The Devil Bat - 1940

Next up in our horror movie list was The Devil Bat. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't find a review for it. When I was watching it, parts of it seemed familiar, but then again, other parts seemed fresh. I honestly couldn't tell you if I'd seen this before, or it's just following the formula so closely that it reminds me of other movies of the era! 

Bela Luhosi stars in this one. He's a mad scientist who has been making creams and such for a beauty company for years. He sold out early, so now he's jealous of the wealth the family has made off his hard work. His solution? Zap some bats and make them attracted to aftershave. Then, give it to various members of the family who has wronged him and watch them die!

This movie was hilarious. The bats were zapped, I suppose, but all the "fireworks" were happening on the side of the room, so we weren't sure how hanging a bat in the middle of the room made it grow. Also, Bela had more than one secret passage, and that would be well and good, but when someone is watching you, they just have to watch you go through both doors since the first one basically led to the second. And can we talk about the noise the bats made? I don't think it was a real mammal noise (they kept pointing out that bats were mammals). It sounded more like a woman shrieking. 

I am so proud of myself. I recognized a couple of the actors. I can't remember what happened yesterday, but I recognized Dave O'Brien from Captain Midnight. I also spotted John Davidson and correctly connected him to the Adventures of Captain Marvel (Shazam). Looking into it, Davidson was also in Muffin Top Captain America, but I'm still impressed I remembered the connections!

If you love old movies with terrible effects, this is right up your alley. At one point, they're using a stuffed bat to create a picture for the newspaper. That thing looked a lot more realistic than anything they used for the Devil Bat. And it was Made in Japan! I'm not explaining that joke. If you want in on it, watch the movie! Bring a friend and some popcorn. Bela is on point with his "I'm the villain" faces, and I think my favorite part was the way the bat was thwarted from getting to Mary. I think Mom liked when the fake bat exploded. Are you intrigued yet?! Good Movie!

Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade - 1999

This was one of those random picks I found on Tubi. The poster for it drew me in (the second picture below), and the summary was interesting. I'm always drawn in by alternate history, especially when it's done well.

Riots are getting out of control in Japan. A young girl is transporting a bomb when she is trapped in the storm sewer by the Kerberos, a special unit with helmets that give them red eyes. The one in front of the terrorist watches as she detonates the bomb. After that, his ability to perform his duties is questioned. He meets a young woman who looks strikingly like the girl who died, and they form a bond. But there's more going on than what anyone sees on the surface.

I was really interested in the story. It had a lot of twists and turns. It reminded me of a miniseries I watched a long time ago called The Game (2014). That one's based in the Cold War, but it has the twists and turns and the surprise ending. I didn't really notice a lot of details that would point to an alternate history. Apparently, the movie is based on the first part of a manga, so maybe deeper into the story, it would have more of those alternate history details.

There was an English release of the manga. It was called Hellhounds, but when it was ridiculously hard to find, I had to throw in the towel. And the ones I saw were insanely priced. I refuse to pay close to $30 for a 36-page comic. There were 6 issues total, but unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to experience this one in manga form. Anyway, I did like this movie. The Red Riding Hood story paired with the Wolf Brigade was a cool detail, and I really liked this one. Good Movie!

Theatrical Poster

Tubi Poster

The Ape - 1940

Well, we had a brief break from the 40's horror movies, and we're back! This one features The Grinch (Boris Karloff) as a doctor trying to cure a paralyzed young woman.

We start at the circus, where nothing seems related to the plot. Eventually, a trainer pokes the ape, who attacks the trainer and escapes. But he also sets the circus on fire. The Grinch treats the trainer, but the man dies, and the blood-soaked coat leads the ape to The Grinch's house. He may look old, but The Grinch has some serious self-defense skills and kills the ape. Then The Grinch walks around town in the pelt and murders people for their spinal fluid.

He's using the spinal fluid to treat the young lady he sees as his daughter. Apparently, a "paralyzing sickness" swept through the town a while back and took his wife and daughter. The Grinch also has amazing scent masking skills because he can fool scent dogs and never has any ape guts on him when he's confronted by the sheriff shortly after he's been out murdering.

What he doesn't have is cat-like reflexes. He gets shot and stabbed a couple times and eventually dies on his front porch. It's at that point, the young woman finds the strength to walk. I mean, she skipped a few steps, because up to that point, she could barely move her foot but whatever. The Grinch is magically taken out of his suit (I really wanted to see that, because I had no idea how he was wearing that) just in time to see her walk before he croaks. Then the young lady gets her happily ever after with her beanpole.

This movie was so weird. And we had so many questions. Like what did The Grinch do with the ape guts? The scent dogs kept going to the doctor's house, so he had to have them somewhere! Also, wouldn't it smell? Wouldn't he smell? The one time, he'd just taken the suit off before talking with the sheriff. He HAD to smell! We also couldn't figure out the suit. It looked like you could take the head off. Was there a zipper? Inquiring minds wanted to know! 

It was hilarious to watch pelted Grinch walk around the town at "night." If that was nighttime, the moon was way too close to the earth. The two amazing things were that I never found out what he did with the dogs, and the ape didn't kill George. I mean, they left the guy with the twisted neck just laying out on the ground, but George (we called him Button Vest Man) was safe. We assumed if George was attacked, he would pop the button off his vest in defense.

The movie was an hour, and it gave me plenty of laughs. I wouldn't watch it alone, but it might be fun with a friend. With the amount of laughs you can get out of it, I think a certain crowd would have a blast. I'm giving it a Good Movie! review. I can't try and explain the plot without laughing, and I think that's the measure of a good time. Laughter is the best medicine after all!

Fantastic Four - 1994

I'm always in the mood for a good low-budget superhero film. And one that wasn't released? I'm in!

Reed is working on some space thing. He has his best friend, Victor, helping him, but when it all goes wrong, Reed stands there and watches Victor get crispy. Eventually, Ben gets him out of the lightning, but Victor is "dead." Ten years pass, and now Sue and Johnny Storm are old enough to travel to space. Hooray! Yeah, they were children in the beginning of the movie, and that made it a bit awkward when Reed showed back up later and took them to space. The huge, weird diamond has been swapped out by a circus-themed, mole-manish villain named The Jeweler, so things go wrong. Dr. Doom is after their new powers, and everyone wants to get with the blind girlfriend of Ben. 

This movie was a wild ride. The girlfriend was a major character for some reason. Ben runs into her once, but then the next time she gets the chance to talk to him, she tells him she loves him. WHAT?! Also, you'd think if you were going into space, you'd double check things and not just take your priceless diamond without at least checking it out, right? And what qualifications did those kids even have? The Thing keeps saying "It's clobbering time," but it is a stupid catchphrase. Reed had the personality of a piece of paper, and his powers were creepy. I did like how toward the end of the movie, everyone seemed to discover new powers, but they were unsurprised at them. The thwarting of the laser beam was questionable and confusing, which made it beautiful.

Dr. Doom was my favorite. I don't know why they thought his mask was functional, but I could only understand about 30% of what he was saying. And it was beautiful. My favorite quote from him is when he comes back to find his minions all defeated. He had his speech all ready to go. Instead, he just says, "Huh." Amazing. He also talks with his hands a lot. I think that was in an effort to make his own sign language so people could understand him better. Anyway, I'd love to have him in our cinematic universe. I have to let the kids have a say in that, though. I think he'll make it. If you get the chance to watch this, I'd recommend it. Definitely watch it with friends. Good Movie!

Fist of Fury (aka The Chinese Connection) - 1972

I've never seen an entire Bruce Lee movie before, and I noticed there was one on Tubi that I could watch. I had a bit of time and was in the mood for some fighting, so I pressed play and settled in to see what all the hype was about.

Chen is devastated that his teacher is dead. A Japanese interpreter comes to his martial arts school and threatens the students with his two thugs and a sign disparaging Chinese people. From there on out, it's an all-out war between two schools, and the bodies are piling up. Some are dead, and a lot are injured. Until the end, when tons are dead.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised how much fun I had with this movie. I had the most fun at the beginning and the end, when Bruce Lee was beating the crap out of people, but there were a few scenes in the middle that were pretty cool as well. Parts of it are unintentionally hilarious, like when he was swinging around two students (dummies) and hitting people. Epic.

On the other side of this, I actually learned things! While this isn't based on a true story, Chen (Lee's character) is a student of Huo Yuanjia, a hero of Chinese martial arts. He died in 1910, and it's unsure whether the arsenic found on his bones was poisoning or just a sign of the times. Also, this movie is set in Shanghai in the early 1900s. At that time, tensions were rising between Japan and China for a number of reasons, and I think those feelings were depicted pretty realistically. It was something I wasn't expecting to see. 

My first martial arts movie was so fun. I want to see more Bruce Lee, but I really wish I could've watched this in the original Mandarin with English subtitles. Dubs are nice, but I could tell the actors were using TONS more emotion at certain times than the voice actors were giving me. I was also impressed with what Bruce Lee could do with those nunchaku. I've only ever see people fling them around. He was actually using them as weapons. I'd like to watch it again to see if I can spot one of my favorite fun martial artists, Jackie Chan. Apparently, he's an extra and a stunt double for the bad guy. Also, just a word of advice for Chen. If you want to grill your enemies for information, you might want to interrogate them BEFORE you kill them. Just sayin! Good Movie! 

Monkey Business - 1952

I wanted to watch this one because it had Cary Grant in it. Other than that, I didn't know anything about it. I have an aversion to monkeys (long story), so I wouldn't have picked this to watch any other way.

Grant plays a scientist who is working on a youth formula. He thinks he's cracked the code, but in reality, one of the chimps was mimicking his movements and then put the concoction in the water cooler. First, Grant acts like a 20-year-old for a day. He cuts his glorious hair (that was depressing) and hangs out with Marilyn Monroe. Unfortunately, Monroe was cast as the "beautiful, dumb blonde" as usual. As a side note, I'd like to see her in a serious role. I looked it up, and there's a couple of options for that.

Anyway, once Grant takes a nap, the formula wears off, and his wife is the next one to become a test subject. Since she's Ginger Rogers, she ends up dancing a lot. Then, she wants to recreate her wedding night, complete with wedding night jitters and floor-length nightgown.

They still don't really know what's created the effect of the formula, so Grant and his wife make coffee using the tainted water, so they get an overdose. Now they're acting like literal children. At one point, Grant finds a group of kids acting like Indians, and he gets the idea to take out his rival by scalping him. I think that was my favorite part to be honest. Seeing Hank with a mohawk and tied to a pole was great!

The movie was strange, and the premise is ridiculous. Parts of it were amusing, and I liked seeing Charles Coburn. I've seen him in a few other movies. It's a screwball comedy, but I think if I want to watch a screwball comedy with scatterbrained scientist Cary Grant with animals and disapproving older matrons, I'll watch Bringing Up Baby. I prefer the chemistry between Grant and Katharine Hepburn, and I'll take leopards and dogs to chimps any day! It's still a Good Movie! because it has it's moments, but I probably won't watch it again.

The Third Man - 1949

I watched this movie a while ago and had it tagged to watch it again to review it. 

A man arrives in Vienna to see his friend, but he's too late. His friend, Harry, died a few days before Mr. Holly Martins got there. Martins digs a little deeper and discovers that not everything is as it seems.

Okay, so this movie wasn't as good as I remembered. The twists in it were fairly good, but the stresses on Holly's and Anna's conscience was maddening. Harry was a bad guy. There's no reason to stick up for him or help him.

And bless the zither man. I don't know how much Mr. Anton Karas was paid, but he became something of a star after this movie. On the flip side, his zither music was used so much. I was over it, and it didn't really match a few of the scenes.

Overall, the movie was irritating. Harry was a villain, and there wasn't anything redeeming about him. Martins wasn't that great either. He didn't care about catching Harry until he saw the children's hospital. Until then, "it was none of his business." Anna was just as dumb, and I don't understand why she was so devoted to Harry. These people were all terrible, and I hope Anna can't perform anymore and no one reads Holly's books. RIP Sergeant Paine. You deserved better...

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.