April 2020
47 movies, finished 2 books and began reading 1
April is my birthday month and even though my birthday is at the end of the month, you better believe that I treat myself to a few weeks of movie watching. I got some reading done too!
First movie of the month
The Exorcist - I know movies can be overrated and underrated but can they just be rated? I say yes and The Exorcist is a good example. It has a reputation at being an incredibly well made and terrifying movie and it lives up to that reputation. After watching this, I wanted to see the rest of the series.
Now, there is a film called Exorcist II: The Heretic but this is a very interesting series and actually has TWO films that are considered the sequel (and there are two versions of the prequel but that's a whole other story that I may explore in October). The author wrote a book called The Ninth Configuration which, per the author, is the real sequel to The Exorcist and he turned that into a movie so I watched that and skipped Exorcist II. Instead of a tormented priest fighting evil it's about a marine assigned to a military asylum and his desire to help a troubled astronaut (a character that briefly appears in The Exorcist) see that there is good in the world. It's strange but very good.
We're back to demonic stuff with The Exorcist III. It's based on the third book in the authors Exorcist trilogy called Legion. This one is about a cop investigating a serial killer and it has ties to the original movie. It's a pretty good and creepy thriller. The Exorcist, Ninth Configuration and Exorcist III sure did make for an interesting watch and a hell of a way to start April.
New on streaming
Extraction - Writer-director Joe Russo, actor Chris Hemsworth and stunt man Sam Hargrave all found plenty of success working on those Marvel movies. They were good, I sure liked them, but they leaned on the family friendly side of things. THIS MOVIES DOES NOT. This is Hargrave's directorial debut and while the story itself isn't anything new - Hemsworth protects a young kid, kills everyone else - he sure does throw a lot of well choreographed action sequences in this movie. It is nearly packed with constant, brutal action and it rocks.
Rewatched
Gone in Sixty Seconds - Cage, Jolie and many others steal and crash lots of cars
Deadpool - Ryan Reynolds passion project is a funny, violent, crass time
Rapid Fire - pre-The Crow Brandon Lee shows he could have been a big time action star
Marked for Death - Seagal and Keith David shoot and punch loads of drug dealers
Original Gangstas - Blaxploitation stars of the 70's unite for this 90's action movie
The Hangover - I laughed when I saw this in theaters, I'm still laughing at it now
Get Him to the Greek - more of a drama than a comedy and the leads are good
Zoolander - Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's classic film about male models
Can't Hardly Wait - I miss people, watching movies about parties helps
Last Action Hero - Arnold satire that misses as much as it hits but overall it's fun
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - without Alan Rickman this would be forgettable
Rex Manning Day Viewing
The crew at a Empire Records are preparing for the arrival of a pop star named Rex Manning and at one point you can see a calendar that shows the date is April 8th. So on April 8th I watched that and other music based movies.
Empire Records - I love this movie. The music rocks. The cast is great.
Grosse Pointe Blank - A hitman and a radio DJ attend their 10 year high school reunion
Baby Driver - a flashy car action movie with a killer soundtrack
Series I watched
The Exorcist Trilogy - see above
The Man Without a Name Trilogy -
A Fistful of Dollars - A Classic
For a Few Dollars More - Clint Eastwood
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Western series
Movies I watched on a particular day in April for no particular reason
How High - Method Man and Redman go to college, party hard
Mallrats - Kevin Smith, working with a bigger budget, hangs out at a mall
Half Baked - Dave Chappelle and friends sell and smoke lots of weed
Dazed and Confused - the last day of school is quite a party for kids of all ages
Movies I love that I watched for my birthday
Broken Arrow - Travolta and Slater battle over nukes in the desert and I love it
Desperado - Banderas plays guitar and shoots guns in Mexico and I love it
Safe - Statham fights corrupt cops and gangsters in NYC and I love it
Enemy of the State - Smith and Hackman take on the NSA and the mob and I love it
True Romance - Slater and Arquette fall in love in a dangerous world and I love it
First time watching
Purple Rain - Prince was and still is the king of rock and roll
The Reunion - John Cena leads a recognizable cast in this silly adventure
In the Shadow of the Moon - weird Netflix time travel murder mystery
Extra Ordinary - funny supernatural thriller with Will Forte as a washed up popstar
Don Verdean - Sam Rockwell and other funny people search for Biblical artifacts
The Alibi - pretty good conman comedy from the writer of the Fargo TV series
New York Cop - a dumb, boring action movie supposedly based on a true story
The Kid - the tale of Billy the Kid has been told before and it will be told again
The Alternate - my search for the worst Die Hard knockoff continues, this one is BAD
The Long Goodbye - fantastic 70's detective movie, Gould is as funny as he is cool
Meek's Cutoff - Oregon Trail: The Movie. Well made and (purposefully) painstakingly slow
Runaway Train - a great 80's prison break thriller with plenty of exciting action
Movies I own but haven't watched until now:
Trees Lounge - very bleak movie about a bleak bar in a bleak town
The Sum of All Fears - one of many Jack Ryan movies, this one stars Affleck
Eve of Destruction - Gregory Hines action movies are a rarity and this one is all right
Crackerjack 2 - another in a long line of bad Die Hard movies, this one stars Judge Reinhold
The Man Without a Name Trilogy - see above
The Man Without a Name Trilogy - see above
What I Read
This took me a while to read. People love this series and while I really enjoyed the first book, I found this to be harder to get through. I thought it was going to answer some questions but it kept things just as as mysterious and I didn't find the lead character all that compelling.
Before quarantine I asked Kristen to go get me a stack of books by this author. The world he creates is bleak and cold but for some reason I find it easy to read. I still can't figure out why. I didn't think I had a 'style' and I'm still not sure what I prefer reading but so far I have enjoyed these Icelandic murder mysteries.
I'm going to take my time reading this one. These are dense books and take me a while to get through. I may have been underwhelmed with Authority but I only have one book left in this trilogy so I'll find out how all of this ends, eventually.
