Love Psycho. After all of his extravagant movies with lush colours, big open set-pieces and huge Hollywood megastars, Hitchcock winds it all back and uses his television crew to make one of the greatest horror movies of all-time. The shower scene has been parodied to death that it's lost whatever shock value it initially had, but I still appreciate the mastery of the scene. From the quiet ambience of the shower running, to the sound of the curtain being pulled back and then Bernard Herrmann's pulsating soundtrack and the visual of an unknown assailant is enough to send chills down anyone's spine.

I reviewed the movie in this thread around a year ago, and the one thing that stuck about that viewing was Bernard Herrmann's theme Temptation. It doesn't get the recognition of the shower scene theme, but that song does such a good job of telling you where Marion's head is at. There's that sinister undertone to it, but also this innocent yearning, a feeling of wanting to escape and the paranoia of getting caught.

The performances are excellent as well, Anthony Perkins is pitch perfect as Norman Bates. The only performance that's come close to that is Edward Norton as Aaron Stampler.

Oct 30, 2018 16:48:55 GMT Big Pete said:

Love Psycho. After all of his extravagant movies with lush colours, big open set-pieces and huge Hollywood megastars, Hitchcock winds it all back and uses his television crew to make one of the greatest horror movies of all-time. The shower scene has been parodied to death that it's lost whatever shock value it initially had, but I still appreciate the mastery of the scene. From the quiet ambience of the shower running, to the sound of the curtain being pulled back and then Bernard Herrmann's pulsating soundtrack and the visual of an unknown assailant is enough to send chills down anyone's spine.

I reviewed the movie in this thread around a year ago, and the one thing that stuck about that viewing was Bernard Herrmann's theme Temptation. It doesn't get the recognition of the shower scene theme, but that song does such a good job of telling you where Marion's head is at. There's that sinister undertone to it, but also this innocent yearning, a feeling of wanting to escape and the paranoia of getting caught.

The performances are excellent as well, Anthony Perkins is pitch perfect as Norman Bates. The only performance that's come close to that is Edward Norton as Aaron Stampler.

Spot on bro. I just finished the movie, you are so right about that song I love it, also agree about Perkins performance it was extremely good, brilliant comparison to Norton's Stampler performance in Primal Fear too. So many movies read from the book that Psycho wrote it's crazy.

I'm on a bit of a Slasher kick. Watched Halloween II (the real one) Sunday, the new one yesterday and Scream today. I did see Scream when it came out, but forgot a lot of it. And since most of it is spoofed in Scary Movie even less. Was great, but I kept thinking about thereallt with how much he got his ass kicked. Guess it's different than undead Zombies like Jason and Myers. Or I guess more realistic.

Wes Craven had a thing about stumbling slashers. Freddy had his own moments of bumbling around in the first Nightmare, mostly thanks to Nancy's traps.

Oct 30, 2018 15:55:34 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Also woke up early for work one morning last week and Mr. Sardonicus from 1961 was on one of the over the air antennae channels I get. I REALLY liked this one, had never seen it before. Wicked story about a struggling ranch owner who wins the lotto but the winning ticket was burried with his dead father in the jacket they burried him in. So ole dude digs his father up to get the ticket but the garish look on his rotting face sends him into shock and leaves his own face permanently disfigured in the same look that he seen on his father's corpse. So he brings in a special doctor to fix his face but the doctor discovers a bunch of fucked up shit going on in the house, like one of the maids being tortured with fucking leeches! This whole movie hit the spot and I loved it. There was a gimmick at the end where somebody would come on screen and poll the audience about the fate of Mr. Sardonicus, theater goers could hold up a sign showing thumbs up or thumbs down and the person on screen pretended to count all the cards and it would impact the end of the movie. I'm pretty sure it was just a gimmick and the end was decided no matter what the audience voted.

Never heard of Mr. Sardonicus, but it sounds interesting. Gonna have to check it out. When I read about the gimmick I couldn't help but think of The Tingler, which I watched around this time last year. Lo and behold...

Oct 30, 2018 15:55:34 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Speaking of gimmicks I also caught The Tingler, Vincent Price film from 1959. I caught this on the same channel last week early in the morning. I thought it was pretty goofy though, the main monster is just silly.

It is a silly concept, but I thought it was executed fairly well, even if its main purpose was to fuel the gimmick at the end.

Oct 30, 2018 15:55:34 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Also I forgot I watched House On Haunted Hill on Amazon Prime a week or two ago and really enjoyed it. I never gave the original black and white version a chance because I always thought the 1999 remake sucked so bad. But man the original is really great for it's time. 8.5/10

Love this one.

Rainy Halloween day off so looks like I'll get to clear out my horror movie watchlist with the last remaining movies I've curated to watch this month(big one I've planned for tonight I'm watching The Exorcist for the first time in probably 15 years, on the 4K rig!). Just finished watching The Mangler(1995) based on a story by Stephen King directed by Tobe Hooper starring Robert Englund and Ted Levine. I REALLY wanted to like this, in fact I quite enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the film, it's gory as fuck, has a great visual tone/look/vibe/feel to it and Englund is great in his role. Ted Levine is downright terrible here though and the story really gets stupid at the end, the part with the machine coming alive into a fucking atrocious CGI monster is unforgiveable and pretty much ruins the movie. None of the mysterious parts of the story were ever explained even though it was building up to something, the way the monster is dispatched at the end just makes me want to say fuck this movie. 4/10

Ted Levine terrible? He's one of my favorite supporting actors, it's hard to see him not put in a good performance. He was even good in Jurassic World. Never got around to the Mangler yet as all the players involved had me interested.

Oct 31, 2018 20:45:19 GMT Shootist said:

Ted Levine terrible? He's one of my favorite supporting actors, it's hard to see him not put in a good performance. He was even good in Jurassic World. Never got around to the Mangler yet as all the players involved had me interested.

I know right, hes one of my favorites too, love him in Bullet with Mickey Rourke and Tupac. He was pretty bad in this leading role thougg

My Halloween horror movie of choice was The Orphanage, a 2007 Spanish horror movie. I had seen the movie before many years ago, and really enjoyed it, although I had forgotten almost all of the plot.

I watched it again and I loved it. It's not a scary film, in the traditional sense, more of an unsettling ghost story that asks questions of the viewer and builds up an uncomfortable amount of suspense. There were several moments where I was anticipating a jump scare or at least a shocking moment, but it never happened. The anticipation was scary enough; to go further would damage the atmosphere and possibly the story. The plot and characters are believable, and the conclusion is bittersweet but logical.

It reminded me a lot of The Devil's Backbone, directed by Guillermo del Toro (who produced The Orphanage) in terms of storytelling and atmosphere, but I like The Orphanage a lot more.

I finished Halloween night off with Candyman(1992) and The Exorcist(1973) and enjoyed both very much. Hadn't seen either one of these in years. With Candyman you go into it expecting like a typical 80's-90's slasher but it's something very fucking fresh and artistic. Reminded me a lot of the story of The Mummy in so many different ways, this whole mystical paranormal reincarnated love story but done so much better. Just a beautifully shot horror movie with great music and such a unique story, especially for it's time in 1992. Loved pretty much everything about it and have a newfound appreciation for what it is. I'd be willing to go 9/10 for Candyman. Exorcist never ceases to freak me the fuck out. Still think this is just one of the best made horror movies of all time with a great story that has a lot of layers to it, aged like a fine wine being almost a 50 year old movie now. I'd give it a 9.5 and would rate it just a notch under Psycho.

Also on Halloween earlier in the day I had a pretty good run on the treadmill on my back porch while it was raining pretty hard. I had the TV going with one of the channels I get playing the 1992 Stephen King movie "Sleepwalkers". I had it on mute with Type O Negative playlist going on my headphones and man oh man Type O music goes pretty great with old horror movies. I Know You're Fucking Someone Else went perfect with the opening of the movie because the best part of the song plays through a pretty great dance scene in the movie(seriously that chick is unbelievable hot). Also the song Anesthesia went absolutely perfect with the last 6 or so minutes of the movie, kicking in right as the record player spins when the woman reanimates her dead son to dance with the girl, then the high spot part of the song coincides perfectly with the monster being immolated at the end and the outro credits, it gave me goosebumps. Will definitely have to experiment with more of this next year. As far as the movie I thought it was cute and enjoyed it(had closed captions on so I could read what was being said).

As far as tonight though I woke up a couple hours ago and couldn't get back to sleep so I made a cup of coffee loaded up Showdown In Little Tokyo(1991) starring Brandon Lee and Dolph Lundgren. My god this was super cheesy. I think I had seen parts of this on TBS probably back in the day but really couldn't remember anything about it. It's a buddy cop action flick with some pretty weak fight scenes(up until the final showdown, which is pretty sweet). Dolph is the lead role here and he's jacked with Brandon Lee playing the backup supporting buddy role. I feel like this movie would have been a lot better with these two actors switching roles, seems like Brandon Lee would have been better as the lead with this story with Dolph being the backup supporting buddy cop actor. The two main heels are pretty boss, you got that one guy that plays Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat movie and his heel enforcer is the guy who played Shredder's henchman/enforcer in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. There are some EXTREMELY corny moments in this fucking movie. There are a lot of 80's-90's action movie cliches right down to the music, it makes me laugh and reminds me of the Loaded Weapon 1 and Hot Shots movies that would parody this type of stuff. I didn't love this movie but I did like it in a "so bad it's good" way, there is just something about pretty much all movies made in 1991, all those movies have a certain feel to them, still very 80's charm but a light early 90's edge, just the right sweet spot, my "Goldilocks zone" for movies. For this one for the sheer unadulterated cheese and final fight scene I'd go 6.4/10

Moving along I've got the 1991 Chuck Norris movie "Hitmen" or "Hitman" or something loaded up, another Cannon Films Chuck action romp, this one from the dying days of the masters of 80's action cheese(never even heard of this one). This one kinda sucks but man Chuck has a sweet fucking mullet in this one! :lol: Honestly this movie feels like Chuck is trying to be Steven Seagal and with this story I'm thinking this was one of those typical Cannon Films deals where they catch wind of a movie coming out and then rush their own version of it to beat it to the punch(like they did with another Chuck movie; Missing In Action, their version of Rambo), this is very much like Out For Justice(kinda).

I went to a friend's house last night for a movie marathon. Here's what I watched.

Black Panther
Definitely in the upper tier of MCU films, but it didn't have the high moments of the best films in the franchise. Pretty standard MCU fare with a solid action-packed story peppered with comic relief. The one thing that struck me as odd was how the most technologically-advanced nation in the world still relies on a primitive one-on-one combat ritual to determine its leader. Then again, given how a lot of the world's most powerful governments are flawed models open to corruption, maybe they're onto something by retaining a pure monarchy.

Deadpool 2
The first Deadpool went in a hilarious and original direction for a superhero movie, and it succeeded. Fourth-wall breaking, childish gags, genre parody. It was all there, mixed in with a more serious origin story. Great comedy-action film, and pretty rewatchable.

The sequel was more ambitious, as it had a right to be given the unexpected success of its predecessor, and in my opinion it succeeded in everything it set out to do. It kept the same style of humour but the gags came thicker and faster and were generally funnier. The high point being almost all the members of X-Force dying one by one. However, it was more than just another Deadpool film. The plot was darker and more emotional. Deadpool's girlfriend dies in the opening scene, and a lot of other awful shit happens. The direction is masterful in how they seamlessly transition between emotional scenes and back to silly comedy. Sometimes a Deadpool quip is thrown right in the middle of a heart-wrenching scene (such as when he's dying, for real), yet it never comes across as artifical or insincere. Powerful writing. I left the film craving more Deadpool, which is not a reaction I had at the end of the first film. Thankfully there's a lot more to come.

The Woman In Black
I watched this film when it was released, and I liked it. Since then I have read the book it was based on (highly recommended) and so I had the source material to form a fresh opinion. The movie keeps the core element of the plot but significantly changes almost all the details. It's not a bad thing, just a different way of telling the story. The film is visually stunning but a mediocre horror film. There's a constant unsettling atmosphere but it never really escalates. The ending was pretty lame, especially in comparison to the spine-chilling conclusion of the book.

Hush
This was an intriguing and short (80 minutes) horror/thriller we saw on Netflix. The premise is a deaf woman being harassed by her murderous ex-boyfriend. The fact that she was deaf made the start of the movie intriguing, but once the villain arrived it turned into a pretty standard cat-and-mouse affair. It didn't really deviate from the formula. Decent but not especially memorable.

I loved Hush Emperor - it's nothing groundbreaking but I thought it was a fun twist on an age old and successful genre. The cat and mouse of the movie is suspenseful and great and I enjoyed it. I miss movies that go 80 minutes and know what they want to accomplish.

Which brings me to Don't Breathe - this should have made the top ten of horror movies post 2000's. Such a refreshing take on a home invasion movie and a movie with a GREAT twist at the end. It gets even better going into a second time and knowing what is to come and some of the references to it. Great villain with a really fun premise.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Great film, glad they left some of the more wild parts of Freddie’s life in and didn’t do the stupid middle of the film thing they were going to do with Sasha.

That trip down memory lane reminded me how awful going to the movies was as a kid. I always enjoyed going to the theatre, the smell of popcorn and the promise of visiting the arcades afterwards but 9/10 the movie we were going to see was absolutely terrible

I can remember school holidays specifically from the movies we went go see.

Term 1 1999
Mighty Joe Young - I barely remember anything about it other than thinking Joe was a pussy and King Kong could kick his ass.

Rugrats - As a fan of the cartoon, I thought this was a nice way to cap off the series. Kind of had the Toy Story thing going on and as an older sibling, I could relate to sharing the limelight. The only memory I have afterwards is going out and hunting for soldier crabs afterwards.

Term 2 1999
My Favourite Martian - That's another movie that I found really enjoyable at the time and was shocked to hear so many people dump on it. What gives? What did people have against these 60s remakes? Christopher Lloyd is great in anything and I always found Daniels likeable.

I didn't see it, but everyone was quoting the second Austin Powers movie around the time. I'd seen the first one, because I remember showing my uncle and telling him about the fembots and how they shoot bullets out of their boobs. That was enough to sell him and he repayed me by showing me Face Off. Fair trade, that was a cool uncle movie.

Term 3
Tarzan - Disney animated movies were always big deals and this was no exception. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as Mulan, British people weren't that funny to me as a kid (now they're hilarious) so I found all the bits about Jane and her dad acclimitising to the jungle being ear-rollingly bad. I did enjoy how dark the movie was with Tarzan's parents being mauled by a Tiger and Clayton inadvertently hanging himself. I wasn't old enough to be a Rosie O'Donnell hater, but I was cynical enough to realise there wasn't enough funny talking animals. She couldn't do it all on her own, she needed more support dammit. Didn't anyone learn from Pocahontas? The 3D animation was very slick at times, Tarzan surfing through the jungle was pretty cool.

Wild Wild West - I already spoke about this masterpiece. It was the film that kept on giving and felt like the spiritual successor to MIB. I'd take it all day, every day over MIB 2. Fuck that movie, and fuck whoever writes Rosario Dawson to be the wet blanket in most movie's she's in. She seems like a really cool chick, but 9/10 they make her miserable. Ahem, but yeah compared to everything else Wild Wild West was a fun movie.

Term 4 1999
Pokemon: The First Movie - This was the Transformers movie for my generation. Pokemon had taken over the playground, everyone in my age group knew the insides and out of every Pokemon, where to locate them in the game and what series of booster they came from. The First Movie was special because it previewed a bunch of new monsters as well as feature the first real sighting of Mewtwo. Above all else, you got a free Pokemon card when you went, so the more parents who were dragged along, the more likelihood of getting the whole set. This movie banned me from ever picking a movie again, but I needed that Electabuzz card and I had no issue with everyone having to suffer through 90 minutes of 'Pika Pika'. It's what I call sweet revenge for taking me to a bunch of movies filled with monkeys.

Toy Story 2 - I wasn't expecting anything. At this point I kind of realised that Disney's track record with sequels was shoddy at best and movies like Lion King 2, Beauty and the Beast 2 etc. etc. couldn't hold a candle to the originals. Aladdin was the only exception and that was because it was trying to sell a cartoon series. Anyways, I expected Toy Story 2 would be the same and was shocked it was actually pretty good. I probably underrate it a little in mind because I had zero anticipation or hype for it and after I saw it, I still didn't believe I saw something that good. This was one of those movies that my after-school care group organised, so I probably have bigger memories of doing all the Xmas activities and stuff we'd get up to.

Inspector Gadget - Another one of those movies that everybody hates but as a kid, I enjoyed it for what it was. Silly entertainment that doesn't try to be anything more than what it was. I guess after the accident Hollywood decided to shit on everything Broderick ever did, but I never forgot my king. He was the Lion King! Why couldn't those filthy peasants show him the respect he deserved?

Dudley Do-Right - Somehow my Nana got out of going to see the Pokemon movie and held that victory over the rest of the family for a fortnight. Then one day she wanted to take us to the movies and for whatever reason we ended up going to see this. She didn't mince her words, this was the worst movie she ever saw and she was the sweetest person I ever met. Poor Nan, nothing could prepare her for the sheer stupidity of the movie. Even as a Rocky & Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle fan, I found the movie to try waaaaay too hard. Then again, I always found Dudley to be the weakest skit on the Rocky & Bullwinkle show. Fractured Fairy Tales was top tier, Mr Peabody & Sherman had it's moments, Dudley was just a cheap shot at my Canadian bretherens and I wasn't going to stand for it. Make fun of Bret Hart all you like, the no-good nWo affiliate sell-out, but leave the good natured Canadians alone.

Somewhere between Term 1 & Term 2.

Star Wars Episode I - This was one of those movies that was so big, even my folks wanted to go see it. We made a real special event as well and went to the old school theatre in the city, the Regent where my Old Man's office was located to go see it. I wasn't somebody who hated the movie, but I was completely stupified by what I saw. I presumed the movie was made for my generation with the pod racing and all that but I just had no idea what was going on. Jar Jar Binks' people is getting it on with this other race and for whatever reason they got to go to this planet to recruit kid Darth Vader and then Darth Maul rocks up...what is going on? I really needed somebody there, somebody who wasn't Jar Jar to explain what was going on.

I feel terrible for that Anakin actor though. They made him way too sweet, who was he trying to appeal to? Our mothers? Those suck ups get sand thrown in their eyes, whether they deserve it or not. That was the rules of the playground.

All this talk of growing up sucking...I'm so glad I get to pick what I watch.

Nov 6, 2018 12:15:27 GMT Big Pete said:

That trip down memory lane reminded me how awful going to the movies was as a kid. I always enjoyed going to the theatre, the smell of popcorn and the promise of visiting the arcades afterwards but 9/10 the movie we were going to see was absolutely terrible

I can remember school holidays specifically from the movies we went go see.

Term 1 1999
Mighty Joe Young - I barely remember anything about it other than thinking Joe was a pussy and King Kong could kick his ass.

Rugrats - As a fan of the cartoon, I thought this was a nice way to cap off the series. Kind of had the Toy Story thing going on and as an older sibling, I could relate to sharing the limelight. The only memory I have afterwards is going out and hunting for soldier crabs afterwards.

Term 2 1999
My Favourite Martian - That's another movie that I found really enjoyable at the time and was shocked to hear so many people dump on it. What gives? What did people have against these 60s remakes? Christopher Lloyd is great in anything and I always found Daniels likeable.

I didn't see it, but everyone was quoting the second Austin Powers movie around the time. I'd seen the first one, because I remember showing my uncle and telling him about the fembots and how they shoot bullets out of their boobs. That was enough to sell him and he repayed me by showing me Face Off. Fair trade, that was a cool uncle movie.

Term 3
Tarzan - Disney animated movies were always big deals and this was no exception. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as Mulan, British people weren't that funny to me as a kid (now they're hilarious) so I found all the bits about Jane and her dad acclimitising to the jungle being ear-rollingly bad. I did enjoy how dark the movie was with Tarzan's parents being mauled by a Tiger and Clayton inadvertently hanging himself. I wasn't old enough to be a Rosie O'Donnell hater, but I was cynical enough to realise there wasn't enough funny talking animals. She couldn't do it all on her own, she needed more support dammit. Didn't anyone learn from Pocahontas? The 3D animation was very slick at times, Tarzan surfing through the jungle was pretty cool.

Wild Wild West - I already spoke about this masterpiece. It was the film that kept on giving and felt like the spiritual successor to MIB. I'd take it all day, every day over MIB 2. Fuck that movie, and fuck whoever writes Rosario Dawson to be the wet blanket in most movie's she's in. She seems like a really cool chick, but 9/10 they make her miserable. Ahem, but yeah compared to everything else Wild Wild West was a fun movie.

Term 4 1999
Pokemon: The First Movie - This was the Transformers movie for my generation. Pokemon had taken over the playground, everyone in my age group knew the insides and out of every Pokemon, where to locate them in the game and what series of booster they came from. The First Movie was special because it previewed a bunch of new monsters as well as feature the first real sighting of Mewtwo. Above all else, you got a free Pokemon card when you went, so the more parents who were dragged along, the more likelihood of getting the whole set. This movie banned me from ever picking a movie again, but I needed that Electabuzz card and I had no issue with everyone having to suffer through 90 minutes of 'Pika Pika'. It's what I call sweet revenge for taking me to a bunch of movies filled with monkeys.

Toy Story 2 - I wasn't expecting anything. At this point I kind of realised that Disney's track record with sequels was shoddy at best and movies like Lion King 2, Beauty and the Beast 2 etc. etc. couldn't hold a candle to the originals. Aladdin was the only exception and that was because it was trying to sell a cartoon series. Anyways, I expected Toy Story 2 would be the same and was shocked it was actually pretty good. I probably underrate it a little in mind because I had zero anticipation or hype for it and after I saw it, I still didn't believe I saw something that good. This was one of those movies that my after-school care group organised, so I probably have bigger memories of doing all the Xmas activities and stuff we'd get up to.

Inspector Gadget - Another one of those movies that everybody hates but as a kid, I enjoyed it for what it was. Silly entertainment that doesn't try to be anything more than what it was. I guess after the accident Hollywood decided to shit on everything Broderick ever did, but I never forgot my king. He was the Lion King! Why couldn't those filthy peasants show him the respect he deserved?

Dudley Do-Right - Somehow my Nana got out of going to see the Pokemon movie and held that victory over the rest of the family for a fortnight. Then one day she wanted to take us to the movies and for whatever reason we ended up going to see this. She didn't mince her words, this was the worst movie she ever saw and she was the sweetest person I ever met. Poor Nan, nothing could prepare her for the sheer stupidity of the movie. Even as a Rocky & Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle fan, I found the movie to try waaaaay too hard. Then again, I always found Dudley to be the weakest skit on the Rocky & Bullwinkle show. Fractured Fairy Tales was top tier, Mr Peabody & Sherman had it's moments, Dudley was just a cheap shot at my Canadian bretherens and I wasn't going to stand for it. Make fun of Bret Hart all you like, the no-good nWo affiliate sell-out, but leave the good natured Canadians alone.

Somewhere between Term 1 & Term 2.

Star Wars Episode I - This was one of those movies that was so big, even my folks wanted to go see it. We made a real special event as well and went to the old school theatre in the city, the Regent where my Old Man's office was located to go see it. I wasn't somebody who hated the movie, but I was completely stupified by what I saw. I presumed the movie was made for my generation with the pod racing and all that but I just had no idea what was going on. Jar Jar Binks' people is getting it on with this other race and for whatever reason they got to go to this planet to recruit kid Darth Vader and then Darth Maul rocks up...what is going on? I really needed somebody there, somebody who wasn't Jar Jar to explain what was going on.

I feel terrible for that Anakin actor though. They made him way too sweet, who was he trying to appeal to? Our mothers? Those suck ups get sand thrown in their eyes, whether they deserve it or not. That was the rules of the playground.

All this talk of growing up sucking...I'm so glad I get to pick what I watch.

See! This guy gets it. Wild Wild West over MIB, or at least certainly over the MIB sequels, all day every day!

I mean I wouldn't go that far PI. MIB was a keeper, top 10 90s that managed to be off-beat while delivering a satisfying picture. It took some interesting turns you wouldn't expect from an action movie and J was better than the fastest trigger in the west.

I can meet you half way though and say that elements of the movie were better than MIB. I already touched on Loveless in Part 1 of my love-letter to WWW, but I didn't say enough about Selma Hayek who was way better than the agent on MIB. Like if they made a WWW 2 movie, Selma Hayek would be there. I can't say the same for whatsherface, Laurel, Yanny, Laurel.

MIB2 sucked, but MIB3 was OK. It fulfilled my basic criteria of 'Does this movie have Alice Eve in it?' which is incredibly important.

But god damn PI, get a load of those movies. You're a little bit older than me, you weren't getting baby-sat at the turn of the century right? What movies do you remember seeing? Gimme that Northern Hemisphere goodness.

I vividly remember going to see October Sky as a kid in school , going with the rest of the class. It's a movie that will always stick out to me for that reason and one I possibly overrate to this day - it's going to rank at least 4 spots to high because of that affiliation it WHEN we do a Gyllenhaal list.

Other movies I remember seeing are Home Alone 2 , that was my first ever trip to a theatre. I was probably like 6 at the time. Possibly even a little younger. I remember thinking the bag of tools gimmick was the greatest thing I'd ever seen.

The original Scary Movie in my teenage years was great , we had moved incredibly close to a theatre and I think me and my friends seen that movie like three times in a weekend. Probably most because we were getting into an R Rated movie at the age of 13 or 15 and thought it was the greatest thing ever.

2 Fast 2 Furious is the first time I ever experienced a line in any theatre I ever went to. Like legit around the building line where it was touch and go if there was going to be enough seating. That shit never happened in Smalltown USA. Me and the date got in , barely.

Nov 6, 2018 17:11:36 GMT Big Pete said:

I mean I wouldn't go that far PI. MIB was a keeper, top 10 90s that managed to be off-beat while delivering a satisfying picture. It took some interesting turns you wouldn't expect from an action movie and J was better than the fastest trigger in the west.

I can meet you half way though and say that elements of the movie were better than MIB. I already touched on Loveless in Part 1 of my love-letter to WWW, but I didn't say enough about Selma Hayek who was way better than the agent on MIB. Like if they made a WWW 2 movie, Selma Hayek would be there. I can't say the same for whatsherface, Laurel, Yanny, Laurel.

MIB2 sucked, but MIB3 was OK. It fulfilled my basic criteria of 'Does this movie have Alice Eve in it?' which is incredibly important.

But god damn PI, get a load of those movies. You're a little bit older than me, you weren't getting baby-sat at the turn of the century right? What movies do you remember seeing? Gimme that Northern Hemisphere goodness.

The question at hand is what movies do I remember seeing in theatres growing up?

I'll have to (w)rack my brain. I'll start though with some immediate recalls. I'll then have to come back and backfill with thoughts, reactions, etc. Offhand:

Batman Forever
Toy Story
Lion King
The Jackal
Black Hawk Down
Independence Day
Men in Black
Wild Wild West
Free Willy

What a random assortment so far...

This should be a fun trip down memory lane once I get my brain legs pumping.

I mean, I do eventually want your lifestory, but I was just hoping to see if you can recall which films you saw in theatres in 1999, pre-Y2K and all that jazz.

Basically I just want to see what you had to compare to WWW. Maybe it was the only film you got to see all year? Maybe you were coming off Baby Geniuses? Or maybe you were an out and out cinephile. I want to know tho, so hit up Wikipedia, trawl through the movies and see which ones register.

Also see how many times you get struck with 'that came out this year?!' Basically every film other than Toy Story 2 and Star Wars surprised me.

Nov 6, 2018 18:02:44 GMT Big Pete said:

I mean, I do eventually want your lifestory, but I was just hoping to see if you can recall which films you saw in theatres in 1999, pre-Y2K and all that jazz.

Basically I just want to see what you had to compare to WWW. Maybe it was the only film you got to see all year? Maybe you were coming off Baby Geniuses? Or maybe you were an out and out cinephile. I want to know tho, so hit up Wikipedia, trawl through the movies and see which ones register.

Also see how many times you get struck with 'that came out this year?!' Basically every film other than Toy Story 2 and Star Wars surprised me.

Hahaha, damnit. I was hoping to share my life story via Batman Forever tie-ins! :lol:

Okay, I like the more limited scope of just 1999. Let me hit up Wikipedia and get back to you.

Ok, teaser list below! Initial reaction, HOLY SHIT! My life feels defined by 1999 as this epic merge point where I crossed the threshold from innocent kid to angsty teen.

There's kids and teen movies, comedies that I surely didn't understand or appreciate in real time, dumb comedies that I probably over-appreciated in real time and consequently probably love a little too much to this day, and a solid R-rated baptism.

To be upfront, this list will represent both theatre-going and Blockbuster/Hollywood Video rentals since that was an equally important part of my movie viewing experience in 1999. I'll sort movies by genre, rank them by how much I loved each, state whether I first saw it in theaters or on tape, and drop a blurb about my initial reaction and where I stand on each film today. This will be quite a project, but I'm excited to tackle it.

Big thanks to Big Pete for prompting me to do this.

TEASER LIST:
Varsity Blues
She's All That
Payback
Blast from the Past
Office Space
Jawbreaker
Message in a Bottle
October Sky
Analyze This
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The Matrix
10 Things I Hate About You
The Out-of-town RS
Never Been Kissed
Life
Entrapment
The Mummy
Election
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Big Daddy
Wild Wild West
American Pie
Arlington Road
The Blair Witch Project
Eyes Wide Shut
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Inspector Gadget
Runaway Bride
Dick
Mystery Men
The Iron Giant
The Sixth Sense
The Thomas Crown Affair
Bowfinger
Detroit Rock City
American Beauty
Blue Streak
Double Jeopardy
Mystery, Alaska
Three Kings
Superstar
Fight Club
Dogma
The World Is Not Enough
Toy Story 2
The Green Mile
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
Bicentennial Man
Stuart Little
Any Given Sunday
Man on the Moon
Galaxy Quest
Magnolia
The Hurricane

Well hot damn. When I threw down the gauntlet, I was expecting maybe a modest list of movies. Maybe an American Pie here, a Blair Witch Project there, nothing overly fancy. Instead it's a VHS tsunami. All those late fees, all those bags of popcorn damn you could have given Ebert a run for his money.

Looking forward to all the details. Did you see all those movies in '99? Or is this an all-time deal? Still pretty impressive, I've maybe only seen around half(the good half, but only a half).

I did forget one movie, which I was amazed we saw in theatres. Muppets In Space, something about Gonzo finding his people and all the usual muppets hijinx. Not only did we see that in theatres, that would have been our big boxing day movie. The muppets are ok in my book but I couldn't shake the feeling that it felt like a direct to VHS movie than a proper cinematic release. Outside of being underwhelmed, the only memory I have is Hollywood Hogan showing up, which dated the movie horribly because Hogan had been red and yellow for the better part of 5 months. Finding out it came out in the summer makes a ton more sense in retrospect.

What amazed me about that trip down memory lane is how I remember seeing a lot of those movies like Go, Double Jeopardy, Thomas Crown Affair, Never Been Kissed, Mickey Blue Eyes being advertised relentlessly at the video shops but barely hearing anything about them since.

We went to the movies A LOT in the early to mid-90's but by 98-99 we didn't go so often. The big one is Star Wars Episode 1. I went through a major Star Wars phase around 96-97, I went to see the re-releases of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back in theaters in 97 and it was fucking amazing, was neck deep in the books and pen and paper RPG's around that time too. They started hyping Episode 1 as early as 1997 so by 99 I was so hyped for it I was probably on the verge of spontaneous combustion. My mom took me and all my little bros/sis to see it in Bryan TX that Summer and I was just floored by how awesome it was. I shit on the movie a lot over the years but I forgot just how much I loved it the first time in theaters until I rewatched it on Blu-Ray on my 4K rig last year, it's really not nearly as bad as I and others have made it out to be, in fact I came away with a whole new love/respect for the prequel trilogy after rewatching it on my 4K set up last year, it's actually pretty fucking great.

Woke up early this morning and loaded up American Ninja 5. I have never seen this but am a HUGE fan of the first 4 American Ninja movies. This one was straight to video release in maybe 1995 or 96 I believe this was the final movie Cannon Films ever released and my god it's fucking horrible trash. It has the old guy from Karate Kid but he's barely in the movie. This could be one of the the WORST action movies made in the 90's.

The first 4 American Ninja movies I'd consider guilty pleasures, they are bad but still good, American Ninja 5 on the other hand is just flat out bad period. Every spoken word of dialogue is so cringey and terrible, the lead actor is one of the worst I've ever seen in a b-rated straight to video action movie ever and that's really saying something. This same guy was introduced in American Ninja 3 or something, taking over the lead role in the series from my boy Michael Dudikoff, he was bad in that one too but at least he had the awesome Steve James to back him up and carry his sorry ass. In American Ninja 5 all he has is this super annoying kid, the two of them together is a fucking train wreck on screen whenever they interact with each other. Whoever wrote all of this is also deserving of a horsewhippin for smearing this shit stain of a movie onto the legacy of the great American Ninja series. Altogether I'd give this movie a 2/10 and those 2 points come exclusively for all the on-screen time they devote to the kid's Sega Game Gear system. The Game Gear was shown and mentioned so many times in the movie I'm wondering if they got paid by Sega. :lol:

Also last night I watched Mr. Nice Guy, Jackie Chan action flick from 1997 directed by the fucking LEGEND of fight choreography Samo Hung himself. I got to say I loved Rumble In The Bronx but I never was a big Jackie Chan guy. My little brother on the other hand went through a fucking MAJOR Chan phase around the time Rumble came out back in the day. I remember him renting every Chan movie he could get his hands on, and I'm almost certain Mr. Nice Guy was one of them. I actually always thought all of Jackie's movies were fucking retarded stupid and I would always give my little brother such a hard time whenever he would watch them. Watching this last night I actually really enjoyed it. It's definitely an action/stunt tour de force with one extravagant, creative, over the top stunt sequence or fight scene or chase scene after another. It really blew my mind how creative they got with a lot of this and how charismatic Jackie was. One thing I didn't like about Jackie's movies back in the day was all the bad voice overdubbing and how cartoonish everything was with the over the top pantomiming and facial expressions, everybody talked like they were retarded, sometimes its like the Three Stooges or something going on. There was a lot of that in this movie but I guess it caught me in a good mood because i got some good laughs here and there. I really enjoyed the scene with all the blue doors in the corridor and the fight scene on the construction job was dope as fuck, especially the parts where they fight around the table saw. Thoroughly enjoyed this one, maybe even more than Rumble in the Bronx 8.8/10



Speaking of awesome fight scenes, Jackie vs Benny The Jet in Meals On Wheels is the GOAT fight scene ever:

Strangers: Prey at Night - I'm in a slasher/horror movie mood and seen this was free on Prime so I gave it a shot. I love simple horror that knows it doesn't have to go over 90 minutes to be effective.

It certainly isn't going to change or make a dent in the genre but I found it pretty fun and enjoyable. Possibly even more so than the first - I REALLY loved the homages to the 80's slasher movies , especially the soundtrack at weird times. It brought a different tone to it all and really did bring you back to the decade in feel and ambience.

May or may not make our Reese lists because of how little she's on screen, but Wife and I just finished Mud...

Fucking. Great.

Highly recommend to anyone looking for a great watch.

Nov 14, 2018 2:40:29 GMT 🤯 said:

May or may not make our Reese lists because of how little she's on screen, but Wife and I just finished Mud...

Fucking. Great.

Highly recommend to anyone looking for a great watch.

But if you combine your lists it comes to an even 10.

Unless you only saw the same ones...

I watched a couple of movies last night, in Christopher Robin, and Ready Player One.

Ready Player One: Well it's not the worst film, that I've seen that was released this year (as that still rightfully belongs to Pacific Rim: Uprising). Unfortunately though, that's probably the nicest thing, I can say about Ready Player One. Christopher Robin: The movie had a slow pace from pretty much start to finish. It was also nice hearing Jim Cummings as the voice of Pooh Bear and Tigger again. Out of the two movies, this one I enjoyed more.

If you have kids, Christopher Robin might be worth a watch, but I wouldn't recommend Ready Player One.

2018 Movie Rankings

SPOILER: Click to show

13. Pacific Rim: Uprising
12. Ready Player One
11. The Predator
10. Peppermint
9. Christopher Robin
8. Tomb Raider
7. Venom
6. Ant-Man & The Wasp
5. The Incredibles 2
4. Black Panther
3. Solo: A Star Wars Story
2. Deadpool 2
1. Avengers: Infinity War

Nov 17, 2018 16:16:36 GMT Lony said:

I watched a couple of movies last night, in Christopher Robin, and Ready Player One.

Ready Player One: Well it's not the worst film, that I've seen that was released this year (as that still rightfully belongs to Pacific Rim: Uprising). Unfortunately though, that's probably the nicest thing, I can say about Ready Player One. Christopher Robin: The movie had a slow pace from pretty much start to finish. It was also nice hearing Jim Cummings as the voice of Pooh Bear and Tigger again. Out of the two movies, this one I enjoyed more.

If you have kids, Christopher Robin might be worth a watch, but I wouldn't recommend Ready Player One.

2018 Movie Rankings

SPOILER: Click to show

13. Pacific Rim: Uprising
12. Ready Player One
11. The Predator
10. Peppermint
9. Christopher Robin
8. Tomb Raider
7. Venom
6. Ant-Man & The Wasp
5. The Incredibles 2
4. Black Panther
3. Solo: A Star Wars Story
2. Deadpool 2
1. Avengers: Infinity War

I loved Ready Player One and thought Christopher Robin was really slow and pretty boring until probably the third act. Not one I'd look forward to rewatching with the kids. 

Incredibles 2 on the other hand , which I watched last night was pretty fucking awesome. I enjoyed it more than the first ... totally expect it to make my Top Ten of 2018 when we do the list at the end of the year.