I went to see 'Spiral: book of saw' - the latest in the Saw franchise. First movie theater experience in a while. I have always been a fan of this franchise. I know they are famed for the torture, but I always liked the twists and way the movies tied together. And I respected them for striving to be clever and inventive even though they often failed miserably. 'Spiral' has a few different things about it than past iterations of the franchise. Chris Rock is in it and in between his investigations he delivers monologues that sound like ideas for his latest stand up routine. I enjoyed the humour and it's just one of those weird decisions I had to admire because I've never seen it before. Imagine if you were watching some generic Nightmare on Elm Street type movie with Jerry Seinfeld doing observational bits in between the killings and it isn't so far away from what a strange mixture is at play here There are some unintentionally hilarious close ups on his face where he looks more like me after some chipotle than in the emotional distress he's trying to convey. Samuel L Jackson is also in this movie, and it is also a bit jarring to see such a big name in this franchise. But he goes for it and has some great Jackson moments expressing his righteous confused rage - few can do that better. The movie theater was almost totally empty and I had to wonder, bar me, who in the world would want to spend an afternoon watching this weird depressing horror movie ? The twist was not exactly a mind bender and the ending was lackluster, but it had enough fun moments to make it worthwhile. Certainly a lot better than Tenet!
Before work the other day, I caught part of a Japanese move. I hadn’t noticed the title, so if this sounds familiar to anyone let me know, I’d like to see the whole film. The part I caught was the wife of samurai one was attacked by samurai two, so to get back at her samurai one lets her catch him messing around with a servant girl, and tells her the attack was her own fault, how she hurt him, and he doesn’t love her anymore. So she takes his own Sam’s Club bonus size pig sticker, jabs him through the back and pegs him to a timber post, and leaves him there. That should have been enough to kill him, but being this was a movie it didn’t, and over the next couple days she details how cruel and mean he has been to her over the years. Right about there was where I had to leave for work. The film looked like it was set in the Edo period and was in color, but was done in the 1960s kung fu movie style, minus the voice overdub. It was subtitled. Does this film sound familiar to anyone?
I went and saw A Quiet Place II today. It was really good, just as great as the first one. I think the first one might have been more tense, though. Maybe that was inevitable.
I really want to see the first, but there's so much sign language. Amazon Japan doesn't offer anything but Japanese subtitles, so I'm pretty much screwed.
Possibly, but then Mrs. A would be left out. Movies in English with Japanese subs are fine, movies in Japanese with English subs are fine, but when things veer outside of one of our native languages it gets complex. She's better at English than I am at Japanese, but native level rapid-fire speech is beyond her. (I can barely order dinner). Generally when a show switches to a third language we go to English subs so that she can read along, but Amazon Japan doesn't offer that option. Netflix does, but they don't currently host the film.
My television has a CC feature in a list of about two dozen languages, my cable tv service has similar and is easier to access. Do you have anything like that available?
Nope, just whatever Amazon and Netflix grant me. You cannot imagine how Japanocentric Japan is until you live here.
The last film I watched was King of New York. I enjoyed it, but I suspect a lot of that was for Walken’s performance. I just adore his delivery and tone.
Rocky IV last night. I think the first three are consistently brilliant. That victory theme they play when Rocky wins his fight at the end never fails to give me goosebumps, but I think the series got a little tired by 4.
Just watched Catch Me If You Can again, one of my favourite Spielberg films. Best exchange is the two officers talking to Tom Hanks’ character Carl Hanratty. Officer: Let me ask you a question, agent Hanratty; why are you always so serious? Hanratty: Does it bother you? Officer: Yeah... yeah it bothers me. Hanratty: Well would you like to hear me tell a joke? Officer (mockingly): Yeah. I would love to hear a joke from you! Hanratty: Knock knock Officer (hesitantly): Who’s there? Hanratty: (pause for affect): Go fuck yourselves!
Were you eating the sucky Emart pizza at the same time? Hey, why not? Get all the day's suckage out of the way at one time!
Watching Conan the Barbarian. It’s an odd film - virtually no dialogue for the first 40 minutes, then when it does come it makes little sense. I’m not altogether sure why it’s hailed as such a classic to be perfectly honest.
Because of Arnold and James Earl Jones, really. It was kind of a ground breaker in some stuff at the time, but now it's just very old. I still really enjoy some of the hilarious dialogue though.
The score is awful, too. It’s like the music is from a different film altogether. Shoulda watched Diner like I’d planned.
Do you not care for primarily visual filmmaking? I remember you didn't like Apocalypse Now. But on the other hand, IIRC, you do like 2 Lane Blacktop, so I guess it's not that. Also you liked the clips of Tarkovsky films. Is it more that you think Conan is juvenile or something?
