The Witch (2015). Premiered at Sundance and Wikipedia says “considered by some to be one of the best horror films of the 2010s.” But it seems opinions are split on this – 90% critics’ rating on RT, but only 60% from users.
It’s set around 1630 in early New England. If you imagine that 17th century beliefs about witchcraft were actually true, then that’s the basis of the film – a family living on an isolated farm is beset by witchery. Many aspects are quite well done but it’s slow; for one thing, just about nothing happens in the first 30 minutes or more, and the whole movie is only about 90 minutes.
I think it’s interesting once it gets going but it’s overrated IMHO. And turn on those subtitles for this one – the combination of archaic language and heavy accents makes them essential.
I’ve seen it and like it, but not so much as a horror film than as historical fantasy. It gets the feel of the New England setting quite right.
But it still can’t believe that a family of a man, an woman, and some kids can construct a farmhouse and farm all on their own in a believable amount of time. That’s a two-story house with sawn and finished boards. That’s a communal effort.
I’m on Spring Break and one great thing about this week is that I have been able to see three movies that have long been on my viewing queue, including one movie that had been almost impossible to find. Here is what I thought of them.
The Peasants
Not recommended.
From the people who made Loving Vincent. This movie was hand-painted, frame by frame, after they filmed it. Unfortunately, the painted effect does not help or enhance The Peasants in any way and the movie is just kind of dull and relatively obvious. Shame. I really liked Loving Vincent, but this one was a disappointment.
The First Slam Dunk
Recommended.
This was a really great little sports movie about a struggling basketball team playing the match of their life. Throughout the movie, we get flashbacks showing stories about the boys on the team and we learn about the lives and struggles before this point. Simple premise, extremely well done. It is also an animated movie and the animation is terrific.
Definitely seek this one out. Had to get a Japanese Blu-ray for this one, which did not come with English audio. I watched it in Japanese and that was just fine.
Jinnah
Recommended.
The movie Christopher Lee considered his best and most important role. I should emphasize I know almost nothing about the real life Jinnah, but this movie portrays him in a great light and I do appreciate his role in the history of Pakistan. A great performance from Chris Lee, but honestly the rest of the performances are not quite up to the same level. An interesting movie and well worth anyone’s time, especially if you want to see Lee portray a non-villain and just act dramatically and seriously. He’s great in it.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife(2021). A loving send up to the original. The usual suspects (from the original) are back with new characters having to deal with them. Including the original cast at the end helped keep the focus on the new cast so they could shine, which they did. Enjoyable for anyone who remembers the first movie, while not dwelling too much on backstory. It really plays out as a mystery, which I think was a good way to integrate the past film into the present one, which allows completely new viewers not to get lost and older viewers to get their nostalgia kick.
“Statham moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk), where he initially chose not to follow his father’s career working the local market stalls, instead practising martial arts.”
As Turkish he was ‘playing’ his father, uncles, and every early childhood adult he knew in that role. He has a lot to draw on. A bit like Stallone as Rocky.
I can’t believe I waited so long to watch Poor Things. It was brilliant (although a tad too long and the first half outshined the second). I was laughing at things that I never thought could be made funny.
Definitely. Stylish and exciting, but by no means a documentary. Check out Douglas Perry’s excellent bio Eliot Ness: The Rise and Fall of An American Hero for a much more accurate take on the subject. TLDR: Ness was an important figure in the Federal effort to take down Al Capone, but he wasn’t the only one, and the Untouchables were not the tiny, elite squad of crimefighters shown in the movie.
Yeah, I liked it too. Bob Odenkirk also has a nice part as a vaguely Reaganesque President.
Glad to hear it! A great sf action/romance, tense and dramatic, and still one of my favorite Cameron flicks, arguably behind Aliens and True Lies. It also boasts my all-time favorite movie pun: “Heeeeeeeeeeeere’s MIRV!”
I finally saw Barbie (2023). It was okay. I wasn’t blown away. I wasn’t expecting to be. I was already in the “I liked it better when it was Free Guy” camp before I’d ever seen it. Basically, I liked it better when it was Free Guy.
The story was fine and the performances were fun but I just couldn’t get past what seemed to be a flawed premise from the get-go. Apparently, anyone from Barbieland can go to the real world whenever they want, they just don’t (except for Skipper and all the various Alans) and anyone from the real world can go to Barbieland whenever they want, they just don’t (unless they’re Mattel executives of the FBI). But no one from either world seems to really know anything about the other world despite the apparently free flow of information available.
They just didn’t make reality either real enough or fantasy enough. Everything was realistic except those aforementioned Mattel executives and the FBI which made one weird appearance at the beginning and then disappeared for the rest of the movie.
Almost forgot: Just back from seeing Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Definitely a worthy sequel to the franchise (especially compared to Ghostbusters 2). And damn Ernie Hudson looks good for his age.
They STILL can’t make a better sequel than Ghostbusters 2 and that wasn’t even very good! Mostly boring, possibly better than Afterlife, nothing to see here. Even the original Ghostbusters get little to do that makes it worth seeing them again.
I’m trying to think of a series of movies that have lower quality sequels than Ghostbusters and only Highlander immediately comes to mind.
In keeping with my usual tend, rather than a new movie I watched a very old one.
I really like Douglas Fairbanks’ silent film The Thief of Baghdad, but I hadn’t seen his other action movies. So I’ve watched a couple of those. So I watched Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Black Pirate (1926). Those bracket Thief.
I’m disappointed to say that I wasn’t as moved by these. Fairbanks is, I have to admit, spectacular. He wrote, produced, and co-directed these films, besides starring in them and choreographing them. His athletic moves are impressive and graceful. But I don’t find the films as engaging. There are dull stretches in them, and I can’t say I want to re-watch them. The Black Pirate is even in two-color Technicolor!
I still have his 1922 Robin Hood. Maybe I’ll have more luck with that.
His The Mystery of the Leaping Fish Sherlock Holmes spoof is a weird artifact. His character’s name “Coke Ennyday” means exactly what it sounds like, in Sherlock Holmes context.