Rambling Film

  This week's Halloween theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is movies about folk or urban legends. There's plenty of those, and the only rule I set for myself was not to use Urban Legend, because that's too easy. Here's what I came up with. 1) Candyman (1992)- Say his name 5 times.. This is still one of my favorite horror movies, and I have an even bigger appreciation for it after how Nia DaCosta's 2021 remake frames it in retrospect. It made me afraid of parking garages and park bathrooms my entire childhood. 2) When A Stranger Calls (2006) - Yes, I'm going with the remake. I like Camilla Belle and I wish she had a better career. But what better choice than "the call is coming from inside the house!" to use for Urban Legend week. 3) The Ring - You die 7 days after watching the video tape. I still think this is the best PG-13 horror film out there. It holds up even though I've seen this 100 times.

We've made it to October which means we're on for another Halloween month at Wandering Through The Shelves! This week we're talking about horror films that take place in schools. Here's what I came up with.  1) Jennifer's Body - This movie is having a bit of a resurgence. Once a flop, now rightly a cult classic. This movie is just fun. 2) Spontaneous - While not a conventional horror movie, there's enough blood in this to make me count it. This movie is about kids who start spontaneously combusting in school, and it's exactly as you imagine it.  3) The Faculty - One of my favorites from my childhood. I need to re-watch this film about creepy teachers again.

Eddie (Tom Hardy) is trying to get his career back on track with Venom living inside him when a convicted serial killer, Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) insists he be the one to interview him before he is executed. When Kasady gets a taste of the symbiote within Eddie, he comes the foil to Venom; Carnage. The first Venom is a film I'd classify as "so bad, it's funny" so that's exactly where my expectations were for this one. Throw in the very excitable director, Andy Serkis, and I had hopes this would be both dumb and fun. And it is! There's plenty about this film that works, Eddie and Venom are a funny duo, there's a great dick joke that lands perfectly. Harrelson plays Carnage like an over the top weirdo at a poetry slam, Michelle Williams clearly still has someone pointing a gun at her off screen because she is doing the bare minimum here. That's the fun and dumb I was looking for. At a brisk 90 minutes, we don't have time to drag, which is nice

A prequel to HBO's legendary show, The Sporanos, this time we're following the infamous Dickie Moltisanti, (Alessandro Nivola) Christopher's father and a character who died long before we meet the Tony Soprano we know. We the younger versions of plenty of familiar names, and most of all Dickie's issues with another criminal, Harold (Leslie Odom Jr.) I watched The Sopranos for the first time during lockdown, so a lot of the story was fresh in my mind. I was pumped for this. While some aspects of that show did not age well at all, Tony Soprano is such a compelling character and I was happy to see his quasi-origin. Even better, HBO got the late James Gandolfini's son Michael to play Tony in this. He's not a seasoned actor, but just seeing his face which looks so much like his father's made me happy. Unfortunately, this prequel has too many issues to make me love it overall. It doesn't do anything to ruin the series it builds off of, it's just very under

Well I certainly made up for my slower months in September. I feel like I'm watching SO much stuff on TV right now. It's almost overwhelming, but I've got quite the variety to talk about this time, so here's what been happening on the small screen in House Rambling Film. Ted Lasso - Fresh off their multiple Emmy wins, season 2 continues to be just as great. These last couple of episodes have been quite a bit more emotional and heavy than their usual, but they still throw some great laughs in there. Jason Sudeikis is just phenomenal in this. God, what was Olivia Wilde thinking leaving this dude? Mr. Corman - I'm TRYING hard to love this show because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but his character is just...not great. That's a shame because the concept and whimsy is really different than anything else on TV right now, and I like the risk he takes, but Josh needs to get out of this rut. The newest episode finally caught up with COVID-19 times, and honestly I'm jus

  This week's TV theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is that one I saw I'm going to do better with every year, then never do. There is so much TV to watch in English that I rarely get to anything else, and the few I do, I've talked about before. So here's me reaching again. Recommend something fun to me in the comments. 1) Yu-Gi-Oh - I've never watched this show, but as a kid I remember thinking it was so weird that so many adults liked this, and jokes on me because now I'm an adult who likes anime too. We can all grow, folks.  2) Pokemon - My son is obsessed with this. He takes great pride in his cards and tells me all about them, and I know nothing, because I don't watch this either.  3) Scenes From A Marriage - This is kind of a cheat, because while it aired as mini series in Sweden, I've only seen the film cut, but I'm watching the remake so it reminded me of this.