Thursday 30 June 2016

Thursday Movie Picks #103: High School Reunions


I've missed the last two weeks because I've been religiously watching UEFA Euro 2016, which is like the FIFA Football World Cup but for European teams. It's been pretty good, Iceland have done remarkably well and England beat Wales in the last minute, which shut up my Welsh colleagues. I was really smug about it until Wales got further than England after progressing to the quarter finals. England, meanwhile, were beaten by Iceland. This marked the second time we embarrassed our selves on the European Stage in less than a week


But this week I’m back and the theme for this week is high school reunions. Make sure to check out - http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.co.uk/


In Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Romy and Michelle decide to lie about their success because they felt they'd have to be better than they were in highschool. The film is ok, Lisa Kurdow and Mira Sorvino have pretty good chemistry.


Whilst Romy and Michele decided to lie about their occupation, Martin Blank probably should lie about his as he is a paid assassin, but he tells everyone and, perhaps for the best, everyone takes it as a joke. Grosse Point Blank is a fun film, not seen it for a while though.


It was 5am in the morning and I was still awake for two reasons, firstly the rain was hammering down so hard it was impossible to ignore and the second reason was there are no less than five cracks in my ceiling where water was seeping through and making a rather loud dripping sound. So I gave up sleeping and decided to watch Slaughter High, a truly dreadful 1980s slasher flick where a bullied nerd gets revenge on all his bullies at the 10 year high school reunion.

The film has dated horribly, the effects are outranked by many films in the same era (especially by the films worked on by Tom Savini), the acting is atrocious and the film is laughably bad. However, it's fun for these reasons, it terribly watchable. Though the ending made fuck all sense.

13 comments:

  1. I have not seen any of these. Slaughter High sounds like one I would've watched, but somehow I missed out on it. Might have to find that one.

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    1. Haha. I wouldn't have surprised if you did pick it. You do pick some quite obscure films.

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  2. Slaughter High sounds like something I would watch. I love stuff like that. I haven't seen the other two.

    Re: Iceland, I haven't been watching the Euro but I keep reading about that team. I kind of hope they go far lol. (assuming they're still in it, haven't checked yet today)

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    1. They're still in it. Just knocked out England on Monday, they place France (the hosts) on Sunday.

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  3. Sorry to hear about your ceiling that stinks.

    Romy & Michelle is silly fluff made better by the two lead performances. I liked Grosse Point Blank but didn't love it, again good performances. It's not something that I'd watch but love the inclusion of Slaughter High! Nice off the wall pick, good heavens those slasher flicks were everywhere in the 80's!

    I had a bit of a hard time this week but I did finally manage to come up with a trio and one real stinker that I watched because it seemed like it would be a perfect fit.

    Lifeguard (1976)-Lifeguard Rick Carlson (Sam Elliott) loves his work and his laid back Southern California life. But when he attends his 15 year high school reunion he starts to feel he is stuck in a rut. Restarting a romance with his school sweetheart Cathy (Anne Archer), now a divorced mother of a young son, he becomes even more confused about his future.

    Prodigal Sons (2008)-Fascinating documentary by Kimberly Reed who returns home for her high school reunion to an uncertain reception…when she left town years earlier she was a man. Looks equally at her interaction with her former classmates and her estranged family, her adopted brother, who has been permanently disabled in a car accident, has a surprise of his own-his birth mother was the daughter of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth! At times very sad but always interesting.

    Spring Reunion (1957)-Returning to his hometown to sell his house one-time “Most Likely to Succeed” footloose wanderer Fred Davis (Dana Andrews) has no intention of attending his upcoming 15th year reunion until he runs into successful but lonely real estate agent and the “Most Popular Girl” Maggie Brewster (Betty Hutton), his former girlfriend. As they take tentative steps towards each other their different perspectives might ruin their chance for happiness before they are even sure they have one. Subdued meditation on failed dreams was the troubled Hutton’s last feature film as well as one time silent movie queen Laura La Plante’s final bow, she plays Betty’s mother.

    Dishonorable Mention- Back in the Day (2014)-Moderately successful actor Jim Owens (Michael Rosenbaum) returns to Indiana for a high-school reunion. During the course of the time he’s home he acts like an idiot and so do most of his friends doing stupid and outlandish things. I watched this specifically because it seemingly fit this week’s theme so well but it was so moronic I had to list it with a caution and look for another actually good movie.

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    1. Thankfully it seems to be getting better!

      Prodigal Sons sounds very interesting, would like to see how different people reacted to her.

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  4. I picked Grosse Point Blanke because I saw this film and it was good. I also picked Romy & Michele because...I haven't seen it and only could think of 2 movies that fit this bill. I might see it still not sure

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  5. Omg Grosse Pointe Blank is basically everywhere! I kinda feel bad because I haven't seen it.

    I've seen most of the games and Iceland is really doing great. I'm very impressed. But there's French blood in my veins so I'll support France on Sunday.

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    1. Iceland have done great. Sadly, for me at least, they were outclassed by France.

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  6. Love love love the first two picks! (Picked them too)

    Not see the last one - but watching movies that late or that early at night you always find a gem.

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    1. Haha. It wasn't by choice, I needed to watching something i didn't really need to think

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  7. Haven't seen your third, but the other two are great! Good picks!

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