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The Demon Seed

Classic sci-fi/horror about a sentient computer imprisoning a woman in her home with the goal of using her body to become human. Explores existential themes of human existence and personal autonomy in the best classic literary science fiction tradition.

It's hard for me to judge this movie objectively. I first saw this as a kid, and loved it then, and although now the visual style seems slightly cheezy and low-budget to me, and the pacing definitely isn't the punchy pacing modern viewers are used to, the better points of the storytelling and themes hold up for me as an adult. I see this as perhaps the last of the great tradition of small, personal, humanist, character-driven sci-fi and horror movies that started perhaps in the 1950s, which began to be supplanted by a new, more grandiose, almost mythic or archetype-driven storytelling style in 1968 with "2001: A Space Odyssey" and…

Movie Reviews » favorite review

A Clockwork Shining: Kubrick’s Odyssey 3

Let me save you the trouble: The Shining was Kubrick trying to send a coded message full of symbols to tell us that the MK Ultra project was being used to mind control American citizens by creating the Laurel Canyon 1960's rock scene after Jim Morrison was hired to play a rock star because his dad sprayed aerosolized LSD that had something to do with Charles Manson, and Hitler, and Sirhan Sirhan, and the Freemasons, which John Lennon secretly said in an interview that he didn't want to be in anymore shortly before being killed by a guy who liked the book Catcher In The Rye, which is a mind control device by a military intelligence officer, and, uh, I literally cannot make up bullshit that is as ludicrous as this conspiracy theory "documentary". Does contain the memorable line, "I do believe Bob Marley may have been what he appeared…

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Skit

Godawful home-movie-quality "mockumentary" about a bunch of cringily inane college students in 2007 who decide to make a YouTube video, as if that's some sort of event, with not a single laugh to be had anywhere in it.

This appears to be the work of some sort of improv comedy troupe whose primary distinguishing attribute is that one of them owned a movie camera, and thought that entertaining themselves would be entertaining to an audience.

Weirdly, some of the voice work in this apparent home movie is from cast members of Parks & Rec and Reno 911, and it's executive produced by one of the producers behind Portlandia. Why would successful TV comedy people do this to themselves? Was there blackmail involved?

Movie Reviews » Canadian

Night Visions (series)

Fairly watchable Canadian early 2000s Twilight Zone-type anthology. Lots of recognizable faces & reasonably respectable actors involved (David Paymer, Miguel Ferrera, Mare Winningham, a million more. That sort of caliber.) Quality is uneven but some of the stories are pretty watchable and they occasionally pull off a good ending.

Strangely, hosted in the Rod Serling-type narrator role by Henry Rollins. No effort is made to have him seem anything like Henry Rollins, suggesting what the Twilight Zone intros might have been like if Rod Serling seemed less like he was looking forward to a martini and more like he was thinking about beating the shit out of you.

Movie Reviews » Favorite

Goodfellas

Funny enough, tonight I filled in a bunch of reviews long-time favorites I'd never posted, and as soon as I was done, what does Tubi serve up, but the best gangster movie I've ever seen, "Goodfellas".

Honestly? I love this movie, but not like I love many of my other favorites. There is no denying it's one of the best films from one of our best directors, and contains an unimaginable heap of talent in its huge ensemble cast of dozens. It's a superb movie that deserves every bit of the wide praise it's received, and is the thrilling watch from beginning to end. I love this movie. But not like I love many of my other favorites.

But, it's ultimately just a story. It's not profound. It's about the rise and fall of a gangster. Even a crime film like "Dog Day Afternoon", another old favorite crime movie, somehow…