June 2014 Recap

Here's my top 5 and bottom 5 for June, 2014 (once again, a reminder that my top and bottom of the month only include films that were new to me):

My top 5 (in no particular order):
1. Just Before Dawn
2. Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary
3. Super
4. Kill List
5. Sorcerer
Runner Up: Enemy, Borgman

The bottom 5 (in no particular order)
1. Vampire Academy
2. The Dead Are Alive
3. Night Train to Terror
4. Cottage Country
5. The Man With One Red Shoe
Runner Up: The Nostril Picker, Split Second

289. Detroit 9000 (1973)

June 30, 2014

I was expecting 'Detroit 9000' to be a raucous and wild blaxploitation extravaganza but I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed. When thieves broke in to a fundraiser for a corrupt politician and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and cash from the attendees, it was up to a couple cops to solve the crime and get to the bottom of a major political scandal without succumbing to the greed and power of the extremely wealthy. It wasn't by any means a bad movie, in fact it was actually pretty good, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for and therefore left me slightly disinterested.

288. House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

June 29, 2014

I'm not the world's biggest Rob Zombie fan, but I'd say 'House of 1000 Corpses' is probably my favorite of all of his movies. This movie never takes itself too seriously, and proudly pays homage to grindhouse and slasher films of the 70s and 80s. It features a van full of college kids on a road trip when they stumble into a museum of horrible things, run by Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) who takes them on a murder tour and sends them on their way. Then they pick up a hitchhiker (Rob Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon Zombie) who takes them to her hillbilly house of pain where her crazy family (including Bill Moseley, Karen Black, and Michael Pollard) torture their new guests to no end, leaving the lucky ones to die quickly. It's fun in a totally low-brow, absurd way, and only for fans of blood-drenched horror-comedy films with the blackest sense of humor possible.

287. Sorcerer (1977)

June 28, 2014

William Friedkin's feature film follow-up to 'The Exorcist', 'Sorcerer', was nothing like what I expected. It followed four guys who had either made bad decisions or had just been unlucky and wound up in financial ruin. All four of them ended up in the South American jungle, transporting truckloads of nitroglycerin across treacherous terrain and through virulent weather with the incessant threat of inescapable doom all around them. Everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong for these people. There wasn't a lot to the plot, just some guys trying to get from point A to point B without dying, but the cinematic style and the nail-biting suspense made 'Sorcerer' a truly impressive film that needs to be seen.

286. Borgman (2013)

June 28, 2014

The Dutch film 'Borgman' was pretty weird, especially since I watched it without subtitles. I got the gist of it, though, I think. A group of vagrants who live in holes underground get forced out of their holes and try to mix with society. One of the vagrants, Borgman, kills a gardener and replaces him as a family's gardener. He doesn't do much gardening, instead he infiltrates the family's home and slowly drives everyone to madness. I'm very much interested in watching it again, this time with subtitles, to get a better grip of what was going on, but it was visually very intriguing.

285. Escape Plan (2013)

June 26, 2014

In 'Escape Plan', Sylvester Stallone plays a guy who gets paid to break out of prisons. He is the best escape artist imaginable, and he uses some of the most bizarre and far-fetched tricks to break out of even the toughest institutions. When he gets taken to the most ridiculously high security prison ever built with no idea of where he is or how he got there, he teams up with fellow inmate Arnold Schwarzenegger to figure out a way to break free. It is as absurd as it sounds, and is really only worth watching for fans of the aged action heroes just to say they've seen it. It doesn't bring much more than that to the table, but that doesn't really matter much. You know what you're getting into, so it is easy to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy it.

284. No Escape (1994)

June 25, 2014

Another recommendation from my friend Jason, 'No Escape' stars Ray Liotta as a convicted murderer sent to a high-security prison. His disrespect for authority leads to the warden sending him to a no-security island inhabited by psychos who kill for fun. Liotta manages to get away from the craziest of the crazies and winds up in a camp of semi-normal people where he becomes friends with Ernie Hudson and Lance Henriksen and together they work on figuring out a way off the island. It was also a very silly movie, and it felt a little bit long, but I really had a good time watching it. My wife and I both enjoyed it, so I'd say it is worth watching.

283. Surviving The Game (1994)

June 23, 2014

My friend Jason told me to watch 'Surviving The Game' after I told him about 'Deadly Prey'. It wasn't a terrible movie, although it was a really silly idea. A bunch of rich guys (including Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham, Charles S. Dutton, and John C. McGinley) hire a homeless man (Ice-T) with no family and no friends to be their guide on a hunting expedition in the mountains. Knowing nothing about hunting or being a guide but willing to take any job he can to try to make some money, Ice-T accepts the position, unaware of the fact that the thing the rich guys are planning on hunting is actually himself, not wildlife. The hunters give Ice-T a head start and then chase him all around the mountainous island trying to kill him, while Ice-T uses his street smarts to stay one step ahead of them. I enjoyed it enough to recommend it.

282. I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

June 22, 2014

Long before 'Black Dynamite' spoofed the blaxploitation genre, Keenan Ivory Wayans had his shot at it with 'I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'. Both movies are awesome. The cast alone (including Bernie Casey, Isaac Hayes, and Jim Brown, not to mention some of the greatest cameos ever by Chris Rock, David Alan Grier, and the amazing Clarence Williams III) makes 'I'm Gonna Git You Sucka' worth seeing. Wayans stars as a young man on leave from the Army who comes home after the death of his brother, Junebug (he died from an overdose of gold chains), and finds the streets he grew up on are no longer safe. He forms a gang of aging heroes and makes a plan to clean the place up and get revenge against the criminals who killed his brother. This movie is so much fun. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out. Chris Rock's short cameo steals the show (I had to re-watch it several times because I was laughing so hard).

281. Mimic (1997)

June 22, 2014

Guillermo Del Toro's creepy giant bug movie 'Mimic' was pretty entertaining. Mira Sorvino stars as an entomologist with a slightly disturbing bug obsession. When she unleashes a genetically engineered, cannibalistic super-cockroach in the sewers with the intention being to cull the cockroach population in the city, things go pretty smooth for a while. Fast forward a few years and people start dying in the subways. With the help of an autistic little boy, a cop, and a couple other scientists, Sorvino figures out that the killer is actually the progeny of her creation and it has evolved to enormous size and strength. The creature now craves human flesh instead of other bugs. It is up to the motley gang of giant insect hunters to track down and kill the creature before it is too late. If you're easily creeped out by bugs (especially big ones that can kill you), skip this one. Otherwise check it out, it is really good.