Movies you've just watched

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

@CoS, randomly, I came across a copy of Tokyo Fist today. Given your 'top 3' comment, and the fact it was on sale, I just had to snag it. I'll let you know how I get on with it.

Great to hear, man. Looking forward to your thoughts.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Boiling point - 7.5/10
This is Kitano's second film and the first one where he wrote the screenplay himself from scratch (Violent Cop was originally a Kinji Fukasaku film, but reportedly Kitano threw out 95% of the screenplay). Kitano had such a weird distinct interesting style early in his career as a director, it's a wacky inventive mix of crime drama and dry black comedy, tonally rather inconsistent, but, even (much) more so than Violent Cop, it's so different from anything else I couldn't help but love it. Also, like Violent Cop, it looks great, and Kitano plays one of the craziest psychopaths in it.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

A Scene by the Sea - 6/10
Kitano's third film. Has a beautiful OST by Joe Hisaishi, a relaxed vibe and the last couple of minutes are a wonderfully done montage, but apart from that, there wasn't that much to enjoy IMHO; I can appreciate that Kitano tried something very different again and went for a minimalistic approach (the two main characters are deaf-mutes and therefore do not talk) - little dialogue, little plot (deaf guy picks up surfing, gets moderately good, his deaf girlfriend watches him at the beach for hours and folds his clothes for him, two surfing competitions, deaf guy drowns, the end), (over)long shots - but the story he tells and how the relationships between the characters develop is trivial/ just not very interesting, and most of the humour (of which there isn't that much actually) falls flat. I'm not saying that Kitano films need to be violent to be entertaining - I loved Dolls, and the best parts of Sonatine aren't about violence at all, but Scene... doesn't feel contemplative but simply superficial.

[GaijinPunch]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Director's Cut

The Rewatchables covered this, and I didn't have much energy to do much else so I fired it up. It has been a while. Despite seeing this as a kid, and then owning the DVD some 20 years after (and probably still have it somewhere) I've seen this only a few times. In fact I didn't know / had forgotten about all the drama surrounding "going into the mothership". Anyway, it definitely hit harder this time. Maybe a tad long, but the pay off so worth it. The wide shots in this alone make it worth watching... or even those moments, like the zoom in on the birds in the cage, as the guy in the hazmat suit carries them off. Aimed at families, but with subtle intensity. Definitely a product of a different era. They struck gold w/ that kid. Also, RIP Terri Garr. Pure 70's babe.

[Lord British]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Director's Cut

The Rewatchables covered this, and I didn't have much energy to do much else so I fired it up. It has been a while. Despite seeing this as a kid, and then owning the DVD some 20 years after (and probably still have it somewhere) I've seen this only a few times. In fact I didn't know / had forgotten about all the drama surrounding "going into the mothership". Anyway, it definitely hit harder this time. Maybe a tad long, but the pay off so worth it. The wide shots in this alone make it worth watching... or even those moments, like the zoom in on the birds in the cage, as the guy in the hazmat suit carries them off. Aimed at families, but with subtle intensity. Definitely a product of a different era. They struck gold w/ that kid. Also, RIP Terri Garr. Pure 70's babe.

Yeah, after all these years I finally watched it front to back a year ago. Definitely his best film.

"Hit Hard" as well for me as he:

Spoiler

Willingly leaves his family

It's a tad long because it dips during the Truffaut part near the beginning of the third act. But it's awesome though. It was a casualty all these years of just catching clips here and there of the film and never truly watching it.

[RGC]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Director's Cut

The Rewatchables covered this, and I didn't have much energy to do much else so I fired it up. It has been a while. Despite seeing this as a kid, and then owning the DVD some 20 years after (and probably still have it somewhere) I've seen this only a few times. In fact I didn't know / had forgotten about all the drama surrounding "going into the mothership". Anyway, it definitely hit harder this time. Maybe a tad long, but the pay off so worth it. The wide shots in this alone make it worth watching... or even those moments, like the zoom in on the birds in the cage, as the guy in the hazmat suit carries them off. Aimed at families, but with subtle intensity. Definitely a product of a different era. They struck gold w/ that kid. Also, RIP Terri Garr. Pure 70's babe.

Yeah, after all these years I finally watched it front to back a year ago. Definitely his best film.

Better than Jaws?! Sir, I must protest! Actually, I haven't sat through Close Encounters for such a long time (maybe 30 years), that all I remember now are the mash potato scene and the back and forth with the synths at the end. I'll keep an eye out for it. For me, Jaws is not just Spielberg's best film, it's not even just the best film of any director, it's the best thing!

[Lord British]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Director's Cut

The Rewatchables covered this, and I didn't have much energy to do much else so I fired it up. It has been a while. Despite seeing this as a kid, and then owning the DVD some 20 years after (and probably still have it somewhere) I've seen this only a few times. In fact I didn't know / had forgotten about all the drama surrounding "going into the mothership". Anyway, it definitely hit harder this time. Maybe a tad long, but the pay off so worth it. The wide shots in this alone make it worth watching... or even those moments, like the zoom in on the birds in the cage, as the guy in the hazmat suit carries them off. Aimed at families, but with subtle intensity. Definitely a product of a different era. They struck gold w/ that kid. Also, RIP Terri Garr. Pure 70's babe.

Yeah, after all these years I finally watched it front to back a year ago. Definitely his best film.

Better than Jaws?! Sir, I must protest! Actually, I haven't sat through Close Encounters for such a long time (maybe 30 years), that all I remember now are the mash potato scene and the back and forth with the synths at the end. I'll keep an eye out for it. For me, Jaws is not just Spielberg's best film, it's not even just the best film of any director, it's the best thing!

TBH I haven't seen Jaws front to back in a very long time, so I'll bump that one in the queue!

[RGC]

Yeah, after all these years I finally watched it front to back a year ago. Definitely his best film.

Better than Jaws?! Sir, I must protest! Actually, I haven't sat through Close Encounters for such a long time (maybe 30 years), that all I remember now are the mash potato scene and the back and forth with the synths at the end. I'll keep an eye out for it. For me, Jaws is not just Spielberg's best film, it's not even just the best film of any director, it's the best thing!

TBH I haven't seen Jaws front to back in a very long time, so I'll bump that one in the queue!

I exaggerate, but only slightly. It's basically a flawless movie, imo. It's even become a household tradition to watch it on my birthday each year. <3

[GaijinPunch]

"Hit Hard" as well for me as he:

Spoiler

Willingly leaves his family

It's a tad long because it dips during the Truffaut part near the beginning of the third act. But it's awesome though. It was a casualty all these years of just catching clips here and there of the film and never truly watching it.

I mean, yeah -- even Spielberg said that's a reflection of a much younger man. It's pretty fucking wild by just about any standards.

TBH I haven't seen Jaws front to back in a very long time, so I'll bump that one in the queue!

50th Anniversary this year. I think some theatrical showings are coming up.

[GaijinPunch]

The Fog
Somehow I had never seen this one. Someone mentioned it here as their favorite Carpenter film, the honor of which is generally dominated by The Thing, Big Trouble, and Escape from New York. It was a pretty easy watch and while it has some early 80's "stuff" that doesn't age too well, it's not really the typical horror movie. Almost zero blood, and not a lot of gore. Body count is also quite low. All these years I had assumed it was a bloodbath. In fact, I have no idea what this says about me, but I still remember someone in fucking elementary school telling me the last scene! The movie is 45 years old, I've never seen it, and I was wondering if it was really gonna happen, and it did.

Pee-wee as Himself
Somewhat heart-breaking. A two-part documentary on the life of Paul Ruebens, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Like most kids my age, I watched Pee-wee's Playhouse every Saturday morning. In fact I taped them and watched them on repeat. That melancholic end credits music generally meant Saturday morning was over, and I was closer to school. Clocking in at about 3 hours over the two parts, it is quite thorough, and quite frankly, fantastic. It incorporates what is apparently a very small slice of his collection of 8mm video and thousands of photos - many of which are Polaroids. A photo book could easily be assembled.

Like many of us here, an avid collector. I assume such people thrive on nostalgia, which would have made his downturns very hard to deal with. Many familiar faces make appearances (even Cowboy Curtis). Quite a few clips and commentary on Phil Hartman - one towards the end where Phil more or less throws Ruebens under the bus. It begs the question of what terms were they on before Hartman's untimely death. I read that they reconciled, but there aren't many details. Anyway, quite a story, and given his impact on Generation X, it is one worth telling.

[NYN]

The Fog
It was a pretty easy watch and while it has some early 80's "stuff" that doesn't age too well, it's not really the typical horror movie. Almost zero blood, and not a lot of gore. Body count is also quite low. All these years I had assumed it was a bloodbath.

Man, the score with the wide shots waves of the ocean are so dreamy. Uh, no pleasure at all being that guy, but... the "80s" start with '81 and end with '90. That is no correction, I mention it only because somehow I feel The Fog to be of an 70s flavour. You know, the kind where a couple can meet in the cabin of a pick-up truck and, ah, can get it on later. That is the distinction between the decades, at least to me. And Carpenter himself answered in a fun Tv interview (along with John Landis and David Cronenberg, you can find it for your own edification) that, of course, "It's a kids movie". And proceeds to answers about the then production of The Thing. So there you have it, huh. Incidentally, his awed face when, in the seat next to him, Cronenberg talks about the "basic concept" of Videodrome: priceless! Or his glee when Cronenberg cuts up Landis' ramble. Ahww.

[GaijinPunch]

I would actually argue the 80's didn't really start until early 1983 or so. The few films in this window I've sen recently are definitely more 70s: Cruising and The Verdict are two that come to mind. I think Tarantino said the 60's, as we conceptualize it, wasn't until almost 1967. So yeah, takes us a while to change.

And what respectable truck driver wouldn't bang Jamie Lee Curtis circa 1980?

[vol.2]

I would actually argue the 80's didn't really start until early 1983 or so. The few films in this window I've sen recently are definitely more 70s: Cruising and The Verdict are two that come to mind. I think Tarantino said the 60's, as we conceptualize it, wasn't until almost 1967. So yeah, takes us a while to change.

Absolutely. If you think about it, it's weird that we try to squeeze cultural eras into decades to begin with. It only makes sense to do so through the lens of the human brain and the way we understand the world through categorization.

There was a distinct "late 70s" period that lasted until about 1982. Industrial design also had a very specific aesthetic in that period. It still retained some of the wood grain, but was incorporating more angular designs and push buttons over dials.

I feel the same way about the early 90s, but I think that it really went in the other direction. Whereas early 80s cultural ephemera is more associated with the late 1970s, late 1980s cultural ephemera is more associated with the distinct look of the 90s. When most people think about 90s aesthetic culture, they mean stuff that was mostly popular between 1987-1993. It's always amorphously off by about 3-5 years in any direction, probably reflecting more the generation gaps and shifts in the population more than anything else.


Alien Romulus. 6/10

It was a solid premise for a return to the basics, but it suffered horribly from frustratingly bad dialog and wooden characters. I am absolutely perplexed that a film costing 80 million dollars couldn't find the budget for a good writing team. Or maybe there's some kind of nepotism involved. Whatever the case, I find it absolutely bizarre that they could face plant the script so hard with such a solid foundation for a good action sci fi.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Alien Romulus. 6/10
I find it absolutely bizarre that they could face plant the script so hard with such a solid foundation for a good action sci fi.

because MONEY

[Sima Tuna]

Boiling point - 7.5/10
This is Kitano's second film and the first one where he wrote the screenplay himself from scratch (Violent Cop was originally a Kinji Fukasaku film, but reportedly Kitano threw out 95% of the screenplay). Kitano had such a weird distinct interesting style early in his career as a director, it's a wacky inventive mix of crime drama and dry black comedy, tonally rather inconsistent, but, even (much) more so than Violent Cop, it's so different from anything else I couldn't help but love it. Also, like Violent Cop, it looks great, and Kitano plays one of the craziest psychopaths in it.

Incidentally, if you like Kitano films, I assume you have already seen Battles Without Honor and Humanity? Doberman Cop, Cops vs Thugs etc are variations on the theme. Of course, everybody remembers Fukusaku for Battle Royale, but I'd argue the Battles Without Honor movies are his best work, by far. They have a realism to them and utterly dispassionate gaze which almost allows you to forget you are watching a film, and to believe you are instead observing a real documentary about crime in postwar Japan. I don't think it's an exaggeration to call Fukusaku's work comparable to The Godfather or Goodfellas. Though Fukusaku takes a much wider view of the whole gangster culture and phenomena, making his story less about the personal story of a single crime family (although there is a central character who ties together the arcs) and more about crime and yakuza in their totality.

Maybe it's unfair of me, but I look at Kitano's film work as largely iterative upon what Kinji Fukusaku had done previously with the Battles Without Honor movies and some of the other Bunta Sugawara stuff.

Cops vs Thugs deserves special mention for the ironic name and delivering exactly what it says on the tin, in spectacular fashion. Who is cop? Who is thug? Another aspect of Fukusaku's work I love so much is he never reveres the Yakuza. He doesn't go out of his way to shit on them like Kurosawa did (in Yojimbo,) but he makes it clear these are not heroic characters and they are not worth emulating. They have a kind of honor but even that is often subject to negotiation.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I would actually argue the 80's didn't really start until early 1983 or so. The few films in this window I've sen recently are definitely more 70s: Cruising and The Verdict are two that come to mind. I think Tarantino said the 60's, as we conceptualize it, wasn't until almost 1967. So yeah, takes us a while to change.

Absolutely. If you think about it, it's weird that we try to squeeze cultural eras into decades to begin with. It only makes sense to do so through the lens of the human brain and the way we understand the world through categorization.

There was a distinct "late 70s" period that lasted until about 1982. Industrial design also had a very specific aesthetic in that period. It still retained some of the wood grain, but was incorporating more angular designs and push buttons over dials.

I feel the same way about the early 90s, but I think that it really went in the other direction. Whereas early 80s cultural ephemera is more associated with the late 1970s, late 1980s cultural ephemera is more associated with the distinct look of the 90s. When most people think about 90s aesthetic culture, they mean stuff that was mostly popular between 1987-1993. It's always amorphously off by about 3-5 years in any direction, probably reflecting more the generation gaps and shifts in the population more than anything else.


Alien Romulus. 6/10

It was a solid premise for a return to the basics, but it suffered horribly from frustratingly bad dialog and wooden characters. I am absolutely perplexed that a film costing 80 million dollars couldn't find the budget for a good writing team. Or maybe there's some kind of nepotism involved. Whatever the case, I find it absolutely bizarre that they could face plant the script so hard with such a solid foundation for a good action sci fi.

Plus the fact that "Alien Romulus" was nominated for best special effects at the 2025 Oscars Awards show back in March of this year only to be snubbed by "Dune Part II" winning the Oscar for best Visual Effects instead. It is what it is in the end as they say, ain't that right?

----------
Considering that AR takes place 20 years after the events of Alien and 35 years before what transpires in Aliens -- so AR is regarded as a proper Alien "interquel" film smack dab between those two legendary Alien films (even director James Cameron was consulted as to how AR would actually fit in within the Alien movie franchise/mythos being that it takes place quite sometime before Aliens).
----------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Boiling point - 7.5/10
This is Kitano's second film and the first one where he wrote the screenplay himself from scratch (Violent Cop was originally a Kinji Fukasaku film, but reportedly Kitano threw out 95% of the screenplay). Kitano had such a weird distinct interesting style early in his career as a director, it's a wacky inventive mix of crime drama and dry black comedy, tonally rather inconsistent, but, even (much) more so than Violent Cop, it's so different from anything else I couldn't help but love it. Also, like Violent Cop, it looks great, and Kitano plays one of the craziest psychopaths in it.

Incidentally, if you like Kitano films, I assume you have already seen Battles Without Honor and Humanity? Doberman Cop, Cops vs Thugs etc are variations on the theme. Of course, everybody remembers Fukusaku for Battle Royale, but I'd argue the Battles Without Honor movies are his best work, by far. They have a realism to them and utterly dispassionate gaze which almost allows you to forget you are watching a film, and to believe you are instead observing a real documentary about crime in postwar Japan. I don't think it's an exaggeration to call Fukusaku's work comparable to The Godfather or Goodfellas. Though Fukusaku takes a much wider view of the whole gangster culture and phenomena, making his story less about the personal story of a single crime family (although there is a central character who ties together the arcs) and more about crime and yakuza in their totality.

Maybe it's unfair of me, but I look at Kitano's film work as largely iterative upon what Kinji Fukusaku had done previously with the Battles Without Honor movies and some of the other Bunta Sugawara stuff.

Cops vs Thugs deserves special mention for the ironic name and delivering exactly what it says on the tin, in spectacular fashion. Who is cop? Who is thug? Another aspect of Fukusaku's work I love so much is he never reveres the Yakuza. He doesn't go out of his way to shit on them like Kurosawa did (in Yojimbo,) but he makes it clear these are not heroic characters and they are not worth emulating. They have a kind of honor but even that is often subject to negotiation.

I've seen very few Fukasaku films, and none of the ones you mentioned; thanks for the recommendations and your commentary, looking forward to watching more of them, especially since you state that Kitano did many of the things that Fukasaku had already done.

[Lord British]

Sherman's March - 1985 - Ross McElwee




A single filmmaker pushing 40 setting out to make a documentary about Sherman's March gets distracted by all the single women that his friends and family are trying to set him up with. It's a remarkably hilarious time capsule of the mid to upper middle-class South of the mid-80's. It's a little long at about 150min, but most of it is gold and there's really nothing else like it (though it has some Grey Gardens vibes). I found it on Kanopy (go out and get a library card!) but other than that good luck. Highly recommended.

Can't find a perfect trailer for it but here's this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTzvNI_h6nE

[neorichieb1971]

Mission impossible (last reckoning or whatever it is at the movie theater). 7/10.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Mission impossible (last reckoning or whatever it is at the movie theater). 7/10.

There's talk/chatter about that "Mission Impossible: The Last Reckoning" might not be "the final MI movie" for the film franchise when Tom Cruise was asked about it -- his answer was, "We'll just have to wait & see."

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[vol.2]

I just wrapped on principal photography on a recent indie film here in Baltimore. My involvement was mostly props. I did a lot of electronics related things, but also some costume design. I can't give you a lot of images right now, but I'll share this one photo of this armor that I played a big role in creating. The idea for what we were doing and the direction was my friend Jimmy, but I mostly did the actual creation and assembly of this. It turned out really well, and I am super happy with the way that things are looking. I'll share more when I have more. Hope some of you here find this interesting.

The film is called "Bad Head."

Spoiler

[GaijinPunch]

The Game (1997)

I saw this on release, and remembered very little of it, other than enjoying it. I was pretty hungover so needed something that I wouldn't mind if I fell asleep halfway through and landed on this. Has aged pretty well, I must say. Yeah it's far-fetched, but it's a pretty fun ride, and has Fincher's signature look. Interesting to see quite a few familiar faces that went on to do some other things. And, at least one, who should have gone on to do better things but somehow didn't.

I had totally forgotten this was a San Francisco movie. In fact, it took me at least 20 minutes to realize it was a San Francisco movie. And not 10 minutes later they're doing a scene on a staircase which is the bane of my fucking existence right now. It's literally 15 feet outside my front door. At just under 70 steps, after a long day at work + gym, I've sucked major wind getting to the top. Surprisingly the scene before and right after were all right around the corner from each other (in Lower Nob Hill). Most of the time people warp all over cities.

[GaijinPunch]

The film is called "Bad Head."

You were the fluffer, weren't you?

[vol.2]

You were the fluffer, weren't you?

Not this time!

In spite of the bawdy sounding name, it's not a porno. It's more of a post apocalyptic sci fi thing. I honestly don't know what it's all going to look like when it gets edited together, but it looks great, frame-by-frame.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

"Bad Head."

Spoiler

I hope it'll be as out there as the image you posted is! Looks pretty cool already, keep us up to date!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Game (1997)

I saw this on release, and remembered very little of it, other than enjoying it. I was pretty hungover so needed something that I wouldn't mind if I fell asleep halfway through and landed on this. Has aged pretty well, I must say. Yeah it's far-fetched, but it's a pretty fun ride, and has Fincher's signature look. Interesting to see quite a few familiar faces that went on to do some other things. And, at least one, who should have gone on to do better things but somehow didn't.

I had totally forgotten this was a San Francisco movie. In fact, it took me at least 20 minutes to realize it was a San Francisco movie. And not 10 minutes later they're doing a scene on a staircase which is the bane of my fucking existence right now. It's literally 15 feet outside my front door. At just under 70 steps, after a long day at work + gym, I've sucked major wind getting to the top. Surprisingly the scene before and right after were all right around the corner from each other (in Lower Nob Hill). Most of the time people warp all over cities.

I could tell that "The Game" circa 1997 was shot on location in San Francisco quite easily.

Another film shot in San Francisco's Pacific Heights back in February of 1990 and released on the big screen in June of 1990, is aptly titled "Pacific Heights" thriller starring Matthew Modine, Melanie Griffin and Michael Keaton. The exterior shots of the actual house were done on location but the interior shots were done on a studio stage indeed. There's one scene where Keaton's character walks up and down the outside stairway leading to the front door but ended up being cut in the editing room floor (and thus not shown in the "final cut" version of PH). Nowadays buying a house in the ritzy PH area is within the $24 million+ range easily -- if you got that kind of "money to burn" buying a house there, more power to you. If you watch the PH movie, the dynamical premise of a married couple trying to evict a San Francisco rental tenant (Keaton's character) and the legal issues/ramifications surrounding it, is surprisingly real.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[vol.2]

I hope it'll be as out there as the image you posted is! Looks pretty cool already, keep us up to date!

It is every bit as "out there" as that photo and then some. I will absolutely put up more info once they get the marketing ball rolling; there will eventually be a website and such.

Other details: Albert Birney was on set and contributed to some scenes. He is the director of Strawberry Mansion from 2021. Similarly, Dan Deacon is doing the soundtrack for this film.

[GaijinPunch]

owadays buying a house in the ritzy PH area is within the $24 million+ range easily -- if you got that kind of "money to burn" buying a house there, more power to you.

Pacific Heights is not that ritzy. Plenty of homes for 1-2 million which is not pricey for California.

[NYN]

The Gift

Again, after some decade. From what I can gather, at some point Sam Raimi fancied himself a filmmaker. This one, and there might be others from the pre-Spider-Man, uh, era, relies on solid characters and fine performances. No overdone camp and clown collage summer vacation. Just a movie. OK, there is a scene that does not fit, since it isn't a horror flick. And it runs a little too long, for what a tale it is. And, yeah, sure enough, the main character drives The Delta 88. Other than that, he breaks his own mold for it, which I can find amazing enough. The supernatural is no threat, what is left is the image of humanity: it's bleak and often ugly. All in all I recognize this as an "mature Raimi", if there can be such a term. Go figure.

[GaijinPunch]

Poor Things

Well this was not exactly what I expected. I had completely forgotten that it was the same guy that did The Lobster, which might have put me in a different frame of mine. Anyway, to over simplify it without giving too much away (but be far more descriptive than the blurb given on Amazon Prime), it's a story of a young woman discovering the world, including it's dirty underbelly, generally through experience. Most of the men's motives range from questionable to awful. I've never seen more consensual sex and nudity that was in no way erotic. Costumes and set design were amazing, and I'm sure that's what just about anyone would remember about it. For me, the weird stuff he did with ultra wide angle lenses (some bordering on a fish eye) I thought were great. They even had a couple of scenes shot with "swirly bokeh" which I'm sure they did in post, although there are some lenses that achieve this effect. I digress. The commentary on society, how it treats women, how men treat women, free will, control, etc. are not subtle, which was fine with me.