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We started the month with Wake Up Dead Man and I'm still not over it.
But we did watch some others as well. Behold!
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| THEATER Grand Lake Theatre |
Excellent movie. One of the smartest direct discussions of faith and truth in a religious context I've seen. The closest comparison I feel I can make is Silence, which is high praise indeed
That and it's a top-notch Rian Johnson–penned-and-helmed mystery as well. The pieces slot together just so and it's very satisfying. And the plot and themes meld together into one great whole.
The first two movies in the Blanc sequence were structured almost identically. Not a knock, but it's appropriate I think that this one played many of the same games but with a new organization and new misdirects and a new reliance on the non-Blanc lead. Father Jud is a terrific creation and one of the best fictional pastors of any stripe I can think of.
Anyway. I loved it. Just wish it would be in theaters longer. I fear that, as with Glass Onion, it'll be gone before I get a second chance and then never exist outside Netflix and piracy.
Ugh. Netflix is the worst.
(One complaint: the mystery of Blanc's new hairdo is NEVER ADDRESSED.)
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| ELSEWHERE Public Domain Movies |
This started life as a five-reeler then was cut down to two two-reelers then put back together into whatever mess this is. And it is a mess. The editing is bad, the use of intertitles is bad, the beginning is a drag, it's redundant and pretty boring. It does pick up when the amazingly comstumed animals take over the movie (and then the Rolly Rogues are fun to watch even though the film doesn't do much with them) and if I were you I'd pick up around the twenty-minute mark then quit when I got bored.
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| HOME our dvd |
I watched most (all?) of Steve Oedekerk's thumb films when they were pretty new; my fatherinlaw bought them all (or only most of them?) on dvd. I don't have clear memories other than we had fun watching them. I remember Kung Pow! much better. Since showing it to my sons, they all went through a stage where it was their go-to film to show their friends. They've all now seen it vastly more times than I have.
Anyway, I can't remember if I'd even seen any of the Karloff Frankenstein movies when I first say Frankenthumb, so watching it this time I'm particularly impressed by the little sets and the references to the film. I'm definitely enjoying more layers of it this time.
Anyways, it's dumb fun. Even at its short run length it might be a couple minutes too long, but who would complain? Just enjoy it, then leave it alone for twenty years.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
Some movies never stop giving. I watched this twice over the last two days (volume one, volume one, the rest, the rest) and time one was a four kleenex affair, two two a one. But I also noticed or renoticed beautiful moments I've never written about before (eg, the light passing through Elizabeth's eyelids or the carriage carrying her and her aunt and uncle back to Longbourne). I've also seen it enough times to be aware of things that make emotional sense but not sense in the physical world (the camera panning from window to window after Jane's engagement would be impossible on real architecture.
Anyway, for all the reasonable complaints about it, I think it's an excellent adaptation. And some of its changes are in the direction of kindness. For instance, Mr and Mrs Bennet both as individulas and as a couple are treated much more kindly. Mrs Bennet is still ridiculous but she is allowed slightly more roundness and lovely/honest moments with some of her daughters. And their marriage isn't as empty as in the novel. That's nice.
While of course Mr and Mrs Bennet should have begun "to widen and droop," I do feel that were I making an adaptation I would go younger. By my math, Mrs Bennet is certainly in her forties and Mr Bennet may be as well. And although Donald Sutherland is my favorite Mr Bennet and Brenda Blethyn is excellent, I would love to see how a younger dynamic would play out.
Anyway. Adaptation needs to take a stand and this movie does just that. As you can't cram the entirety of such a story into a movie's runtime, some compression and exchange is necessary. I think these choices are entirely defensible.
And the cinematography and score are gorgeous, the acting and settings are terrific, and Elizabeth looks like my wife. I can forgive some impossible bare feet and inappropriate hair styles when you know exactly what to do with screen direction and hands.
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| HOME twopeopleexchangingsaliva.com |
Even though it's less deadly serious and even though its pictures move, what this reminds me of most of all is La Jetée. I don't think just because it's French and narrated and black&white and dystopian, although of course those come into play. I think part of it is the sense of inevitability, but that can't be it. Even from the beginning, that's the reference I had. If someone can explain to me why I was seeing La Jetée from the opening seconds, I will thank them.
Anyway, in this world kissing is a capital offense; to stay safe people have awful oral hygiene and eat bad-smelling foods. The monetary system is based on slaps so the wealthy have awful bruises and the nonwealthy wear makeup to fake their bruises.
This is a may/december unconsummated love story but it's beautiful and captures the sense of denial the characters are suffering through—some more consciously than others.
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| HOME myflixerz |
Lady Steed and I came home and the movie was at least half over so I didn't intend to watch it.
But you know what?
It's really good.
(Noting my prior opinion, maybe this is the best way to watch it? I don't think so. I think I would've liked it all the way through. Hopefully there's a next time to check this theory.)
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| HOME our dvd |
I realized this is the only movie that we have watched enough as a family to be a movie we watch as a family.
It's also on this top-100 comedies list I've been thinking about writing about.
It's nice to know, at least, we're not alone in our admiration.
What a lucky break that I won the dvd in a white-elephant event back in 2004!
Incidentally, someone was playing the dvd menu song in class a couple weeks ago and people knew it. I can't think of better evidence of classicdom.
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| HOME our dvd |
I forgot how funny this movie is.
It's, like, really funny.
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| HOME YouTube |
I wouldn't call it topnotch Goes Wrong but the chaos of the final minutes might qualify.
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| HOME library dvd |
Such an interesting case study, comparing the great original to this pretty dumb entertainment.
I first saw this movie shortly after returning from my mission. I remembered very little about it—just the lines in the grass as the raptors hunted and a couple San Diego details. I didn't think it was that great, but who knows—it's been almost thirty years!
But yeah. It doesn't hold up. It's just a heightened version of the first, but it doesn't understand itself. A couple examples. Pete Postlethwaite is one of my favorite actors (Brassed Off! Romeo + Juliet!) but he's just been told to be a morally compromised version of the Aussie hero from Jurassic Park. The boat that comes into San Diego harbor is a clear reference to Dracula but the hows and what's of the onboard slaughter make no sense. It's just a bad slasher movie where people do dumb things so crazy stuff can happen.
But you do get a lot of action sequences etc etc etc so it's fun. You're just left with no reason to ever watch again.
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| HOME Prime Video |
A solid Jared Hess movie and an excellent IP-forward movie.
It was good to rewatch it and experience its strengths and weaknesses from a position of experience. But in the end there's not question that it's a movie with the strength of its convictions. I still can't believe it got made. I have high hopes for the sequel.
What kind of world is it where a Hess has the highest grossing movie of the year?
One I have hope for. That's what kind.
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| HOME Prime Video |
I'm a bit ashamed it took me so long to come around on this film. It's terrific. Gonzo and Rizzo are great. Michael Caine is excellent on every level. And little moments really matter. Like when Beaker gives Scrooge his scarf. What an astonishing moment. Yes, Caine nails his part—but so does Beaker. Whoever thought to make Beaker key to an emotional moment? Astonishing.
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| HOME Prime Video |
I really thought this summer would be the first time I saw a Superman movie in theaters. I did. But travel and more urgent (smaller, likely to disappear movies) prevented it from happening.
For the record, I admire Superman as a character and have read a goodly number of the comics, but I've only seen the first two (maybe three) of the Reeve film and the only time I saw the recent era was watching Justice League and Shazam (he does show up in the cafeteria) but—he wasn't in Flash, right? I can't remember.
The thing is, none of those are very good Superman movies. I do have some fondness for 1978 and Christopher Reeve is still probably the best Superman but, in my lil ole opinion, this is the first good Superman movie. I thought it was great. And it managed the rare superhero feat of having the save the world while having the stake remain, ultimately, personal.
I liked the side characters as well, but that's just where James Gunn's wheelhouse is. He's great at side characters. Guy Gardner is just as awful as he should be and Eve is a terrific scenestealer whose overthetopness helps make less developed characters like Jimmy Olsen more rounded.
Anyway, good stuff.
And I'm excited for the new Supergirl movie because I love the source material. It's superhero True Grit, yall. SUPERHERO TRUE GRIT.
Maybe I'll actually see it in theaters.
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| HOME Prime Video |
I am startled by how good this is. JK Simmons and Dwayne Johnson's opening repartee is when I knew, but the whole movie basically delivered on that promise. Sure, the chicken and the ogre's cg aren't top notch (but lots of stuff is practical, which I never would have guessed!) and the final action sequence is a bit muddied and has a couple physical cheats, but besides that it's about the perfect Christmas action movie. Look, I love Die Hard but it's not for preteens. This can be.
Anyway, it's delightful. I can easily imagine returning to this every year or so.
No wonder it's back on top of the Amazon rankings a year later. People liked it!
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| HOME our dvd then YouTube |
What a miserable viewing experience this was! Perhaps my favorite movie from one of my favorite franchises and at least fifteen years since I've seen any of them and apparently our disc has rotten making it impossible to watch past the halfway point so we have to finish watching it chopped up and sans murder. Awful way to introduce the Thin Man movies to our kids. Abysmal.
But it didn't stop me from loving Nick and Nora and watching (SPOILER ALERT) Jimmy Stewart be a bad guy.
And that's it! If we throw on a movie by 11:30pm December 31st we're calling that a 2026 movie!
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