Saturday, November 28, 2015

Weekend Open Thread

After Black Friday comes Participation Saturday!

We're down to the last month of the year, which means everyone will be publishing lists pretty soon and then talking about Star Wars before publishing more lists (also, please don't be the person to publish "All the Star Wars Movies Ranked" the weekend that The Force Awakens comes out). What have you seen lately? What are you still looking forward to? Did you pick up any cheap movies this weekend? Is everyone just going to be talking about Creed?

20 comments:

  1. I picked up 3 lovely new Bluray Steelbooks from Zaavi, I know we all like Criterion, Scream Factory and Arrow but I would like to give a Shout to Zaavi for there limited editions with stunning Artworks

    I just picked up American Werewolf in London, Speed and Karate kid, all with Unique Artworks, I quite fancy Clockwork Orange and The Fly, Point Break also looks great, well worth a look on the website for the collectors out there

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    1. Have you seen A Christmas Horror Story, yet? Because you have to.

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  2. Am I the only one here who's not that excited about The Force Awakens? I'll see it in the first couple of weeks and will probably enjoy it, but I'm much more excited about Steve Jobs, Bridge of Spies, Spotlight, The Revenant and Creed (none of which have opened here yet). I guess I'm just not the Star Wars fan I used to be.


    Why, yes I did pick up some cheap Blu-rays, thanks for asking. Arrow Films were selling their 7-movie "Vincent Price Gothic Horror Collection" for dirt cheap, so I leapt at it. It includes The Haunted Palace, The Tomb of Ligeia, Tales of Terror, The Raven, Comedy of Terrors, The Fall of the House of Usher and Pit and the Pendulum. What's more, I think I've only seen one of them before, and that was a long time ago, so they're practically all new to me. Also bought a Steelbook of Mad Max: Fury Road 3D plus The Lion King and Aladdin for next to nothing.

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    1. I came very close to pulling the trigger on the Mario Bava bundle they had on sale but couldn't swing the $60 it ended up being after the conversion. Arrow does great work.

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  3. I went and saw Creed on opening night and I have to say I absolutely loved it. like...a lot. I went in a huge Rocky fan, its a series I've loved as long as I can remember. As i grow up my tastes change and I'm constantly changing my mind about which is my favorite. Right now im at the age where Rocky 2 is the most relevant to me, so thats the one I love the most right now. This was one of those movies where I knew I was going to like it just because its a Rocky movie (kind of like the Fast and Furious franchise) because I know what I'm going to get. There are more than a few flaws, one glaring one comes in the third act. But man, this is one of the most earnest and hard working movies Ive seen in years. You can tell the director and the cast worked their asses off for a franchise they loved. I didn't expect to fall in love with this movie, i expected to see my favorite movie character on screen maybe for the last time, but this was more than that. It feels like a fantastic breath of fresh air to the series.

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    1. I liked "Creed" too. I watched it at a packed Harlem theater on opening night, and you'd think the audience was watching a real boxing match. It was one of the most fun and entertaining audience-going experiences in a theater I've ever had, which complemented a pretty good mainstream flick. Except for "Diggstown" and "The Great White Hope" I can't think of a Hollywood boxing drama featuring a black boxer in the lead.

      And man, can Michael B. Jordan act. Sylvester Stallone's role in the movie gets bigger as "Creed" unfolds, but even though it comes close to a 60-40 split between Adonis-Rocky there's never any doubt about who the star of this movie is. After the sour taste left in my mouth by "Southpaw" earlier this year it's nice to see the boxing movie alive and well again. It's no "Fat City," but almost nothing is.

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  4. Brooklyn is very good. Creed was okay/good entertainment. Trumbo is highly entertaining and and funny and Cranston kills it. Inside baseball as hell but it does it very well.

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  5. Today I ordered the blu-rays for Magnolia, Boogie Nights, and The Raid 2, all of which I'm excited to rewatch and own. Aside from that, I got to see Creed earlier this week. I enjoyed Creed a lot, though I would have liked it more if it had branched further away from the structure of the original Rocky film.

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  6. I bought the Terminator 5 (not calling it by its subtitle) Blu Ray (because I hate myself). Watched the special features and haven't stopped weeping since. What a wrong-headed endevour all around...

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  7. I recently watched Jawbreaker, remembering that someone mentioned it on this podcast, saying it was like Heathers. I'm not sure if that person said that they liked it, but I don't think I did.

    As a Greer-head, I was excited to see that Judy Greer played one of the main characters. Unfortunately I don't feel like she's given much to really work with, and it might be even a less meaty role than the glorified cameos she usually gets.

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    1. On Thanksgiving Day I watched the first season of Arrested Development again. "Say good-bye to these..." :-)

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  8. Picked up a copy of Mad Max: Fury Road on sale this weekend. It remains one of my favorite movies of 2015, although I have a limited sample size this year. Also just watched Edge of Tomorrow again (one of my Thanksgiving Day buys last year). Still love that movie, but continue to be disappointed that a fun, well-made blockbuster was subverted by its own marketing.

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    1. You could've watched all the movies and Mad Max would still be number 1. I'd go as far as to say it's the best of this decade. Name one better and I will answer with a bullshit.

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  9. I watched a ton of things over the weekend.
    I started with "Bridge of spies", which was a good old fashioned spy thriller. Pretty entertaining, well directed, shot and acted. I didn´t liked "Warhorse" and "Lincoln" very much, so to me this was Spielbergs best film since "Munich".
    Next I saw "The Interview", which was kind of funny but stupid, still entertaining and surprisingly bloody. But I would really appreciate if they had used less bathroom/shit/fuck/putting something up your ass kind of humor. Franco was hilarous.
    Next one was "Exit humanity", a canadian zombie film that plays during the american civil war. It was fine but way too long and slow for the story it had to tell. Interesting use of animated sequences throughout the film.
    Next was "The nameles/Los sin nombre", a spanish thriller from "Rec" writer/director Jaume Balaguero about missing children and a cult dating back to WW2 and german concentration camps. Interesting story, pretty suspenseful movie.
    And I just finished Jim Mickle´s "Cold in July", which was really good, starting with John Carpenter music and a title written in Carpenter´s usual font. Fine performances by Michael C. Hall, Don Johnson and Sam Shepard and a unpredictable story courtesy of Joe R. Lansdale. Very fine little thriller.
    For the rest of the day I plan to start the first season of The Wachowski`s "Sense8", which hopefully is more "Cloud Atlas" than "Jupiter Ascending"...

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  10. Just a list of Black Friday movies I picked up:

    Interstellar, Forrest Gump (just to have it), the original True Grit, The Flash Season One, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Grey, Ex Machina, Mud, and a collection of Ma and Pa Kettle movies to give my mom for Christmas.

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  11. Does anybody know of a website that offers a good selection of movie-themed clothing, particularly shirts and hats? My searches on Amazon have yielded fairly unimpressive results, and I was just wondering if there was a hidden gem hiding somewhere on the web.

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    1. teefury.com....
      thinkgeek.com
      novemberfire.com (black and white designs but lots of cult stuff)
      offworlddesigns.com
      woot.com has some movie themed things.

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    2. Can we get F This Movie shirts? Can I get it in the Nightmare on Elm Street font?

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  12. I just watched my newly acquired blu-ray of A Christmas Horror Story and it was awesome. I've always kind of liked horror anthologies but this year had two of my favorites. Actually, they ARE my two favorites. Tales of Halloween still holds my #1 spot then I think I'd put Christmas Horror at #2. Third would be Trick 'r Treat. The old ones are a little rough for me but these 3 are pretty damn great. I'm now watching Jack Frost from 1997. My month of Christmas horror has begun and I'm pretty fuckin excited.

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    1. I just finished Jack Frost and holy shit. I have never seen anything like this. I might be crazy but I think I loved it. It's a fucking killer snowman. I think Christmas Horror got me in the mood and I think the christmas spirit has taken me over. December feels a little different this year. It's more like Dismember. I'm ready for an actual War on Christmas because that would be bonkers.

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