Coffy Arrow Video
Pam Grier. Directed by Jack Hill. 1973
Coffy, nurse by day and avenging angel by night. When she discovers that her little sister has been doped up — and freaked out — by a greedy drug pusher, she not only puts an end to his miserable days, but she vows to follow his trail of corruption up to the top — the very top.

"Coffy" is a pretty terrific Seventies Exploitation Film from genre legend Jack Hill. It's not a perfect movie, -the Third Act bogs down with a lot of dialogue just as it should be ramping up to the Action Climax., - but it delivers all the elements you want in a film like this. Most importantly, it has Pam Grier, who is about as three-dimensional a woman as you'll find in this sort of movie. Genre fans also get Robert DuQui in his memorable "Pimp of the Year" costume, the great Sid Haig as a henchman, as well as a couple of catfights, lots of wocketa-wocketa on the soundtrack, and all the nudity you could ask for.

First Blood
Rambo II
Rambo III

Agree, it's a great Blaxploitation flick and a lot of fun. I liked Coffy much more than Foxy Brown.

Same. I only like Foxy for Pam's outfits & the opening-credits sequence. Where as Coffy is just a wild ride from start to finish!

2026

HBO MAX


"A blunt, grieving widow, Diane Patterson (Allison Janney) is forced to plan her husband's funeral with a total stranger: her estranged son's assistant, Jamie Simms (Andrew Rannells). As they fumble through grief and their strange, darkly funny circumstances, buried secrets and long-held resentments surface, but their partnership becomes an unlikely conduit for connection, laughter, and healing"

Not the best movie to watch after recent events but well acted and Andrew Rannells one of the stars of Girls is still involved in good projects and more to come.

It has been awhile since I saw Alison Janey unless she was taking a break or semi-retired.

Hoppers Disney+
Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan. Directed by Daniel Chong. 2026
Animal lover Mabel uses clever new technology to hop into lifelike robotic beavers to communicate with beavers, uncovering mysteries within the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined.

I started to watch "Hoppers" on my Roku and was surprised to find that it was entirely in Japanese; however, since the two characters onscreen were Japanese, -a young girl and her grandmother, -I assumed it was a bold artistic choice. This went on for about ten minutes, well past the credits, and I realized there was a problem. For some reason my Roku randomly chose Japanese and it took some doing to get the proper English-Language soundtrack.

"Hoppers" is beautifully animated, and every moment has a real tactile quality. The film has a plot similar to "Avatar" (which the film itself calls out so you don't have to) in which a young, activist girl named Mabel (in case you forgot it's Disney) has her consciousness transferred to a robot beaver so she can become part of the local animal society, which is far better than the Human society, (just in case you forgot it's Disney). I rather enjoyed the set-up getting Mabel into the "Animal World", but the rest of it was a bit too juvenile for me (Did I mention I'll be seeing the "Jackass: movie in a couple of weeks?).

2025

Starz


"A powerful socialite (Academy Award® winner Jessica Chastain) and a promising ballet dancer (Isaac Hernández) begin a dangerous affair. When he secretly crosses the US-Mexico border, she takes desperate measures to protect their future together.

A tense, erotic drama from acclaimed director Michel Franco (Memory, New Order)."

I would have stayed in America and not bothered to go back to Mexico if I was that guy.

Protector Magenta Light Studios Blu-Ray
Milla Jovovich. Directed by Adrian Grunberg. 2025
Former war hero Nikki's peaceful life is shattered when her daughter is kidnapped. Thrust into the criminal underworld while hunted by cops and military, she must fight to rescue her child.

"Protector" is a bit of a hot mess, but I was surprisingly entertained by it. Nikki (Milla Jovovich) is an ex-soldier who's come home to raise her teen-age daughter, Chloe. When Chloe is kidnapped by sex traffickers, Nikki sets off in a race against time, shooting, burning, and stabbing her way through the local criminal underworld to recover her daughter. Jovovich gives a shockingly good performance, far better than you usually see in low budget Action Films like this, even ones that star Milla Jovovich. The action scenes are five miles over-the-top, well-choreographed and ridiculously brutal, but it is refreshing to see Milla doing her thing in "real" streets and "real" locations. rather than in Fantasy settings.

The story has a choppy quality. It begins as "Taken" with its gritty kidnapping and a parent with a particular set of skills, but then it becomes "First Blood" for a while, with Matthew Modine showing up as Nikki's former Commanding Officer who warns doughy Police Captain DB Sweeney that his men will only get hurt if they try to take her in. Unfortunately, the film just doesn't know how to end and pulls a last-minute "Gotcha!" that re-frames the entire story, but it just didn't work for me.

John Rambo (4K)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

I've watched three movies in the past the few days and enjoyed all of them.

The Fantastic Four: The First Steps
Best Fantastic Four movie made so far. I really enjoyed the cast and their interactions with one another. It might be a little lighter on action than most superhero movies, but that didn't bother me at all.

Sorry, Baby
Wow! What a debut by writer/director/lead actor Eva Victor. I'm still thinking about this movie days after watching it.

Notting Hill (First Watching Time in 4K)
First off the new 4K transfer looks really good to my eyes at least. This movie has a fantastical premise, but Richard Curtis' writing really makes it work by adding a lot of interesting side characters. Rhys Ifans steals scenes as the flatmate Spike.

Masters of the Universe (2026) — Just a fun, light-hearted sci-fi actioner that harkens back to my childhood most of the time. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of story but I thought Nicholas Galitzine did a solid job as He-Man and shared good chemistry with Camila Mendes. Idris Elba as always was charismatic no matter what he's in. Not sure why they paid Jared Leto as it doesn't sound nor look like him. The action scenes were well done and special effects were quite good. I'll probably watch again once it hits home video (4K). ***½/*****

Side note: I saw this at the Cinemark Screen X (guess their version of IMAX). Interesting concept with not only the giant screen but visuals on the sides for certain scenes. Not sure I'd pay for that upgrade but I have become accustomed to the D-Box seats if only to have some separation from people beside me.

Rambo: Last Blood

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Warner Bros 4K
Kevin Conroy. Directed by Eric Radomski, Bruce Timm, Boyd Kirkland. 1993
Batman is wrongly implicated in a series of murders of mob bosses actually done by a new vigilante assassin.

I remember seeing "Mask of the Phantasm" the night after Christmas; my friend and I were the only people in the theater. Sadly, the movie tanked. It was a good, well-written film, and while I don't think it was the best Batman movie, it was the most true to the Comic Book version of the character. It also had Kevin Conroy, who is The Voice of The Batman.

Leaving Las Vegas 4K…I always loved this movie and especially Nick Cage’s performance. I got the UK version with some extras. There’s a very rough deleted scene with Jessica Alba. Very young. There’s also a great 1hr doc on the making of film. I always wanted to know how Cage did this role. It just felt so real and made you think he was drinking himself to death. Now, I do. He did his research. The a/v is great too. So glad to have this. 2 actually from Amazon.uk. So worthy of the Oscar.

1950. Third in series and the best so far. Crooks searching for lost Nazi gold in the jungle wear gorilla suits to scare off anybody who comes around. Everything about this feels like a serial. The way the plot plays out, the villains, the near escapes.

Recently bought, companion piece to the Synapse 4K.

Keeper Hulu/Disney+
Tatiana Maslaney. Directed by Osgood Perkins. 2025
During an anniversary getaway at a remote cabin, Liz is left alone after her boyfriend Malcolm departs, only to confront a sinister presence that exposes the cabin's chilling past.

Osgood Perkins is a director who is all about mood and creepy visuals, while compelling stories are sometimes just a happy accident. He had something of a hit with "Longlegs" (which I pretty much enjoyed) and then followed it with "The Monkey"(which I did not). "The Monkey" was halted mid-way through its production by the SAG-AFTRA and WGA Strikes; Perkins made "Keeper" in the downtime, using unaffected Canadian talent and actors who could get waivers. "Keeper" is a modest production, utilizing a small cast and a minimum of sets.

Tatiana Maslany is "Liz" who accompanies her boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) to his family's "Cabin in the Woods", which visually reminded me of his set for "Gretl and Hansel" which was all "Architectural Digest Gone Wrong" with dark corners and spooky angles. The film spends the next seventy minutes or so being slow and creepy, giving you the feeling that something's up but never really saying what. It's a lot like "Rosemary's Baby" or a hundred other "Made for TV" Thrillers and it gets ponderous. The Third Act finally explains what is going on and the film gets more serious about generating Horror. If you have the patience for it, that final third works pretty well.

I thought Tatiana Maslany was terrific in "Orphan Black", and she often convinced me that she was two (or three or four) separate characters in the same scene. She's fine if bit haggard in "Keeper". However, I haven't quite forgotten her condescending remarks towards Comics fans when she was making "She-Hulk" (and the final episode was a big F-U to its audience).

The World According to Garp Warner Archives Blu-Ray
Robin Williams. Directed by George Roy Hill. 1982
The life of novelist T.S. Garp, and his mother, Jenny, a nurse. While Garp sees himself as a "serious" writer, Jenny writes a feminist manifesto at an opportune time, and becomes a magnet for all manner of distressed women.

There was a time when books would come out in paperback and it was a big deal. John Irving's "The World According to Garp" came out with at least four or five different covers, all with different art. I thought that was kind of cool at the time (it appealed to my Comics Collector side) so I picked up a copy. I used to read more genre fiction than dense bestsellers, but I really enjoyed the book.

The movie version of "Garp" captures a lot of the eccentricity of the novel and its vivid characters. However, a lot of set-up and context was lost in trimming the literary fat and a lot of things just happen and then we quickly go on to the next thing. Still, the film does have that big novel feel of really exploring a life as a series of anecdotes, full of touching moments and dark humor, a lot of random tragedy, and a heartbreaking finale.

"Garp" was Robin Williams' first serious role, and you can really see him working hard to be sincere. It's a good performance and he's given a lot of charming moments. "Garp" also introduced Glenn Close, who's astonishing as stern Feminist Jenny Fields, - a one-of-a-kind debut role, -and it feels like a dry run for many of the characters she would play over the years. John Lithgow got his first bit of attention as transexual former football player Roberta Muldoon, and it is one of those quirky roles that was ahead of its time yet now would be considered problematic. On the other hand, a lot of the film's Feminist Politics and the violence surrounding it feels very contemporary.

She's recently been in The Diplomat (Netflix) and Palm Royale (Apple TV+).