Erased - 2016

I was recommended this show by my younger daughter. She knows I love a good anime, and she had more than a few to recommend.

The protagonist of our story has a rare ability to go back in time to stop a tragedy. In his case, Satoru relives the moment before disaster and looks for what's wrong. It's a lot of pressure, and it's mind-boggling how he figures anything out before it happens. I'd miss all the signs for sure.

One day, his mother comes to visit, and that's when things go south. Eventually, he has a major "revival" that sends him back to his childhood. When he was young, three children were abducted and killed. Satoru always felt guilty, and now he has the chance to remedy the mistakes he knows he'll make.

Ok, so I'm not great at explaining things, but that's because I'm trying not to give too much away. I had to binge the last three episodes, because I wanted to know what happened. From the small amount of research I did, it seems the end of the anime deviated from the manga quite a bit. Since I haven't read it (yet), that didn't affect my enjoyment.

And I did enjoy this one. It reminded me of Death Note and Monster, because I felt a sense of suspense of how things would end up. Also, the resolution of story during/after the credits was like Death Note. I will admit the show isn't perfect. I liked it a lot, though, and it made me want to read the manga. It was 12 episodes in which I was never bored, and I'd happily watch it again. Good Show!

Golden Ninja (The Golden Bat) - 1966

I saw the picture for this one on Tubi, and I was in! Then I read the summary, and I couldn't wait to watch it!

A kid is watching the planet Icarus approaching Earth at a fast pace. The locals don't believe anything is wrong, so the kid is abducted by a secret UN group that investigates unusual happenings. They have a plan to blow up the planet, but they need a special mineral to make the lens for their laser. Their first recon group dies on an island that is somehow part of Atlantis. An enemy appears and pushes them back into a cave where they find Golden Ninja (Bat). He needs some water to revive, and then he's ready to laugh maniacally and whap people with Silver Baton.

I loved this movie. For some reason, I had a blast. I loved the noise Silver Baton made, I loved the weird bat, and I loved all the miniatures used for the sets. I also loved Nazo, the villain. He looked like he was wearing a Snuggie with piggy ears. He never moved, but his little platform spun around. I appreciated his boxing ring microphone that would drop from the ceiling when he wanted to make an announcement.

The movie is actually called The Golden Bat, which makes more sense than Golden Ninja in this case. Apparently, this is a real superhero that was created before Superman! In the 1920s, Japan made this cackling skull mummy, and there's tons of content for him! Manga, anime, movies...I'm going down the rabbit hole with this one. I love Golden Bat.

Watch it with friends that love a good superhero/cheesy movie. I think you'll be impressed. If you aren't, I just don't know what to tell you. This is one of my favorites, and I keep going around the house making "wapsssht!" noises. Good Movie!

Sound of Horror - 1966

I won't say who picked this one, but let's just say it was a cold choice. Just reading the summary made us press play.

A group of "archaeologists" (one brought his niece) are exploring the cave with dynamite and pickaxes. They make sure to let the girl know that she needs to get used to things like explosions, smoke and dead bodies. When they discover a weird egg, they take it back to the house. In the cave, there was a second egg that hatched. Now a ghastly, eerie, evil monster is on the loose. And it's noisy!

This movie was nuts. People were so stupid, they all deserved to die. Two people ended up sacrificing themselves for the rest of the idiots, and they still almost didn't make it out. And how hard is it to make sure your car works?

Calliope gets the award for the dumbest person. She rambled on and on about the evil spirit/ghost/monster, and then she purposely wandered outside to get water - for coffee - twice!

I'm using a lot of different descriptors to talk about the thing. These were just some of the terms used in the closed captions to help us imagine the monster, because we never really saw it. That's right, it was invisible! That made the attack scenes kind of funny, but when you don't know what you're dealing with, it just made it weird. Also, Asilov was all in on the treasure until the bodies piled up. One or two was nothing, but then when he finally wanted to leave, he was all in on that. And what was the deal with the shepherds?!

Just no. I will give an RIP to Dorman. But he did make it so the few survivors had to walk back.

Scared to Death - 1947

Mom found this movie and saw that it had Bela in it. We were both excited at that! On closer look, George Zucco was in it as well. He's another one of our favorites,

Laura is dead. Through a series of 1,000 flashbacks, we discover she's afraid of her husband and his father. She feels they're trying to scare her (to death!), and she just goes around all day nagging at them. Little does she realize, another force is actually responsible.

The first thing that struck me about this movie was the strange flashbacks. They went in and out with that high-pitched ethereal noise. Then it would focus on the dead woman, she'd say a sentence (I'm not kidding) and then it would ethereal back to the action. And it happened a lot. The weird thing was, it wasn't valuable information. She'd say something like, "And then they arrived," and that's it. Then you watched the people arrive...

Bela and George were cousins, and they were innocent. That's right, all the nagging Laura was doing was to the wrong people! Even her husband had nothing to do with harassing her! It was the husband she'd turned over to the Nazis during the war. She thought he was dead, and he wanted revenge. Bela knew about it, but he made the guy promise not to touch her.

I don't think this movie was that great. I was rooting for the Green Man, and I was glad when he finally got some closure. Especially after I heard what she'd done to him. The rest of the movie was just listening to her whine, seeing Green Mask man and listening to the gangster reporter. Yes, this movie has a weird reporter who just shows up and stays at the house while all this is going down.

This isn't the worst movie I've seen, but it wasn't that great, either. I'll stay on the fence with this one.

The Return of Chandu - 1934

Just a random movie on a random afternoon...and it has Bela!

Princess Nadji is an Egyptian princess who is 100% dependent upon her mystic, Chandu. She's being targeted to be a sacrifice by the cult of Ubasti, and Chandu wants nothing more than to protect her.

This movie was pretty fun. Bela is not the villain in this movie, and that was a bit strange. He did get to do his "creepy eye" thing. The funny part was that Bela played the villain in the movie before this one. The cultists had the stupidest hats ever. I'd like to say I'm exaggerating, but they actually looked like small pillow cases. And the leader wore a turban meant for a larger-headed man. I also loved Bela's "sailing" outfit. His nephew's outfit just didn't fit the same...

I thought the woman was useless in this one, and so was everyone else. People were supposed to guard this princess who was in danger, and they left her alone all the time. I mean, she was pretty irritating, so maybe they were doing it on purpose.

Anyway, this one easily earns a Good Movie! review. Gather some friends and watch Bela in one of the few times he was cast as a hero! 

Masters of the Universe - 1987

For movie night, we had someone with more "discerning" tastes watching with us, so we watched something newer. As in 1987! He-Man is considered pretty cool around here, but what I saw early on didn't give me much hope. 

The plot was insane and didn't make much sense. From what I could figure out, Skeletor has gotten his hands on the magic key and needs another one. The weird thing that has the other key is saved by He-Man and his friends (old Man-at-Arms and Teela). Skeletor really wants that one and chases the group to Earth. There, they meet up with new friends Monica from Friends and Kevin.

This movie was silly. Dolph was playing He-Man, but he sounded silly when he talked. I think part of that is the dubbing they ended up doing. The Orko stand-in was silly and also annoying. The movie tried to make Monica the Earth hero, but it was really Kevin. His musical abilities saved the day. Every time Dolph tried to sound intimidating, it was just funny. I appreciate how excited the man playing Skeletor was about his role, but they didn't give him much to work with.

I want to give a special shoutout to Pigboy. The production of this movie had a lot of ups and downs. One of them was the contest for children. Mattel had the contest, but the scenes on Earth were already shot. Poor little Richard Szponder got to have the small part of holding Skeletor's staff when he arrives in Grayskull. My only complaint is that if he was a minion of Skeletor, he needed a better name than Pigboy.

I had fun watching this movie, but I had a good group with me. I was hoping Karg would die. That thing was hard to look at. While we were watching, I felt like the movie was trying to be an Eternia (the place He-Man is from) version of Star Wars. Even the music reminded me of Star Wars. I'm giving it a Good Movie! review, but I wouldn't watch it alone. It's the kind of cheesy movie that is best with friends.

Monster from Green Hell - 1957

We were so excited when we read the summary for this movie. Wasps sent into space turn into monsters?! Count us in!

At the beginning of the movie, a couple of "scientists" are sending various animals into space. The longer they spend there, the more they are affected by the trip. I mean, one of the guinea pigs (?) had its fur turn white!! One of the capsules blows up and isn't thought of again until suspicious deaths start to happen in a remote part of the jungle. Suspecting their wasps are the culprit, the scientists head off to the remote village where they pick up an annoying woman. She demands to go with them since the wasps murdered her father, but she's more hindrance than help.

This movie was terrible and not in a good way. I estimate that 90% of it was walking. They showed the scientists walking to the village. The expedition then walked to the volcano where the old man was abandoned by his younger friend. Then they walked around trying to find the wasps, and finally, they walked around in a cave trying to find their way out after they trapped themselves inside.

And the worst part? The people were unnecessary. And I don't mean a few of them (like the woman) didn't add anything. I mean they didn't kill any of the wasps. The volcano took them out with lava in an overly long wasp-screaming scene complete with repeated frames. The puzzling thing about the end was that when the volcano went off, it shocked the movie into color. I don't know why, but that was so odd. It's not like The Wizard of Oz where the colorization is a clue that you're in another world. It was just colored, screaming wasps, and then it was over.

The excessive walking was so exhausting. The woman was not helpful (as usual), and the plot was super stupid. This one was a pass, and we were all glad when it was over.

*Shoutout to Jim Davis. Not only does he share the name of my grandpa, he's become a familiar face in some of these films.

Octaman - 1971

We saw this movie when we were searching for our movie night selection. It looked pretty bad, so we decided to wait and put it on when the kids could enjoy it as well.

Radiation has caused issues in a fishing village. The scientists have captured a screeching baby octopus and put it in a minnow bucket. Octaman gets upset and retrieves his baby.

I'm not even going to try and describe the plot, because there wasn't one. The monster waved his arms around and slapped a few people. He didn't even kill the annoying people. There were numerous frustrating parts, though. For instance, why did some of them go out in the boat just to stop and turn around for no reason? And why didn't Octaman attack them while they were in the cave? They spent so much time "trapped" only to pop out where they started. Finally, why was Davido wandering off all the time?! He was all gung ho about killing Octaman, but then he stood there at the end waving his knife around while everyone else was shooting it.

This movie was sooooo boring. We got to the point where there were ten minutes left, and we were wondering if something would finally happen. Watching Octaman pop out of the trailer was unexpected (and predictable at the same time), and that was my favorite part.

I'm going to take a moment to clarify something. One of the things that really irritated me during the movie was when they kept calling the babies "squid." I remembered squid have six arms, but guess what? They don't. They actually have eight arms and two tentacles. So where did I get six arms? I don't know, but an internet search brought me to a place where a lot of other people thought the same thing. Who knows where the six-armed squid came from, but the record's been set straight.

Avoid this one. You've been warned.

Fog Island - 1945

We picked this one based on Lionel Atwill. He's the man, and it was an easy choice.

A man invites the people who betrayed and put him in prison to his house. They believe he has a fortune hidden inside, so they all show up and pretend they're all friends. One of the guys is the son of the invited person, and he ends up falling in love (or he might've already been in love) with the ex-con's niece.

The host gathers everyone around and gives them various "clues." One looks like an awl, while another person gets a book of multiplication tables. It's weird. Also, the movie summary claims the man booby-trapped the house, but there's really only the one. Also also, the "secret passage" is the worst kept secret in the world.

This movie felt familiar, especially the part where four people were all in the booby-trapped room and had no situational awareness. I can't be sure, but I'll tell you that the son has miraculous drying powers. He can also pretend like he didn't see a bunch of dead bodies and convince the young lady to leave without saying goodbye to her uncle without any issues.

A lot of this movie didn't make sense, and the subtitles were the best part. The butler's name was Allerton, but the subtitles called him "elephant" and "hello there" at different times. Another subtitle referenced YouTube, but 1945 was a far time from the creation of YouTube.

Anyway, people teleported around, and the secret passage was huge enough for everyone to take a turn checking it out. The movie itself was slow, and it just wasn't enjoyable enough to warrant a Good Movie review. It's another middle-of-the-road old horror movie.

Frogs - 1972

We gave the fiancé the remote and tasked him with finding us a great movie to watch. The picture and description were interesting, so we pushed play.

A very young Sam Elliott is taking pictures while paddling around a rich man's island. The whole family is pretty terrible, so you're ready for people to start getting killed. When Sam talks to the old guy, he asks him to look for Grover, who is missing. Sam finds him in a shallow pool with snakes all around him. From there, it's all downhill, with family members being taken out by different animals until the old guy gets frogged to death. I think...

The movie is called frogs, but you know what didn't really kill anyone? FROGS! I'm not sure how they killed the old guy at the end, but they were just hopping on him. Did they give him a heart attack? I have no idea. My favorite death was definitely the greenhouse. The lizards pushing bottles off the shelves to create toxic gas was amazing. And then the way the guy smooshed himself against the wall and slowly sank to the ground? Chef's kiss!

It was frustrating to see so many shots of frogs, and that's because they were just croaking and hopping all over the place. Were they the leaders of the animals? Why was the Spanish Moss actively killing the one guy but no other plants participated? The trees could've just thrown themselves on top of the house and saved time. The old lady running through the woods just to come back to where she started and get bit by a rattlesnake was crazy.

On one hand, this movie was fun. On the other hand, there were snakes and spiders. A LOT of snakes. There's so many shots of snakes; if you have an issue with those, definitely avoid this movie at all costs. The other issue is the ending. They suggest the wildlife issue isn't just happening on the island, so what happened to the people who escaped? And how did the people in the hut die? So many unanswered questions. But I saw a bunch of frogs!

Monster on the Campus - 1958

We had Memorial Day movie night this week. It was a choice between campus monster or wasps from space. The monster won.

Dr. Blake is super excited about the coelacanth his university has acquired. The blood of the fish reverses evolution, and the worst scientist in history has to figure out what's happening.

Let's take a moment to appreciate the utter stupidity of the professor. This "man of science" left his melting fish out in the open, picked it up without gloves, got wounded by it, and didn't even wash his hands! In fact, he was sucking on the wound on his hand! Eww.

There was a dog affected by the melted ice (I have no idea how since Dr. Blake talked about blood and plasma), but Samson was a good boy. Jimmy eventually convinced the doctor to let him take the German Shepherd home, so Samson was safe.

This movie was bizarre. It was funny to watch my daughter's Wildlife Ecology fiancé freak out at all the science faux pas sprinkled and dumped throughout the movie. Apparently, they got a few things wrong. Also, Mom and I were doing the Three Stooges thing when they'd say Dr. Howard's name (Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard). The special effects were utterly ridiculous, and the metamorphosis to the monster was as I imagined it would be. Not near as impressive as you think. BUT, Jimmy was ok, and most importantly Samson was ok, and the ending was abrupt as usual.

I had fun with this one and will give it a Good Movie! review. I'm certain it takes a special kind of person to have as much fun with these movies as I do, but as they say, laughter is good for the soul.

(RIP Forest Ranger Tom. You didn't deserve the hatchet to the head!)

Murder by Television - 1935

Blind pick for movie night. It has Bela Lugosi in it, so it had to be good! Right?

Honestly, I can't remember much about this movie. The title helped me remember a bit. A man is transmitting over TV, and toward the end of his speech, he moans and collapses to the floor. Who is responsible for his death?

This movie was crazy. They added a twin into the plot randomly, and I can't remember who the killer was. Also, the explanation was insanity. The most interesting thing in the movie was the variety of screen wipes that they used.

War of the Satellites - 1958

We didn’t have internet over the weekend, but my husband was an angel and hooked up a hot spot so we could search Tubi to find something for movie night. And this is what we ended up with.

Van wants to send up yet another group of men to space to sacrifice to the barrier the aliens put up to “quarantine” humans. They zap his car, and he dies in a car accident. Then, an alien takes over his body so he can sabotage the mission. Will anyone discover the truth before the 11^th satellite is sacrificed to the aliens?

The thing about this plot is that it doesn’t make sense. The United Nations (that president had a TON of flags!) was ready to abandon the idea of sending more people into space to blow up on the barrier, but then Alien Van popped up. They really just didn’t have to do anything except kill Van, but they overcomplicated their own plan.

I loved this movie. The “special effects” were probably worse than The Giant Claw, and that was a great movie. I’m not even going to describe anything I saw. It was all glorious, and you need to watch this movie with some friends. I was laughing so hard, I recommended my kids to watch it. They enjoy a good/bad movie at times, and I hope they get some laughs out of this one. Good Movie!