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Hard Knox (2001)
surprisingly funny
Watched it almost accidentally, came automatically on a youtube recommendation., It grabbed my attention with the stylistic opening credits and the fun start.
Surprisingly entertaining for something I had never heard of, and for a TV movie -- although it doesn't even look much like one, but rather something on the level of "Remo Williams: the adventure begins," which I think may have a similar vibe/genre. Like Remo Williams, while not some kind of huge blockbuster classic everyone knows, is something I'd imagine would have some degree of cult following.
It certainly should be on more "hidden gem" lists on the style of silly action comedies. Sadly there's no sequel, nor a tv-series spin-off, whatever that was on their plans. I guess that if you liked movies like Remo Williams, Tango & Cash, whatever comedic movie Jean Claude Van Dame might have starred, and things like that.
Jolt (2021)
Quite funny, entertaining, although the balance of comedy and seriousness seems somewhat off
I think it would have fared better if it attempted either to be somewhat more of a plain action comedy, maybe like "the last action hero," or "hot fuzz," or more of an "serious-but-not-really action with some comedy" like nearly any action movie, "die hard," "bad boys." But it's in some weird in-between where some elements don't feel either "realistic" or comedic, but just weird in a way that throw us off from the "suspension of disbelief." The main character herself is somewhat of a mismatch with her own explained backstory, to give an example. She just doesn't quite fit with what one would expect from someone with such a mental "condition" in a more "realistic" representation, while the mismatch isn't also explored/"explained" in any comedic way that would make sense. Maybe in the sequel.
That's not anything veiled against female action star, both plain action and action-comedies have worked just fine with female stars. To cite a few, "the long kiss goodnight," "miss congeniality," "salt," "Nikita"/"point of no return," and even own Beckinsale's "underworld." And certainly there are analog off-balance cases with male stars as well, maybe it's often at least a little bit of the reasons why I don't quite like an action or action-comedy movie so much, just in general.
Nevertheless, a funny movie. It sort of left implied a lot of sequel potential/intention, which so far I'd be curious to see, might be as good or better.
Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
fun movie
At the same time, I think that it could have been significantly improved with a more proper horror soundtrack, less of a comedy-adventure one. Which is nevertheless super nicely well done, but somehow doesn't quite fit the movie. Similarly, it would probably even rate it higher if the spiders didn't have "funny voices." Such changes wouldn't eliminate the comedy, only remove such somewhat forced and out-of-place comedy elements. It would have been somewhat like a more comedic version of "Jurassic park," which similarly would have been damaged to some degree with comedic-funny music and funny vocalizations for the dinosaurs. Otherwise, super fun.
The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
Would have worked better if the same footage was edited into a much shorter film
The story ends up stretched a bit too thin for the duration. More focus on the arc of some main character also could have helped. Even with the long duration, the ending feels too abrupt, unsatisfying. Almost as if it were a more dramatic reenactment of some real event, shot for a documentary, where the documentary narrator were doing a good part of the job, that's missing here.
As other reviews point out, it has some good qualities, it's a shame it's not arranged into something more effective. It's not something I'd really like to watch again, but yet another feature film that makes me wish there was something a bit like "rifftrax" or "mystery science theater," but instead of having new releases of old films mocking them for humor, would have abridged/re-edited shorter versions of old films that could benefit from it. Something around 40 minutes would be enough for what they have there, I'd guess, maybe 20 would do, if there's no effort in somehow trying to highlight a main character somewhat more.
Ironically, such shorter film, in this case, would probably make one want to see it as a longer, feature-film. But I'd say it would be better to wait for an eventual remake in this case.