Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

            Well, I'm sure all of you know by now that everywhere you go in terms of stores like Walmart or Dollar General hell, any store around the states or all over planet Earth you'd probably know that Halloween season is already coming around the corner. And granted I don't know what's going around the world in terms of Halloween, but I would doubt the Middle East. And so, I decided to watch Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood? Look, all you know is that it's Jason vs Carrie but it's not Carrie.

            Years after the strange drowning death of her father, Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln) returns to the site of his demise, Crystal Lake. Her developing psychic were responsible for ending his life, leaving Tina riddled with guilt as an adult. While deceitful Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser) tries to manipulate her abilities for his own ends, both physician and patient are in for a shock when Tina's powers unwittingly free camper-killer Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) from his watery slumber.

            I got to say typing in the plot of the movie as well as talking about it now kind of makes sense in terms of a refresher I mean sure they're a lot of things that I would most certainly forget but a few things about the plot of the film and yet to the films credit it does give you a little refresher in terms of what you can get caught up after watching Jason Lives. And it's been close to a year since I last watched Jason Lives and so, this was a good refresher as to what I missed at the end of the film. While watching, The New Blood I did begin to realize through the course of the movie, of this being a sort of Carrie vs Jason type of a film? And looking up the film on Wikipedia, it says that after failed concepts writer of Part VII, Daryl Haney says that Carrie vs Jason came into light for is one of those minor accomplishments in guessing the entire plot right. This film also introduces Kane Hodder in what everyone knows to be as the true Jason Voorhees and there's really not a whole lot to say in terms of what makes his performance great, a side from his performance in Jason X was much better because that film is the creme dela creme of amazingly bad entertainment so, there's that. Like most of the Friday the 13th films there's really not a whole lot to say other than whenever you’re having a s**ty day and nothing going your way I would highly recommend just sitting down and have a Friday the 13th movie marathon because in all honesty these films are just made to be pure entertainment and stupid at the same time and if you take these films seriously then you're just missing the sense of these films and especially the 80's culture in what movies back in those days we're made for. Moreover that's kind of the same reasons as to why the remake of Friday the 13th failed miserably because the producers tried to make it scary but all these films are nothing but terrible teenagers just being horrible to either fat people or nerdy people and Jason does us a favor by taking them all out, for which really when you think about especially when you’re getting older your just rooting for Jason at the end and if it we're me I would remake Friday the 13th as a dark comedy with horrible teens and Jason taking them out although that's already been done because the 80's has already done it. Like the previous Jason films, the pure fun and entertaining to watch from start to finish although the first three films are okay you can watch them only once but if it were me, I would say New Blood, Jason Lives and Jason X are the best Friday movies in my opinion. So, if you’re getting ready for Halloween, I would highly recommend watching the Friday the 13th films and even have your kids watch them because they're going to be going to high school and they should at least get some experience in terms of what they have to experience and these films are at least realistic than the High School Musical movies. Although I would say kids today are making good choices although nowadays kids could possibly be doing at least dumb stuff. Now, New Blood was fun to watch with satisfactory deaths but I'm looking forward to watching Jason taking Manhattan, and hopefully that one will be fun before I get to the nineth film. 

         

 

Number 17

 

           Still going in the simple movie watching sense, mostly finding some movies in the 90-minute range, decided to watch an early Alfred Hitchcock film that was made in the early 1930's England. Moreover, since my Stanley Kubrick journey is coming to an end, I figured it's time to go on another journey but this time finding famous directors’ earlier films that no one has even touched or presented, furthermore Number 17 came into my radar, especially when is sixty-five minutes of runtime. 

             In an empty London house, a hobo named Ben (Leon M. Lion) looks for shelter yet instead finds a corpse. When Detective Fordyce (John Stuart) shows up, he questions Ben but is interrupted when a girl (Ann Casson) falls through the roof. Her father has vanished, and she's received an instructible telegram that mentions both the house and a missing necklace. Soon more suspicious characters turn up, all looking for the necklace, and none of them who they claim to be. 

             I think if you set aside the fast action sequences of the 30's films where the robber or the banker is being chased by the cop and they shot the sequences in a fast pace where they're running in a comedic fashion like someone rescuing a woman from being run over by the train. You'll see a lot of it in this movie, but in all honesty this film has that great flair of being an importantly, good example in knowing how to make your first movie or short film and make it into simplest form possible like you have a warehouse bunch of characters after a robbery or friends hanging out and get caught in the cross hairs of a bunch of killers or bank robbers and their taken hostage and you simply have it set in a warehouse and create drama as well as start your story there. And while watching this film a bunch of times I have to say that this is one of those films that inspire me to want to write a short film and just create a simple story of a hostage situation or an after bank robbery and either way I love the way this film was constructed. While through the course of the film, I had to admit that this entire film was just going to be set in the warehouse and a struggle happens and then that's it that's the film, what I didn't expect is a high octane chase between a bus and a steam engine and of course this is thirties style of filmmaking and you would probably use a train set and small bus toy to make it look like that their driving so fast, and again it's amusingly funny because of what they had to make and the same goes with the fight scenes because I would at least imagine that Hitch had a way to make a normal fight but I guess not, though still believe that these high octane sequences are amusingly funny but is also amazed on how they were able to shoot the movie with very little resources on what they had at the time. This film is free on all types of streaming services with ads from YouTube to Tubi and even Amazon Prime, and so, if you’re looking to watch any of Hitchcock's earlier works then I would highly recommend watching Number 17, it's a great watch of early thirties cinema and more importantly amusing with the action sequences but more importantly I would highly recommend anyone to watch this if you’re looking for a way to start off your film by doing a short film by making it thirty or sixty minutes long for the audience. 

        

The Last Boy Scout

 

           Kind of lost track this past week in terms of movie watching, mostly getting a little off the sidetrack in terms of real-life shenanigans like work and trying to get back on that right track. Anyway, the only way I can get back on that track is watching an entertainingly bad action movie, and so, Tony Scott's the Last Boy Scout came into fluctuant while browsing through my Tubi account, so I figured why not give this movie a shot and surprisingly I actually remembered seeing clips of this movie though it's more of the opening scene where the running back is shooting the entire defense which is the same way O.J. destroyed the entire bronco defense.

           Once a first-rate Secret Service Agent, Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) is now a gruff private investigator who’s the latest gig is protecting a pole dancer (Hallie Berry). When she's murdered, he grudgingly teams up with her boyfriend, Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans), an ex-quarterback with a gambling problem, and the two go after her killers.

            Surprisingly enough if you heard of the name Shane Black writer and director of hit movies like Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang and The Nice Guys, as well as creator behind the first Lethal Weapon movie as well as the first guy to get knocked off by the Predator in Predator, and fun fact both films came out the same year in 1987. Sometime after these two successes, Black went on to write which would become The Last Boy Scout after a bad relationship in which Black in his own words says, "I was busy mourning my life and, in many ways, the loss of my first real love. I didn't feel much like doing anything except smoking cigarettes and reading paperbacks. Time passed and eventually I sat down and transformed some of that bitterness into a character, the central focus of a private eye story which became The Last Boy Scout. Writing that script was a very cathartic experience, one of the best experiences I've ever had. I spent so much time alone working on that. Days in which I wouldn't speak. Three, four days where I maybe said a couple of words. It was a wonderful time where my focus was better than it's ever been. And I was rewarded so handsomely (1.75 million) for that script, it felt like a vindication and like I was back on track". So, look everyone if you’re having a bad day or taking time off after bad relationships gone wrong, writing what you love to write about, will grant you an amazing come back on life that will be so amazing than a great sports moment you've witnessed on Television. I would say that this is hands down one of the best Tony Scott films a million times better than Top Gun and most certainly Days of Thunder furthermore what I'm trying to say is that any film that consist of Tom Cruise playing the same hot shot and it's in the late 80's is not the movie worth watching. More importantly if you've seen films like Lethal Weapon or 48hrs, as well as just wanting entertaining action and unnecessary explosions that come out of nowhere, and it almost feels like when they cut to a car explosion it almost feels like they shot that car explosion from a different location especially when it's D-Day aka Bruce McGill getting blown up. If you love a fun and entertaining buddy cop movie with less of the police force and more of a rip off of both Lethal Weapon and 48hrs with tons of action than I would highly recommend watching The Last Boy Scout, it's fun as well as crazy action and explosions and more importantly it has the greatest opening of a running back gunning the entire defensive line, which in all honesty is how O.J. got those rushing records because he gunned them down and while testifying at court he hold onto the gun and says, "it's not mine.". And the film is also on Tubi for which setting up an account is free and despite having to sit through a ton of ads, you can also find hidden treasures that you wouldn't believe could be personally good. Also, Tubi is so great that you can also find a ton of entertaining mindless action movies, that would still stand the test of time and for F-sakes this film has Bruce Willis punching a guy’s noise into his entire skull, I mean if you don't find that awesome, I don't know what can keep you entertained.

  

              

Movies I haven't seen in a While: 2001: A Space Odyssey

          Well, everyone we're nearing the long and crazy end of the Stanley Kubrick movie watching journey. And for granted I do feel a little sad though kind of relieved that this journey is coming to an end because I don't know if I can keep this going for another two-ish years. So, now that we're done with all of the Kubrick films that I've not seen, now I have recap the Kubrick movies I have seen and 2001 was one of those films that I have watched but yet don't quite understand by the final frame, although do give this film a tone of credit in the end.

          When Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and other astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission, their ship's computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behavior, leading up to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time.

           I believe the last time I watched 2001 was most certainly in the early 2010's or 2011, could possibly be 2012 either way somewhere in the early 2010's and at that time I never quite grasped 2001 as well as understood the movie it was most something that I probably missed as well as may have slept through the movie. Either way the film alone I never quite understood as to why this film is better than Star Wars in the AFI top ten Science Fiction films. Now being old and somewhat wise, well not all wise if you catch my meaning, I have to give this film a ton of credit as well as understanding this films full potential as to why this film is an important film in terms of Science Fiction films fully developing into a artistic cinema and if you take a look through time between fifties and early sixties and even the matinee serials from the early thirties or forties with some of the old school Flash Gordon, all of those science fiction films we're okay but were all mediocre trash and a lot of them included alien invasion or Cold War Paranoia. And so, when 2001: A Space Odyssey came into light as well as release this was the first movie that took the seriousness of showing the futuristic world as well as showing real spaceships and actual space colony on the Moon and a lot of the production value is really impressive if you take it see the film for what it was back in the late sixties by the time of the film’s release, and especially the iconic A.I in Hal 9000 whose both great and scary at the same time. So, a ton of this movies credit is Kubrick taking the Science Fiction genre to a whole new level in film and for sure you can say the same with Gene Roddenberry in the Star Trek series in the early sixties, but if we didn't have 2001, we wouldn't have the Star Trek movies be transitioned into Big Screen. And even with a ton of the Ships you know, without these iconic ships or space suits we wouldn't have Star Wars, Alien or even Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so, in all fairness a lot of 2001 is responsible for a ton of the iconic science fiction films be brought to light as well as Kubrick showing studios that "hey, we can do this and the camera work and visual effects, are their" and speaking of Kubrick the way he's able to put the camera from a ton of these amazing shots from like the pen floating in space, they actually taped a pen to a see through glass and rotate it, but even the exercise scene were either Dr. Bowman or Dr. Poole are doing that awesome jogging sideways it's so amazing that I still have questions on how they're able to capture that or able to put the camera in the right place it's just so incredible and I still want to know how they're able to pull that off and this film alone is another great example as to Kubrick being a head of his time from film noir to political satire, him doing a science fiction movie shows that he's once step ahead of everyone else and more importantly a true pioneer for film directing and one of the many reasons as to why he's a true artist. Now with all the pros I can say about 2001, there are some cons I have with the movie and a lot of it has to do with the story of these alien monoliths as well as using both the monoliths and relying so much on the A.I. machines at the same time of the movie, and what I assume what 2001 is, is human evolution the struggles of A.I and the cosmos, but the main problem I have with the film is that we don't know a whole lot of detail on what these Alien Monoliths are or why their watching earth and especially the human race. Now the A.I. story line makes more sense to me than the monoliths because yeah, it's a great theme of us humans relying way to much of technology and you can see that through many of the props as well as the monitors you see in the movie and even when the computer begins to take over the world and really you can use these types of themes but at times you can't have both, either that or you have to give at least some back story on the aliens. Now if you haven't seen the ending to 2001 a short nutshell Dr. Bowman is being experimented and then becomes a space baby and there are interview clips of Kubrick explaining the ending and I can get it, in terms of what he's explaining but the scene the drives me crazy is, we find a monolith in Jupiter, Bowman is of course driving the ship and then we don't get context of him going into one of the pods and then traveling through the worm hole, and at first I felt like I must of missed something or was about to fall asleep but no that's basically how that happens and for me personally sure I can get the ending, but can't you at least have a scene where Bowman is going into the Pod and traveling through the worm hole? At least something that would make sense, now I don't know if Kubrick and this was during the space race between U.S. and Russia I don't know if he was trying to examine the human race pushing way to much of technology or alien life, and granted we can make tons of themes to it but at the end of the day, there's still no proof of alien life in the solar system or aliens trying to make contact on earth and this has a lot to do with both Andy Weir's The Martian, and there is now sense of Alien life so, basically Weir proves that there’s no alien life and even if there is alien life they could be watching us like we're a reality television moreover just enjoying us being so incompetent in terms of government furthermore preventing war as well as trying to sustain peace, for which they don't really want to invade earth because they would look at us as useless people that b***h about everything that's not necessary a big deal, now for sure you can argue with me all you want and this is for the liberals to come and complain but, I just think the Aliens are watching us as if planet Earth is a reality television as well as look at us as a joke. Of all the pros and cons I can talk about 2001, this film gives me a full understanding as well as a ton of respect for A Space Odyssey, it's a science fiction film that still stands the test of time and really pushed the Sci-Fi genre into a respectable movie watching experience that was a pioneer to such great Sci-Fi films as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien would use even into the eighties, and I would most certainly still watch 2001, for its great camera work as well as its incredible visuals of space and if you’re a fan of Science Fiction, I would highly recommend watching 2001 if you have Turner Classic Movies or HBO Max. And so, the Kubrick top thirteen is almost coming into place wonder which will be my top thirteen best Kubrick films well just have to find out, but I still have one last movie to watch hope you’re excited for the full list.