Superman vs. The Elite (2012)

I considered waiting to see another animation, but I wanted something short for the evening, and 76 minutes is hard to beat. Besides, this promised to be very different except, unlike most DC adaptations advertised to me on YouTube, in reputed quality.

As the fictitious nations of Bialya and Pokolistan go to war, Superman has his hands full until a new team of four self-styled superheroes debuts, eventually choosing the name "The Elite." Supes has reservations about them, not least because they're keen on killing already defeated foes, but that makes The Elite more widely popular than him. When he decides to turn them in, they decide to do him in. Will the Big Blue Boy Scout cross his own line?

The Mummy (1999)

This looked just good enough that I accepted an invitation to see it in a theater with a group, but when it was sold out, I didn't try again. My interest increased slightly after I watched the 1932 movie, which wasn't what I expected and bears only a passing resemblance to this alleged remake. I finally saw it mainly because I'm having trouble finding enough promising horrors for the month.

In 1926, Egyptologists discover a map to the ruins of a fictitious city, Hamunaptra, which I initially misheard as "Hymenoptera." Two teams race to grab as much treasure from it as possible, whether for history or just money. The educated if clumsy Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) makes the mistake of reading a magic book aloud, which brings new life to dishonored priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo). Like Frank in Hellraiser (no wonder the producers wanted Clive Barker to direct), Imhotep becomes less decayed the more he kills. Don't think he'll stop once complete, either: He plans to make Evelyn a vessel to resurrect his princess paramour (Patricia Velásquez), and he casts some of the Ten Plagues in a bid for followers. (Whose idea was it to grant superpowers in a curse, anyway?)

Point Break (1991)

Summer's over, but I felt like holding onto it vicariously with one of the few surf-focused features I could name. I hadn't heard of this one when it was new (the year I saw my first R movie), but between a 2015 remake and occasional references, I figured it was worth checking out. Besides, 122 minutes was a convenient amount of time for me to kill.

Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) has just joined the FBI when he hears about a gang of four who deftly rob L.A. banks while wearing masks of former U.S. presidents. Senior Agent Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) theorizes from various hints that "the Ex-Presidents" are surfer dudes. Since Angelo's too old for it, Johnny takes up surfing in his off-duty hours, hoping to find the robbers in their insular community. He persuades expert Tyler Ann Endicott (Lori Petty) to teach him, and she introduces him to a group led by "Bodhi" (then top-billed Patrick Swayze). I think you already know where this is going.

The Professionals (1966)

Nothing to do with the British TV series by the same title, nor does it relate to Léon: The Professional. It's a western with a whole posse at the center, something I hadn't seen in a while. If my mood didn't convince me to watch, the fact that it stops streaming on Netflix next week would.

In the late 1910s, a bit later than usual for the genre, wealthy rancher Joe Grant (Ralph Bellamy) hires four talented if unruly individuals -- explosives expert Rico Fardan (Burt Lancaster), general weapons expert Bill Dolworth (Lee Marvin), horse wrangler Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan), and scout Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) -- to head into Mexico and retrieve his wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), from Jesús Raza (Jack Palance), a former soldier and continuous rebel in the Mexican Revolution. The movie is less than half over when the pros reach Maria, but the plot thickens when they realize that despite Joe's claim, Raza didn't abduct her. She loves him, and her marriage was forced by purchase. Each searcher must decide whether he wants the reward money enough to take her back against her will.

Get the Gringo (2012)

I think this is the first movie I've seen with Mel Gibson in an acting role to have come out after 2000. Certainly the first after his two notorious scandals of the 2000s. I'm not sure what prompted me to save it to my YouTube watch list, but I know the main reason I chose it: a short runtime.

A robber (Gibson) tries to escape the police by crossing the border, only to get caught by corrupt Mexican cops. Keeping his loot for themselves, they send him to an unorthodox prison that's basically a walled-off, crime-ridden village, complete with families and a rich-poor gap. Not an easy place for an American to survive, but as a former U.S. Army sniper, he has skills to draw the attention of the de facto leaders....

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

This is the third time I've seen a Spider-Man movie at an out-of-the-way theater at a friend's invitation. As much as I've enjoyed the Tom Holland entries, the ads didn't make me eager to watch more after nearly five years. Little did I know how much others loved the trailer and, so far, the flick itself.

Peter "Spider-Man" Parker (Holland) is certainly more of a man now, living alone, albeit with no apparent job, and making short work of most New York villains. He's also becoming more of a spider, as his fused DNA asserts itself, heightening his senses, letting him shoot webs organically like the Tobey Maguire version, and making him more brutal under stress like a lesser Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), whose alter ego he visits for advice. Amid this identity crisis, he must contend with a foe (Sadie Sink) who gives other people identity crises by temporarily possessing them. The mystery mind-hopper is intent on infiltrating U.S. Department of Damage Control headquarters, which houses so many sensitive, potentially scandalous secrets that its director (Tramell Tillman) can hardly guess which is being targeted.

The Odyssey (2026)

Around the same time that I read Homer's epic, I saw the 1997 miniseries thereof, which didn't blow me away but helped cement a few memories. Not enough that some parts didn't feel new again, as I would discover. If nothing else, I could count on director Christopher Nolan to make it his own, even without Cillian Murphy or a male character mourning a dead wife or girlfriend.

Royalty has a somewhat different meaning in ancient Greece, where King Odysseus of Ithaca (Matt Damon) sees no choice but to fight in the Trojan War himself, shortly after the birth of his son, Telemachus. His side wins, but the return journey is fraught with episodes of supernatural peril, keeping him and his troops away much longer than other veterans. Queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) holds out hope despite a widespread assumption of Odysseus's death, which leads to dozens of suitors taking up residence at the palace. She can't dismiss them without breaking the oft-cited Zeus's Law (i.e., show hospitality in case a guest is a disguised god). By young adulthood, Telemachus (Tom Holland) is thinking of ascending the throne, but the suitors, unofficially led by Antinous (Robert Pattinson), conspire to kill him first.

Supergirl (2026)

Going by reviews, I did not plan to see this, at least in a theater. But a friend had already bought tickets, and after his disappointment that I didn't join him for Joker: Folie à Deux, I opted to grin and bear it. Besides, I'd watched two seasons of the Supergirl TV series, and that's not supposed to be much better.

Very little of this movie takes place on Earth. Supergirl (Milly Alcock), 23-year-old cousin of Superman (David Corenswet), has been vacationing on planets near a red sun, which suspends Kryptonian powers and thus lets her get drunk more easily. The first halfway heroic thing we see her do is defend 13-year-old Ruthye (Eve Ridley) from thieves. Ruthye asks for help avenging her family, murdered by Brigand leader Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). Supergirl doesn't really care until after Krem poisons her dog, Krypto, while holding the only known antitoxin sample. Even then, she wants Ruthye to step aside. Yeah, right.

Hondo (1953)

I chose this from my YouTube list partly for its short runtime, 84 minutes. Imagine my surprise to see "Intermission" about halfway through. No, there's no several-minute segment for music, much as I like the John Williams-esque scoring.

In an unspecified Old West setting, unhorsed, somewhat notorious soldier Hondo Lane (John Wayne) arrives at a remote homestead to fuel up and buy a horse. He meets Angie Low (Geraldine Page) and her young son, Johnny (Lee Aaker), but not her long-absent and unaccounted-for husband, Ed (Leo Gordon). Hondo warns that local Apaches are gearing up for war on the frontiersmen. Angie feels confident that if a recent treaty doesn't dissuade the Apaches from attacking her, her benevolent past will, but Hondo wisely disagrees. He keeps a close watch, gradually hoping to fill the void Ed left behind.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

I had enjoyed First Blood but understood that it bore little resemblance to the rest of the Rambo series. Green Beret John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) doesn't kill any humans in it, for one thing. When I found the immediate sequel on Pluto TV, I decided to get an informed opinion of how accurate the many parodies were. Hey, it wouldn't be the first mediocre Stallone vehicle I found interesting.

After a few years of a labor sentence, Rambo learns from his former commander, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), of a chance at a pardon. His accepted mission from Major Marshall Roger Murdock (Charles Napier) is to sneak into a Vietnamese camp suspected of still containing American POWs and take only pictures. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a story if he followed instructions precisely. Once he sees an opportunity to free a tortured prisoner (Andy Wood), it won't be long before the projectiles fly.

Jurassic World (2015)

This is the first movie I ever watched after (OK, long after) checking out the Nostalgia Critic's synopsis thereof. He made it sound bad except for two great sequences, ultimately declining to recommend seeing or skipping it, but at least he put it ahead of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. What finally persuaded me? A warning that it would stop streaming on Netflix at the end of the month.

In Costa Rica, a successor to the failed zoo of revived dinosaurs has actually done rather well, but the novelty is wearing off, so the profits don't satisfy stockholders. Operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and CEO Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) give the go-ahead for the team of Dr. Henry Wu (returning BD Wong) to engineer a whole new multispecies specimen, the Indominus rex, projected to be fifty feet tall someday. I hardly need to tell you they've created a monster and not prepared adequately. The clever girl's escape kicks off a whole host of catastrophes, with other big reptiles chipping in.

Walking Tall (1973)

I didn't recall hearing about this cult movie when YouTube suggested it, but it got two sequels, a TV series, a TV remake, and a big-screen remake trilogy starring Dwayne Johnson. It also takes inspiration from real events, tho they've since been disputed enough that I won't add my "true story" tag. Indeed, last year, investigators accused the long-deceased protagonist of uxoricide. That would not affect my feelings about the film version.

In 1964, ex-wrestler Buford Pusser (Joe Don Baker) moves back from Chicago to Adamsville, Tennessee, with his wife (Elizabeth Hartman) and kids (Leif Garrett and Dawn Lyn Nervik), planning to work as a logger for his dad (Noah Beery Jr.). His mom (Lurene Tuttle) cryptically warns him to ignore changes in town, but that's not easy when an old buddy (Ed Call) invites him to a casino. He catches the staff cheating, and they beat him within an inch of his life and steal his car. Then he discovers that the sheriff he used to look up to (Gene Evans) is worse than useless and the local judge (Douglas Fowley), while apparently staying within the bounds of the law, is not much better. So much for Buford's promise not to fight anymore....

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Man, I'd last seen a Hobbit movie before I started this blog more than a decade ago. The threequel was reputed to be the weakest link in a pale imitation of The Lord of the Rings, hence my lack of hurry to see it. Nonetheless, it looked like the most promising DVD I hadn't watched in my local library, having better ratings from general audiences than from critics.

The Desolation of Smaug ends with halfling Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) accidentally inspiring the titular event. Not long into TBotFA, human archer Bard (Luke Evans) slays the rampaging Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch), but that's not the end of the dragon's evil influence. One of Bilbo's dwarven companions, King Thorin (Richard Armitage), finds Smaug's trove almost as corruptive as the One Ring and refuses to share any of it with the humans of newly burned Lake-town, despite his prior oath and their obvious need. When elven King Thranduil (Lee Pace) comes with an army to claim a family treasure, Thorin is undaunted, and the other dwarves obediently prepare to fight. Perhaps fortunately, before the first casualty, the arrival of two armies of darkness induces the other three to team up.

Desperado (1995)

I watched most of El Mariachi in junior high Spanish class and the rest in young adulthood. It didn't particularly grab me, but it worked pretty well on $7,000. When Netflix suggested the immediate sequel, I got curious how different it would be with a budget 100 times higher.

EM had ended with the unnamed title character (subsequently played by Antonio Banderas) killing drug lord Moco (Peter Marquardt), who had killed the guitarist's love interest and shot him in the left hand. Alas, his thirst for vengeance has not been quenched; he now seeks Moco's boss, Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida). El Mariachi's buddy Buscemi (yup, Steve Buscemi) discovers compelling evidence of which small town holds Bucho's base of operations. It doesn't take long for a trail of destruction to put Bucho on high alert. Meanwhile, El Mariachi must have a type, because he falls for yet another drug lord affiliate, bookstore owner Carolina (Salma Hayek, paired with Banderas for the first time), who tends his wounds.

How the West Was Won (1962)

I'd seen this title many times over the years, thanks primarily to its all-star cast. For a profitable epic, it's had a pretty middling reception on rating sites, but it did net some Academy Awards. I chose to watch it not long after my last John Wayne western because I knew no better way to kill 164 minutes last night.

No other western I know takes place over such a long period. It's divided into five chapters, spanning from 1839 to 1889. The focus is on the westward-moving Prescott family, including but not limited to patriarch Zebulon (Karl Malden), matriarch Rebecca (Agnes Moorehead), and daughters Eve (Carroll Baker) and Lilith (Debbie Reynolds). Eve takes a shine to wandering fur trader Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), while Lilith falls for gambler Cleve van Valen (Gregory Peck). Their lives are partly affected by the California Gold Rush, the War Between the States, and other armed conflicts.

Ladyhawke (1985)

Sources told me that this was a cult classic. I fully expected an '80s sword-and-sorcery flick to be cheesy, but when YouTube suggested it, I figured it would at least be different from my other recent viewings.

Medieval peasant and habitual petty thief Phillipe "The Mouse" Gaston (young Matthew Broderick, mischievous as usual) escapes from an Italian dungeon but needs help evading guards ordered by the bishop of Aquila (John Wood) to kill him. Enter Etienne of Navarre (Rutger Hauer), former captain of said guards, who seeks to kill the bishop over a past treachery. Etienne is accompanied by a faithful red-tailed hawk, but by night, Phillipe sees neither of them, only the friendly Isabeau of Anjou (young Michelle Pfeiffer) and a black wolf who attacks only their enemies....

TTT: Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimaiyil (2026)

From the initialism, I expected a spiritual successor to RRR. Nope, different feel, different studio, different language, probably none of the same people working on it. The Tamil title translates roughly to "Under the Leader and Younger Brother."

Somewhere in modern India, during a pre-wedding party, an elderly alleged prophet dies of natural causes. His son insists on holding an elaborate funeral at the same time the wedding is scheduled to begin. Village council president Jeeva has his work cut out for him in keeping the peace between hostile, sometimes criminal neighbors, especially after the bride is mistakenly believed to have run off with another man.

Sinners (2025)

I don't recall ever going to a theater two nights in a row before. But I was getting tired of knowing so few Best Picture nominees ahead of the Academy Awards. This one makes four for me, and it has the best shot among them at winning.

Sammie (Miles Caton), against the wishes of his preacher dad (Saul William), decides to use his blues singing and guitar skills at a new rural juke joint run by his older twin cousins, "Smoke" and "Stack" (both Michael B. Jordan), who are thuggish yet charismatic to anyone they don't rob or attack. This being 1932 Mississippi, it's only a matter of time until the Black-centric establishment gets unwelcome attention. Well, the Ku Klux Klan shows up in force only near the end, but an even worse menace plagues opening night....

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Wow, it's been that long already? ...Since the depicted incident, I mean. I don't recall the screen adaptation from an article being advertised when new, which may explain the poor box office performance despite rave reviews and award wins and nods. Regardless, I got curious to learn more.

In 2010, technician Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) says goodbye to wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and starts work on the titular oil rig off the Louisiana coast. He and manager Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) soon discover lots of problems, such as a nonfunctional phone system, and persuade the visiting stingy BP managers, Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) and Robert Kaluza (Brad Leland), to approve more testing. The real trouble begins with a cement bond failure....

Chisum (1970)

It's been more than a year and a half since my last western, and that was a peculiar anthology. A John Wayne title promises something more traditional. This one isn't treated as much of a classic, but I got curious when YouTube suggested it.

Only after watching did I know about its basis in the Lincoln County War in 1878 New Mexico. John Chisum (Wayne) has had many rustlers coming after his cows and horses. He's also annoyed at Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker) for buying up as much land as possible and attempting a high-price monopoly on general stores and banks. Chisum's friend Henry Tunstall (Patric Knowles) and conscientious attorney Alex McSween (Andrew Prine) give him a hand at countering these moves, but the bribed Sheriff Brady (Bruce Cabot) makes it hard to get justice by legal means. Throw in Billy "The Kid" Bonney (Geoffrey Deuel), Pat Garrett (Glenn Corbett), and bounty hunter Dan Nodeen (Christopher George), and the town becomes a real powder keg.