Frank's Movie Log

An entertaining—if unremarkable—tale of a young sea-monster boy who visits the surface world and discovers he can turn into a human. There’s some plot involving another sea-monster boy, a human girl, a bicycle race, and a Vespa scooter, but the film’s standout draw is the atmosphere. It does a terrific job painting a nostalgic picture of 1950s small-town Italy. It charms and packs a few belly-laughs, but, at ninety-five minutes, feels overlong.

How did I miss this off-beat 80s teen comedy that skews closer to Savage Steve Holland than John Hughes? I loved the formal rigor director Phil Joanou employs in this comedic tale of high-school dweeb Jerry Mitchell who finds himself targeted by the hulking new bully. From long takes of overlapping dialog to an always-interesting shot choice, the film proved a terrific discovery. Continue reading...

I remember seeing this when it first landed on home-video. A pair of young professionals earn an invite to their charismatic boss’s Hampton Island beach house. Upon arrival, they discover their host dead and themselves targeted for a similar fate. In the decades since, I’d forgotten how long it takes to get the pair to the beach and how few antics they employ to convince everyone their boss is still alive. Credit to Silverman and McCarthy for shining through their character’s one-dimensional behavior and salvaging what they could.

Rudy Ray Moore returns as Dolemite, a fast-talking, kung-fu fighting entertainer. Fleeing a racist Alabama sheriff (J.B. Baron, who struck me as Haley Joel Osment playing Kenny Rogers), Dolemite and crew travel to Los Angeles. There they discover a local mob goon has forced their friend Queen Bee into servitude. Despite the shoddy production (Ernie Hudson sometimes plays one of Moore’s entourage, other times it’s an obvious stand-in), Moore’s charisma and the earnest intent prove endearing.

How do you review this? A film shot in 1976 but not released until 2010, when editor Bob Murawski assembled the rediscovered footage. A film laden with casual racism but also featuring a resonant soliloquy bemoaning the Catholic Church’s culpability in turning a blind-eye to the world’s problems. A film written and directed by a nightclub crooner, yet shot on-location in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and Rome. Bear with me. Continue reading...

The opening got my hopes up. Picking up from Curse of Chucky’s post-credits tag, Alex Vincent returns as Andy, now an adult suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We meet him on a date that, of course, doesn’t go well. Andy returns to his isolated cabin. From a secret safe, he removes Chucky, now mangled and disfigured. Chucky cracks wise about the failed date and Andy tortures him with a blowtorch. Continue reading...

I remember seeing this in the theater and feeling burned. Bill Murray playing a snooty weatherman forced to repeat the titular day over and over in a small Pennsylvania town evoked the meld of dark comedy and fantasy that I’d enjoyed in Scrooged. But Groundhog Day played as a romantic comedy, with Murray spending his repeated eternity becoming a better man to woo his producer, played by Andie MacDowell. At least, that’s how I saw it. Continue reading...

A satirical paranoid thriller starring Billy Warlock as a Beverly Hills teen who uncovers a sinister, far-reaching conspiracy. The fun comes in how far the film will push its boundaries. Where other movies stop at suspenseful, Society pushes through to weird, disturbing, and gross. Continue reading...