28 - Super

Connection To BEAUTY SHOP - Kevin Bacon, who was going to be one of the connections sooner or later wasn't he?

Super, was one of 3 films came out around the same time that dealt with people who had no superpowers whatsoever deciding to become "heroes", the other two films where Defendor (getting there first in 2009), Kick-Ass - Kick-Ass being the best known of the bunch (and the only based on a comic) is the one the other two compare it too, people can potentially be disappointed though because neither have the big-ness about them as both are small budget in comparison. Super, though for my money is the best of the three and like Chloé Moretz in the Kick-Ass movies as an ace in it's hole of it's own and that's the one and only Ms. Ellen Page.

Make no mistake the film around her is great (as are other performances) but this movie belongs to Page,

The film has a fantastic animated opening featuring all the main characters and tells the story of Frank (Rainn Wilson), whose narration tells you he only as two good memories in his life - marrying his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) and helping a police officer catch a robber because of directing him where to go. He draws them in crayon and hangs them on his wall. Sarah, a recovering addict leaves Frank for Jacques (Kevin Bacon) who gets her hooked on the drugs again. Frank has a vision which he is touched by the hand of a good, and meets the Holy Avenger (a great cameo from Nathan Fillion) - who is a superhero from a public access how and is told he as chosen for a special purpose - and that is to become a superhero, he goes to a comic book store for inspiration and meets Libby (Page) who though he says he's creating a new comic book character sort of sees through it, he then creates a superhero costume and takes up the name of The Crimson Bolt.

His weapon of choice is mostly a pipe wrench and he begins to fight crime to various rule breakers from the major (child molesters) to the by comparison minor (somebody who cuts in line) and becomes a media sensation.

The film is very enjoyable from start to finish, Libby ends up becoming involved when wounded he goes to hers for help and she ends up becoming his sidekick (Boltie) and the cast is great - Wilson plays Frank so well that we don't completely think he's a loony when he has the visions and ends up being a superhero and Tyler, though not given much to do. Bacon the villain of the piece plays it excellently charismatic who sees The Crimson Bolt/Frank more of a nuisance at times then his arch-nemesis but like I said the film belongs to Page who is such a brilliant ball of energy that the film shines most brightly when she's on screen - crazy but still as the Page cuteness about her that I fancied her despite how dangerous she would clearly be if she was real.

I'd say the film is the darkest of the three real life superhero movies from the same time, it seems the smallest production (though the budget between this and Defendor I imagine are the closest), but after the inevitable shoot out ending it finishes on a nice note...

Overall I absolutely loved this, it might have a bit a sour taste for some people to truly love it like I do but anybody willing to give it a chance will be pleasantly surprised.

27 - Beauty Shop

Connection To THE BABYSITTER - Alicia Silverstone

The spin-off movie as never really looked like it's took off - films that are not necessarily sequels but feature one or more characters in another situation - Daredevil had Elektra, both of which are considered by the majority underwhelming movies, The Wolverine movies from X-Men are of of mixed opinion and stuff like The Marvel Avengers Universe and to a lesser extent the Kevin Smith View Askew is trickier when it comes to saying what is a spin-off of what, there's obviously a lot of spin-off movies I've left off but the lack of successes in the one's that did happen means some great supporting movie characters through cinema history haven't had the chance to have their day in the limelight.

Beauty Shop is the spin-off or (the sequel) to the two Barber Shop films, both of which starred Ice Cube with Queen Latifah co-starring in the second one, before writing this up I had not seen any of the three, so I am not sure how good this will be (or even how it stands in relation quality otherwise to the other two).

Queen Latifah whose a good screen presence is somebody I would never buy/rent a film because they was in it and hear she plays a beauty shop employee under the management of Jorge (Kevin Bacon) who after a dispute end up quitting as launching her own rival beauty shop and ends up taking the other salon workers and customers with her, that's kind of the plot really - it's one of those films that decides to spend time with it's characters rather then have a proper plot.

There was times I smiled and even laughed at some moments in the film, a lot of the characters are enjoyable, Kevin Bacon particularly is enjoyable even if he's playing a flamboyant foreign stereotype (I hear the character will be joining 2 Broke Girls soon...) as are Alfre Woodard, Alicia Silverstone (still looking pretty) and some of the more minor characters - there's also some familar faces as customers including Andie MacDowell and Mena Suvari who fit in good with the cast.

Overall a likable film that may be about 10-15 minutes too long, the characters are all good enough that's it's enough of a pleasure spending time with them.

26 - The Babysitter

Connection To THE CABLE GUY - George Segal.

Adolescent Confession Time #1 - I remember watching this in bits and pieces (probably seeing it all) in the 90s in what I call for me personally - The Puberty Years - hoping to catch some Alicia Silverstone breast, the internet hadn't really come to my town properly at that point to be be to log on and tell me Silverstone does not show any boob during the course of the movie (despite there being a scene with her in the bath), so yeah my memory of The Babysitter is that it's underwhelming because I wanted me some Cher Horowitz skin!

Anyway, my memory of it that it was called a thriller but I couldn't really remember anything thriller about it, and yeah it's a series of males fantasizing about the babysitter - the father of the kids she's babysitting, her boyfriend and his bad boy friend - it wouldn't be out of line to say all these fantasies are a few notches even below soft core, which is perhaps the way the film should have gone, which I guess could have mean't losing Silverstone for more prudish reasons and the other actors such as George Segal because they don't want to be linked to something a bit more soft core but all that's left is tame.

So from one point of view, Silverstone is well cast, because you can easily see her as this object of affection for these pervs but it's a film that lacks any real bite, the entire film is basically just when it might get cut like out of the fantasy or lets cut away to another character.

Overall, a disappointing experience that would probably not have got noticed if it wasn't released in the same year (1995) as Clueless, I wouldn't recommend it because it's mostly a limp affair.

25 - The Cable Guy

 Connection To 3 NINJAS KNUCKLE UP - Charles Napier

America, The World whatever... was just not ready for THIS Jim Carrey in 1996. The audience still wanted him bending over talking out of his butt and much was made of Carrey's $20 million fee for the movie, his run of movies before starting from the first Ace Ventura certainly showed he was bankable but a black comedy like this wouldn't have attracted the same audience even if Carrey took scale. In a different (later) time a movie directed by Ben Stiller and starring Carrey with roles for Jack Black and Owen Wilson and produced by Judd Apatow would sound like such a winner but it just wasn't to be.

I saw this initially in 1997, when I would have been 14/15 and I was one of the small number of British people who knew Jim Carrey was even before Ace Ventura, I knew him from In Living Color, Earth Girls Are Easy and because of them knew who he was when I saw him in his small role in The Dead Pool, so yeah when super-stardom came it was cool seeing it happen.

Anyway I digress and back to 1997, I'd seen all the stuff Carrey was doing post-Ace Ventura and this was a film I was going to see, but by the time I'd seen it, it had already flopped and being slated and in spite of that I enjoyed it, I recall watching it again around 2000 and still liking it, but haven't seen it since then so I'm curious to see if I still will enjoy a film I will defend some 14 years (maybe a touch more or less) as misunderstood and actually a really good black comedy. (all this first bit was actually written before the re-watch)...

Watching it now, I'm still on the side it's a good film - a good film with flaws, the overriding fact is to everyone watching is that Carrey's character is lonely but unhinged, Broderick really shouldn't have let it get that far even after the initial scenes with each other but it's still fun seeing Broderick let the all situation get out of control.

However one of my little problems is I don't think Broderick's character stands out enough, though you could argue he's another actor overshadowed by a force of nature in Carrey performance (I genuienly think the first actors to steal the show from Carrey where Cary Elwes in Liar Liar and Steve Carell in Bruce Almighty), but to be fair Owen Wilson in a smaller scene leaves an impression, Ben Stiller himself and Eric Roberts also pop in enjoyable bits.

There's it fair share of memorable scenes such as the karaoke scene or the jousting or even the aforementioned Owen Wilson scene and it's pace is not too bad. I'm not picking on Broderick here (because I've enjoyed him in plenty) but his scenes without Carrey tend to be some of the less interesting ones though if he shares the scene with Leslie Mann you have at least her to look at.

Overall a film that still as anchor of Carrey's price tag on it but still a film with enough redeeming qualities about it, no question about it though it's Carrey's film.

24 - 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up

Connection To DEAR GOD - Donal Logue

now this is a picture that looks so wrong out of context...

I just assumed I could skip over the first 2 movies, I don't believe it will make this one difficult to follow in the absence seeing the earlier two - I have already talked about child actors in two previous entries, one speaking in the negative way (Leave It To Beaver) and the other in a more positive (Camp Nowhere) - I guess one thing I don't know from not seeing the earlier films is the reasoning behind the boys having an Asian grandfather (other then teaching them martial arts)

I'm not having a go at child actors, it's just when they are the key roles in a movie and their bad it just can make the film a struggle to watch and the child actors are at the forefront here.

The local bad guys, are them sort that only seem to exist in movies, the sort who will bully a little girl because it needs them to be the designated bad guys and these films plot around the 3 Ninjas protecting Native Americans from a toxic waste company

This was film in 1992 but not released until 1995 so the slang, clothing etc. was already dated among the youth when it came out and yeah even more so now. My goal on this blog was just write something about the films I just watched as long as it was least a paragraph there is nothing much I feel like I can write - it really just didn't interest me - this is probably towards the bottom of the pile of film's I have watched so far on this blog.

Overall too childish to appeal to adult me and likely too childish for me back in 1995 (I was already on a long-term diet of Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao etc. by that point) and I don't many younglings today would end up enjoying this movie.

23 - Dear God

Connection To GOD BLESS AMERICA - Larry Miller appears briefly in both.

Dear God's plot can actually be summed up pretty easy - conman forced with jail time or getting a job gets a job in the post office and ends up answering the request of somebodies letter to God, his co-workers end up joining in this good deed even with the legality of it all.

Greg Kinnear is the said conman who does go through the predictable change but it's not a bad thing, I may have watched this on the night, this probably more better suited to the afternoon, a film that's ultimate goal is to give you a nice warm fuzzy feeling about (it's even set around Christmas time - but that's not an overbearing part of the movie), he's always been a pretty decent actor but he only ever touches on a good role every now and again and he is - I am going to go with the overall word that represents this movie - likable...

Yeah, he's likable, everything's likable - it's not meant to threatening - grumpy characters hearts melt, people change for the good - the ending is even crowd cheering the goodness, there's some decent supporting cast including Laurie Metcalf, Tim Conway and in a smaller role Jack Klugman, Maria Pitillo as Kinnear's love interest is not bad per say, she's just not written as much other then be a single mother and be pretty

The film's heart is in the right place as the films message is nice the have-not's doing something for the other have-not's, there's enough that's funny (in a light sort of way - where you'll smile rather then laugh out loud)

Overall, it's say it with me - LIKABLE - The film is not really meant to be anything more I think and so for that reason it's such a short round up this time because they are only some many times you can say that.

22 - God Bless America

Connection To Police Academy 4 - Bobcat Goldthwait 

Dear Mr. Goldthwait,  

I enjoyed you so much as the guy with the funny voice from movies that I love such as the Police Academy films, One Crazy Summer and Scrooged. But wow, as a filmmaker you've really impressed me - I didn't think anybody could make a sweet film about a woman that gives a blowjob to a dog, but you really impressed me with World's Greatest Dad - though it was a trifle unnecessary to see Robin Williams' penis - took a subject and realistically showed how one small lie could go out of control - I am genuinely excited to see God Bless America 

Yours sincerely, 

Me 

P.S. sorry I haven't seen Shakes The Clown, that's why I didn't mention it

That's a short letter I would probably write to Bobcat Goldthwait before seeing God Bless America, for me personally no actor turned director recently have quite impressed me like him, so there's actors who are more flashy, more award friendly (I did like Ben Affleck's Argo), but over the last 10 or so years Goldthwait as being doing some pretty darn good black comedy on the smaller budget scale (you know in comparison). Of the previous Goldthwait films I have seen I have been very satisfied (like that dog) - Sleeping Dogs was good and World's Greatest Dad was better, but anyway onto God Bless America, which I have clearly pretended I haven't watched before writing of all the above.

God Bless America (or GBA I'll call it from now on) feels extremely timely - even as a Brit - I could feel the disenchantment that was felt with the world that is felt with this movie - how people act, the rise of reality TV and who is made famous because of it.

The film opens with a man who daydreams and ends up shooting a baby (which is not seen on-screen), I imagine this could be something that immediately put somebody off the film

That man is Frank (Joel Murray - brother of Bill and a former co-star of Goldthwait), who while at home flicking through the channels he sees a bunch of "reality" shows including something similar to the housewives show which ends up one woman throwing her bloody tampon at the other and an episode of American Superstarz where an handicapped guy is getting humiliated by the judges

he gets fired from his job when the receptionist that he simply nice to puts in a complaint against him and also finds out from a disinterested doctor that he has a brain tumour. Whilst trying to commit suicide a reality show starring a spoiled teenage girl comes on who throws a huge tantrum when her parents get her the wrong colour car and as an Epiphany.

He drives to the girl's school and handcuffs her to her steering wheel and ends up killing her at point blank rage, a classmate of hers Roxy (Tara Lynn Barr) witnesses this, after this he goes back to trying to kill himself in the motel but Roxy tracks him down, convincing him the media will only see him as an obsessed stalker with a crush who killed her, he ends up killing her parents after saying he only wants bad people to die and he ends up taking Roxy along for the ride.

While on paper it could sound like Natural Born Killers updated slightly, we don't end up necessary rooting for the pair and who they kill, because they mostly deserve to be told off rather then be shot to death, what is most scary particularly things like the reality TV shown, they all be fake shows but they are all so very real, Goldthwait as embellished absolutely nothing, the same for the moments of rudeness in people - the horrible cinema goer etc. - you see a lot of people like this in the real world now especially when it comes to technology. 

Murray is great and it's surprise that he doesn't get more roles, even minor, it's seems like he only pops up in roles every now and again, but he really shines, Barr's performance somewhat reminded me of Ellen Page in SUPER, this is not a negative comparison, I loved Page in that movie and to be thought of in the same breath is a compliment.

Overall, a great movie for me but a movie I would imagine would and could divide opinion which many a dark-comedy can, but enough people who will bother to watch this will find that it's a gem.