Movie Mon - "Hawk the Slayer's Rubbish!"

Prom Night (2008): Incredibly predictable slasher film that bears next to no resemblance to the original, with this one focusing on a teenage girl being stalked by a crazy teacher so obsessed with her that he killed her whole family four years earlier, and has now broken out of the mental hospital just in time to terrorize her and her friends on Prom Night. All in all, just your average teen slasher film, not much to distinguish it from others of the genre. Maybe worth a rental, but you'd probably be just as well off either waiting for it to come on cable or possibly doing what I did after I finished: dig out the original.

Prom Night (1980): One of the films that helped gain Jamie Lee Curtis the nickname of "The Scream Queen," this slasher film has a plot reminiscent of I Know What You Did Last Summer, with a group of kids accidentally causing a death and then being knocked off years later by someone who somehow knows their secret. Fairly enjoyable horror film, worth it for the awesome dance sequence alone



Go, Jamie Lee, go! If the clip had started just a few minutes earlier, you would have had the pleasure of seeing Leslie "The Naked Gun" Nielsen dancing incredibly stiffly with his on-screen daughter.

Deal: Remarkably bland poker-centered film about a young hotshot (Brett Harrison) who is coached by a former pro (Burt Reynolds) who hasn't played poker in 20 years due to a promise to his wife. Although there are a couple of good moments, overall this one just didn't engage me at all. Think part of the problem is that the film managed to make Brett Harrison, who is usually one of my favorite actors, unlikeable, not a good thing for the star of your film.

The Bank Job: Entertaining caper film that is based on the true story of a massive bank robbery in the U.K. in the 70s, although the reasons for the robbery itself as presented in the film -- namely that it was all part of an MI6 plan to use a group of unwitting thieves to retrieve blackmail photos of Princess Margaret from a safety deposit box -- are highly speculative. Still, truthfulness aside, a fun film.

Tropic Thunder: Hilarious film that reminds me why once upon a time I actually liked seeing Ben Stiller films -- dark and twisty comedy guaranteed to have Li'l Random and myself rolling all the way through. From the moment the fake trailers started playing at the beginning, I was hooked. Definitely one I want to see again.

Hawk the Slayer: Yes, that's right, after watching all of Spaced I decided I had to rent the film that prodded Tim's boss Bilbo to defend the fantasy genre with terminal intensity. So, was Bilbo right to deck the men who proclaimed that Hawk the Slayer was rubbish? Well, I'm tempted to let this trailer speak for itself:



But, yeah, the film's pretty much rubbish. But highly entertaining, "wish I'd watched it with Li'l Random so we could have MST3Ked it together" rubbish; as this clip video shows, just the incessant Hawk theme music is worthy of mockery. And if you're thinking that Hawk looks a little familiar, that's probably because you've recently seen him as Christian Shepherd, Jack and Claire's creepy dead dad on Lost. Only rent this one if you're in the mood to mock some B-movie antics.