The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 601: The Punisher (1989), Dolph Lundgren and Spin Kicks
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
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Mark and John discuss the 1989 action film The Punisher. Directed by Mark Goldblatt and starring Dolph Lundgren, Louis Gossett Jr., and some motorcycle friendly sewers, the comic book adaptation is a delightfully cheesy experience. On top of talking about Dolph Lundgren’s face stubble, they also discuss random Yakuza, spin kicks, and remote control cars that deliver booze. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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Bad Movie Tuesday: Zeiram (1991), as if a Power Ranger was in less exploitative Tokyo Shock cinema.
MY CALL: If Power Rangers was rated-R, but still just as hokey, you’d end up somewhere in this territory. It doesn’t measure up to most Tokyo Shock entries in terms of exploitative material, gore and effects, and coked-up lunacy. But it’s a good middle ground for those who may find Tokyo Shock to be… a little too much muchness. MORE MOVIES LIKE Zeiram: Probably The Guyver (1991). Maybe Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009) or Tokyo Gore Police (2008).
Bounty hunters Iria (Yûko Moriyama; Zeiram 2, Reborn from Hell: Samurai Armageddon) and her AI partner Bob travel to Earth to capture a bio-engineered monstrosity named Zeiram. Zeiram has big stompy boots and resembles a mechanized member of The Three Storms from Big Trouble in Little China (1986). Zeiram’s headpiece has a woman’s face embedded in it, and she has a retractable prehensile neck. He also has little pods that conjure fleshy squeaking alien monsters to do his bidding… not unlike Rita summoning monsters for the Power Rangers to fight.
At first, this movie feels like a hokey PG action-comedy flick… and your expectations would be low. Iria uses a Power Ranger super suit and some clumsy roundhouse kicks to combat the cyborg and its minions. The fighting is truly kids’ show quality—just two talentless actors flinging their legs at one another. The stunts are wretched and will make you cringe or giggle, depending on how you fancy this movie. What’s more is that this Zeiram doesn’t seem that dangerous. Two buffoons give him a run for his money with their tiny car. Zeiram’s weapons are nothing special and he has very bad aim. I feel like a local SWAT team could handle this mutant alien creature just fine.
Amid this stupidity are some decent-ish creature effects and gooey slimy gross effects. But we sadly must endure a lot of bad to get to these occasionally acceptable scenes. There’s a neat stop-motion metamorphosis into a new, somewhat insectoid form. And while I really love this scene, again, we had to suffer a lot of dumb and boring to get there.
Odd observation… in the new insectoid form, the two-toed knuckle-walking legs were a LOT like what we’d later see in the aliens from Independence Day (1996). The shape of the head is oddly similar, too. So the message here is that Roland Emmerich ripped off a dumb Tokyo Shock movie for his alien design.
Yet another transformation scene occurs and this one is truly spectacular, and batshit crazy. This is like a Lovecraftian tentacle monster covered in spines, insectoid legs and… breasts? Yes. Breasts. This sort of reminds me of the finale from From Beyond (1986).
I’d suggest any of numerous Tokyo Shock films or The Guyver (1991) over this any day. But true to its ever-shifting alien form, this still makes for solid Bad Movie Tuesday fodder.
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John’s Horror Corner: Get Away (2024), a horror comedy making playful satire of folk horror.
MY CALL: Funny, light, well-composed and droll, this British dark comedy turns into a slapstick splatterfest. A good recommendation for a light, popcorn horror for a Friday night. MOVIES LIKE Get Away: For more family vacations gone wrong, try Lowlifes (2024), Boar (2017), or The Hills Have Eyes (1977, 2006)
On a family vacation to Sweden, Richard (Nick Frost; Black Cab, Krazy House, Shaun of the Dead), Susan (Aisling Bea), and their teenage kids Jessie (Maisie Ayres) and Sam (Sebastian Croft; Penny Dreadful) venture to an island with a dark history of imperiled quarantined illness about to celebrate their “quarantine” memorial.
The dry humor kicks off to a lovely, deliberately awkward start as our family interacts with the locals at a Swedish diner with no patience for small talk or vegetarianism. The restaurant owner is the stereotypical harbinger, trying very hard to warn them away from their unsafe decision to visit the island of Svalta. Like any horror movie family, they do not heed the dire warnings.
Glares from the locals are unnaturally exaggerated, playing droll satire on the “unwelcome visitors” trope. As soon as they set foot on the island, the locals scoff at their vacation intentions and demand their departure in the vein of classic folk horror. Things worsen as we learn that Susan’s ancestors are connected to the dark history of Svalta’s quarantine.
Of course, their local host renting out his home is quite creepy. But the other villagers bring the real creep factor. They feel like the subjects of cult activity right away. Villagers in masks bearing torches, dead animals, wooden coffins, and other ominous behaviors all point to a dark fate of our tourists. We wander into a bit of a Vacancy (2007) vibe crossing paths with The Wicker Man (1973). The major event of this Quarantine celebration is a play-like re-enactment, the silliness of which reminds me of The First Thanksgiving from Addams Family Values (1993).
The horror is truly minimal for the first hour. Playing out more as a straight comedy with a dark backdrop, this is more in the vein of Hot Fuzz (2007) than Shaun of the Dead (2004) in the first two acts. But by the third act, things get very bloody very fast. Severed heads and body parts and heads on spikes abound. Frost’s horrible injury at the end of the movie is hilarious and is played for several good laughs.
This was not at all what I expected, and I very much enjoyed it. You won’t talk about this for days, nor will it leave you slack-jawed agog like Hereditary (2018). BUT, for a low stakes Friday night popcorn horror, this was delightful. Next stop is director Steffen Haars’ Krazy House (2024).
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John’s Horror Corner: Host (2020), a Zoom séance goes wrong in this popcorn techno-horror.
MY CALL: Just a fun popcorn horror movie for a night in. MOVIES LIKE Host: I’d suggest the films that most likely influenced Host—Unfriended (2015) and Paranormal Activity 1-2(2007, 2010).
Amid the Covid pandemic quarantine, six friends have a Zoom meeting with a medium (Seylan Baxter; DashCam, The Boogeyman). As quickly as they heard the safety instructions from their medium host, those who clearly take the ritual less seriously begin joking around to chum the water with red herrings and create tension with the others.
But rather quickly, it is apparent that a connection with the spirit realm has been made when one of them is dragged across the room. Apparently, the joking around in the beginning created an invitation for uninvited spirits or demons to pass through. And soon various Zoom participants begin hearing strange sounds in their homes, seeing strange things in their homes, objects are breaking… this has swiftly wandered into the third act of a Paranormal Activity movie wherein we viewers are staring at the screen awaiting some subtle movement or unnoticed detail, or listening intently for a sign of the supernatural.
In some ways, this film feels more like a job interview than a typical finished film product. It says “Here’s what I can do.” Still, this found footage jaunt is short (57 minutes) and well-paced. Once the action starts, it’s rather constant. And sure, a lot of the gags are very familiar (even contrived) to anyone who has enjoyed the Paranormal Activity movies. But this is not highbrow horror; just an effectively amusing popcorn horror. Anyone who wants to see a more next-level found footage horror should check out director Rob Savage’s DashCam (2021).
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John’s Horror Corner: Dream Demon (1988), a surreal, British horror fantasy that doesn’t quite stick the landing.
MY CALL: Another lesser semiprecious stone to throw in the mining pile during your search for hidden 80s gems. This is totally okay. A few decent gore gags, a neat enough story, toying with reality… but it just isn’t enough for me to give a real recommendation to anyone but an 80s horror completist.
Diana is to wed a locally famous war hero. Her upcoming nuptials have earned her the attention of some nosy reporters (incl. Timothy Spall; Gothic, The Bride, Grizzly II, Wake Wood) and some pre-wedding jitters in the form of vivid nightmares.
When slapping her groom in the face results in a gory decapitation and a blood-soaked wedding dress, Diana (Jemma Redgrave; The Beekeeper) realizes her nightmares are getting the better of her wedding anxiety. She dreams of giant beetles, maggots emerging from an evil-looking doll, Hellish pits, distressed angels and other such lovely imagery.
Diana’s new friend Jenny (Kathleen Wilhoite; Fire in the Sky, Witchboard, Ratboy) agrees to stay with her until the wedding to ease her distress. Around this time, Diana’s nightmares seem to be invading her waking reality. But these dreams also begin to afflict Jenny and her reality; the two are sharing these manifested nightmares via some sort of psychic connection. The more they try to investigate and challenge these dreams’ reality, the more real they indeed prove to be.
Gory highlights include a messy punch straight through a face and skull (always a fun visual), and the ghoulishly gross reporter-turned demon, who seems get uglier with each appearance.
This movie goes to some creative efforts—even if quite derivative of the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. But it never reaches any significant levels of excitement or shock. Once we are introduced to reality-crossing dream ghouls, things rather stagnate.
This was just okay. The trailer is much more interesting than the movie and some screen grabs may lure you. Just make sure you know you’re really just seeing this because you are an 80s horror completist—not that there’s anything wrong with that!
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Wolf Man (2025) – Review
Grade – C (or three full moons out of five)
Back in 2020, Leigh Whannell turned down the Wolf Man directorial gig because after the success of The Invisible Man, tackling another beloved Universal Monster project seemed daunting and he didn’t have any idea how to transport the iconic werewolf into the 21st century. The folks at Blumhouse wouldn’t take no for an answer and they talked Whannell into helming the remake after giving him some time to figure out the themes that would motivate him to commit years of his life to writing sessions, sleepless nights and long days on set. The end result is a clunky horror remake that tells the story from the dual perspectives of the husband and wife who are dealing with lycanthropy shenanigans.
In an interview with Syfy, Whannell explained that he co-wrote the film with his wife Corbett Tuck during the pandemic and they packed it full of the endless amount of feelings that came from the isolation and anxiety that the pandemic created. They also were inspired by one of their close friends’ battle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which saw her lose her mobility and ability to communicate. On top of all of these elements, they tossed in an unstable marriage, generational trauma, and parenting fears that add too many ingredients into the Wolf Man soup.
While watching Wolf Man, I missed the simplicity of Upgrade and The Invisible Man, which focused on dangerous technology ruining people’s lives. Their straightforward and wildly violent narratives focused their stories and gave them a narrative cohesion that never felt clunky. At their core, the Wolfman films tackle familial issues such as bad dads, dead brothers, and ancestral homes, so the decisions Whannell makes are sound. However, all of the themes never gel and there isn’t enough time for actors Christopher Abbot, Julia Garner and Matilda Firth to find their characters.
Because it’s a low-budget Blumhouse film, there’s a prologue that explains Whannell’s version of lycanthropy. Basically, it’s a sickness that Native Americans refer to as “The Face of the Wolf.” The early heaving lifting of the prologue works to get rid of superstitious locals who would only add expenses and shooting days to the film. After an opening featuring a young boy and his father coming across the titular monster, the film jumps a couple decades ahead to focus on Jake (Christopher Abbot), the young kid from the beginning who is all grown up with a wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth). After dealing with a terrible dad, Jake has embraced the father role and has a close relationship with his daughter Ginger. He doesn’t want to make the same mistakes that his father made, so he comes across as overly protective (even though the overly protective example provided in the movie is justified) when his daughter tries to exert her freedom. His journalist wife Charlotte is the main breadwinner for the family and her long hours at work make her feel alienated from her daughter and husband (themes that are never fully explored), who spend a lot of time together in her absence.
Similarly to the original films in which the death of a family member brings everyone back home, Jake gets a letter informing him that his father has finally been declared deceased after he disappeared into the woods several years prior. Together, they rent a moving truck and drive to Oregon to pack up the belongings inside the remote home. Before they get to the house, they are attacked by a creature who injures Jake and kills his childhood friend Derek (Benedict Hardie – who never fairs well in Whannell films). While the creature is busy ripping Derek apart, the family barricade themselves in Jake’s home where they have a humdinger of a bad night. Instead of timing the film’s events through lunar cycles, the 2025 iteration compacts everything into one night that sees Jake transforming into a brundlewolf.
There are some elements to like such as the “werewolf vision” and Christopher Abbot’s dedication to being covered with a progression of excellent werewolf makeup/prosthetics. However, something got lost during the production process which make it feel like not enough coverage was shot or it was edited into oblivion to get it under two hours. There is a lot of “telling” in Wolf Man, which makes everything seem too on the nose and spelled out. In an interview with ScreenRant, Whannell admitted that the film’s long gestation was a bit worrying because he was scared that it would kill his creative spirit because he was used to the insane schedules for movies like Saw, Upgrade, and Insidious. The long creative process helped him with the technical issues that come with shooting a $25 million budgeted horror film in the forests of New Zealand, but there’s definitely a missing creative spark. In the end, Wolf Man feels like Whannell had too much time to think and the end result is a bit of a cluttered mess.
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September 5 (2025) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – B+ – At a breezy 95-minutes, September 5 is a lean-and-mean film that features capable people being capable.
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum, and focusing on the American sports broadcasting team who provided live coverage of the terrorist attacks at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, September 5 is an unshowy and professionally crafted thriller. What’s interesting is that instead of diving into worldwide politics or going big (think dramatic speeches), the no-frills film remains laser focused on the broadcasting team who filmed the events which were viewed by an estimated 900 million people worldwide. The German/U.S. co-production was filmed in cramped sound stages in Bavaria (which adds to the tension) and went through many rewrites after director Fehlbaum and co-writers Moritz Binder and Alex David got the rights to the original footage and learned that there would be no organic way to recreate the spontaneity of the situation. Instead of centering around Jim McKay’s live broadcast, the majority of the film puts a spotlight on rookie director Geoffrey Mason (John Magarro) who alongside veteran director Roone Aldredge (Peter Sarsgaard) have to figure out how to cover a real-time hostage situation that is being watched by the world. The movie can be best described as a “What do we do?” experience in which smart people navigate a world changing situation that is way above their pay grade. .
I love films that feature capable people being capable, and September 5 is full of smart people figuring things out. Playing the smart people are Peter Sarsgaard, John Magarro, Benjamin Walker, Leonie Benesch (watch The Teacher’s Lounge), and Ben Chaplin, who deliver unshowy performances and are believable as professionals who are dealing with an unparalleled situation. The sports broadcasters were expecting a boring night of minor athletic events and instead found themselves broadcasting a terrorist event to the entire world. Over the course of the 17-hour event the ABC crew isn’t perfect as they prematurely claim that all the Israeli hostages survived the ordeal, and their coverage alerts the members of the Palestinian militant group Black September to the German police officers attempting to infiltrate their rooms in the Olympic village. It’s fun watching the crew learn and adapt as they sneak film into the Olympic village by having one of their staff pretend to be an athlete, and fabricate logos to make sure everyone knows that ABC news is responsible for the coverage. Mistakes were made, but the situation was so new that there were always going to be mistakes.
Fehlbaum’s adherence to avoiding “big” moments will definitely hurt its chances this awards season. However, it’s refreshing that there are no sanctimonious speeches by pontificating news anchors or fictionalized drama that amp up the drama (there’s enough of it already). This does prevent it from tackling the history behind the conflict between Israel and Palestine, however, with a limited budget and a 95-minute running time, it would be impossible to add a full explanation of why the Black September members were holding the Israeli athletes hostage. I like the decision to play the film as a docudrama because by focusing on the control room the filmmakers could showcase the decisions and arguments that helped the ABC sports crew capture footage that would change the way people absorbed news.
The mostly handheld cinematography by Markus Förderer’s does a fine job of capturing the important conversions and the production design by Julian R. Wagner feels lived in and authentic. The prop department must’ve had their work cut out for them as there’s loads of period appropriate editing equipment and cameras that add to the authenticity of the film. By limiting the locations and action, Fehlbaum and his crew were able to focus on getting the small details right and the decision paid off with the handsome sets, costumes and production design.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 600: Elvis, Kurt Russell and John Carpenter
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome.
Mark and John talk about the 1979 television film Elvis. Directed by John Carpenter, and starring Kurt Russell, Season Hubley, Shelley Winters and a lot of hip thrusts, the biopic tells the story of how Elvis Presley became one of the biggest musical superstars ever. In this episode, they also talk about Kurt Russell’s dancing, lip-syncing, and the biopic genre. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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The Prosecutor (2025) – Review
Quick thoughts – Grade – B+ – Directed by and starring Donnie Yen, The Prosecutor is guilty of being a fun action film. If you’re looking for a film that combines courtroom drama and Donnie Yen using a hockey stick to beat up drug dealers, it doesn’t get any better than this.
When I saw the poster for The Prosecutor I knew I was going to love his latest Well-Go USA film. It features a bloody-fisted and legal wig wearing Yen who holds the scales of justice in his hands. It tells you everything you need to know about the film.
- Yen’s fists will crunch against skulls
- He’s a lawyer who takes justice seriously
- He might hit a person with the scales of justice – which would be awesome.
- He needs to team up with Daredevil so they can fight villains at night and work legal cases during the day.
The Prosecutor opens up with a raid on a gangster compound that is led by police detective Fok Zi Hou (Donnie Yen) and his team of police officers. The raid goes sideways and it forces the detective to unleash justice on an unlucky group of well-armed henchmen who never anticipated that they’d come across Donnie Yen. After the raid, several of the criminals are able to walk away without being charged because of a lack of evidence. This forces Fok Zi Hou to quit the police force and dedicate his efforts to becoming a public prosecutor for the Department of Justice. His rationale is that he led his team when he was a detective, and now he wants to be the last line of defense against criminals as they navigate a legal system that is overrun with cases and shady defense lawyers. Fok’s first case is to prosecute an alleged drug smuggler named Ma Ka-kit (Mason Fung) who after giving his address to a friend, received a parcel stuffed with a kilogram of cocaine. After receiving some terrible advice from his pro-bono defense attorney (Shirley Chan) and her shady husband Au Pak-man (Julian Cheung), the innocent Ma receives 27 years in jail, which means he’ll be separated from his elderly grandfather, Uncle Ma (Lau Kong). This forces Fok into action as he dedicates himself to absolving Ma of his crimes by punching many people until he gets to the guilty drug dealers
The best thing about the court case is watching prosecutor Fok defend the person he is trying to prosecute – which leads to some comical moments from the presiding judge and his bosses who don’t know what to do with their new prosecutor. After watching the first big courtroom scene my wife looked at me and said “I’ve never seen that before,” and she’s right. It’s a unique angle to take, and Yen’s cheeky charisma and do-gooder attitude make all the trial scenes feel alive and fun. Fok knows that Ma is innocent, but all the evidence points towards a guilty verdict. Also, since the Department of Justice is so slammed with cases, it’s impossible to dedicate manpower to proving that the poor kid gets a fair verdict. This forces Fok to do his own investigation with the aid of his detective friend Lee King-wai (MC Cheung Tin-fu), who can hold his own in a fight (the box truck brawl with some drug dealers is awesome) and be trusted to do what’s right.
Fok’s investigation puts him in the crosshairs of a group of deadly drug dealers who justifiably don’t want their smuggling operation to be discovered. To combat Fok, Au Pak-man and his bosses send dozens of henchmen after Fok and he battles them in alleys, streets, skyscraper balconies, car parks, trains, and apartments. The fight choreography by Takahito Ôuchi, Kang Yu, Hua Yan, and Kenji Tanigaki (all Yen regulars) is constantly inventive and helped by the cinematography of Man Nok Wong, who uses aerial drones, cranes, and video game-esque cinematography to give the fight scenes various looks and styles. The production design is legit as well, and after doing some research I learned that the MTR train interior built for the climactic fight was constructed with steel to make sure the sets didn’t distract during the epic final fight (nobody likes cheap sets that are built out of balsa wood). For the review, I watched the final fight again and the sturdiness of the train interior definitely gives the brawl a bruising feel as Fok battles a deadly assassin named Kam Hung (Yu Kang) throughout several train cars.
Overall, The Prosecutor is a solid package that allows Donnie Yen to beat people up and charm people with his acting skills. I’d love to see more Prosecutor movies and based on its success in China and the worldwide critical praise we might get more of them.
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John’s Horror Corner: Dracula’s Widow (1988), a campy, cheesy, gory bloodbath of 80s schlock.
MY CALL: Another vampire movie from the late 80s rich with tongue-in-cheek jest and grimy special effects. MORE MOVIES LIKE Dracula’s Widow: For more campy vampy flicks of the era that keep the tone light and the effects heavy, consider Vamp (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), or Fright Night 1-2 (1985, 1988).
When the owner of a Hollywood wax museum Raymond (Lenny von Dohlen; Twin Peaks, Teeth) receives an unexpected extra crate of Romanian antiques, he doesn’t think to audit his delivery contents. But the very night of its delivery, the vampire Vanessa (Sylvia Kristel) emerges from the extra crate to feed on some lecherous man in the streets.
Vanessa has the looks of a noir-ish pin-up model and the countenance of a clunky, 8-bit Fembot. Despite being the long-undead widow of Count Dracula, she has little more than a robotic personality. Still, she knows how to have a good time. Vanessa makes a boyfriend-familiar out of Raymond, they attend a Satanic ritual sacrifice, and she murders a dozen Devil worshippers in monstrous form.
The occasional narration of Detective Lannon (Josef Sommer; The Invasion) confers the movie’s momentary intention to feel like (or jest toward) a pulp noir-ish thriller. Lennon follows the case of Vanessa’s first victim, which leads him to Van Helsing’s grandson and several turned vampires that all need a good staking.
The gore is surprisingly decent! Vanessa’s first victim looks like his head was put through a meat grinder. The demonic vampire make-up swings very closely to looking like a monstrous demon, with strongly protruding brow, chin and cheek bones. She even has almost webbed, gnarly, gangly claws (perhaps hinting at bat wings) that she drives into throats. There’s plenty of blood, extra cheese galore, and several amusing gore gags. I was especially fond of the bat attack and transformation scene. In fact, it was gifs of that bat scene that lured me to watch this movie.
Not bad at all, if you’re in the market for a fun, campy, bad movie.
Movies, Films & Flix 