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

mtagge wrote: It's stoner stuff.

I was always under the impression that "stoner stuff" depicted (Workaholics) or heavily implied (Dude, Where's My Car?) cannabis use / culture. Bad comedy is just bad comedy.

Incidentally, HBO's High Maintenance is sort of an antidote to Euphoria and stereotypical stoner programming. is a low-key comedy with a killer soundtrack about a nameless Guy who delivers weed by bicycle in New York. Each episode centers on a character who buys from or keeps a close orbit with the Guy; although he appears in each episode and there are a handful of other recurring characters, it's more of an anthology than a larger narrative. Highly recommended.

Edit: Not a movie.

Elvis

It’s a Baz Luhrmann joint. You already know whether it’s your bag or not. He still hasn’t surpassed his opening trifecta of Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, but I’m always down to see where the muse carries the man. I even enjoyed the first season of The Get Down alright.

Elvis has real foundational problems. To its detriment it can’t settle on Presley or Parker as the lead. In classic biopic fashion it only plays the most important moments, but none of them land because we can’t soak in their import before rolling into the next death or birth or breakup. Luhrmann’s tricks of anachronistic music drops, spinning cameras and hyperactive montages are a little stale after just six films.

Yet he still managed to make Elvis cool and vital more than sixty years after his peak. That’s not nothing to someone born well after his death and only knowing him as the fat guy in ridiculous costumes.

I recently re-watched Romeo+Juliet, which was a triumph of style. So I am tempted to watch Elvis, even though I don't care for Elvis or his cultish followers. But he did have some good songs and a certain style, so maybe Baz will make it worth my while.

I think the best parts of Elvis’ style can be found in Lilo and Stitch.

dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2022/09/a...visual-art-form.html

God's Country. Great, great stuff.

Watched The Outfit (2022) last night, which is streaming (at least) on Prime. It's a little on the nose at times, but overall it strikes me as the kind of accessible "adult" (i.e., grown-up, not naughty) film that many people always claim they want Hollywood to make but then never go see. (It's listed as having a wide release in 2022 but earned only $3.3m.) Mark Rylance anchors and centers the film, and the other actors gain their vitality from him (though none of the other performances is bad). Worth a look.

Recently watched Hellraiser and really enjoyed a gory horror movie for the first time ever. I had some really traumatic work stuff happen and it has honestly left me sort of numb to being scared so now I can actually watch stuff like this.

I'm currently watching Hellraiser 2 and I will say this one really stepped up the gore. Less scary by a long shot, just grosser. About halfway through and not nearly enough Cenobites.

Any recommendations for stuff I should watch along this line?

You are in luck, there is a Hell raiser TV show about to debut.

I'd probably avoid further Hellraiser films though, the quality you seem to appreciate falls off pretty fast.

Have you seen the original Saw? That's actually a really good film. Maybe Misery?

Kind of a fine line between Horror (capital H) and slasher/torture porn schlock of the type you are describing. Maybe some Asian horror flicks like Audition would be up your alley.

jpat wrote: Watched The Outfit (2022) last night, which is streaming (at least) on Prime. It's a little on the nose at times, but overall it strikes me as the kind of accessible "adult" (i.e., grown-up, not naughty) film that many people always claim they want Hollywood to make but then never go see. (It's listed as having a wide release in 2022 but earned only $3.3m.) Mark Rylance anchors and centers the film, and the other actors gain their vitality from him (though none of the other performances is bad). Worth a look.

dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-decent-fit.html

Liked it because I'm a Rylance fan, but not overly impressed.

stormseeker75 wrote: Any recommendations for stuff I should watch along this line?

Event Horizon, perhaps? It's not a great movie but it has more going on than your typical torture porn gore. Mandy is excellent but I don't know if it fits your criteria. I also second jason10mm's recommendations of Audition and Misery.

Revisited Tucker and Dale vs Evil. Still a great time. The pace is near perfect. Any more acting would have been a mistake, considering the kind of movie this is.

I find that T&DvE pairs well with Feast. Both are lampooning more traditional horror films, Tucker is certainly more silly, but Feast plays on tropes just as well. Both of course owe a lot to Army of Darkness.

Was in the Halloween mood last weekend, so I watched some appropriate fare. I Am Legend (2007) was okay as long as I didn't dwell on the inconsistencies or the better original story by Richard Matheson. For this kind of movie, it's better to go with the flow and just enjoy the well-delivered emotional beats. I didn't enjoy what happened to the dog, so I probably won't watch this one again.

Then I re-watched From Hell (2001). Johnny Depp delivers a solid, understated performance, and Heather Graham was good. Again, it fell short of the source material, and is probably on a long list of movies that Alan Moore will never watch. I like that the movie (and the comic) follow the Stephen Knight theory of Jack the Ripper, which is that it was a government conspiracy to cover up the sordid dalliances of a wayward prince. The overall portrayal of the seamy side of Victorian London seems convincing to my American eyes.

I watched half of Practical Magic (1998), and plan to finish it soon. Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Dianne Wiest, and Stockard Channing are all okay, but I find the movie somewhat interesting because it doesn't neatly fit in a genre. Not horror, not comedy, not romcom, not drama, but some elements of each.

Hocus Pocus 2 on Disney+ This was surprisingly not horrible! HP is a fav of my wife, I'm a bit more ambivalent on it other than the one film that put Sarah Jessica Parker on a "Hey she is kinda sexy" list. Anyway, this sequel/part remake has some laughs and hits all the highs of the original. The kids are mostly not cringe aside from a really painful morality lesson delivered to a guy who was actually correct that witchcraft is bad and worthy of being made fun of. Other than that its a light family Halloween film that just barely pulls itself out of "made for TV" quality into something that might have been able to be in theaters pre-streaming. Bette Midler really carries this film on her capable shoulders along with a really stellar opening act featuring teen girl versions of the witches in 17th century Salem.

I feel like it is a backdoor pilot for a teen witch TV show, wouldn't surprise me at all.

Saw Jaws on Imax on the weekend -- it's as good as it always was.