[Itse]

Watched quite a few movies last week, so I'll drop a bunch of would/wouldn't recommend.

I'll start with the least known film in this batch, Blue Collar from 1978 stars Harvey Keitel, Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto (the black guy from Alien), and it's the directorial debut of Paul Schrader. (Wrote for example Taxi Driver and Raging Bull). It's a story of three car factory workers in Detroit who end up doing a crime and unsurprisingly things don't go well. The film has some issues, but overall I would easily recommend it if you have any desire to see a film that has some really different and interesting takes on what life is like for these guys. This was just so much more interesting than anything Hollywood could ever produce these days on this topic, a relif from a time when films could take some actually controversial stands on issues without dressing it all up in fantasy and/or humour. As a film it's like a 3/5 or something, but I found it fascinating and I'm really glad I've seen it.

Casablanca (1942). It was far from the first time I've seen it, but the first time I really enjoyed it and appreciated it. I wonder if I appreciate melodrama more now than I'm older, but in any case, this is a classic everyone has heard of, and if you haven't seen it, I would recommend checking it out if you've never seen it. This is an easy classic to watch. The pace is pretty fast, the plot is solid and the characters are very entertaining. Obviously it's ultimately fluff, but it's good fluff.

Also watched Full Metal Jacket for probably the tenth time. Still a fantastically uncomfortable film. Love it.

There's a new version of Rebecca, which encouraged me and my GF to watch Hitchcocks classic filmatization from 1940, because so many reviews keep saying this is the better version. This one is a classic, and deservedly so. The acting is on point, the atmosphere is succesfully creepy and the story is pretty good, even if film has made a few changes I don't agree with. The latter part of the film after The Major Reveal unfortunately isn't half as good as the first part, but overall it was still a very enjoyable film I would recommend, at least if you're into classic black and white thrillers. The film also has a rather unusual story, which is always nice.

David Cronenbergs Shivers (1975). It's his first feature, and it's mildly interesting if you're a connoisseur of film history, with a couple of decenly disturbing scenes, but other than that it's what-if-zombies-but-also-they-have-sex, but not in a fun or very interesting way. Would not recommend in general. It is memorable, so there's that, but not very good.

The Bad Batch (2016). It starts pretty well for about 15 minutes, and the rest is just boring garbage, so overall it's a really, really bad film, one of the worst I've seen in a while. Nothing of interest happens after the protagonist is saved from her first trouble. There are no action scenes, the actual story makes no sense and has basically no connection to the beginning of the film and the worldbuilding is pretty meh. It's kind of shame, because the start of the film is one of the best WTF starts to any film I've seen. So maybe you might want to entertain yourself with that 15 minutes or so, and then move on to something better. Overall would not recommend.