chuckju Reviews

The Rain Killer (1990)

Degraded trash posing as a movie

[1/10 · 19 June 2015]

This crude exhibition of zero talent is far worse than most actual porno films. Such films usually are at least somewhat funny. I watched it only because the usually excellent Ray Sharkey was the star. He is the only person in the cast you'll probably recognize. The film is degraded. It is filled with sex shots and sex plot line that don't make sense. It jumps from scene to scene very awkwardly. Sharkey himself shows little of his acting ability. The rest of the cast shows virtually no talent. A horrible movie. A true disappointment for Sharkey fans like me. I don't understand why he made it. Perhaps to give homosexuals some screen time.

The Act of Killing (2012)

The worst excuse for a documentary or movie I have EVER seen

[1/10 · 4 June 2014]

I don't think I have ever written in to pan a movie before. This piece of trash, with zero research, background information, cinematography or interesting dialog is utterly worthless. The rave comments are astounding! There is nothing here.....some old guy and a goof ball saying they killed a bunch of people. Well, maybe they did, and maybe they didn't. It is not horrifying, it is senseless and boring.

I'll admit I'm only 1/3 the way through the film. I will finish it. But I think it is the worst trash I have ever ever seen.

I cannot fathom the compliments. It could all be made up. True or untrue makes no difference. It is boring and worthless.

The Norseman (1978)

Doesn't Susie Coelho as the Indian girl look like Susan Sarandon?

[13 September 2009]

That's my only comment. I see that the Susie of the movie was Sonny Bono's 3rd wife. But I swore she was Sarandon throughout the film until I checked IMDb. I'm surprised no one else noted this. Am I blind? Or did Sarandon secretly block this on her resume? I need 10 lines. The rest is filler. I actually enjoyed the movie. But agree with how awful it was. Oh, to be a kid again. Then one could enjoy nonsense thoroughly. I had thought this might be a Cornel Wilde production. He did some pretty seedy films, though some good ones too. I thought Majors had plenty of competition for bad acting in this film. But the color was fine. And there was excitement. Gotta lower your cynicysm.

Zane Grey Theatre (1956–1961)

Episode 21 of Season 2, The Sharpshooter is The Rifleman

[26 February 2006]

Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford are Lucas and Mark McCain is this excellent half hour western. It was so good they decided to make it a series. Thus "The Rifleman" was born.

This was far better than any subsequent episode of The Rifleman series, which was a bit too "nice" to be realistic.

I cannot recall if McCain's rifle in this Zane Grey episode had the nifty fast-action features of the series' rifle.

I am surprised that there are no other comments on this generally very good western anthology series on TV. It was certainly a popular feature on Friday nights about 60 years ago.

I believe the host, Dick Powell, left the series to host his own hour long Dick Powell Theater on Tuesday nights. This series of individual one hour dramas basically lasted until Powell's death. All of these shows should be issued on DVD while those of us who liked and would buy them are still alive.

The Rifleman (1958–1963)

Origin of The Rifleman

[31 January 2006]

So far no one has mentioned the origin of this show.

The first episode was actually an episode of the weekly series hosted by Dick Powell: Zane Grey Theater. I believe this was a popular Friday night show in around the mid to late '50s. Each show was unrelated to the others. They were just westerns. I have no idea if they were supposed to be based on Zane Grey stories or not.

I know Chuck Connors was the hero and father. He had a son in this episode. I think it was Johnny Crawford, but I'm not sure. I believe he has to kill someone...something he either never did or almost never did on the TV series.

My recollection is that this one episode of Zane Grey was so popular that they decided to make it a series. Thus The Rifleman. It was certainly better than any other Rifleman episode because it was quite an intense drama.

The Three Outlaws (1956)

A very unknown but likable little western....with a good song

[6/10 · 20 November 2005]

There are no credits given for the song or the singer for the ballad with which this movie begins, either at the beginning or end of the film itself or here at IMDb. I assume Paul Dunlop at least wrote it since he is credited with songs for other western films.

If anyone finds out the name of the singer, please post it. He's not bad.

I'm amazed anyone else saw this. I caught it by accident on the Western Channel (Starz) and surprised that a film boasting Neville Brand, plus other famous character actors like Alan Hale, Jr. and Bruce Bennett would be so unknown.

Anne of the Indies (1951)

Jean Peters throw herself into this role

[7/10 · 15 September 2005]

This movie was much better than I expected. ++++ Jean Peters actually does a passable job as a pirate and does decent work in her sword fights. (To the extent she may have a double doing the action, it's hard to tell...but Peters herself obviously is doing a good deal of it, and doing it well.) ++++ With a good and serious script, this could have been an excellent film. But it's basically cheesy. Still entertaining however. ++++ Not up to a regular Jacques Tournier film, but definitely above a regular Jean Peters film. Color is typical of this '50s time period, ie. too garish and not realistic. The actors for Blackbeard and her first mate and the drunken doctor were good. Louis Jordan was a bit weak. I don't think Debra Paget was right either. But certainly Jean Peters and Debra Paget were probably the two best looking female stars in the '50s.

War of the Worlds (2005)

I was angry at negative reviewers based on my seeing the trailers

[6/10 · 30 June 2005]

Now that I've seen the film, I must only vote a 6. Basically, my problem is that the tripods doing most of the damage are rather ridiculous. They don't make sense physically and seem to be the result of a very poor imagination. I expected a LOT better from this movie.

The scenes of destruction are fine. Those running the tripods aren't bad. But if you can't buy the tripods, the whole concept becomes somewhat silly.

Also, the trailers, which were excellent and showed all the suspense you're really going to find in the film, were in bright colors. The film itself is like a washed out version of the trailer. Since the action seemed just as realistic in the trailers, I don't see that the washed out quality was needed. Every epic, sci fi or ancient, uses a tinted lens or off coloring. Haven't any of these geniuses ever seen a David Lean film? Also The Sand Pebbles and Ben Hur and Khartoum and The Wild Bunch, etc. could show realism in bright hues. Looks like a lost art.

Alexander (2004)

Colin Farrell has less charisma than Woody Allen

[25 November 2004]

Colin weeps across 3 continents. Not for an instant does one get the idea of the brilliance and bold confidence the real Alexander must have had. The battle scenes start well and then turn into MTV-style shaky colors confusing what is happening. There is not a good performance in the film. Philip, Alexander's father, was a brilliant general and king who built up Macedonia to a world power...but the movie shows him as a full time drunk. But wherever we go and whatever he does, Alexander finds occasion to...not exult in his victories, not glory in battle...but weep, and weep some more, and then some more. This is so boring...Troy was a masterpiece compared to this drivel and the actors in that film, like Brad Pitt or not, were excellent in their roles. And oh for a Peter O'Toole as Lawrence or Heston as El Cid or Gibson as Braveheart. Picture any of them weeping throughout their conquests and you get the idea of how horribly hilariously bad this piece of garbage was. (And, except for Natural Born Killers, I normally like Oliver Stone movies.)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

DVD issue of The Stepford Wives does not work in U.S. DVD players

[5/10 · 12 April 2004]

I have purchased this item twice, once from Borders and once from an online DVD seller. Neither time would the DVD play in my machine or anyone else's machine I tried.

Since my DVD player has never before rejected ANY DVD product, including poorly kept rentals, I must assume that the entire issue of this item is flawed.

Has anyone else experienced this? Has the DVD worked for anyone else?

I am surprized I have not seen any other reports on this problem.

I have also reported this to Amazon, but they seem unwilling to show it.

Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

The ultimate American Tragedy

[10/10 · 21 November 2003]

Kirk Douglas, grinning and fighting for a principle because he can't help it, is utterly superb. With a haunting Jerry Goldsmith musical score and beautiful black and white photography, this movie is both very suspenseful and very moving. A wonderful cast (including a perfectly cast Gena Rowlands who, in years past, considered this her best film, as does Douglas currently) and script make this the best tragedy I have ever seen.

Thief (1981)

The Tangerine Dream score is the best thing about this film

[17 July 2003]

I thought Thief was James Caan's best performance and that this was an extremely engaging robbery thriller. I don't understand some comments carping about the musical score...which I consider one of the very best movie scores ever composed. I believe it immeasurably enhances what occurs on screen and is excellent listened to on its own. (One caveat: the concluding violent scene of the film was not scored by Tangerine Dream; the band had left and for some reason Mann had to bring in some other group to re-do the final scene sound. It is not particularly good and doesn't have the superb quality of the sound of the rest of the film.)

Broken Arrow (1956–1958)

Re: Ricardo Montalban as Cochise

[16 July 2003]

I just answered my own question. Montalban played Cochise in The 20th Century Hour TV series (a series of single one-hour TV made versions of 20th Century Fox movies). This still starred John Lupton as Tom Jeffords. They apparently made the series after this, except with Michael Ansara. I found this by checking the last TV entry on IMDB for Ricardo Montalban under TV episodes. I personally never remember seeing The 20th Century Hour.

Broken Arrow (1956–1958)

Ricardo Montalban was the first Cochise

[16 July 2003]

I just saw what appears to be the first TV episode of Broken Arrow with Lupton as Tom Jeffords and Ricardo Montalban as Cochise. This is the episode where Jeffords' wife dies, like in the movie with Jimmy Stewart. I only remember Michael Ansara as Cochise, but not so. I don't know when he changed parts. (Maybe the original was a single episode on Zane Grey Theater, which like The Rifleman, became a series?)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Anybody notice that Hyde has an uncomfortable resemblance to Jerry Lewis?

[20 June 2003]

March is good but the film is dated and not as effective as the Tracy version a decade later. I am also afraid that the monster, Hyde, looks far too much like the later slapstick Jerry Lewis to cause anything but laughter, not fear, in more modern viewers. An uncanny resemblance.

The Sins of the Children (1930)

Excellent performance by Louis Mann

[22 May 2003]

I want to echo the comments by the May 21 commenter: the performance by Mann is a good reason to see this film. The ending is too pat, and the performances by the children not very good (including Robert Montgomery's, imho) but Mann makes the whole thing worthwhile. He was already in his '60s when this film was made and he died the next year. So I can see why he has no subsequent career, but I'd like to know more about his earlier life.

Outlaws (1960–1962)

You're not the only fan

[4 March 2003]

This was one of the better westerns. I forget the main star's name who, with head sheriff Barton McClaine, were the setting for each week's new bad guy's story. Yes, Slim Pickens was in it. And in an odd twist late in the series, there were a few episodes of great comedy and adventure with Neville Brand and 2 other guys as cavalry soldiers. These segments had nothing in common with the regular series of Outlaws but were introduced with a story, as I recall. Too bad TVLand doesn't bring this back plus the even older Cimarron City.

Africa: Blood and Guts (1966)

Political correctness destroyed this film

[9/10 · 13 January 2003]

This is the ONLY example of which I'm aware where the complete loss of a film is ignored by all media and critics. I saw this documentary on its original release in, I believe, 1967. It was very disturbing because of the miles of animal bones and bodies it displayed. It squarely placed the blame on both the whites AND the black native inhabitants. And the latter is, imho, the reason this film has disappeared. You can't find the lousiest, most edited version, let alone the original. And this movie was made by Academy Award winners for an earlier foreign film, so it's not like it was just a throwaway cheepie.

Tempest (1958)

This film has combined aspects of a cheap Italian cast of

[9/10 · 3 September 2002]

thousands "epic" AND, largely through the excellent acting of Van Heflin, Agnes Moorehead, and a couple other real actors and intelligent segments of the script, one of the better historical films. Van Heflin is totally believable as the pretender to the throne and is quite charismatic. If only, say, El Cid's Anthony Mann had directed, with Yakima Canutt as battle scene director, this movie could have been fantastic. As it is, the first battle scene, the storming of a fort, is largely wasted by thousands of ill-directed extras slogging forward. The last battle scene, however, has a certain sweep and indication of tactics that make it quite effective. Personally I think it Van Heflin's finest performance. A very much underrated actor.

The Alaskans (1959–1960)

Great TV Series that almost no one has seen

[17 October 2000]

"The Alaskans" was one of the Warner Bros. series that flooded TV in the late '50s, such as Maverick, Cheyenne, Bronco Lane, Sugarfoot, Lawman. Except for the earlier poster, I have never come across anyone who has seen this series. The chemistry amongst Dorothy Provine, Roger Moore and Jeff York was excellant. For unknown reasons, Jeff York (most famous as Mike Fink, king of the river, in Davy Crockett episodes) disappeared from the show about halfway through its first and only year. It was never as good thereafter. I saw it in New York at 10 pm on Sunday nights.