Viewings: December 2022

With 2022 in its final death throes, I almost managed a movie a day with a final tally of 343 this year.

Favourite discovery this month was Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's chilling, alternate-history mockumentary, It Happened Here. Despite coppin' a physical copy of the film ages ago, my lazy arse didn't watch it until a nice quality rip hit YouTube earlier this month.

Other new finds that I really liked were Dennis Hopper falling head over hills for a sideshow mermaid in Night Tide, and Yuen Biao exacting vigilante justice in Righting Wrongs.

 

Film:

The Maze (William Cameron Menzies, 1953)*

Creature with the Atom Brain (Edward L. Cahn, 1955)*

Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961)*

Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962)

Witchcraft (Don Sharp, 1964)*

It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo, 1965)* 

Zeta One (Michael Cort, 1969)*

Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)

Futureworld (Richard T. Heffron, 1976)*

Porridge (Dick Clement, 1979)

Rock 'N' Roll High School (Allan Arkush & Joe Dante, 1979)*

The Scaremaker AKA Girls Nite Out (Robert Deubel, 1982)

Don't Open Till Christmas (Edmund Purdum, 1984)

Yes, Madam! (Corey Yuen, 1985)*

Righting Wrongs (Corey Yuen, 1986)*

The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988)

Trapped Alive (Leszek Burzynski, 1988)*

Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson, 1989)

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

The Invisible Maniac (Rif Coogan, AKA Adam Rifkin, 1990)*

Basket Case 3 (Frank Henenlotter, 1991)

Evil Toons (Fred Olen Ray, 1992)

Rubber’s Lover (Shozin Fukui, 1996)*

Devil’s Prey (Bradford May, 2001)*

Elvira’s Haunted Hills (Sam Irvin, 2001)*

Havoc (Barbara Kopple, 2005)*

Santa’s Slay (David Steiman, 2005)*

WΔZ (Tom Shankland, 2008)*

All Through the House (Todd Nunes, 2015)*

Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell, 2018)

The Good Liar (Bill Condon, 2019)*

Cow (Andrea Arnold, 2022)* 

The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022)*

Hounded (Tommy Boulding, 2022)*

Matriarch (Ben Steiner, 2022)*

Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)*

 

Television:

The Fast Show Christmas Special (Brendan O’Casey, 1996)

The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook (Ronnie Barker & Ronnie Corbett, 2005)

Christmas University Challenge 2022 (Don Reid, 2022)*

FIFA World Cup 2022 (2022)*

Mastermind - lost count of episode numbers since the rugby (Bill Wright, 2022)*

Werewolf by Night - TV special (Michael Giacchino, 2022)*

 

*First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Never caught the Westworld (1973) sequel from start to finish until now. Great conspiracy premise, but the film looks terribly cheap. Many scenes were shot in some grotty industrial plant. Yul Brynner's return as The Gunslinger scene was completely bonkers.
• Loved the gothic splendour of Menzies' The Maze, but the film's climax is perhaps one of the most unexpected film twists I've witnissed. Somewhat spoilt the film for me, sadly.
  
• Lost count how many times I've watched Goodfellas, but it's only now I noticed Saw's Jigsaw was Henry Hill's parole officer.
  
• The homie Tommy Bunz (R.I.P.) was dead right about Havoc. Pure cringe from start to finish.
  
• Career lows for both James Robertson Justice and Charles Hawtrey appearing in the British sci-fi/sexploitation romp, Zeta One.
• Not a fan of musicals, but I can't hate on Rock 'N' Roll High School for having The Ramones as its main focus; plus, P.J. Soles helps a lot in what's otherwise a very erratic film. 
• The sixth form politics and class commentary in Östlund's Triangle of Sadness would almost be tolerable if it didn't bludgeon me over the head with it continuously throughout its lengthy, two hours and twenty-seven minutes run time. The dinner scene was the main highlight from the film.
• Usually get film trivia correct on quiz shows, but I'm dead proud I got none of the French New Wave set of questions right on University Challenge. 
• Adding Hounded to my list of Brit flicks which caters to The Daily Mail's readership. Dumb fun, despite its flaws. Doubt I'll ever bother seeing it again, though.
  
• Michelle Yeoh might be TIME's icon of 2022 , but her Hong Kong action flicks are undisputably better than any of the Hollywood film and TV shite she's been lacing us with over recent years. Loved seeing her kicking arse alongside Cynthia Rothrock in Yes, Madam, even if the slapstick comedy didn't work for me half the time.
  

Gonna tell my grandchildren this was Pepsi & Shirlie back in the day.