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The New Kids (1985)
Nice visit to the 80s
Two military brats move to Florida to live with their uncle following their parents' deaths. A local gang of bullies torments them. Guess the gang didn't figure daddy trained his kids well.
Not a great film for sure but I enjoyed journeying back to the 80s and immersing myself in the experience only those films can generate. Spader was in one of my favorite films of the period, Tuff Turf, in which he is the new kid harassed by bullies. This would've made for a great double feature back then. If you enjoy 80s films, this might be worth a watch. If not, then you probably wanna move along.
Trivia:
Presby left acting to become a philosophy teacher. Then he studied law and became deputy district attorney in LA.
One of the few films in which Tom Atkins doesn't get to bang the hot chick.
Lori Loughlin became a criminal.
I wonder what happened to Spader...?
Tuff Turf also features an early appearance of Robert Downey Jr.
Although Cunningham directed the awesome Friday the 13th (original), the bulk of his other films are rated horribly.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
Indulgent
A Nazi commandant and his wife build create a home for their family. Next door is the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Ten years ago, Glazer directed Scarlet Johansson in Under the Skin, which is highly regarded but I've yet to see. In 2019 he released a 7 minute film called The Fall, which he refused to explain but I saw as portraying the cult of Trump. It's a pretty amazing short. I recommend it. But I wonder why it took him so long to release another feature length film?
But now he's returned with a film the Academy thought was worthy of a Best Picture nomination and favorably reviewed by critics. I found this film to be mostly a pretentious exercise in long silences, allusions, and banality. Yes, it's awful that many Germans were heartless buttholes. And it's even more awful this exact situation actually existed. Höss and his family did live right next to Auschwitz. But with virtually nothing to say that wasn't said in the first 15 minutes Glazer essentially stole two hours of my life.
I liked the dog.
A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
Lifeless adaptation of Dickens' tale.
Before and during the French revolution, political violence brings strife to a small family and a lawyer.
I was so looking forward to this. This is one of the few Dicken's books I haven't seen an adaptation. This is considered the best version of this tale and I was bored to tears, struggling to make it through the two hours plus runtime.
It's very dry with little cause to have sympathy for the characters and their situations. I've never read the book and I thought as rushed as the film was maybe it was a thousand page epic but one edition is about 300 pages. We're never shown how the characters get attached to one another. We're just told.
One bright spot among the performances is Isabel Jewell, who displays such emotion in her brief scenes the others neglect in the whole movie.
Just an overly dramatic unmoving film.
Skinamarink (2022)
Failed Experiment
A brother and sister awaken to learn their father is gone and the doors and windows to their house have disappeared.
You know when you view something and after it's finished your response is, "That's x amount of time I'll never get back"? That's how my wife and I responded to this. Honestly, we were done with it about ten minutes in but finished it because my daughter liked it. It's entirely unlike any film I've ever recalled her enjoying!
The film is frightening in how dull it is. You can barely understand the kids. They subtitle some lines but others they don't. Other than the fact the kids are in danger there's nothing emotionally tethering a person to this film. You never fully see their faces. You never learn what is going on. And most of the shots are static containing ceilings, walls, and the tv.
As an experimental film, this one failed to produce results.