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LawrenceA
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Posts posted by LawrenceA
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Better Watch Out (2016) - 6/10
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It's the Christmas season, and the parents of 12-year-old Luke (Levi Miller) are headed to a party, so they hire regular babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) to watch him for the night. Luke's had a crush on Ashley for a long time, and as she's set to move away soon, he's determined to make their last together memorable. However, everyone's plans are upended when mysterious intruders begin to menace Luke and Ashley. Also featuring Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton, and Dacre Montgomery.
This starts out as any of a number of home-invasion thrillers, with the Christmas setting adding the only flavor. Then there's a big twist that changes the movie completely, which I won't go into to avoid spoilers. I thought it was reasonably well executed, and the cast is mostly up to the challenge. DeJonge and Oxenbould had previously played siblings in The Visit (2015).
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Mayhem (2017) - 6/10
The people inside of the high-rise offices of a mega legal firm become infected with a virus that causes emotional instability and violent outbursts, resulting in the building being quarantined with everyone inside. Mid-level associate Derek (Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead), who has just been fired due to inter-office backstabbing, and disgruntled former client Melanie (Samara Weaving), team-up to seek revenge on the upper-level management. With Caroline Chikezie, Steven Brand, Dallas Roberts, and Kerry Fox.
This is played as a black comedy, and it's only marginally successful, mainly due to the appeal of Yeun and Weaving.
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The Furies (2019) - 4/10
Australian horror with Airlie Dodds as Kayla, one of a several young women who are kidnapped from the city and deposited in the middle of the barren wilderness where they are hunted by speechless masked killers. Kayla soon begins to suspect that something else is happening beyond the obvious killing spree.
This has a muddled feminist message buried under a lot of gore and poor writing. The characters are barely sketched out, and the eventual "twist" reveal is dumb and goes nowhere.
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Scorsese can also add Goodfellas (Lorraine Bracco's Oscar-nominated turn) to his films that feature strong female characterizations. Cathy Moriarty was also nominated for Raging Bull, as was Jodie Foster for Taxi Driver, and Juliette Lewis for Cape Fear. And Cate Blanchett won an Oscar for The Aviator. Vera Farmiga was very good in The Departed, Liza Minelli had one of her better showcases in New York, New York, and Sandra Bernhard almost stole The King of Comedy.
So yeah, that reporter can shove his question up his nose.
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You Might Be the Killer (2018) - 6/10
Horror comedy/slasher film send-up, with Fran Kranz (Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods) as Sam, the bumbling head of a kids summer camp. As the film opens, Sam is covered in blood and one of the few survivors of a massacre committed by a mysterious masked killer. He calls his best friend Chuck (Alyson Hannigan, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and How I Met Your Mother), a pop-culture expert, for tips on how to survive. However, Sam and Chuck soon come to the conclusion that Sam himself may be the murderer, which makes things complicated.
I'm getting a bit bored with slasher-movie parodies and homages; Scream covered most of the bases 20 years ago, and other recent comedies like The Final Girls (2015) or this season's iteration of American Horror Story have sufficiently mined the sub-genre for all it's worth. However, Kranz makes for a humorous lead, and the story adds one or two unique details.
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Monster Party (2018) - 4/10
A trio of young thieves (Sam Strike, Virginia Gardner and Brandon Michael Hall) plot to rob a wealthy family's residence. They pose as temporary waitstaff for a dinner party the family is holding. The surprise comes when the would-be thieves discover that the family and their guests are all serial murderers who are part of support group to keep them on the straight and narrow. But wouldn't you know it, one of them falls off the wagon, so to speak, and it becomes a nightmare struggle for the survivors to escape. With Robin Tunney, Julian McMahon, Erin Moriarty, and Lance Reddick.
Once again, the concept is a combination of other, better films. There's the young thieves encountering more than they bargained for from Don't Breathe and The Collector; the posh-setting and fractured family dynamic of the first Purge movie or You're Next; and even a bit of People Under the Stairs thrown in. The cast is good, but the script is weak, and the filmmaking is atrocious, with bad editing, terrible music, and very cheap make-up effects (the blood looks like watered-down Kool Aid).
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Summer of 84 (2018) - 6/10
Canadian coming-of-age drama/thriller about a quartet of teen boys during the title season who come to believe that a series of murders may be the work of their friendly neighborhood policeman Wayne Mackey (Rich Sommer). As the boys investigate the cop's every move, they may find themselves in more danger than they realize.
This plays like a mash-up of other, better things. There's the mid-80's nostalgia and kids-on-a-mission of Stranger Things, the teen bro-bonding of Stand By Me, and the killer watched by neighbor of Disturbia, which of course was just a teen version of Rear Window, etc. etc. I really didn't care for the uninspired, overly-derivative first half of this, but it gets better, and the ending was surprising and memorable.
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Lizzie (2018) - 6/10
It's the old Lizzie Borden story again. Lizzie (Chloe Sevigny) is a headstrong, independent young woman in 1890's Massachusetts. She's frequently at odds with her conservative father (Jamey Sheridan) and stepmother (Fiona Shaw), but Lizzie makes a quick bond with new Irish-immigrant housemaid Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart). Also featuring Kim Dickens and Denis O'Hare.
The film's heavily-fictionalized story leaves no question as to the culprit of the infamous double murder. Sevigny, for whom this was a long-gestating passion project, is good in the lead, if a bit too old at 42. Stewart is passable, although she's not given a lot to work with. The film is very low key, and avoids shock until the final act. I wouldn't really consider this horror, either, even if the murders are gruesome, but I watched this on the Shudder horror channel, so here it is.
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I wonder if they made a month's schedule using only movies that were nominated or won an Oscar, but didn't advertise it as such, just releasing the schedule, if anyone would notice. I don't think there'd be a huge difference from any other month's schedule, although I don't know if there's a single star with enough nominated/winning Oscar films to fill out a Star-of-the-Month spotlight. Or any TCM Underground. Maybe.
Someone with the time and inclination should list all of the Oscar movies from 1927 through 1970 that have never been on TCM.
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12 minutes ago, John Louis Gerdes said:
The link for "Suggest a Movie" is there, but to access it, you first have to access the "Message Board" link. I just tried it, but unfortunately, it does not seem to be active at the moment. Is is a temporary glitch with the site or is it permanently discontinued as you've indicated?
It's been inactive for a long time. There are a few threads about it around here somewhere, probably down in the "Problems with TCM.com" section. In all likelihood it's been deactivated for good.
http://forums.tcm.com/topic/261460-suggest-a-movie-log-in-is-broken/
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1 minute ago, alcr1 said:
Anyone remember a sci-fi film with a guy wearing a dark suit and sunglasses, and then he takes off the sunglasses and his eyes are all white -- no pupils, no irises? That's about all I remember of it. I think he was outdoors when he did this. Seem to remember he was heavyset. Sorry I don't have more clues! I saw it on one of those "creature features" or "thriller" shows when I was a kid. Thanks in advance.
Sounds like
Not of This Earth (1957) - Paul Birch was the alien.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_of_This_Earth_(1957_film)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050778/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2
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2 minutes ago, John Louis Gerdes said:
Hello all, TCM loves showing these three movies from time to time: "Ivanhoe", "The Knights of the Round Table" and "The Adventure of Robin Hood". Justifiably so, for these three movies are great! That said, I am wondering why TCM does not seem to be interested in showing another great movie of the same genre, "Prince Valiant" (Robert Wagner, James Masson). I believe this movie was first released in 1954. Perhaps I should put on a request for that film....???
It's a Fox movie, and TCM doesn't show that studio's stuff often. It was also frequently shown on the Fox Movie Channel, or FXM Retro, whatever it's called now.
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Incident in a Ghostland (2018) - 6/10
Canadian horror from director Pascal Laugier (Martyrs). A mother (Myelene Farmer) and her two young daughters Beth (Emilia Jones) and Vera (Taylor Hickson) travel to their new, secluded home out in the country. They are followed there by a pair of psychos in an ice cream truck. The sinister duo attacks them, leaving the family scarred or worse. Many years later, adult Beth (Crystal Reed) is a successful horror novelist with a loving husband and a young son. Circumstances lead her to return to the family home, where her mother cares for the psychologically damaged Vera (Anastasia Phillips), who claims that evil forces continue to torment her.
The narrative plays around with reality, so the viewer isn't sure what's real and what isn't. The acting is good, but the antagonists are nothing that you haven't seen in a hundred other psychos-on-the-loose stories. The film has a low-budget quality that's surprising given Laugier's previously polished works. Still, one could do much worse than this semi-successful thriller.
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46 minutes ago, skimpole said:
3. Personal Shopper Oliver Assayas, France
I couldn't recall how much of that was in French. I'll add it to my list.
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The first film is also filled with infinitely-quotable lines. I don't know how many times I've greeted a friend with this Exorcist quote - "Your mother sucks **** in Hell, (insert friend's name)!"
"The power of Christ compels you!" was also a frequently repeated chant during marathon drinking sessions.
Or telling a soon-to-be-traveling friend, "You're gonna die up there", followed by whizzing on the floor.
Good times!
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1 minute ago, rtoast said:
Can anyone help me identify the song that’s playing near the end of the Robert Ryan movie The Set-Up? It plays as he staggers down the alley. Siri doesn’t know and neither does Shazam, but it’s a well-known song from the 1940s. Thanks so much!!
Is it any of the ones listed on IMDb?
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15 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:
Wasn't Burton spouting some jibberish line in that one?
He did say: " Pazuzu, king of the evil spirits of the air, help me to find Kokumo!"
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58 minutes ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
Love this line: "the second one a veritable Mount Olympus of goofiness": This is true of course but as you note the first one has a mostly positive critical reputation. It was made to be taken as a serious film, while the 2nd one,,,, well,,,, I have to assume the producers knew the type of turkey they were making.
I really should break out my Blu ray of the second one and watch it again (it came with the box set). I haven't seen it in probably 25 years or more. Part of it's turkey reputation came from the heightened expectations from the first one's success, and the people assembled to make the second one. Director John Boorman had great acclaim for helming Deliverance, but I guess they forgot that he also made the Zardoz. Adding Richard Burton, James Earl Jones, Louise Fletcher (who'd just won an Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Ned Beatty, and Paul Henreid brought more prestige, and figuring out a way to bring back Max Von Sydow was also a plus. However, the result was one of the strangest misfires of the decade.
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1 hour ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
oh well, the second one isn't good by any means, but I don't think I'd put EXORCIST II in the WORST OF THE WORST category that it used to so often be (a la ISHTAR and such), granted I saw it MANY YEARS after it came out and had zero expectations, so again- sometimes the context in which you watch a movie can make all the difference in the world.
I sincerely hope you didn't take my comments to be a knock on you. You're one of my faves around here.
My comments seem to be engendering a lot of hostility or displeasure from a number of people around here, and I'm not sure why. It's one of the reasons that I don't post as often as I once did (I know, I know - some people wish that it were a lot less). Most likely I'm just very poor at expressing myself. Or maybe it's that many people are only looking for positive reinforcement with no disagreement. Personally, I've been lectured more than once on here by people who say that they're all for disagreement in opinions, but I don't see that being the reality, unless they're the ones doing the disagreeing. I'm not referring to you here, Lorna, but if they bother to read this, the persons to whom I am referring will know who they are.
There are a few people to whom I will be ill-tempered with because I straight-up just don't like them at all, and a few more who I wish would just go away, but for the most part I attempt to be civil and courteous, and more often than not, tongue-in-cheek and good-humored. Which is how I hope you took my previous comments.
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30 minutes ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
Like my avatar says; nothing is as bad as something not-so-bad.
As for the first movie: I found it to be mostly corny and camp (but I find most horror to be that way).
Yeah, you were one of the people I was thinking of when I recalled that some around here had voiced disliking the movie in the past.
My point to Lorna was that if one found the first movie goofy, then I would have expected them to find the second one a veritable Mount Olympus of goofiness. However, I suppose since the first one has a much greater critical reputation, while the second one is often cited as one of the all-time turkeys, it's easier to see someone being disappointed in the first and surprised by the second.
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If you can say that the first one was "awfully goofy", and yet think the second one was "not that bad", then yeah, you're wired differently.
But I seem to recall several people on here voicing dislike of the first movie.
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2016
- Train to Busan, Sang-ho Yeon, South Korea
- The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi, Iran
- Personal Shopper, Olivier Assayas, France
- The Handmaiden, Chan-wook Park, South Korea
- The Wailing, Hong-jin Na, South Korea
- Raw, Julia Ducournau, France
- Operation Mekong, Dante Lam, China
- Elle, Paul Verhoeven, France
I've also seen:
- Shin Godzilla, Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi, Japan
- Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari, Iran
- Shelley, Ali Abbasi, Denmark/Sweden
- Headshot, Kimo Stambeol & Timo Tjahjanto, Indonesia
- Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany
- Bad Black, I.G.G. Nabwana, Uganda
1001 Movies You Must See
- The Handmaiden, Chan-wook Park, South Korea
- Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany
- Under the Shadow, Babak Anvari, Iran
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Scary Movie (1991) - 5/10
Not to be confused with the later Wayans brothers comedies, this is a very low-budget regional horror flick from Austin, Texas. It's Halloween night, and frightened wimp Warren (John Hawkes) goes with his friend and two gals to a "haunted house" attraction, the kind of do-it-yourself fright show amusements that used to be ubiquitous around Halloween, often run by civic groups who donated proceeds to charity. Anyway, on this same night a notorious serial killer escapes from custody and makes his way to the spookshow, where he poses as one of the masked participants. Also featuring Butch Patrick as a bully, big Robert Jacks (who would go on to play Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation) as a thug, Suzanne Aldrich as Warren's oddball date, and Ev Lunning as the sheriff.
This is very cheap, but it's evocative of the season, and I liked the spookshow attraction setting. I worked in a few in my youth, and even designed and built one with some friends one year. It was a lot of fun. Hawkes, who would later go on to a much bigger career including an Oscar nod for 2011's Winter's Bone, is described on the cover insert as "channeling a mix of Buster Keaton and Crispin Glover." I can see that, with a little Don Knotts thrown in for good measure. The movie is more light in tone than scary, although it's not a straight-up farce, either. The cover insert also states that the film never received distribution, and is only now being widely seen, thanks to the AGFA Blu-ray released just a couple of weeks ago.
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5 minutes ago, Princess of Tap said:
SCTV-'- one of my all-time favorite TV series. SNL had singular talents at different times, but in general the show never came close to this Canadian gem.
I have the SCTV DVD box sets. On one of them, there are lengthy interviews with the cast and writers. When the inevitable comparisons to SNL are brought up, one of them, I think Dave Thomas, said that it really isn't fair to compare the two, as they were made very differently. SNL writes all of its sketches in a 2 or 3 day marathon before the show night, with attempts made to tailor to them that week's host and their strengths and weaknesses. Then they rehearse them only two or three times, and before performing them live with no re-takes possible.
On the other hand, SCTV was a filmed show with no rushed deadlines, and they had a lot longer to get the writing polished and the performances just right before putting them on film/tape.
I agree that SCTV was a funnier show sketch-for-sketch, but they had a lot of advantages to achieve such success that the SNL people didn't and still don't.
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Recently Watched Horror
in Horror
Posted
Jeruzalem (2015) - 4/10
Found-footage horror features two American friends, Sarah (Danielle Jadelyn) and Rachel (Yael Grobglas), who travel to Israel on vacation. They meet charming archaeologist Kevin (Yon Tumarkin) on the plane, and he convinces the pair to travel with him to Jerusalem instead of their intended destination, Tel Aviv. What starts out as an adventure in an exotic land turns diabolical when demons begin to emerge all over the old city, slaughtering hundreds, and trapping the survivors within the quarantined walls.
This Israeli feature could have been something with a larger budget and a few more passes at the script. The visual conceit, that everything shown is viewed through Sarah's Google Glass headgear, works well enough within the found-footage convention. Unfortunately things get tedious and frequently incoherent towards the end.