What have you watched recently?

[JediTricks]

Knives Out - a good movie with a script that is trying to be smarter than it ends up being. It's an ok mystery, the underlying context is a little less solid. Aside from the main character, the women in the story don't get enough to do while the male characters end up having more, not sure if that's Rian Johnson's bias or a statement or what, but it feels a little uneven.

Hail, Caesar! - the Coen brothers look at the movie industry in the early '50s, and while it's a charming look back, it feels uneven and a little hollow. There's a few moments that are real head-scratchers, silly beyond belief, and there are moments that don't add enough or go anywhere despite some real star power. Alden Ehrenreich proves himself quite the talent here, and confirms to me that the problems in Solo: A Star Wars Story were the directors - all 3 of them. Hail Caesar is a film that's too short at 106m, and is shown up a few years later by Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, which does something similar for the next decade, yet puts a lot more weight into its central characters.

 

[The OC47150]

The Running Man. Ah, one of my favorite Schwarzenegger movies.

The Hidden. Another overlooked/forgotten 80s gem.

Been watching 80s movies on Friday nights. This week's offering is either Blue Thunder or The Delta Force.

 

[The OC47150]

Hardcore. George C. Scott is a father who goes searching for his daughter in the seedy pornography world of southern Cali. This movie must've been filmed in '77 or '78 because there was a big wall banner for Star Wars plastered on one building. The missing daughter also had a SW calendar on her bedroom wall.

Did watch Delta Force and Blue Thunder. Also found my copy of Broken Arrow. Ain't it cool? I do enjoy that movie.

 

[JediTricks]

Tons of movies, but the one I want to mention is something we watched last night...

Bugsy Malone - a gangster flick with an all-child cast, child-sized sets, child-tailored sexy dancing girl clothes, child-sized gangster pedal cars, and it was a musical where they overdubbed the singing with adult voices. They shot machine guns full of whipped cream (although they had to shoot ping pong balls and then cut to kids getting hit in the face with synthetic cream). It was awful and also baffling, apparently it's a beloved picture but I cannot imagine why.


Hardcore is intense, Scott gives a great performance but it's a hell of a ride. In that vein, we just watched 8mm in honor of Joel Schumacher's passing and it's strong stuff but doesn't feel quite as visceral.

 

[The OC47150]

Last Friday's 80s viewing was a Chuck Norris double-feature: Lone Wolf McQuade and Invasion USA! I started watching Code of Silence but haven't finished it.

I rented the Hunt, the controversial movie about elites hunting deplorables. I laughed my butt off. More humorous than gory.

One last thing about Hardcore: on the sixth-grade trip to Chicago in the late 70s (yes, I'm showing my age) Hardcore was playing on cable at the hotel we stayed at. Didn't watch it, but I remember the commericals. I think 40+ years of curiosity made me watch it now.

 

[The OC47150]

The Friday's 80s movie night continues. Death Before Dishonor with Fred Dryer and this week's offering was Maximum Overdrive. MO is a guilty pleasure. It's enjoyable in a bad sort of way.

Watched an interesting doc on PBS called Treblinka's Last Witness. Made in 2016, the subject was the last known survivor of the Treblinka concentration camp. He escaped from the camp during the prisoner revolt

 

[The OC47150]

I was home the other day as new carpet was laid and watched Malcolm X. Saw it when it was in the theatre during its original run and had been wanting it again.

Von Ryan's Express. This WWII action movie is special to me: it's one of the movies I remember watching on the late-late-late show in the early 80s.

For this week's 80s viewing party, I'm torn be between sci-fi (read an article on the 40th anniversary of Flash Gordon) or 80s James Bond (For Your Eyes Only).

 

[Bel-Cam Jos]

I was home the other day as new carpet was laid and watched Malcolm X. Saw it when it was in the theatre during its original run and had been wanting it again.

I saw it (maybe on AMC or TCM?), too, but hadn't ever seen it (I just read the book, and it's very close to the exact same); missed the first 10 minutes though.

 

[The OC47150]

Flash Gordon won out.

 

[The OC47150]

Romancing the Stone (1984). Boy, this movie has aged well. Kathleen Turner in her prime. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.. And it has my all-time favorite quote: "OK, Joan Wilder, write our way out of this one."

Then I had a min-James Bond movie marathon: For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Moonraker and the Spy Who Loved Me. I really enjoyed these. First time in a long time that I sat down and really watched them.

If you get a chance to watch Octopussy on blu-ray I recommend it for one special feature. James Brolin tested to play Bond if Roger Moore didn't return. There's an interview and three audition segments with Brolin.