Movies

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Watching The Outer Limits – s02e9 – Trial by Fire, I find myself wondering somewhat just what kinds of civilizations we could find out there amongst the stars.

Based on our own civilizations throughout history, I rather think there’s three ways that works out.

In a perfect world, we would probably have a first contact out of Star Trek. But I don’t really have that high a hope for humanity, so I expect our early associations to look more like Avatar or Enemy Mine.

In a way though, I worry that a more likely scenario given how difficult truly foreign beings are, and how fucked up we are, things would turn out more like the Earth-Minbari war in B5. Which could be summarized as a hot head meets cultural differences kicks off the near extimerination of the human race. Except I don’t think the Battle of the Line would turn out so fortuitous, so much as like an ID4 assault ship firing its primary weapon.

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Watching the 2010 version of True Grit on Hulu, I’m kind of happy it turned out as such a good film. It also reminds me that one of these days, I really should get around to reading the book.

For better or worse as the case might be, I kind of developed a soft spot for westerns along the way. Enough years were spent watching television with my mother, that there were two channels that were worth noting. TCM and Westerns. Among the side effects of that, are my taste in movies running from about the 1930s onwards to the present. Sadly though, they don’t really make a lot of westerns anymore.

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Watching Small Soldiers (1998) for the first time in a very long time, I think there is just so much wrong with the story that you’ve got to remember the suspension of disbelief factor. Even as a kid, I found it amusing that it calls for compressing at least a decade of R&D into three months to create a children’s toy: that would have to cost more than most people’s first car, just to break even. That’s the least of the issues versus reality.

Thing is, much as when I was a kid, the concept is entertaining enough that I can do that suspension of disbelief thing 🤪

Reality holes aside, there’s a lot more to it that makes it an entertaining yarn. Actually, I kinda wish they had made a sequel just for the hell of it.

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https://apple.news/Av5apvmC8T7m75cUcy4Pfcw

I find it curious how Hocus Pocus has ended up with so much popularity after the fact. For me, I mostly remember it as good family viewing for Halloween, but I suppose that’s why people still watch it. As well as a side effect of being raised by a Disney fanatic, lol.

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Watching The Terminator for the first time in some years, I kind of like how well the film has held up with age.

It’s a pretty simple but well executed film. A number of things are also a bit refreshing, in a less is more kind of way. Because back then there was virtually no computer generated imagery, and the first film may as well of had no budget compared to the sequels, of which at least one of was awesome.

Part of me wonders, all these years later: how much of the budget actually went into the scene with the truck and the Terminator. Compared to the brief future scenes and some of the trickier effects shots. I reckon the scene is kinda hokey by today’s fancier visual effects but I do have a soft spot for how things turned out.

The way people structure scenes, and what they show and what they leave out has changed. Someone directing a film like this today would do things very differently IMHO, unless they were shooting it on a ramen budget instead of as a professional film. Because as Judgement Day came and went, and Kyle’s future draws closer: we live in a world where films look more like Avatar than The Terminator. I’m still waiting for when behind the scenes reels have more in common with Mockingjay or a Holodeck, and despite the glorious spectacles, I’m not so sure that’s an evolution purely for the better.

You can tell which scenes are Arnold and which are prosthetics, for example. But films back then, things were a lot more mired in the consequences of how to film what they wanted to portray. Today? Well, you can do pretty fancy shit with powerful  computers and skilled artists.

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Generally, I don’t expect too much out of Netflix films, but I have to say, Eli is probably a good, true horror film. It’s really, really rare that I watch a horror film and praise it as one, because let’s face it most aren’t very good films. Eli I think is a genuine horror film, through and through, and actually deserves some good ratings.

The first half of the movie rather plays up the terror and the horror, leaving you with the suspense of whether the ghosts are trying to help Eli or if it is all a delusion in his head. In a lot of ways, it makes me think of the 1963 version of The Haunting in the way it works that horror. But, it realizes that for the big screen something a bit more visceral is required for frightening the watcher. As a film, I think that it captures much the same concept of instilling terror and horror, and weaves something that works much better for a film, as it is not so dependent on your interpretation and understanding of the protagonist. Rather it’s gonna keep you curious when you’re not shaking in your boots.

And the twist at the end? That’s one hell of a twist.

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Thus far, I’ve found Hulu’s Halloween suggestions mostly a positive. A broad mixture of horror films, largely from the ‘70s to the ‘90s and beyond for some more recent films. Both familiar films and ones I hadn’t gotten around to yet.

This afternoon, I’m going with something I haven’t seen in a few years: the second version of The Haunting.
Personally, I think the film more or less deserves the critical panning it received, it’s a film you watch for the effects not because it’s an essential anything. For me, it’s probably the last movie that ever scared me. I remember watching it on a rather long break many years ago and then having to go move furniture, and being a bit unnerved. I mean, it’s basically a house that comes alive and eats people as far as the special effects go. What’s not unnerving about that concept? Since then tidbits of Hill House have haunted my dreams over the past few decades: enough to no longer be scary as it became a reoccurring setting for various nightmares.
On the flip side, I’ve never really cared much for the original film. It was very fateful to the novel in my honest opinion, but just not scary. As a horror film: it’s only scary in the sense of kids around a campfire kind of stories, not terrifying, well not when I first watched it fifty some years after the book was written. Perhaps because I view Eleanor’s part in the story more a cause for sadness than a vehicle for terror, which is kind of essential to the novel. Her torment and place in the world is the real terror, not the house or spooky occurrences. Meanwhile, as out of the wall as the ‘99 film is, it tries to rely largely on the horror of the situation rather than the characterizations. The two films have different takes, and the novel’s greater time for exposition means it can leverage a more psychological terror than the simple scares the ‘63 horror film could ablidge.
If you have some time, probably better to read the novel and ignore the rest, or just watch the ‘63 film if you want a decent abridged version of the story. Me? I watch the later film because I remember being like 12, and finding it disturbingly horror.
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Watching Star Trek: First Contact for the first time in a year or two, and I’m reminded that it’s probably the only great next generation film.

Compared to what went before, it’s also quite pleasing to the eye how the time and budget let them reimagine the ships for the big screen. I remember in one of the art books, the designer of the Enterprise-E has commented they had Cadillacs for starships, and he wanted to build a Porsche. Yep, I’d say he pulled it off, lol.

It’s also pretty great how Zefram Cochran and Lilly fits into things. Which also reminds me of a later comment from Archer, that suggested Cochran kinda shaped up to deal with history, except for that one time he got really, really drunk and started talking crazy 😀.

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First world problems: when you’re an Alien fan and you see Covenant on sale for such a low, low price that your Blu-ray collection must now become complete again.