What I watched in April 2008

3:10 TO YUMA (2007)- 9 (now that’s a great western)
ONE MISSED CALL (2004)- 7 (spooky Japanese ghostliness)
SAW 2 (2005)- 5 (missing the drop-dead stupid ending of the first one, but it still ain’t good)
BABYLON 5: THIRDSPACE (1998)- 6 (rewatch)
NANCY DREW, REPORTER (1939)- 6 (I love these mystery programmers)
REEKER (2005)- 7 (well done with a nice ending)
ADVISE & CONSENT (1962)- 10 (classic political machinations)
THE RUINS (2008) – 7 (solid horror movie)
MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007)- 9 (straightforward, classy drama)
A STOLEN FACE (1952)- 6 (British noir)
ATTACK FORCE Z (1982)- 8 (only the crappy score detracts from this great film)
THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1981)- 7 (BBC TV adaptation in 6 parts)
MULBERRY ST. (2007)- 6 (good but not great)
A VIEW TO A KILL (1985)- 2 (rewatch) (easily the worst Bond film)
WET ASPHALT (1958)- 8 (excellent European noir)
CYBORG (1989)- 3 (I expect more from bad post-apocalyptic sci-fi)
HALLOWEEN 4 (1988)- 3 (after a great title sequence it’s all downhill)
HALLOWEEN 5 (1989)- 2 (Wow! It can get worse!)

April was a busy month and I needed movies to relax even more than usual. Often I’ll stop some of my class work just long enough to watch half an hour of a film. It kind of clears my mind of statistics or whatever else is clogging it up. That sounds kind of strange now that I think about it!

I decided it was time to finally watch the HALLOWEEN sequels past number 3. I’ve felt for a few years that HALLOWEEN 2 with all its faults is the near perfect ending for the Michael Myers character. Both he and Doc Loomis go up in a fiery blast that brings things to a satisfactory stop. With 4 doing away with that ending in a completely dumb way these later movies get off on a terrible footing and there really is not enough quality behind the camera to make up for these deficiencies. And 5 was even dumber! I might have to eventually watch 6 out a feeling of wonder at the silliness that crept in to the story line. Might!

I never got around to watching one of those Nazi exploitation movies but I fully intend to catch one in May. The one directed by Bruno Mattei is calling my name and since Mattei is a wonderfully awful director it should give me plenty of unintentional laughs.

On the TV front I was happy to be up to speed on ‘BattleStar Galactica’ and have been looking forward to this year’s fourth and final season. So far the first four episodes have been excellent and I look forward to it each week even as I’m somewhat bothered by the weird sadomasochistic tone episode four took on. ‘Lost’ has returned and is kicking things up another notch. This show is firing on all cylinders and it makes me wish I could race through the whole season much faster.