Weekend Review Open Post

Updated on October 18, 2010 By Ken Begg 28 Comments

See anything this weekend, in the theater or on TCM or on DVD? Read a good, or bad, book. Speak ye here.

I spent time hanging out with friends and family, so didn’t get a lot of watching in. I wasted 3 hours on an appalling Chicago Bears effort, and saw about half of Princess and the Frog with my young niece. (I’m going to bring over a copy of Nightmare Before Christmas the next time I go over, I think.) All I can say is that for a four year old, Casey really already has the White People Dancing down.

I did watch some episodes of Naruto Shippuden via free streaming on my computer. I can’t help it, I really like that show, although occasionally I can grow impatient with how long the story arcs are. Still, the three year time jump from the original Naruto series, when he was just a little kid, was handled really well. There are 180 episodes in the NS series, and I’ve watched about 60. The show’s created just a compelling cast of background characters, including all of Naruto’s various comrade ninjas, that I hope they manage to service them all before the show ends.

I also recently finished a longish but strong fantasy novel called Mortal Coils by Eric Nylund. It involves two 15 year old twins who learn they are descended from demi-gods, so I guess it sort of a (I’m assuming) much darker version of that Percy Jackson series they made a movie out of recently. It’s pretty decently written, enough so that I ordered in the first sequel, which is all that is otherwise out at this time.

So what did you see or read?

By the way, that 3-D Jackass movie made fifty million dollars this weekend.

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  • The Rev.

    I watched a couple of episodes of “Elvira’s Movie Macabre.” For those unaware, she’s apparently taken up hosting midnight movies again on Saturdays; she started about a month ago with Night of the Living Dead. I watched The Terror (never seen it before, a decent little flick) and The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (because, why wouldn’t you?), and I’ve got The Giant Gila Monster on tap. For the most part, her jokes tend toward puns and lameness, but once in a while she gets off a decent one. I’m mostly there for the movies. She’s still got pretty nice gams for a dame her age.

    Some other channel, whose name I cannot recall, started playing similar movies on Friday nights. I happened to notice they were running Octaman one night, which I actually enjoyed a bit more than I remember doing the last time I caught it, many years ago. This past week they ran Gor, which was just as bad as Ken said.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Well, let’s see, I did about four hours of painting, can’t be bad, watched The Trial of a Time Lord with the commentary on (I really, really like Colin Baker), watched the first DVD of Dexter’s Laboratory (no extras at all), and am currently reading David Galenson’s “Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art” which is excellent. I always enjoy reading art history, and this book takes the (rather unique) stance that market forces were responsible for most of the artistic movements of the 20th century.

  • Ericb

    My entertainment habits have been off topic lately:

    I’m currently reading “The Making of the British Isles:
    The State of Brain and Ireland, 1450-1660”.

    I watched some CSI:Miami from netflix (I count the CSIs and Law and Orders as a “guilty pleasures” I wish they would cut down on the melodrama and stick to pure procedural though. I don’t want to care about the chracters I just want a modern whodunit).

    I watched football while listening to: The Incredible String Band, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sonic Youth, Radiohead & Wilco.

  • Ken is an anime nerd? I weep for the future.

  • I think I have to like more than one show before I can be deemed an “anime nerd.”

    Also, Sailor Moon is awesome.

  • Mr. Rational

    This weekend? Five movies — The Last Man on Earth (good), Fangs of the Living Dead (dumb and Italian), The Pyx (a bit slow, but not bad), The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (hoo boy), and Cosmos: War of the Planets (see comment on Fangs).

    Plus a mess of college and professional football.

  • Heli

    Not much this weekend, but next weekend should be a good un for bad movies.

    Sandy, if you read this, I need your expert advice. For a first exposure (plus infliction on friends) to HGL, would you recommend Blood Feast or Gruesome Twosome? (Those are the titles handily available on Netflix.)

  • Kung Fu Rebels – Shoddy and incompetent Taiwanese kung fu comedy that starts out boring, becomes violent and mean-spirited (the villain rips out the throats of the love interest AND a little girl), and then becomes typical Drunken Master-esque hijinks.

  • monoceros4

    No bad movies but I did watch Enter the Dragon. It’s hard to believe the same guy directed both that and Gymkata, especially considering that they’ve got largely the same plot.

  • John Campbell

    Sandy why does anime make you a nerd?

    There is some really good cinema in the genre. Akira, Appleseed, Cowboy Bebop, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Robotech to name a few. (Yeah Cowboy Bebop and Robotech are TV shows, but they are great)

    Mind you Ken’s penchant for Sailor Moon is quite alarming!

  • GalaxyJane

    Didn’t see a darned thing this weekend. Instead I piled the kids into the car and headed down to Busch Gardens for Hallowscream, we had a fantastic time. Although we left before all the really scary stuff got going, the monster rock shows were outstanding and the decorations were fantastic. Next year we plan to make the after-dark attractions too. Sunday we walked around Colonial Williamsburg, then headed home, where I once again, slept through Sunday afternoon football.

    As far as reading goes, I am in one of those periodic moods where I just don’t feel like starting anything truly new, so old favorites and sequels to familiar properties are ruling the day. Right now I am working my way through James Herriot’s vet stories again. All in all a pretty sad weekend for a monster girl 2 weeks before Halloween.

  • fish eye no miko

    @The Rev: !! She did NotLD?! Dammit!
    Ah, well, I’ve not seen it yet, and when I do, I want to see it uncut and without commercials.

    I’ve been watching EMM, too. Yeah, the jokes are kinda lame, but it’s fun anyway. I like the bit in BtWD where all three characters are facing away from the camera, so she shows up on the edge of the screen (as she does from time to time) also facing the other way, and says “Hey, camera guy, we’re over here!”

    Ken: I’ve given up on both Naruto and One Piece cuz they’re both so fucking long, and I don’t see any sign of the manga-ka stopping any time soon. I just don’t have the money to buy or the patience to read 40+ volumes of a story that’s still ongoing… At least when I got into Death Note it was over in Japan, and was a nice, relatively short 12 volumes (plus the “How to Read” volume 13, which is basically a fact-book for the series).

  • Rock Baker

    Another chance to review what I’ve seen? Thanks Ken! (And remember, You Asked For It!)

    Iron Man 2 (200?) Lot’s o’ fun. Actually worked better for me than most sequels do, and the trailer had me a little nervous when I first saw it.

    A Nightmare on Elm Street (200?) Here’s the thing, I thought this was actually a really good movie, its just that it was a rehash of stuff I’d already seen. They changed things JUST ENOUGH, to be completely pointless. And I’m not alone in thinking Heather Langencamp (Langenkamp?) was a much better Nancy (not to mention a much cuter Nancy). Looked great in super-wide scope, however.

    Watchmen (200?) Ummm…. I could’ve lived without seeing it.

    When Things Were Rotten (1975?) Mel Brooks’ first stab at the story of Robin Hood was this short-lived teleseries from the 70s, hoping to do for Robin Hood what Get Smart had done for the secret agent genre. I actually thought the show was really funny, and well-cast. Dick Gutier (or however you spell that) as Robin, Dick Van Patten as Frier Tuck, the adorable Misty Rowe as Maid Marian, and more. What I like most about the series was that it didn’t alter the personalities of the characters. Robin was still a courageous outlaw loyal to King Richard and committed to doing good, and he was smart. I can see another show making him an idiot and get laughs that way, like that Daffy Duck cartoon.

    Dark and Stormy Night (200?) Larry Blamire is back with this sharp spoof of Old Dark House pictures from the 30s. This time he cuts back on his weird line-readings and delivers a snappy-patter-laced script that actually holds up well next to the best of the 30s reporters-involved-in-murder-and-the-supernatural flickers. His wife Jennifer Blaire is just as adorable as ever, and his usual stock company is well featured (Dan Conroy as a nervous cabbie who wants only to collect thirtyfive cents is a treat), but Blamire also populates this one with a happy collection of vets (including James Karen, Tom Reese, Marvin Kaplan, and Bob Burns as Kogar the gorilla!). Blamire’s best one so far, as I see it.

    The Incredible Hulk (200?) The more successful attempt at bringing the title character to the big screen, this time taking notes from the much-loved teleseries of the same name. They even managed to make Edward Norton (seriously, why would anyone born after 1955 be named Ed Norton?) look shockingly similar to Bill Bixby. (Meanwhile, DC continues to destroy their franchises as Marvel takes the lead in comic book movie adapatations. If they can keep from being too big and too long, Marvel’s only real competition is Batman.)

    I’m sure I’m forgetting something else I saw. I spent Saturday afternoon finishing up some pages I was drawing.

  • roger h

    I’ll always have a soft spot for Sailor Moon (no, my heart not my head). Try to find the live action series, really well done.

    The weekend was cleaning house after a week of bachelorhood and home improvement.

    Saw “Night Fright” 1969 Texas regional. Some old Spanish horror flick with an invisible monster. Also had “Missile to the Moon” riffed and unriffed playing in background while I worked. Have to see that one again.

  • ahab52

    spent all week cleaning up the 3000 gal. of water that was in my basement when i got home from work last sat morning so not much movie or tv watching. just got back from RED. really liked it. willis, freeman, mirren, malkovitch, and cox together was awsome and better than i expected. a lot of fun.

  • Roger, I assume the “old Spanish horror flick with an invisible monster” is Sound of Terror.

    Night Fright was directed by Larry Buchanan’s AD. Mull on that idea.

  • Rock Baker

    Night Fright (I think the date might actually be ’67 on that one, maybe ’68) is one of my guilty pleasures. I like it inspite of itself. (I think its one of those movies I watch and think “Yeah, I could put something like this together if I had the resources.” You know, those movies that are just competent enough (but not a complete waste of film) to show family or something and say “Yep, I made a real movie!” Genre flicks like that just seem to speak to me.)

    By the way, word has it the film is a remake of a 1963 Texas flick called Demon from Devil’s Lake. Can anyone confirm that? (And point me to a copy if it is true?)

  • roger h

    Yes, “Sound of Terror” I forgot the title nearly immediately. Had many good elements. Too talkie at times with too much side story. Bad direction in parts when the cast was looking at something supposedly horrendous. Little tighter and could of been good film.

    Agree, “Night Fright” was competent. I found the director’s love of “amusing” segues charming rather than over played. Here is a tip, when having the girls shaking their butts for the camera, don’t shoot day for night.

  • Rock Baker

    Sound of Horror was one of those pictures with a nice premise (and a spooky scene or two), but you’re right, it could’ve used some tightening down in spots.

    I had similar thoughts on Night Fright. If they’d trimmed down two sequences it would’ve been a lot better. The scene where they’re following the tracks into the woods could’ve been cut in half and it would’ve helped the flow. Likewise the baiting scene was drawn out way too long. Other than that, I thought it a fine -not great, but decent- regional 60s monster movie.

    My earlier noted fondness for competent genre flicks, I noticed, seems to aply mostly only to 60s regional films (Night Fright, Sting of Death, Death Curse of Tartu, Yesterday Machine, etc.) Those modern cheapies are just painful to watch, and I just can’t accept anything shot on video to be a ‘real’ movie.

  • fish eye no miko

    Ken: Would you consider an open post where people could make recommendations of movies and upcoming tv shows (and maybe even books, etc)?

  • joliet jake blues

    I read Toby Frost’s Space Captain Smith and God Emporer of Didcot, and started Wrath of the Lemming Men. Basically, its every sci-fi film, TV show, book etc ever made all mixed together and turned up to 11. With British people, and a lot of dick jokes.

    I loved it.

  • Man with No Face

    As a long, long time reader, but first time poster, I hope my contribution will be welcomed, or at least tolerated.

    This weekend, I caught up on various genre things I’d purchased but never watched:

    4D Man: from the makers of The Blob, a sci-fi piece about a stolid scientist who learns to walk through solid matter and lets his lusts take control, ala The Invisible Man. Robert Lansing is always a treat, and Lee Meriwether does a surprisingly good job as a hussy quick to betray the man who loves her for his younger brother. James Congdon as brother Tony Nelson (funny, I didn’t see Jeannie or Roger Healy around anywhere) is the film’s weak link, and the writing is a bit stilted at times. But by far the worst element about the picture – one I felt positively ruins it – is the relentless, overdone jazz score. With a properly sinister musical soundtrack, the movie could be much more effective. As it is, it’s as if every time Lansing walks through a wall, the director yelled, “Cue the bongos!” After the trumpet blares during Lansing’s latest bit of mayhem, I expected the camera to pan left, to reveal Congdon sitting in the corner, snapping his fingers and saying, “Go, man, go!”

    Black Dragons: this print, from the 50 Great Horror Movies box set, had a soundtrack so bad I couldn’t make out about half the dialogue. No big loss. It’s amusing to see Clayton Moore as a tough-guy detective, and always fun to watch Lugosi do his shtick. I was actually surprised when it was revealed that the daughter was really a policewoman (oops, spoiler), a revelation which is immediately undercut when she proceeds to scream her lungs out when she sees a guy with a blanket over his head. I also have to wonder what the reaction of contemporary audiences was at the film’s conclusion: “Bela wiped out all those dirty Jap spies. Hurray for the Nazis!” Ummm….

    The Powerpuff Girls Movie: picked up for $3 at Big Lots, so how wrong can you go? My only real question is why the majority of the movie has a grayish tone to it, rather than the bright colors of the TV show. Did they run out of a budget for colorists or something? Also some fairly cute “interviews” with the characters as an extra on the disc.

    Popeye: Robin Williams’ first film, a slow, turgid, appallingly boring musical based on the comic strip. I got about halfway through and gave up. This movie clearly wanted to be Annie. The problems are: 1) Annie was a hit Broadway show for years before it got turned into a movie; there was never a Popeye stage musical (and watching this, you’ll know why); 2) the music in Annie is upbeat, not the dirgelike stuff in this picture; and 3) Annie stars a feisty but cute little girl; Popeye stars a grotesquely disfigured Robin Williams and Shelly Duvall. I’m astonished at the accolades this film got from many critics, and I have to wonder if it would’ve been rated so highly if it hadn’t been directed by Robert Altman. I also wonder if the look of the film drove people away. Clearly, audiences like movies based on comic book and strip characters, and which reflect some of the look and sensibility of the strip; but when a movie is too literal and looks TOO much like a comic strip, it’s just disturbing. (Dick Tracy is another example of this, I think).

  • roger h

    “Those modern cheapies are just painful to watch, and I just can’t accept anything shot on video to be a ‘real’ movie.”

    I hear you Rock, I just saw the end of an atrocity called “Antibody”. I was speechless and remembered why I do not watch the Sci Fi channel much.

    Oh Lance, did it cover the mortgage?

  • tim

    the expendables: yuck. badly written. stupid action. how is it in hollywood there can be high speed car chases with explosions and gunfire and not a single cop responds, yet there’s a motorcycle cop on the small little backstreet behind our office every day?

    the book of eli: nice cinematography. which was easy: put mila kunis in as many shots as possible. overall it was annoying with another Big Twist that changes the nature of the movie. except it wasn’t interesting enough to go back and watch for all the clues.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Hey Ken, the “Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection” is the deal of the day at Amazon. Extremely recommended.

  • Rock Baker

    I must state one minor quibble over The 4D Man, though I admit this is based purely on personal tastes, I actually loved the jazz score for the film. (The point about a more ominous score is well taken, however, it would be interesting to see scenes back to back with different scoring to judge them against each other.) I guess I was hooked since I saw Goldfinger as a kid, but I get a big thrill from brass arrangements that sound close to losing control. The main reason I loved The Incredibles was that the soundtrack sounded like it would explode at any moment. As I noted though, this is just a personal taste thing. The Congdon joke still made me laugh!

  • Man with No Face

    @ Rock:

    I agree completely about Goldfinger and The Incredibles — but those are action pictures. The jazz enhances the action. In a suspense/horror movie though, it has the opposite effect.

    Imagine Them or a Quatermass movie with a jazz soundtrack, and you’ll see what I meant.

  • Rock Baker

    You have a point, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I should probably watch The 4D Man again, I just never found the music to be a problem whenever I saw it (been maybe two years since I screened it last). I’ll probably be noting the score much more closely next time I dig that tape out.