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Black & White: The Dawn of Justice [2014] Black Coal, Thin Ice [2014] Black Hawk Down [2001]
Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know [2020] Black Ops [2008] Black Panther [2018]
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever [2022] Black Rain [1989] (Dir: Shohei Imamura) The Black Room [2017]
Black Sabbath [1963] Black Sunday [1960] Black Water [2018]
Black Widow [2021] The Blackcoat's Daughter [2015] Blade [1998]
Blade II [2002] Blade III: Trinity [2004] Blade of the Immortal [2017]
Blade Runner 2049 [2017] Blair Witch [2016] Bleeding Steel [2017]
Bliss [2019] Blithe Spirit [2020] Blizzard of Souls [2021]
The Blob [1988] Blood: The Last Vampire Blood and Lace [1971]
Blood Brother [2018] Blood Fest [2018] Blood Gnome [2004]
Blood Junkie [2010] Blood on Her Name [2019] Blood Simple [1984]
Blood Vessel [2019] Bloody Wednesday [1987] Blue Man Group: Complex Rock Tour [2003]
Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know [2020]

         

Black holes, the most mysterious objects in the universe, are examined in two ways in this documentary. It's the story of a worldwide effort to actually photograph a black hole, and a story of 4 physicists (including Stephen Hawking) trying to solve the information paradox, i.e., what happens to everything once it passes beyond the event horizon. If you're looking for answers in this regard, you'll be disappointed as this documentary is far more about how phenomenally complex and complicated black holes are. In that light, it's fascinatingly mind boggling.
Black & White: The Dawn of Justice [2014]
aka Pi Zi Ying Xiong 2
         
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Harbor City is under siege and it's up to a couple of cops, who don't like each other much, to save the city from annihilation. Very exciting escapist entertainment with super fights & stunts, great choreography, superb editing and eye-popping spec fx. In between the action is a lot of canned emotion and sentimentality, a buddy cop thing that just isn't working very well, no real humor to speak of, and huge does of illogic, but it does have a story and the characters are likable so, between that, and the great action, it held my interest throughout.
Black Widow [2021]

         
  
In hiding after the events of Civil War, Natasha receives a box of stuff from a previous life. What it contains will take her on a journey back to her past. It's been two years since my wife and I saw Endgame making our return to the theater to see an MCU film all the more exciting ...and well worth the wait. Once again, the MCU presents us with a spectacle that is awe inspiring with phenomenal action and spec fx, complex and colorful characters and incredible casting. Man, it felt good to be lost in the Marvel Universe again. Bring me more!
Blithe Spirit [2020]

            
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Seeking inspiration to combat his writer's block, a novelist conducts a seance that inadvertently brings back his first wife's ghost. Chaos ensues. As far as acting goes, everyone did a more than competent job. The movie itself, however, is just flat. Presented as a campy comedy with very little actual humor or wit and certainly no LOL moments. It really needed to have the dialogue and overall feel taken up a notch or two. I personally felt the ending was not deserved and overly harsh, as well. In a nutshell, my wife called it 'cute'. That's quite apt, actually.
Blade of the Immortal [2017]
aka Mugen no junin
            
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Takashi Miike's samurai movie is epic in scale and full of just what you'd expect. After witnessing the slaughter of her family, a young girl seeks an immortal warrior for revenge. Although it is long-in-the-tooth, with one fight after another ...some going on way too long, it certainly doesn't drag. The characters are fully formed, extremely layered and with a depth that demands your attention keeping one's focus solidly on the screen. The story, albeit somewhat simple and familiar, is played out extremely well and, overall, a highly entertaining film.
Blizzard of Souls [2021]
aka The Rifleman / Dveselu putenis
            
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A Latvian teen signs up to fight the Germans in WWI. This is solidly a drama in a war setting. We follow an individual, who isn't overly likable or charismatic, who was all gung ho to sign up but doesn't really want to kill anyone. He stumbles around from one battlefield to another, getting wounded several times, and does so with a surprisingly little amount of actual warfare. At no time did I feel any empathy, excitement, anxiety, tension ...is was like a leisurely stroll through a war zone. I know some people love this stuff but, for me, it was just dull.
Black Rain [1989]
aka Kuroi ame
         
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This isn't the Ridley Scott / Michael Douglas version that came out the same year. This one takes place in the early 1950s and portrays the tragic and sad story of a family trying to find a groom for their young niece in post-Hiroshima, Japan while friends and family members all around them slowly succumb to radiation sickness. Deeply personal, we get to know and care about these people intimately making the occasional flashbacks of what was going on in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing all the more horrifying. Good film but not a happy one.
Blood Vessel [2019]

            
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During WWII, a life raft of survivors from an allied ship, manages to board a Nazi ship that appears to be empty ...until they start finding the bodies. If done properly, I think I would have really liked this. But, unfortunately, it's poor writing forces all the characters to behave like adult children, constantly bickering with each other. When things picked up, everyone got dumb and illogical and were basically following what the script told them to even if it didn't necessarily make sense. As it is, it was marginally entertaining but could have been so much better.
Blood and Lace [1971]

            
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After her mother dies, a minor girl (who is clearly an adult) is forced to stay in a foster home run by sleazy sadists. If fact, everyone in the film is deplorably sleazy and most the time is spent discussing sex in one form or another, including desires to have sex with minors. Maybe it would work if they went for campy but they play it with all seriousness making it all the more ludicrous. The dialog was atrocious, the score was horrendous and no one behaves like this. There's a guy running around with a hammer that isn't explained until the final scene. This was Awful!
Blood on Her Name [2019]

         
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Us humans sure can make our lives complicated. Take, for instance, this mess. The film opens with a beat up woman, in an auto repair garage, looking at the body of a man on the floor. She thinks about calling the police but decides to fix this instead. What follows is massive destruction in slow motion. Presented solidly within a rural, backwater community, the decisions and actions made are the stuff of limited choices and wishful thinking believing the impossible can be solved with deadly results. Phenomenal acting and a great psychological drama.
Blade [1998]

            

A vampire half-breed, with their strength and skills but still able to operate in daylight, is fighting a war to destroy vampires for the killing of his mother. The vampires are busy trying to summon the blood God, La Magra. One of the great action pieces of the '90's, Wesley Snipes is perfect as the vampire killer. Good story, good acting, good action, good everything. A movie with very few flaws and super fun.
Blade II [2002]

            

Blade teams up with an elite group of vampires to hunt down a new strain of vampiric monster. The story was fine and the action was fun to watch but everything felt so refined and scripted and, often times, contrived. The acting of Leonor Varela as the lead female was just terrible and I wouldn't hand out any acting awards for anyone else either. For an elite team, they weren't very convincing and practically everyone of them died doing something stupid. It's fun but take it with tongue wedged firmly in cheek.
Blade III: Trinity [2004]

            


The vampires awaken the original Dracula in the hopes of re-establishing a pure race. The resistance is developing a plague that will only affect vampires. Beyond that, this is pretty much one fight scene after another. Quite good, though ...the fights are well choreographed, filmed and edited so you're not left wondering what you're looking at and they felt more raw and natural than they did in Blade II.
Blade Runner 2049 [2017]

            

Upon hunting down an old version replicant, a blade runner discovers what may be the existence of a hybrid human/replicant child. The dark, billboard crowded streets and oppressive music creates a dystopian world that is nothing short of phenomenal and totally immersive. However, the filmmakers must have really been in love with what they were doing as there were far too many times where I was going, "Yes, that's very pretty and philosophical. Can we go move on to the next scene, please". Great film, well worth seeing, but easily 45 minutes too long.
Black Hawk Down [2001]

         
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When America attempts to extract some of the major players in Somalia's civil war, a pair of black hawk helicopters are shot down, turning a one hour mission into an 18+ hour fight for survival. One of the most intense war films made ...once the mission begins, the combat doesn't stop of 2 hours. Extremely personal and harrowing as we watch less than 100 soldiers hold off thousands of Somalis for survival. Incredible vision, photography, and realism, there's only a hand full of war films in the same league at this.
Black Panther [2018]

         
  
In the technologically superior and isolated land of Wakanda, T'Challa ascends to the throne as king and Black Panther when his father is assassinated. Then finds out there's a secret heir, Killmonger, who's prepared to challenge the new king. Once again, Marvel hits the spot with a great story, adventure, action, conflict, dilemma, incredible eye candy and human emotion. And the costumes? WOW! There's several Marvel films I like more but this one is certainly another winner for the MCU ...and just in time for the "Infinity War".
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever [2022]

            
  
Wakanda finds themselves at odds with an underwater civilization that is as powerful as them while dealing with the loss of their king. As exciting and action packed as any MCU film but it does have it's issues. At over 160 mins, it's quite long for the story it contains. However, they filled the time nicely and it never felt slow. Also, it's relatively humorless and the MCU has always been experts at comic relief. Dialog isn't very sharp and the story is rather simple but the honor paid to Boseman as a central figure in the plot was exceptionally nice. Overall, quite fun!
Black Sabbath [1963]
aka I tre volti della paura
         
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An anthology, hosted by Boris Karloff, of 3 films. The first was an excellent simple 60's Gothic horror piece that even sophisticated audiences of today can still enjoy. The second was an exercise in patience featuring an insanely stupid woman in search of a decent script. The third was mediocre at best. Even though this one featured the great Boris Karloff, who mercilessly stole every scene he was in, the rest of the story was filled with so much maudlin padding that it just became silly and predictable.
The Black Room [2017]

            
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A happy couple gets a good deal on a new house; nicely located, pleasant neighborhood, furnished and even has a demon living in a room in the basement. That's a pretty good premise regardless whether you want to make a horror, comedy or campy sex movie. Unfortunately, our completely unimaginative filmmakers thought they had the talent to go for all three with abysmal results. This film is utter nonsense and total garbage. Should have had the folks that made the trailer make the film ...as bad as the trailer appears, it's actually much better.
Black Water [2018]

            
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A deep cover agent is captured and taken aboard a black site submarine and interrogated in hopes of receiving a drive with critical info. This movie is nothing more than your typical black ops fiasco with several people, all with their own agendas, chasing and shooting each other. Although mildly entertaining, there isn't anything here we haven't seen in a typical episode of 24 and is mainly used as a show piece to give Dolph and Jean-Claude something to do. At least, I wasn't bored.
Bleeding Steel [2017]

            
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A scientist gave a mechanical heart and bio-engineered blood to a young girl and now there's an international chase to either protect the girl or catch the girl and strip her of the biotech. This is basically your typical Jackie Chan action film and, even in his 60's, he still delivers. The story is simple with no surprises so if you're looking for substance, you won't find it here. But the characters were likable, the action was great and, although the ending was a bit ambiguous (sequel plans?), it was still good, escapist fun.
Black Sunday [1960]
aka The Mask of Satan / La maschera del demonio
         
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This Italian, Mario Bava, classic features a witch in the 17th century, fitted with the mask of Satan and sealed in a tomb inside a coffin with a window so she would have to stare at a cross for eternity. Well, 200 years, a broken window, a broken cross and a few drops of blood later, she's waking up ...and she's not happy. Exquisite B&W photography by Bava, exceptional sets, classic overly dramatic and theatrical acting and dialogue and the incomparable Barbara Steele, this is a great example of Gothic horror for its time.
Black Coal, Thin Ice [2014]
aka Bai ri yan huo
            
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5 years after losing his wife to divorce, being shot, and losing himself to alcohol, an ex-cop injects himself into an investigation of a presumed serial killer who likes to cut up the victims and spread their body parts all over the province. This slow, Chinese character study is far more about the individuals involved than it is about the crimes themselves. The characters were quite interesting, compelling, honest and held my attention throughout even though the film has no action to speak of. The story that plays out is familiar so no big surprise there. Good drama, though.
Bliss [2019]

            
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An artist takes lots of extreme drugs, becomes a vampire and, in periods of which she's lost in a psychotic state she doesn't remember, paints a picture. A good 80% of the film (shot in lo-res?) is the filmmakers attempt to put you in her state of mind by filling the screen with violence, gore, psychedelic collages of flashing imagery, mayhem, murder, and madness, which would have been effective if it wasn't so constantly in-your-face all the time. I was mentally doing my shopping list as all this acid tripping was losing my interest. Excellent metalcore soundtrack.
Bloody Wednesday [1987]

            


Harry is a simple man who is slowly going insane. This movie features no-budget production quality, terrible pacing and amateur acting. However, what little money they had went to some pretty imaginative ideas and overall, it's not really that bad a movie. But what does he have against all those pies! Sorry for the French in the trailer ...it was the only one I could find.
Blood Junkie [2010]
aka Rocky Trails
         

Two pairs of teens and a young boy go on a camping trip and start disappearing one by one. There's films that are so bad, they're good and entertaining. This isn't one of them. What they spent their $6k budget on didn't have anything to do with talent, creativity or imagination. I've seen people say that it's a great throwback to the shlock B-movies of the '70's and '80. As a big fan of those types of films, I can safely say, no ...it's just boring and awful. I've seen home movies of better quality than this.
Blood: The Last Vampire [2009]

         

A vampiress assassin hunts a major demon who killed her father. Simplistic action story with lots of swordplay and characters that were a bit deeper than you'd expect. The action was rather sloppy making the viewer confused as to exactly what they're looking at most of the time. The CGI is blatantly laughable and includes copious amounts of globular blood that just looks silly. Despite all that, I was entertained and at no point did I have the urge to turn it off. I guess that's a good thing.
Blood Fest [2018]

            
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A huge horror festival, Blood Fest, is going to be a bit different this year. The patrons are going to participate in a new horror film ...by being slaughtered. Everything about this film should work but it doesn't. They went for camp and ended up silly, the characters are uninteresting, except for a great joke at the beginning, no one had a funny or good line to say in the entire film and most of the gags were cliche and unimaginative. I'm sure there are those that will like it but I found it to be ho hum entertainment at best.
Blood Simple [1984]

            
  
The Coen Brothers' first full length film, made 40 years ago, is still one of their best. A bar owner's wife has an affair with one of the bartenders unaware that her husband has hired a morally corrupt PI to follow her. What follows is an intricate and absurd game of misunderstandings and misconceptions that leads to everyone fully believing they know exactly what's going on and yet, every one of them couldn't be more wrong. Ending as a dark comic shaggy dog joke, this slow burn is a masterpiece of brilliant construction. Watch it!
Blood Brother [2018]

         
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Young guy kills armored car guard surrounded by his friends. He goes to jail for 15 years. Comes out and starts killing everybody. Long scenes of dialogue waxing philosophical about being brothers in the hood instead of just shooting each other and getting this ridiculous scenario over with. All the characters were shallow and unbelievable ...in fact, nothing in this film rang true. The ending, which was just silly, finally pointed out what we knew before we even turned it on ...you're responsible for your own actions. Wow! What an epiphany!! Let me take notes!!!
Blue Man Group: The Complex Rock Tour Live [2003]

  
  
If you are unfamiliar with the Blue Man Group, you're missing one of the supreme stage shows in the world. Mixing comedy, performance art and awesome music, they continue to put on a show nearly every night in Las vegas, NYC, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, and Berlin as well as frequently being on tour. My wife and I never pass up a chance to see them. This tour concert from 2002 is an example of the explosive energy and excitement of one of their shows. Here's a sample: Time to Start. Get this DVD and/or go see 'em!
Blair Witch [2016]

            

Twenty years after his sister (Heather from The Blair Witch Project) goes missing, a guy rounds up some friends and goes looking for her. With 20 years to prepare for it, you'd think they would have made a better film. Contrived and, at times, totally ridiculous, all the movie does is use the utterly stupid actions of a bunch of completely unprepared characters to try and scare you into believing it's a good movie but ultimately it just belittles the original. Very disappointing.
The Blob [1988]

         
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A meteor containing a blob-like life-form crashes near a small town and begins eating everyone. Presented like a matinee B-movie, this is one of the great monster films of the '80's based on The Blob, one of the great monster films of the '50's. This one is quite a thrill with some great performances, including Shawnee Smith in an early role, and some highly imaginative ways of the blob taking out various unfortunates, including a guy dragged into a kitchen sink drain which will forever be stamped on my brain. Get your popcorn and enjoy the ride.
Blood Gnome [2004]

  

Ridiculous, no budget movie about little creatures that rip up people who are into BDSM. Everything about this film is bad (except Melissa Pursley's performance which was the only high point). Although they were nicely designed, even the little creatures were obviously puppets. There were moments that were ridiculously hilarious - for all the wrong reasons - but not ridiculous enough to recommend by a long shot.
Black Ops [2008]
aka Deadwater
         


An elite military group goes out to find a black-ops interrogation ship that has gone radio silent. What they find isn't really what they expect. I found this movie to be mildly interesting but they lost me in the last 15 minutes. I just don't get it and - considering my lack of invested interest in the film - don't care, either.
The Blackcoat's Daughter [2015]
aka February
            
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When the parents of two girls in a boarding school fail to show up for spring break, they must stay at the school along with 2 caretakers ...and things slowly fall apart. Usually, I get bored with slow movies but this one was like watching two trains heading towards each other at a snails pace knowing their collision would be catastrophic ...and it was. A supremely dark, eerily surrealistic journey into mayhem and madness that I will not soon forget. Kiernan Shipka was Oscar worthy in her performance of Kat.
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