So, the other day I found this old film, Megaforce on TV and decided to force my kid to watch it, because I thought he would get a kick out of watching the cheesy crap we used to consider cool back in the ’80s. Man, was I wrong, on so many levels. First, I thought Steel Dawn was Megaforce! See, Megaforce stars none other than Barry Bostwick as a tights wearing “bad ass” who runs an elite commando squad of . . . actually, I just couldn’t get through it all. I apologized to my kid, and about an hour into it, I turned off the TV and went to bed to reevaluate my life as a supposed movie lover.
Now, the film we delighted in watching back in my teens was Steel Dawn, starring action hero Patrick Swayze as Nomad, a bad ass in a post-apocalyptic world who has to help some settlers survive. I can’t really remember much about Steel Dawn other than it was pretty violent, and I think we were too young to watch it. But, now it is playing on Comet TV this month, so I can check it out again – FOR FREE! That’s 100% free, no illegal downloads or trick commitment to sign-up to any garbage to “get something for free.” It’s airing this Friday at 8P/7C.
Head over to Comet TV for the full August schedule of films and shows.
Now, as usual, let’s take a look at the films for August that I have seen.
An American Werewolf in London: Without a doubt the precursor to some of the best special effects in the industry. The transformation scenes where poor David Kessler becomes a full-on werewolf can still amaze audiences today – and that is saying something! I think what always appealed to me about this story is how it happens to a normal guy and how he has to deal with the reality of becoming a killing machine, a literal monster. There are few better werewolf films in existence.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): Now, the original film was the only time I ever got my dad to admit to me that he “felt nervous” about anything. He was old school, he wouldn’t admit to ever being afraid once in his life. So, I had to watch this film, even if it was a remake of the film that got to him, and I could see why it was so terrifying in concept. Imagine if someone you loved was suddenly replaced by an alien, trying to destroy you and everyone you love. Imagine there was almost no way to tell the difference! It would make you wonder about everyone around you and second-guess every decision they made.
1984 (1985): That looks kind of funny written out, but 1984 is based on a tech warning novel by the brilliant George Orwell who warned about the dangers of centralizing too much power and media control into the government. Oddly enough, we are already there, if you consider how freely we give up our privacy and avoid wrong-think, lest we get fired for speaking the truth, ahem. But, this film does a fair job of showing what the world might look like – granted even Orwell didn’t dream up Twitter!
