I saw this movie many many years ago, and always wanted to show it here. We watched it a few months ago, and it was only “OK”. Still, something about it whispered “MovieNight”, and it turned out to be an inspired choice. It just needed our MovieNight crowd in order to shine. And what about Donald Sutherland’s performance as the hippy preacher, who decided to take the father’s bribe (to mention God in the ceremony) and then not mention “the deity”? Hysterical.

Once again it was great to have so many guests on such a horribly wet and cold evening. Winter, it seems, is upon us, at least for a while. We say, “Bring it on!” You know where the cozy spot is on Thursday nights…

This one was fun. A full house enjoyed some snappy British political satire even without the subtitles. Mind you, we had considered turning them on, so that every highly-imaginative profanity uttered by the “charming” Scot, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), could be fully digested. It turned out to be unnecessary.

You may have noticed a little dog in the room… it was Flea’s first, full MovieNight attendance and some of our guests enjoyed a bit of quality SnuggleTimeâ„¢. By the way, we do have lint-removing rollers at hand, just in case you don’t like being covered with little white hairs after snuggling with the little monster.  Apparently it’s a known fact that terriers don’t shed… woah… should we send him back?

Too late. We’re hooked.

Let’s face it: last week was a warm-up.

MovieNight returned definitively this week with this complex romantic thriller from director Paolo Sorrentino. Many guests were left scratching their heads and wondering what had just happened, but we predict a slowly developing subconscious appreciation. Or not, perhaps… I remember being left with the feeling that I’d missed the point after first watching this highly-acclaimed movie some three years ago. Still, something drew me back to it for a second viewing last week. It was then that almost everything fell into place.  Perhaps the Time Out review that we used for the MovieNight invitation should have been made mandatory pre-movie reading, since it laid a good foundation for understanding. Seeing it for a third time last night only enhanced my opinion that this movie is a beautifully structured work. Narration, flashback and deftly-inserted little clues work in combination to tell us the story of Titta di Girolamo. Maybe we should show it again next week?

Don’t worry… that’s not going to happen (the next one just can’t wait)!

For the moment, the DVD of Consequences remains unreleased in the US. If you are interested in seeing it again, you can get it from Amazon.co.uk (you’ll need a region-free PAL-capable DVD player), or download it, or sweet-talk us into lending you our copy. Then again… maybe one shouldn’t have to watch a movie more than once?

Funny? Yes. Interesting enough for MovieNight? Not so much.  And the thought of Dustin Hoffman as a woman is still waking me up in the middle of the night. Yikes. It was, however, a good practice run to get the machine started up again after our summer hiatus. It’s good to be back.

The next feature will kick butt!

It’s pretty safe to assume that you haven’t seen this, unless you were one of the 10 (yes, just ten) of us present at MovieNight. I’m trying not to take it personally… maybe you don’t like being scared silly? This well-crafted Spanish (what is it about Spain and horror movies that seems to work so well?) flick never had a US theatrical release, so we were excited to get our hands on a UK release. The US DVD release is set for July 14th, so if you like this kind of scary you should take a look.

Guess why it was never released in the US? Because an American version called Quarantine was released the year after [Rec] was made. And guess what; it blows, of course. The good news is that the original Spanish directors are making the sequel, [Rec]2. I can’t wait. The bad news is that Quarantine 2 is in development. I can wait.

Its http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082868/