Kustom Kar Kommandos and Scorpio Rising

A couple of short 1960s films by a chap called Kenneth Anger that we were showing today as part of some film screenings for an undergraduate course which I help out with, the first of which was amusing, the second of which was...eh, kind of unsettling.

The first was only three minutes along (apparently intended for a much bigger project which Mr. Anger never got round to finishing), and revolved around a young man in tight jeans cleaning his car to the sounds of Bobby Darrin's "Dream Lover". It certainly has the makings of a good music video or TV advertisement. The second went on for a bit longer, and was basically a collage of iconic images, some cultural, some religious, some occult, juxtaposed with the saga of a biker played by Bruce Byron, who attends a party where there's some slightly unpleasant misusage of mustard, with the likes of Rickey Nelson, Bobby Vinton, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles occupying the soundtrack all the while. He also owns a couple of really beautiful Siamese kitties.

I really don't know what else to say. There was another film on the video called Invocation of My Demon Brother that I was considering watching before I returned it to the library, but I didn't really feel up to it today. I'll probably pop back and view it a little later on in the week.

Kenneth Anger is quite possibly one of the weirdest, and most disturbing, directors to have ever lived...

I just finished watching Ed Wood for a film course I'm taking. Wonderful film, and it makes you think, oddly enough, about his films and the man himself in a different light. It's an odd, and fun, film ride.

[i]Harry Potter and the Order and the Pheonix:[i]


Did you like it: Did you like the part where they have the wand battle.

And did you like the part where there was a masive battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort and can you believe that Voldemort made a Fire Voldemort Snake and that Water Ball traping Voldemort in, that Dumbledore had made and the scary part was that bang that break down the windows and Voldemort use the broken window shards and use them to kill Dumbledore, but Dumbledore uses a shield to turn the shards into sand whiches what glass are made of.

the first half of Death Wish 2

love 'em, number 3 is on tomorrow @ 8 on AMC, its my favorite :bloogrin:

spaceballs. it is a great movie. dark helmet is playing with his dolls was kinda funny.

LOL!

'Did you see anything?'
'No, sir. I didn't see you playing with your dolls again.'
'Good!' 8D

Well, I snuck back into the library's audiovisual room today and fulfilled this week's ambition of watching Mr. Anger's Invocation of my Demon Brother...without sound, as it happened, since the only pair of headphones within range appeared to be malfunctioning, so I missed out upon Mick Jagger's original synthesizing techniques. Other than that, it was quite an experience. Ten minutes worth of psychedelic eye shots, what appeared to be some kind of New Age ritual, and one or two of those Hell's Angels showing up again. And the Rolling Stones themselves, of course. Pretty interesting twist ending too.

Ten minutes not being quite enough time in which to satisfy my craving for the mind-bending, I attempted and failed for the umpteenth time today to make sufficient sense out of Felix the Cat: the Movie. Such a disconcerting experience - the human characters really don't seem at home with the rest of their world, the final confrontation with the major antagonist just kind of fizzles, and Animation Film Cologne certainly weren't ready to use CGI animation in such a prominent manner back in 1988. But none of that really matters, I guess. This movie clearly wasn't designed to be anything other than a fun, trippy experience, as well as a platform from which to showcase an extensive range of scrappy but still very colourful little monsters. The only real thing that does kind of mar it for me is Felix's voice. Peas on helium, I tell ya! :P

The Darkstalkers anime movie/series. Four 40-minute episodes. I saw paprts 1 and 2 years ago, only tracked down the rest just now.

Enjoyed it!

Cloverfield

Ever since the tease trailer popped into theaters, I knew I was going to bust a gut over this movie and after seeing it, I was so freaking right. This movie really is a marvel and a brilliant step for original movies. The use of the video camera through out the film was annoying at first but it really worked out well.

You really felt wrapped up in this movie and felt apart of it, the actors and characters all felt completely realistic and authentic people you could relate to. The action was intense and freaking scary, this monster is excellent in design and the way the movie used it, and fear not you WILL see the WHOLE monster.

This movie was heart pounding, brilliantly shot and its probably the most realistic, truthful looking monster movie I've ever seen. I know its weird saying that about a monster movie but it really felt real, and it was really intense. My first "new" movie in 2008 and I am happy and proud it was this movie.

I'm really glad that it lived up to the hype for you, Mr.M, you've really been looking forward to it.:D I'll definitely give it a watch on home video since I only go the theatre maybe once or twice a year.

I watched Darkstalkers again. The real title is Nightwarriors: Darkstalkers Revenge.

Knocked Up

Haha...what an interesting movie :P It was made by the same people who made Superbad, right? Same kind of humor...and a lot of the same actors.

Lemony Snicket's A series of Unfortunate events

Out of all the movies I have seen and liked that people hated, this one always confused me. I never did understand why people didn't like this movie. I totally enjoyed it and thought it was a really unique, dark, but morbidly fun imaginative movie that made good use of its actors and excellent music scoring.

Its much darker and downbeat then most fantasy kid books like Harry Potter or the Golden Compass. Jim Carrey really disappears into his Count Olaf character and for that, i give him much needed credit. Very few actors can disappear so deeply into a role and I really enjoyed the kid actors who played the Beaudelare children.

Or however you spell their last name.

yeah that movie was awsome. i always liked it, books were good to.

right now im watching bruce almighty. again jim carrey is pretty good at being his character.

The Hindenburg

Based on survivor accounts and historical speculation, this one details the events on board the German airship on it's fateful flight in May of 1937. The explosion and crash, both depicted with actual footage from the event, were blamed on sabotage. Good story, well acted, and George C. Scott made a very convincing security officer. :)

Patton?

Same actor, different character. I'm not all that familiar with his work but from what I've seen he more than deseves his legendary reputation. :)

Patton was a great movie :)

Actually, George C Scott is well known for starring alongside Peter Sellers in Dr Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worring and Love the Bomb

another good one :)

That it is, Partymember. I particularly like the part where he takes on the two fighter planes with his pistols.8D
The last movie I watched was Robocop. I've always like Robocop but this was actually the first time I seen it in full. I'm sure it was edited for syndication, though.;)

LOL yeah that was great 8D .45 Long Colt: nasty cartridge.

"No, I...am YOUR Father!"

Yep, that's right the flick I last caught was the 1980 sci-fi classic "The Empire Strikes Back" (The original theatrical version, no less.) My overall favorite of all the Star Wars films.

My favorite movie of all-time.
I'm glad you said 'No' instead of 'Luke'.

Yeah, looks like I passed the "Geek Test". 8D

The Red Violin

A highly captivating and intricate drama from Francois Girard, which chronicles the adventures of an extremely idosyncratic little violin throughout the ages, as it travels from hand to hand, brings joy and havoc to each of its owners, and gets to do some serious globe-trotting in the process, finally winding up in Montreal, under the watchful eye of violin expert Samuel L. Jackson.

As much as I enjoyed this film, I wouldn't say that it struck quite the same wonderful chord with me as Girard's previous masterpiece, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould (naturally, being a keen admirer of Mr. Gould's does make me a tad biased, but then again it was Girard's film which gave me my first real taste of the marvellous musician). The various episodes were cleverly interwoven, exceedingly picturesque and brimming with gentle charm and beautiful music, and yet the film as a whole possibly went on for a little too long, whilst conversely leaving a couple of the stories feeling a little too brief. We don't get the chance to explore each participant's life in a great deal of depth or detail beyond its relevence to the overall narrative arc of the inanimate violin, hence why it rather lacks the cumulative effect of the Glenn Gould biopic. But it's not my intention to carp. This remains an extremely original and delightful experience nonetheless, beautifully crafted and with some neatly transcendent moments. Plus, Colm Feore, who played Mr. Gould in Girard's previous flick, managed to show up for this one too, which made it all the more agreeable.

Red Violin was a good film.

Im sitting here waiting for Amazon to ship "Blood", "Ghost in the Shell", and "Paprika"

so sloooooooooow

No Country For Old Men

Top-notch. Being an avid fan of the Coen Brothers, it was a pure delight to see them finally jackpot again after the successive misfires of Intolerable Cruelty (which did still have its moments), and the Ladykillers (hmm, no comment), disproving the assertions of an old classmate of mine who'd firmly declared that they'd "lost it".

I will profess to having more of a weakness for the slightly more surreal flicks in Joel and Ethan's inventory, my personal favourites being the Hudsucker Proxy (which is also my favourite film, period) and Barton Fink. No Country For Old Men, by comparison, is a relatively straightfoward and unembellished thriller, very much in the vein of Fargo and Blood Simple (the opening scene in particular puts one very deeply in mind of the latter), but that's certainly not to its detriment. Despite Carter Burwell receiving his usual scoring credit, I can't actually remember there even being any background music throughout, prior to the closing credits. In the absence of any real embossing, this is a very cold, taut and at times utterly terrifying film, but that's something I found to be extremely refreshing about it. There's a raw, powerful purity which makes it totally engrossing, assisted no end by the Coens' laudable fearlessness in their willingness to defy established convention and the audience's expectations. And the cast were all excellent. Javier Bardem was particularly slick as a cattle-gun wielding psychopath who seemed to view himself as a harbinger of fate, and managed to be both hair-rasingly grotesque and hauntingly understated at the same time.

Well, that's just about the gist of my first impressions. As with any Coen Bros film, there's undoubtedly a wealth of hidden meanings and subtle character development to be harvested, and of which it takes more than a single viewing to appreciate (and there's already a multitude of further questions buzzing around inside my head right now). I look forward to delving a lot deeper into this one in the future.

^ - No Country for Old Men was aces, especially Javier Beldman's performance as Anton Chigurgh. Hopefully, he'll win an Oscar for the role.

Cloverfield. I felt it was....mediocore. Now, I had never been a huge fanatic fan of the giant monster film genre and, while the film is at heart a love story and not a giant monster film, I still couldn't really get into it. In part, the romance part of it may have ruined it for me, as while I love the idea of romance existing as a fictional element (which is the only believable way I think it can exist), it just doesn't do it for me sometimes when films try to pull "the major images are the lure, now here's what the film REALLY is". Sometimes they work; for me, this just didn't.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Still as funny as it was when I first saw it. Cary Elwes was brilliant!

Cloverfield: I actually liked it more than I thought I would. I usually like monster movies so this was up there. Unlike many of the reviews I had heard and read, I actually cared for the characters. I personally liked Hud, the camera guy, his real name is Hudson. I also liked that he was the camera guy and that his name is also short for Heads Up Display, I like the little things like that in movies.

Stardust

A fun fantasy film. Well, to be totally honest the basic narrative arc was as predictable as sin, and I had a hard time engaging myself with the two lead protagonists, but it was the little things which made it work, and there were enough of them throughout to keep it moving along fairly smoothly, most notably its surprisingly macabre sense of humour. And Mark Williams was in it, giving an absolutely stunning performance as a goat trapped inside a human body. Which was nice.

By the way, does anyone else here have vague memories of this other, much more low-key movie entitled Stardust, featuring a sentient vacuum cleaner? Okay, I guess it's just me then...

Cloverfield


One of the most immersive movies I've seen.

Hairspray, with John Travolta.

God, this movie was amazing. The costumes, the acting, the MUSIC, the make-up, scenery... everything. I bought the soundtrack first and listened to it religously, so I was really expecting something that knocked my pink-with-monkeys-on-them socks off. And I was delivered just that. I HAVE to sing the praises of the make-up artist(s) here-- you could barely tell that Edna Turnblad was John Travolta.

Nikki Blonsky was great, too-- she has one heck of a singing voice and could be an amazing role model-- she's not what most people would consider "pretty" but she aspires to succeed and puts the pretty girls to shame.

Fantastic all the way around.

I just got back from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

It was a great film. The songs were great, and I really hope that Johnny Depp wins the Oscar, because his performance was great. Sacha Baron Cohen (as much as I hate him in Borat, even though I haven't seen that film) was hilarious in this film, as was the musical number By the Sea. Johnny's expression during that song was funny! The only thing that bugged me was that I never got to see what happened at the end with Joanna and Anthony Hope.

Overall, I'm giving it 4 out of 5! :bloogrin:

BTW, did anyone catch the Beetlejuice reference from the By the Sea number? :frankiesmile:

"The Brave Vampire Killers". This was a pleasant surprise for a movie I just happened upon when flipping through channels. It's labeled as a spoof but that's not quite right because it's still a great little vampire hunter flick. Think of it more as the "Pirates of the Caribbean" of Vampire movies.8D
It was tough to actually hear what the characters were saying since the audio of the movie was pretty low, but from what I could make out of the dialogue it was well written and delivered. The professor certainly stole the show though.:D

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Wow. Johnny Depp was positively terrifying in this film, about as far removed from the likes of Edward Scissorhands and Edward D. Wood Jr as you can get...still, given the choice I think I'd be more inclined to be trapped in a confined space with Mr. Todd than I would Mr. Depp's incarnation of Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's previous film (*shudder*). Really, congrats to Johnny. He had that glacial, utterly impassive expression he wore all throughout nailed down to a tee.

I enjoyed this film very much, despite my being of somewhat squeamish stock. An awful lot of red liquid does go flying throughout (I'll admit to feeling slightly shocked when they actually showed the first of the throat-slittings - I'd kept my eyes to the screen since I was so confident they would cut away at the critical moment), though the blood-letting is of an obviously very stylised nature, and I found that I could more-or-less handle it (never quite got over some of the pitiful gurgling noises which Mr. Todd's victims had a tendency to make, though). The dark, murky streets of Victorian London were beautifully realised, and the musical numbers were very neatly executed. My only real qualms were a couple of plot points which struck me as being somewhat underdeveloped and another which was left dangling, with no real sense of closure at the very end. Otherwise, a fine macabre delicacy, neither sweet nor savoury, but highly entertaining.

John Carpenter's The Thing

Probably one of the (if not THE) greatest remake ever made. This movie is one of the few films I would say is a perfect movie. The music, the gore, the acting, the unbelievably fantastic special effects. Even after all these years this movie has truly withstood the test of time and still proves to be an excellent movie.

Its bad ass monster movies like these that remind me how good horror films can be, and how puppetry and prosthetics are far superior to CGI in my opinion. This movie's monster is one of the best I have ever seen and its design is so original and twisted, I have yet to find a single person or comment knocking this movie.

"Blood"

absolutely beautiful. Nothing better than a surplus of human blood, katanas, and 1911 handguns.

Amazon also delivered "Paprika" and "Ghost in the Shell", both supposed to be great flicks. I have yet to watch them, though.

The Parallax View

First time I've watched this film all the way through, though I had previously seen its centrepiece, a brain-washing montage which Warren Beatty (and, effectively, the viewer) is made to watch as part of a recruitment programme for potential assassins. To call that sequence disconcerting and unnerving would be a serious understatement, not just because of the content of some of the images themselves, but for the cunning ways in which the film juxtaposes and manipulates them. It's a scene which still manages to pack quite a punch no less than 34 years later.

As does the movie as a whole in fact. I notice that Arlington Road was later able to rip off its alarming ending very nicely.