Fool's Views (4/7 – 4/13)

Trust me, I'm a doctor.

Howdy folks,

Well, thanks to the deliciousness that was Movieside’s Sci-Fi Spectacular and the arrival of some potentially interesting genre films hitting theaters – Devil’s Due, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, and I, Frankenstein just weren’t hooking me – I finally made it out to the cinema, sextupling my 2014 theatrical intake in one short week.

Seeing a giant, magic-berry-juice-drinking ape duking it out with Japan’s favorite radioactive lizard on the big screen with a near-capacity crowd in attendance is as close to achieving total consciousness as I ever hope to get (so I've got that going for me, which is nice), and Pan’s Labyrinth was just as rewarding as it was the first time. I also went 4-for-4 with my multiplex excursions, although seriously, AMC, those animated red dots and the little pre-film dumbshows have GOT TO GO. Sooooooooo terrible.

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!



HORROR:

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) d. Honda, Ishiro (Japan) (5th viewing)

***CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW***

Oculus (2013) d. Flanagan, Mike (USA) (1st viewing)

***CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW***

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) d. del Toro, Guillermo (Spain) (2nd viewing)

***CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW***

Patrick (1978) d. Franklin, Richard (Australia) (3rd viewing, Richard Franklin commentary)

***CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW***

Return to Nuke 'Em High, Vol 1 (2013) d. Kaufman, Lloyd (USA) (3rd viewing, Lloyd Kaufman commentary)

***CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW***

Under the Skin (2013) d. Glazer, Jonathan (UK) (1st viewing)

***CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW***



CIVILIAN:

Noah (2014) d. Aronofsky, Darren (USA) (1st viewing)

Rock Monsters?

Raid 2: Berandal, The (2014) d. Evans, Gareth (Indonesia) (1st viewing)

I guess I’ll be the dissenting voice, which is to say that while I agree with most of my noble fellow scribes in that Evans’ follow-up is a superior film overall, with deeper characters, a more epic narrative, and several jaw-dropping action sequences including a car chase/fight that perhaps eclipses any other examples of the form, it isn’t nearly as much balls-out fun as its predecessor. Some have complained that they found The Raid's characters thin, the action repetitive, akin to watching a video game, etc. But for me, that’s the point – it wasn’t a video game, it was real-life, flesh-and-blood people pulling off magic tricks before our very eyes. I’ll definitely be revisiting Berandal, but it will likely be with my thumb on the “chapter select” button, whereas the original I’ll continue to pop in and drop the remote.

Waiting for 'Superman' (2010) d. Guggenheim, Davis (USA) (1st viewing)

Edifying, heartbreaking, inspiring, and frustrating beyond measure, Guggenheim’s examination of the U.S. public school system carries the same sense of time-running-out urgency as his Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth. “Teach your children well.”


2014 Totals to date: 88 films, 46 1st time views, 45 horror, 7 cinema