Seen and not seen's, recommendations and queries on top films in general.

[absurdexposition]

Weekend viewing:

To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1985)
I love this movie more every time I see it.

The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)
Hadn't seen this in over a decade and it still hits hard. I wish I could forget it all and watch the Russian roulette scenes again for the first time. Intense.

Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995)
Another one I hadn't seen in a very long time. Meh.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981)
Always loved this when it was on TV in the '90s and it's still great.

[TS]

Weekend viewing:

To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1985)
I love this movie more every time I see it.

Absolutely. So fucking good. Rarely hear anyone talk about it, needs a rewatch!

Had a gander at:

Sweden: Heaven or Hell yesterday. While funny for its wild misrepresentation of Sweden, too damn long.

[NerveGas]

Possessor [dir. Brandon Cronenberg, 2020] - so at least in the US this is available on Amazon for streaming right now. My buddy and I watched the trailer once and decided we should watch it immediately. I know there's been some positive chatter here too. I really liked this on every level. There's definitely similarities with his father's work, but this didn't feel like there was a deep level of detachment between the characters and the events like so many Cronenberg films feel like (at least to me). I thought the performances were much more naturalistic and the writing was solid. The general premise and the visuals were fucking great. And goddamn was there a lot of violence and blood. Did not expect that! I was happy to see Jennifer Jason Leigh in another good movie too. She's really had some great roles in the last five years. This movie reminded me of eXistenz in which she co-starred too, which is just sort of a weird time repeating itself between the two Cronenbergs.   Anyway... I feel like this is a bad review for a good movie, so please just watch it!

Finally was able to see this, too, after some anticipation. To me it felt like eXistenZ meets Inception and, while it was certainly good, I can't say I loved it. It's a bit uneven and I had a hard time really connecting with it. I thought Antiviral was much better in that regard. And, like that film, there is this big tech/bio company looming overhead - a concept that links these to his father's work. Otherwise this seems pretty much like Cronenberg Jr's coming into his own and, yes, so much blood! Will await his next feature.

Solid film. By no means perfect, but considering the crap that comes out nowadays, well worth a watch. I can even forgive some of the Inception vibe. Definitely had a classic Cronenberg feel, but I felt like it stood on it's own. To be honest, I'm glad it had a bit of his dad's style to it since his old sci fi/body horror style is a thing of the past. Also, as you guys pointed out it was a lot more violent than expected. Bloody as hell.

About to watch The Iron Rose. As far as everything I have seen, Jean Rollin never dissapoints.

[holy ghost]

Here's my super boring fall/winter roundup of trash TV I've watched:

The Crown - GREAT season, Gillian Anderson plays a loathesome Margaret Thatcher pretty evenly. Very hard to separate the sexy older Gillian Anderson from The Fall from the Iron Lady. The woman who plays Princess Di is great. The Royals are awful but I enjoy this show a great deal.

Shitts Creek - I wish I could say I was hip to this before it won all the Emmys but I tend to ignore more domestic TV.... started it recently, I remember trying the first season which was a bit of a drag, each season gets progressively better and funnier.

The Undoing: Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman - I did NOT predict the ending! Very good and I appreciate how short it was.

Ratched - fucking awful. Barely made it through one episode and didn't go back. American Horror Story was a fun show and this, The Politician and that other show he made about Hollywood in the 30s have been pretty ass.

The Boys - watched one season. Pretty fun. I enjoyed it. It's an interesting take on the tired ass superhero genre but maybe not as revelatory as I think they intended.

The Void - really fun. Great HP Lovecraft inspired low budget horror. I had a great time. Lots of gore.

[holy ghost]

Oh, and The Queen's Gambit. That was great. A++++++++.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Tammy and The T-Rex (1994)

A high school teenager is murdered (Paul Walker) and a mad scientist steals his brain and puts it into an animatronic T-Rex. Nineties Hollywood trash with some young actors who become VERY well known later on. Surprisingly kind of gory and amazingly tongue in cheek. The scene where the mad doctor saws Paul Walker's scalp off to take out his brain is hilarious and violent for a Hollywood film. Denise Richard plays the girlfriend of Paul Walker / The T-Rex and tries to get his brain back into a human body so they can have a "normal" relationship again. I loved it.  

Actors:
Denise Richards
Paul Walker
Terry Kiser (Weekend at Bernie's and Friday the 13th VII)
John Franklin (Isaac in Children of the Corn)

[NerveGas]

Tammy and The T-Rex (1994)

A high school teenager is murdered (Paul Walker) and a mad scientist steals his brain and puts it into an animatronic T-Rex. Nineties Hollywood trash with some young actors who become VERY well known later on. Surprisingly kind of gory and amazingly tongue in cheek. The scene where the mad doctor saws Paul Walker's scalp off to take out his brain is hilarious and violent for a Hollywood film. Denise Richard plays the girlfriend of Paul Walker / The T-Rex and tries to get his brain back into a human body else's body so they can have a "normal" relationship again. I loved it.  

Actors:
Denise Richards
Paul Walker
Terry Riser (Weekend at Bernie's and Friday the 13th VII)
John Franklin (Isaac in Children of the Corn)

Saw that Vinegar Syndrome did a blu ray of this and was wondering what the fuck was up with it. Sounds intriguing. Going to have to check it out now!

[ConcreteMascara]

^^^ wow, I'm with NerveGas, I think I'll have to check that out now. Thanks for the for the review Fistfuck.    (gotta love forum handles)

so finally my friend who I watch movies with is out of quarantine and we're able to get back to to it.
Friday night
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter [dir. Paul W.S. Anderson, 2016] - we did it, we watched all of the RE movies. of course there's a reboot being filmed now but we'll deal with that when it comes out. Anyway, "The Final Chapter" was pretty much what I would have expected from the finale of a series that takes itself a little too seriously. There's an early exposition dump/plot set-up, then there's 1hr or more of action towards plot conclusion. Frankly the best bits were the most over the top ones: the Dr. Isaacs turned death cult leader, giant tanks leading swarms of zombies, the 6th use of the fucking laser hallway. But I was disappointed by the underuse of Ali Larter the sluggish speed of the film, in spite of all the action. Still, it was fun enough and I can honestly say I really enjoyed the series after watching all 6.  For what it's worth, here's my ranking of all 6:
1-Afterlife
2-Retribution
3-Extinction
4-Resident Evil
5-The Final Chapter
6-Apocalypse

Saturday night
Double Dragon [dir. James Yukich, 1994] - to start off our mission to watch all video game film adaptations we were supposed to watch Super Mario Bros but it wasn't streaming anywhere so this was next in line. Much more of a kids movie than a lot of later video game adaptations, I'm sure I would've loved this shit if I saw it when it came out. Watching it now, it plays like Escape from LA meets The Warriors meets Slime Time Live. Or something. There's race and crime politics, there are satirical TV broadcasts, there's Alyssa Milano looking thicc as fuck and the camera repeatedly leching over it, there's even an speedboat vs waverunner battle. For a movie based on a beat-em-up game there wasn't nearly enough beatings. But I would argue it's 100% worth a watch to see this batshit rendering of post-apocalypse LA made kid friendly and coming out like an action figure melted in the microwave. Truly bizarre stuff.

Robocop 2 [dir. Irvin Kershner, 1990] - I remember this being much better. I think the biggest problem isn't that it's a bit dumber or a little less bloody, it's the shitty pacing. Parts of this movie felt way too long and unnecessary. I was straight falling asleep by the end, and that's when the two Robocops fight! I should not but put into such a stupor I sleep through part of that. I thought the satire bits were still pretty good, but for the most part the script is just weak.

[Into_The_Void]

Watched yesterday Mania - cult spaghetti thriller from Renato Polselli, 1974. Plenty of cult splatter scene but the plot is terrible and the acting really mediocre. Overall worth to be watched, especially if you like the italian giallo - it´s a mega sought after cult between the spaghetti thriller fans - but otherwise wouldn´t recommend it.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

The Stuff (1985)
This movie works very well in tandem with They Live which I re-watched just before this. Over the top satire on consumer culture. A dessert like yogurt is mass marketed and distributed among an un-assuming population. The product seems to have some kind of mind controlling affect over those who consume it. Definitely an invasion of the body snatchers vibe. The Stuff heavily resembles Fluff, does anyone still eat that? Very minimal violence surprisingly, but a a few cool special effects scenes. I didn't like it as much as I expected to unfortunately but it had it's moments.

Capone (2020)
The film revolves around Al Capone's last year of syphilis induced paranoia and mental deterioration. I actually liked the idea of the film and there are enough actors involved that I enjoy that roped me in, however the completely ham fisted over-acting ruins it. This has to be Tom Hardy's worst performance by a country mile. Linda Cardellini had the most convincing supporting role as his wife. The second half of the film had some entertaining reality bending style scenes, but overall it was just terrible. One of the worst films I've seen in a long time.

[moozz]

The Turin Horse

Finally watched my first Bela Tarr movie. And I think my last. As one of his shorter works (only 2.5 hours) I'd imagine it is one of the "easiest" as well. Beautiful b/w cinematography but this is super boring. I do like some slower movies like Tarkovsky's Stalker but I do not find anything interesting in this one. Dialog is super minimal except for a 5 minute (or is it 1, 2 or 10 minutes, I don't know, time loses its meaning with a movie like this) rant by a guy who ran out of alcohol. If you are into horse riding/feeding, boiling and eating potatoes, (un)dressing, and walking in the wind then you're probably gonna love this.

[host body]

Finally got around to watching Possessor, the uncut version. I was both impressed and a little bit let down. Visual were excellent, some of the best looking gore I have ever seen. The premise was really good & the plot itself was interesting. I really liked the ending, too. What let me down was the pacing, which was shit and the main character who despite being interesting and transgressive (secret assassin mother doesn't feel anything towards her family and just wants to kill and torture, and in the end kills her own family to be free of them. She felt guilty about who she was and what she wanted, and shed herself of that guilt) had zero charisma and zero character growth or character development, which in a character driven story is baffling. She just kind of exists in the backround and her victim almost feels like the main character, only we know next to nothing about him and he's also not very interesting. The movie is so fucking slow that Cronenberg could have easily put in some more plot if he'd wanted to. Now it's almost like Cronenberg didn't really know what to do with the themes he had and instead concentrated on gorgeous visuals. Or maybe he took the story for granted, i don't know. Anyway, a missed opportunity but still a very enjoyable movie. Flawed but good.

[cr]

The Turin Horse

Finally watched my first Bela Tarr movie. And I think my last. As one of his shorter works (only 2.5 hours) I'd imagine it is one of the "easiest" as well. Beautiful b/w cinematography but this is super boring. I do like some slower movies like Tarkovsky's Stalker but I do not find anything interesting in this one. Dialog is super minimal except for a 5 minute (or is it 1, 2 or 10 minutes, I don't know, time loses its meaning with a movie like this) rant by a guy who ran out of alcohol. If you are into horse riding/feeding, boiling and eating potatoes, (un)dressing, and walking in the wind then you're probably gonna love this.

Thanks, great and interesting review. I think I loved the movie just for the reasons, you didn't like.

[absurdexposition]

Finally got around to watching Possessor, the uncut version. [...] What let me down was the pacing [...] character development

Felt the same way, although I'm not sure if I watched the uncut version or not?

The Turin Horse

Finally watched my first Bela Tarr movie. And I think my last. As one of his shorter works (only 2.5 hours) I'd imagine it is one of the "easiest" as well. Beautiful b/w cinematography but this is super boring. I do like some slower movies like Tarkovsky's Stalker but I do not find anything interesting in this one. Dialog is super minimal except for a 5 minute (or is it 1, 2 or 10 minutes, I don't know, time loses its meaning with a movie like this) rant by a guy who ran out of alcohol. If you are into horse riding/feeding, boiling and eating potatoes, (un)dressing, and walking in the wind then you're probably gonna love this.

Thanks, great and interesting review. I think I loved the movie just for the reasons, you didn't like.

Yeah, I thought it was an amazing movie.


After managing to make it to nearly 365 movies watched last year, I've been taking a bit of a breather to read and do other things. Still managed to knock a few out though:

Thief (Michael Mann, 1981) - Held off on watching this for years, and glad I waited. Not perfect, but still very good.

Blood Simple (Joel Coen, 1984) - Been at least a decade since I'd first/last watched this. Dark and violent.

Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) - Near perfect epitome of a western. Much more rewarding upon rewatch. There's a nice Morricone score, but I think his work for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is still my favourite.

The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) - Hail Bloody Sam.

Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs on the Road (Lars Movi, Steen Møller Rasmussen, 2007) - Seems like a school project more than a documentary with any sort of budget or depth. Non essential. Though, if more/full footage exists of the memorial Burroughs held for Allen Ginsberg in his backyard, with Burroughs reading Howl, I would like to see it.

Ballad of AJ Weberman (James Bluemel, Oliver Ralfe, 2006) - Documentary about the Bob Dylan-obsessive / garbage picker AJ Weberman. In the 70s he picked through Dylan's garbage to try and figure out what he perceived to be the hidden messages in his songs, and eventually would be paid by magazines to dig through garbage of other celebrities (he even got Nixon's trash). Worth it just to see the crazy people in his life that all seem way more out there than him (and he's out there). It's unreal.

[Potier]

Finally got around to watching Possessor, the uncut version.

I think there's generally some misunderstandings surrounding the title of the movie. From what I've read the Possessor Uncut is just an alternative title. There's only one version...