[olderthanIusedtobe]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Randomly get sneak peak limited time premium movie channels, don't even know it's happening unless I channel surf well beyond the normal range. Have Starz or something currently, caught most of "Summer School" a few days ago. Pretty classic 80's lightweight comedy w/ a really young Mark Harmon and Kirstie Alley and even younger Courtney Thorne-Smith. Good for some nostalgia and some chuckles. Saw the remake of "Ghost in the Shell" last year. It mostly gets trashed and the usual "not nearly as good as the original." I'd seen the anime version way back when, couldn't really remember it, watched it recently. I'd have to say I just don't get the hype about it. Some rambling philosophical mumbo jumbo. Horrible, no talent actors hired to do the English dubbing. I really don't get establishing panoramic shots or lingering zoom ins of a character's face showing zero emotion or anything else w/ an animated film. What is the point of that? And a really abrupt ending. The remake wasn't great but I thought it was entertaining. The original is a film that I just don't understand the reverence for.

[Malachai Constant]

Saw The POST, A serious Man, and Greatest Showman on a plane yesterday all ok but not great first palid imitaion of all the presidents men, second a lesser Coen like a Woody Allen flick last an ok musical. Kept mebbusy all week.

[Backpacker Joe]

Watched "Everest" again. I wonder why it was so one sided? Not just in favor of Rob Hall, but seemingly anti Scott Fischer???

[Ski]

"Diary of a Lost Girl" © 1929 Directed by G.W. Pabst - Starring Louise Brooks Arguably one of Brooks' best films, her second collaboration with Pabst. While Fatty Arbuckle and Harold Lloyd were clowning around on celluloid so American audiences could yuck it up at the theaters, the quintessential flapper Ms. Brooks and Georg Pabst were creating something a bit more thought provoking. Digitally restored with a new soundtrack in DVD format.

Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (Diary of a Lost Girl)

[Ski]

"Dead for a Dollar" aka "Trusting is Good... Shooting is Better" aka T'ammazzo!... Raccomandati a Dio" © 1968 Directed by Osvaldo Civirani - Starring George Hilton, John Ireland, Piero Vida, and Sandra Milo It's a given that none of the rip-off Spaghetti Westerns that tried to cash in on the successes of Leone's and Corbucci's genius are up to the same level. Some are better than others. Some, like "Dead for a Dollar", go out of their way to be just flat out weird. As with most of this genre, the over-dubbing is atrocious, the acting could have been done as well by wooden cigar-store Indians, the fist fights are painfully long and ridiculous, and the soundtrack has been described as "something you'd expect to hear on a Saturday morning cartoon show." It is, nonetheless, memorable for its brief, inexplicable, and over-the-top bizarre turkey-eating orgy at the end - a scene that might have fit well in "La Grande Bouffe". Not as good as "My Name is Nobody" (© 1973) and certainly not "The Unholy Four" (© 1970) but far better than "Any Gun Can Play' (© 1967) or the truly awful "Dead Men Don't Make Shadows" (© 1973) (* all of which can be found with at least two or three different titles.) All the above are on YouTube for your viewing pleasure (or for the purpose of driving an unwanted room-mate out, depending upon your motives.) Don't forget that the original and incomparable "Django" © 1966 directed by Sergio Corbucci - starring Franco Nero - is still up on YouTube!

Django

Django - © 1966 Sergio Corbucci - starring Franco Nero

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I finally saw "Hidden Figures" recently. Really good, as pretty much everyone else has said. Good acting performances throughout. Seems like Kevin Costner is having a career renaissance. I've seen him several times in supporting roles and I think he's doing the best acting of his career.

[NacMacFeegle]

Odd as it may seem I'm really enjoying Ash vs the Evil Dead. I normally can't stand this kind of gory horror film, but it's so genuinely funny, well written and acted, that I find myself really drawn into it. Also, it's so incredibly over the top that what I would regularly find unbearable to watch becomes part of the dark comedy. This is aided by the fact that the lead character acts so nonchalant about everything, and even secondary characters (the ones that aren't killed off in short order) rapidly become accepting of the carnage constantly occurring around them. I think that because the characters are so accepting of the horror the viewer is not so bothered by it. With that said, some of the creatures depicted in this show has given me actual nightmares!

[GaliWalker]

Many years ago I started watching the interesting looking animated movie, "Cats & Dogs". And it was interesting...for the first 10min, after which the novelty wore off and the joke got old fast. I stopped watching soon after. I went to see Deadpool 2 a few days ago and was quite apprehensive that I was in for the Cats & Dogs treatment. Not so! The movie remained funny and enjoyable throughout, despite the fact that the novelty had worn off. It might even have been a better, more cohesive movie than the first one (although, obviously, it no longer has the element of surprise going for it).

[MtnGoat]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I saw Bubba Ho-Tep years ago. Don't remember much about it, but I was definitely entertained and I give it high marks for being something original and different.

[gb]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

"Ready Player One" finally made it to the Crest Theater, I've kinda been waiting for that. Saw it the other day. Enjoyable, some fairly gonzo CGI scenes with all kinds of mayhem going on. It was different enough from the book I'd almost call it an in name only adaptation. That's probably not quite true but some significant departures.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Saw the final installment of the Maze Runner series recently. The movies were so spread out (and I haven't watched them repeatedly) that I kind of forgot what happened previously or who some of the characters were. Fairly good straight forward action movie, really amped things up from the previous films. Seemed like a fitting conclusion. I think the era of adaptations of YA dystopian sci fi lit trilogies is probably officially over now. Fun while it lasted but has been getting significantly diminished returns for quite some time. Even the behemoth Hunger Games franchise lost some steam at the end and the other franchises never came close to equaling its box office success.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

"Thoroughbreds" was slow paced and kind of uneven, but had some good, if disturbing, performances. If you are a fan of Olivia Cooke and/or Anya Taylor Joy it's probably worth watching. Yet another posthumous appearance for Anton Yelchin. Every time I think I've seen the last film he appeared in, he's in another one. Watching some of the extra features, it's a trip hearing Olivia's natural voice. She's British. I think everything I've seen her in is with an American accent which she pulls off flawlessly.