Media Notes: Roundup for June 2024

 

  

 

This is a somewhat random selection of the movies and series on DVD and/or online I watched during  June 2024. The highlight this month was watching the Leprechaun film series, the six films with Warwick Davis in the title role. I did it in part out of curiosity, in part to say I did it, and in part so you don't have to watch them. You're welcome.

Movies and films (links to IMDB.com for basic information unless noted otherwise). Some of these I watched via TubiTv.com or other online source. The DVDs come from the public library (unless noted otherwise). In addition, I will try to add other trivia notes, such as when a film is based on a book adding the information about the book (at least the WorldCat record if available):

• Leprechaun (1992. Horror. Fantasy, sort of comedy). Plot description: "A father and daughter rent a farmhouse where a murderous leprechaun has been trapped in a crate for a decade... until someone sets him free." I remember watching this some years back. Tubi has seven of the original eight; as of this post, they are lacking the last one. Still, given that Warwick Davis portrayed the main character in the first six, that works for me. Anyhow, this is the one that started it all, so I going to watch once more and see how it holds up. I will try watching the others to get the series done. In addition to Davis, film features a young Jennifer Aniston as the daughter. In typical cheesy horror movie, the whole opening of the dad buying a dilapidated house and thinking his spoiled L.A. teen daughter is going to go along with it is as dumb as it gets. She stays mainly because she notices the hot handyman dad hired to help fix the house. Film goes from there with a mostly typical group of disposable people. One small detail I find interesting are some of the leprechaun's magical talents such as his ability to imitate voices. At the end of the day, I am kind of amazed they kept making sequels given this movie is just not that good. The best part if any is Davis as the Leprechaun. He brings a bit of charm to the dark character. The rest of the cast is pretty bad, less than average to be charitable. Aside from a minor character or two, no one really gets killed, so this is not really a slasher. If they had gone a bit darker, could have been more horror. It leans into some poor slapstick humor that is not that big a deal. Film lacks tension, suspense, and the humor is on the minimal side. Aside from Davis doing the character well, this movie does not have much of anything going for it. It is pretty forgettable, other than Davis's character and performance which are great. The kind of movie for a Halloween marathon with other cheesy horror films, or hey, maybe watch it in March for Saint Patrick's Day. It is one of those movies that gets way more hype than it deserves.  It was OK, barely, so 2 out of 5 stars. Watched 6/8.
  
• The Wikipedia entry for the film series has some interesting notes, including a note on why Davis left the role after the 6th film; basically he had kids, and decided to take a break for their sake.
• Patient Seven (2016. Horror. Fantasy. Mystery). Plot description: "A renowned psychiatrist has selected six mental patients to interview as part of the research for his new book. As he begins his unorthodox methods the question becomes, who really belongs in Spring Valley Mental Hospital?" Up front, I will say part of the reason I chose to watch this is because Michael Ironside plays Dr. Marcus, the psychiatrist interviewing the patients. As Dr. Marcus begins to interview the patients, we get each patient's story as a bit of a flashback; in a way, the film feels a bit like an anthology. Dr. Marcus can be quite ruthless in his methods, aggressive in questioning, and cold; Ironside does the role very well. The patients' stories are all different. After we see their stories, it is in the last 20 minutes things really pick up as we get the revelation of what connects the patients. Overall, this is an atmospheric film. Initially we watch the stories not sure where things are headed, then we get the final revelation, and it falls into place. Ironside delivers a good performance, so that is also a good reason to give the film a chance. Also folks who enjoy anthology films may consider this one. Overall, pretty solid film, so giving it 3 out of 5 stars. Watched 6/9.
  
• In the second patient he interviews, in the flashback scene where the killer is trying to be discreet and some guy recognizes him from prep school is a bit amusing. Like, you are trying to get away with your crime, and some pesky old acquaintance just keeps clinging. It helps it is Halloween at the time, so others think he is costumed as a serial killer or such. This may be the best of the patient story segments. The other segments do vary in quality but they are all OK overall. 
•  Leprechaun 2 (1994. Horror. Fantasy. Comedy). Plot description: "On his one thousandth birthday, an evil leprechaun selects the descendant of one of his slaves to have as his bride, leaving it up to the girl's boyfriend to save her." Initially, I was not sure I had seen this before or not, but once I started watching and saw the plot detail of the Leprechaun making the girl sneeze three times, I recalled that I had seen this film, just a long while back. So here we go again as I attempt to watch the series. Given some of the time frame details and fact (spoiler alert) they managed to kill the leprechaun in the first film, I am guessing this is a different leprechaun (same actor though). To be honest, this film stands on its own, so if you missed the first one, it is no big deal. A thousand years later after he was not able to get the bride before, he is in Los Angeles, CA to find the bride. To be honest, as before, aside from the moments with the Leprechaun, the rest of the film just drags. The cast is mostly folks you really don't care for, the acting is somewhat painful to watch at times, and story overall moves somewhat slow. To be honest, given the boyfriend does not really have much in the way of redeeming qualities, the girl being the Leprechaun's bride does not seem so bad. If we look closely, she is not that much better either. By the way, another change in the film's lore. Before, to kill the Leprechaun, you could use a four-leaf clover. Now wrought iron works. Pace picks up in the last act of the film, around 1/2 hour remaining, but by then, you just want it to be over. If it did not feel like it has so much filler, might be better. The ending does drag as well. Overall, this is a pretty forgettable movie, and it makes me wonder how they managed to get a franchise series. I mean, Warwick Davis, the only good part, is seriously earning his paycheck here. I can see why after this one the sequels went straight to DVD and video on demand. I can also see why having watched it before, I pretty much had forgotten about it until now. I am sure I will soon be forgetting it again. So 1.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 6/15.
• Leprechaun 3 (1995. Horror. Fantasy. Comedy). Plot description: "An evil leprechaun finds himself in Las Vegas, where he proceeds to cause mischief by killing people, granting twisted wishes, and infecting a young man with his green blood." A new leprechaun, still Warwick Davis in the role, heads for Las Vegas this time. The opening scene at the pawn shop with the one-armed, one-leg, one-eyed man, with a tattoo on the hand spelling "lucky" is somewhat silly yet promising. He brings in a statue of a leprechaun with a jeweled medallion on it. The pawn shop keeper buys it cheap, likely to get the guy out of there. The man warns him not to remove the medallion, but we all know he will. The leprechaun is freed now (no idea how he was imprisoned in the statue, but do we really need to know? probably not), and new mayhem will ensue. Initially the leprechaun leaves his pot behind, which the pawn keeper picks up. We all know he should not have done that. You can't take a leprechaun's gold as we should know by now. He does get his pot back, but when a coin goes missing, the leprechaun wants it back. For the pawn shop owner, things would've been easier if he just gave the one coin back to the leprechaun (and paid attention to that computer video about leprechauns he did not finish watching). Sadly, as before, aside from Davis's acting, the rest of the cast leaves a lot to be desired. Scott, the male lead is a stupid rube; Tammy the female lead is mostly there for looks, a Vegas girl stuck assisting a loser stage magician, and rest of cast is not much better. It is just hard to have a care for the characters, and you wish the leprechaun would just kill them off sooner. Plot itself is pretty much nonsense; it is mostly an excuse to get the leprechaun do some hijinks and killing in Las Vegas. The detail about the green blood and the medallion are new lore details for this film. Also Scott being infected is a new detail in the leprechaun lore, and so is destroying the gold to kill the leprechaun, except as we know people are too greedy to do it. This movie leans more into the comedy, but aside from the leprechaun's one liners and hijinks, the humor is mostly pretty bad. Overall, the acting, aside from Davis, is pretty bad. The plot is silly, and mostly drags. Still amazed they kept making sequels, but here we are. Even more amazing to me that in IMDB some users give this lemon good reviews. If it were not for Warwick Davis this move really would be forgotten. At least he was getting gainful employment. He basically is carrying these films. 1.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 6/15.
• Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996. Horror. Fantasy. Comedy). Plot description: "Our deadly leprechaun is in space to woo a beautiful princess who is impressed with his gold and desires to separate him from it." Initially I figured the plot somehow would be the leprechaun gets on an Earth spaceship, NASA or other, but no. This time Leprechaun is on another planet, and we go from there. Film begins with a group of space marines who are chasing some aliens disrupting commerce. Naturally, as in other alien type movies, some scientist is coming along to collect samples of any aliens. On the planet, the leprechaun is working on the princess so to speak. When someone finds the leprechaun's treasure and tries to steal it, you know what is coming next. Unlike the previous films, the action pretty much starts right away once the marines arrive on the planet. On the planet, they blow up the leprechaun, or they think they do as the leprechaun returns on a bit of a play on the Alien film. The overall plot is seriously silly and nonsensical, but movie manages to be a bit entertaining as it is basically a marines searching for the bad alien, but with the leprechaun. Or rather, the leprechaun hunts the marines. The film really leans into the silliness and humor for this one. This is as cheesy as it can get, and not really much horror. What makes it a bit more entertaining than the previous ones is  the pacing is much faster. It seems they lowered the amount of filler. The plot overall keeps moving. That is not saying much though given the nonsense that is the plot. It feels like a spoof of Alien and similar films. The movie is no big deal, silly, cheesy, but so far it was the most amusing of the series. Warwick does the character well, though to be honest not as strong. That may be that the writers did not give him a lot of smarty lines to deliver. Still, he does remain a reason to keep watching the films. He embodies the leprechaun well. I am willing also to give a little credit for them trying something very different. Not terribly good, but it is amusing and watchable. If need be, I could watch this one again, something I cannot say for the previous ones. This is a movie you can watch late at night, have a few drinks, and just heckle and make fun of it as you watch. In the end, the film was OK, so 2 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 6/15.
• Leprechaun 5: In the Hood (2000. Horror. Fantasy. Comedy). Plot description: "When three rappers want to get even with a pimp, they accidentally unleash a leprechaun who goes on a killing rampage in tha 'hood."  After cranking out movie after movie in the 1990s, the series now enters the 2000s, and our Leprechaun is going urban in the hood. After going to space, there is not much left. The opening rhyme from the Leprechaun and then the opening music set the mood a bit. I am highly amused at the opening scene, quick way to establish it's the 1970s by putting the two black guys in big afros, leather jacket, and bell bottoms, oh, plus 70s music briefly. Ice-T plays the pimp who after stealing a golden flute from the Leprechaun back in the 70s, finds success and wealth.  The plot is no big deal. The three guys are trying to get to an audition, but are broke. They decide to rob Mac Daddy, the pimp, who turned them down  before, and in the process free the leprechaun. Once that happens, it's just the leprechaun trying to get his gold back, including the one flute, which Mac Daddy also wants to get since it is tied to his success. Rest of the story is basically moving from situation to situation as the leprechaun wants what belongs to him. The movie has some small amusing moments, but it suffers from the same issue previous ones do: bad and slow pacing. The plot just goes around and around, and though it was moving along initially, it just slows to a drag and keeps on dragging. Warwick Davis is in his usual good shape for the role, adding a bit of hip hop humor to his rhymes, and Ice-T pretty much plays himself so to speak. We don't really get enough of Ice-T. He comes and goes as the plot needs it pretty much. Oh, and Coolio makes a very brief cameo appearance. Still, not enough to save this movie from being bad. Then there are some scenes that do not really make sense, seem made more to fill out the time. The last 15 minutes just gets ridiculous though the final twist was interesting. This could have had potential if they tightened the script, cut out the fillers, and paced it better. The humor was there, and at times it was OK but not enough. By the way, by now, any pretense of horror in this series is mostly gone. It leans into some fantasy with the comedy, not good comedy but comedy nonetheless. 1.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 6/16. 
• Leprechaun 6: Back 2 That Hood. (2003. Horror. Fantasy. Comedy).  Plot description: "When Emily Woodrow and her friends happen on a treasure chest full of gold coins, they fail to heed the warnings of a wise old psychic, who had foretold that they would encounter trouble with a very nasty and protective Leprechaun." Made it to the 6th film in the series, and this is the last one featuring Warwick Davis as the Leprechaun. Once more we have some folks who find the gold, and despite warnings decide to keep it. The leprechaun coming after them to kill them and get the gold back follows. It's the true formula that is simple, yet these movies keep being mostly awful. The opening with the book to tell the legend is nice, but that may be the highlight. It does, once more, change the basic origin of the leprechaun. The opening scene with the priest banishing the leprechaun with holy water, laced with 4 leaf clover, is a new addition to the lore in the films. The 4-leaf clover weakness was already seen in previous films, but the banishing part is new. Anyhow, by now these films play fast and loose with lore and internal rules for the character. The film starts slow as we get to meet the hairdresser and friend down on their luck in a bad neighborhood. At some point, they decide to see a psychic. By now, I mentioned before, the horror is gone. The film, when Leprechaun is present, leans more on humor including some slapstick, usually at the expense of Leprechaun. Additionally, we do not see Leprechaun use much of his magic as he would do in previous films; it does take away from what little charm the film had. Also the magic added to Davis's charm. People die; it's just not really scary. A nice angle was the girl shared the wealth when she found it, but of course it means it puts everyone in danger from the leprechaun. One does have to feel a bit sad that Davis's last outing as Leprechaun was just so bad; it did keep him gainfully employed all this time. The acting from the rest of the cast is not good. The leprechaun seems diminished despite Davis's performance, and the story is just not good. By the time we get to the ending scene, we just want this to be over. Why some folks find these films appealing is beyond me. 1.5 out of stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 6/16.

Television and other series (basic show information links via Wikipedia unless noted otherwise). Some of these come in DVD from the public library. Others may be via YouTube, which, as noted before, I keep finding all sorts of other old shows in it, often full episodes:

• C.O.P.S. (1988-1989. Animated series. Police. Action. Humor. Children and Young Adult).  See my comment on this in the May 2019 roundup. I've been watching this in and out. I start this month on episode 52 (out of 65). I finished the series. Fun as it was, the plots do get a bit sillier as the series progresses. It's OK to watch now, but it is best in small doses.  
  
• Hitler's Most Wanted (2019. TV series. Documentary).  Plot description: "Visiting the villages and towns where these elite Nazi leaders grew up, as well as the sites of their worst atrocities, filmmaker James Ellis meets with young historians to explore the defining moments which transformed everyday Germans into mass murderers." Our young historian and filmmaker seeks to understand how it happened 70 years ago or so. Each episode is about 45 minutes, and it covers a specific Nazi official. The material is not necessarily new, but the format is interesting as Ellis talks to historians and visits various locations to give us a full view. I also find it interesting because this history has lessons for our current times. Ellis also in his travels observes modern neo-Nazis, even talking to some of them, then reflects on what he learns. Overall, the format provides a good presentation to learn, or relearn, this history combining visuals from the time with contemporary views and seeing how the places look now. It is not so much a biographical series. It is more looking at the places, history, and conditions that shaped the official and the role they played. Watched over the month and finished the series.
  
• In the first episode, about Himmler, the segment with the daughter of an SS officer involved in a Nazi breeding program, is moving as she speaks of her legacy and others as a child of that Aryan program. 
• The program features some of the usual suspects such as Himmler, Goebbels, and Dr. Mengele. But there are also one or two lesser known Nazis such as Hans Frank, Hitler's personal lawyer and later known as the "Butcher of Poland" (for his role in enslaving the Polish people) and Wilhelm Canaris, Hitler's spymaster (who apparently was a bit of a double agent and even involved in helping some Jews escape the Nazis. He was not a good guy, but he did undermine some Nazi efforts he found repugnant. His resistance actions did get him convicted for treason by the Nazis and he was executed in a camp). I did not know much about Frank and nothing about Canaris until watching this. I may need to find a good book or two to learn more.
  
• Mobsters (1997-2012. Documentary. True Crime). Description: "Discover the true stories behind the mob legends who ruthlessly clawed their way to their own precarious versions of the American Dream." TubiTv seems to have picked this up recently. Episodes are not in initial broadcast order, and they got 31 episodes (out of 49). Still, this is a series you do not have to watch sequentially, so I am watching a bit here and there as I do enjoy true crime and mob tales. 
• I watched some episodes here or there on YouTube back in June 2018 where I commented on the series overall and in July 2019. 
• Though TubiTv does not have all the episodes, they still managed to get a few episodes I had not seen before: Carlos Marcello, Frank Lucas (where we learn the movie with Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe, good as it is, did embellish quite a bit), Nicky Barnes, and  "Big Joey" Massino,
   
• NYPD Blue (1995-2003. Police procedural. Drama). Finished Seasons 10, 11, and 12, the last season. Thus I watched the full run.
  
• In Season 10, Lt. Rodriguez gets shot, and the resolution of that, which is not really terribly satisfactory, spills into Season 11. 
• In Season 11, the story arc of the serial killer revealed as a female was pretty good. It is an example of some of the good writing in the show. Overall, when the stories are good, they are good. The plot here was good. However, when some stories seem to drag a bit too long, the show seems a bit off. Show overall lasted 12 seasons, so looking at it now I can see it may not be easy to keep a consistent pace and quality in the stories. Most of the stories are good, but there are some moments that could've been skipped or just not that great. 
• Again, in actors you've seen elsewhere. Corbin Bernsen, often known for his role in L.A. Law, appears in Season 12, Episode 12.
• Last season by the halfway point you could feel the ending coming as the various changes happen. The focus is now to Medavoy retiring and Sipowicz, somewhat reluctantly, getting command of the detective squad, in part to preserve it. As the series ends, well, his superiors may not be too happy with his honesty and integrity (he pisses them off over not just burying some rich guy's crime), but we get the sense long term he will make it. 
• Overall, while the series had some  ups and downs, on the balance, it was a good series, with good writing and performances. You can see why it won as many awards as it did.
• Susan Smith: Sex Behind Bars (2021. Crime. Documentary). A short documentary from Reelz that Tubi has. She is the woman convicted of drowning her two children. That part I remember. The later part of her in jail seducing two of the guards I did not recall. By the way, these guards were not just common guards; they were officers, a lieutenant and a captain, who should definitely have known better. One of the officers, now in prison himself for his affair (it is a felony for guards to do that), gives testimony in the documentary. According to her Wikipedia article which I linked she is eligible for parole in November of this year. That I find a bit scary. What I find disturbing with some retrospection is how easy Smith was able to exploit a racial stereotype, the Black carjacker, to get everyone on her side right away initially. As the meme goes, sounds about White.