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2nd Rewatch...This rewatch made me realize I might have been a little tougher on this film in my original review than it deserves, but only a little bit. The supporting cast is relatively solid, especially Collin Quinn as Amy's father and Brie Larson as her sister. I have to confess that it wasn't until this rewatch that I realized that was Oscar winner Tilda Swinton playing Amy's boss and Bill Hader was a perfect leading man. Amy is the problem here, she's just not a very good actress and combine that with this really annoying character that kept pushing this perfect guy away, throw in a ridiculously useless narration and the vehicle that was meant to make Amy Shumer a movie star was an epic fail. The film also feels four hours long, but that's a staple of any film directed by Judd Apatow.



Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973) Watched on Tubi. Stylish, good bloody fun. Nice sets and an atmospheric and effective score. I liked the cinematography too.





Panic in Year Zero! (1962)


The granddaddy of social-breakdown films, Panic in Year Zero! still plays fairly well 6 decades after it was made, making obvious allowances for the inherently patriarchal nature of American society at the time.

If it seems like a bit of a time capsule, well, it's definitely that, but it is an interesting time capsule, containing every bit of the anxiety over the possibility of nuclear armageddon and what it would do to American society.

Ray Milland is in fine form as the dad taking his family out for a nice excursion near Southern California who has to keep his wits together when the unimaginable happens... conveniently after they have put enough distance between themselves and the rain of nukes.

The minimalist production values don't detract from the appeal of the movie; if anything, it almost makes it more realistic than a studio-produced movie with dated special effects would be today. The American-International film was originally released to theaters as a a double feature with Tales of Horror.

Added bonus for Frankie Avalon fans: he plays the dutiful son who must back up his dad as they survey the unknown wilderness where they have decided to settle temporarily until someone figures out what the hell has happened and what to do about it.



Nuclear (2020)

Odd little thriller where a mother and daughter are trying to recover from the violent actions of a son and step-brother whilst on hideout near an ex Nuclear processing plant. It's spooky in a certain way but the whole background is vague in the extreme.



KNIGHT OF FORTUNE
(2022, Noer)



"♫ Do you ride alone
Knight of fortune ♪
♫ Take me with you"

Knight of Fortune follows Karl (Leif Andrée), a widower struggling to see his late wife at the morgue. It is there that he meets Torben (Jens Jørn Spottag), a fellow widower in a similar situation. Although hesitant at first, they end up opening to each other as they share stories about their respective wives.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot
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More new home video purchases...



Three from the good folks at Criterion...

Stagecoach (John Ford / 1939)
Walker (Alex Cox / 1987)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch / 1995)

Stagecoach, of course, is the film that vaulted John Wayne to superstar status and made director John Ford a name to be reckoned with. Just a terrific movie, exquisitely crafted, with a wonderful story and characters. In particular, Claire Trevor and John Wayne serve as strong anchors for the film, in terms of their characters and their performances. And that big chase sequence with the Apache chasing down the coach has had plenty of imitators over the years, but is still without peer after all these years! That stunt work remains completely insane, to this very day. Just off the charts...

Amazingly enough, Alex Cox's splattery gonzo historical epic Walker was actually filmed in Nicaragua in 1987... on Universal's dime! Quite amazing to think that this movie even exists. This completely insane yet absolutely true story tells of the misadventures of William Walker, the American soldier of fortune who actually rose to power and became dictator of Nicaragua in 1853. Ed Harris turns in a very edgy and eccentric performance in the title role. I actually got into this movie because I was a fan of Alex Cox's Repo Man and Sid & Nancy. And Cox's book 10,000 Ways To Die was of invaluable assistance to me as I was getting into the Spaghetti Western genre. So I was eager to see what sort of work he could do in the Western (or quasi-Western) department. This movie definitely has some of the outrageously anarchic sensibility of Sam Peckinpah, and the screenplay was actually written by Rudy Wurlitzer, the man who also wrote Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The movie might be off-putting to some people, not just because of its irreverent and barbed politics, but because of its post-modern use of anachronistic imagery, including Zippo lighters, Coke bottles, magazines, limousines and helicopters - all in an 1850's setting! But of course I am also a fan of the films of Ken Russell and Derek Jarman, whose historical films and biopics make use of similar kinds of anachronisms. (I'm also reminded of Julie Taymor's Shakespeare adaptation Titus from 1999.) Good score from former Clash frontman Joe Strummer, as well!

And going even further out into the post-Western hinterlands, we have Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. There is, of course, no other movie quite like this one. Very unsettling and dreamlike exercise in monochromatic psychedelia, with vivid black-and-white cinematography, a movie for which the word "oneiric" might have been invented for lack of a better descriptor. (For the record, it means "of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams.") We're not in the usual dust-and-tumbleweed Wild West here but a kind of mutated industrial hellscape not dissimilar to that of David Lynch's Eraserhead. I'm also reminded of a line from Ned Beatty's character Bobby in John Boorman's Deliverance: "I think this is where everything finishes up!" I don't even know where to begin, but Johnny Depp gives a wonderfully unsettled, almost sleepwalker-ish performance as the put-upon protagonist William Blake. The score by Neil Young is also quite beautiful, and I understand that much of it was actually semi-improvised on the spot! The incredible supporting cast is just a mind-boggling assortment of really cool performers, including Gary Farmer as the misfit Native American Nobody (who else is fleetingly reminded here of a certain Terence Hill character?), Robert Mitchum as the tyrannical industrialist John Dickinson, Lance Henriksen and Michael Wincott as sinister bounty hunters (one a man of few words and the other of too many) and Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop and Jared Harris as a trio of borderline-psycho fur traders. Also watch out for Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Alfred Molina and Crispin Glover in bit parts here and there.

(BTW, to my mind Dead Man has an interesting kinship with a 1967 Spaghetti Western by the name of Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! - directed by one Giulio Questi - largely in that both movies deal with protagonists who are shot and then nursed back to health by Native American characters. The two movies are very different in most respects, but they both have a weirdly idosyncratic and surreal sensibility. Who else has been struck by the similarities between these two films?)
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"It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid." - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)





March 26, 2024

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (2024)

To this day, I actually still haven't seen Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Believe me, that is an oversight I shall correct at some later date.

The thought recently occurred to me that one of the reasons why people keep coming back to see sequels to their favorite movies - despite the inevitably diminishing artistic returns - is that the characters are like old friends that people want to keep visiting and hanging out with. There may be nothing particularly new or noteworthy going on in their lives - aside from the usual and inevitable life-and-death circumstances - but people still enjoy touching base and revisiting their old friends. Which I suppose is as good an argument as any for sequels to be judged by a different set of criteria than original films (although I wouldn't quite go so far). A better argument could be made for the modern movie sequel as the ultimate example of the "hangout movie."

So a movie like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire gives me something of a mixed reaction. On one hand, I think the Ghostbusters universe is just plain fun! (I feel rather the same way about the Star Trek universe, quite frankly, irrespective of the varying quality of films and episodes.) I like the chase sequences, the neutrino wand visual effects, the ghost traps, the lessons in occult history and ancient mumbo-jumbo, the wisecracks, the sense of impending apocalypse, etc., etc. On the other hand, I don't know if this latest movie really holds up on a story level. I mean, there's a lot going on here, what with the Spengler offspring, a mysterious orb holding an evil spirit, a ghost girl named Melody with a hidden agenda, suits of armor and pyrokinesis, etc., etc. But it kind of just amounts to a lot of stuff, held together by the most rudimentary sense of cohesion. On the upside, however, the icily malevolent Garraka may be no Gozer the Gozerian (then again who is), but he sure as hell kicks the crap out of Vigo the Carpathian six ways to Sunday!

Most of the surviving cast of the original 1984 classic get cameos here, with the exceptions of Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis. Dan Aykroyd has a fairly substantial role here as the recurring Dr. Ray Stantz. Ernie Hudson's Winston Zeddemore has been promoted to resident engineering and tech specialist, sort of the "Q" of the Ghostbusters universe. Bill Murray's Peter Venkman, on the other hand... basically just shows up and speaks a few semi-witty lines, and that's it! Surprisingly enough, William Atherton's obnoxious former EPA hack Walter Peck shows up, and he too has had a "promotion" of sorts, one that has all sorts of potentially inconvenient consequences for our heroes.

Recommended? Sure, if you're an old-school fanboy like me. Or if you just want to hang out with some old friends. Everybody else, though, might want to lower their expectations...



KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
(2023, Scorsese)



"Oh, yeah? I mean, there might be a public outcry for a while. But then you know what happens? People forget. They don't remember. They don't care. They just don't care. It's just gonna be another everyday, common tragedy."

Set in the early 20th Century, Killers of the Flower Moon follows the events around those murders. Sparked by the discovery of oil in Osage Nation, the Natives had "wealth" but were still assigned white "guardians" to help them "administer" it because of their "incompetence". Notice all the quotations, because none of those were real to the Osage. They weren't incompetent, but they still didn't get their wealth, and there were certainly no guardians administering nothing, at least not in good will.

This is one of those films that's more enraging than it is pleasing. Certainly that's not a slight at its craft because most things from the film are top of the line. From the performances to the cinematography, from the score to the way it builds this relationship between Ernest and Mollie. But the enraging thing is not only that it's all for show, but that it really happened.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



I forgot the opening line.

By Paramount Pictures - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2906216.../?ref_=tt_ov_i, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72830741

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - (2023)

A bit of okay, half-decent comedy - nice effects and design. A nice little supporting turn from Hugh Grant. A decent adventure. This just falls short of being a classic, for me - but when it comes to having a pleasant time being entertained without being taxed it works, so I'm not complaining. Well, I am complaining about it's title and other present-day annoyances to those around me - but there's much worse out there and I never expected to be seeing this film in the first place. It was one of 2023's bigger surprises. All that and yet the film barely broke even - despite praise from most quarters and it being a crowd-pleaser. I blame the title and movie being too long, and the fact that on the face of it, this looked like your average mainstream effects-driven corporate-entity soon-to-be-forgotten modern movie.

6/10


By May be found at the following website: http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/92d10294, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28805922

A Film Unfinished - (2010)

In 1942 the Nazis tried to make a propaganda film from inside the Warsaw Ghetto, and the footage remaining from that attempt has been invaluable. It has given us a rare, unfiltered look at what was happening in that overcrowded, unsanitary nightmare world, and how the Third Reich was trying to twist their own depravity to meet their own propaganda needs. A shocking moment in history captured on film - full review here, on my watchlist thread.

8/10
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