Saturday, May 20, 2023

Weekend Open Thread

18 comments:

  1. G'day y'all!!!!!!

    First up a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge thanks to fellow F This fan Mikko! He first posted about the Finnish action movie SISU on here earlier this year. Id been very stoked to see it since!

    SISU (2023 digital )

    This flick surprise dropped on digital purchase/rental about 2 weeks after the US theatrical debut. I hadnt beeen able to get to the theater so i purchased it. IT IS AWESOME. Its a barebones plot about a prospector who finds gold during WW2 and is pursued by a squad of Nazi's. It has the "one bad@ss vs many" vibe of the John Wick movies so it pairs nicely. However the action is vastly different and more focused on placing our protagonist in impossible to escape scenarios. Its a tight 90 minutes, shot beautifully, and full of super fun and crazy violent set pieces. A must watch for action fans.

    Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (2023 XD theatrical)

    Loved it! I, as with many, have found the overall quality of most MCU movies in the latest phase to be "fine" but nothing amazing. Welp im pleased to report that James Gunn did, indeed, 'stick the landing' with this final flick in his GotG trilogy. Its a wonderful movie. It manages to shift focus from Starlord to Rocket while giving everyone alot to work with..a very very good decision. Drax is hilarious. The handling of Gamora 2.0 is both surprising and rewarding. The emotional beats are deep (i wept multiple times). My only critique, and its small, is that the soundtrack moved to the 90s and i much prefer the more classical under-the-radar tunes of pt1 and 2. Looking at the recent MCU output and the calendar for the next few years, i kinda feel like this will be the last time i am connected with one of their movies on a level moreso than a casual watcher. Thanks to Gunn and company for creating one of the most fun trilogies in a long long time.

    (Postscript: my fam decided to revisit GotG 1 shortly after seeing part 3. doing so only made me love part 3 even more. Its incredible to see how deftly the gangs origin story was handled as well as the amazing details seeded along the way.)



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    1. That tank shot in Sisu, with the 2 trucks slowly creeping to each sides of it was awesome on the big screen

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    2. SOOOOO goood!!! I fell in love with the movie pretty early..the minefield scene was epic..i was like "there's NO way out of this!!!".

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    3. I took my kids (older teens) to see it in the theatre, and it was their first 18A (R in the US) experience on the big screen. They were actually really resistant to go watch it, and wanted to watch GOTG3 instead. I insisted they watch the trailer, and they immediately were down to see it. I was kind of surprised actually how quickly they flipped. Everyone loved it. I especially enjoyed how well it straddled having a serious tone with being a little over-the-top, yet without going full blown silly action-comedy.

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    4. Paul....That is SO COOL. The first R movie with the folks is a life memory for sure. You picked a doosy of a flick and im very glad it played well for them. Cheers!

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  2. The Invisible Man (2020)
    Hey guys, remember The Dark Universe? This was supposed to be part of it. Thanks to the failure of The Mummy, it was changed to a standalone movie that has nothing to do with the rest. There's sone nitpicking to be done for sure, but in the end it's a great movie that was sadly forgotten. I refer you to the Great Rob DiCristino's article on the movie. With Junesploitation coming, it's the perfect time to watch it

    Also, get Upgrade, from 2018, from the same director. Another perfect movie for Junesploitation

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    1. OOOO i havent seen the Invisible Man yet and i know alot of folks dug it. thanks!

      Upgrade is SOOOO good. i think alot of folks slept on it, but its entertaining all day long.

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    2. I had forgotten about that one and it kind of got missed during the pandemic, but I only heard good things. I should slot it in during Junesploitation. Didn't know it was the same director as Upgrade, but that's another reason to see it.

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  3. COP OUT (2010). This isn't nearly as bad as its reputation, yet it was nonetheless pretty mediocre. I'm glad I've finally seen it, at least.

    SHANGHAI KNIGHTS (2003). Yes, I'm aware this is a very, very dumb movie, but I can't help but love it. There's an old-fashioned "Let's go on an adventure!" feel to it that I dig. Plus, Jackie Chan fights a pre-fame Donnie Yen!

    ON DEADLY GROUND (1994). I've learned not to expect much from a Seagal movie, but OOF! This one was really bad.

    HAUSU (1977). The most normal movie ever.

    BLOW-UP (1966). Oh, so THIS is the movie with the "mime tennis" scene. That solves that mystery. Beyond that, I enjoyed it quite a lot. I wonder, though, if the swingin' 60s were ever this swingin'.

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    1. Totally agree with your COP OUT review and LOLd at your HAUSU writeup.

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    2. With every watch of Blow-Up - there have been a few- I am struck more and more by Thomas' cynicism. Even though it seems that he wants to care about something, he cannot get past his jaded sensibilities. All of the excitement of swingin' 60s London (the youthful cultural scene was that vibrant at the time) is lost on him.

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    3. oooooo....ive been circling both Blow Out and Blow Up the past few weeks as part of my digging into classics i should know. your post is a sign that i must watch soon!

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  4. Another week of dealing with life and finding some time to watch movies. I am doing my best to gear my mind up to the challenge of watching a film a day again. This year has so far not turned out to be the most inspiring for my cinematic endeavors. Hopefully Junesploitation can change that. I already have a provisional list for the month.

    BLOODY MUSCLE BODYBUILDER IN HELL (1995) on TUBI – A very low-budget Japanese production (probably SOV) inspired by the Evil Dead franchise. A man, his ex-girlfriend, and a psychic go to a supposedly haunted house and find themselves trapped there by a demonic force. The director is the star, and there is a lot of DIY gore and special effects on display. What the film lacks in execution is more than made up for in the general creativity of the project, and it is best appreciated with its limitations in mind. Even so, Bloody Muscle Bodybuilder is well-paced for this kind thing and succeeds in creating some tense moments, something that movies with much bigger budgets and more talent have failed to do.

    THE BURMESE HARP (1956, dir. Kon Ichikawa) – With the surrender of Japan in August 1945, a Japanese unit faces the uncertainty of peace as P.O.W.s in Burma (modern-day Myanmar). Meanwhile, one of their comrades goes on a journey to rejoin them. Dressed as a Buddhist monk, he unwittingly undertakes a spiritual journey as he confronts the death that surrounds him. Besides being a story of the positive side of human nature during a dark period of history, The Burmese Harp is interesting as a Japanese perspective on World War II. There definitely is an essay to write about that aspect of the film, particularly the absence of the nasty side of Japanese militarism. It features gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. A film like this bolsters my belief that the decades after WWII (1950s through the 1970s) were the greatest period of movies as a serious art form.

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  5. I had a good saturday night watching movies with my friends

    We started with Crumb (1994), always an excellent documentary portraying a very dysfunctional family in which the one we thought was kinda insane (Robert Crumb) is actually the most normal of the lot. But watching it just reminded me that we never got a blu-ray for American Splendor.

    Then we watched Gemini (1999), a very good movie from the director of Tetsuo The Iron Man (not to be confused with the character Tetsuo from Akira). If you're familiar with Shin'ya Tsukamoto, you'll notice his style right away.

    Then we ended with The Night Of The Hunter (1955), still a masterpiece that everybody should watch. The photography is sublime and i'll have to rewatch it in a couple of weeks when i'll receive the Kino 4K disc. For a better appreciation of the movie, you should read Heath Holland's piece on it, on this site

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    1. The Night of the Hunter is another one i MUST revisit...i dont know alot of old school classics but i recall LOVING it

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    2. Night of the Hunter sounds really good.

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  6. I've been watching a lot of the exciting NHL playoffs, so haven't had as much time for movies. However, I did watch The Manchurian Candidate (1962, dir. Frankenheimer) at my local indie theater. It was pretty great, despite knowing what it was about (the title has become a popular expression). However, they pretty much give it away in the opening anyways, and it's just a matter of how it will play out. Sinatra was very good in this, as was Angela Lansbury, and Henry Silva has a small role. I found the dream sequences to be especially disquieting.

    After several months of not playing any older movies that interest me, the indie theatre has a great lineup for the next couple of weeks. I'd like to go see The Neverending Story, Point Break, Labyrinth, Raging Bull, Barbarella, Casablanca, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I've only seen the first 3, and none of them on the big screen.

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    1. I have not had much of a chance to watch any of the NHL playoffs this year. Reading about the run the Panthers have had this post-season has been interesting, though.

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