In case you missed it last week l caught and mostly enjoyed NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE (2026, THEATER) Sunday afternoon, and then this week while catching other flicks snuck into another (sold out! 😲) screening of "Nirvanna" and saw the last 45 minutes standing on the aisle. Word of mouth (in our case Reed Strickland's) must be strong for "Nirvanna" because it's hanging around for a 2nd week at the AMC, which rarely happens for little Canadian indie flicks. Go in cold like l did and wonder if tracking the web/cable TV show that fuels "The Movie" should become your next obsession. ✌️😁
A24's THE MOMENT ('26, USA/UK, THEATER) is another disappointment from the mini-major indie studio whose batting average has been gradually declining. A British pop singer (Charlie XCX, playing herself) reaches her popularity pinnacle/saturation point as she's about to embark on the filmed tour portion of her career, and obsesses on remaining true to herself while embracing whatever it takes to extend her 15 minutes of fame. "The Moment" plays like a schizophrenic, tragi-comic, youth-oriented version of a Christopher Guest mockumentary, and while it occasionally strikes gold (Alexander Skarsgård playing a director trying to take over the tour) it's mostly a parade of clichés you've seen a million times on movie and TV. My theater crowd laughed often (as did l) and recognized most of the social media celebrities playing themselves (l didn't know any of them), so maybe this is one of those A24 titles only younger folks can appreciate.
Saw George P. Cosmatos' underwater "Alien"/"The Thing" knockoff LEVIATHAN (1989, KINO 4K UHD) twice, first as a Jury Room 4.0 Discord watchalong and then on its own the next day. Stan Winston's outstanding creature effects deserved better pacing and less hide-the-gore frantic editing, but the 'B' movie-licioius cast (OG Robocop, Evil Lynnn, wet bandit #2, black Ghostbuster, Rambo's captain, fake Taggart from "BH3," etc.) and another amazing score by Jerrry Goldsmith lift this one up above it's punching weight. My favorite of the 1989 class of sea horror creature features. 🤓
COLD STORAGE ('26, FRANCE/ITALY, THEATER) wears it's comedic horror 'B' movie set-up/execution with pride, giving veteran thesps like Liam Neeson and Vanessa Redgrave a chance to shine outside their comfort zones. A pitch-perfect cross between "Evolution" and "Career Opportunities" (with a healthy dose of "Return of the Living Dead"-type military cynicism, updated for the current era), David Koepp's screenplay (based on his pre-pandemic novel) never takes itself or its characters seriously enough to veer toward "Train To Busan"-type pathos. CG gore is passable because it leans on the silly (animals look/act like videogame bosses), action/production values decent and the chemistry between the veteran (Neeson/Lesley Manville) & slacker couples (Joe Keery/Georgina Campbell) sustains the narrative past some ridiculous-but-necessary set pieces. Seek it out when it comes on streaming.
Last and certainly least, THE MORTUARY ASSISTANT ('26, THEATER) is the first Shudder original I've seen that's a complete misfire unless you're a diehard fan of the video game of the same name that inspired it. Judged solely as a horror movie it starts intriguing and atmospheric, grows tedious by the first half hour and feels excruciatingly dull long before the credits. Willa Holland does the best to give her troubled Rebecca Owens character the depth of a recovering addict struggling with a new job. Shame the filmmakers run the dream/jumpscare/trauma hattrick on Rebecca way too many times, unlike co-star Paul Sparks remaining an intriguing veteran of the supernatural by virtue of his limited screen time. This one is worse than "Return to Silent Hill" I'm afraid. Yes, it's that bad. 🥺🫤
Breathless (1983): Patrick and Adam talked about it a couple of times, so the last time I ordered from Vinegar Syndrome, I grabbed the super-awesome-overpriced 4K. Total blind buy. I do like that Richard Gere keep talking about Silver Surfer (the comic book style cover makes more sense now). If you've seen A Bout De Souffle, you can see where most of the scenes come from. It's like it was a rough draft to this more expensive final product. I'm evidently not saying the original is bad or better, but as remake go, I've seen worse results. The movie is just this side of being a f*ck-noir, and you get a few shots of Richard Gere's d!ck 🤪
The Two Jakes (1990): It's way better than its reputation say. It's the classic "the first one was so good, the sequel had no chance of being well received", but for any fan of it, or the genre, or Jack Nicholson, it's a must see.
The Psycho Legacy (2010): Documentary about all the Psycho movies. An interesting subject in itself, except the first 20 minutes where they talk about the first movie, which is already talked to d*ath. The rest kept my attention enough, but the format was very boring. You get one dude talking a couple of sentences about a bit of the movie, they cut to another dude more or less talking about the same bit, then cut again to another dude, then back to the first. They cut back and forth like that for the whole thing, I was very annoyed. And the dudes aren't that interesting to begin with, mostly because they never expand on whatever they're talking about. The subject saved it for me.
The rest of my week was spend watching the movies from French Noir Collection vol.2, released last november. As any collection go, they vary in quality, but it's fun to see renown actors (Gabin, Belmondo, Ventura) doing lesser-known stuff. It's all classic noir stuff: a man, a woman, some kind of trouble, and somebody die at the end. Sometimes it's on a boat, sometimes it's about a crime gang. It's highly recommended for Noir fans (and the volume 1 was also very good). Oh, and two movies have a commentary track by ex-FTM collaborator, and current Cereal At Midnight host, Heath Holland, with renown writer Max Allan Collins.
On a side note, I just received the new Westworld and Excalibur 4k. Unfortunately for me, I won't have time to watch them this weekend, but I can't wait to dig into them.
I'm surprised Heath never came back as a guest after leaving as a regular contributor.
Nirvanna has 2 n's. For the longest time I kept thinking it was about Nirvana the band. It's kind of strange because I'm Canadian, but I hadn't heard of this show, and no one I know has heard of it either. I'm not sure whether it's an age difference, or whether they were a very specific Toronto thing and not known outside of there. Or maybe I'm just not very plugged into pop/indie/any culture anymore. (it's the latter).
Paul, l too initially ignored the "Nirvanna" movie because it had something to do with the Kurt Cobain band. Truth be told l still don't know why it's called that, the name has literally nothing to do with... anything?! 🤨🤔
@Patrick Glad to hear it. Also glad to know he's still maintaining Cereal at Midnight thing. Like Fthismovie, it's probably a ton of work/time. I was following his output for a bit (most written work at the beginning?) for a while but fell off as it didn't align with my interests.
@Knider 4k Excalibur wow. Lucky you! Some days I'm happy that I have a little TV, so I'm not tempted to spend money on any of the fancy new physical releases.
@Vargas maybe they chose the name specifically to differentiate themselves from the band? Looking forward to seeing it for sure. It's playing a bunch at the local indie theatre in the next while.
PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006) Nearly forgot how good this is. It’s telling that the real world parts are just as captivating (maybe moreso?) than the fantasy weirdness.
STREET FIGHTER (1994) The sumo guy should’ve gotten his own spinoff movie.
LEVIATHAN (1989) So many tentacles!
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018) What can I say? I just felt like Marvel-ing it up.
CELLAR DWELLAR (1988) This was cheesy, as expected, but there were some intriguing ideas behind it all. Plus, it has both Jeffrey Combs and Yvonne De Carlo, so it’s all good.
Unintentional Double Feature: Comfort Food Movies that i Love Rewatching:
John Wick 4 (4k): Brilliant as ever. The cinematography of the setpieces, which is overshadowed by the action, is INCREDIBLE. Every shot looks beautiful.
SISU: Road to Revenge (2025 blu): So. Much. Fun! Ill stay spoiler free but his overall mission in moving something important to him hampers him with an unimaginable level of challenging logistics. And while everything is played 100% straight, i realized in this viewing that some of the craziest setpieces are 100% out of Coyote v Roadrunner. Theres a scene with a rocket on a train car where they might as well have placed a huge ACME sticker on it. LOVE the SISU movies and rewatch all the time.
Finished up my Ridley Scott rewatch and decided to start a Tony Scott rewatch.
ENEMY OF THE STATE (1998) This movie imagines a dystopia where the US government uses the internet and communications technology to conduct covert surveillance on its own citizens. Good thing its just a movie.
Why is every bit part in this filled with someone a year or two away from being a star in their own right?
What is it with Lisa Bonet ____ in showers? This, "Angel Heart"... you know. 😱😓 And you're right SS (!), everybody in small roles in "EOTS" is either an uncredited somebody (Sizemore, Robards, Seth Green, Phillip Baker Hall, etc.) or soon-to-be somebodies (Black, baby Caan & baby Busey, Pepper, Jamie Kennedy, etc.). And why is Gabriel Byrne wasted in a cab driver role with a couple of throwaway lines? 😳🙄
Speaking of Ridley. I'm currently watching the new video from History Buffs on Napoleon. Basically, they got the name of Napoleon right, and that's it 🤣
Ridley treats history as a suggestion in his historical epics. Sometimes it makes good, even great movies, but they won't help you pass your history test
If you take an exam/test on Middle Eastern history and watch Ridley's theatrical cut of "Kingdom of Heaven" before... FLUNK! Take the test after watching "KOH: Director's Cut"....A+. 🫵😄
Watching the closing ceremony of the winter olympics just now, it was nice to hear the film music of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota featured during the parade of the athletes. Viva Italia!
I am making my way through the rotation of FXM, the Fox movie cable channel. These were a couple of films on the DVR recorded from the channel.
THE EGYPTIAN (1954, dir. Michael Curtiz) – A meandering and over long tale of a physician in ancient Egypt that somehow works in a Christian message. The acting is not particularly notable, with the exception of Peter Ustinov stealing every scene he is in. The lead actor, Edmund Purdom, had a great voice but a wooden face. (He would go on to make a career in European genre films.) The Egyptian, though, is impressive on a visual level, filled with the spectacle that characterizes the sword and sandal films of that era. It was worth watching just for that.
THE CURSE OF THE FLY (1965) – Melodrama meets B-movie sci-fi in the sequel to the 1958 film. The descendants of Delambre go on with his work, continuing to deform humans in pursuit of perfecting teleportation. This British production is “fine”, entertaining enough and veering toward schlock in many moments.
Haven't had much time to watch stuff lately. I know when I do pop in, I tend to mention Star Trek because that's just been my thing over the last year, but a Star Trek: Voyager game just got released where you pretty much play through the entire series while making choices and upgrading your ship, so I've been kind of hooked with that. Plus new Resident Evil game coming in a few days. Still trying to get some for Year 2000 watches in before FTMF though.
xXx and xXx The Return of Xander Cage: The Fast & Furious franchise, especially the later entries, should've been part of this franchise, instead of the nonsense of street racers becoming spies, Vin Diesel even drive the same kind of muscle car. FF should've stopped after the 4th, maybe 5th movie. The funniest part of the first xXx is Diesel being the best performance of the bunch. Martin Csokas is obviously a bad guy chewing the scenery and Asia Argento does her best. We won't talk about the 2nd movie (though, Ice Cube's cameo in Return was kinda fun). I like them both and they're perfect to put on the tv while I work.
Transformers The Movie (1986): I felt exhausted by the end of the 85 minutes runtime, this movie is always moving. I'm not sure I ever this movie. I saw a lot of episodes of the cartoon back in the days, but not this. As a fan of Orson Welles, I should've done it a long time ago. My friend has been pissed about it for a long time, because he was a huge fan of the cartoon and this movie k!lls a bunch of the characters. He got over it. This is a ridiculously weird movie and I had a great time with it. I still need to watch the 4k disc, we went with the regular blu-ray because it's in the original 1.33 ratio, while the 4k has been cropped to 1.85.
Hi. 👋🙂
ReplyDeleteIn case you missed it last week l caught and mostly enjoyed NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE (2026, THEATER) Sunday afternoon, and then this week while catching other flicks snuck into another (sold out! 😲) screening of "Nirvanna" and saw the last 45 minutes standing on the aisle. Word of mouth (in our case Reed Strickland's) must be strong for "Nirvanna" because it's hanging around for a 2nd week at the AMC, which rarely happens for little Canadian indie flicks. Go in cold like l did and wonder if tracking the web/cable TV show that fuels "The Movie" should become your next obsession. ✌️😁
A24's THE MOMENT ('26, USA/UK, THEATER) is another disappointment from the mini-major indie studio whose batting average has been gradually declining. A British pop singer (Charlie XCX, playing herself) reaches her popularity pinnacle/saturation point as she's about to embark on the filmed tour portion of her career, and obsesses on remaining true to herself while embracing whatever it takes to extend her 15 minutes of fame. "The Moment" plays like a schizophrenic, tragi-comic, youth-oriented version of a Christopher Guest mockumentary, and while it occasionally strikes gold (Alexander Skarsgård playing a director trying to take over the tour) it's mostly a parade of clichés you've seen a million times on movie and TV. My theater crowd laughed often (as did l) and recognized most of the social media celebrities playing themselves (l didn't know any of them), so maybe this is one of those A24 titles only younger folks can appreciate.
Saw George P. Cosmatos' underwater "Alien"/"The Thing" knockoff LEVIATHAN (1989, KINO 4K UHD) twice, first as a Jury Room 4.0 Discord watchalong and then on its own the next day. Stan Winston's outstanding creature effects deserved better pacing and less hide-the-gore frantic editing, but the 'B' movie-licioius cast (OG Robocop, Evil Lynnn, wet bandit #2, black Ghostbuster, Rambo's captain, fake Taggart from "BH3," etc.) and another amazing score by Jerrry Goldsmith lift this one up above it's punching weight. My favorite of the 1989 class of sea horror creature features. 🤓
COLD STORAGE ('26, FRANCE/ITALY, THEATER) wears it's comedic horror 'B' movie set-up/execution with pride, giving veteran thesps like Liam Neeson and Vanessa Redgrave a chance to shine outside their comfort zones. A pitch-perfect cross between "Evolution" and "Career Opportunities" (with a healthy dose of "Return of the Living Dead"-type military cynicism, updated for the current era), David Koepp's screenplay (based on his pre-pandemic novel) never takes itself or its characters seriously enough to veer toward "Train To Busan"-type pathos. CG gore is passable because it leans on the silly (animals look/act like videogame bosses), action/production values decent and the chemistry between the veteran (Neeson/Lesley Manville) & slacker couples (Joe Keery/Georgina Campbell) sustains the narrative past some ridiculous-but-necessary set pieces. Seek it out when it comes on streaming.
Last and certainly least, THE MORTUARY ASSISTANT ('26, THEATER) is the first Shudder original I've seen that's a complete misfire unless you're a diehard fan of the video game of the same name that inspired it. Judged solely as a horror movie it starts intriguing and atmospheric, grows tedious by the first half hour and feels excruciatingly dull long before the credits. Willa Holland does the best to give her troubled Rebecca Owens character the depth of a recovering addict struggling with a new job. Shame the filmmakers run the dream/jumpscare/trauma hattrick on Rebecca way too many times, unlike co-star Paul Sparks remaining an intriguing veteran of the supernatural by virtue of his limited screen time. This one is worse than "Return to Silent Hill" I'm afraid. Yes, it's that bad. 🥺🫤
More later if work allows. 🙂
Breathless (1983): Patrick and Adam talked about it a couple of times, so the last time I ordered from Vinegar Syndrome, I grabbed the super-awesome-overpriced 4K. Total blind buy. I do like that Richard Gere keep talking about Silver Surfer (the comic book style cover makes more sense now). If you've seen A Bout De Souffle, you can see where most of the scenes come from. It's like it was a rough draft to this more expensive final product. I'm evidently not saying the original is bad or better, but as remake go, I've seen worse results. The movie is just this side of being a f*ck-noir, and you get a few shots of Richard Gere's d!ck 🤪
ReplyDeleteThe Two Jakes (1990): It's way better than its reputation say. It's the classic "the first one was so good, the sequel had no chance of being well received", but for any fan of it, or the genre, or Jack Nicholson, it's a must see.
The Psycho Legacy (2010): Documentary about all the Psycho movies. An interesting subject in itself, except the first 20 minutes where they talk about the first movie, which is already talked to d*ath. The rest kept my attention enough, but the format was very boring. You get one dude talking a couple of sentences about a bit of the movie, they cut to another dude more or less talking about the same bit, then cut again to another dude, then back to the first. They cut back and forth like that for the whole thing, I was very annoyed. And the dudes aren't that interesting to begin with, mostly because they never expand on whatever they're talking about. The subject saved it for me.
The rest of my week was spend watching the movies from French Noir Collection vol.2, released last november. As any collection go, they vary in quality, but it's fun to see renown actors (Gabin, Belmondo, Ventura) doing lesser-known stuff. It's all classic noir stuff: a man, a woman, some kind of trouble, and somebody die at the end. Sometimes it's on a boat, sometimes it's about a crime gang. It's highly recommended for Noir fans (and the volume 1 was also very good). Oh, and two movies have a commentary track by ex-FTM collaborator, and current Cereal At Midnight host, Heath Holland, with renown writer Max Allan Collins.
On a side note, I just received the new Westworld and Excalibur 4k. Unfortunately for me, I won't have time to watch them this weekend, but I can't wait to dig into them.
Heath also did commentary work on the most recent Kino Lorber release (Blu-ray and 4K) of the 2nd movie you mentioned, "The Two Jakes." ✊️😃
DeleteYes, that's true. I didn't pick it up. I got this regular blu-ray for cheap.
DeleteHe does a ton of commentary tracks, some of them with Collins. It's good stuff. Check out his site, he lists them all.
I'm surprised Heath never came back as a guest after leaving as a regular contributor.
DeleteNirvanna has 2 n's. For the longest time I kept thinking it was about Nirvana the band. It's kind of strange because I'm Canadian, but I hadn't heard of this show, and no one I know has heard of it either. I'm not sure whether it's an age difference, or whether they were a very specific Toronto thing and not known outside of there. Or maybe I'm just not very plugged into pop/indie/any culture anymore. (it's the latter).
We've talked about it a few times but were never able to make it work. Heath is very busy with his channel. No bad blood at all!
DeleteI visit Heath's website and youtube channel regularly. He does good work, especially if you're into physical media
DeletePaul, l too initially ignored the "Nirvanna" movie because it had something to do with the Kurt Cobain band. Truth be told l still don't know why it's called that, the name has literally nothing to do with... anything?! 🤨🤔
Delete@Patrick Glad to hear it. Also glad to know he's still maintaining Cereal at Midnight thing. Like Fthismovie, it's probably a ton of work/time. I was following his output for a bit (most written work at the beginning?) for a while but fell off as it didn't align with my interests.
Delete@Knider 4k Excalibur wow. Lucky you! Some days I'm happy that I have a little TV, so I'm not tempted to spend money on any of the fancy new physical releases.
@Vargas maybe they chose the name specifically to differentiate themselves from the band? Looking forward to seeing it for sure. It's playing a bunch at the local indie theatre in the next while.
A 4k tv is a blessing and a curse when you're an OCD collector like me
DeletePAN’S LABYRINTH (2006)
ReplyDeleteNearly forgot how good this is. It’s telling that the real world parts are just as captivating (maybe moreso?) than the fantasy weirdness.
STREET FIGHTER (1994)
The sumo guy should’ve gotten his own spinoff movie.
LEVIATHAN (1989)
So many tentacles!
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018)
What can I say? I just felt like Marvel-ing it up.
CELLAR DWELLAR (1988)
This was cheesy, as expected, but there were some intriguing ideas behind it all. Plus, it has both Jeffrey Combs and Yvonne De Carlo, so it’s all good.
PET SEMATARY (1989)
One word: Zelda.
Hey, I Marvel-ised too tonight. My friend who likes superheroes came by tonight, we watched a couple of movies. Good times.
DeleteName the MCU movies, K., or they didn't happen! 🤨🤗
DeleteHaha
DeleteNo Way Home and Venom. My friend is a Spidey fan.
☝️😎👍
ReplyDeleteUnintentional Double Feature: Comfort Food Movies that i Love Rewatching:
ReplyDeleteJohn Wick 4 (4k): Brilliant as ever. The cinematography of the setpieces, which is overshadowed by the action, is INCREDIBLE. Every shot looks beautiful.
SISU: Road to Revenge (2025 blu): So. Much. Fun! Ill stay spoiler free but his overall mission in moving something important to him hampers him with an unimaginable level of challenging logistics. And while everything is played 100% straight, i realized in this viewing that some of the craziest setpieces are 100% out of Coyote v Roadrunner. Theres a scene with a rocket on a train car where they might as well have placed a huge ACME sticker on it. LOVE the SISU movies and rewatch all the time.
Turn your brain ON for "Wick 4" and OFF for "SISU... Revenge" and you'll have a great time with both. 🤘😎
Deleteha!
DeleteFinished up my Ridley Scott rewatch and decided to start a Tony Scott rewatch.
ReplyDeleteENEMY OF THE STATE (1998)
This movie imagines a dystopia where the US government uses the internet and communications technology to conduct covert surveillance on its own citizens. Good thing its just a movie.
Why is every bit part in this filled with someone a year or two away from being a star in their own right?
What is it with Lisa Bonet ____ in showers? This, "Angel Heart"... you know. 😱😓 And you're right SS (!), everybody in small roles in "EOTS" is either an uncredited somebody (Sizemore, Robards, Seth Green, Phillip Baker Hall, etc.) or soon-to-be somebodies (Black, baby Caan & baby Busey, Pepper, Jamie Kennedy, etc.). And why is Gabriel Byrne wasted in a cab driver role with a couple of throwaway lines? 😳🙄
DeleteBack to back Ridley and Tony sounds groovy! I did a bit of a deep dive into Tony flicks a couple summers ago...soooooo good.
DeleteSpeaking of Ridley. I'm currently watching the new video from History Buffs on Napoleon. Basically, they got the name of Napoleon right, and that's it 🤣
DeleteRidley treats history as a suggestion in his historical epics. Sometimes it makes good, even great movies, but they won't help you pass your history test
DeleteIf you take an exam/test on Middle Eastern history and watch Ridley's theatrical cut of "Kingdom of Heaven" before... FLUNK! Take the test after watching "KOH: Director's Cut"....A+. 🫵😄
DeleteWatching the closing ceremony of the winter olympics just now, it was nice to hear the film music of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota featured during the parade of the athletes. Viva Italia!
ReplyDeleteI am making my way through the rotation of FXM, the Fox movie cable channel. These were a couple of films on the DVR recorded from the channel.
THE EGYPTIAN (1954, dir. Michael Curtiz) – A meandering and over long tale of a physician in ancient Egypt that somehow works in a Christian message. The acting is not particularly notable, with the exception of Peter Ustinov stealing every scene he is in. The lead actor, Edmund Purdom, had a great voice but a wooden face. (He would go on to make a career in European genre films.) The Egyptian, though, is impressive on a visual level, filled with the spectacle that characterizes the sword and sandal films of that era. It was worth watching just for that.
THE CURSE OF THE FLY (1965) – Melodrama meets B-movie sci-fi in the sequel to the 1958 film. The descendants of Delambre go on with his work, continuing to deform humans in pursuit of perfecting teleportation. This British production is “fine”, entertaining enough and veering toward schlock in many moments.
Haven't had much time to watch stuff lately. I know when I do pop in, I tend to mention Star Trek because that's just been my thing over the last year, but a Star Trek: Voyager game just got released where you pretty much play through the entire series while making choices and upgrading your ship, so I've been kind of hooked with that. Plus new Resident Evil game coming in a few days. Still trying to get some for Year 2000 watches in before FTMF though.
ReplyDeletexXx and xXx The Return of Xander Cage: The Fast & Furious franchise, especially the later entries, should've been part of this franchise, instead of the nonsense of street racers becoming spies, Vin Diesel even drive the same kind of muscle car. FF should've stopped after the 4th, maybe 5th movie. The funniest part of the first xXx is Diesel being the best performance of the bunch. Martin Csokas is obviously a bad guy chewing the scenery and Asia Argento does her best. We won't talk about the 2nd movie (though, Ice Cube's cameo in Return was kinda fun). I like them both and they're perfect to put on the tv while I work.
ReplyDeleteTransformers The Movie (1986): I felt exhausted by the end of the 85 minutes runtime, this movie is always moving. I'm not sure I ever this movie. I saw a lot of episodes of the cartoon back in the days, but not this. As a fan of Orson Welles, I should've done it a long time ago. My friend has been pissed about it for a long time, because he was a huge fan of the cartoon and this movie k!lls a bunch of the characters. He got over it. This is a ridiculously weird movie and I had a great time with it. I still need to watch the 4k disc, we went with the regular blu-ray because it's in the original 1.33 ratio, while the 4k has been cropped to 1.85.
Saw your buddy Elric today and watched The Dead Thing on 35mm at the Somerville Theater.
ReplyDelete