Quick Movie Review: Original Gangstas (1996)

You know what two names will get me to watch any movie at any time? Richard Roundtree (that's Shaft, duh) and Pam Grier. So much awesomeness deserves loyalty dammit and as a result, when I stumbled upon a movie on NetBox called Original Gangstas, starring the two of them, Fred Williamson (who plays the captain in the Starsky & Hutch movie) and Jim Brown (who played Byron, the big dude in Mars Attacks!) I was sold. Adding the fact that it's about older dudes coming back to their neighborhood to take the streets back from the members of the gang that they started back when they were kids had me turning that bad boy on right away. Ever since I saw Deathwish 4 with a geriatric Charles Bronson mowing down teenage gangbangers with a freaking machine gun (Jesse Ventura-in-Predator), I've wanted to see punk kids get what's coming to them. Have I mentioned that, for some reason, my grade school thought it would be a good idea to show us several videos on gang violence. In fourth grade. I also happened to live across the street from a park, which people told me was where gangs hung out. Needless to say, I had trouble sleeping for fear of being mowed down in a drive by. I lived on a dead end street. Thanks school! Anyway, the gang members in this flick make it easy to hate them as they beat up an old guy and kill some kids. Jerks. So yeah, it's a little bit slow at times, but the end firefight between old folks (this is where Roundtree really comes in, it's mostly the Williamson/Brown/Grier show) and the young kids is pretty awesome. Worth the price of admission for sure.

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Quick Movie Review: Star Slammer (1987)

Have you ever thought to yourself "Boy, I sure would like to watch a women's prison movie, but instead of it being set on Earth, I'd like to see some weird alien shit too?" Well, then Star Slammer (aka Prison Ship, according to IMDb) is the movie for you. But be warned, it's probably not as exploitative as you'd expect. Yes, there's some weird girl on girl hazing and a pointless "change in front of the group" scene, but you're also treated to a score that rips off from Star Wars extensively as well as some Jawa clones that make the Goblins in Troll 2 look like Tom Savini put them together. It really is not a great movie, but then you get treated to a fight scene between two women space prisoners and a children's show host who looks like Venom's ugly step child. On the real, this is a dumb movie, but it's also completely worth watching if you want to see some of the strangest Star Wars homages in the world as well as some weird space prison action. I will be honest, I wasn't expecting a women's space prison movie when I added this to my NetBox queue, I thought it was more of a play on "Starjammers" which is pretty pornographic on its own now that I think about it. Anyway, it's worth a peep for sure, especially if you have the glory that is Netflix on Xbox or your computer.

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Quick Movie Review: Adventureland (2009)

Em and I watched Adventureland yesterday and I really dug it. It was an interesting follow up by Greg Mottola (Superbad) as it wasn't really laugh out loud funny (though I kept laughing pretty loudly, warranting "shush"-es fromo Em). It's a story about growing up from the perspective of a recent college grad who studied literature and wants to be a travel writer, but has to work at an amusement park to make money from grad school in 1987. Along the way, he meets plenty of interesting characters (including Bill from Freaks and Geeks, the lovely Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Kristen Stewart). But like I said, it's not as crazy and wild as Superbad, it's a more subdued movie with a lot more emotion and I can't help but relate to James (our hero) who has no idea what to do with his life now that he's done with school and has a degree in English. There's an Avenue Q song about that right? Anyway, it definitely reminded me of working at Barry's Bagels back home, meeting weird and interesting people who introduce you to all kinds of stuff.

Anyway, like I said I dug it. A few things of note, we had to turn our subtitles on just to make out what everybody was saying. There aren't any accents, it's just that James, played by Jesse Eisenberg is very soft spoken and delivers a lot of under-the-breath lines, which I found to be the funniest. If you turn the volume up too loud, then the damn music kicks in and blows your ear drums (wow, that made me sound OLD). Also, this might be the first movie I can remember where the young stars actually didn't look old enough to be playing their characters' ages. Specifically Eisenberg doesn't look like a college grad, but a high school one. This threw me off for part of the movie because I kept thinking they might get in trouble for drinking in public. I had to keep reminding myself of that. Also, I haven't seen any of Kristen Stewarts other movies (scratch that, she was the kid in Panic Room? huh) and I definitely didn't have the strong feelings towrads her character than Ben had, but I can say that, for the most part, this is the least gross I've ever seen her. What's with the greasy hair? I get that you're pothead, but dress it up a little, you know? High points were when Bill from Freaks & Geeks shows James how all the rides work and when James punches a meathead. All in all, this is a great movie for English majors.
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Quick Movie Review: Finishing The Game (2007)

I don't have a ton to say about Finishing the Game, so I decided to implement a new category called Quick Movie Review. The movie's a fake documentary about completing Game of Death after Bruce Lee died. I accidentally rented Game of Death a few years back, not realizing it was cobbled together with a few minutes of actual Bruce Lee footage and a bunch of other nonsense with lookalikes. It's really a bad movie that, from what I've read since, was just a crazy cash grab. Finishing the Game takes that idea and runs with it as we see a director and casting agent going through a bunch of people trying to find Bruce's replacement, mostly from unknowns and guys riding Bruce's coattails. There are a lot of funny bits to the movie as it focuses in on a few select people. There's even a brief, but hilarious plot point centering around a TV show starring James Franco.

My only "problem" with the movie is that I don't know if it's based on any kind of fact. I compared the actual Game of Death director to the guy from Finishing and they don't match up and I'll be honest, I'm too lazy to look everyone up, so maybe I'll never know. There's also no trivia on IMDb and the Wiki page isn't all that informative. I'm guessing it's all made up, which is kind of disappointing because it would be a lot funnier if this was based on more fact than "someone tried to complete a Bruce Lee movie after he died." There's plenty else going on like the egos and lack thereof of the guys auditioning to fill Bruce's shoes and a couple love stories, plus an inside look (maybe?) at what casting a movie was like. Plus it's short, which is a plus.

All in all, I'd recommend this for anyone interested in Bruce Lee, mockumentaries or the 70s, especially if you don't get too tied up in the reality of the comedy like I do.
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