[CLOSED] Which films did you see last week? (052624-060124)

Ashamed to say none of yours this week. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a movie I feel like I should have seen.

Mine (not a lot this week. Had a power outage that lasted a couple of days due to a bad storm here):

Black Mask (Daniel Lee, 1996)

This is one of those movies that I know I saw part of back when it first came to the US. It was likely on the Action channel or something, showing the English dub. I can now say that I've seen it all the way through with the full Hong Kong cut of the film. It's an entertaining mix of martial arts and early super hero style movie. It's not great mind you, and it has some bad special effects, but makes up for so many of its problems with charm and some good fight scenes. Plot is... well, it's a 90s martial arts film, you're not here for the plot. All that said, I had no clue that it has the amazing Anthony Wong was in this and I was delighted to see him. He's not in the movie much, playing the "last drug dealer standing" and spends most of his time being the standard creepy Anthony Wong, but man, no one can play that better than him. 6/10

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Miller and George Ogilvie, 1985)

Time for another edition of SOG has an unpopular opinion. I know Thunderdome is the most divisive of the Mad Max movies, but I honestly think it is the second best. Now hear me out. The first Mad Max is not a bad movie, but it's really kind of a straight forward revenge picture. It owes more to films like Death Wish. Road Warrior is the first time we get the crazy fun of the series, and it's great fun for sure... but honestly, Fury Road has taken everything I like about Road Warrior and improved upon it in every way. The action, the madness, the sheer cool factor... this leads us to Thunderdome, which in many ways is the most unique of the series. It's less bleak than the other films, but still contains some of the most interesting and quotable scenes outside of Fury Road. The actual Thunderdome fight is amazingly fun and the final chase scene is stunning (particularly the moments of the guy hanging off the train). It's honestly become to my mind the Mad Max film I'd put on if I wanted a bit of a slower pace. Admittedly I have not seen Furiosa yet, and I know my opinion is not something everyone's going to agree with, but for me, this is a solid second place film. 8/10

The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990)

This is week ten of my examination of the films of Paul Schrader. I almost missed out on this week due to a power outage in my neighborhood which meant that my movie watching was certainly cut down. That said, it came on in time and I managed to pull it off. Huzzah! It seems like a lot of people find this one on the lower to middle ground of Schrader's filmography. Personally, I really dug it. It's a slow building film with a lot of tension. It's one of those films where every line of dialogue seems purposeful and cleverly constructed. The cast is good, with Walken in particular playing a particularly tense role. Overall, I really enjoyed it and would put it towards the top of his filmography. 8/10

The Catman of Paris (Lesley Selander, 1946)

There's a very Val Lewton feel to this one, it's just nowhere near as good as any of Lewton's pictures. The film follows an author whose book is potentially going on trial as it seems he may have taken some government sealed records to write it... but anyone in his way is killed by a CAT PERSON! (DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUN). It's a very silly little horror movie that takes logic leaps to an amazing extreme. I love the fact that literally after the first murder is examined, one of the two higher ups in the police is like "Claw marks on the body you say? SUPERNATURAL IS AFOOT" and the reasonable police officer is treated like the fool for commenting that perhaps they should investigate a bit and not assume supernatural events are going on. Makes me wish there were more films with this detective having to investigate normal crimes where his boss is constantly yelling about cryptids being the murderers and lizard men covering it up or something. 5/10

Valley of the Zombies (Philip Ford, 1946)

I was in the mood for another cheesy 40s horror movie after finishing “Catman”. This one was an improvement over the other film, though the title is completely misleading. There are no zombies here, neither voodoo nor Romero style. What we get is a crazy guy who is closer to a vampire, though instead of drinking he needs blood transfusions. There are also no valleys either. Still, weird title aside, I enjoyed this one. 6/10