 years later was a lot of fun.
There’s no doubt Queen is a true hall of fame band and Freddie Mercury a transformative musician, but this bio-pic, while well produced and finely acted, feels a bit sterilized relaying Mercury’s life but keeping it within the PG-13 realm.
There’s Nothing Out There isn’t great B-movie horror or anything yet there is a fun element to these independently made films where there is a lot of passion both in front of and behind the camera.
Creed II is another brilliant entry into the Rocky franchise and features a great performance from Michael B. Jordan with some solid work by Sylvester Stallone and Tessa Thompson.
All the Devil’s Men is actually not terrible. But it’s not very good either, though maybe in the hands of more experienced filmmakers, might have made for a passable, if not forgettable, spy-thriller.
In the Heat of the Night is a wonderful and culturally important film from the 1960s and while I don’t think it’s among Sidney Poitier’s best, with To Sir, With Love being my favorite of his, but it still is a great performance alongside Rod Steiger.
The Mole People is a cheesy B-level science fiction film from the 1950s and although it’s certainly not good, the movie is not without its charms.
Robin Hood is hardly a terrible movie, it did have some passion behind-the-scenes and I did genuinely like Jamie Foxx as John, but most everything else makes you wonder: what’s the point of a big budget movie like this?
A Star is Born is a well made music-drama and although I can’t compare it to the other versions, I thought this one had some great music to go along with solid performances from Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in her feature film debut.
The Return of the Vampire is a great little horror flick from Bela Lugosi and features some solid direction by Lew Landers, really capturing and highlighting the shadows, giving it an almost film noir vibe.
Tarzan’s Three Challenges is another decent adventure from the classic character by Edgar Rice Burroughs and while I’ve never been a big fan of the character, these movies did tend to entertain just enough.
Waterworld over the course of 20 years has washed away (so to speak) some of the negativity related to its lackluster box office set against its tremendous budget. Watching all these years later, and the long awaited Ulysses Cut no less, I found it to be a really fun apocalyptic action-thriller.
The Vengeance of She, a sequel to the 1965 She, is actually a fun little romp that, albeit not terribly well written, is quite entertaining for its fantastical elements and Olinka Berova was one of the bright spots, though not the best actress.