Will Pfeifer's Blog, page 8

Movies I Watched in January, Part 1

We're running late (February is almost over, and it’s a short month besides), so I’m going to zip through these as quickly as I can. Please don’t take it as a comment on their quality – there were some good movies viewed during January, 2018…


After hearing this praised on a couple of podcasts and seeing it was available for free on Amazon Prime, I couldn’t resist checking it out … and I was damn glad I did. With a plot so simple it’s practically primordial (convict ordered to kill another convict to save the life of his unborn child), writer director S. Craig Zahler delivers a stripped-down, brutal, yet somehow heartfelt exploitation movie that delivers some of the most gasp-inducing onscreen violence I’ve ever seen (and believe me, I’ve seen a lot). Vince Vaughn is nothing short of a force of nature as Bradley, our “hero,” and Don Johnson shows up halfway through to play the scariest warden you’ve ever seen. Bonus points for a scene involving a face you won’t soon forget and an ending that is brutal, abrupt and perfect for the movie that preceded it. Highly recommended, but brace yourself before you press “play.”


I’ve covered this one more than once on this blog, so I’ll just say that while I don’t think it quite hits the heights of the first “Guardians,” it’s still a lot of fun, and the sequence at the end with Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son” playing gets me choked up every single time.


I sort of stumbled onto this movie on cable one night, and damned if I wasn’t trapped in front of the TV for the next couple of hours, enjoying one of the most purely entertaining sci-fi movies ever made. Everything works, from the submarine movie template to the themes of aging and rebirth to the last minute, Enterprise-saving sacrifice. And though Kirk’s cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test is treated as a joke in the reboots, I always thought the concept worked best when played seriously: Kirk, for all his bluster and arrogance, truly does not believe in the no-win situation and will never, ever give up. It’s amusing, sure, especially played by Shatner at his Shatner-est, but it’s also a fascinating (and oddly inspiring) character trait.


Released in Russia (in 1993) as “Chtoby Vyzhit” and here in the west as “Red Mob,” this is a crude-but-compelling action epic about an Afghan war veteran forced to lead a caravan of gun smugglers through a desert impasse in order to save his kidnapped son. As is usually the case in movies like this, the plot is just an excuse to stage some jaw-dropping action scenes – scenes that were apparently filmed with little regard for the safety of the cast, crew or anyone in the vicinity of the shoot. It’s not a great movie, in other words, but it’s one that will have you frequently hitting the rewind button to figure out how they filmed it without anyone (everyone?) getting horribly maimed. There’s a helicopter battle at the end that, as far as I can tell, uses no models and (obviously, given that it was 1993) no CGI – just giant, actual helicopters being flown within an inch of their lives.

Up next: Family fun with The Rock, Jewish conspiracies with David Mamet and other conspiracies with a cast of thousands.

Movies I Watched in December, Part 2

Here goes, late as usual, more of the December recap...


I still find it hard to believe that a “Star Wars” sequel, the seeming definition of a crowd-pleasing popcorn movie, was so divisive, but I guess that’s the state of film fandom and, well, just about everything these days. Me? I liked "The Last Jedi"  – a lot, in fact, a lot more than “The Force Awakens” or “Rogue One.” The mere fact that the plot didn’t involve blowing up a planet-sized weapon was enough to win me most of the way over.

So what was it that people didn’t like? Leia in space? Okay, I’ll agree that scene was a little wonky, but I think the idea was solid and it was nice to see Leia, daughter of the most powerful Force user in the history of this fictional universe, actually use the Force for once in her life. What else? The long – admittedly too long – side-trip to the gambling planet with Finn and Rose? Sure, it could’ve been trimmed, and it didn’t really add a whole lot to the plot, but I’d argue that was the point. Unlike the other “Star Wars” movies – and, frankly, just about every movie ever made – “The Last Jedi” actually posited that sometimes, the right way to accomplish something is to follow the rules and stick to the plan. Poe, the lovable rebel, was proven wrong at just about every turn (he’s the one who sent Finn and Rose on that mission, remember), which was a refreshing twist, and made palatable thanks, in part, to Oscar’ Isaac’s charisma and, in part, to the fact that it’s a plot twist I can’t remember seeing before. (Since Luke shut down his targeting computer, the “Star Wars” movies have been firmly on the side of acting on instinct, even that’s a very dumb thing to do in a colossal military operation.) And here’s one more reason that sojourn to the gambling planet worked – for one of the very few times in any of the “Star Wars” movie, you got the feeling that there were other people impacted by the way between the Empire and the Rebels (or the First Order and the Resistance, or whatever the hell they’re calling themselves). You had the rich swells in the casino who were profiting from the war (and someone’s always profiting from the way) and you had the slave labor kids who were being ground under the boot of oppression. I love the way Rian Johnson ended the movie, with the kid looking up at the stars, but here’s the thing – I never want to see that kid again and learn he became a Jedi. Leave him alone, Disney. Let us imagine what happened to him.

And, finally, Luke. People (even Mark Hamill at one point) were upset by the way Luke was portrayed. Me?  I thought it was a fascinating, emotionally powerful way to use the character. Unlike Han Solo in “The Force Awakens,” who seemed like a slightly goofier version of the original character, Luke actually seemed like someone who’d lived the past 40 years, and what’s more, lived them hard. Would he have killed Kylo Ren just to prevent him from going to the dark side? Probably, considering he’d seen Vader kill millions of people (and threaten to kill millions more). I think Luke would  be willing to take one life – even that of his nephew – to prevent that from happening again. (And, judging by the events of “The Force Awakens,” he probably should’ve killed him.) I thought Luke was the best thing about "The Last Jedi," and I admired Hamill’s portrayal of him. He seemed tired, sad and almost – but not quite – beaten, but with just enough of the original spark and vitality he had back when we first met him. And though I realize it might be little more than fan service, I got a genuine kick out of seeing Luke connect with Artoo and Threepio one last time – especially Artoo. After all, he's the one who got him into this mess, way back when.

Finally, "The Last Jedi" had one of the truly breathtaking moments in “Star Wars” history. When Laura Dern’s Vice Admiral Holdo stood at the helm of that ship, seemingly waiting to die, I suddenly realized what she was going to do, and a genuine shiver ran up my spine in anticipation. And when she made the jump to light speed through the badguy’s ship and Johnson gave us a dazzling image and a few seconds of silence, I gasped. It was a great moment, one that reminded me why I fell in love with “Star Wars” in the first place.


I first stumbled onto this regional oddity when it aired as a memorable episode of “Mystery Science Theater” back in 1993. It gave the guys a lot to mock, what with its dated fashions (it was originally released in 1964), goofy songs and strangely wholesome plot that somehow still managed to include a few murders. As I’ve mentioned more than once on this blog, my outlook on “bad” movies has evolved since the days when I’d chuckle my way through “Plan 9” with a smug sense of superiority. Oh, I still chuckle through movies like that (and this), but I also find myself watching with a bit of fascination and even admiration, wondering how these movies got made in the first place and impressed that they got made at all. If nothing else, "Teenage Strangler" offers a fun peek into the past, when what feels like a whole West Virginia community (Huntington, to be specific) got together and put on a show. It’s not great, but it is worth a look, even without the MST commentary. And hey, I’d be willing to argue that the movie’s big musical number, “Yikes Stripes,” is not only fun, it’s a vintage slice of mid ‘60s regional pop. (There’s a great Something Weird DVD that pairs “Teenage Strangler” with the darker, moodier juvenile delinquent thriller “Teenage Gang Debs.”


I’ve written about this movie before on this blog, and at this point I look forward to its annual airing on TCM as much as I look forward to “Charlie Brown,” “The Grinch” or, dare I say, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It’s a smart, surprisingly mature movie that uses the holiday season to great emotional effect, and it combines humor, sadness and romance as well as just about any more well-known movie I can think of. I just wish the Blu-ray was still in print (and not insanely expensive).


Do I really need to say anything more about this movie, especially in late January? You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, and we’ll both watch it again when TBS launched its marathon next Dec. 24. And, as we all learned this year, there’s no earthly reason it needed to be turned into a musical, even if Russ Hanneman was pretty good as The Old Man.

Movies I Watched in December, Part 1

Late as usual, here's part one of last month's recap...

For some reason, December 2017 was sort of a disaster movie month, with this movie showing up early on and "The Poseidon Adventure" turning up on New Year's Eve (check part three of this little series).  I don't think I'd ever seen "The Towering Inferno" in its entirety, being more familiar with the spoofs from the pages of Mad and Cracked (as is the case with lots of movies from the 1970s). It's long, it's slow and it takes forever to get going, but I have to admit I remained highly entertained , partly thanks to the ridiculously star-studded cast (Newman! McQueen! Holden! Dunaway! Astaire! Vaughn! Wagner! And, er, O.J.!) but mostly thanks to the '70s production design and set decoration. It's all so damned BIG and LOUD, from the rooms themselves (I want to live in Paul Newman's office) to the "classy" wallpaper and carpeting. The special effects in this pre-CGI epic are still fairly impressive, with plenty of stuntmen engulfed in flames and the model for the building (a fictional 138-story San Francisco tower) topping 70 feet. It was a BIG movie in every way, of the sort you don't see anymore, and it paid off -- this corny, goofy, insanely over-the-top salute to excess was the top box office hit of 1974. It looked like big budget, big cast disaster movies would rule Hollywood forever ... and then, in 1975, a little movie about a shark arrived in theaters, and we all know what happened next...

Picked this one up from the ever-worthwhile Vinegar Syndrome Black Friday sale, and I was not disappointed. The one-sentence synopsis over at IMDB says "A woman who lives in deer-hunting country in rural Wisconsin is possessed by the spirit of a Japanese samurai warrior," and while that's technically accurate on all points, it really doesn't begin to capture the magic of this movie. For one thing, it's a CHRISTMAS movie, with the "woman" being the girlfriend of  a guy spending the holidays at home with his artistic/psychic (insane?) mom. Adding to the strangeness is the vibe the movie has, a sort of slow-moving, semi-conscious hypnotic feel that keeps you guessing as to what's real, what's a dream and what the filmmakers haven't quite figured out. It's the type of movie that could be terrible, a cheap, quickie cash-in horror flick designed to separate videotape customers (it's from 1983) from their dollars, but in the hands of one-time-only director Fabrice A. Zaphiratos, it manages to go to a deeper, weirder, more fascinating (but not necessarily better) place that held me spellbound as I wrapped the family's presents (like I said, it is a Christmas movie). As I grow older and watch more and more (and more) movies, I find myself seeking out and enjoying those off-the-beaten-path films that do (or at least try) something different. It's one reason I've become such a fan of Ed Wood, and not in a joking, sniggering way. "Blood Beat," like "Dangerous Men," "Miami Connection" and various Rudy Ray Moore movies, is, if not one  the best films I've seen recently, at least one of the most interesting. Your mileage though, to put it mildly, may vary. Strike that. It WILL vary.

In what has to be one of the best "extras" ever included on a Blu-ray, Criterion included this 1931 newspaper comedy on its recent "His Girl Friday" release, and what's more, it's a beautifully (and extensively) restored version of the film, rescuing its legacy from decades of unwatchable public domain tapes and discs. I'd seen "His Girl Friday" many times (we even reviewed it on the old Out of Theaters podcast), but I'd never watched the original version of the tale, mostly because even the prints TCM aired were in such sad shape that I never felt like making the effort of struggling through the visuals. That's not the case here, thankfully, and once I was done basking in the crisp black-and-white image, I was quickly sucked into the fast-paced, deliriously cynical story. It's the same basic plot as "His Girl Friday," of course, without the twist of reporter Hildy Johnson being (a) a woman and (b) the ex-wife of editor Walter Burns. Here Hildy is played by Pat O'Brien at his fast-talking best, and the story is much more focused on him (Adolphe Menjou, who plays Burns, is no Cary Grant, and he gets much less screen time). The cast is packed with pre-Code favorites, including Frank McHugh, Mae Clarke and Edward Everett Horton, and the whole thing crackles with dark humor and infectious energy. With the romance angle of "His Girl Friday" absent, the newspaper humor takes center stage, and it's a nice companion to the other great early '30s press movies, like "Five Star Final," "Blessed Event" and "Picture Snatcher." It's not as polished (or, frankly, quite as good) as "His Girl Friday," but it's got a scrappy, nasty spirit that makes it well worth watching -- especially since it hasn't looked this good in almost 90 years.

And speaking of pre-Code, he's a quick-and-dirty little drama starring the great Edward G. Robinson the year after "Little Caesar" made him a star. In this one he plays John Allen, an honest, hard-working construction worker loyal to his pal and suspicious of the cheap floozies he seems to encounter. He's not too savvy, though, and before long he's fallen for Shirley (Vivienne Osbourne) in a dime-a-dance hall and seems oblivious to the fact that she's actually a prostitute. (Those pre-Code movies ventured into territory Hollywood would avoid for decades.) Things get worse when she gets Allen (a) drunk and (b) married, then continues to work her old "job" with her sleazy "manager." It all ends in death, both accidental and deliberate, and Robinson delivers an amazing speech during his sentencing hearing that, on the one hand, betrays the theatrical roots of the story (it was originally a play) but on the other lets director Mervyn LeRoy showcase some bold lighting and staging that lifts the scene to a whole other level. Allen is convicted, of course (the entire film takes place in the "Two Seconds" before the jolt from the electric chair kills him), and the movie ends as one of the bleakest, most bitter looks at life that the pre-Code era produced (which, if you've seen many of these films, you know is really saying something.) Robinson is great, of course, delivering a performance that is still shattering decades later, and Osbourne is nearly as good, raising Shirley from a mere femme fatale to an almost inhuman force tearing his life apart. (Trivia note: If you've ever seen the Mystery Science 3000 episode devoted to the movie "I Accuse My Parents," you've seen Vivienne Osbourne -- she plays the perpetually soused mom character.) And if you've seen "Two Seconds," you know the poster calling it a "LOVE DRAMA" is nothing short of hilarious. If anything, it's a HATE DRAMA ... and a great one at that.

Up next: That Star Wars movie everyone seems to be so het up about.

Buy My Comics, Make Me Rich: THE LIBRARIANS #3

The penultimate issue of The Librarians from Dynamite Entertainment hits the stands today, with script by yours truly and art by Rodney Buchemi. The tale of Sol Schick, schlock film make who happens to be at the center of an interdimensional mystery, nears its conclusion, with chills, thrills and a glimpse at what movies look like in a universe where magic is common.

Click here to read a preview...

The Best TV Shows I Watched in 2017

First off, I didn't see everything on the tube (tubes? flat screens? tiny flat screens?) this year. How could I? How could anyone? With programming -- good, hell, excellent programming -- coming at us from all directions, we have to pick and choose, and there's going to be some gold that gets left by the wayside. Here are the 10 shows that had the most impact on me last year, the ones I found the most exciting, the most entertaining or just the plain old most fun. And leading that list, as I mentioned in my 2017 movie roundup, is the most memorable, mind-bending thing I've seen on any screen in a good long time...
Twin Peaks: I expressed my love for David Lynch and Mark Frost's brazenly strange masterpiece in my movie recap, but there's one more thing I wanted to mention. Many (all?) returning TV shows get some mileage out of nostalgia for the earlier version, but I've never seen a show draw so much sheer emotional power from the passage of time as "Twin Peaks." The original series aired more than 25 years ago, and most of the cast hasn't been very busy in the meantime. That means we witnessed the site of characters we last saw in high school (at least) now firmly planted in middle age, with all the pining for days gone by -- both from them and us -- that implies. For me, one of the simplest but most powerful -- even devastating -- moments in the entire series was when former bad boy Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) stood in the sheriff's office in his police uniform and stared at the box of evidence relating to the long-ago murder of his girlfriend, Laura Palmer. It's hard to put into words, but the expression on his face, of sadness, of wisdom, of regret and most of all, of of time moving on, had as much of an impact on me as anything involving Dale Cooper, Gordon Cole of the "This is the water..." guy. "Twin Peaks," at its best, has always found magic in the combination of the bizarre and the mundane, and this scene proved the small, normal moments of life are as spellbinding as the weirdest of the weird stuff.

American Vandal: Just finished this one, and I cannot express how good it is. It's a mockumentary about spray-painted penises that spoofs "Serial" and "Making a Murderer," sure, but it's also much more compelling than either of those shows, a hell of a lot funnier and, while we're at it, one of the best looks at the taxonomy of a high school I've ever seen. If you've got Netflix, watch it. Now.

Feud: I've never much cared for Ryan Murphy's other shows, but I am a huge fan of old Hollywood (as this blog should've hinted at by now), so I was curious -- if cautious. Thankfully, the wife wanted to watch it, and I tagged along. What I worried would be nothing more than a camp screech-fest turned out to be an insanely entertaining look at showbiz legend and lore.

Legion: Until "Twin Peaks" hit the air, this show had the lock on the strangest TV series to earn my love in 2017. It's still great, and proof of how imaginative the super-hero concept can be if someone with a vision (in this case, Noah Hawley) takes the reins. Visually amazing and conceptually daring. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Silicon Valley: The thing about "Silicon Valley" is it's not just one of the funniest shows on TV, it's also one of the most tightly plotted. This season, where Richard tried to invent a new Internet, was no exception, and watching our heroes fail and succeed over and over was as suspenseful as any drama. I'll miss having T.J. Miller as the show's designated id, but this cast is strong enough that I don't think I'll miss him much.

Mindhunters: One of the smartest, most mesmerizing shows I've seen in a while, avoiding the usual cliches of serial killers by going back to the time when that term was first coined. The whole cast is great, including the actors playing the various killers, but Johnathan Groff holds it all together playing an average, nice, normal guy who plenty bubbling just under the surface.

At Home With Amy Sedaris: The wife and I have been fans of Amy Sedaris since her days on "Strangers With Candy," so we had high hopes for this spoof the Martha Stewart-type craft programs. Thankfully, those hopes were met -- and exceeded -- by the bizarre yet cheery concoction Sedaris and company came up with. It's funny, consistently imaginative and weirder than you'd guess. A lot weirder. A lot.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: My favorite sitcom had a very strong season this year (it's twelfth!), kicking things off with "The Gang Turns Black," a musical episode that actually had some surprising things to say about race and privilege (and "Quantum Leap"). The season also included "Hero Or Hate Crime," one of the most astonishing episodes I've seen, pushing the boundaries of what you can say on TV to arrive at the startling (but sincere) moment when Mac admits he's gay, and, what's more, admits he's happy to say so. It's amazing that a show about such horrible characters is offering one of the most insightful, oddly hopeful look at life in these United States.

Black Mirror: Strong season for Charlie Brooker's tech-nightmare "Twilight Zone." I'd say "Hang the DJ" and "USS Callister" (shown above) were the standouts, but all of the episodes were pretty good, and a few even offered semi-happy endings.

Game of Thrones: It was a bit uneven, like all seasons of "GOT" tend to be, but this is the one that really cut loose, with all the characters meeting, the dragons finally being unleashed and all the pieces put on the board for the final season. It's not the most subtle show on the air, but when it delivers the good, it really delivers the goods.

Runners up: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (great to have Larry back, but a little too much "Hamilton"), "Veep," "Stranger Things" (that dance at the end was my favorite part), "Fargo" and a whole lot of other stuff I've forgotten.

The Best Movies I Watched in 2017 ... plus 'Twin Peaks'

Here you go, in the order I saw them, my favorite movies that I watched for the first time in 2017. As you can see, this doesn't necessarily mean new movies -- especially in the case of, say, number 9. And, I feel the need to point out, as of today, January 1, 2018, I haven't seen "Phantom Thread," "The Shape of Water" and plenty of other highly acclaimed 2017 movies. So this list could change, grow and otherwise mutate (I'm still trying to find places for "Baby Driver" and the 1973 Kojak pilot movie, "The Marcus-Nelson Murders" ... really.

I should also probably point out that the grand champion screen viewing experience of 2017 was not, technically, a movie, though some clever critics are trying to claim it was so they can include it on their lists. "Twin Peaks," brought to us by David Lynch, Mark Frost and an insanely deep bench of actors, was thrilling, terrifying, hilarious, harrowing, devastating and mind-blowing like few things I've ever seen. I was a big fan of the original show, but somehow was only mildly excited by the prospect of this new version, probably because I didn't see how it could be anything but an amusing nostalgia fest. Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. Lynch and Co. recreated the thrills of the original series by making this one several steps stranger, giving us the same unnerving sensation of seeing something new and different by very deliberately not returning to the same old stomping grounds. I was mesmerized by just about every scene, and by the end of the first episode I was surprised how happy I was, not realizing how much I'd missed the offbeat vibe of the original series and excited that I was being taken down a genuinely new and strange path (to say the least). The thrill of seeing Agent Dale Cooper finally (finally!) look at us with his trademark confidence and say "I AM the FBI" was exceeded only by the sensation of being dropped into a nightmare by the ending, with something to ponder while we're waiting for another series (which, to be honest, I'd be happy to never have arrive). Hard to recommend an 18-hour deliberately opaque mind-bender to someone, but if you're looking for the best thing to hit a screen in 2017, this was it.

And now, the actual movies... (click on the titles to read my original X-ray Spex reviews):
Logan
Get Out
The Experimenter
Spider-Man Homecoming
Roman Polanski's MacBeth
mother!
Blade Runner 2049
Miracle Mile
Chandu the Magician

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (no review yet, but it's coming soon)

Movies I Watched in November, Part 3

Christmas is over, New Year's is looming, so I'd better finish up the recap of November movie viewing. Here goes...

I've had the DVD set with this movie for a decade or so, but for some reason I never popped this 1932 adventure into the player. Big mistake on my part, because it's one of the most purely fun movies I've seen in a long, long time. Edmund Lowe plays the title character, a square-jawed American who traveled to the Far East to become a "yogi" and acquire mystical mind powers. The real star of the movie, however, is Bela Lugosi as the villainous "Roxor" who kidnaps a scientist so he can use his "death ray" to wipe out major cities around the world. It's just as ridiculous as that plot synopsis makes it sound, but gloriously so, offering the proverbial thrills, chills and spills in virtually every frame. There are some impressive stunts, some amazing sets (courtesy of director William Cameron Menzies and art director Max Parker) and some truly gorgeous cinematography (courtesy of a young James Wong Howe). Plus, it's full of the sort of crazy elements early 1930s movies were known for, from a drunken sidekick who gets his own imaginary mini-me (courtesy of Chandu) to curb his drinking to armies of white actors pretending to be, I dunno, middle eastern? to the young (young) ingenue being put up for sale in a slave market wearing a negligee that would not past muster when the Production Code took effect a few years later. Don't get me wrong, though -- "Chandu the Magician" is very well made and genuinely exciting, even 85 years later. (This forgotten little 1932 movie is going to earn a spot on my Best of 2017 list -- that's how much I enjoyed it.) One more thing: If Spielberg and Lucas didn't screen this before making "Raiders of the Lost Art," I'd be very, very surprised.


I've reviewed this one before (here, for instance), so I don't have much new to say about it, except that it's one of those "comfort" films that I pop in when I'm just looking to veg out and relax in front of the set. The fact that, for me, a "comfort" film is packed with clips from "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS," "Scum of the Earth" and "Blood Feast" probably says a little too much about me and my cinematic tastes.

One of the all-time great films noir, which I'd seen before (thanks to a freebie DVD when I was reviewing movies for the paper) but hadn't caught in a while. Thankfully, I remedied that on Thanksgiving, when my father-in-law (no slouch himself as a movie fan) and I watched it on TCM. It's even better than I remember, a smart, punchy tale of lovers on the run (played John Dall and Peggy Cummings) united by their love of firearms. He's cautious, she's adventurous, but neither can resist the charms of the other or the thrill of a life of crime. (The sexual tension here is constantly threatening to boil over.) Director Joseph H. Lewis brings just the right stripped-down style to the proceedings, with the movie starting off with a jolt as the childhood version of Dall's character (played by a young Russ Tamblyn, of all people) tosses a rock through a window to steal a gun. From then it never lets up, moving on to the justifiably legendary bank robbery filmed in one shot from the back of a car and winding up with a perfect, tragic ending that manages to skirt the edge of existential. I'm not kidding -- this really is one of the greats!

What's black and white and red (and green) all over?

Here, just in time for Christmas, is a selection of my favorite vintage holiday movies, meaning black-and-white. Some of them are full-on Christmas films, some of them are just set at Christmas and some of them have a tangential connection to the holiday, but they're all worth watching -- and none of them are "A Christmas Story" and/or "Die Hard," two movies I also love but that get way too much attention at this time of year.

So, to you and yours from all of us here at X-Ray Spex (meaning, I guess, me), have the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years.

The Apartment: The best. Also doubles as a New Year's movie.

Carol for Another Christmas: Technically, not a movie but instead an amazing TV special with Rod Serling putting a Cold War spin on "A Christmas Carol." Dark and spellbinding.

A Christmas Carol:  I like this 1935 version because it's so damn dark and creepy. It almost feels like it was filmed at the time Dickens wrote the book.

Curse of the Cat People: Mesmerizing sequel to the Val Lewton classic, and perfect as a Christmas ghost story.

It's a Wonderful Life: It's so talked about that it runs the risk of people thinking it's overrated. It's not. It's a great film.

Meet John Doe: Frank Capra's other movie about a guy who decides to kill himself on Christmas Eve.

Miracle on 34th Street: If you can make it through the scene with the war orphan without getting a lump in your throat, you're made of stronger stuff than me.

Remember the Night: Wrote about it  here . TCM shows it every year; check it out next time they do.

Santa in Animal Land: Watch it here , and thank me later.

The Thin Man: One of the great couples in movie history, Nick and Nora Charles, celebrate Christmas ... drunkenly.

Movies I Watched in November, Part 2

Christmas Eve is a week away (!), so I figure it's about time to do another recap of November's movies. Here goes...

Hiring Taika Waititi (of "Flight of the Conchords" and "What We Do in the Shadows") turns out to have been a stroke of genius, because making the Norse god the lead in a comedy is just what the Marvel Cinematic Universe needed, freshening up-wise. Chris Hemsworth was surprising adept at the deadpan comedy, and he and Mark Ruffalo made a perfect team. It was almost all good, in fact, from the cameos in the opening to Cate Blanchett's suitably over-the-top villain to the setting and art direction, which evoked the pure glory of Jack Kirby more than any comic book movie I've ever seen. The only relatively weak points were, ironically, the big battle scenes at the end. Though they were well-staged and exciting enough, in contrast to the deliberate craziness of the rest of the film (Jeff Goldblum! Waititi as a CGI monster!), they seemed a little, well, by-the-numbers. If you haven't seen it, by all means check it out when it hits Blu-ray, but really, the best way to appreciate those Kirby-inspired visuals was on a big, big, BIG screen.


This was one of the big holes on my cult-movie-viewing resume, an acclaimed (but under-the-radar) 1988 movie about a nice guy (Anthony Edwards) who meets his dream girl (Mare Winningham) then accidentally hears a phone call from a military base announcing that a nuclear war has started and the missiles will hit Los Angeles in just over an hour. I'd heard great things, so when I finally got my hands on this sweet Kino Lorber blu-ray, I finally gave it a shot. Thankfully, the hype was not wrong, and "Miracle Mile" is a something I've never quite seen before: a smart, snappy romantic comedy, sort of like "After Hours" with a heart, that manages to be a nail-biting apocalyptic thriller. No spoilers on how it ends, but I will say I was both (a) surprised and (b) impressed. Also, though "dated" is a perjorative among some movie-watchers, in this case it's definitely (as they say) a feature and not a bug, with all those 1980s neon-drenched L.A locations raising this movie to a whole other, almost magical level.


Just like "Tomorrow Never Dies" a couple of months ago, I popped this one into the blu-ray player partly because I knew they'd be discussing it on the (highly recommended) James Bonding podcast. Truth is, though, this is one of my favorite Bonds, a movie that I'd argue shaped the concept of "A James Bond Movie" in the mind of the public more than any other. (For instance, this is really what the Austin Powers movies are spoofing.) You've got Blofeld, SPECTRE, a colossal base in an active volcano (designed by the legendary Ken Adam) and a Cold War plot involving stolen space capsules and nuclear tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the middle of it all, of course, is Connery as Bond, maybe not as slim and young as he was in, say, "Goldfinger," but giving it all in a couple of still-impressive fight scenes and jamming his tongue into his cheek during the odd interlude where he pretends to be Japanese for some strange reason. It's goofy (and, admittedly, borderline racist), but also the sort of offbeat plot you'd never, ever see in a Bond Movie today. And, if you're a fan of midcentury design, this movie is a never-ending series of jaw-dropping sets. I'd kill to have an office like Tiger Tanaka's, for instance.


Solid Stephen King adaptation on Netflix that gives two strong actors, Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood, an intriguing showcase for their talents in what's essentially a two-character play (even though on of those characters dies not long after the story starts.) Gugino and Greenwood play a couple getting away for the weekend and, in an attempt to spice up the marriage, Greenwood produces a pair of (real, not novelty) handcuffs and fastens Gugino to the bedposts. But, of course, things go wrong, an argument starts and that extra Viagra Greenwood took stops his heart and leaves Gugino trapped with no one coming to help. To survive, she has to figure a way to escape her confinement, determine just how tough she is and shut out the nagging voices of doubt in her head (Greenwood continues as an imaginary version of his character, which works surprisingly well.) It's a great hook and a solid thriller, so I recommend it, but I have to warn you that there's an ending (which is in King's novel) that continues the story far past the point it needs to go. If you can skip the last 10 minutes or so, you'll have a much more rewarding experience.

Up next: We finish November with a great Bela Lugosi movie, a doc I've written about before and a landmark couple-on-the-run film.

Movies I Watched in November, Part 1

Here's Part One of the Movie Viewing Trilogy for November. Please to enjoy!

Part of the same DVD set that includes “You’ll Find Out” (see here) and “Zombies on Broadway” (see below), this strange 1936 movie is not to be confused with the AMC TV series (for one thing, it’s actually entertaining, ha ha ha). Instead, it's a weird combination of a classic horror story and a vintage Warner Bros. gangster movie. Directed by Michael Curtiz a few years before “Casablanca,” it stars Boris Karloff as an ex-con who is (1) framed for murder (2) executed in the electric chair and (3) brought back to life by scientists eager to correct the miscarriage of justice. Naturally, Karloff seeks revenge on the gangsters who set him up, and though it’s not exactly scary, it is fun watching him drive them to their extremely timely deaths. Gangster favorites Barton MacLane and Ricard Cortez play the badguys, and Edmund Gwenn (of “Miracle on 34th St.” fame) plays the scientist. That means this is the only film to feature both Santa and the Grinch. Be sure to mention that fascinating fact during your holiday gatherings, then enjoy the inevitable blank stares.

Watched this one a couple of years ago (read the review here), and I couldn't resist another spin when I was checking out the other, more reputable movies on the set. This one's a lot of fun, though, mostly because it's so damned goofy -- a sub Abbott and Costello pair of comedians travel to a Caribbean Island solely to bring back an actual zombie for a zombie-themed nightclub. Really. That's the plot. And it gets even stranger -- strange enough to include Bela Lugosi as a scientist, Sheldon Leonard as the ominous nightclub owner and a few elements that indicate this forgotten b-movie is, in reality, a semi-official sequel to Val Lewton's classic "I Walked With a Zombie." Seriously, folks, it's so much fun.


You've seen it. I've seen it. We've all seen it. Even my daughter has seen it, and she's the one who wanted to see it again, which is why we watched it last month. It's great, a damn near perfect adventure movie full of unforgettable moments big and small. The only other thing that needs to be said is that my old Out of Theaters podcast co-host Billy Kulpa thinks it's terrible. Please go to his Twitter feed and tell him he's wrong. Very, very wrong.

Up next: Thor shows off his humorous side, doomsday looms over '80s L.A. and James Bond goes on what might be the most James Bondian adventure of all time.