What did you watch on this Royal week? (05/13-05/19)

I haven't seen any of the ones you watched. Here is what I watched:

Quit Staring at My Plate (2016, Croatian) 7/10
Life of the Party (2018) 8/10
Indiscretions (1936, French) 6/10
My Father Was Right (1936, French) 7/10

Badlands (1973) - An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands. Based on the Charlie Starkweather killing spree in 1958. This movie has a 7.9 rating which I thought was a little high. The people who were killed in this movie acted like sheep. I am sure it really didn't play out that way. Sheen was great in the leading role, Spacek was monotone. 7/10

Blow Out (1981) - A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger. This has a 7.4 rating which again is a bit high. Travolta was not as bad as I remember and the premise of the movie was good. Reminded me of The Conversation. The Sally character has no streets smarts whatsoever. 7/10

The Cured (2017) - A disease that turns people into zombies has been cured. The once-infected zombies are discriminated against by society and their own families, which causes social issues to arise. This leads to militant government interference. A different take on the zombie craze. The movie could have been a bit longer to develop some of the characters' motivations especially the Conor guy. Ellen Page was good. 6.5/10

Paris, Texas (1984) - Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family. Another movie with a cult following which I finally got to see. It is very long and drags in places. Harry Dean Stanton is great in the lead role. The age difference thing is just too much for me to overcome. Henderson could have been 15 years younger and the movie would have still worked. Also [spoiler]the kid would have been better off with Walt and Anne[/spoiler] 7/10

Mean Creek (2004) -When a teen is bullied, his brother and friends lure the bully into the woods to seek revenge. A wonderful indy movie which will make you think about bullying and autism (although it is never mentioned). Did the George character deserve his fate ?? Enjoyed this movie immensely. Thanks to PeteRose for the recommendation. 7.5/10

Hostile (2017) - Juliette, a lone survivor of an apocalyptic era, fights to survive against hunger, thirst, a broken leg and strange, disturbing creatures that only come out at nighttime. Another small indy production which won a bunch of awards. The is basically a love story told in flashbacks. A very unique ending. 6.5/10

I gave up on Anon also - lasted about 20 minutes.

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Unfortunately, this week I watched a lot of crap for the first time. Crap or disappointing stuff. Lost Highway is imperfect/flawed but nowhere near as bad or uninteresting as a lot of this. Of course some of it going in I wasn't expecting much from to begin with (Veronica Guerin, Patient Killer, the newest Spider-Man, etc.). The Monty Python compilation was occasionally funny (i.e. the dental sketch) but that's it. Even the better stuff I watched was plagued by annoyances.....such as the requisite Latino 'actor/actress' in the Brando film.

Dragonslayer (1981, Matthew Robbins) 35/100
Elizabethtown (2005, Cameron Crowe) (rewatch) 45
Pernicious (2014, James Cullen Bressack) (rewatch) 51
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993, Stuart Gillard) 41
Deterrence (1999, Rod Lurie) 45
Mother's Day (2010, Darren Lynn Bousman) 38
My Cousin Vinny (1992, Jonathan Lynn) 35
Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks) (rewatch) 80
Mighty Aphrodite (1995, Woody Allen) 45
The Post (2017, Steven Spielberg) 34
Quintet (1979, Robert Altman) 48
Veronica Guerin (2003, Joel Schumacher) 41
Selomine (1953, Budd Boetticher) 51
Code of Silence (1985, Andrew Davis) 35
Jungle Fever (1991, Spike Lee) 32
True Crime (1999, Clint Eastwood) 37
Patient Killer (2014, Casper Van Dien) 48
And Now for Something Completely Different (1971, Ian MacNaughton) 53
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017, Jon Watts) 43
Take the Money and Run (1969, Woody Allen) 42
The Bad Batch (2016, Ana Lily Amirpour) 33
Tales of the Taira Clan (1955, Kenji Mizoguchi) 58
One-Eyed Jacks (1961, Marlon Brando) 68

Movies:

-The Terminator (1984)
Not a bad action movie, but not very good either. Pretty boring and the music was annoying. I also would've preferred if they hadn't shown any scenes from the future.

-Scream (1996)
One of my favourite movies!

-Scream 2 (1997)
Probably one of the best sequels out there, even though the final act is a bit weak at times.

TV Shows:

-The Librarians - "And a Town Called Feud"
Lame episode. Why does everything have to be political?

-The Flying Doctors - "A Lost Generation"

-Man About the House - "The Sunshine Boys"

-Family Matters - marathon
The ending of season 4. It's a shame, but Urkel (and some of the other characters) is becoming unbearable, so I'm giving up!

-Father Dowling - marathon

-Unsolved Mysteries - marathon

-The Bold and the Beautiful - marathon of very old episodes

-Buffy The Vampire Slayer - "What's My Line (Part II)" and "Ted"

i've caught lost highway a few times over the years. i'd probably rate it as the weakest among lynch's films that i've seen (still haven't seen dune!), and i might even go as far as to say it's the only one i'd ever describe as being poor or flat-out bad. i think it's interesting to compare it to mulholland drive & try to work out exactly why that film works so perfectly (to me, at least) while lh is such a dreary mess, a grind to be endured. some of the difference is in the plot mechanics, i suppose - mulholland drive actually makes sense in a way, and even has a fairly tidy pay-off imo - but most of it comes down to intangible things, i reckon...characters that you can understand & map your own emotional responses onto, perhaps.

i caught mute when it first popped up on netflix. i recall thinking it was quite a mess, but i swear i've forgotten everything about it, which is a review in its own way, i suppose.

the love witch (2016) - 5/5 this must be the 4th or 5th time i've watched this. if you went into a lab and tried to engineer a movie specified to my tastes, it would basically come out looking like this. it captures the look and feel of late 60s/early 70s exploitation & melodrama perfectly. not for all tastes for sure, but if you have a bit of love in your heart for russ meyers or hammer horror or 70s melodrama, you'll find a lot to enjoy here. you'll also find a feminist message woven though out, perhaps played a little heavy-handedly at times. i expect most people would prefer if it was a touch shorter (there's a fairly thin story for a full 120 min running time), but it's not really a flaw for me because i enjoyed being in this world every second the movie played.

full moon in paris (1984) 2.5/5 french girl doesn't want to let go of her single life. i was completely unmoved by this film. it seemed to be simultaneously trying for whimsy & insight, but neither really landed with me, leaving me with nothing but a bland, numbing boredom.

julieta (2016) 3.5/5 a woman recounts the events in her life that led her to be estranged from her daughter - based on three alice munro short stories. impeccably made but it ended in a slightly off-key way for me. not because it was ambiguous or open-ended (though it was), but rather a bit too pat & emotionally false.

love & anarchy (1973) 3.5/5 anarchist stays in a brothel in fascist italy while preparing to assassinate mussolini. a touch repetitive & long for what is, despite its grand seeming plot, a rather simple story, and the actors were so loud all the time. do italians really talk like this? their restaurants must be deafening. but it's still fun, bombastic, & lovably silly. currently streaming on kanopy in my region, & maybe in yours.

rust & bone (2012) 4/5 a very naturalistic, somewhat rambling but always effective film that reminded me in a glancing way of diving bell and the butterfly, until its ending, which feels like it was cut and pasted straight out of a much more conventional & less imaginative film. still a good one, but it might have been perfect if it had ended 10 minutes earlier.

once upon a time in anatolia (2011) 5/5 long & slowly unfolding, but note-perfect. mysterious yet incredibly satisfying.

x2 (2003) 3.5/5 this is the first time i've watched the 2nd xmen film in a good while. it holds up well enough, though i have to say this movie gave me true admiration for how well the mcu films have brought in actors that have made their characters feel like fully realized people. hugh jackman & patrick stewart aside, most of the roles in this film feel terribly cookie-cutter, like they were hired for having the right look but never were taken any further. a few of the effects shots look a bit quaint now as well, i suppose, particularly towards the end, but it still moves properly, functions mostly just like you'd want an action/adventure movie to function.

dude bro party massacre III (2015) 3.5/5 hugely enjoyable to me - definitely built to be a cult item, but it avoids the knowing smugness that can make parodies a bit tiresome & obnoxious. a bit like turbo kid & manborg, it feels like the guys who made this have a lot of affection for their source material.