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.

[JD DeLuzio]

I saw Ingagi (1930), the stitched together exploitation flick racist-a.f. hoax documentary. I may write a full review some day but, honestly, others have said what needs to be said elsewhere: it was controversial even in 1930, many people immediately figured it for a hoax*, it made a tonne of money exploiting prurience and colonial racist (or racist colonial) views, it captures a regrettable but influential world-view, and it had a huge influence on many other films, including, fairly clearly, King Kong.

But ye gods, what a stitched together mess of footage, both genuine, staged, and zoological (as in, some of it was filmed in a literal zoo) culminating in one of the most ridiculous depictions of the secret rituals of an obscure part of "darkest Africa" where (bet you don't see this coming) "no white man has been before."

Recommended only for film historians, cultural historians, and masochists.

* I love how there's only one cameraman, but he sporadically appears in the film, filming the action.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

MEATBALLS (1979): I remember this as a funny, cute film and I suggested it because I thought Tracy would enjoy it, but some of the humor has not aged well. Chevy Chase had been my favorite Not Ready For Prime Time Player and I didn't like "the new guy" ... until I saw this movie. I'm sure my friend Bob picked this movie because he was a big Bill Murry fan from the very start. I enjoyed seeing it again after all these years, but Tracy said it was "stupid."

[The Baron]

I've never seen this, but I have to say that I've never really liked Bill Murray's films of this period, in which he seemed to play the same character over and over, which was the kind of person that I would not have wanted to know in real life.

To me, Murray is one of those guys who is capable of giving a good performance if he feels like it, but he doesn't always seem to feel like it.

Chevy Chase is hugely overrated as well.

I gather they both have a history of bering hard to work with

Jeff of Earth-J said:

MEATBALLS (1979): I remember this as a funny, cute film and I suggested it because I thought Tracy would enjoy it, but some of the humor has not aged well. Chevy Chase had been my favorite Not Ready For Prime Time Player and I didn't like "the new guy" ... until I saw this movie. I'm sure my friend Bob picked this movie because he was a big Bill Murry fan from the very start. I enjoyed seeing it again after all these years, but Tracy said it was "stupid."

[The Baron]

Watched two movies that I hadn't seen before, both of which were directed by Robert Stevenson::

• Know Your Ally:  Britain (1944) A World War Two American propaganda piece which explains that the British are a little bit odd, but they love freedom just like we do.
• Jane Eyre (1944) An OK adaptation of the novel, but you won't be able to pass the test just by watching it, you're gonna have to read the book.

[Richard Willis]

The Baron said:

Watched two movies that I hadn't seen before, both of which were directed by Robert Stevenson::

Know Your Ally:  Britain (1944) A World War Two American propaganda piece which explains that the British are a little bit odd, but they love freedom just like we do.

I just watched it. It was actually pretty good. I think you know I was born there. I hadn’t heard about Britain supplying war materials and food to allied countries before. I know my mother was drafted into the Army. They let her out to take care of her mother, then took her into the Navy. They had her working in London in the Admiralty (think Secretary of the Navy) so she was still able to go home to her mother after hours. I don’t know if anyone else was drafted, but they all served. Mom’s youngest brother served in North Africa. My dad was in the Fire Service during the Blitz. The rationing was brutal and was still going on in 1952 when my dad decided we should move to California.

Jane Eyre (1944) An OK adaptation of the novel, but you won't be able to pass the test just by watching it, you're gonna have to read the book.

This reminds me of a couple of things. One day in class two guys in a row gave oral book reports on comic books I had read (ACG, I think). Got away with it, too.

The other was a story I heard about a kid who gave a book report on Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He only saw the movie, which had, I think, a romance to be followed by marriage. In the book the man was gay. He didn’t get away with it.

[The Baron]

It was kind of a running gag when I was in high school:  "Can you pass the test on the book by watching the movie?"  The film of Jane Eyre ileaves out large chunks of the novel, in particular, it leaves put the part wherhe Jane considers marrying her cousin who wants to go  to India to India to be a missinary, which I have to admit I  didn't miss much.

[Richard Willis]

When/where I was in school they didn't assign books to read. We picked our own so weren't tested on them, just book reports..

The Baron said:

It was kind of a running gag when I was in high school:  "Can you pass the test on the book by watching the movie?"  The film of Jane Eyre ileaves out large chunks of the novel, in particular, it leaves put the part wherhe Jane considers marrying her cousin who wants to go  to India to India to be a missinary, which I have to admit I  didn't miss much.

[The Baron]

We had "outside reading".  Each of the teachers had a reading list, and we had to read x number of books from the lists per semester, and then go to the teacher to be tested on them.  The tests might be orak ir written, depending on the individual teacher's tastes.

[ClarkKent_DC]

The Baron said:

I've never seen this, but I have to say that I've never really liked Bill Murray's films of this period, in which he seemed to play the same character over and over, which was the kind of person that I would not have wanted to know in real life.

To me, Murray is one of those guys who is capable of giving a good performance if he feels like it, but he doesn't always seem to feel like it.

The Baron said:

Chevy Chase is hugely overrated as well.

The Baron said:

I gather they both have a history of being hard to work with.

 

[ClarkKent_DC]

We saw The Bad Guys over the weekend and loved it. If you like a caper movie, a heist movie -- if you get a thrill from flicks like Tower Heist, The Italian Job (either version), or the Ocean's Eleven series -- this is right up your alley.

It's got everything you want in a heist movie: A cast of hipsters, all lovable rogues! A cool soundtrack! A muscle car! Wild chase scenes! Double crosses! Reverse double crosses! A femme fatale! A dance of seduction! The sad moment when all seems lost! The subsequent moment when the team comes back together! Chekov's Gun!

And, of course, a MacGuffin. Actually, in this movie there are two MacGuffins, which doubles the fun. Two thumbs up!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN (1960, color): "Glauco, the strongest man in Greece, finds himself the unwilling member of an expedition across the seas. His pal Pirro accepts money from a band of pirates in return for Glauco's undeniable muscle. When they land they are drugged and captured by a race of Amazons. Only Glauco escapes and falls in love with the fair Antiope. after considerable action and intrigue, the Amazons and the Greeks learn to get along."

Wikipedia describes this movie as an "Italian sword and sandal comedy." Despite the films wildly inappropriate soundtrack (such as cha-cha, big band and "Benny Hill" type jazz), it didn't occur to me until I read that that it was supposed to be a comedy. (It was light-hearted, to be sure, but it wasn't all that funny.) Some movies are good and some movies are bad and some are so bad they're good. This is one of those. I kind of enjoyed it. 

[The Baron]

Interesting.  There was a "Colossus and the Headhunters" featured on MST3K, but I haven't heard of this one.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN (1960, color):