Saturday, August 4, 2018

Weekend Open Thread

Many of us are at Flashback this weekend. What are you all up to?

31 comments:

  1. Good weekend to all of you. It is hard to believe that August has arrived now. My father told me that years go by faster as you get older, which I am finding to be true.

    In August, Turner Classic Movies devotes a single day to one actor, and it happened that Lionel Atwill was the featured yesterday. I caught a couple of his films: DOCTOR X from 1932 and THE VAMPIRE BAT from 1933. Doctor X is a wild film for its era, and it has the distinction of being a rare two-strip Technicolor production. The restored version of The Vampire Bat is as beautiful as J.B. wrote it was. Both are well worth seeking out for October or any other month.

    There were some other watches during the week, as well.

    COUNT DRACULA (1970, dir. Jess Franco) – I give credit to Franco for attempting to adapt Bram Stoker’s novel. The problem is that he did not seem to have an understanding of the gothic sensibility. The film lacks atmosphere, especially in the first half. Christopher Lee portraying the Count cannot overcome that shortcoming. The cast is at least full of familiar faces of 1960s and ‘70s European genre cinema: Lee, Klaus Kinsky, Herbert Lom, and Soledad Miranda. Despite not being a complete waste of time, Count Dracula is not worth going out of your way to see. The Hammer films will be more rewarding.

    LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET (1972, dir. Roger Watkins) – A man just released from prison has the great idea of filming real-life torture and murder and selling it as entertainment. With a group of crazy friends around, he undertakes his project. An ultra low-budget effort that was release five years after its completion, DEAD END STREET is surprisingly effective. Despite the gore being of the dated H.G. Lewis type, the mean-spirited violence is frequently unnerving, enhanced by some very evocative cinematography and editing. It is a genuine underground film.

    BLOOD (1974, dir. Andy Milligan) – After enjoying Guru the Mad Monk at the drive-in last weekend, I wanted to see another of Milligan’s horror productions. Blood concerns a married couple, who happen to be a werewolf and a vampire, with a household of odd servants. This is a mishmash of random horror elements filmed in Milligan’s distinctive low-rent aesthetic. While his films are an acquired taste, Milligan was at least able to put together narratives that flow well. The clothes he made for his films- Milligan was a dressmaker by profession- are usually interesting.

    DAMNATION ALLEY (1977) – Following a nuclear war, military survivors set out on a journey across the United States in a specialized all-terrain vehicle to find other survivors. Although Damnation Alley is nothing special, it is a good 90 minutes of B-movie escapism. The cast, which features George Peppard, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Paul Winfield, is strong. The pacing of the film is leisurely in that 1970s way, but it benefits from relatively swift changes of location and story.



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    1. I hope everyone at the Flashback convention has fun.

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  2. Saw "Infinity War" and couldn't wait for it to end.

    Watched "Applecart" a.k.a "Dead Night" (pathetic title change) and never wanted it to end. Great film!

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    1. You know I liked Infinity War in the moment, but I really don't think I'll ever watch it again. A lot of Marvel movies, especially the ones built around action, are kind of a tedious rewatch.

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    2. I’m 100% with you Chaybee Infinity War was BRUTAL. Clearly these movies aren’t for me though and I need to stop seeing them.

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    3. I hear you both. I will say that I'm not a very good judge of these type of movies though. I am absolutely uninvested in them (both Marvel and DC) and really don't enjoy them that much. There are a few exceptions, for sure. Still, I've seen them all.

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    4. Which are the exceptions? I usually don't like these movies either and I wonder if there are any out there for me.

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    5. I think both Guardians movies are pretty good, and I really liked Thor: Ragnarok a lot. I think what sets these apart, especially Guardians, is the movie is built around fun characters, where Infinity War is more built around a final confrontation. I like most Marvel movies, but most of them are one and done for me.

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    6. I enjoy most Marvel movies but found Infinity War an incredibly boring sit. The very first scene is terrible on every level and it only improves mildly from there. It appears to have gotten a free pass from most based on simply juggling a lot of characters. I loved Winter Soldier and didn't mind Civil War but IW is (as put beautifully above) 'brutal'.

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  3. DC: Oddly enough, I really liked Man of Steel. I like Batman Begins and Dark Knight also if you count those.

    Marvel: I love Winter Soldier, like I really like that film even if it wasn't part of the franchise, If you count Punisher: War Zone, I love that flick too. I liked Ironman quite a bit, I had a ton of fun with Thor: Ragnorak and Guardians 1 (hated 2). I also liked Deadpool for some reason (haven't seen 2) and X-2 I liked though it's been a long time since I've seen it.

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    1. Thanks! Ok now I am genuinely curious about these and want to see them.

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  4. So I just stumbled across an article about another Terminator being made, only this one will be a direct sequel to Judgement Day, and will ignore everything else. Of course, we are about 2 months away from a Halloween movie that will ignore everything after 1. And about a month ago it was announced that there will be another Robocop movie that will ignore everything after the first. And I think Shane Blacks upcoming Predator will ignore everything past the first as well.

    What is this? Is this a good idea? It kind of feels like the next step in grown-up nostalgia. A bunch of people with hindsight producing big budget fan films to their favorite movies. I get that sometimes there's no way around it (Halloween has the most fucked up continuity this side of the X-Men). Does this annoy anyone else or am I just being a dickhead?

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    1. It seems like this is more about milking a little more money out of well-known properties than catering to nostalgia.

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    2. I guess it’s just the new in line term after “rebooting” or “reimagining”. It kinda bugs me w/ Halloween but not the others you mentioned

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    3. It is a little annoying. It seems like they’re making franchise films for lazy people who can’t be bothered to watch the other films in the series. Whatever. I get it.

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  5. COOGAN'S BLUFF (1968)- The first collaboration between Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel is a peculiar merging of the western and urban cop drama. The Eastwood persona is actively taking shape in it. In many ways it feels like a warm-up to Dirty Harry. The politics of Coogan's Bluff would be problematic today, particularly the depiction of women.

    I just saw that Clint Eastwood is 88. Wow.

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    1. I went to a gun range yesterday, and when we got to the 357 Magnum i really want to say the line from Dirty Harry. I didn't, because once i got the gun in my hands i was more concerned by NOT shooting myself in the foot

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  6. I have this sickness where I feel the need to watch all of Netflix's original movie releases. An interesting thing I've noted doing this is that most of their movies are bad. This weekend I saw Tau, The Titan, Brain of Fire and Duck, Duck, Goose. All of these movies are bad and you shouldn't watch them.

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    1. I agree. Netflix is turning into one giant Red Box. They are all about quantity not quality. Building a huge library of junk before all the studios have their own streaming service.

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    2. This goes for every single major studio. Just look at Warner Brothers' track record for the last 5 years. I actually liked Tau and watched Extinction this weekend, thought it was fine for what it was.

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    3. I liked Tau better when it was Ex Machina. (It is easily the best movie I listed)

      I don't know if it is Netflix puts out worse movies than any other studio or just that I watch Netflix movies I would normally skip because they are free.* I do think they had better stuff last year, when we got I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore and Okja. This year the best movie Netflix has released is ... The Polka King? One of the horror movies I haven't watched because I don't really do horror?


      *I know they aren't actually free.

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    4. I liked Tau better than Ex Machina, haha :) IDFAHITWA was my fav film of last year (it also won the grand jury prize at Sundance 2017 which leads me to believe Netflix scooped up the distro and it wasn't a "Netflix original"). I would say this has been a down year for them though, for sure. Again, every studio goes through it.

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  7. last friday i went to the used dvd store and found the Iron Man 2-disc blu-ray edition (only 8$). what's special about that one (as mentionned by Heath Holland on one of his thrift store haul on his great youtube channel) is that the second disc contain a 110 minutes making-of documentary. what's great about watching it in 2018 is how unsure everybody was back then about the whole thing. then slowly dawning on them that hey made something special as release date approach and comments on the movie comes in. it's great, try to find it and watch it.

    and this morning i watched Taxi. not the crappy thing with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon (please get it out of my brain), but the original french movie from 1998. i love that movie. i've seen it at least 10 times over the years. the whole movie is supported by a great hip-hop soundtrack. and the final chase is great. also features Marion Cotillard way back when she was unknown to anybody outside France.

    then i watched Draft Day, because the blu-ray was 5$ and Adam Risky keeps talking about it. i've seen it before, when it came out, and i thought it was worth 5$.

    now i'm watching The Quick And The Dead because of JB's article 2 weeks ago. right after reading it, i tried to resist, but on my way to work my fingers opened the amazon app and next thing i knew, 10$ was charged to my credit card.

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  8. So I learned that Alejandra and I share a birthday this weekend so that's cool! For my birthday I decided to commit gimmick theft and steal Patrick's idea for programming a movie fest. I wanted to program movies I love that my wife has never seen. It was a good excuse to introduce her to some movies that I really enjoy.
    Here's the lineup:
    Kamen Rider OOO, Den-O and All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Rider- This was the 40th anniversary Kamen Rider movie. I love, love, love tokusatsu movies and series, and this one is one of my favorites.

    Brotherhood of the Wolf-This is one of the craziest, coolest genre mashups out there. It's tailor-made for the FTM crowd. A French monster, horror, romance, martial arts mix. What's not to love?

    Double Impact- No fest I program will be lacking in JCVD. This is one of his under-appreciated flicks. It gets some recognition as the silly movie where Van-Damme plays twins, but watching it this time I realized his performance(s) in this movie are really great. He creates two completely distinct characters, down to their fighting styles. If you haven't seen this one in awhile check it out.

    Se7en- Somehow my wife had never seen this. Not much to say, other than it's still really effective and still hits like a gut punch.

    BASEketball- Had to do a complete 180 after the last film. One of my all-time favorite comedies, I was worried it wouldn't hold up since I hadn't seen it in years. Nope, still made me laugh my ass off.

    Summer Wars- I'm not the biggest anime guy, but this 2010 film is a goddamn delight. A combination of family drama, comedy of manners, and high concept action, it's guaranteed to leave you in a better mood than you were in when you started watching.

    So all in all a successful fest. My wife and friends loved all the movies. Can't ask for more than that.

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    1. Brotherhood Of The Wolk was really not well received when it came out. Everybody hated it. Never crossed my mind to revisit it. But now, i'm curious how it aged

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    2. Brotherhood of the Wolf was a sleeper in the US. I loved it and it introduced me to Monica Bellucci (even though she was in Copolla's Dracula in '92 but didn't notice) so I'm forever grateful. :)

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    3. I loved Brotherhood of the Wolf when I saw it when back in the day. It was so many different movies in one. It was fun. I wonder too what it would play like now.

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    4. I was so excited for Brotherhood in 2000 that I imported the French DVD before it was released in the US. Hadn't watched it for 10 years or so. It holds up really well. My complaints are the same as when it was released, which is that it's too long and poorly paced. Bellucci, Dacascos, Cassel, and some wicked awesome action scenes still make it totally worth watching thought.

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  9. I haven’t watched too many movies this week. Busy week with work. I did purchase the recent Criterion editions of The Silence of the Lambs and Bull Durham. So I watched them back to back. Definitely a strange back to back.

    The Silence of the Lambs - Silence is still the most un-nerving police procedural of all time. Great work obviously from Demme, Foster, and Hopkins. Super under-rated work from Scott Glenn and Ted Levine. Levine’s turn as the disturbed Jame Gumb is overlooked by the Monster Lector. Howard Shore’s score add so much to the movie, he would do the same for Fincher’s Seven. Lastly, I love the ending to Silence. It’s such a great fuck you ending for what Starling just got through.

    Bull Durham - It is still one of the best date movies ever. Baseball for the guys, a great grownup love story for the ladies. The movie is still super quotable and really funny. Costner is at his best as the on his last chance, I don’t give too much of a fuck anymore guy. Sarandon has never been hotter and she is in complete control of the movie. Without her, the movie wouldn’t work the same. Robbins is a blast as the dumb prospect with a million dollar arm. They don’t make movirs like this anymore.

    Lastly, I bought a 2 VHS pack of Terminator 1 and Terminator. I watched T2 the theatrical cut. I haven’t watched this version in awhile. I forgot how relentless the movie gets once they get to Joe Morton. Too bad Cameron only make Avatars now.

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  10. the last XTRO blu-ray release is the gift that keeps on giving. amazon.co.uk is reimbursing me the importing fees to the amount of almost 5$ canadian.

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