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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated
1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going
to review every single movie I see. I’m
going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the
rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future). You can always ask me why I gave the ratings
for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses
under the ‘About Me’ section).
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Sea Fever G
Irish film involving a fishermen crew heading out to sea
with a female college student tagging along (apparently redheads signify bad
luck). They eventually come across a
creature that I can almost say is Lovecraftian, but not quite, maybe a cousin
to The Old Ones, that attaches itself to the boat, releasing some kind of
parasite. Let’s just say it gradually gets
worse for the passengers after that.
I’ve read about comparisons to John Carpenter’s The Thing (a film I find very overrated) and I can see where some
might make an association. I can also
see comparisons (thematically) to another film with Fever in it, Eli Roth’s first film that was eventually remade
horribly, but this is still kind of its own film despite feeling a bit
derivative. I can ultimately say I
enjoyed this nautical sci-fi horror film that doesn’t feel like it takes up too
much of your time. 6/29/2020
Bonus review:
You Don’t Nomi G
Showgirls is a
vastly underrated movie, in my opinion.
Not only did it win worst picture of the year it came out (1995) at the
Razzies (the opposite end of the Oscars, for those unaware), in addition to 6
other awards out of 13 nominations, but also the worst movie of the decade
(1990-2000)! Now, it’s certainly no
masterpiece (masterpiece of shit, as this film labels it) and deserved no Oscar
nominations, but it’s not nearly as bad as others have made it out to be (it received
1 ½ out of 5 stars on All Movie and 22% out of 54 critics on Rotten Tomatoes). I don’t even think its so-bad-its-good; just
good, not great; it being a simplistic slice-of-life film about a young woman
(played by Elizabeth Berkley) yearning to successfully dance in Las Vegas. The production values are clearly high and it
was directed by Paul Verhoeven (he who made RoboCop,
Total Recall, and Basic Instinct before this) and written
by Joe Eszterhas (he who wrote Flashdance
and Basic Instinct before this), so
it’s not like it was a cheapie effort made by and starring nobodies (although it
makes we wonder how different the reception would’ve been if it was). I heard about this documentary after a fellow
high school alumni and documentary filmmaker, Tommy Avallone (The Bill Murray Stories, Waldo on Weed), posted a trailer for it
on social media. I don’t think this film
will change what opinion you already have about the 1995 film in question, but
it should hold the interest of anyone that’s even slightly a fan of it. That being said, I’m not sure if any of its
detractors (and there are many) would be interested, because I don’t think I’d
care too much about a 90-minute documentary on a film I wasn’t a fan of. It does veer into other discussions, such as
Paul Verhoeven’s other films or the career of Elizabeth Berkley, but it all
ties in to that infamous NC-17 rated film (which wasn’t even a rating until
1990 when it replaced the X rating). It
ultimately contains specific opinions and theories, one being that the movie resonated
with gay men in particular---I never thought of it like that, but it’s a
compelling notion---and I always like hearing other opinions as well as having
film discussions (which documentaries like this are equivalent to). Again, I still don’t understand all the
hatred for Showgirls, even though
film criticism is 100% subjective, and at least this documentary appears to be
on the same wavelength. And again, I
would say this is more for fans of the actual film, but if you like hearing
thoughts on movies, whether you liked them or not, especially if they became
cult hits, I think you know what I’d say…6/28/2020
Other
movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
Okko’s Inn >>>OK/G
Strange But True >>>OK/G
---Sean O.
6/29/2020
