It is now October, which gives me a wonderful excuse to watch some horror movies. Additionally, I’ve been watching the awesome documentary series THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY as it airs on Turner Classic Movies. Along with the documentary, the channel is running some of the movies which are discussed. I’ve been DVRing the ones which seem interesting, and VAMPYR certainly fit that bill.
I was under the impression that I had seen this. While I’ve seen a couple of moments from it, I certainly hadn’t watched the whole thing. But that’s ok. I’ve seen ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS many times so I know all the major beats anyway…
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991)’
I watched SPEED 2, sadly, back in August for Shitfest over at the The IPC. The idea, if you can’t gather, is to submit an article on an atrocious movie. Speed 2 fit the bill. I’ve sat on the article so that it would pop up first over there. Now that it has been up for a day, I thought I would toss it up here as well.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL (1997)’
Worked my now-standard teaching-then-movie-theater double last night. Got in around 11 and thought I would put in a half an hour on the treadmill while watching the beginning of a bad movie. Wouldn’t you know it, the movie was only partly terrible and I ended up watching the whole thing. How’s that for an endorsement?
Generally speaking, the three directors from the Golden Age of Japanese film are considered to be (in no particular order) Ozu, Kurosawa, and Kenji Mizoguchi. I’ve seen precious little Ozu, but have at least seen one full length. I’ve seen several from Kurosawa. But until last night, I had seen nothing by Mizoguchi. Now I can say that I am glad that I have.
I started student teaching over the past month which has continued a trend of low numbers of movies watched. However, I am supposed to start teaching MUCH ADO to my Junior theater class next week. This is one of the few Shakespearean comedies I haven’t performed in (which figures). I decided it was my homework to review the Branagh version over the weekend. I do want to see the new Joss Whedon iteration as well, but its best to hit these things chronologically. Right?
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993)’
I never watch trailers. Ever. I avoid them like the plague. Last time I watched a trailer was for DARK KNIGHT RISES and a big late second act moment (the exploding football stadium) went from being a moment of “Oh My God, Batman didn’t save them!” to a moment where the entire audience went “Oh. There’s the stadium. It’s about to blow up.” So, yeah, I avoid trailers. However, sometimes a movie like JCVD gets knocked too far down my wishlist because I really have no idea what it’s about. Ultimately, though, I’m just glad I finally watched this movie.
I haven’t done a FILM 101 in a bit. The past installments have been on film devices or film theory concepts. This time out, I thought I would hit up a particularly historical movie. I considered writing a review on the film and doing a ranking as normal. But there are a couple of problems there. First, at 14 minutes, this is hardly considered a feature now (though it was in 1902). Secondly, ‘scoring’ this movie would be unfair. It is scientifically laughable, the narrative is stunted, and it looks more like a filmed play than a movie at times. Yet, despite the shortcomings it might appear to have in modernity, this is an immensely important and iconic film. On a purely coincidental and unimportant note: this article represents my 600th post to this website!
I bought this years ago, knowing nothing about it. I mean, I knew the title because Agatha Christie is famous enough and the box cover told me that it contained an amazing cast of stars. Really, the driving force in picking this up derived from seeing that it was directed by A-list 70s director Sidney Lumet and starred all the people pictured below, That’s a prestigious cast (in fact Widmark said he agreed to do the film mainly for the opportunity to work with all of these folks). For whatever reason, it took me several years to finally open it up and watch it. But I did. And so, now, I’ll go ahead and tell you how it is. Because that is how blogs work.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974)’
Still on the lookout for another potential entry for Shitfest over at The IFC, and I stumbled upon this little potential gem. 5.3 score on IMDB, low ranking on the DirectTV rating system (I think they use Rotten Tomatoes), an unknown list of actors in a film about an insane asylum. This almost seemed too easy. This movie HAD to suck. But, then, this thing (which was released in other parts of the world as THE INCIDENT) comes by and impresses the shit out of me. Not in a low expectations way, but in a “wow, this was actually well done” way. I have until the end of August, and I’m running out of time to find a bad movie. Anyway, below is going to be as spoiler free as possible.
johnlinkmovies 