Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (1989) (Directed by Hideki "I need to take a shower" Takayama) And so my disturbing movie kick continues with Legend of the Overfiend, a Japanese animated flick that borders on the pornographic. Well it is fairly story heavy thus it really isn't pornographic in the traditional sense. Regardless, Sigmund Freud and H.P. Lovecraft would be having a field day with this mess. The horror elements work incredibly well, but the character responses and framing to the events is just laughably inhuman. And that's the thing with Legend of the Overfiend, it's too goofy to be scary but the subject matter is too dense to be amusing. Oh the animation quality is amazing, with the night scenes in particular being moody. It needs to be seen to be believed, thus I give this a strong recommendation to horror fans and sick puppies. There's too much quality on display to call it trash, but the writing is so laughably juvenile it fumbles about. Think Humanoids from the Deep meets La Jetée, with a dash of Lovecraft. Why yes, there is nothing else like it. A shameful 8.0/10 from me.
Der Untergang (Downfall) on DVD earlier. A wonderful film, brilliantly acted. 10/10 Downfall (2004) ⭐ 8.2 | Biography, Drama, History
The Lighthouse (2019). 8/10. Another amazing performance by Willem Dafoe. Weird AF. Took a couple of days to get this one out of my brain, the same feeling I get after finishing a book by James Ellroy. My friend's son said it's one of his favorite movies. I'm beginning to wonder about that boy.
Going All The Way: The Director’s Edit (B+) Now…I saw the original version a few times but that was many moons ago. I don’t think this is significantly different but there are added scenes that you can tell aren’t of the same quality or color grade, but I didn’t find it particularly distracting either. I’m pretty sure I have the original cut on DVD packed away somewhere, I’ll have to compare At some point. But this is a solid coming-of-age story of two people back from the Korean War.
The Boy- 7/10 Good but not great horror flick about yet another creepy doll (but with a twist). Decent story, cool setting, solid acting, and a few good jump scares, but not really all that scary. Lauren Cohan is gorgeous.
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) For a Few Dollars More (1965) If I enjoy a Western because, like these films, the "Heroes" possess a moral ambiguity, am I going to Hell? Of course, the bad guys are even worse than our bad guys, Eastwood and Van Cleef, indeed! I think this is the kind of Western I sit firm with. Anyway, the 4K UHD for both films are pretty fine. They are tip-top restorations. Now we know why all of those Karate films from the '70s had English dubs that sound like Lee Van Cleef. Because he had the most bad ass American tough guy voice that they could imagine. As for Eastwood, there was a lot of nuances in his performance that I didn't recognize when I was a kid. My rating: 4+4=3
Mosul, from 2019 on Netflix. About the campaign to push Daesh/Islamic State out of of Mosul, Iraq, in 2017. Based on a true story that was later written up in a New Yorker article, about an elite unit of former city police from Mosul who were fighting on their home turf for their own city. I have a low tolerance for justifications to justify blood feuds, vengeance, and war; all too often, they're rationalization for futile and seemingly endless cycles of warfare long after the original circumstances were forgotten. Not in Mosul. Not in this case; not with these locals. This squad is motivated by a very immediate rage for settling accounts. Bound and determined. No spoilers; if the story interests you, watch the film for yourself. Mosul is by far the most realistic war movie I've ever seen, and I just watched the new version of All Quiet On The Western Front a few weeks ago. I get that actual realism isn't really possible when it comes to depicting warfare, but this one is about the limit of what's achievable within the constraints of the audiovisual realm of media. I felt like the dust was dispersing through the screen into my living room. And the gun battles were such a far cry from the typical fantasy fodder of American-directed films. As it happens, this is an American-made film, featuring a cast of Arab actors directed by Mark Carnahan. (I used to have a friendly acquaintance with his brother Joe, also a talented film director.) It's a solid piece of work.
Old (Shyamalan - 2021) via Amazon Prime 2.5/4 stars I finally got around to watching this. It was okay-good enough to hold my interest. But, like each of the recent Shyamalan feel-good-not flicks, it wasn't very cinematic. It comes off as something that should be streaming on Netflix as a new Twilight Zone series-not something to pay $15 for at the theater. The ending was so rushed it was seemed amateurish.
Midsommar (2019) Like the previous time, I still think the first 15 minutes are the only good part of the movie. Once they arrive in Sweden, the movie doesn't really work for me. I don't know what director Ari Aster is trying to convey or achieve. 5/10
one more movie...... The Red House. I love this movie; I traded in a bunch of DVDs to a then-local (sigh....) record store for enough cash to get it during a week when I didn't have enough back in October 2020, as a lot of Blu-rays and such were constantly going out of stock with Amazon - I didn't know it would still be around (it is). Movie about mental illness/madness, including what's known as emotional incest. Also seeing Allene Roberts as Meg, the poor, trapped adopted daughter of Pete Morgan, played by Edward G. Robinson. With Julie London as her rival Tibby, the girl who the boy she loves, Nath, played by Lon McAllister. With Judith Anderson as Pete's trapped sister Ellen, and Rory Calhoun as Teller (said afformentioned "jerk" in my previous post on this thread); he's Nath's rival for Tibby. EXCELLENT all-around movie, with a really superb performance by Allene Roberts, who also was in the movie Union Station (1950, with William Holden and Nancy Olson) and in some episodes Adventures of Superman episode (including the classic The Haunted Lighthouse). This and Scarlet Street are my favorite Robinson movies. 10/10 Isn't love grand? Yeah, not painful at all... A great moment... And... more than just a little madness on the part of her father, Pete... Absolute classic! Spoiler: DVDBeaver's technical notes/review - plus synopsis ADDITION: Film Detective - Region FREE Blu-ray - March 2016: Firstly, every time I see this film - I love it. The atmosphere is so thick. It's positioning in the public domain is unfortunate - and I always feared it would hold back a stellar release. The new Film Detective (A Bucket of Blood, Beat the Devil, Hollow Triumph, The Bat) 1080P is a BD-R but superior to the HD Cinema Blu-ray in that it doesn't have the boosting, gains some texture and looks notably more film-like. It is cited as 'transferred and restored from 35mm archival film elements' - which isn't saying a lot. It is still hazy but also has a bit richer contrast - I see some minor speckles and damage that the HD Cinema, unfortunately, wiped clean - so that is a positive. It looked pleasing in-motion although I can't say that this will be the best video transfer to digital - it appears to hold that position right now - which is encouraging. Discerning fans will appreciate the loss of the waxiness found on the 2012 Blu-ray. Audio is exported via a DTS-HD Master (24-bit) in 2,0 channel and this is appealing - if also maintaining an edge of imperfection. The Miklós Rózsa score (The Killers, The Lost Weekend, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Double Indemnity) adds significantly to the film experience - demonstratively in uncompressed adding to the film's dark auras. Film Detective also add optional English subtitles (see sample) but the region-free disc is truly bare-bones with no supplements - where I appreciated HD Cinema's inclusion of the commentary. So, the price represents the lack of extras and those keen on Noir or this particular film - should indulge. I was happy to see it in 1080P without DNR marring the presentation. Great flic - I could watch it again right now. Keep up the efforts Film Detective (stop the BD-R'ing though) - your modest package does have value and there are fans who appreciate the attempts at authenticity. Recommended! *and their initial comments about the movie (the synopsis), below - On the outskirts of a rural town, an isolated farm hosts a small family with a dark secret. At the heart of the neighboring forest sits the red house, terrorizing trespassers with the sound of horrific screams emanating from within its walls. The solitary family keeps the knowledge of the house closely guarded, but when a stranger comes to the farm to help with chores, the web of secrecy begins to unravel. The violence that scarred the family begins to revisit the land and threatens to destroy them all. Filled with noir-ish motifs and striking lighting, The Red House brings together breathtaking drama and chilling horror. Edward G. Robinson is masterful as the burdened recluse, and Julie London is seductive as a spoiled schoolgirl.
The parodies of this scene are plentiful and hysterical. https://www.youtube.com/user/hitlerrantsparodies
Going All The Way - skimmed through the original cut to refresh my memory. Director Edit is about 20 minutes longer…changed opening credits, added internal monologue, cut out some cheesy music moments, giving the movie a more serious tone. Some subplots are dropped seemingly in favor of focusing on the relationship between these two ex-soldiers from different backgrounds. They also stripped out some of the 90’s era movie making to make it seem a bit more timeless. There is one scene that is more graphic in the new version, but maybe is more powerful as it was in the original cut. Also of not is a 3 hour (!!) making of on the new Director’s Edit blu-ray…I’m only 1 hour in and it’s very good. The theatrical cut is not included.
White Lightning (1973) - Blu-ray 8/10 One of my favorite Burt Reynolds movies. He stars as 'Gator' McKlusky who's doing time for bootlegging when he finds out his younger brother has been killed by a corrupt sheriff played by Ned Beatty. He convinces the Feds to let him out so he can get incriminating evidence on the sheriff for tax fraud. There was a sequel simply called Gator which I don't like near as much. This is Burt before he got too silly.
The Eight Mountains (2022) - Amazon 8.5/10 Very good Italian film about a friendship between two men who first meet as children when one of them goes to a small village in the Italian Alps for the summer.
Sherman’s March - 1986 - USA Sherman’s March - 1986 - 7/10 Ross McElwee’s documentary about the South, focusing on the ramifications of the Union Army under William Tecumseh Sherman and their ruinous march from Atlanta to Savannah. Instead, however, McElwee veers into his disastrous relationships with females. Seemingly from one loony girlfriend to another. We’re talking seriously oddball belles. All of whom he films obsessively, constantly. I’m amazed none shot or bludgeoned him. Throughout, this is laugh out loud funny. Burt Reynolds obsessing? Please! Thing is, this “doc” is really Southern. Deeply Southern. Such DNA is almost essential for “getting this”. Probably overlong at 2+ hours.
Fast X : The epitome of big dumb popcorn movie so full of cliches and sheer goofiness totally grade A "B movie". Rewatched "Pulp Fiction" for the first time in a while it totally holds up, to me its pretty close to the perfect movie in the sense that there are no wasted or extraneous scenes or dialog.
