Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

LITTLE WOODS (2018): A pill-smuggler in North Dakota wants to go clean, but decides to take a gamble when her poor stepsister needs to raise money for a series of emergencies. A female spin on a "one last job" type of crime drama you've probably seen before, with excellent performances by Tessa Thompson and Lily James. 3/5. 

[Rev. Powell]

THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM (2018): A wildlife photographer and a cook decide to buy and renovate a decrepit California farm, overcoming plagues of pests and predators like gophers and coyotes, plus Mother Nature's droughts and wildfires. Great cinematography (the best filmed snails I've ever seen) highlight this advertisement for "traditional" farming. 3/5.

[Trevor]

Predator 2 (1990)

This was the first film I'd seen that felt like an adult-comic book on screen.  Everything about the film is over the top and some of the photography puts me in mind of comic frames.  It might not be intenional as I remember on the first few viewings thinking it was trying to emulate the tension of the first film by using vapid noise and violence instead of creating an atmosphere.  If it had slowed down and created it's world better then it would be a much better film.

But Danny Glover is good.  Him punching out the reporter is one of my favourite movie scenes.  The Predator patching itself up using bathroom tiles is another good sequence.  The film is set during a heatwave and that comes across very well.  The opening 10 minutes or so are pure comic book.  It's a violent and almost charmless film but it just about gets by due to it's design and Glover.  It would be great to see him return in another Predator film.

If only they'd played more on the "f**king voodoo magic, man" aspect it'd be much better.  But saying that, I keep returning to it more than the original.

King Willie was my fave character 😃😆

[lester1/2jr]

The Gospel According To St Matthew (1964) - Pier Pasolini directed this low budget but enjoyable dramatization of The Gospel of Matthew, which is the one that has all the sayings. Many if not all of them are here "easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle..." "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" there is virtually no dialogue added that's not in the book. From what I understand, Palestine/ Israel area is pretty Mediterranean so the casting works even though it's all Italians. They don't change the story or take out the birth narrative or any of the supernatural sort of elements. 

A young man in rural Israel...no just kidding. If you really don't know the plot look it up! Tubi's version is colorized for some reason but it didn't detract.

5/5

edit : Unfortunately, it 's incomplete. It runs 91 minutes while the full Criterion Collection version is 2 hours and 17 minutes.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Flash" (2023)
The super speedy super hero (Ezra Miller) races backwards thru time in order to "fix" a tragic event in his youth, which has disastrous effects on the multi-verse. To put everything back the way it was, he'll need the help of his younger self, a new and improved Supergirl, and even an old school Batman (Michael Keaton!).
The Flash sometimes feels like a side character in his own movie, cuz the film seems intent on tying up all the loose ends from the "old" DC Cinematic Universe before James Gunn "reboots" the whole thing.
Of course it's overlong (there's enough going on here for three movies), and leading man Ezra Miller is mostly awful (in the title role and apparently, in real life, too), but the fx are great and it was fun to see Keaton back in the Bat-saddle. I doubt I'll ever watch it again, but "The Flash" was a decent enough time waster on a rainy afternoon.

[M.10rda]

I feel like a little Ezra Miller really goes a long way... alas it's a 2.5 hour movie and there's two Ezra Millers onscreen most of the time.  Otherwise I thought it was alright.

[lester1/2jr]

The Wrong House (2016) - This might be the silliest movie I've ever seen. A young family buys a house which happens to be the one that some woman who really really wants to buy the house wants. Oh well, tough spaghetti worms. No, instead she begins a campaign of harassment against the baffled family, while secretly also being part of their lives as a fitness trainer who lives in the neighborhood. Why does she want an entire huge house to herself?

That's not even the beginning of all the questions you'll be asking. At one point she posts pictures of the husband saying "beware of pedophile" at the daughter's school. How did no one saw her do that? How did she get from her car to the other side of the fence did she shape shift into small molecules and go out the vent? These are in addition to the ridiculous things that go on , like murders, that are supposed to be campy or whatever.

Also, what is with IMDB reviewers who are in love with some random actress "movie was terrible except for Susie Baltini she shines like a golden candelabra in this well chosen role"? That said, it's such a stupid idea for a movie that all of this was the right approach.

4/5 was plenty ridiculous but needed to be more trashy

[zombie no.one]

Also, what is with IMDB reviewers who are in love with some random actress "movie was terrible except for Susie Baltini she shines like a golden candelabra in this well chosen role"? That said, it's such a stupid idea for a movie that all of this was the right approach.

I have noticed this. always for some actor or actress that no one (me) has ever heard of.

edit, just realised I literally have 'no one' in my name.  it was originally '#1' but I slipped down the rankings.

[lester1/2jr]

Zombie No one is a great name. an anonymous Zombie

[zombie no.one]

yeah I can blend into that zombie crowd, easy 

(never understood your name tbh. seems quite cryptic?)

[lester1/2jr]

It's from the Howard Stern show from a million years ago. There was a guy named Beetlejuice, a black mentally impared dwarf, who's real name was Lester Greene. One day they were talking and he said he was Lester Greene JR but because he was a dwarf he was Lester 1/2 Jr. I thought it was funny. If I'd known It would be there for 20+ years I might have thought of something more clever.

[zombie no.one]

hah, I'm aware of Beetlejuice the guy. didn't know his real name (or that incident). liking the 'obscure reference' factor though


Tried to watch an allegedly 'good' movie WILD HORSES (2015) last night but didn't realise it was a region 1 DVD so it wouldn't play... not sure why so many of those wind up in charity shops over here in UK

[M.10rda]

...Probably for the same reason non-Region 1s proliferate cheap shops over here....... 'cause guys like me buy 'em online to play in our region-free decks once then realize there was a good reason the movie was never distributed in our own country and we pass the useless DVD on to the next guy!

[zombie no.one]

the weird thing is I found a bunch of Region 4 (Australia) ones recently, and they DO work in region 2's... I mean what is the bloody point of it all   

- yeah a piracy thing I guess, but imagine if they'd done the same thing with CDs?

[lester1/2jr]

Hereditary (2018) - This was on tubi for a limited time so I re-watched it. I hadn't seen it since around when it came out I think.

Yeeesh. The horror is just way too real. I've never felt quite like I did while watching this. Welcome to Hell. I really don't know what else to say.

5/5