Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 175

Past Lives - 8/10

 

Operation Avalanche (2016) - A mature evolution from the dirties, not as funny but tighter and a step up in execution.

Beau is Afraid (2023) - Courage the cowardly man the movie. The first half has a manic intensity driving its anxious concept along. The way it builds a world around fear and horror while creativity blending in humor is extremely interesting and captivating to watch. Halfway it lets go of the tension allowing its surrealism to takeover and sprawl a la Synecdoche, New York, it's looking to uncover deeper fears and longings but it never lets itself reach profundity. 2 and half hours in and the payoff is still dick jokes and kills.

They Shoot horses, don't they? (1969) - Yowsah yowsah! I didnt know about this movie, I didnt know dance marathons were actually a thing! The scathing contempt for society oozes out as the kids dance dance dance.

 

I’ve never seen They Shoot Horses and I have no idea what it’s about but the title floats around in my head a lot. What a neat phrase.

 

That movie is BLEAK. Good, but goddamn bleak.

 

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - 7/10
It's a slight step down from the first film, sure. There are less all-timer bits, some bits are repeated, and your mileage may vary with Mini-Me and Fat Bastard (though both have some genuinely great moments). Hell, I even love Heather Graham and think the chemistry is a bit off here. But goddamnit, I laughed out loud just as much, if not more, than I did watching the first film. Much like Dr. Evil's therapy speech in the first film, the Springer scene here is incredible. His Seattle headquarters being a Starbucks is the kind of joke that would make me roll my eyes today, but is somehow very funny for 1999. Even if it falls short in a few areas, revisiting these has still just been pure joy and good vibes for me. Looking forward to Goldmember, probably the one I saw the most growing up.

Wolf Creek - 7.5/10
I really good, and at times, terrifying crime/horror film. In fact, the only thing holding it back is an inability to decide whether it wants to be an ultra-realistic (complete with abrupt true crime ending) serial killer film or a horror movie with a super-skilled, hard to kill baddie. It does both very well, but the shift back and forth between the two can be frustrating. Still, the film looks great and feels like a bleak, naturalistic successor to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The characters make decisions that will make you want to put your head through a wall, but the film feels so real that it's hard to blame them considering what they're going through. Visceral stuff.

 

I also watched goldmember the most growing up so I’m hesitant to revisit it because I’ve heard it holds up the least of the 3.

 

Danny DeVito's cameo in Goldmember is the best part.

 

I think about the shadow antics with Mini-Me and "I love goooooooold" on a semi-regular basis, so (famous last words) how bad can it be

 

I’ve always preferred Goldmember to Shagged. Used to catch a bunch of shit for that take back when people cared about such things.

 

Which one had the censored curse words? That was so embarrassing.

 

The Taste of Things - Why the hell did I go see this on an empty stomach?

 

I thought all the food looked kind of gross.

 

I love … goooold

 

I’m gonna need you to describe your ideal meal now.

 

Popeye's and soda would have been much better than all of that fancy cooking.

 

Okay, I do love Popeyes so points for that, but come on now. That pot pie looking thing at the beginning looked incredible.

 

Vamp - 8/10
I think Lisa Frankenstein reset my brain because I am about camp now more than ever before. For a story that should be relatively straightforward, this is one of the most fun, coolest-looking, absolutely nonsensical mainstream horror flicks I've ever seen. Sewers are lit in green and pink, albino biker gangs come and go, and generally, things happen without explanation. But they are either so bizarre, gruesome, or funny that it's hard to care about making sense of it all. It's poor film criticism on my part, but the vibes are just impeccable. Can't wait to throw this one on with some friends around, or just to revisit it on a rainy day.

Sunshine - 8/10
An undeniably beautiful, stylish, and well-directed film that starts as a science fiction thriller and pulls the rug out from under you to mutate into Event Horzion 2.0 in its final act. It feels abrupt, but not completely unearned. And what a cast. The more I sit with this one, the more excited I am to revisit it in the future.

Redneck Zombies - 6/10
You want to talk about movies that could never be made today? Troma in the 80s was the wild, wild west. I'm talking multiple slurs in the first 10 minutes. The only that makes it palatable is that no one is safe or off-limits, including white folks and the titular rednecks. It's kind of like Mel Brooks made a SOV horror film with great low-budget gore effects that was only funny half the time. Redneck Zombies can be a lot of fun, but even at 84 minutes, it starts to overstay its welcome rather quickly. (The intro to the director's cut on Youtube is hilarious, though.)

 

I love sunshine

 

Once I kinda got used to the big tonal shift in Sunshine, I realized I liked it a ton.

 

Vamp is so good

 

Zone of Interest (2023) - Compliance and degrees of separation. The characters won't look directly at the horror and the camera won't either. What it does show us is how they cope. They continue living, aware yet refusing to face it head on. The camera mirrors our accusations of cowardice back at us, feigned ignorance does not excuse our participation in exploitative systems. It provides us no path for redemption either, every character's agency is undercut from Hoss who is transferred and promoted from a line of suits to the girl putting apples in the dirt. The machine churns ever onward. What is left, to drink vodka as our baby cries and stare out in the red night's terror.

 

Austin Powers in Goldmember - 7.5/10
A bridge in quality between the first two films. You get some recycled bits, as is tradition, and a truly insane turn from Meyers' titular villain, but for being only three years after The Spy Who Shagged Me, Goldmember feels colorful, updated, and full of new parodies that provide some genuine laughs, including Mission Impossible, The Silence of the Lambs, and the blacksploitation genre. The star-studded opening sequence rivals the original film's, and for better or worse, Dr. Evil and Mini-Me's rendition of "Hard Knock Life" still got big laughs out of me. Michael Caine playing Austin's Dutch-hating father is inspired casting. Many have wished for a fourth film (myself included), but considering its twist, Goldmember feels both fresh and designed to be a fitting conclusion to these iconic Bond parodies that took on a life of their own. It ain't perfect, but revisiting these movies has offered exactly as much comfort as I was hoping for, and I'm so glad I did. Shagadelic, baby.

 

Week-late Verhoeven watch

Robocop - 8/10 A profound critique of capitalism and societal decay presented as a surface-level action film. Murphy's transformation into Robocop symbolizes the dehumanizing influence of corporate greed in a world where such corporations hold unchecked power and are allowed to profit at the expense of human lives.

Total Recall - 7/10 A complete indictment of American culture, set against the backdrop of a society where not even the air is free. It is strikingly similar to Robocop in that Verhoeven utilizes lowbrow tools to critique capitalist structures and corporate greed. The practical effects and imposing Brutalist architecture are both stunning, and it indulges every single sordid action fantasy impulse there is. Possibly my favorite Schwarzenegger performance.

Basic Instinct - 5/10 All 5 of those marks are for Sharon Stone as the archetypal Hitchcock blonde. Yowzah. Ruff ruff. Awooga.

Starship Troopers - 9/10 At its core, the film serves as a scathing condemnation of militarism and its insidious influence on society. While the teen soap opera love story offers a look at how fascist ideologies can subtly infiltrate society under the guise of national pride, its reappropriation of military iconography exposes the underlying violence inherent in such symbols. Verhoeven weaves both stories together to show how propaganda influences the characters' beliefs, behaviors, and ultimately, their values.

 

The Special - 6/10
Alternate Tagline: You Are What You Fuck.

My man Mark snapped at the end. Great effects work, interesting premise, looks like a real movie (one of the biggest hurdles for low-budget features). I would hate to be the guy at the brothel who has to clean the monster sex box.

Predator - 8/10
Probably the best watch of this film I've had yet. I grew up loving Alien vs. Predator and all related films (as a 10-year-old, it was the first one I saw as it was PG-13). Despite being a classic (and likely the best in the franchise until Prey), Predator still drags a bit a times for those that aren't as into straightforward army/action flicks, myself included. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to evolve into a unique jungle slasher with alarmingly good effects work and truly inspired creature design. Out of all of the 80s films to go on to have iconic lifespans, I'm kind of shocked (and definitely pleased) this was one of them. There are way more Arnold quotables than you remember.