2020 Quarantined Watches

[Pop Trash]

Anybody rewatch something? Watch something for the first time? Here's my rundown of stuff recently ...


KINGPIN - pro
Very fun, still holds up, a little too '90s dated in that montages set to ska pop way (and treating Blues Traveler like they are some revelation of a band is pretty bad), might be Woody Harrelson's best performance?, kept thinking about what the Farrelley bros influences were in the '90s and came up with a mix of ZAZ comedies, National Lampoon comedies & the magazine's un p/c cringe humor, John Waters mid century camp, and (more strangely) Hal Ashby's comedic, humanist '70s character pieces, oddly this would make a good double feature with The Last Detail

LIGHT OF MY LIFE - very pro
I watched this right before the COVID-19 shit hit the fan, but maaaan it's more relevant than ever now, total sleeper, Casey Affleck has some surprisingly good directing chops, very affecting, wish the ending was a bit less predictable but it's a minor complaint, pretty sure he's influenced by Kelly Reichardt

CONTAGION - very pro
Like everyone else in the known and unknown universe I recently rewatched this, even better than I remember and prescient in a "holy shit why didn't I like this more at the time?" sort of way, Jude Law is basically Alex Jones and peddles fake(?) or maybe not so fake(?) news, the one undercooked story is Marion Cotoulliard but it's a minor complaint

OUTBREAK - mixed to negative
Very '90s in the worst ways, about 40% the entertaining outbreak movie you are looking for, 60% military dick swinging sub A Few Good Men bullshit, and Top Gun style helicopters and jet plane antics, a lot of this is frankly boring, has a generic score, and a pretty bad ending, worth watching maybe for the monkey and Patrick Dempsy's uber '90s grunge Motorhead tshirt and flannel doood getting fuuuucked up by some ebola esque virus


Excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes. I'm doing quicky drive by reviews here.

[Dukefrukem]

Been taking advantage of the DTV watches.

The Invisible Man - slight pro
I love the direction Universal is taking these films. Small scale. Technically competent. They don't need to be this complicated though. It feels like they were trying way too hard to put some kind of Shyamalan twist to make up for the low budget starless film.

The Hunt - super pro
Everything that is great about this is on the shoulders of Betty Gilpin. Better to go in blind. It's more cartoony than gratuitous. It just works. It's fun. My favorite movie of 2020 so far.


Birds of Prey - TBD

[Grouchy]

I like the idea, but I'm already splitting them between the 2019 and 2020 sub-forums and the "Dead Pool" thread.

[Dukefrukem]

"Infection" movies I've watched since-

X-Files
Outbreak
War of the Worlds
World War Z
Color out of Space
Zombieland 2
Zombieland

[Skitch]

Who else has teenagers? I have teenager. Why do they go full valley tone when denied going to friends house? I am in hell.

OH MY GOOOOOOD WHY CANT I GO TO MEGANS HOUSE YOU GUYS THIS THE IS WORST ANYTHING ANYONES EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH. IF I HAVE TO STAY HERE FOR 2 WEEKS I WILL LITERALLY KILL MYSELF. YOU TOTALLY COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND WHAT IM GOING THOUGH. HAVING BEEN DENIED HANGING OUT WITH A FRIEND ONE TIME

Anyone else have teenagers? Just me?

[Dukefrukem]

No but I can't wait.

[Pop Trash]

Who else has teenagers? I have teenager. Why do they go full valley tone when denied going to friends house? I am in hell.

OH MY GOOOOOOD WHY CANT I GO TO MEGANS HOUSE YOU GUYS THIS THE IS WORST ANYTHING ANYONES EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH. IF I HAVE TO STAY HERE FOR 2 WEEKS I WILL LITERALLY KILL MYSELF. YOU TOTALLY COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND WHAT IM GOING THOUGH. HAVING BEEN DENIED HANGING OUT WITH A FRIEND ONE TIME

Anyone else have teenagers? Just me?

Is Ohio so bad people can't go to another house? I understand gatherings over five or ten people, but one-to-one socializing seems ok? Your teenager is more likely to get it at the grocery store or gas station than at her one friend's place.

[Pop Trash]

FINAL DESTINATION - pro
Outside of Donnie Darko the most clairvoyant 9/11 movie almost to the point of it being eerie, this came out in 2000 and like the movie itself seems to match the psychic character in having a premonition of mass death, we're so far away from the late '90s / early '00s that the doofy CW teens with hair gel, low rise jeans, khaki cargo pants, Old Navy lookin' fashion seems charming and quaint, the main dude doing his death design research with dial-up internet on a bulky personal computer, wish I owned a revival theater so I could play this as the more dumdum (but not that dumb) b-side in a double feature with Donnie Darko

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS - near masterpiece
I remember really liking this, but having some minor issues with how the peripheral characters are treated and Llewyn's assholeness being grating, now I don't mind it at all and view him as a tragic figure, a victim of his own personality but also someone who manifests grief (of his suicide partner) in the worst ways, it's a tough and cynical film but honest about talent and ambition, I still don't have a full handle on the ending but I think that's more of a blessing than a curse, some of the best cinematography of the 2010s too, I'd love to figure out how they got the mix of desaturation and smokey diffusion and how much of it was in camera and how much was color corrected in post


Excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes. I'm doing quicky drive by reviews here.

[Dukefrukem]

Happy to see your love for Final Destination.

[Skitch]

Is Ohio so bad people can't go to another house? I understand gatherings over five or ten people, but one-to-one socializing seems ok? Your teenager is more likely to get it at the grocery store or gas station than at her one friend's place.

Yeah but she wants to go a different friends house every day.

[MadMan]

Godzilla 2000-Dumb fun that has some elements that later turned up in other 2000s era movies. The main enemy shows up too late even for a Godzilla movie, but the new Godzilla super breath is pretty cool. "Godzilla is in all of us" made me laugh. Oh and I did like that Godzilla is mostly an anti-hero in this, helping out while still being super destructive.

Runaway-I like Michael Crichton as a director too, despite his flaws. Tom Selleck is very likable as the lead, Gene Simmons is great as the bad guy. Also despite being cheesy this movie has some modern ideas such as drones, smarter robots, etc. Also rather gory, too.

Maximum Risk-Stupid but the action scenes were fun and the movie is rather brisk. Jean Claude turns into a super cop by the end.

All viewed on Crackle.

[Peng]

Yeah but she wants to go a different friends house every day.

(wistfully) ah, teenage years.

[Peng]

Finishing off my 1968 blindspots (for now):

Over the weekend I watched Teorema and Death by Hanging. I was fairly indifferent to Teorema, but watching Death by Hanging after has me appreciated it a tiny bit more. Both are concerned with their own, ahem, theorems to the point of it being prioritized as work of urgent rhetoric over story or characters. But the former's at times delightfully absurdist formalism and performances make it more involving for me than the latter's increasingly sincere, overwhelming lectures (even if it doesn't lack for some lyrical absurdism as well).

Last two films past two days are better:

Targets - Out with the old monster, in with the new Terror (so new it's still decades ahead of its time), intersected and changing hands through cinema. Days later some sequences of this are still seared into my brain; one shot in particular that begins with a crying kid is so brutal. One of the most striking debut films from Bogdanovich. 8.5/10

The Great Silence - Apiece of spaghetti western, beginning and majestically ambling very much in Leone mode, with many of its mythic pleasures along the way. But its sight is set to be as a gratifyingly distorted entry, accumulating little breadcrumbs of slow-mounting, subversive dreads -- most notably in Trintignant's vulnerability and Kinski's growing dominance. Then it throws down the gauntlet to traditional westerns, showing its worldview of what the natural endgame of such dog-eat-dog situations in most of the genre's stories would be, in one of the most nihilistic, memorable endings ever in filmdom. 8.5/10

[Philip J. Fry]

The Great Silence is amazing.

[dreamdead]

We pulled the DVD of Hong Sang-soo's Night and Day off the shelf. Had it for around 7 years, and it's helpful to be aware of when one of his films works and another's just kinda there. This one lacks the formal bifurcations of things like Tale of Cinema or Right Now, Wrong Then. The latter there might be my favorite of his seen in the last 3-4 years. Night and Day, while set in beautiful Paris, just doesn't have enough dramatic tension in the core of our protagonist, so his failings and flaws aren't especially riveting. While an artist, he doesn't really reflect on art; while trying to be with multiple women, he doesn't quite articulate a meaningful idea of much beyond his own pettiness.

It's interesting enough because Hong makes decent films and nothing will be horrible, but it's the kinda film that I go, "yeah, that's another of his."

[Morris Schæffer]

A sneak preview, but tonight it's happening. I will see The Princess Bride for the first time.

[Dukefrukem]

A sneak preview, but tonight it's happening. I will see The Princess Bride for the first time.

O. M. G.

[Skitch]

Starting Midsommar on Kanopy.

[Morris Schæffer]

O. M. G.

I didn't like it. More tomorrow.

[Dukefrukem]

So you have no soul. Did someone swallow it?




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[Skitch]

Neither did my wife. Weirdoes.

Halfway through Tiger King. This is batshit.

[Peng]

I didn't like it. More tomorrow.

(Borderline one of my favorite films once upon a time. A last year's rewatch makes it not that anymore, but still very good.)

[Yxklyx]

Yeah CONTAGION is very good - it probably needs another rewatch and of course TARGETS is one of my favorite films from the 60s.

[Mal]

I live with my parents, so I have an easily swayed audience to make watch a number of films without much resistance. Tonight was half of Heat, which they found impressive (but 3 hours is just too long after 6pm for my folks).

Last night I watched Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken on youtube, which I would have never watched if I wasn't housebound. Amusing, but slight.

[MadMan]

Blood Harvest is shit although Tiny Tim is hilarious in that movie as Marvelous Merv. One of those dumb slasher movies you forget about after you see it.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 is good fun and has some nice creepy moments. Sure it steals from other, better horror movies but I still liked it anyways. I prefer it over the first one since it is more entertaining. The demonic rocking horse part is awesome and hey a girl gets impaled with neon.

Both viewed on Shudder as I wrapped up S1 of The Last Drive In With Joe Bob Briggs.

Oh and I also viewed The Skull on Hulu. Goofy movie that I liked well enough, as Amicus was a solid production studio. Freddie Francis directed and Peter Cushing starred with Christopher Lee as guest so it felt like Amicus was ripping off Hammer a bit.