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.