Comedy is usually not my go-to genre. I prefer hyphenated comedies (i.e action-comedy, horror-comedy, or dramedy (okay, no hyphen there)). But I am always up for a good dark-comedy… wait that’s hyphenated. I don’t think I have a point here. Anyway, OBSERVE AND REPORT fell under that category, and I’ve found Seth Rogen to be very watchable, so I gave this a shot as it dropped on HBOHD.
This movie falls under my March to 200 Reviews, not because it is good, but because I used to watch it so damn much. When I joined Columbia House back in 1995 or 1996 or whatever it was, this was one of the first ‘one cent’ VHS tapes I got. I used to watch the shit out of this movie. It’s probably been since, oh, 1999 or 2000 since I’ve seen it.
It was a rainy Friday, and it turned into an odd double feature with WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and BAD BOYS II. After the, strangely, somewhat downer of a first film, we were looking for something to put fictitious butter on the popcorn we were not eating. Somehow, neither of us had seen BAD BOYS II since it was in theaters, despite the first film being a favorite for both Liz and myself. I ranked the first one back in May, and you can jump to it here.
I read this book as a child, but it’s not an all time favorite for me like it is for many. I’m intrigued by a movie that is a children’s film about made-up (presumably) monsters directed by BEING JOHN MALKOVICH creator Spike Jonze. Sounds like a perfect culmination of imagination!
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (2009)’
This is the 13th of 14 films that Basil Rathbone played Sherlock to Nigel Bruce’s Watson from 1939-1946. Not that I wanted to start so late in the series, but this is the one that happened to come across TCM. I’d never seen one of these classic Holmes flicks, so I am glad to have finally caught one.
The genre of animation geared towards a more mature audience is a drop in the bucket compared to the children’s animation field. 9 is somewhere in between these two places. It is a story about little rag-dolls. But, at PG-13, these rag-dolls exist in a post-apocalyptic world and contain the last evidence of humanity. Some nice light fare for a late Saturday morning!
My march toward 200 rankings doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to gravitate towards old favorites. THE PRESTIGE has been one of my great embarrassments, for this marked the first time I saw it. From all I heard, it would instantly jump on my classics list. So… did it? Oh, SPOILERS BELOW
This is part of my quest to see some of my favorite movies as I close in on 200 films watched for this project. I’d been wanting to rewatch this since seeing a silent version back in June. Also, I recently rediscovered the score, which had been playing in my CD player for the entire month of August. Nothing says “I’m cool” like driving down the road in my Jeep blaring the LAST OF THE MOHICANS soundtrack with the windows down.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992)’
This is not the Gwenyth Paltrow HUSH from the 90s, nor is it any of the other 24 movies on IMDB entitled HUSH. This is an indy British thriller/horror flick about a young couple who see something they shouldn’t, and then get chased around by a trucker. It sounds like JOYRIDE, but is much darker and grittier in tone.
I’m a sucker for prison escape flicks. This movie had been on my radar for some time, and I finally got a chance to catch it. The fact that it used the real Alcatraz gives this movie a unique sort of feel. Despite the events being mostly extrapolated from hypothesis, the realness of the location gives the story a genuine sense of history. Some SPOILERS below, but nothing too crazy.
Continue reading ‘johnlink ranks ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979)’
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