SILVER BULLET (1985)

SILVER BULLET is a fun and unique werewolf movie. The script by Stephen King, based on his wonderful short novel, Cycle of the Werewolf, is fresh and alive and is as much a coming-of-age story as it is a werewolf story. Plus, it's not too scary, so kids will enjoy it also.

A pre-LOST BOYS Corey Haim lives with his family in the small city of Tarker's Mill. His legs are fucked, so he's in a wheelchair, but his crazy Uncle Red (Gary Busey) has made him a badass wheelchair that he can haul ass up and down the street with. Life is pretty idyllic in Tarker's Mill. That is until people started getting murdered off in brutal ways. After the first few murders, a curfew is put into place, but that doesn't stop the bloodshed. Corey's involvement with the story happens one night when he comes face to face with the werewolf! It's a very thrilling scene and every time I watch this movie it still gets me all excited. Anyway, so now it's up to him and his older sister (ANNE OF GREEN GABLES' Megan Follows) to find out exactly who the werewolf is.

One thing that I really like about this film is it does a great job (in a very quick time) of capturing the feel of the city's population from their initial happiness all the way through concern, fear, anger and terror. Also, Corey Haim is great. There's a few moments where he genuinely looks terrified. The supporting cast is also top-notch including THE STEPFATHER himself Terry O'Quinn and Big Ed Hurley from "Twin Peaks" Everett McGill. And let's not forget first time director Daniel Attias who has since gone on to direct episodes of a bunch of my favorite TV shows including "Big Love", "Deadwood", "Six Feet Under" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

If you're looking for some not too scary or violent horror movies for your kids, I think SILVER BULLET is an excellent choice. There is some blood and a few scary kills, but there's zero nudity and only a few cuss words.

IN THE SHADOW OF KILIMANJARO (1986)

[Update 06/28/2022: Need rewatch this film and redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

I've heard some negative shit about this movie, but I watched it last night and thought it was pretty decent and we got some good laughs out of it.. The story is about a small village in a secluded area in Kenya and during a drought 90,000 baboons (looks more like a few hundred) go on a rampage and start killing humans for food. Timothy Bottoms plays an animal reserve dude who kinda acts as the leader of a band of people who are trying to prevent the slaughter of the entire village.

Naturally, a bunch of random dorks (telephone line workers, some dude in a truck, random people walking) get killed and one even has his leg ripped off. Also, I noticed that the baboons seemed to really go for the tender face meat.

Even though I own this movie I doubt I'll ever watch it again. It wasn't bad, I was just hoping for something more. A few of the action scenes were well shot and pretty exciting, but the overall story is kinda boring and I never cared for any of the characters. The baboons were awesome though, especially the shots of them running in slow-motion.

OK amount of action, no nudity, a little blood splattered around. Worth a watch if you like killer animal movies.

RUNNING TURTLE (2009)

I enjoyed Yun-seok Kim's energetic performance in THE CHASER so I decided check out his follow-up film and kinda like his character in THE CHASER he's once again chasing down a criminal on his own.

Kim is a cop. Everybody calls him Officer Jo. He takes bribes, entraps criminals and he spends a lot of time illegally gambling. One day while trying to make some money while on a 3 month suspension he's out gambling at a bullfight and he wins big. Later that night he goes to collect his winnings when he has a run in with a fugitive criminal, Song Gitae. Jo sees this as an opportunity to get off of suspension so he confronts the dude and the dude beats the shit out of him, steals his money and handcuffs his arm to his leg. That's the fist battle is a growing personal war between the down and out Officer Jo and Song Gitae.

The story is nothing original, but I enjoyed the film especially the small humorous touches thrown in occasionally to remind the viewer not to take things too seriously. The funniest was when in an act of desperation Jo grabs the microphone from a vendor to publicly declare a hand-to-hand fight challenge to Song and the entire time he's yelling threats into the mic there this horribly shitty rock music in the background. Small touches like that I find really funny.

It's not a great movie, but I was entertained and once again I was really impressed with Kim Yun-seok's range of emotion. I'm looking forward to seeing his other films.

Definitely worth a rent.

The lighting on the main fight scene was too dark.