Saturday, July 30, 2022

Weekend Open Thread

8 comments:

  1. Happy "OMG its already almost August, Where Did the Summer Go!?"

    The Gray Man (2022 Netflix)

    Netflix dropped this surprise sequel to 50 Shades of Grey which stars Gossling and Evans who both get trapped in a sexy basement of Christain Grey (sp)........

    i kid. i kid!

    So this flick is pretty polarizing but i had a BLAST with it. It does feel a smidge like the classic 80s Cat and Mouse actioners...if forced to pick maybe i'd say its a step cousin of Commando type flicks. It is a threadbare plot and a fair amount of CGI setpieces stitched together BUT the Russo Bros do it very well and the leads...ESPECIALLY Smarmy McSmarmypants Chris Evans mustachioed villain..elevate it to a cohesive popcorner. Its probably in the same class as alot of the good-but-forgettable netflix action flicks (Extraction, Red Notice, 6 Underground) but at this point i think it tops the list because there are some really creative action pieces that i want to revisit. Check your brain at the door and enjoy!!!


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  2. Anybody remember The Machine from 2013? It's an awesome low budget sci-fi movie that tackles the same subjects as Ex Machina, with the former being way better at it, in my opinion. It's too bad it never got the viewership it deserved, but the reviews were good at the time

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    1. Ill watch ANY movie mentioned in the same breath as Ex Machina which is one of my favs from the last decade. Thanks Kunider!

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    2. Awesome. Let me know what you think about it when you watchi it

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    3. I actually watched that just before Junesploitation. I gave it a kind of low rating, but I don't recall my exact issues with it. I think it might have been just a bit dull. Worth a watch though.

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  3. Hello to everyone. As the summer moves on, I have been getting to more movies.

    While at home, I watched a few things. I took a trip down memory lane with my sister with the original Friday The 13th. We recorded that off of TV around thirty years ago. She remembered the ending more than any other part of it. The relatively serious tone of the film surprised her. I also put on the beginning of Part 2 since she was curious about where the franchise went. We talked about slashers and other horror films we saw growing up through a good portion of the night.

    The only major watch at home was 1961's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, an adventure film based on a Jules Verne novel set during the American Civil War. Union POWs escape a Confederate prison in a hot air balloon and land on an island in the Pacific Ocean. Their struggle for survival features giant creatures courtesy of Ray Harryhausen, an exploding volcano, and pirates. This is a perfect take-your-mind-off-of-life flick.

    Last night I was at the Mahoning Drive-In for the annual Schlockorama weekend. There were four sci-fi features from the 1950s and '60s programmed, and I had not seen any of them before. First up was the THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT from 1955, shown with the title CREEPING TERROR. This is a solid British sci-fi film that builds up the narrative well. The classic IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE was next. This tale of a monster stalking a spaceship's crew is both fun and intense. It is easy to see the ALIEN connection. Third was Edgar G. Ulmer's THE MAN FROM PLANET X, a watchable film that does lag in spots. It is very evident that the budget was not big, but the budget gets miniscule for the last film of the night. FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER is a mid-1960s concoction with a Frankenstein monster astronaut, aliens trying to steal Earth women, plenty of military stock footage, and sightseeing around Puerto Rico. It is not good but never gets boring.

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  4. From the somewhat bleak future of The Machine, i decided i wanted more, and went to total end of the world stuff and watched Snowpiercer. Always an awesome movie

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  5. I've been terribly busy the past month, especially on weekends, and haven't had the chance to report on anything I've seen. But I do enjoy reading what others have seen when I have a minute. I'll make a nice summary for next weekend.

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