What movies have you seen recently?

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Beast

The Forest

A low budget slasher-type film from 1981. I bought this on one of those 'big box' ex-rental VHS tapes from an elderly market trader called Jenny in 2007. Opened the box for the first time this evening, and found that the tape was snapped and the film unplayable. Thanks, Jenny.

'Fortunately' the film is on YouTube! Hmmm....well, there's another 90 minutes of my life gone to waste. A weird family, or their ghostly remnants, live in the California woods and periodically butcher visiting hikers. Er...that's it.

One of the YouTube comments reads:

Those complaining about this being a bad movie, have never seen a truly bad movie

Sadly this is the case, and says it all really. A staggeringly large number of commenters talk about how 'awesome' this is. I give up. Maybe Jenny was doing me a favour after all?

How was it?

Plus fort que le Diable (Beat the Devil)

Broadcast Signal Intrusion.

Truly creepy horror film about a video archivist who obsessively tries to hunt down a pirate broadcast that had interrupted TV broadcasts years prior, believing each had involved the disappearance of a woman, the last being his wife.

Shanghai Knights.
Surprisingly quite good

Last night we watched another Orangey film:

The Incredible Shrinking Man [1957]
<=>"Victim of weird mist!!.!.!.!Day by day he shrinks!!.!.!.!Science is baffled!
<=>-Victim-ofCat becomes monster!!.!.!.!Terror at every turn!
<=>-Victim-of-Cat-becomesDeadly spider attacks!!.!.!.!Lost in a flood's fury!"



One of the better-known and better-liked 1950's Science Fiction films. I admit it is pretty good but there are a number I prefer more. The premise is Science Fictionish but the movie strikes me more as a good drama. But I agree it is an excellent film and well-worth watching. And, it was made in 1957, so I think they did a stupendous job with practical special effects.

My bride thinks it was good!

Orangey had significant role...and performed magnificently.

This was not a good movie, but certainly not a bad movie.

An excellent performance by Idris Elba and a strong level of suspense
kept me entertained for 90 minutes, which is how long this movie is.

Fantastic Planet

It was good, I liked it.

Why?

It's been years since I've seen it, but I recall enjoying it.

Shanghai noon
I liked this one too. Both Noon and Knight are good.

My bride seems to have a soft-spot for harmless social underdogs. (She married me!) And I am less interested than her in watching movies about their ordeals. (I've got my own supply of ordeals, thank you very much.)

Last night we watched two movies...finishing our tour through the movies currently in our collection (but I suspect there will later be more) with Orangey the cat:

First we watched:

Visit to a Small Planet [1960]



Then I surprised my bride. She was not expecting the fourth Orangey film in our collection to be one of her very, very favorite films:

Gigot [1962]
<=>"A new joy has come to the screen... and the world is a happier place to live in!"



And now she loves the movie even more! Besides greatly enjoying the film she can now cheer for Orangey every time he shows up...like when the first closeup in the film was Orangey. (And cheer she did.)

I admit it is a good film. And Jackie Gleason truly is "The Great One". But there are no aliens, computers, robots, rocket-ships, or ray-guns...just people being unnecessarily mean to a kindhearted, penniless mute. (I think I mentioned that my bride has a soft-spot for that kind of thing.)

Oh, Orangey was impressive in both films! In Visit to a Small Planet I was surprised by the scenes they got the cat to do with the dog. And in Gigot it sure looked like they had long shots (camera distance and duration!) of Orangey running freely through some streets of Paris. (I figure there must've been someone a few blocks down crinkling a kitty-treat bag.)

The one remaining Orangey appearance currently in our collection isn't a movie. It is the "Soldier" episode of The Outer Limits [1963–1965]. I suspect I'll get to watch this, too, so she can cheer for Orangey some more.

It Could Happen To You, about a cop (Nicolas Cage) who wins a lottery and shares the money with a waitress. It was quite a sweet, innocent film, especially in the context of the world situation in 2022.

Chained Sinners: Medieval Fleshpots

An unbelievably bad film made in Prague in 2002, with Czech actors speaking barely intelligible English. I'm not going to even try to describe what it's about, as there's no point. Why does anyone make films like this? How does anyone allow them to? Why do people like me watch them? I've no idea.

The average IMDB rating for this from five reviewers is 3/10, but that's only because one of them gave it 10/10 for some reason.