Predator - This is the 100th movie I watched in 2025. Classic Hollywood action movie. I chose this for an easy viewing experience. It still holds up. The craft is very impressive. That includes the immersive sound design, the tremendous score from Alan Silvestri, and the design for the Predator. The on-location shooting was great and John McTiernan's directing was key to the movie's success. The overall action is strong and the suspense is intense. The cast was very entertaining. Arnie was in his peak here, Carl Weathers was charismatic and fun to watch, Jesse Ventura was amusing, Sonny Landham was good, Shane Black was a little funny. Richard Chaves was ok. The more I watch the movie, the more I'm amazed by Bill Duke, I think he gave the best acting performance in the movie. Extremely varied in his delivery where he's soft-spoken at times, unhinged in others. The movie has a lot of great one liners and bits of dialogue that are unforgettable. "Stick around," "Get to the choppa," If it bleeds, we can kill it!" I eat all that up. The epic handshake between Arnie and Carl Weathers, peak cinema! Predator never gets old, it's true lightning in a bottle.
Death to Smoochy - Kind of a dark comedy, but it ended up feeling kind of light. This was a very unique movie with a bunch of tones. Some of the humor doesn't hold up, while certain things age so weirdly. For example, Edward Norton's character essentially gets canceled for something that would be embraced out in the open today! He was hated for his empathy, which is so goofy back then, but today?! That's a legit reason to hate someone according to a certain demographic. The movie also goes so hard on certain areas of craft. The set design is pretty wild, the costume design is pretty inspired, the cinematography was just playfully random and unhinged at times. Dutch angles and other quirky camera shots ruled this movie. Danny DeVito directed this and it shows. The movie also features a lot of on-location shooting in NYC, which might explain why the budget was $50 million. It is not cheap to shoot in NYC and this movie took advantage of that. The cast is also rather stacked with Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, Danny DeVito, and even Jon Stewart! Ed Norton's such a surprise because this was during a time where he was very self-serious. Strangely, he fits so well in the movie. The writing and directing makes him so goofy, but the man's acting makes the character a straight man of sorts. It's such an fascinating dichotomy. This movie has "cult" written all over it. It's no surprise it was a box office bomb, there wasn't anything like it. Even today, this still feels unique. I have a lot of respect for the movie because of that. Not everything works. The movie's pacing was wildly fast, but there were things that could've been cut out, like a few Robin Williams' segments because his arc in the movie gets a little repetitive. As much as I love Robin Williams, some of his improv went on too long. The movie's an acquired taste. It's so exaggerated that someone will either be annoyed by it, or hooked. I was hooked. Ultimately, I really like the movie. It was a strong showcase of Danny DeVito as a director. Part of me wonders if he was inspired by Tim Burton because some of the craft in this would fit in a Burton movie.
Night of the Lepus - A 70s movie where people are are victimized by mutant rabbit! Big ones...I think. The movie's pretty inconsistent in capturing the size of these rabbits. It also doesn't help that the rabbits are clearly running through miniature sets. The movie did a poor job with perspective. This is a sloppy film overall, which a lot of bad and unimpressive acting, editing that got worse toward the end, with so many quick cuts, you'd think it's a Michael Bay movie. The MVPs of the movie were the rabbits. The humans just sucked. This is definitely a "so bad it's good" movie. It does get repeititve, moves too slow at times, and ADR is painfully obvious, But it gives just enough laughs to where it's worth recommending.
