Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

I'm a big fan of DARK CITY.

[M.10rda]

I am, oddly, a big fan of GATTACA... might be the Ethan Hawke movie I like the most. (That is a short list, of course.)

[M.10rda]

PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION (2026):
Another pick by Madame, apparently brand new thus the first 2026 film I've seen. Like TRON: ARES, I didn't think I could make it for the duration, but it was inoffensive->charming enough that somehow I endured through the closing credits. Two extremely attractive late 20somethings struggle to overcome their differences and misunderstandings in order to unite romantically and stay that way - you are shocked to read this plot synopsis, surely!

Screenplay vacillated between sincerity and insipidity. There's some cute humor, some dumb broad humor, then parts where everything gets weirdly serious. The direction is mostly steady enough to endure those tonal shifts and the film does look very nice. The leads and young support are all nobodies or people who I probably have seen on some TV show my wife has watched, but the fabulous Jameela Jamil is in a few scenes and Alan Ruck & Molly Shannon appear for five minutes as the female lead's parents in a funny bit involving condoms and prescription drugs. It was earnest, charming, and uninsulting enough to our intelligence that I ended up getting some hand-holding and smooching out of the deal at the end of this flick, which doesn't usually happen at the end of horror movies... so!

3/5
Also this is practice trying to write shorter reviews.

[Trevor]

Nude on the Moon (1961)

That's my biopic 😳😉😉🐢

[Rev. Powell]

SENTIMENTAL VALUE (2025): An aging director wants his daughter to star in his final movie, but she resents him for abandoning the family when she was young. An actor's showcase (Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning are all in top form) that rewards patience. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Footprints on the Moon (1975) aka Primal Impulse - Random late night choice and I really enjoyed this one. It's not perfect and the lead actress isn't all that pretty, but it has some decent Twilight Zone vibes and nifty Italian scenery.

A woman who works as a translator at some UN/ academic type scenario is haunted by a movie she saw decades earlier about an astronaut who dies on the moon. One day, very weird stuff starts happening and she ends up at a seemingly not very popular island resort somewhere off the coast of Italy. Fincher type shenanigans abound as people swear they saw her on the beach on Tuesday but she wasn't there on Tuesday OR WAS SHE?

This reminds me of something they would show at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, mainly for it's cinematography and all the Italian architecture than for it's story, but I liked the story. I watched it in one night and would watch it again. The lead actress is, again, not that pretty but she's well cast and does the nervously figuring everything out bit satisfactorily. It was a massive hit in Italy, but people would probably expect sharper explanations/ plot points and so forth today.

4.5 / 5


edit: also it's dubbed and the dubbing drops out a few times and it's just Italian.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Cleanflix" (2009)
Absorbing documentary about the odd saga of Clean Flicks, a Utah based chain of video stores from the early 2000s that made a mint selling and renting "edited" movie DVDs with all the sex, violence, and foul language removed to please their mostly-Mormon customer base. However, when the Hollywood studios found out about these unauthorized edits, they filed copyright-infringement lawsuits that immediately crippled the budding "edited movie" industry. An interesting, occasionally bizarre doc about a strange time in the home video biz.

[lester1/2jr]

Wasn't clean flix just a front for some kind of porn business?

[Dr. Whom]

Wasn't clean flix just a front for some kind of porn business?

Well, they had to do something with all the footage they cut out, right?

[FatFreddysCat]

Wasn't clean flix just a front for some kind of porn business?

One of their biggest franchisees was busted for doing unsavory things with underage girls, and during the investigation it was found that he was also selling porn "under the table" out of his store, which is a big no-no in Utah. Not a good look for a supposed "clean" business. 

[M.10rda]

Mormon Captain Renault was shocked... shocked!

[Rev. Powell]

FRANKENSTEIN (2025): Megalomaniacal Victor Frankenstein reanimates a man from dead tissue, but the powerful monster is unhappy with his lot as a deathless outcast and blames his creator. Superhero-style action sequences sit uncomfortably alongside the stodgy and serious 19th century source material, but otherwise this is a solid, if not quite standout, adaptation of Mary Shelley's hard-to-film novel. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

"I hear you got that copy of The Matrix with the two swears left in." "Right here, but it's gonna cost you."