What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Psy-Fi]

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Re-watched this one the other day. One of my all-time favorite films with Vincent Price in a starring role. A B&W zombie-type apocalypse movie which was based on the novel 'I Am Legend' by Richard Matheson. I think anyone into the zombie genre would enjoy this film and, for the most part, it seems to have been the template for most films of the genre. A plague has infected the human race and turned everyone into undead zombie/vampire creatures except for Dr. Robert Morgan, who spends his waking hours dealing with basic survival and hunting & killing zombies. As nighttime falls, he retreats to his home and barricades himself inside his house. This film has been re-made and copied many times including as 'The Omega Man,' '28 Days Later,' 28 Weeks Later,' and 'I am Legend' just to name four of the most obvious ones. Well worth viewing if you're into sci-fi/horror/zombie type flicks.

 
 

[Janszoon]

That's such a great movie. Great book too.

[Rubber Soul]

You can't go wrong with Vincent Price.

[Guybrush]

Ehrmagerd, I've lots of Cronenberg movies left. For some reason I thought The Brood was his first. It's not! He has lots more and even some modern ones that escaped my radar. I did a poor job when I set up my list. That means I get to continue Cronenberging, so that's fun.

It's probably been 25 years since I saw that movie, but I remember enjoying it. I remember it being somewhat more "normal" than his later movies, despite the fact that the premise is still fairly bizarre.

Yes, it has much more of a mainstream feel to it. I was wondering about this myself because I find it hard to place my finger on exactly what it is. Maybe it's the lack of truly depraved characters? The Brood is weird, but kinda has more mainstream structure and sensibility. Actor peformances feel more theatrical here than they do in his later films. That may well be the presence of Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar, but some of the other cast also add to this. It might be the style of the times.

Although I'm not yet sure what it is, something of a transformation definitely happens across The Brood -> Scanners -> Videodrome where Videodrome an onward marks his full transformation into the Cronenberg we all love so dearly.

[Lexi Darling]

A Goofy Movie (1995)

It was a real treat to revisit this. As proud 90s kids (born in '89 and '86 respectively) my partner and I share a lot of childhood nostalgia and frequently bond over the media we grew up with. I saw A Goofy Movie in theaters, and while I still reference lines from this movie all the time, I hadn't actually watched the thing in over 20 years until the other night.

I had a great time. It still holds up, not just as a great kids' movie but as an entertaining watch in general. I admit I am a bit biased by nostalgia, I vividly remembered basically every scene before it was about to happen. I did notice how whenever I watch basically every old kids movie these days, I relate to the adults more than the kids, which is understandable but kind of a funny paradigm shift.

[Psy-Fi]

Abar, the First Black Superman (1977)

Another one I just re-watched. A blaxploitation sci-fi/superhero film with some bizarre humor mixed in. A black family moves into an upscale white neighborhood and is immediately persecuted and made to feel unwelcome. A local black biker gang from a black neighborhood, hear about the situation and show up at the home to protect the family. The head of the gang, a man named "Abar," tries to convince the father to leave and move to the black neighborhood. The father won't budge and decides to hire Abar as a bodyguard. The father of the family happens to be a scientist and invents a superpower elixir which he gives to Abar and which gives the bodyguard the power of mind control over others.

[Psy-Fi]

I just read the wikipedia page for 'Abar, the First Black Superman' and thought I'd post this bit of the backstory to the film here...

Abar, the First Black Superman

The film was the brainchild of James Smalley, a black pimp from Louisiana, and Frank Packard, a white actor and screenwriter; it was filmed partly in a working whorehouse. Smalley ran out of money before the film was completed, and had to sell the film to the owner of a film processing lab to settle his unpaid bills.[1]

Originally titled SuperBlack, it was completed in 1975, but not released until 1977, under the name Abar, The First Black Superman; it would be renamed again for VHS release as In Your Face. Its original release was very limited, primarily to what was known as the "Chitlin' Circuit" of Southern drive-ins.[1]

The film was shot in the Baldwin Hills and Watts neighbourhoods of Los Angeles without permits to do so, and at one point actual motorcycle gang members who had been hired to play a black motorcycle gang surrounded the cars of the white police officers who had been called in to shut down shooting. The officers chose to stay in their cars.[1]

[Guybrush]

^Sounds interesting! I might just check that one out.

Thanks for sharing 🙂

[Psy-Fi]

The Fake (1953)

British crime thriller about art forgery and theft at the Tate Gallery in London, England. An American detective assigned to protect a priceless painting, (Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna and Child) which is on loan to the Tate Gallery for a special exhibition, realizes that the painting has been replaced with an expert forgery and hunts for clues which will lead him to the forger and the missing painting.

[Guybrush]

The last couple of days, I saw these two:



Weird that I hadn't seen this before as it has Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock and Kiefer Sutherland in it, arguably all around the time of their prime here. Nancy Travis, though a little less famous, also deserves a mention as she gets quite a bit of screen time and delivers a charming performance.

It is a thriller in which Jeff Bridges plays a dangerous psychopath. I don't mind spoiling that as it's a given from the start. It's not too shabby, but I guess also not terribly memorable. Jeff puts in a good performance, but I much prefer nice Jeff to creepy Jeff. Being a huge fan of The Fisher King (also featuring JB), watching him here is a little weird.




Then I researched this:



I've seen it before and couldn't remember much, but the internet seems to gush over this, so I figured I'd rewatch it.

A sanitation crew is clearing out hazardous materials from an old psychiatric ward. Strange things happen which includes David Caruso being grumpy with everyone.

It was more entertaining than The Vanishing and a little ahead of your standard modern haunted house story. Not quite worth gushing over (imo), but decent.

[Psy-Fi]

The Brain Eaters (1958)

Low-budget B&W sci-fi/horror about parasitic alien lifeforms landing on earth and taking over the minds of people via the human nervous system. An obvious ripoff of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' and a few other similar flicks of the time. Somewhat amusing but if you've already seen one 50's space alien mind-control movie, you could skip this one without missing much.

[Janszoon]

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
I read this book for the first time like six years ago and really liked it. This movie adaptation of it is good, but not great. I suspect that this is just something that works better as a book. In the movie I felt like I had a hard time differentiating the characters. There were also a lot of non-book scenes involving diplomats and generals added into the story, which kind of worked thematically, but I think it would have been better if there was a lot less time spent on that stuff. They also chose to omit the part with Paul going home, which I think is a key part of the story, so it was weird to not have it. That said, the acting, cinematography, and score were all quite good.

[Psy-Fi]

^ I watched the original 1930 film version of that story as part of a class assignment back in high school. Haven't seen the movie since but I remember thinking it was a great adaptation of the book at that time. Not sure if I'll check out the new remake but I might re-watch the original and see if it is still as good as I remember.

[Janszoon]

^ I watched the original 1930 film version of that story as part of a class assignment back in high school. Haven't seen the movie since but I remember thinking it was a great adaptation of the book at that time. Not sure if I'll check out the new remake but I might re-watch the original and see if it is still as good as I remember.

I've never seen that version, but I'm curious to check it out.

[Rubber Soul]

I've seen the 1930 film and yes, it's chilling. It was very good at depicting the horrors of war and not just by 1930 standards