ahoy, sk.
dr sleep 3.5 - i liked it a lot more on a 2nd watch, though i still don't care for it as much as most other flanagan films. i found it a little too digital looking, maybe? clever insight you made regarding trainspotting. sharp mind you have there!
shortbus 3 - i would run away screaming from all of those people.
my week:
cool hand luke (1967) 3 writing reviews of old movies just about everyone has seen is pretty stupid, i guess.
all i can say is that, while this has some great moments & justifiably famous dialogue, i didn't enjoy most of it very much.
all about nina (2018) 1.5 i watched this some time back and thought very highly of it, according to my prior letterboxd review.
i thought it was atrocious tonight.
i bet being a comedian is incredibly hard. not many could do it.
& i don't think winstead is passable as a comedian.
the ending was a disaster to me.
dude bro party massacre (2015) 5 i would be happier if more movies were like this and fewer were like tokyo story
silent night deadly night 5 (1991) 3 not quite as fun as part 4, but surprisingly entertaining.
to die for (1995) 4 if she put on some goth makeup and some punky clothes, i would do anything nicole kidman told me to.
never let go (1960) 3 not terribly interesting crime thriller. interesting to see peter sellers playing a heavy, i guess, but nothing else about it is very distinctive. if you're thinking of watching it, i'd say give it a pass.
the blood on satan's claw (1971) 3.5 a bit slow in the early going, and a touch too darkly lit in spots for my liking, but stick with it, cuz this is a very nicely done period horror. never gets too wild, and there's minimal gore and scares, but it's solidly entertaining & nicely made.
coven (2020) 2.5 goofy fun. cute girls who wear skimpy revealing clothes, a bit of very softcore lesbian sex, and some silly witchcraft that will make you feel embarrassed for the actors.
i was entertained, and even made a bit horny in a few places. good enough for me.
holiday (1938) 3 cary grant/katherine hepbrun romcom. it's very cute & all, but this is the kind of good natured movie about people and their feelings that just doesn't align with my preferences.
silent night (2012) 2 i don't have any great reverence for the original films, but at least they had a trashy glee & sense of fun. this is very much a non-funny, fairly generic horror movie remake. it's not terrible, and i watched it and never wanted to turn it off. but it's very bland and will probably fall out of my head as quickly as it entered, i expect.
miller's crossing (1990) 2 am i in a pissy mood or something? stressed from work? dismayed by the crushing morosity of daily life? i don't seem to be enjoying any of the movies i'm watching these days. and i usually like everything. i'm easy to please.
this is my 2nd crack at this, and i once again found it to be a dreary bore. i couldn't understand 60% of what byrne said. i didn't know why anyone was doing anything. i didn't know who these people were and why they were beating byrne up every 20 minutes or so.
i love the coens. i think they may have made more great movies than anyone else in the last 40 years. this is my least favourite coens film.
2 stars for the amusement i got out of seeing people beat the shit out of byrne 4 or 5 times.
village of the damned (1960) 3.5 kids are bad news.
very good. like an extended above average twilight zone episode.
triangle (2009) 3.5 i don't know why melissa george does all the things she does in this movie.
i've watched it a bunch of times, & i don't really think her actions make sense.
but i have a very, very good time every time i hit play on it, which is much more important.
movies don't have to make sense to be good.
tony conrad: dreaminimalist (2008) short doc on minimalist/noise musician tony conrad.
i don't know a whole lot about conrad, but i do know he has performed with the messy, crazy krautrockers faust, so i always assume he was a dour, scary, sinister guy.
not at all. he's a completely good-natured goofball.
i wish this had more of his music. but it's a fun little sketch of him as a person.
santa the fascist years (2008) 3 short animated film. you can do a lot in 4 minutes.
i wish people who thought you need 150 minutes to tell a complete story would learn something from things like this.
king of the hill (1993) 3 so far i'm not liking this too much.
but that car scene at the 45m mark gave me huge anxiety in a sort of pleasing manner.
i should have looked into what this was about before hitting play. i don't like watching movies about kids in peril or having a sad time of it.
it's perfectly fine, but it made me feel really bad, which is something i prefer to avoid. films like this always bum me out. this was no exception.
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[deleted]
3 years ago
elevator to the gallows (1958) 4 very cool french thriller that i was completely unaware of until today. can't quite unreservedly praise it, cuz it kinda tapers off in a way i found a touch unsatisfying, & doesn't quite give me the satisfying mental crunch i thought it was building towards. but it's a very slick, cool little film and absolutely worth your time if you're a pleeb like me who wasn't clued into it.
alien (1979) 4.5 i've heard it said over the years that this movie takes too long to get going.
nuts to that. this is something like the pinnacle of achievement as far as building tension in a horror film goes imo.
the only thing i don't like about this now is the ash surprise. it feels like a distraction that slightly takes away from the ratcheting up of anxiety the rest of the movie does so expertly.
hellraiser 3: hell on earth (1992) i've never had any great love for the first two hellraiser films. i like them enough, but i've always felt that they were making a bit too much of an effort for something close to seriousness.
this is the kind of nonsense trash i love. it's filled with foxy girls & lots of fun, silly gore effects, and it moves along at a rat-a-tat pace. it's not good, but it's absolutely awesome, and i loved every second of it.
hellraiser: bloodline (1996) 1.5 it may sound kinda dumb to say that i'm disappointed in a hellraiser sequel.
but i thought pt 3 was an absolute blast. the best kind of silly, fun, cheap early 90s horror.
so i was primed for more of the same. & when i heard that it had some future-ish sci-fi elements, i was primed for a very good time.
and instead it's a dreary bore. murky & bland & ugly to look at.
and i finished watching the netflix series 'the haunting of bly manor' this past weekend.
my least favourite flanagan.
it still has the things that make his movies good. he truly has a talent for taking old horror elements that ought to feel tired & old - ghosts, hauntings, things in the dark - & making them feel fresh & interesting. the best moments here do that.
but...
i hated the lead. i wanted her to go away and wanted to watch anyone else besides her the whole time she was on the screen. i wanted her to die in the last episode. i didn't want her to be happy. the last episode, when things were supposed to be triumphant, made me sick, because i didn't want this dreary, nothing person to be happy & feel good.
& the story lacked a complete, interesting arc. i plowed through hill house. couldn't wait to watch the next episode. i would forgo doing other things to watch two, three episodes in a row. here, i felt nothing other than a dutiful need to hit play again to get this dreary thing over with.
i thought hill house ended somewhat weakly, but i was still left with a satisfied feeling of having experienced a complete story told very well.
here in the final episode, i was completely indifferent, pining for it to be over, and hating each and every person and their dreary monologues and the droning voice-over.
all in all...not too good.
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StoneKeeper (21033)
3 years ago
Dude bro party massacre: 6/10
To die for: 7.5/10
I am a fan of the Coen brothers but Miller Crossing is one of the few I haven’t seen from them...we all know deep down that there’s a reason.
Alien 8/10
I’m pretty sure we equally love Flanagan and I did watch part of the first episode when it came out but I’m not sure when I’ll get to watch the rest
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