One of the great dark comedies of the late 1980s, The War of the Roses saw the combo of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner team up once more in a brutal battle of the sexes.  Directed by Danny DeVito, The War of the Roses split the public down gender.

Oliver Rose (Douglas) met and fell in love with Barbara (Turner), marrying her impulsively.  There early years were spent with Oliver trying to get ahead in his law firm and Barbara trying to perfect the house that they bought.  All the while, the couple was growing apart.  So when the house was completed, Barbara found the chasm wider than she thought.

She tried to fill the emptiness with a catering business, but she could not cook away the pain.  When she finally asked for a divorce, Oliver could not believe it.  Barbara wanted no alimony… all she wanted was the house.  Oliver would not give it to her.

And the War of the Roses was underway.

It was amazing how this movie split the sexes.  Males thought that Barbara was mostly at fault in the interaction between the couple while females thought that the fault laid at the feet of Oliver.  Plenty of couples drew lines in opposition much like the Roses did.  The fact that everybody could legitimately back one or the other by gender meant that people identified with them.  It speaks to how well written the movie was.

Of course, there was great chemistry with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.  They had made several movies together by now and they were able to show the dark side of love as well.  Both actors turned crazy and they clearly had a blast doing it.

Danny DeVito’s character, one of Oliver’s friends and fellow attorneys, Gavin, was used as the narrator of the story.  He told the tragic tale of the Roses to another client looking to divorce his wife.  Gavin’s narration worked brilliantly as the foreshadowing told us something horrible was going to happen.  The story built to a amazing showdown and a stunning ending.  I remember when I first saw it, I was totally shocked at what happened in the end.

The War of the Roses was a darkly funny movie with great performances throughout.  Whether you mostly blamed Oliver or mostly blamed Barbara probably depended on what sex you are, and that is really epic.

I thought I had seen this movie.  I really enjoyed The Mask of Zorro and I saw that one in the theater, so, in my head, I always believed that I had seen The Legend of Zorro.

Looking at the write up on Vudu, it did not sound familiar, but I just assumed that I had not remembered much about it.

As I started it, I realized… I have never seen this movie before.

It was odd since I liked the first one so much.  I have no idea why I did not see the sequel.  If not in the theater, then on video or cable.

But I had never seen this.

And it was just terrible.

What a flaming mess this thing was.

Zorro (Antonio Banderas) returned to try and help out against a plot to cause trouble when California was joining the Union.  Zorro’s wife, Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) wants her husband to give up the life as Zorro and just be Don Alejandro de la Vega (by the way… that was not his name.  That was the name of Elena’s father. Maybe I missed that, but I was confused about the use of the de la Vega name).  She claimed that Alejandro did not know anything about their son, the now ten-year old Joaquin (Adrian Alonso).

When two government agents (one of whom was LOST’s Ben, Michael Emerson) stumbled upon Zorro’s true identity, they used it to blackmail Elena into divorcing him and taking up with Armand (Rufus Sewell), someone involved in the plot against the U.S. government and who happened to be one of her old flames.

Convoluted?  Damn straight.

Honestly, the first two acts were just brutal.  Characters doing stupid things, acting out of character, comedy that was meant to be funny, but failing miserably, and action nowhere near equal to the previous film.  This was a film I considered several times shutting off.

I did like the story with Joaquin.  He happened to have a trouble streak, much like his daddy, and he was acting out quit a bit.  He also had some athletic ability and agility like the old man.  He did not know that his father was Zorro, so he was dealing with several issues of desertion.  Adrian Alonso was a likable kid, but I never understood how he could be as good as he was at so many things.  The best scenes of this wreck were most definitely with the kid.

The finale with a train was decent, but nothing here that we hadn’t seen before.  The third act definitely had the best action of the film.  The rest of it was totally a waste.

Perhaps I did not see this when it came out because I heard how bad it was and I chose to skip it.  I kind of wish I had done that here too.

The legendary masked hero known as Zorro returned to the big screen in a major action/adventure film in the year 1998.  Martin Campbell directed the film, which had Steven Spielberg attached as an executive producer.  The Mask of Zorro was filled with action and swashbuckling fun.

Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins) was drawn out of hiding to assume the visage of Zorro once more as Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson) prepared to execute several innocent people, with the intent of capturing the illusive masked hero.  Zorro saved the day and escaped back to his home, only to find that Rafael was waiting for him.  With the death of his wife and the abduction of his daughter, de la Vega was taken to prison for years.

Twenty years later, Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas) and his brother were wanted thieves.  They were ambushed by Captain Harrison Love.  Alejandro escaped, but his brother was killed.  Alejandro wound up drunk and angry, preparing an ill-fated attack on Captain Love when de la Vega, a recent escapee,  stopped him and offered to train him as Zorro.

This is a great story of legacy and the passing of the torch, as well as righting wrongs of the past.  The Mask of Zorro takes some liberties with the history of the west, but that is fine.  The story was more than just a revenge tale.  It was about family, honor and dedication to the people of the land.

There are some exciting sword duels throughout the movie between all of the characters and the way Zorro works his way through the crowd trying to kill him is as effective as any super hero.  I will say that there may be one or two too many sword fights for my taste, as they all seemed to blend together.  The final fights at the mine are glorious though and fill the viewer with doubt and tension.

Antonio Banderas is fabulous here and he has amazing chemistry with Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays Elena, de la Vega’s daughter who had been abducted and raised by Rafael as his own.  I may have wanted a little more conflict within Elena when she discovered the lie because, even though he had stolen her away as a child, Rafael still raised her as a father would and it was clear in the movie that he loved her.

There are some very funny bits in the movie as Alejandro is learning to become the legend, many dealing with his horse and his attempt to steal the horse from the town.

Anthony Hopkins brings a gravitas to the film as the original Zorro passing his knowledge along to his eventual predecessor.  Hopkins and Banderas work very well together and show the cracks of two men who have personal vendettas weighing down their agendas.

This does have that old-fashion feel to it and I believe that is a tone that director Campbell was going for.  Zorro has been around for decades, but this was the high level point for the swashbuckler.  It may be a little over long, but it is an enjoyable fun and filled with action and humor.

I have done another recommendation from the Top 10 Show for the End of July Binge-Watch.  Several times over the last few years, they have included the film Oldboy on a variety of lists.  Both John and Matt recommended that when watching Oldboy, to make sure to watch the Korean version.  Now, I have never been a fan of subtitles, having to read the movie, but I had a great time watching Train to Busan, which had subtitles, so I decided to try Oldboy as well.

Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-Sik) was an obnoxious drunk who gets abducted from the street and held prisoner for 15 years in a small room.  The only human interaction he is given is through the television.  He is drugged whenever his captors required access to him.  During this time, Dae-Su is preparing himself for the time he can be free, training, digging a tunnel, anything else he could think of.

After 15 years, Dae-Su is simply released and invited to search out the identity of his captor.  Along the way, he falls in love with a young sushi chef named Mido (Kang Hye-jung).  The film turns into a violent revenge story as well as a mystery of why Dae-Su had been taken in the first place.

There were several shocking moments in this movie that made me squirm a bit.  The violence here is brutal and some times difficult to watch.

I will say that I had figured out the big twist earlier in the movie (or at least thought it could be the answer) so the reveal of that did not shock me as much as the film would have wanted, but the reveal was done very well and delivered a serious blow to the characters.

Once again, once I was engaged with the story and the brutality of the plot, the subtitles seemed to blend into the background.  I became less aware that I was reading them and everything just flowed with the story.  It is a weird circumstance that happened when I watched Train to Busan as well.

This is a tough watch.  Even though I had guessed the reveal at the end, the path getting there is hard and can be challenging to see.  There are scenes of torture and brutality that you do not see in a typical movie.  The film is shot beautifully as the use of these brutal images stick with you.  It is, most likely, a film that I will never revisit, but I am glad I got a chance to see it.

This movie had no right to be good.

Okay, good might be stretching it.

However, I do believe that the second Brady Bunch big screen movie was entertaining and is actually quite a good satire, mainly of itself.

The Brady family returned with the ensemble cast led by Gary Cole as Mike Brady and Shelley Long as Carol Brady.  Then you have the cast of kids, some of which are creepily close to the look of the real Brady Bunch cast members.

In this movie, Carol Brady’s first husband, or so we think, has come back from being believed dead to rediscover his family…. and a $20 million dollar antique horse that was sent to Carol.  Tim Matheson played “Roy,” Carol’s first husband.

There are also multiple storylines going on for all of the other characters, most of which we have already seen in the TV series.  One of the funniest parts of the movie is that it takes these actual story beats from the TV show and uses them to poke fun at the Bradys or at Brady Bunch.

My favorite of the secondary storylines here is the feelings developing between Greg (Christopher Daniels Barnes) and Marcia (Christine Taylor) when they realize that they are not actually brother and sister.  This satirizes the rumors about the actual Brady actors, Greg Williams and Maureen McCormick, and the possible affair they had during the show.

I enjoyed as well the two times where the Brady kids just burst into song, including the classic “Time to Change” from the series.  The song on the airplane was extremely funny and just happened out of nowhere.

If you watched the Brady Bunch, then you will see and understand all of the in jokes that were certainly over the head of younger viewers.  Still, I think there is enough self-deprecating satire here to make this a fun time to watch.  And there is a ton of sexual innuendo in the script for the adults to think about.

Next in the End of July Binge-Watch comes a film that I remember not being a big fan of, but upon second viewing, I liked more than I did.  The original Jumanji was directed by Joe Johnston and would eventually inspire a sequel called Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

I love Robin Williams, but it would not be a shock to realize that he made many movies that were not very good.  I had always included Jumanji in that category, but I did like this better than the first time.

The story is simple.  Robin Williams plays Alan Parrish, a young boy who has an overbearing father.  Alan was being pursued by bullies yet his father went to send him to face his fears which led to him being beaten up.  After the attack, Alan found a strange game in a construction site and took it home.  The game was called Jumanji and when he started playing the game, with Sarah, the girlfriend of the bully who beat him up, he realized that it was more than what it seemed.

The special effects were not bad for the time, and helped propel the action.  In this movie, the game would release jungle creatures into the real world after each player’s turn was up and there were some terrifying moments.  The spiders, the crocodiles, and the lion balanced out the more humorous monkeys and mosquitoes.

The plot itself was pretty simple and the conclusion was predictable.  I can see why I may not have been a huge fan of this when I was younger as Robin Williams was not very funny in the role, at least what I expected for him to be.  Still, looking at it today, he brings his charm and wit to the role even if it is not the fall down laughing performance.

I would definitely say that I prefer the sequel to the original, but I found that this was much better than I remembered.

This is one of my favorite, underrated, unknown thrillers and, arguably, my favorite non-Captain America performance from Chris Evans.  Cellular was a small film from 2004, but it was filled with thrills and excitement.

Just as technology started to explode with cell phones, Cellular comes along and shows every little trouble with them and brings out the tension in the situation.  Everything from losing a signal in a tunnel or stairwell, low battery, and crossing lines, Cellular mines these little details into a life and death struggle.

Jessica (Kim Basinger), a high school science teacher is suddenly and unexpectedly kidnapped from her house and thrown into an attic.  Ethan (Jason Statham) and his crew want information from her about her husband, but Jessica is confused.  Ethan smashed the landline phone in the attic and leaves her locked up.

Ryan (Chris Evans) is a young, irresponsible man, out on the beach, trying to get his girlfriend to take him back.  When he picks up a call on his phone, he discovers that Jessica, who has been rubbing wires together on the smashed phone trying to contact anyone, is on the other side, begging him to take the phone to a police officer.  Ryan, despite thinking this was a joke, took the phone to the police station where he encountered Officer Mooney (William H. Macy), who because of sudden chaos breaking out at the station, sent Ryan to a different section.

It was at this time when Ryan hears Ethan arrive and threaten Jessica and he understands that this is no joke.

Then the film dives headlong into a chase film that is as tension-filled and suspenseful as you can get.  Yes, there are a lot of times when you have to suspend disbelief to accept what has happened, but you can say that about any action film.  The films that are successful give you other reasons to suspend that disbelief than just the action bit.  In Cellular, you immediately connect with the relationship between Jessica and Ryan.  Ryan is remarkably likable and Chris Evans shows why he was a great choice to play Steve Rogers in the MCU.

Kim Basinger is not anyone’s victim here either.  She is shown as a mamma lion, willing to do whatever she has to do to protect her family.  She is not a damsel-in-distress and her strength and cleverness is clearly on display.

William H. Macy has a great role as well, providing the audience with a character that is meant to be like us.  He is a disgruntled cop preparing to leave the department and open a day spa.  Everything that happened in the day just stuck with him and he found himself dropped into the middle of the action.

Jason Statham was great as a villain.  This was the time in his career where he played a lot of villains in individual movies, but you could see here that he was heading for more with what he was able to bring to this performance.

There is humor, suspense, thrills.  You may never have heard of Cellular, but this is one that, if you have a couple of hours, will entertain you fully.  I loved Cellular.

In search of the next film for the End of July Binge-Watch, I came across this film on Amazon Prime.  I had never heard of the film before, but the name Stephen King drew me in.

A little town goes crazy when several murders start to occur, but they did not know the truth. The murders were being committed by a werewolf.  When the young paralyzed boy named Marty (Corey Haim) figures out about the creature, he finds in difficult for anyone to believe him.  Even his sister Jane (Megan Follows) and his off-kilter uncle Red (Gary Busey) found the story far fetched.  However, Marty finds himself targeted by the monster and ends up in several dangerous situations.

This film is about as 80s as you can get.  The hairstyles, dialogue and outfits screamed the 80s which tends to date the film a bit.  Like many films of the decade, the special effects were less than special.  The werewolf was clearly a man in a rubber suit with fur on it, but I can accept that since it was the time.  It is not as if there were intricate CGI available.  And truly, practical effects are a good way to go many times.  Problem is that this was still pretty cheap as effects go.

And the cast was quite recognizable and did cause me to be distracted.  Corey Haim was pretty good as our lead protagonist, the boy in the wheelchair.  It was nice that they had a handicapped child as the lead character and they showed him as anything but a victim.  Haim is charming and has a presence about him.  Sure, the dialogue and many of the things they had him do were not the best, but he did what they asked of him.  It is sad that Corey Haim had such a dysfunctional life and had so many troubles outside the movies.  He was a talented young kid who could have been a huge success.

Other people I recognized… John Locke from LOST (that is Terry O’Quinn) was the Sheriff of the town.  Twin Peaks’ Big Ed Hurley (that is Everett McGill) was the preacher, Reverend Lowe.   Bill Smitrovich, who is a character actor we have seen many places was Andy.  The very first werewolf victim was Manager Lou Brown (aka James Gammon) from Major League.  He looked different but I recognized his voice immediately.

Gary Busey was in his full Gary Busey mode and would steal most every scene he was in.  He had a nice, easy connection with Corey Haim and I believed them as crazy uncle and nephew.

There seemed to be plenty missing from the film, including reasons for the werewolf.  The story was fairly simple, but it did have its moments.  It was not the worst horror movie I have ever seen, but it is far from the best either.