Pearl
This is a prequel to X, which was not that great of a movie. However, Pearl is vastly superior and there is absolutely no reason to go see X as this movie stands alone entirely.
Mia Goth gives a great performance in this film as a desperate and crazy woman who, well, takes matters into her own hands.
I recommend this movie quite a bit. Really great and Mia Goth should be nominated for an Oscar.
1930’s The Thirteenth Chair directed by Todd Browning. Bela Lugosi had a straight role as a detective (for the police? It wasn’t clear). Very dated…obviously. Nice sets by Cedric Gibbons (9 times out of 10 movies of this vintage had set decoration by Gibbons or Van Nest Polglase). The mystery part of the story was actually rather well done. Lugosi wasn’t a dummy, but he wasn’t a genius. The way the murderer was exposed was a bit ove-the-top, but clever. An old lady psychic explains some of her fakery – which was a nice touch. But the gowns worn by the ladies were gorgeous. They were by Adrian, and I could see why he became one of the premiere costume designers of that era.
Amsterdam: Well produced and made but, beyond that, not terribly memorable. It felt like the characters existed largely to let us see what was happening rather than to do something (e.g. solve a mystery). Mostly what they added was a view on some idealic life that they all were dreaming of and that might appeal to someone. I wasn’t that person and I find the idea of a threesome strange where one of them is not part of the romantic relationship to be unlikely to succeed. It didn’t feel like the “dream” was all that well developed, either.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: Very artificial setup to try and produce awkward situations. All of the things that seemed implausible stuck out too much to allow you to turn off your brain and enjoy it for the light entertainment that it’s supposed to be.
The Bed Sitting Room (1969) on Amazon Prime.
As a fan of the Goons and Beyond the Fringe, I don’t know how this flew under my radar for so long. It’s even a Richard Lester (Beatles, Musketeers, etc) film. It takes place in post-apocalyptic England among the tiny number of survivors. The conceit is that this handful of characters try to carry on just as they did before the…ahem…dropped (a running gag). There are so few survivors that the reigning monarch is Mrs. Ethel Shroake, the late Queen’s charwoman, and closest in succession to the throne.
The cast is incredible - Spike Milligan, Harry Seacombe, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Ralph Richardson, Marty Feldman and lots of other familiar faces from mid-century British cinema. It was fun to just watch the characters interact even when the jokes failed to land. There is a weird plot about who gets to betroth the last fertile female which is a little cringey, but, hey, it was the Sixties. Don’t watch it for the plot; watch it for the silliness.
Trainwreck, with Amy Schumer.
Although there were several parts where we just shrieked with laughter at the awful things that fell out of Amy’s mouth, the other parts were standard rom-com (well, except for the FUNERAL in the middle of it). And it was loooooooong. I’d rather have just seen her stand-up routine.
Trainwreck had some laughs but was very uneven. I almost thought the best part of the whole movie was LeBron James playing… LeBron James!
I know! LeBron has a bright future when his playing days are over.
Bill Hader has said it’s unfair that LeBron is an amazingly talented basketball player and filthy rich and a good actor and funny.
Ticket to Paradise: Solid movie, giving you what you expect from the trailer.
Lol, came here to say the exact same thing. Sometimes you just want to watch two good looking people mug and be good-looking in a story you don’t need to track to follow, and Ticket to Paradise was just what the date night ordered.
Am watching Exorcist 3 (Hulu) based on the recommendation of a Twitter thread and holy hell, I am having the same reaction: this film is good.
Blatty may have the bleakest view of Catholicism of any major or minor Hollywood writer/director. And it only got worse between 1973 and 1991.
His Catholicism definitely isn’t Scorsese’s, that’s for sure.
… OMG, the priest just quoted Spaceballs. This movie is fantastic.
Black Adam in theaters. One of the best DCEU movies, which is not saying much. Although there was a little too much narration, it was an enjoyable movie, mostly due to the cast rather than the plot. The visual effects were great, as is to be expected from a super hero movie, and I did like that they did not make Black Adam a classic anti-hero. It was also great to see Pierce Brosnan on the big screen again.
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Liam Neeson picks up another paycheck for Memory, streaming now on Amazon. He’s a killer-for-hire with a heart of gold who gets on the bad side of his client, the FBI and local police when he takes a pass on a new contract because it goes against his code of ethics. And he’s losing his memory. Neeson is good playing a sympathetic anti-hero and Guy Pearce is also quite good as the FBI man on his tail.
Liam Neeson is a fine actor whose recent acting choices have been questionable, but this film was much better and more involving than I expected it to be. Out of 4 stars I might give it 2 1/2. It’s certainly worth 1:47 of your time if the premise interests you.
I just watched the original The Exorcist. It was on AMC so PG-14 rated, but still an amazingly shocking movie. I actually turned it off for an hour halfway through just to catch my breath. I’ll have to catch your recommendation!
Wow, I watched The Exorcist a few years ago and found it to be lame-o. Just kind of bland and most of it is boring, leading up to a pretty impressive final exorcism, which is the part everyone remembers.
Exorcist III, though, is kind of amazing.
Great. Because the only person cast as Patient X is Jason Miller and I swear to God that either this isn’t true or the makeup in this film is fantastic or I need new glasses. Is Patient X the same actor throughout Exorcist 3? I need to know!
(Ok, I just found out. But, seriously, hope you enjoy the movie.)
Terrifier 2
This is a sequel to Terrifier and this sequel is supposed to be so violent and shocking, people fainting and throwing up in the theater.
Nope, not even close. The first movie was much better and much more intense. I’m kind of surprised people are finding this one so intense and gory. Anyway, it is a violent slasher movie, but nothing particularly special. It was 2 hours and 15 minutes, though. Way overlong.
I found the first Terrifier movie pretty intense, to be honest. This one? No better than any average slasher movie.
Westworld. You may be familiar with this little Michael Crichton joint. I hadn’t seen it since the big TV event in 1976, and I quite enjoyed it. There are nice little visual touches that probably seemed really cool to me back then.
I also found the Exorcist to be “lame-o” when I caught it for the first time a couple years ago. It’s just stupid. But, religious / spiritual horror doesn’t usually get me.
I saw “X” recently. . . that was pretty good. And Hostel, that was pretty good too. Both were fairly intense and maintained my interest.
The unmasked Yul Brynner robot gave me nightmares for years. I wonder if the trope started there.