Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

THE BRIDE (2025) - Absolutely FANTASTIC reworking of Frankenstein's story!  Christian Bale is terrific as the Monster, and the story arc of The Bride is a delight to watch.  I don't give a lot of 5/5 scores, but this one really earned it.
SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

Another one I'm surprised you like. I'm not quite 5/5 on it, but it's worth a watch for sure.

[indianasmith]

My tastes are a bit more eclectic than my love of SUCKER PUNCH and NINJA BACHELOR PARTY might lead one to believe. . .

[Jim H]

I just rewatched The Killer, the Woo original.  It's as moving as ever, and man do I appreciate the action creation and stunt work even more now. 

I also watched The Mandalorian and Grogu.  It's...  Fine.

My tastes are a bit more eclectic than my love of SUCKER PUNCH and NINJA BACHELOR PARTY might lead one to believe. . .

That's a beautiful quote Indy, I hope you know that.

[Rev. Powell]

MATADOR BOLERO (2026): An actress' murder may be linked to a super-intelligent quantum AI computer. The plot here isn't rigorous (to say the least) in this experimental film that recreates the look and feel of a late 1960s LSD-inspired Super-8 avant-garde film (a la Andy Warhol) with lots of pretentious voiceovers, superimposed images, kaleidoscopic abstractions, altered voices singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and other successful and semi-successful experiments heaped together without structure. 1.5/5.

[M.10rda]

THE SPY IN BLACK (1939):
Another attempt at getting on the Powell/Pressburger train - another ho hum result. (PEEPING TOM remains the only Powell flick I can altogether endorse.) It does provide a rare opportunity to see Conrad Veidt in a top-billed lead role in a post-silent/talkie - and often in English, even. He still looks good and gives a reasonably nuanced performance (as the bad guy), though this isn't nearly on-par w/ his best silent work.

In a similar plot to EYE OF THE NEEDLE, Veidt is a German officer who infiltrates a foggy English port-town in order to sabotage the Royal Navy. I should mention that SPY IN BLACK is set during WWI, not WWII - but the Brits were in WWII sometime in '39, so SPY IN BLACK still seems tonally inappropriate to me, somehow. At first Veidt is aided by two other lead characters - who appear at first to be Germans or English traitors working for Germany. SPOILER: They aren't - the're just setting up a trap to catch Veidt. This doesn't really make much sense and still puts the Royal Navy (and English civvies) in danger. It also makes the co-leads pervasively unsympathetic. Veidt's character does get some sympathetic shading - but he's a terrorist Gerry!!!

3/5 for Veidt and professional filmmaking. Very confused film, though,

[FatFreddysCat]

"Operation Goldman" (aka "Lightning Bolt," 1966)
Enjoyably silly Spanish/Italian James Bond knock-off starring American bit player Anthony Eisley (of TV's "Perry Mason" and "Hawaiian Eye") as a secret agent assigned to investigate rocket sabotage around Cape Kennedy. One of the better 007 wanna-bee's of the era, does a nice job of copping the Bond vibe in spite of its cheese-and-crackers budget.

[lester1/2jr]

Never Hike Alone (2017) - Forgot to review this last Thursday then went away for a few days. It's a Friday The Thirteenth fan film and is best viewed as such. As an ostensible found footage horror movie it's not super strong. It goes back and forth between him filming and another camera in a way that was a little off putting but...okay I can hang with it. Really though, the director's heart is more in Friday the Thirteenth rather than FF horror. The parts that are like a modern slasher, with people repeatedly thinking it's over then turning around and seeing the guy and having to recalibrate or whatever, were better (though not really my thing).

3/5 as a tribute though, it's solid.

[Rev. Powell]

IRON LUNG (2026): In the far future when humanity is dying off, a convict is sent to the bottom of an ocean of blood on a distant moon in search of... something or other. A fan film based on an independent video game, it's impressive how the amateur crew has made this look like a professional production on the surface (the sound design is especially ace). The plot, however, is simultaneously painfully slow and completely confusing to non-initiates. Fans of the game will doubtlessly understand what's going on, but those unfamiliar with the source material (like me) should skip. 2/5.

[M.10rda]

HE DID AND HE DIDN'T (1916):
This confusingly titled Roscoe Arbuckle/Mabel Normand joint seems transitional as it's more sophisticated than the earlier team-up I watched (...SAN DIEGO EXPOSITION) but also looks forward to two distinct and disparate versions of Roscoe-to-come: the off-the-wall surreal violence of COPS and OUT WEST, and the repressed normcore of THE HAYSEED.

Roscoe and Mabel are married (and good for him!) but her thinner/more handsome "schoolmate" comes to their mansion to have dinner (and sleep over!). The Schoolmate has a coquettish glamor shot of Mabel which he seems to still cherish, and at a glance it's obvious that Mabel wants to shag the guy rotten, all of which naturally sits poorly w/ Roscoe. There is almost nothing in the way of jokes or gags in the first fifteen minutes (at least) of this twenty-six minute short, unless you're prone to snicker at Roscoe sitting in-between Mabel and her Schoolmate on a tiny couch while all three pretend to read but Mabel and the Schoolmate try to make eyes at each other and Roscoe leans forwards and back in an attempt to c-block them.       Then randomly two con artists try to talk themselves into the mansion and case the joint, which seems (or is) wholly irrelevant to the main plot.

But! (As so often there is a "But!" in these early films...) HDAHD truly shifts into top gear abruptly near the end, with a sudden frantic slapstick chase/fight, a dude hanging/swinging/spinning from a chandelier, and another dude firing 25 or 30 rounds from a small revolver  which is a gag that Roscoe would continue to develop in future films. And then, as a piece-de-resistance -

SEMI-SPOILER: ...At the climax one of the main characters dies, then promptly wakes up (It Was All A Dream!) but then we cut back to the other two main characters and both of them die, then one of them wakes up (It Was All A Dream!) and that character and the first character who woke up see each other and realize They Both Had The Same Dream....... #biospherephantasm #thekrays    .......Now if that isn't some INCEPTION/Lynchian/BACKROOMS action, I dunno what is!

Roscoe Arbuckle, Man Ahead of His Time.        3.5/5    Mabel also looks better here than in the previous movie.