The Explosive Generation (1961)

 High school students rally to the defence of hip teacher William Shatner when he is suspended for taking their questions about sex seriously. Also staring Patty McCormick of 'The Bad Seed' fame, a young Beau Bridges, the Chief from 'Get Smart' and both Peter Virgo Jr. and Sr. Kind of dull at times but the last 30 minutes are pretty fun. **1/2

Hot Pursuit (2015)

 Unfunny comedy staring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vegara as, respectively, a police officer and witness on the lamb in Texas after a misunderstanding. Real misfire of a flick, it's got the basic structure down, including scenarios with interesting potential, but it's just not funny. *

Salvador (1986)

 'Salvador' is based on the account of photo journalist Richard Boyle's at times harrowing experiences covering a civil war in El Salvador in 1980 - 81. James Woods gives a solid performance as the rather flawed Boyle. Micheal Murphy plays the Carter appointed ambassador to the country as a very honorable man. There is a scene of the rape and murder of foreign add works made all the more horrible as we have come to know and really like one of them. Co-written and directed by Oliver Stone, this is very much up his alley. ***1/2.

Operation Moonbase (1953)

 Cold War shenanigans surrounding efforts to establish a U.S. moonbase in the futuristic year of 1970. 'Operation Moonbase' is pretty archtypel of the sci-fi films of its era, but it  manages to do a few things of note, it does creative camera trick on a space station where all surfaces are floors if you have magnetic boots, it also plays some with gender roles, we have a female mission commander and a female American president. The film ends with a wedding on the moon. **

Alien Hunt (2024)

 Recently the folks at RedLetterMedia picked an example of what Mike calls "Tubi trash", semi at random and encouraged viewers to rent it so as to really mess with the movies metrics and have an obscure, low budget, throw away Sci-fi action flick jump unexpectedly towards the top of the rental charts. So I did my part, rented and even watched this film that Mike and Jay have made clear they have no intention to watch themselves.

"Trash" is a good descriptor for 'Alien Hunt' because it's such a disposable kind of film. Shot and set principally in "Cottenwood, Tennessee", three siblings and a friend go on a deer hunting trip to a cabin they haven't been to "since dad died". In that interim some renegade National Guard had set up a lab in a cave where they work to create hybrid human/alien solders from DNA they get out of ancient eggs.

The film makers demonstrate that they've seen movies before and can do a reasonably proximity of one. There is some base level competence in the structure and writting of the thing, with better actors and a bigger budget this could approach real mediocrity. Derivative and as safe and cheap as they could make it. I honestly can't tell how tounge in check this was meant to be, were they failing to reach what they were striving for, or was the unexceptionalness kind of the point. It is at least watchable, which is something of an accomplishment for a movie like this. *1/2

Jigsaw (1949)

 A fair number of propagandistic anti communist film were made in the late 1940's and early 1950's, most on a slim budget. What sets 'Jigsaw' apart, while it shares many of the tropes of these films and was clearly done on the cheap, is that it's an anti Right wing fanaticism film. 

Franchot Tone is a crusading (New York?) ADA out to quash a pseudo patriotic hate group that he believes responsible for a number of deaths, including a close friend. Jean Wallace is the "honeypot" the group sends to distract him.

Interguing enough as an idea, but this film is really bad. Cheap looking, poorly edited, unnecessarily confusing and featuring some very over rought and hysterical acting. The film inexplicably sports many A list actors in cameo roles, including Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda and John Garfield; Hollywood liberals who presumably signed on because of the films messaging. 

As intrigued as I was it was kind of hard to sit through, even at a very modest 72 minute run time. *1/2

Knock on Any Door (1949)

 About a year ago when I was reading a biography of director Nicholas Ray,  I looked for this movie and couldn't find it anywhere. The other day I stumbled upon it, free on Prime.

This early Ray film was based on the novel of the same name by Willard Motley, who did not like Ray's version of his story. However, it is significant that 'Knock on Any Door' was only the second time (the first being Frank Yerby's 'The Foxes of Harrow' in 1947) that a Hollywood movie had been adapted from a novel by a black writer. Interestingly there is only one black character in the movie, I am uncertain about the racial make up in Motley's novel.

Here we have two protagonists, John Derek ( future husband of Bo) given an Introducing credit and effective as Nick Romano, a young man of the slums channeled into crime by his circumstances (despite being at hart a decent fellow), and Humphrey Bogart as Andrew Morton, a man who came from a similar background to Nick's but managed to pull himself up and become a lawyer. Andrew wants to help Nick get his life on track, an interest that intensifies after he marries Nick's former social worker (Susan Perry).

The film is of the sympathetic to hoodlums sort, befitting some psychological trends of the time and serving as a forerunner for Ray's most famous work 'Rebel Without A Cause'. There is a court room framing device for the backstory that consitues most of the picture, which then shifts to focus on the actual trial. Nick is accused of killing a cop and his guilt or innocence of the crime is kept uncertain till the end of the film, resulting in a strong monologe scene for Bogart.

The film moves from a middling social issues picture/ muted knock off of a Cagney movie, to a fairly impressive psychological character study, at least for it's time. Nick gains much audience sympathy through his relationship with a simple, sweet young woman from a similar economic background, Emma (played by Allene Roberts (who I knew from the mystery picture 'The Redhouse' (1947) where she is love interest to a character named Nate)), is the kind of girl who just brings out a man's protective instincts. Her fate proves very central to the story.

A solid film which ably keeps it ambitions suited to its glorified B movie status. Ray was very skilled at the casting of secondary parts and there are some great authentic faces on screen. Nic Ray's second picture made, and first released, it marked him early as a young artist to reckon with. ***

Red Rocket (2021)

 'Red Rocket' is a film by director Sean Baker, who made one of my favorite films of a couple of years back 'The Florida Project'. Like that film, 'Red Rocket' is about people living on the margins, which makes Baker something of an American equivalent of the English filmmaker Mike Leigh. 

Our lead character is "Mikey Saber" (Simon Rex) a has been pornstar who returns to his hometown on the Texas gulf course, presumably to reconcile with his estranged wife (Bree Elrod) but princably because he can't think of anything else to do. Effectively unemployable on account of his past line of work, Mikey becomes a drug dealer, another of his previous professions. Mikey is pretty good at this job, he now has a strong cash flow, his wife's coming around, he even has the admiring friendship and occasional free chauffer serives of his neighbor Ethan Darbone.

However, Mikey becomes smitten with the 17 year old redhead (Suzanna Son) who works the counter at the donut shop where he does much of his dealing. He charms her and slowly works to open her to the idea of doing porn, thinking this young beauty might be his ticket back to the adult film industry. Mikey is not honest with the girl, nicknamed "Strawberry" about his true circumstances, but he's not really honest with anybody, a perpetual fiber and exagertor. Mikey is living multiple lives and has a number of balls (schemes) in the air. He is simply not smart enough to pull all this off, so as the movie goes on you keep waiting to see which shoes will drop and drop they will. 

Made for around a million dollars and featuring a mix of professional actors and locals, this a grungy film about the displaced and the underclass. Set in the summer of 2016 against the backdrop of the presidential election, 'Red Rocket' is a subtlety rumative piece, almost a kind of folk filmmaking. These are the kinds of characters you don't see in film that often and there is something really true about them. ***