91 Days - 2016

I can't quite remember how this anime came onto my radar, but I ended up binging it in one day. It has 12 episodes and one that is a summary of "what's happened thus far" about halfway through. I skimmed that one.

Angelo witnessed his family get murdered in a mafia dispute when he was a young man. Seven years after the tragedy, he receives a mysterious letter that names the men that were present that night. It's then that he goes back to the city and infiltrates the mafia, getting especially close to Nero. He's the son of Don Vanetti, one of the men present the night of the murders, but Nero's name is also on the list.

Unfortunately, Angelo is solely focused on revenge. His close friend, Corteo, gets caught up in the mafia, something he never wanted. His moonshine was supposed to make some money for him to go to school, but now he's on this crazy mission with Angelo, and he's not able to escape. 

Now to the spoilers: The thing about revenge is that since it's the only thing Angelo lives for, once it's over, he doesn't know what to do. He's lost everything, including the only person who really cared about him and would do anything for him. That bothered me, and it bothered him. But he was so determined to follow through with his plan that he was willing to sacrifice Corteo.

The end is somewhat ambiguous, but my take is that both Nero and Angelo die. And I'm going to tell you why. As much as I'm a happy ending person, and I'd like to pretend there's a happily ever after, these young men aren't going to find it. I believe Angelo is dead, because they made a choice to show that Nero missed when he had his eyes shut. This time, he's close range, his eyes are open, and he doesn't hesitate. Nero's fate is pretty easy to guess, since they made a point of showing the man in the car recognizing him while Nero drove past with his pineapples.

I'm not sure I need to say it, but I liked this show. It sucked me in, and I wanted to know what would happen next. Each episode is only 20ish minutes, so it doesn't take a ton of time (unless you binge it, but that's a personal problem). I will warn you, if you're interested in this one, don't become attached to anyone. You'll be sad. Except for the dog. I was glad they spared the dog, because I was truly worried about that. The only issue I had was the weird titles. The show covers 91 days (of course), but the episodes are labeled "Day 1" "Day 2" etc. But that makes no sense, because it doesn't line up. Anyway, personal annoyance, and it shouldn't prevent anyone from watching it. Good Show!

The Door with Seven Locks - 1940

We didn't have an excuse to watch anything else, so it was back to the horror films of the 40's. I didn't realize it at the time, but this little gem was British.

A 55-year old man (who looks much older) is dying. He is surrounded by people who will do anything to get their hands on the wealth that is soon going to be in the hands of the man's 11-year-old son. After 10 years, the next heir in line, June, appears on the scene, and one of the conspirators wants to come clean. When he's killed right in front of her, June goes to the police. A newly resigned Martin joins the case, and they slowly peel away the layers of the mystery.

I found this one pretty funny. One of the villains looked like Shemp Howard (Three Stooges), so we kept calling him Shemp. The one clerk at the lawyer's office was accused of not being able to read. His reply was, "I can't read during the day. I went to night school." Even though it's a stupid joke, it struck me in the moment as pretty funny.

The real hero of this movie is Andy. He's the detective who never removes his trench coat and is always sleeping. But don't think he's not paying attention! The man has the quickest quips and reflexes! Take the carpet trick, for instance. He saved Martin's life! Andy was the best!

The fights in this movie were hilarious. There is no way they were choreographed. No one would put together that sequence of movements and think it looked like an epic fight. There was a lot of rolling around and jumping on furniture, but it was pretty funny!

One thing I did learn was to never watch a movie from Cult Cinema Classics on YouTube. My goodness, we had a commercial every three minutes or so. It was so bad, I had to sit by the TV so I could hit the skip button as soon as it was available (we had a PC hooked up to the TV, so I had to hit the button on the mouse). I decided to let this one go because it had subtitles and the voices matched up with the mouths (something my original source didn't have), but next time, I'll keep looking.

I had fun with this movie. I think watching the whole thing together might be a neat experience. It had some pretty stupid moments, like the daft woman trying to hitchhike after escaping from the cottage. You guessed it! She immediately got recaptured! I'm giving this a Good Movie! review. Not because of the story or the acting, but because I had a good time with it, and I love Andy.

The Searchers - 1956

I felt in the mood to watch a John Wayne this morning, and I chose The Searchers. I didn't know anything about it. This movie is based on a novel by Alan Le May.

Ethan returns to his brother's homestead in Texas after being away for eight years. The kids are bigger, and he's brought home money of unknown origin. The local sheriff stops by and recruits Ethan and Martin, a young man Ethan saved as a boy, to investigate some missing cattle. They quickly realize the cows were a diversion to get the men away from home. They return to find most of Ethan's family butchered, and two of the girls have been kidnapped.

What follows is a multi-year search to locate any of the girls that's alive. Ethan has a deep-seated hatred of the Comanche that drives him. At times, it feels like he's more interested in killing the Native Americans than rescuing his niece. When they discover his niece has been made Comanche and seems to consider them her people, Ethan is willing to kill her.

I found this one to be interesting in a number of ways. The scenery was gorgeous, even though I found out it wasn't actually Texas. I also really liked John Wayne's performance in this movie. He usually has a few faces that I'm used to seeing. No criticism from me for sure, but I am used to the smirk, the stare, and some others. There were also quite a few actors I recognized from other movies. I even spotted Wayne's son in there! The storytelling was interesting enough that I didn't feel the two hours. It flew by.

At first, when the movie ended, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. The end struck me, because it wasn't quite what I was expecting. But the more I thought about the movie, I had it come to mind in different ways. I think I'd like to watch it again later on and see what I pick up on. There's some nuances in there with the characters that I don't normally see in Westerns. People struggled with seeing the Native Americans as savages (Scar) they hate and as humans (Look) they sympathize with in the same film. It gets a Good Movie! review from me!

Crack in the World - 1965

So, every once in a while, I put on a cheesy disaster movie for fun. When I saw there was one from 1965, I was thrilled! What did disaster movies look like back then? Let's find out, shall we?

First, I'm going to mention the title. When I read it, I immediately started singing it to the tune of Rob Zombie's Scum of the Earth. It's been in my head for a while now. Apparently, a scientist, Stephen, is going to launch a nuclear missile into the earth's crust to access unlimited energy and other stuff, but his colleague, Ted, is wary for some reason. Come on, Ted, get on board! In the middle is Maggie. Let's create a love triangle for no reason!

Anyway, Stephen goes behind Ted's back and convinces the commission to back the launch before Ted can tell them about the dangers of shooting a missile into the center of the earth. Ted races to get the commission to retract their support, but it's too late. Stephen has already launched the missile, Ted's theory is correct, and a crack is racing around the earth.

Okay, this movie is crazy. I suppose the science part of it would be interesting if they would've simply focused on it. But the love triangle was ridiculous. It pushed Stephen to act like a petulant child and do whatever he could to one-up Ted, including putting the fate of the earth up to chance. And let's talk about Stephen's "illness." That was hilarious. I wasn't paying 100% attention, but I never heard anyone ask him about his sudden glove-wearing or why he was sporting sunglasses two miles underground. And then Maggie says he's been ill for a while and hiding it from everyone? HA! The man even had his arm in a sling and was wearing gloves on both hands at that point!

Anyway, I didn't really get the whole "crack comes full circle and creates a moon," but it looked weird, and I was getting tired of watching Ted drag Maggie up the hill. Watching the train conductor ignore Ted and the Jeep of people trying to save them was hilarious, and there were other moments of mirth, and I'm going to give it a Good Movie! review. If you want to see what happens when the stupidest scientists are given too much control, this is the movie for you! RIP Steele!

Before I Hang - 1940

Well, we tried to stay away from the horror list for another week by watching the Japanese Spider Man "movie," but it was basically a 24-minute episode with epic stunts, so we had plenty of time to watch a horror film. Sigh...

We did skip to get to this shorter one, and we were gifted the presence of The Grinch (Boris Karloff). At the beginning, he's a doctor on trial for a mercy killing. He's found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. He'd been working on a serum that extends life. While in prison, the physician there talks to the warden so the doctor can continue his work. When it comes time for his hanging, he convinces the prison physician to inject him with the serum to see what it does to his blood after his death. But! At the last minute, his sentence is commuted to life in prison. Now that he's alive, he continues his research, but he suffers effects of the serum since they used blood of a murderer to create it. He starts murdering people, but he doesn't remember it. The first time, it looks like Otto committed the murder, so The Grinch ends up looking like a hero and is released.

Eventually, The Grinch wants to experiment on his friends. They're getting old, and he's not afraid to tell them that. One in particular, Victor, has just finished a performance of Chopin. The Grinch tells him he's losing his touch, and he can be injected and young again. None of the friends want to be guinea pigs, and The Grinch takes it as a personal affront. 

The movie was weird. I was super bummed about Victor. He was my favorite. The actor's name was Pedro de Cordoba, and he had such a wholesome manner. I also believe he was actually playing the piano. I couldn't find any information to backup this claim, but I'd be surprised to find out it wasn't him. RIP Victor.

The premise of the movie was strange. The end was weird but not surprising. I'm still bummed about Victor. By killing him, now no one will hear his music! Stupid murderer!

The Loft - 2014

I was working on scanning things this morning and needed some noise for the background. The premise for this sounded slightly interesting, and I liked some of the actors, so I threw it on. This review is going to be chock full of spoilers.

Five married men have a loft where they can take their mistresses, one night stands or prostitutes and keep them a secret from their wives. One morning, Luke comes in and finds a blond handcuffed to the bed with blood soaking the mattress. He calls the other four "members" and they all start throwing accusations and having flashbacks.

Begin the spoilers!

Every one of these guys suck. Luke films the other four and keeps DVDs. He's fallen in love with the dead girl and thinks one of the other ones is in the way of his "love" for her. Marty (?) is vulgar and crass and talks about every woman as if she were simply a combination of her sexual bits. Philip is a rage machine who is a drug addict and beats up prostitutes because "you can't rape a whore." Vince is the one who came up with the loft scheme, but he's supposed to be the worst since he slept with Marty's wife, Philip's sister, paid for Chris's prostitute girlfriend and flaunts his promiscuity in front of Luke. And finally there's Chris, who I guess is the hero, because he's just having an affair with a prostitute and falls in love with her. I guess.

Later/earlier (remember - flashbacks), they think Vince is responsible for the girl's death, and Luke reveals what he knows about Vince and his connections to the others. It's then that they decide to frame him for murder. Unfortunately, the scene looks more like suicide than murder, so they elect Philip the psycho to arrange the scene. He goes all out, and the police are convinced by their wonderful job.

Except they're stupid. I'm sure there are others out there that could pick apart all the stupid things these guys do, but I have one particular point that bugs the heck out of me. The girl was ALIVE when they were all there yakking over her. When they reveal that, they do close-ups, and her eyes are twitching, and her fingers are moving. There are four men standing over her, and no one sees that?! Not one of them thought to touch her? She would be warm to the touch - not cold. Shallow breathing? Nothing. And then, when drugged out Philip cuts her, and her blood gushes everywhere, he didn't think that was weird? I'll chalk that one up to drugs, but I can't forgive the other ones. No way they couldn't figure out she was alive.

Anyway, I feel like this would have been so much better if the drugged babbling of Vince had come true. If the wives had found out and framed them. I feel like that would've been amazing. And I don't understand how there are guys NOT in prison at the end of the movie. They committed crimes like obstruction, accessory, etc., but no. Let's meet up with our ex-prostitute girlfriend in a parking lot. And why would Mimi take Marty back? He was a disgusting man. The whole thing just makes you want to take a shower and appreciate having a boring life.

Spider-Man (Japanese TV series) - 1978-1979

A while back I ordered a DVD set of this show. I wish I could say I was surprised when it came as obvious home-burned discs with hastily scrawled numbers on them. As long as they worked, I didn't care. Side note: apparently, today is Spiderman Day!

This Spiderman is a bit different from the one we're used to. Takuya isn't bit by a radioactive spider. Instead, he finds an alien named Garia in a cave who injects him with spider stuff. Then, Garia gives Takuya his revenge mission and turns into a spider, only to later die. From then on, Takuya fights against the Iron Cross Army to get revenge for the deaths of his father and Garia. He'll have to fight against a lot of Ninders (thank you, Google). We called them Ducks, because of their weird outfits. The monsters of the week were the Machine Bems that would grow. Then, Spiderman would call on Marveller, who would sometimes take out a small village with an earthquake. The giant robot was a transformer who would take the Bems out with the Sword Vigor.

I. Love. This. Show. I love the way Spiderman fights. I love the way he climbs up and down things for no reason. I loved a lot of the monsters, although my favorites were Magni Catfish and Air Bomber (he would've gotten top spot, but he didn't fly - it was all about the noise and arm movements). I love the epic slaps on the Ninders. I love the little taglines he gives himself before epic fights. I love Tachibana (a very minor character, but I loved him). I just loved every minute of this show. I could go on and on about everything I loved, but it would be a super long review and such a spoiler for anyone who wanted to watch it in the future. And I do recommend watching it. I'm not sure why Takuya was also a motocross rider (like in Kamen Rider), but both these shows were epic.

Seriously, if you like shows like this, I can't recommend both Kamen Rider and Japanese Spider-Man enough. I had so much fun with both of them. And I still don't know what that one woman wanted to do with those onions! Great Show!

Where Eagles Dare - 1968

This is one of those WWII classic movies that show up on multiple lists telling me I need to watch it. So, I watched it. The screenplay was written by Alistair MacLean, who wrote the book at the same time. But the book has differences. Go figure. This review will contain spoilers.

Smith puts together a team to extract an American general from a German fortress that's only accessible by cable car. Once they are parachuted in, it becomes clear there's a saboteur among the group. One of the team is dead, and it wasn't an accident. As time goes on, things go wrong, but Smith knows he can trust the only new person on the team: Clint Eastwood.

This movie was a roller coaster. For me, it was crazy. It was like one of those you know that he knows that you know...there's a spy. Then there's three. Then the general is a corporal, because the mission isn't the real mission. Then the British spy is a German spy but then he's a British spy again. Then they take the three infiltrators prisoner but kill them anyway. Then the colonel is the top spy. Then he jumps out of a plane. Overall, I love a good twist, but this movie actually had too many for me. That's saying something. I did enjoy the soundtrack, though.

Notorious - 1946

I've watched this movie multiple times. Every time, I remember the characters do things that are frustrating, and that I shouldn't like it. But I end up staring at the screen every time.

This film stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Grant stars as a government man who is sent to recruit Bergman to work for them in trying to figure out what a group of Germans are plotting in Rio. They fell in love before they knew what the job was, and now they just won't communicate how they really feel about each other until it's too late.

Honestly, I shouldn't like this movie. All these people have to do is communicate, and so many problems would be avoided. Also, they are terrible at the whole spy thing. I understand how Bergman's character could make mistakes, but Grant's character should've been more careful. Maybe it's because it's a Hitchcock movie, and the actors are great, but something about this movie keeps me coming back. Good Movie!

The Ghost Breakers - 1940

Next on our horror list was this movie starring Bob Hope. Once we saw his name pop up, we had the feeling it wasn't going to be a serious movie. And it wasn't.

Mary has inherited a haunted castle in Cuba. She's getting ready to leave when Larry barges into her room hiding from the police. He thinks he's murdered a gang member, and he needs to get out of the hotel before he's caught. He hides in Mary's trunk, and he ends up getting transported onto the ship headed for Havana.

Once they finally get there, the mystery continues. The murdered man was trying to warn Mary not to sell the castle, a government official is suspicious, and so are about five other people. Plus, there's a zombie. And a ghost. Larry has a valet, Alex, who is basically a servant and the butt of many jokes. A lot of them are racist, so there's that.

The humor in this was weird. The one liners with dead bodies around were a bit disturbing. They added in a billion suspicious people, but I never did figure out what the deal was with the clumsy guy. He acted super suspicious, but he just disappeared after a while. Alex was the real hero of the movie. He saved Larry a few times, and he was responsible for saving everyone at the end.

This is one of those movies I probably would've skipped if I'd known it was a comedy ahead of time. It's like the Abbot and Costello ones on the Universal Monster list. We didn't watch those, either. Alex 100% made this worth watching. Everyone else seemed pretty stupid. Mary ran into the house to escape the zombie, but did she close the door? Nope. Alex spots the zombie, and what's the first thing he does? Tries to leave. Smart! If only more of the characters were as smart as Alex.

And why does the ghost on the poster have a nose?!

Target for Tonight - 1941

This is basically an hour-long recruitment video for the RAF. It follows a raid, specifically the plane "F for Freddie" as they fly to Freihausen to bomb a storage facility in Germany.

It was interesting to see all the different people involved in the mission. A few actors were in there, but there were also real servicemen. According to the film's director, most of the the flight officers and crew that appeared didn't make it through the war.

There isn't much to say about this movie. It's short and shows what it's meant to show. It hides certain things that would have been advantageous for the enemy to see, and certain names and numbers are changed for the film. I found it to be really interesting, but I can understand why not everyone would agree. Personally, I'm giving it a Good Movie! review.

The Horse Soldiers - 1959

In my quest to see almost every John Wayne ever, I needed to see The Horse Soldiers. This movie is based on a book that's based on an event during the Civil War. It's like nesting dolls. The book was written by Harold Sinclair, and that book was based on the Grierson's Raid, a Federal cavalry campaign to interrupt the rail lines of the Confederacy. 

John Wayne plays a colonel of the Union cavalry in charge of getting his men to Newton Station. After that, he's planning to take the unexpected route of heading south to Baton Rouge. When he makes his final decision, he discusses it in the home of Miss Hunter, a southern belle who is willing to spy and tell the Confederates the plan. Thus, the cavalry has two women along now.

Along the way, the colonel is at odds with the doctor, who seems determined to be irritating. Eventually, they'll either make it to Baton Rouge or they won't. 

The really sad part of this movie was when the rebel guy went to the academy and pulled out all the troops. The highest ranking troop was a 16-year-old. They sent a bunch of children to the lines, and they were led by an old reverend. What the heck. The Civil War was brutal.

The movie itself was okay. It had moments of levity, and the woman wasn't totally in the way the whole time. Just parts of it. Wayne's character was complex and take-charge as usual, but I didn't see anything here that would raise this into one of my favorites. It might have something to do with the setting. The Civil War is a time period I don't watch or research very often, so that may have contributed to my enjoyment. The other thing is I was always worried about the horses. It's still a Good Movie!, it's just not one of my favorites.

Side Note - I really did love the song that went with this movie, especially the line about leaving a letter in the "holler" of the tree!

The Battle of Midway - 1942

This short 18-minute film briefly takes footage from the Midway battle and presents it to the audience.

It was shot while renowned director John Ford (who worked a lot with John Wayne) was on the island for purposes of shooting footage for the Navy. He was actually injured in the process.

The film itself is strange. The tone is all over the place. We're lighthearted as we watch the "natives" - seagulls. Then we're serious as the battle begins. Afterwards, we check in with the pilots and ask how many we've taken out today. It's lighthearted. Then we're somber as we remember the dead. The reflective music is abruptly interrupted by a patriotic march as we take stock of the Japanese losses and end with a red painted "V" for victory.

I could barely understand the narrators, and the mother figure was the absolute worst. "Oh, dear Johnny. I know him. He's a sweet boy from down the road." Or some such nonsense. I appreciate that Ford had footage of the boys just hanging out waiting for something to happen, but he should've left Granny in the kitchen.

I read that Ford spliced in footage of Franklin Roosevelt's son, and the president's reaction was that he wanted every mother in America to see the movie. It also protected Ford from censorship. That being said, I didn't really see anything graphic that would warrant cutting. 

This movie reminded me of Combat America, where Clark Gable gave the audience an inside look of the 351st bombardment group. I think that was one a bit more interesting, though.

Overall, I think the footage was (and still is) significant, but for some reason, the way it was put together didn't really resonate with me. That surprised me, since I've enjoyed most things I've seen where John Ford was involved. Oh well, can't win 'em all I suppose.