...And Scenes!
Sometimes I just like to re-watch certain movie scenes.
Unlike an album or a song that can be put on repeat or listened to over and over again, it takes a little more time and effort to re-watch a movie, or even just a single scene, but it is something I’ll put the effort into doing when the mood strikes my fancy.
Here are three scenes I re-watched within these past couple of weeks that I adore and encourage you to revisit yourself, or to finally see them for the first time if you haven’t ever, even!
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Years ago, I used to go to breakfast with a small group of friends nearly every Saturday. One Saturday, it was just me and two other friends, and none of the three of us were ready to get back to things, so we caught a movie afterward. At the time, I was open to seeing 28 Weeks Later - the 2007 sequel to the 2002 film that ushered in the concept of fast zombies, 28 Days Later - but I didn’t have high hopes for it to be nearly as good as the first (as sequels so often aren’t). Anyone could probably argue that it isn’t, but the three of us left the movie riding a high and feeling so good about what we just saw.
Two things that I think help Weeks Later stand on its own are: 1. that it actually tells a compelling story; and 2. how the opening scene is a frickin’ all-timer that really sets the stage for the rest of the movie.
I’m not sure when 28 Weeks Later became available for streaming again (it was gone for a while), but as of me writing this (June 16, 2024), it is. If you have 11.5 minutes to spare and the ability to stream U.S.-region Hulu, then do as I did recently and give the opening a watch. What a rush!
Spectre (2015)
After helming what is one of my overall favorite Bond films, Skyfall (2012), director Sam Mendes returned to the franchise to bring us Spectre, a follow-up that is good-not-great. There are a lot of really solid moments sprinkled throughout, but trying to tie the previous three Craig Bond films together with a flimsy family feud bow on top (spoilers!) was certainly a choice (not really Mendes’ fault, but still).
One of those really solid moments - especially if you, like me, enjoy a one-take tracking shot - is what kicks off the beginning of the film’s cold open. The opening shot sweeps from above a parade, goes to street level, through a building and on to a roof, then finally breaks a few seconds after the five-minute mark. The cold open continues for another eight minutes and is worth sticking around for as well.
This is another movie that was missing from streaming for a while (despite Amazon having spent over $8-billion to acquire MGM), but it’s streaming now on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. and, unless you have 2.5 hours to spare for something that’s only all right, the first 13 minutes are worth a watch.
Pearl (2022)
My good friend Jesse and I try to hang out once a week and watch a movie. On November 1, 2022, we settled in to watch X (2022) for both our first times. So enthralled with X were we that we immediately turned that evening into a double-feature and put on X’s prequel follow-up, Pearl.
I’ve since seen both films a few times each, but Pearl is something special, a real centerpiece for Mia Goth to display her acting chops, and I remain in awe of her ability to just put it all out there in the last 30 minutes of the film.
Unlike the other scenes I recently re-watched and find so easy to recommend (rest of the movies be damned), it’s hard for me to recommend just watching the last half-hour of a movie when the first hour is really kinda required for the set-up and pay-off of the final act. On top of that, while I think Pearl is a fantastic standalone film by itself, I think folks would get even more out of it by first seeing X; while the two are tonally completely different, I find it pretty cool to first see the devil, then see how the person slowly comes to be consumed by the devils that they would become.
I suppose if you don’t give a shit, then I say fire up Amazon Prime Video (U.S.), get Pearl going, then make your way to about the one-hour eight-minute mark and watch until the credits roll to witness a transcendent, star-making performance. BUT IF YOU HAVE TIME AND INTEREST, then please watch X and then Pearl and then tell me what you think (of both or either!). You have every right to not like either of them, but you will be wrong in your opinion to do so. That’s just the facts. I’m sorry.
(I just re-watched the last half-hour this morning. When it was over, my wife from the other room, asked what I was doing. “I just re-watched the end of Pearl,” I told her, and she was like “Why?” and I was like “I don’t know. Why wouldn’t I?” because really: Why wouldn’t I?
And now y’all know why I even decided to write about it. Why wouldn’t I?)
Unrelated Peaches
For the past few years, my wife has ordered peaches from a truck - The Peach Truck - that drives around the country making stops at various locations in bigger cities; there you can go and pick them up. I only even bring this up because we picked up our order the other day, and they instruct you to leave them out for a few days to finish up ripening, so I’m sitting next to 30-some peaches and they’re ripening and they’re smelling great; I can’t wait to eat them.
Current Mood: Hungry
Listening to: my wife watching the last few episodes of Bridgerton season 3.