My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 23

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I spent a grand total of three hours this past weekend looking at a computer screen (two of which were whilst podcasting) so please forgive the lack of content lately. I had what I call a gown-up day yesterday, in that it was mostly spent gardening. It would seem that despite my best efforts an ever-growing Lego collection, I am on an unstoppable route to become an adult, hence why the lawn-mowing mission somehow evolved into a 7-hour weeding session, resulting in sore bones, aching joints, calloused fingers, numerous bug bites and an unintentional sunburn. Yes, adulthood has it all.

Seeing as we’ve now entered June and 2015’s halfway point is only three weekly posts away, I’m going to make it a mission to be caught up on not just most, but ALL of my goals by the time My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 26 rolls around. The second half of the year will be harder anyway, due to how I weighted the scheduling of the 2015 New Releases, so if I’ve got any hope of completing it all I need to have a line of six green marks by mid-year. So what does that entail? Well, I’m already more than caught up on the TiVo movies, so none of those need to be seen, but I need to watch five 2015 Movies (which will include: Burying the Ex [screener for Blueprint: Review], The Voices [screener for my own site], Coherence [dispatched from LoveFilm today] and Jurassic World [DINOSAURS!], and watch-and-review one Kate Winslet movie (I’ll be submitting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for July’s Lambcast Movie of the Month, and even if it doesn’t win I’ll be making a bee-line for it anyway, with Little Children as part of my French Toast Sunday Road Trip later in the year), one “Bad” movie (haven’t decided yet, maybe Tetsuo), seven Nominated Movies (Including the already-seen-but-not-yet reviewed La Grande Illusion, The Tree of Life and Picnic at Hanging Rock, as well as the to-see-because-it’s-Terry-Gilliam-month-over-at-FTS Brazil) and four 1001 Movies, which will be easy if I do all the other missions because that’ll be more than covered then. Maybe I should stop writing this post and go review some more movies! Here’s what I watched this week:

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The Phenix City Story

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This post was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series over at French Toast Sunday.

Phenix City, Alabama, 1954. The city, just across the bridge from Georgia’s Fort Benning, has been at the mercy of mob rule for a hundred years. The town officials all turn a blind eye due to either being on the pay roll or fearing the consequences of standing up for themselves, with town attorney Albert Patterson (John McIntire) only getting involved for which ever side hires him in various disputes. A small band of townsfolk regularly picket and protest the syndicate, but have always proved ineffective. That is until Albert’s son and war hero John Patterson (Richard Kiley) returns home with his wife and children. Upon seeing the state of his home town, and witnessing the brutality of the mob’s men against those that dare oppose them, John sets about trying to clean the place up, but he can’t do anything without his father’s help.
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My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 22

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I watched Guardians of the Galaxy again on Saturday night. We started watching something called Life of Crime, starring Tim Robbins as an arrogant, wealthy drunk whose wife (Jennifer Aniston) is kidnapped by Mos Def and John Hawkes, but he doesn’t want to pay the ransom because he was going to divorce her anyway. Sounds mildly interesting, with a bunch of actors I enjoy – Will Forte, Isla Fisher, Kevin Corrigan and Mark Boone Junior are all in there somewhere too – but 10 minutes in Aisha and I were already bored and checking our respective phones, plus a 5.8/10 on IMDb didn’t bode well, so we bailed and watched Guardians. When I saw it in the theatre last year I loved it. At that point it was one of the best films I’d seen all year, and I raved about it on the Lambcast episode dedicated to it. It was quickly added to my prospective Christmas list, and I was overjoyed to find the Blu-Ray under the tree. I was hard pressed to find anyone with many problems with it, and couldn’t wait to see it again. Then I watched it my partner and her parents. They were all relatively lukewarm on the experience, and I found myself in a similar situation as I had the year before. When I saw Pacific Rim in the cinema back in 2013, I left proclaiming it to be my new favourite film (As an exaggeration, in truth no film can be thought that highly of until I’ve seen it at least twice, with the viewings being at least 9 months apart from one another. Yes, I’ve dictated myself a set of rules through which I allow myself to enjoy things. And yes, I know how absurd that is.). I subsequently got Pacific Rim for Christmas, watched it with my partner and her family, they all hated it, I suddenly didn’t like it much any more, and haven’t gone back since. My second viewing of Guardians brought me down not to the same level of dismissal as the potential in-laws, but somewhat closer than I had been.

It was my partner’s idea to watch it again this past weekend, and I didn’t hesitate because I still remember that first viewing, and I hoped her opinions would improve second time around. They did, she rather enjoyed it, but alas I did not. There was something missing, some spark of creativity and innovation that had dissolved and withered away since that first viewing. I found myself watching this vastly entertaining blockbuster, previously lauded by myself for its witty script, its deft handling and shaping of unknown characters, its ability to introduce a frankly ridiculous amount of new locations, people, items and mythology without feeling overstuffed or confused, and this time around I was bored. The jokes fell flat. The plot was dreary. Even the soundtrack had lost its appeal. Something has happened in my mind that seems to prevent me from enjoying something I loved in the past. And now I’m stuck with a quandary. Do I give it a few months – maybe even a year or so – and watch it again, in the hope that I’ll rediscover what I once saw? Or in doing so will I continue the ever-steepening downward slope of my appreciation for the film, evolving from outright love, through emphatic enjoyment and now sitting in disappointed mundanity? Will a fourth viewing make me actively dislike it? Help! Continue reading →

Spring Breakers

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

For this addition of my USA Road Trip I’ll be celebrating – albeit a little tardily – that great American tradition of Spring Break as I delve into the wonderful insanity that is Florida, home state of FTS’ very own Robert, and he has informed me that it is definitively the craziest state in the whole country. Judging by this movie, I’ll have to agree. Spring Break is not a thing in the UK, or at least if it is I was never invited, and for that I’m grateful. I have a reputation for being anti-fun and especially anti-partying, and that goes double for absolutely everything that takes place in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, a film that, if I were a character in it, I’d have happily remained in the nondescript, comparatively tedious college town at the start because, as I’m frequently told, I fail at life.
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

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Upon returning home from a trip, small town doctor Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) begins to suspect something is wrong. Whilst he was away, his nurse/receptionist informs Miles that he had a waiting room full of patients who all refused to tell her what was wrong, but now all these people are suddenly fine and well. Others complain that people they know aren’t whom they seem to be. On the outside everything looks fine, but there’s a feeling that something is missing. Then, one night whilst catching up with Becky (Dana Winter), an old flame back in town for the first time in 5 years, Miles is called out to an emergency. Friends of his, Jack and Teddy (King Donovan and Carolyn Jones), have found a body that seems to be in the process of forming an exact copy of Jack’s. Dun dun-duuuuuuuuun!
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My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 21

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It’s safe to say this has been a very unproductive week, List-wise. I didn’t watch anything that I need to review, not even a Road Trip movie for FTS. I did, however, go to the cinema twice, and watch an entire franchise worth of movies for a Lambcast episode, so all is not lost. And I didn’t lose track of any green ticks, so there’s that. Here’s what I watched this week: Continue reading →

The Green Mile

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

Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) was the head prison officer at Cold Mountain Penitentiary’s Death Row, known as the Green Mile, in 1935. Along with having a crippling urinary infection, Paul and his team of good men must also deal with their snivelling bastard of a colleague Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison), the governor’s wife’s only nephew, and the various inmates that come through their doors on the way to the execution chair. The most recent of whom, John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), is a towering, muscle-bound mountain of a man, but with a simple, child-like mind, and something a little special about him that makes Paul doubt whether Coffey has any cause to be on the Mile at all.
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My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 20

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My first full week back at work (and heck of a work-week at that) and having a houseguest for a week too predictably cut into my effective movie watching and reviewing, but at the last minute I managed to claw in one review that prevented me from losing one of those hard-striven green ticks. No new ones this week, but I’m working on at least oen more for next week, fear not. Here’s what I watched this week: Continue reading →

My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 19

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Slightly less film watching was done this week. I only had three days off work, and at least one of those was spent predominantly looking after the puppy, so I didn’t get quite as much done as I’d have liked. However, some catching up has been done, and there’s a few more green “Yes!” marks at the bottom of the page today than there were last week. The trick now is keeping it up, and I’m going to give it a good try, although my imminent future will require me to be watching a lot of films not connected with any of my lists for podcasting purposes, but for once in my life I have faith in myself. Here’s what I watched this week: Continue reading →