What movies have you seen recently?

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Yep, it's the Ultimate Cut issue and 3'25" long.
Delivery expected tomorrow.

My screen is 55" so it should do Ok. My eyesight, on the other hand...

Tag

Zone of Interest.
This is a very odd film.
Voyeuristic, a bit plodding, ordinary yet extraordinary family life.
Fairyland on one side of the wall and an implied hell on the other.
I had to turn to Google to find out what certain scenes were about.
Certainly a memorable watch, though.
The night vision scenes were like a bizarre, magical cartoon to inject a little more "What the heck did I just see?".

Robot Carnival
This was a great anthology with some nice old-school anime and only a couple shorts that have dialog. Also, a beautiful score from Joe Hisashi. Worth checking out on Tubi.

Last night we watched:

Doctor Who: The Movie [1996]
<=>"Time waits for no man - except one."



BBC's original run of Doctor Who ran from from November 1963 until December 1989 and then it was revived in March 2005 and the revival is still running. In between the original run and the revival, in 1996, there was Doctor Who: The Movie which has been accepted by BBC as being part of the Doctor Who canon.

I chose it for our evening entertainment so I'd have context for two 2013 Doctor Who video shorts:
- "Doctor Who: The Last Day"
- "The Night of the Doctor"
Where in the second of them we see the origin of the War Doctor.

...all because my bride happened to mention some curiosity about the War Doctor and I wanted her to see his genesis, in context.

The Wizard of Oz, 1925.

Only tangentially related to the original story. Lots of slapstick. A young Oliver Hardy appears in the film.

Don't bother.

Last night, between two Doctor Who episodes, I watched:

The Mummy's Tomb [1942]
<=>"DEATH KEPT ALIVE OVER CENTURIES!"



<=+=+=+=>Y A W NE HY A W N

Rats: Night of Terror (1984) - riffed on Rifftrax

This was a dubbed Italian film about a group of post apocalyptic survivors, two hundred years in the past.
No comment on the logic of two hundred plus year old clothing that still looked stylish (for the '80s) and in good condition, or the city that lay in ruins. Essentially, a group of ten survivors get cornered in a building by hundreds of rats. They try to escape, and many die. Because it is Italian, the single black actor does not die first. However, her name is "Chocolate." It two hundred plus years in the future. Different standards.

I enjoyed the riffing. The film lacked effective pacing. That's all I'll say.

Okay, here is an example of the ineffective pacing. One of the survivors has been knock to the floor. The rats descend on him and it is suggested that they start eating him. In the corner, barricaded away from the rats (more or less), Chocolate and her boyfriend, Video, what in horror as they are unable to help their friend.
Here is how it is edited.
He falls to the floor.
Cut to Chocolate screaming.
Cut to Video saying we can't help him.
Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Then it is...
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
(time to check your watch)
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
Cut to Chocolate screaming. Cut to guy on the floor putting up a brave fight.
I hope you get the idea. It continues for what seemed like a couple minutes, until the guy finally dies. Cut to Chocolate screaming.

It was adequate.

William S. Burroughs In The Dream Machine.

Documentary of author William Burroughs at the end of his life, discussing the invention of his friend, artist Brian Gysin (spelling), which was supposed to inspire "waking dreams," government crack down on drug experimentation, as well as Burroughs' last public reading.
Admittedly slow and often not easy to keep track of the conversations; probably not for someone who isn't a William Burroughs fan. I watched it because I do love his literary work.

No Country For Old Men.

Rewatched this amazing film. Javier Barden as antagonist Anton Chigurh alone is worth seeing it!

Things (1989) on Rifftrax

I don't want to say anything bad about something two guys started and finished to completion, plus got released to VHS. I'm try to remember to respect that. No matter what the outcome, it still took some kind of effort. It was the best they could do.

Here are two quotes from Wikipedia.

The Rifftrax commentary was funny.

Things - Wikipedia: Retrospective Assessments

Additional notes:

- The longer versions of the movie included inserts from an animated story that seems separate from the main story-line. It seems separate because it pretty much is. It is the story in the comic books that the kid at the newsstand is reading. It supports the mood, however.

- All versions of the movie cover 20+ years. The masked heroes at the beginning are the first generation. Don't be discouraged because they seem a bit cheesy. The second generation of masked heroes are more polished.

- The tone of the movie is a bit dark. Watching it in a dark room would seem appropriate to me.

I recommend the movie to everyone old enough to watch it who sometimes enjoys science fiction/fantasy. It is an excellent piece of workmanship.

And long. Plan your viewing time accordingly.

The Truth Vs Alex Jones.

Infuriating documentary of how that fat, waste of working organs ruined the lives of grieving parents of the murdered Sandy Hook children by denying they had lost their children at all, and accusing said parents of being "crisis actors." All for ratings, and to sell his snake oil supplements. In the end, Jones lost big time in court, owing hundreds of millions of dollars to the grieving families, which he is still trying to weasel his way out of.

Ha ha ha... at the language in bold italics. Totally agree.

100 Million BC (2008) on Comet TV last night after The Saturn Awards

A Navy Seal team uses a manufactured time portal to go back in time on a search and recover mission, led by scientist Dr. Frank Reno (Michael Gross). Many die, but they find and rescue the people they were searching for. They return using the portal, but the T-Rex-like dinosaur that's chasing them does as well. This is in lieu of of using a boat like King Kong ()1933 or The Lost World (1925). The T-Rex-like dinosaur did not climb any buildings (would have been funny) or destroy any landmarks (that costs effects money).

The dinosaur effects are not ILM quality, but they were not actually terrible. Most of the time they were good. There was a time when I would have thought "that is so cool!" but that was before Jurassic Park, fifteen years before this film was made. ILM was truly magic. In 1974, when I was 15, this film would have been jaw dropping, though my heart would have been with Harryhausen.

I would recommend the film, because it was not terrible, and much better than adequate.

One of the fun parts of watching it on Comet is when people swear, the only reason you know is because a blurred oval appears over their mouths, for the lip readers. It would be so funny if the had the blurred oval over the mouths but didn't touch the swearing audio.

The Phantom of the Opera (1929 reissue, then the 1925)

This photoplay's history is complicated. When it was reissued in 1929 (with synchronized sound, voice, music, effects, but minus Lon Chaney), a new print was reconstructed. So the 1929 version differs in shot selection, take selection. However, because it is the only one that still exists on 35mm, the image is clearer and usually the one that is selected to represent the photoplay. The surviving print of the original release was 16mm.

I watched these from the BFI Blu-Ray release. Both versions are good quality.

I would be very curious to see some old silent films remastered using AI as an attempt to clean up the image.

Happy Birthday Lon Chaney - April 1, 1883