Hey Thursday fans, it's your favorite day of the week. In many parts of the U.S., this is the time of year when people bury all their goodies beneath layers of clothing and keep a close eye on the weather, either with hopes or fears of some frozen form of precipitation in the forecast. Fitting then, that our fearless leader, Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, chose the cold as this week's topic of discussion for Thursday Movie Picks.
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Ahhh, that's better. Let's do this.
The Good Son
(1993)
Poor Mark. His mom has just died, so he goes to live with his uncle Wallace and aunt Susan. He apparently doesn't watch a lot of movies, either. They have a son named Henry, who seems to be nice enough. But if Mark had watched movies, he'd know that Henry is actually Macaulay Culkin, a well-known sadist who specializes in terrorizing people during the holiday season. Yeah, he's at it again. Who am I kidding? Mark's a dweeb. He would grow up and dress like a hobbit.
Four Brothers
(2005)
The Mercer brothers, played by Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre 3000, and Garrett Hedlund, are back in town in the dead of winter for the funeral of their adoptive mom who was killed in a store robbery. Of course they can't just let the cops figure this out. They have to find out who's responsible themselves. Fun movie with a great cast, also including Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, and young Sofia Vergara, that's been forgotten. Oh, there's one more person you probably know. Chiwetel Ejiofor is our bad guy and has fisticuffs in the snow with Wahlberg.
Santa's Slay
(2005)
Many of us have had to do something we didn't want to because we lost a bet. That's what happened to Santa (wrestler Goldberg), the devil's son. Yeah, you read that right. As the result of a wager he lost to an angel, he had to spend a thousand years delivering joy to little boys and girls the world over. Well, time's up and now he gets to do what he really likes to do - killin'. Why yes, that is Fran Drescher.
The Good Son is an underrated film. Seeing Macaulay Culkin play evil is fun. I've seen some of Four Brothers which I think is based on a classic western starring John Wayne. I'll have to watch that film and Four Brothers. Santa's Slay I have seen some of. Here's a pretty fucked-up trivia about that film. There's a scene of Santa at a strip club killing people and he's about to dive into a stripper. That stripper would become Bill Goldberg's wife. That's a funny story to tell the kids to.
ReplyDeleteThat strip club scene is bonkers. Had no idea he met his wife there, though. Wow.
DeleteOkay, The Good Son is something I absolutely need to watch. I've never seen Culkin in anything other than Home Alone!
ReplyDeleteThis was a after HA2. The story of how this came to be is probably better than the actual movie because of how nuts his dad was.
DeleteOh god how did I live this long without The Good Son? I need to watch it!
ReplyDeletePlease do. I don't love it, but it is crazy. Curious about your thoughts.
DeleteThe Good Son cracks me up, it's such a Lifetime movie but I used to watch it all the time when I was younger because I love Elijah Wood. Four Brothers I saw once in theaters and I barely remember it, I should probably rewatch that sometime. Santa's Slay sounds awesome and clearly I need to find that. lol
ReplyDeleteThe Good Son is good, dumb fun. Santa's Slay is definitely in the so-bad-it's-awesome section of cinematic history.
DeletePoor Santa is actually evil? How could he be evil when he burned up Fran? hahaha. I never saw this flick nor The Good Son because I heard it is not that great of a movie but maybe one day. I actually really like 4 Brothers which is loosely based on the John Wayne movie, The Sons of Katie Elder. It's a pretty good movie and that ending is excellent
ReplyDeletePoint taken on Fran Drescher, lol. The Good Son is not that great, but it is silly and fun. Glad you like Four Brothers.
DeleteThe Good Son was okay even if it's just a retread of The Bad Seed with a gender switch. I didn't think too much of Four Brothers though I do love Chiwetel Ejiofor. Santa's Slay would be a no for me, I'm not a horror guy and I guess too much of a softie for Christmas I don't like films that demonize St. Nick.
ReplyDeleteI hate the cold but as long as it's only on the screen like these are I can put up with it.
The Call of the Wild (1935)-Using the Jack London story of a man, his dog and a lot of snow as its loose template this is a rather revised version of Jack Thornton (Clark Gable) his part wolf sled dog Buck, and his partner Shorty Hoolihan (Jack Oakie) as they brave the elements in their quest for fortune, adventure and at least for Thornton romance along the way in the guise of Claire (Loretta Young). Gable and Young had an affair during the making of the film which resulted in a daughter who Young (after vanishing to Europe for a year) passed off as her “adopted” child for the rest of her life despite the fact the girl, Judy Lewis, looked almost exactly like her.
Mrs. Mike (1949)-Young Boston born Kathy O'Fallon (Evelyn Keyes) meets Canadian Mountie Mike Flannigan (Dick Powell) while visiting her uncle in Alberta, Canada. Falling for him and marrying quickly they head to his new posting in the Yukon where they face many hardships along with the biting cold as Kathy struggles to adjust. Based on Kathy’s memoirs of life in the Great White North.
The Thing from Another World (1951)-Scientists at an Arctic research station discover a spacecraft buried in the ice. Upon closer examination, they discover the frozen pilot. All hell breaks loose when they take him back to their station and he is accidentally thawed out!
I haven't seen any of your picks. I have been meaning to see The Thing from Another World for a long time, if for no other reason, to compare it to John Carpenter's The Thing. I'm going to get that done. I just don't know when.
DeleteHow do you find these movies? Haha. That first one I need to see!
ReplyDeleteA lifetime of watching crap come in handy, sometime.
DeleteHa!
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