JeffTheAlpaca

I remember how hot Olivia Newton John was in Xanadu and the blonde guy from the Warriors was in it

JeffTheAlpaca

Hulu

Tempted to buy this but $24.99 is pricey for the Blu-ray and maybe a 4k is on the way in the future?

Cellar Door

Anatomy of a Fall - It's easy to see why Sandra Hüller got a best actress nomination for this.

DWilson

Kalifornia Hoopla
Brad Pitt, David Duchovny. Directed by Dominic Sena. 1993
Brian Kessler, a journalist researching serial killers, and his photographer girlfriend Carrie set out on a cross-country tour of the sites of the killings. Sharing the ride and their expenses are Early Grayce, a paroled white trash criminal, and his girlfriend Adele. As the trip progresses, Early begins to appear more and more unstable, and may be a murderer himself.

I hadn't watched this since the '90s DVD. "Kalifornia" is available for streaming all over the place, but it's always in a 1:78 "cropped" format. Dominic Sena is a visual stylist with very precise framing, and the cropped format does him and the film a disservice. Fortunately, Hoopla streams it in its proper 2:35 widescreen format.

David Duchovny, Michelle Forbes, and Juliette Lewis all give good performances, and Brad Pitt gives a masterclass in portraying an amoral, dim-witted dirtbag. At times the characters come off as Theatrical archetypes rather than believable, three-dimensional characters, but for the most part it works. It's just that "Early Grayce" is a thoroughly unpleasant character to spend two hours with (though I'm sure Pitt had fun chewing every available bit of scenery). Still, "Kalifornia" is watchable right down to its grisly finale.

DeFan

Brad Pitt is an excellent example of why people think it's easy to be an actor. He's just being Brad Pitt. How hard is that? Other than 12 Monkeys where he overdid the Jack Nicholson bit he's been excellent. Which takes craft. I don't like serial killer movies or David Duchovny, but maybe I'll give this a watch.

JeffTheAlpaca

2000

Starz

A charming rap musician (Tariq Trotter or more known as Black Thought from the Roots and cast member of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon) falls in love with a woman (Karen Goberman) from a conservative Jewish family.

Slick Rick plays a promoter

There were no customers in the Ethiopian music store and the store owner seemed more concerned about smoking blunts than running his store but I would not mind going in and browsing the merchandise

JeffTheAlpaca

2016


"In 1986, federal agent Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) goes under cover to infiltrate the trafficking network of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Working with fellow agents Kathy Ertz (Diane Kruger) and Emir Abreu (John Leguizamo), Mazur poses as a slick, money-laundering businessman named Bob Musella."

Diane Krueger was so hot in this but then again when isn't she?

JANK

With my granddaughter Winnie The Pooh, The Heffalump

Surprised how great the animation was.

DWilson

The Killing Kind Kanopy
John Savage. Directed by Curtis Harrington. 1973
Young Terry Lambert returns home from serving a prison term for a gang-rape he was forced to participate in. He seeks revenge on his lawyer and the girl who framed him. But his real problem is his overbearing mother, whose boarding house he resides in.

"The Killing Kind" is a strange little film. "Terry Lambert" is a disturbed young man whose suppressed sexual impulses turn to violence and murder; he also has a relationship with his mother that feels almost incestuous. It's a good role for John Savage, who never really looked comfortable in straight-forward leading roles. Former leading lady Ann Sothern gets the "hag" Mother role, and Cindy Williams makes an early appearance as a bubbly young woman who flirts with Terry, and soon regrets it.

While "Terry" is a ticking time bomb and there are some grisly murders, "The Killing Kind" sort of plods along and never really develops the kind of tension it needs.

DWilson

A Bronx Tale you.tube
Chazz Palminteri. Directed by Robert DeNiro. 1993
A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s.

I tried watching "A Bronx Tale" a couple of months back on AMC+, and quickly realized they were editing the language (which especially bothered me since it's a pay service) and shut it off. The other day I found it on Kanopy, but when I streamed it, the sound was at the correct speed but the video lagged behind the sound. I stumbled across a free upload on you.tube, and here we are.

I enjoyed it back in '93 and it remains an excellent film that really captures a particular time and place. It begins with Palminteri's script, which is just filled with great moments and memorable dialogue. Palminteri and DeNiro (in a nicely restrained role) are terrific, and the rest of the cast were new actors, or non-actors who just embodied their roles. I like Lillo Brancato as Cologero, and it's a shame he'd end up eventually serving ten years at Riker's.

Additionally, I also found on you.tube an interview from two years back that reformed Mob Boss Michael Franzese did with Chazz Palminteri, and it answered some of the questions I had while watching the film. Franzese also has an honest and enlightening interview with Lillo Brancato that fans of the film should look up.

JeffTheAlpaca

A Bronx Tale is a movie worth owning on 4k or blu-ray

JeffTheAlpaca

HBO


"Faced with their loved ones serving in Afghanistan, women from different backgrounds come together to form the very first military wives choir, helping each other through some of life's most difficult moments on an international stage."


First time I saw the outside of the Royal Albert Hall

DWilson

Dave Made A Maze Amazon Prime
Nick Thune. Directed by Bill Watterson.
Dave, a frustrated artist who has yet to accomplish anything significant in his career, builds a fort out of cardboard boxes in his living room, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls and critters of his own creation.

"Dave Made A Maze" is a fairly absurd Comedic Fantasy that just as easily could have been transformed into a Horror Film. It's actually quite imaginative and visually clever on a very low budget, if you can get past the amateurish set-up. It certainly has the spirit of Terry Gilliam's early work. At the end of the day, or rather, the end of the film, I just don't know if it adds up to much.

DeFan

This came up in another forum so I though I'd give it a watch. The dulcet tones of Orson Wells lend some credence to this load of rubbish. Amazingly if you make a thousand vague predictions some of them can be twisted to be true. I remember quite a mania for predictions when I was a kid with Criswell and Jeane Dixon having columns in the local paper. It was quite amusing to see Criswell in Plan 9 From Outer Space shredding what reputation he had. Worth spending 90 minutes on the Internet Archives for fun.

DWilson

Robocop 20th Century Fox Blu-ray
Joel Kinnaman. Directed by Jose Padihla. 2014
A grievously wounded cop becomes the test subject for an experimental program designed to help Omnicorp sell America on the idea of using robots to replace the police force.

I saw the "Robocop" re-boot in the theater back in 2014, and I couldn't get past my love of the original. However, I saw a copy of the blu-ray in a "Dollar Tree" store a while back, and, yes, I'd buy that for a dollar.

Watching it again, I must admit that it's a much better film than I first gave it credit for, but it's a bit generic and lacks the idiosyncratic voice of the original.

DeFan

Since I was at the Internet Archives I though I'd give this another watch. As much a story of young woman's body issue problems as a study of Karen Carpenter it's a shame it's been suppressed. It might help some people with similar issues. I thought she was a goody goody lightweight back in the day. Playing with Nixon didn't help. Now that it's too late I recognize her strong and unique voice. I'm a big fan of Todd Haynes and seeing the emotion he can wring out of Barbie dolls is amazing.

JeffTheAlpaca

Mending the Line (2022)

Netflix

After returning to the United States, a wounded veteran (Sinqua Walls) develops a friendship with a headstrong fly fisherman (Brian Cox) and a talented photographer turned librarian (Perry Matfield.)"


It was ok but I thought it would be a lot better since I am a Brian Cox fan though lately he has been playing a lot of these grumpy curmudgeon roles.

Perry Matfield looks or resembles Jennifer Aniston and she is the wife of former USC and Jets QB Mark Sanchez.

DWilson

The Heroic Trio Criterion Blu-Ray
Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung. Directed by Johnnie To. 1993
Three rival super-heroines, - Wonder Woman (not that one), Invisible Woman (not "The Fantastic Four" one), and Thief Catcher, -must band together if they are to find out who is responsible for kidnapping babies in Hong Kong. All possess great powers and abilities, and their mission will take them from the streets and back-alleys of the city to the underworld kingdom of a powerful demon.

I remember renting “The Heroic Trio” on laser disc back in the ‘90s, and I loved it. In fact, I ended up buying that disc outright once I returned it. Johnnie To took all the wild martial arts action and acrobatic wirework of Wuxia Martial Arts Films and transformed it into a costumed Superhero Fantasy set in a stylized Modern setting not unlike Tim Burton's version of "Gotham City". The visuals are lush and over-the-top with sweeping pans, flowing capes, swirling debris, mid-air fights, and an eff-ton of slow-motion. It's also very Operatic in its emotions as well, with all the teary-eyes close-ups and maudlin music cues you could ask for. The movie is very intoxicating if you can overlook its mix of campy absurdity and shocking darkness. The three lead actresses are gorgeous women and captivating Action stars, but it's hard to brush past a scene where they confront cannibalistic toddlers and take them out with explosives.

Looking at it now, "The Heroic Trio" is not nearly as satisfying as it once was. Criterion has delivered a decent package, though it's not without its faults. It includes the sequel film “Executioners”, which I personally didn’t care for, even back when I was madly in love with Hong Kong films. "Executioners" throws away the characterizations and charm of the first film for an even darker Post-Apocalyptic story. Criterion also changed the color-timing of "The Heroic Trio" adding in the usual teals and orange, though it's not as egregious as their job on “Mean Streets”, and somewhat comfortably fits its Fantasy tableau.

DWilson

{REC} Shout Factory Blu-Ray
Manuela Velasco. Directed by Jaume Balaquero, Paco Plaza. 2007
A young TV reporter and her cameraman who cover the night shift at the local fire station. Receiving a call from an old lady trapped in her house, they reach her building to hear horrifying screams--which begin a long nightmare and a uniquely dramatic TV report.

Excellent Spanish-Language Horror Film, though there is an English dub that can be accessed. It's a "Found Footage" film, with lots of "shaky" handheld footage used expertly for several great scares and shocking moments. The opening scenes with the reporter doing a fluffy news piece at the fire station is as charmingly vapid and convincing as any similar American filler, while the violence of the second half is sudden and brutal. It would be followed in 2008 by "Quarantine", a nearly shot-for-shot American remake.

JANK

With my granddaughter The Rescuers

Such great animation & good story. The backgrounds were overall almost stunningly done.

DWilson

{REC} 2 Shout Factory Blu-Ray
Jonathan Mellor. Directed by Directed by Jaume Balaquero, Paco Plaza. 2009
The action continues from [Rec] (2007), with the medical officer and a SWAT team outfitted with video cameras sent into the sealed off apartment to control the situation.

"Rec 2" picks up from the end of the first film, but then goes back to re-tell portions of the original story from the viewpoint of other cameras and characters, adding new perspectives to familiar scenes. The original was a "28 Days Later" knock-off where an unknown virus turned its victims into crazed, blood-thirsty monsters. However, there was a metaphysical element to the virus that was lightly touched on. In the sequel, the filmmakers take that metaphysical aspect and turn "Rec 2" into a full-blown "Exorcist" meets "Aliens" knock-off, with a possessed "Patient Zero", and a virus that transforms its victims into demons. Some might say "knock-off" is a needlessly derogatory term, but this is a really good knock-off.

"Rec 2" isn't quite measure up to the original. It's less of a "one continuous shot" roller coaster ride and more deliberately episodic, and, of course, the more details you add to the story, the more plot-holes you tend to uncover. However, the last shot is pretty great, and, overall, it's a film well worth watching. Shout Factory also includes a two-hour "Making of" (that's a half-hour longer than the actual film), though it is in Spanish with subtitles.

Boondock Saint

Time Warrior

Dragonwyck (1946)

(From old Fox triple horror feature DVD)

Not a horror film but marketed by 20th Century Fox as such when released on DVD - it is more of a gothic mystery of the Jane Eyre type. Shot very well with a great evocative score it has really good performances from Vincent Price (near career best) and especially Walter Huston as a religion dominated country farmer. Jessica Tandy appears in a very early role as well. The whole film is drenched in atmosphere but seems to have suffered from pre-release cuts as some plot points are indistinct and the last 30 minutes packs in far more developments than the first hour giving it a lobsided feel. Very well made overall and a great first viewing of a film I have owned on disc for something like 16 years!

DWilson

The Abyss Disney 4K
Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Directed by James Cameron. 1989
A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search-and-rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force.

This is my first time seeing "The Abyss" with the "Special Edition" ending since the laserdisc days. It's just a terrific film, much better than I remembered. My usually complaint about James Cameron is that his characters are rather two-dimensional ("Titanic" "Avatar"). In "The Abyss" the characters begin as archetypes but become much more fleshed out and believable as the movie goes along. It helps that he has an absolutely terrific cast at the top of their game. It also has the "Special Edition" ending which is much weightier and more developed than the Theatrical version; it's the difference between a smiley "'ET' Lite" sort of ending and something closer to "The Day the Earth Stood Still". There are two powerful emotional scenes in the Third Act that thoroughly upstage the actual climax, but the film achieves a much better balance in the corrected version.

JANK

Moana