Last week, I watched 9 movies:
- I’ll admit, I didn’t know MST3K had riffed The Deadly Mantis when I first sat down to watch it, but nothing has ever made more sense to me than that. If 1954’s Them! is everything you want a 1950s sci-fi monster movie to be, then The Deadly Mantis is everything you expect a lousy Them! knockoff to be.
- The Fastest Gun Alive takes a little too long to get properly started, with some scenes that don’t quite add to the whole, but it’s a decent morality play of a Western, with some nice performances, particularly a supporting turn by Jeanne Crain.
- You think you know the beats that Sugar is going to hit, then it slides past some with a curveball or two, and goes off in several unexpected directions. I’m not sure if it’s a home run, necessarily, but it’s a good day at the ballgame.
- The Long, Hot Summer feels like warmed-over Tennessee Williams. Most everyone involved circles around a good performance or two, but characters wash in and out, the film often doesn’t look very good, and none of it ever really comes together as much of anything.
- The Gospel According to St. Matthew tells its story very simply, with no pomp or circumstance—or even necessarily any belief—and that’s what makes it all the more powerfully told.
- You could look at It! The Terror from Beyond Space as a precursor, or even possibly an inspiration, to the later Alien. But that makes this overblown TV episode feel like less of a snoozefest than it is.
- Psycho IV: The Beginning is probably a better-made movie than Psycho III, but I liked it a lot less, and I didn’t even like Psycho III very much.
- Song Sung Blue is largely sweet and charming, with good performances by the two leads.
- Ebirah, Horror of the Deep was also apparently riffed by MST3K too—though under its American title, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. And, honestly, that makes a whole lot of sense too. The movie could use a whole lot more Godzilla and sea monster, a less complicated and cobbled-together script, and more fun.
