Moviecritic1990's Movie Commentary

I'm a fan of comedies like The Naked Gun where the actors are oblivious to what's around them. That to me, is comedy. National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 follows the trend of The Naked Gun movies whereas the characters are too stupid to notice what's going on around them. If Emilio Estevez doesn't entertain you with his Mel Gibson impression and big hair, then maybe acting ham William Shatner will entertain you with his hammy acting of playing the bad guy. National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 may be a stupid comedy, but it's a fun stupid comedy that will make you howl with laughter. 3/5

 You would think the plot of The Burial which has something to do about fraud & a funeral contract would be boring, you'd think again. With it's 2 hour runtime, The Burial gets straight to the point while at the same time, Jamie Foxx & Tommy Lee Jones give great performances. I may be a action/horror guy but I do every so often broaden myself and watch dramas and historical films. The Burial is by no means great, but it's a amazing film that draws you in from the first scene all the way to the last. 4/5

 In one day, I watched 2 shark flicks which wasn't a sequel but different films unrelated. In Too Deep is a decent shark flick which was better then Cruel Jaws. In fact, I think anything at this point will be better than Cruel Jaws. A typical shark flick combined with modern day pirates looking for treasure. Richard Dreyfuss returns as an old version of Matt Hooper from Jaws... (just kidding). He's not here fighting sharks again but, giving his granddaughter advice on how to brave the water after suffering a tragedy. Fun flick for a Saturday night. 2/5

 Get Away is a really weird movie. At first glance, I envisioned it as a typical horror flick where a family has to survive from killers and once the 360 degree twist comes in, you're like "what am I watching?" In all honesty, I guessed the twist about 20 minutes in. I like Nick Frost in his comedic roles like Shaun of the Dead, Spaced, Hot Fuzz etc. Here he tries something a little different out of his comfort zone while still being the loveable goofball. Get Away is a decent flick, worth watching. 2 1/2/5

Flight Risk is a typical turn your brain off and have fun type of action movie. At only 91 minutes, it wastes no time getting right to the meat of the plot. Where else are you going to see a bald Mark Wahlberg playing a bad guy? I just hope he gets villain roles because I would like to see what else he can bring to the table. In any action movie, you have 10-15 minutes to get my attention and Flight Risk did just that. 3/5  

 In the old days collecting obscure movies, I've come across Cruel Jaws a few times promising myself that I'll eventually watch it and years later, I finally watched it and I can tell you that Cruel Jaws is a bad, bad, bad movie. Make no mistake, this film has moments where you laugh at it's awfulness but Cruel Jaws steals sections of other classic films like the original Jaws. The poster is a knock off of Jaws, some of the dialogue is lifted from Jaws and there's a few instances where the theme from Star Wars is played in the background. I don't know how they got away with it, but they did. Don't get me started on the acting. Maybe it's the fact that it was English dubbed.  I may have been a little harsh in my review on Cruel Jaws, but there are other shark films made in Italy that tried to replicate the success of Jaws but have failed. I may have to check out more should I find them. But as of right now, Cruel Jaws takes the crown for "Worst Jaws Rip-...

Alien Rubicon has no affiliation with the Alien film series. It was made by one of my favorite studios, The Asylum who specialize in making knock-off movies of big budget Hollywood films. Most of the time they're better than the Hollywood film they're making fun of and Alien Rubicon is no exception. With it's bad CGI effects, bad acting, Alien Rubicon is a fun bad movie that tries to not be serious but you can't help but laugh at how bad it is. I grew up watching movies like these to laugh at and make fun of and now as I get older, I begin to appreciate bad movies more. 1/5   

 In the late 90's, Stallone was the king of action with classics such as Cliffhanger, Demolition Man and Assassins. In 1997, he tried to go back to his dramatic roots with Copland. I've seen the film a few times and after watching it again, studying it. I can say that this is one of Stallone's best. I really wish he would have done more roles like this but after the box office results, I think he got cold feet and went back to his usual roles. It's clear that audiences weren't too keen on him playing a different type of character. It's a forgotten movie today that I feel more people should see if they want to see Stallone in a different role. 3/5

I'm not just a horror/action movie guy. I'll watch anything as long as the plot is interesting or it has an actor that I recognize and I'll give it a shot regardless if I don't have any faith in the plot. I wanted to enjoy Woman of the Hour as I do like true story crime movies but I couldn't get into the film. No disrespect to Anna Kendrick and the rest of the cast who I feel did a great job. The script wasn't very good. A lot of the sequences in the film I've read were made up which is a pet peeve of mine. I understand that you have to make stuff up for dramatic effect or in layman's terms, dumb down the audience but a good 20-30% was fabricated which turned me off. The time jumps made the film confusing which didn't help that the pacing of the film was dismal. I think Woman of the Hour would have been better suited as a documentary rather than a feature film. Again, great performances by the cast, but the terrible script work for me. 1/5

Growing up as a teenager, I never got into Jackie Chan's films as I was more into watching the action films of Jean Claude Vann Damme, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren & Steven Seagal. As I get older, I've begun to appreciate Jackie's work more in the action genre. Mr. Nice Guy is a action/comedy movie all rolled into one. There are moments that make you laugh out loud at Jackie's comedic moments and I'm glad that it brought him over to the American market where Rush Hour was born.  3/5  

I know what you're thinking.... Jeff watching a Christmas movie in January, that's unheard of. Well the holiday is season over and after listening to an abundance of Christmas music, I figure I need to watch one more holiday movie to get Christmas out of the way for the next 365 days. The Naughty List of Mr. Scrooge is interesting to say the least. All of us grew up with A Christmas Carol and some parts of the film are considered scary but not once did I think that someone would take the character of Mr. Scrooge and make a slasher movie. This film is an indie slasher and it isn't bad. It's predictable as always. I guessed who the killer was 20 minutes in. With any slasher film, you know what to expect in terms of quality, acting, character traits and just roll with it. I've seen my fair share of slashers over the years and I've come to the realization that I'm considered a connoisseur in the field.  3/5  

 In 1992, Steven Seagal played a cook on a submarine attempting to save the lives of everyone on board from bad guy Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege. That film is a classic despite it's cheesiness of the plot.  33 years later, Jean-Claude Van Damme is a gardener saving the lives of the family he mows their lawn in the appropriately titled, The Gardener. It's no classic but it's got enough action to satisfy the action for 109 minutes. The Gardener is billed as an action comedy and yet our gardener played by Van Damme, spends more time on the action while Michael Youn plays the comedic relief as Van Damme tries to save him and his family from the bad guys that have invaded his home. I may not know any French humor but I do know my action flicks and despite the cheesiness of this film. The Gardener is a good time waster. 2.5/5

It's been said that Arnold turned down reprising his role in Predator 2 to focus on Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The main reason is because he didn't like the idea of the Predator out of the jungle and invading Los Angeles. While the script may feel flawed at times, It's not a bad sequel. I feel that Danny Glover & the rest of the cast did a great job with what they were given. Danny is no Arnold, but he does a great job as his replacement. Now, I would love to see a Predator movie in different time periods like medieval times or the old west mainly because I want to see how the people would battle something that's not from their world. The only downside for Predator 2 is 20 minutes of the film was cut in order to avoid the X rating from the MPAA and a lot of it was gore & extreme violence from the Predator himself and a couple of deleted scenes. Maybe one day, the missing footage will be found, but until then. Predator 2 is a great sequel to the original. 3/5  ...

Predator is a real manly action movie loaded with cheese. It's an 80's classic in my books. If someone said to you in 1987, that Arnold Schwarzenegger made a movie where he fights an alien, you'd probably laugh at the idea and think it's dumb. But after watching it, you'd be surprised at how it good it is. If you go into Predator with an open mind and not take it too seriously. You'll enjoy it like I did. 4/5  

I'm going to start this review by saying I'm not a fan of documentaries. I don't watch them, they don't interest me. But I do love the Resident Evil video games, so I had to check this out. In the old days, I used to hear about a Romero script of a Resident Evil film that never happened. Thinking about it then, the biggest sin Capcom did was reject it in favor of Paul W.S. Anderson's series of movies. The initial reason was because Romero's version would have ended up being a NC-17 rating. The six film series with Milla Jovovich is terrible but it's filled with enough cheese to entertain. When I was a teenager, I managed to find & read George's script. While not great, I could say that George cared about the franchise to make it his own. I've never read the other two scripts that were written but listening to what was said about them and the changes that were made, I could tell they were bad and I'm glad they never happened. I could go on and...

Running Scared feels more like a prototype of Lethal Weapon. Whereas Lethal Weapon relied more on action spliced in with some comedy. Running Scared relies more on the comedy spliced in with some action. If you like buddy cop movies then Running Scared is the movie for you. Just an FYI, I'd watch this one first before Lethal Weapon. You'll thank me later. 3/5

Despite the troubled production of this film, Knockaround Guys is a fun little movie. Great acting, good story. I miss Vin Diesel when he would make films like this and not have a to rely on a franchise for everything. An entertaining movie that doesn't overstay it's welcome. 3/5  

There's a lot I can say about Creepshow but I'll try to make it as brief as possible. I grew up with this film thanks to my father. I still quote it to this day. This film was responsible for making me into the horror fan I am today and it also started my love for anthology films. Everything about Creepshow is perfect from the stories, acting, etc. I will end this review by saying if you are trying to get into horror, start with Creepshow. Trust me, it'll be the most fun you ever have of being scared. 5/5

Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the fourth installment in the Bad Boys franchise is a fun sequel but better than the third flick. It's got the action, it's got Martin Lawrence & Will Smith poking jabs at one another. The rest of the films in the franchise are fun Hollywood action flicks that are not to be taken seriously but I think personally, they shouldn't do anymore and just leave it at this. Given Hollywood's track record, we'll probably see a fifth installment in the next year or so. 3/5 3/5

I can't believe I'm going to say this but House of the Dead 2 is a slightly better sequel then the original film. It's a typical zombie flick but it's everything that House of the Dead is not. At least with this sequel, it doesn't add inserts of the video game. House of the Dead 2 is fun but not great. 2/5

 Growing up as a teenager, I loved zombie films and I also loved horror video games. I played a lot of Resident Evil on Playstation along with Dino Crisis (Which they still need to make a movie out of)  So you would think a zombie video game becoming a horror movie would be fun to check out. You would be half right. House of the Dead is a fun movie but it's a bad movie made by a bad director who still makes bad movies today. It's cheesy, it's stupid and the acting leaves a little to be desired. I don't know whose idea was it to add inserts of the video game in the movie itself? Resident Evil did so well back in 2002 that House of the Dead came out soon after showing that audiences needed more zombie films. I haven't seen this movie in over 20 years and it's still a bad movie. 2/5

From Hell to the Wild West is a rather interesting film but not a great film. Right off the bat, I could see the low budget on the screen from the location to the special effects. The killer in the film is no Jason but Jack the Ripper who somehow came from Europe to the wild west? I don't know understand how or why but, yeah. For a film set in the wild west, I happened to notice a modern lock on a barn door in one scene and thought to myself that can't be right. Robert Bronzi, the leader actor in this is a dead ringer for Charles Bronson. It's been said he was Bronson's stunt man back in the day and he's made a few movies which I plan to check out eventually.  Low budget films can be fun to watch if done properly but there were a lot of issues I had with the film that prevented me from enjoying it. 1/5  

The Saint has been on my watch list for quite some time and I finally got to check it out and it wasn't bad. I find that Val Kilmer is a terrific actor and seeing him don all those disguises was pretty cool. It's been said that had this film done well there would have been sequels. The film did do modestly well but no sequels ever happened which is a shame because it would have been interesting to see what else could have been done with the character of Simon Templar. 2/5  

  Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is a fun sequel to the original 2020 film. Everyone brings their A game to the script and Jim Carrey continues to bring in maniacal energy into his role of Dr. Robotnik. I may not have played the games growing up, but I love Jim Carrey's work and I'll continue to support him in any role he plays. As of this writing, a third film in the series has been released and I'll be sure to check it out soon. 3/5

I must confess, I've never played a Sonic game in my life as I never owned a Super Nintendo. But I have seen people play the games as a kid. I'm of the opinion that movies based on video games don't work (Resident Evil). The odd time there is one that does but that's rare. My reasoning for that is because of a few things: 1. Studio interference - there are certain films (Super Mario Bros) that suffer from studio interference which change things from the game to screen to appease the studio and dumb the audience down. 2. Studios make changes on certain characters, (the latest Resident Evil flick) which result in the film being trashed by fans which causes the studios to blame us the audience for it's failure. I say shame on them for doing that.  But, there are certain films that work and it's rare. Sonic The Hedgehog is one of those films that works and it's mainly due to Jim Carrey's portrayal of Dr. Robotnik. If there's one thing I've liked abou...

 First off, I just want to say Happy New Year to all my family & friends and hope for a better year. Demolition Man is a cheesy fun 90's action flick. Like I mentioned previously with Cliffhanger, Stallone needed a hit after bombing with Oscar and it looks like Cliffhanger & Demolition Man brought him back to the market. I find it amusing that back in the 80's and 90's, people writing movies about the future,  think that by 2025 we'll have flying cars, ray guns etc. We're in 2025, people still drive on roads and I haven't seen a ray gun yet. I guess we'll have to wait until the year 3,000 for all that. But I'm trailing off topic here. Demolition Man has enough one liners to make this action flick stand out as one of the best from Stallone's career. 3/5