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#21

Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2

Last post by FatFreddysCat - January 17, 2026, 09:22:19 PM

"And Now For Somethimg Completely Different" (1971)
In the Monty Python troupe's movie debut, they re-create some of the "greatest hits" from the first two seasons of their BBC series for the big screen, like the Dead Parrot Sketch, the Lumberjack Song, and the Upper Class Twit of the Year.
Fun fact: the movie was financed by Playboy. Victor Lownes, an American in charge of Playboy's London casino and nightclub, fell in love with the Pythons' TV series while living in England and brought them to the attention of Hugh Hefner, who wanted to get into film production. The rest is history. The movie was America's introduction to Monty Python, as "Flying Circus" didn't start airing in the USA till 1974. So hey, thanks, Hef!

"The Mouse Trap" (2024)
A group of twenty somethings having an after hours party at an arcade/amusement center are trapped inside with a psycho killer who's picking them off while wearing a Mickey Mouse mask, for some reason.
This cheap sh*t Canadian slasher flick is poorly written and full of plot holes, and most of the kills take place off screen. The Mickey mask is a gimmick that's only in the movie because Mickey's debut "Steamboat Willie" is now in the Public Domain. The result is an utterly pointless exercise. AVOID.

[BUZZCOCKS Singles Going Steady]

#22

Entertainment / Re: What have you been listeni...

Last post by Allhallowsday - January 17, 2026, 08:16:23 PM

BUZZCOCKS Singles Going Steady 

#23

Off Topic Discussion / Re: Memes n' stuff of the day

Last post by LilCerberus - January 17, 2026, 06:57:10 PM

#24

Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2

Last post by M.10rda - January 17, 2026, 06:36:51 PM

I admit: Few Bad Movies make me happier than GUY FROM HARLEM.    Purchased on VHS in the mid-90s, watched many times raw before I watched the (great) Rifftrax version. From the director of SUPERSOUL BROTHER aka THE SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR [epithet] and co-starring that film's priceless star Wildman Steve Gallon.

An attempted assault is met with light resistance, and the attacker demurs: "That ain't cool... I'll see you later!"   

#25

Good Movies / Re: What my hometown cinema lo...

Last post by M.10rda - January 17, 2026, 06:30:35 PM

It's a cosmetics store...?

#26

Bad Movies / Re: After Last Season (2009)

Last post by M.10rda - January 17, 2026, 06:21:54 PM

WHY BAD MOVIES?

In high school, I reviewed "bad" movies on VHS for Joe Bob Briggs' "We Are The Weird" zine... so Joe Bob didn't have to. Once he sent me a movie titled CAGED TERROR... originally titled GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN (1973). At the time and for a long time after, I thought it was the worst movie I'd ever seen, on account of it being most of the things we all associate with Badness on this site: it was laborious, boring, pretentious, ridiculous, poorly acted, poorly produced, and cheap. (Also sometimes amusing in its Badness.) I would later buy a used copy on VHS and subject friends to it, and on repeat viewings, I still think CAGED TERROR is about as "bad" as Bad Movies probably get... worse than MANOS... worse maybe than GHOSTS THAT STILL WALK... much worse than MONSTER-A-GO-GO or PLAN 9. CAGED TERROR might be worse even than AFTER LAST SEASON... it is, anyway, more poorly written than AFTER LAST SEASON! (Yes. Yes.)

But I rarely think of the "worst" Bad Movie I've ever seen anymore, even amidst all the time I spend on this website. I truly enjoy most of the movies we discuss on this site, even the most Bad ones, hence I rarely participate in "Worst" conversations. 'Cause those movies don't make me happy - they make me angry and/or sick at heart.

Those movies fall into two categories. One is movies I don't ever bring up by name and won't here. I'd call them "Children of SALO". There's a few I've seen in the past 30 years that I wish I could unsee and thus don't mention 'cause I don't want to inflict them on others. Clearly they were made to revel in human suffering... though just onscreen, at least. Those are Bad, and in no way fun for me - so I reject them from the Mind Palace.

The other category are films that may be better made than AFTER LAST SEASON, yet actually do harm to humanity. DW Griffith is still often cited as an early master filmmaker, but BIRTH OF A NATION is an infinitely worse film than AFTER LAST SEASON, as BIRTH OF A NATION actually did real harm to marginalized people and lent comfort to abusers in traditional positions of power.  I recently called THE SOUND OF FREEDOM one of the worst films of this century, because it contributed to pervasive disinformation and public confusion. (I'd also argue it's not well made, though it's better than ALS.) In the same sentence, I grouped HILLBILLY ELEGY with TSOF... inescapably, Ron Howard's stoopid (also not terribly well-made) movie contributed real and lasting harm on the United States and its citizens. Those movies can't be banished from my mind palace, 'cause their impact is manifest in the physical world - not just on my psyche.

Sometimes I think about those films when I watch films like AFTER LAST SEASON, and it helps me keep things in perspective. Watching ALS also made me think of another tiny low-budget movie made and released (only) in Western New York in 2000. I won't name that movie, either - it's director later made a in-name-only horror sequel that was distributed on Netflix (on DVD, not streaming) and lots of people ended up seeing it and I think it's even been discussed on here. That director probably has a lot in common with Mark Region in terms of ambition. Anyway, he wrote, directed, and starred in a feature in 2000 that - as I recall my one viewing - is indeed probably worse than ALS and worse than CAGED TERROR in terms of filmmaking but also Bad on the deeper level of the categories I mentioned above, in that it derives entertainment and humor from mental illness, abuse, and disease. The guy that made it started a local film festival, took advantage of people, exploited and mistreated them, etc. He seems like not a good guy, and I hated his movie - hated it.

As Bad as AFTER LAST SEASON is to watch - it did provide me with hours of enjoyment researching it, reflecting on it, talking about it with y'all, and writing about it. Thus - ALS is net-positive in my book.

Also, CAGED TERROR is inescapably aware of the prevalence of toxic masculinity, knee-jerk religiosity, and the damage wrought by American involvement in Vietnam, particularly for a movie made in 1973. Also 50% of its cast is non-white, FWIW. (It does suck as a film, natch.)

So anyway. Viva la BADFILM!

#27

Bad Movies / Re: After Last Season (2009)

Last post by M.10rda - January 17, 2026, 05:45:23 PM

Again, here's my "TLDR" version of an attempt to rationalize AFTER LAST SEASON: Mark Region had a simple exploitation movie plot (ala GHOST or SIXTH SENSE or FREQUENCY or something). One point that most accounts agree upon is that Region thought the film would be popular/a hit/would make money (this obv discards the PRODUCERS tax-scam angle). Yet he'd seen one or two really Good, tricky, complicated Art Films and had maybe taken a single film theory class or read on book on Godard or - something. So Region decides that instead of telling his simple supernatural thriller in a simple, straightforward way, he'll get real smart about it - he'll get Deconstructionist with it. He'll structure his simple plot non-chronologically. He'll have actors deliver all dialogue as if mystified or brainwashed (an approach employed by Godard, Herzog, Mamet, Dreyer, etc). He'll emphasize the superficiality of all mise-en-scene to help sell the idea that the physical world is illusory. All of this makes perfect sense to Region, one of those guys who has a fervent mind and access to a little bit of advanced knowledge. There is only one (profound) problem: Region doesn't really have any skill or talent or discipline as a filmmaker - so he can't achieve any of the onscreen effects that he imagines in his big noggin.

This theory makes sense to me, as I've worked on enough low-budget movies made by guys with huge ideas & ambitions and either insufficient resources or insufficient gifts. (...Myself included.)

It also helps explain - to me, anyway - how the screenplay (really, the dialogue) does make sense to my neurodivergent mind....... except it is realized onscreen in such an aggressively off-putting way that my every instinct is to just scream "THIS IS BULL$#!t!"

Something that has occurred to me in the past is that there are four general ways to approach telling any story in a film:

EASY TO WATCH + EASY TO UNDERSTAND: And this is basically most every movie produced by major studios in the past 100+ years. Example all Marvel movies.

EASY TO WATCH + HARD TO UNDERSTAND: For me, the gold standard here is MEMENTO. When I managed an arthouse cinema, MEMENTO was far-and-away the biggest smash hit of my tenure. People watched it once, loved it, thought they understood it, and felt smart. People watched it half a dozen times at my theater (cha-ching), loved it but realized they didn't understand it after one viewing, understood it better each time, and felt smarter for their efforts. That's why MEMENTO is one of my Top 5 favs ever.

HARD TO WATCH + EASY TO UNDERSTAND: I think Tarkovski films are good examples of this category. NOSTALGIA doesn't have a complicated plot, but it's soooooooo slow. The same could really be said for STALKER, too. It's easy to get frustrated and stop watching - not because one is confused, but because one hungers for more Action more quickly. I'd argue that you eventually profit from investing time in Tarkovski's movies - but he took a big gamble and it never pays off for many viewers.

HARD TO WATCH + HARD TO UNDERSTAND: Ex. Godard. His films get progressively more arbitrarily impenetrable through the 60s, bounce back slightly and briefly in the 80s, then in this century he flies into outer space to Planet Godard, where only "Godard" is spoken and the population is 1 (Godard). Sometimes I can understand a little bit of what he's going on about, mostly I can't, and too often I just don't care. His HISTOIRE DU CINEMA is many hours of him just staring into the camera and talking about movies (w/ occasional primitive video FX) and even when he's just speaking directly to the viewer, very little of what he says is comprehensible. Godard didn't only not care whether he was understood, he relished the opportunity to obfuscate and confuse... God rest his soul.

My conclusion: Mark Region wanted to make a MEMENTO and thought he could make MEMENTO... a film w/ a simple story that rewarded multiple viewings and coincidentally made a hefty profit. Unfortunately, the intense deconstructionist aspect to his story's presentation suggests he was overambitious... way out of his element... swimming in the rare waters of a Godard, who eschewed mainstream comprehension and success. (One article about ALS compares it to Hal Hartley - but doing Godard-lite has never made Hartley much money, either.) As Rev. Powell assures us, you will get no more value out of watching AFTER LAST SEASON a second time... in fact, I surmise I would lose value (my precious time) and only resent AFTER LAST SEASON more than I do now. As a result, ALS as a finished product falls under the "Hard To Watch + Easy To Understand" category... it's unpleasant, onerous, no fun, and at the end you don't even get the emotional or spiritual catharsis that you get from a Tarkovski joint. If AFTER LAST SEASON is a Bad Movie - and yes, it is - it's because it seems constructed to make no one happy.

And yet! I have spent so much time thinking about it and writing about it... and that has made me...... happy!!!    Okay, to be once more continued (and concluded).

#28

Off Topic Discussion / Re: Alex's even longer post th...

Last post by Alex - January 17, 2026, 05:05:13 PM

In the end, we had eight days of snowfall. It wasn't overly deep (well, not in Lossiemouth anyway), but it is unusual to have it coming down for that long.

Still can't believe about H being arrested. She did lose her job over it, but she's gotten a new one, somewhere she used to work before she got married. She's spoken with her lawyer, and he doesn't expect much to come of the charges. She's admitted the offence. I think it took her quite a while to realise she'd done something wrong and messed up. I don't know if that is partly down to shock or what. While I've had a fair bit of experience dealing with criminals, I've never really been involved with anything that happens after they get caught. Never been called as a witness or anything. I put that down to them admitting their guilt. Only been called for jury service once and I didn't have to do that because I already had a holiday booked. Anyway, for as little as I know about that far side of the law, I know even less about how it operates day to day in the US. Mind you I'd be lying if I said it was something I wanted to learn more about either.

So trump isn't happy with Europe not supporting him getting Greenland and is imposing more tariffs. I wonder if he's noticed that countries are simply dropping tariffs with other nations, trading more with them instead, like Canada dropping its EV car tariffs from 100% (which supported the US industry) to 6%. I guess the coming years will show if the US was essential to the world order or just merely convenient. I dislike seeing China getting to spread its influence further, but maybe this was inevitable and the current administration is merely making it happen sooner rather than later. I am still surprised that our government is standing with Denmark. I wonder if they'll do some kind of tax that specifically hits his UK business interests in retaliation for the tariffs. Something that will hit him personally in the pocket. I doubt it, but it is something I would seriously think about if I were in that position. I've seen other times when the reputation of the US has been low, although never as low as it seems to be right now and this doesn't feel quite the same. It feels like things are changing on a much larger and more permanent scale. I'd say the last geopolitical event that seemed to be this big was the fall of the Soviet Union. They also stood up against the threats on extra tariffs when they said either stop Grok creating child porn or we will ban it. Interesting and totally expected given the whole epstein files thing that trump would try and force it to be allowed to continue.

Watching a show at the moment that I've been meaning to catch for a while. It takes the rules for life on earht and applies it to potential alien worlds and how it might evolve there. A bit of a limiting premise, unfortunately. I mean, all life on earth is based on left-handed DNA (science hasn't quite figured out why that is yet,). What if things evolved elsewhere using right-handed DNA though just as the most basic question. After that you could consider life forms based on elements other than carbon, or more radically, a life-form literally completely alien to how we understand life. Imagine a sentient gas. Would we even be capable of recognising it? Even something like an alien plant or fungus might be beyond our ability to recognise if it were different enough.

With the sheer amount of other worlds out there, I can't believe that the miracle of life hasn't taken root anywhere else. It may or may not be intelligent in the same way as we are (have a look at the news and that might not be such a bad thing), but I am sure it is out there somewhere.

Thanks to what is happening in the world, the age at which retired soldiers can be recalled in the UK is being increased from 55 to 65. Yeah, best of luck getting guys that age keeping fit enough for a battlefield. I'd imagine if they are doing that, then they will also increase the age we can serve to. Currently, there is a soft cutoff at 60 (you can apply to do a 2 or 3 years longer than that if you want). If I were able to serve up to 69 and a few months, that'd mean I'd be leaving with two full military pensions.

Kristi is responding well to her treatment, but it is really kicking her arse. She's mostly been sick and unable to leave the house. Our one attempt to get out for a walk had her throwing up before we'd made it to the end of the street.

Using pipe cleaners to attempt a recreation of a proton pack stream for the Ghostbusters diorama. I've twinned a bright orange along with a white with a quite tight spiral, then a much looser green one (since I couldn't get electric blue ones, I am improvising).

#29

Bad Movies / Re: After Last Season (2009)

Last post by M.10rda - January 17, 2026, 05:04:56 PM

A few relevant replies before I attempt my own thesis here:

I'm pretty sure Region just blatantly lied about the budget.
If Region had done all this intentionally, he wouldn't have pulled the film from distribution.
The lead actor also verifies that Region had no idea what he was doing and that the cast was completely confused during filming.

It is absolutely evident that the cast is completely confused. Although I don't place a great deal of confidence in the main actor's perceptiveness, I don't reject the possibility that the main actor is incidentally correct that Region had little clue how to produce this movie. I was just taking all possibilities into consideration...

The results are so incoherent and disorienting that it takes two viewings just to verify that there is not a real story hiding somewhere in this mess.

Are you acknowledging that you watched AFTER LAST SEASON twice...???    I don't know if I can watch this again. Thus I may need to cede this point to you and take your word for it. Based on one viewing, it seems clear that there is a "real story hiding somewhere in this mess". That is, in fact, the foundation for my thesis for why ALS ends up seeming as senseless and bad as it does: Region had a fairly simple and straightforward story about a ghost and a serial killer (or whatever he is) and human beings learning to communicate with the ghost to foil the killer. That isn't a totally unusual plot - but Region runs it through a woodchipper and makes complete mince of it. HOWEVER... you watched it twice and I didn't - thus I defer to you, sir!

the clips I saw didn't quite draw me in enough to want to check out the whole thing... more kind of an 'okay I get the idea' situation.

   YES - and this is one challenge (anyway) to what I surmise was Region's plan. He thought he was clever in telling a simple story in an alluring (read: convoluted) way... but if you still got the idea from the trailer... why sit through the whole painful movie?

[/quote]

After Last Season is pretty awful & one of the worst films ever made
The title also makes no sense

It does make sense, if one thinks about it: Something happened "last season" (Craig died) and the movie takes place "after" that thing that happened (Craig is now a ghost).

The major issue again is - why should anyone bother to think about it???

The title is a great example of Region's urge to overcomplicate everything... and specifically an example of his use of linguistic (not film) grammar to seem interesting or clever or profound... yet (in gestalt) his attempt "makes no sense".

Watching After Last Season is like trying to follow a old timey radio monologue on an AM radio station with fading reception: you can tell there's a voice trying to make itself heard, but the transmission is so garbled that the basics of the story become lost in static and long stretches of dead air... 

Yes - this. 100%. Cont'd...

#30

Off Topic Discussion / Re: Massive floods in South Af...

Last post by Josso - January 17, 2026, 04:56:49 PM

Stay safe out there