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.

[Luke Blanchard]

The movie was based on based on a French novel by Pierre Benoit. There's an article about it at Cool French Comics (in the "French Wold Newton Universe" section) that I'd better not link to directly because of an image. The Queen Alvit story in Hawkman #13 (1966) might be a partial homage to it.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALAN (1970): "A man (Anthony Perkins) is unable to save his father from a fire that deisfigures his sister. Sent away to a mental institution for evaluation, the man return later to take up residence at his sister's home. Psysosomatically blinded by the incident, the man struggles with his daily life but finds things harder for him, when strange incidents begin to happen to him that has people doubting his sanity. Is it someone with a vendetta against him or is it something far more sinister?"

This "ABC Movie of the Week" produced by Aaron Spelling is better than I expected. A lot of what happens is in Perkins' character's mind, but there is something else going on as well. All the clues are there for the viewer to guess what's really going on; it is a "fair use" mystery in that respect. It's based on a book by Henry Farrell. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

PANIC (1976): "A British research scientist is working with various forms of bacteria when he is accidentally is exposed to a deadly variety due to a lab accident. the exposure transforms the scientist into a hideous, flesh-eating monster and he begins a rampage in the local community that has the government considering whether or not to destroy the entire town to contain the problem."

This is an Italian movie, filmed in Britain, dubbed into English. It can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a horror film or a political thriller. Lots of gore, but unconvincing.

[Richard Willis]

If you find Anthony Perkins in movie pre-Psycho, he's a nice guy, a romantic guy or even a hero. After Psycho, he was always a crazy guy.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALAN (1970): "A man (Anthony Perkins) is unable to save his father from a fire that deisfigures his sister. Sent away to a mental institution for evaluation, the man return later to take up residence at his sister's home. Psysosomatically blinded by the incident, the man struggles with his daily life but finds things harder for him, when strange incidents begin to happen to him that has people doubting his sanity. Is it someone with a vendetta against him or is it something far more sinister?"

This "ABC Movie of the Week" produced by Aaron Spelling is better than I expected. A lot of what happens is in Perkins' character's mind, but there is something else going on as well. All the clues are there for the viewer to guess what's really going on; it is a "fair use" mystery in that respect. It's based on a book by Henry Farrell. 

[Captain Comics]

THE MENU

Enjoyed this. Which you'd expect with Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult. There were some other faces I recognized, like John Leguizamo. There was one guy I was convinced was Ronny Cox all the way through, but wasn't. 

Anyway, it's a good script and the acting would carry it if there wasn't. Hoult is really having a moment playing pleasantly despicable people (The Great, Renfield). Taylor-Joy is like the new Scarlett Johansson; in everything, and good in everything. Fiennes, is of course, a legend for a reason.

Recommended.

PALE BLUE EYE

Watched this for Poe, and wouldn't you know it that he was the best part in it. He's played by Henry Melling, an odd-looking fellow who was Beth Harmon's first bf in Queen's Gambit. It's not heavy-handed, but you can imagine Poe getting ideas for "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Lenore," "Pale Blue Eye," Auguste Dupin, etc., from this adventure. Melling plays the role with a Southern drawl, which I guess is possibly true for early 19th century Baltimore (where Poe was from), but it took me by surprise.

It also stars Christian Bale as the actual lead, a retired detective called in on the case. I'm not sure what accent he was going for, and his line reading was occasionally odd enough to be distracting. He wasn't good, but he's always watchable, so that wasn't a deal-breaker.

Also recommended.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

SHE (1935): While searching the ether for the 1965 version of She, based on the 1897 H. Rider Haggard novel of the same name, the RiffTrax version (riffed by Bridget Nelson and Mary Jo Pehl) caught our eye and we decided to watch that version instead. Good production values, but not beyond spoofing.

[JD DeLuzio]

 Wonderwall (1968): this late-sixties piece of psychedelia, with an experimental soundtrack by George Harrison,  involves a stuffy professor (Jack MacGowran) in a cluttered apartment who discovers a hole in the wall that permits him to peep into the life of his counterculture neighbour, a model named Penny Lane (Jane Birkin). It has great production design (by the Fool) some good bits, and an interesting ending, but it’s far too slow and too interested in surreal and psychedelic flourishes. Oasis took the title for their song but, supposedly, because they knew the Harrison soundtrack album, rather than the film.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I have the album (on vinyl), but I've never seen the film. 

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

THE MENU We finished it just a few minutes ago. I felt it would've been better had it been limited to about an hour. I spent the whole movie thinking Leguizamo was Mark Ruffalo.

[JD DeLuzio]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

I have the album (on vinyl), but I've never seen the film. 

It's a difficult movie to recommend. If you're really into the era, it's worth seeing, though parts of it likely will bore you. It's the sort of thing that gets called a "time capsule," though not a literal one. Better than I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. There's faint praise.

Also:

Emporte-Moi / Set Me Free (1999): French-Canadian coming of age film that follows a teenage girl in 1963. More a series of connected scenes than a plot (I know that’s the definition of “plot,” but bear with me), Karine Vanasse's film debut is brilliantly-acted and filmed. I can recommend this one, if a slower and sometimes disconnected pace and French (or subtitles) don't present a problem. A search for this film will be complicated by the fact that there are multiple films under both the English and French titles.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Thanks, JD, but I'm not interested in seeing the film. (I'm not even particularly interested in the album.)

SHE (1965): Last night we got distracted by the 1935 RiffTrax version, but this is the version we set out to watch. It is a Hammer studios film starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, as well as Ursula Andress as "She Who Must Be Obeyed." It also reunites (or "unites" maybe) Cushing with Bernard Cribbins from the Doctor Who and the Daleks movie. Although there is also an "unofficial" sequel as well as a 1911 version (both of which we may also watch), I think it's safe to say that this is the definitive screen version.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I watched Top Gun: Maverick, the other day. I feel like I have been pranked by the world. It isn't a terrible movie, but I also wouldn't say it was good. I had a couple of friends who paid to see it twice, which blows my mind. If you have ever seen an action movie, you have seen this.

Very skippable.