Rogue One - A Star Wars Story (2016): Still a flawed great movie. Everybody's praising Tony Gilroy work on the movie, and he's saying that things were a mess when he came in. I think he's full of himself. I'm sure things were less than perfect, but we all know Disney's habits of meddling with productions and its directors. Gilroy's a great writer, but I think Gareth Edwards already made a great foundation and Gilroy just added to it. Edwards is capable of doing great things, there's no movie of his I didn't enjoy on some level (even Godzilla). He has yet to make his great masterpiece, but I believe he'll get there. He's supposed to do the next Jurassic World. I think he's a great choice for it, if they let him do his thing. Also, watch Monsters already, it's great.
Puss in Boots - The Last Wish (2022): Including Spider-Verse, that's the 3rd big IP animated movie (Ninja Turtles, Spider-Verse and this) that's trying something different with storytelling and, more importantly, style. Let's just say the Pixar-isation of animated movies was getting stale. The first movie of this series (not counting Shrek) was fine, but a bit predictable.
Borderlands (2024): I'm glad she gets to play a badass, but Cate Blanchet is seriously miscast. Apart from that, the movie is piece of sh--. Imagine a bad version of Guardians of the Galaxy, but with an even more annoying Jar Jar Binks. Don't bother.
It's dead this week in the weekend thread, so I'll pick up the slack. Here's one, there might be more. 😎
Trap (2024): I liked it a lot. A big part of it is just watching Josh Hartnett acting again, and clearly having fun doing it. Of course, Shyamalan can't help himself and has to create twists after twists, but I'll allow it. That being said, I think the movie have benefited if it had a shorter runtime and brisker pace, but that's just me. Also, Allison Pill is playing housewife now, it's been that long since Scott Pilgrim?
Last week, I mentioned that I had 70 flicks on my Tubi watchlist. Thus was born... TUBI TUESDAY!
First up: DEADLY PREY (1987). Mullets, muscles, and machine guns = murder and mayhem! Is Rambospolitation a thing? Well, it should be, seems like there's tons of these types of mid 80s efforts out there. This one was an almost nonstop barrage of blood and guts action, with occasional pauses along the way for some macho scenery chewing. Oh, and Cameron Mitchell as a retired cop with a beef against capitalism! A big WIN with our first foray! So, I had to make it a double feature. Enter....
DEVIL STORY (1986). THIS! A French horror film that takes the deliriousness of Jess Franco's monster movies to an incomprehensible new (lower) level. I'm a big fan of the French slasher OGROFF THE MAD MUTILATOR, and this film has echoes of that as well. This baby is so off the charts, it's one of those "anti-movies" that you just have to roll with, and boy, did it have me rolling. A happy discovery and an upper-echelon bad/good flick! Drop by, I'll happily watch it again with you!
In case you didn't know, it's pretty much JUNESPLOITATION around these parts year round, so TUBI TUESDAY is 100% on-brand for me. Tubi offers an amazing selection of the wild, the weird, the worst-- so anyone else who wants to join the fun (uh...), feel free!
FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (2024) Everyone seems so apathetic toward this movie, but I think it's a total banger. Classic revenge plot with terrific action set pieces. I predict it'll be "reclaimed" by fans in a few years.
DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) Stanley Kubrick goodness!
THE TIME MACHINE (1960) Eloi in the streets, Morlock in the sheets.
THE THING (1982) What can I say? I felt like watching something slimy and gooey.
I completely enjoyed Furiosa. Though not at the level of Fury Road, it is still an engaging survival/adventure/revenge film. Seeing it on a big screen with the soundtrack booming in the theater is the best way to watch it.
Totally agree on Furiosa. Super fun, and my favorite movie of the year so far. If any movie that isn't as good as Fury Road is bad, then the vast majority of movies are bad.
I certainly did not mean to slight Furiosa, Reed. The film is delivers everything that a George Miller post-apocalyptic production should. Anya Taylor-Joy gives a remarkably intense performance.
My weekend of doing nothing but watching movies and spamming this thread with my comments continue. I'm being very productive right now 😎
Snowden (2016): Oliver Stone lays it thick with the hero worship, but this is actually a spy movie, and I like spy movies. Also, Nic Cage in a small cameo.
Skin Trade (2014): B-movies are so cute when they try to say something about social issues. Nonetheless, the movie's decent. The acting is bad and the dialogues are atrocious, but we have Tony Jaa, Michael Jay White and Dolph Lundgren (who also wrote the movie) punching each other and trying to kill Ron Perlman in the process. What else do you need? Action? Well, action scenes are actually the best part, they're pretty cool.
Need For Speed (2014): Is it a good movie? No! Do I think Aaron Paul is a good actor? No! Do I enjoy the heck of this movie? An emphatic yes! And you have Michael Keaton as a kind of narrator. Also, Dominic Cooper as the bad guy, Rami Malek and Dakota Johnson in small roles.
Hope all of you in the U.S. are having a pleasant Labor Day weekend. The movies do not stop for a holiday, though. I got a couple more summer and vacation themed films in during the week.
IREZUMI (1966, dir. Yasuzo Masumura) on MUBI – In the 1960s and ‘70s, Japanese directors made some of the most artful exploitation films ever. This is a good example of the melding of beautiful imagery with pulpy storytelling. The title refers to tattoos, specifically the practice of underworld figures marking their bodies. When a young woman from a respectable family is sold into p-r-o-s-t-i-t-u-t-i-o-n, her change of status is expressed by being forced to get a tattoo of spider on her back. The spider, a clever hunter by nature, quickly becomes a symbol of her own schemes to get revenge on those who pushed her into that life. Some of the characters even say the spider has an influence on her.
VISIBLE SECRET (2001, dir. Ann Hui) – Spirits abound in the streets of Hong Kong. Blending youthful romance and supernatural possession, the story revolves around a young man dealing with the increasingly strange experiences he has with a woman who claims to be able to see ghosts. Though I did not have any expectations going into the film, I was still surprised by the way Visible Secret unfolds. There is an ambiguity to the story that alternately intrigued and frustrated me. Overall, I did not dislike it. The lighting is frequently very colorful, and the digital effects are very much of the era.
THE GERMAN SISTERS (1981, dir. Margarethe von Trotta) on MUBI – Decades ago now, I delved into the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s. I had not watched one of those films for a long time. Only begun out of curiosity since it was leaving the website, The German Sisters immediately drew me in and compelled me to finish it. A deeply serious film, it tells a story based on the relationship between a 1970s German radical/revolutionary (Gudrun Ensslin of Baader-Meinhof notoriety) and her sister. It amazingly straddles the line of being a political and personal film. Barbara Sukowa is one of those actors who impresses me more with each film I see her in. It definitely helps to be aware of the politics of 1970s West Germany to comprehend the nuances of the film.
CARRY ON CAMPING (1969) – This innuendo-laden British comedy about a motley crew of characters converging at a camping ground is very much of its time and the country it comes from. Growing up watching Benny Hill and the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? on American television, I am familiar with this zany and naughty strain of British humor. The sole aim of Carry On Camping is to entertain and titillate. Whether it does so depends on your personal tastes.
CALIFORNIA DREAMING (1979) – Sun, sand, surf, sex, and the sourness of life. T.T. (Dennis Christopher) comes out to California from a little town called Chicago, Il., to honor his late brother’s wish to live at the shore. He ends up falling in with a group of surfers. Other characters hover around the beach and the town, each getting some attention as the story jumps around. T.T. is not the only one whose flaws are revealed as the film progresses. Though it has elements of being a beach romp, California Dreaming has a palpable undercurrent of bad decisions leading to outcomes that range from questionable to disappointing. It is a messy exploitation film that succeeds at giving the viewer a sense of hanging out with the characters.
I visited my parents recently and they were watching Are You Being Served? In the evening. We also watched a few episodes of As Time Goes By. Great British show with the great Judi Dench.
FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) at the Mahoning Drive-In for Camp Blood Weekend
The drive-in is showing all the Friday the 13th films up to Jason X. My only free day to go was for Thursday’s screening of the original, which I have seen countless times over thirty-plus years. Even so, the drive-in experience added something to it that I never get from a viewing at home. It is the kind of film that was made to be shown there. The night was more about getting out for a little fun than watching the film, honestly. Lead actress Adrienne King was in attendance signing autographs and introducing the film. She seemed to be having a good time meeting people and enjoying the drive-in ambiance. Thunderstorms were visible in the distance during the screening when the storm happens in the film, which only added to atmosphere of the film. The quality of the print shown was very high. The arrow through the throat kill still gets to me.
I absolutely appreciate Alex Garland for two reasons: 1) he made one of the best movies of the last decades (Ex Machina), 2) he pivots from film to film and cannot be held to a "type" or "genre". This is a dour, dark, depressing look at war from the perspective of journalists trying to document it from within. It does not delve deep into the "whys" of the civil war and often we are in situations where we dont even know whos "side" is being defended. Its incredibly well made and shot and further proof that Garland is one whos movies ill always look forward to.
Horrors Greatest (2024 shudder doc ep1)
Ok F This gang....we are exactly one month from Scary Movie Month. (Insert "How did the summer go so fast!?!?!" here). This is a new documentary series on shudder. The first ep focuses on "Cliche & Tropes". The cliches and tropes will be well known territory to horror fans however the doc shows LOTS of clips from each which i really dig...lots of opportunities to find new flicks to watch or comfort flicks to revisit in October!!
Ahhhh 90s action flicks...theres a bunch out there just waiting to be watched! This movie is a patchwork quilt of others including The Road Warrior, Escape NY, Waterworld, and more. Dystopian-lite future where a super high security prison has a secret island prison with two factions at war. Fun performances from Liotta, Hendrickson, Hudson and Stuart Wilson as a wisecracking baddie. Cheezy 90s fun.
That movie was a blast. I liked the design of the buildings they were living in. It felt a bit like Waterworld. I watched it after it was brought up on the podcast a year or 2 ago. I love 90s action movies: 1) They're so good 2) There are so many of them 3) I was 14 in 1990 so that decade was just special. I'm aware that it's partially nostalgia, but that doesn't lessen my enjoyment.
Blue Beetle (2023): I think I talked about this one a while ago, but here it is again. This is the Marvel-isation of DC. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just is. Like everybody else, I have opinions about DC movies, but they tend to differ from the usual consensus. Anyway, this one is good, not a masterpiece or anything, but a perfectly serviceable superhero action flick, with a Mexican touch.
Watched Alien: Romulus and A Quiet Place: Day One over the last couple days, and surprisingly to me, the 2024 franchise horror IP movie that I liked more was Quiet Place. This is a franchise that I find to be solid, but don't have any real affection for, so the only reason I was watching it was Sarnoski, with Lupita Nyong'o being a bit of a bonus. I had no idea Joseph Quinn was in it (liked him a lot in that last season of Stranger Things), so that was a pleasant surprise as well.
Reading some of the reviews afterwards, and some of the negative ones in particular, and some of the things people seemed to dislike about it are some of the things I thought made it really good. Despite being a prequel, it isn't there to fill in backstory about the aliens or anything. There also seemed to be some complaints that having the lead character be terminally ill lowered the stakes of the movie, which tells me they didn't get the point of the movie at all. Really feels like a situation where Paramount agreed to a prequel money grab, and when the original director dropped out, Krasinski snuck Sarnoski past security and made a completely different movie instead.
With Alien: Romulus... I have to wonder what the pitch was here that got anybody excited to make it. It was probably something about going back to basics. It ended up being so basic though that it doesn't stand out as doing anything notable. The plot, the kills, and the characters are all largely forgettable, aside from a climax that somehow evoked Alien: Resurrection for me in one of the worst possible ways.
Does anyone know/remember a courtroom drama from the 50s (I think it's the 50s, not 60s) that revolves around a rape ....but then during trial, the reveal scene is the witness on the stand actually speaks a different language (Italian, I think)? Just a shot in the dark to see if anyone remembers this! Thank you!
OH MY GOSH I FOUND IT! It's HOSTILE WITNESS from 1969. I was thinking of the wrong time period. I saw this when I was a teenager and always wanted to revisit it but couldn't ...find it! Wow. Yay!
Yes, but so different than I remember lol. I mistook Ray Milland for Charles Laughton. And the title "Hostile Witness" was so similar to "Witness for the Prosecution", and the movie poster is similar to the "Anatomy of a Murder" poster. Lots of confusion :)
There was a film that I saw a part of as a teenager that I could not identify for several years. The scene I remembered involved a young woman in period dress going backstage to talk to a hypnotist. The dialogue was in French. A few years later I was watching Francois Truffaut's The Story of Adele H. and that scene comes on.
There is a scene that I saw when young that terrified me. The camera is down low looking up at a person in a spacesuit floating with just a sky full of stars in the background. But then their arms and legs become detached and float off from their body. It could have been a movie or TV. I tried, and wasn't able to find what it was.
HOSTILE WITNESS (1969) is pretty boring actually, now that I see it again. The kind of plot I've always liked, but the whole movie isn't very entertaining.
Going back through some of the podcast episodes from the last few weeks since I didn't have time before, and in the Dolls podcast with Mike, how did nobody leave a comment that not only did Metallica do Unforgiven II, they also made Unforgiven III?
I listened to the score of Jeremiah Johnston last Wednesday and I've had it in my head ever since. It could be worse, for sure, as it's one of my favourite scores. But enough.
Rogue One - A Star Wars Story (2016): Still a flawed great movie. Everybody's praising Tony Gilroy work on the movie, and he's saying that things were a mess when he came in. I think he's full of himself. I'm sure things were less than perfect, but we all know Disney's habits of meddling with productions and its directors. Gilroy's a great writer, but I think Gareth Edwards already made a great foundation and Gilroy just added to it. Edwards is capable of doing great things, there's no movie of his I didn't enjoy on some level (even Godzilla). He has yet to make his great masterpiece, but I believe he'll get there. He's supposed to do the next Jurassic World. I think he's a great choice for it, if they let him do his thing. Also, watch Monsters already, it's great.
ReplyDeletePuss in Boots - The Last Wish (2022): Including Spider-Verse, that's the 3rd big IP animated movie (Ninja Turtles, Spider-Verse and this) that's trying something different with storytelling and, more importantly, style. Let's just say the Pixar-isation of animated movies was getting stale. The first movie of this series (not counting Shrek) was fine, but a bit predictable.
Borderlands (2024): I'm glad she gets to play a badass, but Cate Blanchet is seriously miscast. Apart from that, the movie is piece of sh--. Imagine a bad version of Guardians of the Galaxy, but with an even more annoying Jar Jar Binks. Don't bother.
Did Rob put out a review too early yesterday? I don't remember which movie, but i swear i saw something.
ReplyDeleteYup! I accidentally broke embargo. It’ll be back up next week! Sorry about that.
DeleteIt's dead this week in the weekend thread, so I'll pick up the slack. Here's one, there might be more. 😎
ReplyDeleteTrap (2024): I liked it a lot. A big part of it is just watching Josh Hartnett acting again, and clearly having fun doing it. Of course, Shyamalan can't help himself and has to create twists after twists, but I'll allow it. That being said, I think the movie have benefited if it had a shorter runtime and brisker pace, but that's just me. Also, Allison Pill is playing housewife now, it's been that long since Scott Pilgrim?
The more 2024 movies I see, the more I appreciate TRAP.
DeleteLast week, I mentioned that I had 70 flicks on my Tubi watchlist. Thus was born... TUBI TUESDAY!
ReplyDeleteFirst up: DEADLY PREY (1987). Mullets, muscles, and machine guns = murder and mayhem! Is Rambospolitation a thing? Well, it should be, seems like there's tons of these types of mid 80s efforts out there. This one was an almost nonstop barrage of blood and guts action, with occasional pauses along the way for some macho scenery chewing. Oh, and Cameron Mitchell as a retired cop with a beef against capitalism! A big WIN with our first foray! So, I had to make it a double feature. Enter....
DEVIL STORY (1986). THIS! A French horror film that takes the deliriousness of Jess Franco's monster movies to an incomprehensible new (lower) level. I'm a big fan of the French slasher OGROFF THE MAD MUTILATOR, and this film has echoes of that as well. This baby is so off the charts, it's one of those "anti-movies" that you just have to roll with, and boy, did it have me rolling. A happy discovery and an upper-echelon bad/good flick! Drop by, I'll happily watch it again with you!
In case you didn't know, it's pretty much JUNESPLOITATION around these parts year round, so TUBI TUESDAY is 100% on-brand for me. Tubi offers an amazing selection of the wild, the weird, the worst-- so anyone else who wants to join the fun (uh...), feel free!
I can't join you in this, but i'm very much looking forward to read about what you'll watch every week.
Deletesame here! plus im always looking for findable suggestions..thanks Zillagord!!!
DeleteFURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (2024)
ReplyDeleteEveryone seems so apathetic toward this movie, but I think it's a total banger. Classic revenge plot with terrific action set pieces. I predict it'll be "reclaimed" by fans in a few years.
DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
Stanley Kubrick goodness!
THE TIME MACHINE (1960)
Eloi in the streets, Morlock in the sheets.
THE THING (1982)
What can I say? I felt like watching something slimy and gooey.
I completely enjoyed Furiosa. Though not at the level of Fury Road, it is still an engaging survival/adventure/revenge film. Seeing it on a big screen with the soundtrack booming in the theater is the best way to watch it.
DeleteFuriosa was amazing. One of my favourites this year.
DeleteTotally agree on Furiosa. Super fun, and my favorite movie of the year so far. If any movie that isn't as good as Fury Road is bad, then the vast majority of movies are bad.
DeleteI certainly did not mean to slight Furiosa, Reed. The film is delivers everything that a George Miller post-apocalyptic production should. Anya Taylor-Joy gives a remarkably intense performance.
DeleteMy weekend of doing nothing but watching movies and spamming this thread with my comments continue. I'm being very productive right now 😎
ReplyDeleteSnowden (2016): Oliver Stone lays it thick with the hero worship, but this is actually a spy movie, and I like spy movies. Also, Nic Cage in a small cameo.
Skin Trade (2014): B-movies are so cute when they try to say something about social issues. Nonetheless, the movie's decent. The acting is bad and the dialogues are atrocious, but we have Tony Jaa, Michael Jay White and Dolph Lundgren (who also wrote the movie) punching each other and trying to kill Ron Perlman in the process. What else do you need? Action? Well, action scenes are actually the best part, they're pretty cool.
Need For Speed (2014): Is it a good movie? No! Do I think Aaron Paul is a good actor? No! Do I enjoy the heck of this movie? An emphatic yes! And you have Michael Keaton as a kind of narrator. Also, Dominic Cooper as the bad guy, Rami Malek and Dakota Johnson in small roles.
Adam and I saw this opening night and to this day still say "My inbox is white hot" to each other. I remember nothing else from the movie.
DeleteMichael Keaton can make any line of dialogue memorable.
DeleteHope all of you in the U.S. are having a pleasant Labor Day weekend. The movies do not stop for a holiday, though. I got a couple more summer and vacation themed films in during the week.
ReplyDeleteIREZUMI (1966, dir. Yasuzo Masumura) on MUBI – In the 1960s and ‘70s, Japanese directors made some of the most artful exploitation films ever. This is a good example of the melding of beautiful imagery with pulpy storytelling. The title refers to tattoos, specifically the practice of underworld figures marking their bodies. When a young woman from a respectable family is sold into p-r-o-s-t-i-t-u-t-i-o-n, her change of status is expressed by being forced to get a tattoo of spider on her back. The spider, a clever hunter by nature, quickly becomes a symbol of her own schemes to get revenge on those who pushed her into that life. Some of the characters even say the spider has an influence on her.
VISIBLE SECRET (2001, dir. Ann Hui) – Spirits abound in the streets of Hong Kong. Blending youthful romance and supernatural possession, the story revolves around a young man dealing with the increasingly strange experiences he has with a woman who claims to be able to see ghosts. Though I did not have any expectations going into the film, I was still surprised by the way Visible Secret unfolds. There is an ambiguity to the story that alternately intrigued and frustrated me. Overall, I did not dislike it. The lighting is frequently very colorful, and the digital effects are very much of the era.
THE GERMAN SISTERS (1981, dir. Margarethe von Trotta) on MUBI – Decades ago now, I delved into the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s. I had not watched one of those films for a long time. Only begun out of curiosity since it was leaving the website, The German Sisters immediately drew me in and compelled me to finish it. A deeply serious film, it tells a story based on the relationship between a 1970s German radical/revolutionary (Gudrun Ensslin of Baader-Meinhof notoriety) and her sister. It amazingly straddles the line of being a political and personal film. Barbara Sukowa is one of those actors who impresses me more with each film I see her in. It definitely helps to be aware of the politics of 1970s West Germany to comprehend the nuances of the film.
CARRY ON CAMPING (1969) – This innuendo-laden British comedy about a motley crew of characters converging at a camping ground is very much of its time and the country it comes from. Growing up watching Benny Hill and the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? on American television, I am familiar with this zany and naughty strain of British humor. The sole aim of Carry On Camping is to entertain and titillate. Whether it does so depends on your personal tastes.
CALIFORNIA DREAMING (1979) – Sun, sand, surf, sex, and the sourness of life. T.T. (Dennis Christopher) comes out to California from a little town called Chicago, Il., to honor his late brother’s wish to live at the shore. He ends up falling in with a group of surfers. Other characters hover around the beach and the town, each getting some attention as the story jumps around. T.T. is not the only one whose flaws are revealed as the film progresses. Though it has elements of being a beach romp, California Dreaming has a palpable undercurrent of bad decisions leading to outcomes that range from questionable to disappointing. It is a messy exploitation film that succeeds at giving the viewer a sense of hanging out with the characters.
I visited my parents recently and they were watching Are You Being Served? In the evening. We also watched a few episodes of As Time Goes By. Great British show with the great Judi Dench.
DeleteContinued...
ReplyDeleteFRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) at the Mahoning Drive-In for Camp Blood Weekend
The drive-in is showing all the Friday the 13th films up to Jason X. My only free day to go was for Thursday’s screening of the original, which I have seen countless times over thirty-plus years. Even so, the drive-in experience added something to it that I never get from a viewing at home. It is the kind of film that was made to be shown there. The night was more about getting out for a little fun than watching the film, honestly. Lead actress Adrienne King was in attendance signing autographs and introducing the film. She seemed to be having a good time meeting people and enjoying the drive-in ambiance. Thunderstorms were visible in the distance during the screening when the storm happens in the film, which only added to atmosphere of the film. The quality of the print shown was very high. The arrow through the throat kill still gets to me.
Civil War (2024 4k blu)
ReplyDeleteI absolutely appreciate Alex Garland for two reasons: 1) he made one of the best movies of the last decades (Ex Machina), 2) he pivots from film to film and cannot be held to a "type" or "genre". This is a dour, dark, depressing look at war from the perspective of journalists trying to document it from within. It does not delve deep into the "whys" of the civil war and often we are in situations where we dont even know whos "side" is being defended. Its incredibly well made and shot and further proof that Garland is one whos movies ill always look forward to.
Horrors Greatest (2024 shudder doc ep1)
Ok F This gang....we are exactly one month from Scary Movie Month. (Insert "How did the summer go so fast!?!?!" here). This is a new documentary series on shudder. The first ep focuses on "Cliche & Tropes". The cliches and tropes will be well known territory to horror fans however the doc shows LOTS of clips from each which i really dig...lots of opportunities to find new flicks to watch or comfort flicks to revisit in October!!
It is so close now. I am already putting together a list for SMM.
DeleteNo Escape (1990 Prime)
ReplyDeleteAhhhh 90s action flicks...theres a bunch out there just waiting to be watched! This movie is a patchwork quilt of others including The Road Warrior, Escape NY, Waterworld, and more. Dystopian-lite future where a super high security prison has a secret island prison with two factions at war. Fun performances from Liotta, Hendrickson, Hudson and Stuart Wilson as a wisecracking baddie. Cheezy 90s fun.
Yes! I've been planning to get the blu-ray, but never got around to it. Fun movie
DeleteThat movie was a blast. I liked the design of the buildings they were living in. It felt a bit like Waterworld. I watched it after it was brought up on the podcast a year or 2 ago. I love 90s action movies: 1) They're so good 2) There are so many of them 3) I was 14 in 1990 so that decade was just special. I'm aware that it's partially nostalgia, but that doesn't lessen my enjoyment.
DeleteBlue Beetle (2023): I think I talked about this one a while ago, but here it is again. This is the Marvel-isation of DC. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just is. Like everybody else, I have opinions about DC movies, but they tend to differ from the usual consensus. Anyway, this one is good, not a masterpiece or anything, but a perfectly serviceable superhero action flick, with a Mexican touch.
ReplyDeleteWatched Alien: Romulus and A Quiet Place: Day One over the last couple days, and surprisingly to me, the 2024 franchise horror IP movie that I liked more was Quiet Place. This is a franchise that I find to be solid, but don't have any real affection for, so the only reason I was watching it was Sarnoski, with Lupita Nyong'o being a bit of a bonus. I had no idea Joseph Quinn was in it (liked him a lot in that last season of Stranger Things), so that was a pleasant surprise as well.
ReplyDeleteReading some of the reviews afterwards, and some of the negative ones in particular, and some of the things people seemed to dislike about it are some of the things I thought made it really good. Despite being a prequel, it isn't there to fill in backstory about the aliens or anything. There also seemed to be some complaints that having the lead character be terminally ill lowered the stakes of the movie, which tells me they didn't get the point of the movie at all. Really feels like a situation where Paramount agreed to a prequel money grab, and when the original director dropped out, Krasinski snuck Sarnoski past security and made a completely different movie instead.
With Alien: Romulus... I have to wonder what the pitch was here that got anybody excited to make it. It was probably something about going back to basics. It ended up being so basic though that it doesn't stand out as doing anything notable. The plot, the kills, and the characters are all largely forgettable, aside from a climax that somehow evoked Alien: Resurrection for me in one of the worst possible ways.
Yea! Day One hive rise up!
DeleteDoes anyone know/remember a courtroom drama from the 50s (I think it's the 50s, not 60s) that revolves around a rape ....but then during trial, the reveal scene is the witness on the stand actually speaks a different language (Italian, I think)? Just a shot in the dark to see if anyone remembers this! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe witness on the stand is a man who is identified as Italian, I think. It's the thrilling scene. It's spooky.
DeleteOH MY GOSH I FOUND IT! It's HOSTILE WITNESS from 1969. I was thinking of the wrong time period. I saw this when I was a teenager and always wanted to revisit it but couldn't ...find it! Wow. Yay!
DeleteWelp. My memory of the twist was wrong. That would explain why I couldn't find it.
DeleteGlad we could help ;)
DeleteThe movie's still good?
Yes, but so different than I remember lol. I mistook Ray Milland for Charles Laughton. And the title "Hostile Witness" was so similar to "Witness for the Prosecution", and the movie poster is similar to the "Anatomy of a Murder" poster. Lots of confusion :)
DeleteNow i'm curious
DeleteI am glad you found the title. Meredith.
DeleteThere was a film that I saw a part of as a teenager that I could not identify for several years. The scene I remembered involved a young woman in period dress going backstage to talk to a hypnotist. The dialogue was in French. A few years later I was watching Francois Truffaut's The Story of Adele H. and that scene comes on.
There is a scene that I saw when young that terrified me. The camera is down low looking up at a person in a spacesuit floating with just a sky full of stars in the background. But then their arms and legs become detached and float off from their body. It could have been a movie or TV. I tried, and wasn't able to find what it was.
DeleteIt's not Event Horizon? That sound like a scene from that
DeleteThat must have been an AMAZING feeling, Casual :)
DeleteHOSTILE WITNESS (1969) is pretty boring actually, now that I see it again. The kind of plot I've always liked, but the whole movie isn't very entertaining.
No, wasn't Event Horizon. Probably was some TV show.
DeleteGoing back through some of the podcast episodes from the last few weeks since I didn't have time before, and in the Dolls podcast with Mike, how did nobody leave a comment that not only did Metallica do Unforgiven II, they also made Unforgiven III?
ReplyDeleteNot a huge fan of Metalica, but i didn't even now they did 2, let alone 3
DeleteI listened to the score of Jeremiah Johnston last Wednesday and I've had it in my head ever since. It could be worse, for sure, as it's one of my favourite scores. But enough.
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