Started to watch Maniac (1980), a William Lusting slasher, but bailed. Just too much of a skeevy grindhouse kind of movie, even by my standards.
Decided instead to rewatch Maniac Cop 2 (1990), an absolute masterpiece of B-movie schlock horror. Larry Cohen and William Lusting working together, it’s so great. Look at this gem of an old-school 90’s car stunt sequence.
It’s fine, I just didn’t need to pay full attention to it to get the idea.
Maniac Cop 2 rules. Also Paula Trickey
Anyone seen Longlegs?
Going today I think after the eurocup final.
Boy have I watched some doozies in the last week:
No Holds Barred, 1989 Hulk Hogan vehicle: holy crap is this movie terrible. Like, you may think you know that Hulk Hogan is a bad actor, but if you haven’t seen this you don’t really know. At least 50% of the sounds made by humans in this movie are not lines of dialogue, they are growls and other assorted guttural grunts and noises.
From Justin to Kelly, aka the American Idol movie: I mean, poor Kelly Clarkson. I believe she was literally forced to shoot this film, and it shows. I guess I also feel bad for Justin Guarini, but he’s clearly a willing - eager, even - participant. This movie is like 80 minutes and 40 of those could have been cut easily.
Junior, wherein Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes full with child with the assistance of Danny DeVito (they do not copulate). Also includes EMMA THOMPSON doing her damndest to keep the thing afloat. Overall this was almost entirely joyless and if I was forced, I would watch one of the above two movies again ahead of this one.
You didn’t even mention Kurt Fuller repeatedly calling people “jockass” as a clever insult.
Haha I think it was specifically Hogan…I mean “Rip” that he repeatedly called jockass. He also ejects a woman from a board meeting by telling her to “go take a leak”.
Yes
Haha I liked this one. Maybe I’m part to the age at which I first saw it.
I also like Twins.
Well Twins is very good
Fail Safe (1964)
How did I not know that this movie exists? Next thing you know, I’ll be one of these “never even heard of Charade” types. I was scanning Tubi for inspiration, saw a thumbnail of Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau, clicked in and saw “Directed by Sidney Lumet,” and I was sold. I know that Lumet is generally accorded legendary status within the industry, but I’m still gaining a full scope of just how incredible his body of work was. 12 Angry Men is one of the greatest films ever created. Dog Day Afternoon is an easy five stars. Network is incredible. Serpico is great. I didn’t take to The Verdict like others do, but it’s clearer now to me than ever that I need to give it another look. In any case, add Fail Safe as another excellent piece of his resume.
This came out the same year as Dr. Strangelove, which I suppose makes it that movie’s more serious counterpart. Except, to me, this is the much better film of the two. A gripping thriller from front to back, it hits full speed early and then basically never relents. Filmmakers today tend to put their best resources into looking backwards at stories that basically already resolved, but decades ago they regularly tackled the pressing issues of the day head-on with incredible effectiveness. It took until I had viewed Casablanca numerous times before I came to understand that it wasn’t simply looking backward and setting its story at a point in WWII, but was in fact filmed right in the middle of it. The very real ongoing US/Soviet tensions of this time set the backdrop here. This approach just feels so foreign to basically my entire movie-watching life, but it certainly saved to create some excellent cinema.
If you loved 12 Angry Men - and the only options in this life are to have loved it or to have not gotten around to it yet - Henry Fonda bringing his gravitas back to the table in a Sidney Lumet film to talk through a situation of incredible stakes (this time with Fonda as the POTUS) should not be a difficult sell. See this if you get the chance.
4.5/5
Apparently there’s a story on this. Upon learning of the imminent release of such a similar movie to his, Kubrick sued, alleging plagiarism, resulting in a settlement where Fail Safe came out many months after Strangelove. Strangelove prospered and Fail Safe did bad box office and faded away.
By the time Fail-Safe debuted, Dr. Strangelove had already ascended to the pantheon as the definitive protest film against the nuclear age. After its dark comedy, who could bother with this last gasp of the phony-voiced melodramas? Fail-Safe bombed at the box office, and even its star, Henry Fonda, said he couldn’t have played the role straight if he’d seen Strangelove first.
I’ve never seen Failsafe, but my Mom described the whole plot to me when I was a kid and it’s stayed with me ever since.
I haven’t seen Strangelove all the way through either. But I think I’d like Failsafe better. I always gravitate towards the more realistic option.
I’m just surprised that the cost of actually watching these is worth whatever enhancement it brings to the podcast. Been listening to Blank Check’s new episode on Gigli today and I find it perfectly entertaining without being even remotely tempted to actually watch the movie.
I do avoid podcasts if I don’t want to be spoiled up front on the movie in question, but if it’s something unwatchable…
And I don’t know exactly how realistic this scenario was in Fail Safe, but it felt realistic enough to be immersive. Especially since it was a movie and basically all possible resolutions to the plot remain on the table throughout, as opposed to, e.g. Oppenheimer’s Trinity Test, where I’m relatively spoiled on the fact that the world didn’t end in that moment.
I like Fail Safe, but smarter than Strangelove? Nah, bro.
Never heard of this. On my list for this week now, thanks!