TCM had The Wiz on 6/19 so I gave it a re-watch. Big mistake. There are a few pretty good songs (“Ease on Down the Road”, “A Brand New Day”) but most are pretty forgettable. What really bugged me, besides Dianna Ross playing a part originally written for a six-year old, was the over-the-top costuming (in spite of the stripping to bikinis for “A Brand New Day”) and the set design; New York City apparently was built of trash in 1977. I saw the touring version in Dallas the same year, and it was acceptable on stage, but the big-screen version just doesn’t cut it.
According to Wikipedia The Wiz the film cost almost $24 million (in 1977 dollars) and took in less than $14 million. It also ended Ross’ film career, but started the ascent of the Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones collaborations, so it has that going for it.
The roll wasn’t written for a six year old, the original character in Baum’s book was six. Didn’t stop 16-yr old Judy Garland from taking it on in the 1939 flick . I do think Ross was a bit long in the tooth for it and I don’t really care for her acting choice (or director’s instruction) of playing on the ragged edge of terrified hysteria 3/4 of the time. But it definitely wasn’t supposed to be a six-year old character in the film. Probably would have worked better with another more talented teenager.
Personally I think he’s overrated, and the likes of Carpenter underrated. The worst I remember was Existenz, a film which was supposed to be inspired by a computer game. “Nice”, I thought "“He’s inventive he could do something”. Crap film, usual gorey bits of guns and stuff, but the story is awful.
Turns out that it was based on a computer game. Myst. The game equivalent of an electronic slide show. A game to impress non-gamers.
Watched this a couple months ago. Nice film. Which prompted us to watch Man on the Moon. Still a really great movie, even if it didn’t adhere to the facts all that well.
The Harder They Fall - a western with an almost exclusively black cast. Its an outlaw revenge film with a twist that isn’t hard to predict. Many tropes but pretty entertaining. My favorite part is when they rob a bank in a white town. I laughed out loud when the first scene in the town takes place.
Every time I see Tom Stourton, all I can think of is his Horrible Histories parody of Dr Christian Jessen, complete with stiff shirt collars and floppy hair. “Hello - I’m a handsome doctor!”
An underrated indie film in my opinion. There’s not much plot but then the whole point is the mundanity of the lives of the people in the film, and how weird that is in itself.
Been watching lots of fluff:
No Time To Die: Given how little I’ve liked every Bond film since Casino Royale, I found this one surprisingly enjoyable. However, please let this franchise die now - the Bond horse is not merely dead, it has been beaten so vigorously for so long that it is now basically a puddle of mucilage. And yet we are assured again that “James Bond Will Return”. Le sigh.
The Lost City: Do you like Sandra Bullock comedies? This is a Sandra Bullock comedy. Not as good as Miss Congeniality, but better than Miss Congeniality 2. There are a lot of fun performances from the male co-stars - Tatum, Pitt and Radcliffe clearly are enjoying themselves - but be sure to go in with very low expectations both on the plot and the level of humor, because this is clearly a “switch off your brain” film.
Dune: A very pretty film, and because it’s only part of the story the pacing is better and the storytelling much less chaotic than the 1984 film. Lots of “Hey, there’s that guy!” moments, as well as many long scenes of Timothée Chalamet staring wistfully off into the far distance and Zendaya standing there looking attractive for the camera. A little too in love with its visual effects, perhaps, but not bad at all.
Rumble: An animated film about a world in which giant monster wresting is a thing, and a young woman has to coach her monster charge to victory. It was fine - no real standout moments or novel plotlines but it was diverting enough, I suppose. I wouldn’t pay money to see it. On the other hand, if you’ve ever wanted to see Terry Crews in shark-headed, tentacled form, this is the film for you. (I mean, that would be a weird thing to want but if you did want that, you’d be in luck.)
A stop-motion movie filmed from 1987-2020 and it is indeed a very interesting visual movie, but the story(what I could see of one) was only OK. As far as I can tell, it is about a man who is sent to a deep underground world to place a bomb to explode. And then, to be honest, it stops being about that with about 30 minutes left and tells a very different story.
I keep hearing on Twitter and so forth that this movie is massively intense. One guy said he could only watch it in 15 minute segments and that it as like Nine Inch Nails earliest videos. No, it isn’t really all that intense, though some pretty strange imagery.
Anyway, a movie worth seeing because of the incredible effort that went into it, but it doesn’t work all that well as a proper movie. If this had been CGI-animated or even hand-drawn, it would just be kind of a thing very few people noticed.
Jerry and Marge Go Large on Paramount+. Bryan Cranston, Annette Benning, Michael McKean. Great cast, not-so-great movie. Harmless enough and mildly entertaining (based on real people and events) flick about a man who spotted a math flaw in the lottery and legally parlayed it into a lot of money. More of a short story than a full-length novel, and the “characters” of the town didn’t help much. An unrecognizable and manic Rainn Wilson was also on hand.
Finnish horror movie, though not scary in the least bit. A girl finds an egg in the woods and when it hatches, it’s a monster of sorts that she decides to keep. It’s mostly about what it is like to be a 12-year old in a complicated family situation and the monster(if you can call it that) is really just a way for the girl to deal with some of her feelings.
I liked this movie, to be honest. It hooked me from the beginning to the end and I was kind of surprised to be watching what is really a movie about a girl having a hard time growing up with parents that do not get along. Yeah, not the horror movie anyone expected.
Note: I disagree with how this movie ended, but it isn’t worth spoiling it here. I’d like to discuss the ending and how I disagree with it if you like, though. Does not ruin the movie for me, though.
I recommend it, though there is some mildly gruesome body horror moments in it if you are sensitive.
They changed some things up, and for weird reasons. (E.g., one of the groups was switched frim MIT to Harvard. Year, right. Harvard nerds are clearly superior to MIT nerds.) But still represented the reality of the couple fairly well. Fun fact: the real Jerry operated a convenience store for years before retiring (and getting into lotto winning). The Kellogg’s thing was a lot earlier.
Really great vehicle for Benning. Cranston does an okay Cranston job. Rainn Wilson is a convenience store clerk … again.
If you like Interceptor, you might also like Spiderhead starring her husband. It tells what I assume is the true story about the clinical trials for the mind control drugs Chris Hemsworth used to get Neflix to create Interceptor.
Wow, this is one of the best movies of the year and 2022 is turning out to be quite the year for movies. I was blown away by this movie and find myself speechless a bit trying to describe it.
A girl is taken by a witch and kept in total isolation, with no ability to speak. When she reaches 16, she is trained by the witch to take other people’s forms. By doing so over and over, she experiences humanity through the different bodies she takes the form of.
I really can not explain it, but this movie was stunning. This will 100% be on my top movies of 2022 list and I have to say, after 2021 being only OK for movies, 2022 has already delivered some outstanding movies.
I think You Won’t Be Alone is actually listed as a “horror” movie but do not let that fool you. I’ve heard this movie described as “The Witch if Terrance Malick made it” and it really is just a meditation on humanity and what it means to be human and learn to have human experiences.
I loved it and would recommend everyone seek it out.
Saw this a couple weekends ago and wanted to comment here but couldn’t seem to formulate a good description, as you have done.
It really is a beautiful, thoughtful film. Not horror, but definitely haunting.
It’s quite the movie. I was thinking afterwards that it is a rare movie because it does something so few can:
It’s only about 108 minutes long, but by the end, I felt like it was a 3-hour experience. And not in a bad way!
So many movies seem long because they are dull and a lot of great movies seem quicker because they are exciting. This movie made me feel like a pretty big experience had gone by and I was kind of surprised how short it was.
It’s just like the TV show you remember. I do wish they had music video segments with current music so B&B could make fun of them, but nope, it’s just a story. Mike Judge did not direct this, though he wrote it and did the voices of the main characters.
I’d say I laughed(including giggles) about 5 times with this movie, but it isn’t exactly trying anything new.
Last night I watched Graveyard Shift, from 1990. I knew it was a mistake going in. Have any good movies ever been made from a Stephen King short story?
This particular story is a good one, but there’s not a lot going on plotwise: Some workers go in to clean a very old basement. There is a bad thing there and a bad thing happens. Of course, Mr. King really makes it shine, but this movie did not. Could not. So what they did was add in some women and try to get you to care about all these people by giving them backstory. Oh! And they added in a character called The Exterminator (think Terminix, not a chainsaw murderer or anything). This guy was played by Brad Dourif, which gave the movie a boost of star power. There was another actor in this, who I noticed was trying not to suck, and his name was Stephen Macht. I looked him up and apparently he had a good run on General Hospital, so I’m glad of that.
It made me sad to see the lack of understanding regarding what makes a horror film. The people onscreen were frightened, but there was nothing here that could have frightened the audience, unless they had a dread of seeing folks get really dirty.
Beyond tedious; do not recommend.
Was going to mention the Different Seasons stories which produced two outstanding films and a halfway decent one, but technically they are novellas rather than short stories. “Children of the Corn” is probably the best candidate.
. I do think Ross was a bit long in the tooth for it and I don’t really care for her acting choice (or director’s instruction) of playing on the ragged edge of terrified hysteria 3/4 of the time. But it definitely wasn’t supposed to be a six-year old character in the film. Probably would have worked better with another more talented teenager.