I watched 6 movies last week:
- The UFO Incident isn’t particularly convincing one way or another on the subject of alien abduction, or on Barney and Betty Hill’s real-life claims, and it’s definitely far too long. But at the same time, James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons bring a real warmth and honesty to the married couple in this TV movie.
- I feel like if I had seen Adventures in Babysitting back in 1987, when I was ten years old, I might have absolutely loved the movie. Seeing it for the first time almost forty years later, however, the movie is just fine—not infrequently amusing, with a very charming breakout performance by Elisabeth Shue, but often pulling its punches, betraying a lack of ideas, and very dated in its handling of race.
- The Kill Room has its moments, but far too few of them. There are moments when the cast are very good, Samuel L. Jackson in particular, but then also moments when they’re very bad.
- I didn’t expect Bloodsport to be high art, but I did expect the fight scenes to be more impressive. There’s a lot of very good fight choreography and athleticism on display—particularly by Van Damme, who isn’t even that terrible an actor in the movie—but it’s amazing how little the blows actually seem to land. I wasn’t surprised that the movie around the fights was mostly boring, but I was surprised the fights kind of were too.
- Koyaanisqatsi, Roger Ebert wrote “has been hailed as a vast and sorrowful vision, but to what end?” There are some impressive images in the film, which I imagine would have felt even more impressive 42 years ago on a big screen, but the film is a little empty beyond that. As Ebert says, “There is no overt message except the obvious one…”
- Rebel Ridge feels like it’s going to be a slow burn, until the fires, sometimes quite literally, start raging. The movie isn’t fantastically tense, with some really well-matched performances.
