This “what I watched” feature on The Matinee will be on hiatus for a few weeks. See the next two weekends after this I’ll be fully immersed in festival activities, and the site will be reflecting that. So if this is your favorite part of The Matinee (and curiously, I think it is for a few of you), ya better soak it up!

One interesting detail I can foresee about the next entry though? It will include my 100th screening of the year…a full six weeks ahead of when that happened last year. What have I done?

Speaking of “what have I done?”, I’m also starting to wonder if ten-to-twelve movies watched is just “my new normal”. In looking at my Letterboxd page this morning to put this entry together, I had to give my head a shake when I realized I’ve watched a dozen titles this week. I could have sworn I didn’t get up that high…and yet, here we are. Maybe that’s just the pace I’ve reached? Or maybe that will all come back to earth once the TV season returns in a few weeks.

Who’s to say?

Here’s The Week at Hand…

Screenings
PARANORMAN – Charming as hell, but it actually got overhyped for me.
KILLER JOE – Twisted as hell, and one I won’t soon be forgetting

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF –  I wasn’t as bummed as everyone suggested I would be.
EAST OF EDEN – This on the other hand killed my whole mood.
LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS – As I said earlier this week, this one has aged marvelously.

Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST – My Barnes & Noble Criterion order finally arrived.
SPY GAME – This was my Tony Scott tribute. 
JAWS – If you haven’t picked up the blu-ray of this, you don’t know what you’re missing.
ROUNDERS – Boy was I ever a huge fan of this when I was younger.
THE HUNGER GAMES – I still love it, but re-watching it sure does highlight its flaws.
THE WATCHMEN – Ever want to get Lindsay riled up? Tell her how much you like this movie.

Boxscore for The Year
157 First-Timers, 152 Re-Watched
76 Screenings
309 Movies in Total

How’s about you – seen anything good?

19 Replies to “Days of The Week (Films Watched Aug 25 – Aug 31)”

  1. Went on a bit of and exploitation kick this past week, I did slip in two former TIFF films in the mix though.

    First-time watch:

    The Big Doll House – Pam Grier alert! The best of the exploitation bunch that I saw this week. I see why it is a cult classic.

    Switchblade Sisters – Not that good, but I now know where Darryal Hannah’s character from Kill Bill came from.

    Friday Foster – Pam Grier alert! The film was okay and Yaphet Kotto was good in the supporting role. Eartha Kitt and Carl Weathers do exactly what you expect them to.

    Bucktown – Pam Grier alert! This film was pretty dull even by exploitation standards

    Monsters – Missed it at TIFF. A decent film but not one I would run back to anytime soon.

    Season of the Witch – Nic Cage and Ron Perlman…I felt sorry for Perlman, the film was awful.

    Drum – Pam Grier alert! Felt like the poor blaxploitation version of Roots. It was bad but not as bad as Season of the Witch.

    Assault on Precinct 13 – I had never seen the original Carpenter version before and absolutely loved it

    The Ward – Decided to continue the John Carpenter kick…should have stopped with Assault on Precinct 13.

      1. I would recommend you see Foxy Brown and Coffey. Those are her two best films outside of Jackie Brown. You can then hit both The Big Doll House and The Big Birdcage if you are feeling adventurous.

    3. The concept was good but it never felt like there was enough plot to sustain the film. It seemed like the actors were just going through the motions for the most part.

    4. It’s just a typical road movie though – I actually sorta liked the fact that they hit us with a bait-and-switch. Many of us signed on thinking we’d be in for a creature feature, and instead we get this.

      Loved it!

  2. Haha fun fact- I always thought Swingers was Rounders.
    Virginia Woolf is awesomely nuts!

    Firsts: The Last Picture Show– There were elements I really loved, but I had to really try to keep my concentration.
    Stand By Me– This one I loved.
    The Deep Blue Sea– It was gorgeous to look and Weisz was absolutely incredible.

    Rewatched: Singin’ in the Rain– Second time this month, but this time it was for film studies.
    The Princess Diaries– It was coming on tv. I like it okay.
    The Tree of Life– Hehe made people in my film studies class watch it. I’m pretty sure some of them hate me now.

    1. I’ll go find the Deep Blue Sea since the new Bourne is only out next month over here, can’t wait that long to see Weisz on screen.

      And about the Princess Diaries, if you watched it more than 0 times you can’t say “I like it okay” lol, it’s so sickly sweet it’s extreme Love vs. extreme Hate.

    2. If you do a bit of digging, I wrote a longer piece about THE LAST PICTURE SHOW a year or two ago. I loved it, but totally get what you’re saying about concentration – It’s a very still movie.

      I think there are two sorts of people who watch TREE OF LIFE: Those who love it, and those who are wrong.

  3. For this week,

    First-Timers: The Killing, Like Crazy, and just now, Beginners.

    Re-Watches: Licence to Kill, American Splendor, Monsoon Wedding, The Three Musketeers (1993 film), and Problem Child

  4. Can’t wait for Killer Joe. And Rounders made me want to learn to play poker and deal cards like a pro. Even though that dream lasted all of 3 weeks the movie is still awesome lol.

    1st’s:

    La Femme Nikita / Fine work from action-film vet Luc Besson, love the main character as much as the action (which come to think of it, there wasn’t very much)

    Once / After Ryan’s sentimental little post (!) I sat through this from frame one and enjoyed it all right to the credits.

    The Sitter / Awful excuse for a Jonah Hill vehicle, from now on I’ll trust my gut and never make exceptions, not even the Method Man cameo could save this one.

    I won’t lie I look forward to these week-end posts but your festival coverage should be even better. I did manage to get those Kurosawa and Hithcock titles so while Ryan and all the lucky Canadians are watching the latest and greatest at Tiff I’ll be chilling with the classics ^_^

    1. The funny thing about ROUNDERS is that it actually preceded the whole poker craze by a good six years! I actually wrote a paper about it in college.

      Glad I could convince you to give ONCE a look – and that you dug it so much. Now go get your hands on the soundtrack…

  6. Two new releases:

    Killer Joe – Twisted fun at the expense of Emile Hirsch.
    Goodbye First Love – Intimate story on first love, beautiful story.

    Others:
    I was really saddened by the death of Tony Scott, probably than I expected. Scott was never my favorite director, but he is very good at providing solid entertainment for last 20+ years. I grew up watching his films, so I decide to do a retrospective of his movies before TIFF starts

    Top Gun: The Gay Pilot movie.

    Crimson Tide: A blockbuster with little action, but builds great tension thru out.

    Revenge: Never seen Revenge before. Quentin Tarantino calls Revenge: ‘Tony Scott’s masterpiece’. I beg to differ.

    Days of Thunder: The first hour is an absolute blast. I don’t think it’s possible for Duvall to give a bad performance.

    True Romance: My absolute favorite Tony Scott movie, Quentin Tarantino’s Autobiographical Fantasy (Does that even make sense?). This film brings back some real memories, I won’t dwell on the details except to say one of my close friend in college was an EXACT replica of Floyd.

    I will do 3 more Tony Scott films this week. It’s a blast watching his work.

    1. I realized last week that I’d left Tony Scott by the wayside a decade ago, since I never watched any of his other films after SPY GAME. While I’m come to actually see TOP GUN as a lacklostre movie over the years, I nevertheless enjoy watching it, along with DAYS OF THUNDER, TRUE ROMANCE, and CRIMSON TIDE.

      Might have to give those a spin before we get into the TIFF insanity.

  7. Here’s what I watched, with a couple of bonuses:

    New to me:
    Babes in Arms: Everything I hate about musicals in one place.
    Snakes on a Plane: For podcast. Use all the cliches!
    Five Easy Pieces: A great character study.
    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?: My blindspot for the month.
    Gertrud: Like watching mannequins for two hours.

    Rewatches:
    Passenger 57:For podcast. So, so forgettable.

    I watched these last three weeks ago, but couldn’t comment because of my involvement in the reviewing competition on the LAMB. Now that I’m out, I can confess to these three:
    Brazil (rewatch): Gilliam’s best? Maybe.
    City of God (new): Staggering. See this if you haven’t.
    Before Sunrise (new): Surprisingly good despite not much focus.

    1. I was *just* about to watch BABY JANE last week before Lindsay reminded me that it’s coming to The Lightbox this fall…so look for that to be listed in my screenings tally sometime between now and year’s end.

      I’ve been meaning to pick up BEFORE SUNRISE/SUNSET forever. Maybe now though, I’ll just wait for them to finish off the trilogy.

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