Watch, Watched Watching : 2023 is going to be unstable!

[BigFatCoward]

25 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Watching Robocop as an 8 year old is the point where I realised I was simply not ready for that level of horrific violence and mutilation. 

Robocop was cartoon violence, predator was much more scary to me. 

[RumHam]

Mine was a VHS of Jaws II taped off the TV. but they used the wrong recording speed so the ending was cut off. It got to the part where the kids were stuck on the rocks and chief Brody was trying to help them. 

The Sopranos ending still threw me though. Go figure. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Sigh, "tracking".

[Ramsay B.]

The library ghost from Ghostbusters shook my younger self to the core. I had to have been like 6-7 maybe. 

I started watching For All Mankind and love it. I’m 6 episodes in. I could not figure out where I knew Molly(Sonya Walger)from. Finally gave in and looked it up and she was Penny from Lost. I’m ashamed of myself.

[Jaxom 1974]

Two episodes in of That 90s Show. Not exactly perfect, but there's something there. The nostalgia is uneven. Topher Grace and Laura Prepon made perfect sense, but Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis felt like a tacked on scene just because...the show does seem to capture some of the angst of the mid 90s, but it will be interesting to see if the show finds its footing. 

 

Also two episodes into the new Night Court. Everything here is hitting the tone and attitude of the original. John Laroqutte put his character back on as if it hadn't been 30 years. I like it...but it's amazing that a sitcom with this kind of tone was made today...

 

 

[Which Tyler]

13 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I didn't happen across this until I was older, I think 9 or 10 and it still horrified me

I introduced Ali to it in her mid-30s.

I'm not allowed it in the house (we're childless).

 

12 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Had to look this one up. While I wouldn't say this is the same thing as seeing an adult horror film as a kid.

I think you just said the same thing twice.

A piercing screen: How Watership Down terrified an entire generation

Watership Down: A One-Way Ticket to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Edited January 20 by Which Tyler

[Heartofice]

Yeah the Library ghost from Ghostbusters is definitely much scarier than you'd want from a kids movie. There is something about 80's effects that really freak the shit out of me. The facemelting at the end of Raiders still grosses me out, and for some reason the strange cyber transformation at the end of Superman 3 left me traumatised. 

But looking back, that era had some scary as fuck movies, I really don't know how kids came out of those not being permanently damaged.

Dark Crystal is really grim and so are bits of Labyrinth, Secret of Nimh is dark as fuck, Neverending Story is hardly a bundle of joy and then there is stuff like Return to Oz that is pretty much a horror movie! 

[Rippounet]

I considered showing Jurassic Park (the first one) to my six-year old (he loves dinosaurs) before realizing that the movie was filmed using horror movie codes. A lot of these old movies, including stuff for children, used the lightning effects and jump scares of horror movies.

32 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

But looking back, that era had some scary as fuck movies, I really don't know how kids came out of those not being permanently damaged.

Maybe we were...

[Tywin et al.]

9 hours ago, DMC said:

The only two things I remember actually scaring me as a kid were The Shining and Unsolved Mysteries.  Also Virgin Suicides when I was on a bad trip, but I don't think that counts.

Did the movie as a whole scare you? It's one of my favs and I saw it pretty young. The scene in room 237 and Scatman getting axed both freaked me out, but the movie overall wasn't that scary for me. It's why I compare it more to Alien. A few scenes were terrifying for a kid, but the movie overall wasn't that bad.

[Tywin et al.]

6 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

I considered showing Jurassic Park (the first one) to my six-year old (he loves dinosaurs) before realizing that the movie was filmed using horror movie codes. A lot of these old movies, including stuff for children, used the lightning effects and jump scares of horror movies.

Maybe we were...

I first saw JP when I was that age. In a cruise ship theater. During a terrible storm. Really added to it imo. 

[DMC]

32 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Did the movie as a whole scare you? It's one of my favs and I saw it pretty young. The scene in room 237 and Scatman getting axed both freaked me out, but the movie overall wasn't that scary for me. It's why I compare it more to Alien.

None of the particular scenes scared me, more psychologically a father with anger problems going crazy and trying to kill his son, who was about my age at the time.

[Tywin et al.]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

None of the particular scenes scared me, more psychologically a father with anger problems going crazy and trying to kill his son, who was about my age at the time.

I get that. Honestly I think I either missed or didn't pay attention to the opening the first time I saw it, so the abuse narrative wasn't as real for me until Jack lost it. On the next viewing I got it, but since I knew what happened it didn't hit as hard.

[Tywin et al.]

I hadn't heard of this movie until yesterday, but I was listening to a discuss on The Menu and they compared it to Triangle of Sadness, which they thought was better. It doesn't have the same star power, but this movie is nuts. Totally recommend it if you enjoyed the former.

[RumHam]

Tombstone (1992?) 

This movie and unforgivin loom large as a part of my VHS based childhood.  

The latter holds up better, but damn what a great movie Tombstone is. It knows exactly what it's going for and excels at it. 

Edit: "well, Bye." He'll always be Cy Tolliver to me but damn what a presence he had.  

 

Edited January 21 by RumHam

[Ramsay B.]

18 hours ago, Heartofice said:

and for some reason the strange cyber transformation at the end of Superman 3 left me traumatised. 

Yes! This scene fucked me up too. I just watched it today and always pictured it at a carousel because of how the super computer was shaped I guess. Funny shit.

[Heartofice]

9 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

Yes! This scene fucked me up too. I just watched it today and always pictured it at a carousel because of how the super computer was shaped I guess. Funny shit.

Christ it’s horrific 

[Ran]

Val Kilmer makes that movie, to be honest. I rewatched it awhile back and yeah, it doesn't hold up as well as I remember -- it's very much a B-movie sort of Western -- but he's just incredible.

Lets see... after Pinocchio I saw The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film about his youth and family. It was... interesting. I feel like there's a certain reverence he has (understandably) for his childhood and parents that maybe gets in the way of real messiness. Yes, his mother (played by Michelle Williams, who plays a very difficult role very well) was a troubled person and this led to a complicated family life,  but mostly everything just seemed to go smoothly for his stand-in character. Still, good performances, and some fun bits drawn from Spielberg's life. In particular, a highlight of the film comes right at the very end when David Lynch shows up in the role of the great director John Ford:

Rewatched a couple of films: The Aviator and Pulp Fiction. Why? No particular reason, just felt like rewatching. The Aviator is flawed but on a technical level it's just amazing, particularly the emulation of two-color Technicolor in the early part of the film. 

Pulp Fiction holds up very well, and I ended up dwelling on something that I never really thought of before: why did Vincent Vega act so rudely towards to Butch, exactly? I think I always took it to be that he just took a dislike to him or reacted rudely when he stared back at him, but for some reason this was the first time that I noticed he recognized Butch -- he calls him "punchy" and a "palooka", he knows he's a boxer. Which means... he knows that Butch was there meeting Marsellus Wallace, which means that Butch was agreeing to fix a fight (because why else would a prizefighter be having a private one-on-one with Marsellus?), and I think that's what makes Vega treat Butch that way. He sees himself as having a certain code of appropriate behavior, and throwing fights when your profession is boxing is not something that he approves of. Interesting, and gives added poignancy to Butch killing Vincent.

Vinland Saga, the Japanese anime adapting the manga of the same name, has returned for its second season. Where the first season was about Vikings at war and revenge, this season opens up with the experience of thralls -- slaves -- in the Viking world. Very different, and interesting. 

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

Val Kilmer makes that movie, to be honest. I rewatched it awhile back and yeah, it doesn't hold up as well as I remember -- it's very much a B-movie sort of Western -- but he's just incredible.

Not wrong, but fuck. It's a B-Movie with everyone at the top of their game. The bad guys especially. Beins hesitation in the end he really doesn't want to fight holiday but then gets into character to do so. 

"alright lunger." 

[Ran]

27 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Not wrong, but fuck. It's a B-Movie with everyone at the top of their game. The bad guys especially. Beins hesitation in the end he really doesn't want to fight holiday but then gets into character to do so. 

"alright lunger." 

Yeah, casting and writing was punching way above the film's visual style.

Famously, Tombstone had a deeply troubled production history, with the first director (screenwriter Kevin Jarre) being overwhelmed and quitting, then George Cosmatos coming in while Kurt Russell apparently worked behind the scenes. It's undisputed that he helped pare down Jarre's script. More controversially, he would later claim that George Cosmatos -- Jarre's replacement (and, as it happens, father of Panos Cosmatos, who directed the surreal, sword-and-sorcery fantasy art inflected Mandy) -- was just a cover for him directing the film personally, as he didn't want it known. Val Kilmer sort of supported that Russell worked heavily on scenes, but (per Wikipedia) did not go so far as to say Russell directed him or that Cosmatos didn't direct. Michael Biehn, OTOH, apparently only says when asked that Russell didn't direct him.

 

[Tywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

Val Kilmer makes that movie, to be honest. I rewatched it awhile back and yeah, it doesn't hold up as well as I remember -- it's very much a B-movie sort of Western -- but he's just incredible.

I have to agree with this. The film overall is not one of the great Westerns, but Val Kilmer gave a top five performance in it for the genre. He's amazing and steals basically every screen he's in.