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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
1971 | Crime, Sci-Fi

"Then I would say the next time I remember going and seeing a movie and having my mind f—ing blown was A Clockwork Orange. I was probably about 15 or so when I saw that. At that point in time there were no DVDs, there was no VHS. As a movie fanatic, I could only look at pictures and go, “Oh my god, A Clockwork Orange! I have to see this movie!” But how do you see it? It’s not playing anywhere. Eventually it was playing at a college, and I went to go see it at this college. I was only fifteen years old and it was all college people and they seemed real cool. And it just f—ing blew my mind. And ever since then I’ve been fanatic for Kubrick and Malcolm McDowell. That’s why I love working with Malcolm, because he loves talking about that stuff. You can ask him anything, and he’ll give you all the dirt on how… What is amazing for me too, hearing the stories about the movie, is just how much time they had. Now you have, “Oh, you have an hour to shoot that thing.” And he’ll go, “Oh, we shot that in five days.” That Singing in the Rain scene. They didn’t even figure out the song until eventually he said that Kubrick was like, “Do you know any songs?” And when Stanley would be at a loss for what to do, he would go up to Malcolm and go, “You’re probably going to be sick tomorrow. You won’t be able to make it to work for probably about a week.” And they would shut down and Malcolm would pretend to be sick so Stanley could figure out what he was going to shoot next."

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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Mid90s (2018) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)  
Mid90s (2018)
Mid90s (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Drama
At 1 hour 25 minutes you'd be forgiven for thinking this would be a brief affair, but if you're not into it then this 85-minute film is agonisingly long.

Going into this the only thing I knew about this film was that it was directed by Jonah Hill, and I like him so that felt like something positive.

31 people had booked to see this preview at my Cineworld, I think there were maybe 10 of us that showed up. I have to say that there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm from any of us until it was time to leave.

Kudos on going with the 4:3 look on the screen and the grainier quality on the filming (I'm sure there are technical terms for that but I don't know them!) That combined with accurate costumes and settings to really take you back to the 90s. I found the smaller aspect to be rather distracting on the big screen though. I watch 4:3 a lot at home on my widescreen TV without it seeming odd, perhaps this is just one of those things, I go so often that I'm probably just expecting it to fill the whole screen.

The film starts with a particularly jarring scene, and while I don't have an issue with that shock impact I don't like that there's no context. You can infer things later on, but at no point do you explicitly find out the reason behind some of the shocking scenes. The film feels much more like we've been plonked down into his life rather than learning about it.

It's difficult to sum up how I feel about the characters.

Sunny Suljic is fine in the main role but there wasn't anything that wowed me from the role. That's no slur on the acting, I just didn't feel that the dialogue or story gave us more than a glance at his life.

Ray came across as the strongest out of all the skaters, we see a few different aspects of him and he gets a proper chance to open up. Had all the characters had this opportunity then I think we'd have had something much more interesting... but then teenage boys aren't notoriously fans of opening up emotionally on screen unless we're in a romantic film.

Those of you who read my reviews will know how I feel about Lucas Hedges, that is to say, I don't really get it. This role offers little backstory apart from the fact that he clearly has a long passion for beating the crap out of his brother, Stevie. Despite my growing indifference for him I feel like Hedges wasn't given enough time in the movie. I can see why he wasn't, Ian is hyper-aggressive and a very threatening presence so having more of him would have changed the dynamic a lot. Having more of him though might have allowed us to understand him a little bit more and take away some of the unanswered questions at the end of the film.

There are a lot of scenes with drug use and alcohol, and I can see those being relevant to the story, but the "sex" scene was uncomfortable and really didn't feel like it fit in at all. From the moment you see it coming to the point where the boys are prying out details of the encounter I sat there wondering why. Why it needed to be there and why the script was just so bad through it.

The ending was the only part of the film that actually made me feel anything for the characters and the events. That in itself is quite an achievement being that you can tell exactly what is coming. The way the final event is handled was visually striking and leads us into a moment where all the characters get to show something that finally feels like genuine emotion. I think it says a lot that the most effective bits of the film had no dialogue in them. The events at the end of this film saved Mid90s from getting one of the lowest ratings in my reviewing history.

I'd say that had they given over an extra 20 minutes to better character development then this would have been better, but I worry that an extra 20 minutes would just have made the event even more excruciating.

What you should do

I'm sure this has it's audience somewhere, after all, people seem to be raving about it. Sadly I am not that audience and I really can't recommend this to anyone.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

I love the idea of making customer skateboards.
  
Supernatural  - Season 12
Supernatural - Season 12
2016 | Drama
Sam and Dean still kick ass (1 more)
Really comedic Season
British Men of Letters (0 more)
Not over yet
-Don't read if you haven't caught up unless you don't mind spoilers-

Supernatural has come a long, long, so very long way since it's first pilot episode and season in 2005. If you haven't started to watch this show yet, then you're probably going to feel like there's too much. I know that I've recommended this show to dozens of my friends or friends of friends, because the show, though slower in some seasons, overall is brilliant.

So here we find ourselves in 2016/17 and Supernatural is airing it's 12th season...good luck catching up if you never started the show. After helping the darkness, God's sister, she rewards Sam and Dean by bringing Mary Winchester, their mother, back from the dead after 30+ years. This messes with her mind because she doesn't belong in this time line and she never got the chance to be a proper mother to the two men she sees standing before her in the bunker. So they give her some time and Mary ends up joining the British Men of Letters who have come to America to sort out the American Hunters. Whether that is to recruit them or destroy them.

For those of you who have read or watched Harry Potter, you know Delores Umbridge and how much you want her dead probably more than Voldemort, well the British Men of Letters are like a group of Umbridge's. You quickly begin to hate them and want them all to be wiped out.

Season 12 brings back some of the classic humour that we've come to love from this show. There's an episode where Dean is losing his memory, of not just his last but basic knowledge, so much so that Sam has to label everything from lamp, to tv, to the door, just so Dean remembers the name of them. It is so beautifully written and whilst hilarious for the majority, there's one scene where my heart sank as you realise Dean is slipping further and further into memory loss, as he stares into a mirror repeating the line 'my name....is....' and eventually responding to himself with 'i don't know' and it is such a heart aching moment because sometimes Supernatural doesn't always end perfectly and you hope that in this particular instance, that Dean gets everything back, with no little blanks.

This season, and I'm not gonna spoil it with names, sees the death of two characters who have been major to the series for a while now. That finale wasn't the best in terms of certain aspects, such as the final sequence where usually something is said that would give us something more about what's been happening, but it leaves the many fans including myself heartbroken and wishing that I never saw what I saw, because the loss of these two characters (and although many characters have died and come back, the cast and crew have confirmed that this isn't one of those cases) is going to make Sam and Dean next journey, one hell of a ride, but most certainly, one hell of a struggle.

Overall a great season full of laughter and emotion, containing one of the funniest episodes I have seen for a while, and an emotional finale that leaves you wanting more as always. I love this show and will continue to watch and recommend it to anyone interesting in monsters, demons, ghouls etc. Like I said though, good luck playing catch up.
  
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Night Shift in Books

Feb 23, 2020  
Night Shift
Night Shift
Stephen King | 1978 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
8.4 (22 Ratings)
Book Rating
King at his best
This is one of the first Stephen King books I remember reading, probably when I was far too young at around the age of 10/11, if not earlier. I loved it then, I loved it the handful of times I've picked it up over the past 2 decades and having decided to read it again this week, I still love it.

King is my favourite author, and it's books like this that really highlight why. I've never before known an author who can bring such detail and intrigue into 20 different short stories, even those stories that are only a few pages long. He's a master storyteller and this book is a great example. Every single story is engaging and filled with horror, telling you just enough to leave you satisfied and not feeling like you're missing out and with a well developed plot and characters.

Out of these 20 short stories, I'd only highlight one of these that is maybe weaker than the rest: 'The Woman in the Room' and this isn't bad, just more that it's lacking in the horror that the rest of the stories have and it's a shame because this is the final story. But aside from this every single story is a brilliant read and if you ever want to find a place to start reading Stephen King, without tackling his major epic novels, there's no finer place to start than this.
  
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Dana (24 KP) rated Saga in Books

Mar 23, 2018  
Saga
Saga
Brian K. Vaughan | 2012 | Comics & Graphic Novels
10
9.2 (21 Ratings)
Book Rating
I am giving this first book a 4.5 stars, because, while I really enjoyed reading it, there were a few points where if got a bit too much for me. If you have read it, you'll understand what I mean. Also, like always, this is a spoiler alert as there will most likely be a bunch of spoilers in this review. So you have been warned.

I can honestly say that I loved the relationship between the two main characters. They have such a deep love for one another and it is refreshing to see. They also have a pretty healthy relationship for the circumstances they are under.

It was cool to start the series in the middle of so much chaos, just like how the characters are in their lives at that time. I like how they set up the rules of the world by explaining it through the daughter as if she is telling us the story.

All the characters, in general, are very compelling and multifaceted, something I (obviously) appreciate a lot.

This was a very good exposition graphic novel that is setting up the rest of the story and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

The artwork is phenomenal. I cannot express enough how amazing it is! Props to the artists who worked on this, because I feel like they don't get enough credit. So if you're reading this, very well done!!
  
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Kurt Vile recommended The Sun Years by Jerry Lee Lewis in Music (curated)

 
The Sun Years by Jerry Lee Lewis
The Sun Years by Jerry Lee Lewis
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I liked Jerry Lee Lewis, because my dad turned me on to him, so I had this collection of all the Sun sessions that I would listen to a lot. I mainly just listened to 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On'. I used to love that line, ""got the bull by the horns"", I used that line in 'He's Alright', my song from a long time ago. It's so bluesy and goofy and from a wild man. But then at a later period, I read that book The Dark Stuff by Nick Kent. Adam [Granduciel], my buddy, one of my best friends, from The War On Drugs, he sent it to me for my birthday, which was nice. He wasn't even around, but he sent it to me. Anyway, I couldn't put that down. He knew I would like that book. The best article [in there], is on Jerry Lee Lewis, who's just a notorious maniac and is obviously an incredible piano player. In that article, he talked about a book, a biography about him by Nick Tosches called Hellfire and this book is off the hook, it's unreal. So just around that time I found the vinyl of this one, the Sun Sessions, maybe it's volume one, again I burned it and cranked it in the 'phones and played it a lot when I was driving around LA. There's a song, 'Little Queenie', which is a cover, but he says: ""She's too cute to be a minute over 17"" and I morphed that line in 'Pretty Pimpin': ""a little too cute to be admitted under marbles lost"". Whatever that part of the song is, the first time I say: ""All I want is to just have fun, live my life like a son of a gun"", but it's like a morphed version of that Seeds song, 'Pushin' Too Hard', like [sings]: ""All I want is to just have fun, live my life like it just begun"", so it's sort of referencing those old guys, two different eras. Obviously, if I had to pick one, Jerry Lee Lewis slays The Seeds. But it's just like that down-home, real rock & roll. How do you explore his back catalogue? I think you just start with the early stuff. He had a crazy career, because he had all these hits young and then he married his super young cousin, but he was totally in love with her and she was, and then they went to Europe and during that time they found out it was his cousin and then he was banned everywhere, basically. Then he had a resurgence, he started doing country music and was bigger than ever, so he would always go up and down, but he was a maniac. He would just always be battling demons. He would go back to Jesus. He would go to church where they would speak in tongues, he would just live extreme lives. He would go back and forth, lose his mind, take a million pills, play shows and his hair was flying around, playing with his foot. I mean, he was a bad motherhumper, as you would say!"

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
1969 | Action, Classics, Western

"I think I gotta go with that old stand-by, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Love the — you know, it’s the two guys. It’s what me and my brother specialize in, the two guys. Well, in the Three Stooges‘ case it’s three. But the relationship between two guys like that, I don’t think it’s been done any better than with Butch and Sundance; particularly with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The way they worked in so many different things, from comedy to romance to action and the way it’s so beautifully shot and, you know, a great story. And they didn’t pull the punches at the end. If you made that movie today, I’m sure that you’d do the test screenings and somebody would raise their hands and say, “We want them to get away at the end!” But they didn’t get away at the end. Today you’d have to re-shoot the ending where the guys go off on some secret beach somewhere and live happily forever — ’cause that’s the way audiences kind of demand it. But with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, of course, they met their demise at the end of the movie, and they had it coming ’cause that’s who they were. I just think it was a beautiful movie."

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