July in Movie Nights

Swords and sandals, spaceships, time travel, and baseball

Another month of watching movies, almost exclusively with The Pip because SteelyKid keeps declining the invitation. Though SK has specifically asked for a couple of movies in future, so maybe we’ll be expanding the audience in August…

Conan the Barbarian:

We were scrolling a streaming service and Conan came up as a recommended title, which we jumped at. It was the remake version, though, so we stopped a couple minutes in and rented the original Schwarzenegger version instead. Which is really trippy, just vibes and bloodshed. But fun, and amusing to see the lengths they go to avoid Arnold speaking.

Gladiator:

Possibly because of Conan, this was atop the recommendations list the next time we were watching movies, and The Pip went for it. Were we not entertained? Friends, we were entertained.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3:

I hadn’t suggested this earlier, because I’m pretty well out on the MCU, and I heard mixed things about it. It’s actually pretty good, though, because it’s an almost entirely self-contained story, with a distinct sensibility. The animal cruelty was less upsetting than I expected from the reviews, too.

Time Bandits:

I saw this in the list of recommendations, and pushed it pretty hard. The Pip, like all right-thinking people, basically enjoyed the story, but was completely flummoxed by the ending.

Dune (Part One):

I think because the trailer for Part Two came out, The Pip specifically asked for this. It was a re-watch for me, but he sat the first time out. This is just an amazing looking movie, in stark contrast to so many other current blockbusters.

The Sandlot:

An obvious choice with a baseball-obsessed tween in the house. I’m in the age gap where I was too old for this when it was released, but not old enough for it to be nostalgic, so I hadn’t seen this all the way through before. It’s really charming, though, basically A Christmas Story with Babe Ruth instead of Santa.

Field of Dreams:

I am contractually obligated to note that this was written by an alumnus of Union College (Phil Alden Robinson, who also did Sneakers). This is an incredibly manipulative movie, and absolutely shameless about it, and it works perfectly, damn it. When Archie Graham crosses the gravel line, it wrecks me, every time.

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And that’s the last month of visual media in Chateau Steelypips. If you want to see whether SteelyKid significantly shifts the tone, here’s a button to get future installments:

And if you want to rave about or pan any of these choices, the comments will be open: