Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

JACKASS FOREVER (2022):
Viewed last week, in advance of yesterday's news that former cast member Bam Margera is currently a fugitive from an arrest warrant. Perhaps that provides context for his conspicuous (yet unacknowledged) absence from this (technically 5th) feature-length entry. The other non-returning alumni, the late Ryan Dunn, receives a sentimental tribute during the closing credits, but Margera (formerly a 2nd billed focus of the series) is ignored entirely.  

Honestly one might consider that Margera and Dunn, for all their tribulations, have gotten off easy. The other veteran performers serve as something of a demonstration of the old Romero DAWN OF THE DEAD -> Kirkman "Walking Dead" thesis about survivors suffering more than the fallen. Frontman Johnny Knoxville looks like an embalmed corpse in close-up on the recent (and very good) sitcom REBOOT and the indignities he suffers onscreen here (shot prior to REBOOT, I think) would help explain that appearance. Even in wideshot here he staggers and limps like Bub or Bud the CHUD or Mr. Shanks from the William Castle/Marcel Marceau vehicle. It's more alarming than entertaining to see him clipped by a bull at full-speed and sent cartwheeling in mid-air before landing unconscious and broken. Steve-O loses teeth at two points and loses time (blacks out) at another.

I still remember roaring w/ laughter at JACKASS 2 in a theater 20 years ago. That one remains the high-water mark for the series in my mind, for its relentless inventiveness (up to and including utilizing preposterous gore FX to apparently massacre the cast). FOREVER (fwiw) surpasses 2.5 and 3 in that it approaches 2's same level of surrealism and, alas, also sadism. I stopped counting after the first three or so scenarios in FOREVER that resembled nightmarish tableaux from THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, w/ human bodies jury-rigged into Rube Goldberg contraptions and threatened w/ fire, water, electricity, gravity, and all manner of biohazards. FOREVER also matches or surpasses any Jodorowski film for sheer amount of full-frontal male nudity and worrisome animal exploitation.

Is that a recommendation?! It's hard to forget that legitimate film visionary Spike Jonze is a JACKASS creator and producer (particularly as he contributes a customary cameo). So these films aren't exactly stupid or mindless. To the contrary, they're some reflection of a truly inspired and unhinged Id. Maybe that's Entertainment! For the first time, though, I walked away from this one more disturbed and depressed than amused. Although I LOL'd several times, in retrospect I couldn't rationalize that more than a couple of those were at authentic humor. One prays this is the curtain call for the original cast, or else the next installment could play out like SICK: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SUPER MASOCHIST BOB FLANAGAN.

???/5

[Alex]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Dull and plodding but ambitious. Ultimately the makers forgot what Star Trek was really about. No, not the whole of mankind maturing and becoming more sophisticated as a species. Really, the original TV series was never about that. What it was really about was fist fights with alien bad guys and boning hot alien women. Trying to fill a role that was already filled by 2001, but nonetheless, it relaunched the brand as a long-lasting franchise.

[RCMerchant]

^  

[lester1/2jr]

 M.10rda - it has some good reviews, but I think its just because it's relatively slick and pro looking. thats good news about Jackass forever


Bad Blonde (1953) -

"In addition to her first two marriages and affairs with Howard Hughes, Bob Hope, Woody Strode, Guy Madison, George Raft, John Ireland, Steve Cochran and Texas oilman Bob Neal, Payton was married three more times. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Payton

I remember reading about Barbara Payton's fall from grace in a movie magazine years ago. She left film noir actor Franchot Tone for the guy from Detour, then ended up alcoholic and living on the street like Veronica Lake. There are sure a lot of blondes like her in old Hollywood but I think the fact that she is like a 6 makes her hotter to me. Kind of a punker, more ethnic looking Jayne Mansfield with Ed Wood-ian tendencies.

She's well cast here as a blonde who marries a rich guy and doesn't care about anything but her self. Like numerous other film noirs, this takes place in the world of amateur boxing. The boxing itself that they show is kind of odd, like those robots who arms you move with your fingers, but maybe that's what British boxing looked like I don't know. I didn't like the comic relief Italian fight promoter, but his Italian family coming to town was a high point in this solid but not too exciting thriller. This and 4 Sided Triangle were her two Hammer movies

3.75 /5

okay maybe a little higher than a 6

[M.10rda]

^^^ Kind of resembles an old school Patricia Arquette: hard, a little vacuous - but who would throw her out of a Sonny Chiba grindhouse screening?

[FatFreddysCat]

"L7: Pretend We're Dead" (2017)
Fast n' furious documentary on the rise and fall of all-girl L.A. punk/metal rockers L7, who enjoyed a brief spin as a "buzz band" in the early '90s but were never quite able to crack the grunge-rock glass ceiling to the big time, despite friends in high places like Nirvana, the Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, and the Smashing Pumpkins. A badass doc about a badass band.

[RCMerchant]

^ GREAT band! 

[Alex]

"L7: Pretend We're Dead" (2017)
Fast n' furious documentary on the rise and fall of all-girl L.A. punk/metal rockers L7, who enjoyed a brief spin as a "buzz band" in the early '90s but were never quite able to crack the grunge-rock glass ceiling to the big time, despite friends in high places like Nirvana, the Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, and the Smashing Pumpkins. A badass doc about a badass band.

I remember them having a raffle at one of their gigs where the winner got to have sex with the drummer.

[Trevor]

"L7: Pretend We're Dead" (2017)
Fast n' furious documentary on the rise and fall of all-girl L.A. punk/metal rockers L7, who enjoyed a brief spin as a "buzz band" in the early '90s but were never quite able to crack the grunge-rock glass ceiling to the big time, despite friends in high places like Nirvana, the Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, and the Smashing Pumpkins. A badass doc about a badass band.

I remember them having a raffle at one of their gigs where the winner got to have sex with the drummer.

I won that raffle but chickened out 😳😉🐢

[Alex]

"L7: Pretend We're Dead" (2017)
Fast n' furious documentary on the rise and fall of all-girl L.A. punk/metal rockers L7, who enjoyed a brief spin as a "buzz band" in the early '90s but were never quite able to crack the grunge-rock glass ceiling to the big time, despite friends in high places like Nirvana, the Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, and the Smashing Pumpkins. A badass doc about a badass band.

I remember them having a raffle at one of their gigs where the winner got to have sex with the drummer.

I won that raffle but chickened out 😳😉🐢

I guess thats better than my reply. A drummer? Sorry, but I have standards. 

[M.10rda]

"L7: Pretend We're Dead" (2017)

I remember them having a raffle at one of their gigs where the winner got to have sex with the drummer.

I won that raffle but chickened out 😳😉🐢

Don't you make her s**tlist, now...!

[M.10rda]

THE VIOLENT YEARS (1956):
A suitable follow-up post to our L7 discussion, this badgirl gang movie is a rare Ed Wood flick that I'd never (previously) watched in its entirety. As it's only written by Wood 0but directed by William Morgan, it's no laff-fest of ineptitude (for better or worse). In fact, it's competent (even slick) and reasonably fast-paced. There's some clever dialogue, a good amount of action, and even some light sexual perversion. Overall it nicely demonstrates that Wood could solidly deliver the goods to the mainstream when necessary.

The most overt flaw is that it's stocked full of teenage girls who could pass for 28 and boys played by actors who are probably 40... which is a problem that has pervaded high school movies for eternity and still often hobbles current TV shows etc. Honestly the six female leads (the gang, the leader's mother, and their fence) give very strong performances. (Most of the men are all wet, but they're secondary anyway.) The girls jack cars, destroy property, and generally wreak havoc before graduating to homicide. At one point they strip and bind a guy at gunpoint and it's strongly implied they takes turns sexually assaulting him. I realize that sexual assault is under no circumstances "entertainment"   but this is 1956 we're talkin' about, so it's worth mentioning!

A little past the halfway point (and just around the time I might've started to lose interest), Wood escalates to a prolonged climax of admirable mayhem that yields a surprising number of deaths. Because this is 50s juvie propaganda, the film brings in a Judge who talks like The Criminologist but looks (unnervingly) like Dr. Scott, to deliver not 1 but 2 (!) lengthy monologues warning the survivors of the dangers of permissive parenting. It's a crock of horses**t, of course, but if I'd had a stiff drink in hand it would've had me chuckling.

THE VIOLENT YEARS precedes 1961's THE CHOPPERS by 5 years, has the same plot only w/ ladies instead of dudes, and is shorter and more bloodthirsty. I very much preferred TVY!
3/5

[indianasmith]

THE DAY OF THE LIVING DEAD (2020)

A confusing, poorly filmed train wreck of a movie, about a zombie outbreak in 1956 Hollywood, apparently caused by some chemically laced cigarettes sold by the Seven Deadly Sins tobacco company, owned by a Mr. Beelzebub. Flashing back and forth from color to black and white, skipping from one storyline to the next, and tacking on a completely unconnected scene with Marilyn Monroe at the end, this movie was frankly awful.  2/5

[Rev. Powell]

MST3K: HIGH SCHOOL BIG SHOT: After a crazy bread salesman short, the feature is actually a mildly involving attempt to put a film noir in a high school setting; it's not exactly good, but interesting enough to hold your attention between wisecracks, making it a nice experiment for viewers. In Deep 13 Frank clones a baby dinosaur, and on the Satellite of Love Tom accidentally ingests experimental steroids and grows to enormous size (while losing major IQ points). 3.5/5.

[M.10rda]

AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013):
Second viewing for me, w/ the Madame, who had not seen it and apparently didn't realize it was a David O. Russell film. (She didn't want to watch AMSTERDAM when it was released based on his reputation.) I originally saw this on the big screen on Boxing Day, and remember being very impressed. Hot on the heels of THE BOXER and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, this star-studded package was expected (and surely intended) to be Oscar-bait. It wasn't. I recall even at the time that acquaintances vehemently disparaged my fondness for AMERICAN HUSTLE, and presumably some of you may do likewise. Certainly public distaste for Russell has only grown in the past decade...

I hate bullies and I'm not too fond of sexual harassers either, but no matter how much Russell berated Lily Tomlin, I still can't stop loving I HEART HUCKABEES... and my return to AMERICAN HUSTLE made me feel even more strongly that this is top-shelf, five-star caliber Hollywood filmmaking... glossy, fast, expensive, but also complex and smart... the kind of filmmaking we usually associate today with Scorsese and maybe Coppola back in the day. That's clearly what Russell was going for here, and it delivers. I didn't intend to watch all of the 135 minutes this time around but it sucked me in and I had a ball. All of the acting is good-to-fantastic but Amy Adams, a perennially dependable performance, gives an exceptional performance that also happens to be one of the sexiest performances of all time. The hair and costume design (two departments I often disregard) are off the charts. Bale and Cooper's hairstyles get more rich development than many characters in other movies.

What took Oscars in 2014? 12 YEARS A SLAVE and Lyupita Nyongo, Cate Blanchett for BLUE JASMINE, and Alfonso Cuaron for GRAVITY... fine, though Blanchett already had an Oscar and Adams is better. Where I'll complain: Best Actor and Supporting Actor Matthew McConnaughey and Jared Leto. I'm sure there was a better performance than Bale's in 2013, but it sure wasn't McConnaughey, and every bowel movement I had in 2013 was more deserving of an Oscar than Jared f**king Leto. Also, the Oscar for Costume that year went to GREAT GATSBY - an easy, lazy choice - and Best Hair went to....... DALLAS BUYERS. I call B.S. I mean, McConnaughey's hair doesn't get its own pivotal scene or anything. Feh!

File "Russell" in the "Bad Men Making Good Art" file w/ Mamet and Polanski, I'll hold my nose and keep enjoying his films.
5/5