Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[Captain Comics]

Watched The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean for the first time, and the style of the movie instantly transported me back to the early '70s, when a certain experimental style was in vogue. I can't really explain it, but as soon as the movie began I thought "this was made in the early '70s" and IMDb told me I was right. Maybe it was just Paul Newman's hair, or all the perennials (Ned Beatty, Matt Clark, etc.).

It was basically a cartoon, but I like cartoons, so I mildly enjoyed this eccentric, implausible story. It had a lot of "Isn't that ...?" moments aside from the perennials, like Anthony Perkins, Stacy Keach, Ava Gardner, Tab Hunter and probably some more I'm forgetting. This was Victoria Principal's debut, so young she was almost unrecognizable (aside from being heart-stoppingly pretty).

In one scene, Grizzly Adams makes a brief apperance, apparently for the sole purpose of adding a bear to the cast. I noticed right away that the camera was avoiding his face, or vice versa, which made me pay attention. My attention was rewarded when I was able to see his face briefly through a stagecoach window -- and it was John Huston, the director. (You'll remember him as the incestuous father in Chinatown.)

I don't have much else to say. It was a movie from its time, when a lot of great, eccentric movies were being made. (And a lot of not-so-great eccentric movies were made.) As a child of that era, I'm glad I finally saw it.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

I've become much more interested on '70's movies (especially early '70's movies) as an adult than I ever was as a kid. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but they DO have a vibe that's unmistakable and makes even bad movies at least interestingly bad.

[Captain Comics]

I'm trying to catch up on older, famous movies I missed via TCM, and this one just happened to come up. But yeah, there's a vibe from that time that was unique.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I'm always happy to see 70s-era movies show up on TCM, too -- it's a decade that didn't seem like "classics" when I was in my early cinephile days, but now they not only show me some great storytelling -- particularly as the New Hollywood crowd started to break the rules -- but also show me what the world was like when I was just a kid. That's great to be reminded of...and can happen in both good movies and bad. 

I'm starting to see more films from the 1980s show up on TCM, too. We recently recorded Lifeforce, a movie about space vampires I only knew about from an article in Heavy Metal back when I was a kid. Looking forward to finally seeing it! If it's any good, I'll be astonished.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

I remember seeing Lifeforce in a theater (in Muncie, IN) with some buddies of mine. In particular, I remember -- in those pre-internet-spoilers days -- our sudden realization that we were watching "Vampires from Outer Space." We couldn't stop laughing.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Inspired by Kelvin’s mention of Diana Ross Live in Central Park, I thought Lady Sings the Blues would be a good one for Tracy and I to watch together as my next effort to indoctrinate her into jazz music, but she had no interest.

“For years now we've used that as a catch phrase for whenever we can't find exactly what we're looking for.”

Watching “All Good Things” (the final episode of ST:TNG) the other night put me in the mood to watch Slaughterhouse Five. Tracy expressed an interest in reading the book a couple of years ago, but never got around to it. She didn’t want to see the movie before reading the book, but I thought the movie might put her in the mood to read the book, so I asked her to check if it was available on NetFlix. She replied, “They’ve got Slaughterhouse Rulez.”

[Richard Willis]

Here's something I posted on another thread.

http://captaincomics.ning.com/forum/topics/a-cover-a-day?page=599&a...

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...I saw the Fathom Events/TCM 50th Anniversary theatrical showing of HELLO, DOLLY! JD, as far as " understanding 1969 " goes...do you think there's anyone in the world not a critic of some type who saw both the two , 1969, okay " (The Stooges)- oriented movies you cite (or the original WOODSTOCK documentary) as well as HD! During the same era? :') They had somewhat different , reps , ' Ya think?????????

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Thank you. My point was, the term rather passed out of general usage after " living together ". ad we know it, became common in the Seventies...though, obviously. what are presumably old laws relating to this remain on the books in 7 and D.C.

  I recall (though I never saw it) a short-loved My Big Fat Greek...Marriage??...sitcom having a short, unsuccessful CBS run after the movie. I presume this was ignored? And that the daughter's age was soap-opera-style accelersted?

   The 70s rock band Tedbome's big hit " Come And Get Your Love " had a B-side titled, Fay To Dah Life , whose chorus went. or like. , I'm living a day to day life/With my common law wife ", which was a little archaic even in 1972.

ClarkKent_DC said:

ClarkKent_DC said:

• Family patriarch Gus discovers the priest who officiated at his wedding to Maria 50 years ago wasn't ordained and didn't sign the marriage license; thus, they aren't legally married.

The Baron said:

Wouldn't they be considered "common law married" by that point, or is that not a real thing?

It is and it isn't. The wife Maria makes a crack in the movie that they must be married because of "time served."

It appears that Maria and Gus have met all the standards for common law marriage, as listed here in FindLaw: They are old enough to be married; they are of sound mind; they fully intended to be married to each other; they have lived together for a long time; they have commingled finances; they have always represented themselves to family, friends and the world at large as a married couple; and neither is married to someone else.

However, common law marriage is recognized only in seven states and the District of Columbia, and Illinois (where My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is set) is not one of those places. 

[ClarkKent_DC]

Emerkeith Davyjack said:

...Thank you. My point was, the term rather passed out of general usage after " living together ". ad we know it, became common in the Seventies...though, obviously. what are presumably old laws relating to this remain on the books in 7 and D.C.

It's more like the old laws are on the books in the 43 states that don't recognize common law marriage.

Emerkeith Davyjack said:

  I recall (though I never saw it) a short-loved My Big Fat Greek...Marriage??...sitcom having a short, unsuccessful CBS run after the movie. I presume this was ignored? And that the daughter's age was soap-opera-style accelersted?

Yes, there was a sitcom based on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, titled My Big Fat Greek Life, which came and went in 2003, lasting only seven episodes on CBS. It had most of the main cast from the movie, although Steven Eckholdt played the husband instead of John Corbett, and for some odd reason, the couple at the center of the story had different names in the TV show, per Wikipedia. I never watched it either, but I think it's safe to say nothing that transpired in that show had anything to do with the movie sequel. 

As the movie sequel comes 14 years after the original film, the daughter's age in the sequel isn't too far out of line.  

[Captain Comics]

Watched Green Hornet (2011). I swear to God, I could have written this myself. No surprises whatsoever,.

And a cast of characters I did not like. Am I just too old? I get the impression that if you really enjoy Seth Rogen's stoner/slacker act, maybe you'd enjoy the movie -- because Rogen's character's worst qualities were front and center the whole time. I found it tiresome and implausible.

Also, as mentioned, I think I could have written the script myself. And I wouldn't have been proud of myself for doing so.

[ClarkKent_DC]

I didn't see Seth Rogen's "Green Hornet" because I was reasonably sure it wasn't going to be "my" Green Hornet. 

Also, it seemed to me to be flawed in the same way the last "Lone Ranger" movie was flawed: As a fan like us, Rogen grew up watching The Green Hornet. Unlike us, he got in a position where he could do what the average fan could only dream of doing, and make his own "Green Hornet" movie. Unfortunately, that meant bending it to fit his schtick, which in Rogen's case is the stoner/slacker act.