Movies you've seen recently (Part 2)

Philadelphia Experiment 1984 Michael Pare, Nancy Allen
Included with Amazon Prime

I was pleasantly surprised. This John Carpenter (Executive Producer) science fiction film is much better than I remembered.

It starts slowly as the two survivors slowly learn where they are and the date. I enjoyed the romance that develops between the survivor and the woman trying to help him.

The special effects are very good. The burning, post-apocalyptic wasteland is very convincing.

My rating 7 out of 10

Golden Globes gave a major award to Hamnet, which I think might actually be correct.

I would prefer the Oscars give the big best picture award to Weapons…but it is clear to me this is not happening. If they skip Weapons, Hamnet is a solid choice.

Or:

  • Bring Her Back
  • Dhoom Dhaam
  • One Battle After Another

I saw this a year or so ago and made the same conclusion. Interesting to watch but as a movie it was… fine. The body horror also seemed restrained to me.

I just read a shot for shot comparison between Unrated and R rated cut.

Yeah, it’s not all that different. I’m not a weirdo wanting more gore, but From Beyond is just too tame to even be interesting…much.

Barbara Crampton is my favorite Scream Queen.

From Beyond, and Re-Animator are her best work. I tracked down most of her films decades ago. I haven’t seen her more recent work.

That’s complimentary of her. But they’re B movies at best. I’m surprised Full Moon did so much with limited budgets. They were way better quality than Troma.

Barbara appeared with Tim Robbins in Fraternity Vacation. A very lame 80’s sex comedy. I’m sure Tim tries to forget he ever made it. :wink:

I don’t think Full Moon made From Beyond or Re-animator, though I think Charles Band was generally involved as a producer.

The two schlubs sitting on the steps-

That sequence is comedy gold. And realistic.

My wife and I (two 62-year-olds) strayed from our comfort zone and watched K-Pop Demon Hunters. Neither the music nor animation style are really my cup of tea but the story and jokes were good (it makes fun of boy bands, how bad can it be?). I’m glad I watched it so I won’t be baffled when it wins Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.

Heh. My wife and I (71 and 72) watched it with our just-turned-six granddaughter. It was okay. Glad I didn’t pay money to see it.

Movie night. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.

Let me say I’ve never read the novel nor have I ever seen any of the movies. This is my first.

Loved it. This version was filled with cool Gothic vibes and deep existential questions. A recent college graduate watched the film with us after studying the novel in class. He said it’s not exactly like the book but that it does engage with the themes of the book in a way that is really satisfying.

I don’t know how else to put this but I think Frankenstein’s monster was essentially questioning God. The director leaned into that with a lot of religious imagery. How do we make sense of a painful and solitary existence? What does it mean to be condemned to eternal life as a wretched creature? Why even were we made?

I mean I’m not religious but I could dig the existential angst.

The dialogue was beautiful. It reminded me of Shakespeare. I’m not sure if it lifted from the novel.

Not a light watch. Strongly recommended.

Godzilla (1998)

Not very good. Fun cast and all but not much else to say about it. Devlin and Emmerich were rising high after Independence Day but their follow up here was a bit of a dud and they seemed more interested in taking shots at Siskel and Ebert. There was a pretty big deal about this Godzilla looking different than the classic Japanese kaiju, and I guess that’s fine I suppose, but the monster felt different too. It felt off. Then two-thirds of the way through and they switch gears to knock off Jurassic Park a bit. Godzilla makes a comeback at the end but is finally killed for good with a bunch of missiles from F-18 fighters. Meh.

Spaceballs

Still funny. My wife watched a bit of it and said “Wow, this is problematic” and left.