Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Dr. Whom]

The General (1926)

Buster Keaton is a train engineer during the civil war. When a dastardly Union raiding party makes off with his train, while his fiancée is still in it, he goes after them with a determination and bad luck worthy of Wiley E. Coyote.

I was surprised by the scale of the movie. They don't muck about with miniatures, when they want a steam engine crashing from a bridge, they have a steam engine crash from a bridge. When they want battle scenes, they call out the National Guard. Perhaps not as funny as its reputation suggests, but very watchable.

[lester1/2jr]

I saw it when it came out and liked it a lot. The "bridge" speech sticks with me. The Big Short (2015) was a similar financial drama that was more entertaing

I actually got them confused and thought the rocket scientist character was Christian Bale for minute.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Creem: America's Only Rock Magazine" (2019)
Cool documentary about Creem, the gritty '70s rock magazine who served as the loud mouthed, stoner opposite of the stuffy Rolling Stone. Packed with cool vintage photos and interviews with former staffers as well as fans and readers like Kirk Hammett, Chad Smith (RHCP), Wayne Kramer (MC5), Alice Cooper, and more. By the time I started buying rock mags regularly in the mid 80s, Creem was already on its last legs (it ceased publication in 1989), so I only ever saw a few issues of it, but it sounds like it was a wild ride while it lasted. 

[RCMerchant]

^ I remember buying CREEM. "Boy Howdy"!

[RCMerchant]

HOUSE (1977) Perhaps the most insane Japanese ghost movie you will ever see. Doesn't make a hell of a lotta sense- but who cares? The visuals are a trip without drugs or leaving the farm.

[Rev. Powell]

THE DARK SISTERS (2023): Two sisters reunite at a lakeside cabin to reflect on a crime from their past. Poetic, impressionistic, and opaque: great shots of Caddo Lake and its lily pads, vaguely defined archetypal characters, thick symbolism, voiceovers replacing dialogue, that kind of thing. 1.5/5.

[indianasmith]

LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND (2023) - Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts star in this engrossing account of the end of civilization.
A husband and wife take their two teenagers to a nice bed and breakfast on the Jersey shore, intending to get away from it all for a few days.
But a trip to the beach ends in clamor and confusion after a huge oil tanker runs aground, and then the owners of the house they are staying in show up, explaining that there is a blackout in NYC and they are wanting to stay in the home with their guests till things get back to normal.  But then they don't . . .
Great film, lots of suspense, lots of unanswered questions, and stellar performances!  5/5

[lester1/2jr]

^ my friend described it as "Julia Roberts frowns for 3 hours"

[M.10rda]

Ah, Indiana, you beat me to it. I watched it last Saturday, started a review early in the week, but my laptop crashed and I lost a buncha' words. Since I was on the fence initially, I'll, uh... let you have the spotlight here and I'll post my thoughts over in the "Bad Movies: Recent Viewings" thread instead. 

[zombie no.one]

HOUSE (1977) Perhaps the most insane Japanese ghost movie you will ever see. Doesn't make a hell of a lotta sense- but who cares? The visuals are a trip without drugs or leaving the farm.

a clip from this went semi-viral in the early days of YouTube… still never gotten round to seeing it.

I’m such a n00b when it comes to Asian horror. SICK NURSES (2007) is one of the few I’ve seen, and was pretty crazy

[Rev. Powell]

HOUSE (1977) Perhaps the most insane Japanese ghost movie you will ever see. Doesn't make a hell of a lotta sense- but who cares? The visuals are a trip without drugs or leaving the farm.

a clip from this went semi-viral in the early days of YouTube… still never gotten round to seeing it.

I’m such a n00b when it comes to Asian horror. SICK NURSES (2007) is one of the few I’ve seen, and was pretty crazy

HAUSU is a must see. It's not really "Asian horror"; it's totally its own genre.

[Rev. Powell]

MADS ARE BACK: THE CREEPING TERROR: You know the story: mutant carpet comes to Earth, mutant carpet eats teens who helpfully crawl into its maw, army eventually kills mutant carpet way too late, Earth is doomed. Frank and Trace wring a few new chuckles out but stick with the original MST3K version for your own sanity. Includes a five-minute outtake segment that they should have left in. The Q&A guest is writer Kliph Nesteroff, who tells a few old showbiz stories about folks like Regis Philbin. 2.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Copycat (1995) - not bad for a random tubi find here. Pretty darn good thriller and certainly a must see for serial killer fans, of which I really am not generally. Sigourney Weaver embraces the darkness of the whole thing which also includes funky early internet stuff back when that was a novelty.

Weaver gets attacked by a serial killer, played well enough by the usually better Harry Connick Jr, which drives her into becoming an agoraphobe. The rest of the movie is basically a history of serial killers featuring all the big names the Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy etc as the police work to catch the titular copycat.

It did take me a few nights to watch but I already like it a lot better than The Departed which I just started.

4.5 /5

[RCMerchant]

^I thought the DEAPARTED was excellant!

[chainsaw midget]

I just got back from watching Napoleon. 

Visually, it was beautiful with great costumes, sets, and battle sequences. 

As a movie, it was kinda lacking.  It seemed more like a series of events than any actual narrative.  Also, Joaquin Phoenix comes across as very bland.  There's a bunch of points in the movie where it seems the script was written for somebody with a lot of wit and charisma, but he just comes across as dull.  He was also very noticeably lacking any kind of accent. 

Also, not once in the movie did they mention the time he went to San Dimas, California in the 1980s.