The Great Escape - 1963

I've been meaning to watch this movie for the longest time, but the length of it was a serious consideration. It's also one of those movies I feel like I need to be in the mood for.

This movie is based on the true story of an organized breakout from Stalag III during WWII. The Germans are tired of POWs breaking out, and their brilliant plan is to put them all in the same camp and to keep track of them. Not surprisingly, the men immediately start to plan an escape.

I'm not going to mention much more of the plot. It's an escape movie. It's not 100% accurate by any means, but there are places it got things right. Three men escaped, and fifty were executed (just not in the way portrayed). The three tunnels were named Tom, Dick and Harry, but the locations were different. The Americans were involved in helping with the setup for the escape, but they were moved from the camp before the attempt. The motorcycle chase never happened (shocking!).

I kept thinking parts of this movie felt familiar, but I know I've never seen it before. I tried to think if maybe my dad had it on TV, but I can't be sure. I don't think I'm mixing it up with Stalag 17. I also tried to check and see if I'd already read the book, but I don't have a review for it, either. I have no idea!

I did like this movie, and I want to read more now. Two of the three escapees wrote memoirs, and I'm going to keep and eye out for those as well as the Paul Brickhill book that collected stories and tells his side of helping with the setup. He was unable to participate in the escape due to fear that his claustrophobia would affect the mission, so he helped in other ways.

Either way you look at it, this was a bold move made by many men. The cost wasn't measured in money, but in lives. Was it worth it to risk so many lives to set three free? I don't want to speak for the men, but since they worked so hard to get out, they knew those risks, and they were prepared to take them. It was a good movie, and now I'm adding to my pile of things I want to read...again. One thing about it - I'll never be at a loss for something to read! Good Movie!

Side Note: It was nice to see Donald Pleasence in a role other than a villain for once. I'm not sure I've seen that before!

The Ghost Train - 1941

Ok, I am fully convinced the person that put together this horror list either wasn't paying attention or didn't watch some of these movies. I'll explain later.

A group of people misses their connection because a moron stops the entire train when his hat flies out the window. This man reminded me of Kay Kiser from You'll Find Out. He even looked like him, too. The weather turns bad, and the group decides they're spending the night in the station. The stationmaster warns them the building is haunted by a train, and they should beware. He leaves, and shenanigans ensue. The strange man (I'm calling him Shaggy), makes jokes and eventually pulls out a record player and starts singing a song. Enter the hero of the film, Richard. He sacrificed his game of chess to spare everyone more inane singing by throwing the record player outside on the train tracks. What a hero!

About halfway through the movie, the stationmaster comes back and croaks on the floor. Then a dramatic woman bursts through the door and claims she simply must be at the station. The ghost train is coming tonight! Her brother is trying to get her out of there, and the others are trying to help her. When the ghost train comes roaring by, it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.

This was not a horror movie. This was an episode of Scooby Doo before Scooby Doo existed. There's a conspiracy to keep people away from the station because it's being used to smuggle weapons to the Nazis. They've come up with the Ghost Train myth to keep people out of the area, and they even have a ghost! Also, I'm giving credit for the solving of the mystery to Richard, because I love that he punched Teddy (I guess he's the Scooby in this scenario?) in the face. I wish he could've punched Shaggy, but it was glorious enough when he demolished the man's music. When Teddy wakes up, he's upset they won't be there when the Ghost Train comes back so they can expose the villains, but they would have been outnumbered had they stayed. I'm still calling it a Scooby Doo episode. I mean, people did die, so I'm calling it Hardcore Scooby Doo. Also, they left the bird lady at the station. That was a bit rude.

Those Nazi sympathizers would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for that stupid meddling moron and his hat...

The Devil Commands - 1941

Next up in our horror movies is The Devil Commands starring The Grinch. Actually, the next one was The Face Behind the Mask, but I'd seen it before. It was a real movie, and it was sad. I remembered I'd seen it partway through, but it's not that long, and it was too late to turn back. When it ended, it wasn't that late, my oldest daughter was home, and we needed to watch a cheesy movie. Our hopes were high with this one.

The Grinch is doing weird things with a balloon-shaped helmet to measure brain waves. He feels like eventually, we'll be able to know other people's thoughts and communicate with each other. So far, all I saw was some seismograph-looking peaks on a piece of paper. He also hooks up his wife, and they're all agog at how her peaks are so much higher than the previous guy. WOW!

A car accident kills the wife, and The Grinch goes nutty. One night, he accidentally turns on his machine and part of his wife's pattern appears on the wall. His friend, (?) Karl, convinces him to go to a medium, Mrs. Walters. She's a charlatan, but apparently, she's also creating electricity? So, when The Grinch hooks her up to his balloon, she continues a seismograph that's identical to The Grinch's wife. When Karl is added, he's zapped and basically turned into an Igor.

After that, The Grinch moves away and starts doing really weird stuff. He starts stealing bodies and putting balloon helmets on them so he can create a spirit tornado to contact his wife. I think. It's all very confusing to be honest. The end is just insanity.

I think the thing that shocked me the most about this movie is that it's based on a book. The Edge of Running Water by William Sloane somehow spawned this movie. I have to say, I am extremely interested to learn how any book could create something this strange. I didn't understand so many things about this movie. How did the dead people help the tornado? Why was Mrs. Walters so invested? She wasn't a real medium, and she said she was only doing it for money. Once she found out she was electrical, she was all in. She was a bulldog protecting The Grinch. 

Overall, I'm on the fence with this one. It was so confusing, I'm not sure it was entertaining. The dead people around the table were something. How did The Grinch go from thinking that he needed live, conscious people to substituting dead folk? And it worked? I found a Kindle version of the book, and I'll keep an eye on it. I'm glad it wasn't one of those out of print books that only has copies circulating with unreasonable prices. I hate that.

You'll Find Out - 1940

This movie is the last one in the list for the year 1940. I didn't know who Kay Kiser was, but I was optimistic when I saw Bela, the Grinch and Peter Lorre in the credits. How bad could it be?!

The answer? Very bad. So bad that I think it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Not only is it one of those weird comedies that's trying to be somewhat "scary" at the same time, but it is part musical. And it's a comedy musical, which is probably my least favorite kind of musical.

Kay Kiser (he's playing himself) is taking his band to play at a young lady's 21st birthday party. I think that's weird, but whatever. They all drive up to the creepy mansion in a big car, but somehow all their gear and props are there as well. Also in the house are the Grinch as a judge and a Prince that can make contact with the other side (Bela). Janis has also invited a professor to her birthday party to expose Bela as a fraud since he's been bleeding her aunt of the family's money for a while now. Little does she realize the creepy face that peered into her window (Peter Lorre) was the "professor."

This movie was hard to watch. The "jokes" were horrific, the musical numbers went on forever, they put hair on a dog (a wig with bangs), and the séance was hard to watch. I mean, if they were trying to disprove the medium, why didn't they try to tackle the "ghost" or pull down the floaty things? The dog disappeared for half the movie, and when he appeared again, his tail had paint on it. How? The paint was in a petri dish-looking thing.

The end of this thing was insane. Two of the villains had guns and one had dynamite! I mean, a bridge blew up earlier (no one believed lightning hit it), so it wasn't shocking there was dynamite in the area. But why are we threatening people with it? Anyway, the villains get blown up, but Kay Kiser and his band of goobers survive to perform one last time (we skipped it). And what happened to the poor real professor who popped up for two seconds? Pain. All we felt was pain...

You'll find out how much patience you have...

Death Note (anime series) - 2006

This series has been on Tubi for a while, and my husband and I have been watching it together. It's 37 episodes, and has subtitles, so it took us a little bit to get through it. It's based on a manga.

Light is at school when he finds a notebook. That object will change the course of the rest of his life. Touching it introduces him to Ryuk, a Shinigami, who tells him that writing the name of a person in the notebook will result in that person's death. Now, Light starts to feel the power he holds, and it becomes more and more important for him to fulfill what he sees as his destiny: a world without evil. And he'll eliminate anyone who gets in his way.

I loved this series. Light is in a chess match with someone who matches his skills. The back and forth between these two was so impressive. The constant twists and turns reminded me of Monster. The story is nothing similar; it was the suspense and amount of times I was sitting on the edge of my seat. There were numerous times we had to watch the next episode because of the cliffhanger we were left with.

I'm definitely trying to track down this manga. I don't know how close the series followed the manga, but I'd like to get some clarification on a few things, particularly at the end. I believe my favorite character was the Shinigami Ryuk. He loved his apples! Good Show!

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!