Saturday, May 1, 2021

Weekend Open Thread

16 comments:

  1. HAPPY LABOUR DAY... to those living outside U.S.A., where Labor Day is celebrated in September.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Nikole Beckwith's TOGETHER, TOGETHER (2021, theater) deserves credit for casting lots of comedians (Tig Notaro, Rosalind Chao, Timm Sharp, Nora Dunn, etc.) alongside leads Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, yet never descending into the typical 'top that' mugging showcase. A sort-of platonic rom-com between a middle-aged man child (Helms, tolerable) and the surrogate carrying his unborn child (Harrison), "Together Together" 'is fine' (TM). For a movie that goes out of its way to slam Woody Allen's filmography, though, Beckwith sure loves the same movie font Allen uses in all his films.

    William Brent Bell's SEPARATION (2021, theater) just opened this weekend but it's clearly fueled by the creative juices from Jennifer Kent's now-7-year-old "The Babadook," not to mention Bell's own horror pedigree ("The Boy I & II," etc.). Rupert Friend (trying to emulate young Frank Whaley's naivette shtick) plays an unsuccessful puppeteer/comic book artist embroiled in a nasty custody battle with his ex (Mamie Gummer) and her wealthy father (Brian 'I'm too good for this shit' Cox) for their 'I can see dead people' little girl ("The Haunting of Hill House's" Violet McGraw). Lots of unintentional humorous moments (like Jeff's creative boss giving him sage advice about how to deal with his problem) can't save "Separation" from having an uneven tone ("Kramer vs. Kramer" one moment, "Sinister" the next), incomplete-looking special effects, a twist reveal you can see coming an hour beforehand and shockingly sloppy editing (including a post-credits scene that ruins the proper ending). As a Friday night distraction it's okay, but "Separation" will barely be worth the "free" streaming viewing it's destined to have.

    I'm late to the party, but COOTIES (2014, Amazon Prime) was a killer choice to start the second year of Jury Room 4.0's weekly Facebook Group Watch. A ridiculously above-average cast (Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer, etc.) has fun playing school teachers trapped by their young students when they become zombified instruments of bloody death. Made at the peak of "The Walking Dead's" popularity, "Cooties" is very uneven. For everything that lands (little a-hole Patriot getting a glorious demise) something else grates (Wilson's poor man's imitation of Danny McBride), plus the filmmakers are clearly punching below Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright's standards. But even with a terrible ending (both the original one and the theatrical one seen on Prime) "Cooties" is entertaining, dumb horror fun.

    Also rewatched Tony Scott's BEVERLY HILLS COP II (1987) and John Landis' BEVERLY HILLS COP III (1994, both on HBO Max) with the Forever Cinematic Commentaries. Never thought too highly of the first sequel, but watching it back-to-back with the cinematic abortion that is "BHC III" really highlighted what an entertaining, near-perfect blockbuster machine "BHC II" is. The look, the pace, the premise, the music (Harold Faltermeyer in his prime). Despite coming seven years after, John Landis' sequel feels decades older than Tony Scott's still-entertaining late 80's blast of Eddie Murphy comedic energy carrying the whole picture (along with Rosewood's "Fuck Rambo!" weaponry). Ironically both "BHC" sequels are worth seeing when anchored by these solid fan commentaries. :-)

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    1. Labour Day is in September in Canada as well. But we insist on spelling it differently, so not technically the same holiday ;)

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    2. Okay, my bad. Strike Labour Day... HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY! ✊😷

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    3. I say this without a hint of irony, but I adore BHC3 and would watch it 10 times before watching part 2 once.

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    4. ^^^ I also say this without irony: rewatch "BHC III" with the Forever Commentary track so you can understand how the rest of us perceive this movie. 😉🤓

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    5. The BHC movies are a blind spot that I should get around to rectifying soon. If only there was a day, a "Cop Day" for example, coming up where I could watch them all.

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    6. Paul, I think in 30 days' time your wish will be granted! :-D

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    7. Whoa that is a pretty hot take from Brian... I will give BHC3 credit for that awesome George Lucas cameo...

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  2. So this week I found out about that thing people call 'Light in the Darkness' the unofficial William Peter Blatty trilogy consisting of 'The Exorcist' (1973), 'The Ninth Configuration' (1980) and 'The Exorcist III' (1990). The Exorcist is always a fun watch, but I've seen it a bunch. I'd never seen The Ninth Configuration and it was really awesome. It's connected to The Exorcist through that scene when she comes downstairs and pees on the floor and points at the astronaut and says, "You're gonna die up there...". That Astronaut later has a meltdown on the launch pad an ends up in an insane asylum and is played beautifully by Scott Wilson. Also, Stacy Keach is electric, the dialogue is so tight and smart and funny. And the themes are really interesting, even if I think maybe William Blatty was trying to makeup for how dark The Exorcist was. Well, right up until we get to The Exorcist III. I'm going to watch this tonight. I tried last night, but I had just gotten my second vaccine and drank a bottle of champagne to celebrate and couldn't make it through. I haven't seen this film in maybe 30 years and don't remember anything from it. It struck me as way more of a dark detective procedural than I remember, and that's basically where I live genre-wise now, so I appreciate it in a new way.

    I'm rambling. Everyone check out The Ninth Configuration so I can listen to someone talk about it.

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    1. Make sure you watch the director's cut of Exorcist 3 (retitled Legion). It's way better despite having a few shots taken from VHS because the original were lost or destroyed.

      Ninth Configuration is great, it needs to be discovered by more people

      And i wouldn't call Exorcist a 'fun watch', but that's just me 😜🤣

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  3. Seeing I recently finished Deep Space Nine (first time), I watched What We Left Behind, a documentary about the show. It was an emotional experience watching it, because I miss watching new episodes. However, I was far too excited to discern how good it actually was.


    Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar was the funniest thing I'd seen in a while (with one exception, see below). I loved how off kilter it felt, and the bright colour palette felt refreshing in the last grey days of winter. Thanks for the recommendation Patrick and Adam!

    Looney Tunes Back In Action was the 2nd Brendan Fraser movie I had seen after Encino Man, and he had really great/fun energy, so I decided to watch some more. Journey To The Center Of The Earth was a alright family adventure movie (but mostly left me wanting to rewatch the 1959 version). But, George of the Jungle was hilarious! Love the physical and slap stick humour. Man, the physique Fraser was sporting..cut. I actually watched it again a week later with the kids, and remotely (Teleparty) with my sister and her kids. Everyone loved it. I liked how it treated the native Africans, and played them as being more intelligent than the explorers. Next up will be the Mummy movies.

    Other than that, just some comfort movies like The Wrestler and Trainspotting. Also, the first 20 minutes of Broken Arrow until I got interrupted (but will finish tonight, hopefully).

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  4. Another quiet week of movies. I am hoping to have the chance to go to the Mahoning Drive-In next weekend, and Junesploitation will be underway in a month. I should be watching a lot more coming up.

    HIGH HEELS (1991, dir. Pedro Almodóvar) – No other filmmaker could have made this. That Almodóvar flair was not enough to keep me interested, however. Having watched a lot his early films, High Heels does not compare favorably to most of them. Something was lacking in the script for me. The energetic performances of the Almodóvar stock company (Paredes, Abril) provided motivation to finish it.

    ROOM 13/ ZIMMER 13 (1964) – As a fan of 1960s black-and-white European genre films, I was really satisfied with this. There are fast-paced and engaging plots, atmospheric cinematography, and a balanced blending of thriller and comedy. You will even see some gore. I do not know how representative of the krimi genre Room 13 is, but it fit my definition of a good time this week. It was a little more serious in tone than my watches last week.

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  5. What's up, gang. I've just concluded another week of mostly checking off my blind spots. This week I took on the 80s and saw Say Anything, Stand By Me, Caddyshack, Footloose and Flashdance (Stand By Me was the best of the bunch by a large margin, I was hugely impressed by how well crafted it is). Other than that I'm already counting down days to Junesploitation. Can't wait!

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    1. Stand By Me holds up well after 3.5 decades. The quality of that cast is only of many reasons for that. The best Stephen King adaptations tend to be outside of his horror stories. Interestingly, the story the film is based on and The Shawshank Redemption are featured in the same book.

      I am also looking forward to Junesploitation, Adam. There are so many films to choose from for only thirty days.

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