It’s funny that February is here again; I remember celebrating the new year yesterday. When I was younger time had a way of feeling endless— whether it was watching the analog clock on the wall of my school tick until we were dismissed or my anticipation of the “next big thing” in pop culture, everything took forever to happen.
Nowadays, I find myself grasping at my available time and only wishing that I had more of it. Maybe time itself is going faster? Or more likely, I’m constantly being fed content that I’m turning 40 (eventually.) Nothing makes me feel older than being told things I found enjoyable in the ‘90s are now considered “classic, retro, or nostalgic.” I’m sure that Director Christopher Nolan (Tenet, Oppenheimer) probably has a movie for the time effect I feel.
As far as entertainment goes, I always find January to be a bit of a wasteland. The movie theaters are filled with two types of movies— movies so bad that January was the only month to possibly release them (see also August) or leftover movies from the holidays. And when I say leftover movies, I mean movies that were mostly held to the end of the year so that when awards season rolled around, those movies could get a box office boost. That’s also why this past weekend included almost every movie nominated for Best Picture playing at my local theater.
I don’t think that February will offer that many more movies to get excited about (Argylle, Lisa Frankenstein, Madame Web, and Drive Away Dolls are the big ones), but I did already pre-purchase a ticket for Dune: Part Two which opens March 1st. I think 2024 will be a light movie year due to delays from the strikes anyway, but there’s still stuff coming to be excited about.
Here are the movies I caught up with in January:
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For the It’s the Pictures podcast, John Gilpatrick and I shared our favorite movies of 2023.
For Paste Magazine, I wrote about Blue Eye Samurai, an animated series that premiered on Netflix last year that’s worth your time.
Mini-Review: The Abyss
The Abyss has long been a James Cameron blindspot for me. For a director whose films include Avatar, Terminator, Aliens, and Titanic, maybe I can be forgiven. Not only has The Abyss not been available on home video in some time— it has never been held in the same esteem as some of those other classics. Maybe that’s what happens when you cast Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as your stars. Whatever the case, The Abyss has now been remastered by Cameron and will be available on Blu-ray and 4K UHD for the first time in March. I had an opportunity to see the digital release of the special edition which is now available for purchase.
Following the strange loss of a U.S. naval submarine, a crew of an oil rig and agents from the special forces are tasked with searching for survivors. Bud Brigman (Harris) is in charge of the oil rig crew and he’ll help in the rescue. Also joining the crew is Bud’s estranged wife, Lindsey. Their relationship has reached its zenith, but Bud still holds out hope that he can reconcile with his wife. Their relationship helps provide something familiar in this uncomfortable underwater setting.
That’s the unique attribute of The Abyss— that forty percent of the movie takes place deep under the water. Listening to Cameron detail the filming process is almost more interesting than the movie itself. Each of the actors had to be proficient in diving and spend hours at a time under the water. Cameron himself had to watch the film dailies under the water, upside down, because he needed an hour to decompress after each shoot. There’s every reason to believe it was a torturous shoot— Ed Harris doesn’t like to speak about his experience on the movie in any capacity.
The special edition of The Abyss helps reframe the original release with an emphasis on the U.S. vs Russia political conflict. There are scenes added that add fire to the ongoing feud between nations and how we might be moments away from nuclear war if this rescue mission doesn’t go well. Having never seen the theatrical release, it’s hard to imagine The Abyss working without this conflict.
There’s no question that The Abyss has Cameron's signature all over it. While watching it, I found myself thinking about his entire filmography. Avatar: The Way of Water benefited immensely from Cameron’s history with The Abyss. If you’ve never had the opportunity to see The Abyss, I’d highly recommend it. Even if it’s not Cameron’s best movie (and really what could compete with some of his best), it’s such a strange production. These actors and crew were pushed to their breaking point for this feature, and now all these years later, audiences can appreciate the process for the first time.
As far as the new remasters go, I only spent time with The Abyss. It does look like some DNR was used on the image as it looks artificially smoothed out in some scenes. I don’t have a lot to go on as to how it looked originally since this is my first time with it. If you’re concerned about the video quality of these releases I’d suggest you check out this review from Highdefdigest. We don’t know yet if this is how the movies will look when they release on 4K UHD, but chances are it will be a similar result.
The Abyss, Aliens, and True Lies are all available digitally in new remasters. They’ll be coming to home video in new Blu-ray and 4K editions in March.
Links
One of the biggest animated shows in some time has recently premiered on Amazon Prime Video. Fueled by a huge built-in audience of 94 million, Hazbin Hotel has made a big impression. Christine N. Ziemba detailed the journey from a Patreon-funded pilot to a full series in her article for Paste Magazine.
has a post from December about the 1982 animated story, The Snowman. I grew up with this movie and remember being devastated when a teacher showed it during class on an old VHS tape.has a new interview with the Social Media manager of Sesame Workshop, Christina Vittas. Earlier this week, Elmo went viral after asking about the welfare of people on X (formerly Twitter).
These are some normal ways to think about the Barbie Oscar snubs by
Garbage Day (newsletter now on BeeHiiv) commented on the ideological divide between young men and women in many countries. I’ve always enjoyed Ryan Broderick’s newsletter; this one is another winner.
A new video game, Palworld, has been making big news. Not only has it racked up huge download numbers on Steam, but there’s also the problem that the characters look like Pokemon with guns. I don’t have a child old enough to know what this is, but you might!
Because this news is everywhere, why not share some of it here as well?
wrote about the Taylor Swift / Travis Kelce / Conservative battle happening.I managed to see two movies from Sundance (virtually), but Vulture has a running tally of movies that were sold during the fest. These movies have the highest chance of making it to a place where you can see it.
Thanks for the Link in Bio shout out!