Movies you saw in June

actually late May but just viewed these three and they play again this month >>>

Enemy of the State (1998) spy-thriller action movie about a group of rogue NSA agents who kill a US Congressman and try to cover up the murder. stars Will Smith and Gene Hackman with Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet and Tom Sizemore. early work by Barry Pepper and Jack Black. very fast paced pretty much non-stop action movie with excellent chase scenes, "stuff that goes boom" and some interesting plot twists. plays again on Cinemax daily Tuesday June 3rd thru Friday June 6th and again Sunday June 8th. rate it

Sin City (2005) "neo-noir" crime action thriller anthology from Frank Miller's "pulp fiction" graphic novel series of the same name. stars Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba with Rutger Hauer, Michael Madsen, Powers Boothe, Elijah Wood, Benicio del Toro and Rosario Dawson in supporting rolls. look for the late Michael Clarke Duncan (John Coffey in The Green Mile) as the yellow eyed thug Manute half way thru. pretty much continuous mindless sex and violence throughout BUT IF you like pure "action" it's OK. plays on Encore channel again Tuesday June 3rd @ 10:10 pm pacific time. rate it

Swimming With Sharks (1994) "dark comedy" drama staring Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley and Michelle Forbes. early work by Benicio del Toro in a bit part. pretty wierd movie that is probably every abused employee's fantasy about how they would like to repay a nasty boss. has a very "off the wall" ending. OK acting BUT got a bit tedious and repetitive. plays again on EPIX2 Friday June 6th @ 2:05 am pacific. it's pretty much

CBGB - Could have been a lot better..I liked it tho'. Worth watching once.

Ya I gave CBGB a weak last month. worth it just for the rock & roll history and Alan Rickman as club owner Hilly Kristal

Made in Dagenham (2010) is kind of the British version of Sally Fields movie Norma Rae (1979). it dramatises the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 that aimed for equal pay for women. stars Sally Hawkins as fictionalised women's strike leader Rita O'Grady, Daniel Mays as her husband Eddie and Bob Hoskins as Dagenham Works labor leader Albert. started off kind of "Meh" but picked up the pace when the women walk out causing all kinds of consternation for not only Ford Motors, Ltd but BOTH the trade unions AND the British government. thought it was VERY well acted and an interesting story. plays again on Starz-Cinema Sunday June 6th @ 9:00 pm and Monday June 7th @ 10:10 pm pacifiac time. rate it  

Jack Ryan: Shadow recruit could have been great and expected more after the first 20 minutes but was just OK.  

That Awkward Moment - pretty much what i expected..i didn't mind it at all some funny parts

3 Days to kill - I love Amber Heard...Costner did a good job was better then i thought it would be

3 Days to Kill watching the trailers looks like a pretty good action flick. looking forward to viewing it


R.I.P.D. (2013) staring Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Bacon. looked like they tried to make a cross between a Men in Black and Ghostbusters movie. had decent action with excellent CGI and the "undead monsters" were somewhat interesting BUT overall I thought it was kind of "meh". plays again on HBO daily Thursday June 5th thru Friday June 13th ex for Tuesday June 10th IF you want to watch. rate it

Girls Against Boys (2012) kinda goofy "revenge-payback" movie about two young women that go after the guys "that done them wrong". actually thought it was pretty well acted esp by Nicole LaLiberte as the "psyco-b*tch" Lu. had some cool old Donovan acid rock in the soundtrack (Hurdy Gurdy Man an all time fav from the late 60's). short movie at just under 90 minutes. played on The Movie Channel Wednesday night an hopefully will repeat soon. rate it

Monuments Men.

Horrible.

'Rush'

Pretty  b a d a s s  movie.

It's a trip how much both actors looked like the real Lauda/Hunt.

Safe (2012) excellent Jason Statham "everyone double-crossing everyone else" crime-action thriller I have seen numerous times and always enjoy it. typical Statham fights, oddles of ordnance and "stuff that goes boom". relatively short run time of 95 minutes. plays on EPIX2 channel again Monday June 9th @ 7:00 pm and Tuesday June 10th @ 8:50am & 3:20 pm pacific time. I don't think Jason Statham has ever been in a bad action movie. rate it

Love Ranch (2010) movie based on the lives of Mustang Ranch owners Joe and Sally Conforte it stars Helen Mirren as Grace Bontempo (Sally) and Joe Pesci as her husband and business partner Charlie (Joe) with Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Grace's love interest Argentine boxer Armando Bruza based on the thru life Oscar Bonavena. got crappy reviews BUT I thought it was pretty well acted and an interesting story. played recently on The Movie Channel and hopefully will be on again soon. rate it

Friday was my night for pretty much "kid stuff"

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013). 2nd installment of the Percy Jackson action-adventure series. definately designed for the teenaged fantasy crowd with it's "Percy saves the world" plot it is never the less pretty fast paced with interesting monsters and excellent CGI. worth watching IF you like the genre. plays on Cinemax channels most of the week of Sunday June 8th. rate it

Ender's Game (1985) space SciFi action adventure about a bunch of young teens training to defend earth against a attack by insect like aliens. I think this could definately give Will & Jaden Smith's complete wreck After Earth (aka afterbirth) a run for the money as THE worst SciFi in recent history. it is WAY too long at almost 2 hours (and seemed even longer watching it) and the training scenes got repetitive and tedious. tries to "WOW" you with the CGI and fails. can NOT understand HOW both Harrison Ford and Sir Ben Kingsley got roped into this mess. seems wierd to me that Rotten Tomatoes would give it a 60% "fresh" rating. plays nightly on Cinemax starting Monday June 9th IF you want to waste your time. definately

also watched the the classic Charles Bronson crime-action movie Death Wish (1974) with Bronson as architect turned vigilante Paul Kersey and the great Vincent Gardenia as NYPD Lt. Frank Ochoa. early work by Jeff Goldblum as a street punk, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as one of the muggers in the park and Denzel Washington as one of the alley muggers (his first movie roll ever)

Bronson was already a star in European action movies but this one made him a star in America and was so successful it spawned three sequels. he was the Jason Statham of his day in that I don't think he ever made a bad action movie. plays on EPIX channels again Sunday, June 8th, Monday June 9th, Tuesday June 10 and again Friday June 13th. definately worth recording this classic IF you have never seen it. and for sure rated

Thor: The Dark World (2013) not a big fan of Marvel Comics characters BUT I enjoyed the two Thor movies probably because it is the same characters as in Wagner's Ring Cycle just with different names. has just about non-stop action and excellent CGI. worth watching IF you like the "superhero saves the world" genre. plays again on Starz channels Sunday June 8th and then almost daily all that week. rate it

searchwarrent I tapped out after 30 minutes.  I could just tell this movie stinks.

Every once in a while I go back and watch the first Death Wish.  It was a good movie.  Death Wish 2 wasn't too bad.  Larry Fishburne was in the Death Wish 2.  After Death Wish 2 it gets bad. 

Enemy of the State was a solid movie.  Gene Hackman one of my favorite actors.  Sad to see he doesn't act anymore but I think he is close to his mid 80s.

I watched 3 days to kill.  I thought it was a movie that had some cool moments but overall I thought it was ok. 

I watched High Crimes with Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd this weekend.  That's a good movie. 

 

 

Anybody recommend Stalingrad? Trailor looks decent but I always get burned.

I tried watching Thor 2 twice, can't do it.. Don't care what happens to the characters.

The brunette is fine as hell (not Natalie Portman, the warrior one who lives on Thors planet.)

just checked the trailer and it looks "shite hot" BUT I'm a NUT for Russian WWII history >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlMw8CjyV80

IF it is half as good as Enemy at the Gates (2001) it will be excellent. was one of the two battles that really "turned the tide" in WWII. after Stalingrad the Germans were on the defensive as were the Japanese after The Battle of Midway. the "Great Patriotic War" does NOT get the documentary coverage that it should in Western media. only really good coverage I have seen was 20 part series "The Unknown War" in 1978. wish The History Channel would run it some time in the future 

I did watch Jaws again last night.  I read online where Robert Shaw didn't like Richard Dreyfuss.  He also wasn't interested in the part at first.  Thought the movie title was dumb but eventually got talked into it.  His character in the movie is still considered one of the greatest movie characters of all time.

I read up a little more on Robert Shaw.  He died at a young age of 51 of a heart attack.  Apparently he was a big drinker and it caught up with him.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) animated musical comedy with the typical South Park "potty mouth" humor is STILL funny although I found most of the songs to be pretty lame (just paged thru most). thought Cartman's "Kyle's Mom's a B!tch" and the boys "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" the best of the bunch. great fun for South Park fans. plays on Cinemax Sunday, Monday & Tuesday June 16, 17th and 18th. rate it

National Lampoon's Dirty Movie (2011) movie is a collection of off color jokes one right after another and short sketch comedy. most had heard before BUT many were new to me. some were lame and some were "pee your pants" funny. has something to offend just about every ethnic or religious group (and THAT makes it FUNNY). reminded me of the joke segments from the old Laugh-In and Hee Haw TV shows from the late 1960's-early 1970's. worth watching IF you need a good laugh. plays again on Showtime channels Saturday June 14th, Sunday June 15th, Wednesday June 18th and Thursday June 19th. rate it

watched two Matthew McConaughey movies I had never seen before the last two nights. thought both were excellent.

The Newton Boys (1998) crime drama about the real life Newton Gang, a family of bank robbers from Uvalde, Texas back in the 1920's. stars Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Dwight Yoakam. were not as famous as other bank robbers of the 1920's and 30's BUT did pull off the biggest mail train robbery in US history. the movie is NOT Bonnie and Clyde BUT thought it was entertaining and was some interesting "unknown" history. plays on HBO channels again Saturday June 14th, Tuesday June 17th and Thursday June 19th. rate it

Sahara (2005) action adventure with oodles of ordnance and "stuff that goes boom" it is also VERY funny in spots. kind of goofy plot about treasure hunters looking for a Confederate ironclad load with gold supposedly located in the Sahara desert (I know BUT it works). stars Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn and Penelope Cruz with William H. Macy and Rainn Wilson. very fast moving movie and liked the characters and the villians were especially nasty. it's 2 hour run time went by really fast AND for once Penelope Cruz character didn't destroy a movie she was in. plays again on Showtime channels Saturday June 14th, Tuesday June 17th and Wednesday June 18th. rate it

also on of my all my time favorite legal drama's The Rainmaker (1997), aka John Grisham's The Rainmaker, plays on EPIX again Friday June 20th @ 5:00 pm pacific time. worth recording IF you like legal drama and have never seen it. definately

Stop-Loss (2008) drama about how the US Army kept sending soldiers back to Iraq and Afghanistan over and over again even IF they were due for discharge which amounted to to a "back-door draft" and the way it burned them out. thought it was well acted by a pretty much unknown cast. as a Vietnam era veteran it really PIZZED me OFF the way the US Government and the Army screwed these guys over. was on the Fox Movie channel and hopefully will play again soon. rate it

Hollywoodland (2006) biographical docudrama that is a fictionalized account of the circumstances surrounding the death of actor George Reeves who stared of the 1950s television series The Adventures of Superman. excellent cast with Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins and Diane Lane. does have some interesting "tidbits" about Reeves career. the scene where they screen From Here to Eternity where he had a bit part as Sgt Maylon Stark is partially true in that the studio DID cut some of his scenes. overall it is a decent mystery BUT with VERY slow and plodding plot that would have probably made a decent 90 minute movie. plays on Showtime-Showcase again Friday June 20th @ 11:35 am and Sunday June 22nd @ 4:15 am & 4:05 pm. rate it

Fatal Beauty (1987) American crime-action movie stars Whoopi Goldberg and Sam Elliott with Ruben Blades, Jennifer Warren and early work by Brad Dourif. pretty good action and "oodles of ordnance". Whoopi's wise cracks are funny throughout. gets only a 25% from Rotten Tomatoes but I thought it was fast paced and entertaining. played on MGM Movie channel and hopefully will air again soon. rate it

One Hour Photo (2002) psycho-suspense movie staring Robin Williams about a one hour photo tech that starts obsessing over one of the families that are regular customers at his shop. thought it was pretty much a "tour de force" for Williams in a roll very different from his usual comedy. he won a Saturn Award (Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films) Best Actor for 2003. worth wacthing IF you like good suspense and want to see Williams in a "serious" drama. VERY spooky throughout. was on Starz channel and hopefully will play again soon. rate it

Cardinal Richelieu (1935) historical drama about the 17th century French statesman (some would say tyrant) and the court intrigues during the reign of Louis XIII. stars George Arliss, who was probably THE serious dramatic movie actor of his day, the beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan, who later became famous for playing Jane in the Tarzan series of films, and a young Cesar Romero in one of his first major movie rolls. this is one of the three "must see" George Arliss movies for the early movie buff the others two being Disraeli (1929), for which he won the Best Actor Oscar, and The House of Rothschild (1934). was on Fox Movies channel "retro night" and hopefully will play again in the future. I think all three movies are worth having in any classic films collection. movie actors today STILL study Arliss. rate it AND the other two metioned