LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III (1990)

Following the wacky Part 2, LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III kinda goes back to the roots of the series with three travelers going off on a side road and then getting tormented by the evil Sawyer clan.  The story is straightforward with your standard creepy stranger encounter, car trouble, chased around by Leatherface until finally captured, tortured at the house and then escape routine.

While III does have a few creepy moments it doesn't even come close to the perfection of the original.  The story is highly unoriginal, the special effects are barely satisfactory, the acting isn't very good, the main girl is blah, the budget looks low as fuck and that chainsaw in the swamp scene!  That doesn't even make sense! The other main problem is the family itself: Leatherface isn't scary, the side role filled by the Hitchhiker in the original and Chop-Top in 2 is now more annoying than funny, the Cook role filled perfectly by Jim Siedow in the first two films is now wasted by Viggo Mortensen, Grandpa is lame and that little girl character adds nothing.

Overall, it's a forgettable film, but still an alright time waster.  That poster does look awesome though.

Part 1 - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Part 2 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Remake/sequel - Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)
Reboot 1 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Reboot prequel - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
Reboot sequel to original - Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)
Prequel - Leatherface (2017)
Direct sequel to original - Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON (1942)

Five years after making one of my favorite movies of all time (THE AWFUL TRUTH), Leo McCarey and Cary Grant team up once again to make this wildly uneven and depressing romantic comedy/spy caper set in pre-World War II Europe.  Radio broadcaster Grant is working on a hot story about a Austrian Baron (and his gold digging American wife Ginger Rogers) who's going around Europe and wherever they go, soon falls to the Nazis.  Sounds hilarious!  Anyway, Grant falls for Ginger Rogers (who is somehow too stupid to realize that her husband is a top ranked Nazi!) and naturally she falls in love with him.  Trouble is she's married to one of Hitler's most loyal henchmen.  All kinds of funny stuff happens like assassination attempts, a successful assassination, city's getting bombed, a man turning his wife over to the Nazis, Jews fleeing, children crying, a guy drowning and Grant and Rogers getting thrown into a prison camp for Jews.  It's a feel good laugh riot!

I'm sure there's fans of this movie, but I found ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON painful to get through.  The pace was slow, the story was all over the place, Ginger Rogers acting was terrible, hell even Grant's wasn't anything to brag about and the patriotism!  Oh my god!  At one point Rogers and another actor actually raised their right hand and recited the Pledge of Allegiance!!!  If that's not enough to turn you away then go for it.  Maybe you'll like it.  As for me, I hope I never see this propaganda misfire ever again.

BURN AFTER READING (2008)

BURN AFTER READING is a nice little self-contained story about a bunch of dueling idiots.

Longtime CIA analyst John Malkovich has just been fired because of his drinking problem.  To combat his boredom and in hopes of getting a book deal he starts writing his memoirs about his career.  When a CD holding his manuscript and financial data ends up in a local gym locker room (thanks to Malkovich's wife's divorce lawyer's secretary) it ends up in the hands of two personal trainers, Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand, who think that they can blackmail Malkovich into paying for it's safe return.  Other equally selfish and idiotic characters included in this mess are: gym manager Richard Jenkins who's in love with McDormand despite that fact that she's a moron; Malkovich's wife who's having an affair with the sex-crazed George Clooney and two CIA higher ups who observe the whole thing from CIA headquarters.

Some viewers might be troubled by the lack of plot and likeable characters, but I think that might be the entire point of the film.  Even if it wasn't I enjoyed it and would gladly watch it again.  Extra bonus points for George Clooney's dildo machine...I think I just came up with a great name for my new punk band!

Recommended.