FOUR 2026 new releases on IMAX within the same AMC A-List weekly series!
SCREAM 7 continues the uphold the franchise's higher-than-average ratio of quality (an opening night sold-out IMAX crowd going wild and laughing with, not mockingly against it, helped immensely) while simultaneously giving "3" a run for the least necessary, more convoluted plot justifying the "killer" shenanigans. With now-older Kevin Williamson back at the creative helm, the downgrade in crazy energy from the Radio Silence-produced recent two-movie reboot is palpable, especially when OG "Scream" trilogy nostalgia bombs are constantly tossed as crutches to prop up the legacy characters at the expense of the cannon fodder new cast. I'd be lying if l said the highlight of the evening wasn't the trailer for the new Wayans-helmed "Scary Movie" reboot (OMG! 🤣😂), but taken on its own twisted logic "VII" is an entertaining and super-bloody fun ride. Never Campbell = Jamie Lee Curtis 2.0. ✊️🤠
EPiC: ELVIS PRESLEY in CONCERT is easily my favorite Baz Luhrman-directed project ever. Like a kid in a candy store (or the "Superman ll: Richard Donner Cut" filmmakers piggybacking off the 2006 "Superman Returns" production resources to create their alternate cut), Luhrman uses unseen Elvis concert footage sought for his 2022 "Elvis" biopic to fashion the ultimate documentary love letter to The King. Presley is the main narrator of his own lifetime of work (his close-ups are the bulk of the handful of full IMAX frame shots), with the concert footage feeling like "Song Sung Blues" but for real. If you can tolerate the sugarcoating of reality (Priscilla appears for a few seconds of silent, blissful close-ups with baby Lisa Marie) for the sake of a full dive into Elvis superfandom "EPiC" delivers the goods. As neither a fan or hater of Presley l enjoyed this as a chronicle of an entertainer at the declining peak of his impressive performing prime. 😎👍
Emerald Fennell's overwrought, moody and borderline colorless modern adaptation of Emily Brontë's WUTHERING HEIGHTS novel takes so many liberties with the source material it's better to think of this as the mainstreaming of Fennell's previous envelope-pushing work ("Promising Young Woman," "Saltburn") than a literary adaptation. Margot Robbie acquits herself nicely as a sexually awakened Cathy, Jacob Elordi's Heathcliff comes into his own AFTER he loses the beard, and Martin Clunes is fun to watch even as his interpretation of Mr. Earnshaw is the complete opposite of how the old man was written. At 136 min. "WH" is simultaneously too long (time-passage montages) and too short (no second generation to suffer the consequences of the lead characters' shenanigans), but kudos to a couple of supporting minority players (Hung Chau's Nelly and Shazad Latif's Edgar) for standing out with good performances amidst the whitewashing of the main protagonists. 'It's fine,' but strongly feel it regresses from the fearless display of nerve Emerald showcased in "Saltburn."
CRIME 101 is a fine L.A. crime caper that aims for and hits that sweet spot between "Heat" action and "Thief" character study. Mostly humorless but never dull/boring, the 140 min. running time gives a burned-out good cop (Mark Ruffalo), a middle-aged insurance saleswoman (Halle Berry in her best film role in years), a methodical high-class thief with a troubled past (Chris Hemsworth) and a hothead biker hitman (Barry Keoghan) plenty of space to shine. It's nothing you haven't seen before, but good enough to catch when you don't feel like rewatching the same ol' Los Angeles cops v. robbers greats.
BONUS NON-IMAX '26 THEATER: UNDERCARD: Wanda Sykes delivers career-best work as a once great boxing champ fighting poverty, drug relapse and corrupt Miami promoters while training her abandoned-as-a-child stubborn son (Bentley Green) to be world champion. It's low-budget "Creed" by female filmmakers, and outside the cheap-looking boxing matches works as character-driven drama. A diamond-in-the-rough small gem. 🫡
Kunider: while Scary Movie has never been my thing i will say the new trailer looks VERY much in the original wheelhouse, style, and super crude humor. I think the series fans are gonna be stoked.
Mashke, it''s a mix of unseen-for- decades Elvis footage rehearsing/performing in concert from the late 60's/early 70's (mostly in Vegas, sometimes other USA venues), with a few snippets of archival footage/home movies/photos you've seen before presented with a voice-over from a filmed interview (sometimes shown) of Presley about his life and career up to that point. No other voice or POV is presented or heard besides Elvis'. It's an entertaining and fun ride, and Baz Luhrman keeps his excessive personal touches limited to garish artwork in the opening/closing credits. It's out of IMAX theaters in the US ("Scream 7" took over ALL premium formats Thursday), but "EPiC" is now playing as a regular theatrical feature. 🤘😎
Mashke, there are no surprises or Earth-shaking revelations in this new-to-us concert/rehearsal/interview footage. God knows Elvis Presley has been covered to death for decades. The pleasure of this doc is to see the way Baz Lurhman has condensed thousands of minutes into less than two hours that capture a superstar being either ON (concert) or OFF (rehearsing with musicians and back-up singers) and never NOT being the center of attention. Good stuff, especially on IMAX picture/sound quality. 💫😀💢
I was supposed to go see the new Gore Verbinski movie, but I had to skip it because I was sick. I don't really care though, because I'm over the A.I. as bad guy thing. It was fun for a while, until it became reality. I'm sure there's some clever and fun twist, I guess I'll catch up to it later. I did want to see it for Gore, because I like his stuff usually, so I was curious what his 10 years pause would bring. Apparently, it's A.I. 😵💫
Otherwise I didn't watch many movies this week, I worked a lot of overtime. Still need to pay those sweet 4k.
Ghoulies (1984): Another famous 4k blind buy from the used dvd store. Is it good? Not really. Is it fun? Yes, it is. Well, it's 60 minutes of some guy summoning the critters, and a bunch of friends having fun in a mansion. Then the last 20 minutes the critters wreak havoc. I had just enough of a good time to be curious about the sequel.
Ghoulies has a 4k?! Ha...maybe my constant comments about the death of physical media were premature. also, 4k used is always a score! I havent seen that one for years but may have to revisit during scary movie month. Id put it up there for one of the most famous VHS box cover art of the 80s.
Physical media has mostly shifted to boutique labels. So every movie cost a lot of money, but they all look good and have a ton of extras. And you get the silliest movies in awesome packaging.
T-Minus 1 Week to Movie Fest! Speaking of which: if you need any movies i suggest you hit up a local goodwill, thrift, or resale shop. They often have reasonably sized used dvd sections. I hit up one last week and actually found 5 of the 6 flicks (and a sequel to the 6th..ha!). CANT WAIT!!!!
Scream 7 (2026 Theatrical XD)
I had enough fun with this entry but, as with so many of the others in the series, its pretty much by-the-numbers and forgettable. Its very much going for the trope "final girl becomes final parent and brings in final daughter". I think it did something pretty creative with the writing with regards to one of the returning classic characters. But then it wasted/squandered the cameos of most other "classic" characters. And the final reveals were sooby-doo-reveal level bad. Still, having Sidney & Gail back together after all these years was nice for the OG fans.
Only 1 and 2 had great-to-good endings. 4/5 had 'meh' conclusions, and 3/6/7 had silly-to-God-awful finales. "Scream" doesn't live/die by its endings, and the fans know it. 🤩😛
MEN IN BLACK (1997) Still holds up! It’s something of a miracle how the movie is almost entirely all exposition, but it’s so light and breezy that you don’t mind.
THE 13TH WARRIOR (1999) Much better than I remembered. Quite a banger, actually.
TO CATCH A THIEF (1955) Alfred Hitchcock goodness!
PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025) Like a lot of fans, I got sick of hearing the name “Yautja” every few minutes. But beyond that, this was an exciting monster vs. monster flick.
And of course I had to check out the newly-discovered never-before-seen Georges Melies movie. It’s really good, with a fun gag at the end. Folks are calling this the first-ever film depiction of a robot, making it all the more of a novelty.
A few more movies watched before we take a 2000 FTM Film Fest hiatus. 🥲
Quentin Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012, 35MM, BROOKLYN'S NITEHAWK CINEMA) was screened as part of a month-long retrospective on Samuel L. Jackson's body of work, which puzzled me. Saw this opening night 14 years ago and loved it, but haven't rewatched it much since. Jackson's Stephen character doesn't even appear until deep into a 165 min. Americanized spaghetti western narrative crammed with memorable Q.T. set-pieces (Don Johnson and his "dragons" complaining about their sack masks 😷), quotable dialogue and recognizable actors (Foxx, Waltz, DiCaprio, Goggins, Washington, Hill, OG Django, etc.) embodying genre characters with gusto. But holy crap, l forgot how SLJ takes over the finale of the film by gradually revealing that he's the behind-the-scenes brains behind the Candyland plantation. If anything Django went too easy on Stephen compared with the bloodbath he inflicted upon everyone else he and buddy Schultz aimed their guns at. Fun revenge flick that feels like "12 Years A Slave" with plot armor protecting the good guys from the horrors that would have befallen them in the real world... the and, sadly, now. 🥺😓
As Mac McEntire mentioned above, a Discord group watch of John McTiernan's THE 13TH WARRIOR (1999, AMAZON RENTAL) brought longtime fans and noobs together with a few of us (Joyce, etc.) who saw this in theaters once and promptly forgot about it. Despite an underwhelming final battle that pales compared with earlier action set pieces this film lives/dies by the bond forged between Arab ambassador Antonio Banderas and the clan of badass Viking warriors (Dennis Storhøi, Asbjørn Riis, Vladimir Kulich, etc.) he befriends as they fight a clan of savage cannibals. Diane Venora and any other female in the cast have little to do but be pretty and look after the children. The troubled production (McTiernan clashed with producer/writer Michael Crichton, and the compromised 102 min. cut has the tell signs of something bigger/better scaled down for mainstream consumption) manages to somehow feel better than it actually is. I liked it as watered-down "Braveheart," and hope Disney eventually release it in 4K (or at least an affordable Blu-ray remaster).
I get most of my boutique label movies during sales or raiding the used sections of video stores for rare/infrequent bargains. Every once in a blue moon a new-to-video title comes along that makes me say 'eff it, I'll pay retail.' And that would be Arrow's 4K release of Giulio Paradisi's sci-fi action thriller THE VISITOR (1979). Saw it for the first time at a packed midnight screening at NYC'S IFC Center more than 15 years ago, and the collective experience blew our minds. Happy to say after seeing it again for the first time in years that the batshit crazy peaks of Italians doing a mash-up of "The Omen" and "Close Encounters..." (with a healthy sprinkling of "Rosemary's Baby" and Hitchcock's "The Birds") still land. Then-little Paige Conner embodies both innocence and menace as a little child with growing malignant powers that intergalactic Jesus (Jess Franco) wants to keep away from Lance Henriksen and his cabal of evil Atlanta businessmen. A who's who of old Hollywood (John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, Mel Ferrer, Sam Peckinpah) and good actors (poor Joanna Nail) both elevate and are overwhelmed by the material. If you've seen "The Visitor" you already know, and if you haven't let this Italian crazy train run you over. 😁👍
That's it. Let the love for 2000 movies take over next weekend. 🙃🙂
I think you mean Franco Nero. Jess Franco would have been an interesting choice for that role, though.
I saw The Visitor through a screening at the Three Rivers Films Festival in Pittsburgh. (It seems a lifetime ago now.) I remember the plot choices in that film being amusingly puzzling. The ice skating scene in particular had the small crowd in the theater cracking up.
I feel toward "A View To A Kill" the same way you do toward "DAD," Kunider. Both automatically get dismissed as bottom-of-the-barrel Bond, but the plot structure is solid and some of the set-pieces (Eiffel Tower jump, Golden Gate Bridge fight, etc.) great by the standards of the decade. The heart wants what the heart wants l guess. 💘 l think "Live and Let Die" is much, much worse than "AVTAK" and "DAD," so what do l know? 🙄🤗
I did watch Malcom X. Wow, so good. I had seen it before, but it hit super hard this time. I've been a little hit or miss on Spike Jones, but I know Patrick is a big fan.
Yes, Brosnan! Die another Day is pretty fun. The lean into CGI scenes doesn't work at all but otherwise it's good. I have no idea why people don't like A View to a Kill. Moore is super old, ok, but they very competently shoot around him.
ANTICHRIST (2009, dir. Lars von Trier) – I am still not sure how I feel about this one. It has been a while since I last delved into von Trier’s work, and Antichrist is jumping into the deep end of it. This film was made to not be “enjoyed” in the traditional sense. The tone of the story is bleak and cruel. The film did hold my interest despite there being only two characters for most of the film. Charlotte Gainsbourg certainly did not hold anything back in her performance as a traumatized wife and mother.
RED PEONY GAMBLER 3: THE FLOWER CARDS GAME (1969, dir. Tai Kato) – The story of Oryu, the female gambler yakuza, continues as she once again finds herself entangled in a feud between rival clans. This time she is staying in the city of Nagoya when the trouble happens. The ethics of yakuza life are more prominent in this part, driving the actions of Oryu. She is more of a “lethal lady” too, confidently slashing and stabbing opponents with her knife. With a new director at the helm, the Red Peony Gambler series takes on a more elegant style. The fights in the snow predate the more famous Lady Snowblood by a few years.
Last night I was at the Gap Theatre for an evening dedicated to Andy Milligan. The restorations of the films in the new Severin box set were shown.
THE DEGENERATES (1967) is a very small-scale production about a group of men finding several sisters living in isolation after a nuclear war. A particularly violent sister rules over the women in ways that only a character in a Milligan film would. She, of course, intensely dislikes the presence of the men and the sexual tension they create among the sisters. Ragged in every way, especially with poor sound quality, The Degenerates does deliver a mean-spirited finale.
The big surprise of the night was KISS ME, KISS ME, KISS ME!(1968). Probably given the task of making a simple s-e-x-p-l-o-i-t-a-t-i-o-n film, Andy Milligan instead concocted a cruel love triangle melodrama. The conclusion is vicious even for Milligan. Considering the resources available to make the film, the level of acting and storytelling in KISS Me is high. Milligan shot much of it guerilla style around New York City, with the gawking spectators in the scene to prove it.
The evening finished with a screening of the new Severin documentary THE DEGENERATE: THE LIFE AND FILMS OF ANDY MILLIGAN. Milligan biographer Jimmy McDonough features prominently in the doc along with the surviving collaborators from the films. There was a lot more to his creative work than the films he left behind, however.
On nights like this, The Gap can feel like a unique club. Only a handful of people attended the screenings. Afterwards, the operator of the theater, who also runs the Garagehouse label, talked about his involvement in releasing Milligan films on disc and searching for print materials for them. Like any business, physical media can be cut-throat.
Every repertory theater is its own island of fandom, especially in smaller states like Pennsylvania with fewer options. In big cities like NY, LA and Chicago there are more repertory options, but each theater tends to attract its own crowd that not always mixes with the others. From previous podcasts seems like Patrick and many FTM regulars were Music Box fans... which doesn't mean they wouldn't go to the Gene Siskel Film Center if the right movie played at the latter.
Here in Gotham Film at Lincoln Center seems particularly popular with the Criterion/world cinema crowd, but l can count in one hand the number of times l've been there. Ditto for Brooklyn Academy of Music or Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. I'm more of a Metrograph, Nitehawk Cinema, IFC Center and Film Forum kind of guy... though every once in a while Anthology Film Archives gets me to drop everything and attend a particular screening.
Next Saturday will be Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair on 35 mm, which will attract a larger crowd to The Gap than an Andy Milligan night. I do hope the theater lasts but am enjoy the shows that I can get to. (I am buying fewer discs to pay for all of these theatrical screenings and the Mahoning.)
A theatrical screening can get you good and ready to wait for the restored 4K to come out, get used and eventually cheap in the second-hand market. But the good memories from a 35/70mm screening of a great picture you love can last a lifetime. 😍🥲
FOUR 2026 new releases on IMAX within the same AMC A-List weekly series!
ReplyDeleteSCREAM 7 continues the uphold the franchise's higher-than-average ratio of quality (an opening night sold-out IMAX crowd going wild and laughing with, not mockingly against it, helped immensely) while simultaneously giving "3" a run for the least necessary, more convoluted plot justifying the "killer" shenanigans. With now-older Kevin Williamson back at the creative helm, the downgrade in crazy energy from the Radio Silence-produced recent two-movie reboot is palpable, especially when OG "Scream" trilogy nostalgia bombs are constantly tossed as crutches to prop up the legacy characters at the expense of the cannon fodder new cast. I'd be lying if l said the highlight of the evening wasn't the trailer for the new Wayans-helmed "Scary Movie" reboot (OMG! 🤣😂), but taken on its own twisted logic "VII" is an entertaining and super-bloody fun ride. Never Campbell = Jamie Lee Curtis 2.0. ✊️🤠
EPiC: ELVIS PRESLEY in CONCERT is easily my favorite Baz Luhrman-directed project ever. Like a kid in a candy store (or the "Superman ll: Richard Donner Cut" filmmakers piggybacking off the 2006 "Superman Returns" production resources to create their alternate cut), Luhrman uses unseen Elvis concert footage sought for his 2022 "Elvis" biopic to fashion the ultimate documentary love letter to The King. Presley is the main narrator of his own lifetime of work (his close-ups are the bulk of the handful of full IMAX frame shots), with the concert footage feeling like "Song Sung Blues" but for real. If you can tolerate the sugarcoating of reality (Priscilla appears for a few seconds of silent, blissful close-ups with baby Lisa Marie) for the sake of a full dive into Elvis superfandom "EPiC" delivers the goods. As neither a fan or hater of Presley l enjoyed this as a chronicle of an entertainer at the declining peak of his impressive performing prime. 😎👍
Emerald Fennell's overwrought, moody and borderline colorless modern adaptation of Emily Brontë's WUTHERING HEIGHTS novel takes so many liberties with the source material it's better to think of this as the mainstreaming of Fennell's previous envelope-pushing work ("Promising Young Woman," "Saltburn") than a literary adaptation. Margot Robbie acquits herself nicely as a sexually awakened Cathy, Jacob Elordi's Heathcliff comes into his own AFTER he loses the beard, and Martin Clunes is fun to watch even as his interpretation of Mr. Earnshaw is the complete opposite of how the old man was written. At 136 min. "WH" is simultaneously too long (time-passage montages) and too short (no second generation to suffer the consequences of the lead characters' shenanigans), but kudos to a couple of supporting minority players (Hung Chau's Nelly and Shazad Latif's Edgar) for standing out with good performances amidst the whitewashing of the main protagonists. 'It's fine,' but strongly feel it regresses from the fearless display of nerve Emerald showcased in "Saltburn."
CRIME 101 is a fine L.A. crime caper that aims for and hits that sweet spot between "Heat" action and "Thief" character study. Mostly humorless but never dull/boring, the 140 min. running time gives a burned-out good cop (Mark Ruffalo), a middle-aged insurance saleswoman (Halle Berry in her best film role in years), a methodical high-class thief with a troubled past (Chris Hemsworth) and a hothead biker hitman (Barry Keoghan) plenty of space to shine. It's nothing you haven't seen before, but good enough to catch when you don't feel like rewatching the same ol' Los Angeles cops v. robbers greats.
BONUS NON-IMAX '26 THEATER: UNDERCARD: Wanda Sykes delivers career-best work as a once great boxing champ fighting poverty, drug relapse and corrupt Miami promoters while training her abandoned-as-a-child stubborn son (Bentley Green) to be world champion. It's low-budget "Creed" by female filmmakers, and outside the cheap-looking boxing matches works as character-driven drama. A diamond-in-the-rough small gem. 🫡
More later. 😃
Scary Movie reboot? How did I miss that?
DeleteKunider: while Scary Movie has never been my thing i will say the new trailer looks VERY much in the original wheelhouse, style, and super crude humor. I think the series fans are gonna be stoked.
DeleteJM: Is Elvis mostly concert footage or is there backstage and other documentary type footage? Im pretty intrigued!
DeleteI'm a big fan of the first SM. They're diminishing returns with the sequels, but there's always that one joke to keep me interested
DeleteMashke, it''s a mix of unseen-for- decades Elvis footage rehearsing/performing in concert from the late 60's/early 70's (mostly in Vegas, sometimes other USA venues), with a few snippets of archival footage/home movies/photos you've seen before presented with a voice-over from a filmed interview (sometimes shown) of Presley about his life and career up to that point. No other voice or POV is presented or heard besides Elvis'. It's an entertaining and fun ride, and Baz Luhrman keeps his excessive personal touches limited to garish artwork in the opening/closing credits. It's out of IMAX theaters in the US ("Scream 7" took over ALL premium formats Thursday), but "EPiC" is now playing as a regular theatrical feature. 🤘😎
DeleteKunider: Im thinking ill revisit SM...its been a while!
DeleteJM: Woot! Thanks! Im pretty stoked for the Elvis flick! I LOVE docs that rely solely on original archival footage/voice over.
Mashke, there are no surprises or Earth-shaking revelations in this new-to-us concert/rehearsal/interview footage. God knows Elvis Presley has been covered to death for decades. The pleasure of this doc is to see the way Baz Lurhman has condensed thousands of minutes into less than two hours that capture a superstar being either ON (concert) or OFF (rehearsing with musicians and back-up singers) and never NOT being the center of attention. Good stuff, especially on IMAX picture/sound quality. 💫😀💢
DeleteI was supposed to go see the new Gore Verbinski movie, but I had to skip it because I was sick. I don't really care though, because I'm over the A.I. as bad guy thing. It was fun for a while, until it became reality. I'm sure there's some clever and fun twist, I guess I'll catch up to it later. I did want to see it for Gore, because I like his stuff usually, so I was curious what his 10 years pause would bring. Apparently, it's A.I. 😵💫
ReplyDeleteOtherwise I didn't watch many movies this week, I worked a lot of overtime. Still need to pay those sweet 4k.
Ghoulies (1984): Another famous 4k blind buy from the used dvd store. Is it good? Not really. Is it fun? Yes, it is. Well, it's 60 minutes of some guy summoning the critters, and a bunch of friends having fun in a mansion. Then the last 20 minutes the critters wreak havoc. I had just enough of a good time to be curious about the sequel.
Ghoulies has a 4k?! Ha...maybe my constant comments about the death of physical media were premature. also, 4k used is always a score! I havent seen that one for years but may have to revisit during scary movie month. Id put it up there for one of the most famous VHS box cover art of the 80s.
DeletePhysical media has mostly shifted to boutique labels. So every movie cost a lot of money, but they all look good and have a ton of extras. And you get the silliest movies in awesome packaging.
DeleteT-Minus 1 Week to Movie Fest! Speaking of which: if you need any movies i suggest you hit up a local goodwill, thrift, or resale shop. They often have reasonably sized used dvd sections. I hit up one last week and actually found 5 of the 6 flicks (and a sequel to the 6th..ha!). CANT WAIT!!!!
ReplyDeleteScream 7 (2026 Theatrical XD)
I had enough fun with this entry but, as with so many of the others in the series, its pretty much by-the-numbers and forgettable. Its very much going for the trope "final girl becomes final parent and brings in final daughter". I think it did something pretty creative with the writing with regards to one of the returning classic characters. But then it wasted/squandered the cameos of most other "classic" characters.
And the final reveals were sooby-doo-reveal level bad. Still, having Sidney & Gail back together after all these years was nice for the OG fans.
Only 1 and 2 had great-to-good endings. 4/5 had 'meh' conclusions, and 3/6/7 had silly-to-God-awful finales. "Scream" doesn't live/die by its endings, and the fans know it. 🤩😛
DeleteMEN IN BLACK (1997)
ReplyDeleteStill holds up! It’s something of a miracle how the movie is almost entirely all exposition, but it’s so light and breezy that you don’t mind.
THE 13TH WARRIOR (1999)
Much better than I remembered. Quite a banger, actually.
TO CATCH A THIEF (1955)
Alfred Hitchcock goodness!
PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025)
Like a lot of fans, I got sick of hearing the name “Yautja” every few minutes. But beyond that, this was an exciting monster vs. monster flick.
And of course I had to check out the newly-discovered never-before-seen Georges Melies movie. It’s really good, with a fun gag at the end. Folks are calling this the first-ever film depiction of a robot, making it all the more of a novelty.
Wait... Melies... What?
Deletehttps://www.loc.gov/item/2026125501/
DeleteThanks for the Melies. Funny stuff
Delete13th Warrior is on ky wishlist of blu-ray. I'm holding on to the DVD i stole from my sister until they do something about ir
A few more movies watched before we take a 2000 FTM Film Fest hiatus. 🥲
ReplyDeleteQuentin Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012, 35MM, BROOKLYN'S NITEHAWK CINEMA) was screened as part of a month-long retrospective on Samuel L. Jackson's body of work, which puzzled me. Saw this opening night 14 years ago and loved it, but haven't rewatched it much since. Jackson's Stephen character doesn't even appear until deep into a 165 min. Americanized spaghetti western narrative crammed with memorable Q.T. set-pieces (Don Johnson and his "dragons" complaining about their sack masks 😷), quotable dialogue and recognizable actors (Foxx, Waltz, DiCaprio, Goggins, Washington, Hill, OG Django, etc.) embodying genre characters with gusto. But holy crap, l forgot how SLJ takes over the finale of the film by gradually revealing that he's the behind-the-scenes brains behind the Candyland plantation. If anything Django went too easy on Stephen compared with the bloodbath he inflicted upon everyone else he and buddy Schultz aimed their guns at. Fun revenge flick that feels like "12 Years A Slave" with plot armor protecting the good guys from the horrors that would have befallen them in the real world... the and, sadly, now. 🥺😓
As Mac McEntire mentioned above, a Discord group watch of John McTiernan's THE 13TH WARRIOR (1999, AMAZON RENTAL) brought longtime fans and noobs together with a few of us (Joyce, etc.) who saw this in theaters once and promptly forgot about it. Despite an underwhelming final battle that pales compared with earlier action set pieces this film lives/dies by the bond forged between Arab ambassador Antonio Banderas and the clan of badass Viking warriors (Dennis Storhøi, Asbjørn Riis, Vladimir Kulich, etc.) he befriends as they fight a clan of savage cannibals. Diane Venora and any other female in the cast have little to do but be pretty and look after the children. The troubled production (McTiernan clashed with producer/writer Michael Crichton, and the compromised 102 min. cut has the tell signs of something bigger/better scaled down for mainstream consumption) manages to somehow feel better than it actually is. I liked it as watered-down "Braveheart," and hope Disney eventually release it in 4K (or at least an affordable Blu-ray remaster).
I get most of my boutique label movies during sales or raiding the used sections of video stores for rare/infrequent bargains. Every once in a blue moon a new-to-video title comes along that makes me say 'eff it, I'll pay retail.' And that would be Arrow's 4K release of Giulio Paradisi's sci-fi action thriller THE VISITOR (1979). Saw it for the first time at a packed midnight screening at NYC'S IFC Center more than 15 years ago, and the collective experience blew our minds. Happy to say after seeing it again for the first time in years that the batshit crazy peaks of Italians doing a mash-up of "The Omen" and "Close Encounters..." (with a healthy sprinkling of "Rosemary's Baby" and Hitchcock's "The Birds") still land. Then-little Paige Conner embodies both innocence and menace as a little child with growing malignant powers that intergalactic Jesus (Jess Franco) wants to keep away from Lance Henriksen and his cabal of evil Atlanta businessmen. A who's who of old Hollywood (John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, Mel Ferrer, Sam Peckinpah) and good actors (poor Joanna Nail) both elevate and are overwhelmed by the material. If you've seen "The Visitor" you already know, and if you haven't let this Italian crazy train run you over. 😁👍
That's it. Let the love for 2000 movies take over next weekend. 🙃🙂
Is the 13th Warrior on amazon in HD?
DeleteYes, but the transfer looks old and not remastered (same as the OOP Blu-ray). 🤨
DeleteI think you mean Franco Nero. Jess Franco would have been an interesting choice for that role, though.
DeleteI saw The Visitor through a screening at the Three Rivers Films Festival in Pittsburgh. (It seems a lifetime ago now.) I remember the plot choices in that film being amusingly puzzling. The ice skating scene in particular had the small crowd in the theater cracking up.
FRANCO NERO is Space Jesus in "The Visitor," not Jess freakin' Franco! 🫣🙄 l have no soul.
DeleteI've been quiet here recently as I'm been most re-watching stuff. Planet of the Apes, Moore Bond, Bronson Bond, the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is "Bronson Bond"? The "Death Wish" movies? 😱😥😜
DeleteAnd which of the seven Roger Moore 007 films did you watch? 🤔
I think he means Brosnan 🤣
DeleteI know I'm alone in the world, but I love Die Another Day. I'll take space lasers and invisible cars any day 😎
I feel toward "A View To A Kill" the same way you do toward "DAD," Kunider. Both automatically get dismissed as bottom-of-the-barrel Bond, but the plot structure is solid and some of the set-pieces (Eiffel Tower jump, Golden Gate Bridge fight, etc.) great by the standards of the decade. The heart wants what the heart wants l guess. 💘 l think "Live and Let Die" is much, much worse than "AVTAK" and "DAD," so what do l know? 🙄🤗
DeleteI did watch Malcom X. Wow, so good. I had seen it before, but it hit super hard this time. I've been a little hit or miss on Spike Jones, but I know Patrick is a big fan.
DeleteYes, Brosnan! Die another Day is pretty fun. The lean into CGI scenes doesn't work at all but otherwise it's good. I have no idea why people don't like A View to a Kill. Moore is super old, ok, but they very competently shoot around him.
DeleteBet that Spike LEE is gonna be super pissed that Spike JONES is getting the praise for directing "Malcolm X," at least in Paul Calvert's planet. 😉🫠
DeleteToday is a day to misname people apparently 🤣
DeleteBLOGGER dyslexia. 🤪🥴
DeleteThere were a couple of watches at home this week.
ReplyDeleteANTICHRIST (2009, dir. Lars von Trier) – I am still not sure how I feel about this one. It has been a while since I last delved into von Trier’s work, and Antichrist is jumping into the deep end of it. This film was made to not be “enjoyed” in the traditional sense. The tone of the story is bleak and cruel. The film did hold my interest despite there being only two characters for most of the film. Charlotte Gainsbourg certainly did not hold anything back in her performance as a traumatized wife and mother.
RED PEONY GAMBLER 3: THE FLOWER CARDS GAME (1969, dir. Tai Kato) – The story of Oryu, the female gambler yakuza, continues as she once again finds herself entangled in a feud between rival clans. This time she is staying in the city of Nagoya when the trouble happens. The ethics of yakuza life are more prominent in this part, driving the actions of Oryu. She is more of a “lethal lady” too, confidently slashing and stabbing opponents with her knife. With a new director at the helm, the Red Peony Gambler series takes on a more elegant style. The fights in the snow predate the more famous Lady Snowblood by a few years.
I haven't dipped my toe into von Trier but Gainsborough is the best.
DeleteLast night I was at the Gap Theatre for an evening dedicated to Andy Milligan. The restorations of the films in the new Severin box set were shown.
ReplyDeleteTHE DEGENERATES (1967) is a very small-scale production about a group of men finding several sisters living in isolation after a nuclear war. A particularly violent sister rules over the women in ways that only a character in a Milligan film would. She, of course, intensely dislikes the presence of the men and the sexual tension they create among the sisters. Ragged in every way, especially with poor sound quality, The Degenerates does deliver a mean-spirited finale.
The big surprise of the night was KISS ME, KISS ME, KISS ME!(1968). Probably given the task of making a simple s-e-x-p-l-o-i-t-a-t-i-o-n film, Andy Milligan instead concocted a cruel love triangle melodrama. The conclusion is vicious even for Milligan. Considering the resources available to make the film, the level of acting and storytelling in KISS Me is high. Milligan shot much of it guerilla style around New York City, with the gawking spectators in the scene to prove it.
The evening finished with a screening of the new Severin documentary THE DEGENERATE: THE LIFE AND FILMS OF ANDY MILLIGAN. Milligan biographer Jimmy McDonough features prominently in the doc along with the surviving collaborators from the films. There was a lot more to his creative work than the films he left behind, however.
On nights like this, The Gap can feel like a unique club. Only a handful of people attended the screenings. Afterwards, the operator of the theater, who also runs the Garagehouse label, talked about his involvement in releasing Milligan films on disc and searching for print materials for them. Like any business, physical media can be cut-throat.
Every repertory theater is its own island of fandom, especially in smaller states like Pennsylvania with fewer options. In big cities like NY, LA and Chicago there are more repertory options, but each theater tends to attract its own crowd that not always mixes with the others. From previous podcasts seems like Patrick and many FTM regulars were Music Box fans... which doesn't mean they wouldn't go to the Gene Siskel Film Center if the right movie played at the latter.
DeleteHere in Gotham Film at Lincoln Center seems particularly popular with the Criterion/world cinema crowd, but l can count in one hand the number of times l've been there. Ditto for Brooklyn Academy of Music or Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. I'm more of a Metrograph, Nitehawk Cinema, IFC Center and Film Forum kind of guy... though every once in a while Anthology Film Archives gets me to drop everything and attend a particular screening.
Enjoy the Gap theater while it lasts, Casual. 👊😎
Next Saturday will be Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair on 35 mm, which will attract a larger crowd to The Gap than an Andy Milligan night. I do hope the theater lasts but am enjoy the shows that I can get to. (I am buying fewer discs to pay for all of these theatrical screenings and the Mahoning.)
DeleteA theatrical screening can get you good and ready to wait for the restored 4K to come out, get used and eventually cheap in the second-hand market. But the good memories from a 35/70mm screening of a great picture you love can last a lifetime. 😍🥲
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