Thursday, April 09, 2015

What I Watched in March


March was a very busy month. With me working almost every day there was little time for movies so I only got to watch a relative handful and didn't make it out to the theater at all! Disappointing, to say the least.

The most recent film I caught was last year's LEGEND OF HERCULES which I had been lead to believe was awful but I found it to be a wonderful throwback to classic 1960's style peplum. It recalls the older form of these movies down to even having a really terrible lion that attacks Hercules only to be bested by the demigod! Of course, this being the 21st century, the lion is bad CGI instead of a bad lion throw-rug but the unintentional amusement is the roughly the same. Even with this dodgy scene the film is pure sword & sandal fun with a solid storyline, competent acting and great fights - I really enjoyed it. In fact, it may be the first film directed by Renny Harlin I have every fully embraced. Well- I liked DEEP BLUE SEA and I found his version of the EXORCIST prequel interesting but with crapfests like CUTTHROAT ISLAND, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT and MINDHUNTERS on his resume he has little to be proud of. Do people still defend DIE HARD 2 and CLIFFHANGER? 

I need to check out the other Hercules movie from last year- from what I hear it was considered the better of the two.


GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER (1971)- 5 (rewatch)
IT HAPPENED TOMORROW (1944)- 7 (fun comedy/fantasy)
THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES (1961)- 9 (Sergio Leone's sword & sandal epic)
TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS (1983)- 5
URSUS IN THE LAND OF FIRE (1963)- 7
THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF (1973) - 6
BERKLEY SQUARE (1933)- 7 (odd time travel romance)
WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS (1965)- 4 (rewatch)
THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (1976) - 7
THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (2014)- 7 (solid peplum -that CGI lion was bad, but...) 

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