Recent Viewings, Part 2

[FatFreddysCat]

"Thank God It's Friday" (1978)
A variety of characters have a wild night in and around L.A.'s hottest disco nightclub, "The Zoo," in this kitschy Motown/Casablanca co-production that was obviously meant to ride the coat tails of "Saturday Night Fever." The cast includes a young Jeff Goldblum as the club's owner, a then-unknown Debra Winger, and Donna Summer as an aspiring singer (her song "Last Dance" won an Oscar for Best Song). Harmless fluff.

[M.10rda]

LA FOLIE DU DOCTEUR TUBE (1915):
This odd short comedy was directed by Abel Gance, who later made the infamous 26-hour (or however) long Napoleon biopic, which cannot possibly be anything like this. Figurative and literal egghead "Docteur Tube" is a mad scientist who looks like a Conehead from Remulak. His absentminded goofing-around the laboratory causes an explosion which appears to result in huge clouds of cocaine (!) that intoxicate everyone who enters the laboratory, including two dapper couples on a double date. Much madcap frolicking ensues, with Gance playing around with fish-eyed lenses and distorted reflections, so the audience understands that drugs are craaaaaaaazy, man. Among the puzzling elements of the film: the Docteur's assistant (who also gets dosed) is played by what looks like an 8-10 year old person of color, which seemed a little problematic but hey, at least he wasn't played by a dwarf in brownface.

3/5: Overall an okay way to pass 10 minutes.

[Rev. Powell]

LA FOLIE DU DOCTEUR TUBE (1915):
This odd short comedy was directed by Abel Gance, who later made the infamous 26-hour (or however) long Napoleon biopic, which cannot possibly be anything like this. Figurative and literal egghead "Docteur Tube" is a mad scientist who looks like a Conehead from Remulak. His absentminded goofing-around the laboratory causes an explosion which appears to result in huge clouds of cocaine (!) that intoxicate everyone who enters the laboratory, including two dapper couples on a double date. Much madcap frolicking ensues, with Gance playing around with fish-eyed lenses and distorted reflections, so the audience understands that drugs are craaaaaaaazy, man. Among the puzzling elements of the film: the Docteur's assistant (who also gets dosed) is played by what looks like an 8-10 year old person of color, which seemed a little problematic but hey, at least he wasn't played by a dwarf in brownface.

3/5: Overall an okay way to pass 10 minutes.

Saved to my shorts folder for future review.

[M.10rda]

Well here's another one to consider for future review...

THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1908):
Sometimes I forget why I'm compulsively watching a certain type of film in huge waves - recently silent films, such as D.W. Griffith's overlong, dull, and smug THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE. (Actually, those three adjectives could describe every Griffith film I've ever watched.) Then I hit a gem like OUT WEST or THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, or at least the end of LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, and I re-commit to my warped mission. TLDOP's intertitles weren't translated into English so parts of the plot confused me. It's also possible that this print is incomplete: though there seems to be a beginning and there's definitely an ending, potentially elaborate subplots appear truncated....... then again, I guess that's what happens when a huge volcano suddenly erupts next to your criminal conspiracy...

My admiration for this film is really due to two consecutive long takes in wide shot that happen right before and at the climax to the film. The first one plays out in the sort of locked-down, stagey fashion that we're familiar with from multitudes of movies made in the first half of the 20th century. It's not bad, just fairly routine, though I admired that the director choreographs a crime, the discovery of that crime, and the criminal's successful framing of a patsy all in that one shot.

Then the next shot starts, and this shot is really a marvelous thing of cinematic beauty. I'll keep things vague in case Reverend Powell or anyone else wants to watch this. Generally, the Patsy and two other characters we've never seen are in the foreground. Meanwhile, separate clear action is going on in the midground of the shot, which gives us an idea of what's in store for the Patsy, and then waaaaaay in the background there's clearly also some stuff happening that (the longer I stared at this shot) was really mysterious and impressive to me, production-wise. Eventually the Patsy and the other two characters move to the midground of the shot while the camera remains locked down inside the room that they just left. After some action, the film's protagonist appears, and $#!t Happens, and many extras begin to enter and exit the midground of the shot... and in a single three minute or so take, a lot has happened, all of it makes sense sans dialogue, and the fact that it played out in one static perspective makes the action mean a great deal more than it would have in montage or even in a tracking shot. (It's kinda' like a Roy Andersson shot, only usually his shots just have middle-aged businessmen walking around defeated.) If I had to film the last day of Pompeii today, I'd probably shoot it the exact same way.

4/5 Maybe my film school professors were right - sometimes one great shot does make for a great film.

[M.10rda]

BARBARIAN (2022):
This was a solid 4/5 for me until the last 20 minutes or so, thus I'll spare any detailed discussion for anyone who has yet to see it and may enjoy its series of legitimate surprises. Alas we felt it left the rails significantly at the end, following a few rounds of that hoary old horror movie party game "Why do you keep setting down/losing your cell phone when you constantly need a light source and also for that matter couldn't you just call an ambulance right now...?" In spite of those criticisms, BARBARIAN did the "elevated horror" thing (whatever that actually is) better than many films of the past decade, and I'll try to concisely state Why (below) w/o actually compromising any twists et al.

One of the flavors of Horror that's toughest to evoke well or compellingly is small-l "lovecraftian" horror - not the capital-L cosmic-monster-that-drives-mad-all-those-who-behold-it variety that we know and love from THE THING and CLOVERFIELD, but the more subtle kind where you're bumming around some place that seems familiar and innocuous and then you accidentally uncover heretofore unknown aspects of that location that are sinister and so distasteful as to be borderline unholy and also probably an existential threat to your concept of reality (as well as to your safety). That kind of "l"ovecraftian horror is essentially at work in BLUE VELVET (and in fact in several of David Lynch's films) but though countless horror movies seem to function in generally the same way (where characters scratch a surface to find unknown horrors beneath), it's difficult to think of many that successfully discomfort the viewer and reveal such unsavory truths about The World or Humanity in the way BLUE VELVET or a good Lovecraft short story does. BARBARIAN, at least for the majority of its running time, does small-l lovecraft very well. Brilliantly, it locates its horror not just specifically in a plain-looking AirBNB cottage but generally in an otherwise altogether blighted neighborhood in Detroit: exploited to exhaustion (literally, in fact, r*ped) by unseen white guys, so entirely stripped that Realtor Karens will disregard your complaint calls and even non-white cops won't bother to respond to enforce laws there or acknowledge your pleas for help. BARBARIAN recalls another (popular) horror film from the past decade that was set in Detroit iirc and so similar that even mentioning its title is a major spoiler for this film. I think BARBARIAN is a much stronger (and more lovecraftian) horror film, though, because unlike its predecessor, its horrors do actually evoke often-unacknowledged horrors IRL through a grisly looking glass. I found it all very uncanny/unheimlische!

3.5/5 And then the ending is just kinda' goofy.

[Dr. Whom]

Pig (2018)

In order to watch Let the Corpses Tan, I subscribed to the Belgian streaming service Sooner. Going through their catalogue, I discovered there was another movie called 'Pig' besides the Nicolas Cage one. So I clicked on it.

This turns out to be an Iranian satire on the movie industry. There is a serial killer on the loose, who beheads prominent movie directors. We follow Hassan, a hopelessly immature and narcissistic middle aged director. He had his moment of glory years ago, but has now been blacklisted and is reduced to making commercials for insecticide. The only thing he fears more than being targeted by the killer, is being a has been who isn't worth the killer's attention.

This is completely deadpan and at times surreal. No doubt people familiar with the Iranian movie scene will get more of it, but I still found it pretty funny. A weak point is that the satire is unfocused and kicks wildly in all directions. Also, in the first part Hassan is set up to be the butt of the jokes, and how much you dislike him will colour your appreciation of the second part when he gets into trouble.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Anaconda" (1997)
Deep in the Brazilian jungle, a documentary film crew searching for a lost tribe has an unfortunate run-in with a gigantic man-eating snake. Mayhem ensues.
The 90s CGI snake effects have aged pretty badly, but otherwise this is an entertaining creature feature with a surprisingly stacked cast incl. Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, and Jon Voight (who steals the movie with his scenery chewing performance and bizarre accent). Cheesy fun!

"Lemmy" (2010)
The Motorhead main man's life and career is examined in this cool documentary that shows Lem's everyday life in L.A. and includes commentary by members of Metallica, Guns N Roses, Anthrax, and dozens more.

[lester1/2jr]

The Stepfather (1987) - I can't remember if I ever saw this but it was right up my alley: 80's straight to video horror with a Lifetime/ movie of the week type sordid suburban family trashiness edge. Obviously, in the age of Facebook and whatnot this sort of scenario of a guy easily escaping detection would be a tough sell and it probably was in 1987 too, but I'm here for it anyway.

As the movie progresses, The Stepfather gets more and more obsessed with the stepdaughter. It's very creepy. There was even a rather surprising shower scene (note: by herself not with the guy!) with the stepdaughter who is 16 in the movie, but I guess older in real life. The most impressive thing for me was how the movie was exactly what I thought it would be. The last 20 minutes or so were particularly strong.

4.75 /5

It's not Fellini, but for what it is it's great

[FatFreddysCat]

"Police Academy 3: Back in Training" (1986)
Mahoney, Hooks, Tackleberry and the rest of the gang return to their alma mater, which is in danger of being closed due to budget cuts. Many wacky hi-jinks ensue as they help train a new class of screw-ups.
There's a few good gags in this one but by this time the "Police Academy" formula was already showing. As a side note, I had almost forgotten how annoying Bobcat "Zed" Goldthwait was. A little of that guy went a loooong way.

[Rev. Powell]

THE EMPIRE (2024): Rival races of aliens, the Ones and the Zeroes, possess humans in a small French town, although they spend more time strategizing and sleeping around than carrying out their plans. Like other Bruno Dumont movies, the  odd, deadpan sense of humor is an acquired taste; the movie is obviously not meant to be taken seriously, but it's played straight and is almost never laugh-at-loud funny. Fans of recurring detectives Van der Weyden and Lieutenant Carpentier may be disappointed that they show up a couple of times here, but don't play much of a role in the story. The two female leads are stunning. 2.5/5.

[M.10rda]

"Police Academy 3: Back in Training" (1986)
I had almost forgotten how annoying Bobcat "Zed" Goldthwait was. A little of that guy went a loooong way.

Unpopular opinion here: I generally dislike the PA movies and think that Bob and Tim Kazurinsky provided ALL the (meager) laughs in parts 2 and 3, and most of the laughs in part 4 (my "favorite" as a child, which probably means little in critical terms).

Also, I was stunned to learn last week that Bruno Dumont had made a big science fiction epic. Rev's review is I guess exactly what I should've expected from such a thing.

[indianasmith]

My latest three viewings:

KILLER MERMAID (2014) - Two American girls travel to the Mediterranean to meet up with a guy they both knew (and one dated) in college. While there, they go to explore a nearby island with a deserted military base on it, and discover a carnivorous mermaid and her human familiar, who snag unwary travelers to slake her insatiable appetite.  My daughter's comment sums it up best: "A SyFy original plot with an A-list budget." 3.5/5

OVERLORD (2018) - Another Nazi zombie movie - the Germans are trying to bring dead soldiers back to life to create an immortal army of unkillable fighters; American paratroopers coming in ahead of D-day stumble onto the operation and have to find a way to shut it down.  Overall, a good film, with the zombies playing less of a role than they did in the similar film, FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY.  My only real beef as a historian was in the opening ten minutes, where you saw a black soldier serving in an integrated unit with whites, under a black sergeant.  A nice idea, but in WW2 black soldiers still served in segregated regiments.  Other than that anachronism, the movie was pretty effective overall. 4/5

COMPANION (2024) - A man and his girlfriend join some friends for a quiet weekend in the country.  But then their Russian host makes a pass at the girl, and tries to assault her. She kills in self-defense, and only then do you find out she's really a robot companion, programmed to love her owner.  Things spiral out of control from there.  Kind of a neat take on the old Westworld "when robots kill" trope. 4/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Ghost Writer" (1989)
A writer (Audrey Landers) rents a Malibu beach house so she can finish her latest project in privacy. However, the ghost of the house's former occupant - a Hollywood starlet who died in 1962 - wants to enlist her help in solving the age-old mystery surrounding her death.
This cheap, fluffy fantasy/comedy was obviously a vanity project for the Landers sisters (their mother/manager Ruth is one of the producers). They're both nice to look at, but neither one can act worth a damn, and the rest of the cast is filled out by D-listers like Jeff "Taxi" Conaway, the Barbarian Brothers (remember them?), and David Doyle, aka "Bosley" from "Charlie's Angels." There are a couple of decent gags, and the sisters are nice eye candy, but everything else about this flick is strictly amateur hour. You can safely skip this one!