Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"Avenging Angel" (1985)
Four years after the first "Angel," the former teenage hooker is off the streets and on her way to law school. But when she learns that the Detective who helped her leave that life behind has been murdered by mobsters, she returns to the streets on a mission of vengeance. An entertainingly silly, sleazy low budget shoot em up with a slightly tongue-in-cheek, almost satirical feel at times. Betsy Russell replaces Donna Wilkes in the title role, and she fits into the micro-miniskirts and hooker heels just fine. Followed by two more sequels (who knew?), each with a different girl playing "Angel."

[Dalmatian Bobby Samaritan]

"Anaconda" (1997)
Deep in the Brazilian jungle, a documentary film crew searching for a lost tribe has an unfortunate run-in with a gigantic man-eating snake. Mayhem ensues.
The 90s CGI snake effects have aged pretty badly, but otherwise this is an entertaining creature feature with a surprisingly stacked cast incl. Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, and Jon Voight (who steals the movie with his scenery chewing performance and bizarre accent). Cheesy fun!

I was thinking to myself the other day, I saw that first scene in Star Trek Beyond from 2016 and those Horny Toad aliens that Kirk is talking to. And then they all gang up and jump on him. And it was of course done in CGI. I was thinking to myself, is something off here. Because movies like Anaconda or Galaxy Quest (1999) were just as good. Possibly better, I would have to sit and watch them side by side. I mean I am not just automatically going with the 1990s because of Nostalgia. I think there is a limit to how good or accurate you can make things with CGI anyway. FatFreddysCat are you familiar with the guy on Youtube who says that Anacondas are actually fake animals? That the illuminati creates. Them along with Echidnas, Narwhals, Emperor Penguins, Komodo Dragons and Tree Sloths..

Based on that, any picture of photograph or museum or zoo exhibit of an Anaconda is bad or cheesy CGI. Well the zoo ones are supposedly puppets or rubber models. "Like they use with the Komodo Dragons." And of course Tree sloths are puppets or animatronic. When people loudmouth about how bad or cheesy the CGI or special effects were in the 1990s I am definitely quick to loud mouth back on special effects today. If anything looks off.

I hated the CGI in Star Trek Beyond and this was 2016 standards. So it is whatever. Based on what you are saying, then the CGI (which there really isn't a ton of anyway) in Galaxy Quest in 1999 was cheesy. I would say yes, Compared to Star Trek 2009 or Star Trek Into Darkness, but in my opinion Serenity has better CGI than either of those two movies. And of course I don't adhere to that fake animal philosophy. People are literally going coo coo in la cabeza out here, all over the board. Next we are going to be told that Acid Rain is actually A.I. or Star Link building a "Canopy" above the Earth's atmosphere to resurrect the Nephilim. The last days of Pompeii. A movie in 1908? Geez. Isn't that literally when Pompeii actually happened? They had motion pictures in 1908? Wasn't that when the Lumière brothers were hitting puberty? Anything about Emperor Penguins that I read in science magazines I eat up. I know they aren't fake animals. Not as swanky? Gee,

[indianasmith]

THE END OF OAK STREET (2026)   Anne Hathaway.  Time travel.  Dinosaurs. Mayhem. Dogs. Kids.  Drama.  More mayhem. More Anne Hathaway.  Giant turtles and snakes.  Feathered dinosaurs everywhere.  Chomp, gore, blood!

I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


5/5

[Dr. Whom]

THE END OF OAK STREET (2026)   Anne Hathaway.  Time travel.  Dinosaurs. Mayhem. Dogs. Kids.  Drama.  More mayhem. More Anne Hathaway.  Giant turtles and snakes.  Feathered dinosaurs everywhere.  Chomp, gore, blood!

I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!


5/5

And by David Mitchell? I've got to see this

[FatFreddysCat]

"UHF" (1989)
A perpetual slacker (Weird Al Yankovic) lands the job of his dreams when he's hired as the new station manager of U-62, a low rated, low watt TV channel. His unorthodox program ideas become ratings sensations, leading to friction with the corporate major-network affiliate on the other end of town.
Weird Al's feature debut is like flipping through an issue of MAD magazine, with rapid fire jokes and parodies delivered by a stacked cast incl. a pre-"Seinfeld" Michael Richard's, Fran Drescher, Kevin McCarthy, and Victoria Jackson of "SNL."
"UHF" was a box office bomb when it was released but it's gone on to become a cult classic since then.

[indianasmith]

SALEM'S LOT (2024) - I caught this remake of the classic Stephen King vampire story on HBO Max tonight. It's been a long time since I read the book, but this was a pretty good movie - a little tamer than it could have been, but quite watchable.  4/5

[Dr. Whom]

Porco Rosso

Perhaps not the best Ghibli, but still my absolute favourite. It has got wonderful seaplanes and flying boats, air action, beautiful scenery and a flying pig. What is not to like?

Pompoko

A group of tanuki (shape shifting raccoons) try to halt the urban development of their hill. The plot tends to wander off in various directions, but it remains enjoyable. It is also a lot more bleak than your average Western ecological fable, as the tanuki have to survive by becoming salarymen. The fact that the tanuki's magic resides in their testicles is deftly handled.

[Rev. Powell]

Porco Rosso

Perhaps not the best Ghibli, but still my absolute favourite. It has got wonderful seaplanes and flying boats, air action, beautiful scenery and a flying pig. What is not to like?

Yeah, I don't know about my favorite, but it's on that gets unfairly forgotten. It's pretty wild; I love Miyazaki's worldbuilding here. I need to watch it again someday.

[M.10rda]

HALLELUJAH, I'M A BUM! (1933):
Long-winded as I tend to be, in order to encapsulate this film I will defer now to quoting a 4.5/5 Letterboxd review from "Important Cinema Club" & "Michael & Us" co-host Will Sloan:

>>>"Harry Langdon is a leftist street cleaner and pedant who dreams of a worker's revolution. Al Jolson (the hero) is a hobo anarchist whose only militant political belief is a hatred of work in all its forms. Frank "The Wizard of Oz" Morgan is the mayor, who is basically a liberal {...} Jolson, "the mayor of Central Park," cultivates within the park an egalitarian utopia. About two-thirds of the way in, Jolson gets a taste of the high life, and his African American best-buddy has suddenly become his butler. We instantly understand that this will not do. From the height of the Depression, this is about as close as you're going to get to an American studio movie with "good politics." Al Jolson is a delight here. If you only watch one Al Jolson movie, for god's sake make it this one and not one of the others."<<<

Okay, I enjoy both podcasts even though sometimes I part ways w/ Sloan's critical opinion on flicks and (bizarrely often, as I am also a Leftist) I find his political readings staggeringly daft. (Ex. Canadian Sloan and his "M&U" partner spent five years telling listeners that Joe Biden, of whom I was not a Big Fan, was equally as bad as Donald Trump and that USAmericans might just as well vote for Trump - uh, thanks Will, hope that's worked out as well for your country as for ours.) That's the case a bit w/ HALLELUJAH as well - a Depression-era studio film spotlighting a hero who romanticizes poverty and a priori rejects the necessity for labor seems almost as tone-deaf as another Depression-era studio film (like say THE RICH ARE ALWAYS WITH US from 1932) that celebrates wealth and altogether ignores poverty or hardscrabble labor. Langdon's character "Egghead" is an honest-enough New Deal social democrat but I dunno what makes Morgan's Mayor a "Liberal" in Sloan's eyes... basically all we know about him is he's a wealthy drunk who plays the piano, dines in luxury, and can barely be bothered to show up to ceremonial appearances. (Perhaps the fact he doesn't have Jolson arrested on sight makes him "Liberal"?) Most worryingly, the film's depiction of the large ensemble of Central Park bums that surround Jolson and Langdon goes beyond satirical into the terrain of stochastic propaganda: these guys become an angry mob when they find out that Jolson and Langdon have found a "one thousand dollar bill" (apparently these used to exist!) in Langdon's sanitation can, and they literally put Jolson on trial (w/ a potential death penalty!) when they find out he's considering accepting a job from Mayor Morgan. To whom besides self-proclaimed leftist Will Sloan would this portrayal of unemployed homeless Americans constitute "good politics" - the ghosts of Rush Limbaugh, Margaret Thatcher, Grover Cleveland? 

All that said... I did enjoy this movie! Failed silent-era effete mime Langdon gets to use his voice here and - turns out when you can hear him instead of just look at him, he's funny! About half the film is scored and written by Rodgers and Hart and sung or delivered in recite  by the cast... which is very fun and like nothing I've seen in an old movie - it ain't a (lame) Eddy/MacDonald operetta, and it ain't a comedy w/ songs shoehorned in artificially every 15 minutes... the singing (or proto-rapping) actually moves the story along and develops the conflicts among the bums. Unfortunately the other half of the film is a dull (and music-less) love triangle plot - but there is some entertainment to glean from Madge Evans, the gorgeous female lead who (hilariously) is caught between Frank Morgan (who looks here like a cross between Boris Karloff and Gale Gordon as "Mr. Wilson II") and Al Jolson (who looks like a balding Mandy Patinkin who's been struck repeatedly in the face w/ a cooking iron).

Notorious blackface-ethusiast Jolson is not nearly as punchable here as I'd expected him to be (for one thing, he foregoes all shoe-polish)...    3/5    ...But I will take Sloan's advice and make this my sole Jolson film.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Rat Skates: Born in the Basement" (2007)
Founding Overkill drummer turned indie filmmaker Lee "Rat Skates" Kundrat takes viewers back in time to the start of not only his band, but of the early 80s Thrash Metal explosion in general, via vintage video clips and photos from his personal archives. I've seen this one a bunch of times over the years and it's still a fun trip down mosh pit memory lane.

[Dr. Whom]

Porco Rosso

Perhaps not the best Ghibli, but still my absolute favourite. It has got wonderful seaplanes and flying boats, air action, beautiful scenery and a flying pig. What is not to like?

Yeah, I don't know about my favorite, but it's on that gets unfairly forgotten. It's pretty wild; I love Miyazaki's worldbuilding here. I need to watch it again someday.

Well, it is the most lighthearted Miyazaki. It lacks most of his more serious themes of coming of age, respect for nature etc. This is just a fun story, so it is easy to dismiss it as 'just entertainment' I guess.

[M.10rda]

A FOOL AND HIS MONEY (1912):
This 15-minute silent is often called history's first film w/ an all black (in this case, specifically African-American) cast and was directed by Alice Guy-Blanche, who is often cited as history's first female filmmaker. I must've known these facts when I DL'd it in the unspecific past but I forgot it when I watched it... thus I insist immunity on any accusations of "virtue signaling"  when I proclaim that I thought A FOOL AND HIS MONEY was a real gem.

James Russell (who has only two other credits on Letterboxd) plays a lovestruck dude who keeps getting kicked out of his paramour's parlor by her dad in order for her to make eyes at another dude who's got money. Fortunately Russell comes by a larger amount of money, though through less than upstanding means, which allows him to turn the tables for awhile... until he's finally hoist by his own petard. Really there are no "jokes" in A FOOL AND HIS MONEY, but the whole thing is enjoyable and I laughed out loud three separate times. Why? Well, Guy-Blanche knows a trick in 1912 that Charlie Chaplain, Mabel Norman, Mack Sennett, and Mack Swain didn't know in 1914 (as evidenced by the dire FATAL MALLET) and the generally extremely funny Roscoe Arbuckle didn't know around the same time (when he started directing and starring in shorts which wouldn't get really good for about 3 years), and which I often don't think Keaton and Lloyd knew even in many of their films in the 20s.

In AFAHM, Russell and the other actors are clearly acting out the entire scenario for Guy-Blanche's MOS camera - which means that they are obviously saying dialogue in character, based on a general scenario though in lieu of a script, as latter-day improv inventors like Viola Spolin and Del Close would do decades later. Therefore every performance in this film is highly specific - sometimes exaggerated, though often realistic - and thus at nearly every single moment, you know exactly what every character is thinking and even (more or less) saying, in spite of their being very few intertitles. Thus the acting is what makes this film work - and what makes the situations very funny at times. I see Conrad Veidt doing acting like this in the late teens, though the famous white comedians of the era almost never do this - they just mug and gesticulate, refusing to acknowledge that real people (even in silent movies) actually have conversations with one another.

Guy-Blanche wasn't black but rather a white (French) woman who'd been making films for 15 years by the time she made this one. She has a huge resume yet most of her catalog is (of course) apparently lost. That's an almost criminal shame - she really knew how to direct actors!    4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Circle Jerks: My Career as a Jerk" (2012)
Documentary about the long and often volatile history of the Circle Jerks, the L.A. punk band made up of ex members of Black Flag and Redd Kross. Over the years, dozens of members came and went (ex Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland even filled in on bass for a tour in the mid 80s!) but vocalist Keith Morris and guitarist Greg Hetson were the band's backbone through the decades. Lots of good stories and intense live footage make for a punk-as-f**k viewing experience.

[lester1/2jr]

Circle Jerks was the first "show" I ever saw. My lasting memory though is of the local opening band Slapshot, whose singer carried a sawed off hockey stick and who were terrifying. I was 12.

[Dr. Whom]

The Vampire Lovers (1970)

Hammer movies don't do much for me. I find them too stilted to have either atmosphere or suspense, and this one is no different. This is adaptation of Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, using the plot device of vampires having aliases that are anagrams of each other.
Ingrid Pitt is wholly unconvincing as a debutante, but she does make a very good predatory femme fatale. Her vampire powers are all over the place, being usually whatever is convenient at that precise moment. One thing puzzles me though. It is repeatedly established that vampires are repelled by the sign of the cross, so why do they hang out in cemeteries and chapels where there are crosses all over the place?