Gonna make a brew and watch Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player. According to one film magazine, it's Pulp Fiction, 34 years before Tarantino's. We shall see.
Half an hour in... this film is as dull as dishwater and I'm not seeing any resemblance or similarities to Pulp Fiction, not even in the slightest.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - A wonderful film. I don't care that it's out-dated or that many see it as self-congratulatory, I thought it was brilliant, as were the cast, especially Spencer Tracey.
That's a good one. Last night I watched the 1963 adaptation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Brilliant novel and a pretty good film adaptation.
Oh man freddie krueger.. when I was around 6 or 7, my TV was left on cause I've always been up in the early hours... that clawed sucker came on and I have been traumatized quite literally ever since, for around five years I had weekly dreams of him lurking in the silent street outside my bedroom... quite ludicrously terrifying but I look back with some fondness for the depth of the thrills I experienced, I'm more or less over him but I will never erase the hold the cursed man held over me for a portion of my life!
I watched Fantastic Four out of morbid intrigue. As background, Josh Trank intended to make a Cronengberg style body horror piece, which could have been interesting, but is an odd direction for something as campy as Fantastic Four. Immediately prior to production, the funding for a lot of the major action set pieces was pulled by the Studio (20th C), and additional scenes were inserted post-production, including most of the third act, and they generally involve Kate Mara wearing a ridiculous wig to hide her short haircut. I just looked up the ratings; it gets 9% on Rotten Tomatoes and has generally been mauled by critics. I tried to set this knowledge aside and watch it objectively. It is terrible. If the original film had been made in accordance with the director's vision, without the inserted scenes (and particularly the incongruous third act), and with the action set-pieces... it would have probably been middling. But I also have super-hero fatigue. I never really liked them, but I am starting to hate them now that a new one is released every other week. I then watched Everest. I am fascinated by mountain climbing (the life/death razor edge in the death zone and why anyone would choose to go there). I had previously watched this intriguing documentary on the true-life story behind the film: The film is good... but the documentary was just a lot better.
I have been riveted on and off by fatal Everest attempts, I remember the first time I actually read how corpses are left up there for the most part until they can clear them many years later, it's alluring but hellaciously morbid to ponder upon.
Yeah, 200+ corpses up there. "Green Boots" is even used as a way marker for climbers. K2 is also fascinating because it is a harder climb, and a higher percentage of summiters die there. I think it is something like 40% as opposed to around 5%.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation - a proper, bone fide entry in the series, and a real return to form after the abysmal Ghost Protocol.
Poseidon Adventure, 2006 version= ...Stupid, stupid movie. An insult to the original. A horrific, grotesque insult. STUPID!!! It's...just so stupid, and the CGI used is so bad...
Legend was fucking terrible. It was plotless and pointless. Gangsters that don't do any gangstering, very little violence, no threats, no challenges, no goals. An absolute borefest. Trying to be clever and quotable with every line, but it isn't deep, it's incredibly pretentious. An absolute stinker.
Just watched It Follows. It is nice to see a horror film that is actually creepy and builds tension, rather than most modern moronic horror that falls back on cheap jump scares and gore. There are a couple of incredibly effective scenes in it. But... the third act... it really ran out of ideas. A shame because the first half was great.
Just watched the trailer to The Boy. At first it was actually pretty creepy what with the normal-looking mansion and normal-looking job of babysitting. The creepy part? Babysitting a ventriloquist doll like he were an actual human boy for parents who treat it like their deceased son. The rules have to be followed to the letter including rocking the doll, feeding the doll, etc. Break any of them and all the horrors come to life. Why? Because the doll is alive. It doesn't talk, it doesn't visibly move, but it's alive. Possibly possessed by the deceased son's ghost. Then it descended quickly to the usual cheap horror of running around in the dark, things flying around, jump scares and even a hand punching through a wall to grab at the protagonist. Dammit, movies! Way to ruin an interesting premise! >:[
Never saw American Psycho. On my list these many years and finally got around to it. Really wasn't very good. Is the book better or should I take it off my TBR list?
I've seen it. Loved it. If you like Apollo 13 or other movies about smart people using science and technology to survive impossible situations, you'll love it too. It's also pretty darn funny! I'll be buying the Blu-Ray as soon as it's available and I'll probably watch it dozens of times.
Why does that Star Wars trailer give me goose pimples? I'm not even a SW fan. I suppose I know enough about it for it to prick at my nostalgia receptors, at least on some level, especially when I see Ford and hear that unmistakable 'whine' of the H-shape fighter things (see, told you I wasn't a fan).
Wow. No judgment, but if you don't know what a TIE fighter is called, no you really aren't a SW fan. And if you don't know that TIE stands for "twin ion engine", then you aren't a twelfth-level dork like me.
