Noir-vember Watch Party Watch: Out of the Past (1947)

Watched:  11/19/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  Unknown guess is:  4th

Decade:  1940's

Director:  Jacques Tourneur

Look, adding rum plus talking to people in chat over a movie is probably *not* the ideal way to watch this twisty, turny noir classic.  It did point out that Out of the Past (1947) may have some good performances, but it's harder to keep up with because there's so much plot versus character stuff in the movie (which is easier to follow when you're not a rum or two in, and you're cracking wise in the comments). 

Still, I love Out of the Past.  Poor old doomed Robert Mitchum falling for the absolute worst possible girl - and you get it!  She seems great!  Ain't nothing wrong with Jane Greer minus the fact she seems to get off and torturing people and seeing pain inflicted.  Throw in Kirk Douglas, and that's a movie with a lot of strong chin action.  

Plus:  not enough Rhonda Fleming, Virginia Huston, Steve Brodie, and a handful of other RKO players you'll know from around RKO.

I invite you to check the movie out yourself.  

Noir-Vember Watch Party - FEMME FATALE FRIDAY! "Out of the Past" (1947)

Out of the Past (1947) is the film I think of when I think of as the ultimate Femme Fatale of noir.  Jane Greer's Kathie saw Double Indemnity and was like "ppffffft.  AMATEUR!"  

A lot of stuff gets bandied about with people talking about noir who have a glancing familiarity with the topic, and a lot get it sorta-wrong.  But this is the one about the dame with the heart of obsidian and the poor dope who can't get past those eyes I think a lot of neo-noir wound up trying to emulate.  I mean, fair enough - it's Jane Greer, whose eye-game is only trumped by Bacall, with Tierney nipping at her heels.*  

Anyway, watch folks make some incredibly bad decisions that all seem very right at the time.

Day:  11/19/2021

Time:  8:30 PM

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Price:  $3

CLICK HERE TO JOIN US 

*we can talk Marie Windsor and Audrey Totter eye-game, but that's a different sport

PODCAST: "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021) - A Marvel Chronological Countdown episode w/ Jamie and Ryan

Watched:  11/14/2021

Format:  Disney+

Viewing: First

Decade:  2020's

Director:  Destin Daniel Cretton

For more ways to listen

Jamie and Ryan reveal their secret kung-fu-like prowess at podcasting as they dig into the next phase of Marvel as a new leading superhero takes the fore, alongside his wisecracking pal, Awkwafina, and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley. Not to mention a few huge stars of international cinema in Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung. And a rad dragon. Join us as we circle around this film, and sort out what our friends at Marvel are up to now.

The Signal Watch PodCast · 170: "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021) - Avengers Countdown w/ Jamie & Ryan

Music:

Xu Shang-Chi - Joel P West, Shang-Chi OST

Family - Joel P West, Shang-Chi OST 

Marvel Movies!

The Signal Watch PodCast · Avengers Chronological Countdown (w/ Jamie and Ryan)

Christmas Watch Parties! - Every Week - a Gift to Unwrap!

 

December brings us the merriest season of all!  I hope you've got your peppermint sticks and twinkly lights!

On the first three Fridays of December, we'll hold a Christmas watch party!  And much like receiving a gift under the tree, we're going to keep it under wraps til the last minute!  

What will we watch?  I AM NOT TELLING.

But we will enjoy the finest in Christmas offerings!  I would not steer you wrong!*  

When:

• December 3
• December 10
• December 17

Time:  8:30 PM Central

How:

• Amazon Streaming
• Posts will be up by Tuesday each week at http://signal-watch.com or you can check up at the "Watch Party" tab at the top of that page to sort it out and review info about Watch Parties
• We will let you know if the movie will cost anything by Tuesday the week of the screening
• Be festive!

Texas DPS has no time for your jolliness

*this is a lie.  I will drive this bus right off a cliff and take all of you with me.

That Was a Movie Watch: Red Notice (2021)

Watched:  11/17/2021

Format:  Netflix 

Viewing: First

Decade: 2020's

Director:  Rawson Marshall Thurber

I'm *fine* with Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot.  I still watch movies because they star particular talent, but most of those actors have been dead for more than 10 years or way longer, and I guess there's a few people I'd show up to see just because they did a thing.  But it's more likely I'll avoid a movie as long as possible if there are particular actors starring.  None of the three here fall into the "must avoid" category.  They're all... fine.  You know more or less exactly what you'll get, and Red Notice (2021) is not here to blow the door off of those expectations.  

Best case scenario, Red Notice is a fun way to introduce your tween to heist pictures and globe-trotting comedy-action-adventure.  There's a lot of A-Team style bloodless gunplay where no one is ever shot, people crack wise, and it's all a big goof.  It's not a new format, and this one is particularly gentle, so it's a good entry point.   

Oh My God, I'm Old Watch: School of Rock (2003)

Watched:  11/16/2021

Format:  Netflix

Viewing:  3rd?

Decade:  2000's

Director:  Richard Linklater

I still think of this as a new movie, but it came out almost 20 years ago now.  So, that's how time works, kids.  All those adorable moppets are now adults in their 30's.  

School of Rock (2003) is a sweet movie about someone who would absolutely land in an extraordinary amount of legal trouble and have trouble ever finding work again if the events of the film occurred in real life, not to mention taking Joan Cusack down with him.  

I won't summarize, you've all seen the movie or get the basic gist.  

Upon a re-view, I guess I decided that the movie is weirdly and profoundly lazy about its set-up and execution - something that bugged me the first time I saw this and now just feels confusing from a movie from a major studio.

Noir Watch: Detour (1945)

Watched:  11/16/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  Unknown

Decade:  1940's

Director:  Edgar G. Ulmer

Detour (1945) is a bitter, furious bit of pulp noir with no budget, no bankable stars, cardboard sets and a half-assed set-up, and it is absolutely impossible to stop watching once you start.  And, that's at least 85% Ann Savage, who doesn't even show up til the 1/3rd mark.  

It had been a while since I'd watched Detour, but Jenifer selected it for a Tuesday watch party, and I was delighted she did.  I have no idea what spawned this movie or even how it got made.  It doesn't feel like a war-time picture, but it does suggest what would come in the months and years following the war.  It's just lacking the gloss the studios would put on something like this - hard-scrabble talent working off a half-finished script and utterly buyable as drifters and wastrels of pre-War America.  

Noir Watch: The Lineup (1958)

Watched:  11/16/2021

Format:  Noir Alley on TCM

Viewing:  Second or third

Decade:  1950's

Director:  Don Siegel

I had seen The Lineup (1958) years ago, and remembered it was crazy and Eli Wallach was fantastic, but not much else.   It was part of a set of DVD's I was watching in quick secession, and I just didn't get back to it.  Which is too bad, it's a cool crime movie.

Bay Area residents will want to watch it just to see the locations in 1958, some of which are long gone, but most of which are still standing (something Austin would find horrifying.  We knock everything down, willy-nilly.).  As a police procedural in the years after The Naked City, the city itself is more than a backdrop, its geography and environs are crucial and inform everything, from the hook of the plot to the finale car chase.  

Meanwhile, the cast is kind of interesting.  There's the aforementioned Eli Wallach, but he doesn't enter the movie til the 1/3rd mark, along with Robert Keith (who I just learned is the father of Brian Keith) as a pair of heavies/ hit-men in from Miami.  A baby-faced Richard Jaeckel plays their driver hired on by The Man - the mastermind pulling the strings.  Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale from The Beverly Hillbillies) a manager of the San Francisco Opera who is involved in the case and Emile Meyer who seems like he's always a cop plays one of the lead detectives.

Disney+ Watch: Jungle Cruise (2021)

Watched:  11/15/2021

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Decade:  2020's

Director:  Jaume Collett-Serra

This is part of why it's nice to have Disney+.  

Before COVID, I think maybe I would have talked myself into paying to see Jungle Cruise (2021) in the theater.  I'm partial to Emily Blunt, I more or less like Dwayne Johnson.  The Disney park ride of The Jungle Cruise is a highlight of every trip I've ever had when I hit one of the Disney parks - it's wrapped up in nostalgia, certainly, but it's a fun thing to go do.  

I was a little put off that the jungle cruise of the film was not in Africa, as that would mean no elephants, my childhood favorite part of the ride, but... you know.  It's fine.  

Noir-Vember to Remember Watch Party: The Big Sleep (1946)

Watched:  11/12/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  Unknown

Decade:  1940's

Director:  Howard Hawks

This is literally one of the most written about books and movies of the last century.  Go out there and get nuts reading up on it elsewhere.

Like with the Universal Horror films, I've just been delighted to share these films with the usual gang, some of who've seen these films, some who haven't.  I try not to be a pain interjecting factoids and whatnot, tag-teaming with Jenifer.  It's definitely different watching *good* movies versus campy movies, but everyone's been terrific.