PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 923

Seobok Project Clone 2021 Written and directed by Lee Yong-ju.

Seobok is a new species of human created by cloning and genetic manipulation. The process gave Seobok some mental powers but the companies goal is to tap into his bodily fluids and use that to create a longevity serum.

Seobok becomes the pawn of the old man who runs the company and one of the people in the intelligence agency who wants to sell Seobok to the Americans. Stuck in the middle is an ex-agent of the intelligence agency called Min who's supposed to get Seobok to his new digs. The transport is attacked by mercenaries and Min and Seobok go on the run. There's some fish out of water stuff and some gun fights along the way to the end of the movie. The factions interested in Seobok battle it out until most everyone is dead.

It's a longish movie, 115 mins, and it takes a while to get going. There's a few action scenes along the way but at it's core it raises questions of ethics in medicine. Is it OK to create a human clone for the purpose of harvesting it's biomass for medicine like an insulin pig and is it OK to kill everyone who opposes your plans. I enjoyed it for the most part but would have enjoyed it more if they had picked up the pace a bit. It's not going to get added to my library unless it's a free download which I probably wouldn't ever get around to again.

The Munsters 2022 Written and directed by Rob Zombie.

It's the Munster's origin story. A mad scientist puts Herman together and sends him out into the world. Herman gets some success as a comedian and meets Lily Gruesella and her father the Count. They get married and Lily's brother Lester tricks Herman into giving away the family castle to the Count's ex-wife. Herman, Lilly and the Count move to Hollywood, winding up at 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

There's plenty of gags and slapstick, all briskly paced to keep the story moving. Some of them work well, other's pratfall. I got plenty of laughs from it and will eventually pick up the Blu-ray so I can watch it again someday. I need to re-watch the original show, I haven't seen much of it for years and years.

Friday Night Movies 918

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On 2022 Story by Dean Fleischer-Camp, Elisabeth Holm and Nick Paley, screenplay by Dean Fleischer-Camp and Nick Paley, directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp.

A guy finds he's got a talking shell called Marcel living in the house he's renting. He's a film maker and he decides to make a film about Marcel. It becomes a big hit on YouTube. Marcel is featured on 60 Minutes in a story that helps reunite him with his family.

It's humorous and silly. I got a few laughs but I thought I would get really tired of Marcel if I had to live with him. Not one I would need to see again.

Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell 1995 Written and directed by Shinichi Fukazawa. Filmed in 1995 but not released until 2012. Shinichi wanted to make an over the top ghost story like The Evil Dead but still keeping true to the Japanese ghost story.

A body builder invites his ex-girlfriend and a psychic over to look at his dead father's haunted house. His father had killed his lover and buried her body under the floor of the house. That dead lady lingers in the house, she's still murder mad, and the psychic is the first one to fall under her ire. The body builder tries to keep his ex alive but that doesn't work so well.

It's pretty low budget and the actors are pretty poor. It's fairly wacky and a bit over the top. It was alright but I wouldn't need to pick up a copy.

Friday Night Movies 909

Iron Mask 2019 Screenplay by Oleg Stepchenko, Dimitry Paltserv and Alexey A Petrukin, directed by Oleg Stepchenko. A Russian Chinese co-production that's a sequel to Forbidden Empire. Starring Jason Flemyng, Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rutget Hauer, Helen Yao and Charles Dance.

 

Titled Тайна печати дракона in Russian, the English translation is Viy 2: Journey To China. Titled 龙牌之谜 in Chinese which translates to The Mystery Of The Dragon Seal in English. It's called The Iron Mask or just Iron Mask in the US.

Jason is a cartographer who's mapping Europe, Russia and China. Along his route he helps a young man who turns out to be a Chinese Princess. Jackie is in prison in the Tower Of London with Tzar Peter I, Arnold is the Warden, he likes a punch up, anyone who beats him can go free. The Tzar escapes and winds up on a ship with Jason's wife. They are bound for China.

The Princess returns to her town to find an evil sorceress is posing as the Princess. There's a lot of leaping about and yelling to get that set right. There's plenty of nice scenery along the journey. It's a nice production but the dialog is kind of poor. I enjoyed the movie and hope they get to release the third film. It's supposed to come out in 2022 but nothing so far.

Amityville In Space 2022 Written and directed by Mark Polonia. Mark had directed over 70 pictures in the last 37 years. From the look of this one he hasn't learned how to make a good movie yet. He seems to be following The Asylum's business plan, make low budget horror movies, make a lot of them, don't worry that they aren't very good. I thought AIS was worse than some of The Asylum's poorer pictures. Mark's a big liar too, there's nothing in the movie that looks like that poster. There is a house in space, it's been exorcised from Earth. You can see it in the trailer in the title above. It's sad looking. Most of the effects are poor.

There's a space ship filled with spacemen and women who are traveling about the galaxy blowing up black holes with bombs. They spot the house near a black hole. A strange humanoid enters the ship and gives the human's hallucinations. A priest comes to help them and some of them live to escape.

We were joking about while watching, there was a complaint that I thought was quite valid, the film makers don't seem to take any steps, even baby ones, to make their movie better. We were coming up with all sorts of ways to improve scenes and ways that wouldn't increase the budget. Is Mark lacking imagination? Could be. I think he just didn't bother. I wouldn't bother watching the film again.

Friday Night Movies 903

Crimes Of The Future 2022 Written and directed by David Cronenberg.

David returns to his love of body horror for the first time since 1999s eXistenZ. The film he made seems to me to be very much in that world and made in that era. I'm not a big fan of eXistenZ and I didn't find COTF to be even as entertaining as that film. Over the years I've come to see Eastern Promises and A History Of Violence as my favorites of all his films. I doubt I'd need to see it again.

The Spine Of Night 2021 Written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King.

It took 7 years to make this rotoscoped fantasy adventure. It seems to take a long time to play out it's 93 mins. There's a decent but unoriginal story about creeps seeking power and the people who rise to stop them. It plods along at at one point it was nearly putting me to sleep, I wasn't the only one. I sure don't think I'll need to see this again.

The Green Knight 2021

The Green Knight 2021 Based on the 14th century poem Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, screenplay and direction by David Lowery.

Sir Gawain of the round table takes up a challenge from The Green Knight. Sir Gawain travels through a misty England to the Green Chapel. Along the way he has some encounters with thieves, giants and the Lord of the Manor near the Green Chapel. After his encounter with the Green Knight is over Gawain returns home.

It's a pretty movie if you like dark days, moody forests, crumbly ruins, misty nights and enigmatic stories. I didn't know much of anything about the poem so I read the synopsis on the Wikipedia and was disappointed in some of the changes to the story, especially the way they ended the story. Sticking to the poem's story would have been more interesting to me. Now that I've seen it I doubt I need to watch it again. I do have 3 other filmed versions from YouTube to check out.

Friday Night Movies 897

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore 2022 Based on a screenplay by J K Rowling, screenplay by J K Rowling and Steve Kloves, directed by David Yates.

Second viewing in a few days gave me a chance to notice more of whats going on in the background, little things that I missed the first time. It's a busy movie, plenty going on. I enjoyed it all over again.

One Million BC 1940 Written by Mickell Novack, George Baker and Joseph Frickert, directed by Hall Roach and Hall Roach Jr.

Some hikers seek shelter in a cave during a rain storm. They find a man studying the cave paintings. He starts to tell them the story on wall and the film turns into a flashback of the story. Victor Mature is a caveman in the rock tribe, after an altercation with his father, played by Lon Chaney Jr, he winds up in the river. Victor floats down the rive and eventually winds up in the territory of the Shell tribe.

Victor meets Carole Landis and the rest of the tribe. The Shell people are much more civilized, sharing food and providing care to the young and old alike. There's plenty of danger as the area is packed with dinosaurs. When the volcano erupts the two tribes are brought together and the movie ends with them staying together. Probably best for safety and breeding.

I'm sure I've seen it but my watched movie list doesn't have anything listed. Some parts were familiar. I did enjoy it, there's usually something going on. The VCI Blu-ray looks pretty darn good. I'm tempting myself by putting a copy in my Wishlist. I'm thinking I'd watch it again someday.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore 2022

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore 2022 Based on a screenplay by J K Rowling, screenplay by J K Rowling and Steve Kloves, directed by David Yates.

I picked up the Blu-ray at Target today, not something I'm prone to do very often with new releases. I watched it when I got home and enjoyed it. There's plenty of magical business and Mads Mikkelsen does a great job replacing Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald. The rest of the cast does a great job.

The story is complex and there are plenty of characters to follow as they go about their business. The film jumps around the planet and there's lots of nice scenery, most of it not real. The CGI is fine and so are the costumes and props.

I was happy to finally see it. Looking forward to the next two. We're still waiting to hear if the film made enough money for the other two to get green lite. This was the worse preforming of the films in the HP series, a $405 mil return on $200 mil spent to get it to the screen.

Friday Night Movies 894

Scared To Death 1980 Story by William Malone and Robert Short, screenplay and direction by William Malone. Malone started doing makeup and costuming for Don Post Studios. This is his first picture, he'd go on to direct Creature in 1985 and 5 other pictures including the 1999 remake of House On Haunted Hill. He hasn't made a film since 2008.

There's a serial killer stalking the streets of Los Angeles. When we drop into the story about the time of victim number 12's murder. The police aren't getting any good clues from the crime scenes, the mayor and the newspapers are hounding the Chief. Detective Lou Capell gets some pressure from his boss. Lou wants to bring an ex-cop into the mix but the Chief is against it. The ex-cop is a guy called Ted, he had a drinking problem and now writes novels.

In a clumsy, poorly written scene we meet Jennifer, she's Ted's romantic interest. They get involved with each other as the movie progresses, eventually they join Lou in the search for the killer. Sometime along the way we learn that it's some sort of humanoid monster doing the killing. They get a substantial bit of help from one of the scientist's at a bio-lab and it's revealed that the creature is a bio-engineered thing called a Syngenor. It's one of those hard to kill warrior beasts scientist's are always making in movies and it takes a bit to put the creature down.

It would be an OK monster movie except for two big stumbling blocks, the script and the music. The script is poor and the actors can't do much with it. The actors aren't a stellar lot but they get their lines out. The music is annoying and way too loud some of the time. The Syngenor creature is a fairly well made suit. Ten years later another producer used the suit for his picture Syngenor. Like Scared To Death it's kind of a poor film. Both films have a score of 4.2 on the IMDb. I gave Syngenor a 3 some years ago and I gave Scared To Death a 4 last night. I must be getting soft headed in my old age. You can check them both out on YouTube, links above.

Last Night In Soho 2021 Story by Edgar Wright, screenplay by Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Caims, directed by Edgar Wright. It was the last film for Diana Rigg and Margaret Nolan, both of whom passed away in 2020. Margaret played the gold covered woman in the credits to Goldfinger and Diana played Mrs Peel.

Ellie Turner leaves Cornwall for London to attend the London College Of Fashion. She wants to be a clothing designer. She's heavily into 60s style and music. Her roommate is a jerk so she leaves the dorm and takes a small flat on the top of an old house owned by Ms Collins, played by Diana Rigg. Ms Collins is old enough to have lived in the 60s.

Ellie starts having visions of a young woman from the 60s called Sandie who wanted to be a singer but wound up in the clutches of a creep called Jack. Matt Smith plays Jack and he makes a good spiv. In his first scenes Jack seems like a nice guy who likes a bit of fun, soon his darker exploitative side takes control. Next thing you know Sophie is a prostitute working for Jack and his pals.

Ellie follows Sandie's life and finds that she lived int he flat Ellie is in now. She sees Jack murder Sandie there but can't find anything about the murder in the newspapers. She does find there have been a lot of missing men in the Soho area. We'll find out where they've gone soon enough. Ellie's a poor detective, she misreads what's presented to her, at one point she accuses an old bar fly of being Jack but she soon finds out he was a copper who tried to help some of the local gals. If only she had talked to more people about what was going on, she might not have gotten so far off the track.

The story is jazzed up with flashy camera work and musical numbers. I did like the old 60s songs in the soundtrack. I knew most of them from my youth. I didn't care for the noisy music when the movie thought something was happening. It seems overly long, repetitive and kind of self indulgent. There's a decent twisty bit at the end and things work out for Ellie at fashion school.

I still enjoyed it, gave it a 7 on the IMDb and have put the Blu-ray on my Wishlist. It's hard to know if you would like it, it did poorly at the box office, raising $23 mil on a $43 mil budget.

Friday Night Movies 881

Greed In The Sun 1964 Original story by Claude Veillot, written by Michel Audiard, directed by Henri Verneuil. A French and Italian production set in the Sahara Desert.

Jean-Paul Belmondo is a truck driver working for Gert Förbe in Morocco. Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier are also truck drivers in the same company. Gert buys a new tractor trailer and he plans to let his new driver Reginald Kernan take it out on a trip to Nigeria. Next morning Jean-Paul takes the truck and runs off with the cargo. He's got a pretty lady with him. She turns out to be the instigator of the robbery.

Gert sends Lino after Jean-Paul and Bernard after Lino. Reginald joins Lino at the edge of town, Gert had fired him for being tricked by Jean-Paul. The guys chase each other across the desert with Lino catching up with Jean-Paul on occasion. Jean-Paul uses any trick he can, he tells the owner of the gas pump and bar along the way that Lino and Reginald are gay and not to sell them any gas because it would upset Gert. That doesn't go down well with Gert and Reginald, they bust up the owner and his bar, they get gas but don't pay.

Their trucks have trouble and eventually Jean-Paul has to hi-jack Lino's truck. Lino and Reginald get to the city where the deal is supposed to take place and they split up. Lino finds Jean-Paul among some prostitutes and they have a punch up. Jean-Paul admits to being hi-jacked by his girl friend. They have a big laugh and join the prostitutes in the brothel.

It's no Hell Drivers but it was entertaining enough for me to spend $2.95 for the Blu-ray over at Hamilton Books. It's fairly comic and scenes in the desert are a good reminder I'm glad I'm not there. None of those trucks seem to have air conditioning. I wouldn't like that much.

God Raiga Vs King Ohga 2021 Written and directed by Shinpei Hayashiya. The third of his films featuring Reiga or Raiga.

I really didn't care for this at all and won't waste any  more of my time on it.

Friday Night Movies 879

Ghostbusters Afterlife 2021 Written by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, directed by Jason Reitman.

Egon Spengler lives as a recluse on a farm in a small town in Oklahoma. Small towns in Alberta are used for filming. Egon goes up against a spirit from the Ivo Shandor mine nearby. It's a good reminder that everyone needs to be watching the rich, not because they're comically creating portals to evil in another dimension, they're creating much human misery in their greed grab.

Egon dies battling the spirits and his daughter Callie inherits the farm. Lucky for her, she's just been evicted from her apartment. Mom takes her two kids, Phoebe and Trevor to Oklahoma only to find there's no cash, just the farm and some debt. Callie's been estranged from her reclusive father for years and years. Her children don't know anything about him.

Egon's ghost helps reveal some of his Ghostbuster past and Paul Rudd, a local teacher and seismologist, brings the rest to Phoebe and Trevor via the internet. Egon's got the Ghostbuster car in his barn and it pretty much starts up ready to go fight the supernatural. The first attempt to catch a ghost goes badly, there's much rushing around and considerable collateral damage to the town.

Undaunted, Phoebe and her growing gang soldier on in the battle against evil. They discover the Shandor mine and the evidence that Egon had been working to keep the maelstrom of evil in the shaft. Eventually they trap Gozer and meet the original Ghostbusters.

It's a nice looking film with all sorts of flashy special effects, some family melodrama and a few laughs. I enjoyed it though I was a bit slow to get involved during the first act. I bought the Blu-ray and will want to watch it again. I should have a marathon of the three films and the 2016 reboot. It's been several years since I watched the first two films.

King Solomon's Mines 1950 Screenplay by Helen Deutsch, directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton. According to the Wikipedia Bennet was replaced by Marton because he was ill but there are rumors that Bennet had a falling out with cast members.

Stewart Granger is Alan Quatermain, Deborah Kerr is a rich woman looking for her husband, Richard Carlson is Deborah's brother. Deborah offers Stewart £5000 for taking her on the expedition, that's about £684,587.82 in today's cash. His normal fee is £200. Reluctantly he takes Deborah and Richard on.

There's plenty of trekking through the African countryside. Much of the film was filmed on location. Some of the scenery is rather nice. The underground scenes were filmed in Carlsbad Caverns. They encounter quite a few wild animals and some danger. Along the way they lose some of their bearers and pick up Umbopo. His part as the son of a murdered king is somewhat reduced in the film when compared to the novel or the 1937 film we watched a couple of weeks ago.

Weeks and weeks pass before they get to the Watusi tribe and Umbopo fights the king. A romance develops between Stewart and Deborah, lucky for them her hubby is already dead in the mine. Unlike the book or the 1937 movie they escape without any uncut diamonds. At least they have their lives.

I'm sure I'd seen this before but not in decades. I enjoyed it but not quite as much as the 1937 version. The Technicolor is alright. I picked up the DVD and I hope to watch it again sometime.