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A classic. I think Cushing may be my all-time favorite Van Helsing.

It is funny to see what passed for shock sensationalism back then--now it's all very tame.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 6:54 PM on May 26, 2024

Chorus as war correspondent was brilliant.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 6:53 PM on May 26, 2024

Personally I refuse to see a movie where the cast and crew have fewer than twenty äs in their name among them.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 2:24 PM on May 22, 2024

I watched this movie at least a dozen times as a kid. In addition to the funny bits, it gave me the line I often use on social media when I want to reproach someone for disgracing themselves for money: "There's always work at the post office."
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 8:18 AM on May 15, 2024

These movies don't look like they'd appeal to me, but danged if Maxxxine doesn't have a good, intriguing trailer.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 11:59 AM on May 13, 2024

I keep hearing that these films are surprisingly good, but something about their trailers always sets off animal-cruelty anxieties in my brain. Even if the animals are CGI super-evolved apes! Weird but true.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 1:27 PM on May 10, 2024

You're never going to see me claiming I don't enjoy a movie in which a battered-up Ryan Gosling is still starry-eyed over his amazing professional-artist ex-girlfriend, but I think Leitch decides a script is good enough about two revisions too soon, and he's not really great about directing stand-alone comedy bits, either. So you get these spaces in some of his films where he's built up some goodwill and the viewer is ready to go with it but the banter is still in the "[insert witty… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:38 PM on May 3, 2024

this movie had a lot of moments that were doing the same thing except they were actually fun

Very true! When the Miami Vice theme kicked in during the harbor chase, I giggled (and wondered how many under 40 got the joke/reference).

I didn't mind the action-movie quotes, and I laughed out loud at Winston Duke bellowing "DWAYNE...'THE ROCK'...JOHNSON!" as he flipped his opponent over the kitchen island...that was… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 11:46 AM on May 4, 2024

Please. They're professionals.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 8:06 PM on May 4, 2024

But...only nominally (*). The lead character in both is a stunt man named Colt Seavers, there's a woman named Jody in it. That's about it. I've actually been wondering if it's been a box-office disappointment because there is no ready-made nostalgia market for the original show and everyone else is like, ehhhhhhh, a reboot of something I've barely even heard of, pass.

(Also, the first trailer was very one-note and not too appealing. The second was much better, and… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 4:38 PM on May 5, 2024

I just got the Japanese 4K release (note: no English subs, just vibes). The packaging looks great. I'll be busting this out this weekend for a viewing. With the strength of the dollar against the yen, still not a cheap buy, but not crazy expensive.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 10:07 PM on April 30, 2024

Let's stipulate that putting Auschwitz in a superhero film can never not imperil good taste (at the very least). I still have Feelings about this one. McAvoy and Fassbender are great at conveying the chemistry that has those two fighting, hating, and loving each other for decades afterwards. Erik is mesmerizing as Lone Nazi Hunter (sometimes when I get depressed about the state of the world, I just watch the scene in the Argentinian pub a few times) and the movie goes surprisingly far in… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 5:14 PM on April 30, 2024

It's interesting, because Wrath of Man, while a nasty piece of work altogether and featuring Jason Statham doing the semi-superhuman bit that tends to undermine tension, was nonetheless effectively structured as an action movie with actual challenges and stakes for the protagonist. I didn't see Covenant, but all his other later movies have been less and less effective as action films, which would be fine, except the style is wearing… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:06 PM on April 19, 2024

Color-blind casting doesn't mean "pretend that the actor doesn't have a particular racialized identity." There's a difference between casting the second-tier character described in the script as "Freddy the munitions guy" with Henry Golding, therefore deciding his character is an escapee from the Japanese occupation of Singapore or similar, and casting Henry Golding as a character who otherwise seems to function as white, particularly in a war in which racial ideology was a… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 5:55 PM on April 20, 2024

Um. That's literally what it means. It's why you could go to the RSC and see a black Hal with a Chinese Falstaff. Or Iannuci's David Copperfield.

No, it's considerably more complicated than that, but if this is going to be a discussion where people don't see anything unsettling about a movie where an actor seems to be literally deracialized--where you're not seeing Dev Patel, the Indian actor, as Copperfield, but Henry Golding,… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:28 AM on April 21, 2024

Outrageous levels of laziness have become a Ritchie hallmark, I fear, hampering films that are okay but could've been considerably better, like Man from UNCLE.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 2:20 PM on April 30, 2024

The White House break-in and the prison-cell breakout are just great, extremely enjoyable superhero action setpieces, possibly rivalled only by the first Cap-Winter Soldier fight in Winter Soldier.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 12:53 PM on April 28, 2024

It's really more of an "arbitrary individual sports, with lots of bodies" movie. It almost feels like Zendaya's promotional outfits have had more of a marked tennis aesthetic than her wardrobe here did.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 10:32 AM on April 27, 2024

Cute note: the umpire, Darnell Appling, is Zendaya's longtime assistant who often body-doubles (!!!) for her. From his build and voice, I thought he might be a trans man (would've been nice rep), but apparently he just is that slight.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 10:38 AM on April 27, 2024

Brett Ratner was finally hired, but by then the script had gone through so many revisions that any chance of X-Men 3 being a good movie was lost.

X3 was terrible, a near-franchise-killer, next to which the inartful-but-has-its-moments X1 looks like The Rules of the Game or something.

Really there have only been 2.5 good movies (for superhero movie values of good: I write as an X-fan and as someone who… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 4:18 PM on April 26, 2024

Brian Cox, who seems to be having a lot of fun as Wolverine's creator/nemesis

This is where I first became aware of him, and I'd say he easily outclasses every other non-mutant villain in the entire series, as well as most "normie" bad guys in the MCU (which of course this film is not part of).
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 10:30 AM on April 27, 2024

It's the poorly-thought-out themes that will so often take out a real contender. "Chaos cuisine" might've been okay for a quickfire, but it was a bad main challenge.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 10:50 PM on April 25, 2024

I think you'll be happy with it, Aznable, so long as you don't have anything against poop jokes.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:50 AM on April 16, 2024

Not to be dramatic, but I would die for Bond.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 8:51 PM on April 19, 2024

The critical reaction seems to suggest that a lot of people have forgotten how to let a stupid movie just wash over them.

Or they had to watch that stupid one-note trailer for months on end until there was no way they couldn't hate it. I believe you guys that it was a fun movie, but, boy, did the relentless advertising kill any desire I might've had to see it.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 12:42 PM on April 14, 2024

Now showing at NYC Film Forum as lead-in to their Delon retrospective.

I find this movie fascinating, but I've also always felt that the critical attempt to impose some kind of elaborate "code" on Jef is an overreach. Taken as a study of masculine honor/ethics, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:01 AM on April 14, 2024

This is a very 70s movie beneath the modern flourishes.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:12 PM on April 12, 2024

...That said, I mostly enjoyed it and liked the way the sallying forth to battle of the hijra was depicted. I mean, you could already tell back in their temple district (?) that those were some street queens--even the youngest and prettiest looked like they'd had to cut a bitch or two in their day--but it looked great.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:48 AM on April 13, 2024

The SBC character is a little overplayed, to the point that it does start to feel homophobic. So I tend to watch this one in clips. The dinner prayer is indeed glorious. "It's a bit odd and off-puttin' to pray to a baby." "Your injury is one of ignorance and pride!"

For those of us born into, let's say, more chaotic families, the "I don't know what organ or bone people have that makes them act right, but I was born without it" line hits.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 11:02 AM on April 6, 2024

I just now realized that I had mentally confused this one with Amityville Horror 2 and this one does not feature incest.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 10:45 AM on April 5, 2024

Passable summer movie. I like poor weird Phoebe with her catastrophic first crush. I'm guessing a more limited budget meant we weren't subjected to a 45-minute final battle, which is fine by me, but they could've used that time to fill in a bit more character work. Like I thought for sure we were going to hear that Melody blamed herself for not saving her family, hence setting herself free by her actions at the end, but...no?

The funniest shot was the very last one,… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 10:08 PM on April 3, 2024

Yeah, Inferno was the start of my exit from reading X-Men as a teenager.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 3:41 PM on March 28, 2024

I was very intrigued by the hopped rice pudding. And it was hilarious that the judges were sneering at the "pre-dessert" when it turned out (right?) to be the winning dish.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 11:47 AM on March 28, 2024

You may be right. I was watching while doing something else.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 1:53 PM on March 28, 2024

Kind of glad they got rid of the clown (*) first instead of dragging it out for several episodes.

(*) He may be a perfectly nice guy and good cook, but he chose that particular role for his appearance here.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 8:05 PM on March 27, 2024

(I also approve of the change in immunity rules.)
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 8:05 PM on March 27, 2024

This is a pure "just vibes" movie, everyone at maximum prettiness except poor Michael Keaton, who is doing a reasonable Dogberry, just not that one that goes down as easily as the rest of the film.

I think if you weren't around at this time, you can't appreciate what a sensation Branagh's Henry V was in Shakespearean film adaptations. This was a good follow-up, and then he kind of lost the plot.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 2:23 PM on March 17, 2024

He was...not ideal for the role. Just let the prettiness wash over you.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 6:50 PM on March 22, 2024

I have a real soft spot for Corman's The Gunslinger, which is terrible but also weirdly compelling in parts. "You're not bad. You're just no good." Of course, I've only seen it in MST3K form ("what it is, little wormy dude?"), and I imagine they trimmed some of the tedium out.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 3:24 PM on March 19, 2024

For some reason (*), this was big in fandom for some time. I didn't realize how incredibly obscure it actually was (possibly because I never saw it).

(*) I think I know the reason.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 11:52 AM on March 18, 2024

the reason it was popular is because it's about white dudes who go around punching women and kicking ass on "thugs,"

That...is not the reason it was popular in fandom.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 7:44 AM on March 19, 2024

I didn't realize there was a movie with the same name by the same director

Landed (and vanished with little trace) during the pandemic. Has some entertaining performances (though wasting other actors), but also a lot of moldy 90s-style "antihero" racism which I'm guessing was scraped off for the TV series and one really unforgivable segment that, well, you'll know it when you see it. (Also, holy smokes, Guy Ritchie, we get it, you're anxious about being middle-aged!)
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 2:00 PM on March 18, 2024

Note extremely young and pretty Robert Downey, Jr., as the younger brother.

Soundtrack was great; there's a jazzy version of "Come Live With Me and Be My Love" that still sticks in my head.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 2:26 PM on March 17, 2024

Saw this live, thought it was great.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 2:19 PM on March 17, 2024

Lorraine's situation/positionality was interesting (thought that "don't you want the apron?"/polite "fuck no!" bit was a nice touch), but just to note that unless the family paid her under the table (hope not!), she would have Social Security benefits like everybody else. And, as she seems to have been a live-in, she wasn't exposed to the huge escalation of rents in the Boston area since 1995 when rent control ended. As domestic workers go, she probably had a decent deal.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 12:37 PM on March 16, 2024

Maynard arrives

Maynard appears to be private security at the kind of place that would keep a man in his 60s on as security. I doubt he's all that well off. Perhaps he has a pension from his military service.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 6:39 PM on March 16, 2024

Parts of the trailer (mostly involving the "game") looked creepy, but then...there was the rest of it.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 2:26 PM on March 12, 2024

Yes, but in the movie, there's a reference to a (single) "black sun" to explain it.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 7:51 AM on March 7, 2024

I don't think Chalamet's performance/persona in this one is the problem, exactly (to the extent there is a problem), so much as directorial treatment of the character. The worst scene in the first movie was the one where Paul yells at Jessica about being made into a freak...power in this universe turns almost entirely on making yourself/having the genetic capacity to be a freak, and Paul's been raised in that line of thinking, so that felt sort of X-Menish and misguided for… [more]
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 1:30 PM on March 10, 2024

Just noting that this is showing tomorrow at Film Forum in NYC as part of the Japanese horror series they're doing right now.

Miike's work seems well beyond my interests/tolerance level, but for those of you expressing a wish to see it on the big screen, well...here ya go.
posted to FanFare by praemunire at 9:52 AM on March 9, 2024