Author: temporalparadox

A Chorus Line

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A Chorus Line. PolyGram Pictures 1985.

Before watching the movie:

When I think of classic musicals, this is one of the first ones that comes to mind. So I was a bit surprised to see the movie came out in 1985, when I always assumed it was one of the highlights of the musical trend of the 60s-70s. It turns out that it did open on stage in 1975, it just took a while to get made for the screen. My original criteria for “classic musical” was nothing from after 1980, which is why it wasn’t in my last series of classic musicals. But this feels more of a different age of musicals than what I consider to be modern musicals (though I guess shows from after sometime in the 2000s are by now yet another category from what I’m getting at).

I don’t really know much beyond “I Hope I Get It”, so I know that it’s about musical performers desperate for jobs, so I expect a lot of diegetic numbers. I don’t really have an idea of the shape of a plot, if there even is much of one.

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Yankee Doodle Dandy

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Yankee Doodle Dandy. Warner Bros. 1942.

Before watching the movie:

I’ve encountered George M. Cohan’s name around a lot, mostly around pretty much any patriotic, borderline jingoistic song from after the Civil War but before the 2000s glut of Country-Panderin’ songs. I may have seen a few times that this movie is based on his life, but uses his music (which I guess qualifies it as a Jukebox Musical), which probably means the music is largely diegetic, though it would be more fun if they found a way to incorporate the existing material into the telling of his life story directly.

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Soylent Green

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Soylent Green. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer 1973.

Before watching the movie:

Maybe the only thing most people know about this movie is the big reveal. It’s probably more spoiled than Citizen Kane but less than Darth Vader’s true identity. So what else do I know about it? Well, there’s a lot of other colors Soylent comes in, and Green is the newest. I think before I saw the poster just now I could’ve said we’ve already passed the future date of the movie.

I do have to say that naming a real life nutrition company “Soylent” after the fictional megacorporation committing brain-breaking sins against humanity is one of the most direct examples of geniuses who missed the point of their favorite story deciding to build the Torment Nexus.

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The Final Cut

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The Final Cut. Lions Gate Films 2004.

Before watching the movie:

When I decided to do a month of sci-fi movies I feel like I should have already seen, I didn’t realize that all of the greats were going to be from the 70s or that they’d be experimental and transgressive to the point that I’d start to feel like maybe I hate movies. I only knew that I had to include this movie that I was aware of from almost the time it was published and came very close to watching several times but always pulled back for some reason. Maybe because I was afraid it was going to be too disturbing, maybe because I had it a little mixed up with One Hour Photo, another Robin Williams drama from about the same time.

Robin Williams was the first actor I decided to search for and watch everything that came up, though I started to question that decision when I saw Jakob The Liar, and I ended up leaving a lot of what already existed at the time unseen. I’ve since closed that gap a little bit, but this one, which should be exactly in my wheelhouse even if it’s not a comedy, since it’s a sci-fi story speculating on the mind and perception, I stayed away from, because I was worried about what secret from his past the character was going to be unsettled by.

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The Man Who Fell to Earth

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The Man Who Fell to Earth. British Lion Films 1976.

Before watching the movie:

Once again I’m realizing I know even less about this than I realized. I had some inkling of a story about an alien landing on earth played by David Bowie, but I think more of the details are from Ziggy Stardust. Turns out Bowie didn’t even end up contributing music to this movie. I believe I recall being told something about the story, but I can’t recall anything more than what’s told by the title. From the summary I’ve glanced at now, it looks like what I was told would’ve glossed over a lot to make it appropriate for the age I was when it was discussed.

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THX 1138

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THX 1138. American Zoetrope 1971.

Before watching the movie:

So, this is George Lucas’s big debut feature, before his career became all about chasing/maintaining the success of Star Wars. Thanks to Lucasfilm naming their theater optimization standard after this film, it may have one of the highest ratios of name drops to proper discussion of the content in all of cinema. All I know is some vague idea of being dystopic.

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Silent Running

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Silent Running. Universal 1972.

Before watching the movie:

I have seen a portion of this movie before. I think it was accidentally recorded off the air as the lead in to what was actually supposed to be on the tape. I try not to directly spoil the movies I review here so I will not describe the turn of the very very last scene that I saw, but it was so disturbing, especially without context, that I vividly remember it  even now, decades later. Any readers who have seen this movie will understand what I’m referring to. The little I’ve learned since has only reaffirmed my understanding of it as a very melancholy, very 70s movie.

However, my striking personal memory only made me more determined after starting this blog that it had to be one to review here eventually. I came to that ending without context and it was distressing but also very confusing, and much like the less spoiler-averse people in my life, even knowing where it ends, I want to see how it gets there.

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World War Z

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World War Z. Plan B Entertainment 2013.

Before watching the movie:

I have a fairly clear memory of this movie’s promotion as being the point where it seemed that any big zombie movie needs to have a thing that you’ve never seen zombies do before. They were talking about how after Fast Zombies, the new innovation of this movie is climbing/swarming zombies. I don’t know what else can be done to make zombies more threatening now that they can be fast and crash over you like a tide and still be nonsapient enough to be playing the trope straight, but if somebody figures it out, they’ll probably have the next blockbuster zombie movie, or at least that was the impression the marketing for WWZ gave me.

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28 Days Later

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28 Days Later. DNA Films 2002.

Before watching the movie:

The one thing I know about this movie is I’m pretty sure it’s the standard-setter for modern “fast zombies”. I don’t consider myself a horror fan, so I wasn’t that interested at the time. Now I’m doing a zombies month and dip into horror a few times a year on this blog so I guess my tastes have expanded, but it’s still not one of my top genres.

Looks like a lot of wasteland-type zombies, maybe similar to I Am Legend, which was a zombie movie even if the look in that one was more like vampires.

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Night of the Comet

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Night of the Comet. Coleman and Rosenblatt Productions 1984.

Before watching the movie:

I’ve heard this movie mentioned here and there but never that much about it. I didn’t even know the thing that happens the night that the comet comes is zombies until I was looking for zombie movies.

I really don’t know what else to expect. There’s a comet, and something happens, and zombie apocalypse, and it’s considered pretty good but not good enough to be that remembered in the mainstream.

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