THE RACERS (1955)

Watchable, but overall forgettable melodrama starring Kirk Douglas as a young hotshot race car driver who falls in love with a dancer. The rest of the movie is just their trials and tribulations (car wrecks, drinking, fighting, etc.). A few of the racing scenes are exciting, but for the most part they're kinda lame cause they look very fake.  I really wish I had this on DVD so I could take screenshots.

An even bigger problem was the acting by Douglas' love interest Bella Darvi. She's terrible! So terrible I couldn't believe she was an legitimate actress, so I wasn't surprised when I read that at the time she was Darryl F. Zanuck's mistress! That explains it. The supporting cast composing of Lee J. Cobb, Cesar Romero, Katy Jurado and Gilbert Roland do a great job and somewhat ease the pain caused by Darvi.

Worth a rent or a watch on cable if you're a Douglas fan, but it's not worth buying.

SHUTTER ISLAND (2010)

Borrowing from a number of other things-aren't-quite-as-they-seem films, SHUTTER ISLAND is about a federal marshal, Angus McCootybritches, who's visiting an insane asylum to investigate a missing patient.  The asylum is located on an island and right from the very beginning things don't seem right and guess what?! They aren't.

I was really excited about this film, but as the story slowly progressed my disappointment grew. It's not a bad film by any means. The acting by McCootybritches is good and the direction by Scorsese is alright, but the story is dead on arrival and extremely predictable. Also, what's up with the lame CG effects? They were distracting in their shittiness.

It's worth watching, I guess, but I was hoping for something original.

This isn't the first time we've seen Max in an insane asylum.

THE ROAD (2009)

[Update 11/17/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

A few years after an apocalyptic event kills most of the humans and animals on Earth, a Man and his Boy are wandering around the countryside scavenging for canned goods and supplies as they make their way towards the ocean.  The places they visit are mostly uninhabited, so the majority of the film is simply the Man and the Boy walking and walking and walking.  Very exciting.

I love post-apocalyptic stories, but this one did nothing for me.  It looked good, but you've have to have something happen! The story doesn't have to be anything profound, but it has to be more than just two people wandering around. Have some cannibals steal his son and then have the Man chase after them and kick some ass...or not kick ass and they both get eaten. I would have rather seen that than these two half-dead motherfuckers walking around for two hours looking sad.

If you need me I'll be in my Y2K shelter reading Robert McCammon's "Swan Song".

THE TALL T (1957)

Randolph Scott is a tough rancher in town on errands. On his way back out to his spread he and a couple riding a stage are taken hostage by three blood-thirsty outlaws. The husband of the woman is a yellow-bellied wimp who instantly tells the bad guys that his wife's father is rich, so now it's up to Scott to outsmart these scumbags while they wait on their ransom.

Watchable story, but there's really not enough depth to the characters or the story to make it worth recommending. Scott was good, but he just didn't have the screen presence of John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart. I was a little disappointed. Worth watching if you're bored.