Saturday, August 13, 2022

Weekend Open Thread

19 comments:

  1. LICORICE PIZZA (2021)
    I am so jealous about the running?! It looks so fun. It's been years since I ran around a CITY in HEELS. Also, Alana's angry walk is so good, it's almost as good as Tom Cruise sprinting. She is REALLY cute. She reminds me of my best friend when I was little, who was also tiny and skinny and angry and got in fights. I was awed by her, a little afraid, and I always had to talk her down from getting into real fights with people. She crashed her bike into a car once and I picked her up and carried her - a long way - home. My point is...they're very cute, and inspire a lot of devotion. I love that role for Cooper Hoffman, too. The movie's a bit repetitive but it's still nice. Rather have too much of a good thing than something else.

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    1. Running is fun! I loved all the running in this movie. My favourite bit though was the very last bit as the credits started with the end of the day, the sun setting, and they were walking arm in arm, and the Taj Mahal song playing.

      Running is really fun. I play ball hockey a couple times a week and it's all running. I'm so happy to let loose and just run like crazy. Running in other circumstances (like crossing the road as the light is about to change) is always weird and awkward.

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    2. Haha. You'd get used to those awkward running situations if you lived in NY. I always remember I used to think running to catch the subway, down the stairs, fumble at the turnstile, then JUST miss the train or get half stuck in the doors and awkwardly pry yourself out was...awkward and I felt bad seeing it happen. Then I learned what a part of life it is. Today it's that guy, tomorrow it's you.

      Licorice Pizza is calming. Gonna put it on in the background today and make sure to catch that last scene at the end.

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  2. HAPPY WEEKEND MOVIE FANS!

    Day Shift (Netflix 2022)

    My go-to movie aggregator puts this at around 50% and i suppose i get that. Its another big budget straight to netflix flick. However..my opinion is....

    Its alot of fun! Kind of a paint-by-the-numbers midnight movie horror/comedy/action vampire flick. As for the humor goes? Alot of it doesnt work but some does and it makes the overall movie vibe enjoyable. Think buddy cop movie dynamics. As for the horror? nothing super scary but definitely a lot of gore and several good attack sequences. As for the action? lots of it! Movie opens with a great extended attack and then has at least two major scenes with many vamps (a bit of FPS video game mixed up with some fast edited attempts at Wick-fu). Its all a bit hammy and schticky and maybe 25m longer than it needs to be but it does have a plot and is entertaining if you are in for a silly popcorn movie. Oh, also it has Cowboy Snoop Dogg.

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    1. Thanks for the recommendation! Jamie Foxx has kind of disappeared recently, after a very strong start to his career. There's been nothing notable since Django (which he was fantastic in). I guess Baby Driver, but I didn't really like that one. His brief few minutes in the Horrible Bosses movies was great, but was basically a cameo.

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  3. I went camping the past week, so didn't see much new. But I did have the time to watch Ride The High Country (1962), one of Peckinpah's earlier movies. It was pretty great, and had the look and feel of his movies, with the themes of "dying of the west/old ways", and the conflict between what is right and noble versus what you have to do. It also had the misogyny and depravity that is rampant in all his movies. What a fascinating film maker. I only have 3 more movies to go to finish his filmography. His very first and very last. And I've been saving The Wild Bunch (his most famous movie) for last. After watching Extreme Prejudice (1987) (my favourite Junesplotation movie and the best movie I've seen this year) which I read was kind of a tribute to The Wild Bunch, I'm looking forward to it more than ever.

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    1. A Casual Commentator (I'm sure I have their username wrong?) spoke very fondly of Ride The High Country, which is what prompted me to watch it next.

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    2. Prompted by Adam's love of the franchise, I watched Free Willy (1993) which was a pretty great family movie. I thought it was a robot orca but later read that more than 50% of the movie was using a real orca. Pretty amazing. Although I now understand how it isn't super great to have these animals living in captivity, I really enjoyed visiting the Marineland theme park when I was a kid.

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    3. Glad you enjoyed Ride The High Country, Paul. It very much is a Peckinpah film but still has touches of the classic Hollywood western. The scenery is beautiful.

      Have you watched The Killer Elite? It is one that I am curious about, and it just showed up on Prime.

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  4. Hello to everyone.

    It was not like like last week, but I still got to many films. Part of it was clearing the DVR, and there was another night at the drive-in.

    JAMBOREE (1957) – A very eclectic collection of musicians are interwoven into the narrative about the career of a couple of bland white singers. The most interesting part of the story is the cynical manipulation of the singers by their managers. In hindsight, it is easy to see how a film like Jamboree set the stage for the music video. Each of the musicians have their own short segment. Some of the music has stood the test of time (Count Basie, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino), but much of it is now justly forgotten.

    ZERO HOUR! (1957, dir. ) – Maybe you have seen this story before: A passenger with no recent experience of flying has to land an airplane when the pilots get sick. Zero Hour! is the film that Airplane! spoofs. The film, co-written by airline disaster author Arthur Hailey, stars Dana Andrews as a scarred World War II pilot struggling to overcome his past experiences. As with any good disaster film, there are numerous characters and subplots thrown in. Even though the film is straight thriller, there are moments when it is hard not to laugh a little with over-the-top scenario. There are a lot of sweaty faces here. Zero Hour! stands as its own film very well.

    THE GOLDEN GLOVE (2019, dir. Fatih Akin) – Based on a real-life German serial killer case (Fritz Honka), I sensed this film was going to be grim and depressing. It surpassed my expectations in that regard. The sordid details of a killer’s routine are portrayed realistically, and the overall production is excellent. Beyond portraying the killer’s life in 1970s Hamburg, there did not seem much else to the film. Though not as unpleasant as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, you are not likely to get much enjoyment out of The Golden Glove.

    Last night I was at the Mahoning Drive-In for an evening of movies programmed by AGFA. I had seen none of them before. The first was Doris Wishman's sexploitation "classic" DOUBLE AGENT 73, starring the extremely busty Chesty Morgan. Her bosom is on display as much as Wishman could show it. The plot revolves around a camera being implanted in Chesty's left breast to take pictures of the people she kills. Say what you want about her filmmaking skills, but you will not be mistaking Doris Wishman's films for that of anybody else. Up next was the The Gate II, a production that looks good but has a messy script. I found the meteors crossing the sky above the screen far more interesting. The evening finished with the bonkers PENITENTIARY III. "Too Sweet" Mardone finds himself incarcerated again just as a boxing tournament is about to take place. Facing the corruption of a gangster who has a strong grip on the running of the prison, he decides to take the gangster down. Weird and entertaining.




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    1. Oh, I thought Airplane! was only a spoof on the Airport series of movies. I recently watched Airport (1970) and enjoyed it quite a bit. There was more humour in it than I expected. This one is memorable to me, because it was one of the first movies where I was allowed to stay up later than my younger siblings and watch with my parents. A grown up movie. I hadn't seen it since the 80's, but I enjoyed it enough that I think I'll check out the sequels. I'll add Zero Hour! to the list as well.

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  5. MEN (2022 Redbox Rental)

    Been crazy stoked to check this out as i reallllllllllllly like Alex Garlands flicks. Went in with no knowledge of the plot and am glad i did. So much so that im gonna stay completely detail free in this write up. Equally im not even gonna state my thoughts on it as im not even sure i know just yet. I will say its a very moody, weird, slow, creative, fever dream, unique, metaphoical, bizarre, and BANANAS visuals movie. If i went in without knowing who made it, I would swear it was Ari Aster as i think it has a similar style/vibe/tone/storytelling nature to it. Suggested for horror fans (also for emotional drama fans) who like more artsy/abstract/jarring dour flicks.

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    1. I really enjoyed it, although "memorized" by it might be a better description. It's probably in my top 10 for the year. It's a gorgeous looking movie and the excellent moody score is done by Ben Salisbury/Geoff Barrow (who also scored Annihilation). Although I can see why people wouldn't like it, and haven't been recommending it willy nilly to others. Unfortunately, it disappeared from the theatres very quickly and probably wasn't considered a "success". I hope the lack of box office gross doesn't impede Garland from opportunities to make more films. Jessie Buckley was very good too, and I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing her in more things.

      The online discourse around this one was weird. There seemed to be lots of arguing about whether a man should be allowed to make a "feminist" movie, and claims that it was the most misogynistic movie ever. I very quickly stopped reading and haven't been back to Letterboxd since. However, I did read an interesting article that went into depth about many of the symbols referenced in the movie, which clarified a bit what the movie was trying to say (other than the surface level "all men are bad"). I'll try to find it.

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    2. This is the article:https://www.highonfilms.com/men-2022-movie-ending-explained/
      It's not spoiler-free or anything. Really only meant for those that have seen the movie. It discusses the symbols/themes and some of the quotes from the movie.

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    3. Thanks Paul! Great comments and..yup..this flick is bound to be polarizing but thats one of its strong attributes. Like you said, i really hope Garland continues to get to make flicks that he wants to make!! Ill check out that article!

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  6. Avalon (2001)

    I hate watching a 20 years old sci-fi movie and realising that the reality of the movie is closer to what's happening right now than back when it was made. It's a fantastic movie, but sadly doesn't exist on blu-ray (no idea about streaming)

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    1. Cool, I had never even heard of this movie. It's available to rent for $3 from the usual places. Maybe I'll watch it this week. Or possibly it'll merely get buried in my bloated IMDB watchlist! Thanks for the recommendation.

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    2. Actually, it isn't available to stream in Canada. I was searching for options in the US by accident. I guess it would be available if using a VPN.

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    3. That's the problem. I'm in canada so i never bother doing too much research. Most of the older movies i watch are dvd and bluray

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