What are you watching?

[agent999]

How can we still not have a disc of Spider Labyrinth? I watched Under the Silver Lake. I agree with Nabonga (from 5 years ago) that this film will eventually find its audience, but apparently it will take a while.

Rumour is that Severin are putting Spider Labyrinth out.

[Newt Cox]

Misterjaw-Kino Lober DVD
After watching a few of the shorts I kind of remembered this. When Freleng studios had brought the Pink Panther theatrical shorts to TV they wanted something new to add to the package. With Jaws being huge they did their own ripoff. But unlike Jabberjaw,they didn;t go the Scooby Doo route. This is Misterjaw and his buddy bumbling around the ocean and on land. This feels a bit like Yogi Bear if Yogi and Boo Boo were a shark and catfish. The two documentaries are fun. So are the commentaries.

The Dogfather-Kino Lober Blu Ray
This one I didn't remember at all. Supposedly it was part of the Pink Panther Syndication package. Take the Godfather,replace the leads with dogs and add a dash of Top Cat. Get the same two documentaries as Misterjaw. And commentaries on a few of the shorts.

Ant and the Aardvark-Kino Lober Blu Ray
These I know I saw as a kid. Loved them now and love them then. Get two documentaries,not the same two from the previous two sets. Piles of commentaries. Where I learned it isn't Jackie Mason voicing the Aardvark like I have thought for years.

Roland and Rattfink-Kino Lober Blu Ray
While I have vague memories of these two according to the documentaries and commentaries these never aired in syndication. Supposedly too much violence in them. And I betting Rattfink's habit of smoking doesnt help. Very Very 60s in tone. ROland is the good guy,Rattfink is the heel. And each cartoon they get plugged into various situations. With no real continuity between the shorts.

[Dom D]

Guardians Of The Galaxy 3:

Did James Gunn just go vegan recently? Fuck... I don't need my day made worse by Gunn making me feel bad about the history of a cgi raccoon. Boys really working the emotional heartstrings of the animal lovers in this one.

I feel like I'm right in saying that Gunn is the only writer/director to come out of the superhero craze with some sort of auteur status? The Russo brothers delivered the biggest hits but their star dims with their every further endeavour these days. Gunn though does have a certain something. A lot of that something can be attributed to dance sequences and 80s rock but he's also talented at going for the feels in a Spielbergian way.

The opening sequence of this film demonstrates why this type of film will never be for me. A new protagonist turns up and throws our heroes through walls, rips their heads off etc. but theyll all be fine. Sets it up from the start as stakeless. I just don't really get it. How do you get involved in an action film when nothing can harm your protagonists?

Still....

[BW Haggar]

The Hot Rock
(Peter Yates, 1972)

This New York-set comedic heist movie is one of those films in which all the component parts are top notch. William Goldman script based on a Donald Westlake novel, stylish direction from Yates, great photography and inspired use of Manhattan locations, Quincy Jones score, solid performances across the board, a host of interesting / likeable characters.... so why does it all feel so flat and unsatisfactory?

At first, I was thinking that it's just a case of other '70s films in a similar vein ('The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3', 'The Silent Partner') being so exceptional that this one suffers simply as result of not quite hitting their exalted level. Then I realised that, the crucial difference is, those films both actually feature threat, and suspense, and violence. They're thrillers which are funny, but the crime narratives take precedence, and don't get watered down as a result.

With 'The Hot Rock' on the other hand, it's clear from the outset that we're in for a pretty light-hearted affair; the characters are going to bumble through various scrapes and complications, but they're all going to make it out in one piece. There's not going to be any nasty, downer shit going on to make us feel uncomfortable or carry the risk of an 'R' rating, so we can just relax and chuckle through it along with them.

This approach could have worked out if it was an outrageous, laugh-a-minute comedy, but... it's not. It's shot and played like a straight thriller. There are some witty lines and amusing moments, but they're all pretty low key. So... ultimately, it fails to engage with either set of genre expectations, despite being basically flawless in terms of technique and craftsmanship.

Very reminiscent of Friedkin's similarly underwhelming 'The Brink's Job' in that regard.

Ho hum.

B-

[Newt Cox]

Tijuana Toads-Kino Lober Blu ray-Saw these as a kid in the Texas Toads version. Tryng to get all the DPF stuff on Blu and it was cheap. Damn loaded with extras and totally different cartoons with the original audio.

[Newt Cox]

Hell Night-Scream Blu Ray-Fun but forgettable 80s horror. Without Blair no one would remember this.

Pump Up the Volume-Warner Archive Blu-Still one of my favorite films from my teen years. Avoid the Disney remake of this.

Friday-Blu ray no clue who released it-Dad wanted a comedy after the last two films. Claims he never saw this. Only took him 30 minutes to stop calling Ice Cube Ice T. Still fun but feels un even.

[Newt Cox]

Triple Feature today. Thanks to the Kino Lober sale

The Park is Mine-Blu ray- Very veyr inspired by First Blood. But still fun. Tommy Lee Jones is great as the lead. Yaphet is also good.

Porkys 2 the next day--Blu ray-Always been my least favorite of the legit Porkys films,lets just pretend part 4 Pimpin Pee Wee doesn't exist. Still the blu looks good and sounds good.

Porky's Revenge-Blu ray-This one is just dumb fun. Ya the guys look like they are mid 30s. Again the blu looks and sounds good.

[Newt Cox]

Dazed and Confused-Still as fun as it was when I saw it 30 years ago at a drive in.
Revenge of the Nerds-Wanted another comedy,she hadn;t seen it in years. Booger rules
Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe-Got told we had seen enough comedies for the evening and a good print of this is on YT. More fun than it should be.

[BW Haggar]

I watched 'The Silent Partner' a couple of years ago on my wfie's recommendation, and yes, it absolutely rules.

Amongst other things, it strikes a really interesting (very '70s) balance between screwball comedy and bleak, violent nastiness (the latter largely courtesy of Christopher Plummer, who is absolutely terrifying).

It definitely deserves to be better known, but in a way, I'm kind of glad that films like this sometimes fall under the radar, because it allows each of us to stumble across them at some point in our lives, without much sense of expectation, and enjoy an authentic "I can't believe how fucking great this is!" moment.

[Scott]

Silent Partner (1978):

It was a first viewing of this little classic. Fucking loved it. Best film I've seen in many a moon. It's nice to see a film where the hero is so clever. From his original scheme to get the money, and how he traps the bad guy, to the little touches like how he makes sure to shag the woman sent to spy on him BEFORE he tells her that she's busted.

Very, very well written movie with lots of character stuff happening on the edge of the story, sometimes even in the background.

Deserves to be much better known than it is. Happens to be streamable on YouTube.

Hey, thanks for the heads up, I've never seen this either and will check it out!

[Dom D]

Silent Partner (1978):

It was a first viewing of this little classic. Fucking loved it. Best film I've seen in many a moon. It's nice to see a film where the hero is so clever. From his original scheme to get the money, and how he traps the bad guy, to the little touches like how he makes sure to shag the woman sent to spy on him BEFORE he tells her that she's busted.

Very, very well written movie with lots of character stuff happening on the edge of the story, sometimes even in the background.

Deserves to be much better known than it is. Happens to be streamable on YouTube.

[Nabonga]

The Beast In Space
What the hell was Alfonso Brescia smoking when he made this fever dream and
where can I get some? A bizarre mix of porn and dollar store sci-fi hokum.

I was horribly bored until it suddenly became amazing throwing in fauns with massive
hardons, clunky robots, massive sentient computers and golden lightsaber wielding robots
in terrible haircuts into the mix.

Vassili Karis plays the ignorance card, pretends it's raining and denies remembering a single
thing about making the film while while Lucio Rosato all but admits he and Swedish porn vixen
Marina Hedman were really doing it (I don't doubt it because he ate that booty like groceries).

Sirpa Lane of La Bete-fame I never got the appeal of tbh. Great body, catastrophically uninteresting
everything else. Kudos to her though for having some sort of career despite that.

I think my brain melted towards the end of watching this because I just started laughing at the
bonkers insanity unfolding on the screen. It's shit, but amazing! I'm glad it exists.

[Dom D]

Tetris: Witrh this film, along with Air, it's an eerie thought that Hollywood released two movies about successes in licensing at the same time. I can kind of visualise the confusion it comes out of. Studio executives sitting around scratching their heads about why no one wants to watch even sure fire hits like new Star Wars movies now and figuring they'd go with their gut and tell the sort of stories that get them excited, tales of licensing deals! God bless the great capatalist beast!

Anyway, unlike Air, there is actually a story here. I watched a documentary on this deal a couple years back and I remember some of it. The bits I do remember lead me to think that this probably is a reasonably accurate take on the story- excepting the pointless climatic chase scene of our heroes fleeing Russia. It's a story of various Western organisations all trying to license a game that the Russian government has assumed control of, meaning visits to Moscow to meet with an utterly inscrutable, utterly terrifying Russian government who may or may not want to make some money. It's a fucking mess and a good tale reasonably well told here though they could have dropped the 8 bit animations that pop up at inopportune moments.

[Jason C]

Death to Smoochy (UK-Germany-USA-Canada, 2002) 4/10 **

!!!!SPOLIERS!!!!!
What started off with so much promise continually faded until I no longer wanted to continue. I stuck with it thinking there would be a mind-blowing twist, only to be disappointed. The only time I came close to laughing out loud was one of Robin Williams’ screams of “I’m Rainbow F$#*KING Randolph”. Edward Norton was great in the role, but he never really grew into something interesting. I don’t understand why he never grew beyond being a saccharin sweet sap. I guess having him turn out to be a fraud would have been an obvious choice, but it also would have been more interesting. Jon Stewart was great. But I hate Catherine Keener in everything she is in.

[f.ramses]

Actually revisited Spider Labyrinth myself this weekend and even though I enjoyed it more than any previous viewing I'm still not crazy about it. I'd probably upgrade though, one copy I have is practically unwatchable and while the other is a vast improvement it's not great either.