I gave it my best chance, but I had to eliminate the Punish-Myself-Binge at four movies.  Sorry, but that was all I could stand.

I have been wanting to re-watch this film for awhile now and I figured this would be a good time to go ahead and do it.

A Time to Kill is a film directed by Joel Schumacher and starred Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock.

After the brutal rape of his 10-year old daughter by two white boys, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) took justice into his own hands, shooting and killing them on the steps of the Mississippi courthouse.  Cocky young lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) took the case which ignited a racial firestorm.

Race is a huge theme of the film, of course, with the question of whether Carl Lee Hailey could receive a fair trial in Mississippi being right out front.  The Ku Klux Klan became a huge part of the conflict as well, bringing the level of hatred and violence to a deadly height.

Speaking of that, I wonder if Keifer Sutherland was really glad to get cast as Jack Bauer in the 24 series, because he was constantly being cast as steel faced villains in so many films of the time.  Here he was Freddie Cobb, the brother of one of the men Carl Lee shot and the emphasis behind the return of the KKK to the town.  Kiefer had a menacing glare that he put on display in a ton of films, from Stand By Me to A Few Good Men to The Lost Boys.  I’m just saying that it was probably a relief to be seen as a hero once.

While some of this film drags, the scenes in the courtroom, in particular Jake’s summation, is powerful and emotionally resonant.  When the film is at its best, the film is soaring.

Samuel L. Jackson is great as Carl Lee and his relationship with Jake is vital to the film and the resolution of the case.

Sandra Bullock, Donald Sutherland, Charles Dutton, Oliver Platt, Ashley Judd, Kevin Spacey, and Chris Cooper lead a cast that is very strong with all of their performances.

A Time to Kill hits hard and has a great message that is still relevant today.

The fourth movie in the Punish-Myself-Binge was destined to be perceived by me differently simply because it followed my viewing of the horrid The Love Guru.  It couldn’t be worse, could it?

Cop Out was the notorious buddy cop movie directed by Kevin Smith and starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.  Cop Out received an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes and a pretty low 39% on the audience score.  Kevin Smith tells a story about how difficult it was for him to work with Bruce Willis.  Still, could it be worse than The Love Guru?

Well, by comparison to The Love Guru, Cop Out looks like The Godfather.  It’s not, of course.  It’s a bad movie, but after watching the travesty that was the Mike Myers’ mess, anything would have looked better.  In fact, Cop Out was probably the best of the four movies that I have looked at so far today.

That is not saying that I would consider this that elusive “guilty pleasure” that I started this binge looking for because it was not.  Still, there were some parts that were fine.

Cop Out was predictable and featured just about every last buddy cop trope imaginable.  Tracy Morgan was just too loud all the time (although there was a cute scene in an interrogation room where Morgan was quoting movies).

The story was simple and yet way too messy.  The main villain, named Poh Boy, was desperately distracting because I recognized him but could not place the face.  It bothered me for the first half of the movie until I broke down and pulled out IMDB for a search.  As soon as I saw a more recent picture of the actor playing Poh Boy, which was Guillermo Diaz, I recognized him as Huck from Scandal.  That was a relief.

This could have easily have been a Bad Boys movie without breaking a sweat.  Kevin Hart could take the role played by Tracy Morgan and make it his own.  There was absolutely nothing special or different about this movie, which is usually not what you see in a Kevin Smith movie.  Of course, this was a big studio film that helped convince Smith to basically do his own films from then on.

Cop Out fell into a good space in my viewing schedule because I did like it more than Twilight, The Love Guru and The Last Airbender, but it will never be confused with a good movie.

Good God.

The third movie in my Punish-Myself-Binge may just be the worst of the three, which is saying something considering I watched Twilight and The Last Airbender.

The Love Guru was up next and it is absolutely one of the most unfunny, obnoxious, downright offensive movie I have ever seen.  It was at 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is actually higher than I thought it would be.  Truthfully, even the audience score was low, down at 33%.

And I really like Mike Myers.  I have always enjoyed him.  I loved him as Tommy Maitland, the host of The new Gong Show as well as other of his films.  This thing though… it is atrocious.

There are quality actors in this train wreck too.  It is one of those movies that make you wonder why they would take a chance with their careers being involved in this piece of garbage.   For God’s sake, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, who are absolutely magnificent normally and who I love, are in this film and they can’t even pull this from the crapper.

This is up there with the absolute worst films I have ever seen.  It is Movie 43, Batman & Robin, Holmes & Watson bad.

I am really struggling to get through this binge.  This thing is just a total waste of time and, despite being quarantined, I can think of 100 things to do better with my time than watching The Love Guru.

Maybe the whole Punish-Myself-Binge was a bad idea.  However, perhaps the next one will be better.  IT HAS TO BE!

So I was looking for a theme for this weekend’s binge-a-thon and then I watched The Last Airbender.  After watching that atrocious film, I came up with an idea.  It is officially the Punish-Myself-Binge.  The rules… I had to choose films that are considered terrible by many (if not most) and that I had never seen before.  That way, I can look at them with fresh eyes and make my own judgment.  I would do my best not to allow the film’s reputation creep into my review.  Who knows… maybe I can find a guilty pleasure or two.

Unfortunately, the second (remember Last Airbender was the first) film in the Punish-Myself-Binge will not be the guilty pleasure.

The 2nd film is Twilight, which sits at a 49% on Rotten Tomatoes and I have never watched the entire film. Yes I have seen bits of it, but it still qualifies.  I did not find this to be any good because, mainly, I am not a teenage girl.

Twilight is melodramatic claptrap that should be ashamed of inspiring the Fifty Shades of Gray series.  This is a film that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have spent years trying to overcome.  They are two really exceptional actors now but who were anything but at this point.

Let’s ignore the fact that vampires should not sparkle in the sunlight (they should burst into flames).  Let’s ignore the fact that Edward stated that he had been 17 years old for years (which makes one wonder how he dealt with school).  Let’s just look at the relationship between Bella and Edward.

Why should I invest with these two dopey kids?  I am not sure exactly why Bella started to like Edward, outside of the “he’s good looking” vibe.  He was anything but nice to her.  In fact, he acted as if she stunk.  Hey, that sounds like a winner.  Does he save her?  Yes, but he was also rude and obnoxious about it.  In my mind, she fell for Edward really quickly.  Certainly not quickly enough to accept that he was a vampire.

She figured out the secret of his vampirism, but why would that not send her screaming into the night?

There are as many scenes in Twilight that make me want to laugh as any other.  It was quite funny, albeit unintentionally.  The tree jumping scene had my mouth hanging open.

Oh, and the baseball scene with the rival vampire group.  LOL

Anna Kendrick was in this.  I did not know that.

Bella was one of the biggest damsels in distress I have ever seen in any movies.  She was constantly in trouble and requiring saving.  There is zero to the character outside of her loveliness.

And should I talk about that ending?  Holy cow it was just horrible.  The scene with Edward saving Bella with his family burning James (Cam Gigandet) was surreal and laugh out loud ridiculous.

Boy this was bad.  And not so bad it was good either.

Hope I can maintain this Punish-Myself-Binge…

With the continual staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, it gives me an opportunity to finally watch what some consider to be one of the worst movies ever made.  I have never taken the time to watch M. Night Shyamalan’s infamous The Last Airbender.  Could it be as atrocious as so many people say?

Simply put… yes, it can be.

This is utterly horrific.

I was not a fan of the EYG Hall of Fame series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I can imagine that dedicated fans of that animated series could only look at this adaptation as an insult and a slap to the face.

I mean, there is nothing here that is good at all.  The acting is wooden and dull.  The dialogue of the film is some of the worst you are ever going to hear on a wide release of a big budget tentpole film.  The CGI and special effects are laughable.  I don’t know how many times I looked at the screen and thought to myself, “Hey, green screen!”

Dev Patel is in this mess.  He would eventually become a respected actor, but it had to have been a challenge overcoming this movie.  Both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson had to work really hard to get past their roles in Twilight.  Fortunately for Dev there was only one The Last Airbender to get by.

Boring.  Ridiculous story and dialogue.  Acting?  Ugh.  CGI that was just not good.

It is amazing but everybody was right about this.  It was one of the worst things I have seen and it was utter garbage.  One of the rare films to receive this classification….

I watched this documentary a few weeks ago late one night and forgot to do w rite up on it.  So today I was scrolling through Netflix to look for films for the weekend when I spotted this one.  I figured that I may as well write up this doc while I am at it.

The doc features the life of Robert Johnson, one of the legendary blues guitarist ever.  The rumors that came later in his life and over the times of how Johnson sold his soul to the devil to become a master of guitar.

The documentary plays with the myths surrounding the guitarist.  While they do not necessarily buy into the myth, they include the rumors and speculation in with the life story.  It is truly a creepy addition to the tale and works very well.  You can see why the legend continued past his death.

The set up and design of the presentation of the doc is wonderful and creates the perfect tone for this story.  The animated backgrounds are beautiful and stands out on the screen.

The documentary is short and plays quickly.  If you are a fan of blues, then this is a must watch for you.

The classic tale of a boy and his 100-foot robot.

The Iron Giant is a beautifully artistic version of a story that we have seen dozens of times.  Why have we seen the story that many times?  Because it works.

A giant robot (Vin Diesel) winds up crashed on earth without its memory and with a distinct appetite for metal.  As it is consuming an electricity station, young Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) finds him and makes friends with the giant.  Meanwhile, a government agent named Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald) arrives in town with a desire to capture the giant once and for all.

The Iron Giant is an emotional and powerful story of acceptance and choice that is great for the entire family. It deals with some massive themes too, including death and the ability to choose what you are going to be.   The film does it in a serious and yet remarkably entertaining manner.

Vin Diesel has done some of his best work as a voice over performer and his run here as the Iron Giant is no exception.  He is able to infuse the giant with so much humanity and emotion with so few words that this was clearly a perfect audition for Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy.

The animation of the movie was wonderful.  It truly does hold up, despite being over 20 years since its release.

There are some other excellent voice actors involved in The Iron Giant.  Jennifer Aniston voices Howarth’s mother Annie.  Harry Connick Jr. provided the voice for junkyard manager and scrap metal artist Dean.  And the general called in by Mansley was voiced by Frasier Crane’s father, John Mahoney.

The third act of this movie is just tremendous and really creates a tense and emotional climax showing what a hero truly is and how that hero should act.

The Iron Giant is a wonderful movie for everybody.  You’ll have tears in your eyes from the power of the film.

This French movie was one of the top foreign films from last year.

In the 18th century, a young painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant) was brought to an island to paint the wedding portrait of another young withdrawn lady Héloïse (Adèle Haenel).  Héloïse has been angry about the death of her sister and she is unhappy about being promised as a bride.

Since Héloïse refused to sit for the portrait, and even drove the previous painted away.  Her mother brought Marianne in to be a confidant for Héloïse.  As they spent time together, the two ladies grew closer to one another.

The acting was solid and the story was good.  It was a beautifully shot movie.

In the end, this was a fine way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but I would not consider this one of the great movies around.  It was solid.

This morning, I finished the “Dollars Trilogy” by Sergio Leone, by watching what is considered one of the best, if not the best, spaghetti Westerns ever made.  An argument could be made that this is the best Western period, spaghetti or not.  While I may not go that far, there is no denying that this is an iconic classic in the world of cinema.

The Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) returns for the third installment, carrying on a con with his partner Tuco (Eli Wallach), where “Blondie” (what Tuco called him) turns Tuco in for the bounty and then saves him just before he is hanged.

“Blondie” leaves Tuco because he was never going to be worth enough reward for this to be worthwhile, which ticked Tuco off and sent him on the path of revenge.

Meanwhile, Lee Van Cleef, playing a character named Sentenza (or Angel Eyes), and he is in search of a Confederate officer named Bill Carson, who had stolen $200,000 in gold and had buried it away.  Angel Eyes was in search of the gold.

The three of them interact along the way and you never know what each of them may do next.

Lee Van Cleef made his second appearance in this trilogy, but it feels as if he is playing a different character.  Though it is implied that the Man with No Name had met Angel Eyes before, and it makes it feel as if he was the same as the character he played in For a Few Dollars More, he had enough different character traits to make me think that he was meant to be a different person.  Perhaps they just used the character to do whatever they needed.

Early in the film we find out that The Man with No Name is the “good,” Angel Eyes is the “bad” and Tuco was the “ugly” of the triumvirate.  This must be one of the themes of the film because it is hard to classify Eastwood as “good” when he really is no different than either Angel Eyes or Tuco.  The three of these characters are shown as equals in their actions.

The finale of this movie was just tremendous.  It was filled with tension and uncertainty where the three of our characters facing off over the gold.  The filming, the close ups, the music did an amazing job setting the tone of the Western.

I did think the film was a bit too long and there were a few scenes that I think could have been removed to tighten this up.  The whole Civil War part of the film seemed to be tossed in for no reason.  Admittedly, the way the two sides of the Civil War are shown as neither being heroic could fall into that theme I mentioned earlier.

So I was engaged with this movie and it truly was the best of the three.  This trilogy sent the career of Clint Eastwood into the stratosphere.

The second film in Sergio Leone’s “Dollars trilogy” was called For a Few Dollars More and it was the next Western I watched today.

This saw the return of the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood), although he was called Manco early in the film (as he was called Joe in A Fistful of Dollars).  The Man with No Name met up with, as one of the posters called him, the Man in Black.  This was Lee Van Cleef, who played Colonel Douglas Mortimer, another “bounty killer” who joins up with the Man with No Name on a mission that was more personal than the Colonel let on.

As with A Fistful of Dollars, Eastwood was the major star of this film, but he and Van Cleef worked together brilliantly.  Their pairing was tremendous in many different ways.  Not only were they a great pair, you were never quite sure what was going to happen.  You always felt as if either one could turn on the other in a split second.  Even when it appeared that they were working together, the thought of betrayal hung in the air.

There were several things that were similar to the original film, but the sequel takes them a bit further.  The action was fine, but the gunfights were pretty repetitive.  I did like the reveal at the end of the reason for the Colonel’s pursuit of the villain El Indio (Gian Maria Volontè).

The score was a true standout in this Western.  Ennio Morricone created a score that presented the perfect soundtrack for what was happening on screen.  Many times I do not hear the score as the film is going on, but this one seemed to work in such a tandem that it was easy to hear.

I do believe that the film was a tad long and could have done with some tightening up in the middle, but I think I liked this more than the last film in this trilogy.

I have been wanting to improve my knowledge of Westerns and so I decided that I would watch the “Dollars Trilogy” to begin the stretch.  These Italian “spaghetti Westerns”  from director Sergio Leone starred Clint Eastwood and really catapulted him into stardom of the genre.

I chose to go in the order that the films were released, which meant I started with A Fistful of Dollars.

The Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) arrived in a small border town where two gangs are at conflict.  The Man with No Name began working on setting the two gangs against one another in hope of gaining wealth himself.

Eastwood is the star of this movie and he stands out among all of the other actors in the film.  His presence really brings The Man with No Name to life and provides him with his gravitas.  The screen simply fills when Eastwood is on and he is powerful and dominant in this Western.  It is clear why they went ahead with two more movies featuring this character.

The film did not hold back with the violence of the West, especially in the third act where the body count truly picked up.  However, the film did not have blood or any kind of really gruesome moments in it, so the brutality was dampened somewhat.

A Fistful of Dollars had a plot that was heavily borrowed from Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) and, in fact, faced a lawsuit over that.  This film was another of the “dubbing” issues I have been having lately as most of the voices, excluding Eastwood, did not completely match the lips of the speakers.  This was an initial distraction, but I tried my best to ignore that.

The first of this trilogy got off to a fantastic start and really set the tone for the Westerns of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Okay, this one is a kick to the gut.

Clemency is a film about Warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) and the stress and psychological pain and demons that comes with watching the executions in her prison.  This comes to the head when a young man named Anthony Woods (Aldis Hedge) is scheduled to be next to which she connects.

Alfre Woodard is heartbreaking in this movie.  Her anguish is sapping her will out of her body, effecting negatively not only her own job but her relationship with her husband Jonathan (Wendell Pierce).  Woodard is easily the standout in this movie as the entire basis for the film is riding on her performance and she knocks it out of the park.

Not to be overlooked though is Aldis Hedge, who has been coming on strong over the last few months/year.  He brings his best work as of yet in this film.  His scene with the Chaplin (Michael O’Neil) is crushing.

Though this movie has undeniably brilliant performances, the fact that it is a difficult film to watch and an even more challenge to enjoy.  It is dower and painful.  There was very little hope on display in the film.  Though gripping, it is a film that I have no desire to see again.  So while I recommend that you see it, I will not want to see it again.

“They call me Mr. Tibbs.”

I had a friend who would use that line while we were gaming and, at the time, I did not know where it was from.

Of course, I found out.  In the Heat of the Night was a successful film during the sixties and was developed into a television series in the eighties.  As I was looking through the Amazon Prime list, I came across the original movie from 1967 and thought this was a good chance to see it.

Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) was a homicide detective from Philadelphia who was traveling through the south.  While waiting for a train to take him back to Philly, he was picked up by local police on suspicion of committing a murder of a wealthy local businessman.

Of course, the only reason he was picked up was because of his skin color.  He was in Sparta, Mississippi and African-Americans were not exactly welcome, let alone a well dressed, intelligent man with a wallet filled with cash.

They brought Virgil to the office of Sheriff Gillespie (Rod Steiger), who discovered that Virgil was a police officer and that he was a homicide expert.  Gillespie asked Virgil to look at their case, but pressures from the community tried to get Gillespie to run Virgil out of town.

This was a very engaging movie to watch, but it was also quite difficult.  The people portrayed in this movie from Mississippi were about as backwoods as you could get when it came to their thoughts and actions toward a black man, especially a black man as successful and intelligent that Virgil was.  Watching the hatred displayed by the locals for no other reason than his skin color was disturbing.  The attitude of Gillespie was not too much better, to be honest.

The cruelty made me really want to see Virgil lash back at these racist humans, but he did not engage with the hatred.  You could see how he wanted to respond, but staying stoic was a much better choice.  However, he was not shown as being perfect either.  There was a suspect in the murder that Virgil was convinced was guilty because of his own personal feelings, and, when he realized his own biases, the case was able to get broken open.

The film also made me wonder just how many people were arrested in the south during the 1960’s just because it looked like they could have done it and that there was pressure to solve a case.

Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger were amazing in the movie.  Steiger won an Academy Award for his role and it won for Best Picture.  Quincy Jones’s score was another major piece of the film, creating an atmosphere of uneasiness.

This is a hugely important film taking on the concept of race in the south.  It is also a highly entertaining and thrilling movie.

“They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all”  -D.H. Lawrence, Whales Weep Not!

I’m ready to review a film that should cause some division.

I know there are a lot of people, including several of my friends, despise this movie.  They call it the “whale movie.”  However, I think that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is second only to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as the best in the series.

Earth in the 23rd century is being attacked by an alien probe approaching from space.  The probe’s message was the song of the Humpback whale which, unfortunately, was extinct at the time.  So the crew, led by Admiral James Kirk (William Shatner) and Captain Spock (Leonard Nemoy), time traveled back to 1986 to try and find some whales to bring back to the future.

The Star Trek adventure turns into a clever “fish-out-of-water” story as the crew interacts with the world of 1986, the medical community, the language, the engineering.  Some of the lines of dialogue from the deadpan Spock are very funny.

The crew split into groups, each with vital missions in the past, in order for them to accomplish their mission and return to their own timeline.  The time travel aspect here is not really touched on much, though they implicate some ideas that, may or may not, work together.

The fact that this movie is willing to not take itself deathly serious really makes this a fun movie to watch.

Catherine Hicks joined the cast of the movie as the 20th century marine biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor, who helped Kirk and Spock find the humpback whales.  She is a nice addition to the group, if not fairly unnecessary.

In the end, this was a lot of fun.  I disagree with the complaints of the bits of the whale being dumb or that it is too preachy.  The reasons behind the probe communicating in whale song is unimportant.  It is simply a plot point to lead to the adventure.  And a message of preserving the animals of the world cannot be bad.

Almost three years ago, I saw the remake of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express starring Kenneth Branagh.  I had never seen the 1974 version, and, though I did not hate the new version, I did not love it either.  I thought maybe one day I would watch the original, but, with the knowledge of the solution, it did not become a top priority.

Seeing it on Amazon Prime, I decided that this was the perfect chance to see the murder mystery.  I am glad I did.

When noted Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) wound up on the Orient Express, he found himself in the middle of a murder mystery.  American businessman Ratchett (Richard Widmark), who had approached Poirot to be his bodyguard on the train (which Poirot refused), was found dead in his cabin, Poirot began an investigation which was hampered by red herrings and the train being stalled by an avalanche of snow in remote Yugoslavia.

Directed by Sidney Lumet, this film featured a remarkable cast of Hollywood stars, led by Finney, including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Jacqueline Bisset, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Martin Balsam, and Michael York.

Even though I knew the eventual solution to the mystery, the process getting their by Hercule Poirot was fun and entertaining.  Finney was just wonderful as the Belgian detective flexing his “little grey cells.”  Much of the fun of watching Poirot piece together the seemingly unsolvable case is truly part of the pleasure.

There is a definite flair to the look of the movie, style throughout.  The direction of the film is impeccable.

The only piece that might knock this down a bit is that the solution is something that is far fetched.  Still, it really works here and became iconic in mysteries moving forward.

The Murder on the Orient Express (1974) was beautifully done and expertly put together.  It features one of the strongest casts you will ever see and a great mystery.  Hercule Poirot deserves his spot as one of the most epic of the “gentlemen detectives.”