Beneath The Planet of the Apes

Beneath the Planet of the Apes IMDb

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes comes out in two weeks so my friend Casey and I decided to do a Planet of the Apes marathon/countdown.  I've only seen the original version, the Tim Burton version, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Tonight, we revisited the original and followed by this one here.  I love the original movie. I saw it for the first time three years ago for one of my Shame on Me Nights.  Beneath the Planet of the Apes starts where the first one ends.  It gets weird.  The first half is pretty much Apes awesomeness,  then the second half gets trippy when the movie introduces another species. They are telepathic humans. So we have apes, stupid brainless humans, and telepathic humans. Of course, we have our main character which is another astronaut that was sent to find the crew from the first movie.  It's a madhouse! War erupts towards the end where almost everyone dies.  I just spoiled it. Oops.  I didn't say how so that's still a mystery to those who haven't seen it.  Overall,  this was okay.  Different from the original but okay.

Next week, I'll check out the next movie in the series. For those unfamiliar with the mythology and story, basically,  the new movies (Rise and Dawn) are kind of like prequels to these older movies.

Robot Friday: Infra-Man

Infra-Man IMDb

Saw this two days before Friday because of a special screening Alamo Drafthouse had. It was a fundraiser for a guy that was hit by a car in Austin.  One of the movie groups I joined,  Cinema Terrible, were part of this. It was a very cheesy movie. From frame one, this was ridiculous.  It has its charms too.  It's from the year 1975. Way before Power Rangers.  Infra-Man is a low budget Hong Kong movie about monsters versus a robot.  Supernatural monsters are destroying the Earth. They are led by a sexy evil Asian Princess. To defend the Earth, a military general invents a powerful robotic weapon. He picks his best man to become that robot.  A few cheesy fights later,  our robot hero has to face the sexy evil Princess. It was pretty cool in the big screen and the experience.  Other than that, nothing else special.  

Not a must see or buy but not bad for a Robot movie night. 

Instructions Not Included

Instructions Not Included IMDb

Man, this was a tearjerker.  I love the hell out of this movie. It was funny, dramatic, and sad.  It's from Mexico.  They usually don't put out good films, but when they do, they rock. I put it in my list as soon as my friend Danny from San Antonio mentioned it to me on Facebook. I finally made time for it tonight after work.  Before watching this, I decided to put on "Under the Same Moon" (another tearjerker from Mexico). It made a great double feature.  The main actor from this movie, Eugenio Derbez, plays a smaller role in Under the Same Moon.  Instructions Not Included is about this guy who is a womanizer in this beach city in Mexico. The first few minutes of the film shows him with a different woman every day.  Then, one year later, one of the women he slept with, comes knocking on his door with a baby. She leaves him cold with the baby girl behind. Our main guy sees this as a threat to his freedom. He makes it his mission to take the baby back to the U.S to her mother. He has no luck. Then he starts getting attached.  Boom! Love!  Now, he's stuck with the baby but can't go back to Mexico because they might take her away. So he gets a job as a stunt guy in Hollywood because of an awesome stunt he pulled earlier. 6 years later, and they show the wonderful relationship between father and daughter.   Then the plot thickens when the mother comes back.  Awesome movie.

I highly recommend this movie, especially for those of us that are parents.  I'm buying this one for sure and adding it to my Foreign section.

Pain & Gain

Pain & Gain IMDb

What ever made me decide to watch this? Well, a few friends told me that it wasn't your typical Hollywood action movie. That it was mostly like a dark comedy.  Yeah, it is directed by that Michael Bay guy, but who cares. So I saw this on Netflix and even got me food and beer that goes with the title.  This was entertaining.   It is nothing special. It was a good old solid ride.  Dark comedy and action rolled into one.  In a way, this reminded me of The Wolf of Wall Street.  Except,  there's no competition which one is the better movie. Don't mess with Scorsese.   Pain and Gain is based on a true story.  It's about this gym trainer guy (Marky Mark) who gets inspired by this motivational speaker to strike it rich. So he gets a couple of other crazy characters together to kidnap this rich guy (Monk) and get all his money. Simple plan but at 2 hours long, things have to get crazy.  Torture scenes and bonding moments between a religious Dwaine Johnson and Monk make up some of that. Then the cocaine stuff happens.  It gets tiring after a while but for the most part, it was okay to see.

I wouldn't exactly buy this movie but it did its job of keeping me a little busy this Sunday night.

I had me Hot Wings and a Bud inspired by the title and theme.

This will cause me some pain and some gain.  

French Cinema Night: Point Blank

Point Blank IMDb

This was an intense ride.  Love the chase scenes in the first half.  It starts out with a bang.  There's a guy being chased by two gunmen.   He ends up in the hospital.  Our main character, Samuel, is a nurse aide in that hospital.  A crime organization kidnaps his pregnant wife and orders Samuel to get the guy out of the hospital with no police.  That's when things get crazy.  Several twists and turns.  The ending was alright. 

Worth watching for a one night of entertainment! Maybe not more than once.

 

Made French Toast for this movie at the last minute just for kicks!

The Monuments Men (2014)

The Monuments Men IMDb

This was okay for a semi serious men on a mission movie.  The mission: to save lots of art from being destroyed by World War 2.  The characters are pretty cool together.  My favorite pair are the scenes between Bill Murray's character and that one dude from Moonrise Kingdom.  The nazi cigarette scene was awesome.  The movie gets a little boring in the second half.  A few people from the group die and the message is all about if art is worth a human life.  A little sappy.  I didn't really care for it.  Directed by George Clooney.  At first glance, this looked like a cross between Inglourious Basterds and Ocean's 11.  It's a bit more serious than that.  A little dramatic towards the end.

Overall, this could of have been a little better.  Personally, I didn't feel the story that much.

Delivery Man

Delivery Man IMDb

Decided to watch this movie today on Father's Day.  Why not.   I saw the Canadian original last year. It was called Starbuck.  This U.S remake is exactly the same. I didn't notice anything different.   So this just means that most Americans need to just watch more Foreign Films.   The more we give foreign films exposure,  the less of a chance for a U.S. remake.  Then, Hollywood can give work to other independent filmmakers out there with original stuff.  This movie, just like the original, was sweet and funny.  I mean, we're talking about a guy who fathered 533 children.  There's gotta be some comedic elements in that.  It was pretty good watching this tonight.  I'm proud to be the father of a crazy four year old boy. I just need to have 532 more children and I'll be tied with Starbuck here.  I'll love them all the same.

Check out either version I guess.  They're both the same.  Both are "make you feel good" kind of movies.  Not so much laugh out loud comedies.  

Valentine

Valentine IMDb

My friend Marycela told me about this movie when I was discussing my Heart Slasher script to her in California.  I heard this movie when it came out in 2001 (mainly because of the soundtrack).  I think I saw pieces of it.  So I decided to give it a shot today.  In some ways, this is similar to my story but in most ways, it's different.  Here, we follow five girls.  They each start getting killed one by one.  The killer is supposed to be this one kid that each of these girls ridiculed and rejected during a Valentine's Day dance 13 years ago.  Pretty simple.  This story is mostly horror.  There's a lot of stupid situations these girls put themselves in just like in other horror movies.  If you're taking a shower, why would you leave your front door open?  Hmm!  Good one.  And damn, this killer is very fast from acting like a naked corpse in one shot and all dressed and masked up in the next.  This movie is cheesy.  I don't mind that most times.  Hell, I enjoyed a fair amount of cheesy and campy movies.  But there are some that aren't quite for me.  This one is one of them.  Yeah, I kind of enjoyed some parts.  Mainly, because I'm thinking about my slasher script.  My script is not really horror based.  It's mostly a detective/serial killer movie.  I'm almost half way done.  Having some issues with some of the characters.  I have to go back and rework some scenes and change some other stuff.

Anyways, this movie isn't recommended unless you're in the mood for a stupid cheesy slasher flick.
Didn't like the ending that much.  I did like the idea of the rose.  In one scene, the killer leaves a rose behind so one of the girls can see it before getting killed.

Western Wednesday: The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch IMDb

Woke up today to this famous western.  Directed by Sam Peckinpah.  It's pretty long but had some interesting scenes.  Right away, it starts with some action. A robbery that goes wrong.  We don't really know who the good guys and bad guys are.  The Wild Bunch are a group of old school guys ready for retirement but they have to escape from the law and other groups in order to do that.  It's a journey of their escape.  They come across other villages and groups.  Trouble always seems to be in their way.  All this leads to an epic battle at the end.  Tragedy.  Comparing to other westerns out there, this one was okay.  A lot of people like it but I didn't think it holds.  For its time, yeah, it must have been awesome.  Nice to see Alfonso Arau in a small ruthless role.  He's the guy that plays "El Guapo" in the Three Amigos.  

It was okay to see.  I can at least scratch it off my bucket Western list.  

I need to start a tradition to smoke a cigar after watching a western.  

Last Western Night, I went out to do that, and it was perfect.  It's the wild west out here.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Edge of Tomorrow IMDb

What a bad ass ride this was.  It's the sci-fi version of Groundhog Day with aliens.  Very cool for an alien invasion movie.   Tom Cruise's character, Cage, gets forced to fight in the battlefront.  He meets his crew and they all become trapped in an island full of crazy high tech aliens. Somehow Cage gets covered in blood by one of them and he inherits a special power: he gets to restart the same day everyday he dies.  He meets Emily Blunt's character and they use his power to try to win this crazy war with them aliens. A few surprises and good battle scenes makes this movie awesome. Love it when Cage purposely gets killed every day to start over with no mistakes.  Wish I can do that.  It's a little sappy towards the end but I didn't mind it too much.  Non stop sci-fi thriller. 

I recommend this movie. I'm going to added to my Aliens section for sure.

Zatoichi Night: Zatoichi's Flashing Sword

ZatoichI's Flashing Sword IMDb

Another Zatoichi movie about our samurai doing good protecting the innocent from corrupted crooks.  This starts out pretty awesome.  Zatoichi is being bothered by a few flies. He swings his sword and about 4 flies hit the floor dead. There are also a lot of comedic moments in the film.  The big battle towards the end was pretty sweet. Bring on the fireworks.  

Six more Zatoichi movies to go this year. So far, they all been pretty good.  

We Are The Best!

 We Are The Best! IMDb

I been really slow in my movie watching fix.  I have a good excuse, I promise.  First, I finished the whole Breaking Bad show on my netflix.  Finally, after two months.  It was an awesome experience.  Second, I was in Los Angeles this past whole week.  I did manage to see this movie over there at an independent theatre.  I wanted to see something different that not a lot of places have.  I went with this punkish Swedish film.  It's about these two tomboy looking teenagers who rebel against their school and form a punk band without any knowledge of how to play an instrument.  They team up with this third teenage girl who knows the guitar.  Together, they form a friendship and bring out their punk spirit.  It gets a little boring at the end.  It was cute and all but nothing to make a big deal about.
It was the right movie to see out there cause Los Angeles always reminds me of a lot punk rock music I listen to.  It's all about the West coast.  No one does it better.  Of course, that's a bias statement. 

I wouldn't recommend this movie unless you're in the mood for a Foreign drama but at your own risk. 

 

This is The NUART Theatre in Los Angeles.