Annapolis

Here's what happened. The producers approached a screenwriter and said, "Write a movie about a guy who goes to the naval academy and also boxes. Throw in every movie cliche you can think of. Give us the final product in forty minutes." Then, somehow, the producers got the director of the great "Better Luck Tomorrow" and James Franco to join in on the project. This is the result of that anomalous confluence of events.

"Annapolis" is one of the more preposterously stupid films I've seen recently, but I enjoyed myself thoroughly. That being said, I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone, unless you want to see Franco exercise a lot in the many montage scenes.

With a Friend Like Harry

A good, if almost tired, premise: A man is approached by someone he does not know, but the someone seems to know a lot about him. Creepiness then ensues. But what might be a feisty French thriller turns out to be rather pedestrian. Not much here, except for some reason parts of it remind me of the Dutch film "The Vanishing," which is far superior.

Bloodsport

It's much worse than I remember. See, for example, the scene where Jean-Claude has a flashback of his training days. So we see a still shot of JCVD looking askance, then a snippet of a training montage, then another still of JCVD, still ruminating, as if we'd forgotten this was his memory, then another snippet from his childhood, and so on. For ten minutes.

But I still love this movie. The kumite. Frank Dux. Bolo Yueng as Chong Li. All good things.

Sudden Death

It's the last game of the Stanley Cup. The Vice President is there. So is Powers Boothe, who plays one of the least interesting villains ever. Good thing Van Damme, a former firefighter, is there to fight a penguin, play goalie, and generally save the day. Do I regret watching this movie? Of course not. But I wouldn't say I'm proud of it.