jpowell180 Reviews

Janet Jackson: Control (1986 Music Video)

The epitome of all that is Miss Jackson....

[10/10 · 17 February 2019]

This video really takes me back - in my humble opinion, it is the best Janet Jackson video out there - and that's saying something, as she has made many great videos!

The extended version of the video shows Janet arriving home in her Suzuki Samurai 4x4; we see that her mother is none other than Willona from Good Times, who played Janet's mother when she was on that show.

Janet plays basically a version of herself, a successful young singer; her father is the actor who played the "Chief" of the PBY boat in Apocalypse Now, and he is none too pleased with his daughter's (extremely successful) career choices.

"You limousine is here", he tells her, with a certain sense of criticism in his voice; Janet declines it, opting to drive in her own vehicle, until her band arrives, joking, cutting up, and flirting - "Baby, you look GOOOOD to ME!".

We next see the band eating fried chicken in their convertible, talking about how Janet needs to be on her A-game for the concert - "Man, she can't be illin' tonight - she's got to be CHILLIN'!"

We then see a soliloquy by Janet, about how it's all about Control, and she's got lots of it.

Then we're treated to one of the jammingest jammin' videos of the 80s - "Got my own mind...I want to make my own decisions..."

Janet dances around all over the stage, singing and jamming up a storm - giving us one of the most 80s videos ever - my favorite of all her work.

Thank you, Janet.

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

Starting to jump the shark, but still ok....

[6/10 · 23 September 2018]

I first saw this film in a theater in Vero Beach, Florida, back around September of 1992; I had seen the first two and was eager for the third installment, and had great expectations....but ended up underwhelmed.

Sadly, there was no Kirsty - guess Ashley Laurence had had enough of the role at the time - I can't imagine any studio passing her over had she wanted to be in this one.

Terry Ferrell, however, does provide some very nice eye candy - as well as the ever-lovely Paula Marshall, whom we get to see in a short nightshirt when she spends the night at Joey's (Terry Ferrell's character) high-rise NYC condo.

Pinhead finds a silly way to return (via the "morbid totem pole thingie"), but since the whole series is wildly on the fantastical side, I doubt may viewers were too concerned.

He recruits some new "Troops" (Cenobites), and they proceed to wage chaos on in NYC - even taking on some NYPD units in a ridiculous way.

Silly as it was, it appears this one had a larger budget than either of the first two installments - but that doesn't save it from mediocrity, unfortunately.

We do get to see a little of Elliot Spencer, the British officer who became the ever iconic Pinhead - so that, plus the lovely ladies of the film, make it worth viewing at least once.

Most people are aware that the Hellraiser series only goes downhill from here - Hellraiser 4 wasn't so great, either - although we did get to see a bit of an origin story; all the subsequent Hellraiser films are just feeble attempts at going back to the franchise teat, and not really worth anyone's time.

The Evil Within (I) (2017)

Bizarre, yet amusingly twisted.....

[7/10 · 22 March 2017]

This film was quite unexpected; it appears to have been filmed over a decade ago (Matthew McGrory has a "Tiny" cameo, but the actor died in 2005); Dina Meyer looks like she was fresh out of Starship Troopers, and the televisions appear to be old Sony Trinitron Wega tube TV's.

In the film we have what appears to be a mentally challenged man in his 30s who lives with the older brother who caused his impediment by punching him when he was six, thus sending him reeling down the stairs, resulting in brain damage.

Big brother feels an obligation to care for his little brother, who is a tad difficult to take care of.

Little brother (who was a prodigy genius child until his brain was damaged) starts seeing his reflection in the mirror start to talk to him, and tell him to do bad things - this, he is assured, will make him smart.

He is told that he must kill his neighbor's cat, and that this is perfectly OK as people eat meat, which is supposed to be a "clue" that it is OK to kill all animals, and that the rule against killing pets is "a fake rule", and is told to learn taxidermy.

One amazing line from the evil mirror twin - "Grab another doggie from the cooler." He soon is told by his evil reflection that he must now kill a child - he reluctantly does so, and eventually graduates to killing adults.

The ending is quite zany, and it's important to also note that the late director (who was a wealthy heir to the Getty oil fortune) was a meth addict who died in 2015, so it's plausible that some of the film was shot while he was under the influence.

This film is worth watching, if only for the sheer mind-twisting absurdity - there really is nothing quite like it out there.

Tales from the Darkside: The Last Car (1986) Season 2, Episode 19

Creepy fate, but could be worse for Stacy....

[8/10 · 22 November 2016]

In The Last Car, we see Stacy, a college student headed home for Thanksgiving break, visions of ham, turkey, family and boyfriend in her head, eager to get underway. She impatiently awaits her train, which finally (after what she described as feeling like it took "months") arrives, and she counts herself lucky to get a seat in the nearly empty "Last Car", after having to stand on previous trips due to the lack of seats.

She soon finds out, however, that all is not as it seems on the Last Car; a kind elderly lady comments how strange Stacy's "bracelet" is (hint: it's her watch), and a young boy keeps changing outfits (camouflage, football player, etc) without physically changing; a middle-aged man also has a box of sandwiches which is seemingly never-ending, including her request for some hummus. The real terror happens, however, when the train goes through tunnels - which the other three occupants of the Last Car clearly dread, but have resigned themselves to accept. In a Tunnel, dreamlike (in the nightmare sense) strangeness occurs; often horrifying strangeness. It becomes clear by the context of the episode that Stacy, along with her fellow passengers, is dead; how this happened is not explained, nor is she at first aware of it. That said, others have mentioned that they are in some form of Hell - but is that really the case? I debate this based upon the fact that the passengers show love and kindness to one another - not something that one will ever find in Hell. There are comforts offered - the man with his infinite sandwich box, always eager to offer something - and also the elderly lady, who knits a shawl to comfort Stacy, who complains how she finds it cold in the tunnels. So, not quite Hell, but definitely after death, in a place of long periods of tedium, followed by regular frightening passages through the Tunnels - but also a place with warmth and compassion between the short periods of horror. Many people have it worse on Earth.

Angel: A Hole in the World (2004) Season 5, Episode 15

Wow. (*Spoiler, of course...).....

[10/10 · 14 May 2010]

Joss has done it again. This is one of the most heartwrenching eps of Season 5 of ATS. I realize that Winifred Burkle may have her detractors, but to them I must say, who can NOT find an uber-genius physicist chick like her hot? Fred was one of those shy-type girls who was made especially shy and with low self-esteem by her nightmarish experience in Pylia, but she overcame it and became what Wesley described as a superhero (Fred)"I walk with heroes" (Wes) "You ARE one.". The transition from Fred Burkle to Illyria is a harsh one, but one that cannot be held with anything but admiration due to the magnificent work of actress Amy Acker. Amy portrays both Fred and Illyria flawlessly - and portrays Illyria with bone-chilling dread while at the same time enabling us to feel the heartbreak at the loss of Fred. Fred was one of my favorite female characters of ATS, and frankly, she was the long-haul, marriage-type girl. I truly hope, in whatever form (comic?) that Joss Whedon will find a way to permanently bring back Winifred Burkle.

The Anti Gravity Room (1995–1997)

...Why is Jaimy Mahlon not credited by IMDb for this show?

[7/10 · 13 October 2008]

Jaimy Mahlon was one of the cool things I remember about the AGR, and yet she isn't listed here on IMDb as a cast member. Why? Someone has posted a little of this show on YouTube, but nothing with the lovely Jaimy in it. This show brings back memories of a cooler Sci-Fi channel (yes, I know it's a Canadian show, but Sci Fi showed it here in the States). Those were the days, about a decade ago, when they also had Sci Fi Buzz and a few other shows - they'd do much better to return to that sort of format than to keep producing all those lousy modern-day B-movies. With BSG about to end, the only thing Sci Fi will really have going for it will be Atlantis and all those Stargate reruns. I wish somebody would post whole episodes of the AGR somewhere.

Tales from the Darkside: The False Prophet (1985) Season 1, Episode 23

Episode remembered mostly for....

[5/10 · 30 March 2008]

....Mostly for that very short miniskirt the chick was wearing..at 18 years old I had no complaints...imagine my surprise to find out decades later that the chick was played by the actress who played the mother in the original Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Since this ep was almost certainly filmed AFTER Wes Craven's famous 80's hit, it's just all the more surreal...I guess the miniskirt does make them seem a bit younger after all. It does feel like the ending had been cheapened a bit, giving the poor girl a sorry fate that she did not really deserve... Yes, I know it's called Tales from the Darkside for a reason, but still, what did this girl ever do to deserve that?

Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)

How Lincoln really sounded...

[9/10 · 22 February 2007]

If you've ever wanted to hear what Abe Lincoln sounded like, this is the film you'll want to see. Lincoln is portrayed by the late Canadian actor Raymond Massey - who, amongst many other roles, is also remembered from HG Welles' Things to Come, the screenplay of which was written by HG Welles himself. Early in Massey's career, Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, heard him perform and was struck by the similarity between Massey's speaking voice and that of his father. Since there are no recordings of Lincoln from that era shortly before Edison invented the Gramophone, we have to rely on descriptions of his voice. Some from that time state Lincoln's voice was high-pitched, and that Massey did not do the voice properly - however, I tend to give more credence to a living witness, Lincoln's own eldest son who, though he died 14 years prior to this film, still had the opportunity to see Massey on stage and hear his voice. Massey got it right, and this is one wonderful film - too bad I haven't found it on DVD - the next time it airs on TMC I'll have to record a DVD of it for myself.

Star Trek: The Empath (1968) Season 3, Episode 12

Inspiration for Clive Barker??

[6/10 · 15 February 2007]

In the late eighties, I had many episodes of TOS recorded, including this one, and would sometimes (as I had two VCR's) copy them, dubbed with different sounds. At the time, Clive Barker's Hellraiser was quite popular, so naturally I dubbed some of the music and torture sounds from Hellraiser onto selected "Kirk torture" scenes from this ep...I must admit it really worked! Perhaps a young Clive Barker saw this episode and was given a few ideas? I think the only other Star Trek episodes that might work better for dubbing a Hellraiser soundtrack onto would be The Cage, and, of course, the TNG double-episode Best of Both Worlds, where Picard is tortured by and turned into a Borg (I actually did that one, but sadly all of those dub-tapes were lost or recorded over). If you think about it, the Borg do travel in cubes (like the Cenobites' puzzle box), and do resemble the Cenobites...hmmm, maybe Berman was in turn inspired by Hellraiser? Perhaps the Borg are merely an advanced form of Cenobite! Resistance is never futile when they sick the chains and hooks on you!

Taxi Driver (1976)

This film saved America....

[9/10 · 26 January 2007]

Had Scorcese not made this film, John Hinkley would not have shot President Reagan in order to impress Jodie Foster...President Reagan wouldn't have been able to impress America by bouncing back so quickly, and therefore Mondale would have won in 1984... ....Only days later, he would have surrendered America, unconditionally, to the Soviets..freedom would be dead, and all the Earth would be red. I must say, Cybil Shepherd looked her finest here...it certainly didn't hurt her chances in being chosen for her later series, Moonlighting. This film captures not only the mental anguish of the Vietnam vet, but also the state of America as it was in the mid 1970's. Had it not been for Marty Scorcese and this film. Credit to American Dad for this:)

Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009)

Why not the complete cast info?!?!?!??

[9/10 · 11 March 2006]

The whole POINT of IMDb is to be complete and thorough - however, neither Micheal Hogan (Col Tigh) nor Kandyss Mcclure (Pd2 Dualla) nor Aaron Douglass (Chief Tyrol) nor the chick who plays Cally are listed. WHY?!?!?!?!??!?!?!? This is a popular show that has been on for TWO SEASONS!!! Unlike Wikipedia, someone else controls IMDb, and therefore this cannot be edited like a Wikipedia article. This is where people go for thoroughness. What's strange is, I can still link some of these actors if I input their names, but cannot find their names listed for the man BSG SHOW. Why on Earth is that - the links and listings should be absolutely complete.

Please. Get. With. It.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

Believe it or not, it's not bad.....

[7/10 · 2 April 2004]

OK, so this film was not the blockbuster that the original, but as a standalone film this does quite well. The characters are quite intruiging - a refugee from a lunatic asylum who sells BWP trinkets on Ebay (this film takes place in a world in which the BWP was a film, but was based on REAL events from the tapes found instead of the manufactures (albeit fun) hype that was manufactured to promote the movie), a supposed real witch (who is a real hottie, not that I'm condoning witchcraft), a husband-wife research team (actually I'm not certain if they're married), and an unbelievably sexy goth chick excellently portrayed by the unspeakably hot actress Kim Director - this chick alone makes it worth watching the film (even though she wears a long, black dress throughout most of the film (except for a few short clips where she's in her silky black panties) as she's not only unbelievably beautiful but brilliantly portrayed (one of my favorite scenes is when she is downing some Wicked Ale while listening to some song blasting on a boom box in Rustin Parr's ruins while she notices some owl lookng at her - the beauty of that girl's face...........damn! So, the assumption here is that the Blair Witch is real, and has her revenge on these people in her own way by setting them up as the cause of a murder of the wiccan girl....the only thing is, none of these people remember what had happened (the wiccan girl was just the tip of the iceberg, but I won't give too many spoilers...) Altogether this film is definately worth watcing at least once....the story isn't half bad (and please remember this has been written as a regular MOVIE, not as as documentary like the original BWP). Despite what you may have heard, this film is worth checking out, and it will entertain....(and did I mention Kim Director is hot?!?!?!)

7th Heaven (1996–2007)

Amusing little show but...

[23 September 2002]

......Why does this Kevin Kinkirk get a billing in the IMDB higher than everyone but Stephen Collins? This isn't the first time I've seen this sort of thing on the IMDB - once I looked up Six Feet Under and top billing was given to some noname actor who played a TEMPORARY CHARACTER. Sorry, but these people do NOT DESERVE higher billing than any of the main characters - this Kevin Kinkirk's a newbie and belongs AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST.... Wonder how long it will take for IMDB to correct this?

Dancin' to the Hits (1986– )

Gosh-Awful but....

[10 August 2002]

I sincerely doubt that anyone will ever read this comment, as I am probably the only one who even remembers this show! Basically it was a top-ten-type Solid Gold ripoff with a twist - seems all the ladies were dancing to the hits in lingere! I kid you not - and they made sure there was plenty of mist for them to dance in! They would dance to anything - and I mean ANYTHING - every hit of 1986, they danced to it (yes, there were some male dancer but for some reason I don't remember much about them, LOL!). You don't know pain until you see a bunch of weird-looking people trying to dance to Bruce Hornsby's "The Way it Is"!!! (basically they'd sorta gyrate and figure that was about the only way they could dance to certain songs.) Weird, weird show. Hot girls, though.

Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993 Video)

A truly great horror film....

[8/10 · 9 August 2002]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Full Moon certainly has a well-deserved reputation for cheesey (and sometimes truly CRAPPY) movies, but I'm happy to say this isn't one of them! This vampire movie was filmed on location in Romania (seems it started a Full Moon trend as a few other Full Moon pics such as Lurking Fear, Dark Angel: The Ascent and Bloodlust: Subspecies 3 were also filmed there) and has a truly unique atmosphere that I've seen nowhere else. The lead character is Michelle, played by the lovely Denice Duff (who totally rules!), who has been made into a vampire by Stefan, a good vamp who mingled his blood with Michelle's to save her life (this takes place toward the end of Subspecies 1). Unfortunately, Radu (magnificently portrayed by Anders Hove, who is well known for his work on General Hospital), Stefan's evil brother who supposedly was decapitated at the end of Subspecies 1, has been reassembled by his Subspecies, apparently little creatures that form out of his blood and are seldom seen in the Subspecies series. Radu kills his brother and sets out to kill Michelle when he is stopped by the sunrise. When the sun sets Radu sets out to find the Bloodstone - a supposed holy relic that fills up with "the blood of the saints" - this is apparently very potent blood which can drive weaker vampires insane with it's power - but it also assures a vampire of an unlimited supply of blood. Michelle makes a break for it, taking the Bloodstone with her, and heads for Bucharest (capital of Romania, as if you didn't know). Radu fails to find the Bloodstone on his brother's now-skeletal remains, and simply loses it - ripping his murdered brother's skeleton apart, throwing it to the floor and then stops on it repeatedly (THAT'S brotherly hate!). Radu assumes correctly that Michelle will head for Bucharest so he heads that way as well. Michelle checks into a hotel and calls her sister Becky(played by the lovely Melanie Shatner, daughter of William Shatner of Star Trek fame). I don't want to spoil the rest of the film, but basically Michelle has to struggle with her newfound vampirism, Becky goes to Romania to rescue Michelle, and Radu falls in love.....it's well worth the watch, as are Bloodlust: Subspecies 3 and Bloodstorm: Subspecies 4. These are the finest films Full Moon has ever produced.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

This is NOT the version to get...

[9/10 · 3 August 2002]

There seems to be a little fad these days where people will add "new and improved" footage to old films. Understand - if footage that was originally shot but not included in the theatrical release were added to a "special edition", that would be one thing - but the NOTLD 30th anniversary actually shot NEW footage! The "new" scenes do NOT really match the rest of the movie - they include new characters that no fan of this movie could possibly care about (including the bald priest with a 1990's goatee (even though it's supposed to still be 1968!) and a few people who are burying a corpse (I believe played by an actor who portrayed the first zombie or "ghoul" in the original film). The soundtrack of the "special" cut has been changed - the excuse being that they "couldn't afford the kind of soundtrack they wanted, so they had to settle for a "canned" track.". Top it all off with an idiotic speech made by the "priest" (who sounds more Pentacostal than Roman Catholic) who was apparently the only person to survive a zombie bite and you have, as the comic book store owner on the Simpsons would say, the "Worst Version EVER!". Of course, the original version is also on the disc, but I believe some small parts have been cut from that (for what reason I have no idea), and the image quality is inferior to the Elite version DVD (or the latest Elite Millenium Edition release of this film, which includes even more special features than the original Elite 1998 DVD release.). Avoid this version and get the Elite version!