gmda Reviews

Ernest Rides Again (1993)

Funny, Great, Entertaining.

[10/10 · 27 May 2012]

This is an excellent comedy.

Varney was just a genius at characterization. I have not seen such funny stuff packed into a movie for awhile. (And I have just watched three other Earnest movies in as many days, and this one is above the rest.) This is a very fast paced movie with lots of stuff going on. Every scene is good. The characters in this movie are great. The action is good, with few special effects, and Earnest's antics are just great, the lines he comes up with.

There is an error in the description, the Professor is not some Dimwit...he is timid and insecure, but not stupid.

It is sad that we have lost such a great talent in Varney. He did good consistent work with his parodies and characters, and I wish he was still around making more Earnest movies.

This one deserves an award of some type....how about a "Funny" award?

Arizona Bound (1941)

We like it.

[6/10 · 16 May 2012]

My father (88), was a fan of Buck Jones and other Western Movie Stars back when he was a kid in the 1930's. He grew up with them. He was 10 in 1933 when "Gordon of Ghost City" was released. We are watching these serials and movies, and he will go...OK, now so-and-so person will fall off their horse and it will look like they are trampled...and it will happen. he remembers the pattern. Funny. I don't think he remembers the stories. But they remind him of the times he went to the movies as a kid. A few shorts, a cartoon, and two features for like a DIME!!!!!

These Rough Rider series of movies are pretty standard fair, but interesting, and fairly well made. There is plenty of action, and trouble. They all follow the same formula. 3, seemingly unrelated people come to town, and come at the problem from different angles. But of course they know each other, and are actually working together...they are...."THE ROUGH RIDERS"...US Marshals.

Good entertainment for kids, and grown ups alike, we are well entertained.

Hong Kong Confidential (1958)

Early Bond movie...

[6/10 · 16 May 2012]

I just got through watching this. This is a good little spy movie for the time. It seems totally made on sets so it has a "made for TV" feel, but good quality. And I am not sure what to think of Gene Barry's singing for a guy touted as a good singer, and got a scholarship, and won contests, and was in musical shows, etc...he can't seem to sing a lick in this film, OR...that is what he is playing, a BAD LOUNGE SINGER. Which is likely...You can say you have "seen everything" after you see this.

It has many Bond Movie elements, except for looking at his watch while kissing the girl,and 5 years before Dr. No. It has bad girl, good girl. A favorite drink, it seems. An undercover ID. A charming and relaxed manner, especially under pressure. A Lighter type character, a contact agent, but no gadgets, no secretary, just the good girl/bad girl conflict. No cool car...so a low budget prototype, which holds up pretty well. Some pretty good action for what it is.

I liked other movies and shows Mr. Barry was in. Thanks for the entertainment, and R.I.P.

I was entertained.

Sea Raiders (1941)

Exciting!!!

[8/10 · 13 February 2012]

It's exciting!

I had been watching serials of the 1930's. The code back then was, you could have music in the intro, but not during the story unless it was in the setting, like a restaurant with a band or something. But that changed later. This was the first serial I had watched in awhile from the early 40's. There is a music soundtrack through out and it makes it much more exciting for the action scenes as well as the non action sequences.

Maybe a bit of a spoiler coming....but IT IS EXCITING! Car chases, boat chases, fights, explosions, tough talk, jokes, fights, a panther, attacks from the air, octopus and sharks, submarines, fights, and music to go with it all! Moves right along, and for what it is, it is very well made.

Wow! I was excited. A very entertaining serial. I think I must have seen this as a kid.

Sh! The Octopus (1937)

Enjoyable.

[7/10 · 15 December 2011]

Entertaining comedy. While I was watching this, many of the lines were said in a way that reminded me of some other people. Martin and Lewis came to mind. Bing and Bob came to mind. But then it "HIT" me. They are really, Abbott and Costello. 3-4 years early. And the act works. I am thinking that by the time A&C came along, the formula had been perfected, or at least improved on, and that the time for this type of team comedy was ready to take off. Even down to the way lines are said, many that Hugh Herbert makes down in the basement of the lighthouse, when he is alone, is totally Lou Costello. I am wondering if A&C were just mimicking this style of comedy with their own spin. Great as they were. I enjoyed them very much, as well as the others I mentioned.

The movie, as a movie, is very enjoyable and moves along at a good pace. I had a good time, and that was the point, then as now.

Fist to Fist (1973)

Bad Movie, Fair Action.

[4/10 · 11 May 2011]

Think Chinese Western, with music ripped off from TV's Mission Impossible, and The Godfather! Pretty bad, but they all did that back then.

The cover picture shows Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, but only Jackie is in this movie as a Guard and stunt person. He has no starring roll. Bruce Lee does not seem to be in, or have anything to do with this film at all from what I could see. There is certainly no fighting between them in this movie as the cover picture suggests. Jackie Chan at the time was merely a stunt man, like in Enter the Dragon. So, he was a nobody at the time.

"Fist of the Double K" makes it sound like a cowboy western on a ranch, and doesn't fit really anything in the movie.

The action was OK some good fight scenes at the end.

A Very Missing Person (1972 TV Movie)

OK mystery, could have been better.

[7/10 · 9 May 2011]

Something no one has said yet is this is the seventh movie of Hildegarde Withers from the 1930's! The previous movie, Forty Naughty Girls was in 1937!

An OK, made for TV mystery, which I figured out before the end. And with a kind of "quick" ending. Eve Arden did a great job I thought, for this movie series not being made for nearly 35 years, nobody would probably remember and compare her to the actresses before her. James Gregory as Oscar Piper was OK, but not as irascible, as James Gleason's portrayal. I did laugh at the banter between the two and found it to be entertaining. I would liked to have seen at least one season, or one summer season of episodes, where character development could have taken place. Other than that...it is OK.

Interesting to see the Great PAT MORITA, 3 years before he did Happy Days!

If you are into 70's hippie culture and don't mind an original Star Trek plot rip-off, you might like it. I did.

Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia (1977)

Great Movie.

[10/10 · 16 February 2011]

This was an excellent film. Later I saw the others, and I still like this one the best. It was different. You end up clapping and cheering for the KGB when they come in like the cavalry in an old western. That was different. Saw this as a second feature, we went to see the other movie, and ended up seeing this one too. This was far better than the other movie, "It's not the size that counts", which had James Bond's M, Bernard Lee.

This movie has action, shoot outs, chases, gory deaths, sex, and some tense situations. Watching it again, 20 years later on VHS, was not as good as in the theater. But it is still a good movie.

The Bells of Death (1968)

Something Nobody has Noticed.....

[7/10 · 21 May 2010]

No one seems to realize that this is an Asian Remake of 1966's NEVADA SMITH with Steve McQueen. The guy with the big nose in this movie is the KARL MALDEN character, but he dies second instead of last. So story liberties were liberally taken to retell it to an Asian audience. But then the Magnificent Seven and Fistful of dollars are Asian Stories, retold for Western audiences!!! Turn about is fair play, I guess.

To review the film. The copy I saw looked like it was filmed yesterday. Beautifully sparse landscape at the beginning. Where lots of other Shaw Films were made. Then I noticed the Western sounding Music. Three riders come upon a home and slaughter a family, an older child returns home, and vows vengeance. He hunts them down, one at a time.

Still I enjoyed the flick as it was very differently put together. But it is none-the-less, NEVADA SMITH.

The Cave of the Silken Web (1967)

Enjoyable Movie

[7/10 · 19 April 2010]

At first I thought it was going to be a stupid, boring, fantasy flick, that would make no sense. Like Hurricane Sword. When I saw it had Monkey King in it, I realized what it was. I knew Monkey was a Staff Master, and had seen Beijing Opera perform it. That actor was Phenomenal!!! So, this movie, for 1967, was really good. A little ways into it, it reminded me of a Disney Musical, like Babes in Toyland, especially the stage sets, singing and dancing, and humor. All well done. The movie moves right along. Martial Arts scenes are OK.

Some special effects are just camera cuts, and some are super imposed, but some are really ahead of their time in 1967. The copy I saw was clear, and looked like it was filmed last week!!

All-in-all, an enjoyable movie with lots of different things, although I would NOT LET THE KIDS WATCH IT! It has some sexual situations, and adult language shall we say. So, it is PG-13.

A Virgin in Hollywood (1953)

A seamy piece of history!

[3/10 · 29 November 2009]

Aside from the low-budget production and horrible at times acting etc... This is to some people a very interesting piece of history. When our intrepid reporter "gets lost" in the Hollywood hills, she ends up at this "Photo Ranch". This place is called The Hacienda in certain circles. There is Arline Hunter, Playboy Playmate August 1954 swimming in "THE LITTLE POOL". This was an ACTUAL place where photographers and models did their work! This is not a made up movie plot. This was a (then in ruins), ranch with arched patios, and cobble stone drive and walkways, and buildings. "The Hacienda was built by a Pasadena millionaire in 1927, and served as the backdrop for even more photos than the Spiderpool during the heyday of 1950s cheesecake photography." This is a quote from a web-page on the Hacienda and the Spiderpool. Another photog/model place.

Well here I was just watching this piece of Schlock when it suddenly became VERY interesting to me. The place is a piece of Seamy Hollywood History! Other than that and a few funny moments it is nothing.

Portland Exposé (1957)

Closer to the TRUTH is more like it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[18 November 2009]

I have not seen this film yet. So don't really know what it is about except what is on the site. However, Portland Oregon was a veritable "Den of Iniquity" back in the old days. "Shanghai-ing" I believe got its NAME from Portland, as unsuspecting men were lead to trap-doors and then "way-layed" only to wake up on a ship to ....guess where??? There was a lady mobster who ran the booze industry for years and even when "caught up with in the end".... SHE WALKED!!!! There was a whole literal UNDERGROUND CITY under Portland, and it has been shown on Cities of the Underworld. There were brothels, and white slavery, prostitution, and other vices,....opium dens. Portland has a small "China Town". There was underground fighting, yes.... a Fight Club! IT's ALL TRUE!!!

Maybe not the movie exactly, but in real life....close enough!!!

I ought to know. I live 55 miles south in Salem, Oregon. So this movie is probably close to the truth as to the type of people and things going on up in that wild town to the north! Edit: Just wanted to add that I look forward to seeing this movie soon.

The Mask (1961)

Scared me to DEATH!!!

[8/10 · 23 August 2009]

I was 8 years old when I saw this movie. My friend and I went ALONE!!!! They actually let us into a matinée! ALONE! We got sooooo scared, we hid behind the seats. Popping-up to see when it was OK to watch. Skulls coming at you. Flames shooting at you...right out of the screen! Arms reaching out for you! All in 3D!! Glad it was not in COLOR!!!

It was more than our little minds could stand, we wanted to run and leave sooo bad, but we had paid our money, and we talked about it all the way home, and then the next day it was as if we had not seen it!!!! I forgot it for about 20 years (1980'ish), when it was shone, in 3d I might add, on TV for Halloween!!!! I guess that is what you call traumatized! WE WERE! They should never have let 8 year old's in to see this movie, ALONE!!!! Now I have the Elvira VHS tape of it.

We thought it was coooooool, and we did enjoy it, but we were SCARED TO DEATH!!!!

SO, on a spooky night, watch it.....but watch out!