Saturday Morning Catch-Up

...
Depending on how my Saturday morning moods go (which will probably depend on how my Friday night drinking goes), I'm going to try and do one of these posts, if not weekly, at least bi-weekly. Now that I've got an affable computer at home (thanks, boyfriend!) I can manage some weekend blogging, it seems. So, what I'm gonna do is catch up with the movies I've watched recently, be they a first viewing (which I grade over to the right on the sidebar), or a ten thousandth (I rewatch movies I've seen before almost as much, if not more, than I watch new movies... a bad habit that's getting me nowhere.

But I've been bad reviewing or at least commenting upon things I've seen (or read or partook in) unless they strike me hard (like The Descent did), so these scraps will be about stuff I've seen but don't necesarrily have a lot to say about. Consider it a palette cleansing for the upcoming new week, if you will. These are the stringy bit left in my teeth! Yay! Never too early in the day for revolting imagery.

So without further ado, here's what I been partaking.

The Thing (1982, Carpenter) - Watched this last night for the fourth or fifth time. Forced the boyfriend to stay awake through it this time; last time I tried he fell asleep about three minutes into it, and somehow he's never seen it before. (Don't ask me - I don't know how I can be with someone who's never seen this before.)

On par with Halloween, for me, as Carpenter's best work. The boyfriend was unimpressed... don't ask me how I can be with someone unimpressed by this film's greatness. Yes, the special effects and gore are pretty dated, but I love the look and design of all the horrific forms the "thing" takes. The defibulator scene makes me scream every time I see it, and the just plain wrongness of... well, so many parts, the spider-head creature, the sideways jaws on the beast at the end... it's all very effective.

I'm going to make some effort to catch up with this era of Kurt Russell movies (Escape From New York, here I come) so I can feel good about Russell replacing Mickey Rourke in Tarantino's Death Proof.

Brick (2005, Rian Johnson) - Took me two nights to watch this... I couldn't really get into it. I've never been a huge fan of hard-boiled film noir, really; it just doesn't usually connect with me on any sort of emotional level (Chinatown being the main exception that pops to mind). That said, I did really like Johnson's transposing of the noir-world to a high school setting - made for a terrific, funny-at-times (in the right way) fit - and everyone was good (especially liked Lukas Haas as the wearied kingpin figure)... I'll give it another chance down the road and maybe find the dialogue and rythyms less off-putting on a second viewing.

Cinemania (2002, Christlieb, Kijak) - A fun doc about people who make a life out of movie-watching. Scared me a bit, because I could see some of myself in these people and their obsessions. Like, I understood their complusions a bit too well. Thankfully my supreme laziness wins out in the end. Always does. I mean, they put so much effort - making schedules, running across town from theater to theater - to see everything they can. I could never manage it. Now I just keep hoping to recognize one of these people at a movie I'm going to (it was filmed here in NYC) so I know I'm at an esteemed screening.

Inside Man (2006, Spike Lee) - An entertaining trifle, really. Loved Jodie Foster as the "magnificent cunt," a role she slips pretty easily into... sorry, that was an unnecesarry double entendre. Spike Lee proving his mainstream chops. Not really memorable, in the end. Fun to look at Clive Owen, nonetheless. It is smarter than your average flick, but still just... averagely delicious. If you will.


Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006, Mckay) - How did I not realize it was Sacha Baron Cohen as French fag Jean Girard? He made the movie for me. Otherwise it was your basic "string together gags for the trailer" movie. Did appreciate the movie ending with a celebratory gay make-out session as proof that the hero is wiser in the end, even though it drove some moronic homophobes to stand and leave the theater during the screening I was at. Any movie that makes those people leave is good by me.
...