146 - A Time To Kill

Connection To S*P*Y*S - Donald Sutherland.

In my opinion the most engrossing John Grisham adaptation, that's not to say it's without faults - it's just the one I'd pick off a shelf to watch - A Time To Kill takes the story of a father gunning down the two men who raped his young daughter - and adding race into the mix.

And that's really it's selling point - because it's set in the Deep South, so yeah race is really an issue - which is where one of the films tensions comes from even bringing in the KKK - while the scenes are well done you can't help but think it overflows the film a bit including threats and attacks to the characters linked to Matthew McConaughey's young lawyer who takes the case.

Of course the other tension is related to the trial of Samuel L. Jackson which does end up including the films most famous line ("YES THEY DESERVE TO DIE AND I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL!") which I think with the subject matter would have made an interesting film on it's own (as in only seeing the trial). 

There's quite a cast of familiar faces including Sandra Bullock, who is not bad in the movie but in a lot of ways is a character not needed for the film at all - but I guess she's there to add star-wattage.

One thing I noticed about the film is how sweaty it is - most noticeable with Ashley Judd (who plays McConaughey's wife). This is not a complaint just a statement.

The thing I had most trouble with is the ending and the final argument by McConaughey - it's a great heartbreaking speech but I failed to make the leap of why it would get Jackson off with the murders.

Overall overlong and too many plot strands but very watchable with a good cast and a main story you are interested in, so I would air on the side of recommended.

143 - The Road To Wellville

Connection To WAYNE'S WORLD - Dana Carvey and Lara Flynn Boyle.

I was looking online after watching this film and noticed the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate is 41%, and a user rating of 5.7 (out of 10) over on IMDB, this surprises me because that's means most peoples opinion of this are average or below average at best - it surprises me because this will be my - I think - third time watching it and have enjoyed it every time.

To be fair, it's hard to tell who the movie was originally aimed at on release - there's sex, naked skin, but none of it is particularly sexual (I did enjoy however as a teenager - Bridget Fonda's nipple in the milk bath scene) and though it's based on a true story (though heavily fictionalized), the subject matter just might not be of interest to true story movie fans.

I could actually see Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Kellogg being distracting to people with his accent and buck teeth but me, personally liked that Hopkins was willing to do something a bit different. Matthew Broderick and John Cusack are enjoyable support but I do wish Bridget Fonda's character was a bit more clearly defined but that was in the writing, nothing to do with her performance. Dana Carvey as Kellogg's adopted son I thought was among the film's more enjoyable performances.

Overall, a film that I think dares to be different - which probably why opinion is so underwhelming as was the box-office, but for me it was a nice (breakfast) treat.

137 - Nightmare In Badham County

Connection To CARAVAN OF COURAGE - Fionnula Flanagan.

Last year, I watched the 70's movie The Great Texas Dynamite Chase - which I found great, why I mentioned this, is it is related to how I discovered this movie and that was typing in the Great Texas Dynamite Chase in YouTube on the PS3 and it clicks through various uploads - often full films - that have a similar vibe, whatever going for them and this was one that just stuck out to me.

So yeah I totally went Harry Knowles there telling you about something so not relevant to my opinion of the film - but I guess I just wanted you the fictional reader to know how I came across this movie and sometimes it's worth leaving it up to chance where you get took.

Women-in-prison (or in this case women-in-prison-farm) movies are popular for obvious reasons - potential nudity, potential lesbianism, both jump to mind - even the Netflix show Orange Is The New Black (which has both) shows there is still life in this sub-genre, you can be shocked by the way the women get treated but you can also revel in it's T&A.

Nightmare In Badham County started life as an ABC TV movie but did get released in foreign markets (it was a huge hit in China) with added nudity and the like - this is the version I assumed I watched since there was full frontal, which I can't see being on ABC.

Two girls - one white, one black (which is relevant in the film, because they get segregated once in the prison farm) are pulled over by dodgy sheriff (an enjoyably slimely turn from Chuck Conners) who ends up after they verbally get the better of him a cafe comes up with trumped up charges, that with the help of judge (Ralph Bellamy - also enjoyable) who ending putting the girls in the prison for a minimum of 30 days.

While the film does feature the usual standards of women-in-prison films including the not mentioned yet sadistic prison guards, I found it very enjoyable from start to finish - I was rooting for the girls to get out of there and the bad people to get their comeuppance SPOILER which the first part of the sentence only half happens and the bad guys - no comeuppance END OF SPOILER.

One moment of lesbian/nudity I wanted to point just for the reason of who's in the scene and it was one of the sadistic prison guards being played by Fionnula Flanagan, I bring this up because she has a full frontal scene, and is weird the number of films I've seen with her as an older woman, just not somebody I expected to add to celebrities who I have seen nude.

Overall, well worth a watch particularly if you are fan of this sub genre, it didn't feel like a TV movie at all so don't let that put you off, I'm easily on the side of recommended here.

135 - Under The Rainbow

Connection To JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK - Carrie Fisher.

The legend of the debauchery that the actors who played the Munchkins in The Wizard Of Oz still exists today, even the star Judy Garland helped add to the legend talking about it on the talk short circuit in her later years, however most signs probably point to not really being true - that didn't stop a film being made about it 1981 - with an added Nazi/Japanese subplot.

Though the film flopped hard on release I couldn't help but like it - I think I am forgiving of films from the 1980's then any other decade (Soul Man being a prime example) - there's plenty of groan-worthy jokes in here (including one that actually sets a plot into motion, which I'll get too later).

Maybe the film would have been better recieved at the time if they forgone the plots that didn't involve the Munchkin performers being all chaotic in the hotel, the film spends it's time mostly concentrating on Chevy Chase's bodyguard for a foreign ambassador and Carrie Fisher whose been employed by the studio to wrangle the actors, which at least both where in their prime - Princess Leia spends a portion of the movie in her bra - and this flop was a blip on the career of Chase rather then the later par of the course for him.

There's enough going on the movie though to stop it from being anything but boring - you'll recognize an all bunch of the little people actors just from other stuff you've seen with the focus on the little people, and only a couple of jokes really hit the spot.

Overall, I enjoyed it on the whole, I could nitpick the criticisms many people give this but I think it's worth giving it a try.

122 - The Fearless Hyena

Connection To THE INVINCIBLE EIGHT - James Tien.

Before watching the remastered widescreen version of this in it's original language recently, I had only ever seen the full screen dubbed version on VHS, this mean't my opinion had been that to say it most diplomatic - this was one of Jackie Chan's lesser efforts - but seeing it how it was mean't to be seen - I have to say this film is a lost classic - in my humble opinion it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Drunken Master and Snake In The Eagle Shadow (seriously).

Going back to the VHS days - I hope I can explain this well, we are talking this is 1990 - 93ish my brother was starting his lifelong love for Hong Kong cinema and particularly Jackie Chan and with him buying the VHS means I got to see (albeit dubbed) classics such as Police Story, Project A and Wheels On Meals - and there was sort of 2 Chan camps, the early Chan and the more recent Chan, the early Chan where worse prints and worse boxes, everything means I saw them as the lesser films, that's what Spiritual Kung Fu was (called Karate Ghostbusters) or something like Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu, and of course (to remain relevant) The Fearless Hyena, and like I say these titles where lumped together as before Chan's prime - even though some films like this where made after Drunken Master - and was no way going to get as much play as Police Story.

The Fearless Hyena which was also Chan's directorial debut (from 1979, the year after Drunken Master) was I think him trying to prove a point - there's loads of fighting, comedy but also drama (just to prove he could do it), some of this was probably aimed at the director Lo Wei who he had up until then recently being under contract to just to say if you let me be - look what you could have had.

While it's not entirely original (even in the Chan oeuvre) hitting the marks as you would expect, there is both vintage Chan fighting and Chan comedy (and Chan in drag as the picture suggests), and while some scenes might echo say Drunken Master, Chan adds enough to them to make them seem fresh.

Overall, avoid the dubbed full screen and if you get a chance to see a decent print in the original language to me you'll be beyond pleasantly surprised. Recommended.

121 - The Invincible Eight

Connection To THE VICTIM - Sammo Hung who worked on the film and can be seen briefly.

Strictly (UK) speaking from my point of view here - The amount of Hong Kong cinema on DVD compared to what's potentially released is quite low, true a lot of the work from the HK superstars is available - but alas sadly it seems, a lot of the company that release these titles, end up going bust sooner or later including the awesome Hong Kong Legends, and even though it would be nice to have DVDs of many of the films, places online like YouTube have end up being awesome featuring stuff that is not necessarily the easiest to come by and best of all they can often come in the original language.

Which brings me to The Invincible Eight, an early film from Golden Harvest, at one point the homes for Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan among others, which I got the chance to watch online - this did get a release on the Legendary Collection in Hong Kong itself which all of sudden out of nowhere all went out of print - which is directed by Lo Wei who did go onto direct the first two Bruce Lee Hong Kong films and Jackie Chan (which wasn't a creative partnership), actually this was made the same year as The Big Boss with all signs pointing that it was made before.

I really did end up enjoying this - I was expecting something Magnificent Seven like, based on the title alone, and to be fair I think there is shades of a western movie influence in here, you tell me the last shot of the movie wouldn't be out of place in a western? The plot is basically 8 people who end up with revenge on their mind, and involves them eventually teaming together to take down the big boss.

To me this was Angela Mao's movie, it had the most energy whenever she was on screen, and are character was among the most enjoyable but it was pretty good the eight had distinct enough personalities to stand out from each other.

Overall, there is probably better kung fu movies with better fighting etc. but I was left satisfied and was rooting for the eight to get their revenge, if you like the old kung fu movies there is no reason why you won't like this. 

120 - The Victim

Connection To ENTER THE FAT DRAGON - Sammo Hung.

Sammo Hung like a lot the actors working in this time period in Hong Kong (let's say early 70s to early 90s) where often prolific, multiple films released in the same year where there American counterparts might have not have done half their amount. What is great though say - about Sammo Hung films is that you are discovering new films all the time, which never ever end up being quickies made around some of their most famous work, they stand up on their own as pretty cool flicks.

While it's fair in my mind to say 70's period kung fu can sometimes blur together because I think of similar locations/clothing and the inevitable of the same actors popping up - six degrees of HK cinema is probably the easiest game in the world - they are films that I want to see - there's usually a cool villain, cool fights, revenge (often the master or relative like the father) which make them reliable and fun.

And whilst The Victim doesn't stand out too much it's still a film I enjoyed thoroughly, maybe because it had a bunch of the hallmarks of these period kung fu movies plus the whole Sammo Hung-ness (yeah that's a thing... apparently) of the movie make the film a good watch.

I must say the villain with his eye-patch I kept thinking Bond villain, but I think it was subconscious in many way because it hit me that he looked like (a Chinese) Javier Bardem, who yeah was the most recent Bond Villain.

Overall, not a game-changer in it's genre but a solid movie with decent fight scenes and the occasional good laugh, recommended.