Hudson Hawk(Mill Creek Retro VHS) I’d like to take you to a time, 1991, when Bruce Willis was the cats pajamas. By then, he had solidified himself as a bona fide action movie star and a blockbuster artist. It seemed like Willis’ presence in a movie would be enough to carry it. So the man had carte blanche. If he fancied himself a musician, he could be one, and the Return of Bruno (his questionable blues covers album) was a...
Maid in Manhattan Maid in Manhattan was romcom before romcoms were a thing. I hear Mystic Pizza should be up there as a pioneer of the genre, but Maid in Manhattan was really the crest of the new wave in the 90s. It has all the elements of a good romcom: a lovable underdog, a hard-to-crack romantic interest, the weight of the world seemingly on the protagonist’s shoulder, and beautiful people who are a little too dumb to...
Little Women/Marie Antoinette Double Feature There are so many actors/actresses/directors whose movies I refuse to see just because I’ve had it with them. Like Anne Hathaway, Josh Gad, and Christopher Nolan. Just people who have thrived through mediocrity and are so impressed with themselves that I’ve lost complete interest. I’ve followed this code and it’s served me well. Then there’s Kirsten Dunst. Kirsten Dunst is my jam. The complete opposite of what I just mentioned. She’s an actress that...
Barb Wire I remember as a kid waiting for the release of Barb Wire with anticipation. Of course I couldn’t go to the theatres to see an R rated movie, so I had to wait for the home video. And why was I waiting for this movie? Because at the time the idea of adapting a comic book was a new and “cool” idea. Of course there was Batman, but that franchise had been consumed by multiple generations. On...
AnacondaMill Creek Entertainment What is it about 90s bad movies that make them so watchable? Well, let’s look at Anaconda and see if we can decipher this mystery. And before you mock it, know that it was HUGE blockbuster hit, making 130 million on its 30 million budget. I know I thought the movie was amazing when it came out. OK, NOW you can mock it. For starters, Anaconda features some heavy hitters like Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, and...
Double Team – Retro VHS Look I have a soft spot for Jean Claude Van Damme, or JCVD for short. Ever since I was a little kid I had admiration for him and his action movies. Sure, I was fully on board with the Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, Van Damme quartet of action stars, but something about JCDV always stood out for me. Partly because he was an actual martial arts expert, partly because he starred in Street Fighter and I...
Malibu Express & Hard Ticket to HawaiiMill Creek Entertainment What gems the Andy Sidaris movies are. If you’re not familiar with them, imagine low-budget sexy spy movies, so bad that they’re good. Wow, I’m actually surprised how well that summarizes them. You’re not going to find too much high-brow content when you turn on an Andy Sidaris flick but you will find a project born out of dedication and love. There’s no doubt that these guys know what they...
Last Action HeroVHS-era Classic – Mill Creek Entertainment I remember Last Action Hero and I remember it well. Too well. I don’t know if it was actual commercial hype or the fact that there were multiple video games based on the movie. Whatever it was, I wanted in. I remember being blown away by it when I finally watched it, having never been exposed to this kind of self aware humor. I thought this was high art. But I never...
Metropolis You might not know this, but the secret to a good sci-fi movie is world-building. The plot is almost secondary. What people really want to see is how the future is being represented (or the past, for that matter). Don’t believe me? Watch Blade Runner and think about what happens. A character is given a job, and it takes him 2 hours to do it. What makes Blade Runner truly great is the world in which...
The Kids in the Hall The Complete Collection Mill Creek Entertainment I think we’re living in a new age of comedy. Don’t believe me? Then, you’re a dummy. Pop open your Netflix, HBOGo, or Hulu and almost every other show is a semi-autobiography about comedians, a standup special, or a talk show-type thing hosted by a comedian. What’s missing, however, is sketch comedy. Probably Key and Peele was the last high-profile sketch comedy show (same with the Birthday Boys,...