Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Double Dragon" (1994)

Movie: Double Dragon
Year: 1994
Rating: 2/5 stars **

This movie was actually surprisingly high budget, though still a 90's/80s feel to it. 2 brothers fight for their lives in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles to gain power over a magical pendant called the double dragon and to keep it from falling into the hands of a powerful crime lord. Check it out, its a little cheese, but worth it in the end.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Highlander III: The Sorcerer" (1983)

Movie: Highlander III: The Sorcerer (Highlander: The Final Dimension)
Year: 1983
Rating: 2/5 Stars **

Wow, so this is another of those part 3 movies that says "we acknowledge that the second movie was a complete steaming pile so just pretend it never happened." And so it goes that this 3rd part actually is to take up just a few years after the original and Mccleod has to fight a long lost immortal who was buried in a mountain for 400 years. It really is irritating to me how they totally screwed up the sequels and in my opinion they should have just stuck with the original 1st Highlander and left it at that. This one was definitely better than the 2nd movie, but is the same formula as #1 and pales in comparison. Watch it if you are a big fan and try not to be too disappointed.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Hobo with a Shotgun" (2011)

Movie: Hobo With a Shotgun
Year: 2011
Rating: 2/5 Stars **

Wow, what a terrible bunch of excessive graphic adolescent violence and hubris. But if you love that kind of sh*t you will love this b-flick. You will spend the whole movie waiting for Arnie, Bruce, or Sylvester to show up and save the day 80s style and start tearing heads off, but alas its all up to one old hobo and his trusty pump shotgun. Expect heaps of gratuitous over the top graphic violence, guts, blood, and rampage. Oh yeah, and the soundtrack is pretty cool too.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Paper Man" (2009)

Movie: Paper Man (2009)
Year: 2009
Rating: 3/5 Stars ***

So this was definitely a different movie, and really not so much a comedy like I expected. A middle-aged couple rents a vacation home in a new town. Jeff Daniels has an imaginary friend still as an adult, who helps him get through things, and he is a struggling author. An unexpected friendship is developed with a local teen girl (Emma Stone), and they find they have a lot to learn about one another, and not in a creepy way. Check this one out if you are looking for something a little different and too heavy.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Cyrus" (2010)

Movie: Cyrus
Year: 2010
Rating: 2/5 Stars **

I was expecting this to be more of comedy after seeing the cast and plot, but it turns out to be kind of a serious movie. Two adults (Tomei and Reilly) meet at a party and hook up, and then the challenge of having a young son (past teen years in this case) accept his mother's new partner comes up, and is actually fairly believable in the sense of what follows, and a little creepy too.

Movie Reviews: "Extract" (2009)

Movie: Extract
Year: 2009
Rating: 2/5 Stars **

This comedy movie has a star-studded cast with Bateman, Kunis, Affleck, and others you will recognize but the movie itself doesn't quite deliver the punchlines as well as other similarly well-casted comedy movies do. Don't expect much from this one.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Dark Shadows" (2012)

Movie: Dark Shadows
Year: 2012
Rating: 7/10 Stars *******

Definitely one of my personal favorite Tim Burton movies so far. Based on the classic Johnny Depp stars as the innocent 1700's noble turned vampire by a witch, to be buried alive and uncovered again in the 1970s. Takes place in Maine, not many movies do, which makes it a little bit more interesting than your standard flick. Check it out, its not serious at all and is really more of Tim Burton's light-hearted dark comedy genre.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Sunshine Cleaning" (2008)

Movie: Sunshine Cleaning
Year: 2008

Rating: 7.8/10 Stars *******'

Interesting movie about a couple of sisters living in Albuquerque, NM who start up a cleaning business that specializes in cleaning up blood and guts from old crime scenes. Emily Blunt is always a plus, and Amy Adams is too. Check this one out, its light and easy.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'The Hunger Games' (2012)

Movie: The Hunger Games
Year: 2012
Rating: 8/10 Stars ********

Wow, this movie was actually quite good, although very violent and disturbing to have to watch young teens and children murder each other in order to be allowed to live. This movie definitely acts as a piece of social commentary and asks "how far would they go?" There are shades of the Gladiators of ancient Rome, and of course one of those lost 80s Schwarzenegger flicks "The Running Man." Check this one out if you get the chance, but beware as its right around 2.5 hours long, and the sequel is already coming out.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: "Heights" (2005)

Movie: Heights
Rating: 6/10 Stars ******
Year: 2005

This was a mildy interesting movie about an interconnected group of New Yorkers and their relationships. This is sort of a drama/comedy and is another of those 6 degrees of separation type movies. If you dig that then check this one out.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Pete Smalls is Dead' (2010)

Movie: Pete Smalls is Dead

Year: 2010

Rating: 7/10 Stars

Sort of a strange and grungy flick about 3 friends, 1 of whom became a famous Hollywood film director and recently died bringing the other 2 together. This movie is a little hard to follow, and it really wasn't all that great, but if you like movies such as Big Lebowski, and other such grungy Americana flicks then you will dig this.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Dead Heat' (1988)

Movie: Dead Heat
Year: 1988
Rating: 5/10 Stars *****

Wow, pretty awful acting and the action scenes aren't even that good. Of course its a cheeseball 80s action era flick, so the acting is supposed to be bad and not serious at all. An evil pharmaceutical giant develops a means of temporarily bringing back the dead, who are then immune to injury, creating lots of problems for the local police department and crime stoppers.  Man's search for immortality, will it ever be attained? 

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Contagion' (2011)

Movie: Contagion
Year: 2011
Rating: 7/10 Stars *******

The epidemic movies have sort of formed their own "epidemic thriller" genre over the years, and this one reminds me a lot of so many others (e.g. 'Outbreak). The cast is star-studded, which makes it more interesting and it is worth watching. It is also believable to an extent, in terms of the kinds of things that would happen if such an epidemic (similar to the smallpox epidemics that wiped out the Americas post-Columbus) were to spring up as the self-serving rich and powerful run for the hills only to save themselves whilst leaving the rest of humanity behind to die. Sounds kind of similar to those old Sumerian and biblical deluge stories, but with plague instead of floods.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'The Front Page' (1974)

Movie: The Front Page
Year: 1974
Rating: 7/10 Stars *******

This 1974 movie is an instant classic! I highly recommend it. The 2nd richest man in the world leaves one mansion for the holidays to head to one of his many other estates for the holidays, all during a depression when many are out of work and looking for places to live. One man has figured the pattern out and alternates squatting at each un-occupied mansion/estate, but this time he makes friends, and before he knows it the mansion is full and the owner has found out. But there is more to this story, and it shades of the current foreclosure crisis and situation in America.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'It Happened on 5th Avenue' (1947)

Movie: It Happened on 5th Avenue
Year: 1947
Rating: 9/10 Stars *********

This 1947 movie is an instant classic! I highly recommend it. The 2nd richest man in the world leaves one mansion for the holidays to head to one of his many other estates for the holidays, all during a depression when many are out of work and looking for places to live. One man has figured the pattern out and alternates squatting at each un-occupied mansion/estate, but this time he makes friends, and before he knows it the mansion is full and the owner has found out. But there is more to this story, and it shades of the recent foreclosure crisis and situation in America.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Chicago Cab' (1997)

Movie: Chicago Cab
Year:1998
Rating: 7/10 Stars *******

Chicago Cab (Hellcab) is not a horror movie, nor a thriller, so don't be fooled by the title. It is more of a drama-comedy as it follows a regular day in the life of a regular Chicago-based cab driver. What makes the film interesting is all of the different people he comes across, and the conversations, fights, counseling sessions, and drama he comes across on a typical day. Check it out, it is definitely not the typical Hollywood product, and that is a good thing.

Under Neon Movie Review: 'The Ides of March' (2011)

Movie: The Ides of March
Year: 2011
Rating: 8/10 Stars ********

Great cast including Clooney, Gosling, Hoffman, Tomei, and more... and quite a good movie, and there is no doubt in my mind that the cut-throat nature of politics being exposed by this movie is about as close to reality as it gets. Gosling is the young campaign manager for up and coming Clooney, and he is about to learn his first big lesson about the dirty truth of politics in America. Definitely check this one out!

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Creepshow 2' (1987)

Movie: Creepshow 2
Year: 1987 
Rating: 6/10 Stars ******

Okay, so I wish I hadn't watched this, because I feel sick after seeing it, and disturbed. There are 3 stories, 1 and 3 are feather-weight, not scary, just silly. The second story about the blob in the lake is somehow deeply disturbing, perhaps it is the visual graphic images of people being digested alive that got to me, and thus I will not be watching the blob movies either. Oh yeah, and this was a group of 3 short stories by horror-king Stephen King in case you didn't know already. I've heard that Creepshow 1 was better and 3 was worse, but I wont be watching either and don't recommend you do either.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Waxwork' (1988)

Movie: Waxwork

Year: 1988

Rating: 5/10 Stars *****

Wow, really was not scary at all, in fact quite goofy and un-serious if anything. A satanic waxworks show comes to town and lures unsuspecting teens into its various traps to continue its sadistic show before moving on to the next unsuspecting town. Wouldn't watch this again, and probably won't bother with the sequel as it really was b-movie level, and not in a good way. 

Under Neon Movie Review: 'Videodrome' (1983)

Movie: Videodrome
Year: 1983
Our Rating: 6/10 Stars ******

Wow! Kind of a crazy movie, but really not far from the truth, and I wouldn't be surprised if the various spy agencies haven't tried/even achieved programming people to be killers/drones like all those conspiracy-theorists believe...maybe even unintentionally. The special effects in this movie are dated, but still worth watching once, though they may creep some out, as the whole premise of the movie is a bit strange and twisted. James Woods was so young in this that you might not recognize him, but that was the early 80s. This one is probably considered a b-movie sci-fi horror classic by now, so if you are into that then check it out.