8/10. Striking.

rango

Silent Hill (5/10)

A real missed opportunity. Starts off OK but soon descends into a kind of adult Children of the Corn made by a Marilyn Manson fan.

8/10

I saw a Zombie short film called I Love Sarah Jane yesterday. It was quite good actually.
http://vimeo.com/5124137
Enjoy!

saw this starting on the tv listings as i was killing time waiting for the western union to open haha

7/10

The Road (8/10)

Pretty hard to fault this on any level, but it isn't something I'm likely to want to watch again in a hurry.

Very good. But Robert could do better. Excellent cast, Jim Fahey. Yeah... ahh Lost.



Not a whole lot of substance, could have been little more compelling.

Taxi Driver
King Kong (1933)

Really loved this film. I feel it didn't get the recognition it deserves as being a hard core apocalypse film. In and out of theaters and no one talks about it. Then again, I'm a huge John Hillcoat fan. For a truly unnerving experience, see his "Ghosts.... of the Civil Dead" or "The Proposition" which is one of the most horrific westerns ever made!

Super- A good dark comedy. It has its own thing going, but at the same time it reminded me a lot of "Defendor", and that movie came out first, so I'm not sure this was the better film.

I think the fact it was a genre film was what stood in the way of that recognition. That and the fact it wasn't made in Europe. I'm sure, had it been made in Russia or Scandinavia, that the critics would've salivated over it far more than they did.

I didn't know Hillcoat made Ghosts of the Civil Dead but it makes perfect sense now you mention it. I can't believe I still haven't seen The Proposition.

The Call of Cthulhu (7/10)

A real oddity. Although made in 2005 it looks like an early silent film. Bits of it are very similar to the island scenes in the original King Kong. Not really recommendable to anyone but diehard Lovecraft/Cthulhu devotees, who've probably already seen it anyway.


Dagon (6/10)

On a bit of a Lovecraft kick at the moment. Not a great film, as such, but it's a great story.

"Sunset Boulevard" - it was on TCM last night.

So good on so many levels.

 

WHILE WATCHING IT: 8/10

Saying this is Smith's best film maybe isn't saying much, depending on how you feel about him. Seriously, after a bunch of movies he finally figured out a camera can tell a story, and that there's such a thing as artful editing. Aside from a few long-winded, self-indulgent, not-as-clever-as-Smith-thinks speeches, things fly by with energy and unpredictability. Emotions are generated, then fucked with. No character is safe. And John Goodman offers more evidence that he's one of the finest actors out there. Two or three really good bits of dialogue.

AFTER THE MOVIE ENDS AND I THOUGHT ABOUT IT: 4/10. Really, this is stupid shit. Shot with hand-held cameras to evoke a "realistic" look, but the script is riddled with plot holes, huge coincidences, and just plain malarky. It's paranoid, and its ultimate point that "religious extremism is bad" is sorta fucking obvious at this point. Smith acted for years like this is a film he HAD to make, but why? It's loosely based on Rev. "God hates fags" Phelps, one of the most hated men in America, and this over-the-top representation seems like overkill.

As far as technique goes, I stand by the statement that this is Smith's best film. Of course, shit director that he is, now that he's figured out how to make a film he's announced his retirement.

wasn't the video game "Clock Tower" based off this?

Its THE gritty Western of modern ear.