Saturday, April 10, 2021

Weekend Open Thread

24 comments:

  1. Hey all, hope everyone's having a great weekend!

    Elaine May's first two films (as director), A New Leaf and The Heartbreak Kid, are both hilarious in a sort of melancholy way. I loved especially Walter Matthau's performances in the first one. I didn't really connect with Mikey & Nicky, but I'm still excited for her final film, Ishtar (never seen it but its reputation as a huge bomb makes me intrigued).

    21 Bridges is a good cop thriller with a great cast. After that, I wanted more Chadwick, checked his credits and picked Gods of Egypt, thinking it was the Ridley Scott movie starring Christian Bale. Turns out I got Gods of Egypt mixed up with Exodus: Gods and Kings, but GoE immediately gripped me with its craziness. It's exactly the level of high-concept dumb fun that I enjoy (see also Mortal Engines, Replicas).

    As a big Monty Python fan, years ago I had a goal to collect every movie where any of the Python members have a major role. I've since dropped that goal, having seen a number of those movies. But yesterday I checked out 1982's The Missionary, written by and starring Michael Palin. Palin plays the befuddled and repressed main character unsurprisingly well and the movie has some really funny scenes and characters, but doesn't necessarily hang together for the whole runtime. Plus it's always a little icky when an actor writes a character for himself who's the object of everyone's desires. Also, it's weird seeing David Suchet in any other role than Hercule Poirot. Almost didn't recognize him without the French accent.

    Malice is a fun, twisty thriller, most notable for being co-written by Aaron Sorkin. Not really the style he's come to be known for, but the great dialogue is there. And the cast is pretty stacked. Made You Look, which Robyn recommended on last week's podcast, is an entertaining documentary about a ridiculous art forgery scandal. Cleaner is a servicable thriller, but I must admit I wouldn't give it a second thought if it wasn't My Boy Renny Harlin's work. Star Trek IV is still great, and Star Trek V still isn't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been watching the Star Trek with the Blank Check commentaries as well. While I enjoyed the commentary, It has been so long since I've watched those movies, I was always kind of wishing I was watching them without commentary.

      Delete
    2. That's exactly why I watched Star Trek V this week, so it's fresh in my memory when the commentary drops.

      Delete
    3. Star Trek V is one I haven't seen, so I'll probably do the same and watch it first without commentary.

      Delete
  2. It was another light week for movies. Not having much energy for watching things, I started to put together a movie stack for Junesploitation. I am planning to use my physical media collection, which has grown substantially over the past year, as much as possible.

    GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (1974) – Goofy plot. Goofy monster fights. Goofy 1970s fashion trends. In short, a lot of fun to be had. This has one of the better combinations of human drama and monster action from the later Showa era films. I am still wondering how Mechagodzilla has so many finger missiles.

    SPIDER (1991) – This is a Latvian production blending horror and art film that achieves a lot with limited resources. A Mondo Macabro release that was a blind buy for me, SPIDER has its strengths and weaknesses. The visuals are stronger (some beautiful color lighting) than the narrative, yet the story is interesting enough to watch till the conclusion. When a young woman is chosen to be the model for a religious painting, her encounter with the artist and his studio sets her off on a nightmarish journey of self-discovery and obsession. Spiders, of course, are involved in that process. The objectification of the female lead can get a little uncomfortable at times.

    Some suggestions for Junesploitation days: gangsters, vigilantes, Henry Silva.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BLIND FURY (1989) Rutger Hauer does a modern version of the “blind samurai” trope. The little kid he’s protecting has a serious case of Annoying Movie Kid syndrome, but some of the kills are outrageous, and there’s a final fight that's Rutger against both Sho Kosugi and Randall “Tex” Cobb, so it’s good fun.

    POPEYE (1980) Not sure what to make of this one. It wants to be charming and whimsical, with all the songs and whatnot, but it also doesn’t shy away from how sad these characters’ lives are. File it under “flawed but fascinating,” I guess.

    DELICATESSEN (1991) Jeunet’s epic tale of a circus performer versus a cannibal in an otherworldly apartment building full of weirdoes. I think. Maybe? The movie defies description, but wow, it takes you on a journey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First time i saw Popeye i thought it was hella weird, but kinda liked it. Now, after 4-5 viewing i adore it. Still hella weird. Apparently that adaptation is much closer to the original comic than we think

      Delete
    2. Delicatessen is by the same directors duo who did City Of Lost Children. Both have their own aesthetic and have their own worlds with quirky characters. One of the director did Amelie Poulain (and Alien 4, but we don't talk about that).

      Delete
  4. I am still enjoying Leslie Odom Jr's performance in One Night In Miami and want him to win all the awards. He's soo charismatic and magnetic. His grin is on fire. I don't know how he's so cool.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've had a weird past month. I had a minor surgery on my knee, and was going to be off work and off my feet for a few weeks, so was looking forward to some serious movie love fun times.

    Instead I came down with covid a couple days after, and spend 15 days with a fever and sicker than I could have imagined (but luckily none of the serious hospitalizing symptoms). I ended up watching precious few movies, and I was feverish and drifting into sleep through most of them. :( All better now though!

    Also, that happened just after Fthismovie fest, and ended just before Patrick's birthday tweet fest, so I got to participate in those. And MOST importantly, I somehow didn't give it to my parents, who I went to stay with in the days immediately following the surgery.

    A couple things I have watched in the meantime:

    I finished Deep Space Nine. It was my first watch through it, and I loved loved loved it. So many good characters. The finale was tearful. I'm a little lost as to what to watch now as far as TV. DS9 had become a warm blanket I crawled into most evenings! I think I might delve into Stargate after Patrick's gushing enthusiasm recently. Or The Endless, which I've heard is good.

    For Easter I watched Ben Hur in glorious 720p on my home TV. I hadn't seen it since a kid, and enjoyed it very much. It's kind of funny how I'll give older movies a pass for being long. I don't blink at a 3 hours 60's war movie or biblical epic, but when a 2020 movie is longer than 100 minutes, I approach it with a certain hesitancy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to hear that you are feeling better, Paul.

      I understand your frustration not being able to watch movies. So many days over the past month I have come home from work too tired to focus on anything. There are many films I have started but had to turn off a half-hour in.

      Delete
    2. Yes, between work and parenting and everything else, it's sometimes difficult to find the time. And when we have the time, we might not necessarily be in the mood, or might be too fatigued.

      I find these days I end up watching a lot of movies in chunks. Watch half one day and finish it a couple days later. It's certainly not how Martin Scorsese would recommending watching them, but it's the best I can manage.

      Delete
  6. Since friday i watched the first 4 Sniper movies (there's 8 total). And now i'm pretty sure i know everything i need to kill a man from a mile away

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you have the Sniper DVD set? I have the first four films in such a set (purchased for a few dollars at Wal-Mart) and only watched the first one. I remembered seeing that on VHS with my father in the early 1990s. It is a decent film. I think I only got twenty minutes into the second one. The drop in production values was too steep for me.

      Delete
    2. Rented them on Google Play. I felt like watching trash. I think the second one is great, then it devolve further into B-movie territory. It's campy trash that take itself way too seriously, but sometimes it's what i need

      I'm watching #5 right now, and yes i'll get to #8, probably before i need to go to bed tonight

      Delete
  7. I had a very great movie weekend (and a lot of work... *sigh) with The Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Booksmart and The Empty Man.

    There is nothing more to say about The Evil Dead trilogy, I love it, especially the third part which still and will always look great.

    Booksmart I've never seen before, and I LOVED every second of it. It made me laugh, cry, yell out - and I was on my own. The soundtrack is killer, too. "Double Rum Cola" for me, please.

    The Empty Man is a mixed bag. I loved the intro/beginning, then I started to love the longer middle part of it once I could figure the tone of the movie (I think the "different color of screenplay pages" concept of Patrick works here a lot) and then it somehow lost me. Still worth watching.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember you mentioning the krimi films during Junesploitation last year, Derk. Amazon Prime has some available, and I am always curious to explore another realm of genre cinema. Do you have any recommendations?

      Delete
    2. Hey A Casual Listener, I'll gladly help you out. Are you based in the US, cause I'm sitting in Germany so I can't say, what is one prime and what is not. And which "series" are you talking about? Edgar Wallace, Tatort or other?

      Delete
    3. Try to watch Der Hexer (aka The Wizard), Der Frosch mit der Maske (aka Face of the Frog) or Die toten Augen von London (aka The Dead Eyes of London). I also liked Das Geheimnis der grĂ¼nen Stecknadel (aka What Have You Done to Solange?). I'm looking forward to your feedback on the next weekend thread. ;)

      Delete
  8. 7 movies down, 14 more to go throughout the week with Panic Fest. So far "Caveat", "The Last Matinee" and "The Djinn" are my favorites, the first two being really really good. Caveat is a no nonsense, super tense atmospheric creeper that makes great use of it's small locations and budget. It feels bigger than it is. The same can be said about The Last Matinee. Add that one to the list of great horror films that take place in a movie theater. An homage to Giallo Slashers. The Djinn is 90% dialog free and has some great intense moments but is a bit cheapened in the 3rd act by some bad aesthetic decisions.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Who knows when Death On The Nile will come out now that the Armie Hammer drama is so bad they may have to edit him out of the entire film. But he's a main character so I don't know how that will work. I noticed they removed all the Peter Ustinov versions of the movie from all streaming platforms in anticipation of the new version...which might never come out now. Timothee Chalamet is making a cannibal movie. Weird that cannibalism is moving into the mainstream.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can we just replace Armie Hammer's entire filmography with deepfaked Christopher Plummer and be done with it?

      Delete
    2. Deepfake is craaazy. They could probably do it easily. Just get whichever actor they want and have him re-act all his movie expressions with those little green dot wire things they use to CGI people onto monster bodies

      Delete