Koete

I really hope they pull off what they're teasing for World War II.

I always do.

I also love that when he's getting briefed on the mission, the first thing he says is "why can't we just shoot Han in the head?'

The Wind - silent film about a woman who moves from Virginia to a town out west, where the winds blow dust everywhere 24/7. It's a pretty linear story, but there's some striking filmmaking as it goes on. There's a tension building sequence where the film dissolves between two pairs of pacing feet, and a progression from a swinging lantern to a shifting house to show the woman losing her grip on reality. There's also an interesting aspect of it being on the cusp of talking pictures. After so many shots of the wind blowing, it hits you that there should be constant noise in the background, that they were in the position of having to communicate that idea visually. Straw Dogs - The ugliest movie that's meant to be ugly I've seen so far. It's so well-constructed, but it's also so horrific that I don't know how to feel about it. Enter the Dragon - It's a James Bond movie with martial arts, but with a much quicker pace that works in its favor. That fights are all shot differently, which makes for much more interesting action sequences. The five minutes that's just Bruce Lee decimating guys is great, and the final battle with Han that homages The Lady From Shanghai really caps off the tension. My favorite Lee moment though might be his bored expression as he waits for some henchman to run out of a room he throws a cobra into. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - It's over two hours long, but I was invested in it the entire time. The build-up to the aliens is so well done, the abduction scene is so frightening, the dinner table scene is so heart wrenching. The feeling that you're watching someone with mastery of their profession is with you throughout. I felt this when I rewatched A Christmas Story last December, but Melinda Dillon is such an underrated actress. Spielberg's said that he regrets the ending for Roy's character, and that's really the only strike against it I can think of. Punisher: War Zone - One of the best superhero movies. Frank Castle doesn't talk for thirty minutes. Ray Stevenson gets emotion out of Frank trying to scrub dirt off his family's gravestone and commit assisted suicide. There hasn't been a Marvel movie villain since, outside of Loki, that's as memorable as Jigsaw. The makeup is fantastic, and Dominic West gives a controlled over the top performance that is thoroughly entertaining. The violence is just as memorable, from the chandelier scene and the head punch to the more satirical moments like the rocket and the grenade. On top of that, the movie ends by saying "you're better off believing in The Punisher than Jesus." Sure, it's tongue in cheek, but that is going for it. Also, there hasn't been a Marvel movie since that looks better; the Tony Scott inspired opening credits, the monochromatic filters and lights in certain scenes, the beauty of the church scene. This movie is alive in a way few superhero movies are. Digging for Fire - A husband and wife are apart for a weekend, with both considering who they are and what they think of their marriage. The husband's is represented through digging after finding a rusty gun and a bone in a yard, to give it a bit of flavor. I didn't enjoy it as much as the other Joe Swanberg film I've seen, Drinking Buddies, but it's solid. Films: 34

Knowing he did those baby covers full of self-loathing makes them better.

Usually I give props to the DC shows for how they use special effects on a TV budget, but the Atom stuff in this one was so bad. It looked like someone was moving an action figure across the screen in the first big fight, and Rip literally handing one to Ray later on didn't help that.

I remember watching that on Sci-Fi channel one night after motherfucking DOG SOLDIERS.

Klute - A call girl (Jane Fonda) gets involved with a detective (Donald Sutherland) investigating a former client, and his friend's, disappearance. The movie's named after Sutherland's character, but it's Jane Fonda's movie. He's stoic throughout, except for one scene when he loses it, leaving the character and emotional weight to Fonda. You can see in the monologues in her therapist's office why she got the Oscar for Best Actress. The filmmaking's great too; there's one shot where the camera tracks backwards away from Fonda as she's narrating a fantasy for a client. The camera stops behind a corner and holds, emphasizing the voyeuristic position of the spectator. The score appropriately evokes paranoia, and there's a piece of it that had to have influenced the score for De Palma's Body Double. It also takes risks like revealing to the audience early on who the killer is and ending with a touch of ambiguity. Love 70s cinema. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - I think this a movie you have to see when you're 8 years old for it to really impact you; since I just saw it for the first time at 26, it didn't do much for me. I can appreciate the imagination, the homages to 50s sci-fi and pulps, and the "throw everything at the wall" spirit in the script, although the direction doesn't fully bring it to life. While it's always cool to see practical effects, I connect more with the horror homage movies of the 80s like Night of the Creeps and Monster Squad. Cobra - With a change in tone, this would be a great parody of 80s action movies. Since it's played straight, this is dumb as hell. It was originally 130 minutes, which was cut down to 87 minutes and includes cuts to all the violence; you can totally tell and it's really distracting. The car chase is so "pull out all the stops" (Stallone hits the NOS!) that you can't help but have fun with it. There's also a scene where Stallone says "you have the right to remain silent" before he throws a match on a gasoline covered gang member that I can't get out of my head. Unlike movies with subversive elements like Death Wish and Punisher: War Zone though, this is about a cop who kills a bunch of people in horrible ways and gets congratulated for it; it's total right wing fantasy. Films: 28

Did I miss something, why did they need a particle tracker from the 70s? They're on a time-travelling spaceship.

Ike Perlmutter gave $1 million to Trump's veterans charity.

Ditto.

Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner on that Future Quest book is pretty perfect, but dyin' that "fan art go-to Scooby-Doo Apocalypse" is going to be an actual comic.

Seconded.

DKR Flash or bust.

Doctor Who's leaving Hulu, too.

Clearly, one of them is dropping a rap album.

Coppola's visuals were there, but the script needed to be much better.

Delroy Lindo cast as Dominic Fortune for Marvel's Most Wanted.

The Big Knife, Contempt, Alone in the Dark.

Would you say it's...vwoop, vwoop, vwooping away?

Baby Doll - Adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play about a middle-aged cotton gin owner, Archie, who has almost been put out of business by the owner of a newer gin. He burns the gin down, thinking he's gotten away clean, but his rival isn't stupid. While Archie's out all day getting a part, his rival sets out to seduce his 19 year old wife and get evidence that Archie burned down his gin. As it's based on a play, this is pretty much all about the acting. Karl Malden as Archie is frustrated and angry all the time, Carroll Baker has an appropriate naivete as Baby Doll, and Eli Wallach is amazing as the rival. There are some striking framing choices when it comes to the seduction, and the decrepit mansion that is Archie and Baby Doll's home adds a great deal of atmosphere. The baby trappings on Baby Doll (she sleeps in a broken down crib because their furniture gets repossessed) are clearly at metaphor for how she's not ready for marriage, but they're pretty creepy. It ends on a note I didn't expect though, which is pretty cutting. A Kiss Before Dying - Robert Wagner plays a college student who gets his wealthy girlfriend pregnant. Since she'll be disinherited, he does the most logical thing: murders her and pursues her sister. It's a premise somebody could make a good noir out of, but the filmmaking's pretty dull and the characters aren't very interesting. Robert Wagner has the same voice he does as an older man, which makes him come across as a sociopath before you get hints that he's planning to murder his girlfriend. Suddenly, Last Summer - Another adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play, this time about a surgeon who can get a $1 million donation for the mental hospital he works at if he performs a lobotomy on a wealthy widow's niece. It turns out the niece isn't insane, but has blocked out some of the events surrounding the death of the widow's son, which the surgeon tries to get her to recall. Again, it's an acting showcase. Katharine Hepburn has an amazing monologue about watching baby sea turtles get picked off by birds, and you can't take your eyes off Elizabeth Taylor's tortured performance as the niece. Montgomery Clift plays the surgeon, but this is post accident so he's sadly pretty stiff. Lost in Translation - Ian's latest Flickchart pairings reminded me that I had never watched this. It's interesting to see 13 years later, because I remember how huge it was when it came out. Now, it looks like the stereotypical Sundance movie everyone makes fun of it. It's about two sadsack well-off white people connecting in a foreign country, with the country and its people feeling like set dressing. There are some good things about it. It's an early movie in Bill Murrary's indie comeback (he's wonderful in the whiskey commercial scenes) and a breakout role for Scarlett Johansson. There are some great shot compositions of characters against various locations, from hotel rooms to a looming Mt. Fuji. But yeah, time hasn't been kind to it. The Spirit - I love the mud fight that's a metaphor for the cyclical nature of superhero comics, Dan Lauria's great, The Spirit's origin is the best looking part of the movie, and Frank Miller's art during the credits is the best looking part of the entire thing. Everything else is ridiculous bullshit. It is perversely fascinating that a comic creator got complete creative control on a movie with a $60 million budget, and quoted two of his comics in it. Films: 25

Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne being white hot angry is why I'm here for this.