Expelled Grey Matter

When Casino Royale finally got the big-screen treatment like all the other original James Bond books it was to introduce the latest in a number of actors that had taken on the role: Daniel Craig.  Confusingly, some actors, such as Judi Dench as M, were still held over from the Pierce Brosnan years, but largely the slate was wiped clean and we met Bond, not as an agent who had been through years of adventures, but shortly after receiving his 007 designation. The main portions of the book were used, though greatly altered since Ian Fleming wrote it during the Cold War and the players were not Quantum or S.P.E.C.T.R.E., but the KGB and MI6.  Originally for the movie version a shady organization called Quantum was at the heart of everything but, after Kevin McClory passed and his estate decided to no longer hold many of the most memorable Bond characters and plots hostage, we were introduced to Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) and his worldwide terrorist organization.  Unlike most o

The Purge: Election Year was supposed to originally be completely different.  Rather than moving forward with the story it was supposed to take a step back and show us the beginnings of the Purge right after the New Founding Fathers of America had come into power.  That changed when Frank Grillo, who had played Leo Barnes in The Purge: Anarchy , agreed to reprise his role.  Since it would only make sense to continue the story from there, Election Year took place seven years after the events of Anarchy and gave us the story of a presidential candidate attempting to put an end to the Purge.  Since a prequel had already been planned it made sense to explore the origins of the night after seeing what may have been its demise. The First Purge takes us back to the time in our alternate history when the NFFA, a third party playing on public discontent over both Republicans and Democrats, managed to take power in both houses of Congress as well as the Presidency.  During a time of economic co

The Purge series is that rare one, at least with the first three, where the movies improved as they went along.  Once the original movie proved financially successful writer/director James DeMonaco was able to make The Purge: Anarchy , which showed much more of what audiences were expecting from The Purge itself.  It places us on the streets where we see what is actually happening on Purge Night, as well as the socioeconomic and racial issues behind it.  By the end it is clear that not everyone relishes a night to "release the beast" and there are some revolutionary movements that are beginning to happen. The Purge: Election Year continues in that vein as the New Founding Fathers of America face a threat of their own: Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), a woman whose family was murdered during one of the Purges and has made it her life goal to end the tradition.  To do so she is running for President against the NFFA's candidate, Minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor

The best advertising someone can hope for is free advertising.  While Blumhouse did do a pretty decent job promoting The Purge  a lot of word of mouth prior to its opening was different news shows and articles discussing its premise.  What would our country be like if there was a 12-hour period once a year where we could carry out our basest desires and no one could do anything about it?  I really don't remember a whole lot of answers, other than it was an "interesting" idea. An interesting idea it is and one that worked to hook audiences into seeing this movie.  Honestly, the movie needed the hook, because despite being framed as a dystopian survival thriller it was another in a line of home invasion films.  Writer and director James DeMonaco based it on a conversation he had with his wife after getting into a fist fight with a drunk driver during a road rage event.  She mentioned how it would be nice if people were allowed one murder a year, and it ballooned into The Pu

Women in prison movies are sometimes the nastiest that exploitation films can get.  That's why it does come as a surprise that the genre is actually rather old, going back to a time when the Hays Code was still in effect.  Since many of these films thrive on gratuitous nudity, lesbian scenes and outright violence, it is strange to see these types of films from back when little of any of that could make it to the screen.   House of Women is a remake of one of the earliest films in the genre, Caged .  Released in 1950 it told the tale of a young woman who becomes hardened to the realities of life after entering the penal system and is replete with evil guards, butch inmates and all the other trappings.  House of Women even reuses some footage from Caged , but the main hook on this one is what happens to women who go behind bars while they are pregnant.   Erica Hayden (Shirley Knight) is one such woman, sentenced to five years as an accessory to an armed robbery.  She is informed that

Punk rock, rightfully or not, scared the establishment in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Keep in mind this establishment was the same one that scared their parents by growing their hair long and jumping on motorcycles and, since the one thing that the media is known for is peddling fear to the public to get ratings, both the Boomers and the generations before them viewed biker gangs as scary.  Punk Vacation hinges on the idea that if punk rock is combined with motorcycles then everyone will be shaking in their boots. For instance, just look at those nihilistic non-conformists on the cover of the VHS - none of whom appear anywhere in the film, of course, but those guys are going to cause old Mabel to clutch her pearls and go on about "today's youth."  Never mind that the punks taking the vacation are made up of one girl that looks like Siouxsie Sioux, a couple that look like they are Valley Girls that haven't realized it's no longer 1984, a hippy and a bunch of g

Until Star Trek: Picard  - or I could even say the third season of Star Trek: Discovery - this was as far forward as we had gone in the Star Trek universe.  While there was the occasional dubious time traveler, this was officially it, coming after both Deep Space 9 and Voyager had wrapped up their story arcs.  Despite the fact that the cast was getting older there was no out right intention to make this the last of the Next Generation films, but series fatigue was severely hurting the current show, Enterprise , and this movie didn't help. On their way to Betazed to have the official wedding ceremony for Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) the Enterprise is ordered to go to Romulus.  In an act of rebellion a Reman insurgent named Shinzon (Tom Hardy) has assassinated the entire Romulan senate and positioned himself as Praetor with the help of some key members of the Romulan military.  He has invited Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to op

In 1976 a movie came out called Master of the Flying Guillotine .  As of writing this I have not seen that film, but I understand it is supposed to be quite a wild ride, and thus it was quite popular when released.  Popular, as always, means there will be imitations.  Thus we have director Raymond Lui's The Fatal Flying Guillotines.  It's hard to say this is a cheap knockoff when, from all accounts, the original wasn't a big budget production to begin with.  It also made the "guillotines" (referred to in the movie as the Lightning Strike, and not as guillotines) completely different than the flying saw blades of the original.  In the end it doesn't matter since it is just under 90 minutes' worth of continuing fighting with almost no plot at all. The 4th Prince longs to become king and rule over China, but to do so he must get the ultimate weapon: the Lightning Strike, a weapon consisting of two bell-shaped hoods with saw blades on the outside and inside. 

If one watches a number of '80s films they will notice a pattern.  There will be the hero, who may or may not be a nerd, who falls in love with the girlfriend or sister of the bad guy.  After a number of attempts (in some cases homicidal) from the rival the hero hits rock bottom but, wounded and battered, comes back to beat the bad guy in some big competition, be it a downhill skiing challenge, a karate tournament, a dance-off or a skateboarding competition.   There's not really much to spoil in a movie like Thrashin' .  Director David Winters was part of the Broadway cast of West Side Story , which itself was based on Romeo and Juliet.  That is basically what we have here, except for the Ramp Locals and the Daggers filling in for the Jets and Sharks.  It has become a cult classic among the skateboarding crowd but, for those of us who were never part of it (and could never go a few feet without falling off), it just seems like another in a long line of similar films from th

It is time for Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we were pretty much warned that this time around they were going to pushing the "girl power."  Unfortunately, that's really about all Marvel and Disney have said.  As a result we finally got the Black Widow standalone film that should have come out during Phase 3 (and is a year late coming out as it is), we're going to get the Lady Thor plotline (which I believe is from the comics) as well a number of other things that will make a number of people yell about SJWs and woke culture while the people making and starring in them say a litany of dumb things that just fan the flames.  All the hullabaloo over what agenda the Marvel films may or may not be pushing is often much more exciting than the movies themselves.  Black Widow was supposed to kick off Phase 4, but the COVID-19 monkey wrench did its job and the movie came out a year later, which meant tie-ins such as Wandavision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

I read Dune when I was 11 or 12.  I was already a big science fiction fan and, with the movie coming out, I wanted to read the book.  I was that kind of kid.  I had probably already read Children of Dune (I had somehow skipped Dune Messiah until much later - probably because my local library didn't have it for some reason).  It did lose me somewhat from God Emperor of Dune forward, but honestly anything after Children is largely beyond the ken of a pre-teen.   I say that because I was waiting with baited breath for the 1984 version.  I had no idea who David Lynch was or anyone else in the movie except Sting, but didn't care.  Unfortunately it took awhile to see it, and the reviews were terrible.  I rented it when it came out on video and I thought it was okay; having read the book I pretty much understood what was happening but, again, there was a lot in Lynch's design of the film and a lot of what he added that went over my head.  Watching it years later, including the dir

I'm old enough that my introduction to Rob Zombie was through his band White Zombie, followed by his solo albums and his first couple of films, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects .  I consider myself lucky in this respect because I know that Rob Zombie has actual talent as both a musician and a director, even if on either one he tends to get stuck in a rut sometimes.  If I had come across Rob Zombie with his remake of Halloween  and this follow-up I doubt I would ever have wanted to see or hear anything from him again. I am aware that Zombie's first Halloween movie does have its fans, but I am not one of them.  The audience never needed any backstory on Michael other than he killed his sister on Halloween night, broke out of an insane asylum, came back to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois and, for whatever purpose known only to him, decided to target a group of girls and their friends.  There was no need for an entire family dynamic, especially one that shoe