Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

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Monterey Jack
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Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#1 Post by Monterey Jack »

Thought I'd create a thread dedicated to my now quasi-weekly movie nights with my nephew, because any excuse to watch and discuss the classics I'm exposing him to for the first time is a good one. 8) Tonight...

-Mad Max (1979): 9/10

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-Night Of The Living Dead (1968): 10/10

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The nephew's been on a post-apocalypse kick following last week's Carpenter/Russell twofer with Escape From New York and The Thing, and he's big into zombies (in movies, TV and video games), so what was better than showing him the grandfather of the entire zombie subgenre? He loved the kinetic thrills and nasty, tight revenge plotting of Mad Max (as well as seeing Mel Gibson looking so young and fresh, considering how grizzled he appears today), and liked seeing how Night pretty much established every zombie cliché you can possible think of, although he was rather distressed at the bleak, hopeless finale ("Oh come on...!"). It blew his mind when I told him after Max that the other movie franchise George Miller is most remembered for are the Babe movies (and the crazy, underrated Pig In The City is basically a G-rated Max movie with animals).

Anyways, continuing both franchises next week with the second (and superior) sequels, The Road Warrior and Dawn Of The Dead. Can't wait! :)

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AndyDursin
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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#2 Post by AndyDursin »

Saw Mel in the trailer for DADDY'S HOME 2 tonight. Sad! (Though happy he's getting work, which will help make something decent down the line...)

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#3 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote:Saw Mel in the trailer for DADDY'S HOME 2 tonight. Sad!
Ugh. :? It's as distressing as seeing former Road Warrior DP Dean Semler slumming on Adam Sandler movies like Click.

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#4 Post by AndyDursin »

Have to admit I might watch it on video because of Mel and John Lithgow, two faves of mine obviously, but it's too bad even the comedy dreck we get today is as useless as most everything else. :?

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Paul MacLean
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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#5 Post by Paul MacLean »

I showed Mad Max to a friend of mine last year who is in his late 20s. He got a kick out of it too. I had told him it was an Australian film, and when the credits began and he saw Mel Gibson's name, he asked "Does Gibson actually do an Australian accent in this movie?"

I think a lot of people born after 1980 assume that Gibson was raised in the US, and have no idea he was thought of as an Australian actor (and spoke with an Aussie accent) throughout the first decade of his screen career.

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#6 Post by Monterey Jack »

More apocalyptic goodness tonight with the (superior) second installments of the Mad Max and Dead franchises, The Road Warrior and Dawn Of The Dead. 8) The Nephew got all riled up for the kinetic, slash & burn nihilism of The Road Warrior (especially that still-magnificent, never-bettered final half-hour chase sequence, some of the most maniacally-exciting action filmmaking of all time), and declared Dawn to be tied with Zombieland(!) as his favorite zombie movie of all time, totally wowed by the gooshy, Tom Savini splatter and the kid-in-a-candy-store wish fulfillment scenario of having an entire shopping mall as one's own personal apocalypse sanctuary. Hoping to finish off both trilogies next week with Beyond Thunderdome and Day (both of which were released in the summer of '85, both of which being somewhat underrated).

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#7 Post by Monterey Jack »

Watched Dawn Of The Dead last night, just learned that George A. Romero is no longer in the land of the living. :(

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#8 Post by AndyDursin »

Thunderdome was actually hugely overrated by Siskel and Ebert...their review didn't sync at all with how mediocre that movie is. Miller stuff was fine but the Oglivie scenes...not so much.

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#9 Post by Monterey Jack »

Watched The Spy Who Loved Me w/the nephew and niece tonight (we're all on vacation at the moment, and I brought a shoebox full of movies along with me), introducing them to Roger Moore's 007. They both enjoyed it a lot, especially Richard Kiel's comically indestructible Jaws ("Oh my God, he will NOT die!" :lol: ) and Bond's super-cool underwater Louis Esprit. 8)

"Bond, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Keeping the British end up, Sir." [cue awful high school marching band arrangement of "Nobody Does It Better"]

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#10 Post by Paul MacLean »

Monterey Jack wrote:"Keeping the British end up, Sir." [cue awful high school marching band arrangement of "Nobody Does It Better"
I'm convinced that arrangement of "Nobody Does it Better" was kind of a "self-parody" on Hamlisch's part, considering its conspicuous similarity to "One" from A Chorus Line (which was a massive hit on Broadway at the time)...


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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#11 Post by Monterey Jack »

Tonight it was Kubo And The Two Strings with the nephew and both nieces (the younger one being twelve). They loved the awesome animation and emotional story. It's still one of the best films I saw last year, animated or otherwise.

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#12 Post by Monterey Jack »

"Choke on 'em! Cho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ke on 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeem.....!"

More "Maximum Dead" with the nephew (plus the younger niece, who hung around a bit for the second feature), taking in the summer of '85 threequel double-feature of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Day Of The Dead. The nephew really enjoyed the creativity of Thunderdome (despite needing to pause the movie in the middle when we had company) and the gristly Tom Savini effects for Day, even if he didn't like it as much overall as the more accessible, comic-book thrills and satire of Dawn Of The Dead. Neither of these films match the heights of the second installments of their respective trilogies, yet remain fairly underrated in general. Thunderdome may be the "softest" of the Mad Max films, but, to me, it's key to the overall structure of the films, with Mel Gibson's Max becoming a messianic Pied Piper figure and making baby steps towards finally joining back into George Miller's richly-imaginative new society being built on the bones of the old. Day is a relentlessly bleak, nasty bit of business, and no wonder its psychotic depiction of the U.S. military as a pack of slavering bullies and sadists found few takers in the patriotic, rah-rah era of Rambo and Top Gun, but it's still a grimly compelling film, with Howard Sherman's performance as "Bub", the quasi-intelligent lead zombie, a true highlight alongside Savini's stomach-churning gore.

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#13 Post by Paul MacLean »

Monterey Jack wrote:Thunderdome may be the "softest" of the Mad Max films, but, to me, it's key to the overall structure of the films, with Mel Gibson's Max becoming a messianic Pied Piper figure and making baby steps towards finally joining back into George Miller's richly-imaginative new society being built on the bones of the old.
Never really cared for Thunderdome myself. It has the "look" of Road Warrior, but they took the "teeth" out of Mad Max, and made a PG-13 kids movie (complete with a hit song which was endlessly replayed on MTV). And the worst part is it was virtually devoid of action (and only had one car chase)!

It was quite a revelation when I found out that the original story outline began life as a completely different project which had nothing to do with Mad Max. Doubtful he could get it made, and knowing Warner's wanted another Mad Max movie, George Miller developed it into Thunderdome.

I was also very disappointed Miller did not offer Brian May the opportunity to score the film -- though Maurice Jarre's score is a favorite of mine, and one of his best.

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#14 Post by AndyDursin »

I don't think it's a good movie at all...especially the last view of it I had on Blu-Ray. The "kids" who somehow know how to drop f-bombs but visually look like they're based off the Ewoks is a completely misguided concept. The action scenes are fine and all but the grind to get there is often a bore. Watchable but a fizzle compared to it's predecessors, which is confirmed by the fact George Ogilvie co directed it. Miller seemed disinterested and apparently took it for the money I suppose. Can't blame him but it shows.

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Re: Movie Nights w/the Nephew thread

#15 Post by Monterey Jack »

“Whatzamattah, da CIA got yuoh pushink too mah-nee pen-zails…?”

Movie night with the Nephew tonight, introducing him to the first installments of the long-running Alien and Predator franchises. He dug the cheesy Ahnuld 80’s-ness and awesome cat & mouse action and suspense of Predator and squirmed throughout Alien. In my apartment, I may not have heard him scream, but I definitely caught him jumping more than once. :lol: He oohed and ahhed at the Oscar-winning F/X and still-amazing creature design ("What the hell is that?!", he exclaimed at the fist sighting of the "Space Jockey", and I let him know there was a prequel that kinda-sorta explains its origins). He's definitely up for Aliens at our next get-together. 8)

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