Monday, June 29, 2020

Sea Fever


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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

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