What did you taco salads watch this week (06/26-07/02)

Man vs bee

Haven't done one of these for a while. Spent quite a time away from this forum for one thing. Anyway, let's give it a go... Haven't seen any of yours... except Seinfeld, which I'm fond of.

This week, I have mostly been watching 'challenging' cinema. Quite a lot of it by the same director:

The House That Jack Built (Lars von Trier, 2018) [Mubi]

I loved a lot of things about this film. It may well be Lars von Trier’s funniest (although it’s a very dark, very bleak comedy) but it’s also unforgivably overlong and self-indulgent. I could have lost a good 40 minutes from this. But I enjoyed it (if that's the word), just not as much as I was hoping to.

3/5

Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003) [Amazon rental]

I think his best film is Dancer in the Dark, but I wouldn’t argue with anyone claiming it is this one.

5/5

The Boss of It All (Lars von Trier, 2006) [Mubi]

Von Trier does a reasonably straightforward comedy. It’s not very funny. I don’t even think it’s supposed to be. But it’s an entertaining enough break from controversy for the director.

3/5

Nymphomaniac, Vols I & II (Lars von Trier, 2013) [Amazon rental]

Despite liking most of von Trier’s films, and absolutely loving some of them, I avoided this for nine years. A four hour long movie focused on female sexuality and sex addiction by cinema’s biggest jerk-king provocateur? No thanks, Lars, not today… But actually it’s one of his few films that doesn’t feel like a prank. But it’s also just a touch underwhelming really. It’s… fine. But, to me, fairly minor von Trier.

3/5

Air Doll (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2009) [Criterion Channel]

A sex doll comes to life and learns what it means to be human. Meditative. A bit heavy on plinky-plonk You Will Feel Something music, but nevertheless very good.

4/5

I didn't really like the first 3 seasons of Seinfeld. This is a show that actually got better in the later seasons.

Channel Zero (2016-2018) anthology series season 2 No End House 9/10
Four friends learn that the No-End House is more than a haunted mansion when they confront strangely personal horrors in each room.
This was a very original 6 episode mystery. I did not see the twist coming, at all.

Season 3, Butcher's Block
A young woman and her schizophrenic sister move to a city haunted by a series of disappearances and, after suspecting that they may be connected to a baffling rumor, they must work together to discover what is preying on the city's residents.

I'm not sure why this series is listed as TV-14, it is most definitely TV-MA or R. Both of these seasons are super gory, and disturbing.

Now I want tacos! I haven't seen any of the movies you watched, but I was considering eventually watching The man from Toronto, Patriot's Day and The fifth wave.

I watched a lot of bad movies this week with a few good ones mixed in. I watched:

R.O.T.O.R. 1987 3/10 So I suffered through R.O.T.O.R. (1987). Horribly directed by Cullen Blaine, this is a really bad rip off of other much better sci-fi films. The film looks cheap and ugly. Performances are all terrible and unconvincing. The dialogue is ridiculously bad and reads as if it was written by a bunch of drunken children who have watched too many science fiction movies. The film feels longer than its run time. The only bright spot is Willard the sassy police robot, complete with his own police hat. There should have been more of him and less of everything else. I did snicker a few times at some of the ridiculously bad dialogue and acting, but that is about all the entertainment value this so-called film has to offer. This sucked.

Big Daddy 1999 6/10 This was alright. Not one of Sandler's best films, but not one of his worst. Some good moments though.

Going Overboard 1989 3/10 The first feature directed by Valerie Breiman, this was Adam Sandler's first feature film. This is like a bad student film. Sandler tells the audience at the start of the film it was made with no budget. I didn't mind Sandler talking directly to the audience. The problem is that the film isn't very funny or enjoyable. There were one or two slightly amusing moments, but the film drags on and feels longer than it is. The dialogue is pretty bad and the performances are poor. It's not good, but it is somewhat tolerable. I have seen worse, although this is definitely Sandler's worst film. I do think Sandler has the capability of being a good actor and he has demonstrated that in some of his other films, but here he doesn't show much talent or ability.

continued in next post...

Stranger Things: Season 4 Vol. 2 - 8/10
The Boys: Season 3, Episodes 6-7 - 8/10

Doctor Stranger in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) - 6/10
The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2017) - 6/10
Forsaken (2015) - 6/10
Backcountry (2014) - 5/10
Lone Survivor (2013) - 8/10
Eye in the Labyrinth (1972) - 5/10

And out of the ones you watched I've seen

The Man from Toronto (2022) - 6/10

Finished one TV series:

Under the Banner of Heaven (2022) - I thought it was underwhelming. The lead detective didn't seem to know anything about the history of Mormonism and it's violent history. He was blissfully unaware. 6.5/10

Movies:

Appaloosa (2008) - Viggo and Harris were good. I thought the plot was a bit silly having it revolve around the woman and the love interest. Should have focused more on the Jeremy Irons character. 6.5/10

Sudden Fury (1975) - A Canadian made movie I have never heard of. Some of the woodland scenes in this movie are now subdivisions. The movie is quite good for a low budget movie from the 70s. The ending is a bit frustrating. 7/10

Shock (1946) - Decent thriller with Vincent Price. One of those movies where someone witnesses a murder and no one believes the person. Price was good as the bad guy. 7/10

Chato's Land (1972) - Charles Bronson could get away with playing native Americans. I liked this movie for all the character actors. Shot in Spain but I could have sworn it was the American West. 7/10

Patriots Day: 8/10
The Fifth Wave: 6/10
My Friend Dahmer: 8/10

My last two weeks.

New York, New York (1977) - First of all, there was absolutely no earthly reason for this movie to be 2 hours and 43 minutes long. Second of all, I absolutely despised Jimmy Doyle. I’m probably sounding like I hated this movie, but no, I didn’t at all. It was good. It just had too many flaws. (7/10)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) - It was good. I didn’t think it was absolutely amazing like a lot of people. (8/10)

Ivan’s Childhood (1962) - It was good. I think the nonlinear structure made it difficult for me to get fully immersed in the movie. I think it would have been better served without it. (8/10)

House of Flying Daggers (2004) - You know, for the first half of the movie I wasn’t impressed at all. It seemed like it was barely moving. After that I felt considerably different. I was actually mesmerized by some parts. The green bamboo forest looked so cool. Then the showdown in the snow at the end was fantastic. (8/10)

Hero (2002) - I didn’t like this as much as I thought. The way it played out was pretty anticlimactic. (7/10)

Watcher (2022) - A definite disappointment. I really thought there would be more to it. A lot of it was boring. (6/10)

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) - Good, but I thought I would like it a little more. I was disappointed Alan Arkin was only in it for about 5 minutes. I thought he had a much bigger part. (7/10)

Gozu (2003) - A weird and often gross movie. Lots of times I like this kind of thing more than this. Let me tell you, the last 20 minutes are absolutely not for the faint of heart. (7/10)

The Roaring Twenties (1939) - Really good. Liked it considerably better than expected. (8/10)

Black Hawk Down (2001) - Very good. I was mad at myself because I didn’t understand what was happening. If I did I would have liked it even more. (8/10)

The Country Girl (1954) (7/10)

Movies

-The Last Seduction (1994)
Didn't like this one at all. It tried too hard at being quirky and asking sympathy for the extremely unlikeable main character. Also pretty boring.

-Hideaway (1995)
This was some weird ass movie. A sort of sci-fi horror thriller with bad CGI and without any suspense or scariness. Jeff Goldblum couldn't save the movie either.

TV Series.

-The Cosby Mysteries - Episodes 18+19
And those were the last episodes. I didn't think this was a very good show. It was rather slow and the concept was kind of all over the place

-Monk - marathon

-The Bold and the Beautiful - marathon of very old episodes