Cuban Rebel Girls (1959)

'Cuban Rebel Girls' aka 'Assault of the Rebel Girls' is the last film that Errol Flynn ever made, he died a few months before it's December 1959 release. Also written by Flynn the married 50 year old actor appears in it beside his then 16 year old girlfriend Beverly Aadland, Aadland needless to say can't really act, that's not why she was on set in a country with less strict statuary rape laws. This pro Castro film was made with the cooperation of then insurgent forces in an actual war zone, this is before Castro came out as a communist. Done in a semi documentary style, Flynn appears as himself, for some reason on assignment from the Hurst Newspaper Syndicate to cover the fighting in Cuba. Aadland plays an American teen who comes to the island because her boyfriend is there fighting, it's not long before she too is sporting khaki's and working with a kind of women's auxiliary force. The movie was directed by Flynn's former personal pilot turned manager Barry Mahon whose last film credit is 'Nudes, Nudists, and Nudism Vol. 2' (1994). This movie is bad, but at times strangely fascinating in its shear improbability of existence. *1/2

Flynn and Aadland's story is told in the 2013 movie 'The Last of Robin Hood' where they are played by Kevin Kline and Dakota Fanning.

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965)

Based on the 1963 John le Carré novel of the same name 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' was directed by Martin Ritt ('Hud', 'Norma Rae') and stars Richard Burton, Clair Bloom, and Oskar Warner. In stark contrast to the 'James Bond' films, 'Danger Man' TV show and other spy based programing of the time 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' is well, stark. It's gray, depressing, and understated, filmed appropriately in black and white near the end of the era where that was commercially viable. This movie does not glamorize spydom at all, written by a former British intelligence officer it tells the story of a British agent (Burton, a perfect part for him, his face says it all) assigned to pretend to defect to the other side so as to feed the communists false information and throw them off the trail of a real double agent behind the iron curtain. Someone Burton's character loves gets accidently caught up in things raising the stakes. At times too slow and too moody, there is not much to break up the 'blah' of things. Works better perhaps as individual scenes then a complete film but what works works very well. ***

The Terror (1963)

The story of how this movie was made is much more interesting then the movie itself. "The Terror" was conceived as a way to take advantage of old sets from the movie "The Raven" before they were taken down. The castle scenes were filmed over two days, and later scenes filmed piecemeal at other locations there after. The movie went through constant rewrites and five directors (including then film student Francis Ford Copula) and as a result makes very little sense. The only movie in which Jack Nicholson appears on screen with his then wife Sandra Knight. Also featuring Boris Karloff and Dick Miller. It's really bad. *

Blue Hawaii (1961)

I think I enjoyed this movie more having been to Hawaii last October then I would have had I not visited there. "Blue Hawaii" is an Elvis vehicle where "The King" eschews the family fruit business in favor of getting involved in the tourist industry upon his discharge after two years in the army in Europe. The film manages to cram in 14 songs in an hour and 42 minutes. Angela Lansbury plays Elvis's mom and does a horrible southern accent. Jenny Maxwell plays a teenage tourist who falls for Elvis, she was later killed at age 39 along with her husband in a still unsolved robbery attempt in 1981. The film was directed by best director Oscar winner Norman Taurog ('Skippy' 1931). **

There's Something About Mary (1998)

I liked this, I thought it worked, of course that particular strain of the pseudo transgressive sensibility that is behind it was far fresher then. Enormously successful when it first came out it's most famous of course for a couple of naughty humor scenes, but the film does have heart, not a ton of it, but enough. Ben Stiller is really good in this, his shtick was fresher then to, and Cameron Diaz makes the film, I'm not a huge fan of her's but she's perfect here. It's a gross out comedy sure, but not as gross as they are now days, and I'm surprised how much that Matt Dillon and the dog scene made me laugh. There is something of the spirit of old screwball comedy to this, and I love the ending with the five suitors in the room, I could imagine Howard Hawks or George Cukor doing something like that. Also solid sound track with pop music as well as some standards by Cole Porter and the like in background scenes. ***

City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994)

'City Slickers 2' made me angry. 'City Slickers 2' should not exist. It is a stain on the legacy of the original 'City Slickers', which is close to a platonic ideal of what it intended to be. The sequel  is a pale imitation which turns what had a been a thoughtful, ruminative comedy into an unfunny treasure hunt. A slog to sit through, an embarrassment. Jon Lovitz for God's sake. Not since 'The Miniver Story' have I so hated a sequel. 1/2.

Friday the 13th (1980)

The bulk of this franchise is free on Prime right now so I thought I'd see how many of them I could make it through and the answer to that is one. One is about as bad as I thought number four would be, not that it's consistently violent, its surprisingly slow with most the violence near the end, sadly that's not helpful. There is a twist in this that I was aware where the killer is different then who the killer would be in the subsequent films, maybe had I not been aware of that there would have been something there where I could say 'See that's something, that' s something different'. About the only thing that I really enjoyed was a short scene where one of the camp counselors is doing a Kathryn Hepburn impression to herself in the mirror, and I just like that Kathryn Hepburn would have been a point of reference known to teens in 1980. The last 10 minutes or so of this is notably weird, pacing and tone and some of the visuals, but not enough to be worth a recommendation. It's just bad. *