Runtime:
90 minutes
Directed
by: Arthur Marks
Starring:
Yaphet Kotto, Kirk Calloway, Thomas Carter, Rudy Ray Moore
From:
American International Pictures
Runtime:
95 minutes
Directed
by: Daniel Attias
Starring:
Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Megan Follows, Everett McGill
From:
Paramount
Runtime:
90 minutes
Directed
by: David R. Ellis
Starring:
Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Katharine McPhee
From:
Rogue
Here's
a trio of films I watched on Netflix Instant recently; now I am
completely caught up. Let me talk about all three and I'll try not to
be too lengthy.
The
Monkey Hustle is a blaxploitation comedy/drama that is rather aimless
and there's only a perfunctory plot. Basically, you see the lives of
various people in a poor Chicago neighborhood for a few days; there's
an expressway scheduled to come right through the neighborhood but it
isn't discussed too much. Instead you see DADDY FOXX (Kotto) be all
jolly with his 14 year old sidekick (Calloway) as several of their
young pals sometimes assist them in pulling off various scams for
cash.
While
I do wish there was more of a plot, it still was an enjoyable movie;
it helped from listening to a podcast that I knew what sort of movie
this would be. It's usually entertaining and there's plenty of
intentional and unintentional humor. For example, the 14 year old
sidekick and his constant attempts to mack on a 16 year old lady, who
doesn't think of him that way due to his age. What's hilarious now is
the preposterous 70's outfits and all the jive talked (even from
Kotto) which is quite dated in 2012 but that's what makes it great.
And it was nice to see Kotto in a rare leading role, obviously having
a great old time, grinning and smiling often. Him acting with novice
Rudy Ray Moore (basically playing a PG-rated verson of his famed
Dolemite character) was something else. They do a laugh-off as if
they were evil villains, and it made me laugh. Oh man, were Moore's
outfits the most ridiculous. As long as your expectations are in
check, you may like this.
Silver
Bullet is a movie I've heard about for a long while due to its
unintentional humor. For example, its werewolf costume is rather
terrible, even judged by 1980's standards. I figured I should finally
check it out considering it was now easy for me to see. The plot: in
a small town in Texas in the mid-70's, a boy in a wheelchair (Haim)
and his sister (Fellows) know that the mysterious killings done in
the town is by a werewolf, but of course none of the adults believe
them, not even their crazy but still nice Uncle Red (Busey).
Yep,
things are rather cliched and tired, and to be honest the movie isn't
too scary most of the time. What helps it out, though, is that the
cast is nice (McGill is great as the rather intense town priest;
there's also Terry O'Quinn and Lawrence Tierney, among others) and
the performances are usually at least good. It's just darn
entertaining, I have to say. I mean, the title just does not describe
a popular way to kill a werewolf, but it is also the name of a pair
of motorized wheelchairs that Uncle Red builds for his nephew; yep,
it is as wacky as it sounds. Busey is the MVP, though. He's his usual
crazy self and he utters some incredible lines, like “I feel like a
virgin on prom night!” and “Holy jumped-up baldheaded Jesus
palomino!” He's a drunk and a screw-up but he does care for his
niece and nephew.
By
the way, I've never read the Stephen King story this is based on; in
fact, I am not really a King fan at all.
The
last movie is Shark Night, which came out around this time last year.
I am glad I did not pay any money to see it via rental or heaven
forbid watching it in 3D on the big screen. Instead, watching it on
Netflix was perfect. I now knew for certain why many thought it was
crap... that's because it is crap. Silver Bullet ended up being a lot
of fun; this, definitely not the case. It's not even the PG-13 rating
that was its downfall; rather, it's just not an entertaining story at
all. It's full of cliches and it's not even fun in that cheesy way.
It's just stupid and unpleasant, filled with dumb and aggravating
characters. While the Louisiana scenery (and the scenery of McPhee in
a bikini) was nice, the movie is really not worth seeing. Although,
the reason why the bad stuff is done by the bad guys is SO
preposterous and ludicrous it almost makes me want to recommend it;
but I won't. Just read about it on Wikipedia if you want.
There
are two things I have to isolate and talk about. First off, the movie
makes a decision that if you think about it, is a not so thought out
idea at best and at worst... yikes. There's an African-American
character who gets mad at a shark so he decides to hunt for it...
using a wooden spear with a metal tip on the end. Nevermind where he
found such a thing; having a black man throwing around a spear... a
REAL bad idea, I say, and I know others noted the same thing.
Secondly,
the best part of the film is after the end credits and I imagine most
who saw the movie never stuck around to watch that. It's a music
video where the cast raps about the events of the movie; really. It's
horrible and yet great at the same time. And I know this was at the
end of the movie as it was shown in theatres as that was how I knew
it was there. The beat most of the time can be best described as
“thug”. However, one last character shows up to rap/sing, and as
the character is sad the beat changes and becomes a ripoff of the
beat from LL Cool J's I Need Love! Yes. That's the best part of the
film, take my word for it.
I'll
be back Wednesday afternoon.
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