[noisereductions]

yeah I saw the Dylan Dog book last week actually.

Graduation Day is fucking great. Linnea Quigley and everything.

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

Yeah, and Vanna White too! I really like the way it's edited. With all the insanely quick cuts back and forth... you know what I'm talking about?

[noisereductions]

yup. Great overlooked flick.

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

I think I like-like you, guy.

Now go and finally listen to EsHaM's Closed Casket... I'm telling you, you'll fall in <3!

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

 

[stu666]

 

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

 

[a-p a. niemi]

 

[noisereductions]

finally watched the new Nightmare On Elm Street. I don't want to get into it all now, but I'll say this: I think they fucked up ALMOST every single thing about this movie.

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

^ Yeah, it was awful. Just a soulless, sloppily written, sack of suck that dismally botched all of the beloved elements of the franchise.

 

I have a lot to say about this one...

In theory, I Know Who Killed Me is my cinematic wet dream come true. Here you have notorious pop princess, Lindsay Lohan, headlining an excessively stylized, wildly colorful, gruesome, big-budget exploitation mystery reminiscent of Argento, DePalma, and hell... even Lynch's later work. It succeeds where similar efforts like the lame Jenifer's Body, and inexcusably boring Black Snake Moan failed miserably.

The film was butchered by audiences, and critics alike. Won 8 Razzies, voted Roeper's worst film of both 2007, and the 00's. But what I see here is not a disaster at all. If anything, I'd argue that it is a near masterpiece flawed only by it's over-ambition, and jumbled storyline. Which I'd also argue, are all-too-common critiques of many beloved films that lean so heavily on the experimental side of the fence.

There are times when the film's stylistic preferences do feel forced, and unwarranted, but these are overshadowed by moments of sheer beauty within this criminally misunderstood gem. The bold color scheme of symbollic blues, and reds hypnotizes when juxtaposed between erotic shots of Lohan, and the barbarically violent sequences that compose the film.

This film is something that I would kill to make, and be damn proud of too. I truly hope that this will be a future beloved oddity, adored by film dweebs studying American horror in the 00's. All in all, I loved it. It's in the same league of extraordinary as Mean Girls, as far as I'm concerned.

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

You know what I was thinking about too? I heard Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds interview with Howard Stern, and he talked about how he and Eli Roth would attend Lohan's parties together. I wouldn't doubt it for one second, if these social interactions influenced her decision in taking this role. Especially when given the fact that the film came out the exact same year as both Grindhouse and Hostel 2.

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

 

AGAIN!

 

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

 

 

 

 

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

 

 

 

 

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

 

 

 

 

[atsonicpark]

I don't have the internet right now, at a friend's house. I've been watching a lot of movies in the downtime. Believe it or not, I watched BURIED and FROZEN -- two similiar movies (one, a guy trapped in a box; one, three people trapped on a skilift) -- and enjoyed em both. That's all I can remember.

My thing about FROZEN though? Couldn't they have, like, wrapped their fucking clothes together and made a rope and climbed down or some shit? I mean come on.

[noisereductions]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Dr. Eugene Felikson again

[Pelle]

 

[atsonicpark]

^Ridiculous movie. Also known as THE COMPUTER KILLERS. Hahr some reason, that box art reminds me of this movie I watched a long time ago called DOCTOR GORE (aka THE BODY SHOP)... my old VHS copy had like a 7 minute intro with H.G. Lewis talking about how he just loooooooooooved DOCTOR GORE haha. I thought it was such a ridiculous thing to have before a film, H.G. Lewis just sitting around talking about how he loves DOCTOR GORE, completely straight-faced (though he tells the audience they probably won't like it haha), and then it ended up being one of the worst films ever made. But, uh, HORROR HOSPITAL is kinda fun, isn't it? Funny movie.

I watched SUICIDE KINGS just now. Wow, what a lame movie! The ENTIRE MOVIE is Christopher Walken in a wheelchair (so, it's one of like 3 movies he's in where he doesn't dance -- d'oh!) and everyone in the movie just acts stupid as hell. It has that kid from Roseanne bitching about his dad, it has JAY MOHR holding a gun trying to look tough. Only good parts have Dennis Leary doing "crime lord henchman" stuff. As good as PULP FICTION was (and don't get me wrong, it was very good), it seemed to inspire some of the worst films ever, all these self-referential movies with cut-aways/flashbacks (like the scenes here with Chris Walken in a stupid wig killing a guy who he let keep his ring in a previous shot, for no reason) and trying to do a "clever spin" on the crime genre and whatnot. What kills this movie, and makes it like a 3/10, is Howard Shore's score. This whole thing has these really fucking melodramatic soundtrack. It made no sense. Like, the movie came off as a lame comedy, but we're supposed to be sympathetic to Walken's gangster ass, who kills his neighbors for no reason and feeds their bodies to some dogs? Nothing is ever explained, the "twist ending" is lame, it has that fat cop from Everybody Love Raymond, Romano's brother or whatever. Just a lame cast, with a bunch of tv actors inside a big mansion. Walken is hilarious to watch as usual, the whole film should have been him and Leary talking to each other. But yeah, remember when all these crime movies came out, some lame as hell (like DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO and WHITE SANDS and 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY and PLAYING GOD) and some pretty cool (CITY OF INDUSTRY and THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD and so on).


Anyway I keep remembering films I watched this week... I saw:

 

KAZA-HANNA - 9/10

 

TYPHOON CLUB - 8/10

 

 

SAILOR SUIT AND MACHINE GUN - 5/10

All 3 by the same director. All 3 cool for completely different reasons (though Sailor Suit was a bit boring in spots, it has a good cult following so might be of some interest to y'all). I highly reccomend KAZA-HANA above all else, very effective and effecting film. You know, it was this director's last film before he died, so there's always that eeriness (also see: EYES WIDE SHUT by Kubrick), the whole thing is about alcoholism and loss and loneliness, pretty typical Japanese cinematic themes (what I find humorous is how "wacky" Japanese comedies and so on can be, and then how quiet and lonely Japanese dramas are; it's like there's no in-between, just one extreme or the other. It's either LOVE EXPOSURE and ELECTRIC DRAGON 80000V and HAUSU or, you know, PALE FLOWER and AUGUST IN THE WATER and RITUAL and stuff -- love it). I guess alcoholism is pretty rampant there? I've noticed looooooots of alcoholics in my Japanese dramas. Interesting. Anyway, I think the most consistently well made cinema comes from Japan (which reminds me, are there any Japanese slasher films? Besides EVIL DEAD TRAP, I can't think of any! Err, I haven't seen em, but aren't the UP ALL NIGHT films Japanese slashers? I know some pinku films are almost slashers Anyway, just imagine some, like, hardcore J-giallo, that'd be tough as fuck). You know, you have to be patient sometimes but truely the best cinema in the world is in Japan, and other places in Asia.

[atsonicpark]

Hey GHOSTCHASE, I know you follow my Japanese film reccomendations pretty closely, and I have checked out every movie you've ever mentioned I hadn't seen previously. So I'm going to make two topnotch reccomends for you, as they are both films I rewatched recently and I have a great love for, and I think you will too...

BTW, I just randomly found this site...

One: THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE

 

Awesome 1994 relative obscurity reminds me of the excitement of the French new wave (which has never really been translated into many Japanese films I've seen -- another one would be the amazingly-titled and -edited "Bootleg Film"; obviously, there was the Japanese new wave, but that was RADICALLY different than any other "new wave"... or, any other film movement in history, for that matter... I maintain that the Japanese New Wave -- with films like GO GO SECOND TIME VIRGIN, PASTORAL, EMOTION, MAN WHO LEFT HIS WILL ON FILM, DIARY OF A SHINJUKU THIEF, FUNERAL PROCESSION OF ROSES, EMBRYO HUNTS IN SECRET, etc etc etc are the most awe-inspiring, genre-defying, EXCITING clash of images/sounds ever... I wonder why this movement has never really been covered in any meaningful way? If anyone can point me towards books or good essays on the subject, I'd be delighted. Anyway................)... uh, where was I? This is just a cool lil' film, one often forgot by time, I think you'd dig it. Kinda FNW with American film noir tradition, too. It's just so fucking cool, and the sequels (STAIRWAY TO A DISTANT PAST and THE TRAP) are cool, as well.

Two: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE SUN

 

 

The guy who made this only made two films. His other film is cool, but this? This is a masterwork. 10/10. We're talking BRANDED TO KILL levels of addiction and excitement when I saw this one. Just TRUELY excellent EXCELLENT filmmaking, unbelievable filmmaking even, like.. how the fuck did they get certain shots... you know? It's clever, it's epic (2 1/2 hours long -- but not a wasted moment, seriously)... in a way, it resembles stuff like Taxi Driver, in that at the beginning it portrays the main character alone in his apartment, long scenes where nothing gets said or done.. but there's an incredibly long bus hi-jacking sequence that is just startling (and lasts like 40 minutes), a sequence -- from point a to point z -- where a mini NUKE is built (seriously! This is EXTREMELY comphrensive! I read this movie was banned for that fact! I mean, it shocked the hell out of me when I saw it), and after about 90 minutes of strange and quiet drama, the film becomes an epic almost-ACTION film as the villian plays with the cops... it feels like there are maybe 10 movies in here, each one perfectly executed, though each one would probably be the ENTIRE whole of a lesser film. Not in this film. This is truely epic, intelligent, brilliant -- with all sorts of cool little touches, like the "stop motion" (really ,just huge chunks of frames cut out) scene where the plutonium gets stolen. The main thing I really like about this film, which makes people uncomfortable, is how it jumps around from extremely serious (I mean, it's dealing with NUKES for fuck's sake -- Japan was nuked. I mean, it really put things into perspective, but not in a cheesy way or a melodramatic way, but certainly in a way that makes most people uncomfortable)... and then it becomes sorta this light hearted but exciting action film... but then the main character crossdresses for a long scene... there's this weird part where the main character threatens nuclear holocaust on Japan if the Rolling Stones can't play there (which is based on a real life event where they couldn't play the BUDAKEN or whatever because of Keith Richards's drug charges!). Very unusual... Also, this box art really has nothing to do with the movie but it sure is rad, I'd LOVE to have a poster of this, holy fuck:

 

One mroe thing.. I highly reccomend reading the descriptions on this site... http://www.multilingualbooks.com/foreignvids-jap.html ... don't buy the overpriced DVD's. While looking for a screenshot, I came across this site, and nearly every film here that I've seen is fucking EXCELLENT (Kamikaze Taxi, Hana and Alice [which made me cry], Gonin [Kitano is god here in one of the most exciting crime films ever], I Am an S&M Writer, Maboroshi, Evil Dead Trap, Gemini, 2LDK, Nine Souls, Fire within, Bullet Ballet, Another Lonely Hitman, All About Lily Chou Chou [Shunji Iwai is, in my opinion, one of the best directors in the world, and this film is just insane; beautiful, poignant, brilliantly crafted and scored and shot -- so fucking REAL in how it deals with youth, even though I'm not a Japanese teenager I can identify to a big extent with that level of isolation and abandonment; I HIGHLY reccomend this film, as I do just about any of Shunji Iwai 's films, from his experimental shorts, to even a lot of his DV stuff.. a lot of that stuff is silly, as is most DV junk, but even THAT he injects with style and wit... just a smart director], Blackmail is my Life!, Kamikaze Girls, etc., etc., etc.). But I found a few films here I'd never even heard of that I'm going to investigate ASAP. After being pretty depressed lately and not really caring about movies or music, some of these descriptions made me really excited. For example, ADRENALINE DRIVE -- I'd never even heard of this one! Check this..
"Equal parts Takeshi Kitano-inspired gangster comedy, lovers-on-the-lam road movie, and fairy-tale romance, Adrenaline Drive is a triumph of low-key whimsy"

Wow. The last time I saw a film that was "Kitano-inspired", it ended up being the 10/10 "TOO MANY WAYS TO BE NO. 1". Anyway, so that sounds awsome, how about the description for BASTONI?...

" Director Kazuhiko Nakamura's debut is one of the few films to depict the porn industry with humanity and tenderness."

Wow.

So, yeah, great Japanese films, one of the few things that really excites me. Gonna check out all these films here in the next few months. As usual, everyone, if there are any great Japanese films you think I've overlooked, lemme know, because of the great user me. I discovered TWILIGHT (1994) which is one of my favorite films ever!