What Films did You Watch Last Week (23/01 - 29/01) CLOSED

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998, Terry Gilliam) - 7/10

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, Joel Crawford) - 8/10

Superman (1978, Richard Doner) - 8/10

Superman II (1981, Richard Lester) - 7.5/10

Superman III (1983, Richard Lester) - 6/10

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987, Sidney J. Furie) - 4.5/10

Shrek (2001, Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson) - 10/10

Shrek 2 (2004, Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, & Conrad Vernon) - 8.5/10

Shrek the Third (2007, Chris Miller) - 6.5/10

Shrek Forever After (2010, Mike Mitchell) - 7/10

Puss in Boots (2011, Chris Miller) - 8/10

Hello again!

Sorry to say none of yours this week.

Mine:

Burning Paradise (Ringo Lam, 1994) 

This is a remarkable little martial arts movie in how it breaks down what is expected from such a movie. Usually, they are full of comedy and light hearted moments and while there is violence, it is heroic or cartoonish. Usually even when a character dies, it is heroic... Not so here. There’s some humor in it, but the character at the start who seems like he’s going to be comedic relief is killed quickly. Here the violence is graphic and brutal. The passage of time is shown with a decaying body. Characters die and rather than being heroic, it is sad and abrupt. It’s a deconstruction of everything the genre typically offers while playing with a traditional story. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I can see how many would not (apparently it was a huge bomb in Hong Kong when released). 8/10 

My Lucky Stars (Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, 1985) 

I’m apparently in the minority for not liking this one based on the imdb scores, but frankly there’s not enough action, Jackie Chan whose billed as the lead, is really only in ten minutes of it, and its sense of humor does NOT work for me at all (pretty much every joke is “Let’s sexually harass our female lead”. They even go so far as to try to turn gang rape into a punchline). Only thing keeping it from a 1/10 is the excellently filmed fight scene in a funhouse/haunted house in an amusement park. Overall, not a fan at all. 2/10  

100 Monsters (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, 1968) 

An interesting Japanese horror/samurai picture. At times it seems cartoonish, almost flat out childish, then it has some genuinely disturbing moments. It may be tonally inconsistent, but it’s always interesting. The yokai have some fantastic designs, coming off as very puppet like at times, but in a delightfully eerie way. It’s not a great film, but it’s certainly unique enough. 6/10 

Me and My Gal (Raoul Walsh, 1932) 

Pre-code comedy with some fairly funny moments but never took off fully for me. The joke with the drunk went on WAY too long and when they returned to it later, I almost turned it off as I was bored with it (second time at least has a funnier gag, but not due to the drunk). 5/10 

The Spy Next Door (Brian Levant, 2010) 

Is there some rule that I was unaware of that every 80s/90s action star had to do a kid comedy at some point? Well, this one is Jackie Chan’s turn. Has some clever fight scenes, but is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a kid movie starring Jackie Chan. Fortunately it’s not as bad as a lot of kids’ movies and I was able to at least enjoy it with my daughter. 5/10 

Epidemic (Lars von Trier, 1987) 

Second of Lars von Trier's Europe trilogy. I'd previously seen the other two (Elements of Crime and Europa) and liked them both very much. This one though... is different. It's a very meta-narrative in which von Trier and his screenwriter (playing themselves) lose the script for the movie they were supposed to work on. They decide to quickly write a film about an epidemic, while unbeknownst to them an actual plague is spreading. It's shot in an almost documentary style (with moments of the movie they intend to film). I don't exactly get what he was aiming for with this one (such as why he decided to have the title complete with trademark on the top left of the screen the entire film) and I honestly didn't care for it enough to try to revisit it and learn more. The ending scenes are surprisingly good though which saves it from a much lower score. 4/10. 

The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022) 

At one point Ralph Fiennes’ character says something along the lines of how they “strive for perfection, which is impossible” and I find that actually a very good description of my view of the film. It is not a perfect movie, no movie really can be for everyone, but it is about as close to perfection as is possible for me as a viewer. It is everything I want from a dark comedy an I really could not have enjoyed it more. 10/10 

Batman Forever (1995) - Not a fan. 4/10

The Menu - Wouldn't go that far, but it was very good and one of the better horror movies last year. 8/10

None of yours this week, but I'm looking forward to watching The Menu.

Willow - Just watched this for the first time last year. Enjoyable fantasy film. 7/10

Torn Curtain - Not one of Hitchcock's best, but I think it's pretty good. 7/10

Only seen The Menu from yours, which I also loved. 9/10