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You'd think that setting this in a city would make the greater potential kills of the Predator even more threatening, but that would be wrong. There's never really a sense of the Predator stalking victims, it just drops in and kills drug dealers, because they have weapons.

Every character in this movie is on speed AND caffeine. Why are they all spastic? Is it the L.A. heat? Everyone is sweating profusely, too. It's really annoying. The shootout between the police and the drug gang is way over the top and impossible to determine why there aren't dead bodies lying three deep with all the shots being fired.

Danny Glover is no Arnold Schwarzeneggar. He's tough but not a badass like Arnold's character "Dutch" was in the original. The Predator that Glover battles must have just gotten his hunting license. In fact, Los Angeles is like a game farm compared to the jungle where the first Predator battled Dutch. It would be pretty simple to hunt animals in a game farm, so the Predator of this movie isn't making his safari much of an adventure.

There are two things that really save this movie. The practical effects associated with look of the Predator. It remains an iconic alien creation. And the final battle on the rooftops between Glover and the alien is entertaining.

I've seen this movie so many times, but I think the first time was back in the mid-70s as "Attack of the Monsters". Gamera is a big monster turtle. He started out as a baddie in his early flicks but soon became a protector of children. These 60's and 70's giant monster movies (Gamera and Godzilla included) worked pretty hard to lure children into the theaters as their adult audiences sank. This is noticeable in the Godzilla movies but is without question what the makers of Gamera movies were after.

This is a terrible movie. The acting is horrid, the plot is simplistic and disjointed, and the effects, even for a 60's movie, aren't very good. The giant monster costumes are cheap and stiff, and the child actors are sometimes painful to watch. But defying all odds, this thing is a lot of fun!

Obviously, the monster action is the most enjoyable part. It's utterly ridiculous, but I ate it up. And for a kids' movie, it's really violent. In one fight between a winged giant (Gyaos) and Guiron (who has a knife blade for a head), the flying beast loses its right leg. Since it can't walk anymore, it takes to the air. When it swoops down to attack Guiron, Guiron jumps into the sky and slices off one of its wings. Gyaos then crashes to the ground and rolls around in pain while its severed wing spasms nearby. Then Guiron lumbers over and cuts off its other wing. The carnage continues with Guiron chopping off its head! Then ignoring all sense of remaining sympathy for what must have been traumatized children everywhere, Guiron saws Gyaos's remaining torso into slices!

Later, a couple of alien women feed two boys some donuts laced with knockout drops, shaves one of the boy's head bald, and slowly lowers a spinning Dremel to his freshly shorn dome. She is interrupted before boy blood is shed, but still that had to be scarier than Hell to the wee ones in the theaters back in the day.

"The Relic" is a tough one to grade. On the one hand it's a decent story about a creature brought back from an expedition to Brazil. I won't give away the coolest part of the movie, but when Dr. Margo Green (Penelope Ann Miller) says "I know ___ you are...", it makes a lot of the not so good moments a little more tolerable.

Let's spend a second or two on the characters. Dr. Green, played by Miller, is about as unsympathetic as they come through the first half of the movie. She finally started to win me over once she warmed up to Lt. D'Agosta. Lt. D'Agosta is a hard-as-nails cop with a heart of gold played by the always entertaining Tom Sizemore. The rest of the cast are the typical hackneyed gritty cops, snooty rich elite, or insufferable know-it-all scientists. I mostly hated all of them which is good because most of them were killed with significant gore by the ancient beast.

The monster itself is original and is probably the best thing about the movie. That is, when you can actually see it. There either wasn't enough of a budget to light this movie or they were purposely trying to hide shoddy effects. I actually didn't think the effects were too bad, so I'll just state that the whole movie was darker than it needed to be. The characters were constantly using flashlights. You can't see much of anything for the last third of the movie. I suppose it could have been the Netflix streaming copy that I was watching but I doubt it.

With a few more lights and a little more monster this could have been a very good Horror flick.

The penguins were the best thing about the first Madagascar movie and they are once again the stars of this sequel. While the main characters Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe, and Gloria the Hippo go searching for themselves, the Penguins are all business. They salvage and rebuild the plane that they crashed in Africa and have hired a crew of monkeys to work for them. The Penguins' special forces personas and their rapid-fire dialogue and joke delivery make them the funniest thing in Black & White since The Three Stooges. They totally outshine the other characters, especially the main character Alex, who's unfunny and conceited in an uninteresting way.

Now, the self-centered character of King Julien the Lemur, he's a different story. He's the source of many laughs; hilariously voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen.

Twilight Zone fans will find another tribute gag, this time "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is parodied with a little lemur being spotted hanging off the flaming engine of the wing of the plane (remember the first movie had a panicked lemur yelling "It's a cookbook!" while the cover read, "To Serve Lemur").

I haven't been overly impressed with DreamWorks animation's offerings but have enjoyed the "Madagascar" movies. Their light-hearted approach and funny gags are enjoyable, especially compared to Pixar's recent efforts, which have been beautiful to look at but I've found to be a little preachy and aloof in their execution.

There are a number of good twists and turns in this. It's not scary as much as it is unsettling, and the subtext that I picked up on was more about preconceived notions and how we are conditioned to think and believe. Tess makes a lot of mistakes in judgement of people based on what she's been told or absorbed from culture, society, etc., like her reactions to Keith and even in her escape from the homeless man, Andre. Actually, even in her judgement of The Mother.

As far as the Horror aspects go, I have no idea if other viewers will find this frightening or not. I've seen so much Horror that not much scares me and unfortunately, my strongest reactions are to gore or disgusting behavior and that makes the genre much less fun for me now. Gore is not scary and thankfully "Barbarian" doesn't have much. The hidden rooms offer the greatest opportunity for creeps, other than the creep that AJ is. By the way, AJ's a despicable person and it's laid on a bit thick. Tess makes some stupid decisions but she has to because the movie requires her not to just get in her car and leave. The reasons she sticks around are a bit forced.

This isn't a typical Horror film and although it carries the typical clichés, it differs greatly in how it delivers its story. That's going to make viewers that are comfortable with a non-typical Horror movie happy and will probably upset those after a traditionally told tale.

I've never made an attempt to watch the entire Original Series. I'm certain I haven't seen all of the episodes in syndication so I recently purchased them on Blu-ray to watch them at my own pace. Now I don't have to worry about yet another streaming service sucking cash out of my wallet every month, only to drop the show before I can get through it.

Anyway, I decided to watch "The Doomsday Machine" because I recall being amazed by the planet killing machine, which looks like a big cornucopia basket. Actually, the enhanced special effects that have been created for the Original Series really helps make this episode even more appealing.

Spock is absolutely awesome here as he is forced to give over command of the enterprise to Commodore Decker. I've never been a fan of William Windom, who plays Decker in this episode. To me, he always seems like he's chewing scenery, which he does here. So much so that he makes Shatner look like a cast extra. That gripe aside, I love the episodes where the Enterprise has to battle an enemy that is malevolent with a purpose that is mysterious or even vague. So this one then, obviously scores very high with me. While I knew that no one of note would die during the battle with the super weapon, it sure managed to build a lot of suspense. Scotty is the unsung hero in this story. The dude is constantly coming up with solutions to bring the damaged U.S.S. Constitution back with just enough power to enable Kirk to save the day.

What?!? So if Sarah Connor killed off the terminators and all evidence of the first terminator at the end of T2, how did Skynet even exist to send back a female T-X to kill other members of the resistance? Why is their even a need for a resistance? John Connor has been staying off the grid because he thinks Skynet is sending back terminators anyway? How did the inevitable Skynet coincidentally create a T-X that was such a close facsimile of the T-1000 that never existed? Why does the T-850 (Arnold-style terminator) look so much like the units from T1 & T2? I am confused.

Alright, so regardless of all of those discrepancies, I'll roll with the premise that "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" lays down, anyway. The female T-X (Kristanna Loken), closely pursued by the T-850 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), hunts down John Connor's friends, his future wife Kate Brewster, and John himself. Arnold's terminator attempts to keep the T-X away from John and Kate as they try to stop Skynet before it starts Judgment Day, the war between the machines and man. It just so happens that Kate's father is the Director of Skynet itself. The military has developed SkyNet and is on the verge of flipping the switch that will essentially outsource the nation's defense to it. Kate's father is basically the military's keymaster.

Despite the lack of continuity to the first two movies, I actually like T3 quite a bit. There are some really great action sequences, primarily the crane chase and the hand-to-hand battle between the terminators in a bathroom. I think the special effects are pretty good and the movie moves along at a healthy clip. The ending is quite a twist and is a nice setup for a sequel. But the ending also would have been an okay place to let the entire story sit without a follow up ever being made. I can't remember where "Terminator: Salvation" picks up the story, but I'll be revisiting it soon.

I did not like the forced, light-hearted quips and almost slapstick reactions of Arnold's T-850. There were also some annoyingly convenient moments such as the melting T-X managing to call up a rotating saw blade to cut free of the magnetized particle accelerator. There was also a senseless sequence where the T-850 was reprogrammed by the T-X to attack Kate and John. Somehow it fights against the logic of its reprogrammed CPU and shuts itself down to keep from killing them. Later, it manages to boot itself back up and save Kate and John. I don't even understand why the story just wouldn't have the T-850 continue to pursue the T-X without the entire reprogramming crap. Did we need to give Arnold a chance to actually emote?

Ultimately, the good of T3 outweighs the bad for me. I have watched this numerous times and am always entertained despite its flaws.

"The Maltese Falcon" is certainly considered one of the all-time classics. It's an early, if not the very first film noir. This features tough, complex characters with actual motivations. And they're not exactly morally pure, either.

I saw "The Maltese Falcon" for the first time on the day before I watched the bafflingly praised "Her" (Spike Jonze - 2013). If there were ever a starker contrast in the behavior of characters between two movies, I don't think you'd find it. And if you ask which characters I'd rather hang around with in real life, it would be the tough as nails Humphrey Bogart or the smart and sassy Mary Astor.

I can't say I was crazy for this film. It hasn't dated very well. There's a lot of old mannerisms and phrases. Every character speaks extremely fast and I just never bought into the romantic spark between Sam Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy. But this thing moves along at a brisk pace and Bogart's Spade is rough and smooth as silk at the same time. Mary Astor is actually the most impressive. She brings a complex and manipulative character to the screen as O'Shaughnessy. And she owns with an explosively emotional performance in the final scenes.

I haven't seen "Robocop" for probably 20 years. I remembered it being gory and futuristic and I recall really liking the Robocop creation. But while I guess I still like the movie it has not aged well. I like the chemistry between Peter Weller and Nancy Allen. The scene where Weller's Murphy is literally shot to pieces is still brutal today. Allen's Lewis character is not the typical heroine and the relationship she forms with Murphy is interesting in that it is not romantic but respectful. Unfortunately watching "Robocop" today takes a lot of patience to get through the wild-eyed killers in Boddicker's gang. They run around scream shoot everything in site and generally kiss Boddicker's ass. Robert Morton the manager of the Robocop project is a one-dimensional ladder climbing cliche. The scene in his apartment doing hookers and blow is so dumb. The downfall of the movie is that the bad guys are soooo bad that it's hard not to laugh at them.

The newscasts and commercials that were interspersed throughout the movie were a nice touch. They were a bit like those in "Starship Troopers" which makes sense as that is also a Verhoeven production. More than anything else the violence in "Robocop" is turned up to '11'. The 'kills' are graphic and the majority of them are horrific.

"The Mummy" starts off with a bang. Within the first 10 minutes we've already got wide-awake mummy action as Boris Karloff in fully wrapped glory takes the scroll of the dead for his own. This drives the archeologist present in the tomb at the time to go immediately insane. Of course he deserved it as he was the one who opened the box that released the curse and woke the mummy. This sequence delivers the most enjoyable moments of the film. It brings a little suspense and a scare but unfortunately that's the extent of the frights and its the last time we see the mummy. I also enjoyed the scene where Imhotep is mummified alive and it's not only because that's a creepy thing to do but it's also because it is the only time we see Imhotep in his early B.C. glory. The most disappointing thing about "The Mummy" is its sets. They're mostly cheesy or bland and for being set in Egypt they don't make much use of the exotic location. I did enjoy Karloff's performance and I thought that the mummy makeup was very convincing. When comparing the Universal monsters "The Mummy" doesn't entertain like "Frankenstein" or "Dracula".

I think this may be even worse than "Transformers 2". In fact, yes it is. The only slack I am cutting this movie, the only thing that keeps me from scoring it a '1', is a relatively creative tie in between the Autobots and the Apollo moon landing. Other than that, this thing is dreck.

Seriously, the effects are the latest and no doubt greatest to be had in the wonderful world of film making. But in these Transformers movies, there's so much of it. It's all so dense and complex. Transformers transform in the blink of an eye and I still do not understand how some Transformers can change from like, a computer monitor, which is basically a screen, to a walking, talking, gear-riddled robot. It's just not physically possible. Actually, I remember one particular instance where Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, flies in and lands perfectly centered in frame. Megatron then transforms in an almost deliberately slow manner, no doubt to service both fanboys and haters who have been incessantly griping about how hard it is to tell what the Hell is going on. Shaky-Cam is like watching a Powerpoint presentation when compared to "Michael Bay-Cam".

Every character here, as is the standard set in all "Transformers" movies, acts like a total psychopath, er, check that...moron. It's like Micahel Bay directs these people to behave like speed-riddled addicts. He's even gotten John Malkovich to act like an idiotic imbecile.

Total disclosure here...I couldn't make it through this entire movie. It runs for over two and a half hours and I was feeling much pain after just the first 30 minutes or so. Avoid this. Don't get suckered into its shiny packaging.

Stylish and violent but also run of the mill, there's no new ground covered here from a story perspective. There's the rookie "cop", the ruthless drug lord, the downtrodden community...believe me, you've seen it all before. But Karl Urban as Dredd and Olivia Thirlby as Anderson build such a great relationship that it makes up for the usual tropes. There is nothing touchy or feely between the partners, just a respect and a trust that is built during their mission. It's one of the better seasoned veteran, sharp rookie matchups I've seen in a while.

What doesn't work here is Lena Headey as the crime boss, Ma-Ma. Her character is as dark and grotesque as they come. Her generic thugs, who only exist for Dredd to blast to pieces, have a bond with her that doesn't make sense. Why they would obey her every command and sacrifice their lives for her makes no sense. The impression is that the henchmen all believe they are badass enough to take Dredd out, but the viewer knows better, and it gets boring.

The look of "Dredd" is grimy and worn, futuristic but decaying. The rock-jawed performance of Urban and the smart, tough role played by Thirlby made this entertaining. There's a lot of blood, guts and violence, though. It's definitely not the usual comic book movie.

Don't people ever get tired of being spoon fed the same dreck over and over again!?! "The Bay" is yet another attempt to preach environmentalism. Its got all you'd expect from a propaganda film. Crooked politicians, inept public servants, uncaring, greedy corporations...my god, does it get anymore run-of the-mill?!? If you want to make a point or call your audience to take action, could you come up with something just slightly unique? Anything...anything that hasn't been done thousands of times before?

The heavy-handed message here is clumsily couched in what is the latest and most tiring trend in Horror movies. Yes, it's another found footage film. And from a relatively respected director in Barry Levinson, no less.

There was nothing scary here at all. The best you'll get is a few jump scares (which are not scary at all, just cheap) and a few gross-out moments. I would have appreciated the slightest bit of characterization, but it's not found here. All I really did was scoff at the predictability of it. It should come as no surprise that the 'Top Critics' have awarded this turd a 76% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In reading many of their critiques, phrases like "though-provoking" and "should appeal to genre fans and eco-activists" are used. Really?!? For this rehashed piece of junk?

Thankfully, it appears that the 'Audience' has not fallen for it. They rate "The Bay" at only 44%.