Return of the RECENT VIEWING

[Schiz-Ke-Bab]

[Darkness_Fish]

Is that the one that has Ingrid Pitt naked in a bath?

That's all I can remember about it if so.

[Schiz-Ke-Bab]

Is that the one that has Ingrid Pitt naked in a bath?

That's all I can remember about it if so.

Yep, that would be the one. It's one of the better Elizabeth Báthory inspired films out there. Immoral Tales (1974) also has a good Báthory segment.

[pcqgod]

I have that one on a two-fer dvd with "The Vampire Lovers."

[Goat Boy]

Is that the one that has Ingrid Pitt naked in a bath?

isn't that like every one

[joels344]

Watched this for the second time last night. I'm still wondering why this wasn't nominated for Best Original Score.

[Matt Wilson]

Manchester by the Sea

Thought it was pretty good. Some say it's too depressing but that didn't bother me. The acting was stupendous, the screenplay, believable.

[Jimbly]

Out with the wee guy. Not much that was suitable on. So we saw The Great Wall. Oh boy it's that poor you can see it stink from outer space.

[naughty boy]

Melanie Lynskey's performance in this was one of the best I've seen in anything. I bought right into the part - cried, laughed, the works. And when it finished, I thought 'bet the critics hated it' - but they praised her to the heavens too.

Now I want to see her in everything.

[Schiz-Ke-Bab]

I have that one on a two-fer dvd with "The Vampire Lovers."

Yeah, that's the one I have as well. I was considering upgrading to blu, but I don't know, that picture quality didn't look too bad.

I miss the old Midnite Movies twofers. Just about all of them have been issued as single releases anymore. My favorite was the Motel Hell/Deranged double feature.

[Darkness_Fish]

Catching up with the art-house classics. Ludicrous nonsensical plot, the CGI is typically piss-poor and jarring, and no-one gives a particularly convincing performance, although the yank traitor/bad-guy fella has a good go at being Ross from Friends. Not exactly a classic.

[pcqgod]

Passengers (2017)

Chris Pratt plays a man on an interstellar flight who comes out of suspended animation 90 years too early due to a ship malfunction. He becomes creepily obsessed with a female passenger still in stasis and makes the fateful decision to revive her, even though this will likely doom her to live the rest of her life on board the ship, since there seems to way to return to hibernation. This premise could have been the basis of an introspective 'Twilight Zone'-ish morality story, or interesting psychological drama, but the makers of this movie had much more modest artistic aspirations, and so we get a bland story with Hallmark card philosophies.



John Wick, Chapter 2 (2017)

I never saw Chapter 1, but it appears that the title character is an ex-mob human-Terminator who keeps getting pulled back into that world of impossibly rich and powerful crime kingpins with genteel tastes (one looks and sounds like the "World's Most Interesting Man" from the Dos Equis ads). John Wick seems to have no actual character traits other than being able to single-handedly dispatch any army of hitmen armed better than most nations' armed forces, and he has a dead, beautiful wife. A dead wife! When you make that a character's backstory it's clear that you just don't really care. Which makes sense, because the clear focus here is gun porn, not just evidenced by the ridiculous amount of bullets fired, but the gun-nerd detail in more than one scene where people are describing the capabilities of various sidearms and auto/semi-automatic rifles. Dialogue is clearly not the focus here either, when the female character with the most lines does not utter a single word (she speaks in sign language) and the main character's best line is "I'll kill them! I'll kill them all!." I feel somewhat puzzled, because I had heard good things about the first "Wick" movie. Based on what I saw in Chapter 2, I'll have to attribute that to Matrix nerds being overjoyed to see Keanu Reeves shooting the shit out of stuff again while they wait for the inevitable Matrix reboot.

[PresMuffley]

Nice write up. I can't help but feeling that if this were the IMDb some sucka would be here to inform you how you missed the point due to not viewing chapter 1.

[The Write Profile]

Melanie Lynskey's performance in this was one of the best I've seen in anything. I bought right into the part - cried, laughed, the works. And when it finished, I thought 'bet the critics hated it' - but they praised her to the heavens too.

Now I want to see her in everything.

She's built a career on acclaimed support acts, but I don't think she'll ever top her debut performance in Heavenly Creatures. That was an extraordinary display of pent-up menace and social awkwardness. She's gripping and slightly terrifying, and Kate Winslet is a superb foil. Hard to believe that the film is over 20 years old now! I remember the fuss when it was first released- much of the controversy focused on the fact that one of the film's real-life inspirations was alive and well and a successful crime fiction novelist. It's probably Jackson's most artistically accomplished film, certainly his most contained (aside from a few of the fantasy sequences). I mean, I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and the Hobbit films notsomuch), but I wish he would get back to directing idiosyncratic urban horrors like Heavenly Creatures.

[Schiz-Ke-Bab]

[Snarfyguy]

I feel somewhat puzzled, because I had heard good things about the first "Wick" movie. Based on what I saw in Chapter 2, I'll have to attribute that to Matrix nerds being overjoyed to see Keanu Reeves shooting the shit out of stuff again while they wait for the inevitable Matrix reboot.

I'd heard that as well, which I thought was odd because by all appearances the series is perfunctory as these things get. Your thoughts are much more in line with what I would have expected. Still, there's definitely room on my agenda for shoot-em-up mayhem delivery systems that are actually good!

I hold out hope that there's some reason I should watch the first one (but I'll definitely avoid the one you saw).

[Darkness_Fish]

The first John Wick is alright, it's a quite stylised violent dancing thing. A brainless shoot-fest, that looks good.

[harvey k-tel]

Fucking fantastic film (FFF).

[Snarfyguy]

^^^ Noted.



Broody guy and enigmatic girl in stormy relationship. Overheated and insubstantial.

[Dr Markus]

I loved the originals and love these reboots. I gave it another watch before the impending 3rd film. Has all the political and social commentary that made the originals more than just a sci fi film. Can't wait for the 3rd.