Sometimes I just want to talk a little about a bunch of movies rather than a lot about one. So welcome to a new segment where I take you along on a bizarre movie night that covers a number of genres, themes and release dates.

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Manhunt (1976)

Legendary Japanese movie star Ken Takakura stars as a prosecutor framed for crimes he did not commit. He goes on the run and begins an adventure across Japan to find out who framed him and why, all the while evading the police and finding love along the way.

Manhunt is a weird movie that runs about a half hour longer than it needs to. Takakura is a charismatic lead and the actual plot is very engaging early but it begins to lack urgency in the middle, especially with the bizarre and forced romance between Takakura and a woman he saves from a bear (that is the funniest man-in-a-bear-suit I have ever seen).

Add to that the score, which is often at odds with what you’re seeing on screen and a lot of very goofy moments (after one flight training lesson he’s good to fly) and you have an uneven but very endearing adventure that encapsulates all that makes 70’s Japanese crime films both so good yet so schlock.

Thanks to Toy Robot Video and MVD Entertainment for providing a copy of this film for review. Get your copy here.

The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001)

I was inclined to write a massive article about how much I love these movies but realized that anything I had to say has been said a million times before. A bunch of hot people fight a mummy with biblical powers in an endearing combination of classic Universal monster movie and Indiana Jones.

Watching these movies always makes me melancholy for the olden days of Hollywood blockbusters. There is so much crowd pleasing greatness in The Mummy. Exciting action, engaging romance, a sense of humor and adventure alongside some creepy (but not too much) horror. A rousing score and cinematography. The Mummy is just a perfect popcorn flick.

Meanwhile The Mummy Returns is the kind of sequel I both love and hate. On one hand it does everything the first movie did but bigger. It keeps offering callbacks and sometimes retreads elements of its predecessor so shamelessly it’s kind of embarrassing. But on the other hand it realized how appealing the first film was to kids and capitalizes on that with a kid character (who is dreadful) and some goofy bits like the mummy monkey things. Returns also has a terrible reincarnation plot and the infamous Scorpion King battle…

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I think regardless of the downgrade of Returns it’s still a movie that feels like it was made with heart and that dedication to giving the viewer a good ol’ fashioned thrill ride.

Millennials love these movies and I don’t think it’s hard to understand why. These are the romantic Hollywood movies of yore made modern and I am sure I will be rewatching these films until the day I die. I hope next year’s legacy sequel does them justice (unlike Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which deserves its place in the rubbish heap of cinematic history).

Miracle Mile (1988)

I would like to thank the infinitely more talented film dorks at RedLetterMedia for introducing me to this absolutely underrated movie. Miracle Mile stars Anthony Edwards as an awkward jazz musician who meets and falls in love with a waitress he bumps into at the La Brea Tar Pits. When he misses his date, he winds up taking a call at a phone booth that says nuclear missiles are headed for LA and there’s only an hour until impact. This sends the musician into a spiral as he tries to convince people on the impending disaster and mend his relationship with the woman he’s fallen for.

The movie opens with an insane tracking shot title sequence and maintains this dream-like noir feeling through the first 30 minutes (Tangerine Dream’s soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting as well). It feels like an 80’s romantic comedy but the deep irony of the first act pays off as Miracle Mile becomes a horrific nightmare of paranoia and violence until ending with a shocking starkness that nails home its message in the most miserable way possible.

Made on a low budget, one of my friends who also watched it following the RLM video mentioned it feels like it could have been a play because it’s so tight in script and location, utilizing its minimal budget to maximum effect. I agree entirely.

Miracle Mile will stick with me for a long time and I implore anyone who is vaguely interested to seek it out. It’s currently free on Tubi.

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