All the latest Movieland investigations from detectives Dick Japowski and Joey Arizona.
Dick Japowski's VHS Chronicles
Mutronics: The Movie (a.k.a. The Guyver) (1991)
Trailers: Modern Love, Lonely Hearts, JFK, Bingo, Don't Tell Her it's Me, Timescale.
Joey Arizona reviewed this movie recently with the kind of critical eye a forensics expert would have. But it did remind me I had a copy in the attic, so it was time for a rewatch!
He was spot on with his scathing takedown. A movie this crazy should be a lot more fun. A man gets an alien power rangers type suit and has to fight creatures that look like man sized Gremlins and starring Mark Hamill with a mustache. The mustache isn't the problem, it's the direction of Screaming Mad George primarily know as an FX guy on such films as Society where it goes wrong. A messy curiosity.
Rewatch: 1.5 Doughnuts
The Arizona Case Files
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Alien slug creatures, a bus-load of zombie frat boys, Tom Atkins as a grizzled detective, what's not to love.
Rewatch: 3.5 Doughnuts
The Arizona Case Files
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Angry teen goes for hypnotherapy and gets experimented on instead.
I read somewhere recently that this formed part of Stephen King's inspiration for I.T., and that had me very much intrigued. Honestly I was hooked from the get go, it starts with a pair if highschoolers in a slugfest, and pretty much every scene draws you in, there's even a musical number, what more could you want?
First watch: 4 Doughnuts
The Arizona Case Files
Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
Marky Mark and The Funky Bots are in hiding/on the run, Megatron is back, vaguely, a villainous fembot has possessed Optimus Prime and wants to destroy Earth in order to revive Cybertron...and lots of backstory involving Merlin, robo-knights, and a metallic three-headed dragon.
Michael Bay attempts to make Transformers 5 and six other film simultaneously, and smashes them altogether. It kind of works, but there's plenty you could have left out, and yet again the Transformers are secondary characters in their own movie.
First watch: 3 Doughnuts
The Arizona Case Files
Dolemite is My Name (2019)
The true story of a failed entertainer who reinvented himself an became a phenomenon, and that was before he started making his own movie.
This is easily the best movie Eddie Murphy has made in a long, long time, which is what happens when you finally get to make your passion project. Wesley Snipes turns a great performance as well.
First Watch: 4 Doughnuts
Have you witnessed any of the movies we've investigated? What's the verdict? Let us know in the comments below.