Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Alex]

The Thin Man (1934) - Quite entertaining mystery comedy.  Lots of good dialogue and two very good lead performances.  I did find this occasionally a bit hard to follow - the mics of the mid 30s make vocals hard to hear sometimes, and there's a bit too much dialogue requiring you to remember who like 6 different named characters are and what they're doing and have done based almost entirely on this dialogue.  But the movie zooms right over this and never stops being fun in spite of it.  Well worth a watch, I'll probably check out the sequels eventually as well.

I don't know if you ever watched the old 1970's TV show HART TO HART, but it was a rip off of the old THIN MAN movie series from the 30's.

I vaguely remember Hart to Hart being on in reruns plus I remember some of the TV movies coming out but don't think I ever saw any of it.  Just reading the wikipedia description, the Thin Man connection is pretty clear.  I'll have to check it out.

I remember seeing that show as a kid and thinking they must have been the world's unluckiest couple. Everywhere they went, someone died. When I was a bit older though I'd have different thoughts about people who are always there when someone dies (Jessica Fletcher is the world's most successful fictional serial killer!).

[Jim H]

The Thin Man (1934) - Quite entertaining mystery comedy.  Lots of good dialogue and two very good lead performances.  I did find this occasionally a bit hard to follow - the mics of the mid 30s make vocals hard to hear sometimes, and there's a bit too much dialogue requiring you to remember who like 6 different named characters are and what they're doing and have done based almost entirely on this dialogue.  But the movie zooms right over this and never stops being fun in spite of it.  Well worth a watch, I'll probably check out the sequels eventually as well.

I don't know if you ever watched the old 1970's TV show HART TO HART, but it was a rip off of the old THIN MAN movie series from the 30's.

I vaguely remember Hart to Hart being on in reruns plus I remember some of the TV movies coming out but don't think I ever saw any of it.  Just reading the wikipedia description, the Thin Man connection is pretty clear.  I'll have to check it out.

I remember seeing that show as a kid and thinking they must have been the world's unluckiest couple. Everywhere they went, someone died. When I was a bit older though I'd have different thoughts about people who are always there when someone dies (Jessica Fletcher is the world's most successful fictional serial killer!).

Another one to think about are a lot of Westerns.  I remember seeing a tally for Marshall Dillon from Gunsmoke.  Apparently he killed like 400 people over the course of the series and movies.  Think about your local police officer killing that many people while you live in an isolated town of under 1000 total.  Dillon also got shot himself over FIFTY times. 

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Stepford Wives" (1975)
A family moves from New York City to the tranquil small town of Stepford in rural Connecticut, where life is perfect... maybe a little too perfect. As the wife struggles to fit in with her homebody neighbors, she begins to suspect that something sinister is going on behind the scenes.
This suspense flick with a touch of sci-fi horror and a hint of satire has a cool premise, but it drags on so long so that by the time the big twist is revealed it's lost all its punch. Followed by several made-for-TV sequels in the '80s and '90s and a big budget remake in the early '00s.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Taxi" (2004)
An inept cop (Jimmy Fallon) who's had his drivers' license taken away commandeers an NYC cab driven by a budding speed demon (Queen Latifah) to help him catch a gang of persistent lady bank robbers. Entertainingly silly car-crash nonsense, apparently based on a successful series of French action comedies. Latifah is clearly having fun, but I can see why Fallon's movie career never took off, cuz he's an annoying dork. Ann-Margret pops up briefly in a pointless bit part as Fallon's drunken mother.
Pretty cookie cutter stuff all around, but I've seen worse.

"Blackhearts" (2016)
"Black Metal" fans from Greece, Iran, and Colombia all make separate pilgrimages to the genre's homeland of Norway, to play at various metal festivals and soak up some of the "true" atmosphere. I'm not a black metal guy at all but I have always found the genre's trappings interesting/unintentionally hilarious. There's even a tour bus company in Norway that will take fanboys to all the famous Black Metal sites like Euronymous' old record store and the various churches that were burned during the early 90s "inner circle" crime wave. That's pretty frickin' Metal if you ask me.

[lester1/2jr]

In the Blood (2014) - Gina Carano as an American on vacation with her husband in I'm guessing The Dominican Republic? its a Spanish speaking Caribbean island and he gets kidnapped. Her basic acting is good and believable if not remarkable and her action abilities are excellent. The plot has some serious holes. I'm usually pretty oblivious but even I was like "wait a minute ...Why didn't she just shoot him there" kind of thing. It's not a David Fincher production.

Luiz Guzman and Danny Triejo add their talents and B movie mega legend Treat Williams has a small role. what more could you possibly ask for? tubi forever

4.25 /5

p.s. How/ why did the zipline break? why would they think the wife would just leave her husband and not go to the hospital???

[FatFreddysCat]

"Knight Rider 2000" (1991)
Michael Knight is called out of retirement to help the Foundation for Law and Government's newest recruit, a former policewoman, track down a gang of corrupt cops who are dealing weapons on the side. KITT is back too, in a souped-up new body, and he's as sarcastic as ever, of course.
This was the pilot film for a proposed new "Knight Rider" series which never came to pass, and it's easy to see why. Hasselhoff was already doing Baywatch at this point, so obviously Michael was never meant to be a regular character; he's only there to set things up and hand them off to the uninteresting new characters. The "new" KITT isn't nearly as cool looking as the classic black Firebird, and overall the whole thing was talky and dull, with barely any action. Knight Rider was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid, but even nostalgia couldn't save this one. Skip it!

[Rev. Powell]

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA: Well, here it is, the new independently produced, crowdfunded version of MST3K. First off, I am not at all delighted with the cheesy green screen and complete lack of physical sets. Putting that aside, the movie, which involves luchador Santo inventing a machine that causes past-life regressions and sending a woman back to a past life where she was one of Dracula's victims, is suitably ridiculous. The riffing is decent, not great, and the host segments are misses. The one unexpected thing that I did like was an appearance by Joel during intermission, where he and a couple of staffers did a routine and showed off a bonus invention. 3/5 overall.

[Jim H]

Rio Bravo - I saw El Dorado many years ago, and quite enjoyed it.  So I finally got around to seeing the original.  All in all, it's a hoot.  Entertaining start to finish, with good sharply drawn characters and generally good performances.  That said, I do think it's a touch overrated (I've heard it called one of the best westerns of all time by many people).  The villains aren't very menacing, the denouement of the climax is abrupt and unsatisfying, and while I like how the character is written, I think Ricky Nelson is a bit weak - James Caan was far better in the equivalent role in El Dorado.  These don't wreck the film, John Wayne is good and cast appropriately (100% the most important part of John Wayne roles, he has to be cast as John Wayne), Dean Martin is good, Walter Brennan too.  Good Hawks direction.  It's funny.  Really well shot and structured.  I liked the musical interlude, even if it comes out of nowhere and Wayne has nothing to do in it.  All in all, a solid good western - but I think I liked El Dorado more.

Also, it's kind of crazy to think this was only 5 years before A Fistful of Dollars.  The amount of change film styles went through from the late 50s to even the mid 60s is pretty astounding.

[lester1/2jr]

In a Stranger's House (2018) - The cheapest, stupidest, and maybe the best of the recent Found Footage movies I've seen.

A guy with a boring personal vlog gets a job house sitting. Soon, typically spooky things start happening. He's scared, but also ecstatic that he's getting more views. This takes care of the "why doesn't he just get out of there" issue quite nicely. Whatever you want to say about the concept, the guy is perfectly cast in this role. I imagine that in his real life he really does stuff like this for a living. One thing the movie does really well is have tons of tension. Walking around the house towards the room with all the sounds and going into the room and so forth. A good constant low level creepiness.

Decently build up at the end but I didn't quite the ending so

4.5 / 5  it's real good

[FatFreddysCat]

"976-EVIL 2" (aka "976-EVIL 2: The Astral Factor," 1992)
Regular calls to a Satanic hot line give a creepy old college professor astral-projection powers, which he uses to stalk and murder co-eds. A studly loner on a motorcycle and a girl in a tight sweater have to figure out how to stop him.
This made-for-video sequel to the forgettable 1988 horror flick was directed by T&A kingpin Jim Wynorski of "Chopping Mall" fame, so at least you know there'll be some decent gore and the girls will be cute and frequently undressed. Otherwise, this is basically a low-rent "Nightmare on Elm Street" knock off, aside from one inspired scene where a girl gets sucked into the late movie on her TV and finds herself trapped in a zombified mash up of "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Night of the Living Dead."
Better than the first 976-EVIL, though that's faint praise.

[Dr. Whom]

Midsommar (2019)

The quaint midsummer solstice ritual of a remote Swedish community is a trap to lure visitors to their doom.

Not bad, but slow, very very slow. It takes about the entire running time of House on Haunted Hill to merely get going. I am a bit confused as to why this is classed as a horror/thriller. There is a bit of gore, but hardly any suspense. This is because of the pace for one thing, and also because the protagonists have very little agency. They are mostly just swept along by events. It doesn't help that it is never really clear why we should care about these characters.
So the whole thing plays out more like a tragedy, with people being caught by external forces. The ending is neat, but it takes a lot of patience to arrive there.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Death Race 2" (2000)
Fast moving follow up to the "Death Race 2000" reboot is actually a prequel, that explains how the Death Race was created and follows the first man to become its best known driver, the mysterious "Frankenstein." Not as slick looking as the first film (likely due to its direct-to-video budget restraints) but of course, there's still plenty of car crashin' ultra-violence and mayhem. Mindless fun with a great cast that includes Sean Bean, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames, and Lauren "Walking Dead" Cohan. Followed by two more installments.

[lester1/2jr]

Dr Whom - Strong disagreement on that one. whatever you want to call it it was a seriously demented experience that has no rival in recent memory

A Perfect Enemy (2020) - it's okay. The male lead is kind of a turd and while the female is pretty darn cute, the whole thing is kind of like an acting class.

A famous architect gives a symposium or whatever at some place. In the process of getting to the airport, he strikes up a conversation with a young lady who may or may not have been at said symposium. As they talk, it becomes clear that she knows more than she's letting on re his career and personal life. What does it all mean???

It's a foreign film but the actors all speak English. An interesting trend I've seen here and there. needed some color

3.75 / 5

[FatFreddysCat]

"77 Minutes" (2016)
A documentary about the 1984 mass shooting at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, California that took the lives of 21 people, including several children.
The story of that horrendous day is told via interviews with witnesses and survivors, vintage news footage, and (unfortunately) real, uncensored crime scene photos and video... which, be warned, is NOT for the faint of heart. Some of those images are going to stick with me for a while.
I was not familiar with the work of director Charlie Minn before seeing this film, but apparently he's been referred to as a "trauma pornographer," as he seems to specialize in documentaries about mass killings -- he's also directed docs about the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida, the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the Las Vegas concert massacre, and several others. I think I'm gonna pass on watching any more of this guy's work; one dose of his exploitative "reporting" was more than enough for me.

[Dr. Whom]

Dr Whom - Strong disagreement on that one. whatever you want to call it it was a seriously demented experience that has no rival in recent memory

Well, I would have liked it a lot more if it had been about an hour shorter. As it is, I'd take something like Ham on Rye over this, any time.