Jinkies, I have a lot to catch up on!
@danielmann861 - I'm a big Kubrick fan, although I have to be in the mood for his movies. I was lucky to go to the Kubrick exhibition in London last year (remember going out and doing things?!) I'm not sure what my favourite film of his is; it changes like the wind! Although 'Full Metal Jacket' is his easiest film to watch. Parts of 'Eyes Wide Shut' (the orgy sequence) was filmed only 20 miles away from where I live! I wish I was into his films at the time as it would've blown my mind even more at the time!
As for the Terminator movies, all have their merits, but I guess it's easier for me to think of it as a 2 movie franchise. It's less painful that way. The newest one was probably the best since the 2nd one for me (although I ought to give the 4th and 5th one another shot). I also watched A.I for the first time a month or so ago. Again, it's an odd one as it's simultaneously really sappy and really cold. I must admit the last 15 minutes almost made me want to cry and I liked it more than I thought I would. I was a latecomer to Spielberg; I guess I was put off with all the admiration he got, but across his career, he truly is one of cinema's greatest directors.
@Truck_1_0_1_ - Yes, I loved all the cameo's! I'm not at a point in Disney's work where the films are great for all ages (the post-Tarzan era up to Chicken Little was garbage. Altered Beast was a very interesting cameo to have out of all the Sega games haha! And thumbs up for Mighty Aphrodite too! I have two more Allen films in my backlog and then i'll finally read his autobiography (I think there's only 5 or 6 films of his I need to see now).
As for the next 10 films i've seen, they are as follows:
1) Weathering With You (Makoto Shinkai, 2019): This for me was my most anticipated film of the year. Shinkai's previous film 'Your Name' was my favourite film of the last decade. It makes me cry every single time, every scene is something I could freeze frame and put as a picture on the wall and the soundtrack is beautiful. Weathering With You was never going to be as good, so I had to make sure to temper my limits. I missed the cinema release due to night school, then my mega 4K boxset was delayed all the way to Christmas, but still I held firm.
As expected, it was a beautiful, wonderful film. I think Shinkai is one of the greatest anime directors and is up there with the likes of Miyazaki and Kon. Of course, it wasn't as good as 'Your Name', but it's a film that stands on its own merits. I think there was bits that felt like a retread of the previous film, but i've long since accepted that Shinkai has a style of his own and he's welcome to use his motifs. I only wish I could've seen it on the big screen where it belongs.
2) You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1937): Fritz Lang is a God-tier director; watching 'Metropolis' (1927) on the big screen a decade ago was a life changing experience and I adore his silent-era films. YOLO is one of his early Hollywood films and can't compare (for one thing, it was less than half the length of his silent movies), but his noir films are fantastic. It was a great treat!
3) Escape In The Fog (Budd Boetticher, 1945): Speaking of film noir, it was a delight to get Indicator's '
Columbia Noir #1' boxset! The first film was a minor 63-minute B-movie, but it was pretty cool. It was odd in that the twists and turns were pretty strange (of the dream becoming reality type) and some of the film would be considered racist today (this was made when America was still at war with Japan), but I accept that it was of its time.
4) Urotsukidoji III: Return of the Overfiend (Hideki Takayama, 1993): Technically, this isn't a movie; more 4 episodes, but i'm counting it as a movie here as the 1st film was the same, but had a cinema release. The quality has gone way downhill here; the animation is cheap and nasty, the plot is confusing as hell and some of the things that go on make no sense. It was a nasty film (expected!), but I still appreciated that there was a story amongst all the sex, rape and violence...not looking forward to the 4th one which is said to be even worse!
5) Mickey's Christmas Carol (Burny Mattinson, 1983) & The Prince and The Pauper (George Scribner, 1990): I'm counting these two together as they are only 25 minutes each but had a cinema release. I've been going through the Mickey Mouse cartoons and after the 1930's, the quality went way downhill. These two were the first Mickey cartoons to be made since the 1950's and they were great fun. Lots of little easter eggs and some nice contemporary action. I should also add the short '
Runaway Brain (Chris Bailey, 1995)' which I appreciated for its little Mortal Kombat joke (which is quite at odds for Mickey Mouse!)
6) Huie's Sermon (Werner Herzog, 1980): A 45 minute TV documentary about sermons at a gospel church. I must admit I kinda nodded off to this one and the sermon was so noisy, I couldn't really make much out of it (lots of talk about Jesus!). In a weird way, it was kinda soothing to nod off to...not something i'd expect from Herzog~
7) Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999): I've been putting this one off for so long now and I have no idea why as I love Jarmusch! Turns out the film was incredible!! His films are very slow paced, but here there is a little more energy. It's cool as fuck with a cracking soundtrack from RZA and oozes style!
8) John Wick (Chad Stahelski & David Leitch, 2014): I'm surprised I've never seen any of these films until now, but I was very impressed. It had style to spare, but I was more grateful that it wasn't this hyper-kinetic film where the editing almost gives you an epileptic fit. Very impressed and looking forward to Chapter II.
9) Woyzeck (Werner Herzog, 1979): I do love Herzog, even if practically every film of his i've mentioned here has been difficult to watch. This was another one where it was well acted and if I was in the right frame of mind, I would enjoy it more, but it was a very abstract film, so I think it was wrong movie, wrong time.
10) The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-Soo, 2020): My first new film of 2021!! (It was released late December, so i'm counting it as a 2021 release in my eyes). This is quite minor Sang-Soo in my eyes; it's 75 minutes long and consists of a married woman meeting up with 3 friends and talking about everyday things. It's an odd film, because it was kinda dull, but at the same time, it was hard not to be impressed with the long takes and the interesting conversations. Not his best by a long shot, but a welcome reminder that new cinema exists (even if I have to watch it at home...)
