The Criterion Channel

[apricissimus]

I watched "After Hours" on a whim. I sort of had it on my list of movies to check out eventually, and it's not too long, so why not.

I loved it. I literally almost applauded at the end all alone in my living room. I literally did pump a fist in the air in appreciation.

[fdm]

Similar reaction for me when I finally saw it a few years ago. I like those sorts of films.

[DaBargainHunta]

Over the past couple of days, I caught A Matter of Life and Death and The House on Telegraph Hill before they're set to expire. Both highly recommended!

Other expiring movies I watched in the past, either on the Channel or elsewhere:

• Cocktail
• Defending Your Life
• Freddy Got Fingered
• Ministry of Fear
• Mommie Dearest
• My Name Is Julia Ross
• Running Scared
• Starman

The top recommendations are in bold, but I really liked all of them - yes, even Freddy Got Fingered.

Not sure what I'm watching tonight. There are a number of options, most of which I'll have to miss for now.

[Cpt. Feeney]

Starman is worth looking at for what John Carpenter was able to do with a good budget.
It suffers from Bridges' character being a bit underdeveloped. Feels like there was ample room to speed up his adaptation to earthly communication over the course of the movie, but he stays kinda stuck in a rut.
But the backdrop, the photography, the glimpses of tech, and the many, many wonderful shots of helicopters, patrolling the sky, massing overhead, landing with the stars climbing in or out, are a sight to behold.

[Schlockmeister]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Feeney

I bet it cannot be beaten for the most pop songs used in a movie. And in the worst possible way - trying to boost the film's momentum by throwing in fifteen seconds of pumped-up yowling on the soundtrack. Feels like every minute or so another one kicks in.

Haven't you seen Richard L¡nklater's Dazed and Confused?

BTW, FGF has an official abridged PG-rated version that won't give you enough time to doze off...

Freddy Got Fingered - Rated PG Version - YouTube

[Cpt. Feeney]

Originally Posted by Schlockmeister

Haven't you seen Richard L¡nklater's Dazed and Confused?

I have, a long time ago. I wanna say at least the songs in that are more integrated, or relevant to the film.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Feeney

Starman is worth looking at for what John Carpenter was able to do with a good budget.
It suffers from Bridges' character being a bit underdeveloped. Feels like there was ample room to speed up his adaptation to earthly communication over the course of the movie, but he stays kinda stuck in a rut.
But the backdrop, the photography, the glimpses of tech, and the many, many wonderful shots of helicopters, patrolling the sky, massing overhead, landing with the stars climbing in or out, are a sight to behold.

Agreed! Definitely worth watching for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I tapped out with the two I mentioned above - A Matter of Life and Death and The House on Telegraph Hill - and didn't watch anything last night. I think I'm done with the Channel's expiring picks for this month.

It has become easier to keep up with the expiring picks a few years into the life of the service because I've already seen so much.

[fdm]

Finished up the month with Mommie Dearest, which I'd never quite managed to get around to, and finally decided to do so. Way better than Freddie Got Fingered !

And split between yesterday and today, I also watched Kawase's True Mothers. A little slow (to handle in the wee hours both nights), but otherwise worthwhile.

[Cpt. Feeney]

Terms of Endearment didn't make it? In the Shirley MacLaine collection?
I was going to open with it. And no mention that it might be coming later in the blurb.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Feeney

Terms of Endearment

I've never seen the movie, but I cannot take it seriously after learning that Debra Winger farted in Shirley MacLaine's face while filming it because they hated each other so much.

[Cpt. Feeney]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I've never seen the movie, but I cannot take it seriously after learning that Debra Winger farted in Shirley MacLaine's face while filming it because they hated each other so much.

Now I really wanna watch it.
I've also got Whatever Happened to Baby Jane lined up.
Woulda paired up nicely.

[Schlockmeister]

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...ne-2024-lineup

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by Schlockmeister

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...ne-2024-lineup

Impeccable timing after narcissistic d-bag Paul Schrader said this:



I want a Roger Corman Collection on the Channel!

[Schlockmeister]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I want a Roger Corman Collection on the Channel!

They already did one back in last August:

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...st-2023-lineup

[arrggghh]

If anyone on here hasn’t seen Sorcerer, it is well worth a watch. I can’t believe it isn’t talked about more often as one of the best movies of the 70s. Or maybe it’s obvious and it’s just new to me. Finally watched it last weekend after hearing it recommended on Office Hours Live by Tim Heidecker. I wish they had a commentary on the channel that I could check out.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by Schlockmeister

They already did one back in last August:

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...st-2023-lineup

And I watched three of them then (The Pit and the Pendulum, The Haunted Palace, and The Tomb of Ligeia) and one when it was previously on the Channel (The Masque of the Red Death), but I meant a much wider career retrospective - not just his Poe adaptations.

[fdm]

Started out watching this month's expiring films yesterday with Broken English, starring Parker Posey. A good film that I pretty quickly remembered watching on hdnet a few years back, so decided to move onto "something else" that night… But I do recommend pretty much anything I've seen with Parker in it, so…

And last night I decided to give Prom Night a try, but it is just too dumb so moved on to the next one I'd picked out…

Which was Italian For Beginners. It would likely have been something I might have sat through, but either the channel was acting up on my roku again, or I dunno what, but it had a significant amount of odd jerkiness to it that I was definitely not in the mood for in the parts I looked at. So moved onto "something else" again…

And the "something else"s I moved on to started out a few days ago as the first 5 Jesse Stone films that recently landed on my dvr. Finished those 5 up yesterday, then went looking for the last 4 and fortunately they're playing on prime for free, so finished up a couple more just a bit ago, and probably will watch the other two tonight to finish them up. Good stuff.

I think there's still a few other things on the channel I may get to before the end of the month also… may just switch over to Apple TV to see if the channel's better behaved over there.

[DaBargainHunta]

These are the expiring movies I've already seen:

My top recommendations are in bold.

• Blackmail
• Clockwatchers
• Heat
• The Insider
• Ishtar
• Macao
• Repeat Performance
• Reservoir Dogs
• Showgirls
• Still Walking

Macao is the only one I'd definitely say to skip. Ishtar is, well, Ishtar, for better or worse and all that entails.

This month, almost everything I'd want to see is also streaming elsewhere (some with ads), so I could potentially skip the expiring selection for the first time ever. I'll likely end up watching 1-2 anyway.

Do I bother with Prince's Under the Cherry Moon just to say I've seen it? (It's one of the few not streaming anywhere else.)

I could always watch 3:10 to Yuma (available elsewhere with ads and $5 to buy on iTunes) because it looks terrific.

There are a couple of others like that.

Not sure yet what I'm going to end up watching.

[fdm]

As I hate sitting through (forced or any other) ads, that would be an easy choice with 3:10 To Yuma were it my situation, but I have the blu-ray already.

(I suppose regular prime would have injected them into those Jesse Stone films I watched last night, but I decided it was worth it to pay a little extra towards prime not to see them. Not that I'm happy about having to do that either.)

Guess I'll sit down later today and decide on what else to watch before it's too late… after I sit down and decide what, if anything, I will add to my vinegar syndrome order before it's too late.

[Cpt. Feeney]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Macao is the only one I'd definitely say to skip.

I had just put it on earlier that day. It stands up as one thing - a guide for how good 'Casablanca' is.
'I don't get what's so special about Casablanca.' Well, if you look at the standard at the time, where chemistry bounces between the stars occasionally, but mostly ends up on the floor, you'll see that in Casablanca the chemistry is kept in the air, pinging back and forth all movie long. And Macao, as a comparison, lines up perfectly. I really like the guy playing the police chief, but otherwise a lot of the pings are ill-judged.


I watched another Jane Russell movie leaving the channel, the mega-star vehicle The Tall Men. Clark Gable plays pretty much a superman in it, and Jane Russell does a lot of taking off her stockings and singing, and there's zero cause to worry about how things are gonna turn out, BUT the script is not bad at all, and the technicolor backdrops are truly spectacular, so much so I might actually pick it up it for my collection.

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Do I bother with Prince's Under the Cherry Moon just to say I've seen it? (It's one of the few not streaming anywhere else.)

I had it on in the background just to see a young Kristin Scott Thomas at work. I soon turned the sound off, so take this with a grain of salt, but it struck me as a bizarre version of a teenage date-fantasy movie that really needed someone to step in at some point, to change it or fix it or cancel it.