Bound (1996) with Bootleg Friday

I'm thinking back to April 2023 when we watched this movie and I'm also thinking about Jennifer Tilly.

Jennifer Tilly always had this sexy charismatic charm about her and a seductive breathy voice. I tried remembering movies from the 90s that had her like Made In America. I hadn't seen that movie in a long time so I looked up a clip and suddenly got reminded of a scene where she cartwheeled across the bedroom naked. I also remembered her in Liar Liar where she would get a little too close to Jim Carrey's character. I didn't know her name but I had nice memories of her.

I never heard of Bound before and it was wonderful to discover it. Not a single person I met who was crazy about The Matrix ever told me about this movie. If I saw it back then I would've stayed being a fan of the Wachowskis after the Matrix phase passed.

In this movie the main character is a tough, hard-working gal who goes about her day doing all kinds of maintenance work, minding her own business, being all strong and hot. I call her the main character because she is seduced by Jennifer Tilly's character and her breathy sexy voice, just like how everyone watching is seduced too. We are this main character being seduced. Tilly's character whispers stuff like "redistribution of wealth" in our ear and calls us "Corky". We're all basking in this chemistry between the two characters and having a good time.

We're drawn into her world. Unfortunately, she's involved with a bad dude who's involved with other bad dudes and lots of ill-gotten money. She convinces us to run away together with all the money. The plot that follows is full of chemistry, thrills and suspense. It's just an amazing movie that kept us all glued and riveted.

One of the bad guys said "capisce" a lot and it was getting tiresome. Then he got owned. He wasn't gonna say it anymore.

The snack I had was ham and cheese vol-au-vents from Centra. They were really good and tasted like jambons. I don't usually eat them because they usually have chicken in them. These ham and cheese ones were delish.

Wild Mountain Thyme with Bootleg Friday

On St. Patrick's Day in 2023 we sat down and watched this movie that was widely slated and hated by everyone. It was supposed to be one of the worst movies about Ireland. What I found instead was something that was indeed very weird but it was also very romantic.

It was a fine choice for the occasion, and I had many cans of Club Orange and Manhattan Popcorn to make it even more Irish. I recall getting slabs of Club Orange very cheaply at the time. Unfortunately, in the time since then they decided to put sweeteners in it. That was not a nice surprise.

This movie was a nice surprise though. Sure enough, there was a lot of weirdness in the way characters were speaking, using phrases like "coughing like pertussis" and saying "byebyebyebye" even though they weren't talking on the phone, but there were really nice moments too. Christopher Walken had some lovely sentimental dialogue for example.

One thing that stood out for me was the scene where your one was giving out to your man(sorry it's been ages since I saw this) and she was making sandwiches for him while she was giving out. I don't think he even asked for sandwiches. I thought maybe this is one of the romantic notions Americans have about Ireland? Do American men order their wives to make them a sandwich only to be refused and then daydream of Irish lasses being all feisty, making and throwing sandwiches without being asked? I was thinking maybe their fantasies manifested into what this movie became.

The weird bee thing was fun to see on social media alright.

Other things I recall from this movie were logos in the opening credits that made me think of Gerry Ryan's "Secrets", an artificial-looking outdoor scene that was both rainy and sunny even though our weather is often like that, usage of the seduction music from Dracula, and Jon Hamm.

We all expected something catastrophic, but instead we got something strange and delightful that made me say "what's goin on is this actually good or something"

Cast a Deadly Spell With Bootleg Friday

I found a snack I hadn't seen in a while, Fox's Rocky Caramel. Fox's make really nice chocolate biscuits I normally only see as Christmas presents but here is that same high quality biscuit only presented as an ordinary teatime biscuit for busy people in a multipack. the shortcake and chocolate are so good I feel like I'm getting away with something luxurious and the caramel is just the right amount. Not too much or too little, just right.

There is a chocolate variation but it has dissected coconut for some strange reason. It's awful and I'm surprised it isn't highlighted as an allergen.

With my caramel Rocky's, I was ready for the film. It's styled like a film noir detective story but it's main twist is that it involves magic powers as weapons. It sounds very strange and novel, a bit too strange to be mainstream. It was made by HBO, which is known for making its own stuff without the same restriction policies that others follow. My guess is that they wanted to make something with a taboo theme like the occult, but that's just a guess.

The font of the opening credits I recognised immediately as the exact same font from the credits of Fish Police, a fish themed detective noir cartoon made for older audiences in the early 90s. I was ready to spend the whole watch party making comparisons between that cartoon and this movie. In the opening scenes, there was a guy calling a lady "Angel", but that was about it. In any case, lovely font.

Despite having the magic theme, the detective story stuff is played super straight and doesn't feel like a parody or spoof at all. All the actors did a really good job of it.

One death happens from a paper tornado, but it looks sinister and fantastic rather than something too ridiculous and stupid like a shark tornado.

The weird monstrous gremlins and gargoyles make me imagine cartoon haters would decide the movie is for kids and then turn it off. They were cool though.

Then there's the femme fatale club singer and I'm thinking about Jessica Rabbit and Angel from Fish Police again. I love indulging in memories of those two, but the scene in this movie is well made and played straight, again not feeling like a parody.

The breakfast time in the diner looks absolutely lovely with its sun drenched lighting and booth seating. We Bootleggers and Beyonders find ourselves looking at the lighting in these old movies we watch with a lot of envy. We just don't get good lighting in movies these days. The monster in the kitchen was really cool too.

The blonde girl is delightful and has lovely lines like "lurking behind my mulberry bush".

One of my favourite things I said was when the gargoyle got kicked in the crotch and I said it got a "kick in the gargoyles". It was an amusing creature and at one point it was dancing around like a baseball mascot.

The ending was a satisfying conclusion when the bad guy got eaten up by the very thing he was summoning. Turns out his daughter saved the day by not being a virgin anymore. Woo! Serves him right.

So yeah this was a very interesting movie to check out and it's a lot less goofy than its premise suggests. Hardened detective noir fans get a bit of a treat with the fantastical aspects and special effects too.

Society with Bootleg Friday

Bootleg Friday is a watch party similar to Beyond Friday, but it's an opportunity to watch movies together more often!

Now that I've seen Society in full, the earlier parts of the movie are still weirder to me than the body horror craziness of the climax. There's this disturbing tension between family members; that moment where the main character's sister asks him to zip up her dress in front of their piano is a bit too romantic. You just know something's very wrong.

Someone said the main character was like a pound shop Michael J. Fox and I have to agree! I was expecting him to break out into Johnny B. Goode at times when he was on stage. Despite being from a very rich family he suffers from sweaty disturbances. Since we, the audience are already feeling disturbed with the way his family behaves it makes him a good relatable main character. He seems just as lost as we do in this enormous house with weird décor.

There are many other signs that things aren't right. The ladies occasionally twist into different shapes, the therapist says the title "Society" so he's not to be trusted, there are mysterious deaths and this weird platter full of slugs, one of which appeared to scream when the camera zoomed in on it. This was my first time watching the movie, so when I said "slugs don't scream" I swear I had no idea the body horror stuff was going to get so crazy.

We get this beach scene with beach outfits, making me look forward to the Greta Gerwig Barbie movie even more. I thought the big lady was pretty cute, as she reminded me of the wonderful Madame Flurrie from Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door and she was the least mischievous. It's great later on when she joins in on the butt kicking.

The mysterious deaths start rolling in. I thought it was really weird at that car accident scene, where the main character just walks up to the wreck and stands in the blood in his pure white shoes. That was kinda crazy.

There's a party scene and it was pointed out there was a guy in the background who looked like he didn't know what he was doing. I didn't see him but he sounded relatable.

The main character eventually gets on everyone's nerves. Well, to be fair he got on my nerves too when he took a bite straight out of an apple and then put it back, but he pushes the weirdos and bullies in this film too far and they strike back. Those creepy grinning cops going right up in his face made me feel like throwing holy water and chanting "ACAB!" at them.

He gets taken away to a hospital when he gets too close to solving the mystery. It was a cool effect when he saw the silhouette of his friend getting surrounded like he did and he pulls the curtain back to find nothing there. The feeling of wondering if it's all in his head is still there.

Then the climax comes and yikes. All the authoritarian figures and rich people, all the weirdos and bullies in his life snare him like an animal and he sees them becoming slimy and monstrous and devour another guy who got too close to solving the mystery. Now I could see why fellow bootleggers in the watch party who had seen the movie before were excited to share this moment with us and it was amazing.

Everything gets gooey and messy and deformed and bloody, yet the rich keep talking about their rich people ambitions to leech off of the poor. The reason why the family stuff from earlier looks weirder to me is because it looks so unreal, whereas now we have rich people eating poor people, which we see everyday in the real world. Maybe not with goo but it's just as slimy.

There is a happy ending, to this story at least, but wow it gets you good and riled up about the bigshots who make life miserable for everyone. One of the others said to eat the rich before the rich eat you and I suggest throwing a bit of salt on them first. 

For snacks I had packet of Monster Munch Giants and they left giant crumbs, but they were big and satisfying and the pickled onion flavour was really good. Everyone seems to be great at making pickled onion corn snacks. I also had a pouch of Maltesers to keep me going.