What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Boys are still rolling on the kaiju train, so I found Gamera the Brave on Prime. It fits in the chronology of the Hisei trilogy of the ‘90’s but with an E.T. sensibility. A boy discovers a turtle egg only to discover this particular turtle can fly and double his size every day, which is great when you need someone to defend your city from a Tyrannosaurus with a purple-spear tongue. It’s surprisingly poignant as the boy is still struggling with the death of his mother and what fighting could mean for his new friend. It would be fair to call it a kids’ movie, but one that takes them seriously and not overly precious. I liked it.

Creature effects were so good. Gamera is always a little rough because there are so few points of movement with that massive shell, but his enemy Zedus looked so good. There were dangling bits and the distinctive movements of a stalking predator. Just gorgeous.

Nightmare Alley is on HBO. This is the latest Guillermo Del Toro film, and stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Roomy Mara, Ron Perlman, Willem Dafoe, etc. i.e. lots of stars.

It's a remake of an old (1947?) noir film, which I have not seen. But this movie is fantastic. I loved it, only wishing it had ended perhaps 5 seconds before it actually ends. Well worth your time, especially if you like Del Toro. I like Shape of Water better, but still.

I thought it was... average? It's totally predictable, as most noir films are, since you know they're just locked on a trip to a dark end. But it still felt like they were going through the motions, rather than really engaging the story. Cate Blanchett's character seemed wholly artificial; present only to drive the story forward, rather than having any actual motivation. I haven't seen the original, so maybe they were just following that, note-for-note, but it still felt like there was room to flesh out her character a bit and make her something other than the one-note femme fatale. I'm a Del Toro fan, too, and I kind of expected more from this one. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great, either.

She did seem a bit undercooked, like you know she's going to pull a double cross but as to why she did it, just because?

I didn't mind the predictability. I just enjoyed the ride.

My great aunt Helen was the psychologist in the original NIGHTMARE ALLEY noir. She was also in BREWSTER’S MILLIONS and a few other movies. It’s cool to see her from time to time, she looks a lot like her sister, my grandmother.

jeb wrote: My great aunt Helen was the psychologist in the original NIGHTMARE ALLEY noir. She was also in BREWSTER’S MILLIONS and a few other movies. It’s cool to see her from time to time, she looks a lot like her sister, my grandmother.

Had a hankering for a grade B horror movies, so I powered up Tubi, and watched The Gorgon. Movie was a little over an hour and didn't drag on and on. Featured Patrick Troughton (prior to him becoming the Second Doctor), Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing.

Oh, The Gorgon is lovely, it’s one of the lesser known Hammer film despite it featuring the holy trinity of Lee, Cushing, and Fisher with Barbara Shelley for good measure. Like all of his films, Fisher directs with a simplicity and an elegance that really elevates the material. It’s one of a pair of “Cornish” films that the studio shot on location in Cornwall rather than the usual Bray Studios.

The other one is well worth your time as well- Plague of the Zombies. It’s pre-NOTLD so it leans heavily into the Colonialist “Haititian voodoo” tropes heavily but you can see that it was likely an influence on later zombie pictures.

Both are atmospheric and handsomely produced despite minuscule budgets. In a sense, they are some of the more unusual Hammer films because they really stretch the gothic horror notion beyond the usual fare.

Nightmare Alley was pretty good. I liked it much better than The Shape of Water but not as much as Crimson Peak. The production design may actually beat Dune at the Oscars. Willem Dafoe is amazing as always. I don’t really care what Cate Blanchett is doing in it because she is just stunning. Not Hela stunning though. It was definitely predictable but it’s a vintage noir so there you go. The carnival stuff had a great atmosphere of desperation and vague menace, and I loved the transition to the “high society” mesmerism still relying on carny tricks.

As usual, I like GDT himself and what he is trying to do more than the finished piece itself. He just never quite satisfies me.

Same with Edgar Wright. Last Night in Soho is sooooooo “almost”. I love that it is essentially a Carnaby Street giallo (loved the Inferno homage) with absolutely incredible music. Matt Smith as a pimp is a fun and oddly distressing turn. The film works best when it is the most off the rails. But it just isn’t quite there, like all of his movies it feels like he’s just about to make something awesome and it just doesn’t follow through./

Agree with Last Night in Soho, but Edgar Wright absolutely crafted something great with Baby Driver.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is perfect.

I was going to watch Nimi last night, but went with Antlers instead -- some good horror based around the Wendigo mythology.

I watched the German horror movie Privlege -- I don't know much about German horror, but it felt a bit underdeveloped. Interesting ideas that just never got to where they needed to.

Been interested in both Nightmare Alley and Last Night in Soho, so will check those out next.

The original Nightmare Alley is very good as well. Tyrone Powers fought to get it made to showcase his ability to play roles besides the swashbuckling action hero. It's not as dark as the modern remake but still very good.

I watched Privilege as well and agree, it was a mash-up of lots of ideas without any real resolution. If they could have picked 1 film to "homage" instead of like 5 it might have worked better. Started off strong though.

I watched War for the Planet of the Apes last night. So disappointing after the first 2 in that trilogy.

Somehow they found new and interesting stories to tell in that universe for the first 2 and then just threw random shit on the page for the 3rd. There are interesting ideas and some spectacular scenes, but the movie doesn't flow logically or thematically.

Saw The Power of the Dog: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2022/02/l...e-being-braided.html

Woof. I am still not a Jane Campion fan.

Belfast - It was good but while Kenneth Branagh is an interesting guy he wasn't an interesting kid. Like most Oscar contenders I don't see myself ever revisiting it.