The Contestant - 2023

One of my favorite movies is The Truman Show. It's almost one of the most thought provoking. When I heard of Nasubi, I was horrified. This documentary covers the game show that sucked in the man and broke his spirit.

Denpa Shonen was a Japanese game show that was widely known as a travel show, and one of the producers wanted to spice it up a bit. A bunch of people came to an audition, thinking they were trying out for a race or something. Nasubi was the winner. He was really excited until they blindfolded him, drove him to an empty room full of blank postcards and magazines, took all his clothes and told him he was meant to survive on prizes.

He has to win 1 million yen worth of prizes before they'll let him out. Before he wins any food, the crew gives him some crackers so he doesn't starve. The big thing is he doesn't realize he's being broadcast on TV. He promised his family he wouldn't get naked, so even though he knows he's being filmed, he doesn't think it's really going anywhere. The goal is met after almost a year, and they come to celebrate by taking him to Korea. But then they shut him in another room and leave him there. He's supposed to win the price of an economy ticket back to Japan, but he's too good at winning, so they keep moving the goal posts. The way they end the show was ridiculous and super cruel.

This was so hard to watch. I felt so bad for Nasubi. Imagine thinking you're going to be on a fun travel show, but instead you're exploited, your body is shown (eventually 24/7), your diaries are published and everyone can read your most private thoughts, and people laugh at your distress and loneliness. I initially wanted to track down those diaries until I found out they were published without his knowledge. Now I'm out. The whole thing was awful.

But! After the show, after the recovery period, Nasubi eventually found a path in life. It took a while, and he had a rough road. He had to learn to trust again, and that is so incredibly hard. Two tragedies brought the true light out of Nasubi, and it made me teary eyed. From the sadness and injustice I felt through most of the documentary, I went to a place of joy for Nasubi. I almost labeled him a young man, but honestly, he's slightly older than I am. Just slightly. And he's been through so much.

I wish nothing but the best for Nasubi. This man has been through more than a person should, and I kinda wish I could give him a hug. He probably wouldn't appreciate that, so I'll just send some good thoughts his way. Best wishes, and I hope crap like this never happens again...it's a Good Watch! just to see how Nasubi bounces back. His lows were hard to watch, but I hope he's doing better now. I truly do.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage - 2021

When I watch movies with my husband, I have to be a bit more discerning. He prefers movies in color, and there are just certain types of movies we watch together. Neither of us had seen a Venom movie, so we wanted to see if we would like them.

It was clear pretty early on that we weren't on the first movie, but it wasn't that big of a deal. We were able to follow the story without feeling lost.

The movie starts with a backstory of the serial killer Cletus and his girlfriend Frances. Fast forward to present day, and the serial killer asks Eddie to publish something for him. That leads to him (actually Venom) solving the mystery of where Cletus buried the bodies of his victims, so now the killer is scheduled to be executed.

Cletus asks Eddie to visit him, where he spouts nonsense and triggers Venom into attacking him. Cletus bites Eddie and becomes Carnage. Fighting ensues, bickering between protagonists, Cletus still has terrible hair, and they free Frances from the secret place they learned about from the internet. Her shrieking is incompatible with Carnage, and it will cause problems.

The main issue I had with the movie was the humor. Different people will be amused by different kinds of humor. This isn't my kind of humor. I know most of my family isn't on par with a lot of my humor, either, so it evens out. The storyline was weird to me, and I just wasn't a fan. 

And you can't just leave chickens in a little patch of grass... 

Zardoz - 1974

It's been a while since we've had movie night, and I've been sitting on this one for a while. I didn't know much about it, but I saw the first few seconds and knew I needed to see it with a friend. So I forced Mom to watch it! This review will be full of spoilers...

We start off strong with a floating head. A dude is telling us some weird nonsense. I wasn't paying attention, because I was wondering why his mustache and goatee were drawn on. Then, we see a huge, floating head. It floats down, says some stuff about guns and penises, and then barfs some old-timey shotguns to the people. In the year 2293. The head's name is Zardoz (don't even get me started on why that's his name), and Zed (one of the scantily-clad chosen) has stowed away.

While up in the sky, Zed shoots the dude from the beginning in the arm. The guy falls out of the head for some reason, and Zed makes it to the Vortex. It's a place where people live forever with terrible clothes. Their punishment is to age, and if they go nutty, they end up at a prom for old people. Zed apparently is the bringer of death, since he's there to take revenge, and he has people posted outside the barrier waiting to get inside.

Some chick is out to kill him, so everyone starts destroying the whole city. Statues, buildings, anything they can get their hands on. When she gets the chance to kill him, she can't. In fact, they are in love and will be a couple. Ok. Then, Zed has some magic power that stops the madness, some dude dies, the eternals rejoice cause now they can die, but then the warriors come and just murder everyone for five minutes. Then we get to watch Zed and his woman age until they're dead, and the movie ends. Wow.

This thing was so weird. It was written, directed and produced by the same person, so I was expecting a mess. I was so sure the man was also a character in the movie, but I was wrong on that one. I'm not sure how the characters got through their lines with straight faces half the time. Why were there so many boobs? Why were we talking about the workings of penises all the time? Why did we feel like showing the rape scene more than once - or at all?

I couldn't wait for this thing to end. The number of times I asked, "What!? or "Why?" was extreme, and I still don't understand a lot of it. And more to the point, I don't care...

The Green Berets - 1968

I found a DVD set of 14 John Wayne movies for $30. I also have a few on my computer, so I have plenty of movies ready to go! I like to watch them when I miss my dad, and I'm glad I have lots of choices now. I picked this one because John Wayne is one of the directors, and I wasn't quite in the mood for a western.

The movie is set during the Vietnam War. Bulldog (Wayne) is sent over to help establish a base, and later on, there's a whole side quest to capture a general.

That's a very bare bones summary of the movie. I got a bit teary-eyed at the end, which I wasn't expecting. I then did a bit of research into the film. The first thing I saw was this movie has a 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. What?! So, I looked a bit deeper, and I understood. The movie was released while the war was still going on, and critics were labeling it as propaganda. 

My view is a bit different. I know the Vietnam War was incredibly divisive. I didn't go into this movie expecting an accurate depiction of what was going on in Vietnam. I'm a person that is more affected by the characters in movies. I like to care about the people, and I think that was what John Wayne was going for with this film. A few of the tidbits I read on Wikipedia support that line of thought. One of them mentioned Wayne wanted more character development, but Warner Bros. needed more action.

Also, George Takei was in this, and I thought that was cool. Apparently his participation in this movie helped Chekov become a bigger character on Star Trek. That's pretty nifty if you ask me!

Anyway, I liked this movie. I recognized a few of the actors from McLintock! One of them was John Wayne's son! It's not a popular opinion, I guess, but I liked the characters, and I liked the story. I wasn't judging anyone (except for the journalist), so I'm giving it a Good Movie! review.

Blackmail - 1929

When I was looking at the new movies to enter public domain this year, this was the second and final one that caught my eye. It's an Alfred Hitchcock, so I was instantly interested.

Alice has a fight with her boyfriend who is a policeman at Scotland Yard. She decides to go out with a strange man and make a lot of bad decisions. When he tries to take advantage of her, she fights back and stabs him to death.

After that, Alice acts really strange. She stares a lot and doesn't talk much. When a man shows up to blackmail her, she just stands around and isn't helpful. She doesn't really feel like explaining things to her boyfriend who is trying to help her.

Yeah, the woman in this movie was so irritating. The way she went all bug-eyed and wouldn't explain anything to anyone was maddening. She was acting in self-defense, and you'd think she'd muster up enough words to explain herself to the man who's trying to help her. But no. She'd rather just wander around rooms like a phantom and feed the blackmailer.

And the end raised a lot of questions. Alice was so determined to turn herself in, but then she just abandoned the idea. Why? No one told her about the fate of the criminal, so what changed her mind? When they left the police station, they walk apart a bit. Are they breaking up? I kind of hope so. They didn't really work well together. And the way her father said, "Did you have another row with Frank?" makes me think it's not all sunshine and roses.

The clown painting deserves a sentence or two. Just to say that no one should ever paint a picture like that, and it was the best decision to punch it. Alice just didn't aim in a particularly helpful part of the canvas. Anyway, the whole movie was weird. The first ten minutes made me scared it was a silent film, so there was that. The smarmy lecher made me wonder why Alice was so comfortable hanging out with him, the policeman with the sketchy ethics had me questioning if he was the hero, and the stupid woman just infuriated me. And why was the criminal never in handcuffs?! Bah...

It Happened One Night - 1934

This review is a bit of a cheat, because I'd never forget I'd seen this movie. It's one of my favorites. I needed something lighthearted after the war film I saw this morning and this was available on Tubi, so it was an easy pick.

Ellie is a brat. She married a man basically to spite her father, and now she's run away and is trying to get back to New York on her own. The thing is, she's not real good at working her way through the world alone. She's always had someone with her or looking out for her.

Peter is a newspaperman who needs a story. He recognizes Ellie as a once in a lifetime story and decides to help her. He's not holding any punches with her, though. He tells it like it is and a lot of it is truth she's needed to hear for a long time.

I love this movie. I think I love it more every time I watch it. The chemistry between Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable is great, and the entire story is endearing and sweet. I love the little normal things Peter teaches Ellie about, like piggyback rides and hitchhiking. The end is wonderful. I love Ellie's dad.

Something I learned on this watch was this movie is based on a short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams called "Night Bus." I don't see it available at present, but Adams has other books in public domain, and I think I'll read The Flying Death soon. Anyway, this movie is great. It's old, it's in black and white, but it's still worth watching. Great Movie!

 

They Fought for Their Country (Russian) - 1975

This is the story of a rearguard defending against the advancing German army as they march toward Stalingrad. The movie is in two parts totaling over two and a half hours. The director is one I'm familiar with for his series War and Peace and epic movie Waterloo (Sergei Bondarchuk). 

The rearguard goes through a lot and doesn't get much appreciation from the locals. It seems like every time they run into farmers (granted it was only twice, but still) they don't hold back their criticism of the soldiers' retreat from the German army.

It doesn't pay to become attached to anyone in this film. The one person I wasn't necessarily a fan of was the one that came out "unscathed." The film ends before the tragic battle of Stalingrad, so he may not have made it through that, but everyone else seemed to deal with some sort of trauma or die.

The movie felt a little long, and my subtitles were a bit suspicious at times. I can't imagine anyone, no matter what country they're from, saying, "bear with me, bro" in 1942. I got the general idea of what was going on, but moments of reflection could lose some of their gravity when the subtitles aren't quite right.

Overall, I felt the movie was a bit longer than it needed to be. Scenes dragged on at times, and I can't justify any real reason for that decision. The acting was good, and I felt like the aspect of the war being portrayed was explored pretty well. I wouldn't watch this one again, but I appreciate it for what it is. I also appreciate that a lot of the actors were veterans themselves. The movie just didn't grab me like some do.

EPIC: The Musical (Adaptation of The Odyssey)

While the kids were here over winter break, my younger daughter mentioned this to me. I had her send me the link to the animatics. I listened to a few of them, getting some ear worms in the process. Today, I was working on some sewing and decided to listen to a few more...or all of them.

So, a quick history is this genius Jorge Rivera-Herrans starts working on his senior thesis in 2019. I want to say right off that I'm glad I didn't hear about this until it was done. Just for my own sake. The final saga was released on Christmas Day.

Anyway, this musical is 40 songs of story and emotion. Almost all of them are so freakin catchy. My daughter asked me for some of my favorites, and I couldn't really do it. I could appreciate the attention to detail in the music, and I was picking up how the songs built on each other (listening to most of it in one sitting probably helped with that).

To be clear, the animatics weren't the draw for me. I started listening to it again with just the music, and I was even more impressed since I could focus more on the lyrics and musical choices. I asked my daughter if there was a full album, and she wasn't sure. I didn't see one yet, but I'm definitely keeping my eyes peeled. As of now, I'm only seeing the sagas separately.  I'm going to keep checking, because this was definitely a super experience! Excellent Music!

John Wayne: Behind the Scenes - 2007

Sometimes I just want to watch some John Wayne. It's mostly because my Dad would put his movies on all the time, so I've kinda inherited that. It's also a therapy thing when I miss him.

This hour and a half documentary is mostly production featurettes with some interviews and other snippets sprinkled in. I'd actually seen the one for McLintock! before. They cover a lot of the bigger hits including The Searchers, Green Berets, The Sons of Katie Elder, Stagecoach, Cahill U.S. Marshall, In Harm's Way and even a couple I was surprised to see like Brannigan and McQ.

I learned a couple things and saw a lot of the Duke. It made me want to watch some movies, which wasn't what I was going for. I was hoping this would scratch the itch so I didn't need to track down a John Wayne movie. But those featurettes were very effective. I suppose I'll need to go on the hunt. For this particular documentary, I'm on the fence. I was getting a bit bored here and there, but other parts were super interesting. Specifically, I want to learn more about Green Berets. Knowing John Wayne was a director and passionate about the story intrigues me.

The Black Watch - 1929

The beginning of the new year brought us a fresh set of public domain films. This was one of them. It was directed by John Ford, a man notable for being involved in numerous John Wayne films. This particular film starred Victor McLaglen, a man who I've seen in a lot of things, but there was a particular movie I was trying to think of. After some digging, he was in The Quiet Man.

A Scottish regiment called The Black Watch is being deployed to France. Donald has been asked to head to India instead. There's a woman who has the potential to rile up the natives in the hills. She's thought of as the fulfillment to a prophecy, so the rebels (?) will do whatever she asks.

This movie was so strange. Two things saved it for me. One was Mohammed. His epic line he'd speak asking for forgiveness right before harming someone was great. The other was the drummer of the pipe band. I hate bagpipe music (there's a backstory to that, but no one cares), so I found some fun watching the bass drummer twirl his mallet. Other than that, Donald was too busy falling in love with the super white Indian woman (they tried to explain that, but I wasn't buying it) to care about his mission. I was kinda glad when she died, and I normally like Myrna Loy.

The "chemistry" between those two was awkward. Their lines sounded like they were written by a man who'd never talked to a girl before. Anyway, at least they showed me what happened to Malcolm, because I actually cared about that. I didn't care one bit that they just mentioned Donald's medal from India, and everyone was so happy to have him back in The Black Watch. Thanks, Mohammed and Drummer Man for making the hour and a half not as bad. And side note: they needed to stop asking David to sing. It's not that the man couldn't sing, he just really looked like he was over it at the end. He's wounded - start your own sing-a-long!

 

One Day in September - 1999

This is a documentary about the 1972 terrorist attack that took the lives of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. It's around an hour and a half and includes interviews with various people involved, news clips from the time and schematics to help see get a sense of where things happened.

I'm not usually a documentary person. Seeing this was an hour and a half was a bit intimidating for me, but I wanted to know more about this. I wasn't alive when it happened, but it's one of those events that goes beyond understanding. I wanted to know if there were any answers.

A group of terrorists infiltrated the lax security of the Olympic village and took their hostages. Two of the Israelis died at the village. They fought back. The terrorists were demanding the release of over 200 Palestinians being held prisoner in various countries. For obvious reasons, that was never going to happen. 

What followed was some of the most unbelievably inept crisis management ever. If not the worst, it has to rank up there with some of the strangest choices ever made. And it wasn't one choice. It was a series of choices that led to the tragedy that ended up occurring. I know I'm armchair quarterbacking a bit, but it was ridiculous.

This is the type of story that makes you angry. When I heard the General describing the situation and laughing, I couldn't believe it. When I heard the Germans wouldn't let the Israeli government send in a team to try and rescue the hostages, but they didn't have any kind of special force, I was dumbfounded. When I saw the recreation of the events at the airport, I was furious.

The final living member of the terrorist group who gives an interview in this documentary is a type of person I don't understand. He killed people, and after all these years, and living in hiding, he's proud of what he did. He thinks he did something good, and that's a mentality I'll never understand. The bodies of the other terrorists killed at the airport were sent back and given their heroes' welcome. It was surreal to see a mass of people basically crowd surfing coffins. Three men actually were captured, but they were traded later on back to their country. I won't even get into that.

On the flip side of that coin, I was struck by a story the wife of Andre Spitzer told. While at the Olympics, he purposely approached some of the Lebanese athletes and spoke to them. He believed the point of the Olympics was for the world to come together. He made connections in Munich, and these men tore everything apart.

The film was thorough and informative. The editing was a bit strange at times, and the graphic images at the end were staggering and unexpected. Anything graphic earlier in the documentary was blurred, but at the end, they stopped doing that for some reason. Some of the choices to switch back and forth between images of the Olympics and the situation, while I understood the intention, seemed to drag on a bit too long. The only other criticism I had was the music. Some of it matched, but not a lot. These are small issues in the whole experience. I thought overall it was really well put together, and it was a great learning experience. I'm glad I watched this, and I'm looking to learn more in the future. In particular, I plan on looking into the Mossad operation "Wrath of God" where they hunted down two of the three terrorists responsible for the crime but escaped justice.

This is a long review, but there was a lot to say. It really made me think, and it made me angry. Good Film!

3 Dev Adam - 1973

There's something called "Turksploitation" films. They remade or used unauthorized footage of popular films to make low budget movies. I've seen reviews for The Man Who Saved the World, aka Turkish Star Wars, but I had little idea what I was getting into when I pushed play on this one.

Captain America, El Santo (a famous wrestler) and Julia arrive to help the local cops track down the supervillain Spider-Man. In true villain fashion, he starts the movie with the nefarious move of slowly approaching a woman vertically in a hole. He decides her fate, and then she gets a boat propeller to the face. Interesting start.

What follows is a weird and wild ride. We actually watched this a few weeks ago, but I've been sitting on the review, because I really wasn't sure what to say. Spider-Man was so weird. He kept murdering people while they were bathing, and the sex scenes were unnecessary. The end was drawn out, and I don't know how Captain America and Santo were sure Spider-Man was taken care of.

I found it interesting they crammed a wrestler into the Marvel universe. El Santo is a character I've seen before. There's an episode of MST3K called Samson and the Vampire Women. That movie is ridiculous fun, even without the commentary. In all, the real El Santo was in 53 luchador films that had him as a superhero fighting supernatural creatures, evil scientists, criminals, etc. It sounds interesting! Even though only four were ever dubbed into English, I'm still interested for sure. In this movie, it's important to note this is an unlicensed version (pretty sure everyone in this movie is unlicensed!) of El Santo, and he's played by the actor Yavuz Selekman.

This movie was something else. I'm not sure why Spider-Man was all about killing people, especially ones that were bathing. I'm not sure why they chose to show a stripper. And of all the music to take, I'm curious why they chose the music from Thunderball.

I'm a bit torn on this one. It was so crazy, and it had some fun moments. There were also a lot of unnecessary moments. I really liked the addition of the luchador, and I'd like to see more of him. I'm going to remain on the fence. This version of these characters was so weird...

Do something about those eyebrows, Spider-Man!