Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

considering it's in my all time Top 10 movies, I don't think I've ever seen a movie featuring a DAZED & CONFUSED actor which was done before it. I guess for most of them it was possibly their first film?  interested to see that one (and it has Dick Miller as well? bonus!)

edit - yes I have... HALLOWEEN 4 and GHOULIES 2 both star Sascha Jensen aka Donny...

That's a good point... a lot of debuts in that one. I suspect Affleck, Jovovich, Parker Posey, Jason London, etc were in something prior... maybe Rory Cochrane, too. Rapp had several previous credits.

[FatFreddysCat]

"From Roger Moore With Love" (2024)
Explore the late 007 actor's long film and TV career, as well as his private life, in this documentary that makes effective use of Moore's own private home videos and interviews with friends, family, and associates. You won't learn anything terribly mind-blowing about Roger from this film, but you'll get the feeling that he was a pretty cool guy and he's greatly missed.

[lester1/2jr]

Nanny Cam (2014) - Yeah buddy, more Lifetime damage. Concerned parents get one of these self same cameras to monitor their home while they're at work, as their daughter seems to be coming under the influence of their new babysitter to an extent. Getting a babysitter is presented as something so arduous and time consuming that they are willing to put up with what from the beginning is clearly an open military coup to take over their lives. The husband repeatedly gets dosed with pills and just shrugs it off "oh well, that's just the normal state of affairs around this crazy place."

What anyone watching this is wondering first and foremost: does the husband hook up with the babysitter? I can't answer that, but I will say that the director does understand this. The sitter herself is not my type and seems like she's rather be at a Taylor Swift concert than seducing someone's husband, but this part of the story does kind of work.

watched in one night. It's got just enough trashy glory and campy charm to get you through. excellent ending

4.5 /5

most unexpectedly hilarious supporting role goes to the guy who runs the spy camera store.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Teen A-Go-Go" (2003)
Sub-titled "A Little Film About Rock & Roll History," this interesting, extremely niche documentary focuses on the surprisingly fertile rock & roll scene in Fort Worth, TX in the mid-1960s. As soon as the Beatles played on Ed Sullivan, seemingly every teenager in FW grew their hair, picked up instruments, and formed bands, many of whom are still fondly remembered in the area today, like The Elites, the Barons, the Kandy Kanes, Larry & the Blue Notes, and many more.
I know nothing about this particular scene or the era, but I still enjoyed this doc, which is full of cool vintage films, photos, and interviews with musicians who were there. Neat stuff.

[indianasmith]

THE FALL GUY (2024) - This was a fun, silly romcom/action adventure movie about a movie stuntman in love with an up and coming director who is framed for the murder of another stuntman, who in fact was killed by the leading man in the film his girl is working on.  Very contrived; just turn off your brain and go with the lovely explosions, car crashes, high speed chases, and gun play.  4/5

[jimpickens]

August Underground series

[RCMerchant]

INLAND EMPIRE (2006)

Ok. Now I like David Lynch- he's one of my favorite living directors. His films range from nearly mainstream (the ELEPHANT MAN) to Waaay-out there (ERASERHEAD), but can someone please tell me WTF is INLAND EMPIRE even supposed to be about?! Don't get me wrong- it's a beautiful looking film. It seems to be a waking nightmare from the viewer's angle- but I am at a total loss of any plot whatsoever! Is it just me or did Dave drop some killer acid while making this?

[Rev. Powell]

but can someone please tell me WTF is INLAND EMPIRE even supposed to be about?! Don't get me wrong- it's a beautiful looking film. It seems to be a waking nightmare from the viewer's angle- but I am at a total loss of any plot whatsoever! Is it just me or did Dave drop some killer acid while making this?

It's a nightmare (from Laura Dern's perspective). There is no overarching plot, though there are recurring semi-plots. It's genuine surrealism. You're not missing anything.

Dave doesn't need acid, Dave is acid.

[RCMerchant]

^ I enjoyed it quite a bit! But I really don't know why!

[lester1/2jr]

Angst (1983) - This was halfway between ridiculous and really pretty good. I'd break it down like this

50% Something Weird style black and white style low budget horror, except in (rather nice) color.

25% early 80's slasher

25% "is it art or is it just cheap?" super long real time shots.

A continually agitated guy gets out of jail and immediately sets out on a path of nervous, Germanic ( edit: Austrian)  destruction. Not much more to it than that. A random dachshund gives the finest, most understated performance I think I've ever seen from an animal. There seems to be lots of shots of the not so big guy having difficulty moving his victims around. It is probably pretty hard to put a dead, floppy person in the trunk of a car, in his defense. Who knew serial killing had such a pronounced slapstick element?

4.35 / 5

I'm more of a plot guy and this didn't have much of one, but it was perfect for what it is.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Twisters" (2024)
Rival teams of storm chasers battle it out on the back roads of Oklahoma during a particularly intense outbreak of tornadoes. Yea, that's pretty much the entire plot.
This long overdue, stand-alone sequel to the 1996 hit doesn't lean on its predecessor too much (there are no returning characters from the O.G. and only a couple of nods to the first film), but it's fast moving fun in its own right, with lots of cool storm related mayhem and snazzy FX. The original "Twister" is a long time fave of mine and this one does it justice. Better than I expected.

[Rev. Powell]

LONGLEGS (2024): A raw FBI investigator with psychic powers helps her superiors find a Satanic serial killer going by the name Longlegs. Creepy stuff, though I'm not sure whether Nic Cage's performance adds or detracts from the scares. 3.5/5.

Airplane viewings

DADDIO (2024): A woman in her twenties (Dakota Johnson) unburdens herself to a loquatious, philosophical New York cabbie (Sean Penn). Like a feature-length version of "Night on Earth"; the underrated Johnson and Penn explore the loneliness of contemporary life in a nostalgic throwback scenario: a conversation. 3.5/5.

TRANSFORMERS ONE (2024): An origin story for Optimus Prime and Decepticon (?), two still marketable toys noble robotic warriors. Fast-paced animation that will be exciting for boys, but it's still a movie about toy robots who turn into cars, with ridiculous retrofitted lore to make it seem like a story, and no amount of flash can change that. 2.5/5.

Also re-watched FROZEN (2013) because there was really nothing else available on the last leg of my flight, and it's quite decent Disney that holds up a decade later.

   

[indianasmith]

CLINICAL (2017) - Nora, a psychologist who suffered a violent attack by a young female patient, is slowly recovering from the trauma and is resuming her practice.  Then Alex comes in - a man with a severely disfigured face recovering from a traumatic accident and dealing with serious PTSD.  In helping him, Nora begins to relive her sessions with the young patient who nearly killed her.  But Alex harbors a deadly secret of his own . . .
This was a pretty good horror/thriller with a neat twist at the end.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. 4/5

[M.10rda]

CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS (1962):
This is a fairly well-known "bad movie" that has been riffed upon, occasionally dissed on websites such as these, and its (late) credited director (for whom this was presumably his only directing credit) doesn't even have a section for Directing credits on his IMDB... you click on his name from the film's page and it takes you to a page of his producing, assistant directing, and acting credits, but NO credit for directing CREATION..., so maybe even he didn't like it. But me... I like it.

Literally "stagey" in that all the action is set against proscenium theatre backdrops and the camera never jumps the fourth wall/180-degree line, COTH might well have originated as a play. It's got the kind of "three-act structure" that would puzzle Hollywood script doctors who think they understand how three acts are supposed to work. Playwrights (unlike most American screenwriters who aren't Tarantino) have no qualms about showing you a series of sequences that seem initially not directly related and requesting that you remain patient while the connections reveal themselves. That what COTH does.

In Act One, a robot-hating meathead named "Craigis" (!) harasses two creepy-looking yet otherwise innocuous-seeming Humanoids (androids) on the street. His interrogation is interrupted by a beautiful, wasp-waisted blonde woman who defends the Humanoids. But those two Humanoids then proceed to the laboratory of "Dr. Raven" (a scientist who looks like he's been spending too much time licking his tesla coils) and they discuss a vast conspiracy that seems to lend credence to Craigis' concerns. In Act Two, Craigis visits his sister's house, and we're treated to a long, four-handed dialogue where the siblings, the sister's Humanoid husband (!), and the wasp-waisted blonde debate the pros and cons of Humanoids. In Act Three, Craigis and the blonde meet two different Humanoids in a park and mysteriously join them in a Humanoid "temple", where much is revealed...

Lester said this screenplay "goes hard" and he's right. It's all dense dialogue (w/ two brief moments of violence) and if you're not onboard for that, best opt out. I was impressed that every actor handles their dialogue w/ great confidence and preparedness, unlike what you see in many bad movies. Some of them seem like legitimately good actors, but others are (for instance) Dudley Manlove from PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, and even those actors do pro jobs here. That has to be some credit to the director (who I guess wishes to remain anonymous!). It's also a credit to the two screenwriters and obviously to the actors for taking the project seriously.

There's a lot going on in this thing. The Humanoids look like blue-skinned nosferati w/ bright shining eyes, which automatically makes you feel an aversion to them. As soon as we meet the fascist Craigis, though, you figure the Humanoids must be okay if this racist S.O.B. dislikes them! Somehow we keep following Craigis and I kept hoping he would get some comeuppance eventually. He does, but not in the way I expected. Those Humanoids are up to something... maybe the plot here merely appears complicated enough as to project the illusion of depth, just like a couple of the film's beautiful painted backdrops create the same illusion. Then again I suppose you could speculate similarly about BLADE RUNNER, which owes some debt to this film (as this film surely owes to Isaac Asimov's work and to the original robot play R.U.R.).

My only real complaints about COTH are a romantic subplot that seems unnecessary and (ahem) a bit mechanical, and some needless fat-shaming in throwaway dialogue near the end! Otherwise - not at all a Bad Movie.

4/5
Also not very Riffable imho... the human characters do occasionally pronounce "robot" as "ROW-bit", which always makes me chuckle.

[M.10rda]

Is it just me or did Dave drop some killer acid while making this?

Dave doesn't need acid, Dave is acid.

BEST THREAD EVER.
I demand t-shirts and buttons: "DAVE IS ACID".