popcorn

I'm watching Gomorrah and just heard about the passing of Bill Nunn. I was going to sleep after this but I gotta throw in Do the Right Thing for Radio Raheem. Rest in peace!

Gobear

I have had no time for movies this month, but today I binged on terrific films

Nashville:. an old favorite I saw at the drive-in as a kid 41 years ago. A perfect snapshot of mid-70s America, and in some respects even more relevant today.

The In-Laws: I remember laughing my ass off at the time, but it doesn't hit me the same way today. Still a perfectly constructed film, and Alan Arkin should have won an Academy Award nomination for his performance.

High and Low: Although I prefer Kurosawa's samurai films, this is a brilliant depiction of a man caught in a horrible dilemma: should he ruin himself and beggar his family to save the son of his driver? In addition, this film brings together Kurosawa's favorite male leads: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, and Takashi Shimura.

mrcellophane

Last night, I finished reading Jan Stuart's The Nashville Chronicles which gives insight into the making of the film. If you're a fan of the film, it's a very good read.

Ash Ketchum

A couple of related Blob stories. When I was five, I saw the poster for the film at the local movie theater and it looked really scary, with the Blob covering buildings and people--you could see human outlines in the Blob. 13 years later I got to see the film when I programmed it for a Sunday afternoon film series at a local church. Of course, Steve McQueen had become a huge star in the interim and it was fun seeing him in an early role, playing a teenager (when he was 28). And the movie didn't have any images like the ones in the poster!

That same year--1971--on the Tonight Show, Ed McMahon and Doc Severinsen would do a segment with the audience where they'd ask them to "Stump the Band" and an audience member would suggest a song and see if Doc and the band knew it. If they didn't, the audience member would have to sing it. So these two girls got up, about my age, and they said "The Blob." And Ed and Doc shook their heads, so the girls sang the opening song from THE BLOB: "Beware of the Blob, it leaps and creeps and glides and slides across the floor, right through the door/and over on the wall, a splotch, a blotch, beware of the Blob!"

A couple of years later I'm in film school talking with a classmate, a girl I liked, and she tells me about the time she and her friend sang the theme song from THE BLOB on the Tonight Show.

Trevor

^ And den?

pacaway

Trevor, look really close at the rings in the center of the disc, where the serial numbers, or whatever, are. Do you see the letters 'BVDL' anywhere?

Trevor

Will check when I get home, thanks.

BobO'Link

Neat stories! I, too, remember seeing those posters on the wall outside the local theater. I don't recall ever seeing the film until I purchased a copy a few years back. I'm now trying to decide whether or not to purchase a copy of Beware! The Blob (aka "Son of the Blob"). It'd be a blind buy.
Enquiring minds want to know!

Gobear

You should probably try to find a stream of it first because it's a bargain basement production that awkwardly straddles the line between horror and deliberate camp. There's a bit of star power because it was directed by Larry Hagman (JR from "Dallas") and has brief cameos by recognizable stars like Godfrey Cambridge and Dick Van Patten. If you enjoy early-70s grindhouse flicks, however, then this just might be a treasure. Lower your expectations, no, lower than that, then cut them by 50% and you're there.

Ash Ketchum

Sadly, nothing happened. I wound up dating her sister, who was attending the same school with a different major, for a while, though.

BobO'Link

So you're saying something along the lines of Evil Bong II or lower.

Trevor

Last few days here, I'm thinking I owe "the spirit of Criterion, or the thread" at least one new-to-me "hard" film to fully explore. By hard I mean the films I usually put off watching: the 3+ hour foreign language epics outside of my typical horror or action milieu.
It's not as saucy as it sounds, but back in college I once dated two sisters and one of their best friends over the period of about a year.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

It's not that bad. I liked it as a kid enough to want to get it now but it's your basic early 80s horror sequel. Not as good as the original but on a slow weekend where you're on the couch and aren't getting up, it more than passes the time.

LJG765

That's pretty funny. I love when things like that happen.

I was able to find Jellyfish Eyes through my library and decided that I was in the mood to watch it tonight. Big mistake. This thing is awful. I have no idea what Criterion thought when they decided to release this. The acting is horrible, the animation is horrible (it has these CGI fantasy creatures throughout the movie). The plot of this is a interesting idea. All the children of a small Japanese town are given these little fantasy creatures named F.R.I.E.N.D.S. A new boy moves to town and their real purpose/creation comes to light.

However, the combination of all the ideas just was done so poorly. The kids are cruel, but not in any redeemable way. The adults are just in this as ineffectual baboons. I gather there is supposed to be subtle hidden commentary on Japanese culture but it's beyond badly done.

Skip this, skip it with prejudice. You'll be glad that you saved yourself this hour and forty minutes of pure dreck.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

That sounds like a plot that's been done to death already. It has some amazing scores too

4.9/10
IMDb

18%
Rotten Tomatoes

34%
Metacritic

I got a batch of Arrow releases in the mail last night. I think they're doing a comparable job to Criterion releases, except most of the Arrow films I've heard of and tend to like more. A bunch of bonus features I care just about as much as Criterion and insert/booklet that contain a lot more information than Criterion. In both cases with both companies, I'm not interested in these supplementals most of the time but when it's a movie I like, they're both pretty good.

LJG765

With three days left of the challenge to go, I just picked up Grey Gardens, The Graduate and La Dolce Vita from the library. Grey Gardens will complete Diablo Cody's Top 10 list, so I plan on watching that tomorrow. The other two were kind of last minute, hey, they look interesting and haven't watched them before so let's get them off the "watch at some point" list.

I notice it's been fairly quiet in here lately, have people stopped watching already and are preparing for October's Horror challenge? I have to admit to take taking the month off challenge wise and just watch fun movies and Halloween themed ones (not horror, but things like Halloweentown) as a nice break before the holiday challenge and after this one where I watch a lot more intense films.

Trevor

I use the other 11 months to prepare for the Horror Challenge.

mrcellophane

I love all three of those films! You're in for a real treat!

I've slowed down a lot this week due to other activities and anxiety deciding to mess about with my sleep pattern. A few days ago, I did watch Victim, a haunting film about the blackmail of homosexuals in 1960s London. It has some excellent performances as well as a social message that is still (sadly) relevant. Of course, the British laws that the film is critical are no longer in effect, but there are still places with such laws with even harsher punishments. And we still see rampant homophobia in our the US. Let's not forget that one of the Presidential candidates attended a rally in which a key speaker called for the murder of all LGBT people. So great job Basil Dearden, Dirk Bogarde, and Sylvia Syms. Please come back and make another movie.

shadokitty

I haven't been watching anything for this Challenge lately. I just couldn't get into it this month. That's why I haven't been posting. I've just been warming up for next month.

malazar

I managed to finish off the checklist today, despite it having been a crazy month of 70 hour work weeks, so I am pleased with that. I'm not sure if I will try for anything during the Horror Challenge crossover, since I think the only horror Criterion in my to watch pile is Kwaidan and a 3 hour+ film would probably not be the best way to start things off.

LJG765

I have to admit, horror is my least liked film genre. I hate pretty much all horror, though suspense I occasionally can enjoy.
I actually enjoyed the commentary of Grey Gardens more than the original film, though I think seeing the actual documentary first is needed. But the commentary was actually interesting and had good information/stories about the two Beales.
That has definitely happened to me in the past where I just didn't get into a challenge. I think we all hit a wall at certain times if you participate in more than one or two of these challenges!

BobO'Link

Even the classic Universal horror films?!? Words fail me!!!

mrcellophane

There's a followup documentary called The Beales of Grey Gardens that it quite good. Also, the HBO film starring Drew Barrymore is worth watching. Then if you somehow develop Beale-fever, the soundtrack to the Broadway show is worth a listen! And then you can watch Mary Louise Wilson win a Tony for it and basically say "yeah, I desire this".

ntnon

8 1/2 is superb.

I've also thoroughly enjoyed the first Zatoichi film, was very mildly underwhelmed by Sword of the Beast and moderately-impressed by Diabolique. Though - as Kim Newman pointed out - the novel twists and suspenseful moments have been imitated and redone so often that it cannot hve the impact now that it did then. The contact lenses were still creepy, though!

I assume The Virgin Spring being so very, very much like Last House on the Left is widely known, but I wasn't (consciously) aware of it. Certainly made the relative uninreresting parts moot as the real plot revealed itself from amidst the normalcy of life. (Also, surely Game of Thrones casting Max von Sydow as a Raven is a multi-faceted inside-joke/reference..!)

LJG765

Well, I do appreciate them. I have the Frankenstein set and usually watch at least one or two them at Halloween. I guess what I'm trying to say is I dislike bloody, jump out at you, murder porn, gore for the sake of gore horror. I watched Psycho for the first time just a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I own Nosferatu. I'm trying to think of others like that, but there aren't that many. I think it stems from when I was about 4 or 5 and my sister would let me watch them, "cover your eyes and I'll tell you when you can look!" Yeah, look right at the kids being killed.
I have watched the follow up documentary but haven't seen the Barrymore film. It's funny as I was talking with my librarian about it when I picked this one up. She didn't know that there were either of the two, the follow up or the HBO movie. I have to admit, the Broadway show is new to me!