Saturday, September 15, 2018

Weekend Open Thread

Not all this weekend's new releases are disappointing.

28 comments:

  1. I caught Revenge on Shudder and BOY HOWDY, Patrick, your review from back in May or so was spot on. This thing is sticking in my head and I really, really want more people to see this and realize how we have major new director and actor talents on the scene.

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    1. Top 10 of the year. Amazing debut from the director.

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  2. This weekend i’m embarking in an adventure that will test my patience, my intellect. Heck, my core being will be tested. This weekend I’m watching the entire Twilight Saga. Pray for me.

    First of all, I don’t care about Kristen Stewart. I know she has a lot of fans around here, but I’m not one of them.

    I started Friday night with the first movie, Twilight. I have to say I don’t hate it. Though, you will never hear me say that it’s a good movie. The dialogues are awkward, I don’t care about the main actors, the directing and editing are weird and it’s a bit too long. But Anna Kendrick is there, so it’s fine. What I liked are the people that populate the world. Bella gets to a new school and nobody is a dick to her just because she’s new. I fully expected to see a Mean Girl situation. Another thing I expected is Bella to be a pouty teenager, angry at her dad. She is really not that. She’s a bit awkward around him, but that’s arguably because she doesn’t have that much of a relationship with him prior to her moving with him.

    I’m sure things will deteriorate as I push forward, but I have to do it. I have to know what it’s all about.

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    1. Twilight 2 is done. it's better than i expected, now that we're done with the falling in love and stuff. this one is better directed and i was actually into the whole love triangle thing. still crappy dialogues and wooden acting, but hey, you can't have everything all the time

      Twilight 3 is also done. more of the same from the second movie, but with a more boring story. nothing happen for almost the entire movie.

      part 4 and 5 tomorrow, i have to take a break from this.

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    2. Is this a cry for help? Should we be worried about you? What made you want to do this?

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    3. You are braver than I. I have only seen snippets of the films on television. The flat acting by itself was enough to discourage me from continuing.

      Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Twilight films is that they go back almost a decade. Time inexorably moves on. Heck, the first Harry Potter films are closing in on twenty years.

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    4. All right, it's over and i survived.

      Nothing much happen in Twilight 4. They get married, they go on honeymoon, she gets pregnant, gets sick, the baby pop out and everybody is happy

      Twilight 5 has a bit more happening. The writing should be better considering all that's going on, but it was expected. The final battle is the worst i've ever seen, but has a somewhat clever plot twist at the end that i didn't hate

      I'll be honest here, the movies are not as bad as we were told. Though, they're not masterpieces, far from it. But i'm sure at the time it was a game 'let's shit on it because it's popular'. The writing is not always good, the acting is wooden at best (but martin sheen is chewing the scenery like there's not tomorrow), the cgi baby is weird and the imprinting thing is the creepiest thing evee. The directing and editing got a lot better since the first movie, so that helped.

      All in all, not great, but not that bad either. A nice romance that starts weird and finish with the happiest ending ever. I'll never watch them again, but at least now i know what the movies are.

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  3. Good weekend to everyone.

    It was a week of diverse films.

    SHIN GODZILLA (2016) – Considering how the story starts, I am surprised by how involved I became with the film. Japanese government meetings in real life are probably not as suspenseful as they are here. I detected a satirical element to that part of the story, particularly with the references to the Fukushima disaster. The disaster aspect of Shin Godzilla is probable its greatest strength. The action was a lot more mean-spirited than I expected. I am glad I watched it, but it has not converted me into a kaiju fan.

    VIVA (2007, dir. Anna Biller) – I am flabbergasted! A sexploitation homage/pastiche from the 21st century and directed by a woman. Even with all of its flaws, the sexploitation genre has brought a lot of fun into my cinematic diet over the past decade. My familiarity with it (bad acting, nudists, swingers, etc.) undoubtedly contributed to my enjoyment of Viva. While it is a self-aware film, it never makes fun of what is an easy genre to laugh at. Biller literally did everything for Viva, including the songs.

    CAMILLE 2000 (1969, dir. Radley Metzger) – Watching Viva inspired me to catch up with this vintage piece of erotic cinema. It is a very 1960s version of a 19th-Century melodrama. (La Traviata is based on the same story.) Of all of Metzger’s films I have seen, this is the most visually sumptuous. The Italian locations are gorgeous. The use of mirrors in the love scenes is also very striking. Anna Biller directly references those mirror shots in Viva. A couple tracks in Viva also come from Camille 2000’s soundtrack. The Piero Piccioni soundtrack is fantastic.

    STAR SLAMMER (1985, dir. Fred Olen Ray) – Although best described as a trashy ‘80s sci-fi women-in-prison film, there are references to other genres in it. Star Slammer has a strong B-movie charm that hits all the beats you would expect with this type of film. I was smiling all the way through it; it is fun schlock.

    I am making my way through Breakin', which was the main feature on TCM Underground this morning. (I am so delighted Turner Classic Movies went down the cult cinema rabbit hole.) When I started to get tired, I recorded it for later. With all the break dancing in the film, it has an appropriate title.

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    1. Breakin' and Breakin' 2 are fantastic. Make me fall in love with Lucinda Dickey. Big time crush on Special K as a kid and when she showed up in Cheerleader Camp and Ninja III, I was in heaven haha.

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    2. Shin Godzilla is fantastic. I think the satirical element is the best part

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    3. Loved Shin Godzilla too. so much fun.

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    4. Shin Godzilla is the greatest Godzilla movie ever made. Yes, I’ve seen them all.

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    5. I finished Breakin' this morning and threw in Gymkata for a mid-80s double feature.

      Breakin' was more fun than anticipated. The energy of the film is still potent after three decades. The final dance number was a great way to end the film. It is easy to understand having a crush on Lucinda Dickey.

      Gymkata is a strange film. Gymnastics, martial arts, sword and sandal action, international intrigue and a Most Dangerous Game plot randomly thrown together. It really does not gel together well. Some of the scenes were at least interesting, like the pommel horse fight with the crazy villagers.

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    6. Shin Godzilla has not altered the standing of the original Gojira as my favorite in the series, but it does come a close second. I find it interesting that they both comment on the events of the times they were made in.

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  4. So...The Predator. (Minors spoilers in the upcoming rant) I wasn't terribly excited for it cause I didn't like the trailers, but I'll see anything Predator. And, whew. I laughed quite a few times, but I thought the story was insultingly bad. Olivia Munn is cast well as a scientist, but woefully miscast as an action heroine. The rest of the cast does well, in spite of the script. The editing is really poor too, important characters are sometimes dispatched so quickly (like, half second shots) that I couldn't tell what had happened. But like I said earlier, the real culprit seems to be the script. I hate to feel this way, because I love Shane Black and Fred Dekker, but my god. It sometimes has really corny stuff (like subtitled Predators) but it's all surrounded by really grisly violence. Like, it takes advantage of its R rating with graphic violence, but has a plot better suited for PG-13. Patrick tweeted out that Predators was still the 2nd best Predator movie, I'll go as far to say that Predator 2 is still the 3rd best. This one is still probably better than the AvP movies, but not by much.

    Anyway, I watched Murder Party too and that's a lot of fun, so...

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    1. It sucks that The Predator is not good. I've loved everything Shane Black directed so far. But seeing the trailers, i knew it would be not very good

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  5. Finally saw MI: Fallout. Meh. I'm a huge fan of the franchise and was kind of let down. The Cruise/Cavill final "battle" was straight up Temple of Doom lite. My order now is: 4, 3, 5, 1, 6, 2.

    Watched Mandy. Top ten of the year. Cosmatos is 2 for 2 in 8 years which is nuts.

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  6. Did you know there’s a 10 hour long crime movie starring Ewan McGregor in a dual role? It’s called Fargo Season 3 and it is amazing. Fargo, True Detective, Twin Peaks the Return, etc. are blurring the line between movies and TV and should not be missed. Highly recommended.

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    1. Fargo Season 3 is underrated. I personally like Season 2 better (it is a perfect modern western) but there is tons and tons of good stuff in the third season. The biggest problem with it is that Carrie Coon has kind of a cold presence on screen. She is a great actress, I couldn't really root for her like I did with the Solversons in the first two seasons. McGregor is great, but neither character he plays is particularly likable. That leaves kind of a void in the early parts of the show, before you can get a good read on Winstead's Swango and realize that she is great.

      I rewatched it recently. The first time I absolutely believed that Coon was telling the truth at the end. I don't have that faith anymore.

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  7. I rented Slice and Mandy yesterday.

    Slice was fine. I wanted to like it more than I did because of the premise and Zazie Beetz, but it just really didn't come together at all.

    Like a lot of other people have been saying online, Mandy is amazing. I'll be picking the blu-ray up when it drops. Don't want to say a single other thing about it since there's probably a lot of people here who haven't seen it yet.

    Picked up The Caine Mutiny on my dad's recommendation and watched it with him. It's really good, and José Ferrer manages to steal the show despite only really being in the last 1/3 or so of the movie.

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    1. My father introduced me to many films in my youth. I especially remember watching The Great Escape and The Wild Bunch with him.

      Watching movies was a common activity while visiting my father on weekends as a kid. There were numerous video stores I went to with him throughout those years. When he had HBO in the late 1980s, we watched a lot of the action films of the period. That was the time when new films got a run on cable before being released on home video. It is now amazing to think about having to wait close to a year after a theatrical release to rent a film.

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  8. Ran into JB at Son of Monsterpalooza and it made my day. Can't wait for Jan's book!

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  9. I saw Operation Finale, which is good but feels like it should be better. I liked it. Oscar Isaac is great. So are Kingsley and Laurent. I can't really describe it, but it feels like there are some missed connections keeping it from being more than good.

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  10. Jeff, it was great to meet you. I have always said that only the BEST people listen to F This Movie

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  11. Guys, see The Dressmaker! Better yet, tell your wives and girlfriends about it :)

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    1. I'm a dude and Dressmaker is awesome. It's a gunslinger movie with fabulous threads.

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    2. I’m happy to hear you like it!!!

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