John Savage – Missile Test

All the Kind Strangers, the 1974 movie from director Burt Kennedy and screenwriter Clyde Ware, is a movie hampered by its medium. It’s an American network television movie, therefore subject to Standards and Practices. An unconscionable level of restrictions on content and story was the norm on American television at the time, and it shows in All the Kind Strangers. A movie that could have had teeth was instead dumbed down.

Stacy Keach plays Jimmy Wheeler, a photojournalist taking a road trip across America in search of…well, that’s never explained. But it looks as if he’s taking the back roads, searching for some gritty Americana he can put on film and maybe turn into a touching piece for Harper’s or The New Yorker. Continue reading “Shitty Movie Sundays: All the Kind Strangers”

What a bottom-feeding pile of garbage. This reviewer has seen many bad movies — enough bad movies that I’ve ruined any arthouse bona fides I may have had — yet, sometimes, I’m still surprised that something so amateurish manages to get made. This is one of those shitty movies where no one involved, even the professionals, seemed able to capitalize on their work.

Alien Rising, from 2013, is a direct-to-video shitfest brought to viewers by screenwriters Michael Todd and Kenny Yakkel, and director Dana Schroeder. This was Schroeder’s second directing effort, and, if his IMDb page is any indication, it will be his last. Thank goodness. We shitty movie fans may be into flagellation, but everyone has limits. Continue reading “Shitty Movie Sundays: Alien Rising, aka Gemini Rising”