A few films recently watched.

[Guest Barricade]

Judging only from Starship Troopers, Casper Van Dien is very much like Tom Cruise in that he makes you wonder just what makes this metrosexual/asexual pretty-boy robot tick...

i like how caspa gets beheaded in sleepy hollow... a role perfect for him

[Guest zaphod]

@ multiple points in thread.

 

Zack G definitely does best when he's freeform like Tim and Eric and Hangover. But, as we are painfully aware, life is hard for overweight bearded men--that's why bad things (Beverly Hills Ninja) happen to good people (Chris Farley, God rest his speedballin' soul).

 

I was a little saddened to hear that someone did not find the Exorcist that scary. I think it's proof that the Great Turning Over has already occurred. Musically, it's like the first Moog modulars being developed and people going nuts about it. Then Aphex Twin came. Then software came that made electronic music a totally different thing for people. My parents saw the premiere of The Exorcist in St. Louis and people left in droves, crying, visibly upset. Other theaters reported vomiting in the aisles. I read the book when I was 13 or 14 and was bothered by it because I understood it to be primarily a compendium of real research done by Blatty. The movie was also unreal to me at 15 or 16. But now, at 30, after movies like "Irreversible", being away from Christianity in the household, stuff I've seen from the war on the internet, etc. The Exorcist seems almost quaint at times. But I don't think any jading or hardening can ever take away from a 12 year old Linda Blair screaming "YOUR MOTHER SUCKS COCKS IN HELL!" or masturbating herself bloody with a cross. That was pretty fucking hardcore in the 1970s and probably will be in the 2070s.

 

the exorcist wouldn't have scared me in the seventies and it doesn't scare me now. this is primarily because i'm completely divorced from any religious influence, so i don't buy into the conceit of the film that the horror stems from. and then the scenes of horror are so over the top and extravagant...there's just something intrinsically theatrical about it that is, for me, funny, and not scary at all. it's basically the same as something like drag me to hell, which wasn't scary either, but then the exorcist takes itself seriously and that film doesn't. and i'm not much younger than you, haven't seen irreversible, and don't like gore. hell, i live in georgetown. so it's not some generational gap thing. i just find it ridiculous, not scary. but it is a good film, i'll acknowledge that.

[goffer]

Adaptation - 8/10 - After my roommate telling me he snagged my copy of Synecdoche, New York, I offered to indulge him in more Kaufman since, form what I could tell, he enjoyed SNY. In the end he didnt seem to like it... he expressed his dislike of the first part of the film and that "it didnt get interesting or watchable until the end". I did a and quietly walked back to my room.

[takeshi]

A Serious Man - Still not sure what to make of this I think I need to see it again. It started out really slowly but I started to get into it halfway through. My friend found it too "Jew-y". Although I did feel like I needed a guide to Jewish terms at certain points. It's also more of a drama than I expected.

[lumpenprol]

Waltz With Bashir - joshuatxuk was the first guy on here to suggest this, guess Zaphod and Mirezzi weren't that impressed but I liked it, overall. I thought the animation was *gorgeous* and the film deserves to be watched for that alone. I do however found myself wondering why animation should be applied to a "true story" war film. I guess I'm one of the few who never understood what the benefit was to having Maus be a graphic novel with mice and pigs, rather than just a film or book. I don't see that making a cartoon war film, or graphic novel, adds anything that wouldn't be there in another format. Perhaps with Maus he was going for some social commentary a la Animal Farm, but I think it just as likely that, being a cartoonist, he was just working in the medium available to him, and he probably also suspected that the novelty of making a comic about the holocaust would get him some attention, which it did.

 

In this case, it seemed like the animated format was similarly unnecessary, until the final sequence, when the reason became clear. Seems the animation was to soften you up for the gut punch, which I didn't mind, it worked. The rest of the film I'm more ambivalent about. As a non-jew I have to say it didn't make me feel more sympathetic to the jewish perspective, if anything it seems to fit with the view of jews as emo whiners who will obsess about a drop of their own blood while freely spilling gallons of someone else's. It was all too precious. The ending did a lot to redeem that, but it still seemed like a film made by Jews to guilt trip other jews, rather than a more universal statement about war. But overall, I liked it, and it's certainly unique, 8/10.

[goffer]

Although I did feel like I needed a guide to Jewish terms at certain points.

Same here... I suggest you read the script, It helps clear some stuff up.

 

http://www.coenbrothers.net/scripts/aseriousman.pdf

[Guest Babar]

i've been through the whole evil dead series lately.

 

The first and second movie seem to be kinda related in a strange way. Actually if you cut the first few minutes of evil dead 2 till the POV assault scene on the house( when ash is proped on a tree in the morning), you almost have the continuation of the first movie. IMO the second one is the best, probly because the film is more focused on Ash, and thus lets flow more delusions and paranoia into the film. I especially find Campbell's playing in those one-man scene very good and I fucking love the way he keep a watch on the ssurroudings. Bruce Campbell definitively is my favorite actor.

 

The third one is quite fun too, although the events before the endings (battle for the castle) are worth an unadventurous script. The very end is top notch though :

 

 

Nooooooo ! I've slept too long !

can't wait for the fourth, hope it will occur in the future.

 

 

 

Groovy

[awepittance]

my appreciation for Evil Dead 1 has grown significantly over the years. I had seen them originally completely out of order, Army of Darkness first (in the theatre), rented Evil Dead 2 when i realized Army was a sequel, and then eventually after years of searching finally tracked down a VHS copy of Evil Dead 1. So naturally when i first saw Evil Dead 1 i was kind of like wtf? Did Ash go to the cabin before?!? it took me a while to realize that the timeline had been fudged and that 2 wasn't a traditional sequel. but yeah eventually i was explained that the first 15 minutes of Evil Dead 2 is a 'remake' so it makes sense now. i love Evil dead 1 though, such an ambitious mother fucking movie on a low budget

[awepittance]

A Serious Man - Still not sure what to make of this I think I need to see it again. It started out really slowly but I started to get into it halfway through. My friend found it too "Jew-y". Although I did feel like I needed a guide to Jewish terms at certain points. It's also more of a drama than I expected.

 

i felt pretty much the exact same way except i didn't feel lost in the jewishness necessarily more the overall tone of the movie. I went in expecting a more a more screwball comedy so i was thrown by how serious it was played , also yeah the ending was a little unsatisfying but i think it was trying to tie into the whole quantum physics uncertainty principle

[Guest Adjective]

A Serious Man - Still not sure what to make of this I think I need to see it again. It started out really slowly but I started to get into it halfway through. My friend found it too "Jew-y". Although I did feel like I needed a guide to Jewish terms at certain points. It's also more of a drama than I expected.

 

i felt pretty much the exact same way except i didn't feel lost in the jewishness necessarily more the overall tone of the movie. I went in expecting a more a more screwball comedy so i was thrown by how serious it was played , also yeah the ending was a little unsatisfying but i think it was trying to tie into the whole quantum physics uncertainty principle

the last Charlie Rose had the Coens, Richard Kind, and Michael Stuhlberg and it's viewable online

http://www.charlierose.com/

 

edit: while rewatching this interview i swear i hear someone farting occasionally and i'm trying to think of which one it is. I really want it to be Richard Kind

[Guest Mirezzi]

Was I critical of Bashir? I certainly didn't mean to be, because I liked it a lot despite my problems with it.

[Guest zaphod]

i didn't get why it was animated. i also didn't like how ambiguous its stance on the idf was. weak movie.

[Guest Mirezzi]

i didn't get why it was animated. i also didn't like how ambiguous its stance on the idf was. weak movie.

That was my main criticism. My reading of it being animated had to do with the dream he was having, how dreams take on an idea that something didn't really happen. As a self-defense mechanism for people with PTSD, turning horrific events into surreal, detached experiences is fairly common. I thought, whether it jived with you or not, the ending was a stroke of brilliance. Strained, perhaps, but brilliance nonetheless.

 

I just thought it pulled too many punches with regards to Israel's culpability. Sharon's far too relevant. The film had a chance to shit on his legacy and it went limp on it.

[Guest zaphod]

i got the ending, i got why it was animated, i suppose, it just seemed unnecessary. although, the first twenty minutes or so really made me want to see a film noir set in the middle east of the eighties.

[Guest Mirezzi]

Yeah, I'll say this about Bashir. It was at least 100 times better than Persepolis, which was horribly horrible and boring.

[Guest zaphod]

yeah that film sucked a giant veiled cock

[lumpenprol]

Was interesting how all the characters seemed like they were desperately trying to prove they had balls or were warrior-poets, and the only frame of reference they had for understanding tragedy was to compare it to the holocaust. Zionists.

[Guest zaphod]

the film didn't seem to have much historical context, just lots of excuses and self pity. i wasn't looking for some kind of condemnation of israel, but the film was intellectually shallow. it hid the lack of depth under a lot of psycho babble, and i found it very hard to sympathize with the characters when they seemed to take a lot of pride in being warriors for israel, or whatever. if it had simply been a war film, this would have been fine, but they were trying to make a statement and it ended up being very vague.

[Guest beatfanatic]

Its not a movie but I watched this documentary called "Krautrock - The Rebirth of Germany" which was great.

[awepittance]

Its not a movie but I watched this documentary called "Krautrock - The Rebirth of Germany" which was great.

 

sounds like a movie to me, where can i see it?

[Guest beatfanatic]

Its not a movie but I watched this documentary called "Krautrock - The Rebirth of Germany" which was great.

 

sounds like a movie to me, where can i see it?

 

It aired on one of the BBC Channels last friday and you can watch it Herebut only if you are in the UK.

 

I found some rapidshare links for it though. Check you inbox in couple of minutes.

[sneaksta303]

I'm going to cut through the pretentious film talk for a minute and post a quick review for the film "Trick R Treat". Is it horror? A comedy? I don't know, but it was fun for being one of "those" kinds of movies. Sorry. Shit post. Haven't been myself as of late. Oh yeah. 8/10. It was fun. Great for this time of year.

[Dr Clitterhaus]

hello north americans who are consumed by british culture.

 

Doubt - As old age draws in, i find myself looking at actors more instead of Sam Raimi style camera moves. I might even go and see a play in the next 10 years. Doubt is a gripping meditation on the nature of suspicion. Infact it's a study of human nature with my main nig Roger Deakins doing the DP. Good shit. Time flys by when you have actors who hold your attention, it never felt like 100 minutes had passed.

 

Let The Right One In - Some real good cosmic shit right here. Makes you wanna go check your horoscope and see which way the planets are lined up. Theres an old geezer in this who was clearly a love interest to the young vampire 60 years previous...but we only realise this a day after watching the film. A sign of a good film if your still thinking about it the next day. Smae as realising the young vampire was actually a boy after meditating on the shot of his castrated genitals. And the fathers alcoholism.

 

My Bloody Valentine - How many ways can you kill motherfuckers with a pick-axe? A few. Hated the first 10 minutes with a passion, then the film became a bit of a Cluedo style whodunnit (actually pretty watchable) before inevitabley dissappearing up it's own arse with the "Identity" style psychogenic fugue style scenario, which worked best in Lost Highway, but now which seems to be the ending of choice for film directors who can't figure out a way to end their films. Patrick Lussier has edited all Wes Craven's films for the last 15 years, this guy could use a little pussy.

[lumpenprol]

Patrick Lussier has edited all Wes Craven's films for the last 15 years, this guy could use a little pussy.

 

lol

[Squee]

Shutter (2004 - NOT the remake) - I got scared quite a few times which is always great.

 

7/10