And all this with no pay movie channels!

Well, maybe that's not surprising, considering these three movies. All have their merits, but they don't exactly make someone say, "I gots to get me that HBO!"

Fortunately, he later got a cooler car: "Marlowe"

Weird movie. When I think of Philip Marlowe, I think of black and white movies, Bogart, et al. I do not think of James Garner in the late '60s. Yet here's the precursor to Jim Rockford plying his trade in the summer of love. Go figure.

As usual, Marlowe stumbles onto a murder mystery that turns out to be connected to a lame case he already was working on. A couple of people end up with ice picks stuck in them, pointy side first, leading Phil to a TV star who wants no part of him. Things get tangled up from there until -- da-da-DAAAHH! -- all is revealed.

My only interest here was Garner, who is likable in almost anything. Good to see him do the private dick thing before Rockford, and it's clear that this movie had a hand in him landing the legendary TV role. I might have wanted to see a few more wisecracks, and I'll admit the story bored me in the second half, even with Rita Moreno looking pretty good.

Still, some good scenes here, including our hero's interaction with Bruce Lee and this great line to a thug who frisks Marlowe and rips his coat: "Does your mother know what you do for a living?"

I'd advise against a double bill with "Sphere": "Cube"

Since I hear that movie sucks. This one, on the other hand, is odd enough that I saw it for a second time recently, this time catching it from the start.

Not that it matters. The plot is simple: A bunch of strangers wake up inside some ... thing that is made up of a bunch of perfectly square rooms -- stacked above, below and on all sides of each other. They soon learn that some rooms are very, very bad. Down the road, they also learn why seemingly random people were thrown together into this mess. Hey, we all have a purpose in life.

So yeah, this is a movie about some kind of experiment, and I don't know ... I liked the lack of explanation and the whole "what's going on/let's figure this out" thing. You never know what's behind the next door, you don't know how long this will last, you don't know who can do what ... what can I say? It worked for me. Then again, I liked the "Resident Evil" movies.

Breezy does it ... for me: "Six Pack"

Yes! Words cannot describe my glee at seeing this movie pop up on Fox Movie Channel a couple of weeks ago. It's essentially "The Bad News Bears" meets "The Gambler," but that's not the point. This is: Diane Lane at 17 years old. Mercy. (And merci.)

I could wax on about Diane for a while. You know this. Yeah, yeah, "Unfaithful" was great. But my thing for her goes way back to the '80s. "Streets of Fire," "Lady Beware," "Knight Moves" ... love them all. I saw "The Outsiders" only in the last year or so, and still need to see "The Big Town" and "Vital Signs." Hell, even when she keeps her clothes on -- "Judge Dredd," "Murder at 1600," "The Glass House" -- she's worth watching. Why else would I suffer such dreck as "Must Love Dogs?" Love. Her.

What's that? The plot? Oh, OK, fine. "Six Pack" has Kenny Rogers as a washed-up race car driver who runs into six orphans -- Diane is the eldest and only girl -- who end up becoming his pit crew. Can Brewster Baker -- yes, i know -- find redemption on the track and love in his heart for these precocious kids? What do you think?

Save for the first-ever screen appearance of Anthony Michael Hall and bad-guy roles for "that guy" Hall-of-Famers Barry Corbin and Terry Kiser, this move is, um, not good. Even the racing scenes look crappy. But yeah ... Diane Lane as Breezy. Woof. Call me.