I haven't written in awhile, since I've been busy playing a lot of Civ 5 before getting frustrated after four hours that I'm awful at it, but I've slowly been watching movies again and, unlike last time I wrote, I actually picked ones I liked. Oh boy!
Evil Dead
Last night, I watched Evil Dead. This was kind of an outlier on ones I've watched since I remember trying to watch it or watching part of it freshman year of undergrad but falling asleep or bailing or something.
I was afraid that if I started watching it again, part of it would feel familiar and that that would kind of ruin what I was going for with movies I haven't seen before. But, thankfully, I didn't remember a single damned thing from the last time I tried watching it and, hey, I liked the movie!
The more famous one is obviously Evil Dead II, and this movie's kind of gained a reputation as the route to the fireworks factory of the boomstick and chainsaw arm, but it was still good in its own right. It didn't seem to follow all of the other movie cliches with zombies and evil spirits.
Sure, there were the cliches like an ancient book awakening spirits, along with them being trapped there. And let's not forget the premise with 5 teenagers in a cabin being the biggest cliche of all. But things like delayed possession, Ash being immune for some reason that's just not explained since there's no way he'd know why nothing turned him and Linda not even attacking him for a decent amount of time.
Most ghosts or zombies or whatever in movies seem like they just want to kill you, but these ones wanted to torture him and that was different enough for me. It was more thriller than scary, which is fine, and I'd be lying if I said my heart wasn't beating quickly when Ash was trying to throw the book in the fire at the end. I knew he'd live, but it was still thrilling.
SO, I liked it!
Back To The Future
I think I talked about this when I wrote about United 93, but anyways, I think the greatest trick a movie can pull is adding suspense when you already know the outcome. In United 93, it was because everyone who's seeing it knows the plane crashes. But here, it was because this movie's been lampooned and parodied so many times that I knew most of the beats of it going in.
I knew about the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. I knew about Chuck Berry. I knew about Marty's mother being in love with him. I knew about the 88mph and all that junk. But the fact that I still was worried that George and Lorraine wouldn't get together or that George wouldn't confront Biff or that Marty would disappear shows how well made this movie is and how just, good, it is.
The scene at the end with Doc Brown trying to get Marty back to 1985 after the plugs came undone was fantastic. I knew full well that he'd get back, but you still weren't sure for some reason. I genuinely thought Doc might be dead even though I know he's in the next two movies.
And even besides that, I think this movie has a deeper message. Just by showing George's pitiful life when he didn't have confidence and his fantastic one when he had just a little, it shows how much believing in yourself and what you want can make a difference. That message resonates with me and, while this movie may have been too stark in the differences just to illustrate them, I think it's an important one.
So I really liked this movie!
Ghostbusters
Here's another movie that's been parodied to hell and back. With Chekhov's Stay Puft marshmallows and Slimer and those kinds of things, I thought I'd know more than I did. But I didn't know anything about the Sigourney Weaver character or Rick Moranis or any of the legend or anything.
All I knew about was the bigger things like the ghosts themselves or the giant Stay Puft man. I knew nothing about the story, and hey, it was pretty good! I thought the rise to celebrity overnight after one ghost take down seemed a bit unrealistic but it's still probably better than being a 3 hour long movie.
I didn't really laugh all that much, though when Bill Murray said he was in fact dickless in mayor's office, I very much enjoyed it. I LOL'd.
My problem was that I knew the climax of the Stay Puft man, even if I didn't know everything about how they took him down. I feel like the ending would have had much more oomph if I wouldn't have known about it.
It was still a good story, and the legend added a lot to the popular conception of just a giant marshmallow man coming, but it still wasn't my favorite. I liked it, but not a huge amount. I just wish I knew less.
***
Rankings!
1. Frank
2. Snowpiercer
3. United 93
4. Back To The Future
5. Gone Girl
6. Magic Mike
7. Ghostbusters
8. A History of Violence
9. John Wick
10. Raging Bull
11. Evil Dead
12. Best In Show
13. The Guest
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