Saturday, February 23, 2019

Weekend Open Thread

Happy Oscar weekend!

8 comments:

  1. Finally watching Splice. For a long time i hold off watching it because of the reviews, but it's a good movie. Though it's kind of weird watching David Hewlett after 5 seasons of Stargate Atlantis

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    1. Yes, I really enjoyed it too. I am glad to see Sarah Polley having a successful career. I had a crush on her watching Road To Avonlea as a young lad!

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  2. I'm having myself a Timo Tjahjanto evening with "The Night Comes For Us", "Headshot" & "May The Devil Take You". (I still need to see "Killers"). The man knows his way around an action/suspense/horror scene. Every film he does is better than the last so I think we're one film away from this guy making a stone-cold masterpiece.

    In related news: Joe Taslim is shooting the second season of the Cinemax show "Warrior" in Cape Town, South Africa at the moment and I can attest to the fact that he is one of the nicest goddamn guys in the world. He needs to be in more movies.

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  3. My week in bullet points (all first time watched for me):

    - First Reformed is a haunting movie. If I cared about Oscars more, I'd be mad Ethan Hawke wasn't nominated.
    - Vice is gimmicky, sometimes charmingly and sometimes annoyingly.
    - Happy Death Day 2U is a bucketful of fun, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen the first one.
    - Alita: Battle Angel is the kind of "big dumb fun" movie I like seeing on a big screen, then never thinking about it again. See: Aquaman, Mortal Engines.
    - Midnight Run is a fun romp with great chemistry between De Niro and Grodin.
    - Ralph Breaks the Internet is fine.

    Anticipation for F This Movie Fest is stadily growing. I made a playlist of 1986 songs I've been listening to for a few days to get in the mood.

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  4. I watched a couple of things during the week. My intention to see They Shall Not Grow Old at a local theater was thwarted by bad weather, but it looks like it might be back briefly next month.

    THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977) – Given my love of 1970s exploitation cinema, this should have been a delightful watch. It just was not. Although the story and location shooting are terrific, the unpolished style took me out of the film too often. The acting was the aspect that I found the most distracting, particularly the wooden portrayal of Bobby. Maybe I would warm up to it with re-watches.

    SNIPER (1993)- I remember seeing this as a VHS rental with my father. Watching it more than two decades later, I can state that Sniper is a competent film with entertainment value. The performances, especially Tom Berenger’s, are better than one usually finds in early ‘90s action cinema. I also appreciated the build-up to the big set-piece. The ending, unfortunately, falls apart but not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the film. It is of its era.

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    1. Argh! Me too. They Shall Not Grow Old played for 3 days here (only 1 showing per day). The first 2 days my kids were off of school, and the 3rd (when I had planned to go), there was a massive snow storm.

      Hopefully when it is physically released, they include the documentary feature that they were showing in theatres.

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  5. Just watched Mother Night, based on a story by Kurt Vonnegut. This is no Slaughterhouse-Five (which i saw last week), but this is still an excellent movie. The acting is excellent, the writing is very good and the story is compelling. Recommended

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  6. Tim Curry's "hellooo" from Oscar has been my ringtone for a couple years now, and it just feels right.

    This week-end I was able to FINALLY get a subscription to Shudder, thanks to a friend living in Canada (they won't accept your credit card when you live in an "unsupported area" like I do). I'm a bit late to the party, but man, Horror Noire is everything I was hoping for, based on those rave reviews. So dense and informed that some segments may feel a bit rushed, but this doc is nothing short of a gift.

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