Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  2010 1984

  ★★★★ Watched 05 Nov 2023

  decided to flex the atrophied muscle of movie-watching and watch 2010, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which combines several things to make for a bit of an oddity of the movie. The way 2001 presents itself - as show, don't tell, with long stretches between any dialogue and even supreme amounts of silence that just make things same *big* - is not necessarily followed up in full spirit in the sequel.

  You still get *big* things, literally and…

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  Frank Zappa: Live in Barcelona 1988

  ★★★★ Rewatched 18 Apr 2023

  Frank Zappa's May 17, 1988 performance at the Palacio de los Deportes is, unfortunately, the only full pro-shot performance of this tour that survived production. On top of that, it is permanently crippled by the refusal to present Frank with the full master tape. Its existence only lives on thanks to bootleggers and tapers that either caught the broadcast live or any of its subsequent airing.

  On top of this, Zappateers and even those in the band themselves have said,…

Popular reviews

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  Countdown to Looking Glass 1984

  ★★★★★ Watched 08 Feb 2023

  A WONDERFUL mockumentary set half within the framing device of a news broadcast, half behind-the-scenes as the reporters (and their associates) scramble for information and security as the United States and its Arab interests come to blows with the Soviet Union and its own interests in the Middle East.

  The movie joins films such as The Day After (1983) and Threads (1984) as a glut of media responsive to the cloying threat of nuclear war (accentuated by the Able Archer…

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  Without Warning 1994

  ★★½ Watched 28 Feb 2023

  Without Warning, in the preamble for its broadcast debut, directly evokes the initial broadcast of War of the Worlds (1938), intending to be a modern-day counterpart to the format - a fictional news broadcast informing us of a world-changing event. Of course, they offer every warning that what you're seeing is NOT happening, a warning offered every commercial break. If you're willing to suspend disbelief, however, maybe you might fall into the same level of despair felt the first time…