Saturday, May 8, 2021

Weekend Open Thread

12 comments:

  1. A good weekend to my fellow f-heads!

    I started going through John Singleton's filmography in advance of Blank Check covering him. Boyz n the Hood is undoubtedly a masterpiece, but his next three films I didn't enjoy that much. Despite good performances, Poetic Justice didn't really hold my interest. Higher Learning was meandering and kinda goofy. And while Rosewood is good filmmaking, it's not what you'd call a fun movie.

    Gordon Parks' theme song for Shaft's Big Score! is bigger and showier than Isaac Hayes' theme for the original Shaft, but lacks the soul the original had. That description also applies to the movies. Freaky squeezes every last drop of comedy out of its body-swap premise and Vince Vaughn turns in an amazing performance as a teenage girl.

    I remembered liking Joe Versus the Volcano when I first saw it five years ago, but upon rewatch I think I love it. It's quirky, it's funny, it's wonderful. Hanks and Ryan are both delightful and I just love how the movie makes me feel. The Next Karate Kid is a pointless sequel. Hilary Swank is good, but unfortunately her character is an angsty teenaged girl written by a middle-aged man. Michael Ironside always plays a good over-the-top villain.

    Lady and the Tramp (the original) is utterly charming. I like these 50's Disney animations, they look amazing and clock in at under 80 minutes. Twilight is extremely blah, and Twilight: New Moon is barely a movie.

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  2. Best news all weekend! https://www.indiewire.com/2021/05/amusement-park-george-a-romero-lost-movie-stream-shudder-1234635563/

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    1. woot! thanks for the link! cant wait to see this film. Man Shudder is just THE BEST

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  3. Also, "who the fuck is Dodd?"

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  4. Yo Team F-this!

    oh sure this is a movie site..so lets talk books! i assure you it will (eventually) connect with movies.

    For anyone who read and loved The Martian by Andy Weir, he released a new book this week called Project Hail Mary. It is INCREDIBLE. burned thru it in 2 days. Zero spoilers here and i really suggest you dont read about it, but know that he's captured the essence of what made The Martian so special...a guy who uses science to solve life threatening challenges..but creates a completely new story around the concept. Its an incredibly original science fiction story that starts strong and only improves. The last paragraph may be one of the greatest endings ever..oh i wept. So if you like science fiction that spends a fair amount of time digging into the nerdy science...check it out...stat.....

    oh, as promised, the movie part, they've already optioned this book to be a movie. Likely Gosling to play the lead. Possibly Lord/Miller to direct (oh man i love those guys). And if your interest in The Martian was more aligned with the movie, then good news, because this book will translate EPICLY to film. Woot!!!!

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  5. Good weekend to everyone.

    It was another week of light movie watching, but today I have a night at the Mahoning Drive-In with a couple of Hammer vampire films: Vampire Circus and The Vampire Lovers. I am looking forward to it despite the chilly weather. I should have enough with me to stay warm.

    I saw a couple of films during the week.

    THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE (1960) – I ventured again into the krimi genre with this early entry. An executed criminal seems to come back from the dead to get revenge on those who sent him to the gallows. As usual, the story is more complicated than that. This is a quick, fun watch as one improbable event leads to another.

    DEATH BY METAL (2018) – A documentary about Chuck Schuldiner, the founder of the band Death that pioneered what became known as the death metal genre. This could have been better, especially in the way the his life is told. I found the doc very choppy in that way, but it does provide an intriguing glimpse into the evolving world of heavy metal in the 1980s and 1990s. Sadly, cancer took Schuldiner’s life at the age of 34.

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    1. I'm watching Death By Metal right now. It's funny that when i watch or read something Metal, it's always about the music, but when it's about a rap or rock&roll band it's mostly about who they pissed off or what they destroyed

      Also, the dude created the band in his garage with the support of his parents. How weird is that

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    2. The lack of personal details about Chuck Schuldiner was the strangest part of the doc. The narrative jumps in when he is already in his teens and a full-blown metalhead. How did he become that way? What did he do during his time between albums and tours? I thought there were a lot of missed opportunities to show the person.

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  6. I'm re-watching Escape from New York. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen it a thousand times. OK. But every time I've seen it before I was like, man Snake is such a jerk. Man, why would Snake fuck the country like that?" and I guess I haven't seen this in at least five years because for the first time I was like, yeah~ Fuck the President. Fuck the country. Every man for himself, bro.

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  7. Was watching some YT vids of my fav song, The Maker, and found a version of Dave Matthews and Aaron Neville doing it. OMG Aaron Neville. So of course I had to watch - maybe one of the best scenes of all time - the gas station scene from Bird On A Wire. The emotion in that song and that scene is just soo good, it matches so perfectly. Perfect combination IMO of song, sound and scene. Love love love.

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  8. ALIENS (1986) still holds up, of course, and is just as thrilling as its always been.

    UNDER SIEGE (1992) and UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY (1995) are the only Seagal films I'll ever need. The first is a real movie with big production value and crackerjack direction by Andrew Davis. The second is a terrifically cheesy Saturday afternoon time-waster.

    COOTIES (2014) Just wasn't for me, I guess. The joke is that all the characters are unlikable, plus the shock-value violence and gore involving zombie children. I'm all for edgy comedy, but I just felt tired by the time it ended. Folks I watched it with in a Facebook group watch seemed to like it, though, so don't take my word for it.

    SPACE SWEEPERS (2021) has a lot of nifty, eye-popping visuals, which is nice. But the story is nothing sci-fi fans haven't already seen. I doubt Hollywood's live-action COWBOY BEBOP will ever get made, so I'll take this instead.

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