LIFE WITH FATHER (1947)

[Update 03/28/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Way back in ye olde 1880's NYC there's a loud, domestic tyrant of a father/husband (William Powell) who bellows all the time and rules his family with an iron fist...or so it appears.  In reality, his dingbat wife (Irene Dunne) ignores his constant screaming and pretty much lives her life in complete dream world. They have four boys who do normal boy stuff. That's the makings of good film, I guess, but just a few minutes into it Dunne finds out her husband hasn't been baptized!  The horror.  So for the remainder of the film she makes his life a living Hell and pesters him endlessly to get baptized. Is that suppose to be funny?  I just found it depressing.  This dude provides for his family, so they can live in absolute luxury and then when he goes home he has to listen to his wife preaching to him nonstop.  Ugh.

Powell and Dunne both do fine with their terrible roles, but that ain't saying much.  The only reason I can think of watching this downbeat clunker is Elizabeth Taylor.  Maybe I'll revisit LIFE WITH FATHER one day, but as for now I was hugely disappointed with it.  Skip it.

SURF II (1984)

[Update 12/04/2022: A few minutes ago I took some screenshots from the blu-ray (which is great), but for whatever reason, I think (for now) I'm just going to leave the crappy old pics I have from my old bootleg DVD.  It seems to work better for the review.  I love this movie.]

Everybody has those movies that they just love.  It might not be the greatest movie of all time or even a particularly good movie.  It just strikes a special cord with you or brings back a good memory.  For me that movie is SURF II.  Actually, I have a number of movies like that, but SURF II is extra extra special. 

Back in high school, super nerd Menlo Schwartzer had a bad run-in with some surfers, so now he's out to get his revenge. And what's his evil plan?  Kill them?  Steal their girlfriends?  Financially ruin them?  No, his plan is to create a soda that turns people into super-powered surfing zombie minions that will win the big surfing contest!!! That might sound like a description of a shitty Troma movie, but it's not. SURF II is actually a very innovative, original and funny movie. There's much more going on that my little description, but I don't want to give it all away. Just watch it, preferably in a double feature with JOYSTICKS or in a crowded theater full of drunks.

Wacky story, happiness, surfing zombies, high school, beer, topless beach bunnies, video arcade, eating contest, Corinne Bohrer, fast pace, Eddie Deezen, and an awesome soundtrack featuring The Beach Boys (three songs), Oingo Boingo (two songs), Thomas Dolby, The Circle Jerks, Wall of Voodoo, Stray Cats and a number of surf stuff.  Everything that was great about the 80's is in this movie. Watch this movie and watch it often. Can you relate?

NEVER A DULL MOMENT (1950)

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

Irene Dunne is a popular songwriter/singer who lives in New York City and one day at a charity auction she meets rodeo rider Fred MacMurray and BAM! a few weeks later they're married and living on his rundown farm with all his annoying country neighbors barging in the house 24/7 and raising Hell. I guess these jokes are suppose to be funny, but I just found it depressing to watch Irene Dunne sad because she's surrounded by a bunch of dimwitted assholes.

I didn't even smile once. Skip it.