Saturday, April 16, 2016

Weekend Open Thread

Where you going? The party's just begun.

What's there to talk about this week? More Avatar sequels? The first reviews of Captain America: Civil War? The trailer for Neon Demon? What we've all been watching? The fact that the Batman '66 TV series hit its all-time lowest price and I still don't own it? Go to it!

39 comments:

  1. Help guys?

    I posted this last week with no joy, I'll have just one more try before I give up, I just can't solve this one, This was a movie short at the pictures before a main feature in the 70s or 80s I think?


    A movie short from 70s ish onwards. A guys head in a shoe box. He has a beard. Kept saying dont put the lid back on eveytime the box was opened. A Confused man found the box in the garage on a sunny day. Everytime he took lid off the shoe box the man's head in the box kept saying dont put the lid back on. The final scene was the frustrated finder now spooked and scared throwing the box from a bridge to a garabage truck. Final shot is lid came off. The head in tge Box is in a big pile of garbage screaming for help. Camera zooms back and small shoe box blends in to the massive pile of garbage with mans head screaming,

    Marcus Killerby was the only person who remembers it, if you have anything else to add to the description please do

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    1. Damn I was hoping the FthisMovie hive mind would be able to answer this, its been twenty ish years now. I don't think I will ever find out what this was?

      :(

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    2. Dennis, check a site called I Remember This Movie and try and post it there. That's about the best I can do for you man. I'm stumped. I still feel like it's an episode of a show and not a movie. Either way, if you find out, please let us know.

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    3. cheers Chaybee, me and my brother saw it at the pictures before a movie in the 80s ish, its kinda blurry, that's why I said it possibly is a short, I posted on Reddit with no replys, I will give it a blast, cheers

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    4. Your obsession with this short is admirable. I wish there was some crazy thing I kind of remember and needed desperately to figure out what it was. This is your white whale...

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    5. It's been quietly bugging me for twenty years. It really affected me, I thought I would put it out there and try to get some resolution. I have been asking people in person for years, the time has come for answers, I want to see it again

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  2. Anyone seen the horror anthology Holidays yet? Just wondering if it's worth my 7 bucks to rent it. Just got done watching the bluray of Bavas Bay Of Blood aka Twitch Of The Death Nerve and I have to say I think its my favorite slasher. It was made before Friday The 13th (which rips off a shocking amount from Bay Of Blood) before Halloween and before Black Christmas. It's got a high death count with really gory kills, a twisty plot, beautiful location and an ending that is so insane, it still shocks me to this day. I adore this movie and was really happy to see it look so beautiful on a bluray. I don't understand why people don't talk about it more because it's so influential to so many other movies. Bava is the man.

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    1. I really want to see Bay Of Blood. Hopefully it pops up on Netflix eventually.

      It's funny, I was just thinking about Black Christmas last night. Does anyone think the remake is worth watching? I love the original so much that I'm bound to be disappointed, but what I mean is if I watch it with fresh eyes, is it worth it?

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    2. I tried watching the Black Christmas remake a few months ago. I know it has its fans but I thought it was kinda unwatchable. I thought it was ugly and poorly directed. I'm not the biggest fan of the original Black Christmas though. I respect it and I think it's got great atmosphere and I'm on board with it at the beginning but by the end it kinda leaves me cold (no pun intended). I find the kills uninteresting and the killers non sensical ramblings on the phone just begin to annoy me because i can barely understand what hes saying. It's a movie I want to love so much but sadly I just don't.

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    3. Thanks, maybe I'll give the remake a skip. I struggle to put into words why I like the original so much. For sure it's the atmosphere, and soft, slightly grainy look to the film. Plus it's Christmas in the 70's which were the most magical Christmas' for kid-me, and I think that strikes a chord. I kind of like how it isn't too gory/bloody. I have the impression it's more effective because it feels like it could be real, due to a near absence of "over the top" slasher moments, which do more to remind you it's just a movie. Instead of a slasher in a Christmas setting, it's more like a warm Christmas movie which devolves into a slasher. Plus, it's a Canadian film, and I'm biased!

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  3. I think Holidays is worth the rent. There are a couple of segments that aren't great but a few that I genuinely love. I think Patrick is going to review it this week. Most people haven't heard of Black Christmas let alone Bay of Blood. The end of the movie really puts the cherry on top. Bava is definitely the man.

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  4. My Left Foot is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and yes, I'm a terrible person.

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  5. I watched Lifeforce last night. Got kind of a late start, because I wanted to check out some of that sweet Blackhawks playoff hockey (Don't you guys be looking at me like that!) Anyways, that movie is crazy! I was a little concerned at the beginning as some of the outer space cabin shots seemed really cheesy (by today's standard), but then quickly got sucked into the plot. And then the movie went crazy. Due to the late start, I'm pretty sure I was dozing on and off around the 3/4 mark, with some strange sexual stuff involving monsters, which must have been a dream :) Or maybe in the movie? I was fully awake by the end, which I didn't quite understand (due to having missing the 3/4) so looks like I'm going to watch it again today. Which I'm very much looking forward to. I also see that FTheMovie has a review, which I'll read after giving it a proper watch.

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  6. On the same thread as my Black Christmas comment above, I know Killer Pov just did a podcast on overrated horror movies or classic horror movies that don't work for them. In a nice way are there any horror movies that you feel are overly praised that just don't do it for you? Here's another one for me. American Werewolf in London. Once again I respect the hell out of it and there are things about it that I love (the transformation scene, any scene with Griffin Dunne) but it's a movie that for me works in pieces more than it does as a whole. I find the main character a little bland, I think there's way too much time spent in the hospital at the beginning, there's not enough werewolf in it and I think the ending is anti climactic. I like the movie I just don't love it like I want to. What are some of yours?

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    1. Anything from Woody Allen. I don't get it. I've heard people say Annie Hall is one of the best romantic comedies of all time. It's not funny or romantic. I finally saw Black Christmas and absolutely loved it.

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    2. I'm so with you on Annie Hall, Brent. Twice I've tried to watch that movie and twice couldn't make it through. It's so darn irritating. Not funny, not romantic, and Allen plays a character I can't stand. On a more positive note, Black Christmas rocks my socks.

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    3. I'll 3rd that for Woody Allen being overrated. For a time I was with a woman who wanted to watch ALL of his movies (that's a lot). The worst ones were the ones he starred in (that's again a lot).
      However, I remember Match Point being good, because it wasn't trying to be funny, or probably just Scarlett Johansson has very nice lips. I watched 15 minutes of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and that was entirely because Penelope Cruz and Johansson. Kidding, I had to go somewhere.

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    4. Agreed. I really like Sleeper though :-)

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    5. I didn't hate Midnight in Paris...

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    6. He certainly is prolific and I don't like all of this movies but I highly recommend watching the following if you haven't seen them:

      Manhattan, Interiors, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Sweet and Lowdown, Hannah and Her Sisters, Melinda and Melinda, Bullets Over Broadway

      There is a two-part documentary on Woody that was on Netflix, not sure if it's still on there. It's good.

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  7. I got to catch a screening earlier in the week of Sing Street which I thought was an absolutely charming movie and very likely to be in my top ten for the year. Great soundtrack and great cast, especially considering a lot of them don't appear to have any other acting credits.

    Also saw Jungle Book, which was perfectly ok. Given the choice I'm not sure why you'd watch this over the 1967 animated one, but there aren't a lot of good family movies in the theater right now so there's that I suppose.

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  8. Just wondering, for those people like me who love a good audio commentary, what your favourites are? Lets take John Carpenter out of the equation.

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    1. Hands down, any commentary by the folks here at FThisMovie! Thanks to Patrick and The Gang, I've seen The Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf twice already. I haven't even seen the first Howling!

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    2. Here are my absolute favorites: Donnie Darko. It's insane the detail that he put into that film and he explains a ton of it. Really interesting. Bamboozled or Inside Man - Spike is always unfiltered in his commentary. IMO he has the best ones. Interesting and also he calls people out by name which is insanity. Usual Suspects. Really fun commentary where they point out mistakes they made. Mallrats - crazy. They shit on Dougherty and London all over the place. It's a MEAN commentary at times.

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    3. Seconded on the Mallrats commentary. That was the first one I ever listened to and made me love extra features.

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    4. Bruce Campbell as Elvis commentary on Bubba Ho Tep. Cannot recommend more highly.

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    5. Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright's commentary on Hot Fuzz. It's just two straight hours of them talking about action movies.

      I also really dig

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    6. Have a pen and paper ready when you watch that Hot Fuzz commentary because those 2 talk about so many movies your head will explode.

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  9. Hush (stylized at some places as #hush) is a really effective thriller that has one of my scary hangups (what if I was deaf?) Really worth checking out and streaming on Netflix.

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  10. My watching this weekend consisted mainly of Eyes Without a Face, the French movie from 1960 which was an incredibly pleasant surprise. I loved it a whole lot. Do yourself a favor if you've never gotten around to that one.

    I also saw the Jungle Book. I enjoyed it mostly, but I kind of hated how they decided to insert the songs. They felt so out of place with the rest of the movie.

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  11. Is anyone else excited about this?

    Lady in White 1988. If you did not know is coming to Bluray for the first time via Scream Factory. Damn I love this movie, Patrick wrote a great review on DvdVerdict a while back, I can't wait for this release

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  12. #Horror is frustrating and somewhat baffling to me. There are great moments, staging, photography, and solid acting. The girl who plays Sam steals the show of a talented young cast. There are little moments where the art in the house is alive and it's fantastic. There are compelling masterful shots scattered throughout. The scene where Timothy Hutton's character comes to pick up his daughter and confronts the girls is hilarious. The scene where Chloe Sevigny answers her phone next to Pennsatucky in front of the church is perfect.

    Yet, all of this is nullified by sloppy filmmaking, lazy storytelling, "stylish edits," reparative jump cuts, ill-conceived effects choices, and the incredibly annoying phone game-play cut into the footage. Once the kills begin, it gets worse. There are two movies going on here and I want to see the one that isn't so desperate to be socio-technologically stylishly relevant. Or, maybe the movie is so meta these choices were made so people would talk shit about it online.

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    1. I'm one of the few defenders of that film. There's something about it that I really liked. The style would normally annoy me but it worked in the film for me.

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    2. There's plenty to like about it and that's what is frustrating to me. It didn't work as a whole for me.

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  13. Watched/rewatched a bunch of movies this week. Synecdoche New York, UHF, That Thing You Do, and the K-On movie. I like them all a lot. Very eclectic week.

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  14. Synecdoche, New York is one of my top 25 movies ever. It's a tough rewatch though, too emotional and kills me every time.

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    1. It's one of my favorites too. The first time I saw it I thought it was actually pretty simple, despite the reputation. I loved it. Then I rewatched it and saw all the details that made the movie complicated and THEN got confused, but since I already loved it it was fun to decipher. Never felt that delayed reaction with any other movie before.

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  15. I finally finished Mad Men. Watching seven seasons in a row is maybe a bit too much, but all in all, I enjoyed the series very much.
    So I had to catch up on my pile of movies waiting to be seen.
    I started with the great “Prisoners” combo of Jake Gyllenhaal and director Denis Villeneuve and their second collaboration “Enemy”. What an interesting puzzle of a thriller. I admit that I didn´t understood it completely, so I watched some interviews with Villeneuve and Chris Stuckmann´s “Enemy Explained” video, which made the points I missed pretty clear.
    Being in Villeneuve-mode, next I watched his also very good 2009 feature “Polytechnique” based on a real life high school shooting in Montreal.
    Next was “Foxcatcher” which had good performances but was too bleak and somber and a bunch of minutes too long.
    Then I made a trip to the theater to watch “The Huntsman - Winter´s war” which in Germany is titled “The Huntsman and the ice queen” because it´s always a great idea to translate an English title with another English title. ;-) I didn’t liked the first one very much and this one is even worse. Without the great cast, especially a wonderful Emily Blunt, this would be a complete disaster.
    To recover from that one, I watched Cronenberg´s “The Dead Zone”, which still is a great movie with a wonderful performance by Christopher Walken.
    Sunday began with Alex Garland´s “Ex Machina”, which I liked very much. Clever screenplay and fine performances of the perfect cast made this a real gem.
    Next on was the brazilian cop thriller “Elite Squad” from Jose Padilha, the director of the “Robocop” remake. It was fine but I hated the handheld cinematography and the ear-splitting amount of screaming.
    I went on with “Enduring love” from 2004, starring Daniel Craig, Bill Nighy, Samantha Morton and Rhys Ifans, which was ok. It had a bad TV feel but the story was interesting, although the reactions of some characters were totally incomprehensible to me. “The Walking Dead” star Andrew Lincoln also has a small role.
    Next was the entertaining “Sushi Girl” which had a great cast of B-listers (Todd, Hamill, Biehn, Trejo…), a cool location, fine technical achievements for a clearly limited budget and a kind of “Reservoir dogs” feeling.
    The last one was “Cheap Thrills”, which I also liked well. Good cast (David Koechner was hilarious) and an interesting story of escalating situations leading to a well-earned conclusion.
    10 movies on 2 days – not bad. Sadly, the one I saw on the big screen was the worst of all.

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    1. Huntsman Winters War doesn't come out until Friday here, but I'm sad to see the bad press it's getting already. The first one looked like a bad movie that ended up being surprisingly good. This looks like a good movie that doesn't appear to achieve the same effect.

      Also I'm glad you liked Mad Men.

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