B-Movie Gazette: TOMMY'S 13th ANNUAL PICK-FIVE GREAT SUMMER MOVIES - #1 - TIMOTHEE CHAMLAMET IS A POT-DEALING TEEN COMING OF AGE IN "HOT SUMMER NIGHTS" (2017)

B-MOVIE OF THE MONTH - LENA'S HOLIDAY (1991)

Felicity Waterman plays Lena, a German girl who, after the wall comes down, decides to move to Hollywood. Upon arrival she is thrown into a comic caper when her bags are switched. The second half of the movie morphs into rom-com as she gets involved with a cab driver (Chris Lemmon.) Waterman is excellent in her first picture as she's in every scene, it's a respectable performance in one of Crown International's last pictures. Lemmon, who looks so much like his dad it freaks me out is good here but lacks his dad's charm and sparkle. We have good ole Michael Sarrazin as a cop. Locations and the soundtrack are awesome and Waterman really does a great job carrying the whole picture. I say, give this one a chance if you can find it. Very rare, VHS about $35 and DVD $200. However, if you really want to see it, putchase the B-Movie Blast set of 50 movies from Millcreek which will set you back about $25 and you'll have a bunch of other movies. Enjoy. 2.75 stars/2.75

Sunday, June 9, 2024

TOMMY'S 13th ANNUAL PICK-FIVE GREAT SUMMER MOVIES - #1 - TIMOTHEE CHAMLAMET IS A POT-DEALING TEEN COMING OF AGE IN "HOT SUMMER NIGHTS" (2017)

Neo-noir meets coming of age meets Cape Cod 1991.

Having been very well developed that particular combo turns into a surprise success with this very cool movie. Cool as in you can't describe it, you just know when you see it - Keith Richards, James Dean, Robert Mitchum and so on.

Now I'm no Timothee Chamlamet fan by any stretch of the imagination, I can't even spell his name but he's good in this. The real star however is Alex Roe who totally knocks it out of the park as our protagonist's new drug dealing bad-ass mentor. There are various subplots dealing with girlfriends but mainly the movie is about the two guys friendships, their pot-dealing success and a famous storm that took place that year. It's nicely narrated, tightly edited and grabs you from the get-go.

If that's not enough to grab your attention, I would like to throw in one of the most awesome cameos I've seen in the last couple decades - yes, decades. William Fitchner plays a whacked-out coke dealer in a mind-blowing long take of a scene towards the end of the movie that will trip you out for sure.

And to add to all this, the movie feels, actually feels like you're inside their summer, just a great creative effort here on all involved. Hot Summer Nights streams only on Cinemax or VOD but is on sale right now for only $5 on Apple and Amazon, if you collect movies trust me, it's a great purchase 3.25 stars/5