You can skip Friday 13th and while the orig NoES is great, I'm not sure it'd be your thing, but if only cos I know you admire great filmmaking, regardless of genre, the orig. Halloween is essential. There might be better Carpenter films in terms of theme or story but from a technical pov, I'd say it's far and away his masterpiece.

ah, thanks guys. will check out halloween asap

Thing is tgat so much of what's done in Halloween both technically and with the story has been copied, rehashed, and down right plaguerised a million times over it might not seem like much.

Kinda like listening to something from the 60s and thinking "well this isn't very original" By today's standards sure, but what it did was something else.

scream 2 (199...7?)



eh. save for the opening scene, feels like a tv movie.

per the cast, it was very much a tv cast with a preview of tv attractions to come
-the friends chick
-buffy
-justified
-arrested development
-that dude keeps popping everywhere from upn shows
-roseanne’s annoying sister
-1800 collect dude
-etc.

bit of a time trip but whatever

saw it in 2 parts because was not gripping enough. milking the first one’s success.

I watched Solo the other day. Not nearly as bad as some people say. My biggest gripe with the film is the main actor. He just doesn't fit the role imo. No charisma.

mother

fuck.

just found out that filmstruck is shutting down at the end of november!

i’m gonna watch the living shit out of it while it lasts

(kinda like the last fuck in a falling airplane)

goddammit...

Dead right. Although I'd say that even someone who's only seen the umpteen copies could still see that Carpenter was a few notches above all of them as a filmmaker. Like you can still watch Goodfellas even after all the copycats and still see it's operating at a different level.

I agree. Although I also had a problem with Woody Harrelson; an actor I like but I couldn't see beyond him being Woody Harrelson.

That is true. If the new Halloween film showed anything it was that it's hard to do a slasher film and do it well.

Right?
Kind of a cool addition to the Star Wars thing because it was just basically a cool heist movie. I didn’t care for whatever the fuck was gong on at the end (though I subconsciously predicated it somehow, probably because of what’s his name’s double-sided light-dagger (?) dagger-saber (?)

Main guy was OK. Not a very nuanced performance, but Han never was.

Also, too much going to lengths to explain every little thing in SW. like the dice and the best and the blaster. Like, Christ, nobody ever asked about that shit.

Watched Antonio Lopez 1970 this weekend, not that great, but some good models from the 70's, plus Bill Cunningham was a fucking great guy

started watching paul schrader’s remake of CAT PEOPLE (1982)

strange screenplay, creepy characters, plays off the 40s version a little bit but not really

thing is i might not be able to finish it due to an expiring subscription, but it’s okay because i don’t find it very compelling. it’s a little clumsily shot actually, but i like the cast.

hmmmm...

ha ha ha i finished “cat people”



so cheesy! but ebert somehow gave it 3.5 stars

maybe everyone was coked up in 1982

oh, bowie wrote & performed the theme song

all very bizarre

Ant-Man & The Wasp

‘Twas perfectly fine and fun and funny. Basically another totally well-made Marvel movie that entertains and does its job solidly, but that’s about it. Hard to call it a “good film.” It’s just perfectly fine, like most.

Better than Black Panther, which was weak. Not as good as Infinity War or Winter Soldier or Ragnarok.

Blackkkkclansman, Spike Lee is back on track

^ Saw that in theater with mostly black audience.

I liked it a lot and want to see it again. The tonal balance between dark comedy and real drama was masterful, I thought.

I laughed during this film more than most straight up comedies.

I don't think I've ever managed to see it through to the end. Beats me how it's managed to get its cult following. And not even of the 'so bad it's good' variety.

right? it’s “so bad it’s bad”

maybe the cult business was just everyone’s excuse to see nastassja kinski’s t&a

but the haircut! lololol. tragic.

i dont really know, but probable everyone was coked up in 1982

that movie makes zero sense! and no, not in an avant-garde kind of way.

i think everyone was just coked up in 1982. starting with paul schrader.

the one from the 40s is better. actually watchable, good story.

The forever classic Empire Records

I forgot it was a Paul Schrader film. I'm just as bemused by the praise for his other biggie, American Gigolo. Another coke-fuelled mess. Schrader wrote some incredible screenplays but he pretty much leaves me cold as a director.

Ironically, while the whole coke scene in Hollywood at that time produced some truly awful films, like Cat People (and anyone remember The Hunger?) it did at least give us some great comedies, like The Blues Brothers, Animal House, Caddyshack, etc - which in hindesight were essentially just multi-million dollar drug binges, thinly disguised as movies.