Aug 29th
10:00pm | Ghost in the Shell (2017) | PG-13 |
Lotta mixed reviews about this one. Of course a lot of fanboys are gonna go to town on it for not being the manga it is based on. Then I guess there was the "whitewashing" crowd chiming in to defend a completely helpless entire culture without any voice, who actually happen to have no problem whatsoever with Johansson playing the role. In fact, the director of the orginal anime weighed in saying that that's the literal point of the series - she has her whole identity and body replaced so there's absolutely no reason an asian actress has to portray her. I'm not defending Hollywood as much as I'm just saying let's lay down the pitchforks and enjoy some pretty colors and Scarlett Johansson jumping around in a skin-tight bodysuit for a while...
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche
Aug 28th
10:00pm | Infinity Pool (2023) | R |
I might be gettin' kinda loose with Maritime Arts Monday, hehehehe. But hey, you do this every week! This is a Brandon Cronenberg movie that might get a little (read "a lot") weird, just in case you were planning on tuning in for a sweet, peachy lifetime movie, in which case, what? why? I have to warn you when I'm NOT showing some traumatic nightmare-fueling grindhouse art trash. Also, do you think Mia Goth chose her name cuz of the projects she wanted to be in, or the other way around? Hmmmm.
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman
Aug 27th
10:00pm | The Hateful Eight (2015) | R |
A bounty hunter and his prisoner seek refuge from the winter in a cabin inhabited by some nefarious characters. Have I seen this? Is it even possible that I haven't? It's not possible there's a Tarantino movie I still haven't gotten around to seeing, right? I dunno, I watch a lot of movies. In any case, expect a bunch of hyper-violence, too-cool-for-school dialog, amazing cinemtography and characters, and at least one thing that pisses you off that QT just can't help himself including... my guess if I had to? JJL's feet. Possibly using a literal shoehorn, I dunno.
Starring: SLJ, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth
Aug 25th
10:00pm | Angel Heart (1987) | X |
We've got an '87, boys! And here's the weird thing... I've never seen this movie. A neo-noir horror with Bobby D as the devil (I don't think I'm spoiling anything there, his name is literally Louis Cyphre), voodoo, sexy sexin' sex, Micky Rourke, and an X rating... wow. Set in the 50s and directed by Alan Parker with ALL the attention to noir stylings, it's a wonder this has escaped my studious cinematic eye for so long. Mehh, I was probably just watching The Video Dead or RoboCop again whenever I had a chance, there was a lot happening in 1987! Yeah, when we're watchin' full-blown nudity, a man boiled in a vat of gumbo, and walls dripping blood, you know it's the Friday Night Midnight Movieee!!!
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling
Aug 22nd
10:00pm | The Lone Ranger (2013) | PG-13 |
Is Armie Hammer really a cannibal? Is Johnny Depp a birdest for his wardrobe choices? None of these questions will be answered and more! Because of course, we like to separate the whatever-the-hell that's all about from the whatever-the-hell we're watching is about. That said, I now know waaay more about Armie Hammer's sex life than I ever cared to and spent NO time on researching this movie. It's a western. It used to be a TV show in the 50s. Johnny Depp has a bird on his head. There you go. Now we're all up to speed.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, HBC, William Fichtner
Aug 21st
10:00pm | Life of Pi (2012) | PG |
I've never gotten around to seeing this! And really all I know is that a dude is stranded at sea for some reason with a giant-ass tiger. And one thing I know about cats is that they generally don't like water. So I'm not sure how he doesn't get eated like 5 minutes in, but that's probably part of the movie, right? If Pi is the boy, then who is tiger? And why fren-shaped if apex predator on tiny boat? So many meme answers I need. Let's watch! It's Maritime Arts Monday!
Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu
Aug 20th
10:00pm | Lucky Number Slevin (2006) | R |
This little crime thriller may not have been a huge hit at the box office, but it's one of the best of the genre, trust me! A case of mistaken identity lands Slevin in trouble with two rival mob gangs who he has to out-smart or out-gun in order to survive. Could this trip to New York get any worse? It's got suspense, comedy, twists and turns, everything you're craving. Also Lucy Liu is adorable in this, and Josh Hartnett spends a considerable amount of screentime in a towel... so something for everyone!
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu, Ben Kingsley
Aug 18th
11:00pm | Changing Lanes (2002) | R |
Two guys get in a fender-bender in NYC traffic, and the ensuing butterfly effect escalates them into an all-out feud. Now this little road rage movie may sound like a silly premise, but I can assure you it's actually a really taut thriller with solid performances, even if your one dream has always been to punch 2002 Ben Affleck's smug face. Everyone's in top form here, making this a bit different than our usual fare, but no less entertaining Friday Night Midnight Movie!!
Starring: Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, Kim Staunton, Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack
Aug 15th
10:00pm | Ant-Man: Quantumania (2023) | PG-13 |
It seems to me that this is the third Ant Guy movie, but I don't really remember the second one.. who knows. Regular size guy gets small-ified and fights crime. Also, there's the Wasp, which, I'm not sure if that's just her personality trait or she's like a part-wasp woman. Does she have Ant Guy's same powers of smallification? Or can he like, smallify anybody he wants by touching them when he smalls? You know, like apparating in Harry Potter. Is this Harry Potter? I think I need to lie down.
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Bill Motha Fucking Murray, Randall Park
Aug 14th
10:00pm | Midway (2019) | PG-13 |
It's Maritime Arts Monday! Or Martial Arts I suppose, you decide. Anyway, it's war on the water in this Roland Emmerich historical action piece about the titular WWII battle. Midway is a tiny island military base located, ohhh somewhere between the US west coast and Japan, let's say roughly halfway. For that reason it was (and still is) an extremely important strategic position that the Japanese would've very much liked to take. Here is the story of that battle. As to its accuracy, who knows, it seems like half the audience say it's accurate down to the wrinkles in the uniforms, but others are upset about certain aspects/heroes not recognized in favor of John Ford screentime. And with a whopping 50% difference between critic/audience on tomatoes, I can't help but check it out!
Starring: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas
Aug 13th
10:00pm | Rounders (1998) | R |
What if I told you I have a movie idea where Matt Damon and Edward Norton play high-stakes poker in private clubs across 90s NYC to try and clear some gambling debts to the Russian Mob? Is that something you might be interested in? And what if I told you I can get John Malkovich and John Turturro... is that something you might be interested in?
Starring: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Gretchen Mol, John Malkovich, John Turturro, Martin Landau
Aug 11th
11:00pm | The Hunt (2020) | R |
Ahhhh hunting humans for sport. Almost a cinematic tradition! Of course you can go the proper, sophisticated route like many, but personally I'm more of a John Leguizamo's The Pest type. I think this falls somewhere in between, opting for a political slant. But for as much as both sides seem to wanna claim this as a bastian of their wonky far left/right beliefs, I think they're both the subjects of its ire. Then again, I'm pretty sure it's not even meant to be taken as seriously as this write-up. It's funny. It's gory. It's the friggin' Friday Night Midnight MOVIEEEE!!
Starring: Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Wayne Duvall, Ethan Suplee, Emma Roberts
Aug 10th
10:00pm | John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) | R |
John Wick Fouuuurr, Woooo! John Wick has murdered pretty much everybody in the wickiverse already, so I don't know what they're gonna have him doing in this. Probably just some leisurely travel, maybe kick around a few of the heads he's knocked off shoulders with his John Wick Fists, lay by the pool. It's bound to be a relaxing, well-earned vacation installment to this hyper-violent franchise. I'll watch John Wick relax by the pool. Somebody better. Or ya know... murder happens.
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, George Georgiou, Lance Reddick, Clancy Brown, Ian McShane, Bill Skarsgard, Donnie Yen
Aug 7th
10:00pm | Inside Man (2006) | R |
It's a heist! Apparently a very twisty-turny one. Some might say a little too much so that it becomes a little too clever for itself, and things like Jodie Foster being wasted and as a character, essentially, being non-essential. But never mind them! There's plenty of heisty goodness to be had, I'm sure. I dunno... I don't even think I've seen this.
Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Aug 4th
1:00am | Oculus (2013) | R |
I saw this videotape at the dollar store and couldn't believe it. $1.25 for this fucking amazing movie, yes thanks! We may have watched it last year, but again, i couldn't make it to the video store this week so we're going off my personal collection. No worries though, this is one of my favorites in modern horror! Mike Flanagan comes out strong with a bigger budget after his fantastic debut with Absentia. It may use tropes, but damned if everybody shouldn't be learning how to use tropes from it! Spooky, scary, moody mayhem! It's the Friday Night Midnight Movie!
Starring: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katie Sackoff, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan
Aug 1st
1:00am | Seed of Chucky (2004) | R |
I'm out of order? You're out of order! This whole series is out of order!! And that's okay, because at the very least, I know we haven't watched this one yet. It's when Mancini took over directing again, I think... don't quote me on that. But this is a few years after "Bride", which makes sense, right? They gotta get settled in, talk about the future, take some time to just honeymoon around Europe and whatnot before deciding to bring a puppet-demon-spawn-baby-doll murderer into the world. A movie within a movie, this gets meta-hollywood, and I'm gonna get mega-stoned to watch it!
Starring: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, John Waters, Billy Boyd, Redman
