KANSAS RAIDERS (1950)

Early Audie Murphy western (that also stars a young James Best and Tony Curtis) features Murphy as a young Jesse James who along with his brother and three friends leave Missouri after seeing his family slaughtered by "red leggers". They want to join the militia of William Quantrill, a Confederate guerrilla leader who claims to be helping the South but in reality is just killing everybody he sees to line his pockets. Once James comes to see this he's disheartened but still sticks by Quantrill. Even with the Union Army breathing down their necks.

How historically accurate is KANSAS RAIDERS? I have no idea, probably not too much, but it's still a entertaining watch and worth your time if your into such things. There's plenty of action and the pace is fast. My only major complaint would be Marguerite Chapman who played Quantrill's wife looked really old. According to Wikipedia when he died his wife was only 17. Marguerite Chapman was 32.

Recomended for fans of older Western movies.

RE-ANIMATOR (1985)

Medical student Herbert West has discovered the secret of bringing the dead back to life...at least in animals. So to prove that it can work on humans he and his roommate sneak into the hospital morgue and pump a recently dead dude full of his reagent. Good news is it works. Bad news is now you got a rampaging zombie on the loose! Even worse is the zombie kills the school's dean. That's definitely going on your permanent record. Zombie hijinks ensue.

I used to love RE-ANIMATOR when I was a teenager, but watching it now again as an extremely handsome adult, I was surprised at how badly it's aged. Yeah, it's got some memorable moments, but compared other zombie classics like 1985's THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD or 1992's DEAD ALIVE, RE-ANIMATOR hasn't aged well at all. With both of those films, the story is engaging and imaginative with memorable characters and insane violence. With RE-ANIMATOR the story is fine, but the overall look of the film is dated, the special effects look cheap and the violence is nowhere as prevalent as I remember. There are a few topless scenes though.

Still, it's a legendary zombie film and 100% worth checking out.  Maybe I'm just grumpy.  Grrr.

Part 2 - Bride of Re-Animator (1989)
Part 3 - Beyond Re-Animator (2003)