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.
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Four Lions (2010): Fifteen years late to the party, but I'm glad I saw it. Frequently brilliant, frequently hilarious, ultimately very dark British dark comedy / satire about a band of incompetent terrorists plotting to blow something up. That they made this work at all is incredible, never mind that it works as well as it does.
The Dig (2021), another British film, and far more subdued. It's a drama based on the events surrounding the Sutton Hoo excavation. Nominated/won many UK awards. Beautifully acted and assembled: this is the sort of thing that, 30-40 years ago, I would have been watching at the very cool repertory that used to be downtown. It follows the basic events while adding some elements (and one significant supporting character) for dramatic effect.
I have not been interested in watching movies for some time now, and by "some time now" I mean more than a year. Back in 2023, I was working my way through a set of 200 drive-in cult movies. I had it timed so that I would be finished with the set by the end of that year, but somewhere around October or November I took what I anticipated to be a short break, but have not yet returned. I haven't been too interested in going to see any theatrical movies, either. (DIGRESSION: When did they stop advertising movies in the newspaper? I used to go to a lot more movies when I knew what was playing and where. There were ads for each specific movie, plus ads foor each specific movietheater. Now there's this extra step one must go to, just to find out what's playing and where.) Also, I have determined that I don't really like going to a movie theater. for many years I half-heartedly subscribed to the school of thought that movies should be experienced in a theater with a crowd of like-minded people, but I have recently (i.e., within the last 10-20 years or so) come to the conclusion that Sartre had a point.
JD DeLuzio > Jeff of Earth-JFebruary 13, 2025 at 11:58am
We see movies at home, mostly. My wife, who is a soprano and retains her voice, doesn't go to the movie theatre because the VOLUMEFROM THE PREVIEWS IS SO DANG LOUD and so are any AUDIO EFFECTS and it hurts her ears. Singers of the classical variety are quite protective of their voice and hearing, especially as they mature. We also see things at the drive-in (there are two within driving distance) because we can control the volume.
As I noted in The Dig, I really missed the communal experience of the repertory cinema. I still go to the movie theatres now and then, but with friends. If a movie's big and I'm bored, I will sometimes go alone to an afternoon showing.
My wife and I stopped going to the movies during COVID and never really got back in the habit. We've only seen one movie at the theater since. if I'm remembering right (Deadpool & Wolverine). It's just so much simpler to wait for movies to appear on some streamer or other, and watch from the comfort of home, where we can make our own non-outrageously-priced snacks, control the volume, drink alcohol if we choose, and pause to go the bathroom or discuss a scene. If we're in a hurry we can always rent the movie as soon as it hits Amazon or Vudu, which is loads cheaper than movie tickets.
I miss the theater experience. But my laziness outweighs almost any other factor.
Getting back on topic, we recently watched the first third of Godzilla Minus One for the first time. We had to stop because I was working from home and some stories came in I had to edit, and I was still working when Joan had to go to bed (it was a weeknight). We decided to NOT continue where we left off the next night, but to wait for the weekend and watch the whole thing at a sitting. It was that good.
JD DeLuzio > Captain ComicsFebruary 13, 2025 at 6:13pm
I finally saw Day of the Triffids (1963) and thought that it dragged on despite only being 93 minutes. I feel that they tried to do too much with too little. Combining most of the world being struck blind with giant, walking maneating plants both solved and created a lot of problems.
I said about the first episode of The Walking Dead how long it took for the world to to hell in a zombie handbasket, here it took ONE NIGHT! Cities were burning, cars and trains were crashing, ships were stranded out at sea and planes were dropping from the skies! Yet people were walking around, groping their way and no one thought to use a cane or an umbrella or something! And everyone was still dressed neatly in matched clothing!
The Triffids themselves looked okay for the time but they were still very slow and plodding. Their main strengths were sheer numbers and so many blind people.
To me, it was an odd mix of The Thing From Another World and War of the Worlds.
There's a "happy" ending but was it really?
Captain Comics > Philip PortelliFebruary 13, 2025 at 5:05pm
I have not seen this movie. It must not have been on rotation on Channel 3 when I was growing up.
Replies
Four Lions (2010): Fifteen years late to the party, but I'm glad I saw it. Frequently brilliant, frequently hilarious, ultimately very dark British dark comedy / satire about a band of incompetent terrorists plotting to blow something up. That they made this work at all is incredible, never mind that it works as well as it does.
Not for all tastes.
The Dig (2021), another British film, and far more subdued. It's a drama based on the events surrounding the Sutton Hoo excavation. Nominated/won many UK awards. Beautifully acted and assembled: this is the sort of thing that, 30-40 years ago, I would have been watching at the very cool repertory that used to be downtown. It follows the basic events while adding some elements (and one significant supporting character) for dramatic effect.
Check it out. You, too, might dig The Dig.
I have not been interested in watching movies for some time now, and by "some time now" I mean more than a year. Back in 2023, I was working my way through a set of 200 drive-in cult movies. I had it timed so that I would be finished with the set by the end of that year, but somewhere around October or November I took what I anticipated to be a short break, but have not yet returned. I haven't been too interested in going to see any theatrical movies, either. (DIGRESSION: When did they stop advertising movies in the newspaper? I used to go to a lot more movies when I knew what was playing and where. There were ads for each specific movie, plus ads foor each specific movie theater. Now there's this extra step one must go to, just to find out what's playing and where.) Also, I have determined that I don't really like going to a movie theater. for many years I half-heartedly subscribed to the school of thought that movies should be experienced in a theater with a crowd of like-minded people, but I have recently (i.e., within the last 10-20 years or so) come to the conclusion that Sartre had a point.
We see movies at home, mostly. My wife, who is a soprano and retains her voice, doesn't go to the movie theatre because the VOLUME FROM THE PREVIEWS IS SO DANG LOUD and so are any AUDIO EFFECTS and it hurts her ears. Singers of the classical variety are quite protective of their voice and hearing, especially as they mature. We also see things at the drive-in (there are two within driving distance) because we can control the volume.
As I noted in The Dig, I really missed the communal experience of the repertory cinema. I still go to the movie theatres now and then, but with friends. If a movie's big and I'm bored, I will sometimes go alone to an afternoon showing.
My wife and I stopped going to the movies during COVID and never really got back in the habit. We've only seen one movie at the theater since. if I'm remembering right (Deadpool & Wolverine). It's just so much simpler to wait for movies to appear on some streamer or other, and watch from the comfort of home, where we can make our own non-outrageously-priced snacks, control the volume, drink alcohol if we choose, and pause to go the bathroom or discuss a scene. If we're in a hurry we can always rent the movie as soon as it hits Amazon or Vudu, which is loads cheaper than movie tickets.
I miss the theater experience. But my laziness outweighs almost any other factor.
Getting back on topic, we recently watched the first third of Godzilla Minus One for the first time. We had to stop because I was working from home and some stories came in I had to edit, and I was still working when Joan had to go to bed (it was a weeknight). We decided to NOT continue where we left off the next night, but to wait for the weekend and watch the whole thing at a sitting. It was that good.
It really is.
I finally saw Day of the Triffids (1963) and thought that it dragged on despite only being 93 minutes. I feel that they tried to do too much with too little. Combining most of the world being struck blind with giant, walking maneating plants both solved and created a lot of problems.
I said about the first episode of The Walking Dead how long it took for the world to to hell in a zombie handbasket, here it took ONE NIGHT! Cities were burning, cars and trains were crashing, ships were stranded out at sea and planes were dropping from the skies! Yet people were walking around, groping their way and no one thought to use a cane or an umbrella or something! And everyone was still dressed neatly in matched clothing!
The Triffids themselves looked okay for the time but they were still very slow and plodding. Their main strengths were sheer numbers and so many blind people.
To me, it was an odd mix of The Thing From Another World and War of the Worlds.
There's a "happy" ending but was it really?
I have not seen this movie. It must not have been on rotation on Channel 3 when I was growing up.
You can see it on Youtube.
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