May Movies - Week 2

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

MIL has her ID now... that she no longer is interested in getting her own place... or driving... but hey, she's technically an adult now! Here are some movies that we watched:

May 11 – Return to Oz (1985)
 
I was going through Disney+ for something to watch with Izzy & her mom… and thought revisiting a disturbing movie from my childhood would be a good idea… and I was right… but oh man is this movie dark! Basically this is a sequel over a half century after Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy (Fairuza Balk) gets committed to a mental institution by her family because of her talking about Oz… and hijinx ensue when they try to FRY HER BRAIN!!! What follows is a confusing tale of talking couches, foot soldiers on wheels, witches with interchangeable heads, artificial intelligence, all kinds of crazy stuff… so would I recommend it?!?
 
Rating – 9/10 – Absolutely! Go check it out! Make your children watch it! I want everybody to have this in their brains!
 
May 13 – The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
 
Followed it up with probably my favorite Muppets movie… where identical twin reporters (Kermit the Frog & Fozzy the Bear) go to London to investigate the theft of Lady Holiday’s diamonds (Diane Rigg) and hijinx ensue when Kermit mistakes Miss Piggy for Lady Holiday and… yeah, it’s a Muppet movie with tons of cameos & hilarity at the Happiness Hotel. This was a VHS tape I had growing up (along with Muppets in Manhattan) so does it hold up?
 
Rating – 9/10 – I’m always amazed when I’m singing along to just about everything though I hadn’t seen it in years
 
May 14 – Zero Charisma (2013)
 
This one was recommended by guest of the podcast Lewis Falkenrath & is an independent dramedy (dramatic comedy) about a nerdy dungeonmaster whose… basically a prick to his other nerdy friends… and then a poser comes in & starts having fun with them… and then family drama comes in when his estranged mother comes back… and hijinx ensue. Sounds like fun, right? Well… it actually is mostly. The D&D stuff is pretty good and some introspective looks at nerd culture (geek chic as I’m told) and then how it can intersect with your own family situation (and with our own stuff coming up recently) and yeah, it’s worth a watch. It’s on YouTube, Amazon Prime, Tubi, Freevee, Plex, basically everywhere & free.
 
Rating – 8/10 – Suffers a little bit from “indie” syndrome where at the end you kind of are left with… “Oh, okay” but at least it’s a tight 85 minutes
 
May 15 – Arcadian (2024)
 
In the not too distant future, the world is in an apocalyptic dystopia that’s never really explained other than a bunch of people died… and there are these mysterious creatures that kill everybody at night. A father (Nic Cage) and his two twin teenage sons struggle to survive day by day… but they’re teenagers… and one likes a redhead while the other is… on the spectrum… and hijinx ensue. The creepy, dark atmosphere & decent natural performances are the best parts of this movie… and the creatures are very weird & creepy and super slowly revealed (and never explained) so this is a great example of mystery creature horror… and I even kinda like that nothing is really explained (you can even go online & it’s all speculation) but… yeah… it’s a unique one in my opinion.
 
Rating – 8/10 – I really enjoyed it… but I can also see why you might poke holes into it a bunch…

Coming soon... more movies!!! Have a great day everybody!!!