Saturday, January 28, 2017

Weekend Open Thread

Hurt.

Coming off an inspiring day last weekend, this week has been a nonstop parade of shit. Let's talk about movies and celebrate the good news. Luke Ciancio had a birthday and Chaybee (Brahm) has an album out in just a few weeks and Josh Pearlman continues to be awesome and Cait Cannon got some new crockpot recipes and Adam Riske found that $5 bill in the pocket of some jeans he forgot about (maybe?) and now we can all finally find out how that Resident Evil franchise is going to end. So I guess it's not all bad.

44 comments:

  1. Yeah, if that video for Creature is any indication we've got some more great stuff coming from Chaybee. I really, really enjoyed it (the video and of course the song itself).

    In other good news for those of us who had been unable to see The Handmaiden, it's now available to buy or rent digitally (on Amazon and probably some other places). I Just watched it last night and thought it was pretty great.

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    1. Thanks, Ross! And thanks for the mention Patrick! Sorry you had a shitty week. If anyone is interested in checking out the "Creature" vid you can watch it here.

      I watched "Parasites" (2016) last night and thought it was a really good little indie for what it is. Kind of like The Warriors meets Judgement Night with an exploitation feel to it.

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    2. Fantastic video! It got me to finally watch Aenigma last night, which I loved! Without looking anything up, I recognized footage in the video from Aenigma, Suspiria, Phenomena, and Inferno... can anybody tell what other movies they used? I know I saw the movie that eyeball-faced woman is from, ha ha!

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    3. Excellent, thanks so much man!

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  2. In honor of John Hurt I think everyone should watch or rewatch his best role and certainly IMO David Lynch's most underrated movie The Elephant Man. I know Patrick in your Mulholland Drive podcast you kind of dismissed The Elephant Man so this would be a great time to revisit it.

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  3. Hurt is one of those actors I love to watch. As a youngin' flipping through channels, if his face showed up onscreen I would always stop and give whatever it was that he was in a chance.
    Though the particular film might, Hurt himself, never disappointed.
    Compassion. Fragility. Menace. Terror (whether he was on the giving or receiving end of it) Hurt conveyed all of these(sometimes all at once)with effortless charisma.
    Then he'd speak.
    John Hurt's voice was unmistakable and on par with cinema's vocal titans.
    Tremendous talent.
    Colossal body of work.
    By all accounts all around nice guy.
    I miss him already.

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  4. "Wild Beasts" (1984), one of the most bonkers, animal attack movies ever from the infamous Franco Prosperi, is on Amazon Prime. If you don't mind seeing rats burning up it's definitely worth a watch. I wrote about it 2 years ago during Junesploitation

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    1. I can vouch for this one as well. It's been in the number one spot of my most-wanted on bluray list ever since Lifeforce got its release from Shout Factory. So excited!!

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  5. Is it weird that I sometimes get Leonard Maltin and John Landis mixed up?

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    1. Haha! Nope! That's pretty dead on.

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    2. Nope. Pretty sure it's the same guy.

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  6. So I finally started to watch the Phantasm sequels and watched Phantasm 2. It was pretty much everything I could want out of an action/horror movie. Crazy gore effects, badass action, really endearing characters, and some legitimate scares. I like the first Phantasm but I LOVE Phantasm 2!

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    1. Phantasm 2 is my all time favorite. Totally agree that it's better than the 1st.

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    2. Am I the only one who likes Part 3: Phantasm + Home Alone best?

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  7. Honestly, when I hear an audio recording of them I can't tell the difference. I watched the National Lampoon's doc last night, which was pretty good, and Landis is on there, it just reminded me of how I mix them up because that I thought he was Leonard Maltin before they put his name up.

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  8. Confession time: I'm 32 (that's not the "interesting" part) and up until about 2 hours ago I'd never seen Back to the Future. What a fun movie. It probably should've / could've been on repeat when I was younger. Better late than never I suppose.

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    1. You should be punched in the face for that! Lol jk :-)

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    2. Hahaha, my life has been sham. Every day has been like a punch in the face.

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  9. I had no choice but to watch Barry Levinson's "Envy" just to see why everyone dislikes it, considering it has Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Christopher Walken and Rachel Weisz in the cast. And finally watching it, I can understand why. The entire cast fails to bring in laughs for a film which is essentially one extended long poop joke.

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  10. Damn. Just yesterday I watched John Hurt in V for Vendetta. Always loved this great actor, regardless how good or bad the movie was.

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  11. Just felt like saying that I can't believe that after all these years there still isn't a high quality release of the Sonny Chiba Street Fighter trilogy. Female Convict Scorpion is on Arrow, and Zatoichi, Lady Snowblood, and Lone Wolf & Cub are all on mother-f'n Criterion, and Terry Tsuguri is still kicking it in the public domain on some VHS transfers. What's the story?

    I finally got around to seeing the original Walking Tall. Got a lot crazier than I expected! A nice surprise!

    And most surprising, hit myself with a one-two punch of the Mike Myers' The Cat in the Hat and Dana Carvey's The Master of Disguise, and had a fucking blast. CitH is a crazy nightmare of a movie, and I was laughing genuine laughs non-stop throughout all of MoD. Who knew early 2000s kids comedies starring Wayne's World alum were where it's at?!

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  12. Thanks, Patrick. Unfortunately though, I was sick for my birthday. It did give me time, however, to finally watch E.T. for the first time. Along with Captain America: Civil War and Moonlight.

    So this week was pretty shitty, but I guess it could have been worse.

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  13. Just want to say I love you guys and gals. All of you! I'm so mad right now that it put in perspective how I much I appreciate you all and I wanted to make sure you know that.

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    1. This is the best place on the internet.

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    2. Right back at you, Riske! Happy B-day, Luke!

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    3. So I should delete that 500-word email about what an incompetent jackass I am?

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    4. Yes! Writing with you has been a mitzvah.

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    5. You too, buddy. This is horrible enough looking at it from the outside, I can't even imagine how decent, good-hearted, Joe Versus the Volcano-loving Americans like you are coping with this shit. :(

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    6. Mix of fighting mad and dying inside

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  14. Maybe they should cancel the Oscars this year in protest, because everything is not okay. I think at one point I indicated to Google that Yes, I am interested in Jake Gyllenhaal news, but I can't believe my headlines now read like "Trump Bans all Muslims, Prioritizes Christians," "Jake Gyllenhaal supports Ryan Reynolds over Oscar Snub", "The US as we know it is Ending," "World Leaders Flipping Out", "Emma Stone does her best Ryan Gosling Impression".

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    1. They should just cancel the Oscars, period. This is the year that I finally stopped caring 100%. The Oscars have gotten to a point where people try to use "but it won best picture" as an argument for a film. English Patient freakin' won best best picture. FORREST GUMP F-ing won! Oscars are straight rubbish. "No Country for Old Men" was probably the last film to win BP that was justified and I couldn't even believe it won. Also, enough with nominating 8, 9, 10 films. 5 is a perfect number.

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    2. YEEAHH, but you know what I mean :( No business as usual.

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  15. I'm in the process of watching the Hunger Games movies for the first time. Seen the first three now, watching the fourth one tonight. They've been entertaining enough, but I'm sure I'll never have a need to revisit them.

    I haven't read the books, but it's still pretty clear that there's a lot of backstory, character motivation and subplot that they're leaving out. The movies have the same feel that the Harry Potter movies do (especially 4-6), they just seem to be moving too fast for the story.

    Also rewatched Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which is one of those easy comfort movies. Paul Rudd and Jack Black as Lennon & McCartney always make me laugh.

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  16. I watched Alien for the first time the night before hearing of Mr. Hurt's passing. Needless to say I was blown away by the movie and loved his performance. Tried to watch Snowpiercer the next night, but I wasn't in the mood for a documentary.

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  17. Also, Has Heath officially stepped away from the site. I miss him:-(

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    1. We all do. After 200 columns without ever missing a week, Heath is taking some time off to pursue another passion project. Because he didn't make a big thing of it in his last column, I didn't call a ton of attention to it either out of respect. Our hope is that he will be back writing for us again someday. Until then, he will definitely be appearing on the podcast from time time to time.

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    2. I second that - good luck with what ever comes next!!

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    3. Every man has a dream to chase. Heath's was writing a strategy guide for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on the NES. I understand. But tell me something. His 235 twitter followers who are expecting him to write a column on some Disney movie or whatever... will they understand?

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  18. Chopping Mall might be one of my new favorite exploitation movies. As a kid there was a really cool mall in my town that I wanted to play laser tag in, and now I have the movie equivalent of that. Delivers on every level including Barbara Crampton! Check it out on amazon prime.

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  19. Saw 1993's "Sailor Moon R" remasteted in an almost-empty theater on Saturday (fan-freaking-tastic colors, kick-ass music, the works... loved it), "Gold" at a midnight screening (dull, boring, preachy and confusing; Matthew H. drags the dull script as much as possible for naught) and just came from a sold out screening of "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage." I've never seen a "Fast & Furious" movie, but I can picture it being like this only less stupid and carefree. I can never love a flick in which Vin Diesel continues to play the same silent douche that cracks his way through action scenes that he lets the stuntmen risk life and limb to achieve. That said, wow, this is a stupidly fun movie. It inhabits a comfortable middle ground between the "____ Has Fallen" and "Expendables" movies in being self-aware while also trying desperately hard to entertain you with the craziest things the writer and stunt choreographer can think of. Loved the cast and celebrity cameos, and any movie in which Toni Jaa and Donnie Yue get to strut their stuff is worth the Times Square theater asking price ($27.95).

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