A few films recently watched.

[goffer]

Just so everyone knows, Barnes and Noble has 50% off all Criterion Collection (including blu ray): LINK

 

Note that Amazon has price matched the blu rays... so if you are after some criterion DVDs this is a steal.

 

Plus 15% off any one item coupon W4B4D8M

 

Plus Bing Cashback is 12%

 

I grabbed 5 films for $83 taxed and shipped after cachback :)

[takeshi]

Thanks for the heads up about Barnes & Noble, Goffer. I'll be picking this up.

 

 

Medicine for Melancholy (2008) 8/10 - Indie love story about two Black people in modern day San Francisco. It's a bit mumblecore in places and didn't explore the differences between the characters enough for me but it gets points for showing fairly realistic portraits of intelligent, articulate Black people with differing points of view. It has some beautiful cinematography too.

 

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) 8.5/10 - Really well done crime flick starring Robert Mitchum as a gunrunner trying to get a sentence commuted by ratting out his former gang. Has a really funky score written by Dave Grusin.

[goffer]

Great grab takeshi last time this was around I grabbed the Cassavetes box set.

 

I'm going to have to check out the Friends of Eddie Coyle... might grab the book first though, I've been meaning to read some Higgen's.

[AJW]

Terminator 4

 

Into The Wild

 

Rescue Dawn

 

Alle pretty dam good infact

[goffer]

Trainspotting - 7/10 - Revisiting a lot of my puerile favorites as of late. Good ol' cheesy Danny Boyle fun with this one...It still gets me how fucking thick that Scottish dialect slops off the tongue.... I still need subbies.

[Atop]

Bad Lieutenant: P.O.C.N.O. 7/10

 

Absurdity at its best, Cage is acting his face off in this one, bringing what we all have been knowing he could do which is act while high on cocaine, what a national treausre thisman is?!?! IGUANA VISION! Instant cultitude and quotability to the maximum levels.... nothing like the first film, because it is Herzog and he doesn't make films for you.... the best Law and Order episode ever!

 

[Guest Great Maker ShaiHulud]

The Time Guardian (1987) -- good luck finding this. It's online, though. 6/10

 

Fucking great Australian B movie sci-fi, with Carrie Fisher in a few scenes for some reason. Tons of untapped potential -- the plot involves a city (the mayor of which is Dean Stockwell) from the far future that travels through time trying to avoid cyborgs called the Jen-Diki. It's really hard to describe why this is a good movie, but it just is. The action scenes are a little stupid, and the acting from the lead chick is laughable, but I don't know. I just love these shitty desert movies and I love Aussie accents.

 

[Guest Great Maker ShaiHulud]

The Nines - 5/10.

 

I want to give it less, because it's a really silly film. A really dumb film. Actually...

 

 

Ryan Reynolds... Is God. No matter how the film tries to explain this away. Ryan Reynolds plays not only three lead characters in this film, but he's given God-like powers... Really? Fuck off.

Okay, so there's a spontaneous song about 20 minutes in. Literally, the two lead characters burst into song for about a minute, and then revert back to normality. Nothing like that ever happens again... Really? What?

The film is cryptic and lofty for no other reason than to be cryptic and lofty... and that fucking sucks. Apparently the same writer, John August, wrote Big Fish, and I've never been able to get into that film, not because it's too 'challenging', but simply because it's fucking shit.

Seriously, Shamalamadingdong looks like Hitchcock compared to August.

 

Fuck it, I'll ruin the film for you:

 

Ryan Reynolds plays an inter-dimensional being that has become addicted to the universe he created on our Earth. He controls everything, but has become so entrenched in his creation that he believes himself to be a real character, like he's playing a game. In the film his three characters link closely around the same places and interpretations of people, but recently there's been one new woman who keeps entering his realm and causing him to doubt it's reality. Every time he doubts his reality, he inadvertently ends his character's story and is transposed into another.

There's also a fat woman too, whom he loves and wants to stay in his realms for.

Anyway, the new woman is an inter-dimensional being like Ryan Reynolds and wants him to go back to their dimension. So rather than just tell him, or take him back, she fucks with his head and gives him clues and cryptic shit without ever just explicitly telling him.

There's a scale of characters in Ryan's universe, 1 to 10 presumably. Inter-dimensional, God-like, beings are 9's, humans are 7's... and get this Koala bears...

 

 

Koala Bears are 8's. "Koala Bears are psychic and control the weather." That's all they say on the matter. Is that funny? It made me laugh, but only through it's sheer dumb bravery.

 

There's an attempt to downplay that Ryan Reynolds is God, as he's a 9. Surely a 10 would be God. But the film fails there because Ryan Reynolds created this universe and controls everything in it. He's God. Maybe in his reality there's a 10 that controls him too, but he's technically God to us.

There's one of the Fanning child-actors too. Sometimes she's mute, and speaks in sign language, and then sometimes she can talk. There's actually no pattern to it. It's just bullshit.

I just don't get it. I understand that film, but I don't know why it was ever made and who ever paid for it. It's tripe. Silly, melted, twaddle.

 

It's angered me a fair bit. I gave it a 5/10 up there. It's probably one of the worst films I've ever seen, a real bargain-basket b-movie DVD piece of crap, but I actually enjoyed hating it and tearing it apart. It made me happy and entertained to successfully out-think John August and his juvenile metaphysics.

 

 

I own this movie.

 

I love shitty Sci-fi. I have a pretty awesome VHS and DVD collection of same.

[sneaksta303]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZLv3Z7L5lY

 

oK so maybe the trailer could be 1000x beter, but goddamn I laughed my ass off to this last night. How come I had never heard of this till 2 days ago?!?! Yes, it has it's flaws, but nothing Bruce (also in the director's chair) can't handle. Bruce plays himself, but not, and the version of himself that he plays is such a total asshole it's unbelievable. He's a total drunk too. Watch this movie. It's one of those films that is self aware and knows exactly what it is.

[AJW]

Yup thumbs up to My Name IS Bruce

 

Can never get enough Brucey

[Guest Z_B_Z]

 

both films are by the same person and both involve schizophrenic lead characters looking for their daughters. the lead in clean shaven may or may not have killed a child and the lead in keane is looking for a daughter that may or may not exist. clean shaven really goes to town with the sound design, and for the most part is a better film for it. both films are well acted but i preferred the actor who played keane. just as sad and demented but actually kind of funny too. keane is actually the better film of the two.

[lumpenprol]

 

both films are by the same person and both involve schizophrenic lead characters looking for their daughters. the lead in clean shaven may or may not have killed a child and the lead in keane is looking for a daughter that may or may not exist. clean shaven really goes to town with the sound design, and for the most part is a better film for it. both films are well acted but i preferred the actor who played keane. just as sad and demented but actually kind of funny too. keane is actually the better film of the two.

 

these sound really interesting and I hadn't heard of either, thanks

[goffer]

Spirited Away - 9/10 - Wow! This was amazing... I'm not usually after animated films and am quite picky when it comes to them. This was one of the better ones I have seen, next to The Triplets of Belleville. 9/10 so far for I had watched a dubbed version... will re-watch soon with subbies.

[lumpenprol]

yeah definitely watch with subtitles. I was just watching Miyazaki's "Kiki's Delivery Service" last night, alternating between Japanese, English, and Chinese for the hell of it, and I noticed that both the spoken English version and the English subtitles included reams of dialogue not in the original film. Clearly some American genius felt the only way the film could be sold to American children was to fill up every quiet and restrained moment with wacky dialogue describing what the characters are thinking and feeling at any given moment. If I hadn't thought not to watch the non-English version I would have had a completely different (and more annoying) experience.

 

By the way, was interesting to go back and rewatch this early Miyazaki, the backgrounds in Kiki's are actually gorgeous and much richer than in his subsequent work. I guess the talent at studio Ghibli has gone downhill. The backgrounds and animation in Ponyo, by comparison, are much weaker.

[tec]

Le Donk and Scor-Say-Ze: As it's only 70 minutes long I'd recommend this to anyone. Paddy Considine is good in anything and some of his improv work here is fantastic and raises quite a few lols. Shane Meadows perhaps plays too much dodgy folk tunes during the heavy-handed EMOTIONAL interludes but it doesn't ruin things too much. Perhaps most importantly some warp bloke is in it wearing a BOC SHIRT< OMFG!! And it can be easily found online so if you are a tight bastard you don't even need to pay for it.

[Guest Alex C]

As, cinemas disregarding every new release tomorrow for fucking goths. Fuck off. Really itching to see A Serious Man.

 

Has anyone seen Black Dynamite? It looks amazing, doesn't look like it'll get a UK release which fucking sucks.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-wqmnJrOFM

[tec]

It looks fun but is it just a homage to the old blaxploitation films? As if it is, why not just watch the old blaxploitation films? I had the same problem with the grindhouse films.

 

films

[keltoi]

Trainspotting - 7/10 - Revisiting a lot of my puerile favorites as of late. Good ol' cheesy Danny Boyle fun with this one...It still gets me how fucking thick that Scottish dialect slops off the tongue.... I still need subbies.

 

lol... spud talking 100 mph for his job interview on speed.

[Guest zaphod]

ballad of narayama

 

been working through some of the stuff mentioned in my top five movies thread. this was good, maybe not great, but really good. i still think vengeance is mine is imamura's best movie, but i haven't seen them all.

[takeshi]

ballad of narayama

 

been working through some of the stuff mentioned in my top five movies thread. this was good, maybe not great, but really good. i still think vengeance is mine is imamura's best movie, but i haven't seen them all.

 

Glad to hear someone else enjoyed this film. I've tried showing it to friends but it's way too depressing for most of them. My only real problem with the film is some of the stuff to do with the main character's father but that detracted very little from the film.

[goffer]

Which one, the '58 or '83? Ive been interested in seeing this as well.

[takeshi]

Which one, the '58 or '83? Ive been interested in seeing this as well.

 

The '58 version is more of a faithful adaptation of the novel but I prefer the '83 version.

[Guest zaphod]

i watched the 83 version. apparently it's based on a book as well.

[Squee]

Thirst - 9/10

 

Awesome-o

[takeshi]

i watched the 83 version. apparently it's based on a book as well.

 

They're both based on the same novel. Imamura's version doesn't follow the novel as closely and is more concerned with fleshing out the themes inherent to the material.