Last Seen 70s/80s Movie

[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by FryeDwight

BEN (1972). Another film that was better in my early adolescence. The sequel to WILLARD starts out as a recap to lead into this story, where Ben, an intelligent black rat becomes the defect leader of a whole bunch of rodents-I must give praise to Moe Desesso and help who trained what looks like at least a 1000 rats. I give give much praise at all to the horrid script and the extremely uneven acting, particularly Lee Hartcourt Montgomery, playing Ben's sickly friend. You are almost hoping against hope that He'll be eaten...the film just screeches to a halt every time He's on screen and hearing him talk/sing/play harmonica to "Ben" (which we hear Michael Jackson sing on the credits) will just astound You how bad it is. Also a young Meredith Baxter and longtime character actor Kenneth Tobey. I must also give credit for a pretty wild scene involving rats in a grocery store (No alarm? in Los Angeles especially!) and all sorts of product placement. Proceed with risk. **

Does Lee Hartcourt Montgomery actually sing to Ben? ew... I'm glad I've forgotten that.

Do you remember how you liked Willard '71? Crispin Glover is really fun to watch in the 2003 remake.

[FryeDwight]

Originally Posted by Sculpt

Does Lee Hartcourt Montgomery actually sing to Ben? ew... I'm glad I've forgotten that.

Do you remember how you liked Willard '71? Crispin Glover is really fun to watch in the 2003 remake.

Yes, Lee does sing and You are lucky to have forgotten that WILLARD is pretty good and I thought the reboot was decent as ell. I thought Crispin was very good when He reveals his true feeling during his mother's funeral. I did think his (literally) snotty mewling for his job was embarrassing.

THE DEAD NEXT DOOR (1988). Very very low budget film by JK Bookwalter (who wrote for the great CULT MOVIES magazine) has a bad script and even worse acting, but it's so goofy and offbeat that I halfway enjoyed. The dead are back at it, a "Zombie Squad" is trying to contain with resistance from other group. A lot of "nods" to the Romero films and some pretty funny scenes, especially "customer selection" at a video store. ***

[FryeDwight]

BARQUERO (1970). After a town is plundered and its residents massacred (almost THE WILD BUNCH), psycho Warren Oates and his crew ride to the next settlement to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico. Unfortunately for them, the bargemen-Lee Van Cleef in his first lead role-knows that there will not be a happy ending for he or the "squatters" of the new village. So a standoff occurs....

Decent Western with two of my favorite character actors and a great turn by Forrest Tucker as "Mountain Phil". Also, an unusual scene where wholesome Marietta Hartley offers a "reward" to Lee if he rescues her husband; even though she can't stand him and even more strange how Lee's girlfriend-Marie Gomez from THE PROFESSIONALS- who is quick with a gun, very handy and incredibly built doesn't seem to mind. Not a classic, but worth a watch. ***