It’s surprising how “Three O’ Clock High” is about much more than a kid who gets himself in deep with a bully in high school. Deep down while it’s definitely a dark comedy about high school, it’s also about facing your problems. What “Three O’ Clock High” is ultimately about is that bad day that everyone has, and that horrific revelation that if something bad is going to happen to you, it’s going to happen to you, and most times you can really do nothing but try to get through the storm as neatly as possible.
Three O’Clock High (1987)
It’s surprising how “Three O’ Clock High” is about much more than a kid who gets himself in deep with a bully in high school. Deep down while it’s definitely a dark comedy about high school, it’s also about facing your problems. What “Three O’ Clock High” is ultimately about is that bad day that everyone has, and that horrific revelation that if something bad is going to happen to you, it’s going to happen to you, and most times you can really do nothing but try to get through the storm as neatly as possible.
Rifftrax: Cool as Ice (1991)
Full Disclosure: A screener for “Rifftrax: Cool as Ice” was sent to us legally for review purposes.
Mocking “Cool as Ice” is a Herculean task even for the guys at Rifftrax. The movie is such a straight faced movie filled with inexplicable montages and horrific writing, not to mention star Vanilla Ice is such an empty void, it’s a challenge to ridicule him when the occasion calls for it. “Cool as Ice” is still as awful as ever, and while the episode from the Riff Trax gang isn’t their best, it’s still filled with a ton of one liners that will inspire raucous laughter.
Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays
I’d be lying if I said I was a Billy Crystal fan. I always found him tolerable at best, in the realm of cinema, as an Oscar host, and comedian. I’d also be lying if I told you I had any intention to watch “700 Sundays.” My viewing of it was accidental and suffice it to say, I was shocked that “700 Sundays” ended up being so entertaining. Normally I detest the one man shows and find them the epitome of self indulgence, but Crystal has surely earned his chance to stage a one man show about his life. And while he does have a chance to perform a show about his Hollywood experiences, he instead discusses much of his life, and how his comedy career were merely a footnote in an unusual life.
Willow Creek (2013) (DVD)
What director Bobcat Goldthwait sets out to do with “Willow Creek” is deliver a found footage movie that gives the viewers every answer nagging at them. Except, he provides the answers through foreshadowing, subtlety, and a lot of ambiguity paired with clarification in the final moments of his film. Truthfully, “Willow Creek” is the anti-“Blair Witch,” in that it leaves so much to the imagination, but garners a very slick tongue in cheek toward its subject matter. There’s no prologue about sheriff’s finding this footage, there’s no epilogue about what happened when the camera shut off. Goldthwait doesn’t want us to believe that this might have happened. It merely begins on a mysterious shot, and Goldthwait takes us on his own version of a found footage horror film.
Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You! (2012)
You know a movie fails to hold your attention when you’re spending more time marveling at the setting of the film than the film itself. I really should move to New Hampshire, it looks like a beautiful place to live in. And there is no shortage of scenes depicting suburbs and town halls that look incredible when filmed. In either case, “Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You!” is a giant missed opportunity of a horror comedy that seems to have tacked on the monster called the Riverbeast in to a dramedy about a tutor, and a woman he’s trying to impress. I was never sure on the specifics of the story, since it’s a pretty tedious movie.
Gamera: Legacy Collection 1965-1999 (DVD)
While Mill Creek Entertainment’s “Legacy Collection” for the Gamera series doesn’t offer every title from the Gamera saga, it definitely bones up on the necessities while also offering up some of the most contemporary Gamera adventures. The “Legacy Collection” features the first in the Gamera adventures from 1965, in which the giant turtle is awoken during nuclear testing from the ice, and begins wreaking havoc. Only a little boy sees the goodness in the snaggle toothed turtle. The sequel “Gamera vs. Barugon” sees Gamera return from his imprisonment in space to save Earth from the wrath of Barugon. Barugon can freeze people, but that’s okay since Gamera can breathe fire, and fly with the help of a rocket power shell, and whatever other powers the writers can concoct.