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I grew up watching that one. Agree re: Douglas being comically unsuited to the role. But the bus to Cartagena moment is gold! Something about this film is very endearing despite its general silliness. Curiously, having seen it 10+ times at least, I never felt it was an Indiana Jones ripoff just because Joan isn’t really interested in any of that stuff except when it comes to her sister - and she is the protagonist.

Personally, I LOVED Romancing the Stone...perfect blend of action and romance featuring my favorite Kathleen Turner performance. I love the transition that the Joan Wilder character goes through in this movie...from prudish, uptight writer to passionate woman ready to live the lives of the heroines she writes about. I think Turner's performance in this film deserved an Oscar nomination more than Peggy Sue Got Married, which did earn Turner her only nomination. Didn't really care for Jewel of the Nile though.



Big fan of the Prowler. In an odd way, it philosophically reminds of Kitano's work in how it takes a genre and strips it of all its fat until there's only something raw, serious and mean left.

I think Zito's deft hand behind the camera and Savini's impeccable gore elevate it to among my favorite slasher films, even if the plot and characters are boilerplate. They're allowed to be because the film has no delusion of being elevated (the Burning for instance, which slogs through weak attempts at character and mystery building) and it unpretentiously shows it's titular slasher getting ready at the beginning. It knows why you're watching this and it will deliver on that level.

Big fan.



Cropsy has the kind of mythological sheen that comes from childhood campfire tales, so all of that character building in The Burning is essential to it being easily one of the best traditional slashers of the 80s. There is a lighthearted and goofy camraderie between the kids in that film, which elevates it above how obvious its character flexes actually are. As a result, Cropsy becomes the kind of ghoul we can expect to defy the laws of mortality and almost emerge at the camp straight from their nightmares.


I agree the Prowler is purely utilitarian in its construction, and that is fine, but most of the actual film is fairly unremarkable. I do think it is a quality midtier slasher, but not worth much excitement (or derision)



Victim of The Night
25th Hall of Fame

The Long Goodbye (1973) -


I'm still fairly new to Altman as, other than this film, I've only seen Nashville and his segment in Aria, the former of which I loved and the latter I thought was alright. I thought this film was pretty good and I'd put it in the middle. I was mainly impressed with the dialogue. The various wisecracks from Elliott Gould were quite witty and brought a great deal of humor to this film, especially when he agitated other people with them, like Marty Augustine. Elliott Gould was definitely the main highlight of this film for me, as I imagine he was for many others. I also enjoyed the main conflict with Lennox well enough. I found it fairly compelling and was caught off guard by the various twists and turns of it. While I enjoyed that conflict though, I also felt it was overshadowed by other sub-plots, specifically the conflict with the aforementioned Marty Augustine. The sadism and charisma of Augustine and the strangely lovable qualities of his gang members resonated with me much more. His sub-plot also culminated with a delightfully awkward, yet suspenseful sequence which was heightened by an Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo. I found all this more memorable than Eileen and Roger, in part due to the average to poor acting from Pallandt and Hayden. Of course, I still liked their scenes, but comparing them to some of the other major characters and their sub-plots, they simply didn't hold up. Regardless of my thoughts on Eileen and Roger though, I still liked quite a bit about this film and I may revisit it in the future to see if I warm up to it some more.
Big fan, here.



Victim of The Night
Also, Brewster McCloud and MCCabe and Mrs Miller are decent as well.
McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a downright great film.



Double feature: Private Investigators



The Kid Detective - This seems like something you'd find running on the CW but since it's a Canadian production it doesn't labor to be overly edgy. It stars Adam Brody as Abe Applebaum, a former child detective in the small town of Willowbrook. He's grown up and is frankly having trouble moving on from both his childhood success and from the one case he couldn't solve, the disappearance of 14 year old Gracie Gulliver. He's approached by high school girl Caroline who eventually hires Abe to investigate the murder of her boyfriend, Patrick Chang.

This put me in mind of Brick, another noirish detective film involving a young protagonist investigating a missing girl. But this is anchored by an unassumingly humane performance from Brody. He succeeds in making you care so that when he finally comes to grips with the unvarnished truth about what he thought he was you're right there with him. You understand his pain. It's a largely sedate and good-natured film until it isn't. But even that tonal shift works itself out quite effectively.





The Long Goodbye - This is a 1973 Robert Altman noir starring Elliot Gould as Los Angeles PI Phillip Marlowe. He's visited by his longtime friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) in the middle of the night. Lennox is in trouble and asks Marlowe to drive him to Tijuana. It's only when Marlowe gets back and is arrested by the cops that he finds out Terry's wife is dead. After Terry himself is found dead down in Mexico Marlowe is released and is hired by Eileen Wade (Nina van Pallandt) to track down her missing husband Roger (Sterling Hayden). It's only after finding him at a rehab clinic that Marlowe discovers that the Wades and the Lennoxes knew each other socially and he starts having doubts about Terry's supposed suicide and his wifes murder.

Counting this one I've seen a total of eight Altman films and even though this doesn't have the usual huge cast of talent it's still a pretty decent representation of his work. Gould does a fine job as the iconic gumshoe and van Pallandt and Hayden are perfectly adequate. There are small cameos by David Carradine and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Henry Gibson and director Mark Rydell pop up as memorable villains. But what truly brings it all together is the way that Altman captures the grubby and duplicitous nature of 70's era Los Angeles.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Letters Home (Chantal Akerman, 1986)
6/10
The Dawn Express (Albert Herman, 1942)
4/10
Vacation from Love (George Fitzmaurice, 1938)
5/10
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, 1989)
7/10

Combo of an overview of the history of AIDS and several specific people's cases, culminating in the monumental display of the AIDS quilt in Washington, D.C.
Spiral (Darren Lynn Bousman, 2021)
5/10
Xtreme (Daniel Benmayor, 2021)
6/10
Legacy of Satan (Gerard Damiano, 1974)
4/10
Bo Burnham: Inside (Bo Burnham, 2021)
- 7/10

Creative, funny, politically-charged, one-man show self-made at home by Burnham during the COVID quarantine.
Where Are We? Our Trip Through America (Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, 1992)
+ 6.5/10
Mysterious Intruder (William Castle, 1946)
5.5/10
Sisters of Death (Joseph A. Mazzuca, 1976)
5/10
Mahler (Ken Russell, 1974)
6/10

19th-century composer Gustav Mahler (Robert Powell) must prove his worthiness to perform to Cosima Wagner (Antonia Ellis) for some Nazi reason.
Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955)
6/10
To Kill a Stranger (J. Lopez-Moctezuma, 1984)
5/10
Ostwärts (Christian Petzold, 1991)
6/10
Lisztomania (Ken Russell, 1975)
5/10

Franz Liszt (Roger Daltrey) is transported by his adoring fans on his gargantuan penis. Later the pope (Ringo Starr) hangs out with Liszt.
The Loners (Sutton Roley, 1972)
5/10
Three Adventures of Brooke (Zhu Yuan Qing, 2018)
6/10
The Missing Corpse (Albert Herman, 1945)
5/10
The Man Who Sold His Skin (Kaouther Ben Hania, 2020)
+ 6/10

Syrian refugee Yahya Mahayni allows a world-famous artist to tattoo his work onto his back in exchange for being transported away from the Syrian War in Lebanon to Brussels where he's displayed at a museum.
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Personally, I LOVED Romancing the Stone...perfect blend of action and romance featuring my favorite Kathleen Turner performance. I love the transition that the Joan Wilder character goes through in this movie...from prudish, uptight writer to passionate woman ready to live the lives of the heroines she writes about. I think Turner's performance in this film deserved an Oscar nomination more than Peggy Sue Got Married, which did earn Turner her only nomination. Didn't really care for Jewel of the Nile though.
Oh sure, I love it too - to this day! Think it’s genuinely funny and actually quite realistic in terms of human behaviour, apart from the crocs and all. Haven’t really thought of it until now in such detail, it was such a constant in my childhood. Agree with most of what you say. The two of them had a good chemistry at the time - The War of the Roses was a bit more over-the-top but also great, I thought.



Oh sure, I love it too - to this day! Think it’s genuinely funny and actually quite realistic in terms of human behaviour, apart from the crocs and all. Haven’t really thought of it until now in such detail, it was such a constant in my childhood. Agree with most of what you say. The two of them had a good chemistry at the time - The War of the Roses was a bit more over-the-top but also great, I thought.

Loved War of the Roses too...it's so dark but it works...didn't really care for Jewel of the Nile



Cut and Run (1985)




This was originally supposed to be directed by Wes Craven but it ended up in the hands of Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust). The result is a much more sleazy type of action film and that's good for me. Unfortunately it was too cheesy for my taste and just not very good. Find the uncut version if for some reason you decide to watch it.
I'm not a huge Deodato fan, but I do feel like his sadism gave this movie a pretty nice edge. Or at least it was nice to get that edge in a movie that didn't have real animal killings and execution footage.


Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man is easily his best movie, though.



Double feature - Mentally unstable loners



Unhinged - Russell Crowe elevates this 2020 road rage gone nuclear thriller. Crowe simply and adroitly embodies the title. That of Tom Cooper, a completely unhinged psychopath who so happens to be triggered by the persistent car horn of largely clueless and overwhelmed single mom Rachel Flynn (Caren Pistorious). She's trying to get her teenage son Kyle to school before he gets yet another tardy notice. When she pulls up behind Cooper's truck at a stoplight little does she know that he's already crossed a line that morning. A line that cannot be uncrossed. And that her laying on the horn after he sits through a green light will be further exacerbated by both her inability to read the bad vibes coming off the guy and her subsequent refusal to return his apology. Thus the wheels are set in motion for a rapidly escalating game of cat and mouse in which Cooper is ostensibly three or four steps ahead of her. The seemingly omnipotent antagonist is the usual MO for these kinds of thrillers. But in this case the script takes care not to set him up as implausibly all-seeing. There are moments of course where coincidences are used to ill effect and to cover a variety of plot holes. And Rachel's character is also guilty of those, "Why didn't she simply...?" moments that strain credulity. But Crowe's masterful ability to project menace and a suitably brisk and concise script power through these hiccups. It's not a perfect movie but it'll do till a better one comes along.





Wander - Aaron Eckhart, Tommy Lee Jones and Heather Graham star in this 2020 conspiracy drama. Eckhart plays Arthur Bretnik, a psychologically erratic former detective and present day private investigator. His life and mental faculties have fallen apart as the result of his wife and daughter dying in a car accident. He now lives out in the middle of nowhere and hosts a conspiracy theory podcast with his equally paranoid friend Jimmy Cleats (Jones). Bretnik is hired by one of his podcast listeners, Elena Guzman (Deborah Chavez), to look into the death of her daughter in the small town of Wander, New Mexico. It was ruled a car accident but Elena suspects a coverup and a murder. While poking around the accident scene and the nearby town Bretnik runs across several anomalies that leads him to believe that the girl's accident is somehow tied to his own daughter's death. Director April Mullen goes to great pains to portray the inner workings of Arthur's damaged psyche, using washed out color palettes, disorienting camera angles and a muffled, disjointed soundtrack. So much so that the viewer is never completely sure that what they're seeing and hearing onscreen is actually transpiring. Eckhart gives it his all but the script is such a hot, soupy mess that you might find yourself tuning out instead of hunkering down and investing yourself.




Victim of The Night

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8950986

Them! - (1954) - DVD

The giant ants were impressive in their day but have been superseded by Spielberg's dinosaurs in Jurassic Park - you can either chuckle at them, find them endearing, or both.

6/10
I am firmly in the Endearing camp. I love those ants.



Double feature: British gangsters


Mona Lisa - I was going to ask whatever happened to Bob Hoskins? The last thing I remembered seeing him in was Doomsday, another Neil Jordan film. I had no idea (or maybe forgot) he had passed away in 2014. That's a shame because he was a genuinely underrated actor. He's just so good in this Jordan directed film as ex-con George, recently released from prison. George was a loyal soldier and never talked so he's looking for some sort of reparation from his former boss, Denny Mortwell (a marvelously sleazy Michael Caine). He's assigned to be the driver/protector of high priced call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson) who gradually makes him over in order to better fit in with her affluent workplace surroundings. In the meantime George finds himself becoming somewhat enamored with Simone while also trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. He's staying with old friend Thomas (Robbie Coltrane) who provides a level headed perspective as well as some comic relief. Simone inveigles George to help find a former friend who's still working as a streetwalker. There's a lot of intrigue and pornography and blackmail as well as a vicious pimp and George quickly finds himself in over his head.

Immediately after finishing the film I was of the mind that Jordan, who also cowrote the script, had unfairly portrayed Simone as some sort of femme fatale. That she had somehow roped a lovesick George into doing her dirty work only to betray him. This was simply not the case and I was basing this on a lot of the other noir films I had seen in the past. She never led him on in any overt way despite realizing how George had come to feel about her. She always took care to keep him at a certain arm's length. This is an astute, mature film with an exceptional performance by Bob Hoskins and able support from Caine and Tyson.







Welcome to the Punch - This 2013 cops and robbers thriller is nowhere close to being the caliber of Mona Lisa. It's set in modern day London and James McAvoy plays Detective Inspector Max Lewinsky. When the film opens he's in pursuit of four men who have just pulled off a lucrative robbery. They're led by Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong) who eventually shoots the tenacious Lewinsky in the leg. Flash forward three years where Lewinsky is still nursing his leg as well as a grudge against Sternwood. He finds out that Sternwood's son Ruan has been shot and taken into custody and comes up with a plan to use the boy as bait to lure his father out of hiding. There's a lot of subterfuge and politics and palace intrigue all of which end up muddying what could have been a tidy little thriller with elements of familial bonds and the thin line separating the crooked from the lawful. Maybe it works for some people but I thought all the added contrivance and machinations could have been pared down some.





Victim of The Night
Soul
8/10.
Like music to my ears.
I watched this night before last under some duress. I don't know why but I just couldn't get my chakras aligned to watch this movie. I like Pixar, I like Existentialism, I like Jazz. This should be a slam-dunk. But I just couldn't get myself to watch it.
So... forced to Monday night I submitted to the will of the group... and got some real rewards.
There is a lot to like and even love about the film. Not everything necessarily worked for me but it's lows (to me) weren't terrible and its highs were legit (like the performances from Tina Fey, Rachel House, and in smaller roles, Angela Bassett and Phylicia Rashad, and, obviously, The Music). In fact, let me remove the The Music from the parentheses and just say that it is such an integral part of the whole production interwoven into not only the narrative but the heart of the picture, and Batiste deserves some recognition for it.
Good movie.



Victim of The Night
Romancing the Stone -


This is one of those movies that's been in my watchlist forever that I finally saw. Is it as light and breezy as one of protagonist Joan Wilder's books? Yes, and that's not a bad thing. It's a fun action adventure movie that is ideal for summer and that I wish I could have seen in a theater.

One criticism I do not agree with is that it's just an Indiana Jones knockoff. Sure, it's an action movie, it's partially set in a jungle and the MacGuffin is a treasure, but the similarities end there. All the same, it is an attempt, albeit a less successful one to make a B movie look like an A movie. Despite some surprises in the final act, it's too predictable to do this and the characters are too stock. I like Kathleen Turner a lot as Wilder as well as Danny DeVito in a role Peter Lorre would have played, but I couldn't totally buy Michael Douglas as Jack. A lifetime of seeing him play upper class types might be doing the talking here, but I couldn't help but think that he's yet another one moonlighting as a schemer here. I still enjoyed it as fun, light summer entertainment and I wouldn't turn off if I caught it again on cable. Oh, and as for that ending, which I loved, and I'm sure others have made this joke several times before, but
WARNING: spoilers below
let's hope there aren't any traffic signals on their road to the sea because they or the boat are going to be knocked over.
That's interesting, I knew him as Jack first. So it totally works for me. I find him a lot more fun in Jack Mode.



Victim of The Night
Double feature: Private Investigators






The Long Goodbye - This is a 1973 Robert Altman noir starring Elliot Gould as Los Angeles PI Phillip Marlowe. He's visited by his longtime friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) in the middle of the night. Lennox is in trouble and asks Marlowe to drive him to Tijuana. It's only when Marlowe gets back and is arrested by the cops that he finds out Terry's wife is dead. After Terry himself is found dead down in Mexico Marlowe is released and is hired by Eileen Wade (Nina van Pallandt) to track down her missing husband Roger (Sterling Hayden). It's only after finding him at a rehab clinic that Marlowe discovers that the Wades and the Lennoxes knew each other socially and he starts having doubts about Terry's supposed suicide and his wifes murder.

Counting this one I've seen a total of eight Altman films and even though this doesn't have the usual huge cast of talent it's still a pretty decent representation of his work. Gould does a fine job as the iconic gumshoe and van Pallandt and Hayden are perfectly adequate. There are small cameos by David Carradine and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Henry Gibson and director Mark Rydell pop up as memorable villains. But what truly brings it all together is the way that Altman captures the grubby and duplicitous nature of 70's era Los Angeles.
Agreed.



Victim of The Night
Double feature: British gangsters

[left]
Mona Lisa - I was going to ask whatever happened to Bob Hoskins? The last thing I remembered seeing him in was Doomsday, another Neil Jordan film. I had no idea (or maybe forgot) he had passed away in 2014. That's a shame because he was a genuinely underrated actor. He's just so good in this Jordan directed film as ex-con George, recently released from prison. George was a loyal soldier and never talked so he's looking for some sort of reparation from his former boss, Denny Mortwell (a marvelously sleazy Michael Caine). He's assigned to be the driver/protector of high priced call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson) who gradually makes him over in order to better fit in with her affluent workplace surroundings. In the meantime George finds himself becoming somewhat enamored with Simone while also trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. He's staying with old friend Thomas (Robbie Coltrane) who provides a level headed perspective as well as some comic relief. Simone inveigles George to help find a former friend who's still working as a streetwalker. There's a lot of intrigue and pornography and blackmail as well as a vicious pimp and George quickly finds himself in over his head.

Immediately after finishing the film I was of the mind that Jordan, who also cowrote the script, had unfairly portrayed Simone as some sort of femme fatale. That she had somehow roped a lovesick George into doing her dirty work only to betray him. This was simply not the case and I was basing this on a lot of the other noir films I had seen in the past. She never led him on in any overt way despite realizing how George had come to feel about her. She always took care to keep him at a certain arm's length. This is an astute, mature film with an exceptional performance by Bob Hoskins and able support from Caine and Tyson.


I used to love this movie, too long since I seen it.