Ready Player One



I think most of these stars come from nostalgia alone.

This basically follows the plot of the “Save the Rec Center” style 80s movies. With Big Business tm as the big bad.

I had a lot of fun watching this. The crowd in my theater laughed a good bit. Especially when Chucky shows up.

I have not read the novel, but may need to now.

Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Philip Zhao, Win Morisaki

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman

Atomic Blonde

Atomic Blonde scratched a spy movie itch I didn’t know I had. From the opening scene of a bruised and battered Charlize Theron going in for a debriefing to awesome fights and spy craft against the backdrop of the Berlin Wall, I loved this movie. We also get to see Sofia Boutella’s acting chops.

And the soundtrack. Just perfect for the time and setting of the movie.

I hope this is the start of a new franchise.

Being a spy movie – too much knowledge of the plot would spoil essential details. Suffice it to say, an MI6 agent is killed and highly volatile intelligence was stolen from him. Lorraine is sent to find the missing intelligence with support from McAvoy’s character. That brief synopsis does not do this movie justice.

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Vamp

This is a childhood favorite vampire film for me. It is one of the three vampire films I watched over and over as a kid – including Near Dark and the Lost Boys.

I just picked up the Arrow entertainment blu-ray. It is a huge improvement over the earlier bare bones blu-ray. Other than one brief scene, the entire movie is remastered. It has nice special features, but is missing the commentary that was on the DVD release years back.

Vamp opens with a botched fraternity initiation for Keith and AJ. To get into the fraternity, they promise to procure the services of a stripper for a party later that night. They go to Duncan to barter for the use of one of his cars. The price? They have to pretend to be his friend for a week.

Keith and AJ

Along the way to the strip club, Keith, AJ & Duncan run afoul of an albino gang. After an … interesting … way of getting out of the situation, they manage to get to the club.

snow

While Keith and Duncan are watching “ringside”, AJ is flying solo at the bar. After an odd performance by the owner, Katrina, AJ decides that is the act he wants for the fraternity. As he goes backstage to broker a deal, a waitress, Amaretto, talks up Keith. She mentions remembering him and them having an encounter in the past. All of which Keith does not remember.

Amaretto Keith Duncan

AJ has an intense encounter with Katrina that leads into the guys and Amaretto dodging vampires and the albino gang for the rest of the night.

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Chopping Mall

I just saw Chopping Mall for the first time. It truly lives up to 80’s horror movies. Chopping Mall was recently released on blu-ray by Vestron.

I have no idea why I skipped over this movie as a kid. It is right up my alley. While not typically counted as a slasher, this movie has many of the tropes of a slasher: stalking kills, awesome final girl, nudity/sin factor before the killer strikes…

The mall is about to get 3 new security robots that are supposed to capture intruders. According to the company rep, they will not kill or harm intruders. While the presentation about the robots are going on, we have some teenagers planning a party in a furniture store in the mall. One thing, as part of the upgrade in security, the mall will be outfitted with steel doors that are time-locked like a bank vault.

While the teenagers are having their party, the building is struck by lightning. This affects the computer controlling the robots and the robots themselves. We do not get a friendly robot like Johnny Five from Short Circuit. Nope. We get lethal robots intent on removing intruders with deadly force. They first take care of their technicians before taking out Dick Miller.

as you would expect, the partying teenagers are next on their hit list.

The new blu-ray release has many special features – including multiple commentaries and featurettes. I highly recommend picking it up.

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman