Nothing much to report this week. Work has been busy, time has been limited, and few films have been watched, although I have been working my way through seasons 4 and 5 of The Walking Dead, which remains interesting enough for me to keep watching it, but not quite enough for me to blitz through the rest of the available episodes. Here are the films I saw this past week:
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Dammit, I suck at posting reviews lately, sorry everyone. I shouldn’t have watched Pulp Fiction, that’s the problem, I’m having real difficulty in getting my thoughts down on that one. Everyone has already discussed it, so I’ve got very little to add, and I also can’t quite fully put into words why I don’t seem to love it as much as everyone else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie and will most certainly be awarded a “Choose Film” badge, but I’m not at all compelled to re-watch it again any time soon, unless I leave the review so long that I’d feel bad doing a write-up based on my notes alone. The fact that I’d be willing to re-watch it for the sake of a review should be proof that it’s not terrible, unlike such films as Silver Linings Playbook, which I still keep meaning to review despite having watched it about 10 months ago. Why everyone loves that movie, I really do not know. Anyway, here’s what I watched this week:
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A bug exterminator, Bill Lee (Peter Weller) discovers the supply of his bright yellow bug-killing powder is running low, because it turns out his wife Joan (Judy Davis) has been shooting it up like heroin. Bill gives the powder/drug a try too, leading to some rather bizarre possible-hallucinations involving giant bugs, alien-like creatures and who knows what else?
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Another week where I didn’t get a whole lot of watching done, but I got some writing done instead, so there’s that. But this week marks something of a milestone for me. I am, and have been for a few years now, a member of the Large Association of Movie Blogs, otherwise known as the LAMB. The LAMB is ordinarily run by a Shepherd. The first was the founder, Dylan Fields, who stepped down after a few years and Rachel Thuro replaced him. However, After a few months Rachel lost the drive for it and Joel Burman stepped in, but sadly in late 2014 Joel became increasingly busy with his home life and the LAMB took a back seat. Well, as of this past week I became too tired of seeing the LAMB dwindle. It’s a community that has served me well in terms of finding friends, blogging and, most recently, podcasting, as it is for the LAMB that I host the Lambcast. I’ve been keen to keep the show going, and the best way of doing that, in my opinion, is to keep the LAMB thriving too, so I am now the fourth official Shepherd of the LAMB.
So what does that entail? Well, I’m kind of running things, and my aim is to get the site up and running again, which to begin with involves letting all the pending members in, which is around 500. This has already begun, and will continue for a while. I’m also planning on bringing back some old features, but for now it’s a case of tuning the site up and getting everything into working order. If you want to be an active member of the LAMB staff, maybe writing or hosting some features, then please let me know! Or if you have any thoughts on directions the site could take, I’m always eager for suggestions. I’m happy for any help I can get!
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A magician known as the African Sorcerer conjures up a flying horse, which he refuses to sell for anything other than the Caliph’s daughter, Princess Dinarsade. Disgusted at the notion, Dinarsade’s brother Prince Achmed is convinced by the Sorcerer to ride the horse, but he is only shown how to make it fly up – pulling the lever at the horse’s head – but not how to make it come down – a similar lever at the tail. The Prince flies ever higher, unable to control the horse, until he eventually descends in a strange land, and that’s only where his adventures begin.
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Alas, February didn’t go quite as well as January, but so be it:
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A woman, Giulietta (director Federico Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina), suspects her husband Giorgio (Mario Pisu) is having an affair, as he forgets their anniversary, takes her successful, attractive friends to events and says the names of other women in his sleep. Instead of confronting him, Giulietta begins to experience more of life with the help of her more sexually adventurous neighbour (Sandra Milo).
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Whilst out on a date, two kids (Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsaut) see something fall from the sky. Upon investigating they find an old man with a strange amorphous substance covering his right hand. They rush him to the local doctor, but things get worse when the substance appears to grow and digest the arm’s owner, and no-one in a position of authority with believe the kids’ story.
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So this whole “Posting My Week in Movies posts on a Friday” thing isn’t really working out so well, is it? Turns out in the past I could always use the weekend as prep time for the post, and fine tune it on a Monday, but now my weeks are so jammed with all the other nonsense in my life (y’know, superfluous stuff like the dog, cooking dinner, going to work, all that garbage) I don’t seem to find the time during the week. Then Friday night rolls around and all I want to do is collapse face down into a pile of the nearest thing that won’t impale me when I fall on it, until Sunday rolls around and I’ve still not written this damn thing. And I still want to write it! I love writing these posts, I’d just love to have one hour a week where the only thing I can possible do is write about the films I’ve seen and the random bullshit I’ve done with my time.
Also, it’s the end of the month tomorrow, which means the end of a set of targets. As it stands I’ve watched everything necessary to tick off everything in February, I just don’t have the reviews to back that statement up. I’ve got seven films still to review, and 28 hours in which to review them to meet the deadline. If that happens, and that’s a very unlikely “if”, then it’d be almost unfair on the films I’m reviewing to have them all squashed up and sharing a day, so instead I’ll face up to not meeting this month’s writing challenges on time, and will instead dole out the reviews daily until I’m caught up that way. Hey, it’s my blog, they’re my deadlines, I can change them as I choose.
Oh, and the Oscars? You know, the ones that are starting in a few hours? Yeah, I’m not watching them. I’ve got a meeting in the morning and am choosing to sleep rather than watch a bunch of films I haven’t seen winning awards I don’t ultimately care about. I’ve got very few horses in this race, and the ones I truly want to win (The Martian, Matt Damon, Mark Rylance, Jennifer Jason Leigh, George Miller) probably wont, so I’ll catch up on Chris Rock’s best bits online tomorrow and move on with my life. Speaking of my life, here’s what I’ve watched in this past week-and-a-bit:
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Whilst guiding a team of fur trappers in the snowy North American wilderness of the 1820s, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) finds himself in a pretty poor state after being mauled by a bear whilst the group is fleeing a surprise attack from a Native American tribe they refer to as the Ree. Being unable to carry Glass back safely without endangering the rest of the team, captain of the party Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) requests Glass remain behind but be cared for and properly buried when the time comes. He leaves Glass under the protection of bitter, greedy trapper John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), naive and inexperienced Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) and Glass’ own half-Native American son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck). Circumstances arise that see Glass being abandoned with life still, barely, coursing through his veins, and he finds himself driven by vengeance against those responsible for abandoning him.
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Life Vs Film 