currently watching “The Night Manager”. Good god, John LeCarre is a cynical bastard.
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The little ones were introduced to Dick Miller last week, we watched Gremlins and Gremlins 2. I had never seen the latter before, which was really manic and had a lot of satire and clever details. For some reason, when I really lost it and succumbed to uncontrolled laughter (and asthma) was listening to the Clamp Towers fire alarm:
“Fire: The Untamed Element, Oldest of Man’s Mysteries, Giver of warmth, Destroyer of forests, right now this building is on fire. Yes! The building is on fire! Leave the building! Enact the Age Old drama of Self-Preservation!”
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It’s been far too long since I’ve seen that movie and I’d forgotten how chatty the building was. When I first saw Gremlins 2 I was only just beginning to discover the classics thanks to midnight marathons on a local UHF station so I couldn’t quite appreciate the casting of Christopher Lee. It’s really a film for the whole family, at least if you’re the Addams Family, so I hope the little ones enjoyed it as much as you did.
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Starring Christopher Lee as Doctor Catheter, no less. Let that one sink in for a few minutes! XD =:o
Yes, we all did. I didn’t see many movies in the early 90s, so I still find myself catching up in that era. Popular buzz around me was that Gremlins 2 wasn’t quite as good, because it lacked the warmth and charm of the original, so I assumed it was just a cash-in sequel. But it is rather clever and has the guts to poke fun of even its own concepts. From the similarity between gremlins in the first movie, the passivity of Gizmo, the absurdity of “the three rules”, and even Kate’s tragic dread of Christmas. Just as good IMO, only different. It was - literally - a riot to watch
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Joe Dante is on record that he liked Gremlins 2 better. He didn’t have full control of the first one and wasn’t thrilled with the changing the film to be more ‘family friendly’. I still haven’t seen but like the last 15ish minutes of Gremlins 2 on TV so I should probably put that on my holds list from the library
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Gremlins 2 is much better than its critical reputation suggests.
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I wasn’t aware, until just now, that it had a poor reputation.
I saw it in a theatre and on VHS - and loved it both times.
How was it changed for the DVD/BlueRay versions?
EG - in the theater, the film burned, and grems in the projection booth started mucking about. On VHS, the tape supposedly got stuck.
Even though I watched the VHS version waiting to see how it differed from the film version, the tape-gag still got me by surprise.
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The BluRay print is the film version. You were lucky to see the tape gag, since I read that those were quickly replaced when originally released on VHS. Apparently many buyers and renters asked for refunds based upon believing the tape to be truly borked.
I just found the VHS segment on YouTube, so I get an extra two minutes of movie! I like it better than the film version. Also realizing that they must have had 6’5" Christopher Lee standing in a hole in the floor when talking to Zach Galligan.
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Somehow I missed this; I was out of the loop in 1990, and I guess I’ve always assumed in later years that I’d already seen it, but I’ve certainly never seen that footage. Is that a young Robert Picardo in the scene before the video glitch? He looks so…vulpine.
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I saw Arrival. A good film, though parts of it reminded me of Interstellar.
It’ll probably be nominated for several Oscars, but because it’s an SF film, it’ll probably end up with only one technical award.
Best use of Bokeh in a Motion Picture
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I always hear the word “bokeh” in the voice of the guy from digitalrev.
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I’d been thinking of going to it…but you mention Interstellar.
Now…now I won’t go. I didn’t mind Interstellar. A little slow and not quite my usual fair, but it was okay. My wife? I lost a lot of “points” recommending that movie.
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Aw, that’s a shame. I just meant to imply that the ending is a bit of a twist and not necessarily satisfying from an exclusively hard SF vantage.
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I haven’t seen it yet, it seems to be drawing comparisons with Contact more than anything.
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I’ll pick it up when it streams. Provided I remember I want to watch it when it streams.
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The alien language benefits from a subwoofer and surround sound.
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It is! I’m tickled someone else spotted Picardo. He has some pretty funny moments of his own in the film. At the time I saw Gremlins 2 I was familiar with him but couldn’t quite place him so he and Dick Miller were, in my mind, that guy who was in that thing and that other guy who was in that other thing.
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The comparison is fair yet it does what interstellar tried to do but far better in my opinion, in regard to both the personal and the big ideas arrival is the more impressive film and doesn’t have a fist fight on an exoplanet. But it also has a great short story to back it up. I’m still thinking about it a lot and it couldn’t have arrived at a more appropriate time, there’s a lot of comfort to be gained in those 116 minutes.
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Just watched Megaforce. WOW. I can’t imagine seeing it in its non-Rifftrax incarnation. Barry Bostwick’s hair and crazy tight outfits were just the tip of the iceberg. The special effects were super hilarious, though I don’t think they were meant to be. And I’m still not 100% sure what the plot was.
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