I've been watching a lot of flashy action movies lately, mostly due to getting a new TV and PS3. The PS3 was a gift from my step-daughter's bio-dad, so she could play Little Big Planet online with him, and the new LED TV was because my old one kept turning green, and the only way to correct it was to rap on the glass with your knuckles, and after a full length movie, my fingers would be swollen and bruised. So put these two new acquisitions together, and I had to play with the blu-ray a bit.

The new Total Recall, one of the Transformers movies, and Premium Rush. The last one was decent, definitely felt like a 90's movie. The best part of it was Michael Shannon as the bad guy. I've never enjoyed an antagonist so much. Ther other two, well, they are what they are, in that they are really good for trying out new blu-ray capabilities, and little else. I will say, if you are feeling like watching Total Recall, do yourself a favor and watch the old one again instead.

Haven't watched a movie for a few days, because it's been Twin Peaks for a while now.

KILLING THEM SOFTLY-- Great. Sure, it's a 2010s version of 1970s revision of 1940s genre, but still.

LOOPER- Ditto, just add a splash, but not too much, of sci-fi. I liked the downbeat ending.

KILLER JOE- Ditto. I didn't care for the princess or tiger ending, but it entranced me until then.

ROCK OF AGES- Sucked beyond belief. Ten minutes in, I made liberal use of fast-forward.

SHAKES THE CLOWN- I really dig Goldwaith but this thing's just lifeless. Too bad.

i loved it, esp dicaprio...he deserves an oscar for his role. everything you'd expect from a tarantino movie.

The Road


Stuck very close to the book. They only changed a couple of parts for pacing, but overall it was just how I imagined it. And I know, I'm a couple of years late on it.


Mulholland Drive


Had to hold on Twin Peaks for a bit because my wife is out shopping and she would kill me if I watched some ahead of her, so I got my Lynch fix this way. Started watching Eraserhead, but I realized I didn't have the patience for it at the moment, so I pulled this one out instead.

Sorry, didn't occur to me... The first one is The Road, and the second is Mulholland Drive. I went back and put the titles over the pics so no one else gets confused :)

Tons of potential, and genuinely scary for the most part.. But the ending... Goddamn. what a fucking mess. such promise, ruined by the easiest "out" of an ending known to Hollywood.

thank you chuck palahniuk.

Valley of the Dolls.

To the Devil a Daughter

This is generally seen as marking a real low point for Hammer. It has one of the limpest endings of any horror film I can think of and a cast that seems to wish it was doing something, anything, else. And yet I do like it. Part of the problem may be that it just doesn't feel like a Hammer film but fans of slightly grimey 70s Euro horror should find something to like here.

Life of Pi.

The Taking of Pelham 123

What is it with so many of today's Hollywood bad guys that they have to have silly designer beards?

almost forgot, during the past few weeks of holiday disruption i watched this:



the grey

mang, there may be a few preposterous moments here like in any movie, and it's a bit of a fantastic scenario when you think about it, but this was GREAT FUN, especially considering it is a mainstream hollywood movie, and the more time passes the better it looks in retrospective. check it out.

Good to know, since it's been in my Netflix queue forever, and I always look at it and think, "mmm... later."

not in order:
Toy Soldiers
Dead Poet's Society
The Chocolate War
Ghostbusters 1 & 2
Sucker Punch

Quentin Dupieux's Rubber.

It is all about a tire that rolls over and flattens a plastic bottle, a spider, a scorpio, attempts to smash a bottle, realizes it can not, then uses some form of power, manages its destruction. Then it moves on to killing birds, dogs and human beings, as your regular serial killer, til it falls in love with a good looking girl the police will use as a lure.

It is strange, and progressively really funny, and colors and the use of music are a treat.

I'm eager to see more from Dupieux. He's like a dark humorist version of David Lynch. I've not seen his follow up for "Rubber", "Wrong", but its apparently just as odd.

Night and Fog (2009)

Just what I needed last night. William Powells delivery of his lines is so dry and droll and yet it's humour doesn't get lost. Only afterwards do I find out that Johnny frigging Depp is going to be a remake of it. WATADICK.



And Dr Strangelove is on tv right now. Well whatmre is there to say? It's Kubrick, dammit. And the more I watch it the more I think it's probably my fav by him.

My favorite by him too. Dr. Strangelove is a movie that I don't have to necessarily be in the mood for; I can watch it at anytime. There are only a few movies like that for me.

aka, One Fucking Thing After Another

I saw it based on everyone's recommendation.

I want my money back.

Actually I think folks overpraised it here. It was okay. But a disappointment after all the praise.

I got a thrill when a wolf would come out of nowhere and snatch a guy from the frame.

Other than that, the existential crisis of Liam's very dull character has been better served in literature written a hundred years ago.

-----

HITCHCOCK- It was an okay, well-acted, glossy bio-pic. Yet considering the source, it sucked. I mean, it's a film about a great filmmaker, so show some respect and imagination. Instead, we get a cookie-cutter flick about an artist who bucks the system while dealing with personal problems and comes out on top. You've seen it before.

Also, Hopkins' makeup is absolutely grotesque after 10 minutes. I swear, it looks to be damn near falling off at one point.

weh!-ll... of course everything has been better served in literature ages ago. thematically at least. visually it's another story. so that point is kind of moot. this isn't life-altering cinema, but for a mainstream dose of entertainment it's pretty good-- certainly better than anything else in the redbox machine that day. entertainment.

I saw Zero Dark Thirty. Very good. Worth the praise, might see it again.

Other night watched Half Nelson again. I kinda like how that movie kinda just happens and nothing is learned or solved. It ends with the cute little black girl choosing her crack addict history teacher role model over her drug dealing guy who makes her deal drug role model. Gosling shaves his beard. He might clean up, he probably won't. I like when movies end how life more or less is. Nothing is resolved. It just goes on.

I love that film. The bit in the Chinese restaurant is classic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20971857
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20984544

:(

Oh. I didn't get that.

See, I think most Hollywood films are "good." Well made, well acted, good enough conflict for 90 minutes. My mistake to expect more.

You're right though. Lovely scenery. (Although I was wondering why Liam took the part. Even if he loved the script, filming in the cold must really suck. Unless it was all a soundstage, in which case give an Oscar to the art department.)

------------

LIVING END- Amazing how a film can be poorly made on nearly every technical level, yet still total to a great flick.


Can someone hip me to more "real" indie cinema of the late 80s, early 90s? Pretend I already know about Jarmusch, Soderbergh, van Sants and Reservoir Dogs. I wanna get really indie. Nothing before 1985 and nothing past 1993 please. I think I'll check out gas, food, lodging later.

Oh, just the usual low/no budget flaws: bad acting for the most part, clumsy handling of action, and so on.

At the end though, I was really moved.

If you smell burning, it'll be Gast30 in his garden, setting fire to his copy of Fitzcarraldo.

How about John Sayles or maybe Todd Haynes' earlier stuff. And while I'm not a fan myself, there's always Hal Hartley.

Yeah it's a shitter, and if true then I feel sorry for her and for what she's had to go through.

HOWEVER! Does this mean we're not allowed to watch his films

Not about allowed, but about the fact that watching Nosferatu, or Aguirre or Fitzcarraldo will not be the same anymore, thinking of that sick fuck raping his daughter and telling her "this is something all fathers do with their daughters all over the world, when they love them."

i kind of always assumed he did from how pervy he's known to be and the fact that his son went to his funeral, but not his daughters...

but it sucks to have it confirmed. klaus kinski has long been known as one of the biggest assholes ever, but he still manages to posthumously keep turning out to be an even bigger shitbag

Melancolia

I have to say that Lars von Trier is one favourite directors, I've loved everything I've seen of his, and Melancolia is no exception, magnificent to say the least. The whole concept of film is just refreshing spin on the whole pre-apocalypse film, with amazing dramatic fashion. Casting Charlotte Gainsbourg yet again will always get my thumbs up, beautiful and talented. Also casting Kirsten Dunst for the lead is another smart move, I believe that she is one of the few mainstream North American actresses that has a lot artistic credibility, without being marred too much for the "other" films she has has been in. As for the planet Melancolia, I wish I saw more of it! Fantastic CG! The universe is a incredible place, a starry sky has always stirred something inside of me, maybe the feeling of smallness, or the realization of an unknown world outside our atmosphere, I feel that this film captured that feeling.

Absolutely agree. It seems to have a lower profile than a lot of his other films, maybe because it's far less controversial but its one of my favourites by him. And completely agree about Kirsten Dunst, too.

A couple of films I watched over the weekend:



The Big Combo

Excellent 50s B Movie Noir that doesn't get the respect or attention it deserves



The Maltese Falcon

For what it is, this is pretty much faultless. One of the best casts and some of the sharpest dialogue ever in a Hollywood film. I honestly don't see how anyone couldn't love this, or at least like it a helluva lot.

yeeessss!!!

imdb copypasta:

Bryan: Who killed Thursby?
Sam Spade: I don't know.
Bryan: Perhaps you don't, but you could make an excellent guess.
Sam Spade: My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney, and an assistant district attorney and a stenographer.
Bryan: Why shouldn't you, if you have nothing to conceal?
Sam Spade: Everybody has something to conceal.
Bryan: I'm a sworn officer of the law, 24 hours a day, and neither formality nor informality justifies you withholding evidence of crime from me. Except, of course, on constitutional grounds.
Sam Spade: [ranting] Now, both you and the police have as much as accused me of being mixed up in the other night's murders. Well, I've had trouble with both of you before. And as far as I can see my best chance of clearing myself of the trouble you're trying to make for me, is by bringing in the murderers all tied up. And the only chance I've got of catching them, and tying them up, and bringing them in, is by staying as far away as possible from you and the police, because you'd only gum up the works.
[turns to stenographer]
Sam Spade: You getting this all right, son, or am I goin' too fast for ya?
Stenographer: No, sir, I'm getting it all right.
Sam Spade: Good work.

Yeah, it;s one of those movies that isn't a comedy but manages to be far funnier than most that are, just for its sharpness. People go on about the speed of todays culture but some of that dialogue, I had to skip back on the DVD a few times, just to keep up. But it's the delivery, too. Individually, Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre would own almost any scene. In the same room, bouncing lines off one another, it's just laugh out loud good.

Great film. Save for-WHO DID THE FUCKING MURDER!

Maltese Falcon is one of my faves. Watch it every chance I get.