November Movies - Week 4

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

And Happy Turkey Day tomorrow... here are some movies that we've seen this past week:

November 19 – King Kong (1976)
 
I hadn’t seen this movie since “Survey of Cinema” class in high school in 1998… but you all know the story, petroleum company thinks they’ve found an island loaded with oil… stowaway paleontologist Jeff Bridges wants to take pictures of monkeys & birds… they stumble upon a shipwrecked wanna-be Hollywood starlet Jessica Lange… she’s offered by the islanders to their 50-foot tall ape that they worship as a God… hijinx ensue. Yeah, the story’s a little out there… but it’s the remake of a classic that has since been remade a bunch… and this version actually isn’t that bad. There are some parts that are a little bit of a stretch… but the practical effects were so good they brought the whole team back ten years later to do “King Kong Lives” and… apparently it’s 0% on Rotten Tomatoes but I love that movie!
 
Rating – 8/10 – Not the best version of the classic story… but worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.
 
November 20 – Psycho Goreman (2020)
 
We finally watched this horror-comedy released during the pandemic about a little girl Mimi & her brother Luke who stumble upon this stone that controls the most dangerous alien force in the universe that was buried on Earth years ago… and so they name him Psycho Goreman… and the girl’s a psychopath… and hijinx ensue. This movie is hilarious throughout… especially if you’re familiar with the tropes of these kinds of horror flicks involving kids. The movie is super gory, super profane, and just crazy from start to finish. I highly recommend.
 
Rating – 10/10 – They all learn something important by the end of the movie… but nobody has any idea what it is.
 
November 21 – Operation Kid Brother (or Double 007) (1967)
 
Apparently this movie was made with Sean Connery’s brother Neil as a twin brother of a British spy… who’s also a doctor / hypnotist… and stars Bernard Lee & Lori Maxwell and a bunch of other Bond movie actors… and there’s a lot of plastic surgery involved but he’s the only hope save the world… and yeah, this is absolutely an Italian production made right before they brought George Lazenby in to be the new Bond because… well, this was a little rough. The plot is ludicrous, even by Bond standards… that being said though, it’s kind of fun to see how the rest of the world sees Bond movies and their interpretation of them… and how accurate & apt in pointing out the ridiculousness they can be. Oh… and of course we watched the MST3K version, now streaming on Tubi.
 
Rating – 8/10 – It was funner than most as far as the movie goes… but yeah, definitely a drunk watch with friends.
 
November 22 – Carnosaur 2 (1995)
 
Yes, the thrilling sequel to a movie I rated 10 a few weeks ago… and in this one, we pickup up… some time later… at a secret government facility surrounded by desert that has NOTHING to do with the first movie… and they’ve lost contact & nobody knows why… so they send in a bunch of glorified mercenaries or something to reestablish contact… spoilers… it’s dinosaurs (in case you didn’t know the title of the movie you were watching). Hear all about it on our podcast but… you may be surprised with our score!
 
Rating - ???/10 – It’s a movie about killer dinosaurs… that’s the hint you’re going to get.
 
November 23 – Attack of the Super Monsters (1982)
 
Speaking of killer dinosaurs, we were pleased to find a Rifftrax movie recommended to us… set in the year 2000 (from 1982 Japan) where TALKING giant kaiju dinosaurs led by Tyrannus have rose from the depths of Earth to take over Japan.. and the only thing that can stop them is… an animated team of some of the most questionable fighting force you’ve ever seen… basically Voltron. Okay, so this movie is a great weird mix of animation, guys in dinosaurs suits (think Power Rangers), exploding models, and nonsensical storytelling like only Japanese kaiju movies can do. Would I recommend it?
 
Rating – 9/10 – Absolutely! Yes, how they beat the dinosaurs is painfully repetitive but holy crap it’s exactly what I wanted at the time.
 
November 24 – Nope (2022)
 
We finally watched the latest flick from writer/director Jordan Peele (“Get Out” & “Us”) and as you can tell from the previews (yes, even the first ones) it’s about aliens… and a Hollywood ranch in California… and an Old West Amusement Park that neighbors them… and hijinx ensue. That’s really about all I can tell you but… I LOVED this movie. Truth be told, it does start with an ape killing a bunch of people so I’m in from the start… but then you get great performances from everybody (including the return of Michael Wincott), great realistic dialogue as Jordan Peele does so well, a few random weird things thrown in to keep you guessing, but yeah I really enjoyed this movie.
 
Rating – 10/10 – Check it out! It’s kind of what “Signs” should be. M Night doesn’t know how people talk… or he just doesn’t care.
 
November 25 – Last Man Standing (1996)
 
I had to show Izzy a classic from my teenage years that I had seen dozens of times with friends & family… and basically a remake of Kirosawa’s “Yojimbo” and “A Fistful of Dollars” where a gun-for-hire (Bruce Willis) rolls into an old west ghost town during Prohibition Era and gets involved between two warring clans… sorry, I mean the Irish & Italian mobs… but it’s directed by badass Walter Hill and the big baddie is played by Christopher Walken and… yeah, guys… this is a guy movie through & through. The three women you’ll see in this movie are hot and… that’s about it. They’re basically property that Bruce Willis tries to save… everybody else is trying to be an alpha male & only a few can pull it off… and there are LOTS of gun deaths… great flick.
 
Rating – 10/10 – The story is simple, occasionally stupid, but damn if it’s not entertaining to see Walken play crazy gunman.

Okay, that'll do for this holiday... see you at the next one with a stuffing hangover...

​Steve