I saw this one awhile back and also enjoyed it. It…was not what I expected. Good movie.
I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately, some via streaming from the local film festival. My latest five:
I Can Change
A very funny short sf comedy about an offbeat slacker who, the day before he’s supposed to get married, not only becomes immortal but acquires the ability to stop time. After he misses his wedding rehearsal, however, convincing his pissed-off and very skeptical fiancee of all this… takes some doing.
Masel Tov Cocktail
Dark comedy short film about a German Jewish kid who pushes back against others’ expectations of him as he just tries to live his own damn life.
Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power
Uplifting documentary about the California Congresswoman: her childhood, early life, political courage, unapologetic liberalism and hard work for a better future for our country. AOC and the late John Lewis are among those shown praising her.
Back to the Future
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are as good as ever in this corny, very funny time-travel comedy classic. It really holds up well. Love it!
Back to the Future 2
Not as good as the first, but better than I remember, taking Marty’s and Doc Brown’s story in some interesting new directions while slyly evoking - and even working itself into - the first.
Natural Born Killers Directors Cut
An electric brilliant film. (Only the DC). Oliver Stones take on violent America. Its filled with visual brilliance. It will challenge you. Its soundtrack is one of the best. And Rodney Dangerfield gives a brilliant villainous performance.
Freaky; A slasher comedy remake of Freaky Friday. I don’t normally go for horror or slasher films but it was fun enough. (And I was on a plane, so I had time to kill.)
Love and Monsters; A post-apocalyptic monster film about a young man who travels to reunite with the girlfriend he hasn’t seen in seven years. Not bad.
Gemini Man: Will Smith is the World’s Greatest Assassin, but realizes he’s too old, and retires. Upper management decides he knows too much (or something), and decides to kill him. But the only way to kill the WGA is with a younger clone of him. And bad special effects - at least, that’s the way you kill me and my interest in this movie. Yes - the face-swapping CGI was horrifying and unnatural. But it seemed every single scene was filmed in front of a green screen. I see elsewhere online that Ang Lee wanted to film a movie in 120 fps- would that affect this? I don’t think my TV is spitting it back out at me that fast.
Either way, avoid this. It was awful.
The Crawling Eye A 50s horror film. Not bad until they actually showed the monster, which looked ridiculous.
The Incredible Shrinking Man.. First time I saw it since 1964. Holds up well in every respect (except for the fact the station signal died and we missed the last 15 minutes).
John Wick. Liked the structure of the beginning, where they showed Wick’s background from the way people reacted to his name. The fight scenes were less boring than most, and well directed and choreographed.
John Wick, Chapter 2. A step backwards, mainly because in the first film Wick’s actions were inner directed while the second it was outside forces. The fight scenes were even more absurd, verging on self-parody (and reminiscent of Hot Fuzz – which was a comedy) and the final scene was laughable. A time waster, but not worth seeing again.
Bringing Up Baby. A 1938 romantic comedy starring Carey Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It… defies description. I’ll just say it involves a brontosaurus clavicle, a leopard, a constable and a traveling circus. Well worth the watch.
I dearly love these. I’ve seen The Crawling Eye myself, recently. It’s the quintessential 1950s British sf/horror flick:
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It started out as a TV serial, The Trollenberg Terror, that got turned into a feature film.
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The evil aliens “take over” people, controlling their minds as in the Quatermass movies
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It stars Forrest Tucker. Although most people probably think of him as Sergeant O’Rourke from F-Troop, in the 1950s he seemed to be one of the the go-to American actor for these kinds of films. (He was in The Strange World of Planet X AKA The Cosmic Monsters and in The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas, too)
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When the Monsters finally show upo, they’re really disgusting goopy, veiny things with tentacles way too small.
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It’s not always the case, but the special effects in this case were really, really bad. I think the standard description that the effects consisted of “cotton pinned to a postcard” isn’t correct – it doesn’t look like that. But most of the effects, especially the climax where they fire-bombed the aliens, is pretty awful
If you get a chance, watch the episode of the offbeat animated series Freakazoid called “The Cloud”. The beginning, at least, is an homage to The Crawling Eye, right down to the style of the opening credits
A truly great film. In addition, it was the first time “gay” meaning “homosexual” was spoken in a mainstream film. (An ad lib by Grant when he’s forced to wear Katherine Hepburn’s robe).
Another ad lib in that scene is lost to audience today was when Grant said “I’m just waiting for a bus on 42 Street.” That was a gay cruising area in the 1920s, and when the cops questioned someone, he’d say he was waiting for a bus.
See Everything is Illuminated sometime. Quite good.
(Also, I am now angry all over again that they cancelled Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency when they did.)
I just finished the short series, Traitors, on Netflix. Good story and acting. Seems like it’s historically plausible (though not based on real life) events post WWII espionage between the British, American and Russian intelligence forces. Focus on strong women characters is a refreshing take.
Last night we saw an Amazon original called Get Duked. It stars Eddie Izzard, and is about four boys doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award trip through the Scottish Highlands. (Blimey, it’s a real thing!)
Anyway, the best I can describe this movie is that it was like Pineapple Express, crossed with The Wicker Man, and maybe a little Fargo thrown in. Since I have the heart of a twelve-year-old boy, I laughed my butt off. One caveat: if we hadn’t had the closed captioning on, I don’t think I’d have understood a word of it, although it was all in English.
That explains so much. I’ve seen Charade which I know was made in the 60s and I was like, “that doesn’t look like the same woman, and how could that be her 30 years later?”
Now I understand.
I guess you were about to die of a heart attack, so they replaced yours.
Like Stephen King, I keep it in a jar on my desk.
That was Robert Bloch’s line, not Stephen King’s
The Raid: Redemption. A flawless Indonesian action thriller with beautiful fight choreography. You can definitely see how it influenced John Wick but god it’s hard to say which is better. I’d say The Raid was a more expertly constructed film in terms of storytelling, but John Wick 3 has my favorite fight sequence of all time (museum of knives.) Both are like a privelege to have seen. Man. My heart is still pounding.
If you haven’t already watched it, you might enjoy the bathhouse scene in Eastern Promises. I’m not squeamish, but that is one scene that took days to get out of my head. Good movie besides.
The Father
Wow, a devastating and amazing performance from Anthony Hopkins. I loved this movie and think it is probably the best movie from 2020 I’ve had a chance to see. Hopkins should win the Best Actor Oscar for sure. It’s an amazing performance and the entire movie depends on him being incredible and he is.
A sad movie, but worth it. Warning: It is about dementia and if you are experiencing this situation now or have recently, it may be too much to take.
I’ll remember Anthony Hopkins performance in this movie the rest of my life. It’s outrageously incredible.