The sun sets upon this short series of reviews as we join The Man With No Name for one final adventure... The country is torn in half by the American Civil War.  Brother fight and kill each other on the battlefield as the fate of a nation rides in the balance... But three gunslingers are involved in a battle of a different sort: survival against the desert and each other as they hunt for treasure... and the final few dollars they may ever see... Sergio Leone's " The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly " is the final movie in the " Dollars Trilogy "- and is by the far the most ambitious of the lot.  While " A Fistful of Dollars ", and " For a Few Dollars More " used a fairly small cast, and few locations to tell their stories, this movie ups the number of performers, locations and includes a much more elaborate set piece by dropping the characters between the Union and the Confederacy armies, and by having them on a quest across the land. Leone did ...

  Saddle up, cow folk!  It's time to follow the tumbleweed to a time of outlaws and bounty hunters as we once again join up with The Man With No Name... El Indio has been broken out of jail.  Two bounty hunters race against time and each other to hunt him. Who'll catch him the outlaw first?  The nameless drifter, or the former Officer who has a personal stake in the confrontation with El Indio? Who'll earn a few dollars more...? This sequel to " A Fistful of Dollars " keeps up the tradition started with the first one.  Stark landscapes, morally ambiguous characters, and setting a new standard by which Westerns would be measured against in North America. The story isn't really all that complex- but is certainly sufficient to carry the weight and power of the characters.  In fact, this movie is absolutely more about the characters than the plot.  You're bound to lose track of the story details as you become fascinated by the three main characters.  ...

  It was high noon, and the tumbleweed were tumbling by when I first saw him... The Man With No Name... his steely glare burning into me brighter than the white hot sun reflecting off the scorched, arid dirt... Nah... not really.  I was a teenager in an air conditioned basement... A drifter follows the tumbleweed into a small one road town.  At one end was the Baxter family, and at the other end, the Rojo family.  Both families were fighting for control, with the average citizen suffering in between. Seeing an opportunity to make money, the drifter proceeds to play a deadly game of tug of war with the two families... " A Fistful of Dollars ", directed by Sergio Leone, is a masterpiece of the Spaghetti Western genre.  Compared to most of the North American Westerns filmed at the time, it stripped away the idealistic sheen off of the genre.  It was gritting, sweaty, dirty, with very complex and morally ambiguous characters.  It dropped the "white hat/bla...

The Outlaw Josey Wales was one of my dad's favourite movies. So I saw it a lot growing up. Every time it was on TV, he and I ended up watching it. By default, and gladly so, it's become one of my favourite movies as well. Josey Wales takes Clint Eastwood's The Man with No Name and deposits him in a post-Civil War epic about revenge and redemption. In many ways, it covers similar themes as Eastwood's Unforgiven. This movie is more thoughtful and intelligent than I remember it being. Then again, as a kid, I was mostly interested in the gunfights. There are gunfights aplenty in The Outlaw Josey Wales, but there's a greater depth to the film, and the character, as well. This movie is as much about a group of individuals coming together to merge their destinies as they survive in the Old West. The ironic thing is Josey Wales, a violent loner, becomes their leader and father figure. It's an interesting dynamic, and plays very well, even some 44 years after the m...

"Nothing like a nice piece of hickory." Of all of Clint Eastwood's one liners, this has to be my favourite. The timing of it -- right after Eastwood's Preacher puts the beat down on group of lowlifes -- is perfect. The fight with said nice piece of hickory is well staged and fun to watch. And it's a great introduction to our protagonist, who is among Eastwood's finest characters. Pale Rider was Eastwood's last Western before his Oscar winning Unforgiven. As much as I enjoy that movie, I like this one just a little bit more. Preacher could easily be The Man With No Name, or Josey Wales, later in life. Or, as we're led to believe at one point, Preacher could the spirit of either of those characters after meeting the business end of a bullet. It's this mythical quality that gives Pale Rider an extra resonance for me. The Wild West is full of mythos and ghost stories. The fact this could be one of them is most enjoyable, and makes Pale Rider ...

Hard to believe this movie is older than I am, which is pretty ducking old when you stop to think about it. Haha! And sure, some of it is dated -- and racist... and cruel -- by today's standards. But then again, by today's standards, what isn't offensive in some way. Not a question, a fact. Dirty Harry was made in response to Miranda Law, which gave criminals more rights when arrested by police. At the time, many felt the criminal's rights outweighed those of the victim's. So along came Dirty Harry to even the odds. As embodied by the legendary Clint Eastwood, the bad guys didn't stand much of a chance. I love this movie! It fits right within my moral compass, and is a damn fine action flick as well. Eastwood brings his Western persona into the modern world, complete with The Most Powerful Handgun in the World, and cleans up the streets as only Eastwood can. And he has a good time doing it. A hero is only as good as his villain, and Harry has a formida...

'Twas the second to last weekend before Christmas, and all through The Basement, Jason and Shawn are stirring, and . . . nothing rhymes with basement . . . But the Basement Boys ARE here to pleasure your earholes with reviews of movies traditional to the season and otherwise, including the new Christmas classic The Christmas Chronicles starring the most bad ass Santa of all time -- Kurt Russell!

Last weekend, there was nothing. This weekend more than makes up for it, though, with no less than four wide releases with their sites on your hard-earned cash. And Jason and Shawn join Howie Reimer this morning on the Radio NL 610 AM Morning Show to tell you all about it! The week's two big releases are the tween-focused sci-fi tale Mortal Engines and the animated superhero flick Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. But there's also a new Clint Eastwood movie, The Mule, to attract a more mature audience, especially fans of the iconic movie star.

"The walls of our youth crumble every day . . . today a whole section fell." That is part of a text message my friend Carl sent me earlier today delivering the sad news that Leonard Nimoy had passed away. And those are appropriate words to describe how it feels to lose someone like Mr. Nimoy.

The Mack Bolan books were my go-to read during my early teens. At 130 pages or so, The Executioner novels were a breezy bit of escapism full of everything a growing boy needs -- guns, guns and more guns. Author Don Pendleton wrote the first Bolan book,  War Against the Mafia in 1969. Since then, Hollywood has tried and failed to bring the character to the big screen despite attracting heavy hitters like Sylvester Stallone , Clint Eastwood and, more recently, Vin Diesel .

Over the past few weeks I've taken a trip thru one of my  favourite  non-horror franchises: Dirty Harry . From Dirty Harry in 1971, Magnum Force in 1973, The Enforcer in 1976, Sudden Impact in 1983 and The Dead Pool in 1988.  What can I say, 70's era Clint Eastwood is a sight to behold. I have a hard time watching him in anything recent. I grew up watching these movies with my Dad, who never got my love of horror. But we watched the bloody gunfights, fist fights and some wicked car chases together. I'll accept that.

Arnold said he'd be back, and the Austrian Oak told no lies. Welcome back, King of the Action Movie ! The leader of a drug cartel busts out of a courthouse and speeds to the Mexican border , where the only thing in his path is a sheriff and his inexperienced staff. The Last Stand works on a lot of levels. Most importantly, it's a lot of fun. This is a breezy hour and 40 minutes of violent action, weird humour and surprising moments of drama. You read that last part right.  There's drama in an action movie. Deal with it. Not all of it is on Arnold Schwarzenegger's shoulders either. The Last Stand is as much an ensemble piece as it is a return to glory for Schwarzenegger. The moments when Ah-nold isn't on screen work just as well as when he is thanks to a strong supporting cast that includes Jaimie Alexander , Luis Guzman , Forest Whitaker and Peter Stormare. Director Jee-woon Kim has crafted a well-rounded flick, and it succeeds because of that. But w...

Every Friday night our mad twit Mike S from the Corner of Terror will shanghai The Basement's Twitter account and tweet along to a non- horror movie , all for your Internet pleasure. Cool, yes!?! We think so. On Feb. 1 he popped in the 1971 Clint Eastwood classic, Dirty Harry. Below are the wit and witticisms that made up his tweets. Enjoy! Mike S is signed in, and ready to tweet along to "Dirty Harry" (1971)- won't you join us? Nothing like starting a movie off with a sniper rifle pointed at the camera... # DirtyHarry   That chin... that hair... that squint behind those sunglasses... Clint Eastwood... # DirtyHarry   # SignsOfInflation : The killer is asking for only $100,000.00 not to kill again. Today it'd be a few million. # DirtyHarry "There's a madman loose..." I wonder how many movies have actually used that line. # DirtyHarry   # AwesomeLines :"When a naked man's chasing a woman down an alley with a knife ...