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Young Frankenstein (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
1974 | Classics, Comedy, Horror

"After that would be Young Frankenstein. I think that, laugh for laugh… I mean, if you’re going to go for more laughs, I think Blazing Saddles. But Young Frankenstein‘s just a better movie. More solid. And it’s Gene Wilder. I was such a huge fan of Gene Wilder when I was growing up that I even used to try to do… He used to do something; he would say nonsensical… He would make noise in movies without words. He would say things like: [mumbles incoherently], like that, and it made me laugh so hard when he would do that, that I would try to put it in movies when I started acting. I did a movie called 28 Days, and I’m in rehab, and we’re in a circle talking about our feelings, and the script said, “She calls on Gerhardt, but he’s crying and he can’t respond,” and she says, “Okay, we’ll come back to you.” And so it came out. “Gerhardt, would you like to say something?” [bawls incoherently] And I just make noise. [laughs] And then I snuck it into A Knight’s Tale when I’m trying to threaten Chaucer for the first time. I’m like, [frustrated mumbling]. I would just rip [Gene Wilder] off, totally try to mimic him. So, Gene Wilder, huge fan. That’s number two."

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Fast & Furious 9 (2021)
Fast & Furious 9 (2021)
2021 | Action, Adventure, Crime
Jesus Christ, this is definitely in the running for the silliest film I've ever seen.
F9 contains everything you would expect from this franchise - big set pieces, defiant feats of physics, obnoxious music intervals, Vin Diesel inaudibly talking about family, increasingly Bond-level villains, a tiny bit of actual racing, a character who is dead not actually being dead, barbeques and Corona, and vague references to what Paul Walker's character is currently up to off screen.
It goes bigger on almost every aspect than it has before, and it's once again a mixed bag. Some of the action scenes are so, so ridiculous, especially a scene during the big finale that involves Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson (no spoilers here), but these moments are bogged down by a whole lot of nothing, providing an unnecessarily padded out runtime that makes the movie feel like a drag on more than one occasion. It overestimates how much the audience actually cares about the characters. But not to worry, at one point Vin Diesel downs a plane by throwing a truck at it, so you know, swings and roundabouts.

There's a whole heap of nonsense absolutely caking what is an enjoyable enough Fast & Furious movie. Nowhere near the best in the series, but a fun time if you can stay awake until the final third.
  
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Adam Silvera recommended My Sister Rosa in Books (curated)

 
My Sister Rosa
My Sister Rosa
Justine Larbalestier | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This is one of my favorite books of 2016 and I will continue talking it up at all my future events. The majority of thrillers I read are on the adult side, and I'll tell you now that although MY SISTER ROSA is so different content-wise from GONE GIRL/THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, it's equally addicting. When the premise of a book is a 17-year-old is trying to protect from the world from his 10-year-old psychopathic sister, you just know there's no happily ever after to expect. I knew it was going to be dark, but I didn't anticipate how haunting it is. It fits the book 100% and I loved it. And no spoilers, but the twist completely stunned me. I pride myself on figuring out the major twist of GONE GIRL before reading a single chapter, but the twist in MY SISTER ROSA completely GUTTED me. And it's an excellent twist because once all was revealed, EVERYTHING made sense. It didn't come out of left field, it didn't have me feeling cheated to the point where I would've felt obligated to reread it all to appreciate the twist. Everything is there. Maybe you'll figure it out beforehand. Maybe you won't. But the experience of reading about Rosa--the most terrifying 10-year-old in the universe--remains completely absorbing."

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Gaz Coombes recommended track New Values by Iggy Pop in Heroin Hates You by Iggy Pop in Music (curated)

 
Heroin Hates You by Iggy Pop
Heroin Hates You by Iggy Pop
1997 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

New Values by Iggy Pop

(0 Ratings)

Track

"This is the title track from New Values which is my favourite album of his. I don’t know if that’s because with songs like ‘Lust For Life’ and ‘The Passenger’ - and they’re amazing songs - I just heard them so much when I was in a young band and they were used everywhere. “I hooked onto New Values at some point at the end of the ‘90s, just looking through Iggy’s stuff and back catalogue and then talking to Mick and Danny. When you’re in a band you talk about the albums you’re into, one of us got the others into it and we all kind of agreed ‘Yeah, that’s the album.’ “The backing band and the backing vocals sound so good on this, it’s two or three guys in the band delivering these not shouty backing vocals, it’s just such a great sounding album and the band is really on it. It’s quite a dry sounding album, all the drums are very dry and it’s a very dry record to listen to but it’s got some great moments on the whole record. ‘I’m Bored’ is an utter classic as well, but ‘New Values’ is great, it’s got a really cool beat, the way the drums are and Iggy’s delivery is brilliant. It doesn’t scream at you, which I think is cool, it’s got a poise to it that I really like."

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Gruff Rhys recommended Now by Kim Jung-Mi in Music (curated)

 
Now by Kim Jung-Mi
Now by Kim Jung-Mi
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When we were talking earlier about a record accidentally affecting a whole community of musicians in a particular town, this is a record which came out on the same South Korean label that reissued the Erkin Koray album. I don't understand the lyrics so I just enjoy the emotion. I think she's a really popular singer in Korea but I've no idea if the lyrics are mediocre or profound! But anyway, I was playing some records in the market in Cardiff with DJ Esther and Don Leisure - whose album Shaboo came out in 2018 and is really great, instrumental sampled hip-hop - and they were both playing this Kim Jun Mi album! I was like 'I know this one' and we had a chat about the album. Later that week, I was having a cup of tea outside a café and a fellow musician, Carwyn from Colorama, stopped to tell me he was walking through the market the other day - he was probably buying veg or something - and heard this track and started describing it to me and it was clearly Kim Jung-Mi. I like the idea of four people in a loose musical community just turned on randomly through geographical reasons by a record that might influence them. It's a community generating a unique cultural identity through chance happenings."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Dune (1984) in Movies

Jul 21, 2021  
Dune (1984)
Dune (1984)
1984 | Sci-Fi
David Lynch's crack at the famous novel buckles under the weight of the sheer amount of exposition the director feels compelled to include; it's not even especially good exposition as the story remains sluggish and bafflingly impenetrable (even if you've read the book). A young man is caught up in the power-politics of a galactic empire and rises to become a superhuman, messianic figure - not that any of this would be at all clear without the voice-overs which keep explaining what's actually going on; scenes themselves are usually windy affairs with characters talking bafflegab about Gom Jabbars, the Water of Life, the Shai-Halud, the weirding way, and the Kwisatz Haderach. All that's wrong with the film is summed up by the fact the final line is someone declaring 'He is the Kwisatz Haderach!' when it is still unclear why this is important and what it even means.

Fine actors like Patrick Stewart, Max von Sydow and Sian Phillips stand around doing their best with the material; some lavish sets and interesting costumes, and the music is rousing and imperious; you always know when something important is happening even if you don't really understand what it is or what it signifies. But it's all basically form without content on a lavish scale; a relatively simple story drowns in background details.
  
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Josh Sadfie recommended Shadows (2005) in Movies (curated)

 
Shadows (2005)
Shadows (2005)
2005 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

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Josh Sadfie recommended Faces (1968) in Movies (curated)

 
Faces (1968)
Faces (1968)
1968 | Classics, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

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A Woman Under the Influence (1975)
A Woman Under the Influence (1975)
1975 | Classics, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

Source
  
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
1976 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I remember when this came out; I was at a restaurant celebrating someone’s birthday, and I walked by a table that was talking about Mike Leigh, I forget what film exactly. But I chimed in and said something hyperbolic. The table remarked that they all worked for Criterion. I joked that I’d thought about tattooing a line across my chest with “Criterion Collection” underneath it (the old iconic Criterion logo design). I then explained our proximity to Ray Carney and our love for Cassavetes. This was the first time I heard that a big box set was coming soon. Cassavetes is a god and a hero. My introduction to his work as a director was A Woman Under the Influence, which I bought a single version of for our mother, who is petrified of the DVD and will never watch it. Bookie, Opening Night, Faces, Shadows, and the later-added Love Streams are film school for a hundred bucks. We watch the master turn actors into people and vice versa, and hold the feeling above anything else. In the words of JC (not a coincidence) in regards to Opening Night, about Hollywood: “It’s about time it took art and said, ‘C’mon, baby! Show me something!’” (Dear Criterion, please absorb Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Gloria as well.)"

Source