Movies you saw in February

Emperor (2012). drama set in post WWII Japan about the investigation the role of Emperor Hirohito in World War II, in order to establish if he should be tried as a war criminal along with Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and his criminal gang of militarists. stars Tommy Lee Jones as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and Matthew Fox as Brigadier General Bonner Fellers who headed up the investigation. somewhat interesting piece of history because I had always thought MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the occupation had just arbitrarily decided to keep Hirohito as a "figure head" to help stabilize Japanese politics.

decent acting and story esp by Tommy Lee Jones as MacArthur BUT goes off on a tangent with Matthew Fox as Fellers searching for his long lost Japanese girlfriend he had met in College in the early 1930's in America and later visited in pre-WWII Japan. kind of wasted a full third of the films 105 minutes running time. worth watching IF you are a WWII history buff OR a huge Tommy Lee Jones fan. otherwise it's . plays again on EPIX1 Wednesday Feb 19th

someone reviewed Donnie Darko  (2001) awhile back SO watched it last night. HAS to be the WIERDEST movie I have seen since both Brewster McCloud and Harold and Maude back in the early 1970's. I guess it has achieved somewhat "cult" status but god knows why. thought it was pretty much a waste and sure can't understand how the late Patrick Swayze could get roped into playing the charlatan motivational speaker. it is just completely goofy. it's on Sundance channel again Tuesday Feb 18th and Wednesday Feb 19th IF you want to waste your time

The Faculty (1998) I figured "just another teenage SciFi horror movie" when I recorded it BUT thought it was VERY entertaining with elements of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing and a The Breakfast Club (1985) mix of high school jocks, geeks and outsiders working together to defeat the alien invaders. has pretty much non-stop action, excellent suspense, a good number of "startle" scenes AND some tasty "T&A" near the end.

early work by Elijah Wood as the geek high school paper photographer. Jon Stewart (yes, the comedy channel Jon Stewart), Piper Laurie, and VERY tasty Famke Janssen as teachers. overall I thought it was a fast paced FUN movie to watch. would put it in the same class as the earlier reviewed Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005). a VERY under-rated Sci-Fi action adventure    

Ya!!! and Laura Harris, who played the blond mouse "Southern Bell" transfer student, was VERY tasty in her nude scene near the end

The Iceman - very good movie about a hitman true story too

I can't pass up Shadow of the Vampire (2000) when it's on one of the movie channels. horror drama about German director F. W. Murnau (played by John Malkovich) filming the "Dracula" story as his film Nosferatu with the "twist" that the actor who plays "Count Orlok" (Dracula), Max Schreck (which means "fright" or "scare" in German) (played by Willem Dafoe), really IS a vampire!!! VERY well acted by all involved. Dafoe was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. relatively short @ 92 minutes  I think it's worth watching. plays again in HBO -Signiture Friday Feb 21st @ 11:45 pm pacific time   

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) watched a couple months ago on PPV and rated "worth paying for". 2nd offering of the Star Trek "prequel" movies. excellent SciFi action esp IF your into Star Trek. plays on EPIX movie channels Monday Feb 17th, Wednesday Feb 19th, Thrusday Feb 20th, Saturday Feb 22nd and Sunday Feb 23rd   

That Awkward Moment was terrible.  It was painfully predictable and not funny.  Pretty sure if I threw money out the window it would have been better spent.  Gonna be a long time before I watch a Zach Efron movie again.

Watched the remake of "Carrie" tonight.   Stayed true to the original, just added cell phones and the internet.   Julianne Moore was very good as the mom.... In my opinion, Chloe Grace Moretz needed to be made a little more fugly.  She was too cute to be a total nobody...If I was in school I would have hit on her no matter how nuts she was. 

Now You See Me (2013) viewed on PPV couple months ago and thought it was an excellent "caper thriller" movie that kept my mind active trying to figure out HOW they pulled off the "heists". bunch of crazy plot twists throughout. people seem to either love or hate this movie. you can judge for yourself. plays on HBO Saturday Feb 22nd, Sunday Feb 23rd and Tuesday Feb 25th   

Monsters University (2013) haven't viewed yet BUT enjoyed Pixar's previous offering Monsters, Inc. (2001). hopefully this one is as entertaining. plays on Starz channels Friday Feb 21st daily thru Tuesday Feb 25th.

Farewell to the King (1988) viewed on EPIX and thought it was an excellent WWII drama with Nick Nolte as American deserter Learoyd who becomes "king" of a tribe of Borneo headhunters fighting the Japanese. some good action scenes and interesting plot as the "king" will really fight anyone from any country that want to change his tribes way of life. hopefully will play on EPIX or some other movie channel again soon  

btw, Chloe Grace Moretz has become one of my favorite young "action" actresses after the Kickazz movies. will check out the new Carrie remake

I thought she was good in Kick-behind....  she really broke through for me in Let Me In.  

Moretz was better in the original Kickazz than the sequel though. 2nd her stunts were just NOT as good and it sure didn't help that the 2nd's plot was WAY lame

i really like carrie. she did a great job in it.

Watched "Machete Kills" last night, if you liked the first one you'll like this one too.  Overblown death scenes lead to some laugh out loud moments.... some good cameos.  Charlie Sheen (billed under his real name Carlos Estivez) plays President Rathcock... Mel Gibson is great as the pyschotic head of a weapons manufacturer.  Cuba Gooding Jr, Lady Gaga, Amber Heard , Benicio Del Toro all pop up at some point and some people from the first also have appearences.  

^

Prisoners - great movie

Captain Phillips - Fantastic movie crazy the garbage he had to go through

These last 2 Star Trek movies are good but overrated.

Farewell to the King (1988) plays again on EPIX2 Wednesday Feb 26th and Thursdays Feb 27th

The Faculty (1998) plays again on Cinemax-Action Sunday Feb 23rd and Wednesday Feb 26th

Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) plays again Starz-Family Saturday Feb 22nd, Sunday Web 23rd and Thursday Feb 27th

I thought prisoners was good too. It kept your interest the whole way. Captain Phillips got a bit boring at times.

i thought 2.5 hours would be far too much but it wasn't

rewatched Clerks (1994). still think it is one of the funniest movies ever. the interaction between Brian O'Halloran as Dante and Jeff Anderson as Randal is hilarious ("37 !!!") as are most of the other unknown actors in the movie most notably Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith as Jay and Silent Bob. loaded with funny scenes and one-liners. one of the most successful "low budget" films even. was written and directed by Kevin Smith and cost only $27,575 to produce while earning over $3 million. has become somewhat a "cult classic"   

plays again on Showtime-Showcase Monday Feb 24th @ 12:45 am pacific

Margin Call (2011) Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons.  One of the many financial crisis movies.  Basically a movie about the end of a company.  Offers a steady drumbeat as one person or another come to the chilling realization that we are all screwed.  Stanley Tucci is an employee of the company in the risk management division.  He stumbles on something before HR lets him know that he is fired and escorts him out of the building.  But he passes on some info to young Zachary Quinto (Spock in Star Trek) who then analyzes it and lets everyone know that the company is on the brink of annihilation.  Jeremy Irons (CEO) flies in and tries to figure out the best way to get out of this mess as the ship is sinking.  Kevin Spacey is the tired and aging manager of Sales and trading.  Has a good pace to it.  Not bad.  Gives you a good idea of what goes on in these buildings.