So it was a summer afternoon in England?
Late May in England is still winter.
The only scene that sticks out as ânot goodâ is quick cut when the alien is walking across the room with his arms out like the Mummy or Frankenstein('s monster, yes), and itâs obvious itâs a tall skinny guy in a suit. Outside of that, perfect movie.
My mom saw The Exorcist while she was pregnant with me, and after some audience freakouts they kind of tried to not let her in thinking she would have problems. They did not know my mom. My brother still says âwell, that explains a lot about youâ
They struggled with that scene. They even had the actor crab-walk across the floor and that was hilariously bad, so they went with what they had.
They cobbled together Lambertâs death scene; the tail slowly wrapping around her was actually from Brettâs death scene.
Hopefully, the movie business will eventually return to using practical effects rather than CGI-ing everything, even blood and fire. Practical effects are the reason Alien still looks great 44 years later, while CGI movies age like old milk.
Iâm not saying that CGI doesnât have a place; itâs shocking how much it is used in everything nowadays, and it can be used to dramatically improve the movie. But so many movies are basically Space Jam, with humans acting to nothing with absolutely everything added in âpostâ, including clothing.
The lore of the chestburster scene is that the actors didnât know what was going to happen. This isnât true, but itâs not entirely false. The actors obviously knew that the alien was going to burst out of John Hurtâs chest, but they didnât know that Scott was going to spray a metric shit ton of blood at them. The resulting shocked reactions are partly acting and partly real. You canât do that with CGI.
Across the Spider-Verse fully lives up to the first one, imo, and in many ways surpasses it. Great movie.
In July weâre going to Redding, California, so weâve been watching movies set in California, which is nigh on every movie. I have a list of about 50 movies, from American Graffiti to Terminator 2 to The Maltese Falcon. So far weâve watched three, Vertigo, La La Land, and Clueless.
I may have to put off our trip. Movies set in California is a great undertaking.
I love it. Youâre going to far northern California, so of course youâre forcing yourself to watch dozens of movies set in Los Angeles. Whatâs life without purpose? Everyone needs a noble quest.
Thatâs not quite right. Of those movies, American Graffiti is set in Modesto near Sacramento, and Vertigo and the Maltese Falcon in San Francisco. Still, going to California and not watching LA movies seems hard to avoid. I havenât found any movies set as far north as Redding though.
Mostly I was just surprised at how much time I could waste watching movies set in California. Itâs almost like watching baseball.
Thereâs some very watchable LA movies. Off the top of my head:
LA Confidential
Chinatown
Point Break
Pretty Woman
Blade Runner
Fast Times
Karate Kid
Die Hard
Lethal Weapon
They Live
Roger Rabbit
The Graduate