The Great, Big, Quarantine Catch Up

I'm not going to get political or anything on here but, with much of the world shut down it's safe to say that I've had a bit more time on my hands than usual. Now, with so much time I have been able to catch up on some T.V. shows that I had pushed to the back burner and luckily Nintendo has blessed the world with the gem that is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, that doesn't mean I haven't been watching a whole bunch of movies. It's been a little while since my last post (again the world is in a weird place right now) and I thought it might be an interesting change of pace to do an overview of what movies I've watched lately. 

Of course, being stuck inside it's been the perfect opportunity for a few marathons. This past weekend rewatched the three Godfather films. The first two are obviously considered great movies but, I'm starting to gain more appreciation for the often disregarded third film in the trilogy... It's still not great but, I liked it more since the last time I saw it a few years ago. I also went on a little bit of a Tim Burton kick for a few days and rewatched some of his early films. Beetlejuice, Batman, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands... these are all good movies and got me thinking "What happened to Tim Burton? All he makes is crap now". Maybe that'll end up being the topic of a separate post in the future. 

In terms of movies that I hadn't seen before, I finally got around to watching Rocketman. I didn't have time to see it when it was in theaters last year but, better late than never. When the movie goes into big musical numbers it's a lot of fun but, the rest of the time it's a pretty paint-by-numbers biopic. Overall, liked it and it's probably in that 3.5 out of 5 range for me. I also watched Mirrors 2. I never saw the first Mirrors but I found this one in a bargain bin and with the quote on the back of the blu-ray case " They can't run... they can't hide... the can't even look in the mirror!" Well, that's all I needed. It's a schlocky horror movie. Not good but, I had fun with it. Another horror movie I decided to watch was The Exorcism of Molly Hartley. It's far from the worst exorcism movie I've seen (that honor is held by Exorcism of the Dead) but, I still wouldn't recommend this one. Turning away from horror, I finally watched a film that had been sitting in the stack of movies on my desk for months, Machine Gun Preacher. The film is based on a true story about an ex-biker gang member who starts helping poor kids in Africa. It's fine. The title is way better than the movie.

Finishing up, here are a few miscellaneous favorites that I've rewatched over the past few weeks. I highly recommend all of these so if you're like me, stuck at home waiting for the world to go back to normal, these are some solid films to help pass the time. 

- Field of Dreams, a feel good movie and there's no real baseball on T.V. right now. 

- Gone with the Wind, it's an all-time classic and the 4hr-runtime isn't a big deal when there's nothing else going on. 

-Top Gun... I just really like this one.

- The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese movies are always worthwhile.

- Spartacus, like Gone with the Wind, it's a long one but, worth it. 

- The Muppets from 2011. Good songs, and funny jokes. A perfect distraction.

- The Man Who Knew Too Much, I personally prefer the 1956 version with James Stewart and Doris Day but, the 1934 original is a great movie as well. 

-And finally Moon. It's great, I love it, and more people need to see it.

Horror Double Feature

Halloween is just around the corner and, as I typically do this time of year, I've been watching a few of horror movies to get into the spirit. Last night I ventured into the dark recesses of a couple streaming services hoping to find some spooky options. 

The first movie I decided to check out was American Poltergeist on Netflix. 

Released in 2015, this film is about a group of college kids who decide that this semester they want to live off-campus, and so they rent a couple of rooms at an old house. Of course, this house has a dark past and is haunted. At first it starts out with the landlady acting a little creepy and some strange noises in the house. Eventually, when one of the girls starts to have visions of the people who were killed in the home, things start to escalate quickly. Overall, there is very little positive to say about this movie. The acting is bad, it's not well written, the sound design is shoddy, etc. However, it does hit that sweet spot of being so bad that I found it hilarious. I can't recommend this movie if you're looking for some good scares, with that being said, you may get a few laughs out of it. This one deserves a 0 out of 5 rating but, because I was so entertained by it, I'm going to give American Poltergeist a 1 out of 5.


The second movie I landed on last night was Exorcism of the Dead from 2017, which I came across on Amazon Prime Video. 

Movies about exorcisms have always had a way of suckering me in ever since I first saw 1973's The Exorcist which still stands as the gold-standard of such films. This movie could not be further in quality from that masterpiece. Exorcism of the Dead is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The movie starts off with a woman emailing the Catholic church asking for help as she believes her daughter is possessed by a demon. Eventually a priest arrives and goes up to the girl's room, with her uncle, to perform an exorcism. Most of the movie takes place in this one room and it might be the most boring exorcism ever put to film. Occasionally the movie will venture to another location to show a murder, but it's not much more interesting. This is a rare film with no redeeming qualities, at least that I could spot. I'm giving this one a 0 out of 5.