Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

PROJECT NIGHTMARE (1987):
A late '23 viewing that I initially started writing up for the Bad Movies section, 'cause oh boy, it's one of those for the books for sure. I watched this for the first time some years ago and found it irritating yet apparently completely unmemorable, because (for now the half dozenth or so time in the last few years w/ various obscure badfilms) I forgot I'd watched it and started watching it all over again. Within two shots I realized, "Dammit, I've seen this!" For some reason I hung with it again, occasionally FF-ing through some slower stretches (of which there are many). Yes, PROJECT NIGHTMARE is... a chore at times. However, it was clearly made w/ legitimate intellectual curiosity and sincere good intentions, minus only a sufficient enough level of professionalism and technique to put across the pretentions persuasively. Even so, it accomplishes, uh - something! And there are websites that take it seriously as a Good film, so... let's give it it's day in court!

Two refugees from a 70s male fashion catalogue wander the woods, dazed and often alarmed that something is stalking them. (Disappointingly, it's not Bigfoot.) They enter a cabin and make friends w/ a nice lady named Marci, then wander around the desert, then meet a dying man in a stalled-out car, then they find an airplane, then they find a subterranean laboratory where a pleasant-seeming computer programmer has created an advanced AI w/ a God complex who appears to be affecting reality around them. Eventually things get Heavy. The lead guy looks like DeForrest Kelley and at one point his friend mentions that he's blind, which would explain his propensity for looking everywhere onscreen except at any other character who's speaking. However DFK eventually flies the airplane so... well who knows.

Actually, the profound refusal or inability for any actor in close-up to ever match eyelines with any other actor in cut-away for the entire running time is either testament to the filmmaker's incompetence or is some kind of highly effective attempt to maintain a totally dissociative, dreamlike quality through the film's duration. Some sources claim the film was indeed shot in 1977 and unreleased for a decade, which I can't confirm but which makes perfect sense. It also speaks to the dedication of the two writer/producer/directors that they labored over this thing for years. Even after a second try I can't claim the film makes much sense, while feeling more strongly that most of the actors weren't skilled enough to deliver the metaphysical portentousness of the screenplay. However, the film's (characteristically) inexplicable, elliptical final scene is confident enough to leave no doubt whatsoever that the filmmakers 100% intended PROJECT NIGHTMARE to be entirely the way it ended up. Good for them! 

Somewhat charitably, I'd rank this in the same general neighborhood w/ films like MONSTER-A-GO-GO, RED ZONE CUBA, and GHOSTS THAT STILL WALK... or maybe even closer to the block where GLEN OR GLENDA and HELP WANTED FEMALE live....... movies that are cheap and possibly taxing to the viewer's patience, yet clearly are trying to hit above their weight class for whatever reason....... and thus deserving of some respect and admiration. Maybe just from me, of course! However if you require a second opinion on PROJECT NIGHTMARE, check out this highly dignified play-by-play by Senseless Cinema:
https://www.senselesscinema.com/2023/04/project-nightmare.html

3/5!

Rev, was PROJECT NIGHTMARE ever an MST3K or Rifftrax selection? It seems like an easy target but it's so slow and ponderous that it might confound even the professionals............

[Rev. Powell]

PROJECT NIGHTMARE (1987):
A late '23 viewing that I initially started writing up for the Bad Movies section, 'cause oh boy, it's one of those for the books for sure. I watched this for the first time some years ago and found it irritating yet apparently completely unmemorable, because (for now the half dozenth or so time in the last few years w/ various obscure badfilms) I forgot I'd watched it and started watching it all over again. Within two shots I realized, "Dammit, I've seen this!" For some reason I hung with it again, occasionally FF-ing through some slower stretches (of which there are many). Yes, PROJECT NIGHTMARE is... a chore at times. However, it was clearly made w/ legitimate intellectual curiosity and sincere good intentions, minus only a sufficient enough level of professionalism and technique to put across the pretentions persuasively. Even so, it accomplishes, uh - something! And there are websites that take it seriously as a Good film, so... let's give it it's day in court!

Two refugees from a 70s male fashion catalogue wander the woods, dazed and often alarmed that something is stalking them. (Disappointingly, it's not Bigfoot.) They enter a cabin and make friends w/ a nice lady named Marci, then wander around the desert, then meet a dying man in a stalled-out car, then they find an airplane, then they find a subterranean laboratory where a pleasant-seeming computer programmer has created an advanced AI w/ a God complex who appears to be affecting reality around them. Eventually things get Heavy. The lead guy looks like DeForrest Kelley and at one point his friend mentions that he's blind, which would explain his propensity for looking everywhere onscreen except at any other character who's speaking. However DFK eventually flies the airplane so... well who knows.

Actually, the profound refusal or inability for any actor in close-up to ever match eyelines with any other actor in cut-away for the entire running time is either testament to the filmmaker's incompetence or is some kind of highly effective attempt to maintain a totally dissociative, dreamlike quality through the film's duration. Some sources claim the film was indeed shot in 1977 and unreleased for a decade, which I can't confirm but which makes perfect sense. It also speaks to the dedication of the two writer/producer/directors that they labored over this thing for years. Even after a second try I can't claim the film makes much sense, while feeling more strongly that most of the actors weren't skilled enough to deliver the metaphysical portentousness of the screenplay. However, the film's (characteristically) inexplicable, elliptical final scene is confident enough to leave no doubt whatsoever that the filmmakers 100% intended PROJECT NIGHTMARE to be entirely the way it ended up. Good for them! 

Somewhat charitably, I'd rank this in the same general neighborhood w/ films like MONSTER-A-GO-GO, RED ZONE CUBA, and GHOSTS THAT STILL WALK... or maybe even closer to the block where GLEN OR GLENDA and HELP WANTED FEMALE live....... movies that are cheap and possibly taxing to the viewer's patience, yet clearly are trying to hit above their weight class for whatever reason....... and thus deserving of some respect and admiration. Maybe just from me, of course! However if you require a second opinion on PROJECT NIGHTMARE, check out this highly dignified play-by-play by Senseless Cinema:
https://www.senselesscinema.com/2023/04/project-nightmare.html

3/5!

Rev, was PROJECT NIGHTMARE ever an MST3K or Rifftrax selection? It seems like an easy target but it's so slow and ponderous that it might confound even the professionals............

Not unless it was under another name.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Satan Wants You" (2023)
A cool TUBI original documentary about the strange saga of Michelle Smith, a Canadian housewife whose therapist helped her uncover "repressed memories" from her childhood, in which she was supposedly used and abused by a cult of murdrerous, baby-eating Satanists in the Canadian suburbs. She and her doctor wrote a best selling book about the experiences (Michelle Remembers, 1980) and suddenly found themselves at the forefront of the "Satanic Panic" movement of the early 1980s, hitting the talk shows and church circuits, advising law enforcement on Satanic cults, and basically acting as "experts" on the subject.

There was just one problem... it was all a load of crap.

By the early 90s, Michelle, her doctor and their book had been thoroughly debunked, but its influence on moral panics can still be seen today in things like the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory and Q-Anon. Interesting stuff.

I read Michelle Remembers when I was in college and even then it was so utterly absurd that I couldn't understand how they suckered so many people into believing their BS story.

[Alex]

"Satan Wants You" (2023)
A cool TUBI original documentary about the strange saga of Michelle Smith, a Canadian housewife whose therapist helped her uncover "repressed memories" from her childhood, in which she was supposedly used and abused by a cult of murdrerous, baby-eating Satanists in the Canadian suburbs. She and her doctor wrote a best selling book about the experiences (Michelle Remembers, 1980) and suddenly found themselves at the forefront of the "Satanic Panic" movement of the early 1980s, hitting the talk shows and church circuits, advising law enforcement on Satanic cults, and basically acting as "experts" on the subject.

There was just one problem... it was all a load of crap.

By the early 90s, Michelle, her doctor and their book had been thoroughly debunked, but its influence on moral panics can still be seen today in things like the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory and Q-Anon. Interesting stuff.

I read Michelle Remembers when I was in college and even then it was so utterly absurd that I couldn't understand how they suckered so many people into believing their BS story.

People wanted to believe in this stuff. If you handed them something like this, then they were all over it as "proof".

Sadly folks haven't really changed or learned from their mistakes, they've just moved on to other stupid s**t/people to believe in.

[Jim H]

Miss Shampoo - A Taiwanese rom com with mild crime elements.  An injured gangster ends up hiding from the killers at a hair salon, then later comes back to get his hair cut.  He falls in love with the lady who cut his hair.  Then the film meanders for like an hour and a half before the killer stuff comes back and the movie ends.  A lot of silly humor fills time.  I dunno.  This has some legitimately funny bits, and a couple OK character bits..  Some of the humor reminds me a bit of Stephen Chow's stuff (like a sequence where a character gets frozen in place, and a random bit of violence where someone's fingers get cut off - there's a few moments in Cantonese instead of Mandarin, which I suspect may have had references but it went over my head), but the execution just isn't nearly as good.  The story beats are poorly placed, as in it barely has them except at the start and end.  It's badly paced.  I can't recommend it.

[RCMerchant]

"Satan Wants You" (2023)
A cool TUBI original documentary about the strange saga of Michelle Smith, a Canadian housewife whose therapist helped her uncover "repressed memories" from her childhood, in which she was supposedly used and abused by a cult of murdrerous, baby-eating Satanists in the Canadian suburbs. She and her doctor wrote a best selling book about the experiences (Michelle Remembers, 1980) and suddenly found themselves at the forefront of the "Satanic Panic" movement of the early 1980s, hitting the talk shows and church circuits, advising law enforcement on Satanic cults, and basically acting as "experts" on the subject.

There was just one problem... it was all a load of crap.

By the early 90s, Michelle, her doctor and their book had been thoroughly debunked, but its influence on moral panics can still be seen today in things like the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory and Q-Anon. Interesting stuff.

I read Michelle Remembers when I was in college and even then it was so utterly absurd that I couldn't understand how they suckered so many people into believing their BS story.

I watched this too the other day. Amazing.

[lester1/2jr]

Demons (2018) - I haven't read the IMDB reviews (edit: none yet) yet but I bet they're crazy. And they should be, because this is a crazy movie that many people won't like but give them credit for doing something different.

An actress tries out for a role in an arrogant directors' latest project. She and he both then go through really weird and dark mental journeys. If you look at it as an "art" movie it quickly becomes annoying. If you see at as a really random and insane Shaw Brothers or Tai Seng movie it kind of works. features some really good film making and also confusing stuff where people just say gibberish.

I'm still not entirely sure what happened. Here's the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubd8qJMBgeI

4/5 out of left field, but interesting

[Rev. Powell]

ANATOMY OF A FALL (2023): A French/German novelist's husband falls to his death at the couple's remote mountainside chateau; forensics suggest it was not an accident, but was it suicide, or murder? Beautifully acted and engaging for its 2.5 hour runtime, FALL has elements of a whodunnit, but is more focused on courtroom drama, and especially on domestic drama during flashbacks to the couple's marriage and star Sandra Huller's relationship with her partially blind son, who is caught in a heartbreaking situation. 4/5.

[Alex]

Saltburn.

30 minutes of entertainment squeezed into 2 hours. A slimmed-down runtime would have seen it get a higher score from me. I'd like to say some of the characters were caricatures, but I've met people like this in real life. Other films recently have covered the same theme as this one.

Would have made a great episode of Tales of the Unexpected, or some similar show.

[M.10rda]

Saltburn.

30 minutes of entertainment squeezed into 2 hours. A slimmed-down runtime would have seen it get a higher score from me. I'd like to say some of the characters were caricatures, but I've met people like this in real life. Other films recently have covered the same theme as this one.

Would have made a great episode of Tales of the Unexpected, or some similar show.

I too watched this tonight - my first watch of 2024.

I would agree it covers similar ground to at least a dozen other movies over the past 60 years...  ...But I thought it was pretty snappily paced. well-directed, well-acted, and engrossing for most of its running time nonetheless. I do think it becomes too explicit in its reveals near the very end and could've done better to leave some (rather obvious) details undisclosed. Still, for the awesome soundtrack, for Richard E. Grant, for Carey Mulligan doing Helena Bonham, and Barry Keoghan rather out-Tom Hardying Tom Hardy... worth the 2h10m.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Iron Man" (2008)
Critically injured while visiting an Afghani war zone, millionaire industrialist and weapons maker Tony Stark (a perfectly cast Robert Downey Jr.) invents a mini-atomic reactor that keeps him alive, and a high tech suit of armor that enables him to kick a ton of bad-guy butt.
"Iron Man" kicked off the MCU in fine style and still holds up pretty well after all these years.

[M.10rda]

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (2023):
This was the last movie I watched in 2023, on New Year's Eve, and I ain't mad about it. INDY V is definitely the 3rd best Indy movie, and that's nothing to cry about. The first and third films are pretty great and there's a comfortably large gap in quality between DIAL OF DESTINY and the two even-numbered films in the franchise. No need to discuss many particulars, but will float one of my routinely wingnut theories below...

Say what you will about pulp/serial pastiche, the Indy canon has been as stylistically schizophrenic as Dr. Jones' own lifestyle... ping-ponging back and forth between quasi-realism and over-the-top absurdity just as frequently as the hero himself swings (via whip) from university classrooms into exotic locales. Henry Jr./Indiana's double-life is the text of the films, but RAIDERS and LAST CRUSADE do an outstanding job of dramatizing how a button-down academic transforms into a superhero when necessary to preserve history or personal honor, and they keep the action sutured within a flexible yet plausible reality. The wildest action in those two films still remains within some generous definition of physical law. On the other hand, TEMPLE OF DOOM is a cartoon (maybe a good cartoon, though not a great one) and CRYSTAL SKULL is... I don't know, just kind of a senseless mess a lot of the time.

DIAL OF DESTINY really addresses this dichotomy by staging a lengthy opening flashback sequence where Indy (a heavily IRISHMAN'd Harrison Ford) appears nearly as invincible as James Bond or Batman - truly, the Universe must love Indiana Jones or he wouldn't survive the countless rolling boulders that this sequence throws at him. Once we cut to 1969, however, we see a different Indy altogether... one suffering the "crumbling vertebrae" and other indignities, physical and spiritual, of a life of adventuring. The rest of the film exists more or less on Real Earth, where Indy is subject to real forces, and only at the (truly surprising) climax does he get to glimpse a fantastical World Beyond one more time...

Ford was my childhood hero and one of my favorite actors. He always seemed like a big man - bigger at least than Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. In DIAL OF DESTINY, he seems small and vulnerable, mostly surrounded w/ actors who are bigger than him, including the female lead. This is jarring but probably fully by design. Indy, Han Solo, and Rick Deckard were always distinguished more by their human dimensions than their larger-than-life ones. Ford, likewise, always seemed most comfortable playing real humans. I tried to start watching SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS at least twice in the past year and can't get more than 10 minutes in - Ford just seems so uncomfortable playing a one-dimensional hunk in a dumb romcom. As an adult, I grew to most appreciate the performances where he plays a diminished or seriously compromised character - he's brilliant in MOSQUITO COAST and REGARDING HENRY. Of course, heroes are still heroes, and it hurt me a great deal to see Han Solo so poorly treated in THE FORCE AWAKENS. In contrast, DIAL OF DESTINY, though it makes Indy very concretely human, allows Indy and Ford to exit (to the the extent they exit) with a lot of dignity.

4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Billion Dollar Brain" (1967)
This is the third film in a Sixties spy series based on Len Deighton's "Harry Palmer" novels, starring Michael Caine as the British super-spy. Assigned to infiltrate a shadowy organization that takes its orders from a computer known as "The Brain," Palmer soon learns that there's something even more sinister going on behind the scenes.
James Bond producer Harry Saltzman also supervised the Palmer films, which were intended to be more "down to earth" and realistic than the fanciful 007 series. The wintry European scenery is lovely and the cast is fine, but the movie is very slow moving and the plot is quite muddled, which made this a chore to get through. I don't think I'm going to bother with the other two "Palmer" films.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Loose Cannons" (1990)
A tough Washington, D.C. cop (Gene Hackman) is saddled with a new partner (Dan Aykroyd) who's fresh out of the hospital to treat his multiple personality disorder. Together they must solve a series of killings that involve a porn kingpin (Dom Deluise) and neo-Nazis.
...a painfully unfunny action comedy that completely wastes the talents of Hackman and Aykroyd. Ignore, delete, destroy.

[indianasmith]

FOE (2023) - In the year 2065, extreme weather is making earth uninhabitable.  A young farmer, trying to eke a living at  a poultry factory nearby, is informed he's been chosen to live in space for the next year.  As part of his preparation, an AI-driven cyborg will be programmed to take his place on earth with his wife while he sojourns in space.  Naturally, he's not comfortable with this idea, but a company representative moves into his home to prepare him for  his voyage, and to program the cyborg from his memories.  But . . . things aren't all they seem.
   Still processing this one.  It's well done, a bit slow-moving, and the conclusion is a bit predictable.  But the acting is good, and Hen, the wife, is well played by a beautiful actress.  4.5