Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Jim H]

Avatar: The Way of Water

Solid, well-paced visually stunning sequel.  If you liked the first, you'll like this one.  If you didn't probably the same.  I think in some significant respects it is a step up from the first film - the dialogue is less cheesy, there's no lines that stick out so bad.  There's a couple pretty good character beats.  The action sequences are still terrific, even better than the first.  

But, it's definitely overstuffed.  In particular there are just too many characters stretched too thin, so few of them get satisfying ends.  There's several loose threads around this.  There probably should have been one or two less children, maybe one less side character or two as well, and Neytiri and Jake could have used a bit more time.  Zoe Saldana is still great, just wish she had more to do.  

Same with the new human general lady, who I presume will feature more in the sequels - she should have had a couple more quick beats I think.  Also, the central conflict of this one is kind of repetitive and a bit of wheel spinning, as middle films often are.  But I still found it satisfying in the end.

A funny thing - my favorite moment of the entire film is a character's internal debate and final resolution of that.  That character is a whale.  Good stuff.

Also, man is it satisfying to watch a huge budget scifi spectacle that is completely earnest.  There's not a moment of eyewinking or quip about how silly any of it is.  Just played totally straight.  I miss that, as it's gotten rarer in films like this lately.

[Cult_Moody_Movies]

2023 - New Years Backlog Marathon:
Mad God (2021)
Pompo the Cinephile (2021)
The Amusement Park (1975)
Mad Dog Morgan (1976)
X (2022) 

[lester1/2jr]

INdiana, Miorda - yeah that was a good one. I've seen a ton of found footage movies. One of them was like 95 % people kayaking

IDK what my favorite one is but "Digging up the marrow" gets a prize just for being so out of left field

[indianasmith]

INdiana, Miorda - yeah that was a good one. I've seen a ton of found footage movies. One of them was like 95 % people kayaking

IDK what my favorite one is but "Digging up the marrow" gets a prize just for being so out of left field

That was another good one.

[Gabriel Knight]

DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN (2006)

In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Also known as THE LIVES OF OTHERS, this german movie came recommended from my brother, and I'm glad I listened to him. The synopsis tells you everything you need to know, saying anything more would ruin this incredibly good movie. One of the best I've seen in many, many years.

Everything about it is perfectly done. It's powerful, moving, and feels real. Watch it. Now. 10/10

[Alex]

Alien Infiltrator.

Low budget, Predator vs Rednecks (which never mind Aliens vs Samurai, that is something I'd really like to see made on a big budget). The acting is passable, the special effects not so much. Rowdy Roddy Piper plays an ass-kicking bounty-hunting preacher as one of the more competent people looking to take the alien down. Dumb fun.Alien Infiltrator.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Snowball Effect: The Story of Clerks" (2004)
More behind-the-scenes fun with Kevin Smith and the gang as they recount the long and difficult road to making the original "Clerks" in 1994. Originally a bonus feature on the 10th anniversary Clerks DVD. I've heard most of these stories before but I could listen to Kev tell them all day.

"Gas" (1981)
In this badly dated energy-crisis era comedy, an oil tycoon starts hoarding a city's gasoline supply in order to drive up gas prices, which leads to all kinds of slap-sticky chaos amongst its citizens.
This movie clearly wishes it was Airplane! --  it's constantly throwing random gags at the wall in hopes that something will stick, but not much does. Cars crash, people slap each other, things explode, Asian dudes use comical accents, fat guys do bad Three Stooges impressions, etc., etc. It's like watching a class full of ADHD kids trying to put on a show.
I was 11 years old when this was made; if I'd seen it back then I probably would've laughed my ass off, but now I spent most of the run time rolling my eyes or checking my watch.
My first "AVOID!" rating of 2023!

[M.10rda]

TRANSYLVANIA 6-5000 (1985):
Oy, what a way to ring in a new year. I last saw this in theaters as an 8 year old, remember enjoying it, and spent the past 37 years unable to fathom why a comedy starring Jeff Goldblum, Ed Begley Jr., Geena Davis, Carol Kane, Michael Richards, Joseph Bologna, and Canadian TV funnyman John Byner would be so totally forgotten. Alas, history has regarded this one correctly!

Writer-director Rudy Deluca is 100% to blame for all of this film's failings. He co-wrote Mel Brooks' HIGH ANXIETY, SILENT MOVIE,  and LIFE STINKS, but this is his only film as director, and thank Heavens for it. Nonetheless he tries to recreate Brooks' success with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and mixes ABBOT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN into the bargain. He's got no handle on tone or pacing and little ability to set up and deliver humor. After a fairly irreverent first 30 minutes or so he also seems to forget at regular intervals that this is a comedy, and sort of goes for suspense or dread for long unfunny stretches. Then he abruptly tries to get all heartwarming at the climax. Also his screenplay has barely any jokes.

All that said, T6-5000 remains kind of morbidly intriguing as a document of professional 1980s actors working really hard to salvage a hopeless project. Goldblum and Begley have good Hope/Crosby-type chemistry, and Byner & Kane (as the hunchbacked butler and his wife) have outstanding chemistry and are onscreen almost as much as the leads. Bologna (as Jekyll & Hyde meets Victor Frankenstein) is 2nd billed above Begley and really breaks a sweat earning his paycheck, even though his character's only textual gag is to repeatedly offer espresso to his victims. Richards' character has almost nothing to do with the story and it's possible he improvised most of his scenes, yet the film is more watchable for his presence. However, the best reason to preserve some record of T6-5000 is Geena Davis, who has the least screen time of the bunch but made an unforgettable impression on this pre-pubescent viewer. As an insecure, sex-starved Elvira/Vampirella clone, Davis has never been hotter onscreen. Her cleavage alone should have garnered this a PG-13 rating instead of a PG.

I can't deny that this film is total crap, but honestly I prefer this cast to the one in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN - sacrilege, I'm sure - and would've preferred to see these actors perform that Brooks script. (Carol Kane alone would be a huge upgrade from Leachman.) Deluca apparently wasn't chastened by the failure of T6-5000 and later co-wrote DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT with Brooks. I've survived this long without seeing that one and now after revisiting T6-5000 I think I can keep it that way.

[M.10rda]

RADIO ON (1979): A disc jockey drives across the UK when he learns about his brother's death. One of those slow Antonioni-esque movies, in drab black and white, where nothing really happens and we watch people get haircuts or drink pints in real time. Notable today mainly for its cult soundtrack with David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Robert Fripp, Ian Dury, Devo, etc., and an appearance by a young Sting as a guitar-playing petrol pumper. 1.5/5.

Maybe this plays best on the big screen, in a theater, where you can't pause or wander off to do chores while it's running. I saw it that way and loved it, though I agree it's very slow for long stretches (Jarmusch-y?). But there are at least four sequences - the Bowie opening, the creepy scenes w/ Sting, the incredibly shot passage in the hotel by the freeway, and the quietly PUNK closing - that I feel like I'll remember forever...

[Rev. Powell]

COW (2021): No-narration documentary following the life of a cow on an industrial dairy farm undergoing a constant cycle of breeding and milking. Occasionally tedious, by necessity, but poetic and delicate--the fly-on-the-cow style engages your moral sensibilities in a way no other could. 3/5.

[Alex]

Eli.

Surprisingly enjoyable offering on Netflix where a young boy suffering from a terminal condition goes for an exclusive treatment in a creepy old house. I did not figure out the twist in the movie before the end.

[lester1/2jr]

The Shining is now on Tubitv ( 5/5)

[M.10rda]

I just watched "Out There Halloween Mega Tape". 

Plus it has a great looking "cheap Halloween" style box.  There's even an guest star actor that talks about all the scary movies he's been in and it feel like he's reading things straight from our make a bad movie title topic.  (He's not, but it's the same kind of quality badness.)


Look at this.  This is art. 

A thing of beauty!   

[Rev. Powell]

I DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE (2022): A disabled man shoots a documentary entirely from a wheelchair point-of-view. It seems ungenerous to criticize this advocacy doc, but it's self-absorbed and not especially interesting most of the time; turns out, the daily lives of the disabled are just as mundane as those of the rest of us, but with additional annoying obstacles to overcome. 2.5/5.

[Alex]

I DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE (2022): A disabled man shoots a documentary entirely from a wheelchair point-of-view. It seems ungenerous to criticize this advocacy doc, but it's self-absorbed and not especially interesting most of the time; turns out, the daily lives of the disabled are just as mundane as those of the rest of us, but with additional annoying obstacles to overcome. 2.5/5.

I used to find it surprising how entitled and demanding some (not all) wheelchair users can be.