Movies you've just watched

[Skykid]

I thought Beyond The Black Rainbow was the best film I've seen in years. If you like David Lynch, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg or Stanley Kubrick (and lets face it - who wouldn't?) you'll also like this. Stunning visuals and soundtrack and I found it utterly compelling to sit through. The ending was a tad disappointing on the first viewing I have to admit, but the second time round - and afterwards - I think I've seen it about six times now - it seemed quite poetic. A truly, absolutely amazing piece of cinema. I really wish more films would be made like this nowadays, but alas, it's a rare piece of art. Instant top ten list stuff for me. Oh, and it was shot on real film too, according to the director. Imagine that!

Cool -- put it on my Wishlist at Amazon. Maybe Santa will bring it to me.

Take it the fuck back off.

If you like John Carpenter, David Cronenberg or Stanley Kubrick, do yourself a favour and go and watch one of their films instead.

At best, BTBR has some aesthetic/AV qualities, but it's unsuccessful as an engaging piece of film. It masks the fact it has a piss poor script and screamingly amateurish actors by cutting the dialogue to near zero (which I don't necessarily think is a bad idea) and subverting your attention by ploughing trippy imagery at you. A low budget concept film can do without unnecessary exposition, but all this is is concept and no substance. Any sense of narrative is smothered by fingernails down a blackboard pacing, so slow you might need to punch yourself in the balls to make sure you're still alive.

It deals with some interesting ideas on psychology and the dangers of alternative drug therapies, but if your DVD or theatre ticket doesn't come with a complimentary LSD tab, you'll essentially feel as though you're going cold turkey for 1:45 minutes to an A-Level student's end of term art piece.

Its all influence and little originality, and there's an amateurishness about the director that surfaces regularly if you're familiar with his sources. THX 1138, 2001, Cronenberg, Blade Runner sound effects (listen closely) and various sci-fi from the 60's and 70's make the cut. I also won't be spoiling anything by telling you that the 'bad guy' goes down like the biggest fucking chump in film history. I lol'd.

Its more of an excuse for tinfoil hat youtubers to get their panties in a twist over MK Ultras than a credible piece of film, sadly, but if you plan to drop acid beforehand it might be worth a rental.

A truly, absolutely amazing piece of cinema.

A truly amazing statement. I'm not sure whether the fact you watched this subpar artfilm six times is worth a standing ovation or a call to the hospital unit.

[EmperorIng]

Stan Winston ruled so goddamn hard.

Man, I knew he did the Alien stuff (from my Alien boxset, but I didn't know he did all those monsters.

Man, best monster-maker since the Universal days right there (and better imo! But I love schlocky, gory, 80s).

[GaijinPunch]

Cool -- put it on my Wishlist at Amazon. Maybe Santa will bring it to me.

Take it the fuck back off.

I think your unendorsement of it is reason for it to move to the top.

[system11]

The Mist 8.5/10

Watched this again tonight. Brilliantly done survival horror film, very eerie setting. Of course it has plenty of the cliches you'd expect, but an excellent ending, and the scene leading up to the ending is breathtaking.

[njiska]

The Mist 8.5/10

Watched this again tonight. Brilliantly done survival horror film, very eerie setting. Of course it has plenty of the cliches you'd expect, but an excellent ending, and the scene leading up to the ending is breathtaking.

Poor, poor bastard.

[Skykid]

Cool -- put it on my Wishlist at Amazon. Maybe Santa will bring it to me.

Take it the fuck back off.

I think your unendorsement of it is reason for it to move to the top.

Knock yourself out. You will after you realise what you blew your money on.

[GaijinPunch]

Knock yourself out. You will after you realise what you blew your money on.

You do realize the point of a public wish list, right?

[mesh control]

L-O-L

[Skykid]

^ Gut wrenching laughter.

Knock yourself out. You will after you realise what you blew your money on.

You do realize the point of a public wish list, right?

You do realize that by recommending you avoid it and listing the reasons why, I'm trying to do you a favour, right? It makes no difference who actually pays for it, it's not worth anyone's money. If you don't want to take my word for it, like I said, knock yourself out.

[RGC]

The Mist 8.5/10

Watched this again tonight. Brilliantly done survival horror film, very eerie setting. Of course it has plenty of the cliches you'd expect, but an excellent ending, and the scene leading up to the ending is breathtaking.

I also enjoyed this one. Almost as creepy was the religious segregation, hugely influenced by the ravings of one delusional woman, that occurred within hours of the civilians becoming stranded. Obviously, that was one of the main themes the film was drawing attention to, and it was scarily believable.

[Raytrace]

maybe it's always been on US Netflix, but it is with great pleasure I can announce that the legend that is 'Remo: Unarmed And Dangerous' is now on Netflix over here :p - it's called 'Remo: The Advenure Begins' though...

[blackoak]

Browsed through the Criterion selection in hulu with a friend the other night... wtf am I still doing with Netflix?! We decided on "Ariel" by Aki Kaurismaki. Interesting results in depicting working class life in a heavily stylized but unsentimental way. The niggling thought, and perhaps limitation of this approach, however, is that I wonder if the reality of the subject matter isn't "stylized" out of the film. Certainly not a new problem in film, but one that comes up very readily when directors take up subject matter with clear political implications, I think. Despite this concern I still really liked "Ariel" and would recommend it.

I've also been watching a bunch of Van Damme films with a friend, hehe. Hard Target has been the best of them so far, with Lionheart an earnest second.

[system11]

Exit Humanity - 9/10

Absolutely loved this one, it's almost like The Road crossed with zombies in the civil war period. It is quite slowly paced, but beautifully made especially considering the low budget. Loses a point as some of the animated interludes are a little jarring at first, but this is one that will make you feel real sympathy for the characters with one or two genuinely touching scenes, and the soundtrack is perfect at setting the mood from start to finish.

[lilmanjs]

Crime Story. Not watched it in almost a full year, so I pulled it out last night and was surprised at how little I remembered of the movie. Clearly one of Jackie's best acting roles. There's not much of him beating the crap out of people with his own 2 fists, but more shooting action. Still he shows he can act quite well and plus the movie feels like a movie and not one of those badly acted based on a true-story type movies you normally get. Still I have A Taxing Woman to watch tonight. Trailers looked good, but the dvd is quite strange. my dvd player somehow forgot there was a main menu after I watched the trailers. just kept wanting to play them over and over. lol

[jonny5]

Exit Humanity - 9/10

Absolutely loved this one, it's almost like The Road crossed with zombies in the civil war period. It is quite slowly paced, but beautifully made especially considering the low budget. Loses a point as some of the animated interludes are a little jarring at first, but this is one that will make you feel real sympathy for the characters with one or two genuinely touching scenes, and the soundtrack is perfect at setting the mood from start to finish.

Somebody else was just telling me about this. Another one I'm gonna have to check out. Found Inbred, but fell asleep watching it, 3:30am after the bar in the first 15-20mins.

[CMoon]

Browsed through the Criterion selection in hulu with a friend the other night... wtf am I still doing with Netflix?!

Hulu+ still has commercials, but agree. For a while, Netflix had almost all the criterion movies streaming, then took them down. Super bummer.

[GaijinPunch]

You do realize that by recommending you avoid it and listing the reasons why, I'm trying to do you a favour, right? It makes no difference who actually pays for it, it's not worth anyone's money. If you don't want to take my word for it, like I said, knock yourself out.

I do, but we have massively different tastes. I've thoroughly enjoyed movies you've not, and I'm sure you like quite a few in my turd bracket. If nothing else, I think it would be worth it for some influence in photography/video. I actually got a few ideas for shooting from the trailer.

[njiska]

Top Gear released a special today dedicated to the cars of James Bond. Lot of back story on the cars, why the DB5 was chosen and lots of little anecdotes about production. Good bit about the Lotus as well. Worth a watch.

[CMoon]

Watched the first half of Felidae on youtube. Will be sad when its done. Stretching it out intentionally. Belongs to a small elite group of animated films which include Watership Down, Plague Dogs, Ringing Bell, Secret of NIMH and maybe Mouse and his Child. Can't believe I'm taking an intermission, but fucking beat from a mammoth weekend of brewing (yeah, I use weekdays to recover from the weekends now, WTF!) Anyway, Felidae seems pretty raw. Animation wise not on par with WD and PD, but swearing, gore and mature topics set it apart. That's another reason I've taken so long too watch it since I didn't feel those elements would gel so well with the talking animal fantasy cartoon, but so far it is carrying its own weight and then some. But when its done I think there'll pretty much be nothing left of that tiny little genre.

[drauch]

^One of my most hateful Ebay bid wars ever back in the day. I swear, there was a goddamn doppelganger with the exact same obscure taste as me. Back when you could message other members and see their entire name. This dude outbid me on everything from classic American stuff, random animation, Italian schlock, horror movies, etc; all from different sellers and completely random. Think of RBGBubblebath but with movies. Took me so long to get a hold of that German DVD of the movie, which sadly only has a dub--albeit a decent one, at least. Back before programs and garbage I had to stay up til the wee hours in a fight with this twat over this movie. I eventually won it--for quite a bit more than I wanted--but I won it, nonetheless. In my foolish pride I wrote him a hateful message, boasting to him that he didn't snipe me this time. He didn't like that. I never saw him again after that. I'm pretty sure he was a test from the film God and I had to look deep inside my cinematic soul or something.

ANYWAY, the movie is pretty groovy. I love cats and animation, so it sorta fits. An interesting murder/mystery (with cats) that deserves a better release with the native tongue. Cary Elwes of Princess Bride fame does a pretty good dub, if I remember correctly. Forgot it was a book that I always meant to read. I shall order that now.

Crap I've watched lately:

Unforgiven - Somehow the first time I've seen Clint Eastwood's gritty, last Western film. Everything I love about the old west and Eastwood. Went around quoting him at work all day: "Yeah, I've killed women and children, and probably just about everything else that walked or crawled at one time or another."

Chained Heat - Not to be confused with Caged Heat, another women in prison (WIP) movie. Linda Blair looking pretty sassy, along with a bizarre cast including Stella Stevens, that one dude from Dirty Hairy/Animal House that I'm too lazy to look up, Sybil Danning and random others. Kinda boring, but not awful. Some nasty deaths, just not enough lesbians.

Kill Zone - Cirio H. Santiago Vietnam flick (one of dozens) with a terribly drunk David Carradine. Explosions! Red barrels! Lots of death! What I love about Santiago and action films.

[GaijinPunch]

Ha -- classic story. Glad to hear you triumphed though. I guess that's like the mebership card into the adult ADD club. I know I've got mine!

[Aguraki]

watched 2 of the worst movies around nothing was right at any moment in these 2:
abraham lincoln vampire hunter and stolen with nicolas cage.
complete failure.

[xris]

I had just watched Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer last night as well. It was pretty bad. I was definitely expecting slightly better from the director.
Just watched Paranorman at the cheap seats, it was okay. The movie had a great look, and was well done. Writing was okay, a couple of edgier jokes for being a kids movie.
Anybody else seen The FP yet? This is so deliriously retarded that t works rather well. Loved it, the dialog was great.
I really gotta try and find a copy of The Plague Dogs. I'm surprised that one slipped past me!

[Skykid]

I do, but we have massively different tastes.

Didn't realise it was that extreme, but if you're primarily interested in the photography and little else, you may get some inspiration from it. Its audio/visual experimentation is by far the best thing about it: two hours of photographic wanking before an awful anti-climax.
I'll be surprised if you're as enamoured over its lesser components, but I'll be interested to hear what you made of it.

[GaijinPunch]

I can appreciate things for what they are. I'm fine with Tron Legacy being a 2-hour 3D Daft Punk music video (and I'm not a Daft Punk fan in the least). I don't measure everything by the same stick.

Anyway, my queue is kinda big these days, and I've only been doing 30 minute TV episodes here and there. Busy busy busy!

[system11]

I can appreciate things for what they are. I'm fine with Tron Legacy being a 2-hour 3D Daft Punk music video (and I'm not a Daft Punk fan in the least). I don't measure everything by the same stick.

Anyway, my queue is kinda big these days, and I've only been doing 30 minute TV episodes here and there. Busy busy busy!

I actually prefer Tron Legacy to the original, it's a much better film - just not as groundbreaking.

[Raytrace]

ok I haven't watched em yet, but I managed to get the 3 Mas Oyama Sonny Chiba films onto my HD, I shall check em out next time I feel like taking a small break from anime

[drauch]

Nice! Can't go wrong with Sonny Chiba.

[CMoon]

Nice! Can't go wrong with Sonny Chiba.

Yup.

[Raytrace]

Nice! Can't go wrong with Sonny Chiba.

Yup I've always had an interest in Mas Oyama too, how he was Korean and decided to go to Japan and stuff.