You Must See This Movie

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: Frank (Joel Murray) is a middle aged man who has a series of misfortunes. Increasingly frustrated by people being mean on reality TV, he gets drunk and decides to kill one of them before committing suicide. However, the teenaged Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), also feeling disenfranchised, encourages him instead to go on a crusade with the two of them killing those who deserve it. One thing that some people see as a flaw in the movie I see as a strength: the characters don’t have a fully figured plan at first, and try to figure out the rules as they go along. So, for example, whom they deem deserving of killing changes according to circumstances; they’re not simply targeting reality stars, for example. This also allows the...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: This movie entirely takes place within a mock reality show which is on its seventh competition. Supposedly this is a series of episodes edited together. The show’s premise is that the show’s players, save the winner from the previous round are randomly chosen and all have to try to kill each other. The most prominent of these players is the reigning champion Dawn (Brooke Smith). The movie doesn’t explain why the players have to play the game or what would happen if all the players refused to do so; instead this is taken as a given in the TV landscape. Since the show appears as the audience would see it, presumably the fictional audience already knows such details. It is clear, however that the players can’t opt out...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Bad category: The Last Heist follows a group of bank robbers led by Paul (Torrance Coombs) who decide to rob a bank that is closing down and thus has a skeleton staff working. Unbeknownst to them a serial killer (Bernard aka the Window Killer, played by Henry Rollins) has intimidated his way into butting in line for the safety deposit box room, something that the bank manager and sole employee seem willing to allow. A hostage situation arises even before they learn this, partly because the employee, Danny (Michael Aaron Milligan) is Paul’s brother who was supposed to be off duty. This gradually leads to all the crooks removing their hoods. Detective Pascal (Victoria Pratt) secures the outside, but her authority is eventually usurped ...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: Defendor stars Woody Harrelson as Arthur Poppington, a man with a developmental disability who puts on a makeshift costume and fights crime as Defendor while seeking out Captain Industry, whom he believes killed his parents. Along the way he meets and befriends a street worker, Kat Debrofkowitz (Kat Dennings). This movie, by first time director Peter Stebbings could have gone horribly wrong. When your lead character has a developmental disability, the acting needs to be a bit restrained, and Harrelson has been known to overact at times. Thankfully here he hits the right note. Arthur is sympathetic but believable, neither a caricature nor some idealized person with a disability; he’s no Forrest Gump spouting words o...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Bad category: Alley Cat follows a martial artist named Billie (Karin Mani) who takes on a street gang. This street gang has the worst luck, only encountering Billie or her grandparents whenever they attempt a mugging. All this turns Billie into a vigilante. Before her final showdown Billie ends up teaming with a cop named Johnny (Robert Tortl) and runs afoul of a Judge Taylor (Jay Walker, yes, Jay Walker) who seems to have written his own courtroom rules that you won’t find anywhere else. Night and day in the movie seems to follow shooting schedules and not any real world sense of time. One can easily believe that Johnny is an undercover cop: he is so laid back that absolutely nothing about him even remotely hints of cop; the onl...