Jeff Goldblum Movie Club

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The Sentinel (1977)

Bekkah:

Danya picked this spoooooooky movie since it’s spooooooooky season! But NOT ENOUGH JEFF. He was so dreamy in this movie. Super underutilized as Photographer Jack, but at least we got one Deep V. But okay. For like 90% of this movie, I was like, “this is pretty good, I am following the plot, the 70s acting is actually decent, why does this have like 40% on Rotten Tomatoes?” But then the climax hit and there were deformed bodies as props and creepy priest saved the day and, like, yeah, okay, this was not really great. But there were OUTFITS and MOOD MUSIC and did I mention DEEP V! I feel like my bar for “good movie” has really shifted during this project, but I still think this was a decent watch.

Danya:

So it says a lot that the people I identified most with in this movie were in fact DEVIL GHOSTS FROM HELL (spoiler). The charming old guy with a bird, and a cat named Jezebel. The fun lesbians who only wear dance outfits and masturbate on a whim. They all attend a cat’s birthday party and polka around and I am DELIGHTED. But then (spoiler) it was actually the gates of hell. So, I guess that is to say I am glad I was not around in the 70s. This movie was not a bad way to spend some time, until then end when they did a bunch of disabled people horror (ick 1970s) and insinuated that if you tried to die by suicide you were irredeemable. So really the 70s ethos and I do not get along. Bonus: We thought we were only going to get a few seconds of Jeff but then he had actual scenes! In one of those scenes he wears the deepest of all deep Vs and that makes up for almost everything else.

6/Goldboooooos


The sentinel on IMDB

A young woman moves into an apartment in a building which houses a sinister evil.

Director Michael Winner

Writers Jeffrey Konvitz (novel) Michael Winner (screenplay)

Stars Cristina Raines, Ava Gardner, Chris Sarandon