Thief's Monthly Movie Loot - 2022 Edition

I'm torn because, generally speaking, I'm usually drawn to films set in jungles. Don't ask me why, but I do, so obviously that's part of why I'm drawn to the original. However, I do appreciate the attempt to not repeat the same setting and try to set the sequel not in a literal jungle, but in a metaphorical one that's also fraught in conflict just like we saw in the original. Like I said in my review, I thought that was clever on paper.

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It might not make sense as their technology is far more advanced than ours but to me they just feel like a far more primeval species so, as clever as it may have sounded on paper to move from a natural jungle to a man-made one, the primeval setting just felt far more natural and fitting for a predator movie to me. Maybe the sequel played on the 'fish out of water' aspect, I don't remember, but if it did then it clearly didn't work well for me.

The Rough House is a 20 minute short written, directed, and starred by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton. It follows a series of shenanigans that occur at the house of Mr. Rough (Arbuckle) as he wakes up, has breakfast, and handles two quarreling lovers and a pair of thieves.

This is pretty much a Roscoe Arbuckle vehicle. He was an already established comedic actor with a 10-year career at the moment. Arbuckle is credited as a mentor to Charlie Chaplin, and as the discoverer of Bob Hope and Buster Keaton, who plays three different roles here within the three different segments of the film.

The film has a simple premise and works mostly as a series of sketches loosely tied, but they all work fairly well together. Most of the physical comedy is on point, and I really laughed at some of the gags they pulled. Keaton's roles are fairly small, but Arbuckle has a nice comedic timing and a funny aloof persona.

This was actually Keaton's second short film, and his first directing job, so considering the turns their careers took in the next years, one could see it as an involuntary passing of the torch. There's a new cook in the kitchen indeed.

Grade:

In case anyone's interested...

I've seen the Predator films exactly once each, but I remember being annoyed that the second film was much "jokier", if that's a word. Would that be an accurate assessment?

That was a common problem for 80s sequels, in my experience.

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Captain's Log
My Collection

I mean, the original wasn't exactly Schindler's List, obviously. I just remember the attempts at humor in part 2 exceeded my cheesy joke limit. Like were the aliens giving people the finger or something?

I... don't remember that at all. You do have Bill Paxton's shenanigans, but I don't see it as being much different than the soldiers ribbing in the first part.

Maybe my imaginary version would've been better, come to think of it.

Does the Predator learn English and say a naughty word? I know I'm not making this up. Or maybe it was a later film.

That's how a "Western newspaper" described a local showing of this 1907 silent short film. Based on Wallace's 1880's novel, the film skims over most of the events briefly as it shows the titular hero imprisoned and competing in the famous chariot race.

Unfortunately, most of the versions I could find of these short were of very poor quality, so it's hard to see it as the grandiose experience that was described on that newspaper. The version that I saw also lacked any accompanying score, which makes the whole experience feel a bit flat.

Still, it's really interesting to catch up with these old classics and transport ourselves to those theaters and think of that wonderful experience at the time.

Grade: N/A

If anyone's interested...

LOL, it does imitate several words and sentences that characters say, but that's something we see in the original when it repeats some of the words said by the soldiers.

You should've asked this forum's movie pirate for help


All the versions I came across were of the same video quality, but here's a version with an accompanying score:

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IMDb
Letterboxd

A bunch of really old short films from the 19th Century I saw in preparation for the next episode of my podcast. Really interesting to see those first steps of film technology and cinema, and people trying to figure out what they can do with this. It's amazing.

I had to give up on that one. It went on for way too long.

Sorry, man. Here's the 3 second version.

This is as far as I got:

First time, I dozed off at the 0:01 second mark.

Fortunately, this film was a much easier watch:

It sure was:

That was good!