Matthew’s Letterboxd Watchlist
I’ve been looking at the data and I’m comfortably heading to watch more films than I set as a target (about 410 at the moment). I wondered if that meant I would get 365 new films this year (films that I hadn’t watched before). Sadly not. At best it’s about 350. So I’m contemplating increasing the rate at which I watch films to make sure I can get to 365 new films.
Probably not worth it, but it is good that I’m on track for the overall target.
About Time
There was an article recently about the best time travel movies and this was on that list. It was an interesting idea when it was being advertised, but I wasn’t sure. I think I was right to be unsure, it presents some interesting time travel concepts but then disregards them if it needs to. The core emotional elements of the story are nicely done, although I’d have been interested in more from Rachel McAdams’ perspective about meeting this guy repeatedly for the first time.
Mystery Men
We covered this on Pop Culturally Deprived recently, and I’m so delighted someone recommended this film. I was led to believe I was the only one who liked this film. It holds up even better in this age of superhero films, it’s an interesting take on superhero powers and tropes. The ridiculousness of the film works better in a time when we have more ‘realistic’ superhero films compared to the comic-book sensibilities of the late 90’s Batman films.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
We watched this over two nights. After the first night I was really intrigued by what was going to happen. After the second I had thoroughly enjoyed it, although the second half was a little more ordinary. The characterisations and performances are superb, and it’s really good fun all told.
The Jurassic Games
Whilst this seems like a trashy B-Movie, it’s a little bit more than that. Effectively an update of The Running Man, they added some more plot into the ‘contenders’, changed the obstacles to dinosaurs, and made the production of the show even more villainous. That the presenter was a Chris Pratt-lite guy made it even better. All in all it was pretty good for what seemed like a cheap schlocky movie.
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
Honest moment here, I’ve never seen the original Jumanji. Not that that mattered here. This is a fairly ordinary action film with a couple of interesting ideas about avatars and video games. They wanted to have Karen Gillan in a tight and revealing outfit to make comments on the way women appear in games, but also used the opportunity to subject her to various male gaze type shots.
Deliverance
There are a couple of moments in Deliverance that are very well known, but the rest I wasn’t too aware of. Like Bullitt, I can see now that’s because those are the more interesting elements of the film. Duelling Banjos is really well done, the kid on the banjo is as sinister as he is skilled at playing. The attack is really horrifying and well done on all accounts. Outside of that it’s a decent example of early stalker horror type films, but has been improved immensely since.
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
This is one of my favourite films, and one of the best sequels that improves on the original. The falling sequence is perhaps the best comedy moment from any film ever. We did a great episode of Pop Culturally Deprived exploring this film in better detail.
The Seventh Seal
Knowing that a large elements of Bogus Journey are based on The Seventh Seal I wanted to watch it in preparation for the podcast. It’s still an excellent film with a number of really good ideas investigating existence and self-worth.
Recommendation
Mystery Men and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey are two excellent comedies that I can watch at any time. Bogus Journey expands on the original in every way that I like to see in a sequel, and takes a different tack on its plot and comedy that isn’t just a repetition of what worked.