What's on your Daily Viewing List? (4 Viewers)

[Matt Hough]

On the TCM app this afternoon, I pulled up that documentary on the rise and fall of movie palaces. Great stuff.

 

[Dave Moritz]

June 25th, 2022 Saturday

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness
4K Digital / Dolby Vision / Imax Enhanced / Disney +
Dolby Atmos 7.2.4

Happy Gilmore
HD Digital upconverted to 4K
Dolby 5.1

 

[Keith Cobby]

Lord of War (4k disc) - top 3 Nick Cage film for me with excellent support from Jared Leto (one of the finest and most versatile actors on the planet).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Everything Everywhere All At Once
Originally Released: 03/25/2022
Watched: 06/25/2022
In theaters: 7:00 PM showing at Indian Lake Theater

Recommended?

Why? A wildly entertaining and adventurous film that works on many levels: as over-the-top, comedic action extravaganza; as an existential meditation on nihilism and the meaning (or lack of meaning) of life; as a family drama about a troubled marriage and the generational divides between parents and children.

My thoughts (which may contain spoilers) are available here.

 

[Dave Moritz]

June 26th, 2022 Sunday


Kindergarten Cop
HD Digital upconverted to 4K
Dolby 5.1 upmixed to Auro 7.1

 

[HawksFord]

We're continuing to dig into our film noir collection and watched Kino Lorber's Dark Side of Cinema V over the past week:

Because of You (1952)
Outside the Law (1956)
The Midnight Story (1957)

This set pushes the boundaries of film noir a bit, but we thoroughly enjoyed all three movies. As is often the case with these sorts of movies, I end up wishing they were a bit longer so the characters were better developed and possible plot holes could be addressed. But that's not the sort of movies they are.

The Midnight Story, with Tony Curtis as a young police officer investigating the murder of a beloved priest, was our favorite. Curtis is aided by an excellent supporting cast including Gilbert Roland The commentary by Jason Ney is excellent as well.

Because of You seems more melodrama than noir. Whatever the label, it's a solid film with Loretta Young playing a woman trying to turn her life around after a stint in prison. In her commentary Samm Deighan says that Jeff Chandler considered this a particular favorite. At some point, I'll take another look with that in mind as I thought the character was a bit underdeveloped.

Outside the Law is the least ambitious of the three films, but it succeeds at telling an exciting story about parolee played by Ray Danton who has a chance to redeem himself by going undercover to investigate a counterfeiting ring.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Originally Released: 04/26/2019
Watched: 06/28/2022
540P HD digital streaming on Vimeo via HTPC

Facebook's algorithms presented me with a post that sent me down a rabbit hole learning about Marion Stokes, a most unusual woman with an even more unusual life's work. Eventually I found my way to this feature-length documentary.

Recommended?

Why? Filmmaker Matt Long wrangles a wide array of very candid interviews with her family and the people who were in her employ to provides a complicated and nuanced portrayal of the woman and her all-consuming project. A Communist revolutionary in her younger days, who became a fixture on local public affairs programming for a number of years later, would be one of the first to see the potential and possibilities in Apple. Her early investment in the company financed the effort which would dominate the last three and a half decades of her life: From the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 through the Sandy Hook massacre the day she passed away, she recorded to Betamax and later VHS local and national television -- up to eight channels at a time -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, accumulating an archive of over 71,000 tapes that constitutes the most complete audio-visual record that exists between the Carter administration and the Obama administration. The movie presents us with a woman who was fiercely intelligent, assertive and self-assured to the point of being alienating, and irrepressibly one of a kind. And the footage from her recordings interspersed throughout speaks to the value of her compulsive achievement. Her son has turned over all of the tapes to the Internet Archive, which has spent years cataloguing them and digitizing them.

 

[Matt Hough]

For the last two weeks, I've been watching the first season of Abbott Elementary, streaming it on Hulu. (I didn't watch it during its ABC run, a mistake I'll rectify in the fall so I can skip commercials.) It's a funny, quirky education-set comedy, and as a former teacher (last century), it's amazing that many of the trials and tribulations the teachers are facing in 2022 are the same problems I faced in my career all those years ago. Technology has advanced and kids are more in touch with the world, but the problems teachers face have barely changed at all.

Emmy nominations are out very soon, and Abbott Elementary is one of the few network series that's being given any chance of landing multiple nominations. I really like the show, but I still find CBS' Ghosts funnier and more charming, but it's not being touted for any awards, a situation I find maddening.

 

[Robin9]

First viewing of The Peking Medallion aka The Corrupt Ones aka Die Holle Von Macao. I really liked this Bondesque adventure with Robert Stack, Elke Sommer and Nancy Kwan. Pleasantly surprised by the quality of the German blu ray.

I watched this disc today and was surprised to discover it's Zone free. I enjoyed the film which draws heavily from The Maltese Falcon but blends it with mid '60s Bond type mindless escapades involving easily available women, implausible punch-ups and torture scenes. I've always liked Robert Stack and I thought he was just right for this kind of movie. He should have done more of them!

 

[Keith Cobby]

I watched this disc today and was surprised to discover it's Zone free. I enjoyed the film which draws heavily from The Maltese Falcon but blends it with mid '60s Bond type mindless escapades involving easily available women, implausible punch-ups and torture scenes. I've always liked Robert Stack and I thought he was just right for this kind of movie. He should have done more of them!

Coincidentally, I watched it again yesterday. It obviously didn't have a high budget but it's really well made, I liked that it doesn't use back projection. Robert Stack, Elke Sommer and Nancy Kwan play well together (I thought the dancer was also good!). Mrs Stack also had a small part so it must have been a bit of a paid holiday for the Stacks (plus she could keep an eye on him!).

Another similarly well made film is Code 7, Victim 5 (Blue Underground).

Both films are around 90 minutes - no filler!

 

[Robin9]

Today I watched the DVD of A Summer Place for the first time in ages. I still enjoy the film and Max Steiner's main melodic theme. I thought Arthur Kennedy and Constance Ford were superb and Dorothy McGuire and Richard Egan pretty good. I found both young lovers a bit weak. If a young actress who could really convey passion had been cast, the film would be much stronger. Gia Scala, despite having the wrong color hair, would have set the screen alight! Ah, well!

I'd love a Warner Archive Blu-ray disc!

 

[Matt Hough]

Last night, I finally cracked the cellophane on Criterion's The Cameraman and watched it and the included TCM special on Buster Keaton's MGM years.

Tonight, I went Chaplin and watched the superb three-part Unknown Chaplin narrated by James Mason. Never tire of watching this great documentary series.

 

[Dave Moritz]

July 1st, 2022 Friday

Obi-wan Kenobi
4K Digital / Dolby Vision / Disney +
Dolby Atmos 7.2.4

Pt 6

 

[Robin9]

Yesterday I re-watched the Sony Blu-ray disc of Pendulum, an unambitious film that has a few excellent qualities. I thought Richard Kiley did well as the defense lawyer who believes strongly in the ideals of the justice system but who also recognizes that it can be a two-edged sword.

Today I watched The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, one of my favorite gangster movies.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Over the last three days I have been watching The Maze Runner trilogy. This is my third viewing and the first since the covid pandemic, which adds poignancy. I think this is an outstanding trilogy of films, perhaps the second dips a little but the third is very strong. These were not highly budgeted films, but the director does a great job in showing the world in the aftermath of a catastrophe (a solar flare and virus). Although the films are CGI heavy it's really well done and the action scenes (the train rescue at the beginning of The Death Cure) are as good as anything in much more expensive films.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I keep meaning to buy the Maze Runner trilogy but keep forgetting. I currently only own the first movie on 4K blu-ray and need to get the other two!

July 3rd & 4th, 2022

Little Rascals

Moana
4K Blu-ray / HDR
Dolby Atmos 7.2.4

Spiderman 2
4K Blu-ray / HDR
Dolby Atmos 7.2.4

Westworld
HBO
Season 1 / Episode 1



Casino
4K Blu-ray / HDR
DTS-X 7.2.4

First time watching Casino!

 

[Dave Moritz]

July 5th, 2022 Tuesday

Spiderman: No Way Home
4K Blu-ray / Dolby Vision
Dolby Atmos 7.2.4

First time viewing and I have been meaning to see thing for awhile but just got around to buying it on disc. Didn't get around to seeing this movie in the theater and I wish I had done so.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Originally Released: 04/22/2022
Watched: 07/05/2022
1080P Blu-ray disc, upscaled to 4K via Panasonic DP-UB820

I wanted to see this in theaters, but didn't get a chance, so I was happy to see it was available as a Redbox rental.

Recommended?

Why? While it ended up being more of a conventional action-comedy than I would have hoped, it's still a lot of fun watching Nicolas Cage send up his public image, and Pedro Pascal fully commits to the absurdity as his friend/unintentional nemesis.

 

[Robin9]

Yesterday I watched Signpost To Murder for the first time in six years. It comes from a stage play and the screenplay makes no attempt to hide that. The material works effectively and held my attention throughout. I had forgotten the surprise twist at the end and that in her first scene Joanne Woodward prances around in a swimming costume which also took me by surprise. She didn't do that very often in movies!

 

[Keith Cobby]

Death of a Scoundrel - big favourite of mine with terrific cast. Would like this on blu ray, although it needs a bit of cleaning up.