Jason watches a M4M exclusive--HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH and THE GUEST

Re-using my review from when I watched HALLOWEEN III last year.

HALLOWEEN III: THE SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982): is often unfairly maligned as the "bad" Halloween movie just because it has nothing to do with the Michael Myers character of every entry in the series. The fact is, John Carpenter's original idea with the HALLOWEEN series is to produce a new low-budget horror film every year, to be released around Halloween. And this is really the only time they fulfilled that vision. To all the haters, can you really say this film is worse than an endless string of re-hashed Michael Myers stories (including the remakes)? I think it's a great story on it's own, a cult classic about a madman who plans to wipe out all the children on Halloween using magically booby-trapped masks. Very sick, and a great ending (which I won't spoil even though it's over three decades old.)

I know it has become the hip thing to now like HALLOWEEN III decades after it flopped initially. And I don't want to be the hipster who claims he loved it before everyone else caught on. I always found it interesting, just from the standpoint of how the whole HALLOWEEN series could've been different if it was a different, unrelated, quick-and-cheap horror film released on Halloween every year. But over the past couple of years, it has started becoming my favorite Halloween movie (as in, not just my favorite in the series, but my favorite movie to watch on Halloween.) Especially the cynicism about mass commercialism.

And then we saw Adam Wingard's THE GUEST. Ummm...I'm really sorry I've been so behind on my blog. Because apparently it's not in theaters anywhere in the bay area anymore, and that's a shame because it's kind of brilliant. A family is mourning their son killed in action overseas. A wandering soldier knocks on their door, and introduces himself as David, a friend of their son. He promised him that he'd look after his family, and so they invite him in and at first everything is awesome. He's the cool big brother who helps the young son deal with bullies. He's the sexual fantasy for the older daughter. And he's a great help around the house. And, yeah, he goes out and kills people occasionally, but they're bad guys. He's a good guy, right? Well, I won't get too spoiler-y, but imagine if Jason Bourne was a complete psycho, killing the good and the bad alike, and all he's really interested in is staying alive. Yup, that's it, and it turns dark really, really quickly. And it's awesome.

So...again, I'm sorry I didn't get this written up until it was already out of theaters, but it's a great movie so find it on VOD or DVD or whatever (or, if you happen to be reading this from Philadelphia, it's playing in a couple of theaters there right now!)

Total Running Time: 197 minutes
My Total Minutes: 370,903

Jason watches GONE GIRL

And I liked it. It's the perfect date movie for people who are incredibly cynical and jaded about relationships. Yeah, it's misogynistic, but only as a result of having a pretty negative attitude about just about everyone and everything. Women (at least, the titular girl who is gone) are scheming and manipulative. But men are narcissistic, idiotic cheaters and everybody else just likes to watch the train wreck. Nobody comes away looking good in this movie. Well, maybe [SPOILER ALERT: the sister character. She just comes away looking miserable, but not evil. Everyone else comes away looking evil. END SPOILER]

You can find plot synopses, analysis, and think pieces elsewhere. I just want to say this is a great movie to hate the world to.

Running Time: 149 minutes
My Total Minutes: 370,706

Jason watches SALUTE THE TOFF (1952)

This was at Pixar, but not sponsored by Pixar. They do free screenings every Monday night for employees and guests, so I'm very happy that I have a friend who just started working at Pixar (also happy because she's soooooo much happier there than her previous job.)

Incidentally, this now means I've seen special screenings (although not of the respective studio's films) at DreamWorks Animation, NetFlix, and now Pixar's in-house theaters.

First there was a trailer for next week's film, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, and then trailers for other films that fit with the crime story theme of the feature.

Then a cartoon short, LITTLE JOHNNY JET (1953): Mom and Pop airplane--him a WWII vet, are expecting. But Pop airplane can't find work because everybody wants these fancy new jet airplanes, while he's an old propeller model. When Junior comes along and is a jet, Pop is distraught, until Junior saves his life and helps him win an around-the-world race.

SALUTE THE TOFF (1952) is one of two films shot back-to-back about the character of The Honourable Richard Rollison, aka The Toff. Both films are on BFI's "75 Most Wanted" list of films that are classified as "missing, believed lost." I guess this one isn't (and after this screening it was donated to the BFI collection.) The Toff is a sort of rakish, playboy, modern (umm...for 1950s) version of Sherlock Holmes. The brilliant investigator who doesn't work for (and is sometimes a thorn in the side of) Scotland yard. The plot is a bit convoluted, centering on a missing employee and a valuable business deal. And the print clearly has some scenes cut short by censors (a knife in a woman's back just suddenly...appears as she's already on the floor.) But it has plenty of cool, British B-Noir feel, and I loved it (while also being a little giddy about seeing a "lost" film.)


Total Running Time: 82 minutes (although with some censor cuts it was probably a couple of minutes short)
My Total Minutes: 370,557

Jason goes to the Stanford Theatre for a Clara Bow double feature

Once again, catching up with what I saw a month and a half ago. The Stanford Theatre did a summer-long series of weekly silent films, and I only caught this one, a double feature of Clara Bow, the original "It" girl.

PARISIAN LOVE (1925): A tale of crime, romance, and betrayal among the street people of Paris. In particular, the violent street toughs known as "apache," which for odd reasons dating back to my college days I happen to know is pronounced a-POSH, not a-PATCH-ee, like the Native American tribe. But that's beside the point.

POISONED PARADISE (1924): The forbidden story of Monte Carlo. More theft and romance, as Margot LeBlac (Bow) loses all her money and becomes a housekeeper for struggling artist Hugh Kildair. The plot also involves an eccentric mathematician with a magic winning formula for gambling and thieves who want to steal his formula. And, in another odd connection to my schooling, it's based on a novel by Robert W. Service. I went to a high school in Anchorage, AK named after him (Poisoned Paradise, not being set in the frozen north, is somewhat of a departure for  "the Bard of the Yukon")

Dennis James rocked the Mighty Wurlitzer, of course, and I only regret I didn't see more of this series (and that I took so long to write this that I'm sure I forgot many details I should have included.)

Total Running Time: 159 minutes
My Total Minutes: 370,474

Jason goes to the SF Silent Film Festival's Silent Autumn

More data dump trying to catch up on my blog. Way back last...September 20, was the SF Silent Film Festival's autumn event. So here we go.

We started with some classic Laurel and Hardy Shorts:
SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME? (1928): Laurel comes by to convince Hardy to go golfing with him, over the objections of his wife (and despite the fact that he insists he's the master of his home.) Once finally on the links, they get into hilarious trouble, ending with a climactic mud-fight.
TWO TARS (1928): Although the title refers to their characters as two sailors on leave, they spend zero seconds of this film on water. In fact, they spend almost all of it in a traffic jam in their rental car with a couple of girls they picked up. And of course, they get in slapstick confrontations with everyone else who is stuck in line.
BIG BUSINESS (1929): A classic, one of their funniest films. They play Christmas tree salesmen. Jim Finlayson wants none of that, but innocent misunderstandings turn into rude encounters and eventually the destruction of his house and their car. A classic "tit for tat" film where one party stands and watches while the other destroys something (while never actually try to stop them) and then the first party destroys something while the second party watches. If you think about it too much, it doesn't make much sense, so don't think and just enjoy the mayhem.

Donald Sosin was brilliant as always accompanying on the piano.

SON OF THE SHEIK (1926): Rudolph Valentino reprising his role from THE SHEIK and also playing his own son. Romance, love, betrayal, revenge, and the revelation that the original betrayal was actually a frame-job. Um....wow, I think I summed that up surprisingly well in very few words. But it's also a great, classic film.

And the Alloy Orchestra (whom, as an aside, were missed at the big Silent Festival back in May) were awesome as always.

Next up was A Night At the Cinema in 1914, celebrating the centennial of...1914, I guess. This program of 1914 films was put together by the BFI, and it was pretty cool,
Looping the Loop at Hendon (March 1914): Movies and flight were emerging technologies at the same time, so early films often had a fascination with flight. Especially with stunt flying.
Palace Pandemonium (May 1914): Footage of Emmeline Pankhurst, a leading suffragette, causing a bit of a stir outside of Buckingham Palace as she delivers a petition to the king.
Austrian Tragedy (July 1914): Footage of the Austro-Hungarian royal family, including the heir to Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination precipitated WWI.
Dogs for the Antarctic (August 1914): Shackleton preparing for his expedition, picking out dogs for the sled teams.
Daisy Doodad’s Dial: "Dial" here refers to her face. Florence Turner is Daisy Doodad, a cheerful gal who plans to win the funny face contest. But too much practicing in public gets her arrested.
Egypt and Her Defenders: The British Consul General reviewing the troops and seeing Egypt's famous sights. In tinted color.
Lieutenant Pimple and the Stolen Submarine: A hilarious little no-budget comedy about a submarine and foreign spies.
Scouts’ Valuable Aid (August 1914): Footage of Sea Scouts keeping lookout from the clifftops for invading foreign ships.

German Occupation of Historic Louvain (September 1914): A historic Belgian city was invaded by the Germans, who destroyed the University library, which provoked international anger. 

General French’s Contemptible Little Army: Fast-sketching and animation makes for soem pretty amusing war propaganda. 

Christmas at the Front (December 1914): More news footage, showing troops being well fed before returning to the trenches.

The Perils of Pauline: An entry in the classic danger serial, this one featuring a balloon ride and an escape from a burnign building.

The Rollicking Rajah: People don't necessarily know that synchronized sound with film was attempted from the very earliest days, well before THE JAZZ SINGER. The sound disc for this one is lost, so instead we were treated to Donald Sosin singing the song about an Indian prince with great riches and a taste for fun that the ladies all adore. 

A Film Johnnie: 1914 was Charlie Chaplin's first year in the movies, working for Keystone studios. In this film, the newcomer to the Keystone sets runs about trying to meet all his favorite stars, but of course reating chaos instead. 

Donald Sosin was great as always accompanying on the piano, and singing The Rollicking Rajah.

THE GENERAL (1926): Buster Keaton's classic! No need, really, to describe it. If you haven't seen it, just go see it. But I will tell you instead about the first time I saw it on the big screen. Which was at the Castro. And with the Alloy Orchestra. This was at the San Francisco International Film Festival in...I think 2004. I had seen a few silent films before, but mostly on DVD at home and it might have been my first experience seeing a silent film in a theater with live music. At the very least, it was the first time I really appreciated what the big screen, enthusiastic audience, and live music can do for a film. It was then that I realized you haven't necessarily "seen" a silent film if you only watched it alone at home. It was a complete revelation, and still one of my favorite film events ever. And it definitely holds up to multiple viewings.

Then I was too tired to stick around for THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI so that was it for me

Total Running Time: 301 minutes
My Total Minutes: 370,316

Jason goes to Niles for a Laurel and Hardy afternoon with THE SONS OF THE DESERT

Ugh. I've officially fallen more than a month and a half behind on my blog. So...here's a data dump.

Sons of the Desert is the name of the official Laurel and Hardy Film Appreciation Society (don't call it a fan club, but the express wishes of Stan Laurel they do not have a fan club) and the title of the feature last September 14. But, as always, a few shorts first.

MIDNIGHT PATROL (1933): Which happens to be the name of the local "tent" of the Sons of the Desert (all local chapters are "tents" and all are named after L and H films.) Stan and Ollie were chased by the cops in so many of their films, this is kind of a change of pace--now they are cops! They of course still get in plenty of trouble, accidentally helping a jewel thief and harassing the chief of police. Very funny.

SOMETHING SIMPLE (1934): Charley Chase in a beautifully convoluted plot, where he suffers from dizzy spells. So he goes to the doctor, but little does he know he's actually seeing an escaped mental patient who's posing as a doctor. He advises Charley to sit down, relax, and recite something simple like a nursery rhyme. Unfortunately publicly reciting nursery rhymes is the sure sign of the escaped mental patient that everyone is looking for. Obviously, wacky hijinx ensue.

Then intermission, and the feature.

SONS OF THE DESERT (1933): In the interest of time/effort, I'll reuse what I wrote the last time I saw it:

Laurel and Hardy are in a fraternal organization and take an oath to join the national convention in Chicago. Now they just need their wives's permission. Or failing that, they need to get there without their wives knowing. Hilarious, and a great supporting role by under-appreciated comic Charley Chase.

Total Running Time: 108
My Total Minutes: 370,015

Jason goes to Niles for a little jazz-age fun with CHICAGO

Not the recent musical, the silent classic, of course. But first a couple of shorts:

THE BIG SWIM (1926): Mutt and Jeff swim across the Atlantic, with the sort of wacky hijinx only possible in cartoons. Very funny.

THE BALLOONATIC (1923): Buster Keaton...also with the sort of wacky hijinx only possible in cartoons (or in Buster Keaton's world.) Surprisingly, very little ballooning occurs in the movie, mostly serving to transport Buster from his crazy mishaps in an amusement park to the wilderness where he tries to survive and romance Phyllis Haver. Then it shows up again in a gag at the very end. It's not a very coherent story, even by silent short comedy standards, but it's a good collection of gags that makes your head spin.

Then a brief intermission, and on with the feature.

CHICAGO (1927): Hey, remember Phyllis Haver from THE BALLOONATIC. Well know she stars as the infamous Roxie Hart in the first film version based on the true-life story (from 1924, it had already been made into a stage play.) In this version her doting husband Amos (Victor Varconi) is much more of a sympathetic, driving force. First trying to take the blame for murder, claiming self-defense, even though Roxie shot the sugar-daddy she was cheating with. Then when the prosecutor tricks her into a confession, he contracts the shadiest, most expensive defense lawyer he can, even committing a bit of larceny to pay him. And for all his trouble...well [SPOILER ALERT: He actually does get a happy ending, while Roxie has to suffer the humiliation of being yesterday's news.] A really good, fun story. And there's something weirdly comforting in knowing that tabloid "trial of the century" trash was going on 90 years ago pretty much the same as tody.

Total Running Time: 138 minutes
My Total Minutes: 369,907