Movie 2023 MOVIE DISCUSSION THREAD

[odessasteps]

 

[J.H.]

The Killer was really enjoyable. I saw some compare it to Le Samourai but to me it felt like a Michael Mann homage. Like I got more a feel of Thief than anything else.

Maybe I'm offbase, but ovetall I really enjoyed it

James

[Curt McGirt]

!

Anyway, thank you for reminding me to watch this (they don't make you pay for it, do they?). 

[Dolfan in NYC]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

!

Anyway, thank you for reminding me to watch this (they don't make you pay for it, do they?). 

The Killer is available on Netflix now. No additional cost besides the subscription. 

But the other thing you'll need to see ASAP...

 

[Curt McGirt]

Go figure: I have just watched 20 minutes of Paul Verhoeven's Flesh + Blood on Tubi. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

I saw this tweet this morning and have been giggling at the mental image of it since:

G I R L  B R E A K F A S T

[Curt McGirt]

Hey! Richard Stanley's Hardware is an Xmas movie. Never knew that. 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Well, look what FINALLY got a 4K remaster:

One Night Only - Wednesday December 6th.

[Lawful Metal]

31 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Hey! Richard Stanley's Hardware is an Xmas movie. Never knew that. 

Oh shit is that streaming anywhere I love that shit

[odessasteps]

I always tell people to stop watching the Abyss when Ed Harris is at the bottom of the ocean and pretend that’s when the movie ends. 

[Tabe]

On 11/13/2023 at 9:02 AM, Dolfan in NYC said:

The Killer is available on Netflix now. No additional cost besides the subscription. 

But the other thing you'll need to see ASAP...

 

Respectfully, is Peter Weir having health issues? He looks a tad unwell there. 

I don't believe that story but I sure want it to be true. 

[Curt McGirt]

2 hours ago, Lawful Metal said:

Oh shit is that streaming anywhere I love that shit

Not Netflix (used to be, which is where I saw it ages ago), and Prime is being a dick to me right now. Not Tubi and not Dailymotion either! In fact I did the legwork and tried to find it streaming ANYWHERE and it's MIA. You can probably snag it off Soulseek easily enough if that's your thing. Might do that later, matter of fact...

[J.T.]

4 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Hey! Richard Stanley's Hardware is an Xmas movie. Never knew that. 

Of course it is and I have worn the Mark XIII hoodie that I got from Redbubble on Christmas Day every year for the past three years.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

4 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Hey! Richard Stanley's Hardware is an Xmas movie. Never knew that. 

Any movie is a holiday movie if you watch it during the holidays.

[J.T.]

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Not Netflix (used to be, which is where I saw it ages ago), and Prime is being a dick to me right now. Not Tubi and not Dailymotion either! In fact I did the legwork and tried to find it streaming ANYWHERE and it's MIA. You can probably snag it off Soulseek easily enough if that's your thing. Might do that later, matter of fact...

AFAIK, the original print was discontinued as the filmmakers lost a plagiarism lawsuit to Fleetway Comics a while back.  Apparently Hardware was too close in tone to a illustrated short story entitled "SHOK!" by Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill.  It appeared in Judge Dredd Annual 1981.   I am uncertain if Hardware was ever re-released with updated credits giving MacManus and O'Neill their props.

Edited November 14, 2023 by J.T.

[Curt McGirt]

Okay spoilsport, point taken. I just liked to be able to point to another non-traditional film set at Xmas that happens to be pretty gnarly. You always just get the goobers saying "Die Hard and Lethal Weapon" and that's it. 

After actually persusing some of the lists of films like that though, it's mostly a bunch of ick. Couple noirs (including LA Confidential) though. Maybe I could use the season to FINALLY watch In Bruges. 

Also, my apologies for bringing up the season in any way before it actually occurs.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

2 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Okay spoilsport, point taken. I just liked to be able to point to another non-traditional film set at Xmas that happens to be pretty gnarly. You always just get the goobers saying "Die Hard and Lethal Weapon" and that's it. 

After actually persusing some of the lists of films like that though, it's mostly a bunch of ick. Couple noirs (including LA Confidential) though. Maybe I could use the season to FINALLY watch In Bruges. 

Also, my apologies for bringing up the season in any way before it actually occurs.

Oh! No! I was encouraging us to break free from this paradigm of what defines a holiday movie! Take it to the goobers! (Goodness knows I do.)

And yes, watch In Bruges, it's very good.

[Curt McGirt]

1 minute ago, J.T. said:

AFAIK, the original print was discontinued as the filmmakers lost a plagiarism lawsuit to Fleetway Comics a while back.  Apparently Hardware was too close in tone to a illustrated short story entitled "SHOK!" by Steve MacManus and Kevin O'Neill.  It appeared in Judge Dredd Annual 1981.   I am uncertain if Hardware was ever re-released with updated credits giving MacManus and O'Neill their props.

They paid them a five figure sum and gave them credit in the credits over the lawsuit. It was discussed in one of the CFQs I'm reading. If there was a second lawsuit after the fact, I dunno; Wiki said "continual legal issues" kept it from finally gettting a DVD release until Severin's in 2009. 

[Curt McGirt]

Just now, Sparkleface said:

Oh! No! I was encouraging us to break free from this paradigm of what defines a holiday movie! Take it to the goobers! (Goodness knows I do.)

And yes, watch In Bruges, it's very good.

It's cool I was just being cheeky  People really should watch whatever makes them happiest over the holidays, period. Fuck knows it's disgusting and stressful enough.

[J.T.]

7 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

They paid them a five figure sum and gave them credit in the credits over the lawsuit. It was discussed in one of the CFQs I'm reading. If there was a second lawsuit after the fact, I dunno; Wiki said "continual legal issues" kept it from finally gettting a DVD release until Severin's in 2009. 

Time to pop in some PiL on my Spotify until I can watch the glorious end credits on my 4K UHD if they ever get around to making a remastered version.

 

The re-release in 2009 was unrated, thank God.

Edited November 14, 2023 by J.T.

[Contentious C]

I've been posting some of these reviews - or writing them up sooner, or making ridiculous jokes - on Letterboxd lately, so if you want to follow along with that, you can go here:

https://letterboxd.com/contentiousc/

Anyway.

Beastie Boys Story - Well, this is all right.  It sure as shit makes me miss Yauch that much more, which was something that pops into my brain about once a month anyway, so, that sorta sucked.  But the movie is just OK; it's similar to a Broadway one-(or in this case two-)man show, and if you've seen one of those, you've kinda seen them all.  A lot of that stuff strives for profundity and rarely finds it.  What this does manage in the profundity department is largely because MCA is gone, and the others can muse on what they believed about him.  Good for a trip over to Nostalgiaville, and at least I've had nothing but their songs in my head for the last week, which, as earworm-sensitive as I am, is a blessing.

Lost Angels - And Adam Horovitz told me not to watch his screen debut, but damn if you can't find it if you look!  This is...not good.  It isn't really his fault, per se, as he's OK-ish, especially for a first-time actor.  It's just that this kind of story has been done better, not to mention done to death.  This isn't as dark and brooding and icky as Less Than Zero, nor is it as true-to-life and gritty as Manic.  And both of those films feature much better actors across the board.  Plus the whole style of the movie is a little off, like it's set in the 50s instead of modern-day L.A.  But Amy Locane made her screen debut here as well and is considerably better than Adrock (though she was underaged when the movie was shot and yet she has a pair of fairly racy sex scenes, so, all class over at Orion Studios).  Donald Sutherland is probably the closest thing to a strong point about the film, so you may like that, but it doesn't have much else to redeem it.

Finch - The Last of Us (Until We Build Our Own Comic Relief).

Seriously, though, Cancer Victim, Lovable Dog, and Naive Robot are the Emotional Blackmail Trifecta, so if you couldn't get something good out of this, there's no point to trying anything else. Add to that the subtle way Caleb Landry Jones' actual voice takes over the robotic voice as the movie wears on. But this isn't in the same stratosphere as WALL-E, even if it's fine and it's certainly a quieter take on apocalypse movies (though just as shot through with the silly notion of 'Do more with your life'; where do you think all the privation and environmental problems came from, too many fucking consumers and tourists, perhaps?).  But I'm more than a little done with Tom Hanks these days.  Pick someone else to be the old guy everyone is supposed to relate to.

Freeway - OK, I picked this entirely because I saw Natasha Lyonne listed as the star of a movie called, I shit you not, Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby.  That title was so preposterous it instantly went on my to-do list, but I figured I should watch this first instead.  So here's what I posted to LB.

Yes, it's possible to be clueless and perceptive; shoddy and insightful; totally overdone and strangely compelling; too hot, too cold, and just right all at once. If ever a movie threaded that needle, it's this one.

The opening credits might give you the idea that it's going to be full-on exploitation in quality, and there are certainly more than a few moments where the turns it makes towards that type of filmmaking are a detriment (such as the entire prison break scene). And casting Amanda Plummer, Kiefer Sutherland, and Reese Witherspoon in such barking-mad roles can sometimes seem as overcooked as it is ingenious. But this pulls off an unusual feat along the way, especially for what seems like 'merely' a gory, over-the-top, allegedly modern retelling of a children's story.

What this really does is tear the top off the fable and get at the heart of the meaning behind it. Predators are everywhere, and "Red Riding Hood" is as much a story for children as it is a warning to parents: if your all-too-young children meet the wrong people, they won't be so lucky as to bump into a hero along the way, so make sure they don't ever end up in that position. In that respect, this film doesn't update anything, doesn't modernize anything; it simply stops lying about the intent behind the fable while also sticking to the story as people know it. The most modern twist to the concept is the willingness to point out how frequently parents can be some of the wrong people.

Of course, sticking to the story is also where it flies the furthest off the rails; its insistence on telling the whole story, as it's expected to be told, leads it through a series of choices (and plot holes) that fritter away practically all of its tension, especially when it had been built up quite well in the car scene Witherspoon and Sutherland act the Hell out of. It leans too hard into tropes, repetition, and revenge fantasy to keep up any real sense of suspense past the first half.

But hey, it'll get you thinking.

Bones and All - This is almost the polar opposite of Freeway, I don't think there's a single laugh the whole movie that's intentional.  And this wouldn't work in any sort of remotely serious manner if the leads didn't behave so matter-of-factly about what their lives entail and what's waiting for them as they (try to) face down their future. It's a rare case where playing nearly anything for laughs seems like it would collapse the entire house of cards, and so it lacks that crucial amount of leavening to make it all the more terrifying. Sure the concept is...a lot...but the best premise is nothing without execution. And this is most of the way, but not all the way there.

But!  Having said that, I came up with probably 15 different jokes to make about the movie as I watched it, so I'm going to post Bonus Weekly Reviews to Letterboxd.  Here was this week's:

"The Girl with One Gift, and It's That She Can Smell Timothée Chalamet from a Mile Away"

Edited November 17, 2023 by Contentious C

[(BP)]

Freeway II is one of those sequels that’s basically a remake of the first one, but it’s based on Hansel and Gretel, and Lyonne totally gets the tone. I haven’t seen it in like 20 years, but there’s a “twist” that wouldn’t be acceptable today in any movie unless it was financed by Moms 4 Liberty. 

The writer/director of those movies seemed like he would be a fresh new voice in genre cinema, but after Freeway II he made Tiptoes, and that was a wrap on his career. 

 

[Curt McGirt]

Matthew Bright did Ted Bundy so he's cool by me, I guess. That features two of the unintentionally funniest scenes ever: 1. Ted jerking off outside the girl's window and getting water dumped on him from the upstairs neighbor, and 2. Ted pulling up to a shopping center and stealing a giant potted plant, putting it in the trunk of his VW Bug and driving off in broad daylight. 

[Ace]

On 11/12/2023 at 1:15 PM, driver said:

Hard Rock Zombies, this little gem from 1985 has zombies, a rock band and a rock band full of zombies, plus a whole lot more(including a lot of run time padding). It's like a fever dream.

A friend has it on DVD and showed it to me originally 15 years ago.

 

[Lawful Metal]

Dreamin' Wild. 

Fascinating story, fabulously acted, kinda bizarre movie.  If it played it straight, yeah, might be a lifetime movie of the week.  But with bizarro flashbacks, fades to distorted talking indicating some kind of mental illness, yeah, bizarre.  Two brothers (well, one brother, the other one just played the drums) writes a bunch of really great songs.  Dad goes into major debt to finance their dream of making an album.  Album is GORGEOUS.  Just beautiful music.  They have no idea how to market said album.  Album sells nothing.  Goes into more debt to make another album.  Basically lose the farm, nothing ever happens ever again.  30 years later, some hipster discovers the album, some A&R guy shows up at their door and wants to reissue.  Album goes "viral" gets NYT piece, 8.0 out of 10.0 on Pitchfork, big show at the Show Box in Seattle.  It's amazing.  As a movie, yeah, some of the choices are absolutely weird.  But listen to this song:

Acting performances by Casey Affleck, Walton Goggins, Zooey Deschanel and Beau Bridges are absolutely wasted.  Still loved it for a lot of the wholesomeness throughout, and the music is just GORGEOUS.