Quarantined movies

I have had plenty of time to enjoy another favorite hobby of mine. That's watching movies. It's so hard to do that when I work most nights out of the week.

But with no sports and nothing to do at night because of COVID-19, my time to check out old and new movies has increased.

For the first few weeks of quarantine, I tried to watch a new movie on Netflix every night when the house got quiet. Sometimes I would make the short drive to a Redbox and check out a new release, too.

Lately, it's been oldies but goodies for me.

A few night's ago I checked out Bloodsport on Netflix. That was one of those fighting movies I enjoyed as a kid. And ironically, Kickboxer was on regular TV the next night.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was cranking out a lot of gems back in the day. From his breakout role in Bloodsport in 1988 to Maximum Risk in 1996, Van Damme kicked out 11 films I enjoyed during that span.

Bloodsport (1988) and Kickboxer (1989) were his most popular films, but Timecop (1994) made over $100 million worldwide, which is the highest grossing film in which he played the lead role. Lionheart (1990), Universal Solider (1992), Nowhere to Run (1993), Hard Target (1993) and Maximum Risk (1996) were others I thoroughly enjoyed as a youngster.

One of my favorite movie franchises is Lethal Weapon. And all four movies recently came to Netflix. So I took in the first two one night and then watched the third installment the next day. I will finish with 4 in the next few days, but that series is fantastic.

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and later Joe Pesci and Rene Russo, worked well together. They are action movies that make me laugh and the plot is a little bit different each time. Just entertain me. That's all I ask and those movies entertain me.

The franchise grossed roughly $955 million with Lethal Weapon 3 taking in a series-high $321 million and Lethal Weapon 4 bringing in $285 million.

And guess what, a fifth and final movie may still be in the works. Glover and Gibson are in their 70s and 60s right now so that would be interesting.

On Tuesday, AMC decided to run four fantastic movies in succession. I watched the end of Taken 3 then Gran Torino, Top Gun and Speed in full. Talk about lack of productivity. Those are all movies I can watch just about any time. Love them all.

I didn't realize Speed (1993) was Sandra Bullock's breakthrough role. She played a minor role in Demolition Man with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes the year before.

Speed has high energy from start to finish. It's an entertaining thrill ride. Bullock is brilliant as the eventual bus driver who's job is to keep the thing above 50 miles per hour no matter what. Speed, which also co-stars Keanu Reeves, Jeff Daniels and Dennis Hopper, grossed $350 million worldwide.

She agreed to be in Speed 2 for financial backing. That was probably a mistake as it never lived up to the original.

I also enjoyed Bullock in The Net (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), Miss Congeniality (2000) and Birdbox, a Netflix movie that was released in 2018.

Her biggest year came in 2009 when she appeared in The Proposal and The Blind Side, winning her lone Academy Award for Best Actress in the latter. Each movie made more than $300 million at the box office.

Bullock was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Gravity (2013). I regret having not seen that one yet. That's one I need to check out and it's her highest grossing live-action release. That movie grossed $716 million.

Minions was actually her highest grossing film. It brought in $1.1 billion and her movies have made $5.3 billion worldwide.

What movies are you guys watching? What should I check out? I have some time on my hands.