Last Week in Movies (9/19-9/25): Free Skate

We've come to the end of our summer viewing experience at Giant Electric Penguin. For this final week, I decided to go off list and simply watch whatever "tickled my fancy," as they say. One of the reasons I decided to take on this Herculean task--5 movies a week for 14 weeks--was to train myself to make better choices when using Netflix, specifically its Instant Viewing feature. I enjoy quality films, but too many times in the past I've thought to myself, "I'm gonna jump on Netflix and see what's available," clicked around the various choices for five, sometimes twenty minutes, and then chosen something stupid, wasteful, and disappointing. There are so many films I need/want to see during my limit time amongst the living, and I started to feel bad about all the useless garbage I was watching. So, yeah, I think the past 14 weeks have been helpful in getting me back on track. I don't mind an occasional straight-to-DVD horror-comedy about stripper-zombies or something from the Uwe Boll oeuvre for shits and giggles--I mean, I do need fodder for the Movie Penguin blog--but I'd rather fill the surrounding hours with twisty noir; eerie, atmospheric French horror; ambitious indies; and must-see classics. So, anyway, here's the last Last Week in Movies for 2010. Hope you kinda dug the whole thing.

1. Eyes Without a Face (1959)

I'm not saying that the French are still kicking Hollywood's ass in the horror department, but they sure were in the late-50's. Of course, I'm basing this assessment solely on 1959's Eyes Without a Face, an eerie French creep-out about a young woman with no face and the mad doctor--who also happens to be her father--keen on performing the first successful face transplant. It's kind of like Face/Off without the boat chases and hammy acting. Actually, it's not like Face/Off at all. I want to watch Face/Off.

My grade: B+

2. Red Rock West (1993)

Why do bad things happen to good people? Nicholas Cage plays Michael, a down-on-his-luck schlub from Texas, who rolls into the small town of Red Rock West with nothing but a pack of cigarettes and an empty wallet in his pocket. When local business owner/town sheriff, Wayne, mistakes Michael for the hitman, known simply as "Lyle from Dallas," he's hired to murder his freckly wife, played by Lara Flynn Boyle, the freckliest actress working in the film at the time, Michael goes for it, taking Wayne's five-thousand bucks. Michael drives out to Wayne's ranch, meets the wife he's been hired to rub out, let's her know what's up, and agrees to turn around and murder Wayne when offered double. Now, with a pocketful of money, Michael hightails it out of Red Rock West. At least, he tries to. Like all good noir, Michael digs himself deeper and deeper and deeper, and things only get worse when the real "Lyle from Dallas" shows up. Oh, brudder.

My grade: A-

3. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
While hiking through Northern England, two friends--David and Jack--are attacked by a werewolf. Jack is ripped to bloody ribbons, but David only sustains some minor scratches, well, minor compared to his friend's. David wakes up in a London hospital to find himself attended by a pretty nurse, Alex, and a curious doctor who starts to believe David's story about a giant wolf attack rather than the accounts of the residents of East Proctor where the attack took place. David begins having dreams in which he is running through the forest, naked, chasing deer and devouring them alive. He also suffers from weird nightmares that don't seem to have much to do with the film as a whole, like the one in which his family back home is gunned down by weird, Nazi goblins things.

Anyway, two days before the next full moon, Jack, now forced to walk the Earth as a rotting, undead corpse, approaches David and encourages him to commit suicide. This will apparently end the werewolf's bloodline and allow all of his victims to move on to a cushy afterlife. David refuses and two days later he's running around London slaughtering people. Oh, David, no!

My grade: B

On Nurse Alex: An American Werewolf in London? More like An American Boner in my Underpants!

On the pre-CGI werewolf transformation scene: Incredible! Who needs computers?

There you have it. It's been fun. Sometime this week I'll be handing out superlatives, so make sure you tune in for that. Here is a complete list of the films from this summer, along with the arbitrary grade I assigned to them:

1. Them! (B+)

2. The Killing (A)

3. On the Waterfront (A)

4. Metropolis (B)

5. The Hurt Locker (A)

6. Body Heat (B-)

7. In the Mood for Love (A)

8. Die Hard (A)

9. Chinatown (A)

10. The Big Sleep (A)

11. The 400 Blows (A)

12. The Devil's Rejects (C+)

13. Last Tango in Paris (B-)

14. The Constant Gardener (A)

15. Johnny Got His Gun (C)

16. The Unseen (D)

17. Rear Window (A)

18. Gojira (B)

19. Let the Right One In (A+)

20. A Boy and His Dog (--)

21. Peeping Tom (C+)

22. Thieves' Highway (A)

23. Through a Glass Darkly (A)

24. Shoot the Piano Player (B)

25. The Warriors (B)

26. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (C)

27. Red Road (B)

28. Ponyo (A+)

29. The Fog (C)

30. Margot at the Wedding (A-)

31. The Stranger (A)

32. Wendy and Lucy (B)

33. The Hammer (C+)

34. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (A+)

35. Near Dark (A-)

36. Bunny Lake is Missing (B+)

37. Strait-Jacket (D+)

38. Panic in the Streets (B)

39. Man Bites Dog (B-)

40. Creature from the Black Lagoon (C-)

41. Chocolate (A-)

42. The Proposition (A-)

43. Mysterious Skin (B+)

44. Rebel Without a Cause (C+)

45. Double Indemnity (A)

46. Gentleman Prefer Blondes (B-)

47. Cool Hand Luke (B+)

48. Eyes Without a Face (B+)

49. Red Rock West (A-)

50. An American Werewolf in London (B)