Amph What was the last movie you saw?

A Ghost Story (2017) – David Lowery

I’m waiting for someone.

Who?

I don’t remember.

Lowery writes and directs in this film, which reteams him with his lead actors from Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Casey Affleck & Rooney Mara. This movie is, I think, basically indescribable. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints utilized a very traditional story, but elevated it by virtue of sensitive writing and amazing performances; this movie has nothing even approaching a traditional story. I’m going to tell you nothing about this movie and I highly recommend avoiding the trailer before seeing this film; that’s what I did and after watching it, I went back and looked at the trailer and found that it spoiled a lot of details. Lowery’s direction is at the level of genius; there’s a cosmic, mystical feeling to this movie that he nails with his floating, beautiful camerawork. This movie is incredibly slow, but it pays off as it progresses. It is, in many ways, a movie about grief, but perhaps in even more ways a movie about time and the way we move through it. It’s exploring, in an entirely different way, the same subject Arrival tackled; like that movie, this movie is about those mysterious feelings we get that we don’t quite understand, whether it’s the feeling of a lost loved one being near us or of entering an entirely new space and feeling instantly at home. Mara’s performance is wonderful; there’s an amazing single take of her, lost in absolute desolation, eating basically an entire pie and everything from her facial expressions and her body language speak perfectly of devastation. This is a film where a lot depends on body language; there’s scarcely any dialogue in it. Mara is great at it and I’ve always said that Casey Affleck has an incredible ability to produce emotion with very minimal acting. Special mention goes, no spoilers, to the figure under that ghostly sheet, forced to sell an incredible range of emotion purely through stillness and movement and positioning. It’s a tour de force, frankly, one that, being “hidden” under the sheet, will be unrecognized for its brilliance by all the awards shows, but it is astonishing work. Lowery’s eye is just unparalleled here; putting the ghost under a sheet leads to some incredibly compelling visuals and the world Lowery has crafted here is imaginative and strange. A great musical soundtrack helps immeasurably; any movie this quiet benefits from a perfectly pitched score and this one, by a composer named Daniel Hart, is deeply evocative. It’s a strange, compelling masterpiece, like no other movie you’ll see this year. 4 stars.

tl;dr – evocative, powerful, mystical movie is brilliantly performed and writer-director Lowery establishes himself as a true master of cinema; unforgettable, devastating, utterly unique. 4 stars.

 

It: There is a scene where they find a drawing from the colonial era, when the town was first founded. Amongst all the grandees with silk stockings and powdered wigs is a monster in an anachronistic clown costume. I laughed really loudly in the middle of the theater.

So that's how that was.

 

Invasion USA (1985)

Typical schlock Cannon film starring Chuck Norris. Chuck's first scene shows him wearing an open vest with no shirt, his chest on full display, zipping about the everglades in an airboat. He wrestles an alligator in his second scene. In between, we're shown a needlessly treacherous and violent villain....and it turns out the villain has a recurring nightmare where he gets kicked in the face by Chuck. It's basically Chuck Norris Facts: The Movie.

It's a ridiculous movie about immigrants mercenaries invading the US to terrorize the country, led by our Russkie psychopath villain whose preferred method of killing is to shoot guys in the nuts (he prefers to throw women out windows). There's even a "joke" with Chuck watching an old 50s alien invasion movie on television during the spree of terror. The first thing the terrorists do is go to the suburbs to blow up people celebrating Christmas in their houses. It's typical Cannon film action, with explosions that probably gave Michael Bay his inspiration. A shopping mall, a church and a school bus full of children trying to escape the city are also on the list of targets.

Get the picture yet?

HUGE SPOILER: Chuck kills all the terrorists, and he saves a special explosive overkill for the big bad. Chuck manages to do this without moving his face the entire movie.

It's a Cannon film. I grew up on this stuff like Belloq grew up on the family label. If you know Cannon, you know what this is, and whether or not you like it.

 

Glad to see that IT is getting good reviews. I have a friend coming over from the US on Tuesday (assuming Irma doesn't nuke flights out of NYC) and we plan to see the film at some point at the local cinema.

 

John Wick

For all the effort John Wick puts into its world building of the underground criminal underbelly through its use of dim lighting, electronic music, expensive fashion and chic settings, there is still a certain grit lacking in the film. The film is, of course, suitably violent and bloody with regular intervals of action. But, for a movie that is striving to be a hardboiled neo-noir film, Stahelski and Leitch's directed film simply feels too neat and polished for it to have the intended effect. All of the cinematography is very sharp and in focus while the villains in this revenge story look too clean cut for to truly be the avarice and blood thirsty animals that have made the titular character's life an ongoing misery. None of this makes John Wick a bad film because it avoids certain cinematographic faux par such as slow-motion or flash cutting during its action sequences. Instead, it gets to the meat of the matter by keeping the story lean and allowing the action to uphold the film's momentum.

Underlying all of this are occasional tappings of black comedy and sardonic wit. John Wick also features memorable performances from Ian McShane and Willem Dafoe while Keanu Reeves possibly gives the best performance of his career, eschewing any smugness or cleverness in his line delivery and opting for a more morose and cold hearted persona. This movie isn't lacking in anything but instead is simply too neat and tight while being thoroughly enjoyable. A better example of this style of revenge film which has minimal story and more gunplay is the 1990s neo-noir film, Payback - a dirtier and sleazier film which isn't ashamed to be ugly as compared to John Wick's slicker and fashion conscious aesthetic. But, John Wick is still a fine film from the perspective of being an entertaining action noir with some incredible cinematography and groove driven soundtrack. The film is executed so cleanly that it cannot helped be felt that it would be more fun to be had in this universe in video game form.

3.5 out of 5

 

As big an action legend as Chuck is, he was never amongst the elite quippers of the genre. He did most of his talking with his feet and fists. But Invasion USA contains one of the best action hero quips of the 80s.




Invasion USA fun facts!

- There was actually a novelization released. Just wrap your heads around that for a few seconds.

- The movie Avenging Force is a sequel originally meant to feature Chuck Norris who was eventually replaced by Michael Dudikoff (from Canonn's American Ninja).

 

That is a genuinely great threat.

 

Miller's Crossing
The camera work is as good as the dialogue, and the dialogue is blistering. The performances aren't half bad either. One of my favourite films. Gabriel Byrne is one of those actors, much like Michael Biehn, where you just wonder why they didn't go on to become Great Big Stars.

 

Chuck delivered that so calmly, it's too bad he didn't have more awesome one liners, but he was a man of action literally.

 

"Look in heart!"

"What heart?"

 

IT

One of my most anticipated films of the year....

Spoiler

IT, was just okay. IMO, it suffers like most bad to decent adaptations. Some of it they do really well, and some of it just comes off as nothing more than a greatest hits of the book. I knew they'd be too scared to do any of the alternate dimension stuff from the book, and i knew they wouldn't do the spider. It didn't make me miss those things any less. I would have much rather seen the spider then a crappy fight with a clown. Pennywise was fine. His part is hurt because they never define what IT was. The dead lights get nothing more than a nod, and I don't think they even mention the concept at all. Not giving at least some backstory on the clown makes him come off as lame in this adaptation. Just a standard horror villain. And the excuse that they'll develop him more in the sequel doesn't work for me. A sequel was never guaranteed. This could have been IT.

The kids were all great. The girl will be a huge star. Mike got ****ed over big in the story. They had nothing for him to do, and his function in the book was given to Ben. Why?

Some of the horror stuff was fun.

Sorry, but in the end the film was just a disappointment to me.

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IT

One of my most anticipated films of the year....

Spoiler

IT, was just okay. IMO, it suffers like most bad to decent adaptations. Some of it they do really well, and some of it just comes off as nothing more than a greatest hits of the book. I knew they'd be too scared to do any of the alternate dimension stuff from the book, and i knew they wouldn't do the spider. It didn't make me miss those things any less. I would have much rather seen the spider then a crappy fight with a clown. Pennywise was fine. His part is hurt because they never define what IT was. The dead lights get nothing more than a nod, and I don't think they even mention the concept at all. Not giving at least some backstory on the clown makes him come off as lame in this adaptation. Just a standard horror villain. And the excuse that they'll develop him more in the sequel doesn't work for me. A sequel was never guaranteed. This could have been IT.

The kids were all great. The girl will be a huge star. Mike got ****ed over big in the story. They had nothing for him to do, and his function in the book was given to Ben. Why?

Some of the horror stuff was fun.

Sorry, but in the end the film was just a disappointment to me.

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The Swan Princess (1994)

An off-Disney animated adaptation of Swan Lake, it has the songs and some disjointed fun, but the plot and the tone are scatterbrained and the leading prince is irredeemable. The art and animation don't come close to what Disney was doing even five years earlier, but that's to be expected from a smaller studio and budget. Even taking its more humble origins into account, The Swan Princess falls well short of its now classic Disney contemporaries. Three out of five stars.

 

The Fathom Events presentation of "Star Trek II". It was the Director's Cut, which includes some extra character-oriented bits. They also included a funny into/interview with Shatner. Liked his comments re: "Star Trek V" and "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

 

Opera (1987) - In the 80s, two of Dario Argento's gialli dealt with the fine line between creativity and madness: particularly how unhinged fans react to the creative who inspires them. In Tenebrae (1982) this is dealt with head on and delivers quite the twist, while in Opera the fan is obsessed with Betty, the young understudy he pushes into the spotlight to perform a modern tweak on MacBeth. It seems our fan cannot tolerate anyone who stands between them and Betty and starts killing any and everyone in the opera company until she is alone. This movie is particularly hard on the heroine (not unlike Phenomena and 1996's The Stendhal Syndrome ), and it's been said that the actress clashed with Dario constantly (not hard to see given the rather wretched things she was required to do.) The moments the fan has her bound and watching her friends and boyfriend die are just awful. Argento never shied away from unbelievably brutal murders and this movie is full of them. It's no wonder Betty sort of loses her sanity as the credits roll.

This isn't one of my favorite Argento films and it's the last good film he made (if you could call this good.) Like all of his movies from Phenomena on, there's a nasty undercurrent and vibe that pushes me away. For my lira, Dario's work from 1970 - 1982 is all that matters. Going forward, I'll politely leave anything afterward behind.

 

Run Silent Run Deep. Proves a theory I have, a film that takes place on a submarine is generally pretty good. This was no exception

 

Whoop, sorry about that

 

I just got back from seeing It. This was fanatstic from start to finish! It's easily one of the best horror films I've seen, and possibly even the best. It was freaky and unsettling. Personally I didn't find it scary, but don't take my word for it, because I don't find any horror films scary. It was incredibly well made in every aspect. The music was fantastic and added a lot of extra intensity. All of the kid actors were great and so was Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. Definitely go and see it! 8.5/10.

 

Jordan1Kenobi: Please watch "The Uninvited." It is a decidedly better horror film.

 

It: 88% Rotten Tomatoes. The Uninvited: 32% Rotten Tomatoes. I think I'll pass.

There isn't a lot of good horror movies anymore these days. It and the Conjuring series were rare occasions.

 

Passengers I thought the premise of this was really good, thousands of humans are sent to colonise a distant world that is over one hundred years away in cryosleep, but just one of the passengers (Chris Pratt) is woken early by mistake and won't live to see the new planet as its 90 years away. The dilemas he faces are good, how does he pass his time? Can he fix his pod and get back to cryosleep? Can he get into the control centre of the ship? Should he wake someone up out of their hibernation pod to keep him company? Does he kill himself? Its almost like Castaway in space for a while. Of course he does end up waking someone up, the beautiful Jennifer Lawrence and they become lovers. This raises more moral issues because he has to keep it secret that he woke her. But the android barman (Pratts only company) tells her that he had been planning to wake her up for over a year and obviously she goes off her head as he's basically sentenced her to death as neither of them will live long enough to see the new planet. There are a lot of things to think about in this, one thing that struck me were the messages for Lawrences character from her friends on Earth wishing her luck and it hits home when they tell her that when she gets to the new colony that her friends will all be dead back on Earth. But despite all these issues its not that indepth a film, it could have taken all the issues further if it wanted to. Its all nice and glossy and looks good in its characters and great effects. Lawrence Fishburne also pops up having been woken by mistake too, he doesn't last long other than telling them both that something catastrophic is happening to the ship and they need to fix it. Of course they do in the end, but it seems to me the film was leading to something bigger than it was and it was a bit of an anitclimax. Despite that though I actually enjoyed it because of the issues it raises and I thought there was something more sinister it was leading too and that was keeping me hooked (even though in the end was a bit of a let down).

Daddys Home Ridiculous, but fun nonetheless if you take it for what it is - Will Ferrell being Will Ferrell whos desperate to be accepted by his step kids and is then in competition with Mark Wahlberg (their biological father) as he returns to try and get back into their life. I thought there were some really funny moments in this, yet even so I can't believe theres a sequel coming out too.

 

The Mummy (2017)

Actually pretty good overall and not as schlock as I'd thought maybe this overdone trope could be.

Well handled,liked Russell Crowe a lot in his performance and Cruise was good also.

9/10.

 

He may have meant the 1944 haunted house movie "The Uninvited", starring Ray Milland.

 

No. The one about the two girls. It is the most honorable of all horror films.