Movies you've just watched

[BIL]

Phantasm:
Can´t really understand why people think that is a cult classic.

Sounds like it's just doing its cult thing.

I really like Phantasm, but it's more of a personal favourite than something I'd credit with real excellence like Croneberg's The Fly or Carpenter's The Thing. I like the duality of it... both wordlessly tragic and balls-out brain-drilling macabre. Taken literally it's like some Lovecraftian giallo, merciless to the living and dead alike. Mike crushing the Tall Man's fingers in a door after a frantic chase, to a gush of vile ichor and a bestial wailing from the other side- said digits stored in a box that later reveals only a virulently hideous insect - yeah, cool! Like an 18-certificate Scooby Doo! Also don't be lured by her bountiful rack, Lady in Lavender is gonna stick a knife in your fuckin aorta. Escape is illusory anyway, because whenever and however you die, you won't go heaven - you'll go THEM! *bionic eyebrow*

And as fun as the bogeymen are, its themes of mortality and loss are quietly just as inescapable. Moreso once the movie's switched off. A smartly undersold nightmare via glaring 70s b-horror cheese.

Pretty sure Phantasm II thought better of attempting the same ephemeral trick, which is why the first order of business is to blow up Reggie's house and go full American Horror Road Trip. Some fun to be had for sure, in its more action/horror vein. That line to the hapless priest is a classic (see two paragraphs up!).

Shivers was the dark horse of my earlier-era Cronenberg watching. Seemed relatively benign at first, but yeah nope. Made zombies upsetting again. By the end I wasn't feeling too great at what I'd just witnessed. D: It's good!

[drauch]

For real, biggest problem I have with Phantasm II is they don't use that rad shotgun enough. -_-

[Zen]

Seconds (1966) - John Frankenheimer
(re-watch)

Man,this is an absolute bitch of a film!
Still holds up strong, since I first saw it on DVD years ago.
(The only part that does not, is the ridiculous Hermes Pan style choreography in that Bacchanalia scene)

Don't want to give anything away, so there is not much I say.
I just now read the wiki, to see if they included the Brian Wilson story. They did

The film received criticism for the use of Rock Hudson, I believe?
I can see how he might be jarring to the viewer on his arrival onscreen later in the film (perhaps the best looking leading man ever?) but given the premise of the story I think he works out fine.
Not your typical Rock performance. Especially the ending, which is raw.

Great film.

[rapoon]

The Fountainhead (1949) - Even though Rand wrote the script, the ~800 page book is mangled in the adaptation. Gary Cooper as Roark is one of the worst performances I've seen;
his courtroom speech (i.e. as Rands mouthpiece for Objectivism), as if he's reading the lines from a cue card, is deplorable and a disservice to the character.
On the other hand, Patricia Neal as Dominique Francon, is fantastic. Toohey, Roarks diametrical nemesis, has ~10 minutes of screen time. A short series would be more appropriate.

The Conformist (1970) - 'A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.' 10/10.

Blade of the Immortal - Don't be lulled by the fact Takashi Miike directed it. Stick with the anime or manga (preferable). 5/10.

[BIL]

Phantasm

Oh also - superb main theme. Again reminds me of several prominent giallo... classy 70s rock balladeering for appalling 70s ultraviolence. Stuff like Goblin's Suspiria theme and (shifting decade+genre) their absolutely fuckin BANGING Tenebre. what a swaggeringly evil "sup motherfuckers?" Italo-disco jam.

Also also, this next bit could go in THREE threads and still be on-topic! Maybe four, if we've a decent movie OST thread anywhere! Sidescrolling action fans who enjoy Phantasm AND game+movie OSTs - does GUN-DEC aka Vice Project Doom's sewer stage BGM remind you of its main theme?

Always wondered if it was just me. Discovered the game long after the movie, and the resemblance has always amused me. Guess it's a fairly simple composition but I could almost believe they knew what was up. The game's tone is actually pretty nasty-for-NES, in its Golgo13-esque skulduggeries.

[drauch]

All killer jams, indeed! Phantasm's theme really ups the moooody. Haven't played Vice Project Doom in... god, years, but that's pretty spot on! Maybe the woman on the American cover looks so buggered out because she's gonna turn! I'd almost believe the music intention though, especially with all the wacky horror references you see in JP games of the time.

[gbaplayer]

The next movies i´m going to watch are Phantasm II and Phenomena.

Oh and by the way i bought a Leprechaun II mediabook, opened it yesterday and there were two disc of Leprechaun Origins inside. XD

[drauch]

Ah, 'tis Warwick Davis pullin' tricks on ye!

Phenomena is my personal favorite Argento, but I'm probably more in the minority on that. It's just a personal culmination of all the stuff I love--plus it's utterly insane. Can't really explain the insanity without ruining some of it, but be prepared! Entomological horror fantasy Still toying with the idea of someday getting the Enzo Sciotti artwork tattooed on my stupid back!

[Zen]

Mother! (2017) - Darren Aronofsky (spoiler-free)

A while back, I predicted that this would be a stinker.
I happily said that, amid Jennifer Lawrence's ever increasing moronic behaviour and my increasing dislike and distrust of Aronofsky.

Well, I was right and half-right
Commercially, its a disaster and will effect Aronofsky in different ways, going forward.
As a film, well its a bit more complex than black or white.

On paper, this probably looked good. Where did it all go wrong?
One word answer; Aronofsky.


I found this interesting;
In an essay for The Hollywood Reporter, Martin Scorsese said, "It was so tactile, so beautifully staged and acted — the subjective camera and the POV reverse angles, always in motion …
the sound design, which comes at the viewer from around corners and leads you deeper and deeper into the nightmare … the unfolding of the story,
which very gradually becomes more and more upsetting as the film goes forward. The horror, the dark comedy, the biblical elements, the cautionary fable — they're all there,
but they're elements in the total experience, which engulfs the characters and the viewers along with them. Only a true, passionate filmmaker could have made this picture,
which I'm still experiencing weeks after I saw it."

Yes. But Martin, its shit!

Here's my beef;
1. This "masterpiece" felt for a large portion of the film, like a bad Stephen King film adaption.
2. For the first half/build-up of the film at least, the events will annoy the fucking beejesus out of you.
The concept of portraying an intolerable situation, by making your audience feel intolerance, has never sat well with me.
3. I purposefully read no interpretations of the film prior to watching. I delayed my own interpretation for as long as I could while watching it, so as to take in as much of the film as possible
and then . . .
as you approach the films climax, you will experience the thematic revelation as a series of violent kicks to the balls, punches to the head, vomit, piss, shit flying everywhere.
I am undecided as to whether Aronofsky panicked, grossly overestimated what he had to say, has a blindly inflated sense of who he is, is fucking insane,
or is just the fraud that I have a growing suspicion he is.

Having watched Mother!, I can say three things with a comfortable sense of certainty;
Darren Aronofsky wants to exist back in the golden age of the "great director".
Darren Aronofsky feels intimidated by Roman Polanski.
Darren Aronofsky can not live up to his idea of who "Darren Aronofsky" is.

Also; "Mother! is the first Aronofsky film without composer Clint Mansell's involvement." Yes, Darren, I could tell.
Judging by the score, I also have the feeling that new choice, Jóhann Jóhannsson, wont want to work with Aronofsky again
The credits play out with just a vocal rendition of Skeeter Davis's "The End of the World", sung Patti Smith, which was so bad, in so, so many ways that I actually got cranky


Zen's recommendation; Watch it if you fuckin want.

[Durandal]

Alita: Battle Angel trailer
I get what they were going for with those eyes, but whyyyyyyy

[GaijinPunch]

hmm... she looks like a sex doll. That's not a joke.

Pros: We don't know for sure we won't see Jennifer Connely doing ass to ass [again]. (She is still hot).

[Mischief Maker]

Alita: Battle Angel trailer
I get what they were going for with those eyes, but whyyyyyyy

I liked this movie better when it was called "I: Robot" starring Converse Sneakers and featuring Will Smith.

Obligatory.

[Xyga]

Alita: Battle Angel trailer
I get what they were going for with those eyes, but whyyyyyyy

Every time I think no one can beat the Japanese at ruining the best of their own manga franchises, an American director proves me wrong.

whens Akira

[Durandal]

Alita: Battle Angel trailer
I get what they were going for with those eyes, but whyyyyyyy

Every time I think no one can beat the Japanese at ruining the best of their own manga franchises, an American director proves me wrong.

whens Akira

It was already here all along.

[z0mbie90]

Alita: Battle Angel trailer
I get what they were going for with those eyes, but whyyyyyyy

Oh my, that looks horrible. And the music

[Xyga]

Also the scrapyard looking almost clean and bright, with actual buldings and streets like a proper city, instead of a dark dirty chaos jerry-built around industrial machinery.

No.

[GaijinPunch]

It was already here all along.

Never gets old... unfortunately it'll be here one day.

[BrianC]

The thing that especially perplexes me about the US Alita movie is that Alita is the only character with the big eyes. Why even do it at all?

I was surprised to find out the franchise has a different name in Japan, Gunm. Alita is also named Gally in the original manga.

[Xyga]

AFAIK it's only in the English localization that she's been renamed Alita (I've always known the character as Gally, the 'Battle Angel' subtitle is also absent from the version I know).
Not sure there weren't other English editions before the US's though (UK, AU...)

[GaijinPunch]

AFAIK it's only in the English localization that she's been renamed Alita (I've always known the character as Gally, the 'Battle Angel' subtitle is also absent from the version I know).
Not sure there weren't other English editions before the US's though (UK, AU...)

I doubt it. In fact for the anime adaptation, the US release was almost simultaneous w/ the Japanese release (anime-wise anyway). I can't recall exactly but I don't remember the manga being way ahead of the US release. I seem to recall being quite surprised at how quickly it had come out... this was around the time anime was leaving obscurity in the US you could say. The wikipedia page has the Japanese dates (roughly) but not the western. I am pretty sure the US localization is what started.

While it seems a bit bastardized, I'm not surprised by the title change at the time. The original title, Gunnm doesn't really work well in English, specifically for it's shitty romanization. It's a bit of a play on words, similar to Dangun Feveron (the 'gun' part uses the kanji for gun in both). They should have romanized it as it's pronounced, Ganmu, and just brought it over as-is.

All of this is child's play compared to what it looks like they've done...

[Ixmucane2]

Patti Cake$

In New Jersey, young Patti dreams to be a popular rapper. She's fairly capable, but her lower-class background (alcoholic mother, gone father, waitress job, etc.) and being a white and fat girl aren't promising starting points. However, she forms a band with two other misfits and they enter the show business arena.

Reasonably good music (although focused on not very pleasant semi-improvised rap with chaotic texts and strong but unoriginal basslines), with a remarkably interesting scene in which our heroes compose and record a song, good dialogues and acting.
Most common clichés of the genre are present and predictable, but only rarely in seriously annoying ways. Only the ending is a repulsive betrayal of the protagonist.
There's some important ambivalence towards the whole success and celebrity paradigm, but I'm afraid it's involuntary

[Xyga]

While it seems a bit bastardized, I'm not surprised by the title change at the time. The original title, Gunnm doesn't really work well in English, specifically for it's shitty romanization. It's a bit of a play on words, similar to Dangun Feveron (the 'gun' part uses the kanji for gun in both). They should have romanized it as it's pronounced, Ganmu, and just brought it over as-is.

And you know the first thing that came to my mind when I discovered Gunnm was...Gu Gu Ganmo (had seen that somewhere for some reason, surely on TV as any cheap JP anime could end up on French channels at the time )

[Skykid]

Nothing will ever top the majesty of the original Gunnm manga. So beautiful. Didnt like the reboot series though.

On other things:

IT

I'm not sure how this made $700M against a $35M budget - by far the most successful horror movie ever - but it's probably fortuitous elements of release scheduling and general interest. That said it's pretty good as a King adaptation and does fairly well with the material. It really is like a Goonies horror movie and it was smart to update to an 80s setting. There's still a basicness to it where it feels as though it's played it fairly safe - the original Fukanaga script sounds as though it would have been a lot darker, more psychological and violent than this reboot, which would have been nice. That said it's still entertaining if a bit odd in its pacing, and stays fairly true to the novel.

Also I love 80s swearing kids but this is the only movie where they overdid it to the point that the magic actually wore off; that and the fact that there was only one kid who could deliver a good "fuck" line and the rest weren't very adept at pulling it off. It was no Monster Squad in that respect.

[GaijinPunch]

Nothing will ever top the majesty of the original Gunnm manga. So beautiful. Didnt like the reboot series though.

RIP the good ole' days. Actually there may be some good manga out there... just never get to it. The animated twin brother though has become quite the red-headed step child.

IT

I'm not sure how this made $700M against a $35M budget - by far the most successful horror movie ever - but it's probably fortuitous elements of release scheduling and general interest. That said it's pretty good as a King adaptation and does fairly well with the material. It really is like a Goonies horror movie and it was smart to update to an 80s setting. There's still a basicness to it where it feels as though it's played it fairly safe - the original Fukanaga script sounds as though it would have been a lot darker, more psychological and violent than this reboot, which would have been nice. That said it's still entertaining if a bit odd in its pacing, and stays fairly true to the novel.

Also I love 80s swearing kids but this is the only movie where they overdid it to the point that the magic actually wore off; that and the fact that there was only one kid who could deliver a good "fuck" line and the rest weren't very adept at pulling it off. It was no Monster Squad in that respect.

Good assessment. I liked it... went w/ the gf. Was accessible, and not too stupid. Did it redefine horror? No, but it was creepy and that's what it was supposed to be. Would have liked to have seen Fukunaga direct. The guy is not afraid to show the underbelly of humanity.

Might as well do one...

[GaijinPunch]

1922

A Netflix original adaptation of a Stephen King novella. I can group this with every other piece of Stephen King literature under "I've not read it" so take that as you will. Set in quite some decades past, it tells the macabre tale of a man [Thomas Jane] confessing to killing his wife, and all kinds of bad shit that ensues. A good watch. I've always liked Thomas Jane (especially as himself in Arrested Development), and the setting was definitely interesting. Made me thankful for electricity and toilets that wipe my ass for me.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Alita: Battle Angel trailer
I get what they were going for with those eyes, but whyyyyyyy

hahaha WUT

- those EYES
- Christoph Waltz as Ido? I mean he's a great actor but he's in everything nowadays... after watching the trailer for the second time, he kinda fits though?
- whoever set the trailer to that music should be fired immediately. Alita's pure fucking cyberpunk and anything but an Industrial and/ or retro wave OST is completely unacceptable
- I liked how she rammed that asshole's head into the table. Alita's definitely about kicking ass

it'll come down to whether it dares to be that really bleak dirty distopian vision and whether Rodriguez can channel his inner Frank Miller. honestly it doesn't look as shitty as GITS turned out to be... but it doesn't exactly look promising, either...

edit: aaaw jeeeez they're making it PG13... there goes any hope I had left for this pile of shit

[GaijinPunch]

it'll come down to whether it dares to be that really bleak dirty distopian vision and whether Rodriguez can channel his inner Frank Miller. honestly it doesn't look as shitty as GITS turned out to be... but it doesn't exactly look promising, either...

It suffers from the same problem though: looks like you could eat off of that junkyard floor.

[soprano1]

Alita: Battle Angel trailer
I get what they were going for with those eyes, but whyyyyyyy

Someone needs to edit that trailer to replace the music. Like ChurchOfSolipsism said, it's got nothing to do with Gunnm.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

exactly. pure disneyfied bullshit. I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...

[soprano1]

I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...

Sorry, no offense, but that sentence was funny as shit.