Detroit 9000 (Welcome To The Motor City)

Score: 6 Out Of 10

 

                Just because I know someone who reads this will wonder, '9000' is in the title because at the time this film was made, '9000' was the police code for officer down. "Detroit 9000 (1973)" was directed by Arthur Marks and stars Hari Rhodes, Alex Rocco and Vonetta McGee. Also, keep an eye out for Scatman Crothers; I really enjoyed his role in this movie. The plot tells of one white cop and one black cop that team up to solve a jewel heist that targets a black senator who is announcing his candidacy for mayor. For a film in the black exploitation genre, I have to give this film credit for being very well made. The dialogue is fun but not to corny, the acting was above par for the genre and it was pretty well directed. For the vast majority of this film, I was really into it. I admit that there are some moments when things slow down a little too much, but those moments are few and far between. I also want to mention the soundtrack. It was great! there were so many moments where I was really in to the music. So much so that I actually watched one scene over again because I was so into the music I missed what was happening!

 

          The down side is that this film has a powerful message behind it. I know that race is a pretty touchy subject and I do not want my blog to become a political argument, so I am going to make this point as well as I can without being offensive. Here goes; Normally I appreciate a film that can make a good statement, but this movie made it over and over. The first hour of the movie I was really behind them, but then after being beat over the head so much, I found myself rolling my eyes during every other scene. What the film makers should have done was make there message more subtle and let the audience draw there own conclusions about what this movie was about. My conclusion is that despite all this movie had going for it, they blew it.

 

Love,

   The B-Movie Guy.

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Wishmaster 3: Beyond The Gates Of Hell (Part 3 Of 3)

Score: 2 Out Of 10

            Admittedly, the first two "Wishmaster (1997 and 1999)" films were not that bad. Some blood, some guts, some humor and a lot of fun. This film on the other hand is just plain bad. "Wishmaster 3: Beyond The Gates Of Hell (2001)" was directed by Chris Angel (not the equally-as-lame-as-this-movie illusionist) and stars Jason Connery, A.J. Cook and John Novak. The plot is a watered down version of the first movies plot, only this time around the djinn is focusing on a college girl and her friends (this is nowhere near as fun as it sounds). So, if you take away everything that made the first couple of movies enjoyable and add bad acting, writing, and one good special effect in a sea of bad ones what you would be left with is "Wishmaster 3." By the way, the "special effect" that bothered me the most was when one character gets his face ripped off. The prosthetic face comes off and underneath is the actors real face just covered in blood. You can still see his eyelashes. Yeah... That bad.

           The most troubling aspect of this film is John Novak's portrayal of the djinn. In the "Nightmare On Elm St." franchise, it is always Robert Englund playing "Freddy Kruger." So if nothing else you know you will at least get the enjoyment of watching Englund do what he does best even if the movie was not that good. Andrew Divoff did a great job playing the djinn, even if the second film was not that great, you still got to watch Divoff giving a pretty fun performance. Novak, on the other hand, gives us a performance that is way to hammy for me to take him seriously. Even with the rest of the film being terrible, I still would have given it a better score if they had just gotten Andrew Divoff back.

Love, 

   The B-Movie Guy

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Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (Part 2 Of 3)

Score: 5 Out Of 10

          The First "Wishmaster (1997)" is pretty good. It' funny and creepy. The special effects are pretty cool and there are plenty of fun cameos if you know your horror movies. The sequel is another story. "Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999)" was directed by Jack Sholder (different director) and stars Andrew Divoff (same actor), Holly Fields and Chris Weber. The plot once again tells the story of an ancient Djinn once again released in our modern day society to grant evil versions of peoples wishes. This time his plan is to grant one thousand and one wishes so his race will inherit the Earth. The immediate problem with this movie is that the first act is essentially just one giant plot hole. After a botched art robbery and unwittingly unleashing the Wishmaster (who is now referring to himself as such, by the way), the main character is forced to leave her dying boyfriend behind. The Djinn grants the dying man his wish that he had never been born which leads to some pretty lame CGI effects. Then the main character spends the next half hour grieving over her dead boyfriend... who she should not remember... because he was never born...

      Some of the elements that made the first movie good are in play here. The acting is pretty solid (not Oscar worthy, of course, but solid) and I like that there seems to be less CGI in this movie than in its predecessor. Also close to the end there is a pretty cool magic rampage scene that is full of awesome homegrown special effects. But despite the high points, a lot of what made the first one cool just seems to be missing. There are no cameos worth mentioning and most of the humor behind it just left me rolling my eyes. Even the ending just seems like a watered down version of the first films ending. Just lame.

Love,

   The B-Movie Guy.

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Wishmaster (Part 1 of 3)

Score: 7 Out Of 10

           I had some pretty low expectations for this movie. I watched the trailer and thought, 'this is gonna be all kinds of lame.' But I was pleasantly surprised when the opening sequence actually drew me in. "Wishmaster (1997)" was directed by Robert Kurtzman and stars Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff and Robert Englund (of Freddy Kruger fame). Also keep an eye out for Kane Hodder (Jason Vorhees) and Tony Todd (Candy Man). The film tells the story of an evil genie (or a Djinn; BTW, check out the Wikipedia page for these guys. pretty interesting stuff) who is trapped in a gem stone in ancient Persia, then is released in present times (actually about seventeen years ago) to cause havoc by twisting peoples wishes around in a classic style. The story really opens the door for some really cool creature effects. Also I like that the movie starts by showing you some pretty awesome effects. I just really appreciate how much time and effort goes into making really good, believable looking monsters. Especially the look of the Djinn himself (some pretty solid acting on the part of Andrew Divoff does not hurt either).

           The other side of the special effects coin is that there is some pretty terrible CGI in play here as well. I fell like you can not blame budget constraints for bad computer effects, though. They had about five million dollars to play with. I think this is a case of computer generated imagery not being as good as we remember it being in the mid to late nineties. All that aside, this is a pretty good horror flick. I say turn out the lights, pop some popcorn and spend an hour and a half daydreaming about the wishes you would make.

Love,

   The B-Movie Guy

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The Sorority House Massacre II (I'm Confused...)

Score: 2 Out Of 10

 

             Normally I do not like to review sequels with out first reviewing the previous film(s), but I am genuinely confused over what this movie is a sequel to. The original "Sorority House Massacre(1986)" is a weird hybrid of slasher and haunted house movies, but the clips shown in the flash back scene of this movie are from "The Slumber Party Massacre(1982)." I wonder if the logic was, "Who cares? No one will ever watch this crap anyway." "Sorority House Massacre II(1990)" was directed by Jim Wynorski and stars Gail Harris, Melissa Moore and Stacia Zhivago. The plot is about a bunch of girls who purchase a house where some pretty gruesome murders happened in hopes of turning it into a sorority house. It is not long before the girls themselves start getting murdered. If you can not tell by the plot, the whole movie is really nothing more than an excuse to have a group of sometimes naked women bouncing around on screen. If it honestly were not for the one or two nude scenes this film would have almost no redeeming quality.

         What really hurts about this movie is all the mistakes. There are at least three moments in the film where you can see the shadow of equipment being used off camera. I am almost left with the impression that the filmmakers were not even trying. Between the terrible acting, writing, directing and the mistakes, I almost believe that the whole idea was to make the whole movie as fast as possible for as little money as possible for the sole purpose of turning a quick profit and that makes me hate this movie so much more. Although, after seeing some of Jim Wynorski's other movies, I should have expected this to suck.

Love,
   The B-Movie Guy.
Facebook: B-Movie Guy   Twitter: @BMovieguy
 

P.S.
You can check out my review of "Slumber Party Massacre" here.

Dario Argento's Dracula(A Bad Twist On An Old Classic)

Score: 4 Out Of 10

         Normally I am always happy to see an updated version of an old classic, but this time I was left pretty underwhelmed. "Dario Argento's Dracula (2012)" was directed by Dario Argento (obviously) and stars Thomas Kretschmann, Marta Gastini and Asia Argento. If you are not familiar with the classic Dracula story... then get your shit together. It was published well over a hundred years ago, it was really good and there is no excuse for being that far behind. The only difference between the classic story and this movie is that all the action stays in Transylvania instead of moving to London and a subplot where it is revealed that Dracula may have some sort of businessmen arrangements with the local towns people (there are some other little changes and one some of the original characters go missing, but for the most part...). The changes to the story are not bad ones. They are sensible and serve the plot well. I know it is popular to bash a movie for straying to far from the source material, but if good changes are made than i find it completely acceptable. Not that that it is the case here, but there are just some things that do not translated well from print media to film.

        No, my beef here is that even with all the sex and violence the movie is just boring overall. There are way too many moments where I was either rolling my eyes or just waiting for something interesting to happen. On top of that, there were so many scenes with terrible looking CGI effects. I mean Sy-Fy-channel-original bad. I get that they want things that Dracula fans have not seen before but these things should not come at the expense of the film's quality. Do yourself a favor, look for a film called "Blood For Dracula (1974)." It is an old school Italian gore flick that is way more entertaining.

Love,

   The B-Movie Guy.

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No Holds Barred (What Was I Thinking?)

 Score: 5 Out Of 10

 

          I grew up a fan of professional wrestling. More specifically, I grew up a "Hulkamaniac." If you do not know what a Hulkamaniac is, do not worry, you are probably better off not knowing. That being said, I vaguely remember watching this movie as a kid and really loving it. So when I saw it while browsing Hulu, I thought, 'There is no way it was that good.' In a way, I was both right and wrong. "No Holds Barred (1989)"  was directed by Thomas J. Wright and it stars Hulk Hogan, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister and Kurt Fuller. The plot is just a movie version of a late eighties/early nineties WWF story line. Rip (played by Hogan) is the WWF champion and refuses to sign a deal with a competing TV network (this aspect of the story actually mirrors the real life rivalry between WWF and WCW, who was owned by Turner Broadcasting), so the TV network puts together a competition to find a Challenger to take down Rip. Unfortunately the wrestler they get is a complete psycho.

 

      This is a pretty terrible movie. The acting is bad, the dialogue is borderline ridiculous and the plot does not make a whole lot of sense unless you are an avid wrestling fan who is accustomed to wrestling story lines. There is a romantic subplot at work here, but all the scenes between Hogan and his love interest are just plane awkward. On the other hand, I had a lot of fun watching because the whole thing seemed more like a cartoon than a movie. Maybe it speaks to what appealed to me about wrestling as a child. There are silly characters that take themselves way to seriously and the unrealistic nature of the violence portrayed is pretty kind of fun. I say, throw this movie on, invite over your wrestling-fan-friends and have some laughs. I guarantee, if nothing else, this movie will at least get some laughs out of you.

 

Love,

   The B-Movie Guy.

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P.s.
Hogan has done worse... Way worse...