ROCKY (1976)

Made for a million bucks and filmed in just 28 days, ROCKY tells the touching story of an amateur boxer, Rocky Balboa, who was born and raised in a rough, run down as fuck neighborhood in Philadelphia.  Rocky supplements the meager boxing pay by being a collector for a local small time loan shark.  But he's not really good at it, since he's too kindhearted to revert to physical violence.  He's also in love with a nerd named Adrian, who works at the neighborhood pet store.  He finally, after a long time of trying, convinces her to go out with him.  The date should have been a disaster, but it's not and they learn that despite all of their differences their two broken halves make a good whole. 

At the same time, the undefeated heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed, has the opponent in his upcoming title defense fight cancel because of an injury.  Nobody else will step in since the fight is only five weeks away and that's not enough time to train.  Facing a financial disaster, Creed comes up with the idea of letting a local amateur have a chance at the title.  He ends up picking Rocky "The Italian Stallion" Balboa because he thinks the name will look good in lights.  Rocky reluctantly agrees.

There's much more to the film that I won't go into and ruin it for you.  I'll just say ROCKY is a really, really great film.  You might think that it's completely about boxing (and a large portion of it is), but I think it's also about unrealized/missed dreams (just look a Mickey's face as he's leaving Rocky's apartment), being a good human being (Rocky carrying the bum in from the cold, talking to the young girl, talking to animals, etc.), grabbing that one chance when you get it, personal growth (Adrian) and most importantly: love.  Rocky's devotion to Adrian is beautiful to watch.  I think the exact moment I decided to add ROCKY to my Best Film's List was when he asked where her hat was.  All of this shit he's gone through, damn near had his brains bashed out through his earhole and the very first thing he does when he sees her is express concern about her.

Beautiful photography, Burgess Meredith snarling, a perfect script, meat punching, chicken chasing, great acting by everybody, legendary music.  Highly recommended.

Part 2 - Rocky II (1979)
Part 3 - Rocky III (1982)
Part 4 - Rocky IV (1985)
Part 5 - Rocky V (1990)
Part 6 - Rocky Balboa (2006)
Part 7 - Creed (2015)
Part 8 - Creed II (2018)
Part 9 - Creed III

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.