Moose And The Movies

The Fog, 1980, directed by John Carpenter, streamed on Prime Video, 1.5 stars. That was painful. Movies that begin with an old sea captain telling tales about shipwrecks and ghosts and then, a few minutes later, have a character read a journal entry aloud to explain the convoluted back story do not work for me at all. I was zoned out of this from the get-go, and I never could find my way back. I had a hard time staying awake through this slog of a movie. I gave this one a shot, knowing it was a John Carpenter entry that came between Halloween and Escape From New York. I thought it would at least be interesting. It wasn't. Some credit because it was cool seeing Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh in the same movie and because the cinematography was a great leap forward for Carpenter. But it really was quite boring.    ---------------------- Purchase at Amazon on DVD or blu-ray (I am an Amazon affiliate, and your clicks help support this blog.)

I went 31-for-31 in January -- 31 movies in 31 days. Nine of them were rewatches, which I wrote about here . The rest were movies I saw for the first time, most all of them streaming on Prime Video. I bought a subscription early in the month to see Abigail, which I had heard so much about. So while I was there, I decided to pick off as many watchlist entries as possible before my subscription expires I have a few more days and movies on my Prime watchlist. I'll finish that up soon and move on, back to Paramount+ and my still-growing disc collection. In the meantime, here are my first-watches from last month, ranked bottom to top: 22. Dead End, 2003, directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, streamed on Prime Video, 0.5 star. This is the worst movie I've watched in quite awhile. It fails as comedy, it fails as horror, it fails as mystery, it fails completely. It earns a half-star because it's the minimum rating on Letterboxd. 21. The Calendar Killer, 2025, directe...

Assault On Precinct 13, 1976, directed by John Carpenter, streamed on Prime Video, 3 stars. A pretty good indie action thriller that has become a cult classic. It was John Carpenter's second feature, a couple of years before his breakout film, Halloween. Carpenter wrote, directed, scored and edited Assault On Precinct 13, in which a heavily armed street gang raids a nearly shuttered police station. The first half of the film is spent introducing us to several key characters and getting them all to the precinct at the same time. Once everyone is in place and the gang starts its siege, the back half of the film is an entertaining thrill ride right up to the closing credits. I felt a bit of Night Of The Living Dead happening here, with armed thugs instead of zombies. I read later that this was Carpenter's nod to the 1959 Western classic Rio Bravo (which I've never seen). Assault On Precinct 13 is a nice little gem, a great look at the early work of an auteur who would become a...