Saturday, August 20, 2022

Weekend Open Thread

15 comments:

  1. In my series of road trip preparation movies, I now covered Nevada (Rain Man), and Arizona (Raising Arizona). I was surprised how well I liked the first one. I've seen Rain Man before and heard mixed reviews about it. I thought it was heartwarming, carried by the overall great performances by Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, and my personal highlight, Valeria Golino.
    I also heaven't seen Raising Arizona before, and I liked this one, too - yet not so much as other movies of the Coen brothers. I think there is an unbalance in the silliness of the characters and the dramatic weight that they have to carry, something that the Coens mastered in later movies like Fargo or The Big Lebowski.

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  2. Finally got to see Top Gun Maverick. I didn't like it. I can't say i didn't expect it, it's doing exactly what legacy-quels do. If this is the best movie of the summer, the bar is low. It's just a remake of the first one, with all the beats there,
    and callbacks to the original. except for Kelly McGillis (or maybe she was mentioned, i can't remember), who's replaced by Jennifer Connelly, who has no purpose other than being the love interest. At least Kelly McGillis was the teacher, she had a reason to be around. It's sad that they didn't bring her back, but brought Val Kilmer who's sick and couldn't do more even if he wanted to.

    The finale is great, awesome even, but by that point i was just wondering why i wasn't watching the original.

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  3. Orphan First Kill.

    You have to look pass a 25 year old women, who looks 25 is playing a 9-10 year old. The movies looks like it has vaseline on the lens at all times. The hard cuts to the body double is hilarious at times.

    If you can look pass these flaws this is a fun campy movie. It knows the script is terrible but the movie's TWIST is different from the first movie and honestly I didnt see it coming.

    Julia Stiles and Isabelle Fuhrman are both great. Esther getting pulled over by the police after stealing the family car has all kinds of Leprechaun gets pulled over by the police vibes. This is peak cinema!

    I recommend this film for scary movie month viewing.

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  4. Listening to old podcast episodes and hearing Patrick and Doug trashing Draft Day for 5 minutes straight, is pretty hilarious

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  5. PREY (2022) is just as great as everyone's been saying. A back-to-basics action thriller. Something's out there in the trees!

    CARTER (2022). Way more slick, but also tons of fist-pumping action. The inclusion of real-life politics in the story is worrisome, but the set pieces are so over-the-top that it didn't matter. The van vs. motorcycles chase was a highlight.

    RISE OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (2022). The Turtles sure have changed since the last time I checked in on the franchise. Raph is the heroic leader and Leo is the partying goof-off? They might as well be brand new characters. Beyond that, this was decent, if generic, cartoon fun.

    POLTERGEIST (1982). Take a drink whenever someone says "Carol Anne."

    TRUE STORIES (1986). Not sure what to make of this one. A plotless examination of old-fashioned small-town life clashing with the modern world (at least I think that's what it's about). But John Goodman and Swoosie Kurtz were funny, and the songs were all great.

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    1. TMNT, it's from the new version of the turtles, which i didn't know existed before this movie, where the turtles are not brothers, and they're all different type of turtles (box turtle, soft shell, etc). Anyway, it was fun, and make me want to watch the show

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  6. Another week, more movies.

    BUTTERFIELD 8 (1960) – Listening to some of the lines in the film, I would not have guessed this lead to an OSCAR win. But Elizabeth Taylor did get the best actress award. She gives her usual gutsy performance, elevating the melodramatic material about a self-confessed “slut” who falls in love. Laurence Harvey as an actor is really hit or miss. I do not think he fit the role well here.

    THE WILD PARTY (1975, dir. James Ivory) – One thing I like about Turner Classic Movies’ Summer Under The Stars programming is the digging up obscurities like The Wild Party. There usually is a reason why a film gets forgotten. In the case of this, it is a matter of the script being heavy-handed and a totally unlikable lead character. Set during a party at a fading comedy star’s house in 1929, the film unfolds with clashing egos, fading relationships, sexual decadence and a melodramatic ending. The costumes and production design are top-notch, however.

    ELVIS (2022) – Wishing to get out for a night and not seeing much of interest playing at the local multiplex, I decided to give Baz Luhrmann’s biopic a shot. As usual with a Luhrmann film, there are parts that I liked and others that completely got on my nerves. Austin Butler as Elvis Presley is terrific. He captured the energy of Elvis the performer. Using Colonel Tom Parker as the figure the story is told through was not completely to my liking. All of the fancy graphics to condense scenes I can take in a documentary but find distracting in this context. I do not regret watching ELVIS, though.

    Last night I was at the Mahoning Drive-In for the first night of the annual Universal Monster Mash. It was my first time going for that event, too. The films shown were the original Frankenstein, Dracula's Daughter (1936), and Murders In The Rue Morgue (1932). Dracula's Daughter was a first watch and one that surprised me. The humor and theme of a vampire questioning its existence feel ahead of its time. Murders in the Rue Morgue is a fun and stylish Bela Lugosi film. The film print looked wonderful.

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    1. WOW, Raquel Welch's singing-on-the-piano costume is fierce (I'm guessing she sings on a piano in that) and she looks preeetyy. Despite usually not being very good, 70s and 80s movies that take place in the 20s are kind of my thing. I'll queue it!

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    2. I think you will like it, Meredith. Raquel Welch does sing and dance in that sequence. That is one of the better roles I have seen her in, too. The Wild Party was shown in the context of a full day of her films. Wished I had more time to watch what was shown that day.

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    3. I saw PICNIC (1955) this week. I STRUGGLED to believe they were calling 37 yo William Holden a brutishly strong and handsome "YOUNG boy". It was definitely one of those casting choices you make not because someone fits the part but because someone means something to audiences at the time, right? So yeah - once the legend of that actor is gone, the casting makes NOo kinda sense. Kim Novak is hot stuff. I think Kim Novak is the sexiest woman I've ever seen onscreen. Also very frustrating - she's always the sexiest AND the meekest. Anywho, thought you might have seen that one. I think "forgotten for a reason" kind of applies.

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    4. She can probably never breath in any of her costumes.

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  7. I just saw probably the Schindlers list of war movies called "come and see". Have you guys seen it? Can you guys do a episode on it?

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    1. I've never seen it, but it's on my list of films I would like to watch eventually. I know it's quite a "heavy" movie, so I'll wait until I'm in the appropriate mood/headspace.

      Fthismovie generally doesn't cover war movies, so I doubt they'll ever do an episode on it. Friendly Fire is a good war movie podcast that covered it. I haven't listened to that episode, as I prefer to watch the movie first.

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    2. The episode is available here: https://friendlyfire.simplecast.com/episodes/come-and-see-1985-rUDC0ge5

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    3. thanks paul, downloading now, as well as about 20 other episodes of that podcast

      Come And See is great, very 'heavy' as you said, and maybe not the type of movies that are covered here

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