What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

ugh, I dunno about that ending. If I hadn't read the novella, I might have liked the ending. But to think they replaced the perfectly good novella ending with something that makes me thinking of putting my own child down (*minor spoiler*)??? NO THANKS

Before the guests arrived ...

Thank goodness for TCM. And by the way, what the hell is with AMC? Every year on Halloween, they rotate the Halloween franchise. Other than Carpenter's original film--and I admit to liking Season of the Witch--how are the Halloween films American movie classics? Let's call them what they are--mindless and unimaginative slasher flicks. What happened to Psycho? Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Universal films? Heck, I think a William Castle rotation would be a monumental upgrade. Anyway--and speaking of William Castle--the wife and I checked out Homicidal (1961), which was heavily inspired by Hitchcock's Psycho. No, Homicidal is not in the same league with Psycho, but it's a lot of fun. I love the small-town 1950's setting. I love the twists. Next up, we watched The Tingler, a corny but enjoyable horror film featuring the great Vincent Price. Castle, always known for his marketing gimmicks, contributed quite a bit to American horror, gimmicks or not. Castle made films that were fun.

And when the guests arrived ...

The Changeling (1980)

The Changeling has been near the top of my horror movie list for a long time, and it's basically fired every other haunted film I've seen, including The Haunting, the highly regarded adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel. The Changeling has an imaginative script and a great cast. Even without the paranormal elements--and they are handled with delicate precision--the movie tells an intriguing story, and in my experience, it never fails to please viewers. Not much more can be said without ruining a multitude of surprises. The less you know going into this one, the better.

Opera (1987)

I really wanted to watch Tombs of the Blind Dead or Lucio Fulci's Zombie, but my wife thought Opera would be a good choice.

Damn her.

Opera is recognized as one of Dario Argento's more solid efforts, and it chronologically partitions his often-admired early films (The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno, Tenebre) from his less-than-admired recent films. Opera is along the lines of Deep Red, which is to say it's a straight giallo. It's kind of Phantom of the Opera retold as a psychothriller. Kind of. I remembered it as an effective film--even if it stretched on too long. But the group was not impressed, and neither was I. Despite having some typical Argento elements--clever use of color, astute camera work, violent death scenes--Opera is ponderous and dull. The creativity dissolves in the belly rolls of an incomprehensible mess. I wonder whether Argento was so enamored of opera that he lost site of the fact that he was making a horror film. Opera is an illogical mess without a single worthy character . And for all its sadistic voyeurism--read: needles on tape--Opera doesn't stand up against Argento's best work. You want creative death scenes? Watch Deep Red or Tenebre instead. You want brilliant use of color and great camera work? Watch Suspiria or Inferno instead. You want to spend your time wisely? Take a long nap instead.

Black Barney wrote: Lego, let's talk about the last two minutes of Edge of Tomorrow. What didn't you like? I absolutely LOVED the epilogue and that's something that frequently disappoints.

I thought Emily Blunt was a blast. I totally believed her as a willful soldier. Cruise's performance is obviously better but she's perfect in that role. Great casting choice.

SPOILERS I GUESS

He does one more time jump back further, only this time the changes he made "stick". What? How? This violates every single "rule" the movie set up. It serves no purpose except to not have them both die. It doesn't make any sense. It's in complete contradiction to everything else the movie has set up.

Well it's sci-fi so they often do stuff like this. The blood of the Omega got into his face, which could allow him to reset the day since he was regiven the 'power.' But now the Omega is dead so even in the reset, it's gone. Thus victory.

Here's the interestiing thing though, what happens when he dies next? I think he would jump back again into that helicopter.

Black Barney wrote: Well it's sci-fi so they often do stuff like this. The blood of the Omega got into his face, which could allow him to reset the day since he was regiven the 'power.' But now the Omega is dead so even in the reset, it's gone. Thus victory.

That doesn't make any sense. That completely fails to follow every other rule that was set.

The explanation is: the suits didn't want him dead at the end. It's a lousy explanation, and it shows.

Which rules?

There was one Omega and several Alphas. When Cruise got that Alpha's blood he took its place (that Alpha died) and was being reset by the Omega. When he gets the Omega's blood he takes its place (the Omega dies) and there were no rules for what the Omega could do for itself. At least that's my take and I'm not questioning it because I like happy endings.

Blunt got Alpha blood in her. She dies, the world jumps back a day with everything reset except his memory.

Cruise got Alpha blood in him. He dies, the world jumps back a day with everything reset except his memory.

This is because the Omega uses the Alphas to jump back a day when they die, with everything reset except the hive memory.

At the end, Cruise kills the Omega and an Alpha, gets alpha blood on him. Suddenly he goes back more than a day but everything isn't reset and the events from the future are now affecting the present? This makes no sense. It doesn't follow the rules of how this works that the movie itself established. This isn't nitpicking, it's the movie itself suddenly changing how its own world works for no reason except to give us a "happy" ending that's even happier than saving the Earth.

The movie's fine up until that point, but then it pulls this weird move that doesn't fit in at all. It's jarring.

I sort of see the Omega blood being different, sending him back slightly further. And with the Omega dying, it doesn't get to exist anymore in any timeline. So he gets thrown back but the Omega doesn't. My suspension of disbelief didn't get broken there but yeah, they're asking their viewers to make a leap of faith.

Anyone read the book? Maybe it gets flushed out more. If the Major dies in the end of the book, then I'm totally onside with you, Lego

We saw Spectre earlier. I thought it was pretty boring. I saw it two hours ago and I can barely remember what happened.

Also, why was such a big deal made about Monica Bellucci being the oldest Bond girl? She was on screen for like 4 minutes. Also, she's only 51. Age ain't what it used to be.

Took my daughter to see SPECTRE earlier today but I can't really give an impartial review. I kept flashing back to when my dad used to take me to see Roger Moore ham it up on the screen

My expectations for SPECTRE were moderate based on the lukewarm-to-poor reviews, but it managed to fall through the floor regardless. It is, I think, if not the worst Bond movie, certainly in the same league with A View to a Kill and License to Kill--and probably worse than those because SPECTRE tries to be both a throwback and gritty and fails at both spectacularly. How this script, credited to four people (often not a good sign, and likely reflecting the involvement of even more people), could've seemed like a filmable let alone a good idea is beyond me. The only good part was seeing it in the Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan, a real treat of a venue.

Bummer about Spectre, especially since the reboot started out with so much promise.

Bond movies are so overrated in general, even before Daniel Craig. I wish the franchise would be allowed to just end so somebody starts some new espionage franchise with fresh ideas. The Cold War has been over for decades, and Bond brand of cool is rooted in the early '60s.

I recently watched Suicide Kings, after taking a pass on it in the theater many years ago. It is a lesser director's attempt at making a Tarantino crime drama, along the lines of Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs. Despite the presence of Christopher Walken, Dennis Leary, and Jay Mohr, Suicide Kings falls far short of the quality of a Tarantino movie. The quality of the acting ranges from bad to meh. The music is nothing to brag about, and the same goes for the cinematography. The exciting car escape early on is dramatic but also very annoying. The story gradually present some moderately interesting plot twists and bit of intrigue, but the overall effect is still not even as good as The Usual Suspects, another imitation Tarantino that falls short. Suicide Kings is an okay movie, but don't bother with it if you have anything good to watch.

I watched The Purge:Anarchy. It had a Warriors and Mad Max vibe. I give it 4/5. I haven't seen the original.