October’s Movies of the Month - Horror 

Number 216 in my A-Z watch. Two NYPD detectives, considered jokes in their precinct, discover a massive embezzlement scheme that they have to thwart.

This movie is immediately ridiculous, and i love it. It runs on the tail end of the great Frat Pack/improv style of film comedy that director Adam McKay and fellow filmmakers like Todd Phillips and Judd Apatow helped to establish in the early-mid 2000s.

I was surprised at how good of a classic buddy cop film this was. It's full of tropes that feel like they're being used sarcastically, but still do well to help move the story. And the chemistry between Wahlberg and Ferrell is fantastic. Wahlberg may not keep up on the ad-lib comedy that's second nature to Ferrell, but he definitely delivers his share of hilarious punchlines.

8.5/10 I still find myself laughing out loud. You can really see where McKay's mind was a handful of years before he released The Big Short. And let's not sleep on a surprisingly killer soundtrack.

Time Bandits has been on my list for a while. I'm a fan of weird movies, and this cult classic has a reputation. I had watched parts of it as a kid in the 90's when my parents rented it, but in spite of this being largely about a child's approach to the fantastical, I don't think I was ever going to understand this movie as an actual child.

The movie follows a young boy named Kevin with parents who seem to only want to watch television, drool over fancy kitchen appliances, and tell the boy to be quiet. The boy discovers that his wardrobe is a sort of time portal, and a group of little people (the actual movie calls them dwarfs, but I do not want to get hung up on how that term has evolved since '81) pull him into the past. They are using a stolen map to rob riches, while running from the supreme being that they stole the map from. They go on numerous adventures in different periods of time and fantasy realms.

Some spoilers below.

While Kevin enjoys adventure, he's generally anxious to get back to his parents. He does want to stay in ancient Greece with Agamemnon, seemingly because Agamemnon gives him attention and affection, unlike his parents who ignore or berate him or the bandits who see him as a means to an end. He does eventually agree to go along on their quest for the Most Fabulous Thing in the Universe (I think that's what they called it), seemingly because he wants the adventure.

The movie is mostly about how children interact with fantasy. For Kevin, this is escaping from parents who do not want him. While he is making many of his own choices, his hand is constantly forced by adults, the bandits, or supernatural beings. I think they were trying to make a point about the haphazard role a child's will plays in their lives - Sometimes your choices matter, sometimes they don't.

There's also a heavy anti consumerism element. There's a game show called "Your Money or Your Life" that his parents watch. We are never given the exact premise, but it's certainly a dark hyperbolistic take on consumerism. Also, the physical manifestation of evil only wants the map so that he can build computers, and fission reactors, in an effort to erode humanity. In the end, Kevin wakes up in his bed with his house burning, and his parents are fussing over their destroyed kitchen appliances, not their son who barely escaped death.

I'm going to leave out the final character cameo as I think that's a pleasant surprise, but I don't think I could write a review without at least mentioning the fireman. It made the otherwise nihilistic ending a little more satisfying.

I'm going to echo my partner's thoughts on the movie - I enjoyed parts of it, but I didn't enjoy it overall. There's just a lot of twisted character motivations and plot devices, and it felt more like I was getting through it than enjoying it. There were still lots of fun scenes, and I laughed several times. If you're also a fan of weird movies, it just might be worth a watch.

As long time follower of the series I'm just glad Connery is back in "Diamonds are Forever" after a one movie hiatus. Sadly this was his last official Eon Productions film as Bond. Though he came back in "Never say Never Again" in the 83 in a independent non-Eon Bond movie. This is probably the weakest entry of the Sean Connery lead Bond series IMO. Much more tackle.

May contains spoilers below.

Well aside from its budget, I was thinking why these producers can't take it up a notch when it comes to the film's budget. I mean it's the one of the biggest if not the biggest franchises ever. You know fans wanted more from Ian Fleming's spy thriller and it's always jam packed in theaters. I mean those cheap explosions from Helis to submarines to the nuclear silos, and it feels like everything is rushed. Maybe the pacing, like for example when Bond was just talking to Mr. Whyte about Blofeld's plans, then the next scene, he was already on that plane invading Blofeld's oilrig. I'm not sure if it is badly edited or what, but compared to the previous entries, I thought those films are very well constructed chapter per chapter. Ok I get it they're trying to fit it into the whole 2 hours, but they should get rid of some convoluted scenes instead of those important ones that connects to the more important scenes if that makes sense.

The Bond girl in this film, well she's beautiful as Tiffany Case (Jill st. John) but she's probably the weakest Bond girl compared to the previous ones IMO. Again they change the casting for the main villain Blofeld. Charles Gray as Blofeld I thought, he did a very magnificent job. The thing is they changed the actor for like 3 times already at this point. As for Connery as James Bond, he did alright he's still the right man for the job when it comes to this role. Oh there are two new villains here Mr Kidd and Mr Wint. Well, they are subpar when it terms to Bond villians more like over the top characters.

I do have my favorite parts in this movie. The car chase scenes in Vegas where Bond and Ms. Case in a Ford Mustang chased by a group of police cars. I thought that was badass. Fun fact, the stunt man who did the jump from the parking lot over the parked cars was Bill Hickman, the same stunt driver who drove the Charger in Bullitt and the Pontiac in The French Connection. The close encounter fight scene at the elevator against Peter Frank, reminds me of that train fight scene in "From Russia with Love" that is really well choreographed! And the music, the song Diamonds are Forever. I mean you can't go wrong when Shirley Bassey performed a James Bond intro. From Goldfinger to DAF, one of the most powerful, dynamic voices you'll ever hear.

Despite its flaws, it is still one of the most successful Bond films ever. From a budget of 7.2m and it generates 116m, I mean how big is that in the 70s. If adjusted for inflation, it is still in the top 10 highest gross Bond films of all time.

One of a string of loose adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories, TMOTRD deals with Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) a sadistic, nihilistic and satanism practicing prince who walls himself up in his castle along with all his friends and acquaintances to party it up while the Red Death sweeps through the countryside, only for the manifestation of death and disease himself to come and crash the party. This was a pretty trippy experience; the visuals are very stylized and the film has a quasi psychedelic feel. There’s also a lot of philosophical undertones thrown in, displaying the ultimate folly of Prospero’s devil worship ultimately wont deliver him from judgement. There’s not much of a plot, most of the movie is devoted to showing Prospero’s outlook and character, and the actual crux of Poe’s story doesn’t occur until the last 20 minutes or so (Poe‘s story Hop-Frog is also adapted as a side plot). Price is fantastic as always and is easily the best part of the movie. He does an excellent portrayal of a completely irredeemable bastard with just enough camp thrown in to enrich the performance. There are some particularly bizarre and uncomfortable moments, like the party goers willingly humiliating themselves for Prospero’s amusement and the scenes of him psychologically torturing certain characters. The stylized look of the film is cool to look at but definitely a product of its time. I enjoyed it overall but I probably won’t be rewatching it for a while at least.

Speaking of the golden era of cinema from 1940's to the late 60's. One film that stuck on my mind, is this magnificent film called "The Great Escape" from 1963. It's not just one of the best WWII films that has come out, it is one of the best "prison escape" movies of all time. The first time I saw this film was a double feature near in our hometown in some local theater. I remember it was more like a Steve McQueen tribute double feature with Bullitt and this movie. Me and my pops enjoyed the heck of this film and we have a great time. It was a nail biting experience throughout and watching it again still have the same feeling. What a thriller till the end! One of those movies that stand the test of its time and definitely up there to my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

May contains spoiler below.

One thing that stands out to me were the characterization played by some of the most brilliant casts. My favorite duo were Hilts "the cooler" King (Steve McQueen) and Ives (Angus Lennie). Man every time they tried to escape, they always got caught and put them in a prison called "the cooler". It's so funny like some of their escapes were intentional. You got Danny (Charles Bronson) and Willie (John Leyton) some called them the tunnel king as they were the one who mastermind and execute the heavy underground digging for the prison camp breakout. Colin Blythe played by Donald Pleasence together with Bob Hendley played by James Garner. Blythe is a mild-mannered forger who suffers from progressive, severe nearsightedness as Hendley is the one who guides him especially on those scenes in the final act. And my favorite performance by Richard Attenborough as Bartlett, he and the other 49 members in that tragic final act.

Every scenes, every conversation, every comradery, and every association as band of brothers in this film. Has a meaningful and deep impact to me. I remember working somewhere in the middle east were we stayed at the same camp for 3 years in the middle of the desert. It was the most fun and some of the best companionship of brothers that I had experience which still to this day, the reason why this movie is so important to me.

Before I forget, that iconic Steve McQueen motorcycle jump scene. He's just so badass. He is called the king of cool for a reason! He is still my favorite actor of all time.

Every day for 30 days I’m watching a different scary movie all about urban legends.

Is “Candyman” the best horror movie of the 90s and one of the best horror movies of all time? Well I won’t stop you from saying it if you want to, and if anyone does try to intervene I’ll throw myself into the fray like an Apu meme.

In 1984, incarnate content warning Clive Barker published “The Forbidden,” a story about a nosy grad student studying graffiti in rundown public housing who falls afoul of the story of the Candyman, a specter with a hook for a hand and a thing for bees.

It’s a pretty good story, but when it came time to adapt it into a film, screenwriter and director Bernard Rose (whom IMDB informs me just got done directing Al Pacino as King Lear, the kind of thing most filmmakers would only do on a legally binding Triple Dog Dare) punched it up by moving the setting to Chicago, casting the hypnotic Tony Todd as the lead, and addressing the resulting racial overtones headon.

Rose notes in the DVD commentary that, while it would probably make more sense for a movie like this to have a black director and a black lead rather than himself and Virginia Madsen respectively, there was only so much you could expect out of a Hollywood that was just three years out from “Driving Miss Daisy,” the second-to-last thing I’d personally like to drive after a stake through my own heart.

Despite all this, “Candyman” is about as perfect as anything I didn’t wish into reality with Dragonballs is ever going to get. As in the story, Madsen is a grad student studying the culture in a decaying housing project supposedly haunted by a spirit who appears if you say his name in the mirror.

I say “supposedly” because if you pay attention, that’s actually not the Candyman’s real gimmick: When Madsen and costar Kasi Lemmons do the mirror thing, nothing actually happens. When Todd does appear in the film’s second act, he explains the real problem was that her research threatens to debunk the stories around him, which he can’t abide. If people don’t believe in him then he cannot exist:

“You were not content with the stories, so I was obliged to come. I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom: Without these things, I am nothing.”

“Candyman” hooked some notable critics, who praised its incredible art direction, knockout score, and fearless performances from Todd and Madsen. Empire Magazine dubbed it “a classic,” and Roger Ebert praised Rose’s direction and the postmodern themes, posing, “If everyone believed there were alligators in the sewers, would there be?”

The movie was only a modest success at the time, and everyone but Madsen was pretty much ignored come award season, which definitely isn’t a travesty and doesn’t make me want to throw my dick at the screen in rage at all.

But home video and subsequent years were kind to it, which brought it not only prestige but also the White Elephant (um, pardon the phrase…) of follow-up films.

Original Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeLZMhkFTuU

Number 215 in my A-Z watch. On the Waterfront is a gripping thriller concerning the bloody reality of the mob's control over the New York City dock worker's union.

Man, every time i watch this i feel like it somehow gets better and better. Maybe it's just my own experience and context that makes things feel more relevant and relatable. And even knowing the ending, i always feel so much tension through the film. Just so impressive.

The movie establishes its dark tone immediately. They tell you what to expect from the get. I really was impressed with Leonard Bernstein's (West Side Story) overwhelming and boisterous score.

Brando's first academy award win as the punch drunk former boxer playing stooge for his brother and their major mob connections is just outstanding. A tremendous supporting cast of priest Karl Malden, mob boss Lee J. Cobb, and love interest Eva Marie Saint in her debut and Oscar winning performance, capture the weight and scope of what's on the line for every character if they were to work with the police. And a then-unknown Fred Gwynne!

Director Elia Kazan guides these performances perfectly, and keeps the pace moving. He managed to get some wonderful shots in the film, like Malden being raised from the ship like an angel and the final POV shots shaking and losing focus in representation of Terry's concussion.

The screenplay allows for just enough extra fat to secure you in the world they've built, but otherwise is incredibly tight, and i love the parallel of the pigeon coops. And the slang they use throughout for metaphors for those who talk to the cops (canary, cheese eater) really do well to keep you pulled in.

10/10 I wouldn't call the film a slow burn, but it has a smoldering rhythm to it that takes each story beat to another escalating level that builds until the final crescendo. The last time i had seen this was in theaters, and i would suggest buying a ticket if you get the chance.

One of the more interesting things about The Great Escape is what it doesn't show, and that's because it couldn't.

It wouldn't (and to some degree, couldn't) show the grim, brutal reality of WWII and it's impact on the men who served, nor could they show the terrible conditions of the camp, or the treatment of the prisoners, or the cruelty of their captors, and for a very simple-yet-complicated reason.

No one back then wanted to see that kind of movie. They wanted heroic men banding together heroically, and fighting against evil oppressors and coming out the other side with all limbs and a hearty spirit intact. While modern day film making definitely makes space for the reality and starkness of wartime and does it very well, a movie like The Great Escape does the opposite.

And it does it so very well. With a cast so stacked it's practically absurd, we're treated to men not merely surviving in a camp designed to be inescapable, but thriving, and in such a fun, grandiose way. Each man in the camp is known to the other, either because they were all banged up in another Nazi camp elsewhere or because their exploits in their OWN camps were so legendary that word passed like wildfire.

There are forgers and diggers and scroungers and builders and it's all so much damned fun. If the movie itself didn't cover such dire circumstances, I'd damn near want to call this an adventure comedy. The stakes are real enough that we're reminded of what happens when Ives makes a break for it, but watching a ragtag band of soldiers from all corners of the world consistently get one over on their Nazi captors is just an old fashioned good time.

Even though there are more stars in this movie than there might seem to be in Heaven, for some reason I just absolutely loved seeing James Garner here. I know, I know, Steve McQueen's the star as Hilts The Cooler King, but James Garner as Hendley 'The Scrounger' scratched an itch I didn't know I had. There's just something about the smoothly glib way Hendley manipulates Werner to get valuable documents that's just a blast.

But that's not to say the other big name men in this movie don't deserve their kudos. I loved seeing Donald Pleasance outside of a Halloween movie (where he chewed the scenery so hard I'm surprised the sets didn't fall down) and Charles Bronson as Danny The Tunnel King, which is so far from his iconic roles in Death Wish he seems like a different actor altogether.

I feel like they didn't use James Coburn nearly enough, or Richard Attenborough, but like the song says, we can't always get what we want, but we might get what we need. And what we needed was a big ole adventure with a lot of now extremely famous actors playing what really is tantamount to small roles that contributed to an enormously entertaining movie about triumph through adversity, and comradery through shared miseries.

If you're wondering why I haven't really talked about Steve McQueen at all until now, here's why. I suppose he was the biggest star in the movie at the time, and the studio was banking on his specific star power to bring people to the theaters to see their movie, but he really, genuinely didn't feel like the focal point of the movie. I understand after looking a few things up that he walked off the set and refused to come back until his role was made bigger and that the now legendary motorcycle scene was added.

I can't deny that all of that was really awesome, but at the same time, I feel like it somehow defeated the inherent purpose of the movie: to show that everyone, doing their small part, could make a long-lasting impact.

This don't make the movie 'worse' or 'unenjoyable' because that's impossible. The Great Escape is absolutely fun movie that is so worth anyone's time that if you haven't seen it, you really should. I bring up Steve McQueen the way I did because until sitting down to watch this movie for the first time, the only things I knew about it were that he was in it, and the motorcycle escape.

I thought the entire movie was about him engineering The Great Escape with little to no help, but the moment I saw the cast, saw how it was all put together, that changed the dynamic for me in a big way. I understand the marketing of it all, and I can't blame the studio for doing as they did, because The Great Escape is still absolutely fantastic.

One of the things I am appreciating most about my movie challenge this month so far is that it's introduced me to some movies I dismissed kind of casually out of hand. These are movies that have always been lauded as excellent, and so far, I'm pleased that it's been a trifecta of absolute brilliance.

I had heard through some film buffs this was a masterpiece. It was very difficult to find a copy in america with english subtitles. Eventually i found it through a local facebook group im in for geeks.

I liked it and i appreciate what it was going for but it was a but of a slow start.

For those who dont know its the story about this obscure punk song that was made by a punk band in the 70s and how the rumor around is that it was going to one day save the world. It presents several different time periods that sort of involve the song and culminates on the last day of the humanity. And by the end you see how the song does indeed fulfill its prophecy.

Its sweet and funny at times and sometimes has some action and tension to it. By the end i was very engrossed in figuring out how all of this comes together.

My concern with it and spoilers ahead! Sorry i dont know how to make the spoiler block in reddit but spoilers ahead! My concern with it is some of the time periods dont really seem to connect to the song. Like the driver guy who saves the girl from being raped. Yeah he HEARD the song that day. But i wouldnt say its the song that gave him the courage to help her. The person who told him to stand up for himself was the other girl at the bar. Not the song. And that girl at the bar had nothing to do with the song. And i guess he did hear her screaming when the song gets to its famous silent part but i think thats a flimsy connection and a strange change in genre. For a few minutes there the film seems like its going into supernatural territory and im not sure it fits with the rest of the movie. In addition the doomsday cult scenes. None of those people had anything to do with the song and aside from the callback that one if those guys ends up in the record store there is no reason for those scenes with the doomsday cult.

The scenes with the punk band making the song were the best scenes.

Overall i liked it and recommend it. But i was expecting a masterpiece and it fell a little short.

If it's Sydney, it's the Opera House, London it's Tower Bridge and Paris, the Eiffel Tower. I find movies so much more interesting when they focus on lesser known parts of the city.

Filmed in ansocolor, it all looks tinged in yellow as if tarnished by Maigret's excessive pipe smoke.

Directed in parts by three different people and that shows, there is no cohesion to the plot and little suspense.

Some gorgeous locations in places, but the whole thing is over the top, from musicians spinning their violins to taxi drivers screeching to a halt and children choreographed playing in the street.

No doubt that Charles Laughton was a talented actor but he always seemed determined to show it. A click of the heels before going up a flight of stairs, a flourish of the hand, yelling hello down the telephone to his wife, less is more as is proved by the brilliant Wilfred Hyde White in his two minute cameo.

Why, when fleeing from the police would you climb up a Tower with no escape rather than disappearing into the city?

Certainly some aspects to admire but ultimately I found this to be a little clumsy and confused.

Watched this movie again, reminds me, how freaking good were the 80's fantasy films back then. First saw this in a cable TV way back, and it mesmerized me right away. I remember waiting for that dragon to come out, anticipated for its appearance. The creature looks menacing! Back in the day, there's only a handful of well made fantasies that has better production. This delivers all the goods of what a dark fantasy film should look like. This is way before CGI's.

May contains spoiler below.

It started slow, introducing a bunch of characters. You have this old sorcerer but later it was his apprentice who leads the way, who later is the "Dragonslayer" himself. More like a kingdom wants to get rid of the dragon that was haunting them for centuries. Story wise, it's not really engaging with any drastic climax. What really blew me away were the practical effects especially how they made that Dragon looks. It feels alive and authentic. Yeah sure there are some noticeable poorly aged special effects here and there (that part were the dragon moves around, flies beyond the skies). But I mean for an early 80's movie 1981 to be exact, this was mind-blowing back then. The last scenes of the final act is my favorite. Imagine a Dragon against the sorcerer at the cliff of the mountain, to the skies and beyond, while waiting his apprentice waited to destroy that amulet amidst the thunderstorm. It is that epic.

Speaking of epic, the cinematography is just beautiful in this film. You got wide array of shots from the landscapes across Wales and Scotland, sweeping mountain vistas and dramatic shots. To the dragon's lair with huge rocks and caves.

I've seen people asking for suggestions what are those dark fantasy films that has a nostalgic of classic 80's style. I mean there's a bunch to choose when it comes to 80's dark fantasies. But this one should be on the top of that list. I'd rather choose this film, than any of the over the top, with exaggerating green screen effects and CGI's any day.

I remember a while ago hearing about Sammy Petrillo on some podcast. So when I saw a copy of this DVD on the free pile at the local library I figured I might as well pick it up. I also rewatched Ed Wood recently so of course I want to see something with Bela Lugosi in it. I mean obviously this isn't his best work but hey he is in it.

So I guess the story is that Sammy Petrillo and Duke Mitchell were doing like a Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin impression act or something and Jerry Lewis wanted to work with Sammy Petrillo then got him blacklisted or something. Idk I don't remember exactly the whole deal but yeah he's pretty much just doing Jerry Lewis this whole movie. I haven't really seen much of the Martin and Lewis movies but I'm guessing they're like this.

So Sammy and Duke play two night club performers who shipwreck on an island and there's a bunch of natives and a hot girl and an evil professor played by Bela Legosi and he has a bunch of monkeys and Sammy and Duke move into his castle and he gets mad and turns them into monkeys. I think that about sums it up.

Anyway this movie is fun and silly and has some really funny parts. Sammy may be ripping off Jerry Lewis but hey he's good at it and I really liked this movie. This movie is 75 years old and I think it still holds up and most anyone can enjoy it. Also it's pretty short so it never really has time to drag or anything.

I think this movie is public domain so it's pretty easy to find anywhere for free or check your local libraries free pile. Well thanks everybody!

“Thank you. Have a nice day”

What’s to say about Chopping Mall when you realise it’s a Roger Corman production? Well you instantly become aware this is going to have a low budget, amateur hour acting and bargain basement effects. If that’s your bag, you’ve come to the right place.

The premise is suitably ridiculous; several people attending an after hours party at a shopping mall are hunted down by the mechanised ‘Kill Bot’ security after they malfunction due to a lightning strike. Logic goes out the window, or through several store fronts broken glass, and in comes nudity, hilarious dialogue and inept survivors. Shot in a real mall after closing you would think they’d be able to stretch the budget but I presume it was spent on the bots.

The machines themselves come across like demented Johnny 5’s from Short Circuit. Big and bulky with the bizarre ability to shoot lasers from their faces and ridiculous crab like appendages to slice and grab, alongside the ability to taze and stun. They have tank treads which made me think, just go upstairs, especially after a lift is taken out! There’s several scenes where the characters could easily escape leading to some over the top deaths. One characters flammable fate is quite amusing considering it’s blatantly, possibly, a man in a blond wig. Also, she could’ve just rolled out the way.

The characters are a bunch of white, pastel and denim wearing bland types with big hair. We know next to nothing about them beyond surface level information, but then who cares. Mike, the arsehole, forever chewing gum, nerdy Ferdy, brain dead Leslie… and on it goes. But our final girl, the virginal Allison, Kelli Maroney, at least gives good action heroine when called into action in the ‘explosive’ finale.

The film amuses both intentionally and unintentionally. Some of the dialogue can’t truly be serious with lines like, “I guess I’m just not used to being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots” and “what’s that? Robot blood”. Also, the aptly named store where they tool up, ‘Peckinpahs Sporting Goods’ raises a chuckle.

Elsewhere kills are for the most part tame, barring one head explosion, but there’s plenty of fun to be had in the terrible decisions made by both director, Jim Wynorski, and the characters in the film.

Oh, and the icing on the cake has to be the freeze frames at the end with the actors’ names appearing like a tv show, Suzee Slaters being the best.

I'm not really a big Elvis person. I mean I like him ok but it's kind of rare that I seek anything out by him you know? But I do enjoy whatever Elvis thing I watch or whatever.

Anyway I've never seen any of his movies or anything so I found this at my friends record store and I figured I might as well check it out.

Well I liked it ok! I thought this was gonna be more of a musical but it's more of kind of a melodrama I guess. Elvis goes to jail and meets a guy there who teaches him some music and when he gets out he works his way up to stardom. He kind of treats everybody like crap and eventually he almost gets his comeuppance but not really but he I guess decides to be a little nicer idk.

I guess if Elvis wasn't the star of this I probably wouldn't have watched it all the way through. But he does do a good job and the musical numbers are really good and so I guess that's kind of the goal of the movie and it succeeds.

I also liked his friend from jail. I googled him and we had the same birthday except about 70 years apart but still that must be why I liked that guy.

Well anyway jailhouse rock is pretty fun and I might not watch it again but I'm glad I did at least once. Ok thanks everybody!

I just re-watched Jim Jarmusch's 2013 film Only Lovers Left Alive, and you should watch it too. It's a vampire movie that stands out from the genre. Adam, a reclusive musician living in Detroit is desponent and suicidal after centuries of undeath, going so far as to have his human assistant come up with a custom-made wooden bullet. His wife Eve recognises this and flies in from Tangier, Morocco. Adam's music has reached a level of fame in the local scene, and he has a knack for technology relying on a venal doctor for his supply of coveted clean O negative blood - most human blood is chemically contaminated and unsafe to drink for vampires. Events transpire to force the couple to leave Detroit for Tangier where they find things aren't as Eve left them, they're out in the waning night hungry for blood.

It's a quiet meditation on music and death. It's rather slow paced and doesn't feature any proper action scenes, still the quality of acting, the set and the music is such that it gets through its two hour runtime quickly.

One thing that mildly annoyed me is that the film's continuity has it so that Shakespeare's works weren't written by him, but by his contemporary Christopher Marlowe, but this is tongue-in-cheek, so I don't mind too much.

Tobey Maguire stars alongside Reese Witherspoon in this late 90s teen comedy/drama about a brother and sister transported into an old TV show from the 50s where everything is picture perfect.

I really like Tobey Maguire. I don't think he's a great actor, but there's something endearing about his performances. He does have some great moments in film like his PTSD episode in Brothers, but that's not really needed here.

I loved the usage of mostly black and white with props/characters in color as everyone begins to explore more of themselves and what's around them instead of maintaining the status quo of Pleasantville.

I felt that the ending was fairly weak, but I really enjoyed the rest of the movie so I didn't mind much. I also wasn't a huge fan of the TV repair guy, but, again, the rest of the movie made up for it.

I really was not expecting for it to be so in your face with the sex between Reese Witherspoon hooking up with that guy at Lovers Lane to the mom masturbating in the bathtub. I knew the movie had something to do with sex awakening characters, but I guess I'm used to modern PG-13 movies where they probably would have been more discreet about it. Not complaining, just forgot that movies got down like that back then.

I'm a sucker for things that take you back to the past, so this was an easy 4/5 for me. Highly recommend it. There's a lot of well-known faces in this one, too.

Number 214 in my A-Z watch. Ong-Bak 3 is the last chapter in the OB series, picking up directly after 2 ends. We find our hero, Tien, in the clutches of a ruthless leader. He needs to find a way to escape and bring balance to the kingdom.

I remember not being too impressed with this one when i watched it the first time 10+ years ago. I found the tone change leaning into the supernatural to be a little jarring. It still is, but i can see more of what they were going for.

As always, the fight scenes, stunts, and choreography are all top notch. What i really enjoyed was Tien's arc into Buddhism. Finding his balance, his center. And for him to be the light (evidently Tien means "candle") countering the darkness was a nice move.

6/10 I did find myself enjoying it more than before, so I wanna give it credit for that, I just don't think i vibe with these two installations like i did with the original OB. I wouldn't mind watching again in a while, maybe change my mind again.

Every day for 30 days I’m watching a different scary movie all about urban legends. 

Even if you were a devoted fan of the first two “Urban Legend” movies you might not even know there was a third. You also probably don’t know that even if you didn’t like the other two, it’s the default state of humanity.

“Urban Legends: Bloody Mary” went straight to DVD in 2005 and scared up only two reviews on Rotten Tomatoes at the time, during what must have been a very slow week at Reel Film and FilmCritic.com.

It’s tempting to say this was best for all involved, but actually what would have really been best would probably have been for the movie never to have released, or perhaps never even made. On the list of things that should never have been shot, “Urban Legend 3” clocks in just below Bobby Kennedy.

On a prom night dare, three teenagers say “Bloody Mary” into a mirror and then mysteriously vanish…only to mysteriously unvanish a few days later, and honestly the fact that they were gone doesn’t really play into the rest of the story much.

But in the meantime they have awakened the spirit of a murdered prom queen from 30 years prior who is now out to haunt…well, not any of our main characters actually but instead a series of different, even more thinly sketched characters adjacent to our leads.

Perhaps out of obligation to the preceding movies this ghost story has a whodunnit angle as well, but honestly it shouldn’t have bothered. 

I harbor great affection for low-budget horror, almost to the point of qualifying as enabling. But it’s rare to see a movie as cheap-looking at “Urban Legend 3,” which barely scratches the bottom of the Scarcely Looks Like a Real Movie tier of filmmaking.

And yet, this had some real names attached: Director Mary Lambert got her big break with “Pet Sematary” and…well not much else good actually (although I am personally a fan of the 1993 SEGA CD FMV game “Double Switch,’ also a Lambert joint). Still, ya know, THAT was a good movie, at least.

This was also written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, just a couple of years off of “X-Men 2.” And it stars Rooney Mara; not the Rooney Mara you’re thinking of, the one you’re thinking of is Patricia Rooney Mara; this one is Kate Rooney Mara, noted as playing the worst reporter in the world in “House of Cards” and the second worst invisible woman ever in “Fantastic Four.”

Still, ya know, those were at least all real movies, a superlative “Urban Legend 3” quests for mostly in vain. 

Dread Central gave it a negative review but called the concept “ripe with possibilities,” a sentiment I agree with only as far as the first word. Reel Film knocked it for falling short of the previous sequel and criticized its “flat, visually unappealing sense of style,” which is only bad news if film turns out to be a visual medium.

Bloody Mary is a classic, but we all know that when it comes to American horror, there’s only one name you have to worry about saying in a mirror. More on that tomorrow.

Original Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQLkrIwpzbc

It's been on my watchlist for so long now and finally saw it. This is surprisingly good! I've seen plentiful of Italian horrors before like Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy, and this one by Argento (who also directed Phenomena, one of my favorites in the 80s). I think both Phenomena and Suspiria both perfect for a double feature.

May contains spoiler below..

The premise is simple, you got this American girl who got an invitation into this sort of Ballet academy. The horror starts immediately at the beginning. After she arrived in that school, she saw someone panicked in the middle of a rainstorm, thus something is not right already. This kind of reminds me of the film Rosemary's Baby, where she was manipulated by members of a Satanic coven. This one more is more like a witch coven. You can already tell from the characters just by looking at their individual expressions. My favorite part is probably towards the final act. Where she finally sort out and investigate what the actual heck is going after one of her friend is missing. That sneaking part until she met the final boss. I thought the final scene is badass. Jessica Harper played the main role as Suzy, I thought she did a splendid job especially her performance at the end.

It's predictable, sure, but this is one of the well constructed horror films I've seen. The movie is beautiful though, you got amazing zoom in and out shots. And the lights, the lights indicates the sense of danger in each scenes. I really love the aesthetics. Great cinematography which is why I loved it when horror films were made like this.

When Nosferatu came out in 1922 with a plot almost completely lifted from the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker’s widow did two things, sue F. W. Murnau to have the film destroyed and commission an official stage adaption to quickly bring to theaters. That stage play became the basis for this 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi. A lot of what we consider canon to Dracula was actually created here. Some of the changes were good (who mourns for the boring Arthur Holmwood being excised). Others are changes I feel have fundamentally worsened the original story.

The play takes place almost entirely in Seward Sanitarium unlike the film Nosferatu, a play can’t cut away to Dracula silently stalking outside. So Dracula appears earlier and more frequently meets Mina and Lucy. This changed the character forever from a hidden assaulter to a seducer.

The Dracula of the novel does not seduce, he takes violently and without any consideration of how his victims feel about it. There is a sexuality in the book, both hetero and homoeroticism but within the text, only between the human protagonists. There is sensuality in Dracula’s attacks but only from the reader’s perspective, not the characters. Imagine if everyone’s conception of Lord of the Rings is that it’s about everyone wanting to fuck Sauron, Gandalf is the only one who really fights against him and the rest of the Fellowship is of no interest. Still possible for it to make a good story but that’s not what Lord of the Rings is about.

This one is "I tried to watch an old movie." I had to turn it off in the middle. It was just painfully bad.

Duel and The Car both showed you can make a good movie with vehicles in the desert and a shoestring budget. But in Trucks, the direction was just so lackluster. Like man, get a director that can handle car chases and knows how to film them. The trucks never felt dangerous and Brenda Bakke, who was so good in Demon Knight, seems to be reading every line for the first time as they were filming.

I just didn't care about any of the characters, the direction was lackluster at its best moments and the trucks never felt threatening. I ducked out in the middle.

Since it was the 1st of October last night, I was in the mood for something properly mad and ended up coming across,
Re-Animator on Mubi.

This is just such a fun horror film. It’s completely over the top, ridiculously gory and has this brilliant dark sense of humour running through it, Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West is probably the biggest reason it works so well. He plays West with this completely unhinged confidence.

The practical effects are fantastic! Some of the best i have ever seen! There are some absolutely insane moments, and I loved how far the film was willing to take things. It never takes itself too seriously, but underneath all the madness there’s still a really entertaining horror story.

It was a perfect way to start October! I am going to be watching much more horror related movies throughout October, aiming for at least one horror every night.

Has anyone seen this gem?

Title: The Black Stallion

Genre: Adventure/Family

Run time: 1h 58m

Original Release: 1979

Primary Audience: G rating, 8 years old and up. 

The Black Stallion is a movie based on the book of the same name by Walter Farley. The story is about a young boy, Alec Ramsey, who gets stranded on a deserted island with a wild Arabian Stallion after a shipwreck. They bond on the island and after they are recused, they meet a retired jockey, Henry Dailey, and together they hit the racetracks. There are many themes of found family, friendship, and adventure. (There would later by an entire TV show, called The Adventures of the Black Stallion and a sequel to the movie, The Black Stallion Returns, all based on the book series.) 

Balance: As with any form of media, we should balance what we watch and how many hours we watch something. That being said, I think this film an excellent way to spend an evening with your kids or your friends. It's lighthearted and wholesome, which is a great way to relax and calm down after a long day. The film also is based off a book, a good balance to tv, whether you want to read the book first or after the film. Of course, watching something every day to wind down it's not something we should a habit of, so planning when to watch something or taking breaks is a healthy thing to do. 

Attitude Awareness: The Black Stallion is filled with sad moments, happy moments, and some hair-raising fear moments. In the scene where the ship begins to sink and there is chaos, Alec is lost in the crowd, due to the fact no one took a moment to help him (and kinda ran him over) and instead of being bitter about it, he kind of just, lets it go. There are many moments when he is told he will have to work hard to learn to race and that it won't be easy. In fact, his mother makes many good points of how dangerous racing is and that she doesn't want to lose him again, not that stops him from following his dreams. He makes his own argument, and they find a common ground. 

Dignity of the Human Person: Alec is a kid during this whole movie and there are many moments where he simply acts like one. He plays with his horse, goes to school, and he is stubborn about his horse and what he wants. That earns him respect from the adults around him, who treat him like a person, not just a kid. Henry pushes him as much as Alec can take, when he is learning the ropes and Alec makes many friends who learn to respect the bond he and the stallion have. 

Truth Filled: As someone who has worked closely with horse all my life, this movie hits close to home. The bond Alec and the Black (the stallion) make is so wonderful to watch, because such bonds are possible. The film is also honest about difficult it can be learning to ride and the skills it takes to be a jockey on a racetrack. Of course, the film is still a work of fiction and not everything in it is reality, but it is still wholesome and there are truths to it. As far as most horse films go, which are mostly cringe and hard to watch, this is one of the greatest with its portrayal of Alec and the Black bonding on the island. 

Inspiring: This movie has inspired me so much. I have worked hard to create good bonds with all my horses, and I have actually gotten better at riding bareback and trusting my horse and being confident in the myself because of this film. This film also inspired my greatest dream, of racing down the beach with my horse. And the soundtrack is just...I want to go on adventures with my horse and race freely. 

Skillfully Developed: This movie is beautiful! There is almost no dialogue while Alec and the Black are on the island bonding, and the music tells the story so well! There are so many shoots in this film that could bring me to tears, they look so good and so cool and so awesome! And the scene where Alec rides the Black for the first time is just so well done that I want cry. I love this movie; it's so well done! 

Motivated and Relevant to Experience: The Black Stallion covers being lost and finding friendship in unlikely places, with unlikely friends. It also shows us that there is work that has to be done in order to follow our dreams. This films also shows us that terrible events or bad things can have good outcomes, such as Alec's ship going down lead him to find his closest friends and his passion in life. Likewise, just like in our own lives, good things can come from bad, and we can find our own friends and family no matter where we are. 

In conclusion, I love this movie so much, that I think I could talk about for hours. It's a beautiful movie with awesome shots, wonderful themes, and it's so dear to me and inspiring. The Black Stallion is one of the best parts about my childhood, and it still finds ways to surprise me on every watch. Is it perfect, no, and everyone will have different opinions, but to me, it's pretty dang good and well done. 

(I wrote this, as part of a class. I promise it is my own original work!!)

Lawrence of Arabia is precisely as enjoyable and epically sweeping as everyone who's seen it always says it is when 'what's a really great movie I haven't seen' makes the rounds on places like Reddit and X and I'm absolutely pleased I devoted the time to watch this sprawling movie.

I love movies that take place in the desert, so in this, T.E 'Aurens' Lawrence and I share a lot in common. There's something just so grand about those sweeping shots of desert sands, endless and forbidding, and the people and animals that live in them. I suppose that's what drew me (first, before this movie, by many years) to ANOTHER vast, sprawling epic.

Dune. The original novels, written by Frank Herbert, are some of the most cherished novels I read growing up, and I love both Dune 84, the TV miniseries and Denis Villeneuve's treatment, and I have to say when Lawrence is meeting with General Murray, the parallels were almost instantly unmistakable.

So much so that I had to Google, to see if Lawrence of Arabia had influenced Frank Herbert's writing. To the surprise of no one who's already seen the movie, the answer is overwhelmingly 'yes'. Dune isn't a 1:1 retelling of Lawrence of Arabia by any means, but the bones are there.

A dismissive man in power who looks at the Bedouin people as sheep-stealers and less than a problem. A man who's always dreamed of the desert and wanting to go there. A man who seems to feel no pain because he just doesn't let the pain bother him. A man who has to kill someone he saved in the desert because he broke the laws of his people, and who becomes more to the Bedu than he ever could've possible. A man who trains the people of the desert to fight against more numerous foes, with more powerful weapons.

A man who, it must be said, is as white as the desert is hot and with eyes so blue they're mesmerizing. All of the above maps pretty cleanly to Harkonnen/Corrino dismissal of the Fremen and Paul's journey across Arrakis.

But we're talking about Lawrence of Arabia. It's a gorgeous movie, start to finish. Wonderfully shot, brilliantly acted, with O'Toole's Lawrence always so painfully soft-spoken, even later, when he wages war, that I had to keep the subtitles on. Lawrence goes from a scholarly, bookish soldier to a man who is embraced by a people absolutely not his own, and beyond. He becomes so fiercely intent on giving Arabia to the Arabs that he'll do anything to make that happen.

All while still working to further The British Empire's own needs in that region. It's almost like he's robbing Peter to pay Paul, while getting what he wants out of the whole grand adventure. O'Toole does such a splendid job throughout the movie that it really is amazing.

Unfortunately, I've come to this movie so late after it's release and in my own life that I really do think everything that could be said HAS been said, so I'll just wrap up with me talking about a few scenes that I really liked.

The first is in the very beginning, at the funeral. Different people remember T.E. Lawrence very, very differently, with the final statement before we shift to the movie itself coming from General Murray, who minimized the man to something like 'oh he was just someone on my staff'. This is great to me because we get different perspectives on Lawrence and then launch into seeing that very transformation.

The next is that first long walk into the desert, when he's confronted with the problem of how to get things done. It's all done in silence, while he's being followed by the two caste-less young men. I like this scene because it's like Lawrence goes into the desert to see what it is that the desert wants for her people, and after a whole night, he gets the answer. From here, his journey really begins.

And the final one is where he turns back, against Sherif Ali's warnings, to rescue Gasim from death by misadventure. It's recklessly heroic and just kind of the thing that doesn't make a lot of sense to someone who's lived with the harh conditions of the desert their whole lives. Paired with the scene where Lawrence has to then take Gasim's life so that the incredibly fragile agreement between the two tribes he travels with doesn't shatter forever, it shows just how committed Lawrence is to accomplishing his own goals.

His later admission that he enjoyed the killing, delivered in that same soft spoken way, was something else again.

While I 'complain' that I came to movies like this one much too late in life, I know that I never would've been able to enjoy it as a younger man. Lawrence of Arabia truly deserves a 10/10, not just because I enjoyed the hell out of it, but because it's an exceptionally well made movie.