{"id":14664,"date":"2026-03-01T16:12:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T21:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14664"},"modified":"2026-03-01T16:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T21:18:18","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-155","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14664","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 6 movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"A Touch of Zen\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14665\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1-766x1024.jpg 766w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1-768x1026.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1-1150x1536.jpg 1150w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"To Be or Not to Be\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-685x1024.jpg 685w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-768x1148.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1027x1536.jpg 1027w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1370x2048.jpg 1370w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-scaled.jpg 1712w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Color of Pomegranates\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3-668x1024.jpg 668w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0064451\/\">A Touch of Zen<\/a> is a lush and beautifully shot movie, full of fantastic stunts and wirework.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0035446\/\">To Be or Not to Be<\/a> is such a clever and well-constructed satire, walking such a fine line between pathos and laugh-out-loud jokes, with a phenomenal performance by Jack Benny.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I think I can safely say I have never seen a movie quite like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0063555\/\">The Color of Pomegranates<\/a> before. This is not a narrative so much as a collection of images\u2014vivid, striking, and strange.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4-192x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Brave Little Toaster\" width=\"192\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14668\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4-192x300.jpg 192w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4.jpg 482w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Fantastic Four: First Steps\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14669\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5.jpg 1086w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Sister Midnight\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14670\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/6-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>There is a lot to appreciate about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0092695\/\">The Brave Little Toaster<\/a>, but there&#8217;s also a lot to reveal how much feature animation changed just two years later with Disney&#8217;s <em>The Little Mermaid<\/em>. Not everything here works, or works well together, and while the movie is certainly a gem, it&#8217;s a very rough one.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I don&#8217;t know that I necessarily wanted a <em>longer<\/em> movie from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt10676052\/\">The Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a>, but I absolutely wanted a lot of the character beats, conflict, and plot that was obviously excised to hit its current run time. There&#8217;s a lot to like here, from the retro-futuristic set design to the cast themselves, but there&#8217;s a lot more than feels underbaked and not given enough room to breathe.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32060445\/\">Sister Midnight<\/a> isn&#8217;t the movie I expected it to be, and that&#8217;s in no way the movie&#8217;s fault, but I&#8217;m not entirely sure it&#8217;s successful as the movie it finally decides to be. Still, I can&#8217;t fault the movie for not making bold choices, and it&#8217;s largely held together by Radhika Apte&#8217;s strong performance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also re-watched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0073820\/\">Trilogy of Terror<\/a>, which I think succeeds largely on the strength of Karen Black&#8217;s different performances. While I agree that &#8220;Zuni fetish doll&#8221; of the final sequence likely would have freaked me out if I&#8217;d seen it on 1975 television, none of the movie&#8217;s stories, including that third one, are especially well developed. There are some fun twists, some more telegraphed than others, but the whole thing is mostly just slightly above average for a TV movie of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 6 movies last week: A Touch of Zen is a lush and beautifully shot movie, full of fantastic stunts and wirework. To Be or Not to Be is such a clever and well-constructed satire, walking such a fine line between pathos and laugh-out-loud jokes, with a phenomenal performance by Jack Benny. I think &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14664\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14664"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14675,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14664\/revisions\/14675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}