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.

TOGETHER AGAIN (1944)

[Update 08/06/2023: Need rewatch this film and redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

The always beautiful Irene Dunne is the widower who is also the mayor of the a small town. With so much responsibility she hasn't had any time for romance. A fact that her former father-in-law is frequent to bring up. One night during a thunderstorm lightening knocks the head off the statue of her late husband. Charles Coburn (the father-in-law) says it's a sign from her late husband to carry on with her life. Dunne laughs it off but when she meets the sculptor who's going to make a new statue she starts to maybe believe the story is true. The sculptor (Charles Boyer) is a very handsome man and instantly in love with Dunne.

Different romantic screwball hijinks take place and even though the beginning was a little slow it really starts to pick up steam in the second half, especially when Dunne's attractive teenage daughter accidentally thinks that the sculptor has proposed to her! That part was really funny.

Not the greatest Dunne movie, but I enjoyed it and would watch it again.

LE MAGNIFIQUE (1973)

"He was devoured by a shark in a phone booth."

Super-spy Bob St. Clair makes James Bond look like a pussy! He can shoot a single bullet into a tree and kill 5 soldiers, he can fight his way out of evil villains lair without even breaking a sweat and, of course, he always gets the girl. Unfortunately, Bob St. Clair is just a figment of novelist Francois Merlin's imagination. Merlin's real life is nowhere near as perfect. He has no money, his apartment is a dump and he's divorced. He has very little control over the things that happen in his real life, so when somebody pisses him off...he throws that person into his story and lets St. Clair shoot him to pieces! The same goes for the good things in his life like his sexy upstairs neighbor, who just happens to be St. Clair's current love interest.

But things turn out to not always be perfect in St. Clair's world either, especially when Merlin gets mad at him and turns him into a bumbling idiot and then finally a limp-wristed homosexual who runs off with the villain on a two-seater bicycle!

Everybody in this movie does a great job, especially the three main actors who all play duel roles, but I think the main praise should go to director/co-writer Philippe de Broca who does an excellent job of blending the two worlds so seamlessly that the story never lets up for even a moment. I was happy and smiling from beginning to end. Not many films can do that.

Favorite moments: when St. Clair's cyanide tablet falls out of his hollow tooth and kills all the tourist in the swimming pool; when a clumsy St. Clair gets mad at his robe; when St. Clair pours the hot water on his infected finger and all of the moments with Jacqueline Bisset.  She is absolutely radiant in this movie.

Highly recommended.