28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Idioteque Stalker]

This Sunday is Oscars. Just saying. Whether we watch a shit movie or not, I may hop on discord to voice my pleasure/displeasure.

[megladon8]

Oooohhhthanks Duke! I'll give thar a try tomorrow.

And anything B or C works for me.

[megladon8]

We should watch Things and the Oscar's at the same time and criticize every award that's given out for not going to Things.

[Ezee E]

I'll vote A. May be with my brother on Sat and Oscars on Sunday.

[DFA1979]

I feel I still haven't seen enough action movies to compile a decent top 10. Still way behind on Asian ones.

[Dukefrukem]

We'll push this out a week to get more times. Friday is too soon and Sunday is Oscars. I would be down to try on Sat night so I may send out some feelers.

[Grouchy]

You can rent it for $1.99 on Amazon

Just out of curiosity, how much beer is this? That's near 300 Argentinian pesos, it would buy me... almost two liters of Heineken.

[Dukefrukem]

Just out of curiosity, how much beer is this? That's near 300 Argentinian pesos, it would buy me... almost two liters of Heineken.

zero beers in the USofA. half a beer at best.

[Skitch]

zero beers in the USofA. half a beer at best.

Single cans of tall boys at my local gas stations are $1.99. But in a restaurant it would get you half a 12oz can maybe if it was happy hour lol. Drinking in bars and restaurants is such a waste of money.

[Grouchy]

Single cans of tall boys at my local gas stations are $1.99. But in a restaurant it would get you half a 12oz can maybe if it was happy hour lol. Drinking in bars and restaurants is such a waste of money.

Yeah, I meant at a marketplace. I think 1,99 dollars might be a pint at some not particularly expensive bar but I seriously couldn't tell anymore.

[Idioteque Stalker]

In Tennessee, a six-pack of Heineken (almost two liters) is about $10. So it looks like I'm paying 4-5x as much as Grouchy.

A six-pack of Keystone, however, is only $6. So you can save $4 so long as you sacrifice your integrity.

[megladon8]

Liquor prices in Ontario are insane, but it's due to extreme taxation.

[Grouchy]

In Tennessee, a six-pack of Heineken (almost two liters) is about $10. So it looks like I'm paying 4-5x as much as Grouchy.

Hahah but that's not a good thing for me! You earn in dollars. I earn in pesos. I bet I couldn't last five days over there with what I make in a month.

[StuSmallz]

Anyway, it's funny that we're talking about Things in here, since crumbsroom just wrote something about it in his movie journal thread over on the Movie Forums, which, with his permission, I'm reposting for everyone's pleasure here:

[

Show Spoiler

In the deep recesses of my computer, apparently I once wrote a review of Things. I have no memory of doing this. But it couldn't have appeared more miraculously, saving me from rewatching it yet again, in hopes of trying to write something about it (which I have been putting off for weeks, because after about twenty viewings, the film becomes almost physically painful to get through). What I have below, kind of gets it as exactly right as I ever could. Maybe I will never have to watch it again. Which means, I probably should watch it again tonight. Just to be sure it's done with me.

A couple of guys hang out in a kitchen. They drink beer and put their jackets in the freezer. Sometimes they wander into other rooms and look at lamps. Sometimes they turn the lamps on. There are also monsters somewhere in this house, seemingly made out of paper mache but also presumably dangerous. But these two only occasionally seem to worry about this. They seem to have more than enough to distract themselves with in the kitchen. Beers to drink. Television to watch. Spiders to put in peoples sandwiches. If this were any other movie, we might expect them to be curious, investigate a little, act as if they are in peril and try and do something about it. As it turns out though, it often seems that the makers of this low budget anti-delight have maybe only been given permission to shoot their film in one neglected corner of their parents house, and that the only horror to be found in the adjoining rooms is an irritated mother just biding her time until that days filming is over.


Things is a film that seems to catatonically seal its characters off either at the kitchen table or the living room sofa in a house of horrors. Like a low budget version of The Exterminating Angel, no matter what terrors they seem to suspect to be happening in others parts of their home, their explorations don’t get very far before they return to the comfort of that couch, or the solace of this fridge filled with beer. They can never leave, and with a new brewsky to suck on, they will quickly forget that maybe they should just leave the house all together, or maybe call the cops, even though they assume it’s much too late at night to do so.


There is a paralyzing inertness to Things. Even when one of the two guests at this house suddenly dies, even this hardly changes the dreary, dull minute to minute reality of this film. The death will happen off screen, during one of many news flashes that interrupt the film periodically to inform the audience of such things as local car accidents, Cher’s husband being seen with Tracy Lords and other things we don’t need to know about. When we return one of the men is now gone, apparently having exploded, or sucked into a mousehole, or some other misfortune that caused his bodily fluids to be lightly drizzled on his friends blue sweatshirt. Of course, we’ll probably never know, because immediately arriving on scene to restore balance to the evening is the owner of the home, who has seemingly been in one of the other rooms all this time, and now with a drinking partner restored to the evening, oblivious kitchen sitting can now continue.


Things, it seems, could remain in neutral for all eternity. Like a group of people soggy and lethargic with a night of binge drinking, it is in no hurry to go anywhere, at least not until the grisly climax. With the directors family now seemingly having gone to sleep, they can now branch out from the kitchen table and lay claim to the others rooms in the house by defiling the carpets with green goop and syrupy blood in their battle against the Things. It will be a war waged that seems so hurried and muddled (mother might wake up after all and shut everything down) that the cast can’t even keep a straight face as they wander back in forth whacking things with hammers and chainsaws and electric drills. One could hardly blame them considering how drunk and half asleep everyone on camera seems. It will almost all be worth the rage of mother tomorrow morning, when she wonders what happened to here home, and if her son is ever going to get himself a real job.

]

[Spun Lepton]

We should watch Things and the Oscar's at the same time and criticize every award that's given out for not going to Things.

If it's the same Things I'm thinking of, I have it on my schedule for Grim Street. Not particularly looking forward to it, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about it. It's popped into my radar many times over the years.

Edit: Just saw Stu's post. Yup. That's on my schedule for Grim Street. Reading the review now, Stu.

Edit 2: Oh, man. I'm bumping Boarding House to June and moving Things up to May. Poor Boarding House has been stuck in scheduling limbo since I started the channel. It's one of the first DVDs I bought to review and I still haven't watched it.

[Idioteque Stalker]

If it's the same Things I'm thinking of, I have it on my schedule for Grim Street.

Yeah, Things def gives off a GSG vibe.

[Ezee E]

Restaurant and bar pricing for beers might be ridiculous, but I've made it my only way of drinking beer. I'd prefer not to have any beer in my house unless I'm having a gathering of sorts.

[DFA1979]

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy works best as a drama instead of a comedy although I did laugh at some of the humorous moments. The cast is good and Julie Hagerty was the surprise of the flick-I didn't expect her to hold her own with the others. Good way to pass the time and I wonder if maybe this will grow on me with a second viewing or not. Only available on Tubi for a week longer.

PS: "You're a man of reason! A pacifist! You're an animal!" was my favorite part and line. I laughed.

[DFA1979]

I'm drinking at home for now but I'm planning to go back to bars in the summer when I can sit outside.

[StuSmallz]

If it's the same Things I'm thinking of, I have it on my schedule for Grim Street. Not particularly looking forward to it, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about it. It's popped into my radar many times over the years.

Edit: Just saw Stu's post. Yup. That's on my schedule for Grim Street. Reading the review now, Stu.

Thanks!

[Ivan Drago]

We'll push this out a week to get more times. Friday is too soon and Sunday is Oscars. I would be down to try on Sat night so I may send out some feelers.

Name the date and time and I'm there as long as it's not a Friday.

[StuSmallz]

I feel I still haven't seen enough action movies to compile a decent top 10. Still way behind on Asian ones.

Well, if I had to make a personal top 10 Action movies list, Asian or otherwise, it'd probably look like this:

1. Raiders
2. Crouching Tiger
3. Gladiator
4. Aliens
5. Bourne Supremacy
6. Casino Royale
7. The Matrix
8. Fury Road
9. The Terminator
10. The Road Warrior

[baby doll]

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy works best as a drama instead of a comedy although I did laugh at some of the humorous moments. The cast is good and Julie Hagerty was the surprise of the flick-I didn't expect her to hold her own with the others. Good way to pass the time and I wonder if maybe this will grow on me with a second viewing or not. Only available on Tubi for a week longer.

PS: "You're a man of reason! A pacifist! You're an animal!" was my favorite part and line. I laughed.

Yeah, it's not as bad as everyone says it is, and some parts are quite good, but Smiles of a Summer Night has never been one of my favourite Ingmar Bergman films and this isn't even as good as that.

[megladon8]

The movie I watched last night began with a trailer for Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here.

Good God does that look cloying and painfully schmaltzy.

Was it just a bad trailer? Or is the movie that annoyingly sweet and life affirming?

[DFA1979]

Yeah, it's not as bad as everyone says it is, and some parts are quite good, but Smiles of a Summer Night has never been one of my favourite Ingmar Bergman films and this isn't even as good as that.

I think I read somewhere that Bergman inspired Allen to make Sex Comedy and it shows. I'll have to watch Smiles of a Summer Night at some point.