Category: Celebs

“The Poison Rose” (2019) Starring John Travolta, Morgan Freeman and Brendan Fraser / Z-View

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The Poison Rose (2019)

Directors:  Francesco Cinquemani, George Gallo

Screenplay by:  Richard Salvatore, Francesco Cinquemani, Luca Giliberto

Starring: John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Brendan Fraser, Famke Janssen, Ella Bleu Travolta and Robert Patrick

Tagline:  A Private Eye. A Public Murder. A Perfect Crime.

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

Carson Phillips (Travolta) is a Private Eye who drinks and gambles too much.  Both vices have always caused him problems.  Carson used to be a hotshot college quarterback until he was caught shaving points.  Carson left town in disgrace and never went back.  Now he’s been hired to return on a missing person’s case.

All Carson has to do is go to a sanitorium to verify that Ms. Poole is alive and well.  Carson is given the run around by Dr. Miles Mitchell (Fraser), the sanitorium’s director.  As Carson digs deeper he begins to suspect Ms. Poole is dead and evidence points to a conspiracy involving an influential rich behind-the-scenes player named Doc (Freeman).  The same man behind Carson’s fall from grace.

Travolta is good as Carson Phillips.  Brendan Fraser steals every scene he’s in and I wish he was in more.  It’s good to see Robert Patrick, even if his role is a small one.

There’s one scene that should have never made the final cut – Carson is being shot at by a man with a rifle from the top of a stadium.  The sniper keeps missing Carson despite having a rifle with a scope.  Carson’s handgun runs out of bullets so he picks up a football and throws a perfect spiral hitting the would be assassin in the face.  In a later scene the assassin returns with a broken nose.  C’mon, man.

The Poison Rose earns 3 of 5 stars.

“Moonfall (2022)” Starring Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and John Bradley / Z-View

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Moonfall (2022)

Director:  Roland Emmerich

Screenplay by:  Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen

Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Charlie Plummer, Michael Peña, Carolina Bartczak and Donald Sutherland

Tagline: Earth… We have a problem.

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

When the moon mysteriously goes out of orbit and takes a path to destroy Earth, it is up to Jocinda Fowler (Berry), Acting NASA director, Brian Harper (Wilson), a disgraced former astronaut, and KC Houseman (Bradley) a nerd-genius who was first to discover the problem, to save the day.

Moonfall is a throwback to disaster movies of the 70s.  Movies like The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake, but with a Roland Emmerich sensibility.  So instead of a building full of people or the population of a large city, Emmerich puts the entire planet at risk.  Moonfall gets a lot of mileage from the likeability of Bradley’s character and the special effects.

The movie begins with characters that are hard to like (except for KC Houseman).  Jocinda Fowler doesn’t provide strong support for Harper in a NASA investigation.  Harper comes off as a uninvolved parent who creates more problems for his troubled son.  Michael Peña plays Harper’s son’s stepdad and even he comes off in a bad light.  Of course everyone will have a character arc that shows their growth and that they really are good people.

For me, Moonfall‘s biggest problem is the backstory on why the moon went out of orbit.  It’s like someone said we need a reason to get these three unlikely heroes into space and someone yelled, “I’ve got it.  Moonfall will be Armageddon meets Terminator meets The Matrix Reloaded.”  If you’re a fan of disaster movies, special effects and aren’t overly concerned about logic or real life physics, then Moonfall might be what you’re looking for.

Moonfall earns 2 of 5 stars.

RIP: Henry Silva

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Henry Silva died on September 14, 2022.  Mr. Silva was 95.

Henry Silva accumulated over 140 acting credits during his long career.  He alternated between television and feature films roles throughout his career.  Mr. Silva was at his best when the character he played was at his worst.  Henry Silva was often cast as a villain.  He excelled in playing hit men, criminals and mobsters.

Some of Henry Silva’s television appearances include: Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Thriller; The Untouchables; Dr. Kildare; The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; The Outer Limits; Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea; Wagon Train; Daniel Boone; Tarzan; Laredo; Cimarron Strip; The High Chaparral; I Spy; Mission Impossible; Hawaii Five-O; Night Gallery; Bearcats; The Streets of San Francisco; The F.B.I.; Batman: The Animated Series; The New Batman Adventures and Superman: The Animated Series.

Mr, Silva’s feature films include: The Tall T; A Hatful of Rain; The Bravados; Ocean’s Eleven;  Cinderfella; The Manchurian Candidate; Johnny Cool; Never a Dull Moment; Love and Bullets; Alligator; Sharky’s Machine; Cannonball Run II; Code of Silence; Above the Law; Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Ocean’s Eleven (2001).

Henry Silva had a face you’d never forget.  The villains he played were tough and self-assured.   Any hero Henry Silva went against was in for a tough time.  Mr. Silva is perhaps best known for his role in The Manchurian Candidate (where he has a fantastic martial arts battle with Frank Sinatra — and this was 1962!).  My favorite Henry Silva appearance is in Sharky’s Machine. He played a creepy, coked up, nearly unstoppable hitman.  Henry Silva made a career playing bad guys and that was a good thing for audiences.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Henry Silva’s family, friends and fans.

“Cold in July” (2014) Starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard & Don Johnson / Z-View

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Cold in July (2014)

Director:  Jim Mickle

Screenplay by:  Nick Damici, Jim Mickle based on the novel, Cold in July by Joe R. Lansdale

Starring: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Vinessa Shaw, Lanny Flaherty  and Wyatt Russell

Tagline: How many men can one bullet kill?

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

When Richard Dane (Hall) accidentally shoots and kills Freddy Russell, an intruder in his home, the Chief of Police assures Dane that he did nothing wrong.  The intruder is a known thief who comes from a family of criminals.  In fact, the intruder’s father, Ben Russell (Shepard) will be released from prison later in the week.

Ben Russell ins a real hard case.  He confronts Richard about killing his son and makes a veiled threat to get retribution.  When Richard goes to the police, the Chief says that until Ben does something to break the law, nothing can be done.  Richard starts to storm out of the police station when he sees a wanted poster for Freddy Russell… and the photo on it is NOT the man that Richard killed!

Richard discovers that the Police Chief is lying to him and Ben Russell… but why?  If he can convince Ben that they’re both being played, perhaps they can solve the mystery… if they’re not killed first.

A Cold Day in July is a great adaptation of Joe Lansdale’s novel.  Hall and Shepard are excellent.  Wyatt Russell has a small, but important role and nails it.  Don Johnson was born to play Jim Bob Luke.  I could see a movie or series based on his character.  A Cold Day in July starts as one thing, morphs into a mystery of why the cops are lying and ends as a rescue mission by three men who would have never been friends.

Cold in July earns 4 of 5 stars.

“Frogs” (1972) Starring Ray Milland, Sam Elliott and Joan Van Ark / Z-View

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Frogs (1972)

Director:  George McCowan

Screenplay by:  Robert Hutchison, Robert Blees from a story by Robert Hutchison

Starring: Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark, Adam Roarke, Judy Pace  and Mae Mercer

Tagline:   It’s the day that NATURE strikes back!

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

Pickett Smith, a wildlife photographer, ends up on the Crockett estate where, grumpy, old Jason Crockett (Milland) has invited family to celebrate his birthday.  Unfortunately that same weekend all of the animals – frogs, lizards, birds, snakes have decided to start killing humans.  Yep.  Killer frogs and other animals with no means of hurting a human are killing them.  Yeesh.

Frogs earns 1 of 5 stars.

“Zone of the Dead” aka  “Apocalypse of the Dead” (2009) Starring Ken Foree / Z-View

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Zone of the Dead aka  Apocalypse of the Dead (2009)

Director:  Milan Konjevic, Milan Todorovic

Screenplay by:  Milan Konjevic from a story by Vukota Brajovic, Milan Todorovic

Starring: Ken Foree and Kristina Klebe

Tagline:  This City Is a Living Hell

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

Agents Mortimer Reyes (Foree) and Mina Milius (Klebe) are transporting a dangerous criminal when a zombie apocalypse breaks out.  The agents and criminal join forces in an effort to fight their way to safety.  Think Assault on Precinct 13 meets Night of the Living Dead (but not nearly as good as either).

Zone of the Dead isn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, but if you’re in the right frame of mind and enjoy zombie films, you could do worse.

Zone of the Dead aka  Apocalypse of the Dead earns 2 of 5 stars.

“The Last Son” (2021) Starring Sam Worthington, Colson Baker, Thomas Jane & Heather Graham / Z-View

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The Last Son (2021)

Director:  Tim Sutton

Screenplay by:  Greg Johnson

Starring: Sam Worthington, Colson Baker, Thomas Jane and Heather Graham

Tagline:  None.

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

Isaac LeMay (Worthington) is a heartless, wicked outlaw.  When a curse is placed on him, that he will be killed by one of his off-spring, LeMay decides to track down and kill the many children he left behind.  So he travels from town to town, locating and killing each of his off spring.  Until…

I thought The Last Son had an interesting premise.  I’m also a Thomas Jane fan.  Neither could keep me watching.  The Last Son moved at a snail’s pace.  Worthington played LeMay as a man of few words and when he did speak the words were hard to understand and gruff.  Think of the, “I’m Batman” voice by Christian Bale but as if Bale had chain smoked for 50 years.  There’s a scene where LeMay finds one of his off spring (he’d already killed a few).  It’s a daughter.  He decides not to kill her and instead puts his gun in her hand.  I was thinking, “Pull the trigger and end this mess.”  She doesn’t.  I didn’t last much longer.

The Last Son earns 1 of 5 stars.

RIP: Gary Nelson

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It was just announced today that Gary Nelson died of natural causes on May 25, 2022, at the age of 87.  Mr. Nelson was a television and feature film director who had a career that spanned 65 years!  Gary Nelson began his career as a second assistant director in 1955.

Gary Nelson directed many episodes of popular television shows including: Have Gun Will Travel; The Andy Griffith Show; Gunsmoke; It’s About Time; F Troup; Gilligan’s Island; Gomer Pyle; Get Smart; The Ghost and Mrs. Muir; Love American Style; Kojak; Police Story and The Magical World of Disney.

Television movies directed by Mr. Nelson include: To Kill a Cop; Murder Me, Murder You; More Than Murder; Get Smart, Again!; Revolver; The Return of Ironside and Fugitive Nights: Danger in the Desert, to name a few.

Gary Nelson also directed five feature films:  Molly and Lawless John; Santee; The Black Hole; Jimmy the Kid and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold.

What a long and distinguished career!  Gary Nelson is probably best known as the director of The Black Hole.  I love the range that he displayed as director, moving from situation comedies to one hour dramas and films of both genres with ease.  Gary Nelson was also the original director of Sly Stallone’s Nighthawks.  The IMDb lists him as an uncredited director, so I wonder if any scenes he shot made the final film.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Gary Nelson’s family, friends and fans.

“A League of Their Own” Season 1 (2022) / Z-View

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A League of Their Own, Season 1 (2022)

Directors:  Jamie Babbit (Eps. 1-3); Ayoka Chenzira (Ep. 4); Katrelle Kindred (Ep.5); Will Graham (Ep. 6); Silas Howard (Ep. 7); Anya Adams (Ep. 8)

Teleplay by: Will Graham & Abbi Jacobson (Eps. 1 & 8); Abbi Jacobson (Ep.2); Desta Tedros Reff (Ep. 3); Michelle Badillo (Ep. 4); Mfoniso Udofia (Ep.5); Will Graham (Ep. 6); Sanaz Toossi (Ep.7)

Starring:  Abbi Jacobson, Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Colindrez, Kelly McCormack, Priscilla Delgado, Molly Ephraim, Melanie Field, Kate Berlant, Dale Dickey, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Lea Robinson and Rosie O’Donnell

Tagline: None.

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

A League of Their Own is an loose adaptation of the 1992, A League of Their Own hit movie.  The update introduces new characters and storylines.

The year is 1943.  World War II is raging.  In an effort to increase morale at home the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is formed.  A League of Their Own follows a group of women from try-outs through the first season on the Rockford Peaches.  The focus is on…

  • Carson Shaw (Jacobson), a married woman from the midwest who’s life has been somewhat sheltered.  Her husband is in the service.  Carson develops feelings for Greta.
  • Maxine “Max” Chapman (Adams) is an African-American woman with a fastball that rivals those thrown by most men.  Maxine won’t even get a chance to tryout for the team because she’s black, but when one door closes…
  • Greta Gill (Carden) is a wild woman, who lives life and encourages Carson in more ways than one.
  • Clance Morgan (Ikumelo) is Maxine’s best friend, a newlywed who wants to be a comic book artist (and not a baseball player)
  • Jo DeLuca (Field) is Greta’s best friend and a power hitter
  • Toni Chapman (Ekulona) is Maxine’s mother who doesn’t support her baseball ambitions

While the above characters get most of the screen time, A League of Their Own does an excellent job of showcasing each of the players on the Rockford Peaches.  It’s interesting that women’s baseball is used as the backdrop for a time in America when women couldn’t open a checking account without their husband’s permission, African-Americans were still segregated from whites and being gay was thought of as a disease or even contagious.

The writing on A League of Their Own is really sharp and it doesn’t hurt that the series is well cast.  All of the actresses that play major characters are excellent.  Kudos also to Lea Robinson as Uncle Bertie,  Nick Offerman who plays the former pro who is brought in to coach the Peaches and Rosie O’Donnell who plays the owner of an underground gay bar.  Maxine “Max” Chapman (Adams) and her best friend Clance Morgan (Ikumelo) have a chemistry as best friends that could sustain a half hour comedy on their own.

A League of Their Own surprised me in how good it was.  I hope we get a second season.

A League of Their Own, Season 1 earns 4 of 5 stars.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: The Deluxe Hardcover by Quentin Tarantino / Z-View

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: The Deluxe Hardcover by Quentin Tarantino

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Harper

First sentence…

The buzzer on Marvin Schwarz’s desk makes a noise.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the fictionalized account of Hollywood actor and tv star, Rick Dalton, his stuntman and best friend, Cliff Booth and the famous/infamous folks they run into in Hollywood in the late 60s.  If you’ve seen Tarantino’s movie of the same name, then you know the story… or at least most of it.  The novel goes into greater detail especially in regard to Cliff Booth.  If you liked the movie, you should enjoy the book.  If you think, I’ve seen the movie, I don’t need a rehash in a novelization, you might be surprised.  There’s a different story structure in the novel than the film and time to dig a deeper into the characters.

If you haven’t seen the movie, let me get you up to speed.  Rick Dalton was a rising movie star.  He had a western tv series called Bounty Law.  It was popular and ran for a few years.  Dalton then went into feature films, but that was then.  Now Dalton appears to be on his way down.  He’s been regulated to guest starring in television shows and usually ends up beaten and beaten up by the star of the show.  Dalton hopes he’ll get another run at feature films.  Cliff Booth is a World War II decorated vet, a stuntman and Rick’s best friend.  Booth may or may not have killed his wife (we find out for sure in the novel).  He also went toe-to-toe with Bruce Lee in a challenge that pretty much ended Booth getting stunt work.  Rick and Cliff will also have run-ins with the Charlie Manson family, Sharon Tate and others.  To say more would be to say too much,

Tarantino is more of a story-teller than a writer.  Someone said if the novel was better written, it wouldn’t be as good.  That may sound strange, but I get the sentiment.  As you read Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, there’s the feeling that we’re hearing the tale from an insider and not a writer somewhere trying to polish his prose.  I loved the inside stories/legends of real life actors/actresses in Hollywood.

The Deluxe Edition also features a Rick Dalton Bounty Law episode script; Photos of lobby cards from two of Rick Dalton’s feature films, two Bounty Law stills, two Bounty Law TV Guide covers, two Bounty Law comic book covers, a Bounty Law lunchbox, Bounty Law production art, a Bounty Law board game, 8 movie posters featuring Rick Dalton and other real-life stars, and a MAD magazine Bounty Law parody featuring the cover and story by Andrew Secunda and Tom Richmond.

I enjoyed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and hope that Tarantino writes more novels.  I’m a sucker for a good story.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood rates 4 of 5 stars.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: The Deluxe Hardcover
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Paperback
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Kindle

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Starring Daniel Craig, Ed Norton, Janelle Monáe and Dave Bautista – The Trailer is Here!

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I liked the first Knives Out mystery and Glass Onion looks to be at least as good.  Oh, and how about that cast!

You’re invited to put the pieces together. In the follow-up to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, Detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery involving a new cast of colorful suspects.

Starring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline with Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista.

Disturbing the Peace (2020) Starring Guy Pearce / Z-View

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Disturbing the Peace (2020)

Director: Chuck Hustmyre

Screenplay by:  Jay Simms

Starring: Guy Pearce, Devon Sawa and Branscombe Richmond

Tagline: What Would You Give Up to Save Everything?

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

Jim Dillion (Pearce) was a Texas Ranger.  He stopped carrying a gun after accidentally shooting and paralyzing his partner in a hostage situation.  Now he’s Marshall Dillion. (I kid you not. If you’re old enough, you’ll recognize the name.) Like Andy Griffith, Dillion has one Deputy to assist him.  They are the law in a little Texas town.

A small motorcycle gang, barely large enough to be called a crowd, plans to rob an armored truck carrying 15 million dollars to be deposited in the town’s bank.  It will be up to Marshall Dillion and his deputy to stop them.

I wanted to like Disturbing the Peace.  Guy Pearce is a good actor.  The plot was perfect for a low budget film.  I was hoping for something along the lines of Tom Laughlin in The Born Losers.  What I got was a real mess.

The story goes off the rails.  For a lot of the film, Marshall Dillion and his deputy are running from place to place watching the bad guys take hostages or worse.  When Dillion finally decides to get a gun, he has to run home. He then stares at his pistol for an eternity before finally picking it up. Dillion captures one of the gang members and puts him in jail.  Dillion learns that the gangbanger was a former marine and tells him, “So was I.”  Dillion then opens the cell, hands him a rifle and turns his back on him!  Just like that the former gang member is now ready to go against his motorcycle brothers.

Then when Dillion and the gang member, both armed with rifles, come up against a guy with a handgun, they retreat!  It gets even worse.  The gang leader, Diablo (Sawa) fires a machine gun at Dillion as he walks down the center of an empty street.  Dillion isn’t even wounded.  We also get the classic: Dillon on a horse exchanging gunfire with Diablo on a motorcycle and then the horse catching the motorcycle!

With all that said, you’d probably think that Disturbing the Peace would earn one star.  It nearly did,  Still, I made it through the film so I’m barely rating it a two.

Disturbing the Peace earns 2 of 5 stars.

“Tulsa King” Starring Sylvester Stallone – The Trailer is Here!

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The trailer for Tulsa King starring Sylvester Stallone hits all the right notes.  I cannot wait to see this series!

TULSA KING follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone), just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Okla. Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a “crew” from a group of unlikely characters, to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet. The series also stars Andrea Savage (“I’m Sorry”), Martin Starr (“Silicon Valley”), Max Casella (“The Tender Bar”), Domenick Lombardozzi (“The Irishman”), Vincent Piazza (“Boardwalk Empire”), Jay Will (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), A.C. Peterson (“Superman & Lois”) with Garrett Hedlund (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”).

The series will be executive-produced by Sheridan, Winter, Stallone, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin and Allen Coulter. Braden Aftergood is also set to executive-produce.

Stream the new series on November 13, exclusively on Paramount+.

“The Killer Shrews” (1959) / Z-View

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The Killer Shrews (1959)

Director: Ray Kellogg

Screenplay by:  Jay Simms

Starring: James Best, Ingrid Goude and Ken Curtis

Tagline: Ravaging beasts feed on human flesh!

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

Thorne Sherman (Best) and his partner dock their boat loaded with supplies at a remote island research base.  Despite an approaching hurricane, Dr. Marlowe Craigis wants Sherman to leave the island immediately and to take his grown daughter, Ann (Goude) as well.  Sherman  says that they need to hunker down and he’ll take her after the storm passes.

Sherman soon learns that Dr. Marlowe’s experiments have created a breed of killer shrews that must eat twice their body weight daily in order to survive.  The shrews’ food supply has dwindled and now the shrews have their eyes on the humans!  With teeth strong enough to eat through walls it is just a question of time until they get into the house… and then…

The Killer Shrews is a low-budget horror film that makes the most of the small cast.  Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the special effects.  It’s very obvious that the shrews are sometimes puppets and other times dogs wearing wigs.  There is a romance subplot that is low budget as well.  A pre-Gunsmoke, Festus (Curtis)  co-stars and produced.

The Killer Shrews is watchable in the Saturday night movie presented by a Horror Host kind of way.  In fact I remember first seeing The Killer Shrews on an episode of Sammy Terry’s Nightmare Theater back in the 60s.  I was in third or fourth grade. I loved the movie and couldn’t wait to tell the old lady crossing guard all about it on Monday.  I recently re-watched The Killer Shrews (this time hosted by Svengoolie).  It brought back great memories and I’m sure I’d have liked it better if I was still in elementary school.

The Killer Shrews earns 2 of 5 stars.