Labels

MY PERSONAL FILM FESTIVAL DURING THIS TIME - WEEK 07

DURING the TCMFF 2020 -Special Home Edition, I pretended I was at the real fest, going into Club TCM and was shopping for goodies at the TCMFF Souvenir Shop. To ease the disappointment on not really being there, I went shopping on TCM.com and purchased a TCM robot T-shirt and MOVIE DICE. As many of you know, in addition to being a classic movie fan - I collect dice. Movie Dice is pretty much the best of both worlds.


This week's lineup was decided by chance - thanks to MOVIE DICE.

The movie dice have a film genre per side and is designed to take the argument/indecision on what to watch. For Week 07, I implemented the dice - picking a title from the genre as dictated by the roll of the dice. The results are below as are my ratings using my  5-star system (0 is the worst, 5 is the best) based on true worth-watching merit IMHO.



Sunday, April 26, 2020 - Avengers: Endgame (2019)
My daughter Mary wasn't sure if she was in the mood to watch The Beatles' HELP! (1965) with me, so we both let the dice decide. Sci-fi popped up and she bowed out ("No worries, Daddy."). My oldest, still continuing his MCU marathon, jumped in real quick, "Watch Avengers: Endgame (2019) with me." Rainy Sunday afternoon viewing decided: the 3-hour finale to the Avengers' 11-year journey. Watching it in this COVID-19 world was eerie. Black Widow conducts Zoom-like hologram meetings with the Avengers. People talk about missing sports. Captain America sees whales swimming in the Hudson River due to lack of pollution. Were the Russo Brothers/directors trying to be prophetic? Who knows. All I know is that I was too hard on this film back when I first saw. Despite the nitpicky things, this film is really enjoyable and touching. "I love you 3,000." C'mon! How can you hate that? Glad the dice chose this film today.
Rating: 3.5 STARS



Monday, April 27, 2020 - Jaws (1975)
Okay, I admit it: the dice are flawed. While some icons are clear (a 💗 is romance, maybe a rom-com); others are vague (a ⦻ is a bullseye for action? westerns? political thriller?). And so, Monday morning, I rolled a 💀. Horror. I chose Jaws (1975) - a monster movie in the likes of Alien (1979), The Thing (1982) and The Blob (1958). At least, Jaws should be labeled a Horror movie. IMDB lists it as "Adventure, Drama, Thriller." But, boy, did it scare the hell out of me as a kid. It's always been horror to me. I also consider it a "perfect film" from beginning to end - which is interesting considering it is a film Spielberg resisted making for a long time, according to Ray Morton's book "Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Spielberg's Classic Film." If you're longing for summer and wondering if we'll be going to the beaches this year, this may be the film for you.
Rating: 5 STARS


Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - Empire Records (1995)
Comedy or Drama, eh? How 'bout a Dramedy? With music! This was my first screening of Empire Records (1995). It may be my last. I picked up Empire Records on DVD at a Library Bag Sale (where you cram as many books and media into one bag and get it all for only a $1). Empire was the flip side  of Singles (1992) on a "Double Feature DVD." Empire Records wasn't horrible, but I knew going in not to expect too much. The music was good and the characters are what you would expect in a 90's tale targeted towards teens. "Down with The Man!" is used so many times in this movie, it's cringe-worthy. However, that shouldn't tarnish a movie that means well and champions "follow your heart" in matters of love, art, music and the pursuit of happiness - no matter how dark the world is (or seems). Schmaltzy? Yup. Fun to watch? Kind of.
Rating: 2 STARS


Wedneday, April 29, 2020 - Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
The third installment in the 5-film original Planet of the Apes saga, Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) surprised me. I remember very little of the original films and have not seen the new series at all (I know, I know. It's in my queue along with hundreds of other movies). As a matter of fact, this was the first time I've seen this film (to my recollection). On the surface, it seems harmless enough:Let's take the most benign, intelligent Apes of 3353 A.D. and throw them into 1973 California. It's the ol' "let's-do-a-time-warp-fish-out-of-water" story for funsies. And there is a lot of that: witty Ape quips in the press conferences, a Beverly Hills shopping spree for the celebrity Apes, and parties where "Grape Juice Plus" - a.k.a. wine/champagne - is served. What I didn't expect was a prophetic morality play on racism, abortion, the death sentence, women's rights, human rights, environmental issues, the arms race and more. This is pure science fiction. A film that blatantly ignore special effects shots (we don't see the spaceship in space at all - let alone all the fantastic events that brought the Apes to 1973) and, instead, focuses on exploring issues by utilizing dynamic and standard characters in a surreal situation. Worth one screening.
Rating: 3 STARS

Or is it War? Political Thriller? Video Game Adaptation?

Thursday, April 30, 2020 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
My good friend and often Digging Star Wars guest Peter Fey sent me a text last week informing me that the beloved Colonial Theatre - the same theatre used as an actual setting in The Blob (1958) - was running a weekly movie title pun contest. I submitted a few titles and I won! Here's what I sent in...

Image acquired on Instagram. "LIKED" line edited to protect the one user's avatar and name.

To celebrate, I chose to watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) as my "action" pick.
Rating: 3 STARS
Friday, May 1, 2020 - The Cutting Edge (1992)
What can I say? My parents met figure skating. My Dad was an usher at the rink, my Mom just got a new pair of figure skates. And so, I like The Cutting Edge (1992). It's cheesy. It's unrealistic. But it's fun.
Rating: 2 STARS



Saturday, May 2, 2020 - The Monolith Monsters (1957)
IMDB.com lists The Monolith Monsters (1957) as Science Fiction, Horror and Drama. Drama?!  Umm...okay.... At any rate, this "Sci-Fi/Horror/Drama" was the last new-to-me film to see on the Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection DVD. Great idea, lousy movie. However, there are some gems in lame rock collection of a film. The cast includes narrator Paul Frees (who was also the narrator in the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds) and actor Les Tremayne (another '53 WOTW cast member). Not only that, this is another uncredited score for Henry Mancini - and Irving Gertz and Herman Stein. Yes, I enjoyed the movie but can only recommend it as a silly monster movie to kill some time on a Saturday.
Rating: 1.5 STARS

IMDB links to what I watched so far (most recent entries listed at the top):

And here's links to my previous week recaps of
MY PERSONAL FILM FESTIVAL DURING THIS TIME (oldest to newest):
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts