Back to the Future, anyone?
Where the Red Fern Grows (2003) A Disney made for TV movie. It wasn’t as good as the '74 version that was a corner stone of my childhood, but what are you gonna do?
It was alright. My kids enjoyed it and since they had never seen the original or read the story they didn’t know what they where missing.
I mean, all 3, though the final one ticked into 1990, having been entirely made in the 80s, though.
I concede that my comments were hasty, as there were certainly decent movies throughout all decades. These two, however. . .
If you were a child raised on 1970s TV docudramas, you can never watch Powers Booth or Steve Railsback in a film without getting creeped out.
I rewatched the original Tron not that long ago. The pre-computer bit is profoundly dull and has aged badly. The rest of the film, however, remains awesome.
Whereas Tron: Legacy was a dull disappointment, relying on the CGI to cover a weak film (also - much as I like Daft Punk, they’re no Wendy Carlos).
I haven’t decided whether to see the new one. Jared Leto annoys me in everything, and nothing about the trailer suggests it will be anything more exciting than the second film, with lots of flashy CGI and not much else.
I finished watching the MST3K’ed version of The Screaming Skull over the weekend. I’d wanted to see that for a long time, because I only caught part of it when it ran as The Last Episode of MST3K . It wasn’t the last new one broadcast – that was Danger: Diabolik – but they had reruns after that, and this was the last time they ran it on the SciFi channel (later SyFy). At the time it looked as if it might be my last chance to see it, because it wasn’t clear that they’d be able to, with rights clearances and all (rights issue kept them from re-running episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati for a time, and in preventing PBS re-broadcasting of selling copies of The Lathe of Heaven for a while).
I also got to see the newest vintage MST3K episode (the ones with Emily) when I saw Beyond Arlantis.
2001 a Space Odyssey
I haven’t watched this in a very long time, and hoo boy is it slow. I mean… I like movies with slow parts, where they lovingly guide you through what’s happening without a rush, but c’mon.
You got the apes, the trip to the Moon, the HAL kerfluffle and the psychedelic weirdness. In my memory, I had all these items, but filed them as the most memorable scenes of the movie, not the entirety of the movie. I was over a hour in and all I saw was apes and a guy flying by himself on a futuristic 747.
I just picked up Helter Skelter. I haven’t seen it since it was new, but even so I remember how creepy Manson was,
I was quite surprised. Jared Leto is extremely calm and straight-forward in this movie. It’s a pretty standard acting role, wouldn’t even notice him particularly if I didn’t know who he was.
The Frighteners 1996 Michael J Fox, Trini Alvarado, Dee Wallace Stone
I hadn’t seen the movie before. It was great seeing Michael when he was still fairly healthy.
The special effects are the best part of the movie. The mix of comedy and horror was uneven. The film doesn’t represent Peter Jackson’s best work.
The film is ok. I’d only recommend it if you’re nostalgic to see Michael again before Parkinson ended his career.
Death of a Unicorn 2025 Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega
Peacock
The synopsis is misleading. Its not accidental and I turned it off after 40 minutes.
Mistreatment of an animal is not something I want to watch. Doesn’t matter that it is fantasy.
This was his first proper Hollywood production. Incredibly, his next was Lord Of The Rings.
If it helps: That animal lives, is fine, and gets its revenge.
TRON: Ares (2025). I expected this to be visually stunning and it was. The plot also was serviceable if not particularly complex and the motivation of all the characters clear. The performance by all the actors was good and the soundtrack and sound design great. Being a fan of the original movie, I loved the references they included in the dialogue, sound, visual design and blink and you miss it references. That being said, none of those inclusions seemed tacked on, there was a lot of exposition at the beginning of the film that provides a background to people completely unfamiliar with the original story.
Tron (1982) is one of those films that blew my young mind upon first viewing. I already liked video games and had done some programming so I was primed for that movie when I saw it for the first time even though I did not see it in theaters. Tron: Legacy (2010) was fine, but left me a bit disappointed. I enjoyed this latest outing much more. One of the things that really was great was how they took the design of the Recognizer which was just really a bunch of shapes in the original and made it look great in the “real world”. There are of course, some in world physics that defy logic, in a way the original simply did not need to deal with since most happened inside a computer, but I just stopped thinking about it and enjoyed the visuals. At the same time, the plot does reference AI, which makes it relevant to today’s world grounding it somewhat.
Overall, a good movie, that I likely think is better than it is because of my fondness with the original.
//i\\
I liked it a lot and I am not fond of Tron or Tron: Legacy.
The Haunting (1963) (TCM) I’ve seen this several times, beginning in the late '60s, but not for many years. It holds a treasured place in my memory as one of the spookiest and creepiest films ever, and definitely the best haunted house movie of all time (and critics agree). So when I saw that it was scheduled on TCM last week I recorded it, and convinced my wife (who does not like old films or horror) to give it a try.
She fell asleep. And I can’t blame her…I forgot how surprisingly dull it is.
There is one particular scene about an hour in that still works. But the film centers on one character (Julie Harris) and her fragile mental state, and the writer/director chose to indicate this by having far too many scenes of her pantomiming while we hear her internal monologue in voice-over, which really drags the story down.
Very disappointed.
I watched it again too. It saddened me. I thought the house and sets were nice, but yeah, we don’t need all of Eleanor’s thoughts to understand what’s going on with her. I really disliked the subplot of her and Dr. M. having the hots for each other. And Eleanor and Theo were both prone to sudden nastiness that seemed to come out of nowhere. It could have been better done.
After watching it, I looked at the Wikipedia page and learned that the screenwriter tried to make the story into a psychological horror story instead of a real ghost story, even after Shirley Jackson herself told him it wasn’t. Good job, dude. 
Oh! and the scene with the writing on the wall: After the scientist tastes it and pronounces it to be made of real chalk, it’s never brought up again. 