Two Geeks And A Git Classic Movie Reviews

Our second "In Memorium" film in this pairing pays tributed to an actor who turned in such a masterful performance, she's listed as AFI's #5 villain of all times. Louise Fletcher passed away on September 23rd, 2022, so in honor of her amazing performance as Nurse Ratched, we're looking at her Academy Award-winning performance in 1975's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Directed by Milos Forman, this film features performances from a veritable cavalcade of future stars! R. P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) has been placed in a mental ward, a clever dodge to get out of a work camp. There, he meets a group of patients who become his community, including Martini (Danny DeVito), Cheswick (Sydney Lassick), Taber (Christopher Lloyd), Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif), Frederickson (Vincent Schiavelli), Harding (William Redfield), Ellsworth (Dwight Marfield), Chief (Will Sampson), and several others, all of whom are under the thumb of the evil Nurse Ratched. When McMurphy gains the trust of the rest of the group, and begins to

The world has lost two amazing actors over the last two months, so this pairing is an "In Memorium" for each. For our first film, we pay tribute to Angela Lansbury, who passed away on October 11th, 2022, by taking a look at the third film to net her an Academy Award nomination, 1962's "The Manchurian Candidate." Directed by John Frankenheimer, this film follows a group of Korean War soldiers who've returned to the U.S. after their tour of duty. One soldier in particular, Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) is having recurring, disturbing nightmares of fellow soldier Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) having done unspeakable things to members of their unit. While he tries to come to grips with the nightmare's meaning, Shaw himself is trying to deal with life stateside, a horrible stepfather in Senator John Iselin (James Gregory) and a domineer and manipulative mother, Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury). As Marco sorts out his issues, Senator Iselin is starting a witch-hunt for communists working for the Defense Depa

The final film of our Halloween season, and the second in our pairing of more modern takes on the Zombie sub-genre, is anything but modern in it setting. 2011's "Exit Humanity," directed by John Geddes, chronicles a zombie outbreak near the end of the U.S. Civil War. Narrated by the wonderful Brian Cox, the film follows Edward Young (Mark Gibson), a veteran who has had to contend with the zombie outbreak, including killing his wife who had turned into one of the shambling dead. He then departs his homestead in search of his missing 11-year-old son. After discovering his son's fate, he enters a seemingly abandoned town to forage for supplies and comes face-to-face with Isaac (Adam Seybold), who enlists Edward's help rescuing his sister Emma (Jordan Hayes) from the renegade General Williams (Bill Moseley) and his squad of hunters, including Medic Johnson (Stephen McHattie) who is trying to figure out the medical-basis for the zombie outbreak and, if possible, concoct a cure. After Edward is wounded rescuing Emm

For our second Halloween-season pairing, we turn to two more modern takes on the Zombie sub-genre of horror. First up is a film that looks at a zombie-esque uprising in a small Canadian community (although, according to director Bruce McDonald, they're not zombies they're "conversationalists") in 2008's "Pontypool!" Radio personality Grant Mazzy (played by the incomperable Stephen McHattie) is headed to a station so small he fires his agent as he drives to his first day on-air. Arriving at the station, he is greeted by his young engineer Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly) and quickly begins to butt heads with his producer Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) over how they're going to handle Grant's on-air "personality." As the morning goes on, they begin to get reports of a mob attacking a local Doctor's office, which quickly becomes something more... something worse. As a seemingly random attack turns into a full-on epidemic crisis, Grant, Sydney, and the doctor in question, Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak) try to figure

Our second film of October, and our second in our Horror-Comedy pairing, comes to us from the team of Director Drew Goddard and Producer Joss Whedon, both of whom penned this tribute to the entire horror genre! A group of friends head out to a remote cabin recently purchased by a family member for a weekend of sex, drinking, and general partying good times! Sounds familiar, right? This time, however, there's an even more sinister event taking place. The friends must contend with a returned redneck zombie family intent on killing them all, but two survivors find out that there's actually a company behind the evening's horrific events, and the reason they're killing the members of the group is to stop an even greater horror from happening. Unfortunately, the two survivors don't find out about it until it's too late, and things take a turn for an even worse! Starring Kristen Connolly, Christ Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, and Amy Acker, this film answers

Welcome to Halloween, part one! All through the month of October, we'll be looking at some horror films you may or may not have seen, but you should! Our first pairing focuses on the lighter side of horror, films listed as "Horror Comedy." First up, it's the movie that brought to us the idea that zombies want brains, in 1985's "Night of the Living Dead"-inspired "Return of the Living Dead!" Directed by Dan O'Bannon, and written by John Russo (who wrote the screenplay for George Romero's original 1968 zombie classic), this film is Russo's version of a sequel! The movie follows a gang of punk-rock teens as they hang out in a nearby cemetary, waiting for one of their group to finish work at the nearby medical supply company. Unfortunately, at work, we discover that (supposedly), "Night of the Living Dead" was based on actual events, and the proof of those events is currently being stored in the basement! After a mishap while investigating the supposedly stored zombies, and a bad decision at a crematorium, the de

Our second film focuses on the cause of the civil war, and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which outlawed slavery once and for all. In "Lincoln," directed by Steven Spielberg, the story follows President Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he seeks to ensure passage of the 13th Amendment in the House of Representatives during the lame duck session of Congress before the results of the recent election take effect. His Secretary of State, William Seward (David Strathairn) is supporting his attempt, but his wife Mary Todd (Sally Fields) is in ill-health, and still grieving the loss of one of their children. The war within the White House, between the good of the nation and what's best for his family, is a constant backdrop to a tale of politics, back-room deals, and what it takes to get otherwise good men to publicly step up and do the right thing. The film also features Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Jackie Earl Haley, Bruce McGill,

The war between the states was like no war ever fought before, or after, in the United States of America, and it is to that war that we turn for this pairing. First up, the film that includes in its credits "And introducing Denzel Washington," the story of the Massachusetts 54th, the first "colored" regiment in the Union. In "Glory" (1989), Edward Zwick directs a script based on surviving correspondence from the Civil War. The story follows Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) who is given the rank of Colonel and command of the Union army's first all-black company. With his second-in-command, Major Cabot Forbes (Cary Elwes) by his side, and aided by training officer Sergeant Major Mulcahy (John Finn), the pair oversee the training of a large squad of volunteers, including Sergeant Major John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman), Private Trip (Denzel Washington), Private Jupiter Sharts (Jihmi Kennedy), and Corporal Thomas Searles (Andre Braugher). Fighting the indifference of the rest of Union command, the antipathy of o

We conclude our salute to director/producer George Pal with the film he was invited by the H. G. Well estate to make after his success with "The War of the Worlds." It's not space that is the subject of this film, however, but the fourth dimension: Time! In 1960's "The Time Machine," directed and produced by Pal, with a screenplay written by David Duncan, the story followed H. George Wells (played by Rod Taylor) who arrives late for dinner with his friends David Filby (Alan Young), Dr. Phillip Hillyer (Sebastian Cabot), Anthony Bridewell (Tom Helmore) and Walter Kemp (Whit Bissel), after housekeeper Mrs. Watchett (Doris Lloyd) has already served the meal. George is dirty, his clothing stained and torn, and he relates then his tale of creating a machine to allow him to travel through the fourth dimension of time as we would through the other three dimensions. He encounters World War I, then World War 2, then an Atomic War, after which he is entombed in solid rock. Eventually, after some 800,000 years, he arriv

For this pairing we turn the work of master director/producer George Pal, a true supporter of the advancement of special effects technology in film in the 1950s and 1960s! We start with his first adaptation of an H.G. Wells property, 1953's "The War of the Worlds!" Directed by Byron Haskin, with a screenplay by Barre Lyndon, and produced by Pal, the film stars Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester, a scientist who happens to be camping nearby when a meteor comes down in upstate California. Upon investigating, he meets Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) and her uncle Pastor Dr. Matthew Collins (Lewis Martin) who have also come to see what there is to see. Also on scene is an old acquaintance, Major General Mann (Les Tremayne), who has brought troops to help quell the crowds and assess any possible threat. But the meteor proves to be much more than cosmic driftwood, it's a pod containing creatures from the planet Mars who have descended upon the Earth to conquer it. Mankind attempt every type of military response im

The second film in our "Fabulous Thirds" pairing is one of the very rare films that challenges the first in the series as "the best" from the franchise! Directed by the one and only Stephen Spielberg, and written by Jeffrey Boam, Menno Meyjes, and George Lucas, it's 1989's amazing "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!" Once again, Professor Henry "Indiana" Jones (Harrison Ford) dives into another archeological adventure, this time hired by businessman and fellow collector Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) to find and secure the one and only Holy Grail before the Nazi's do! Helped along by his stalwart companions Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), he meets up with Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) to try and find Donovan's previous Grail expert: Professor Henry Jones Sr., Indy's father (Sean Connery)! It's a race across three continents to find the Grail, avoid its defenses, and secure the artifact before the greatest evil of the 20th century perverts it for their nefarious purposes! Plu

This week begins our "Fabulous Thirds" pairing, focusing on the third films in trilogies or series that are worth your time! First up, the one that pretty much set the standard for third films, the conclusion to the original Star Wars trilogy, 1983's "Return of the Jedi!" Directed by Richard Marquand (with help from George Lucas) and written by Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, the film reunites Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), along with Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz), Darth Vader (David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones), and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) to wrap up the saga of Luke and his journey to become a Jedi. Along the way, we meet the infamous Jabba the Hut in his palace on Tattooine, Luke's father Anakin Skywalker (Sebastian Shaw), and the Emperor himself (the incredible Ian McDiarmid) as the rebellion tries to end the Empire's hold over the

Sponsored by Manscaped! Our second western comedy film teams up three very famous comic actors for a romp through silent film-era Mexico with three unlikely heroes! Directed by the famous (and IN-famous) John Landis, 1986's "Three Amigos!" is a Western/Comedy/Musical/Fantasy and maybe a couple more genres as well. Silent film actors Lucky Day (Steve Martin), Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase) and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short) are three veteran silent film actors, known on-screen as "The Three Amigos." When their studio head throws them out on their entitles heads, a telegram arrives from a young woman named Carmen (Patrice Martinez), asking them to come to the Mexican town of Santa Poco to help rid them of a band of outlaws led by someone named "El Guapo" (Alfonso Arau). Unfortunately for Carmen, she believes the Three Amigos to be actual heroes, which is not what she gets when the three movie stars eventually do face off with the banditos. After fleeing and later returning to the village, they're told that El Guap

Sponsored by Manscaped! We begin our two-week celebration of the fusion of the Western and Comedy genres with a film Jeff was introduced to by his father, a gentle film that takes full advantage of the abilities of its stars to offer up a light, entertaining, self-referential comedy set in the old west! Directed by Burt Kennedy, 1969's "Support Your Local Sheriff" was an early chance for James Garner to demonstrate his talent with comedy as Jason McCullough, a man traveling to Australia who happens to stop in the town of Calendar, Colorado and see a notice for the job of Sheriff. The Mayor, Olly Perkins (Harry Morgan) doesn't believe McCullough will survive any longer than his predecessors, but he gives him room and board as per the terms of the job, the board provided by his daughter Prudy (Joan Hackett), a tomboy trying desperately to figure out how to be genteel woman. When Jason recruits town layabout Jake (Jack Elam) as his deputy, the two embark on a quest to slide the town out from under the Danby fami

Sponsored by Manscaped! Concluding our pairing of Academy Award-winning musicals, we move ahead a decade to a completely different type of story, one that combines culture and history into one complete dancing and singing package. Directed by Normal Jewison, 1971's "Fiddler on the Roof" is a celebration of Jewish culture and tradition, but also a historical acknowledgement of a dark time in history, when Tsar Nicholas II held sway in Russia and began passing discriminatory laws prohibiting Jewish citizens from living in rural areas, or in towns of less than 10,000 people. The story follows the family of Tevya (Topol), a poor milkman who, with his wife Golde (Norma Crane), has five daughters to care and look out for. Their eldest, Tzeitel (Rosalind Harris) is of eligible age to be married, and is initially betrothed to Lazar Wolf (Paul Mann), the local butcher and widower, but is actually in love with a poor tailor, Motel (Leonard Frey), and begs her father to reconsider. He does, but his troubles are just beg

Sponsored by Manscaped! We begin our pairing of classic, Academy Award-winning Hollywood musicals with one of the best examples of how cinema can translate stage to screen! Directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, 1961's "West Side Story" is part-ballet, part-Shakespeare, and part-gang story, but all worthy of the awards bestowed upon it. The film follows the street gang known as "The Jets," led by Riff (Russ Tamblyn) and their continuing conflict with "The Sharks," a Puerto-Rican gang led by Bernardo (George Chakiris). The conflict really boils over, however, when member-gone-straight Tony (Richard Beymer) sees Bernardo's little sister, Maria (Natalie Wood) at a dance, and sparks immediately fly. Maria is warned off by Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita (Rita Moreno), the gangs prepare to "rumble" with each other, and Tony and Maria disregard the fact that they're from warring tribes and begin a passionate romance. The conflict rises until the two

The second film in our pairing of Chinese action films is one of the most visually stunning films yet made! Directed by master of the form Zhang Yimou, the story of a lone warrior, known only as Nameless (Jet Li), appears before the King (Daoming Chen) with the story of killing three mighty assassins: Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and Broken Sword (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung). After being rewarded by the King and being allowed to approach within ten paces, the King begins to explain how he understands the story has actually unfolded. Following that, Nameless reveals the actual truth to the King about the assassins and the plot to kill the King. What sets this film apart from others, however, is the directorial and cinematographical artistry and elegance exhibited by Yimou! The film plays with color palettes in such a unique and picturesque way as to suggest a moving painting during the action scenes. A true feast for the eyes and an intricate, interesting storyline loosely based on Chinese history!

This pairing focuses on some of the best Chinese action films to cross the ocean to the United States. We begin with the first foreign film from China to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, a high-flying fantasy action film that, while not taking home Best Picture, did win Best Cinematography, Best Music - Original Score, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, and Best Foreign Language Film! Directed by acclaimed artist Ang Lee, the film stars Chow Yun-Fat as Master Li Mu Bai and Michelle Yeoh as Yu Shu Lien, sword legends and partners who bring the legendary sword Green Destiny to a local governor's residence. Once there, however, the sword is stolen by a masked warrior and the chase is on! Add in strange martial arts masters, mystic powers, and parallel love stories, and you have an engaging story and effects that were ground-breaking in their beauty and elegance! The film also stars Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Sihung Lung, Pei-Pei Cheng, Fazeng Li, Yan Hai, and Suying Huang!

Our second episode in our pairing looking at 80s mind-based science fiction moves ahead one year to 1984 and, this time, focuses on the subconscious and unconscious mind in director Joseph Ruben's sci-fi/political thriller/romance film "Dreamscape!" Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is a talented psychic whose abilities include telepathy, telekinesis, and precognition. After disappearing as a teenager, he's sought out by one-time mentor Doctor Paul Novotny (Max von Sydow) to work with him again, this time on a new technology that allows a psychic to project their consciousness into another person's dreams! After being essentially kidnapped and brought to the location of the project, he meets Dr. Novotny's associate Jane DeVries (Kate Capshaw) as well as his government "handler" Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer). Once Alex agrees to join the project, he also meets Tommy Ray Glatman (David Patrick Kelly), the current lead psychic and the most successful dream-walker. As Alex learns how to enter other people's dreams, T

It's back to the 80s we go, with a pairing Buddy nicknamed "MindFi," which translates to mind-based science fiction! First up, what if you could not only share all five senses of an experience with someone else, but you could record it and play it back at your leisure, feeling everything the original "experiencer" felt? That's the topic of our first film, directed by special effects genius Douglas Trumball, 1983's "Brainstorm!" Starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood (in her last big-screen role before her untimely death) as Michael and Karen Brace, a couple in the process of separating. The cause of their marital rift is the amount of time Michael has spent working on a project codenamed "Brainstorm" with project lead scientist Lillian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher), but they've finally had a breakthrough: They can record all five human senses while a subject experiences something, and when it's played back for someone else, they experience it as if they had originally gone through the event! Cheered on by