This is my favorite comedy ever. SO fucking funny. Me and Brian (42-year-old dude who is in all my movies) quote it all the time. "You ithopie... ETHOPIAN..."

Attic Expeditions is crazy. I like the dream sequence that is seriously like LSD: Dream Simulator on the PS1... but with Naked City on the soundtrack..

I've got Face of Another to watch soon...

My fiancee REALLY HATED KickAss. REALLY hated it. Thought it was a crap movie. She could only get through about 1 hour before she fell asleep.

I need to read the comic though, beause the film was either missing something, or the comic source matertial is actually quite juvenile, and attempting to be grand and deep.

I havent seen it yet, but I still get the feeling I won't like it.

Kick-Ass was great. Best film of the year next to SCott Pilgrim and Inception. It was just an entertaining movie, nothing more nothing less. NR, you've posted "I have a feeling I won't like it" probably 30 times. Just see the movie already! Haha. It's nothing mindblowing, but it is good.



El Mariachi - 8/10

This film was made for $600 (yes, film processing costs made it $7000.. and then, when cleaned up to be shown in mainstream theaters, it cost $1,000,000... but just to shoot it, it cost $600). And is about a thousand times better than most "Hollywood blockbusters". Clearly inspired by John Woo. A great film ,often overlooked, and definitely Rodriguez's best. Check it out. This is the kind of "auteur" film I was talking about the other day, I just love guys who edit, write, shoot, compose music for, direct, do special effects, produce, etc etc etc etc....

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:I...ages/0.jpg&t=1
Dementia (1955) - 7/10

Amazing atmosphere.

El Mariachi (in spanish) is fucking great. It is PLAUSIBLE, you know? shit goes down funky in small Mexican towns man.

and that lady at the jail who takes money to let hitmen in and then tips off the guy and takes money for tipping him off? IT IS EXACTLY LIKE THAT!

Love El Mariachi.

with all their flaws, that movie and Clerks really proved you just need to try and entertain the audience, and you can make a good film for nothing at all.
they just go about it in different ways.

You have not yet seen Spy Kids. It is really good. The Incredibles basically stole the set-up of Spy Kids.



Re: Kick Ass, I need to see it again. It was entertaining, but it lacked something which I cannot yet place.

I think I got it. there are NO CONSEQUENCES in Kick Ass. In that sense it is more like a cartoon than a film taking place in a real concrete world, even though many attempts are made at hinting that this is an actual real world, as oposed to a magic make believe world of cartoons/superhero comics.
every character is two dimensional at BEST.
this works because it is a fun flick, but it lacks depth.

I love Spy Kids. I saw 2 and 3 in theaters.I still have the 3D glasses. I think Rodriguez is brilliant, I'm a fan of him, more personally than his films. His movies are just fine, just nothing I'm overly fanatical about.

And, yes, I love Clerks. And.. Mall Rats was alright... and after that, eh, I hate Kevin Smith.

You'd think with really good camera costing a couple hundred bucks nowadays, there'd be all kinds of Kevin Smith/Rodriguez-type success stories. The most recent one I read about was a $70 zombie movie that played at Cannes. All my movies are $0 and have screened in theaters and been on DVD, but I'd hardly call them a "success".

I think Kick Ass lived and died by the 12 year old girl superhero in it. She was the best part. It just felt like a Hard Boiled type action flick sometime (though toned down) and a superhero parody at other times. It had a confused tone, but it was genuinely disturbing (Nicolas Cage's character and what happens to him and stuff -- in front of his daughter, who he had trained to be a killer!). I dunno. I liked it, the trailers certainly made it seem like something completely different...

oh I know it's just really low on my list of shit to watch. And I only watch like 1-3 movies a week.

at least it makes ya think (re: kick ass!)

that alone makes it a worthy flick in my eyes.


I too have wondered why people are not making more personal movies with cheap quality flash drive camcorders. You can get a quite nice one for $500, borrow a friends bad-ass Mac and edit that shit yrself. There should be tons of people making like 20-30 minute short films right?

maybe there are and there is no way to distribute or share them...

I just bought Rebel without a Crew!!

...a ...book?

Rebel without a Crew is amazing! I'm sure you'll love it. I've read it 3 times already!



You're right, with the quality of low-priced cameras, editing software, and the internet - being an indie filmmaker is now cheaper, and easier than ever. The problem is that the market is now a bit over-saturated with these kinds of flicks... and most of 'em, sadly, are average at best. Plus, many casual moviegoers still seem to think that major studio supported smut like Juno, Across the Universe, or what-have-you, are the pinnacle of indie film.

I don't think the answer to more modern, similar to Rodriguez or Smith success stories is that there aren't enough filmmakers trying to follow in their footsteps, I'd say it's a lack of proper distribution for these types of films.

A lot of mumblecore films have gotten popular, which is cool, since those films were truly independant when they came out -- no professionals, lots of improv, no financing... but now they're just basically regular ol' indie films, with shakey cameras.

8.5/10

El Mariachi! Luv! :cool:



Vincent Moon is phenomenal. This man, this visionary... he takes the band Mogwai (one of my favs) and drenches the standard live concert film in black and cracks the haunting and climatic levels through the roof. From this using his skills, drops in shots of band traveling around New York and blends it with their live performance. Mogwai is in fine form, as always, belting out classics and some tunes from their The Hawk is Howling. Which I didn't know was so damn good! Beautiful. I got the deluxe version with the Live 2 LP, CD+DVD, T-shirt, and autographed poster! *hugs*

ET just cause I hadn't seen it in years. It was eh, I've seen better

wow, this souns AMAZING. gotta check it out.