Malaysia’s local film industry seems to have established a niche for itself in the horror genre though they’ve always seemed dumb to me. I’ve read however that many of the gags were copied straight out of this popular Thai film and it is the record-holder for the highest grossing film made in Thailand so I thought I’d give this a chance.
I remember this film being used as the subject of a Mad Men episode and I think it makes for a good example of a film that was wildly successful in its day but falls short of true greatness. This is a musical comedy with several well-known stars including Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh. But is probably best known for launching the career of Ann-Magret who is featured in the iconic opening scene copied in Mad Men.
Fred Rogers is probably unknown to most non-Americans and I certainly wouldn’t have known about him if I hadn’t read about him on Broken Forum. This biographical documentary was timed to be released on what would have been the man’s 90th birthday if he had not passed away in 2003. But it’s also very apropos that this was made now as a dig at the current state of politics in the United States.
Just about every Russian film we’ve watched recently has been by Andrey Zvyagintsev, an indication of how influential he is and how he is seen as the best director at depicting contemporary Russian society. This is an earlier film before both the standout Leviathan and Loveless and unfortunately I found it to be nowhere as good.
This is of course another famous film based on an equally famous novel and it was directed by Miloš Forman who everyone surely knows due to Amadeus. Plus it stars Jack Nicholson in a film set in a mental institution. What could be more perfect, right? It turns out that the premise is actually that he plays the sole sane man in an asylum and that is even more awesome.
I confused myself by having two films with the same English language name released so close to one another though they are completely unlike one another. This one is a Chinese film by Feng Xiaogang who my wife notes is more of a mainstream director. Despite the plethora of awards this film racked up, it is utterly conventional and therefore uninteresting.
This film made the news for all the wrong reasons as it was released digitally by Netflix instead of a more conventional distribution and that apparently upset its director Alex Garland. I didn’t have high expectations of it but the director did make Ex Machina and this was adapted from a science-fiction novel that managed to win the Nebula Award in 2014. I haven’t read it however and after watching this I have no desire to at all.