weekend watchlist: a timely cure for collective cultural amnesia
Plus drone warfare, murder most genteel, and more. (First published May 7th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Happening
The Visit movie review: grandma’s house (of horrors?)
Over the river and through the woods to yet another banal, anticlimactic attempt at storytelling from M. Night Shyamalan. And this time, it’s found-footage.
question of the day: What’s the worst movie ending ever?
It doesn’t necessarily have to be from a terrible film. I can imagine someone otherwise loving Citizen Kane who thinks the discovery of Rosebud’s identity at the end is howlingly idiotic.
Mark Wahlberg admits ‘The Happening’ was terrible; Billy Bob Thornton says Hollywood is terrible; a female Old Spice Man spoof; more: leftover links
Plus: first-grader teased over her Star Wars water bottle; journalistic ethics getting a workout; saga of a film critic banned from screenings who got her buddies at The New York Times to intervene; more…
question of the day: Why do I smell such an ominous vibe coming off NBC’s ‘The Event’?
All I can think about is M. Night Shyamalan’s risible The Happening, and poor Alan Ruck having to deliver one of the most awful lines of dialogue in the history of movies: ‘There appears to be an event occurring.’
you’re not helping: M. Night Shyamalan la-la-la can’t hear you…
…you people who hate his films more and more with each passing release. At least that’s how it sounds from a bizarre exchange at a recent press conference to promote The Last Airbender, as reported by Chicago Now’s Marcus Leshock. First came the question from a journalist: You had a very strong start of your … more…
new this week in U.S., Canadian, and U.K. theaters: ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,’ ‘The Last Airbender,’ ‘Shrek Forever After,’ more
U.S. AND CANADA/OPENING WIDE The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: A girl with no personality is unable to choose between the vampire she loves and the werewolf she loves. The invisible man was heartbroken. If you can’t make it to the multiplex, try: • Hard Candy (2005): For a much better exploraton from director David Slade of … more…
say what? 2008
It had to be done: all in one place, the very best bad dialogue of the year 2008. I didn’t mean to hold these till the movie year was over — it just sort of happened that way. I’ll return to posting quotes as I hear them for 2009. There’s surprisingly few of these. That’s … more…
