Category: Movies

RIP – Wilford Brimley

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Wilford Brimley died yesterday at the age of 85 after being hospitalized for two months with kidney problems.

I first saw Wilfred Brimley in an uncredited role with John Wayne in True Grit.  At that point I had no idea who Wilfred Brimley was, but that would all change with his tv appearances in Kung Fu, The Waltons, How the West was Won and The Wild, Wild West Revisited.  After that it wasn’t surprising to see Brimley popping up in movies (The Electric Horseman, Brubaker, Absence of Malice) or television (Walker, Texas Ranger; Seinfeld).

My favorite Wilfred Brimley roles were in The Thing and Hard Target, but it didn’t matter the role or movie, Wilfred Brimley always made it better.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Wilfred Brimley’s family, friends and fans.

The Breaking Point (1950) / Z-View

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The Breaking Point (1950)

Director: Michael Curtiz

Screenplay: Ranald MacDougall (Based on Ernest Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not)

Stars: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez and Wallace Ford.

The Pitch: “Let’s redo To Have and Have Not but make it closer to Hemmingway’s novel!”

Tagline: There’s nothing more deadly than a gentle man pushed too far!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Harry Morgan was a war hero, but that doesn’t mean much any more.  Times are tough. Now Morgan is a charter boat captain with a wife, two little girls and a stack of bills he needs to take care of.  When a sleazy lawyer offers Morgan a chance at some easy money, he turns it down.  Morgan knows something legal will come along.

And it does.  Morgan gets a week’s rental from a business man wanting a fishing trip to Mexico.  Things start to go sideways when the man unexpectedly brings along his sexy, flirtatious girlfriend.  The woman is trouble and she knows it.

In Mexico, the man decides to cut his trip short and agrees to pay Morgan in the morning before they head back.  The next day Morgan learns that the man skipped out and flew back to the states.  Morgan is stuck in Mexico with no money, the guy’s girlfriend and no way home.

Of course the easy money offer is still available…

The Breaking Point is an under-rated gem.  If you like noir, then this is for you.

This is Garfield’s best role.  Patricia Neal is perfect as the sexy, trouble-making young woman with experience beyond her years.  Thaxter is great as the wife trying to keep things together as her husband makes increasingly bad decisions.  Juano Hernandez, as Morgan’s best friend, isn’t there with Walter Brennan comic relief.

I can’t believe I waited so long to finally watch The Breaking Point.  Part of the problem may be the poster and trailer aren’t good indicators of how great the film is.  And that final scene!

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RIP – John Saxon

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John Saxon died yesterday of pneumonia. He was 83. Saxon is best known to fans for his role as Roper in Enter the Dragon, but that was just one of his nearly 200 acting credits. 

Saxon began is career in the mid 1950s playing teen idol parts.  In the 60s, Saxon alternated between movies and guest starring television roles.  In 1972, Saxon co-starred with Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd and the following year with Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly in Enter the Dragon.  Saxon continued to alternate between movie and tv roles for the rest of his career.  Any time Saxon was in the production, you know it got just better.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to John Saxon’s family, friends and fans.

“The Prey” Poster and Trailer are Here!

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The Prey – check out the poster and trailer.  It definitely has a Most Dangerous Game feel (and one that has been copied many times) but when done right, these films are fun.

Undercover Chinese cop Xin (newcomer Gu Shangwei), is on a secret international mission when a surprise raid puts him in a remote Cambodian jungle prison that plays by its own rules.Ruthless warden (Vithaya Pansringarm) sells prisoners as human prey for rich hunters looking for thrills in the jungle.

After years of hunting down ruthless criminals, Xin suddenly finds himself running for his life. If Xin manages to survive this sadistic game, he’ll walk out of the jungle the same way he came in: as a free man. If Xin fails, he’s just another hunting trophy.

“Sputnik” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Sputnik looks like something that I’d love to see late night at a drive-in.  Check out the poster and trailer!

Director: Egor Abramenko
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov

Due to her controversial methods, young doctor Tatiana Yurievna (Oksana Akinshina) is on the precipice of losing her medical license. Her career may not be over, though. After she’s recruited by the military, Tatiana is brought to a secure science research facility to assess a very special case, that of Konstantin Sergeyevich (Pyotr Fyodorov), a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious space accident and has returned to Earth with a unique condition: there’s something living inside of him that only shows itself late at night. The military has nefarious plans for it. Tatiana wants to stop it from killing Konstantin. And the creature itself thrives on destruction.

“The Bay of Silence” Poster and Trailer are Here!

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The Bay of Silence stars Claes Bang (who was excellent in Dracula), Olga Kurylenko and Brian Cox.  Above is the poster and below the trailer.

Will believes his wife Rosalind is innocent of their son’s suspected murder, only to discover the devastating truth behind her past links her to another unsolved crime.

Starring: Claes Bang, Olga Kurylenko and Brian Cox
Directed by: Paula van der Oest

“Project Power” Starring Jamie Foxx – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Here we have the Project Power poster and trailer which asks, “What would you risk for five minutes of power?”  I’m not sure, but I will risk a couple of hours to check out this movie.

What would you risk for five minutes of pure power?

On the streets of New Orleans, word begins to spread about a mysterious new pill that unlocks superpowers unique to each user. The catch: You don’t know what will happen until you take it. While some develop bulletproof skin, invisibility, and super strength, others exhibit a deadlier reaction. But when the pill escalates crime within the city to dangerous levels, a local cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) teams with a teenage dealer (Dominique Fishback) and a former soldier fueled by a secret vendetta (Jamie Foxx) to fight power with power and risk taking the pill in order to track down and stop the group responsible for creating it.

“Godless” / Z-View

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Godless (2017)

Director: Frank Scott

Screenplay: Frank Scott

Stars:  Jack O’Connell, Michelle Dockery, Scoot McNairy, Merritt Wever, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Tantoo Cardinal, Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterson and Keith Jardine.

The Pitch: “Scott Frank, the screenwriter of Logan and A Walk Among the Tombstones has a screenplay called Godless.  It’s really good, plus he’ll direct it!”

Tagline: Welcome to no man’s land.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The wild west in the 1880s was at times a Godless place.

Roy Goode is on the run.  He’s being hunted by the notorious outlaw, Frank Griffin and his gang of marauders.  Griffin has let it be known that he will kill any person, family or members of a town that provide comfort or safe passage to Goode.  Although that sounds like an idle threat, every man, woman and child living in the town of Creed was brutally murdered by Griffin and his gang when they learned Goode had spent time there.

Now Goode, recovering from an injury, has found himself in LaBelle, a small town where a mining accident killed almost every man living there.  If Goode leaves town, Griffin and his gang will still kill the townspeople.  If Goode stays, he’ll die with them. One thing is for sure… when Griffin and his gang get to LaBelle there will be a reckoning.

I can’t sing the praises for Godless enough.  Scott Frank, the writer and director has created a classic.  Godless features a big cast and each role was filled perfectly.  Each character feels real and we’re provided their backstory seamlessly as the story moves forward.

The story is told in 7 episodes and although I hated to see Godless end, the story was done.  An advantage of being a self-contained story (and Frank makes excellent use of) is that all bets are off on who lives and who dies.

Godless is one of those rare shows/movies that resonated with me in all aspects and gets my highest recommendation.

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