Movie of the Week: Gremlins.

The elder child requested GREMLINS over BLADE as part of our ongoing review of classic horror flicks. I respect his aesthetic. It’s not entirely in tune with mine, but we don’t want our children to end up carbon copies of us. There’s a lot of 80s/90s comic horror that we can go on to examine, really. BEETLEJUICE comes to mind, for example. ARMY OF DARKNESS. PLEASANTVILLE.

#commissionearned

Movie of the Week: VIOLENT NIGHT.

The power of VIOLENT NIGHT – and what distinguishes it from many another violent/horror flick put out during Christmas – is that it really is a Christmas movie. Is it violent? Yes. Is it gory? Absolutely. In the end, will it teach a small child and her squabbling parents the true meaning of Christmas? …Huh. Actually, when you come right down to it, it kind of… does?

That was what made the movie fun, elevating it above its fellows. VIOLENT NIGHT doesn’t hate Santa Claus; it just wanted to ask the question, What if he was a battered, worn-down former baddie with a certain set of skills, and a child to protect? While still being, you know, really Santa Claus? It turns out that was a great question to ask.

Just don’t watch it in front of eight year old kids.

Movie of the Week: INDEPENDENCE DAY.

Swapping this in for the usual Book of the Week*. Why?

Oh, no reason…

#commissionearned

*There’s like, this series of books, though.

PS: Yeah, it’s another spy balloon. Still. You want to watch INDEPENDENCE DAY now, don’t you?

Movie of the Week: BULLET TRAIN.

I tried to go see BULLET TRAIN in theaters. I had it all set up: I was gonna go hang out with my sister-in-law and her now-fiance, we’d grab a beer beforehand, maybe get some wings. It was totally going to be a thing. Instead, my car failed me for no particular reason and that was the first time it got towed this year. Oh, well. It’s on sale today.

#commissionearned

Movie of the Week: John Carpenter’s THE THING.

I picked THE THING because Eldest Son needed some experience watching gory movies on the screen before deciding whether or not to catch a horror flick tomorrow. You can’t go wrong with the classics, right? — He found it very entertaining, too. Which means we’re probably going to go see SMILE, after all*.

Moe Lane

*Which I wasn’t gonna catch, but he wants to see it and I can’t just drop him off to go see an R-rated movie by himself. It’s apparently forbidden until he’s 18, or some other nonsense. I mean, have the ratings boards seen the video games kids play today?

#commissionearned

Movie of the Week: Lincoln.

I am embarrassed that I haven’t watched Lincoln before. I mean, this cast. My God, this cast. Possibly my favorite part? None of these people are deifying Abraham Lincoln. They yell at him, oppose them, Secretary Edwin Stanton even yells “No! Not another one of your stories!” This is now one of my favorite Spielberg movies.