Dinner and a Movie with Moxie

A Quiet Place 2 (2021)   in 2018, I watched A Quiet Place in the theater with my best friend, and I was really impressed, it was one of the best modern horror films that I have seen.  So, I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the sequel, and in March of 2020, I was going to see it, but the release date got postponed because of the Covid-19 Pandemic, which closed down cinemas throughout the country.  So now that the cinemas are reopening, my wait to see A Quiet Place Part 2 finally came to an end!   The wait was totally worth it, this is a must see film that should not be passed up, and deserves to be seen in the cinema on the big screen. A Quiet Place Part 2 was written, directed, starred in, and co-produced by John Krasinski.  The other producers of the film featured big names like Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller.  The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures, and premiered in New York City on March 8 2020, but due to the Covid-19 ...

  Forrest Gump (1994) I haven't seen this film in about 20 years I don't think, I chose it for Maine Movie Mondays, after visiting the lighthouse here in Maine that was used in the filming of this movie.  Most people don't think of Maine when they think of Forrest Gump, usually it conjures thoughts of south, where the bulk of the film was set, however there was a part where Forrest decides to run, and he runs from coast to coast until one day he decides that he is done running.  There is one shot in the film that took place in Maine, and that shot was where he ran on a footbridge to a small lighthouse tower on the coast of Maine.  The lighthouse where that was filmed was the Marshall Point Lighthouse near Port Clyde Maine, in the township of Saint George.  Marshall Point Lighthouse has become a popular tourist location where tourists will take pictures of themselves reenacting the scene from the film.  Being that the location of this lighthouse is on the mi...

  Haunted Ranch (1943) Horror film fans are mostly likely familiar with Glenn Strange because of the horror films that he has done, for example playing Frankenstein's Monster in the later films in the Frankenstein franchise. However non horror fans most likely know him from his work in westerns, for example his work in the television series Gunsmoke.   In 1943 he starred as the main villain in the twentieth installment of the Monogram Pictures' The Range Busters series entitled Haunted Ranch.   This film attempts to play itself as a light horror/mystery/western film.  Though any attempt at being a horror film was dispelled rather quickly when the film immediately gives away that the ranch is not haunted by a ghost by by villainous cowboys that are seeking the treasure hidden in the ranch, also any real mystery is quickly dispelled as well, as the film seems to love to just lay out exactly what is going on without much actual mystery involved.  Though t...

  Creature Of The Walking Dead (1965) Creature Of The Walking Dead, is really just an English language adaptation of the 1961 film La Marca Del Muerto (or Mark Of The Dead Man), but rather than remaking the film with an English language cast, as was once the practice, or even just re-releasing the film with English dubs or subs as was also a common practice, director Jerry Warren used mostly the original Mexican film, but then shot some scenes with an American cast, and the results were a jumbled up mess of a film.  I think that there is actually a decent film somewhere in this mess, and honestly I would love to find the original 1961 film, and watch that instead.   My first impression of the film was that it was much older than it actually was, I was expecting it to be from the 1930s or 1940s based on the tone and feel of the film, but then to find out that it is actually from 1965, makes the film feel like it was a weak film for its time period.  I also though...

  The Hobbit (1977) I remember I was in middle school when I first was introduced to JRR Tolkien's classic children's novel The Hobbit, and soon after reading the book, I was introduced to the Rankin and Bass animated film adaptation of the novel.  To me this is still the best film adaptation of Tolkien's beloved classic novel, it adds nothing to the story, and only takes out what it has to, in order to keep the pace moving, and to fit into the television time slot in which it aired.  The was a beautiful adaptation, with beautiful artwork inspired by the artwork of Arthur Rackham, and an amazing cast of voice actors, and it keeps close to the book upon which it is based.   The Hobbit tells the story of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who is recruited by the wandering wizard Gandalf, to be the burglar for a party of 13 dwarves who seek to reclaim their kindow that was taken from them by  dragon.   Along the way he has adventures and learns that there...

  The Blob (1958) This next film ranks among one of my all-time favourite films!  The Blob from 1958, was a low budget science-fiction/horror film, that featured a young Steve McQueen in his first starring role in a feature film.  The Blob cold have easily become just another forgotten b-horror/sci-fi film, but it had this special quality to it that made it appealing and endearing to audiences.  The film was first of all shot in widescreen format and beautiful colour, and it had a playful tone to it, not taking itself too seriously.   The film was originally intended to have a more serious tone, but thankfully that opening theme was changed to this cute catchy theme song, written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David, which helped set the tone for the  film.  This is a fun film, and it was a huge hit with film goers in 1958, and has always been a beloved classic b-horror film, but I can't call it a cult classic, because it has been successful since its...

  The Hideous Sun Demon (1958) Actor/director Robert Clarke, after experiencing success with the low budget film The Astounding She-Monster, which he starred in, decided that he could do it himself, and that he did.  The Hideous Sun Demon was his attempt to make a low-budget b-horror film, armed with a crew of amatures made up mostly of University Of Southern California students, and a cast of students, amatures, friends, and family and a miniscule budget he made a film.  Was it a good film, well no, neither was it a successful film, but it did go on to become a cult classic, and an unintentional comedy, so I guess in a way, that would make it a success.   I personally find this film to be dull, with some unintentional comedic parts, it is definitely one of those films that is best watched when Elvira or Mystery Theater 3000 is mocking it, or to do something like that yourself with friends, but to watch it as a serious film is kind of chore, and I found my atten...

  The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer (NES 1989) The first time I discovered this game would have been in the early 1990s, when my dad was married to a woman who collected NES games, at the time she helped me to build my Nintendo collection as well.  Sadly that original collection that I had as a kid I had gotten rid of over the years, which was something that I always regretted.  As an adult I have been working to rebuild my old NES collection, and one of the games that I knew I had to hunt down and re-add to my collection was The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer.  This game starts off with Tom Sawyer sleeping in class at school, and then we go into his dream where he must save Becky from Injun Joe.   The game takes the player through six levels, fighting a boss at the end of every level, until finally Tom gets to Injun Joe who is riding upon the back of a sea monster, and the player must beat him to save Becky.  In the two player mode, player two gets to play as Hu...

  Pete's Dragon (1977) The beautiful bold coastline of Maine with it's cliffs and lighthouses, and quaint fishing villages has long been an inspiration for the settings of films.  Though Pete's Dragon never outright states that it is set in Maine, there are plenty of hints that Maine is the setting for this musical adventure film.  The first hint is the name of the fictional town that the film is set in, Passamaquoddy, which is the name of a tribe of natives that inhabited North Eastern Maine, and New Brunswick, which is how the real life locations of Passamaquoddy Bay, and West Quoddy Lighthouse/State Park got their names.   So knowing that this film takes place in a small fishing village on the coast of Maine, and the village is named Passamaquoddy, and that there is a lighthouse located near this small fishing village would give hints to the real life location of this fictional village where young Pete and his dragon friend Elliot found their home.  As I...

  Porco Rosso (1992) Studio Ghibli is one of the most consistently great animation studios in the world of animation, almost all of their films are absolutely amazing.  Porco Rosso from 1992, is a bit of a lesser known classic from Studio Ghibli, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and based on his 1989 watercolour manga, Hikotei Jidai ("The Age Of The Flying Boat").  The film tells the story of a WW1 ace fighter pilot from the Italian Air Force, who went rogue after the word and became an exile from his home country and turned to a life of freelance bounty hunting.   The pilot had been cursed to become an anthropomorphic pig.   Though he fights sky pirates, he isn't really a good guy, nor is he really a bad guy, he's just a pig, which he uses to explain his bad behavior at times.   However Madam Gina has never given up on the man that became the pig, and in her heart she bears only love for him, and then there is the young and talented aeroplane mec...