My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 28

Posted on July 14, 2015 by jaycluitt

I’ve spent most of this past week watching movies about time travelling robots because, as you can probably guess, the most recent episode of the Lambcast (posting later this week) is devoted to the Terminator franchise, celebrating (commiserating?) the release of Terminator Genisys (more on that later). As such, my regular scheduling has taken something of a temporary back seat, and I’ve gone and lost one of my green ticks, dagnammit. I am way ahead on some of the others though, so if you add everything up I’m ahead. Maybe spending a week watching robot feet crushing endless piles of human skulls wasn’t a massive loss after all. Speaking of which, why is it always pile of skulls in these films? I get that it looks more ominous, but it implies that either pre- or post-massacre the terminators divide up and sort out the various human body parts into different areas. Are there pyramids of pelvic bones somewhere? Piles of shoulder blades? Towers of femurs stacked up like an H. R. Giger Jenga set? Anyway, here’s what I watched this week:
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The Voices

Posted on July 13, 2015 by jaycluitt

Jerry is a nice guy. The nicest guy, in fact. He lives a happy life working in the shipping department of a bathroom fixtures company and longing to get to know Fiona from Accounting a little better, but spending the evenings living above a bowling alley with his dog Bosco and his cat Mr. Whiskers. Who talk to him. And tell him to kill people.
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The Kid with a Bike

Posted on July 12, 2015 by jaycluitt

Cyril Catoul (Thomas Doret) is a kid, who wants his bike. He left it at his father’s apartment, but no-one has heard from his Dad in a month. Cyril lives in an orphanage most of the time, but regularly escapes and goes searching for his father. On one such venture, when he goes to his father’s home and finds it empty and unrented, Cyril tries to gain protection from the kind people who run the orphanage by clutching onto a woman, Samantha (Cécile de France), who agrees to look after Cyril on weekends. She also tracks down his bike, from a man to whom Cyril’s father apparently sold it, but Cyril says this must be a lie, his Dad would never sell his bike, and even refuses to believe it even after he has found an advert his father posted selling the bicycle. Samantha tracks down Cyril’s father at a restaurant where he works, but he wants nothing to do with his son. Without a strong male role model, Cyril soon becomes embroiled in a small gang, led by Wes (Egon di Mateo).
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Fight Club

Posted on July 11, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.

At the end of the 20th Century, men have lost their sense of place in the world. With no real sociological problems to concern them, the American working class males wander through life in a daze, controlled by their jobs and their society-spawned desire for the perfect magazine lifestyle. One such man (Edward Norton) finds solace from his insomnia in support groups for people with terminal illnesses, with this contrast to his own lack of problems finally allowing him to sleep at night. However, his world is rocked by the existence of Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), a fellow group-attending faker, and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a rather bizarre fellow with a penchant for soap, explosives, splicing pornography into family films and, of course, beating the crap out of other consenting men.
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My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 27

Posted on July 6, 2015 by jaycluitt

What’s the point in doing something if it’s not a challenge? Where’s the difficulty in completing something you’re already on track for? Why do I insist on making life more difficult for myself?

Last week I celebrated finally catching up with all my aims for 2015’s mid-year point, albeit a little more than a day late, so seeing as I’m all caught up it seems ~~stupid~~ fair to add another goal to that mission of mine (not forgetting the October-centric HitchcOctober celebration too). I’ve mentioned my USA Road Trip series I write for French Toast Sunday on a semi-regular basis, wherein I’m travelling across America by reviewing a film set in each state, and I’ve decided that this is a mission I’m going to finish this year, so I’ve added it to the list down below. My main motivation for finishing the project is because the film I intend to finish on can also be found on the lists of “Bad” movies nominated by Chip and Steve, as well as one of the Nominated Movies from one of my blogging friends, so I kind of need to finish it this year just to make that all happen in sync. Oh, and an update for anyone who is interested, which I’m guessing is not too many of you, but I’ve nom opened and begun playing Lego Jurassic World. I’m up to the T-Rex breaking out of the paddock in JP1, and so far I’ve loved all of it. You start any game with me playing as Robert Muldoon and you’ve got a fan. Plus, Ellie’s special ability is watering plants, because she’s a paleobotanist, and Alan can build dinosaur skeletons with trampolines in them. Genius. Here’s what I watched this week:
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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Master Killer)

Posted on July 6, 2015 by jaycluitt

In Hong Kong, a band of activists plans to rebel against the Manchu government, but during the uprising the government strikes back, and only one young rebel manages to escape. Wounded, he makes his way to the Shaolin temple, where he seeks martial arts training in order to return to his home town and defeat the oppressors.
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My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 26

Posted on July 1, 2015 by jaycluitt

OK, this looks bad, but I didn’t intend to cheat. A few weeks ago I pledged to get caught up on everything by the last Monday in June, which was yesterday. That morning I had plans, oh such plans! I had three reviews to write and one film left to watch, which I believed I had more than enough time for if I properly utilised my half hour lunch break and an evening devoid of anything else that needed doing. And then Monday happened. Work was a busy, busy day. My lunch break existed for around 3 or 4 minutes of hastily cramming a disappointing sandwich into my munching maw, and the office was not left in a prompt fashion. On top of that, I’d promised my partner I’d assist her in making some chocolates she needed for a photo shoot at work – she works for the Marketing department of a nationwide Crafts store, and it being the hottest few days in June we’ve of course been preparing for the Christmas shoot – and the demand for the chocolates was brought forward from Friday to today. So I spent the evening looking at the clock every 30 seconds, convincing myself I still have time, I still have time, I still have… oh crap, it’s half past midnight. Hence why this weekly post didn’t go up on the regularly scheduled Monday. So you know what I did? I got all that shit done tonight instead. Film watched. Reviews written. Everything caught up with. Green ticks all over the shop. And it feels marvellous. I don’t even care that I STILL HAVEN’T EVEN OPENED LEGO JURASSIC WORLD YET. WHAT THE HELL. Here’s what I watched this week:
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The Incredible Shrinking Man

Posted on July 1, 2015 by jaycluitt

Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is an ordinary man living a good life with his wife Louisa (Randy Stuart). One day aboard his brother’s boat Scott is the only one on deck when they pass through a glittering radioactive mist. Six months later, Scott begins to shrink, which he finds both unusual and more than a little irritating.
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Posted on June 30, 2015 by jaycluitt

Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is an introverted guy who has difficulty making eye contact with people, let alone asking them out. One Valentine’s Day, on a random impulse, he ditches work and heads to the beach in Montauk, where he keeps seeing a girl in a bright orange sweatshirt with even brighter blue hair. Her name is Clementine (Kate Winslet) and, despite their vastly contrasting personalities, they spend the day together, and the next. Alas, all is not great in their world, however, and sadly their relationship ends when, on another impulse, Clementine decides to erase Joel from her memory using a little known company who specialises in a very concentrated form of brain damage. Joel opts to undergo the same procedure, but it doesn’t quite go as planned when he decides mid-operation that he might have made the wrong decision.
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Freaks

Posted on June 30, 2015 by jaycluitt

A 1930s circus has amongst its attractions a selection of people known as “Freaks” who are looked down upon by some of the other acts. Amongst these people is Hans (Harry Earles), an adult man trapped in the body of a boy. Despite being engaged to fellow “Freak” Frieda (Harry’s real-life sister, Daisy Earles), Hans is in love with Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), a beautiful trapeze artist. To begin with Cleopatra leads Hans on, mocking him behind his back but accepting his gifts and favours, all the while carrying on with the strong man, Hercules (Henry Victor), but when they discover Hans is the heir to a fortune, Cleopatra plans to marry then immediately kill him, leaving her his wealthy widow. Meanwhile, Hercules’ former lover Venus (Leila Hyams), who is amongst the few circus-folk who are actually kind and accepting of the “Freaks”, begins a relationship with Phroso the Clown (Wallace Ford).
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