One-night movie marathon: A Prayer for the Dying – 6/10
This is my second viewing after watching it on video almost three decades ago! I didn’t like it then and still don’t like it now. The story is overtly melodramatic for a drama and lacks the tension to be called a thriller, not to mention the slow pacing. Being a Jack Higgins’s adaptation and having a cast of talented actors: Rourke, Hoskins, Bates, and Neeson, it’s a shame that the film cannot live up to its potentials.
Showdown in Little Tokyo (First viewing f.o.c.) – 7.5/10
1991 was the year when I stopped watching movies for some personal reasons. That’s why I missed this one. Just like Commando, the action scenes here are exciting and violent, and that’s what I like about Mark L. Lester’s directorial style. I'll get the blu-ray
Demon Seed (First viewing f.o.c.) – 7/10
This is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of sci-fi horror film. I wanted to like this but I can’t buy the basic premise of the story – a super artificial intelligent computer Proteus taking over a house where it is set up and terrorizing the wife of a scientist living in it. The plot is unique but wildly farfetched – a computer impregnating a woman? Then you see other nonsensicality during scenes when Proteus displays its (or his?) intelligence and performs actions that leave viewers feel cheated.
But that’s not to say the film is unwatchable or boring. Yes, the plot is full of hokum, but the atmospheric music by Jerry Fielding, Donald Cammell’s deft direction, and Julie Christie’s acting kept me watching it to the end.
Jan-Michael Vincent Double FeatureVigilante Force (First viewing f.o.c.) – 7/10
Films that I watched f.o.c. are those that are usually on my wishlist but don’t want to blindbuy. This is one of them. Okay, there’s nothing special about this but it’s a watchable mediocre 70’s action film. Kris Kristofferson plays Aaron, a hangar security guard who is hired by his younger brother Ben (Jan-Michael Vincent) to restore law and order in a small mining town. The weeks following his arrival in the town, law and order are quickly restored and the town regains its tranquility. But Aaron has other plans up his sleeve. After he and his men turn corrupt and ruthless by taking the law into their own hands, Ben – together with the townspeople – decides to confront his brother and put an end to his reign of terror. Victoria Principal co-stars. This is the kind of film that you don’t need to think much while seeing. Just sit back and enjoy it.
Defiance (1980) [First viewing f.o.c.) – 7/10
Defiance is another Jan-Michael Vincent film that I still remember playing at the cinemas during my teen days. The blu-ray is coming out, so I thought I should watch this. The plot is similar to Death Wish 3 but the violence is toned down. During certain scenes, the film feels like a direct-to-TV film. John Flynn (Rolling Thunder, Best Seller, Lock Up) directs.