Small Soldiers (1998): I didn't participate in the F This Movie Fest, mainly because I don't do social media, but I really like this movie, so I finally got the Blu-ray, pushed by the FTM Fest announcement. Considering The Burbs and Gremlins, it feels like only Joe Dante could do this movie. I'm starting to doubt Siskel and Ebert ability to review movies, they didn't like it.
The Brutalist (2024): I didn't care for it. I guess I didn't see the point of the whole thing, maybe I'm not smart enough(that's what my friends are telling me anyway 🙂). The music's good and the cinematography's great, so there's that.
Better Off Dead (1985): What a weird movie, I love it. I'm gonna need more of this.
The Gorge (2025): Apparently Sigourney Weaver specialise in roles as leader of a shadow organisation that deals with weird shitty things. The movie's good, would buy the 4k.
The Thirteenth Floor (1999): I wish they'd re-release it on Blu-ray. It's a good movie, but mostly forgotten, sadly. Part noir, part sci-fi, it' the perfect companion to Dark City.
True History of the Kelly Gang (2019): The Order was great, so I decided it was time to get the Blu-ray for this and rewatch this one. It's still very good, and confirms Justin Kurzel is a director to watch (we don't talk about Assassin's Creed, it doesn't exist). Also, this is not the 'true' story of Ned Kelly, it's mostly fiction, but good fiction.
Uncle Buck (1989): A favorite of mine, I had to jump on the 4k. Amy Madigan (Chanice) red hair really pop on Dolby Vision. I've watched this thing so many times, I really should do it with one of the commentary tracks, but then I'd be annoyed that I'm missing a funny scene.
Also, finally got Nosferatu (2024) on 4k. After my disastrous viewing in theater, I had to get the disc, it's as good looking as expected. Also needed to complete my Robert Eggers 4k collection.
Haha, no. The movie looked ugly. All the blacks were mostly gray, without details. I should've complained to the manage, but i was with friends and we were hungry. I knew the 4k would be better looking.
I saw Uncle Buck during its theatrical release. I might have watched it on cable after that, but it was not one of the John Candy films that I was exposed to much. I remember The Great Outdoors being on TV a lot, though. Spaceballs was another Candy film I watch a few times as a kid.
I liked this mainly because of the performances, excellent honest performances from Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis and a real tender performance from Dave Bautista who is proving himself the best wrestler turned actor. The script could have done with some tweeking and tidying up in parts but the central story and performances made this a solid 3.5/5 star movie.
IN DARKNESS (2011) Polish film about a Polish sewer worker who hid Jewish people during the German occupation of Poland in WW2. It stars Robert Więckiewicz, who has a particularly lovable face. And Benno Fürmann, who has a particularly striking face. Hm. Makes sense that faces were everything in movie taking places with everyone crouching in a sewer. I watched it because I wanted a movie from WW2 Europe to show students. Listen. I know students in 10th grade - not mine, and not ones who receive special ed services - who don't know who nazis were OR "Jews". Judaism is not a common faith, and Jewish is not a large ethnic group in Hawaii. But I really feel like in education nowadays, we are suffering from kids not knowing basic stories because they don't have the attention spans to watch movies and learn the stories like we used to, and we just teach in tiny bits and pieces online now, and no long movies, no stories, no emotional connection to stories. Anyway - that is my everyday ed rant. I feel like I have to justify doing stuff like showing movies in class, but like, we NEED to. The only way you don't know who nazis are in 10th grade is you never saw the terror they invoked on people's faces when you were supposed to be learning about them in middle school. Kids not knowing common stories and narratives is ...so bad. Anyway the movie's effective. Recommend.
Do you encounter any students who watch movies on a regular basis, Meredith?
I am glad that I am not growing up during this period of time. There are too many distractions now. More and more I feel like an artifact of another era.
STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984) The famously atheist Trek franchise does a movie about faith and sacrifice. Also, it’s great to see Christopher Lloyd go full Klingon.
ERASERHEAD (1977) Tom Servo: “We’re having Eraserhead chicken.”
A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988) Pretty challenging to maintain a full-on farce for the whole runtime of a feature, but this movie manages it. Very funny stuff.
THE MONKEY (2025) Edna Krabappel: “Can’t… stop… doing… the monkey!”
DARK CITY (1998) Nearly forgot how much I love this movie. It’s just so freakin’ cool!!!
TROMEO AND JULIET (1996) What time is it? It’s Troma time.
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) Woww, I loved this. It was so unexpected, I'd never heard of it. I really thought up until very late in the movie that it would turn into a comedy. If I'm not mistaken, there are several comedians or funny character actors in the cast. The ballroom scene was amazing. There's one surprising badass scene toward the end (I won't' give it away). And this may be one of my favorite Gene Hackman movies.
with Genes passing alot of folks are referencing it. ben stiller shared a hilarious story which ill paraphrase here: he worked with Gene on Royal Tenenbaums. He was a massive fan and towards the end of the shoot got the nerve up to tell Gene how The Poseidon Adventure was an incredibly important and influential movie on him growing up. Gene smiled and replied..."ah yes. money job". LOL!!!!!
A Perfect Getaway (2009): For some reasons David Twohy never quite managed to bank on his success from Pitch Black. The few movies we got from him were always entertaining at least. This is one of those less-than-perfect-mostly-forgotten flick. Who doesn't like a thriller set in. You'll see the twist coming, or maybe you won't, who cares, it's a well made movie that's worth the watch.
Is Paris Burning? (1966): As a french and english speaker, and prefer to watch my stuff in its original language, that was a weird movie for me to watch, half the movie's in french, the other in english, with the other language dubbed. I decided to listen to the french track, but then Orson Welles fat face came on screen so of course I had to switch to english to hear his booming voice. Anyway, it was a first watch for me, but I'm a fan of the WW2-french-resistance movies, so I liked it. It's a long movie (almost 3h), but with some very good battle scenes. There's a lot of characters and a lot of stuff happening, so it can become confusing at times. I wasn't bothered by any of this. Lots of cameos too. There's an intermission about 2/3 of the movie, after that it drags a little, but that my only quibble.
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958): Cool, and short, submarine movie. Who doesn't like those? Another blind buy just because it's a submarine movie. I'm a simple man with simple tastes.
Wow, I actually watched some films over the past two weeks! Samurais face off against ninjas in SHINOBI NO MONO: BAND OF ASSASSINS (1962) and SHINOBI NO MONO: REVENGE (1963). These are among the first ninja films ever made. During the wars of late 16th-century Japan, ninja clans scheme to assassinate a warlord intent on taking over all of Japan. The central character is Goemon Ishikawa, a ninja whose life gets increasingly torn apart by the violence around him. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, however. Though not the most focused of narratives, the action sequences of both films are impressive and creatively shot. REVENGE is more heavy on battle scenes than the first one.
Spring is approaching. Though the cold is not yet over, there were a few warm days recently to indicate that is the case. The Mahoning Drive-In has started to post shows for the 2025 season. I also noticed that a movie theater around a half-hour away from me, The Gap Theatre in Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, is now open. It is being run by the man behind Exhumed Films, and the programming is completely in line with the Exhumed Films nights I have had at the Mahoning. (Today the films of Lee Van Cleef are being shown.) I have heard about plans to re-open The Gap for a couple of years now, so I am eager to get there sometime soon. It will probably have to wait until the tax season ends in a month, though. A midnight screening is hard to handle when I have to be in the office at 9:00 a.m.
Though i miss them, i can't do midnight screening anymore either. Nothing beats coming out at 2am and getting food and talk a out the movie with friends
Small Soldiers (1998): I didn't participate in the F This Movie Fest, mainly because I don't do social media, but I really like this movie, so I finally got the Blu-ray, pushed by the FTM Fest announcement. Considering The Burbs and Gremlins, it feels like only Joe Dante could do this movie. I'm starting to doubt Siskel and Ebert ability to review movies, they didn't like it.
ReplyDeleteThe Brutalist (2024): I didn't care for it. I guess I didn't see the point of the whole thing, maybe I'm not smart enough(that's what my friends are telling me anyway 🙂). The music's good and the cinematography's great, so there's that.
Better Off Dead (1985): What a weird movie, I love it. I'm gonna need more of this.
The Gorge (2025): Apparently Sigourney Weaver specialise in roles as leader of a shadow organisation that deals with weird shitty things. The movie's good, would buy the 4k.
The Thirteenth Floor (1999): I wish they'd re-release it on Blu-ray. It's a good movie, but mostly forgotten, sadly. Part noir, part sci-fi, it' the perfect companion to Dark City.
True History of the Kelly Gang (2019): The Order was great, so I decided it was time to get the Blu-ray for this and rewatch this one. It's still very good, and confirms Justin Kurzel is a director to watch (we don't talk about Assassin's Creed, it doesn't exist). Also, this is not the 'true' story of Ned Kelly, it's mostly fiction, but good fiction.
Uncle Buck (1989): A favorite of mine, I had to jump on the 4k. Amy Madigan (Chanice) red hair really pop on Dolby Vision. I've watched this thing so many times, I really should do it with one of the commentary tracks, but then I'd be annoyed that I'm missing a funny scene.
Also, finally got Nosferatu (2024) on 4k. After my disastrous viewing in theater, I had to get the disc, it's as good looking as expected. Also needed to complete my Robert Eggers 4k collection.
You mean you bought Nosferatu after you didn't like it in the theater?
DeleteHaha, no. The movie looked ugly. All the blacks were mostly gray, without details. I should've complained to the manage, but i was with friends and we were hungry. I knew the 4k would be better looking.
DeleteI saw Uncle Buck during its theatrical release. I might have watched it on cable after that, but it was not one of the John Candy films that I was exposed to much. I remember The Great Outdoors being on TV a lot, though. Spaceballs was another Candy film I watch a few times as a kid.
DeleteThe Last Showgirl (2014)
ReplyDeleteI liked this mainly because of the performances, excellent honest performances from Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis and a real tender performance from Dave Bautista who is proving himself the best wrestler turned actor. The script could have done with some tweeking and tidying up in parts but the central story and performances made this a solid 3.5/5 star movie.
I agree with everything you said. Though I wouldn't Pamela in a Shakespeare play anytime soon, she was perfect for the role.
DeleteIN DARKNESS (2011)
ReplyDeletePolish film about a Polish sewer worker who hid Jewish people during the German occupation of Poland in WW2. It stars Robert Więckiewicz, who has a particularly lovable face. And Benno Fürmann, who has a particularly striking face. Hm. Makes sense that faces were everything in movie taking places with everyone crouching in a sewer. I watched it because I wanted a movie from WW2 Europe to show students. Listen. I know students in 10th grade - not mine, and not ones who receive special ed services - who don't know who nazis were OR "Jews". Judaism is not a common faith, and Jewish is not a large ethnic group in Hawaii. But I really feel like in education nowadays, we are suffering from kids not knowing basic stories because they don't have the attention spans to watch movies and learn the stories like we used to, and we just teach in tiny bits and pieces online now, and no long movies, no stories, no emotional connection to stories. Anyway - that is my everyday ed rant. I feel like I have to justify doing stuff like showing movies in class, but like, we NEED to. The only way you don't know who nazis are in 10th grade is you never saw the terror they invoked on people's faces when you were supposed to be learning about them in middle school. Kids not knowing common stories and narratives is ...so bad. Anyway the movie's effective. Recommend.
Rant all you want, because it always comes with interesting movie commentary
DeleteI'll be tracking down this one
Do you encounter any students who watch movies on a regular basis, Meredith?
DeleteI am glad that I am not growing up during this period of time. There are too many distractions now. More and more I feel like an artifact of another era.
On a regular basis? No way.
DeleteMy new plan is to show all the anti-nazi movies asap while there's still time. It feels like there is very little time.
STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984)
ReplyDeleteThe famously atheist Trek franchise does a movie about faith and sacrifice. Also, it’s great to see Christopher Lloyd go full Klingon.
ERASERHEAD (1977)
Tom Servo: “We’re having Eraserhead chicken.”
A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988)
Pretty challenging to maintain a full-on farce for the whole runtime of a feature, but this movie manages it. Very funny stuff.
THE MONKEY (2025)
Edna Krabappel: “Can’t… stop… doing… the monkey!”
DARK CITY (1998)
Nearly forgot how much I love this movie. It’s just so freakin’ cool!!!
TROMEO AND JULIET (1996)
What time is it? It’s Troma time.
There's a remake of The Toxic Avengers, with Elijah Woods and others, that i've been waiting for a while. Can't find a release date.
DeleteTHE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)
ReplyDeleteWoww, I loved this. It was so unexpected, I'd never heard of it. I really thought up until very late in the movie that it would turn into a comedy. If I'm not mistaken, there are several comedians or funny character actors in the cast. The ballroom scene was amazing. There's one surprising badass scene toward the end (I won't' give it away). And this may be one of my favorite Gene Hackman movies.
its a classic. was a huge movie watch as a kid.
Deletewith Genes passing alot of folks are referencing it. ben stiller
shared a hilarious story which ill paraphrase here: he worked with Gene on Royal Tenenbaums. He was a massive fan and towards the end of the shoot got the nerve up to tell Gene how The Poseidon Adventure was an incredibly important and influential movie on him growing up. Gene smiled and replied..."ah yes. money job". LOL!!!!!
Haha. Maybe he was still in character? :) Nah I can imagine that was a taxing, unfun movie to film.
DeleteI keep trying to watch BEHIND ENEMY LINES and ENEMY OF THE STATE but struggling to get into them.
A couple of weekend watch...
ReplyDeleteA Perfect Getaway (2009): For some reasons David Twohy never quite managed to bank on his success from Pitch Black. The few movies we got from him were always entertaining at least. This is one of those less-than-perfect-mostly-forgotten flick. Who doesn't like a thriller set in. You'll see the twist coming, or maybe you won't, who cares, it's a well made movie that's worth the watch.
Is Paris Burning? (1966): As a french and english speaker, and prefer to watch my stuff in its original language, that was a weird movie for me to watch, half the movie's in french, the other in english, with the other language dubbed. I decided to listen to the french track, but then Orson Welles fat face came on screen so of course I had to switch to english to hear his booming voice. Anyway, it was a first watch for me, but I'm a fan of the WW2-french-resistance movies, so I liked it. It's a long movie (almost 3h), but with some very good battle scenes. There's a lot of characters and a lot of stuff happening, so it can become confusing at times. I wasn't bothered by any of this. Lots of cameos too. There's an intermission about 2/3 of the movie, after that it drags a little, but that my only quibble.
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958): Cool, and short, submarine movie. Who doesn't like those? Another blind buy just because it's a submarine movie. I'm a simple man with simple tastes.
Wow, I actually watched some films over the past two weeks! Samurais face off against ninjas in SHINOBI NO MONO: BAND OF ASSASSINS (1962) and SHINOBI NO MONO: REVENGE (1963). These are among the first ninja films ever made. During the wars of late 16th-century Japan, ninja clans scheme to assassinate a warlord intent on taking over all of Japan. The central character is Goemon Ishikawa, a ninja whose life gets increasingly torn apart by the violence around him. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, however. Though not the most focused of narratives, the action sequences of both films are impressive and creatively shot. REVENGE is more heavy on battle scenes than the first one.
ReplyDeleteSpring is approaching. Though the cold is not yet over, there were a few warm days recently to indicate that is the case. The Mahoning Drive-In has started to post shows for the 2025 season. I also noticed that a movie theater around a half-hour away from me, The Gap Theatre in Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, is now open. It is being run by the man behind Exhumed Films, and the programming is completely in line with the Exhumed Films nights I have had at the Mahoning. (Today the films of Lee Van Cleef are being shown.) I have heard about plans to re-open The Gap for a couple of years now, so I am eager to get there sometime soon. It will probably have to wait until the tax season ends in a month, though. A midnight screening is hard to handle when I have to be in the office at 9:00 a.m.
ReplyDeleteThough i miss them, i can't do midnight screening anymore either. Nothing beats coming out at 2am and getting food and talk a out the movie with friends
Delete