Andrew POE!

The Beast is one I'll try to find tickets to see - only one theater in Atlanta is showing it so I'll have to go to Plaza Theater to see it. I can see Apple or Netflix spending the money to have Megalopolis on their services instead of it playing in theaters.

Movies on Friday Rebels of the Neon God (Mubi, leaving Wednesday) Monkey Man (saw at the theater)

John Hughes has a lot of other influences too - George Lucas from American Graffiti spring to mind for me for the teen movies and Fellini springs to mind as well for the Vacation movies he wrote, but I think it's more of the fact that he has "Chicago as a character" like Scorsese and Cassavetes have "New York City as a character" in their films. How he accomplishes it is vastly different - Cassavetes is more of a frame of reference than an actual influence like it was for Scorsese.

Yeah, I'll have to seek out the other Cassavetes movies. I'm not really a fan but at the same time there is a lot of what he does that I see in other movies later - I wonder if John Hughes' movies like The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles or Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Scorsese's movies like Casino and Goodfellas would be slightly different if it weren't for Cassavetes. Maybe it's a bit of a stretch for his influence. Criterion Channel has a few of his famous ones - although it's missing quite a few and missing most of his '80s work. Love Streams is part of Criterion collection but not on the channel yet. I may just need to get them on Blu Ray when I get a chance.

More movies today.... Lagaan (leaving Netflix next week) Rush (leaving Netflix next week) Stray Dogs (leaving Mubi next week)

It was thrown away for me with it's obvious Taxi Driver lifting except Travis Bickle inspired a bunch of people at the end.

More movies today... Whiplash (leaving Netflix at the end of the month) Husbands (leaving Criterion Channel at the end of the month)

I ended up getting a copy of Satantango on Blu Ray. I also got Happy Hour on Blu Ray too. Both of those movies together is over 13 hours of movies and a test of endurance and will. I still think about The Turin Horse after seeing it. I'm finding that for movies if I'm engrossed in it, I lose all sense of time. If it doesn't capture my interest or feels like work to watch, I don't bother (The Unspeakable Act was that for me until I finished. When Night Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism I couldn't even finish after over an hour). Although it's not remotely similar, Bela Tarr reminds me of Lars Von Trier in a lot of ways - both are about stretching the limits of filmmaking in different ways. Lars Von Trier seems to be about shocking his audience and commentary about the sad state of the world while Tarr shocks his audience differently with the commentary as well. I was surprised with Silver Linings Playbook because David O. Russell tends to be hit or miss with me. As I mentioned earlier, I loved American Hustle. Amsterdam was too disjointed for me. Yet Silver Linings Playbook stuck the landing and really committed to it despite some obvious shortcomings. I'll have to watch Joy as well. Jennifer Lawrence honestly seems to be the perfect actress for Russell - her characters always seem sure of themselves and aren't afraid to push back when they don't like something.

Buddy of mine is mad there isn't a statue or a lightsaber or an actual item for the Gold and Ultimate edition. I told him I thought this is basically Ubisoft's last shot as a publisher. He'll still get it day 1 though.

Movies today...having to turn in early due to an early start tomorrow. The Unspeakable Act (leaving Mubi next week) Femme (saw at the theater)

Movies today.... The Turin Horse (Mubi leaving next week) Silver Linings Playbook (Netflix leaving at the end of the month)

Sundowner is a poor choice of words (my bad on that due to the connotations). It's more accurate to say that if you are going out to enjoy nightlife in Atlanta, you won't find bars being accessible past 1 am. Most of them close at 2:30 am but half the time they are wrapping up for the night at 1 am.

Judging by how Brandi Rhodes did on the mic in AEW, she should be kept far far away from a mic in WWE. Although I dug the "HHH Conan The Barbarian" intro with Cody Rhodes as Homelander. Maybe next year he can get dudes in Revolutionary War outfits to fire muskets into the air for his intro. Or he comes out in a Captain America like outfit but close enough to not get sued by Disney.

Crowd was a lot hotter for this tonight. Drew McIntyre/Seth Rollins was a great match. I dug the finish and the cash-in (although I wonder if the belt got permanently devalued by McIntyre losing the title that quickly). 6 man tag match was a big bit of 'eh,' Styles/Knight was decent but forgettable, US title triple threat is probably Logan Paul's best match he's ever done (he actually did a lot of selling and he seems to let Orton/KO dictate the match and kept the ladder/table spots out), and Bayley/Sky was iffy at start but turned into a great match by the end. Reigns/Rhodes was fine until Reigns took over on offense and it lost me. The finish was a giant bit of sports entertainment (I legitimately thought that Jon Moxley was going to come out and attack Reigns) but it's fine that Cody Rhodes won I guess. I loved the part at the end where Cody Rhodes was hugging everyone he saw (even camera crew!). I was surprised that The Rock didn't turn on Reigns and Rock Bottom him for Cody but it's fine what they did.

Movies today... Jonaki (leaving Netflix next week) Once Upon A Time in Anatolia (leaving Mubi next week)

It is until they shut it down at 1 am because of city ordinances. Atlanta is a sundowner's town at this point.

I guess it worked. If someone can eat McDonald's long enough, they can be convinced it's filet mignon. Roman Reigns is boring, pedantic, and generic as a wrestler. His moves elicits no reaction. His promos elicit barely a reaction. You would think a heel on his level at this point would lead to the audience clamoring to climb over the railings to beat his ass whenever he does anything. Nope. Whatever fans he has point their index finger in the air when he does while the rest of the crowd sits on their hands and stare at their phones or begin to get up for a bathroom break. The Bloodline came to Philadelphia, took a shit in the ring, and that was the Rock/Roman vs Cody/Rollins match last night. Reigns is going to beat Cody tonight, sod off for the rest of the year, and maybe come back around Summerslam or Survivor Series to possibly face another wrestler about as dull and lifeless as he is at this point, Gunther. And the crowd will go mild. I hope I'm wrong and Cody does beat Reigns but I've seen this story before. It doesn't end well.

I don't know which is worse - watching the Usos match or getting food poisoning. Both are pretty miserable experiences.

The other thing I thought about with Rock/Reigns vs Cody/Rollins: to me, if the Rock busted Cody open on a Raw and it was physical at the press conference or on various Raws and Smackdowns, the match should have been absolutely unhinged. Rock should have given unprotected chairshots to the head (or received them). Cody or Rollins nearly get hung with a cable. All four guys should have been busted open. Hell, have Cody set a table on fire, or use skewers or use thumbtacks or borrowed a weedwacker from Jon Moxley's house. Instead, it was a standard tag match with Rock ordering the ref not to count him out or pulling him out of the ring to break up pin attempts. The gloves should have come off with the match but it didn't. Hopefully, Cody does this tomorrow night or something.

Movies today: Benediction (leaving Hulu on April 15) The First Omen (saw at a theater) Crimson Peak (leaving Netflix on April 15)

The crowd was dead almost all of the night. I missed the ladder match but they weren't enthused about the opener. They were alive for Gunther/Zayn finish, the Rock's entrance and his People's Elbow and that was it.

Jimmy Uso vs Jey Uso was the shittiest match I've ever seen. Both of those guys need to be in tag teams again asap. Or on a crappy fed in the middle of nowhere. Or hell, stick them on AEW. The only decent match on the card was Gunther vs Sami Zayn. Rock/Reigns vs Cody/Rollins was a bit 'eh' at times and felt way too long. Rock was overexposed and off-step. Reigns was overexposed and off step. Crowd was absolute garbage too. They were cheering for the Rock, mid on Cody, completely ignored Rollins and silent on Reigns except for his finisher. I almost want to think Rock was like, "I'm on the board damnit, I get the pin with the People's Elbow and the win or I walk" but I could be wrong.

Some more movies today.... The Plains (leaving Mubi on April 17) Viola (leaving Mubi on April 17) Wicked Little Letters (saw at the theater) Defending Your Life (leaving Criterion Channel at the end of the month)

I started on The Boy Friend (which came out the same year as The Devils) but just wasn't enjoying it. Marathon movie watching can be taxing at times lol especially if there's a time deadline. I don't really want to force myself to watch something - so if I'm not finding something interesting or not feeling it, I may skip the movie. Yeah, I'll have to track down the early Kubrick movies he did. I tried to watch Paths of Glory one time and it didn't click with me at all. Jealous about seeing a screening of A Clockwork Orange. That would have been wild to have seen in theaters when it first came out. Here's what I saw today: The Man Who Sold His Skin (earlier this week, it was leaving Hulu but now I'm not sure): Ministry of Fear (leaving Criterion at the end of the month) Sorry To Bother You (leaving Mubi next week)