Saturday, April 15, 2017

Weekend Open Thread

Something something family, something something Corona.

I'm sick as hell this weekend. What are you all seeing/doing/talking about?

90 comments:

  1. I hope you fell better PB. Can't make it to Fast this weekend but I'll grind a tuna on white, no crust, cuz you know I hongry.

    Watched House 1&2 blu's this week and I'm thinking I need to walk away from the 80's for a time. They were packed full of 80's greatness but I may just be over nostalgia for a bit. Gandalf, please let me pass.

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  2. I hope you feel better Patrick!

    Like most everyone else, I suspect, I'll be seeing F8 today. I am expecting the same dumb fun I get from all of the movies!

    Also, I've been going back and forth in my mind with a movie-related moral quandary. Let's say a movie is released one year in a particular country but then isn't able to be widely seen in America until the following year. However, when I do finally see that movie I end up loving it. Is it right for said movie to be in contention for my favorite movies of 2017, even though it technically came out last year in another country? These are the dumb arguments I have with myself.

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    1. I go through the same, John. I saw "Blackcoat's Daughter" last year and put it on my list but suppose it will show up on a lot of lists this year. I think I've come to the conclusion that there is no definitive answer. "Blackcoat's" is a great example because technically that film is from 2015. So what's right? Should that now be in my favorites of 2015? I don't think so. I would say anything reasonable is acceptable. Like if you were in Canada and you saw a film this year that won't hit the US until 2018 I think it's perfectly acceptable to put it on your 2017 list. Shit, the Oscars nominate films that no one has the opportunity to see! Didn't one of the movies that won not hit theaters till the year after it's release? Also, I think festivals are fair game. If you see a movie at a festival, you can include it as well. F-it - just do whatever you feel is right :)

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    3. Lots of good points here. The film I'm talking about is Your Name, and I think it technically saw a brief Oscar-qualifying run last year in California, but I wasn't able to get to that, living on the other side of the country. But you're right, I think ultimately it's a "do whatever feels right" scenario. For me, potentially including it this year, assuming it stays in high esteem for me and nothing kicks it out of the top 10, feels right! Thanks for your perspective, Chaybee! I appreciate it! :)

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    4. You can have your own silly list all by yourself, Chaybee;)

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    5. At the rate things are going with the crap I've seen so far this year, I might fuck around and put Blackcoat's on this years list too. Crazyness!! :P

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    6. A lot of what I'm excited for is still yet to come. There are some contenders I've already seen in Logan, Your Name, and Get Out, but there's still a crap ton of potential greatness on the horizon as well. I'm particularly pulling hard for War for the Planet of the Apes, Baby Driver and Star Wars.

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    7. To me it makes sense to make your list based on whatever country you live in. If it got released in 2016 where you live, then put it on your 2016 list.

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    8. Agreed, Daniel. :) I think that's the best way to go about it. It's just something I'd been pondering lately.

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    9. I prefer to go off American dates, otherwise my list seems so weird compared to all the ones I'm reading, but that means I can't really finish it until early March ahahah Oh well

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    10. As someone who put Your Name on their Best of 2016 list, I think you're completely fine to put it on your 2017 list. At the time I wasn't sure if it was getting an American release and I really really wanted to talk about it, so I put it on my list.

      Ultimately, if you are enthusiastic enough about a movie and it technically can be put on an (admittedly arbitrary) list, put it on the list! I reckon you should take any chance to talk about movie you love. (Also, Your Name is great!)

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  3. Haven't had a chance to watch much this week, as I've been travelling for work and pretty much working non-stop. However, I did get a chance to watch the Handmaiden last night, per Patrick's recommendation. 2 words....in, credible. The run time can seem intimidating, but I think anyone with Amazon Prime should watch it. Park Chan-wook is on the short list of directors who's name alone is enough to make me watch.

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  4. I took my kiddo to the Androids and Alien Worlds exhibit that's been making its way around the country. Long story short, he's just as into Gort and Robbie as C3P0 and R2. So now we're watching A New Hope for the first time while he demands google image searches of his other faves. Good stuff.

    Feel better Patrick!

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  5. Manhunter (1986)

    Brian Cox as Hannibal Lector is pretty interesting.

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    1. Interesting QCP? What about Tom Noonan as Francis Dollarhyde? Truly one of the most memorable performances in one of my favorite movies of all time. He gets you to love, hate, pity, and sometimes root for him.

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    2. Between Manhunter and To Live and Die in LA it bums me out that we didn't get to see William Peterson more in his all his 80's glory.

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  6. for my weekly saturday night movies with my friend, we're watching

    Elle and Popstar. 2 very different movies, but both very good movies.

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  7. Starcrash is getting the MST3K treatment! On Netflix now!

    Speaking of the new MST3K episodes, Cry Wilderness is batcrap crazy.

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    1. Cry Wilderness is my fave so far. Bonkers!

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    2. Meh. I love Starcrash (my fav movie from Junesploitation last year), but not a big fan of MST3K. I find them more annoying and distracting than funny. Just a personal preference.

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    3. I love everything about MST except the riffing. The low rent production aesthetic, the sleepy attitude, the sheer volume of information that an episode contains (there're probably a lot of 40s and 50s era character actors lots of 30-somethings would never have heard of if not for MST references), and it gave important exposure to lots of great movies we might not hold so dear today if they hadn't been featured. That restored Synapse Manos bluray sure would be sitting on my shelf if MST never existed. You gotta take the bad with the good.

      Speaking of which, I've been plowing through Scream Factory releases I hadn't watched before after the past week (about 20 of em so far.) The label's released plenty of high-profile, indisputable classics (Carpenter's filmography, pretty much anything with new custom artwork,) but, boy, do they have a ton of stinkers, too. (Jaws of Satan, Jack's Back, and Supernova all really stood out as masterpieces of crap. Geez, all three are so bad, that I'm starting to like them more the more I'm thinking about them. This loving b-movies jazz is a dangerous game!)

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    4. Oh, and this neo-MST3K think is pathetic. Put Patton Oswalt and Felicia Day in anything together, whether the new Charlie Kaufman or Martin Scorsese picture, and you've got a hell of a lot of splainin to do before I believe whatever it it isn't the work of Satan himself.

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  8. Watched a few comedies this week. Spy was really funny, probably the funniest new-for-me movie I've seen this year (either that or Daddy's Home, although I'm hoping Captain Underpants will rise to the top). The Heat was pretty good too. Forgetting Sarah Marshall had a few laughs, but Jason Segel's whole "I'm a loser" shtick got annoying pretty quick.

    Watched Equilibrium which was...okay. The fight scenes near the end were ridiculous. Also, the villains were clearly showing happiness when they caught our hero, and angry when he foiled them. (no one was supposed to have emotion anymore, which admittedly is boring on screen).

    Watched Close Range which had Scott Adkins being awesome, and everything else about it utterly pathetically terrible/sub-standard. Does anyone have any Adkins movies to recommend (other than Day Of Reckoning)? I read that Undisputed III is good.

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    1. I would watch Ninja and especially Ninja II (or Ninja: Shadow of a Tear). Those are prime Adkins. And yes, his Boyka movies are decent, though I'm not super into fight competition movies.

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    2. Thanks Patrick! Will check those out.

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  9. I just watched episode one of the new series ('season' in Americo-English. Honestly, what you people have done to the language of Shakespeare and Charles Dickens) of Doctor Who. It was... fine. The first half was better than the second. I'm still not sure about Matt Lucas as Nardole. He's not an actor, and it shows in his interactions with Peter Capaldi and newcomer Pearl Mackie, who was really good, I thought. I'll be glad to see the back of Moffat, but not Capaldi.

    I listened to the F This Movie! cast in which Patrick and Heather Wixson talked about their favourite horror movies of 2014 a couple of days ago. I listened to it a couple of days ago, I mean; they recorded it in January of 2015, I think. They spoke highly about two movies I haven't seen called Witching and Bitching and WolfCop, so Imma watch them now. Not at the same time; that would be silly, and I'm not Spock at the start of Star Trek VI: The Voyage Home.

    I also saw something called The Discovery, starring Robert Redford. It wasn't what I was expecting.

    I hope Patrick is feeling better.

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  10. I've had almost no time for movies lately (tears) but I've got a chill weekend right now so I finally watched 'The Eyes of my Mother'. Folks, it knocked my socks off. I can't believe how it was able to constantly up the stakes on how horrifying it could get. So artistic. So well made. So disturbing. I adored it.

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    1. When my friends are talking about how "dark" the Last Jedi trailer is and I just watched The Eyes of my Mother...

      Oh please....

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  11. Been focusing more on hockey (my team's in the finals!) and work than movies lately, but The 'Burbs was hella fun!

    And I bought an American Blu-ray player so I could watch Region A discs (much cheaper than getting a region free player). Scream Factory, Twilight Time, Grindhouse Releasing and Criterion, here I come! Already ordered the most important movie that's not available in Europe, Sleepaway Camp.

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    1. well, you have already access to the Arrow UK releases. and they release A LOT of great stuff

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    2. Tappara or KalPa? Our playoffs are just beginning. Hometown team won in OT today! I made the right choice to watch hockey instead of Rocky First Blood: Part 2

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    3. Tappara is my team, they won last year and they're in the finals for the fifth time in a row! Aleksander Barkov and Patrik Laine are from Tappara, for those who follow the NHL.

      Oh right, this is a movie site. So... how about those movies, huh?

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    4. Laine is awesome (Barkov too) and is on my favorite NHL team!

      Back to movies. From the very early days, in the long long ago, Patrick wrote a little article about hockey movies

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  12. After watching it recently, I'm wondering what most people think of Slumdog Millionaire now that it's around 9 years old. I think the story is a great concept, the performances are good, and it has the flair you'd expect with Danny Boyle, but it just seems weird to think "this movie won Best Picture".

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    1. That goes for the majority of best pictures.

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    2. I still love Slumdog Millionaire. The only thing that seems weird to be is that Boyle typically doesn't make movies that fall in the Academy Award's wheelhouse, so was maybe a little odd to see him release something that was very much a Danny Boyle film, but at the same time it was also something that was an Oscar kinda movie.

      In my opinion, the only competition Slumdog Millionaire should have had was The Wrestler.

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    3. Agree on Slumdog Millionaire!

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  13. Any of the F This Movie crew going to be at Ebertfest this week?

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  14. Saw on IMDB that Clifton James aka Sheriff J.W. Pepper passed away. I have to admit, one of my first thoughts was wondering what the Fast & Furious movies would be like if all the car stunts were accompanied by a slide whistle.

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    1. Also I was thrilled to see that Fede Álvarez is making a new Labyrinth movie (and not a sequel, reboot, or remake). Honestly he could have announced anything and I'd have been excited about it but I could see him doing a real interesting take on Labyrinth.

      Also I watched One More Time with Feeling about Nick Cave making his most recent album in the wake of the passing of one of his sons. I didn't realize it was on Prime until I happened across it while scrolling through stuff. Nick Cave wasn't the most cheerful of guys to begin with so it's really not easy at times to watch him work through his emotions here but I really respect him for allowing this to get made. The director maybe interjects himself into things more than I'd like but to be fair it did often seem necessary in order to draw Cave out a bit. It almost feels beside the point to mention the music, but as a Nick Cave fan some of it is pretty great.

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    2. Also I just got around to watching Hollow Gate which Chaybee mentioned a month or so back. In some respects it reminded me of a low(er) budget Blood Rage which isn't a bad thing.

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    3. I hope the Labyrinth remake goes full Muppet, not full Jar Jar.

      Sad about Sheriff Pepper.

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    4. That's too bad. If I'd known that it might have made The Man with the Golden Gun easier to get through. As is, I watched almost all of it but turned it off with about 20 minutes to go. Now I feel terrible. Though I think I did see all the parts with Sherrif Pepper, who is definitely NOT the worst thing about that movie, as a lot of people claim. For me that award goes to Roger Moore physically abusing Maud Adams and then pushing a lovable kid out of a boat to make it go faster.

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    5. Food for thought for all you Fast and the Furious fans: Clifton James's portrayal of Sheriff J.W. Pepper in the two Bond movies is seen by Hal Needham, who goes on to direct Smokey and the Bandit with Jackie Gleason playing virtually the same character, one Buford T. Justice. 'Smokey' is a massive hit, basically inventing the car chase genre (or reinventing it after the Keystone Cops actually invented it in the silent era).

      Question: would the 'Fast' movies exist today were it not for Clifton James's memorable turns in those Bond films?

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  15. Any good Easter recommendations besides The Passion and Critters 2?

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    1. Rise of the Guardians has a Hugh Jackman-voiced Easter Bunny, although the film itself is set mostly at Christmas, I think (I might be conflating it with Arthur Christmas). It's pretty good. I'm with Paul, though: Life of Brian is fantastic, and may actually be my favourite film ever. A Google search reveals the existence of a horror movie called Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! With a title like that, it just has to be awesome.

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    2. The obvious choice is The Life Of Brian.

      As a kids, I seem to remember we would watch biblical "epics" such as The 10 Commandments and Ben Hur.

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    3. I'm probably totally on my own here but I friggin love Jesus Christ Superstar (the 70s one) - not a big musical fan but I love the music, not a big religion fan but I'm moved by the story - anyone else like it?

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    4. I really dig 70s Jesus Christ Superstar as well! It really blends the kitsch of Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice with its source material. Shooting on location rather than stages really works. It's just the right amount of zany energy and genuine emotion.

      Norman Jewison also did the same work on Fiddler on the Roof - another movie musical I adore.

      In terms of Easter movies, I quite like showing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when I have visitors. (Look, as long as you never do Hop. Hop can die and stay dead)

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    5. I've never seen Fiddler - I'll have to check it out!

      Ugh, we tried Hop this morning and I'm proud to say my 2.5-year-old (who has a surprisingly good attention span and will sit still and attentive through entire movies) bailed after about 15 minutes. Who is that movie supposed to be for? And I hate to single someone out to bag on but I really don't want James Marsden to be in anything.

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    6. The Good Dinosaur has an Easter connection. Dinosaurs — eggs. There isn't a lot of love for that movie, but I thought it was nice. The How to Train Your Dragon films. Dragons — eggs. I like those as well. Q: The Winged Serpent. Winged serpents — eggs. Alien, Aliens, Alien³, Alien: Resurrection. Xenomorphs — eggs. Chicken Run. Chickens — eggs.

      I want eggs.

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    7. Good call Gil, on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe!

      I love those Narnia movies. Partially because I really loved the books as a young boy. I'm still hoping they make The Silver Chair, which has been "under development" for years now, delayed by the weak box office of Voyage Of The Dawntreader (which I loved...it was my favorite of the books).

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    8. I remember loving the original Narnia movies they showed us at summer school. Do you remember the original series? I LOVED them. Watching them now, though, the costumes and special effects are almost painful to see.

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    9. I just read that there was a BBC TV series of 4 of the books. Is that what you are referring to? I've never seen those, although I'm probably going to seek them out now.
      I remember seeing an animated version of Lion Witch and the Wardrobe (we saw it at a church, which had a drive in movie showing...I think, I was young). Can't find any mention of that either.

      I should probably just read the books again. It's been years. The Voyage of the Dawntreader and The Last Battle were my favourites.

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    10. I was wrong that Voyage of the Dawntreader had a bad box office. It was mediocre in the US but worldwide did very well. Sad that for whatever reasons this series got stalled. Many of the characters, which were already in the previous movies, show up in later chapters, but the child actors are grown up now. Still possible though, merely with new actors. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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    11. Hey Paul! Just remembered I wanted to know what people thought about that Narnia series. Gosh I think I was already a little old when the series you like came out- with James Mcacoy and Tilda Swinton. I was mad that it was so CGI and missed that (yea probably BBC) old version. I'm not surprised they didn't finish your series. It doesn't seem like they do well making these children's fantasy franchises. Only Harry Potter was financially successful enough to keep making them. Anyway, some of them have really useful messages for kids so Im with you, hoping they get out there.

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  17. If Witching and Bitching is anything to go by, Spanish comedy is not subtle. I got a bit of a Kids in the Hall (which is subtle) vibe from parts of it; there are two male actors in full drag as guests at the cannibanquet, and the camera focuses on them for an inordinate amount of time even though they don't have much to do. Carolina Bang is gorgeous, and does a very interesting routine with a broomstick (there's an plausible explanation for the reason witches came to be associated with brooms here). And there is a giant CGI witch towards the end who if Russ Meyer were not dead already would probably have finished him off, although he would have died with a smile on his face. The CG on this goddess witch isn't very good, but that somehow makes it better. A Hollywood remake would remove all the charm, if charm is the right word to use about a fifty-foot woman with enormous pendulous breasts and teeth like Shane Macgowan's, from this creation.

    It's a crazy film. It's overlong, and by the final twenty minutes I was willing it to end because by then it was clear it had played all its cards. The two bickering — SPOILERS — lovestruck cops were a bit extraneous and could have been excised from the movie altogether for me, which would have made it tighter.

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  18. Besides Fate, I also saw CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS, a 1953 noir set and filmed here in Chicago. It takes some time to get going, but when it does it's a nasty little piece of everyone trying to screw everyone else over an a lead villain that backs his way into not getting caught for being a crooked cop. I liked it!

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    1. I reviewed this for the site a few years ago in a Drunk on Foolish Pleasures column. It's a terrific little noir.

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  19. This morning I watched Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. More running and less maze than the first one (which was decent).

    Summary: The Gladers are taken from The Maze by WICKED to fight The Flare, but run to The Scorch seeking The Right Arm being thwarted by The Crank along the way.

    Urg. I'm sick and on the couch. Time to throw on Rambo II. I really want to watch The Handmaiden, but I'm sure I'm falling asleep in the next 30 minutes.

    Happy Easter everybody! (except for you, Riske)

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  20. Happy Easter everyone! Watch some good stuff!

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  21. Okay that header image is really scaring me.... that's not Vin Diesel... is it? Feel like I'm missing some reference, or going crazy ahaha

    Also, saw Personal Shopper and Colossal yesterday! Did not love Colossal unfortunately, I think it went to some pretty obvious places with regards to that main thematic material, and the mechanics of the central conceit become more and more unwieldy as the film goes on. Still, Anne Hathaway is really freaking good in it, and I loved about the first third to a half.

    Personal Shopper is straight up amazing. Really a step up from Clouds of Sils Maria, there is sooo much happening in it. K Stew is amazing.

    Happy Easter everyone!

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    1. The image is from the Fast and Furious franchise spoof "Superfast!" (2015), written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. My personal recommendation is to limit your exposure to that movie to the above photo.

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    2. Thankfully unlike most of their previous efforts I don't think this one got any real theatrical release.

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  22. Re: Easter movies; don't forget Jackie Kong's The Being! And if rabbits are criteria enough, there's also the great giant rabbit monster flick The Night of the Lepus.

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    1. And finish things off with the gory short Fist of Jesus.

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    3. Or you could watch Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter! This fight scene was filmed a few blocks from where I live.
      YouTube link

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    5. Isn't "Jesus Christ, vampire hunter!" what Dracula says whenever Abraham Van Helsing rocks up at his castle?

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    6. If Dracula said the words "Jesus Christ", wouldn't his jaw explode right off of his skull?

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    7. According to Dracula 2000, our titular hero was — sighs SPOILERS for that film. I don't know how old it is; the title doesn't provide a clue and I'm too lazy to Google it, but come on, it's been around for a while — Judas Iscariot. I'm sure Judas said Jesus's name quite a few times in his life. Maybe things change when you're vampirised. Vampires seem to be like gremlins: the rules are problematic. Willow managed to fend off a fair few blood-rats in her time with a cross, and she was Jewish.

      It's nice that we can have a discussion like this on the most holy day in the Christian calendar. Happy birthday, Jesus! That's what Easter is, right? I wasn't brought up in that religion's traditions.

      No disrespect intended to Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) F-heads.

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    8. This is the level of research and attention to detail I've come to expect from the Fthismovie comments section! Thanks for clearing things up!!

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  23. SPOILERS for The Eyes of My Mother.

    I watched this for the first time tonight. It's very interesting, but to me suffers from an almost total lack of suspense. I should have been biting my nails up to the elbows, but wasn't. It's very beautifully shot, with certain scenes lit in such a way that they bring to mind The Night of the Hunter.

    I'm probably not being original here, but the movie seemed to have a major logic flaw. Neither of the two people confined in the barn over the years apparently ever tried to escape their captivity, except for Lucy at the end.

    If I were a peripatetic serial killer (and I'm not saying that I'm not) chained up very loosely and with more freedom to walk around in than I had in my first apartment and a young girl tried to surgically remove my peepers and snip my talking strings, that little lady is as dead as her momma. If my baby were kidnapped and the 'napper regularly came to feed me, she gon' get strangled with my chains, if not on the first day then in one of the subsequent three thousand or so days. We know that when one of Francisca's 'family' members tries to make a run for it, she kills them, so I think we can assume no escape from the barn was attempted by Charlie or Lucy until the final reel.

    Am I missing something? I miss things sometimes. Malls. I miss them. And Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

    I hope the cow wasn't hurt at the start and they just shoved its head up through the table or something.

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    1. I don't think there was anything to miss. That movie's bad news.

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    2. I was able to bear it. Geddit? Bad News Bea... Christ.

      I did enjoy the film. I liked the idea of a sympathetic filmic portrayal of a female Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis Nilsen or Ed Gein. I went off David Letterman a bit when Dahmer was killed in prison and Dave made a joke about his arriving in Hell.

      I'm afraid I haven't listened to the most recent episodes of The Watching Machine, Every Squirrel Adores Delicious Damsons. I don't know what Ghost in the Shell is, and I'm not a fan of Brigitte Nielsen so a podcast about Red Sorghum holds little appeal. Wait... what? I think I'm waiting until you guys settle down before I fully commit to your cast. I do like that you appear to be doing more obscure stuff, even if it's stuff I've never heard of. An American Werewolf in London is pretty obscure, right? Do that.

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    3. Thanks for the input! Going in a "watching interesting stuff at home" direction might be the plan going forward, instead of
      staying in a "seeing whatever crap's in theaters right now" place. If you like more obscure stuff over the blockbusters, there's an episode coming up soon that should make your damsons squirt all o'er the place. Beside that, I'm sitting on several episodes that I'm just being too lazy to edit, including episodes on Logan and Get Out. And as far as a regular cast falling into place: I wish! Getting regulars has been the biggest challenge since losing Andrew. Thanks for the interest and support!

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    4. Previously, I couldn't find the goddamn podcast. I was searching The Washing Machine. Got it now, for reals, and look forward to checking it out.

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  24. I recently found this video and I believe Patrick that you will appreciate it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AMg_whN3a0

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