1957. Lower budget Sam Katzman production for Columbia. Originally double billed with Zombies of Mora Tau. This one always seems to get left out whenever a Sam Katzman collection is released on DVD or BD. It was rare to pop up on television. Sony did put out a MOD DVD-R from HD master in 16x9.
A mashup of horror and women's prison movies. A group of scientists discovered a process to prolong life indefinately in the 1700s. The process wears off over time and they need a recharge. 200 years later they are operating a women's reformatory and killing the inmates to keep themselves alive. When it gets close to recharge time they begin to petrify.

1957. Gor, an evil criminal brain from planet Arous comes to earth and takes over the body of atomic scientist John Agar. Gor plans to conquer Earth, and then the universe. A second brain, Vol, arrives on Earth to kill, or capture Gor and take him back to Arous. Vol takes over the body of a German Shepard in order to keep an eye on Gor Very similar to The Hidden.
This movie gets made fun of but it's not that bad. The big floating brains look hokey, had the aliens been slugs that burrowed into your neck it would have a better reputation.

John Candy: I like Me
Fast Five

Tron: Ares Disney
Jared Leto, Greta Lee. Directed by Joachim Ronning. 2025
A highly sophisticated Program, Ares, is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission.

I saw "Tron: Ares" Saturday Night in a huge room ...with an audience of only three people. Clearly, nobody really cares about the "Tron" franchise anymore. Which is a coincidence, since Disney doesn't seem to care about the franchise either. "Tron: Ares" has a lot of visual spectacle, -all bathed in crimson, -but it doesn't have "Tron" the character nor does it have the fun of the first film. It does have an impressive Nine Inch Nails score, but it's so disconnected from matching what happens on the screen it seems to be pouring in from another room.

It took me a minute to recognize Leading Woman Greta Lee from the Independent film "Past Lives". She was fine in that lowkey Relationship Drama but she just doesn't have the chops or the charisma to carry a wannabe Big Budget Action Flick. I suppose that's why she's not featured in the trailers. Jared Leto fairs a little better as "Ares", the War Program That Walks Like a Man. Jared is playing a variation on the naive but appealing alien that Jeff Bridges played in "Starman", but he has no chemistry with scene partner Greta Lee. The film can't come up with one witty or charming exchange between Leto and Lee that you could put in a trailer. This might be intentional because in 2025 "Flirt-mances (where you ship these couples even though it's impossible) are frowned on because it gets in the way of The Message. They just come across as friends from work.

The script is about as basic as it gets. I suppose it begins as a riff on the 3D printing of guns, but the film is stripped down into simple Good Guys and Bad Guys (and the Bad Guys are Corporations, if you haven't guessed). A digital warship the size of a skyscraper enters the real world, rampaging through a major city and easily fending off military attacks -and yet it seems to be brushed off even though it would change the world as we know it. Greta Lee eventually takes up her late activist sister's cause and, in a montage, selflessly solves all the world's problems, but we're never shown the work.

There was an article a month or so back saying that Disney was looking to win back Male audiences after turning the once Male-Driven Star Wars and The MCU into Female-centric properties. The company's confusion is obvious, and "Tron: Ares" is a perfect example. It's all about Big Action Scenes and War Toys and yet all the women in the cast are far more capable (or ruthless) than their male counterparts.

I've heard "Tron: Ares" described as a "Soft Reboot", but this is more like flaccid.

Splash
Roxanne…I totally forgot about this one. I saw it a few times before, but watching now, I forgot how enjoyable this is. From the first second it just oozes quirky rom-com. Great vehicle for Steve Martin. Nice that he wrote the screenplay too. So much fun and heart.

The Dark Crystal

Just saw this on the big screen, which is an opportunity I'd waited years for. It was a Fathom Events screening celebrating the 70th anniversary of The Jim Henson Company (though Wikipedia lists their founding year as 1958?).

Brian Henson filmed a two-minute introduction to the movie and thanked the audience for attending. Other than the picture being cropped to fully fill the 1.85:1 theater screen (thanks, Cinemark!), this was a very nice experience. No trailers were shown and I even had the entire theater to myself, which may be a first for me (definitely for a weekend show).

One of my all-time favorite Steve Martin movies. Very fun and charming.

Spawn (1997) — I've seen this one a few times though it's been many years. It's still not a good adaptation of the comic book series though John Leguizamo was fun as the Violator. Beyond not being a great adaptation, this is one of those times where the visual effects were not nearly up to snuff for what was needed, even for 1997 I can't think people were terribly impressed. Also, the Spawn suit just looked cheap, something akin of 1991's Guyver. Michael Jai White was okay I suppose all thing's considered. While Martin Sheen chewed up the scenery.

Part of me would like to see what they can do with today's technology but can't think a studio, beyond one like Netflix, would throw at least $100M and stick with an R-rating to do the source material justice. For now I can at least still watch the HBO animated series which I remember being great.

*¾/***** (4K Ultra HD)

Last night I watched Monolith Monsters. 1957 - Directed by John Sherwood, starring Grant Williams and Lola Albright.
A large meteorite crashes in a Southern California desert and explodes into hundreds of black fragments that have strange properties.
Always enjoy watching it, it is unique as shlocky old horror movies go.. After that, I watched a few episodes of Peter Gunn, just to get enough Lola for the night...
ctually, enough Craig Stevens. I had a crush on him early on...

this was one of my favs as a kid and remains so today.

Conclave. That ending came out of nowhere, yet made sense at the same time.

i saw this in theaters when it came out. i remembered loving it and still do to this day. one of my all-time favs.

I was enjoying my re-watch of this classic but my dear mate got tired/annoyed w Nicholson that she couldn't watch it anymore. "Too long" also she said. Plus she hates Jack. Anyway, we stopped just after Jack gets out or the storage locker and Scatman has just arrived. I'll watch the rest later.

Trick Or Treat (1986)

♫ I'm gonna get you, get you after midnight. Shock you, shock you 'til the sparks fly ... ♫

Those of us who were teenagers in the 80s knew an Eddie Weinbauer in high school or may have even been one ourselves. Shy, introverted, socially awkward and being constantly picked on by the jocks and the cool kids for listening to heavy metal music and dressing the part. Eddie (going by the pseudonym Ragman) copes with the bullying by writing letters to his music hero, leather-clad hair-metal guitarist & vocalist Sammi Curr, whom he idolizes and, coincidentally, went to the same high school that Eddie does now. When Curr dies suddenly in a hotel fire, a distraught and grieving Eddie goes to see a DJ that he knows at the local radio station, who surprises him with a gift of the last album Sammi Curr ever made ... the unreleased Songs In The Key Of Death. Thankful and excited, Eddie rushes home to listen to this treasured recording and, in doing so, unwittingly unleashes Curr's vengeful spirit upon those who have been tormenting him at school. This movie came out in the wake of the PMRC Senate hearings into objectionable lyrics in rock music and kicks things up to 11 here with the backwards masking messages and ability to summon evil spirits from playing the songs. Despite the premise, director Charles Martin Smith wanted to keep the movie from being too dark and did a pretty nice job here in that regard. Marc Price (Skippy from Family Ties) stars as Eddie, with former Solid Gold dancer Tony Fields giving a full out performance as rocker Sammi Curr. Gene Simmons as the radio DJ 'Nuke' and Ozzy Osbourne as an evangelical preacher were cool bits of casting here, IMO. Great soundtrack by Fastway. The Synapse blu-ray includes a feature length making-of documentary, with both Smith and Price participating (among others), as well as Sean Clark's 'Horror's Hallowed Grounds'. Recommended for 80s horror/headbanger fans.

It it is too dark there is a comedy and a rom com version.

Hadn't seen it before. Just okay.

'Solsbury Hill' was the icing on the rom-com cake here ...

Werewolves (2024) - starring Frank Grillo and Katrina Law. Somewhat entertaining, but a little disappointing, too. The premise is cool--a supermoon event the previous year triggered worldwide werewolf transformations in billions of people. Now it is going to happen again, but a government team is going to test a vaccine on a few individuals. Things go awry. The best part of the movie is the initial transformations of the people in the cages. After that, the movie may as well be called The Purge with Werewolves.

The Returned (2013) - Some parts were pretty stupid, but it was surprisingly better than I expected.

Roofman Paramount
Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst. Directed by Derek Cianfrance. 2025
Jeffrey Manchester, an Army veteran and struggling father turns to robbing McDonald's restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname: Roofman. After escaping prison, he secretly lives inside a Toys "R" Us for six months, surviving undetected while planning his next move. But when he falls for Leigh, a divorced mom drawn to his undeniable charm, his double life begins to unravel.

I've seen "Roofman" described as a "Crime Comedy" and the trailers make it look a little zany, while also throwing in some Romantic Comedy. Just take a look at the poster above! That didn't sound much like Derek Cianfrance, Director of grim, serious-minded films like "Blue Valentine" and "A Place Beyond the Pines". In fact, "Roofman" is melancholy throughout. The film becomes a bit more hopeful when Jeffrey (Tatum) meets Leigh (Dunst), a divorced mother struggling to get by. However, Cianfrance can't help but keep things real, and you know in your heart that when Jeffrey's crimes catch up with him (because they must), there will be no easy way out.

Channing Tatum has grown as an actor over the years, and he gives a solid performance with some depth. Kirsten Dunst brings a lot of charm and, frankly, she kept me invested in the film. You can't help but want Jeffrey's wonderful relationship with Leigh and her daughters to work out even though the tone of the film tells you not to get your hopes up. Ben Mendelsohn pops up in a surprisingly small role as a local pastor (who is treated respectfully). All the characters come across as credible and shaded, and Cianfrance avoids easy laughs and obvious cartoon characters. Well, not always, as Channing Tatum has a long bare-ass chase scene that I'm sure will be popular with some members of the audience.

"Roofman" is based on a true story and like most films of this type, ends with photos of the real-life characters and news reports of Manchester's exploits. "Roofman" is a much more low-key film than I was expecting, and some people will feel ripped off that it isn't an upbeat "Caper Film". Still, I was never "looking at my watch" or rolling my eyes at what happened next. The characters are sympathetic but never white-washed or given a pass. A solid B+.

^ "In the theatre," recalled Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, "they had a wire and a ghost came down and made everybody jump out of their seats. The girl you were with screamed, you screamed, and then, you know, everybody went home happy." My parents would not let us go see it, but I heard they did this in the theater. They even had a skeleton. Dang I missed that. When I finally saw it on Creature Feature, I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever seen. Now I love this old horror schlock. I read (Wiki) that Hitchcock saw this film and the success at the box office, so he created a low budget film called "Psycho".

Netflix

I did not have high expectations but this was not that bad.

1980

Sony Movie Channel

I thought this would be better and not really that scary either.

2013

"A mutual ex-lover (Katee Sackhoff) brings together a group of strangers at a bar in downtown Los Angeles"

I could not wait for this to end