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Movieguys1980
Reviews
The Flash (1990)
Beautiful, nostalgic, gone way too soon
WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS....
This show takes me back to the days long before CGI and Superheroes were very uncommon especially on Network Prime time. The show ran a full season before it was tragically cancelled due to low ratings mainly due to the Gulf War and airing against The Simpsons that was highly popular at the time... The show itself revolves around CSI tech Barry Allen, perfectly portrayed by actor John Wesley Shipp. To me Shipp doesn't get the credit he deserves. He really is one of those actors like Bruce Campbell and I would love to see him more involved in the upcoming episodes of the New CW Flash or it's sister shows.
Shipp is joined by the beautiful Amanda Pays who plays scientist Tina Magee who learns of Barry's super powers and helps him become the crime fighting superhero The Flash. The F/X were very impressive and still hold up to the day. The show had a mixture of tones: everything from 1960's Batman to the darker Keaton Batman. The setting was set with a mixture of the present and the past. It had a very pulpy feel to it. The stories were very engaging and The Flash was always plenty visible in his maroon suit which I don't think they will ever top.
There are many famous guest stars along the way including Tim Thomerson, Mark Hamill, and of course before he was famous Bryan Cranston. This show is a true piece of nostalgia that we would never get today, it's just a shame we never got another season or at the least TV movies.
The Sector (2016)
If you liked Gallowwalkers, you might like this...
WARNING: THIS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS...
I grew up loving all sorts of movies. My favorite thing to do as a kid was browse the video store aisles and rent the biggest Blockbusters and to coincide with a Tom Cruise movie or whatever was hot at the time, I would also rent a lesser known independent film that had a cool cover or an actor or actress I recognized. If video stores were still around, I would have picked up this movie on the art work and cast alone. Cut to 2016 and things have changed, movies have changed as well as how they are made. One of the biggest problems today is anyone with an internet connection can write up a review of any film at any time (just as I am doing right now). Most people who write reviews are haters and I don't believe in being "cyber- brave" and just slandering someone's work. In that sense, I must respectfully disagree with the above user's review of this film. Sure it's mega low budget, sure it has it's problems, but honestly I was never bored and the whole time I kept thinking of how much it reminded me of the recent Wesley Snipes film "Gallowwalkers" which I had just watched. That film probably had five times the budget this film did and was way worse (IMO). What I did enjoy about The Sector is that is started with a very simple and familiar premise and it escalated into something I wasn't expecting. Our hero (Dresher) played by Richard Tyson (Buddy Revell himself) goes on a journey and encounters trouble and interesting characters along the way. The cameos were a real treat and I never once thought any actor was thrown into the mix (just because) as the previous user stated. Seeing Bennett from Commando, The Flash himself from the original and now Jay Garrick on the current Flash, Theo from Die Hard, Bishop from Aliens, and of course Maroni from the Dark Knight made me smile from ear to ear. The film has a cool twist at the end that took a very simple Sci- fi film into a complex one. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but I didn't rent this thinking it would be. It's a movie for a lazy Sunday or a late night watch. I give films like this a break due to the fact the producers clearly didn't have a lot of funding. It's the films that do have the funding and still come up ridiculously short is what bothers me...In closing, watch the movie, decide for yourself, most reviews are written by people with an axe to grind, most of them failed filmmakers, I always believe the truth lies in the middle and that's why I'll give the sector 5 out of 10.
Gallowwalkers (2012)
A great idea, poorly executed
WARNING: THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS...
Back in the 90's, Wesley Snipes could do no wrong. He was an action star headlining major Blockbusters like Passenger 57, Demolition Man, and Rising Sun to name a few... Somewhere along the line, it all started to go downhill and in my opinion, it started with the Blade franchise. By the third Marvel entry, Snipes was demoted to a co-star, the film killed the franchise, and that was the last studio film we saw Snipes release. What followed were a string of low budget, overseas action films like Unstoppable, Art of War 2, and Game of Death. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed most of them for what they were and I'm a huge fan of Snipes, so when I first heard of Gallowwalkers, I got really excited. I mean the premise was killer. A gunfighter killing the undead... What could go wrong? It turns out... Everything... The film sat on the shelf for 5 years and I finally watched it after all that time. While there were moments of "what could have been", the film was certainly dismal at best. My biggest problem with the film is that it certainly had the resources to be great, sweeping deserts, sets that were built by hand, great wardrobe, great locations... The only problem was the story felt very botched and most of what is seen in the film seemed to be footage that was shot to fill up the running time and Mr. Snipes, as good as he was in the parts he was in, wasn't present enough throughout to keep the viewer interested. (I'm assuming this is due to his legal troubles at the time). The story generally followed a younger apprentice and a bunch of odd characters. As I said, it's worth a watch if you need to kill some time or you're just a hardcore Snipes fan like me, but if you're looking for something edgy and intriguing, this is not it. I give it a 4 out of 10.