Saturday, April 14, 2018

Weekend Open Thread

Today is for hockey mask hangovers.

36 comments:

  1. So, I'm having a pretty great week at the movies. Ready Player One was exhilirating fun, The Strangers: Prey at Night was tense, and A Quiet Place was fucking amazing!

    Tonight, the local genre festival is having a "16mm night". They're showing 1959's House on Haunted Hill, 1964's The Creeping Terror (with live music and dubbing, whatever that means) and 1973's Count Dracula's Great Love. Should be fun. (They're capping the night off with an 80's John Holmes porn movie, but I don't think I'm into seeing that. Not with a crowd anyway.)

    At home, I saw Zardoz, which I haven't really wrapped my head around yet, and rewatched Moonraker, Vacation and The Final Girls, just because.

    So what's everybody else been watching?

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    1. Zardoz is great, if you'd speak french i'd send you a great video that analyse the film, but as i said it's in french

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    2. The Creeping Terror was pretty amazing. Not the movie, but the experience.

      The movie has a weird history. No original audio track for it exists, either because it was somehow lost or because they meant to do it all in post, accounts vary. With no money to complete the movie, it was eventually made into a tv movie by the use of a narrator and cheap piano music.

      Cut to a few years ago, when a Finnish movie collector and festival organizer bought a film copy on eBay. They thought it was too terrible to show on their festival, so they commissioned new music and a Finnish translation of the narration. So now it's making rounds on genre festivals with live music (including heavy use of a theremin, of course) and live narration in Finnish.

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    3. Oh, and Count Dracula's Great Love was a pretty standard 70's European goth horror, but the story goes pretty weird towards the end, which was entertaining, especially when seen with an enthusiastic crowd. But the biggest laugh it got was during the opening credits. The film copy seemed to be heavily cropped, more on the left side of the screen than the right, and when the production company, Janus Films, came on screen, the first letter had been cropped out...

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    4. Count Dracula's Great Love is an entertaining Paul Naschy movie. He is a monster but somehow gets the ladies. Besides that weird ending you alluded to, what sticks out for me is the footage of the man falling down the stairs being repeated several times. I laughed, too.

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  2. After catching Night of the Living Dead in cinemas in the new 4K restoration, I had a fun night of Eurosleeze. I won't say much a bout NotLD, I can't say anything new about the movie except holy fucking shit it's a great movie, I was left cold the first few times I saw it but the cinema experience completely opened the film up for me. When I got home I watched Sergio Martino's Torso for the first time. The first hour was a pretty good giallo with a unique vibe but the last half hour is one of the best horror finales I've ever seen. It never really went to that next level of insanity I'm looking for in Italian exploitation. I followed that up with Lenzi's Almost Human. I was expecting a horror film but instead I got one of the most surprising and engaging crime films I've seen in a while. Drop everything and watch it, I think it might be a capital-M masterpiece.

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    1. I really, really want to see Almost Human. Code Red just put out a Blu-ray but I'm waiting to see if there's a sale or a price drop before picking it up. Your enthusiastic review is making that wait much harder.

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    2. i just ordered the UK edition blu-ray by distributor Shameless on amazon.co.uk. is about 20$us including shipping

      i'm not familiar with that particular distributor, but they have an interesting catalogue.

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  3. i got a huge tax return and i went a little crazy. i bought way too many blu-rays (enough to watch 1 a week for a year at least). also, last week podcast about Heavy Action All Star made me want to watch Trash Movies (for lack of better terms). so i had an interesting week. so among other things, i saw these:

    Passenger 57: the bad guy is the bad guy because he's bad. what else do we need other than the hero who will kick his ass. not the best movie ever, but certainly a good time to have.

    Eraser: yeah, Arny doesn't disapoint. this is just before his movies started to not be so good. not that this one is the best action movie ever, but it's another fun time.

    Out Of Time: yeah Denzel, always his charming self. this movie makes me think of Wild Things, but takes itself too seriously to be that awesome. it wraps up a little too easy at the end, everybody is happy and he gets the girls. not the best, but another one forgettable yet fun to watch.

    The Golden Child: yeah, remember when Eddie Murphy made good fun movies, this is one of them. though the movie never seem to find its rythm, but Murphy saves it by being funny and charming. Charlotte Lewis, the female lead, is also very good and beautiful and i wish she were in more good movies.

    Lowlife: good movie. kind of a lighter, shorter version of Amores Perros.

    Shot Caller: not much to say about this one, it's just very good.

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    1. Ruggero Deodato's "Dial: Help" - Charlotte Lewis at her finest and the best killer phone movie ever made.

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    2. @Chaybee, i will check it out

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    3. I got a huge amount of tax I need to pay :( It's going to be a lot of Netflix and B-movies on Youtube for the next while.

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    4. And you have the great Charles Dance as the villain in the Golden Child. He's such a great character actor.

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  4. I watched Blade Runner on 4K Blu Ray. It’s only the 2nd time I’ve seen it. Technically it might be the best movie ever made, but I can’t figure out why I don’t love it. Something about the 3rd act? Anyways, will watch Blade Runner 2049 tonight so I can finally listen to the podcast on it!

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    1. For me, it's BR2049 that i can't get into

      It's still worth viewing

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    2. I haven't upgraded to 4K just yet, but I do own the Blu-ray for Blade Runner 2049. The movie was so gorgeous Roger Deakins definitely deserved his Oscar for cinematography.

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    3. He was not my vote, but it is certainly in the top 3 of the year

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    4. Ok I watched BR2049. Really liked it. It was the best kind of sequel, very different from the original but retaining a lot of its DNA. Still need to spend some time unpacking it. Looking forward to gaining insight from Patrick and Jan on the podcast. And yes, Deakins just adds to his god status with each movie he does.

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  5. I haven't posted much lately, (but still read the open thread faithfully). A few movies I've seen are:

    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - First time watching, and it was ok. It dragged a lot in the last 3/4. I had someone tell me "I would really get it" on the 3rd or 4th viewing...but the problem wasn't understanding the timeline. I think it was just at odds of where I am romantically, so the "feels" didn't resonate at all.

    Peter Rabbit - It was a pretty good movie, and got a lot of laughs from the kids and me. Gleeson was great in it. The kids asked me at the end whether they were real rabbits. (We watched Air Bud recently which had a real dog). It's kind of amazing that we have movies now that seamlessly mix animation with the real world, and no one bats an eye anymore.

    Species (1995) - Very fun movie! I realized I must have seen it sometime before in the 90's. Maybe better than Alien?

    I'm about to start watching The Deer Hunter. I haven't seen it since the 90's either. My memory of it is a marriage that lasts the first 2.5 hours, followed by the iconic scene to end it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something!

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    1. Eternal Sunshine always hits me right in the feels. Him desperately trying to keep the memories despite their pain...whos peeling onions?!

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  6. Big thanks to JB for giving Chappaquiddick such a recommendation. I had no intentions of seeing it before, but I did today and it is an excellent film! So well done, and about so many things. HOT TAKE: Better than The Post and Darkest Hour.

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  7. My week in movies:

    The Lost World *colon* Jurassic Park, dir. Steven Spielberg (1997)

    *unpopular opinion*

    As a movie fan and certainly as a Spielberg fan I will say this; I am not the biggest fan of the first Jurassic Park, I think it is quite overrated (especially when you put it next to, for me, his masterpiece Jaws)!.. However and after a re-view this weekend I am the person who says that the sequel for all it's flaws, plot holes and moments of WTF(!), is my favourite of the series! Darker, nastier and helped by an excellent cast (ok, maybe not Vince Vaughn), some stellar set pieces and of course that score by John Williams... Possibly the most fun I've had watching it since the cinema.

    Fifty Shades Freed, dir. James Foley (2018)

    *because I will pretty much watch anything!*

    ... And partly because I have viewers O.C.D. so I've seen the other two so I have to finish the trilogy... and... This was I have to say my favourite one! Now this is not great cinema BUT I was entertained (enough), thankfully the running time is the shortest and it feels much more like a genre film with the Hyde stalker plot giving it more the feel of the erotic thriller's of the nineties... This felt more like it was directed by the James Foley who made the underrated Fear than the hack who made part. 2 of this series! Dakota Johnson again steels the acting honours and once again a bunch of good actors are seriously wasted (at least they give Rita Ora a little more to do this time!)... Sure the dialogue is naff, the "kinky" sex so vanilla (as Mark Kermode said; this isn't sexual porn, it is product porn, location porn, money porn) though I give the film a little credit for making a big reveal... (spoiler)... Butt plugs! Trash, but watchable entertaining (enough) trash!

    Ready Player One, dir. Steven Spielberg (2018)

    Well gosh darn it(!) this hit ALL the sweet spots I hoped it would and a rare film adaptation that I would say is as good (if not better) than its source material... What could have been just an explosion of pop culture references in search of a story is thankfully avoided thanks to a solid cast, very likeable characters and the deft touch of Steven Spielberg who has made his most fun film in years and is genuinely exciting, visually stunning and made me smile and laugh out loud more than I have done in quite a while at the cinema! Popcorn perfection, see it on the biggest scene you can!

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  8. Gerald's Game

    Really good, I thought, right up until the final ten minutes or so. No one cared about that Carel Struycken-looking guy (Checks Google, discovers it actually is Carel Struycken. Thought he was dead. Glad he isn't. Mr Homn lives. Yay).

    Finish when the lady escapes her restraints*, movie.

    *Spoilers for Gerald's Game: She makes it out.

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  9. Watched RAW DEAL it is awesome. It's my underrated Schwarzenegger pick.

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    1. Nice! I watched RAW DEAL this week too. I also had a great time, Arnold is so charming and likeable that I didn't even care that they save most of the action for the end.

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    2. Yep! Only thing i really didn't like was the fate of Robert Davi's character.

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  10. Patrick's recommendation tonight

    Murder Party

    First viewing

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  11. After a long week at work filing other people's taxes, I finally had a chance to settle down for a movie last night. In honor of Friday the 13th, I watched Part 2 of the franchise. I had not seen in in close to three decades. As Patrick stated in his article, Ginny is a great character. The tone of the film changes when Baghead begins stalking her. It was clear with this viewing that the killings had been heavily cut, which was a little disappointing. The "borrowings" from Bava's BAY OF BLOOD really stand out. I enjoyed Friday the 13th Part 2 for what it is.

    Thinking about Friday the 13th Part 2 today, I am struck by the absence of technology from the lives of the characters. The necessity to socialize in person, either out of a desire to or the need to avoid boredom, has altered radically in recent times.

    I only got around to one other film.


    ADDIO ZIO TOM (Italian version of Goodbye Uncle Tom) from 1971 - A cinematic artifact that tackles the issues of American racial politics in the 1960s and slavery. Italian directors Jacopetti and Prosperi, the originators of the mondo film, were never afraid of controversy, and this is probably the most controversial of their collaborations. It is a hodgepodge of contemporary footage and reenactments. The most interesting aspect of the film is that the reenactments are built around the idea of a documentary crew going back in time. The depictions of slavery are not easy to watch, yet the filmmaking is breathtaking at times. The racism behind slavery thrown directly into the viewer's face. Like their film Africa Blood and Guts, Jacopetti and Prosperi created something that will not leave you indifferent.

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  12. Need a little help from the community. Trying to find a movie I saw as a kid but don't remember the title of or really a whole lot about. It begins with monks delivering ornate scrolls of invitation to various fighters across the globe to a big kumite. I do remember one fighter acting like an actual monkey as his style. It had to be before the year 2000 because it was during the 90s when my parents were renting literally everything. I don't remember a single actor or even the character names and I've tried looking up movies that feature a fighting tournament and couldn't find it. Sorry I couldn't be more specific. Thanks if anyone can pull it out.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. could it be this?

      https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079147/

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    3. or this?

      https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078969/

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    4. Maybe "Bloodsport" (1988)?

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    5. Nah it was definitely American, not Bloodpsort for sure.

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