brand new movie thread

avi

avi

W3RK3R
Aug 21, 2002
10,213
3
38
Oly, WA
www.itsatrap.com
stuff I've seen semi-recently:

Flickering Lights - Danish crime caper/comedy. Some decent moments, but really not that hot overall.

Greenfingers - Con gets new lease on life through gardening. Total chickflick, but certainly watchable.

Nightbreed - How did I not remember that David Cronenberg plays the bad guy in this? Holy shit! Actually, despite some cheeseball effects, this is still a decent movie.

Some Kind of Wonderful - I can't believe I had never seen this. Obviously cliched, but still good. MSM is way cute.

Mystic River - Didn't I already mention how awful the ending was? It ruined the entire film. Still, some great acting.

Lumiere & Co. - Lots of directors (mostly french) make films using the original Lumiere camera and talk about the history of filmmaking. A bit slow at times, but quite interesting overall. Almost a 5 Obstructions for beginners.

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself - Yawn. I barely remember watchng this.

Devil's Playground - Way sadder than I expected, but very very interesting. Amish gone wild!

Heart of Light - Great scenery and cinematography (filmed in Greenland), but that's about it.

Harold and Kumar go to White Castle - Fun, a few really really funny scenes. I scared myself by naming all the songs on the "x-treme!" mix tape immediately.
 
oh, and Lost in Translation
what a piece of overrated garbage - I guess it had some decent craft behind it (good composition, etc), but there was absolutely no emotional resonance at all. No tension either. I need to rewatch In the Mood for Love to get the taste out of my brain.
 
the woodsman: i think produced one of the more uncomfortable moments in movies i've seen recently, more so than i can remember and it almost made me turn it off, not in anticipation of what could have been shown but in anticipation of what the retaliation would be. and i can't believe how good of an actor mos def is, because i've never seen him in anything else. he stole a good chunk of the movie on his 2nd appearance in it (the first one, i think, was written poorly, with stupid lines)

the machinist: ehhhhhhhhhhh, but having a bodily alteration as a centerpiece is nothing different from a freakshow and thus you can't help buy get fascinated by this and not driven away by the rehashed storyline.

devil's rejects: people are trumping this over Ho1KC but i don't buy it. i don't buy either movie but i admit i'm still thinking about this and i saw it 3 days ago. i don't think zombie seems to know when to punch or pull punches but he does come up with some beautiful imagery and texture. one more don't: i do not like his tampering with otherwise mystifying characters, particularly spaulding, who really needed the veneer of what the fuck is this guy? to be left alone. once again i am left feeling like this movie has a fractured theme going on and i left feeling nothing, basically, except that the ending wrenched a sort of sadness in me that i know was cheap and tacked on and hopefully not meant to be thought-provoking in that manner of "holy shit, i am feeling sympathy for serial killers", because it doesn't even quite work that way. which is why i'm still thinking about it, i can't figure out why i feel the way i do but i DO NOT suspect zombie was in full control of how it would effect people, either. it seems kind of obvious to me that he's making movies to get the images out of his head, and nothing more.

also, it used to be that i would not tolerate any sort of "rape" scene in a film, but unless i got completely jaded over the past 6 months, this is the least effective depiction of a horrendous event that i've ever watched.

dogora the space monster: one of the few toho monster films i haven't seen, and for years i was never inclined to track it down, as the descriptions always classified it as more of a "crime" film with a sort of weird monster subplot, and that it is, and i probably couldn't appreciate it up until this late age. but i was more than pleasantly suprised - this is a shade less than brilliant. cleverly scripted diamond heist plotline with multiple twists and smart, tongue-in-cheek acting all set against the backdrop of a goddamn giant space amoeba who eats carbon/diamonds and is repulsed by wasp venom. the visuals of the main amoeba descending from a darkened sky and ripping apart a bridge while getting shelled by massive artillery will stick with me forever. taken out of context, or maybe shown on a grainy 70's local TV newscast, and you might have mass panic on your hands. incredible visuals. also, an american actor (robert dunham) who (seems to be) fluent in japanese has a starring role, and that alone is an interesting thing to watch. he's charming.

varan the unbelievable: for years i considered this one of my favorites, a sort of forgotten toho monster movie. slow-moving, primitive, i could see why many people would ignore it, and the american version was hideous - butchered and saturated with horrible, numbing inserts with myron healy, an old-time actor with a face/demeanor of a bulldog. it always creeped me out when they'd import a japanese monster film and put these decrepit, gnarled american men coupled with scared-looking little korean women into the mix. seems criminal to me.

anyhow watching this again, sub-titled (had a bootleg of the japanese version for years but no subs), and i'm rethinking my opinion. very boring movie, worth it only for the magical scenes of varan rising out of the misty lake it lives in. those scenes are SO good that i can almost smell the brackish froggyness.

the DVD does include an awesome bonus, a strange TV show video segment where a host and an adult guy who won some sort of contest spend time making a replica of varan's back and spines along with the original creator of the suit. that alone is intense, but at the end the smiling old special effects guy trots out a brand new clay sculpture of varan's head, looking MUCH better than the original costume!!!!!!!! i want to take a class w/ him!!!!!!!!!
 
can i also say that i set about watching as many movies as possible this year, after reading some guy talking about watching THREE HUNDRED movies last year?

i'm @ like 65 or so right now (i'm keeping track), and the rules are like this: a.) i can list a movie i've watched before this year if i watch it again, but only one time b.) documentaries that are over 70 minutes count, in fact, that counts for anything (like, i watched the van helsing cartoon dvd once and that was 3 episodes, 30 mins each - so that's disqualified), c.) accept the fact that i'm not married and soon to be 4 years past the age of 30, d.) my pants zipper doesn't necess. have to remain zipped, because i'm usually drinking coffee and make a LOT of trips to the b-room and no one is hanging around my viewing space to complain about it as it is, e.) dates and date movies do NOT necessarily count, and f.) will farell movies do NOT count.
 
nick: i am not sure which particular scene in the woodsman you saw that made you uncomfortable but there were a few times in the theater while watching it that i was fidgeting in my seat from being mentally uncomfortable.
 
the woodsman and the machinist are both in my queue. I'm only mildly interested in the latter (def the freakshow appeal), but have been looking forward to the former for awhile. Not the kind of movie I want to see in a theatre.

Also am waiting on and looking forward to Imaginary Heroes and In Good Company. Both seem to have promise.
 
saw murderball tonight

first: got in for free 'cuz an old college friend is the manager. at least I hope he's manager. he's worked there ever since we were in college together. and he even graduated, too! (not me) anyhow, perhaps we'll catch up later.

anyhow, the movie was great. very very entertaining even though you don't really get to see much actual court action since there's too many crazy quick cuts. then again, it's not really about the sport insomuch as it's about the people. it's not really worthwhile to pay $10 to see on the big screen I think (glad I didn't pay), but definitely worth renting.

next week: the aristocrats!
 
watched Shallow Ground this weekend- it was a pretty good gruesome but decently tasteful & suspenseful horror flick. story was good, well shot and ending was semi-surprising. i could totally do without the last 20 seconds. the whole thing was done for $72k, which is pretty impressive.
 
I watched Danny the Dog last night. I loved it. Bob Hoskins was better than Morgan Freeman, though, which isn't what I expected.

I saw The Machinist recently. It was ok. I liked the acting and mood, but the ending felt a bit cheap.
 
holy shit, the aristocrats was high-fucking-larious! I'm so so sick of the quick-cut editing style, but man oh man is that movie funny. I might go see it again - I was laughing so hard at times I know I missed stuff.
 
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