23/08/2018:
Watched Jaws (1975) again and rather than give it a swift review before moving on to more pressing matters decided to flag up the rating of the movie in the UK when I was a lad, cause as far as I can remember Jaws was certified PG for the duration of my childhood.

How on Earth it was rated PG is anybody’s guess in retrospect. Robert Shaw getting chomped, crabs eating hands, a severed leg trailing blood, a head floating in an abandoned boat. Kids being eaten. Skinny dippers being eaten. Fishermen almost being eaten. Hooper not being eaten (a variation on Peter Benchley’s novel, but one that I’m pleased with cause Hooper is cool!)

As I get older I am far more taken with Spielberg’s witty annihilation of small town political corruption, and the moving scenes between Chief Brody and his kids, than I am the horror/adventure movie I loved as a kid.

Still, there’s a lot of horror in there, so much so in fact that watching it with my son I found myself squirming on occasion and wondering what the hell I was doing allowing him to sit through it. Still, he was pretty good about it. Offered me a pillow at one point in case the shark was frightening me so I could cover my eyes if it got a bit excessive.

The fact that all subsequent shark movies fall so incredibly short of Spielberg’s prototypical Summer blockbuster is indicative of its qualities. Despite being over forty years old and despite the shark still looking fake, it remains a magnificent example of exciting, thoughtful filmmaking.

Following an evening of dad grumbling about the state of the yard and the multiplying numbers of lampshades populating the house in the absence of a studio for my wife to work in (One more week of sharing my home with the contents of her workshop and then it all gets moved out and I do a little dance!) watched Dean Devlin’s Geostorm (2017) on streaming, which turned out to be every bit the CG heavy, plot light sleep inducer I expected it to be. Gerard Butler stomps about growling incoherently whilst Jim Sturgess as the disloyal and slightly whiny younger brother pouts and gasps his way through a series of dreadfully constructed disaster scenes. Abbie Cornish, as sexy FBI agent Sarah Wilson meanwhile, is as redundant as the film’s narrative. She raises her gun a lot in this movie and when she isn’t pointing her weapon at stuff, she ambles round in her lingerie in a surplus to requirements love interest role that is as flimsy as her undergarments. The film comes across as Roland Emmerich light, which is not surprising given Devlin penned the superior (though no less stupefying) Independence Day in 1995.

Finished off watching Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema with The Lampshade Maker. Delightful from start to finish, the five-parter, penned by Kermode and Kim Newman, has been a revelatory genre treat. Highly recommended.

04/09/2018:
Took full advantage over the weekend of my beautiful children going to Blackpool for the day and went out for dinner with The Lampshade Maker.
Watched Blackkklansman (2018) at Home, in Manchester, which is easily the best Spike Lee joint in quite some time.

Produced by Jordan Peele, of Get Out (2017) fame, the film sees Lee return to the kind of politically charged, racially motivated storytelling the best of his films handled with such intelligence in the 80’s and 90’s. A real winner of a movie with stand out performances from all involved. Certainly one of my favourite films of the year thus far. Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace.

Joined Home again as a member. Planning to attend more in order to be able to watch the sorts of medium to lower budget movies I used to watch a lot back in my Cornerhouse days. Unfortunately, indie films seem to getting elbowed out of multiplexes by spandex clad superheroes these days, which is sad, especially given I love my spandex clad superheroes. I just wish they would stop gobbling up all the screens and let some of the little guys in to share the box office spoils more often.

Started watching Z Nation, which is the Syfy channel’s low rent cash in on all things zombie. It may not be as serious, well acted or have anywhere near the production value of The Walking Dead, but it’s easy viewing, if episodic on occasion.

Jaws, Geostorm and Blakkklansman
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