Movies

The First Nudie Musical (1976) They have three weeks to make a movie or they will lose the studio! I am finding that the addition of nudity to a genre film does not improve it. It just makes a bad movie a different kind of bad. Mostly a collection of vignettes and blackouts connected by a tenuous plot and some songs. I actually laughed really hard one time, and I don't think I have seen nude tap dancing before. 5/5

The Core (2003) Huge disaster will wipe out life on earth unless a band of stereotypes performs an insanely dangerous task. Hunky scientist, spunky gal, finicky professor, eccentric inventor, geeky hacker, even what I can only call the "black mammy" - the middle-aged woman of color who nowadays says, "My duty is to look out for the health and safety of this crew!" instead of what they used to say. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying that is what I saw. I have to give them credit for making it as nonsensically spectacular as possible as they knock off characters one at a time, allowing for both tragic irony and noble sacrifice. Kinda long at two hours, but they wanted it to be epic and it was. I think this formula really does best at ninety minutes - it makes them keep things tight, less talk and more action. I was impressed when the hunky scientist finished his sales pitch to the top brass with the super-convincing act of roasting an apple with an improvised blowtorch to show what would happen it they didn't send an earth-boring magma train to re-start the spin of the titular core. Yes, a train. That was pretty impressive, having a subterranean train. Anyway if you want to see one of this kind of movie this one is a pretty harmless one that will keep you stupified for two hours, and Stanley Tucci is always a plus. 7/10