I suppose you can call this an extremely belated New Year’s related Saturday’s Six. Here at the end of January I find myself looking back over my time as a Mutant. A quick check tells me that this will be my fifth year post-mutation.
One of the things that drew me to MRFH as a reader was reading reviews about my favorite obscure and/or beloved oddball flicks from people who understood just enjoying movies. Since then I’ve befriended some pretty cool people, embraced my inner geek more, and expanded my comic, books, and music horizons.
While it would be an understatement to say I came here a movie freak, one of the things I’ve come to love about this site is how I keep finding movies I may never have even heard about. So here are my favorite MRFH finds…
Hudson Hawk is first on the list because technically I had heard of it. Problem was I was mixing it up in my head and for some reason thought it was the title to Rob Roy (I blame the alliteration…). Rob Roy is nothing like Hudson Hawk, so imagine my confusion when I read the review. I’m sure at some point I facepalmed.
But it’s okay because Hudson Hawk is crazy. My brand of crazy. Whether or not you can even stand much less like this movie will depend on your crazy acceptance levels. For me, it’s the surreal goofiness that’s endearing. And I could watch Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello singing ‘Swinging on a Star’ all day.
But it totally has nothing to do with Scottish rebellions.
5. Gymkata
To give a description of “One gymnast vs a slew of ninjas in a martial arts tournament/race” would be making this sound way better than it really is, and not insane enough. (and by insane, I mean completely and totally out of its mind. Even for the ’80s) How it is that even the mere existence of this movie had never crossed my path in my lifetime remains a mystery.
Gymkata. I’m not really sure if I should thank Justin for reviewing it, or charge him my therapist fees. Once seen, the handwalking down stairs part can never be unseen.
4. The Last Broadcast
Judge me if you will, but I actually like The Blair Witch Project. I find the Jersey Devil legend kinda fascinating. So when I was reading my way through the reviews and came across this I had to see it. The forgotten (and possibly oldest) child of “found footage” movies, it shouldn’t really be compared to its brethern. Where BWP (and now the Paranormal Activity series) is more paranormal horror, LB is more suspense.
According to Drew’s review: “There’s no question about it – a big part of whether you enjoy the film or not is going to hinge on the last 5 minutes.” And he’s right. I, personally, didn’t like the ending, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t stick with me, and that -like this movie- is pretty cool.
I usually hate movies that I classify as “disturbing.” Movies whose sole purpose seems to be to show people, not only dying, but suffering. That seem to be catering to an audience who’s sweet spot is watching people in pain, with no hope of escape. It just makes me angry and feel like I need to shower.
I suppose one could shelve The Hole alongside movies like Open Water or Frozen, but that would be oversimplifying the movie. The Hole is very smart and tied together with the themes of love and obsession, not to mention some clever storytelling techniques. The focus isn’t on everyone slowly going crazy and starving, so much as the truth of how they got there. And I’m glad to have it in my movie repertoire.
This oddball morbid tale is just so darn happy in its blood soaked way that it practically skips around humming show tunes. Gabriela, the main character is what the whole thing rests on and she’s like “Whee, gore!” and I love it. Dunno if I should, but I do. And it is all about the end which is awesome and darkly hilarious in a dark sorta way (’cause it’s dark and stuff).
You know, I have no idea how I missed this movie when it first came out, or how I never stumbled on it in my adventures. It stars Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller in some really note worthy performances (Stiller especially), two actors who are on my to watch list. Sherlock Holmes-y, which has been established elsewhere is one of my attention getters. I guess because it would be at the ‘Z’ section on the video aisles I just never made it that far for me to go “huh, what’s this?”
I wasn’t really sure what to expect going in, like all the movies on this list, you can’t just describe it in a few words. It took me a little bit to settle into it and the characters, but by the halfway mark I knew I’d already fallen in love with it. The characters of Daryl, Steve, and Gloria have this satisfying balance and the actors have really good chemistry. Which puts this at number one on my MRFH finds list.
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In conclusion, just a big thank you to the Mutants, both current and who’ve come before. I have a lot more titles on my to be seen list that wouldn’t be there without you guys, and I look forward to more groovy viewing.
Mutant Reviewers 
I too have tried out certain movies because I read a review for it at MRFH. But for each one that I ended up liking (such as Big Trouble in Little China and Event Horizon), there would be another which would inflict Deep Hurting (such as Donnie Darko and 12 Monkeys). So it’s a bit of a crapshoot.