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Summer School 1978
WOW. There is a lot to unpack here.
Summer School a.k.a. Mag Wheels is a vansploitation movie, and if you don't know what that is, I recommend reading Jason Coffman's excellent Freedom, Fun and Fine Transportation: A Brief Guide to Vansploitation Cinema. Basically, these movies are generally about young, unambitious men having fun adventures in their custom vans. The adventures are typically van-competition-related, romantic/sexual, or both. The tone is always fun-loving, antiauthoritarian, and horny.
This particular vansploitation film opens on…
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The Birds 1963
Why The Birds is Hitchcock's Most Evil Film
To fully understand the pure evilness of The Birds, we have to go back and put it in the context of the time period and of Hitchcock's career. Hitchcock is famously known as the Master of Suspense, and the films that he's most associated with today all have a slightly sinister character — Psycho is straight-up terrifying, of course, but Vertigo, Rebecca and even Rear Window all have a dark and unsettling…
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Thor: Love and Thunder 2022
I decided to rewatch this to see if my initial positive reaction was off the mark, since everyone else seems to think it's lame. And … nope, just as enjoyable the second time.
It's sort of interesting how this series tracks the progression of a man's life; he starts out a tough, moody loner and ends up a dumb, dorky dad who rocks out to cheesy old music. Thanks, Hollywood. I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong, but you don't have to tell the whole world like that.
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The Meg 2018
You can react to this movie two ways:
1. I am outraged that this big summer blockbuster is so hackneyed and clichéd.
or
2. I am astonished that this stupid monster shark movie has such incredibly good production values.
I am a little closer to reaction #2, seeing as how I had very low expectations and I saw it via a streaming service that, frankly, I don’t pay for. The decision to waste two hours of my life had already…
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Event Horizon 1997
Was hoping for cool, Alien-style science fiction, got trashy haunted house movie in space (complete with spooky lightning because they're in Neptune's atmosphere). It's dorky and clichéd, and at heart it has the sensibilities of a 1980s straight-to-VHS body horror movie. So, basically, it's Hellraiser 2047: Shadow of Uranus.
That may all sound pretty harsh, but I have a particular grudge against this movie because back in 1997 I stupidly suggested going to see it on a double date at…
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The Honeymoon Killers 1970
Pretty damn good for a low-budget independent film—with the producer, writer, director and cinematographer all being novices! It looks like an exploitation shocker at first glance, and, well, I guess it is that, but it has a cool detachment to it that makes it seem like something more. The only problem is the pacing; the middle section feels like it stalls a bit as the two perps settle into a routine of serial fraud. However, that meandering, fly-on-the-wall quality makes…
