Ryan McNeil
Remember last week, when I wondered aloud what the Thanksgiving weekend would do to my watching habits? Seems as though the answer was “Dial it all way down”.
Actually, oddly enough, the long weekend and all of its familial commitments wasn’t what tripped me up. No, it was all of the other social activities I had planned from Monday to Friday. When I wasn’t at a soccer match, at pub night, or at a concert, I was staying up past my bedtime writing about all these movies I’ve been watching lately!
Oh well. There are a lot of things that make a lot of people’s lives very challenging. Were I to start complaining about being too busy going out and having fun to keep up with my to-see list, I’d probably be deserving of a smack.
Speaking of the pub, my good friend Bob handed me a rather large stack of horror films to aid in this year’s watchlist. I must thank the man for saving me thirty or forty bucks in rental fees. The Horror Watchlist began tonight with one that was way creepier than I thought it’d be. That post I’m crafting for month-end oughta be a gem!
Here’s The Week at Hand…
Screenings
FRANKENWEENIE – Part of me thinks that cynicism is dragging down this film
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
THE MUSIC MAN – So what exactly is a “Shipoopi”?
DEAR WENDY – My friend Monika has been raving about this forever. Not sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it.
CARNIVAL OF SOULS – So long sleep. I’ll miss you!
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
THE MATRIX RELOADED – Like its predecessor last week, it was watched with the philosophical commentary on.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK – The Fincher series inches towards its close. Another dvd watched with its commentary on.
Boxscore for The Year
197 First-Timers, 179 Re-Watched
108 Screenings
376 Movies in Total
My week was spent mostly on rewatch.
First timer:
Taken 2. Sometimes I need to trust my instinct and avoid crap like this.
The Expendable 2. Nostalgia is the only reason to watch this, and that’s gone after 30 minutes
Rewatch:
The Avengers. Didn’t hold up as well the 2nd time, I was especially bored in the first half. The finale is still great.
The Sarah Polley Triple Bill.
Away From Her. Strong directorial debut, showing restraints that’s not common for a first time director
Take This Waltz. Was able to reconcile with the third act a little better, but she tries way to hard with her on the nose dialogue. The last scene with Michelle Williams in a scrambler conveys everything you need to say about the movie.
Stories We Tell. Watched this one more time in a charity screening. Easily the best movie of the 3. Loves a movie that tries to do something new with a genre, in this case Documentary. Just go see it.
Speaking of great doc, I would like to plug another doc that’s also playing in Toronto called The Imposter. The Imposter is still my favorite movie of the year, and it would make a great double bill with Stories We Tell, as both challenges the rules of documentary. I will be seeing The Imposter again on Wed at the Varsity. Join me!
I plug these two films harder than the distributing companies do, I think I should get paid for this…
I did not realize that The Imposter finally got released here. I agree with you that it is one best films the year. I ended up seeing it twice when it played Hot Docs.
Pretty sure I’m caught up on the mainstream offerings this week, so perhaps I’ll be able to finally soak up THE IMPOSTER. About time too, since few films have beaten me stickside as badly as that one did!
I was busy with screenings and such, so my HorrorFest took a bit of a backseat (I’ll try to make up for lost time before Toronto After Dark begins)
Screenings:
Frankenweenie – Loved the film
Story of Film – This will be a fixture on this list for the next few weeks
Detropia – I was mildly underwhelmed (to the point I haven’t yet written a review)
Shorts That Are Not Pants – The general consensus was that The Cub ruled the night.
Netflix First Time
Kill List – The film is quite well done in how it progressively gets darker.
Blu-Ray Re-Watch
Daybreakers – Good first act, Good final act, Middle is a bit of slog (as demonstrated by me dozing off for a few minutes)
Lordy can I not wait until STORY OF FILM hits dvd – one year is such a long time to wait!
First-Timers: Aliens, The Host, Partysaurus Rex, True Bond and later tonight, The Colossus of Rhodes by Sergio Leone.
Re-Watches: Apocalypse Now, The Running Man, Casino Royale, The Hire: The Follow, The Beverly Hillbillies, and That Thing You Do!
Uhhh…what exactly possessed you to watch THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES?
An extremely light week. Dexter and Veronica Mars have been taking up all my screen.
[New]
Premium Rush – Good cycling action but it was sloppy in pacing. Felt pretty bored after an hour.
A Thousand Words – Eddie Murphy still manages a good amount of laughs but the story is undercooked.
I get into stretches like that, where I’m deeply invested in a show and just mainline it over the course of a week. Speaking of which, I really should finish off season three of The Wire.
No first-timers this week:
The Third Man,
The Avengers,
History of Violence,
Magnolia
…and that’s just fine, because I don’t think I could have chosen four better titles to select as repeat viewings!
First-Time:
Shorts That Are Not Pants – Enjoyed most of the films. To echo Sean, The Cub killed it.
Daylight Savings – Reel Asian Screener – The sequel to Surrogate Valentine. Decent but not as good as the first one.
Seeking Asian Female – Reel Asian Screener – Though not necessarily the best looking documentary, the lines that get blurred when the director oversteps her boundaries is what hooked me.
Re-watch:
Starship Troopers – had an odd craving to watch this film again. It still holds up.
Really sorry that we missed the latest round of Shorts/Pants, but this programme was scheduled the same night as Lindsay’s birthday. Perhaps I can hit James up for screeners.
I was thinking about watching The Social Network last night. It has been 10 months since I last saw it. The commentary is really interesting, as are the features in the two-disc special edition.
First-timers:
Scream – really enjoyed it. So fun.
Suspiria – I wish that I liked this film a whole lot more than I did.
That’s My Boy – Adam Sandler needs to be stopped.
Batman Forever – I don’t think I ever really pictured Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne/Batman. This one was kinda lame.
Passion Play – I love it when practically nothing comes out on DVD so I watch all of the tiny films like this. It was so bad.
Jeff Who Lives at Home – A really pleasant film. I really enjoyed it.
Batman & Robin – LOL.
The Blair Witch Project – Actually quite scary after all of this time.
Mystic River – Couldn’t be bothered watching The Shawshank Redemption again for my exam tomorrow, so I decided to watch a different Tim Robbins film so I didn’t feel so bad. It was really good.
Rewatches:
Rampart – Saw it again on a normal disc since the preview was out of sync. Still didn’t like it.
Hairspray – Watched it again for my third blog birthday countdown. Forgot how truly wonderful this film is.
Damn girl – that’s a great handful of first-timers for one week! I have SUSPIRIA sitting in front of my TV for my annual horrorfest, so we’ll have to compare notes in a week or so.
It’s been a LONG time since I watched BLAIR WITCH, but I do remember walking away from it rather disturbed. That ending shot still gives me chills…as does the shot before it (handprints on the wall)
I really do need to catch up with your birthday countdown. Perhaps now that I’m able to look at a screen for more than two minutes at a time I’ll get back in the loop.
I’m catching up, but this coming week will probably be a slower one for me.
New to me:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Version a la Fincher. Not bad.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer: Very much looks its age.
Hotel Transylvania: Took Kid #2. Not much to report.
The House of Rothschild: The strangest piece of propaganda I’ve seen in a very long time.
The Mortal Storm: Surprisingly, really good.
Through the Olive Trees: Gorgeous. Love Kiarostami.
8 1/2: Meh. I can officially take or leave Fellini.
Murmur of the Heart: Ick!
Mother and Son: Beautiful, but so slow it’s pretty much static.
The Descendants: I liked this far more than I thought I would
Rewatches
28 Days Later: Just gearing up for Halloween.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: Forgot how good and how adult this was.
Pity that this week will be a slow one for you, because it’s shaping up to be a rather heavy one for me!
8 1/2 will grow on you, especially for everything it has to say about the absurdity of being a filmmaker. I found it only “okay” the first time around, but started to love it dearly on rewatch.
28 DAYS LATER came up as a big talking point in the film I reviewed on the site today!
I have been sick and stuff, but managed to watch a few films in the last couple of weeks.
Firsts: Husbands and Wives– The first time I felt as though a Woody Allen film was too old for me.
Eyes Wide Shut– Definitely Kubrick all over. I liked it.
People Like Us– So it in the flight. Passed the time… that’s about it.
Bright Star– Have been meaning to watch this ever since it came out. I liked it, but I think I overhyped it in my head.
On the Road– No where near as good as the book, but decent. Hedlund and Sturridge were standouts.
Rewatched: The Princess Bride– This film is infinitely awesome.
Rushmore– Definitely still my favourite Wes Anderson film.
The Social Network– Such excellence.
The Royal Tenenbaums– Yeah I still don’t like it outside of its look and Margot.
Mean Girls– The film I can quote the most.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2– This film deserved more awards attention.
Brave– In flight film. Slightly less rewarding experience this time, but Merida is ab fab.
We both watched THE SOCIAL NETWORK this week? Up top!
Funny thing about EYES WIDE SHUT, I can remember how on its release a lot of people were grumpy with it…called it not at all erotic…were disappointed that it would stand as Kubrick’s legacy. It’s only as time has gone by that a lot of people have come around on it and hailed it as a great work.
Amusing how that happens, ain’t it?
Ha– I hadn’t read this post, but I just re-recommended you watch Carnival of Souls in the “name me some horror movies to watch” post you wrote a while back. Glad you caught it. I actually just did a re-watch of it this week myself; another viewing solidifies its flaws of construction, but there’s no denying that despite some bad sound editing/mixing and some bad performances, the film still has the power to unnerve and unsettle, and builds up to a great payoff that as a modern viewer I saw coming a mile away– and yet which nonetheless still worked for me as a reveal.
Also rewatched Looper (love it) and the first RDJ/Law Sherlock Holmes film (yargh). I caught, for the first time, the remake of Pusher (it’s strangely underdone but still effective) and God Bless America (speaks volumes in a vicious, merciless timbre but undoes itself with its own shortsighted cruelty).