My Week in Movies: December 27 - January 2 (2021!)

2021-01-04T00:21:59Z

Hello friends! It's a Happy New Year! I spent a lot of time watching TV this last week. sol_se and I finished Batman (1966) Season 1, Skin Wars Season 2, and Lovecraft Country. We're also in the midst of Steven Universe.

Movies I've seen before are in italics.

Blazing Saddles (1974)
MST3K: Mr. B's Lost Shorts
Death to 2020 (2020)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

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My Week in Movies: December 13 - 19

2020-12-21T22:40:30Z

Movies I've seen before in italics

Batman Returns (1992)
The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (1947)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
MST3K: Mitchell

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My Week in Movies: October 11 - 17

2020-10-18T22:50:33Z

Finished Assassin's Creed: Origins and hopped right back to Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Bad story choices aside, I'd really missed Ancient Greece. I really think this is one of my favorite games in recent memory.

I've been slowly working through Season 4 of The Good Place during lunch on Sunday-Monday-Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are reserved for Batman '66 (my bat-time, if you will).

I played a very weird D&D one-shot with settiai DMing last night. Still not entirely sure what I made of it. Didn't cast a single spell or get into any combat at all (which is probably for the best, because my character was built for hugging).

Movies I've seen before are in italics.

Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
Blood and Black Lace (1964)
Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

We finished off the Hammer Dracula series with the one non-Lee entry, the horror/kung fu mashup Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. As usual, it's Fine. It doesn't have the best parts of either genre, so it kind of muddles along. Of the eight "major" Asian characters, only two have actual lines, which is ridiculous for a movie made in Hong Kong with Hong Kong financing.

I was going through a box of old DVDs when I ran into Wait Until Dark and even though it's not strictly horror, we watched it anyway. Still a very effective little thriller and Audrey Hepburn is splendid as always. Alan Arkin does a real uncomfortable sociopath.

Slumber Party Massacre is a curio in that it's a slasher film written by a feminist icon (Rita Mae Brown) and also directed by a woman. It's not a particularly outstanding example of the genre, alas. The killer, for one thing, is a real non-entity, despite his hilariously phallic weapon of choice.

sol_se wanted fashion in her horror, so asked about Blood and Black Lace, which we watched on Amazon Prime. It's a giallo, an Italian subgenre of mystery-horror that was, in many ways, the forerunner of the slasher film in America. As with all films directed by Mario Bava, it's very striking visually.

Given our deep dive into Dracula last week, I thought we should do the same for the Hammer Frankenstein series. Peter Cushing (or PCush as sol_se likes to call him) is one of the best actors of all time, fight me. Curse of Frankenstein remains my favorite in the series, but I gained a new appreciation for Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, which fires on all cylinders (with the exception of one regrettable scene that sol_se and I agree Did Not Happen). We skipped Horror of Frankenstein because no Cushing (and also $4 on Amazon).

For those curious, we are currently 27 films deep in our plan to watch 31 spooky movies in October.

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Aeronautic Primates and Other Delights

My Week in Movies: December 27 - January 2 (2021!)

My Week in Movies: December 13 - 19

My Week in Movies: October 11 - 17