Caught the last theatrical screening of REGRETTING YOU (2025) (based on the Colleen Hoover novel) AMC had in the NYC area. I'm a sucker for well-made family melodramas and this one does mostly right by its source material. Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames look cute and have great young love chemistry, Allison Williams is stuck in "Megan" mom mode, Dave Franco is doing a pitch-perfect James Marsden impersonation and Clancy Brown seems to enjoy himself playing cancer-fighting cool grandpa. An unchallenging way to entertain you and your folks for two hours.
Ken Russell's ALTERED STATES (1980, CRITERION 4K UHD) is the complete opposite of 'unchallenging.' An utterly batshit insane adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky's novel, this is the closest a Russell production came to the mainstream while simultaneously rejecting easy categorization. Sexual but also intellectual, body horror that delves into metaphysical psychology and creature feature that uses religious allegory to portray duality of man tropes (wrapped in an underwhelming 'love conquers all' finale), this remains at its core a great 'trip' movie. The newish 4K transfer lets us watch the mostly optical effects work (with some air bladder prosthetics shots) hold remarkably well for a 45 year-old. William Hurt and Blair Brown are great. YMMV.
Had never seen John Hughes' UNCLE BUCK (1989, SUNDANCE CHANNEL) until a recent online watchalong with fans. It's got its share of dumb jokes and visual gags (that car! 🥵😷) and John Candy's comedic timing's solid, but young Macaulay Culkin outright steals the show. No wonder Hughes gave up directing and pivoted to "Home Alone." Every time Macaulay is on screen Buck is invisible. Lack of a consistent tone (is Buck just lazy? Crooked?) and the 80's usual s***al undertones conspire to make this a vanilla-flavored, low-key family drama. Don't feel l missed out on 36 years of great "Uncle Buck" memories.
ZOOTOPIA 2 ('25, IMAX) took almost a decade to come out, but in its animal-centered world rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and reformed fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are still on their first week as one of the police force's few mixed partners. Nick wants to take it easy but Judy's already jonessing to break-up another major crime. Other than many of the better supporting characters from the prequel (Idris Elba's Chief Bogo, Nate Torrence's Clawshauser, Shakira's Gazelle, etc.) are reduced to walk-ons or cameos, "Zootopia 2" is more of the same. Goodwin and Bateman's vocal chemistry is so good it feels wasted on a besties-only relationship. Ke Huy Kwan's Gary De'Snake threatens to annoy, but towards an earned finale the character is a relentless pathos machine. Except for Fortune Feimster's Nibbles Maplestick "comic relief" (🤢🤮) "Z2" is the Disney family movie machine cranking at full steam.
What a coincidence. Uncle Buck was playing at the rep theatre down the street today. I was thinking of going but took a midday nap that went on too long. I haven't seen it in years, but I remember really liking it. Us Canadians are obligated to love everything John Candy was in, and it's a Royal Decree I'm very happy to abide by.
Case in point! But yeah, he was a national treasure and went too young. I have very early memories of seeing SCTV although it might have been reruns from later on, because I certainly wasn't something on the TV at my house. Maybe visiting friends/family.
They recently released a comic book sequel to the greatest movie ever made... The Blues Brothers. It's a fun story, but does suffer from a bit of legacy-sequelitis. As a fan of the movie, I had to get it. I obviously watched the movie right after, I just had to. I'm thinking I should watch BB2000, just for the heck of it.
Then, to celebrate your thanksgiving, I watched Thanksgiving (2023). I'm not a horror guy, but as slashers go, it's a fun one. There's plenty of gore and crazy kill to please any fan of the genre. Is Rick Hoffman ever not playing a douchebag?
The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982): It's scratching a bit of that 'sword and sorcery' itch that I have, but it never satisfies. The practical effects are good, but the low budget shows during fight scenes. You see a guy throwing a spear, then cut to the other guy impaled by it, you don't even see it flying through the air. Other than that, it's standard stuff: good guys, bad guys, monsters, swords clashing, fighty-fighty. It's all fun, with a pretty good 3rd act where all the budget clearly went. The funny part is the sequel announced in the credits came out 30 years later starring Kevin Sorbo. I'm open to recommendation, because I think I went through all the best of the genre.
You've certainly seen any "sword and sorcery" movies I would have to recommend as I haven't seen very many. What would be your top recommended movies in the subgenre?
I know I've considered The Sword and the Sorcerer many times during Junesploitation, but haven't watched it yet. Related sidenote, I've been a while I wanted to rewatch The Sword in the Stone. (♪ It's been awhile ♪). I should watch more Pyun.
Well, apart from Conan, the only really good one is the animated movie Fire and Ice, written by the dudes who wrote the Conan comics for Marvel way back then. There's rumors of a 4k release, vut nothing official yet.
Dragonslayer and Beastmaster are good ones. And let's not forget The Barbarians, that one is awesome, a must watch.
I was tempted by The Sword in the Stone, I think my local used dvd store has a copy, I need always forget to pick it up.
Speaking of Pyun, I just picked up the blu-ray for his Captain America, can't wait to watch it.
Funny that you bring up The Sword And The Sorcerer, Kunider. It is playing at the local retro theater (The Gap Theatre) tomorrow afternoon. I will be there to see Ladyhawke, but I am not sure that I will stick around for that one.
For the sword and sorcery genre, there are a lot more cheesy films than "good" ones. Beastmaster was enjoyable when I saw it for Junesploitation. (Those ferrets!) One that I could recommend is Lucio Fulci's entry in the genre, Conquest. I had a lot more fun with that than I expected to. Another Italian one that I remember being entertained by is Ator: The Fighting Eagle. I will admit that it is a cheap production, though.
Once again i find myself indebted to, and in debt because of, a fellow F This fan. HUGE thanks Kunider for the heads up on the Blues Brothers comic drop! Id been waiting for that for a long time but forgot to put the drop date on my calendar. Just ordered. We share the undeniable opinion that the original film is the GREATEST movie ever made. Cant wait to spin this authorized extension created by Akroyds daughter and Belushi's wifes son!
If one doesn't mind the regressive humor and James Franco, Your Highness is a pretty fun swords and sorcery romp with surprisingly first-rate production value.
THE TOXIC AVENGER (2025) This was freakin' awesome! Big laughs and huge gore gags abound. A good shot at combining the Marvel aesthetic with the Troma aesthetic. Toxie forever!
THE HOBBIT (1977) Interesting to watch this after being so familiar with the Peter Jackson version. The two are more similar than you'd think.
UNCLE BUCK (1989) Snow shovel pancakes, anyone?
MERCURY RISING (1998) Kind of a generic thriller, but it's always great to spend time with good ol' Bruce Willis.
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) Ray Harryhausen goodness!
And the first part of STRANGER THINGS season 5. They took a big ambitious swing with this season's premise, but dang if they haven't pulled it off. Great stuff so far.
You watched Uncle Buck too? Did it have a new 4k release or something.
There's an Ottawa Family Theatre that hosts a movie every Saturday, with a short before the main feature, and they have draws and prizes (they get promotional stuff, posters, etc). Really family centred. They currently are using a high school auditorium. It's run by volunteers and all the proceeds are given to charity. It's a lot of fun, but I haven't been much recently as my kids are all grown up. But that was where I saw Jason and the Argonauts, and it was a ton of fun for everyone!
woot! you liked the new Toxie?!? thats great as id kinda avoided due to some critical drubbing. gonna seek it out this week. thanks Mac! #Tromaville4eva
Blues Brothers 2000 was not needed, still isn't (the comic book pretend it never happened). It's still not a good movie, but there's some cool songs and maybe a couple of fun scenes. The movie lights up when there's a song being performed (whether you like it or not, these movies are musicals), you can pretty much skip the rest, even the pursuits are not that fun. Anybody still alive who had more than one line in the first movie is doing a cameo. It's a classic case of half-assed-sequel-money-grab that feels like it was made because they had a contract, and clearly way too long after the first. Another mission from God, more destroyed cars, getting the band back together, a bunch of people trying to catch Elwood. The mission is slightly different, but not much.
An inexplicable gap in my movie history. I think i shied away as i expected it would be a silly rom com. Which it is...but omg is it a GREAT silly rom com. Minnie Driver is exceptional, Cusacks character is wonderfully flawed, and the movie jumps around 5 or 6 different genre's effortlessly. Its an incredibly sweet, poignant, and enjoyably fun take on growing up, going back, lost love, and spy vs spy assasinations from Cusack/Akroyd. LOVED IT.
(Also..i almost fell out of my chair when Benny the Jet Urquidez showed up!!!! Action fans would perhaps know him from many films..a fight highlight for me being his matchup with Jackie Chan in Wheels on Meals (84). But in this case it was the fact that Cusack referenced him in another movie (Say Anything "kickboxing sport of the future" quote) and trained with him for many years.)
Sisu Road To Revenge is fun. Not as good as the first movie, obviously, but still a good time. It does feel like they had a bunch of setpieces and engineered a script around them, but I can live with it in this case. If you didn't care for the first movie, you won't like this one.
Just got back from the theater for LADYHAWKE (1985). As a fantasy film it is... fine. The story is engaging enough but seems stretched out considerably. Matthew Broderick feels out of place, and the very '80s synth score does date the film. The cinematography of Vittorio Storaro is first-rate, though.
Before the film, there was a presentation about hawks and other members of the raptor family. Some real birds were brought in, too. I learned that that they will poop wherever they are.
This was not a great week for me regarding movie-watching. With other things going on and having to face responsibilities, I found it difficult to focus. Noirvember was a bust this year, but I did see some memorable films in any case.
Among other things, and before reading anything here, we also watched Uncle Buck yesterday. Must be something in the air. We had watched for Thanksgiving, so UB was a Candy continuation. Both are still fun. Candy charming and pretty versatile. He's funny as a dumb goofball AND a sharp wise-ass, and he can do serious/heartfelt effectively, too. To me, he's a high level "comfort food" actor.
Howdy! 👋😃
ReplyDeleteCaught the last theatrical screening of REGRETTING YOU (2025) (based on the Colleen Hoover novel) AMC had in the NYC area. I'm a sucker for well-made family melodramas and this one does mostly right by its source material. Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames look cute and have great young love chemistry, Allison Williams is stuck in "Megan" mom mode, Dave Franco is doing a pitch-perfect James Marsden impersonation and Clancy Brown seems to enjoy himself playing cancer-fighting cool grandpa. An unchallenging way to entertain you and your folks for two hours.
Ken Russell's ALTERED STATES (1980, CRITERION 4K UHD) is the complete opposite of 'unchallenging.' An utterly batshit insane adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky's novel, this is the closest a Russell production came to the mainstream while simultaneously rejecting easy categorization. Sexual but also intellectual, body horror that delves into metaphysical psychology and creature feature that uses religious allegory to portray duality of man tropes (wrapped in an underwhelming 'love conquers all' finale), this remains at its core a great 'trip' movie. The newish 4K transfer lets us watch the mostly optical effects work (with some air bladder prosthetics shots) hold remarkably well for a 45 year-old. William Hurt and Blair Brown are great. YMMV.
Had never seen John Hughes' UNCLE BUCK (1989, SUNDANCE CHANNEL) until a recent online watchalong with fans. It's got its share of dumb jokes and visual gags (that car! 🥵😷) and John Candy's comedic timing's solid, but young Macaulay Culkin outright steals the show. No wonder Hughes gave up directing and pivoted to "Home Alone." Every time Macaulay is on screen Buck is invisible. Lack of a consistent tone (is Buck just lazy? Crooked?) and the 80's usual s***al undertones conspire to make this a vanilla-flavored, low-key family drama. Don't feel l missed out on 36 years of great "Uncle Buck" memories.
ZOOTOPIA 2 ('25, IMAX) took almost a decade to come out, but in its animal-centered world rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and reformed fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are still on their first week as one of the police force's few mixed partners. Nick wants to take it easy but Judy's already jonessing to break-up another major crime. Other than many of the better supporting characters from the prequel (Idris Elba's Chief Bogo, Nate Torrence's Clawshauser, Shakira's Gazelle, etc.) are reduced to walk-ons or cameos, "Zootopia 2" is more of the same. Goodwin and Bateman's vocal chemistry is so good it feels wasted on a besties-only relationship. Ke Huy Kwan's Gary De'Snake threatens to annoy, but towards an earned finale the character is a relentless pathos machine. Except for Fortune Feimster's Nibbles Maplestick "comic relief" (🤢🤮) "Z2" is the Disney family movie machine cranking at full steam.
More reviews later. ✌️😇
What a coincidence. Uncle Buck was playing at the rep theatre down the street today. I was thinking of going but took a midday nap that went on too long. I haven't seen it in years, but I remember really liking it. Us Canadians are obligated to love everything John Candy was in, and it's a Royal Decree I'm very happy to abide by.
DeleteUncle Buck is a favorite of mine. I watch it every year.
DeleteCase in point! But yeah, he was a national treasure and went too young. I have very early memories of seeing SCTV although it might have been reruns from later on, because I certainly wasn't something on the TV at my house. Maybe visiting friends/family.
DeleteThey recently released a comic book sequel to the greatest movie ever made... The Blues Brothers. It's a fun story, but does suffer from a bit of legacy-sequelitis. As a fan of the movie, I had to get it. I obviously watched the movie right after, I just had to. I'm thinking I should watch BB2000, just for the heck of it.
ReplyDeleteThen, to celebrate your thanksgiving, I watched Thanksgiving (2023). I'm not a horror guy, but as slashers go, it's a fun one. There's plenty of gore and crazy kill to please any fan of the genre. Is Rick Hoffman ever not playing a douchebag?
The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982): It's scratching a bit of that 'sword and sorcery' itch that I have, but it never satisfies. The practical effects are good, but the low budget shows during fight scenes. You see a guy throwing a spear, then cut to the other guy impaled by it, you don't even see it flying through the air. Other than that, it's standard stuff: good guys, bad guys, monsters, swords clashing, fighty-fighty. It's all fun, with a pretty good 3rd act where all the budget clearly went. The funny part is the sequel announced in the credits came out 30 years later starring Kevin Sorbo. I'm open to recommendation, because I think I went through all the best of the genre.
You've certainly seen any "sword and sorcery" movies I would have to recommend as I haven't seen very many. What would be your top recommended movies in the subgenre?
DeleteI know I've considered The Sword and the Sorcerer many times during Junesploitation, but haven't watched it yet. Related sidenote, I've been a while I wanted to rewatch The Sword in the Stone. (♪ It's been awhile ♪). I should watch more Pyun.
Well, apart from Conan, the only really good one is the animated movie Fire and Ice, written by the dudes who wrote the Conan comics for Marvel way back then. There's rumors of a 4k release, vut nothing official yet.
DeleteDragonslayer and Beastmaster are good ones. And let's not forget The Barbarians, that one is awesome, a must watch.
I was tempted by The Sword in the Stone, I think my local used dvd store has a copy, I need always forget to pick it up.
Speaking of Pyun, I just picked up the blu-ray for his Captain America, can't wait to watch it.
Funny that you bring up The Sword And The Sorcerer, Kunider. It is playing at the local retro theater (The Gap Theatre) tomorrow afternoon. I will be there to see Ladyhawke, but I am not sure that I will stick around for that one.
DeleteFor the sword and sorcery genre, there are a lot more cheesy films than "good" ones. Beastmaster was enjoyable when I saw it for Junesploitation. (Those ferrets!) One that I could recommend is Lucio Fulci's entry in the genre, Conquest. I had a lot more fun with that than I expected to. Another Italian one that I remember being entertained by is Ator: The Fighting Eagle. I will admit that it is a cheap production, though.
I don't think I ever saw Ladyhawke. I'll check it out.
DeleteI'll check out Fulci's too
For Japanese sword and sorcery, The Legend of the Eight Samurai is one worth checking out. The version on Tubi, unfortunately, has no subtitles!
DeleteOnce again i find myself indebted to, and in debt because of, a fellow F This fan. HUGE thanks Kunider for the heads up on the Blues Brothers comic drop! Id been waiting for that for a long time but forgot to put the drop date on my calendar. Just ordered. We share the undeniable opinion that the original film is the GREATEST movie ever made. Cant wait to spin this authorized extension created by Akroyds daughter and Belushi's wifes son!
DeleteI live to make you spend
DeleteIf one doesn't mind the regressive humor and James Franco, Your Highness is a pretty fun swords and sorcery romp with surprisingly first-rate production value.
DeleteOh yeah, i remember Your Highness, I liked it back then
DeleteTHE TOXIC AVENGER (2025)
ReplyDeleteThis was freakin' awesome! Big laughs and huge gore gags abound. A good shot at combining the Marvel aesthetic with the Troma aesthetic. Toxie forever!
THE HOBBIT (1977)
Interesting to watch this after being so familiar with the Peter Jackson version. The two are more similar than you'd think.
UNCLE BUCK (1989)
Snow shovel pancakes, anyone?
MERCURY RISING (1998)
Kind of a generic thriller, but it's always great to spend time with good ol' Bruce Willis.
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963)
Ray Harryhausen goodness!
And the first part of STRANGER THINGS season 5. They took a big ambitious swing with this season's premise, but dang if they haven't pulled it off. Great stuff so far.
You watched Uncle Buck too? Did it have a new 4k release or something.
DeleteThere's an Ottawa Family Theatre that hosts a movie every Saturday, with a short before the main feature, and they have draws and prizes (they get promotional stuff, posters, etc). Really family centred. They currently are using a high school auditorium. It's run by volunteers and all the proceeds are given to charity. It's a lot of fun, but I haven't been much recently as my kids are all grown up. But that was where I saw Jason and the Argonauts, and it was a ton of fun for everyone!
woot! you liked the new Toxie?!? thats great as id kinda avoided due to some critical drubbing. gonna seek it out this week. thanks Mac! #Tromaville4eva
DeleteBlues Brothers 2000 was not needed, still isn't (the comic book pretend it never happened). It's still not a good movie, but there's some cool songs and maybe a couple of fun scenes. The movie lights up when there's a song being performed (whether you like it or not, these movies are musicals), you can pretty much skip the rest, even the pursuits are not that fun. Anybody still alive who had more than one line in the first movie is doing a cameo. It's a classic case of half-assed-sequel-money-grab that feels like it was made because they had a contract, and clearly way too long after the first. Another mission from God, more destroyed cars, getting the band back together, a bunch of people trying to catch Elwood. The mission is slightly different, but not much.
ReplyDeleteAnother week, another death. This week it was Udo Kier, who was 81. He always had a strong screen presence whatever role he was in.
ReplyDeleteGrosse Point Blank (1997)
ReplyDeleteAn inexplicable gap in my movie history. I think i shied away as i expected it would be a silly rom com. Which it is...but omg is it a GREAT silly rom com. Minnie Driver is exceptional, Cusacks character is wonderfully flawed, and the movie jumps around 5 or 6 different genre's effortlessly. Its an incredibly sweet, poignant, and enjoyably fun take on growing up, going back, lost love, and spy vs spy assasinations from Cusack/Akroyd. LOVED IT.
(Also..i almost fell out of my chair when Benny the Jet Urquidez showed up!!!! Action fans would perhaps know him from many films..a fight highlight for me being his matchup with Jackie Chan in Wheels on Meals (84). But in this case it was the fact that Cusack referenced him in another movie (Say Anything "kickboxing sport of the future" quote) and trained with him for many years.)
Sisu Road To Revenge is fun. Not as good as the first movie, obviously, but still a good time. It does feel like they had a bunch of setpieces and engineered a script around them, but I can live with it in this case. If you didn't care for the first movie, you won't like this one.
ReplyDeleteJust got back from the theater for LADYHAWKE (1985). As a fantasy film it is... fine. The story is engaging enough but seems stretched out considerably. Matthew Broderick feels out of place, and the very '80s synth score does date the film. The cinematography of Vittorio Storaro is first-rate, though.
ReplyDeleteBefore the film, there was a presentation about hawks and other members of the raptor family. Some real birds were brought in, too. I learned that that they will poop wherever they are.
This was not a great week for me regarding movie-watching. With other things going on and having to face responsibilities, I found it difficult to focus. Noirvember was a bust this year, but I did see some memorable films in any case.
It is hard to believe the year is almost done.
Among other things, and before reading anything here, we also watched Uncle Buck yesterday. Must be something in the air. We had watched for Thanksgiving, so UB was a Candy continuation. Both are still fun. Candy charming and pretty versatile. He's funny as a dumb goofball AND a sharp wise-ass, and he can do serious/heartfelt effectively, too. To me, he's a high level "comfort food" actor.
ReplyDelete*watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles for Thanksgiving
Delete