November Movies - Week 3

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
 
Continuing on from last post…
 
 
Nov 12 – The Believers (1987)
 
A New York psychiatrist (Martin Sheen) helps out on a police case that involves a brujeria-inspired cult (voodoo?) and finds out… they’re interested in his son! Now… this movie starts off… with a pretty harrowing Final Destination-esque scene of the wife/mother being electrocuted by a coffee maker & milk that seems ridiculous… but is pretty effective in terror. The rest of the movie does have slow parts… but it’s basically a Rosemary’s Baby involving Santeria… and I liked it!
 
Rating – 8/10 – Not sure what I was expecting… but it exceeded those expectations
 
Nov 13 – Santa Claus the Movie (1985)
 
For more on this one, check out our early December episode of Everything I Learned From Movies where Diana from Happily Ever Aftermath joins us to talk about this classic Saturday morning matinee from my childhood starring David Huddleston as Santa, John Lithgow as evil businessman, Dudley Moore as Patch/Arthur & Burgess Meredith as Ancient Elf for a day of shooting! It’s the Santa origin story!
 
Rating - ???/10 – Listen to the podcast (ageofradio.org/everythingilearnedfrommovies)
 
Nov 14 – Come Away (2020)
 
This was our Patreon Exclusive for the month of November, and it’s a movie that I heard NOTHING about until I was researching Peter Pan movies… only to find it was the OTHER one that came out in 2020… and kinda mixed Peter Pan with Alice in Wonderland and a family drama about making ship replicas or something? It stars Angelina Jolie & David Olewoyo among others… and we did a great episode talking about it but… not the best Peter Pan movie of 2020. The actors involved were good but… it just didn’t move the needle for me. Felt like nothing happened the entire movie…
 
Rating – 6/10 – I was pretty bored through most of it…
 
Nov 15 – Dog Eat Dog (2016)
 
I had seen this before, I think when I was recovering from Gall Bladder Surgery because I only remembered a few things… but it’s Nicolas Cage & Willem Dafoe in a movie so obviously Izzy wanted to see it. The story is about three felons (Christopher Matthew Cook is the 3rd & holds his own for the most part) who are complete a-holes who should be locked up forever doing “one last job” and hijinx ensue. This could have been a LOT funner than it was… but it’s directed by Paul Schrader so it seems like a Scorsese-knock off… and there are interesting parts but overall, I was scratching my head at everything from motivations to plot threads.
 
Rating – 6/10 – I still love everything Nicolas Cage does!
 
Nov 16 – Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins (2021)
 
Really excited when this & Shang Chi came out in theaters because I love my martial arts movies & these being big budget superhero flicks (let’s be real). Both were exclusive in theatres though so I had to wait 3-4 months for them to show up on my doorstep and/or on Disney+. The RT ratings though… have this one as 30% with critics & 78% with audience where Shang Chi is in the high 90s for both… but this is Snake Eyes & GI Joe… and I even enjoyed the two previous attempts at GI Joe movies so… this one is the origin story… of a ninja warrior who doesn’t talk… so obviously you get Henry Golding from “Crazy Rich Asians” to portray him where they talk A LOT… and I still enjoyed the hell out of it! Oddly enough, the weakest part of this movie… was Samara Weaving?!? I blame the character that she had to portray but she just didn’t seem to give a f**k.
 
Rating – 9/10 – This is exactly what I wanted & more… can’t wait for the sequel that will never come… as is tradition
 
Nov 17 – Bad Blood (1988)
 
We were graced with an invite to the Penultimate Blairvember Episode on the Grindbin Podcast… and it was this movie that we were only able to find on YouTube starring Linda Blair called “Bad Blood”. There are several movies with that title… but I had never heard of this movie or knew anything about it going in other than the IMDb synposis… and then I saw that the two people listed above Linda Blair were Georgina Spelvin (hooker from Police Academy & porn actress) and Randy Spears (over 1200 credits in pornographic films) and… guys, this movie gets crazy from start to finish. You can watch it on YouTube or hear all about it on a recent Grindbin Episode. I recommend both.
 
Rating – 9/10 – This movie was cuckoo bananas and I loved it!!!
 
Nov 18 – Demolition Man (1993)
 
For our podcast, about four years ago we recorded an incredible 3+ hour episode for this movie with our friends Clarissa & Andrew… and when I went to edit the episode a week later, the data was GONE!!! There was still the audacity file… but no sound as part of it. I triple checked before closing it all out… but just… gone! Now, we’ve met up in the same room again when they came to visit… and we recorded the episode again… and it’s even better!!!
 
Rating – 10+/10 – This movie is perfection!!! Even when Simon Phoenix makes racist remarks to the only children in the movie…

THANKSGIVING!!! Tell someone you love them!!!

Steve