Cliff Note Reviews #15

Cliff Note Reviews is an ongoing series where I briefly state my thoughts on recent films I've watched but don't have the desire to create a full review surrounding. Short and to the point opinions on films that might make decent weekend watchers when you have nothing else to do, films to completely stay away from, and occasionally a few highly recommended films that I simply don't feel need to be given a full review due to already overexposure. 

Miracle Beach (1992)

I've always been a sucker for campy romantic comedies, especially the ones with a supernatural twist to them.  It must be the helpless romantic in me, make a movie about a down on his luck guy who through some implausible avenues turns things around and becomes Mr. Popular, gets the girl, realizes he was cool the way he was and ends up getting a better girl, and I'm there.  Throw in a genie and it only gets better for me.  That's essentially Miracle Beach, homeless guy finds a genie, uses the genie to get a snob to like him while at the same time the genie is falling for him, guy finally comes to his senses when it's about too late.  Throw in Mr. Miyagi and Dean Cain, a couple idiot friends and Miracle Beach has a little something for everyone.  The only negative is they had to go and ruin what could have been an enjoyable film for everyone and raunchy it up with occasional pointless nudity, could have done without that. I'd never heard of this film before and stumbled across it on Netflix, it succeeds on campy humor and the lovely Jeannie (Ami Dolenz) steals the show as the adorable genie. (8/10)

She (1982)

Not sure if this film was meant to have any relation to the countless other "She" films, most notably Hammer's She which starred Ursula Andress or their sequel The Vengeance of She, I'd venture to guess probably not too much.  This was another film I decided to watch out of the blue off of Netflix's instant viewing and actually found it quite enjoyable.  It's tremendously corny and a blatant rip off of Max Mad, mixed with a few other strange cult sensations.  Starring Sandahl Bergman, a 80's-90's popular B-movie actress, she's the supposed goddess She who rules a particular territory in a post-apocalyptic world and decides to help a couple travelers whose sister has been kidnapped.  If you like extremely campy films it's worth a look. (7/10)

 

Hunk (1987)

As is the case most B-movies (especially those you've never heard of) they are extremely hit and miss.  I lucked out on the two above, but Hunk wasn't the third.  Hunk is the same kind of premise as Miracle Beach only the wimpy guy makes a deal with the Devil to basically look like a hunk and become popular.  Things go good, things go terrible, things go back to normal and all works out in the end.  It's the same overly recycled formula, sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't.  Miracle Beach had some recognizable actors, and a couple good individual performances as well as a little heart.  Hunk is really pretty hollow, stale and eventually a little boring. (5/10)