Recently Watched Films

Just a bit nuts...

Hayao Miyazaki's return is quite possibly his strangest film but in typical Studio Ghibli style it is beautifully animated and enjoyable. If this does turn out to be his last, which we have to face reality that it might be at his age, he's at least ending on a high note. Apparently though he's still working so we never know!

A contender for the most mental superhero movie ever made. 

I used to have Django on DVD but I got rid of it because the picture quality was shit and it didn't have the original Italian soundtrack (I read once that the English dub doesn't accurately translate the film). This version however is fully restored, looks fantastic and has the Italian audio and English subs. 

I don't recall if I saw this in English or Italian before, but I watched with the Italian audio this time. As I said earlier, I'm pretty sure when I saw this before it was the only one of the three in decent quality. Like Django it also stars Franco Nero and actually copies a small part of its plot in a homage sort of way. 

Considered as the Zapata Western (although Duck You Sucker has a claim on that status too), I definitely enjoyed this one more being able to watch it in quality. I'm pretty sure when I saw this before I was watching an upload on Daily Motion or something so not exactly legal.  I stuck with the Italian audio as with the other two films in the set, but I'm thinking maybe this one should have gone with the English: there were a few parts in the film where the soundtrack reverted to English due to Italian audio not existing. I've seen this happen in other films before in collector's editions where the English and Italian versions have different cuts but the modern blu-ray is uncut and makes do with the soundtrack. It's a little jarring, but it doesn't happen often. If I recall that this happens when I eventually want to see this again, I'll probably try it with the English audio. 

All in all an excellent little collection. 

 

Recent bad watches - so bad they're just plain bad:

Often considered a So-bad-it's-good movie, but I reckon that's giving it too much credit:

And I fucking loved this! Sadly also the final on-screen roles for both Richard Briers and Honor Blackman:

Re-watch. Eastwood's weirdest western. Somehow this is only the second time I've watched it. In a western mood lately so I'll be revisiting all his westerns in due course including of course the Dollars trilogy. 

Well, I had fun with this, as someone who grew up watching Ghostbusters in some form or other. Nice throwbacks to the original film but they didn't rehash the basic plot as with Afterlife, but the got the comedy vibe more on the money than Afterlife did. This one won't sell you on the franchise if you're not a fan or wish it has been left in the 80s, but I enjoyed it. 

Bit of a new gem from Netflix that plays out like a neo-western. Except instead of the stranger riding into town on horseback he's on a bike (listening to The Number of the Beast no less ) where he quickly runs afoul of the local law. 

That was an odd one! This is one of those films I've been aware of for a while but never watched yet always had some impression of what it was about, what style it was in, etc....turns out I was completely wrong about everything. Where I was expecting a black and white film full of moody nighttime scenes it's actually in full colour and takes place in daytime. Not sure why I had the wrong impression of it, maybe it was the posters? I enjoyed the film but doubt it'll be a regular re-watch. 

80s horror comedy. I've actually seen the 2011 remake before, but always wanted to see this version. I wasn't blown away but its solid enough. 

Very fun spaghetti western although upon conclusion I felt like maybe there was still a bit of story left to tell?

Bit of a gem. In the last days of WW2, the sole survivor of a ship sunk by a German U-boat sets out for revenge, becoming increasingly obsessed with retribution. 

This gets overlooked next to the Dollars trilogy and the other two Once Upon a Time films (it's alternate title is Once Upon a Time...The Revolution) but it's just as good. Only my second time seeing it.