The What's App/Forum members recommended watch list

[baumer]

Awesome! So glad u watched it @Telemachos

[Plain Old Tele]

Next up:

 

 

 

Okay, this is way more my tempo. This is about as 80s as it gets, and it's pretty dang awesome. Nick Nolte (a goddamn badass in this), Powers Boothe, and Michael Ironside? I'm in heaven. Add in people like Clancy Brown and Maria Conchita Alonso and William Forsythe and it's even better. 

 

Oh, and it's from a story by John Milius and it's directed by Walter Hill?

 

 

I won't say this is the most astonishing or amazing movie ever, but it's really the sort of movie that doesn't usually get made anymore: it's a modest story made by A-list talent, an action thriller that spends the time to develop its characters -- characters who're constantly shifting allegiances. Parts of it reminded me a lot of THE WILD BUNCH -- men who've lost their purpose in life, former friends now tracking each other down, that sense of a time gone by. These men (well, most of them) are resentful of their new place in the world, they have skills that aren't needed by the right people anymore, they curse and grunt and struggle expressing their feelings or having any sort of relationship that doesn't end in violence.

 

I had a ton of fun watching it. Thanks @baumer!

 

P.S. But good god, the movie deserves a better DVD transfer than some crappy pan-n-scan version.

[baumer]

Of wow! Bestill my heart.

[Plain Old Tele]

Next up:

 

 

(The remake, if anyone cares)

 

Yeah, this was some janky, nasty-ass shit.

 

Fuck you, @baumer.

 

 

[baumer]

Payback for Hard to be a God..... @Telemachos

[baumer]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just finished Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Dans Visage).  It's a 1960's French film about a doctor, an obvious mad lunatic, who is responsible for his daughter having a horrific accident and she loses much of her face.  He is into very experimental practises.  He decides that to assuage his guilt and to give his daughter a life, he will fake her death and kidnap women and remove their faces until he can find one that will fit with his daughter's bone structure and thus live a normal life.

 

For me, I'm not overly fond of a lot of films before 1968.  Odd year to list but that's kind of where my affinity for film starts.  There are exceptions of course and this is one of them.  This reminded me a little bit of Psycho in some small way.  Like Psycho, this is more of a tale of anguish than a straight up horror film.  The good doctor, like Norman Bates, in his mind, means well.  He's not an inherently evil man but he does evil things.  It's of course done out of love and guilt and that's what makes it kind of sad.  I felt bad for him in some ways, but not completely.  It also has to mentioned that for a film to be nearly 60 years old, there is one scene of an operation that was quite graphic.  Reading the imdb trivia page for this film, this scene caused many people to leave the theater in 1960.  It's really well done and it kind of made me grimace a few times.

 

The ending of it was beautifully done as the good doctor gets what he deserves...in a most satisfying way.  It really ends on a high note.

 

Glad @Telemachos recommended this one to me.

 

9/10

[baumer]

Next up Death Race 2050.

[baumer]

DR2050 is about as silly as they come.  It's a world where death is an accepted part of life and you are encouraged to keep your fat ass on the couch and eat the monster tub of popcorn.  There's some funny jabs at The Hunger Games and as long as you don't take the film too seriously, it's not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.  It is after all, the Roger Corman world we are talking about here.

 

6/10

[Plain Old Tele]

Up next for me was INDIAN SUMMER.

 

 

It's a very sweet, gentle dramedy about a group of friends that get called up to their childhood summer camp one last time. It's very much the same sort of genre as THE BIG CHILL and PETER'S FRIENDS.

 

It's got a great 90s cast and everyone does a great job -- in particular it was poignant to see Bill Paxton looking so young and vibrant and acting, well, like Bill Paxton: casually stealing scenes. Truth be told, though, my favorite performance was by Sam Raimi. Yes, the director of SPIDER-MAN pratfalls his way through a minor role as a near-wordless clumsy groundskeeper who constantly slips, falls, bangs into things, falls in the water, has no control over boats, etc.

 

The story is very slight, but it's a warm, loving, cheerful movie even though there are some ripples of drama underneath the surface.

 

Also of note: way back in the day, I had a little crush on every single one of the actresses here. LOL.

[baumer]

Indian Summer is a true gem.

[baumer]

@Telemachos says he watched Porkys last night and thought it was just ok. That truly disappoints me. I think its one of the funniest films ive ever seen.

[Plain Old Tele]

28 minutes ago, baumer said:

@Telemachos says he watched Porkys last night and thought it was just ok. That truly disappoints me. I think its one of the funniest films ive ever seen.

 

When did you first see it, @baumer? I can see how it's a movie that could really connect if you're around the same age as the protagonists, and especially if there hadn't been lots of teen-oriented sex comedies flooding the market. Me seeing this as a teenager would've been different than me seeing it now. (I still don't think I would've loved it, but I probably would've liked it more.)

[baumer]

Yes well obviously I saw it when I was a teenager. But like I said even as an adult it still makes me laugh.

[Plain Old Tele]

Okay, first things first. After INDIAN SUMMER, I watched:

 

 

This was a surprisingly decent slasher movie. Since it's older (1981), it actually bothers with stuff like characters and a plot, and while neither are revolutionary, they're certainly enough to get the job done. The real stand-out are the locations: the movie was shot in a tiny town in Nova Scotia, at a real mine, and these settings make the movie feel pretty unique, even though at its core it's really just a standard slasher flick (in its favor, all of these tropes hadn't been exhausted back in '81). And the mine is a genuinely freaky place, and the killer's mining outfit is unsettling and one of the better costumes in slasher movies.

 

I watched the extended cut (which puts back in some of the gorier moments that were removed to get it into theaters), and though some of them seem relatively consequential, I think it's probably a better movie with them included.

 

So a bit of a surprise on my end -- I wasn't expecting to like this.

[Plain Old Tele]

And now, after I got @baumer happy, I have to bum him out a bit. Next up:

 

 

It was okay. I thought parts were funny, parts were tedious... overall it felt a bit like a mashup of AMERICAN GRAFFITI with the good-ole-boy attitude of something like SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, only with nudity and near-constant thoughts of sex (there's actually way less sex or nudity than I was expecting). Obviously, it was a gigantic hit when it came out, and I think if I had seen it back when I was a kid, I would've gotten into it more.

 

Sorry Baumer.

[baumer]

I'm just thrilled that you have watched all these movies so quickly. And the fact that you liked extreme prejudice as much as you did really pleases me.

 

I have seen extreme prejudice so many times that I almost know the movie verbatim. Check this out Chris LOL

 

Strange isn't it?

What is?

Ordering the termination of an American civilian peace officer clearly loyal to his country while bringing a known criminal to Justice.

What we're going to do what we're told, right sergeant?

Right major.

 

 

Extreme prejudice is the movie where I kind of fell in love with Clancy Brown and definitely with William Forsythe.

[Plain Old Tele]

1. Extreme Prejudice

2. Indian Summer

3. My Bloody Valentine

4. Porky's

5. Last House on the Left

6. I Spit on Your Grave

[baumer]

@Telemachos recommended Babylon 5 season 1 episode 5 (I think) called Mind War.  This would be the first episode of the series I'd evern watched.  I enjoyed it, much more than the first half of the first episode.  This one reminded me a bit of Scanners, without the blood and exploding heads.  One cool thing about it I noticed right away is that Julia Nickson was in it.  She played Rambo's guide in Rambo FB2 and after that, I thought she had disappeared from Hollywood.  I was wrong, I was so wrong.  She's been working very steady since about 1988 so good for her.  As for the show, if I had the time and interest, I'd watch all five seasons of B5.  This was pretty good.

 

The I watched The Lobster with Colin Farrell, John C. Reilly and Rachael Weisz.  

 

Explaining the premise of this movie is as easy as it is hard, because while it is most definitely about people being turned into animals if they can't find partners, that's not what you are going to be thinking about after having seen it.

An interesting discussion to have after this movie, is if it has a positive or negative look on love. The movie is really dark, and manages to have a both cynical worldview and naive dialogue. Mostly, the characters talk to each other like they only know of "love" from books and movies, almost as if they were children. They also speak to each other in monotones and they discuss things like "fucking" like we would discuss the weather.  

What I think the movie is getting at, is that people expect love to happen by itself. You will find someone that will match you, in a sense. Complete you. Either this, or live a love life that is a lie. The alternative to this, is that you have to work for love, and sacrifice for it. You might not find someone that matches you, but if both parties work at it, you can still find love. Or something like that.  It's a dystopian look at love and upon further examination, not a very positive one.  You have one faction that has rules that must be strictly adhered to.  You cannot disobey these rules or there are severe consequences.  Then when you leave from what seems like one Draconian situation, you come upon another that seems to be more lax and more rebellious, but then they have all of their Draconian rules as well.  Love is looked upon superficially no matter where you go.

The performances are great, and the movie is hilariously dark. There were so many moments where you couldn't help but laugh, but still feeling guilty for it. The ending has everyone trying to avoid looking at the screen. As I explained to Tele and Numbers....the first half flows much better than the second.  The first half gets a 9/10 and the second is probably a 7.  So overall, 8/10.  Good movie with dark humour but it loses steam in the latter parts.