Post-Weekend Open Thread…

Updated on November 15, 2010 By Ken Begg 24 Comments

Uh…man, I watched nothing much all weekend.  I did finish a long Naruto storyline, which I’m sure ate up hours.  However, I worked all day Saturday (a rare occurrence, and I do get a three day weekend to make up for it, starting Friday), and then I watched an almost competent looking Bears team on Sunday at my brother’s.  Watched the penultimate episode of Next Iron Chef.  And that’s about it.

Did finish the long fantasy novel All the Lives Must Die by Eric Nuland, kind of Harry Potter meets Lemony Snicket meets Percy Jackson.  It’s the second volume in a series about teenage twins who learn they are they half-breeds of the ancient gods and the fallen angels.  The two books are pretty decent, if a bit grim and longish, but I’m sure I’m read the third one whenever it comes out.

Came into work today to find a treat: FOB Katherine Evans (the last person to sponsor a review here, back before I gave up on that idea as especially unseemly) put me in touch with Tim C. out in Long Beach.  Tim has a reported collection of 4,000 (!) movies on DVD, and sent me copies of Gog (never seen it), Flame Barrier (ditto) and The Neanderthal Man.   Can’t wait to give them a look; it’s always nice to notch off one of the ’50s sci-fiers I never go to see.

So what did you guys see or read?

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  • Ericb

    My entertainment activities were actually on topic this week.

    I just bought the news MST3K set and watched them: Robot Monster, Bride of the Monster, Devil Doll and Devil Fish (the original Sharktopus!)

    I also got the new Doctor Who from netflix and watched the first few episode. Matt Smith was a much better Doctor that I was expecting.

    On the reading front I finished Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1638-1660 by Trevor Royle and started The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution by Christopher Hill.

  • GalaxyJane

    Realized I watched a surprising amount of stuff considering I spent the weekend on a road trip to visit the parents in WV this weekend. Then again I inherited movie-watching, along with my big blue eyes from my dad, so maybe not surprising. Also re-read snatches of Terry Pratchett’s “Unseen Academicals” between adventures.

    Friday watched “Charlie Chan at the Circus” which I’ve always thought was one of the more entertaining Sidney Toler entries in the series. Watching Keye Luke’s Number 1 Son completely fail to pull of a convincing drag act while shadowing the suspects is always good for a laugh. Saw The Jungle Book Saturday afternoon and watched a little random college ball before going out for some excellent German food and beer. Any place that has Spaten Optimator on draft is OK in my book.

    Came home Sunday and watched the Cowgirls give the Giants a totally deserved, but completely unexpected butt-whipping. Was also pleasantly surprised to find that my long-awaited copy of “The Blooy Red Baron” by Kim Newman, had finally come in. Then worked my way through a couple more episodes of the new season of Dr. Who on DVD. Feeling pretty good so far about both Matt Smith as the Doctor and about Steven Moffett as show runner. And yes, I kind of like the new retro-Technicolor Daleks. Somebody has to, and while I think the Peter Cushing movies were dreadful, I like seeing the shout-out to them in the design. Hate the new arrangement of the theme though. They dropped the middle eight again, which is my favorite part of the tune.

  • P Stroud

    If anyone is interested in a neat little noir-style thriller the Aussie production, “The Square” is worth a view. Nothing spectacular but it’s nice to see some well done plotting, good acting and a deft hand at black humor. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse… it does. It’s on Netflix.

  • Toby Clark

    The Doctor Who serial The Chase from 1965. It was the most unintentionally hilarious serial I’ve seen yet. I still can’t believe it was written by the same guy who gave us Genesis of the Daleks.

    Of course, the fact that the guy who gave us the Weeping Angels and the Vashta Narada also gave us Jeff Murdoch is truly mindboggling.

    Other than that, a few episodes of Fringe and New Tricks, the movie Gaslight and I finished reading two of the Marvel Civil War collections, Iron Man and Frontline. The chapter Casualties of War was a standout.

  • The Rev.

    Half-Price Books sent out some coupons again, so I had to go look. They rearranged things and have a foreign film section now. I don’t know what fool(s) dumped all this stuff, but I picked up the following (and watched the first two):

    Wild Zero (I finally own it! It’s still awesome!)
    Spirited Killer (Billed as Tony Jaa’s first movie, but I couldn’t pick him out. Fight scenes are all right, especially when Panna Rittikrai’s onscreen, but I can’t really recommend it.)
    Shikoku
    Ong-Bak
    The Magnificent Butcher
    The entire series for “Super Robot Red Baron” (because, you know, it’s not like I’m still working through “Iron King” and have the complete “Ultraman” waiting after that…)

  • The Rev.

    From the DVR:

    The Devil Within Her with Joan Collins, Donald Sutherland (small role), and *sigh* Caroline Munro (even smaller role). The premise is almost as insane as that from The Manitou (gotta love the ’70s). The deaths are mostly unbloody, but there’s a decapitation that is REALLY good, despite the bright red paint/blood spewing around. Joan’s in her underwear a couple of times (and even shows her breasts at one point), and Caroline shows up briefly in a burlesque-type outfit, but they teased me with Caroline naked (or at least topless) and did not deliver, so boo on them. Overall, I rather liked it, even with the typical ’70s grimness present throughout.

  • BeckoningChasm

    I did a lot of painting and soundtrack work. I watched “The Gore Gore Girls” and Netflix instant view. I also watched “The Wizard of Mars” from them, and I wonder if they know the disk was pretty obviously recorded on someone’s home DVR. Ken, I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to know that yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the day I adopted my cat.

  • Let’s hope he’s not a Cubs fan. (Of course if he was, he probably wouldn’t have lasted ten years.)

  • BeckoningChasm

    Say, Ken, speaking of the Cubs, I have a question.

    Most sports teams have names that indicate toughness or ferocity or (sometimes) location. So how did the Cubs name themselves “cubs”? Were “Golden Retriever Puppies” and “OMG Squeee” already taken? Bear cubs play and gambol in documentaries while comedy music plays. Why would they pick that name? A bear cub is bumbling and adorable and is a threat to no one.

    Did I just answer my own question?

  • I spent my Saturday night at the ‘Cinematic Titanic’ show in St Charles, MO. The movie they riffed was a 1970s piece of shlock called ‘Rattlers’. Plot: rattlesnakes start killing people in a small desert community after being exposed to nerve gas that the army improperly disposed of. The CT crew did a great job riffing it. Bought 3 DVDs afterwards and got them signed. I asked Joel if they had ever seen ‘Santa And The Ice Cream Bunny’. There was an audible groan from the cast. I guess they have.

  • Ericb

    Beckoning, well the Cubs aren’t alone in having an unmacho name. You’ve got the Blue Jays, Cardinals, Phillies, Angels and various colored sox.

    In the football world the Colts and Cardinals are of questionable testosterone levels.

  • BeckoningChasm

    I think the bird names (as well as Colts and Angels) imply speed. (Colts would also imply stamina I think.) I might include “Phillies” if they spelled it “Fillies” but I suspect it’s a rare team that would name themselves after girl horses.

    As for sox, well, they have the power of getting lost in the laundry which is obviously useful in sports. Wait, what?

  • BC — Ha! Shows what you knows. Cubs are horrible pack animals that feed off your life energy, slowly ripping away little chunks of your soul and, over the decades, blighting all the pleasure out of one’s existence, until one begins to cherish the thought of sweet, sweet oblivion.

    Up to now, that is. Next year is it! World Series, baby! Whoot!

  • Rock Baker

    Oh, wow. 4,000? I feel like such a mockery now! And Gog! Boy, I’d love to see Gog again! I was nine or so when I saw it last.

    I thought Rattlers was pretty good for a 70s killer animal movie. Takes all kinds, don’t it?

    This weekend I installed a new washing machine, had to get a new monitor for the computer (hence my vanishing from these postings for a couple days), but still managed to watch some movies, a couple of them borrowed (I’ve had Zulu at my place forever, I’m hoping I can get to it next weekend)….

    Ernest in the Army (1997) – Your old buddy Ernest enlists in the Resrves for a chance to drive the Army big rigs, then finds his unit called up to help a UN Colonel de-throne a muslim dictator with an atomic missile at the ready, a device also craved by a Blofeld-a-like who comes complete with obscured face and white cat. Could Ernest P. Worrell be the legendary great American warrior prophecy says will liberate the people? You better believe it, knowhatImean?
    Last Ernest movie, title changed from Stormin’ Ernest just prior to release (via the USA cable network). Hardly the best film in the series, but a step up from the previous couple of films, for those who might actually watch Ernest movies anyway. Varney’s charater is met by many with the same hatred heaped upon Gilligan’s Island.

    The Big Heat (1955?) – Police dick Glenn Ford probes the suicide of a senior officer and learns of big time criminal activity. The gangsters don’t like Ford’s nosing around so they bomb his car, and kill his wife by mistake. Now Ford is after them with more determination than ever!

    Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – First war epic I ever saw on televison, I think. Fine stuff, but they could’ve told their story in under two hours and my tailbone would’ve been grateful to them.

    Hart’s War (2002) – I always enjoy a good POW story, and I liked this one fine. It’s no Stalag 17, but still pretty good.

    Cry Terror! (1958) – Columbia Pictures made the best crime/suspense thrillers of the 50s. Here’s a shining example with a great cast. Terrorists force a suburban family to collect half a million in blackmail money. Until I saw this for the first time, I didn’t think it possible for rugged James Mason to play so timid a character.

    Tears of the Sun (2003) – Latest edition to my library (a skimpy 1,872 or so titles). Special Ops team goes into war-torn Africa to extract an American doctor. Highlights the barbaric treatment of the Africans (similar in ways to Rambo, and how it pulled back the veil on modern-day Burma). Eye opening stuff for a guy who usually thinks of Africa as a giant big game preserve.

    The Villian (1979) – Long MIA early Ahh-nold movie is a western spoof (yeah, Arnold in a western) that plays like a cross between a Daffy Duck cartoon and an extended skit from the Dean Martin Variety Show (right down to casting Paul Lynde as the Indian cheif) given a decently-sized budget. Kirk Douglas looks good in the title role as he attempts to rob travelling Handsome Stranger (Arnold) and Charmin Jones (Ann-Margaret), While E. Coyote style. Epic silliness, but fun.

    I also watched that I Dream of Jeannie two-parter with the imposter Tony who moves into the house while the real Tony is whisked away to work on a top secret project. I always liked the inter-play between Hagman, Eden, Daily, and Rourke on this show. Larry’s off-screen life gives me hives, but I always liked the way he played Maj. Nelson. It takes a special talent to jump back and forth between confusion, fright, panic, anger, and control as well as he did. He also has one of the funniest screams on television.

  • Rock Baker

    Latest addition to my libray, not edition. What was I thinking?

  • The Rev.

    “I watched “The Gore Gore Girls”…”

    For God’s sake why!?! Do you hate yourself or something?? It’s not too late to get help!

  • silverwheel

    Watched La Vallee, a meandering French film about hippies seeking enlightenment. Ken would love it.

  • Petoht

    I wager the “Phillies” took their name from their host city. Also, let’s see… the various Sox teams used to go by Stockings, ooo scary. Still, I think one of the worst would have to be in basketball: The New York Knick(erbocker)s.

    Besides, could be worse. Ken and other sports masochists like myself could be rooting for The Port Ruppert Mundys…

  • Marsden

    Petoht is correct, they are actually the Philadelphia Philadelpias, but of course shortened to Phillies. Nothing to do with horsies.

    I watched Cloverfield. I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did. The first maybe 20+ minutes is the most useless crap I’ve seen in a long time. Considering the movie is only 1hr and 24 minutes long I felt like this could have been better as an episode of Outer Limits than a feature. The monster was good, I like just about everything after it finally started almost a half hour in, but the end was lame-o. I was with it until the helecopter crash, then the movie and any sense of reality parted company.

    Spoiler section.

    They pretty much all survived a helecopter crash, even the girl that had a rebar through her chest before they rescued her to get her to da choppa er got her to the chopper. Then the monster munches the guy with the camera but doesn’t at all bother the other two people that sit by his corpse an pick up the camera, including puntured chest girl. Then they profess their love for each other, bah, while the movie ends. While I guess the guy had genuine feelings for the girl I think she was basically so messed up from shock and trauma she would have told anyone she loved them, really. But appart from the anticlimactic ending and the people that explode because of a bite from the parasite monsters (why? because its GITS) and the fact I’m supposed to pretend the pentagon recovered this tape and didn’t edit out the first 24+ minutes of uselessness.

    GITS, a take off of IITS that stands for Grossness in the script. When something is put in the script and happens merely to ramp up the grossness/yuckiness factor. Sorry if that’s an infringment, Ken, have your lawyers call my lawyers.

  • BeckoningChasm

    I think the reason we see the entire tape is that it’s supposed to be the raw source material as it was recovered…hence no editing. I liked the film more than you did, but I agree that the opening party was, well, let’s say I would have congratulated the guy and left after five minutes.

    “It’s another thing…also horrible.”

  • Marsden

    It’s not that I didn’t like it, that middle 2/3rds was really good, just the last bit and the way too long begining that drag it down.

  • Ken-

    You may want to look into Netflix Watch Instantly. Last I looked, GOG was among the movies available to watch for free on computer if you have a Netflix account. They feature a lot of stuff I would have overlooked. Sugar Hill is also in there, Satan’s Sadists, just tons of Jabootu-approved stuff. Human Centipede is free too (no thanks).

  • Thanks, Matty Boy. I don’t think my Internet connection is fast enough for that, but I’ll check it out and make sure.

  • John Campbell

    Ken – if you replace the two tin cans with a couple of Campbell’s Chunky Soup cans and the string with a high test fishing line I’m positive you can boost your through-put!