Category: Z-View

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) / Z-View

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Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)

Director: Charles Lamont
Screenplay: D.D. Beauchamp and Howard Christie from a story by John Grant.
Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Robert Paige and Anita Ekberg.

The Pitch: “How about Abbott & Costello go to Mars?”

No Tagline: “THEY’RE OUT OF THIS WORLD ON A MISGUIDED MISSLE!”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Abbott and Costello accidently launch a rocket destined for Mars. It ends up in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. Bud and Lou think they’re on Mars after interacting with locals. When they get back on the rocket they’re joined by two escaped cons and all four of them end up on the planet Venus which is ruled by women. Will Bud and Lou get back to Earth? Will they even want to?

Rating:

The Night Stalker (2016) / Z-View

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The Night Stalker (2016)

Director: Megan Griffiths
Screenplay: Megan Griffiths
Stars: Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips and Louis Herthum.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie about the real life serial killer known as ‘The Night Stalker’.”

No Tagline.

The Plot…

A young woman [Young] is given the job to get to know Richard Ramirez aka “The Night Stalker” in an effort to find out if he is responsible for a murder attributed to another man who is sentenced to die for it.

Thoughts…

Phillips is convincing as The Night Stalker.

The drawings that are seen in Richard Ramirez’s cell are actual drawings done by Ramirez.

Rating:

I Died a Thousand Times (1955) / Z-View

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I Died a Thousand Times (1955)

Director: Stuart Heisler
Screenplay: W.R. Burnett
Stars: Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Lon Chaney, Jr., Earl Holliman and Dennis Hopper.

The Pitch: “Let’s remake ‘High Sierra.’”

Tagline: “The Story Behind The Terrifying 60-Day Hunt For Desperado ‘Mad-Dog’ Earle!”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Roy Earl [Palance] an infamous bank robber [think Dillinger] is sprung from prison by an old crime boss who wants Earl for a big robbery. Obligated for his freedom, Earl drives west to check out the set up.

Once he meets up with his old boss, Earl discovers the robbery plan is good and the money is right, but his partners are young, inexperienced thugs [Marvin & Holliman] looking to make a name for themselves… plus they have a woman [Winters] with them and everyone knows women and crime plans don’t work out.

Before it is over there will be a robbery, people killed, double-crosses and a manhunt for the “Mad Dog Killer” Roy Earl.

Rating:

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) / Z-View

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Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez

Screenplay: Frank Miller

Stars: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Lloyd, Jaime King, Stacy Keach, Lady Gaga and Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez.

The Pitch: “It is time for Sin City 2.”

Tagline: “There is no justice without sin.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

If you enjoyed Sin City, you’ll want to come back for a second anthology of Frank Miller yarns.  Rourke, Alba, Dawson, Willis and King all reprise their original roles.  Brolin is excellent as he  picks up the role played by Clive Owen and there is an explanation from the original Sin City stories explaining the change in his look.  Eva Green is perfect as Ava.  Gordon-Levitt is also a welcome addition to the cast.  I hope there won’t be a seven year gap until the next Sin City tale.

Rating:

Everest (2015) / Z-View

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Everest (2015)

Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Screenplay: William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy
Stars: Jason Clarke, Ang Phula Sherpa, Thomas M. Wright, Keira Knightley, Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robin Wright .

The Pitch: “The true story of mountaineers stranded on the highest mountain in the world during one of the worst blizzards imaginable.”

Tagline: “Never let go”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The tagline says it all.

Rating:

Hercules (2014) / Z-View

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Hercules (2014)
Director: Brett Ratner
Screenplay: Ryan J. Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell and Joseph Fiennes.

The Pitch: “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is Hercules.”

Tagline: “Before he was a legend, he was a man.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Hercules (Johnson) travels with a band of mercenaries travel the world working for the highest bidder.  After they have trained a warlord’s army they learn that his motives were not what they seemed.

Johnson is a great Hercules and I like the idea that his fellow mercenaries add freely to his reputation to make their enemies more fearful.  I would have liked to have seen less CGI, less team Hercules and more HERCULES!

Rating:

Standoff (2016) / Z-View

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Standoff (2016)
Director: Adam Alleca
Screenplay: Adam Alleca
Stars: Thomas Jane, Laurence Fishburne and Ella Ballentine.

The Pitch: “A hitman, a little girl who witnessed the murder and the only man who can save her are trapped in a remote house…”

Tagline: “A Deadly Game Only One Can Survive”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A hitman (Zishburne) tracks a little girl (Bird) who witnessed a murder to a rural house owned by a grieving vet (Jane).  A psychological battle punctuated by high power weapons ensues.

Fishburne is outstanding as the hitman determined to leave no witnesses.

Rating:

Key Largo (1948) / Z-View

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Key Largo (1948)

Director:  John Huston

Screenplay:  Richard Brooks and John Huston from a play by Maxwell Anderson.

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez, Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis and Jay Silverheels.

The Pitch: “Bogie. Bacall. Huston.”

Tagline: “WHERE MEN IN HIDING WAITED…WITH READY GUN!”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Frank McCloud (Bogart) a World War II vet, travels to Key Largo, Florida to visit the family of a soldier in his unit who was killed in the war.  McCloud arrives at the hotel just ahead of a hurricane and finds the hotel deserted except for his friend’s father and widow and famous mobster, Johnny Rocco and his crew.  Rocco’s crew are already on edge and the worsening weather keeps pushing them closer to the breaking point.

Rating:

The Cotton Club (1984) / Z-View

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The Cotton Club (1984)

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay: William Kennedy & Francis Ford Coppola

Stars:  Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicholas Cage, Fred Gwynne, Lawrence Fishburne, John P. Ryan, Tom Waits, Jennifer Grey, Ed O’Ross, Woody Strode and James Russo.

The Pitch: “Let’s make an event movie based on famous gangsters with dancing!”

Tagline: “Welcome to The Cotton Club. Where Crime Lords rub elbows with the rich and famous. Where deals are made, lives are traded. And the legends of jazz light up the night.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

It is still hard for me to believe I don’t like this movie better than I do.  Look at the director (Coppola!), the cast (too many to list) and the subject matter.  How can this not rate higher?  Perhaps the narrative is too all over the place…

There’s the young musician [Gere] who inadvertently saves a gangster [Remar] and ends up in a romantic triangle with the gangster’s girl [Lane].

There’s the African-American brothers who want to make it as a dance team but end up feuding and split up.

There’s the two gangs which are almost ready to go to war.

There’s the Cotton Club – the place owned by whites, but the talent is black and where a lot of the action happens.

There’s the… well, I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  The music is fine.  The dance numbers [especially by the Hines brothers] are fun.  It’s also a kick to identify the real historical figures portrayed in the film.  Still, the movie itself falls short.

Rating:

Tarzan Escapes (1936) / Z-View

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Tarzan Escapes (1936)

Director:  Richard Thorpe, John Farrow (uncredited), James C. McKay (uncredited), George B. Seitz (uncredited), William A. Wellman (uncredited)

Screenplay:  Cyril Hume based on novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Stars:  Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan and John Buckler.

The Pitch: “Let’s make another Tarzan movie.”

Tagline: ” It’s New! It’s amazing! 2 years to produce!”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Jane’s cousins come to the jungle.  Their father has died and Jane is needed to see that the will goes through.  Jane agrees to go back to England for a short time and then return to Tarzan in the jungle.  Jane’s guide has plans to capture Tarzan and sell him to a sideshow.

Jane starts on her journey.  Tarzan is captured.  To make things worse a warring tribe is on the way to wipe out the white hunters.

Rating:

Miami Blues (1990) / Z-View

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Miami Blues (1990)

Director:  George Armitage

Screenplay:  George Armitage from a novel by  Charles Willeford

Stars:   Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Napier and Paul Gleason.

The Pitch: “How about a crime movie based in Miami?”

Tagline: “Real badge. Real gun. Fake cop.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Ex-con, Frederick J. Frenger Jr. [Baldwin] heads to Miami for a fresh start.  A fresh start means stealing and conning.  When Frenger ends up with a cop’s gun and badge, he finds that it makes stealing and conning easier.  The cop [Ward] makes it his life’s mission to track down the thief using his identity.  Oh, and there’s a sweet prostitute [Leigh], too.

Rating:

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) / Z-View

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Director:  Charles Lamont

Screenplay:  John Grant from a story by Lee Leob

Stars:  Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara and Richard Deacon.

The Pitch: “Hey, Abbott and Costello Haven’t Met the Mummy yet!”

Tagline: “It has been said that a man’s best friend is his mummy…”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Abbott and Costello are in Egypt… and they meet The Mummy.  Hilarity [ok, a fair amount of laughs] follow.

Rating:

The Killers (1946) / Z-View

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The Killers (1946)

Director:  Robert Siodmak

Screenplay:  Anthony Veiller from a story by Ernest Hemingway

Stars:  Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien and William Conrad.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie based on Hemingway’s The Killers.”

Tagline: “One Moment with Her…And He Gambled His LUCK…LOVE…and His LIFE!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Two hit men show up in a small town to kill a gas station attendant known as “Swede” [Lancaster].  When warned the hitmen are in town, Swede thanks the man but refuses to run.  He lays back down and waits for their arrival, a totally defeated man.

The hit men arrive.  Kill him and leave.

Insurance investigator Reardon [O’Brien] gets the case and slowly begins to unravel the mystery of why hit men were sent to kill a small town nobody.  What follows is a story of mobsters, big time robberies, double-crosses and in the middle of it all a beautiful woman.

The opening scene – of the hitmen at the diner is a favorite and sets the tone for a classic movie!

Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

“The Mountain Men” (1980) starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith / Z-View

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“The Mountain Men” (1980)

Director:  Richard Lang

Screenplay: Fraser Clarke Heston

Stars:  Charlton Heston, Brian Keith, Victoria Racimo and John Glover.

Tagline:  Alone… each is a bombshell.  Together… they’re dynamite.

The Overview:

Two aging mountain men survive in a world that is changing and will soon leave them behind.  If the hostile conditions of the frontier don’t kill ’em, the Indians or the corn whiskey might.

Thoughts:  Beware of Spoilers…

I remember seeing this movie back in the early 80’s on HBO and loving it.  I recently revisited it and while I still enjoyed it, The Mountain Men wasn’t the movie I remember loving so much.

The interplay between Charlton Heston and Brian Keith [who steals every scene is in] is worth the price of admission. Heston and Keith had worked together on the 1953 film Arrowhead.

It’s fun seeing a young John Glover in his first screen appearance.

The Mountain Men was director Richard Lang’s first time helming a feature film.

The Mountain Men‘s screenwriter, Fraser Heston, is Charlton Heston’s son. The Mountain Men screenplay was Fraser Heston’s feature film debut.

The Indians are too Hollywood looking now and some of the scenes don’t hold up as well.  Still I liked it a lot, just not as much as I remembered loving it.

Rating:

It Follows (2014) / Z-View

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It Follows (2014)

Director:  David Robert Mitchell

Screenplay: David Robert Mitchell

Stars:    Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, and Olivia Luccardi.

The Pitch: “Let’s make a low budget horror movie – they almost always make money!”

Tagline: “It doesn’t think. It doesn’t feel. It doesn’t give up.”

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

After having sex with a boy she really likes, Jay [Monroe] learns that he has passed a curse on to her. [Great choice in guys, Jay.]

“It” [the thing of the curse] will follow her, always walking but able to take different human forms and if it catches her, it will kill her.

Suddenly everyone walking towards her seems to have evil intent.  And at least one does!

Rating: