Thursday, February 15, 2018

What I Watched In January


There are, of course, two basic types of Guillermo del Toro films. There is the giant, crowd-pleasing action / horror film (BLADE 2, PACIFIC RIM, HELLBOY) and then there is the thoughtful, creepy, atmospheric horror film (CRONOS, THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, PAN'S LABYRINTH). The fact that all he really makes are horror films is one of the many things that endears him to me. I will go to my grave wondering what he could have done if allowed to film The Hobbit in the way that he wanted.

As it stands we only get a film from Guillermo once every three years or so, therefore it's best to just bide your time, go to the theater and enjoy yourself. This time out he's in the more serious thoughtful horror film mode which means that the movie centers on a single creature or horrific event and how it affects the people around it. I'll just add my voice to the choir and say that THE SHAPE OF WATER is one of the best films I saw from 2017 and one of del Toro's best films overall. I'm not ashamed to admit that the film hit me on many emotional levels and by the end I was weeping tears of joy. If I had one criticism of the film it's that I feel that our main character played by Sally Hawkins goes a little too quickly from 'Oh my God, it's a monster' to 'I'm intrigued - let's see if I can communicate with it'. But that's a minor problem in a film with so much beauty, so much grace and so much heart.

The List

THE RISING OF THE MOON (1957) - 8 
FROM HELL IT CAME (1957)- 6 (rewatch) (I love this bad film!)
GET OUT (2017)- 9 (rewatch) 
THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017) - 9 
THE GHOST GALLEON (1974) - 5 (rewatch) 
ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN (1993) - 5 (interesting remake) 
HOT CARS (1956) - 7 
DALEKS INVASION EARTH 2015 A.D. (1966) - 5 
BRINGING UP BABY (1944) -9 (rewatch) 
MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE (1938) - 5 
THE IRON SWORDSMAN (1949) - 7 (Freda knight tale) 
ELEVEN MEN AND A GIRL (1930) - 5 
THE GREEN SLIME (1968) - 7 (rewatch) 
THE MYSTERIOUS RIDER (1948) - 8 (Freda's exciting tale of Casanova) 
JACK THE RIPPER (1959) - 6
BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN (2017) - 7 



1 comment:

Unknown said...

Man, I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t think Get Out was that good. Maybe a 6.