Three years after the original set the box office ablaze, Eddie Murphy returned in 1987 as Axel Foley in the action packed sequel, BEVERLY HILLS COP II. A daring band of robbers is pulling big heists in Los Angeles, led by the statuesque Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen in her Amazonian 80's glory). Leaving cryptic letters behind, they've dubbed them the Alphabet crimes. When Chief Bogomil (Ronny Cox of "Deliverance") is nearly murdered by the gang, Axel rejoins the mismatched pair of detectives Billy (Judge Reinhold) & Taggart (John Ashton) in California to help on the case. What works well in the sequel is Murphy's trademark rapid-fire delivery of hilarious one-liners or BS as he winds his way deep into the investigation. Nielsen is a blast as the villain, Jurgen Prochnow (The Keep, Dune) is a terrific bad guy and the 80's soundtrack is loaded with everyone from Bob Seger to the Pointer Sisters. Gilbert Gottfried is hilarious as a slimy lawyer in a scene that he and Murphy mostly improvised and Paul Reiser (Mad About You) is funny as Axel's partner in Detroit. What doesn't work? The overly loud, predictable new chief Harold Lutz, unappealingly played by Allen Garfield (Nashville) and an unnecessary subplot with an arms dealer, blah blah... But Murphy is at the top of his game. Watching him talk himself into staying at a Beverly Hills mansion or stroll into an upscale shooting gallery and verbally abuse the bad guys delivers the laughs. Reinhold is hilarious as Billy, morphing from the meek detective of the first film into a Rambo-like warrior, loading up on so many weapons that he delivers terrific action and laughs in the finale. Watch closely for a very young Chris Rock as a valet attendant during the cement truck sequence. A massive hit with the biggest opening weekend in '87, it generated a second, horrible sequel 7 years later. Stick with this and the original! Axel's first return to the screen gets a violent, laugh-filled B.

Do you have any film favorites that are so trashy bad they’re good? A seventies classic of that genre for me is the gilded garbage of 1978’s THE BETSY. Based in the cutthroat world of the automotive industry, this Harold Robbins drama is loaded with enough plot lines for a trilogy and a truck full of great actors slumming for a big paycheck. Laurence Olivier leads the way as “Number One”, the retired but ready to re-emerge auto tycoon behind Hardemann Motors. He’s got the fever to create the world’s ultimate fuel-efficient vehicle, but the industry and most of his own company are in the way. Olivier has the worst accent of his career and some pretty embarrassing moments, including banging the maid on his son’s wedding day. It may be a subtle reference to Sonny in “The Godfather” in its opening scene, but this is NO “Godfather”. However, Robert Duvall does turn up as Loren Jr. in some bad short shorts and high athletic socks to play handball and hardball with his father. Tommy Lee Jones is incredibly young here as Angelo Perino, an Italian (?) race car driver that Number One picks to lead his new project. A gorgeous Lesley-Anne Down (The Great Train Robbery, Dallas) is “Lady Bobby Ayres” whose sleeping with Loren Jr. but hot for Tommy Lee, oh excuse me, I mean Angelo….Jones isn’t even TRYING to have an accent here….. Katherine Ross (The Graduate) is Loren Jr’s wife who ends up sleeping with….oh you get the idea. It’s all race cars, big business boardrooms, mansions and wicked capitalist dealings in rich settings and in its own way, it's incredibly trashy fun. Joseph Wiseman is a mafia bad guy that looks like Dr. No in a bad suit. Edward Herrmann is a sidekick that never quite gets his due and supposedly leading the way is Kathleen Beller as Number One’s granddaughter Betsy. Beller is wooden. Or whatever surface is less talented than wood. She has a gratuitous nude scene in the pool that serves no purpose other than to make Angelo look lecherous and make sure the film was rated R. In the early 80’s she landed an ongoing role on TV’s “Dynasty” but never any leading roles after her termite bait of a performance here. The Razzies named THE BETSY as one of the 100 most enjoyable BAD movies ever and I have to agree. Where else can you see big actors spouting really bad dialogue and sleeping with someone new every half hour, a “revolutionary” car that looks suspiciously like a Mercedes with a fake front on it, a test run of that car with the sound of an engine turbine clumsily laid over it, and Laurence Olivier hooking up with everyone from his servants to particularly awkward family members? This is pure trash and pretty fun to watch, like some big budget TV movie in the “Dallas” or “Dynasty” vein. It made some money in theatres and still sits in my DVD collection as a memorable bad movie that I have to pull of the shelf every decade and enjoy. Olivier’s character may be called Number One, but this movie’s definitely all Number Two. We’ll give it a C.

Fascinating, informative and strangely echoing the current political climate in the USA, the 2015 documentary BEST OF ENEMIES chronicles a pivotal moment in television news. It's 1968, ABC News is a very distant third in the ratings and they have decided to only do 90 minutes of prime time coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions. At the time, CBS and NBC covered the conventions gavel to gavel and ABC's approach was laughable to their competition. ABC really breaks the mold when they schedule 10 debates as part of their nightly coverage. Weighing in were uber-conservative William F. Buckley and outspoken liberal author Gore Vidal. The two men detested each other, often ripping each others opinions to shreds in print. They ooze hate for the others position. Its terrific to watch the original ABC coverage, much of these debates themselves and learn how the media reacted. The public loved them, with ABC's ratings skyrocketing and coverage of the debates never the same, and its easy to see why. There is no middle ground for Buckley or Vidal. They spend as much time verbally skewering the others personal attributes as they do the issues, making for lively TV. It's easy to see where Dan Aykroyd got his famous "Point/Counterpoint" line to Jane Curtin, "Jane, you ignorant slut" (shown here and still hilariously delivered by Aykroyd & Curtin). At times, you feel like there is a mutual respect for each others intelligence lurking just below the surface, but its soon repressed with another nuclear verbal assault. Watching the film now and relating the deep divide between the parties and the country in 1968 that created a violent convention atmosphere to the events just last night at the Trump rally in Chicago, I get the creeping feeling that 48 years after these events, the country hasn't evolved as much as we would like to pretend. Listen to the dialogue between Buckley and Vidal and transplant that chatter to this week and its astonishing and sad how relevant the social issues are today. It's also fascinating to watch how the impact of Vidal & Buckley's most famous, profane and explosive moment in the debates changed both men's lives forever. One of them lives in the shadow of that ten seconds, struggling to understand why those words were his primal fallback, while the other wallows in his hatred for the other, literally penning a welcome letter from hell when his opponent eventually dies. Smart, entertaining and riveting, BEST OF ENEMIES gets an A, a great documentary that captures an important political moment that seems all too familiar today.

Like the Texas bordello of its title, THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS is filled with some predictable fun and more than a few surprises. This 1982 filmed adaption of the Broadway hit musical casts Burt Reynolds as Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, the "Sheriff Taylor" like leader of the town and steady boyfriend of the house madam, Miss Mona, played with voluptuous sincerity and fun by Dolly Parton in her prime. When a shady TV evangelist, hilariously played by Dom DeLuise, uses his network TV Show to throw a light on the "Chicken Ranch", all sorts of political trouble and soft R rated hi-jinks ensue. Burt and Dolly have effortless chemistry and Dolly has enormous screen presence two years after her screen debut in "9 to 5", elevating the entire affair anytime she's on screen. Burt (thankfully) only sings one song, but great character actor Charles Durning nearly steals the show with his terrific number "The Sidestep", showing terrific singing and dancing skills. Some of the numbers are pretty cheesy and the Texas football team comes off more like The Village People in "Can't Stop the Music" but there's real fun to be had at the ranch. Director Colin Higgins (Foul Play, Silver Streak, 9 to 5) has a deft comedic hand, the songs are fine and Dolly even sneaks in an early version of "I Will Honestly Love You" that was quite a hit in '82, but nowhere near the monster it would be for Whitney Houston years later. When the film tries to turn serious, it nearly derails, but Reynolds and Parton know what they're doing and get things back on track in short order. Get through the first 15 minutes of Jim Nabors narration and Burt and Dolly's only number together and then things improve quite a bit. I nearly gave up in that first stretch! Good for a down home laugh or two and benefiting greatly from Dolly's ample talents, we'll give it a double D, oh I mean a B.

Another hilarious, mostly improvised comedy from the folks who brought you "Waiting for Guffman" and "A Mighty Wind", BEST IN SHOW brings together a wacky bunch of characters for the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are Gerry and Cookie Fleck, an odd couple with bookish Gerry and vivacious Cookie, whose past seems to catch up with her everywhere she goes. Amorous men approach her everywhere as former "clients" and Levy's facial ticks and reactions are fall over funny, this guy can work an expression. Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock are Meg & Hamilton Swan, the most over-protective pet lovers in history. Their emotional drama escalates hilariously throughout as they helicopter-parent their pet. Michael McKean plays Stefan Vanderhoof, whose partner Scott is played with LOL flamboyance by John Michael Higgins. Director Christopher Guest plays country boy Harlan Pepper, who might have a thing or two to teach city folks about their pets. Round out the cast with Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge and their giant poodle alongside Fred Willard as the side-splittingly funny horrible television announcer for the Dog Show and you have a winner. This entire cast is genius at improv and playing off each other to great effect. We meet each of them and follow them through the show in the spirit of a documentary. More laughs than you can count + characters you grow to really care about, in the hands of a very clever cast. Fred Williard alone is funnier than most current "comedies". This really is Best In Show as one of the best comedies of the 2000's. Voted by Premiere Magazine as one of the 50 best comedies of all time; hard to argue when you are laughing this hard! Blue Ribbons and an A.

Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn run the gamut of emotions in the uneven but initially charming BEST FRIENDS. Reynolds stars as Richard, a successful screenwriter who often writes alongside his live in girlfriend Paula, well played by Goldie Hawn. When Richard decides that they should get married and Paula reluctantly agrees, the couple suddenly finds themselves at odds, with marriage being more challenging than friendship. The film's first half is by far the best, especially when the newlyweds visit their parents. Richards parents (Keenan Wynn and Audra Lindley) are hilarious and easygoing, which Paula's folks (Barnard Hughes and Jessica Tandy) are classic eccentrics, with all the quirks great actors bring to the roles. Reynolds and Hawn are at their best during these scenes, with easy chemistry and plenty of laughs. As the film rolls on and their new marriage is tested, the film grows uncomfortable. Their interactions and dialogue feel very forced and the movie kind of peters out as it stumbles to the end. There are some great songs over montages, including the eighties classic "How Do You Keep The Music Playing", used to nice effect here. Richard Libertini is a comic standout as the worst marriage minister on the planet, but once they say "I do", you'll want to say "I dont". Half of an 80's classic earns a C.

2011's THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is a feast of strong acting by some of the best in the business. An all-star cast, including some of my faves like Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson & Maggie Smith star as seniors who all arrive in India looking for either retirement, a fresh start or adventure. Young hotel owner Dev Patel's strongest hotel management skills involve photoshop, as the hotel they arrive at is a far cry from the one imagined online. As they adapt to this different world, they find new love, connect with past loved ones (an especially strong storyline featuring Wilkinson, but not the one you'd expect) and find new qualities in themselves. Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) is in fine form and has an incredible palette to work with in his cast. By turns funny, sweet, sad, hilarious and deeply moving, you will want to check into the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It's a masterclass in acting and charms it's way to an A.

Strangely lifeless, Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture follow up to his terrific "Polar Express" is a step backward from the charms of that holiday classic. 2007's BEOWULF only comes to life when Angelina Jolie slips onto the screen. Tackling the centuries old story of the warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone)and his battle against the creature Grendel (Crispin Glover) and the monster's seductive mother (Jolie) , Zemeckis loads the stop motion animation with great actors. In addition to those above, we also have Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar and John Malkovich as his trusted aide Unferth. Robin Wright is Hrothdar's Oueen. Alas, the story creaks forward, bursting into action for some brilliant special effects sequences, but then falling back into cruise mode for more 500 AD exposition, mead drinking and angst. Zemeckis is one of my favorite filmmakers. Even his less successful films at the box office like 2015's "The Walk" have been some of my favorites for those years. But for all its $150 million in special effects, a screenplay by Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction) and Neil Gaiman (American Gods) and terrific sound design, BEOWULF feels like its a thousand years old. Slow, too violent and littered with nudity for kids and too boring and simplistic for adults, it ultimately fails to connect. Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie are both terrific. He's a hell of a warrior and she is an amazingly seductive villain, but the film around them never connects on any emotional level that would serve their efforts. BEOWULF is dead on arrival. The story spans many decades and I felt every year of it.....I'll give it a D.

As the Academy Awards approached this year, I kept reading about Oscar record breaker and winner of 11 awards, 1959's BEN HUR. With a long coast-to-coast flight, what better time to catch up for the first time with this nearly 4 hour film classic. Charlton Heston stars as Judah Ben-Hur, a successful Jewish Prince at the time of Christ. When Ben Hur's childhood friend Messala is promoted to leader of the Roman Army in Hur's town, the two reconnect. Friendly banter is short lived and through an unfortunate series of events, Hur is cast out to become a slave. Hur's lifelong quest is to return to his home town of Jerusalem, liberate the family that was thrown into jail when he was made a slave, and gain his revenge against Massala. The film is of an epic scale, one of the biggest productions ever mounted. The chariot race that concludes the film was shot full scale, with stuntmen and horses performing all the action live in a huge arena. The chariot sequence is amazing. It's one of the most exciting 20 minute sequences in the history of film. I had to go back and watch the entire sequence again to soak it up. To stage that portion alone would cost a couple hundred million today, it is staggering in scale. Charlton Heston is at his best as Ben Hur, Jack Hawkins is terrific as Hur's slave master who finds more in Hur than he expects and Stephen Boyd is strong as Massala. This is old school film making at its best, massive in scale, very long but never boring and powerful in its story telling. Winner of Best Picture, Best Actor (Heston), Best Supporting Actor (Hawkins), best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Special Effects and Best Writing. It's an Oscar record tied by only two films in history, "Titanic" and "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King". This old fashioned spectacle gets an A for the Chariot Race Sequence alone. Throw another 3 hours of legendary film making on top and you have a classic.

In 1970, two years after the blockbuster "Planet of the Apes", producer Arthur P. Jacobs and Fox brought us the next chapter in the ape saga, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES. James Franciscus stars as astronaut Brent, whose traveled the same time wormhole to end up on future earth and the simian ruled planet. After nearly bankrupting 20th Century Fox two years before with the box office bomb "Doctor Dolittle", Jacobs budget was tight. Combined with the fact that Charlton Heston would only agree to reprise his role as Taylor on the conditions he would die in the film and would only be in it for about 15 minutes, Jacobs does a decent job, for awhile. The good news is that the filmmakers have a good leading man in Franciscus, beautiful Linda Harrison back as Nova, some decent and interesting scenes underground where they find Radio City Music Hall, the New York public library. Not so good is a clumsy gorillas/war versus chimpanzees/peace story line, a very silly last 40 minutes with mind melding nuclear mutant humans conjuring up more illusions that an 80's David Copperfield and not enough lines for Kim Hunter as Zira. Roddy McDowell sat this one film out and his replacement as Cornelius isn't nearly as good. It's short, pretty fast and pretty cheap looking in some of the crowd scenes, where the budget cuts have extras in cheap over-the-head gorilla masks instead of John Chambers incredible make-up. It all comes to a decent, explosive (to say the least) conclusion to which you can't imagine they could come up with another sequel. They fooled everyone with coming up with the best sequel the following year with 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes", my favorite Apes film ever. BENEATH is early 70's b-movie fun and pretty decent considering its budget limitations. We'll give it a B-. Killer 70's movie poster artwork!

In 1971, the rat movie "Willard" was a huge and unexpected box office hit. The producers smelled gold and went right back to work on the bigger budget, rat infested sequel BEN. Picking up with the last few minutes of the original film, it quickly becomes obvious that this is the ALIENS of the rat series. If you thought a thousand rats were great, let's give you 10,000! If one or two rat attacks were a hit, let's give 'em a dozen! Ben the rat and his masses move quickly from Willard's house to one of the neighbors, with Ben befriending sick little boy Danny. Danny is played with a level of sweetness that should drop any diabetic viewer in their tracks. Lee Harcourt Montgomery isn't a bad actor, he's just asked to play a kid straight out of a Barney episode that happens to love giant rats. Oh, he also loves marionettes. By the time he breaks into a second song that makes the musical interludes on "The Partridge Family" look like "Hamilton", I was ready for the rats to chow down. Joseph Campanella (Mannix, The Golden Girls) barks orders to city workers to find the rats, Arthur O'Connell (The Poseidon Adventure) is a newspaper reporter who cant believe the rats are smarter than the city workers and Meredith Baxter is Danny's sister, bringing the bell curve up on the acting talent dramatically. When it's not boring, it's unintentionally hilarious. Rats are thrown on people from off camera, crowds react to scenes of torn up cereal boxes like they're at the scene of the Manson murders and Ben seems to be able to understand the English language. This was supposed to be part two of a trilogy, but thankfully Part 3 was killed along with the rodent infestation. When I was 11, I saw this as part of a double feature. At the time, I thought Ben was okay, but I was traumatized by the second feature on the bill "Night of the Living Dead". I was so scared I forgot all about "Ben". The funny thing is, I watched it again last week and forgot all about it again the next day. The only redeeming thing in the movie is Michael Jackson's hit theme song that runs over the end credits. For a movie about rats, it's probably appropriate that this stinker is 100% cheese. Ben gets a D.

Writer/Director James Gunn is best known for his excellent "Guardians of the Galaxy" films. He takes a decidedly more bloody turn with a fantastic concept in THE BELKO EXPERIMENT. The premise alone is worth the price of admission. Picture an American company doing business in a very remote part of Bogota, Columbia. In a well guarded monolith of a building built to keep armies out, the inside looks like any American office, down to the corner offices, suits and ties and cubicles. Eleven minutes into the film, a voice comes over speakers throughout the building and announces that there are currently 80 people in the building and in two hours, if 30 of they haven't been killed, they will kill 60 of them at random. Who "they" are is left for our office workers and the viewer to discover. As you and the staff realize that it's not a joke, watching the personalities and players (d)evolve into their primal selves makes for one hell of a horror thrill ride. Tony Goldwyn (Ghost, Scandal) is the boss, John C. McGinley (Seven, The Rock) is the office perve, Brent Sexton (The Killing) is the everyman manager and Adria Arjona (True Detective) is terrific as Leandra. John Gallagher Jr (who blew us away on Broadway in "Spring Awakening") is Mike Milch, the central character who's meant to be our voice as the viewer. Gallagher is always good, but feels a little underwhelming here, taking a little to long understand what's happening. You want to yell at him to get with the program and be the hero! Of course, that's what the film does well, is make you think about what you would do in the scenario. The film doesn't quite deliver on the promise of its first half, which is tight, fast and fascinating. It nails an interesting last five minutes though. If you like your horror films very graphic, over the top, profanity laden and pretty clever, you're gonna love the ride. They had my interest from the moment I realized the Belko building wasn't meant to keep armies out, its meant to keep them IN. BELKO gets a blood splattered B.