Saturday, February 25, 2017

Weekend Open Thread

Buon fine settimana!

It's a heck of a weekend for movies! Get Out is playing in theaters, The Girl With All the Gifts is available on VOD and I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore premiered on Netflix. So if you don't care at all about Oscars, you've still got lots of stuff to see. And if you do care about the Oscars, you've got those!

Two more things and then we turn it over to you:

1) Our friend Chaybee's new album Ratimis is out! Everyone order a copy here! and

2) Happy birthday to JB! We all love you in VERY DIFFERENT WAYS.

Ok, the floor is yours!

*Thanks to Michael Piccoli for the correction on the above Italian!

55 comments:

  1. Take THAT, all JB's doctors! Happy birthday, sir!

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  2. All I can say is JB is the best film teacher I never had in film school.

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  3. Happy Birthday JB! If you're not busy I'm just going to drive to the Portage with a stack of monster movies and stand there until they let me in. Welcome to join me.

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  4. Happy birthday JB! You king of Maine, you prince of New England.

    So I went to see Get Out last night, and it's 100% as good as everyone is saying. If you're on the fence about seeing it, I suggest you get out.......of your house and go see it. But THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT. The trailerz that ran before it, were super frustrating. Now, I don't watch trailers unless I'm in a theater.

    There was a trailer for some Katherine Heigl movie called Unforgettable, which is just setting itself up for parody. Leonard Maltin will, no doubt, find it forgettable. There's also a gritty reboot of Wishmaster coming out called Wish Upon. What is this? But most of all, there was a trailer for a Queen Latifah movie about her and all her friends taking a trip together. Cleverly titled...wait for it...Girls Trip. I think it's safe to say that it has already clinched the title for worst title of the year. Just when you thought Fist Fight couldn't be topped. Right up there with Bad Teacher in the pantheon of "just call it this for now, we'll think of something better later" titles. Worst of all, it completely missed an opportunity to be called "Bitches be Trippin'".

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    1. I thought the trailers before Get Out were mostly out of some glorious big studio genre alternate universe that we're apparently living in, but yea, Girls Trip. Whoa.

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    2. They did run a trailer for They Come at Night that was pretty good, of not entirely ubiquitous.

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  5. Happy BDJB! I had a girlfriend with the same t-shirt as Nucci. Were you that cool?

    Movies I saw, Dredd and Dr. Strange, both very good. Also rewatched a bunch of It's Alway Sunny In Philadelphia (funniest show on TV! Anybody with me on that?)

    Movie I want to see next, The 13th Warrior (Heath has a nice article), Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick. Should I watch the Riddick Trilogy in order? I read they are mostly standalone.

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    1. Ok, I listened to the non-spoiler part of the Riddick podcast, and now I really want to see all 3. Now.
      (Side note...I learned how to insert hyperlinks to my posts!)

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    2. all riddick are worth it.

      i'd watch them in order

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  6. Happy Birthday to JB, who loves movies more than almost anyone I know.

    @Paul Calvert, you don't really need to watch it in order, although Riddick definitely fits in at the end, and requires a little bit (just a bit) of background knowledge from the others.

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    1. Thanks! Your podcast on Riddick was very good. I'm excited to watch all of them.

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    2. And Chronicles does technically build off of Pitch Black, so you should probably watch them in order. Have fun!

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    3. Chronicles is one of my favorite "need to stop for at least 15 minutes when it's on TV" movies.

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  7. Happy B-Day JB! Hope it's a great one!

    Thanks again for the shout out, the write up, and the overall support for the record, Patrick. Yesterday was an insane swell of love going around with the album release and I am truly grateful.

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    1. Congratulations on the album. Just listened to your bandcamp track and it sounds great. I bet it sounds great coming off that slab of vinyl, but I'm going the download route today. Cheers!

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    2. Hey thanks so much, Charles! Hope you enjoy it my man!

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    3. Congrats man - just downloaded the album - I am going to feel so much groovier now when I'm cruising for hitchhikers to murder. :P

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    4. Haha! Thanks so much, Sol. Much appreciated! Yeah, more than one person has mentioned that they love driving to the album. Someone told me that the song Egomaniac is like the best parts of the drive score mixed with DJ Premier. Was a flattering compliment. Hope you dig it man!

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    5. Congrats Chaybee! Now part of the collection. Better not be any hitchhikers on the way to work tomorrow!

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    6. Thanks so much, Culllen! This "creepy van theme" is shaping up to be pretty fuckin funny haha.

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    7. Good news (besides the new album), I don't drive a Van, urban legend expanded! People of the tropics beware the sound of BRAHM! In all seriousness you are then man. Super happy for you and my ears. Cheers!

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  8. Like many of us probably did, I saw Get Out last night. Packed house, laughter, screams, cheers and applause from the audience. Complete package for a movie going experience.
    Hope everybody is having a good weekend.

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  9. Happy Birthday J Bones

    For a birthday treat Patrick said he will do that podcast on Exorcist 2
    "Pazuzu leading us to Pachuku!"

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  10. watched I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, that just came out on netflix, by macon blair, the guy who was in blue ruin

    worth it, and exactly what you'd expect from all the jeremy saulnier movies.

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    1. and of course, happy birthday JB

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    2. I watched this as well. I think it's my favorite film I've seen this year so far. Loved it!

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  11. I'm rewatching Firefly, and holy crap a 14 year old Zac Efron in his first ever role plays Sean Maher's character in a flashback! Never realized it before.

    And happy BD to the one and only JB!

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  12. Happy... eh, weekend, JB. Hope you hate birthdays as much as I do. :-P

    Saw "Get Out" at a sold out screening at Magic Johnson's AMC in Harlem this morning. I want to imagine crowd reaction would be the same on any theater regardless of ethnic breakdown, but with a mostly Afro-American audience the fun factor of seeing this went through the roof. Not since opening night for "The Avengers" have I watched a movie with a crowd that was so much involved with the story and characters as they were happening on-screen. Since it was shot and made before Trump won last year's election I like the out that Jordan wrote into the story to acknowledge the racial divide in the country. I want to compare "Get Out" to two very specific 70's movies its borrowing heavily from (and improving tremendously, IMO), but I'd rather let people find on their own this movie's better twists. Blumhouse was very hit and miss the last couple of years, but they're two for two in '17 with making horror that feels in tune with what's on people's minds right now. Loved it.

    Last night I also caught a 35mm midnight screening of "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" at NYC's IFC Center. Never seen this before, so it was nice to finally know where pop culture mainstays I've heard since forever ('Who runs Bartertown? Master Blaster runs Bartertown,' 'Two man enter, one man leaves,' etc.), but color me surprised that the Bartertown/Thunderdome section is only in the first third of the movie. Gibson looks like William Wallace during the first half, then like Ash from "Evil Dead 2" for the second half. I laughed like an idiot when Max punches the chick leading the tribe of kids/teens from an airplane wreckage in order to save her. "Thunderdome's" closing action climax, a desert chase that feels like the early blueprint for "Mad Max: Fury Road," kicks so much ass it's too bad it and the entire movie feels like "The Road Warriors'" sloppy seconds. George Miller was clearly more interested on world building than character development, as Max is as much a bystander here as in "Fury Road." I wouldn't want to live in Bartertown or this apocalyptic world, but watching most of the freaks (and Tina Turner in fine form) is a thing of mid-80's punk beauty. I'd rank "Fury Road" and "The Road Warrior" above "Thunderdome," all three vastly superior to the dated-and-growing-stale original "Mad Max."

    Debating with myself whether to go to a 35mm screening of "Final Destination" at Brooklyn's Nitehawk or not, since I've never seen any of them.

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  13. Adding to the chorus but Happy Birthday JB - you make the world that little bit smarter!

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  14. Happy Birthday JB - hope you had lots of love and laughter today - you deserve it!

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  15. Happy Birthday Mr Pope! Have a great day ahaha :)

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  16. Happy birthday JB!

    I saw a lot this week, but I'll save my meaningless words for Get Out. I know it's been mentioned already, but it's really that good. If you haven't yet, go see it already!

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  17. Fantastic Beasts And Where To find Them...

    damn this is a boring movie. eddie redmayne does not belong in there.

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  18. Had a good movie-going weekend. On Friday night I saw Inherent Vice for the second time. I didn't love it the first time because I was (somewhat stupidly, knowing how PTA likes to throw us for a loop) expecting Boogie Nights 2, but the second time I liked seeing PTA just noodle around with some great actors. I also thought it had a lot to say about loss of innocence and the damage wrought in the transition between to time periods, a major theme in PTA's work. On Saturday I watched Linklater's Bernie. What a joy. I love how convincingly he created such a specific aesthetic. It reminded me of visiting family in the mid-90's. I also saw The Neon Demon, which I didn't see in theaters cos I didn't love Only God Forgives. What an odd movie. It felt like Stanley Kubrick shooting an LSD laced homage to Carrie. Get Out isn't out in Australia yet. Grrr...

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  19. Just saw Get Out. Easily one of the best movie theater experiences of my life.
    Everyone, including myself, heckled, predicted, joked, screamed, laughed, and applauded through the whole thing.

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  20. Damn, 2016 was brutal as far as movie deaths but 2017 might just top it. John Hurt and Bill Paxton in less than two months? Damn, that's whack. :'( Wonder if it's too late to sneak an extra mention about Paxton's death in tonight's 'In Memoriam' academy award segment.

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  21. Went to see Get Out on Friday night, expecting (hoping) for a packed theater. Unfortunately, the 5:00 show was a little too early for the crowds, and me and my partner were one of about ten. But oh boy, that did not detract from the film in any way, shape, or form. Just Wow! After seeing A Cure for Wellness stumble with both scares and meaning last week, it was amazing to see this film blend the two so effortlessly.

    Speaking of the theme, everyone should go read Patricks exchange with someone on twitter who believed the film wasn't about race. It's best to read the tweets in that polite, restrained voice he uses on the podcast when he completely disagrees with someone. The exchange will definitely make you laugh and cringe.

    Happy Birthday JB!

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  22. That was interesting to me that the hosts of the SPirit Awards kind of boast about their award show not awarding or allowing anti-semetic behavior (from Mel Gibson) but then Casey Affleck won best actor after he called women cows. And then he went on to talk about DT's un-American actions, which sounded like a convenient deflection to me. Hypocrisy, I feel, is something I can understand. Denial is something I know personally. But it's getting tiring and a little scary because I feel like it's weakening our ability to be a clear and strong voice for what's right.

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    1. Very well said.

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    2. I worry that we're ignorantly fueling the fire...of ignorance. :)

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  23. Feeling sad about Bill Paxton and wanted to watch something with him. I put Twister on because my son is way into tornadoes and I thought he might dig it. I immediately am reminded that I really, really don't like Twister and that it is an impossibly stupid movie.

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    1. You're totally understating how stupid it is. I still find it highly watchable though. I think I'll throw on Frailty tonight instead. RIP Bill Paxton.

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    2. Weird Science or Near Dark is my move. Love his secondary performances.

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    3. It really is quite bad, even a mostly charming Bill Paxton can't save it. I put on Apollo 13 when I heard. Not his biggest performance, but probably my favorite of the ensemble. I'm watching True Lies now (I like it much more than a lot of people), and Paxton plays one of the best cinematic sleaze balls I've ever seen. I love it.

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    4. A few weeks ago Marc Maron posted an interview with Bill Paxton. It starts 25:16 minutes into the podcast.

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    5. Well, after this weeks podcast I'm thinking it has to be Titanic! Plus, a bit of Nucci makes everything better...well not better, but in current light very entertaining. Now if they incorporated a potentially lethal smokestack at the Oscars I'd be watching that tonight.

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  24. "Get Out" was fantastic and also an important film for black horror filmmakers. Even the comedic balances were done beautifully and the didn't mess up the tone of the film.

    Speaking of comedy - 90% of the audience was cracking up to the trailers for "Set It Off II: The Hangover" and and "Notorious B.I.G's Greatest Hits: Beach Edition" and I was pleasantly reminded how dumb people are. But hey, at least they paid to see Get Out.

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  25. Forgot to mention that "The Girl With All the Gifts" was finally released this weekend. Trust me when I say that it's a breath of fresh air in a sea of Zombie genre mediocrity. I don't think anyone will be disappointed with this flick and it's well worth seeing. I would say it's the best "Zombie" film I've seen in a long, long time - and I am dead tired of the genre.

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    1. Should have said "as Patrick mentioned" - my bad!

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  26. I saw Girlfriend's Day on Netflix. It circles around being pretty enjoyable, but it is too slight and scattered to really get there. I think its trying to be darkly comic but is more weirdly amusing.

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  27. Setting things up for a film festival at my work and got to see a couple things so far, one of which I enjoyed quite a bit and will try to go into more detail with next week.

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  28. Yes!

    I just got the new Chaybee album
    I got stuck a little with the un zip file via android but I'm onnit now, looking forward to listening tonight

    I hope you sell loads, I bought the downloaded mp3 but that vinyl does look amazing too, a piece of art

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    1. Thanks so much, Dennis! Hope you dig it man! If you have any mp3 issues just PM Me on Facebook and I'll work it out.

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    2. Cheers, all sorted, I just needed a unzip program for android, ill be giving it a blast tonight pal

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