Spitball Army

8.0
[blu-ray, Netflix]

I laughed a lot during this movie.

Tom Holland should take advantage of this perfect role while he is still young enough to pull it off well – he’s relatable and believable. Marisa Tomei (as Aunt May?! What?!!!) has the best and funniest moment of the entire film in its last second.

https://boxd.it/l1DEP

8.7
[theater]

This movie, by now, has become review-proof. Everyone has seen it, everyone seems to love it, it is funny and romantic and endlessly quotable. So, watching it with a group of people becomes an enjoyable group experience every time. Today’s “group experience” was at a Fathom Events/TCM screening. Unlike past TCM events that I’ve been to (and I’ve been to several) where the attendance was spotty (screenings of ON THE WATERFRONT and THE MALTESE FALCON drew less than ten people), this show nearly packed the house – it was easily triple the size of the crowd I watched BLADE RUNNER 2049 with during its opening week). The audience was extremely attentive during the intro and outro with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz interviewing director Rob Reiner, and practically every line uttered from the screen was accompanied by an echo from one or more members of the “group” (usually one of the most annoying of movie crowd interactions, but not today). Props to the ever-evolving TCM crew for continuing these nationwide events and for their creative programming.

https://boxd.it/kSMpr

7.7
[DVD, library]

How I have lived this long without seeing this classic that is exactly as old as me is a mystery. But, since I have seen countless Westerns since then, seeing the one that so many of them borrow from and imitate is a bit disorienting (despite TMS itself being a remake of Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI). The entire second half of THREE AMIGOS, for example (despite clearly not being an example of a classic Western), is an homage to the Mexican village setting of MAGNIFICENT, right down to Martin Short – while merely being Martin Short – acting as a double for an over-acting Horst Buchholz. UNFORGIVEN, OPEN RANGE, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, and many other Westerns made since then: they all owe a debt, in some way, to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. I was thoroughly engaged throughout, and the constant presence of the famous musical theme ignited an urge in me to throw a slab of beef on the barbecue grill and light up a Marlboro.

https://boxd.it/kR9At

6.8
[streaming, Netflix]

This isn’t a critical appraisal of Kubrick’s work, but a character portrait – told roughly in chronology – through the eyes of his personal assistant/chauffeur. The all-consuming self-focus of Kubrick’s personality is on full display here, yet the interactions have an intimate charm when told from the perspective of this humble, seemingly honest employee. Fascination lies in the small details, as when Kubrick tasks Emilio (the assistant) to locate a candlemaker who can keep the BARRY LYNDON production in full supply for at least two years, or Kubrick inserting Emilio’s name into the EYES WIDE SHUT set in a gesture of personal tribute.

https://boxd.it/kR6Jn

6.8
[DVD, library]

Torn about what to think of this film. Is its uneven tone purposeful or a result of wanting to be too many things (a portrait of childhood precocity; a morality play; a vigilante thriller; an apologia of single parenthood; a messianic fable) all at once? There’s no denying the underlying heart of the story, but certain elements – especially the thread involving a potentially violent revenge plot – push that to the very edge of confusion.

https://boxd.it/kPYPv

7.5
[blu-ray, Netflix]

I’m glad to have not seen this as a pre-teen when it was first released. Yet, it’s been at least 25 years since I did first view it, and the emphasis for me has shifted from the episodic backwoods horror to the moral quandary that plays right through to the end. Both Jon Voight and Ned Beatty have rarely had better roles or realized them so fully.

https://boxd.it/kPsmr

5.4
[DVD, Netflix]

The sea will swallow you whole, says this bleak, grey and miserable little movie, which uses a plaintive and bare minor-key piano & violin score to drive the figurative point home.

4.4
[blu-ray, Netflix]

This one was a motley motley, with overall good intentions, and sweet with no ambitious message. Which is to say that it seemed to me like a generally inoffensive TV pilot that never made it to its first season, and was remembered by no one.

4.9
[on-demand, TCM]

Entertaining, and not as bad as the cheap production value would lead you to believe. This Dracula is a charming social phobic, an Eastern European version of Fernando Lamas, who’s not so afraid of fur balls that he won’t suck the life out of the family cat.

https://boxd.it/kM0PJ