Gandhi

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Gandhi!

Original image located here. Accessed 4th November 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 55 (1982)

Now this was a movie I was keen on watching: When I was in high school I read about Mahatma Gandhi and was struck by how a humble man changed the world and won independence for India from the British through non-violent methods. It was an inspiring story and I hoped to do something world-changing in my own right.....

One would think that the story of Gandhi would be well-suited for an epic movie. And Richard Attenborough thought so too, trying multiple times to get this film made over two decades. 
The end result? Attenborough went all out crafting a three hour epic, utilising thousands of extras and clearly not settling for anything less. But hey, dream projects tend to attract the most effort.
However in spite of all the historical inaccuracies and Attenborough's approach to filmmaking, this is all Ben Kingsley's show, delivering a performance that is quietly charismatic, genuine in it's approach and effectively resurrecting Mahatma himself. 

Don't Look Now

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Don't Look Now!

Original image located here. Accessed 15th October 2021

I was looking forward to seeing this as it has a reputation as being a real scary movie. Well, I'm up for a challenge.

Ironically however, this movie didn't really do much for me. What should possess a creeping sense of dread (always a winner in my book) comes across as being dull. The climax should be horrific but somehow it comes out flat.
If anything, this is less a horror movie and more a movie about two parents dealing with grief. Okay that's still not a bad idea for a film but did they have to make it so monumentally DULL? Okay, so there's nothing wrong with a slow burner but there's a difference between that and testing my patience. And if a horror movie is looking boring then something has gone horribly wrong.
Seems next week, i should address something with a lot more bite...

Next of Kin

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Next of Kin!

Original image located here. Accessed 8th October 2021

Anyone heard of this? It's an Australian horror movie from the early eighties. I guess if people know this movie it is through it being talked up by one Quintin Tarantino (in more than one source) as being the Australian "The Shining'. Well I saw The Shining last week so seeing this would seem like a natural progression.

It seems Tarantino's observation was quite accurate: Much like The Shining, this movie relies heavily on mood and a mounting sense of dread. Which is exactly what i want from a horror movie. The 'haunted house' theme is well done and whilst there a jump scares, they still take a back seat to the afore-mentioned mounting sense of dread (and quite rightly so).
Yes this a very low budget movie but, as is often the case, a low budget horror movie means it's makers were creative in what they did with what they had.
Plus it's fun to see a young John Jarrett.

The King of Comedy

And this week's Friday night movie was....The King of Comedy!

Original image located here. Accessed 21st June 2019

As some of you who have been following this series may know, i ma something of a newcomer to the films of Martin Scorsese. And from the outset, this movie has a reputation of being an under-appreciated gem. This, along with comparisons being made to this and the recent trailer to the upcoming Joker movie, makes a compelling case to check it out.

Make no mistake: This is a triumph of unease. It is indeed unsettling but the best kind of unsettling (if such a thing exists) in just how subtle it is.
A lot of the movie rests on Robert de Niro's performance as Rupert. I am used to see Robert being tough guys and psychopaths and whilst he is playing a psychopath here he does so in a more subtle way: Rupert is indeed bonkers and mentally damaged but he does what he does with so much confidence - to a point where one would think it's bad thing.

But ultimately much like Taxi Driver, this a movie about the person trapped in isolation. The person who is in dire need of the basic human need of social interaction - only to go about it the wrong way. While this movie was made in 1983 it somehow still comes across as being relevant, over three decades later, in the internet age where everyone is hiding behind a screen, a keyboard and the mother-skirt of anonymity but will struggle beyond it.
Indeed, would it be amiss to say that i can see shades of people I know in both Rupert and Masha?

As for the Joker connection, I have to ask: is this DC's strategy of remaking older movies as superhero movies (after all, isn't Shazam a retread of Big?). That maybe the case but, as Incels/keyboard warriors/socially-maladjusted loners continue to be a talking point, maybe a movie about the isolated person could continue to have a place...

Slumber Party Massacre

And this week's Friday night movie has been.....The Slumber Party Massacre!

Original image located here. Accessed 26th October 2018

I may have said this before but let's be clear: Slasher movies aren't my favorite movie genre. My reasons are varied but chief among them are a) their misogynist nature and b) the fact that they tend to be populated by idiots who subsequently get hacked to death (granted that may be precisely the point but still...).
However I may be kinder to slasher movies that parody the genre and mock a lot of the familiar tropes. And that's what made me aware of this movie. That and the fact that this is a slasher movie written by a woman and produced/directed by a woman. So perhaps a different perspective may result in a different movie?

Well there are some solid moments of tension, some decent parody scenes and a truly chilling performance from the guy playing the baddie. But in the end it's not enough to distinguish it from the other slasher movies out there. As a result, I'm still not sold on the slasher genre.
Easy come, easy go?

Conan the Barbarian

And this weeks Friday night movie has been....Conan the Barbarian!

Original image located here. Accessed 8th August 2016

Once again, this is a movie that i finally see having only experienced the effect (as opposed to the cause). I know that Conan the Barbarian is a benchmark of heroic fantasy; I know that this movie, along with the artwork of Frank Frazetta, played a major role in bringing Conan to a wider audience than previously; I recall seeing the sequel Conan the Destroyer when i was ten (or thereabouts) and, later, the cartoon Conan the Adventurer; I know Conan inspired similar IP (Golden Axe anyone?). But in spite of all that, it's only now that I've seen this movie.

As for the movie itself, I'm likening it to the evil twin of the Lord of the Rings movies: It is cheaper, nastier, dour, reliant on a different approach to SFX, has a lot of bare flesh, offers a scenario that is far from heroic and thrives on being something of a power fantasy.
Still, this movie is easy to see how it made Arnie a star (that is until The Terminator) and the score is incredible to say the least. And as a Low Fantasy it works rather well.
So in the end, it's a nasty piece of work but the good kind of nasty. If that makes any sense

Rambo: First Blood

And this weeks Friday night movie has been....Rambo: First Blood!

Original image located here. Accessed 5th August 2016

Growing up in the eighties it always seemed that Rambo was a character synonymous with big/dumb action movies. So it is indeed a shock to see this first movie in this series as not being the case. Its not about a big dumb action hero, its about a Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD.

So if we move away from the mask of an action movie, there's a lot going for Rambo: First Blood. There's some great use of suspense, it works really well as a thriller movie and Rambo's final breakdown could well be Stallone's finest acting ever. So yeah, I found the first Rambo movie a gripping one - although I doubt I'd bother with the sequels.