Crimewave (1986) - For the Bruce Campbell / Sam Raimi completests

"Crimewave" is a zany comedy-¿horror? movie by Sam Raimi. It is told as a flashback from the a guy who you might think you recognize from that thing, but it turns out you have never watched anything he has been in. It is about a murder for hire scheme that he ends up being framed for. Bruce Campbell plays one of his best characters as The Heel ("You get the cab baby - I don't want to break a $100" or "I've never seen you here before. I like that in a woman."). Brion James and Paul Smith play the hit men. You will recognized Smith as Beast Rabban from "Dune" (1984). Those guys are gonzo. A young Frances McDormand is in it for a couple minutes. Sheree Wilson (from Walker Texas Ranger) plays the heroine.

It was written by the Raimi + Coen Bros (which explains why Frances is in it). It is like watching an 80 minute Three Stooges film. Lots of sound effects and a jazzy score. It is PG13, so I think the 'horror' aspects comes from the the violent premise, but it is really a lot of slapstick. A bunch of car chase sequences too.

It is well shot with very high production value. Cast / director / sets / stunts ... all really well done. As far as 'bad movies' go, this one's issue is a convoluted story telling - I think this is a byproduct of editing which is probably a by product of budget issues during production. It is always the editor

If you LOVE Raimi or LOVE Campbell - watch it.

If you really enjoy MADTV sketches - watch it (probably in 22 minute chunks until you have had your fill)

If you are a fan of the Three Stooges - watch "Soup to Nuts" ... it is a much better movie.

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Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) - it is a good deal better than the remakes

I got around to watching the original 1958 comedy caper film - the one that "Welcome to Collinwood" was pantomiming. "Big Deal on Madonna Street" is hilarious. It is 25 minutes longer than the remake and never once did I feel the need to check my watch. I even paused to go refill my water glass. There will be no problem telling who is who or how the story goes - it is well shot and characters are unique. The story is a simple and fun. Comparing the "BDoMS" and "WtC" - they are identical in terms of characters and scenes. "Big Deal on Madonna Street" street is terrific, and "WtC" is a slog. The biggest difference is seen in the dialog. In "Big Deal" the people just talk, like you might expect people to talk. They are funny, but not odd. The colloquialisms happen, but they aren't hard to see through. In "WtC", they are using a vernacular to make sure you are immersed deep in an Eastern European ethnic nei...

Running with the Devil (2019) - Ok folks, let's make a ¿something?

How do you take a 100 minute movie with Nick Cage, Larry Fishburne, Leslie Bibb, and Barry Pepper - as well as Cole Hauser, Adam Goldberg and Peter Facinelli - and somehow make an unwatchable stew of tones and over the top cliches? I think you give it to a TV director, TV writer, and TV editor. I could not actually finish it. Even for me, that is pretty bad. It is a series of scenes that could have been part of a TV-series, but they weren’t. They were just the beats from a TV-series. Maybe it was put together by some people who read the wikipedia article for “Traffic” (2000) - then sketched a storyboard for a telenovela - then remembered they were making a movie and just cut it back down from there. It is like it has been sequentially translated into 2 different languages, each time by someone who wasn’t a native speaker. Set designs were thrifty, but not too cheap. Cinematography is somehow gray and lurid at the same time. If there was a highlight, it is the music. It was the onl...

Lampshade & B-team

Last 2 movies of 2024. I took a long plane flight and got to watch two movies I had not seen in the mobile format the cinematographer intended. Here are my alternate title suggestions - * "Deadpool & Wolverine" could have been titled "Lampshade: the movie" * "Borderlands" was "The A-team in space" or perhaps to be fair to the actual A-team, "An assemblage of characters across various aesthetics who think they are in different movies". D&W spent a little over 2 hours telling me it was funny because it was trying to be funny on purpose. Don't let it be forgotten that this is funny. When it wasn't doing that, it was informing me that it was a multiverse movie and that I shouldn't care for those. It was enjoyable, but I would have liked it 50% more if it had dropped 30 minutes of educating me regarding what it was. As for the B-team, it was fetch quest city. You could tell you were on different a quest because of the ...

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