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He probably wouldn't mind doing that but I wouldn't like it nor would I know how to even go about setting that up. Doing something like that for 2001 and there's a good possibility that you'd get 2+ hours of sleeping. Seeing how far off he was about Jaws makes me think that he thinks 2001 is some sci-fi, action thing. Fatal Attraction would have been a fun one to livestream or even Cannibal Ferox.
Yeah, I wasn't serious about the livestream, it's just always fun to see a newcomer's reaction to 2001. My brother has a friend who famously turned it off after 15 minutes exclaiming "I thought this was about space!?!?"
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Yeah, I wasn't serious about the livestream, it's just always fun to see a newcomer's reaction to 2001. My brother has a friend who famously turned it off after 15 minutes exclaiming "I thought this was about space!?!?"

I could see the exact same thing happening - "What's with this monkey business?" I'd also be answering questions for two plus hours. Who is...? Why are they....? What is....? Where are...? Is this a musical? Sometimes I don't know if he's really looking for answers or just talking to himself.



Yeah, I wasn't serious about the livestream, it's just always fun to see a newcomer's reaction to 2001. My brother has a friend who famously turned it off after 15 minutes exclaiming "I thought this was about space!?!?"
Please, tell me this is when he turned it off and asked that...

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I thought everyone knew that it's roughly 2,001 minutes before the Space Odyssey begins - hence the title



Please, tell me this is when he turned it off and asked that...

Right?
I wasn't there, but it's probably for the best that he bailed. He wouldn't have handled the last 15 minutes very well, I'm sure.



Right?
I wasn't there, but it's probably for the best that he bailed. He wouldn't have handled the last 15 minutes very well, I'm sure.
Hey, if he wanted "space", what's more "space" than a spaced out astronaut traveling through a multi-colored vortex of neon and plaid at great speeds?



So far the 80's seem to be his thing. Almost everything we've watched from the 80's he's liked so why not introduce him to one of the longer lasting characters from the decade. Seeing as to how he's never seen any of these I think it's time he does so we hit up parts 1 and 2 of:


Friday the 13th. My preference is part 2, he liked the mystery of part 1. He thought the kills and cast of part 2 were better but the "story" of part 1 was better. Story? Ok. We will probably knock off the rest of them in order but we're not in any rush.

A couple more we hit up in the last week:
Easy Money - The Rodney Dangerfield classic about a guy who needs to clean up his act in one year to gain a ten million dollar inheritance from his dead MiL. He liked it in parts but thought it dragged a bit towards the end.


Porky's 2: The Next Day - He liked this more than Easy Money. He says to me "Could you really get away with stuff like that when you were a kid?" WTF? That's my Mom's generation! But yeah, even we got away with a lot more than you guys can. He loved the KKK rally at the end, the Graveyard Gloria scene and Wendy's date with Bobby.


We did watch one pretty popular 80's flick that is generally well received. A little vampire action in Santa Carla.



When it comes to Vampire flicks I always say start in the 80's and work your way back. He loved this so maybe Fright Night is on the horizon. A couple funny things he mentioned: Mtv was out when this was made? Uh yeah. Did you really wear clothes like that (Corey Haims wardrobe)? If Chess King had it it was wearable. One thing that has come up repeatedly while watching 80's movies: Did girls ever wear bras back then? In movies? Nah. In real life? Sure, but they weren't bulletproof like today. As far as the movie, this was the one he said he is most likely to rewatch as it was the most fun of what we've seen lately. He loved the "Wait til mom finds out!" line.


Okay. Our final movie. He called this the best movie we've seen in couple weeks and has no desire to watch it again. Why not? *SPOILERS* AHEAD "I don't like watching a basket case, who was abused as a child, being wrongfully murdered by his childhood friend. It's depressing."



Mystic River, yeah it's not a feel good but it's good-good. He was really into this, trying to guess who did what - first Dave did it, then maybe Jimmy, then the BF, then Dave again, but the ending was just too much. Too heavy. This actually created a bit of a stir in the house as I think Dave's wife sold him out to Jimmy, but I'm in the minority. That led to who would turn in who at our place if somebody committed a crime. I'd last the longest in the Mafia but I'd be ****ed in my own house. The addition of Lawrence Fishburne was a surprise to him. He knew about the three mains but Fishburne is one of his fav actors so seeing him again was a nice. He thought it was a very good movie but not interested in going through it again



While reading through this thread, I often thought to myself that the kid should be dumped in the desert so that he can reflect on his horrible taste in movies before eventually succumbing to dehydration, lamenting to the buzzards as they pluck at his flesh, "If only I'd seen the brilliance in Pulp Fiction and Rear Window! Forgive me, Fredrick, for I knew not what I watched!" But then he'd surprise me with a five-star reaction to I Saw the Devil or The Fly or Reservoir Dogs and I'd realize that maybe there's still hope for the kid. Hopefully you didn't wait too long to try to cultivate his tastes. If I ever manage to go nine months without shoving a rusty coat-hanger into the womb of every woman I knock up, I plan to expose my kid to all the cinematic greats at an early age. If he/she isn't already reciting Ezekiel 25:17 on the playground or chainsaw massacring his/her playmates by kindergarten, I will have failed as a parent.
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Last week he passed through the movie watching room and caught a little glimpse of Golden Temple Amazons, you know, the movie that starts off with a half dozen topless ladies riding horses and must have thought "Gee, a movie would be good right now." So I asked if he wanted to watch the rest of Golden Temple and he said he wasn't really feeling that one. How about some ether? Huh? Never mind. Apocalypse Now? Not today. Dark City? "Sci fi? Nah." Unforgiven, a little western? Nope. What's that? Killer Joe? Yeah, what's that about. It's about fried chicken. Outstanding!

But before we begin we do what we always do. Ask Mom if she's up for a movie. I know what the answer is gonna be for this one, we saw it in the theater and while she thought it was good it's not as re-watchable for her as something like How the Grinch Stole Christmas:

"Mom, you want to watch this with us."
"What are you watching?"
"Killer Joe."
"Think I'll pass."

First scene of the film, Gina Gershon answers the trailer park door pant-less and au natural and I can tell right away the kid is thinking:



As you can see it also stars MM who is the title character, Det. Joe Cooper, murderer for hire. The basics are Emile Hirsch owes some bad guys some coin so he devises a plot where they kill his mom so his sister can collect the mom's life insurance policy which they (Bro, dad, sis and step mom) will divvy up. It's all so simple. What could possibly go wrong? Short answer - quite a bit and it does.

So did the kid like it? Yes he did. He was impressed with all the performances but was especially impressed with Juno and Gina. He thought they gave "brave" performances and with what they are asked to do I'd agree. It's not going on his Wall of Fame but he thought it was uncomfortably funny and overall pretty entertaining. THC as the dimwit dad was the primary source of laughter but the final dinner scene had him both reeling in horror and laughing at MM's Oh Face - "I'll never look at him the same way again."

The movie did make him uncomfortable with more than just it's insanely dark humor. Everything revolving around Dottie and her relationship with her bro and Joe was creepy in his opinion. "How old is she?" Don't know what do you think? "I don't know but I hope she's older than she acts." "What is with her brother?" What do you mean? "I mean wtf? Is he...." Possibly. Ugh!

Usually he doesn't like endings like this, the cut to black what happened endings. I think Friedkin gives enough of a clue as to what happens with the final few frames and he seemed to accept my thoughts on it which are basically it was a happy ending. Overall I think he'd give this a solid
after one watch.



It's really weird seeing someone in their 20s referred to as "the kid," whose first name isn't, Billy.


Also, what was listed as their taste in movies made me think they were going to be in the 10-14 age range.


My only suggestions -
Instead of Robocop, do Total Recall first and then say, "same director."


Obvious subtitled crime-thrillers, also from South Korea: Parasite and The Hand Maiden. I don't have a good feel on if you should work him back through the Vengeance trilogy.


If he hasn't seen Mad Max:Fury Road...


Likewise, No Country (obviously doing Blood Simple first was a good call).
I kind of wonder if seeing the Coens' stuff before seeing their influenced will appeal to him.


His taste is a species of film consumption that I don't really interact with much, so it's hard for me to think of what are good gateway movies backwards.


Some of things he's liking or hating just seems really random to me.


He's in his 20s, would he like Chunking Express? No idea. Just no feel so far. I wouldn't have guessed he'd like TCM at all.


I can't imagine showing anyone Cannibal Apocalypse though. Granted, that's because that'd mean I'd have to watch it again...



Apart from the FCC and Friedkin 70s suggestions a normal person would encourage, maybe some less obvious ones to try would be:
Assault on Precinct 13
Suspiria
The Brood, or hell, Shivers
(And then dipping into the 80s, Phantasm and A Nightmare on Elm Street).


The whole, "I don't watch movies before x-date," was something I never did growing up. My best explanation was watching black and white Hitchcock movies on TV with my dad, and for some reason being really into horror, so in grade school, black and white horror was often more age-appropriate. (and then throw in any spooky children's TV series always has to show love for Nosferatu, so even silent films weren't off the table).

ETA: I forgot an obvious 70s one that it sounds like he'd like: the remake of Bodysnatchers. Which, then give it some time, and go back and watch the 50s one... That might work.



Apart from the FCC and Friedkin 70s suggestions a normal person would encourage, maybe some less obvious ones to try would be:
Assault on Precinct 13
Suspiria
The Brood, or hell, Shivers
(And then dipping into the 80s, Phantasm and A Nightmare on Elm Street).

Giallo is a no go. I don't like them. Shivers is on our watchlist and I think he'd go for it because he's really liked the two Cronenbergs he's seen. In fact, the Croneneberg films he's seen are both in his top 5 so far.


It's really weird seeing someone in their 20s referred to as "the kid," whose first name isn't, Billy.
I've called him worse.

My only suggestions -
Instead of Robocop, do Total Recall first and then say, "same director."
He's already watched Total Recall and liked it. I'm working towards Starship Troopers but he's hesitant about that one. Seems a little too B-Movieish for him. He did end up watching Robocop and it was better than he expected but he didn't love it.

Obvious subtitled crime-thrillers, also from South Korea: Parasite and The Hand Maiden. I don't have a good feel on if you should work him back through the Vengeance trilogy.
I mentioned the Vengeance films but he's not too keen on them...yet. It's looking like his next trip into Asian film is going to be a Takashi Miike film. We watched the trailer to Ichii and I think I may be able to swing that one. Memories of Murder is on my radar also. I tried getting him to watch Tetsuo but that lasted about 5 minutes. He does want to see The Wailing but the runtime is a little bit of a concern.

If he hasn't seen Mad Max:Fury Road...
He loved it.

Likewise, No Country (obviously doing Blood Simple first was a good call).
I kind of wonder if seeing the Coens' stuff before seeing their influenced will appeal to him.
He wanted to watch Raising Arizona last night but I talked him out of it. He gave up on Fargo about halfway through and did not like True Grit at all. I'm not a fan of the Coens' later stuff including No Country so I think their films are on a long hold.

Some of things he's liking or hating just seems really random to me.
YES! There are movies I thought he would love and ended up hating and vice versa. Some of the movies he really ended up liking he did not want to watch at all (The Fly, Savage Streets)

He's in his 20s, would he like Chunking Express? No idea. Just no feel so far. I wouldn't have guessed he'd like TCM at all.
He might like Chungking Express but he's gonna have to watch it on his own. I'm not sitting through it again. Fallen Angels might be worth a try.

I can't imagine showing anyone Cannibal Apocalypse though. Granted, that's because that'd mean I'd have to watch it again...
I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of Cannibal Apocalypse but I'm always looking out for it. If you mean Cannibal Holocaust, yeah it's nasty. He's not into that kind of stuff. I throw those in just to mess with him.



Taking some time off probably wasn't such a good idea. I had been able to get him to watch a few movies that were out of his comfort zone and felt like I was making progress and now all that progress seems to have evaporated. I think I'm going to switch up methods a bit, concentrate more on actors and actresses whose careers go back a ways. Get him interested in people may help getting him to watch some older movies starring them. Worth a try.

I'll start with one of my favorite actors. Ran across this during one of my perusing titles marathons and much like The Fly figured why not? He likes going out and playing pool so why not try a movie about some pool hustlers.



That guy up there isn't one of my fav actors but the other guy in The Color of Money, Paul Newman, is. If you haven't seen this it's about a retired pool hustler finding the next big thing and trying to teach him the art of the hustle. It's a bit of a road trip film with the destination being a gigantic nine ball tourney in Atlantic City, back when that was a place people visited.

I enjoyed watching this with him because every time they did a tricky shot in the movie I'd ask him if he can do that? Do you go all samurai after a big shot like that? After a few no's I eventually got the "will you SHUT UP!" I'm usually the quiet one but I couldn't resist. Well, I guess he's into it, that's good. Turns out he was really into it. The fact that Scorcese makes watching pool 100X more interesting than it has any right to be was probably the biggest selling point. I don't think Newman impressed him much but the movie worked so it's a win in my book.



I thought the Hustler was boring. Color of Money is decent. Newman got an Oscar for it but it's more of a lifetime achievement Oscar. He's not bad but he's given much better performances that didn't win.



All right. Next up is a certified classic according to me. Sticking with the older actors theme I saw this streaming and immediately thought it's something we should watch. Uh I don't know if he's ever even heard of Charles Bronson but he has now thanks to wonderful little film called 10 to Midnight.

I kind of consider this an American giallo. The plot: a very creepy serial killer is doing his thing. His thing is getting naked and running around town stabbing any women he feels has slighted him. The women are usually naked as well during these confrontations because this is an 80's movie and that's what put asses in the seats. We were a simple people. After a quick couple scenes of investigating a few murders this guy pops up on Charles' radar. Charles knows this guy is guilty but this guy is good at covering his tracks. There's nothing that connects him to any crime scene except for the fact that he's a creepy ****ing weirdo who is obviously a killer if not THE killer. So Chuck does what he has to do - plant some evidence. Bad idea but his heart is in the right place and that leads to the second half and the films eventual climax.

Despite being extremely wary at the start the young un came around and liked this very much. He knows it's not a great movie but it's enjoyable in the same way Savage Streets was. One scene got a huge laugh from him and that's when Charles confronts the killer about some recreational tools they found in his apartment.

WARNING: spoilers below


"You know what this is for, Warren? It's for JACKING OFF!"

Needless to say, the movie was paused as we discussed what we just witnessed. "WTF is that?" and he's rolling right now. It's a...toy. Okay, time for a little 80's history again. Back then everything was bigger. We didn't have phones (or other things) that fit in your pocket or rechargeable batteries. Toys like that were a combination leaf blower - washing machine, needed an outlet and were probably made from the same material as your Huffys tires. "What's a Huffy?" *deep breath*

The movie has a few recognizable co-stars. The first being Charles daughter and eventual target (Lisa Eilbacher) who went on to play Eddie Murphy's art dealer friend in Beverly Hills Cop. Ola Ray is one of Lisa's roommates who is on screen long enough to lose her clothes, take a shower and become a victim in a scene which seems inspired by Richard Speck's killing spree. She would later star as Michael Jacksons girlfriend in the Thriller video and Kelly Preston also makes an appearance. There is also a handful of character actors who you don't really know but do when you see them.

Overall a solid pick. It's not a gore fest by any stretch but it is a little nasty at times. In the future I'll be able to say to him "It stars the Jacking Off Detective from 10 to Midnight" which may be all I need to get him to watch some of Charles older films, a lot of which are pretty good. I'm glad that he has the ability to enjoy some of these sleazy 80's movies because they can be fun when you're in the right mood. I told him if you ever see a film produced by Golan-Globus watch it! They made some off the best shit of the 80's and I mean that in a good way.




For whatever reason he thinks all movies from the 80's are cheesy. He thought First Blood was going to be cheesy. He thought the Terminator movies were going to be cheesy and he absolutely thought the Fly was going to be cheesy. At some point you have to accept the fact that your wrong and you're going to continue to be wrong if you continue to think that way. The next one we watched was on tv yesterday. He walks in to the main entertainment area of the house, carrying a plate full of perfectly charred, dead animal meat (fathers day cookout) and became quite interested in what was showing on the boob tube. "Whatcha watching?" It was kind of funny because I've recommended this before but always got the "I've seen it already" and I always thought "No you haven't." It was early enough in the movie so I switched over to my copy on Kodi to avoid commercials. Before we started the film but right after he took a giant bite of what was once the leg of some earth creature, I told him this may be the most manly movie ever made and tomorrow you may finally be able to grow some whiskers on your cheeks just for watching it. Seriously, dude. I don't know if this one makes any all time great lists but I'll tell ya right now he liked it more than any other action film we've watched so far. That includes both T1 and T2, Aliens and First Blood. Ooooh baybay, having me some fun tonight! Yeah, OWWWWW!




Yep, he expected Predator to be a cheese fest. Why? "It's got Arnold in it." Okay, Arnold never was the greatest actor, but you have to realize that Arnold was the BIGGEST star at the time, appealing to most moviegoers. After Commando, Arnold played it pretty straight in his action flicks. "I'd like to see Commando do you have it?" No. So you didn't want to watch Predator because you thought it was goofy, I'm telling you Commando is goofy and you WANT to watch that one? Uhhh...but I also love Commando so we'll get to that eventually.

Once again the story was much better than he expected from an Arnold movie. As crazy as it all was everything made sense as far as an alien hunter story and why they were in the jungle to begin with. There were a few lines he thought were pretty good ("I ain't got time to bleed" "You're ghostin' us, motherf***er...") and one that left his jaw on the floor. (Him: "You really chew that stuff?" Me: "It was called chew, not suck.") As far as the cast, he liked them all well enough, thought there was enough development to keep from getting them all confused but did admit that Bill Duke, well - "He's my favorite." I think it's the bad ass delivery he likes. He first saw him last week in a film I haven't logged yet and he was a big fan of him in that one even though Duke was a bit of a weasel.

One of the things the 80's has going for it is the practical fx...and the violence. He loves them! Brings a tear to my eye. Now the fx are old but man, they hold up imo. I actually think today's cgi would ruin parts of this film. The movie has just the right amount of f'd up gore as well. Jesse's chest burst being the best. When they find the CHOPPAAAH at the beginning with Hooper in it all skinned up, he jumped a mile on that reveal. WTF dude? "I was expecting the Predator, not a bunch of dripping meat. Haven't jumped like that since TCM." As for the violence he mentioned that when they first arrive at the outpost and begin kicking ass ("Geez, this is pretty violent" Me:"You wanna watch Little Women instead?" Him: "I'm ok.") He lamented that they don't make movies like this anymore and I agreed but John Wick is recent and is pretty violent. "Yeah. I guess but it feels different. That was because of a dog"

The movie ends. Me: "So....whatcha think?" Him:"It was pretty manly. I think I like it better than First Blood and T2" There was some stuff in Predator he recognized, pop culture wise, but didn't know it was from this movie. Get to the CHOPPAH! being the most memorable. So overall this gets a
from him. It's the best action movie he's seen so far.





After building up his watchlist by watching the documentary In Search of Darkness Part 1 & 2, which is 9 hours of what made 80's horror films excellent, he went outside the box and surprised the hell out of me by going with a previously labeled nah film. A movie from the 60's? Nah. A slow burn, 2 hour + no action film with a female protagonist? Nah. So it begged the question - why this one? "I've seen it on a lot of best of lists." Oh really, you don't say? Ever see Citizen Kane or Sunset Boulevard on one of them lists? Anyway, I was happy to pop on a classic 60's thriller.



I thought Rosemary's Baby was a pretty good pick from him as it's one of the movies where the acting is starting to pull out of the wooden acting era and I know that acting style is a total turn off for him. Old acting takes a little getting used to, it's more like watching a play, and he's not there yet. RB almost feels like 70's film which is a decade he kind of likes from what little he has seen. So it's ahead of it's time, by about 1.5 years. I was a little worried that the pace of the movie would be too much waiting for him but he seemed to be getting into it. Probably didn't hurt that he seemed a little smitten with Mia Farrow and then the shocker of all shockers "They were allowed to have nudity in the 60's?"


The neighbors fascinated him but also annoyed him. I told him that's just how NYers are but he wasn't buying it. Something was afoot. "Why does she keep letting them in?" "She has to get away from these people!" "I wouldn't eat that." "Why is nobody believing her!?!" "EVEN HIM?!?" At first it was all too much c'mon stuff but as we talked through each of these situations he started to get it as I was able to relate some real life experiences that I knew he would understand. Needless to say the movie was getting to him exactly as the Director intended. It got under his skin, slowly.

The ending got to him as well. He liked that she had the guts to confront her neighbors and the horror of seeing her child but the very ending...the look on her face...I think that crushed him that she may be accepting of her demon spawn.



So when it was all over did he like it? I think he did. I'm basing that solely on the fact that he said "I'd watch that again." There was one issue and it's a big one when talking about Rosemary's Baby. We had to stop it about and hour and a half in and pick it up the next day. I don't think that this is a movie were that's a good thing to do. He still enjoyed it but he had 24 hours to regroup for the finale. Bummer. Even with that he liked it. My guess is it's about a high
maybe a low
after the first watch.