[WGH]

Hollywood is holding back the A list movies so 'B' movies seem to be creeping onto my screen lately, they fall in the middle ground of not real bad but not great either, just good enough to watch to the end.
Making films is really, really hard.

2067 - An interesting save-the-world time travel with great potential. If this film was remade in 5 years with an experienced director and less whining by Kodi Smit-McPhee it would be a blockbuster. Still it is OK with good set design and plot.

Kodi Smit-McPhee has been in Dolemite Is My Name, X-Men: Apocalypse, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Ryan Kwanten is best know as Jason Stackhouse in HBO's True Blood from 2008-2014.



2067 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZsBTmvOk3o


The Doorman - Ruby Rose and Jean Reno star in an action heist film. Ruby plays an ex-marine protecting her family from violent art thieves while locked in an apartment building closed for remodeling. Sound familiar? I think this was done by Bruce Willis and other macho men but never by a 100 lb woman. Yes, Ruby kicks some butt.

Ruby Rose has been in John Wick: Chapter 2, co-starred in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect 3, and in the monster film The Meg.
Jean Reno has been in 105 film and TV roles.



The Doormen trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pugLE1ifvbY


Alone - A single woman is abducted, escapes, and hunted by a deranged manic man in the Pacific Northwest with nothing but her whimpering and pluck to protect her. Actress Jules Willcox is the opposite of Ruby Rose possessing absolutely no skills at all and still manages to survive. 95% on Rotten Tomatoes with descriptions like heart pounding, harrowing, rock solid survival thriller, I'm closer to 60% for a solid 'B' rating.



Watch the entire movie in the 2:14 official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoP2mJiCzWQ

[WGH]

Colombiana (2011)



Another bad girl flick, sometimes I fall into a cinema rabbit hole.

Colombiana is the story about a young girl who witnessed her parents murder at 11 years old, escapes to Chicago and trained to be a cold blooded killer to exact revenge. So why did I go there?

The film stars Zoe Saldana, well known for playing Uhura in three Star Trek movies, Neytiri in Avatar (1 & 2), and Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy (1 & 2) and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Directed by Olivier Megaton: Transporter 3, Taken 2 & 3
Produced and written by Luc Besson: Taken 1, 2, & 3, Lucy, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Sounds good right? Zoe Saldana is magnetic and makes the film worth watching, her performance shows why she consistently gets roles in more prestigious films. Colombiana has some exciting action sequences, the finale is a blast but getting there is kind of a slog. Editing could have been tightened up and there is too much yammering that slows down the forward momentum. Forget about continuity, Zoe is Cataleya, who is described as "She's like mist" and she is, she is here, then here, then here in the fights. Eventually you just go with it. All the baddies are disposable.

Colombiana looks like it had a big budget, the buildings and scenery add to the drama. It was filmed in Mexico City; New Orleans, Louisiana; Union Station Chicago; Wicker Park, West Town, Chicago; and SFP Studios, Bry sur Marne, France.

A good action movie night film, another solid B. Look for it on Netflix.

[WGH]

Breach starring Bruce Willis

Last weekend we watched "Mank" starring Gary Oldman on Netflix. The film is excellent, entertaining and one of the best movies streaming right now.
But we're not here to discuss Mank because in my household every good movie has to be balanced out with a 'B' movie.

A space adventure with aliens and Bruce Willis kicking ass, how bad could it be?

As it turns out, pretty bad. Breach is a solid B-

There is an alien onboard the last space ship transporting 300,000 cryoed survivors to "New Earth" and it wants to kill them all. "Alien" it is not. Truth be told Bruce must be an amazing actor because he effortlessly flattened and dulled down his considerable skill so he seamlessly blended in with the film's other B-actors. Some movies save money on actors so they can have amazing special effects, this is not one of them. After paying Bruce the effects budget must have been minimal unless the producers were trying to replicate 1950's space movies. Breach is almost worth watching to the end when the alien appears on screen - part claymation, part sock puppet with digital effects, I have no idea what the hell that thing is.

Breach has a well earned 11% on RT
"Fleeing a devastating plague on Earth, an interstellar ark comes under attack from a new threat -- a shape-shifting alien force intent on slaughtering what's left of humanity."
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/breach_2020

Breach is the perfect 2:00 am movie.
 

[Letitroll98]

The only one I've seen out of this list is Columbiana, which was pretty decent, I'd agree with your assessment.

Is there a time limit on these B movies?  My favorite is "Fandango"  staring a very young Kevin Cosner, Sam Robards and Judd Nelson along with two other actors as Texas college seniors about to move on after graduation, to Canada to escape being drafted for Vietnam, Cosner, a military career, Nelson, or not really sure, Robards.  The movie is a road trip to Mexico to rescue "Dom".  Just an absolute delight that very few have seen, and watching these future blockbuster stars at the beginning of their careers is fabulous.  The best character in the film is Truman Sparks with the best line being from his woman, "Who took my laundry"?

[WGH]

Is there a time limit on these B movies? 

Not at all, you could go all the way back to 1951's "The Thing from Another World" starring James Arness as 'The Thing' four years before 1955's "Gunsmoke".

I haven't seen the Grindhouse films either: Robert Rodriguez film "Planet Terror" and the Quentin Tarantino film "Death Proof",  "Hobo With a Shotgun", Chillerama, "Drive Angry" starring Nicholas Cage (who deserves his own thread), and  "Brawl in Cell Block 99" starring Vince Vaughn.

We're just getting started.

[WGH]

Wander starring Aaron Eckhart and Tommy Lee Jones

Aaron and Tommy portray two conspiracy theory nut jobs investigating a murder in an isolated New Mexico town called Wander in this paranoid thriller. The film keeps you guessing and it has it's moments. I'll give the movie a solid 'B'.

Your rating will depend on where you get your news and how many and what type of meds you need to function.
RT Critics rate it 25% while the Audience Score is 91%
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wander

 

[WGH]

As it turns out I'm not the only person with too much time on my hands but I'm not as obsessed as NY Times movie reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli who watched a dozen of Bruce Willis’s movies from the past half-decade. That is insane.

The Bruce Willis Journey From In Demand to On Demand
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/movies/bruce-willis-movies-on-demand.html

"Title aside, “Breach,” (see my review above) a horror flick set in space, does stand out from the ever-growing pack in a couple of ways.

"The first is that Willis gets decent screen time as a crew member who helps Cody Kearsley (“Riverdale”) battle a parasitic life form that’s turning people into murderous ghouls. That Willis would commit to a Willis movie is not a given because he tends to average 15 minutes per outing in his VOD oeuvre — it’s his (quickly waning) reputation the star rents out, not his actual presence.

"But more important than Willis clocking in and out is that “Breach” is watchable — a modest but, in this context, rarely achieved quality. Add bonus points if unfamiliarity with “Alien” and John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” from which “Breach” heavily borrows, create surprises; add some more if you are amused by the sight of Thomas Jane hamming it up while wearing sunglasses inside a spaceship.

"In Willisworld, this counts as exuberant praise..."



"And there is so much more to look forward in 2021, with Willis slated to appear in more science fiction with “Cosmic Sin,” a human hunt in “Apex,” crime-y stuff in “Out of Death” and a thriller called “Midnight in the Switchgrass.”

I can't wait.

[WGH]

Space Truckers (1996) totally embraces everything a "B" movie is all about. Cheesy sets, bad but not terrible acting, uninspired dialog and famous actors. Space Truckers has more great actors hamming it up than any B-movie I have ever seen. And it's funny.

The plot is simple, space trucker John Canyon (Dennis Hopper) is hired to deliver a secret cargo to Earth, along the way the cargo tries to kill everyone on board. The film has a hilarious start as John arrives at the space station with a load of genetically enhanced square pigs from Mars, the pigs stack better when square. Each adventure after that gets even crazier. Space Truckers has plenty of goofball adventures, it's so bad it's good. At one point when John punches a bad guy you can see the harness holding him up as he floats away.

It is hard to believe the actors and crew thought they were making the next Star Wars, I think they were in it for a lark. Sort of like "lets make a movie but not try that hard".

The cast is amazing with:

Dennis Hopper - Hang 'Em High, Easy Rider, True Grit, Apocalypse Now and 200 more film credits
George Wendt - Norm Peterson on Cheers (all 273 episodes), currently in the new film "Bliss" and 150 more film credits
Charles Dance - Tywin Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones, Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown, William Randolph Hearst in Mank and 150 more film credits
Debi Mazar - Goodfellas, The Doors, Malcolm X, Bullets Over Broadway, Spice (of Sugar and Spice, with Drew Barrymore as Sugar) in Batman Forever, and the TV series L.A. Law
Stephen Dorff - good looking actor that shows up everywhere but hasn't broke out yet and has 93 film credits

Action packed preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOqLOErhZA&ab_channel=UmbrellaEntertainment