You Have to See This! No Contest (1995)

Posted on June 6, 2024 by Felix Vasquez

Now Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel

The nineties were an interesting time for action movies. You had your A tier action flicks hitting the box office, and then you had your C and D tier on home video filling shelves. Among them there was “No Contest.” If you were a premium cable subscriber in the nineties, you probably know what “No Contest” is. This movie fulfilled two big purposes in that it gave the studio their very own “Die Hard” wannabe, and it pushed their star Shannon Tweed to the forefront in her long effort to become a mainstream movie star.

Shannon Tweed was a gorgeous and sexy woman and former Playboy model in the eighties who got in to feature films in the nineties and worked hard to become a big screen actress.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Windblown Hare (1949)

Posted on June 4, 2024 by Felix Vasquez

The Windblown Hare (1949)Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by John Carey
Music by Carl Stalling

I am one that was never much of a fan of cartoons like “Rocky and Bullwinkle” or “George of the Jungle.” I always found those series to feel cheap and kind of dull so I was never a fan of their fractured fairy tales. Besides, Warner bros. always set the bar high when it came to taking fairy tales and distorting them for their own twisted purposes. “The Windblown Hare” is a hilarious take on the Three Pigs and Red Riding Hood, the first confrontation with the three pigs for Bugs and his second confrontation of Red Riding Hood’s universe. While not as funny as “Red Riding Rabbit,” this visitation to the latter’s world is small but hysterical as the writers take this whole dynamic and twist it up for some prime comedic material.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Grey Hounded Hare (1949)

Posted on May 28, 2024 by Felix Vasquez

The Grey Hounded Hare (1949)Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by John Carey
Music by Carl Stalling

“The Grey Hounded Hare” is one of those shorts that always played in the very middle of marathons on cable TV and it almost always made great background noise. That’s mainly because “The Grey Hounded Hare” isn’t really anything to write home about. When it comes to Bugs Bunny he’s done better, and the writers have found better ways to utilize his ongoing feud with dogs. The short by Bob McKimson is pretty much the repetition that these shorts are known for but without not too many laughs. Sure it’s clever and it’s high energy, which is always a plus. But the whole concept just kind of feels stale and forced. That’s punctuated by the fact that the short has no real foil for Bugs Bunny.

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Dune: Part Two (2024) [4K UHD/Digital]

Posted on May 28, 2024 by Felix Vasquez

Now Available from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

“Dune Part Two” is an infinitely superior film to the 2021 installment of “Dune” which, when all was said and done, felt more like a prologue than an actual narrative. While “Dune” was good, the second chapter to Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation feels so much more cohesive. Not to mention a lot of the concepts and ideas and so much less abstract and much easier to comprehend. There’s just so much more focus and laser beam direction this time out. While, again, “Dune” was good in its own right, I just had a much better time in how Villeneuve adopts the whole concept of “Dune” in the vein of “The Empire Strikes Back.”

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Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (aka Feng shen Di yi bu: Zhao ge feng yun) (2023)

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Emilie Black

Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD May 28th, 2024, from Well Go USA.

A mythical war from 3000 years ago between immortals, monsters, and humans, Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms shows a small part of the battles and serves as an opening to a much larger story.

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Navy SEALS (1990)

Posted on May 24, 2024 by Felix Vasquez

Now Available at Vinegar Syndrome and Amazon.

Lewis Teague’s action thriller feels a lot like one of the last vestiges of the Reagan Era, where movies marketed on promoting military and America, and “Navy SEALS” feels like too little, too late. Even for the eighties, “Navy SEALS” is corny jingoistic propaganda that teams a slew of great movie stars to deliver what is basically a middling attempt to recapture some of the “Top Gun” glory of the eighties. Even star Michael Biehn didn’t like “Navy SEALS” explaining that it was one of his worst movie making experiences of his career.

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