Infamy! Infamy! They've All Got It in for Me

Happy New Year!

We've reached the same year when the post-apocalyptic sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) was set. 

Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the film at first, it has really grown on me since then. The Shakespearean rivalry between Caesar and Koba was made it finally click for me in the end. I still don't give a damn about all the forgettable human survivors, however.

Similarly, here is a list of other films — most of which I was too young to appreciate at the time  — that have also improved for me: 

The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) 
Beat Girl (Edmond T. Gréville, 1959)
The Brides of Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1960) 
Taste of Fear (Seth Holt, 1961) 
Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)
Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter R. Hunt, 1969) 
The Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973) 
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)
Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)
Martin (George A. Romero, 1977) 
Caligula (Tinto Brass, 1979)
Maniac (William Lustig, 1980)
Murder Rock: Dancing Death (Lucio Fulci, 1984) 
Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (Danny Steinmann, 1985)
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (Jack Sholder, 1985)
Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson, 1987)
Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)
Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989)
Singapore Sling (Nikos Nikolaidis, 1990)
Popcorn (Mark Herrier, Alan Ormsby, 1991)
Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1992)
Split Second (Tony Maylam, 1992)
Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gillian, 1995) 
Ravenous (Antonia Bird, 1999) 
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001) 
The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004)
Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2009)
Dream Home (Edmund Pang, 2010)
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier, 2015) 
Limbo (Soi Cheang, 2021)
The Sadness (Rob Jabbaz, 2021) 

One Max and His Dog

Happy New Year!

We finally hit the same year as L.Q. Jones's now defunct futuristic period in A Boy and His Dog (1975). The film stars rapey wanderer Vic, played by Don Johnson, and his telepathic dog Blood. Don't care if it inspired the Fallout videogames, as far as post-apocalyptic films go, it's never been one I've been particularly fond of, but I do consider its ending superb, regardless.

Weren’t familiar with L.Q. Jones as a director, only knew him as the actor who played Pat Webb, the Clark County Commissioner in the film Casino (1995).

R.I.P. Dog!

A Boy and His Dog also makes me feel gutted that the greatest four-legged companion featured in dystopian cinema (and for that matter, cinema in general), 'Dog' from Mad Max 2 (1981), didn't get such a pleasant ending. Thankfully, the actual blue healer dog, which was rescued from the pound when cast for the film, lived the rest of its years with a crew member. Now that truly is a happy ending.

Blessed be Dada Debaser

Happy New Year!

We finally reached the same timeline as when The Purge: Anarchy (2014) was set; AKA, the best film in the entire franchise. Granted, I never even bothered with the last two films or that television series rotting on Prime's servers. In my defence, hardly anybody else did either. Taking obvious inspiration from both The Warriors (1979) and Escape from New York (1981) is enough to put it on a higher pedestal than the rest of the franchise alone, but also because Frank Grillo embodied the cool factor of a B-movie action star (excluding that time he rocked a Gareth Bale man bun in Copshop (2021), obviously); even while cruising in his whip. Now compare Reddit messiah, Keanu Reeves having to go through such an extreme effort in the same Dodge Charger as John Wick to even equal that level of appeal.

Being Frank.

With the ringing in of the new year, I was going to go post a list of nuisances I wouldn't mind being purged in 2023 (like Richard Madeley), but I've effectively done that already by cancelling a bunch of streaming subscriptions from this month. Gives me a fighting chance to tackle the daunting unwatched pile of films I've got; which grew exponentially like The Blob last year.

Don't Mess With My Two Two

Merry New Year!

Mark it up as a cruel twist of fate that Archbishop Desmond Tutu missed out on hitting the number he was always synonymous with by a just few days. That won't stop me from being cautiously optimistic that 2022 will turn out to be better than its last couple of predecessors.

Since we're entering the winter duldrums and all the clickbaiters' best of 2021 lists have me feeling like I'm living in Bizarro World, it's a good time to rant and focus on the past movies I love. Besides which, any new movie released from now until spring is usually out for tax reasons, anyway.

In terms of upcoming entertainment: I'm expecting good things from The Northman, as Robert Eggers is two for two right now; I'm sticking to my resolution in going easy on the boutique blu's, but Second Sight's release of The Hitcher will no doubt be an instant buy. Looking forward to checking out the new season of Cobra Kai. Not much else I can immdiately think of, but it's a good feeling going into the new year feeling all fresh-faced.