Movie Tally for February 2014

Blow Out
Knocked Up
This is 40
Phantom of the Paradise
Carrie (1976)
Child's Play 3
Westworld
Big Ass Spider! (or Biggest Spider! to those who only shop at Wal-Mart)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Pumpkinhead
Howard the Duck
We Are What We Are (2010)
We Are What We Are (2013)
Blade
X-Men
Child's Play 2
Seed of Chucky
The Raid: Redemption
The Witches of Eastwick
The Witches (1966)

Unlike last month, February turned out to be a mix of new watches and revisits. What's truly of note this month is that two in particular fall into both categories: Blow Out and Phantom of the Paradise. Funny that both of them are de Palma flicks. These two- and Dressed to Kill- were movies my mom kept mentioning throughout the years, as if I had seen them when I was really young. My folks were pretty cool when it came to movies, if that wasn't obvious before. Still, I had very little memory of watching any of them. Dressed to Kill I saw at the end of last year, and I fell in love with it. I'm glad I waited this long to revisit that one and Blow Out after spending a bit of time watching/studying Hitchcock. I know I would've really liked them had I watched them, say, my teen years, but that big dumb grin on my face marveling at all the Hitchcockian would not be there. Phantom of the Paradise? Definitely one Teen Josh would have trouble shutting up about. Why I never saw it that much earlier continues to be beyond me. Scream Factory is releasing Phantom of the Paradise on Blu-Ray later this year, and I can't wait. That film and I still have a lot of catching up to do.

Other things I took away in February:

• I like the remake of We Are What We Are more than I do than the Mexican version. The original's great, but the American version took the initial idea and went into more intimate, and in turn, darker places. I was more drawn to that.
• Not as mind-blowing as some made it out to be, but The Raid was still a damn good action movie. A highlight of the genre, for sure.
• This is 40 was long, not really funny, and pointless. Three years away, I'm determined to make my 40 the opposite of this movie.
• Up until attending last Saturday's midnight screening of Child's Play 2 at the New Bev, I was completely oblivious to the fact that there's this big gay following for the franchise. Not just for Bride and Seed of Chucky, the whole series! Considering I wasn't aware my youngest brother was gay until he came out 9 years, it's shameful I can still be so boneheaded about such things.

- JDO