Movies you've just watched

[Skykid]

Speaking of Terry Gilliam, I watched Time Bandits for the first time two nights ago. Wow!

Aw, I love Time Bandits. I'd say it was on par, if not even a weenie bit better than Munchausen, but it comes down to taste I suppose. I'm probably going to be biased as I watch TB infinitely more times as a kid.

[JBC]

The Dunwich Horror (1970)

I actually enjoyed it, though I'll have to go back and re-read the original Lovecraft story before I make a final judgement. There's a particular effect they used when showing the first death where everything goes into a strobing sequence of solid primary colors on black that was pretty great. It's overused towards the end though, and much less effectively.

Older movies have such a dreamy quality about them.

I also watched some martial arts flicks today. The Big Boss & Dragon Lord. I started Little Big Soldier but decided I should wait for my gf to watch it with me. Seemed good for a newer Chan film. Netflix is slowly improving.

[BIL]

I felt lazy yesterday so I watched Killer Elite starring Clive Owen as Comedy Moustache, Robert De Niro as Old Robert De Niro and Frowny Bald Hardman as himself. FBH does quite well, frowning and balding his way through some impressively hard scenes such as getting repeatedly punched in the face while tied to a chair and punching a grown man square in the jaffas. Some guy I don't know brings the laughs with his greasy black hair and handlebar stache, drawling a priceless retort to the offer of having his nob chopped off and stuck in his mouth. The writing deserves some minor credit for not going all Gawd Save The Queen with a decently morally ambiguous premise about naughty SAS wetworks in the middle east, and FBH's mission is so ridiculously convoluted I had to watch to see him pull it off. It's decent enough for a lazy unambitious evening.

Fist of The North Star: I've obviously been desensitised to anime violence since childhood, but it was still nice to revisit this in all its ridiculous Seinen excess. Tons of mutilation, gore, and one of the most awesome 80's-style music sequences when Rei fights Raoh. Still the best-burly-men-smashing-each-other-into-pulp-films ever... but the TV series is probably better on the whole since it expands more on the world and characters.

Dear God, Kodomo Band ruled at HNK music.

Oh, oh! Fightin' in the heart of madness,

Oh, oh! Ease my pain, ease my roneriness

Movie's got the explosive gore, tv series has the character arcs. Manga has more of both, naturally. I'm pissed off that I didn't have the scanlation on my HDD when my Megaupload account went down. Gonna have to piece it back together again.

[Skykid]

Fist of The North Star: I've obviously been desensitised to anime violence since childhood, but it was still nice to revisit this in all its ridiculous Seinen excess. Tons of mutilation, gore, and one of the most awesome 80's-style music sequences when Rei fights Raoh. Still the best-burly-men-smashing-each-other-into-pulp-films ever... but the TV series is probably better on the whole since it expands more on the world and characters.

Dear God, Kodomo Band ruled at HNK music.

Oh, oh! Fightin' in the heart of madness,

Oh, oh! Ease my pain, ease my roneriness

Movie's got the explosive gore, tv series has the character arcs. Manga has more of both, naturally. I'm pissed off that I didn't have the scanlation on my HDD when my Megaupload account went down. Gonna have to piece it back together again.

Ha ha, it is too good. After watching it again I actually thought I should read the manga once and for all, but have all the volumes even been translated?

The reason I was interested is because I watched the Japanese version this time (as opposed to the Manga dub available back in the day) and Raoh made some very obscure references about little Lynn that I don't remember being in the dub. I'm curious to find out what that's all about - and don't anybody spoil it if you already know!

[BIL]

It's been a good three years since I last kept an eye on the HNK translation project, but around early 2009 it was around 85% scanlated, with the early and later volumes fully covered. There were a couple of untranslated volumes near the middle, iirc, with a new translation team slowly closing the gap. I'm gonna see if I can chase up some info this weekend, hopefully there's been some progress. I got through the untranslated section by watching the relevant anime eps. Google the name of the song from the movie's Rei vs Raoh fight for a useful HNK resource!

The movie basically condenses the manga's first couple of major plot arcs, while changing and/or omitting various characters and events, so its content doesn't match up exactly to the original story. The TV series is a lot more faithful, but it also adds some pretty annoying filler that bogs down the manga's tight pace and heavily whitewashes the violence. It's also worth noting that the very last major arc of the manga was never animated at all.

[Daigohji]

Fist of the North Star AMV I edited back in the 90s: http://youtu.be/3FAQH8RrmSo

I am shock; I only just noticed that the third and fourth DVD sets of the TV series are out now. They're bound to go out of print in a hurry, so I'll have to grab them soon.

[Skykid]

Thanks for the info BIL, now I need to know what the best e-reader device is for reading comics? Anyone got any suggestions?

[BIL]

For PCs I like CDisplay. Nice simple program with good scaling and rotation features. edit: doh - somehow skimmed over your post quick enough to misread it completely. -_- No idea about e-devices, sorry. Will leave this post up in case anyone finds it useful for reading scans.

[CMoon]

Just finished watching the first two episodes of the new Avatar (Legend of Korra) and like what I see so far. I understand why some people are having mixed feelings about it, but its nice to take a larger world and set a small, confined story in it. I don't think Korra is going to have the same kind of role that Ang had, but I can only hope this new story manages to explore the dwindling world of heroes in a more technologically advanced world.

[BIL]

Been enjoying the HP Lovecraft Historical Society's two movie efforts, The Call of Cthulhu (2005) and The Whisperer in Darkness (2011). Really affectionately done in 1920s silent and 1930s b&w talkie style, respectively. Definitely the better adaptations that I've seen.

Related, also checked out the four HPLHS "Dark Adventure Theatre" radio plays, again done in a deliberately oldie 1930s style (complete with uncomfortably chirpy cigarette ads). These are great - excellent production all-around. They've done At The Mountains of Madness, Shadow over Innsmouth, Shadow out of Time and The Dunwich Horror so far. SooT is particularly intense.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Thanks for the info BIL, now I need to know what the best e-reader device is for reading comics? Anyone got any suggestions?

You need a pretty high resolution to get the most out of proper scans. Some of them scans are insanely high rez and worth every pixel. A bit of downscaling isn't disastrous, but only just a bit. The details deserve to remain discernable.

[BIL]

Ohhh damn, it's been years since I read Volume 1. HNK manga gore is *explosive*

[Skykid]

Thanks for the info BIL, now I need to know what the best e-reader device is for reading comics? Anyone got any suggestions?

You need a pretty high resolution to get the most out of proper scans. Some of them scans are insanely high rez and worth every pixel. A bit of downscaling isn't disastrous, but only just a bit. The details deserve to remain discernable.

Definitely agree, and I'm willing to pay more for one that can handle those hi-res scans. Do you have any suggestions you've road-tested?

[xris]

Dagon is a pretty decent Lovecraft movie as well. Ain't got nothing on Mouth of Madness though. But, Event Horizon does, even if it is much more similar to Hellraiser in actuality.
Edit: Imma hafta dig up those old timey movies that you mentioned, I could see some of the older movies doing a good job with the source material, even with the technical limitations. One of the few chances for a film maker to have the audience fill in the gaps with their imagination, allowing for a slightly deeper glance into the abyss. These would have been made just as his stories were hot off the press right? That's crazy actually, these were big when they came out, completely pop culture. Too bad homie missed his work gaining popularity, especially how important they became. Good on him anyway, I'm sure he was very proud of what he wrote, and was shure that it would get recognized in time - or, at least that was part of the deal he made.

[BIL]

Dagon is pretty cool. Saw it a couple years ago. I didn't like the extreme gore of one particularly tortuous death scene, but otherwise I had few complaints. The expansions made to the original Shadow Over Innsmouth story really magnified the sense of mortal futility and despair you'd expect from a movie dealing with HPL's mythos. Not a feelgood movie.

I really recommend the "Dark Adventure Radio Theatre" (love typing that!) series - I listened to all four consecutively the other night, they're extremely well-done adaptations. Got "At The Mountains of Madness" playing right now, it honestly sounds like a doomed expedition broadcast from the early 20th century.

[blackoak]

I'll have to check that Lovecraft radio program out. I've read all his stories and regularly attend the Portland Lovecraft film festival, though I didn't go last year.

I watched a couple 80s anime films last week. I've been revisiting all these classics with a friend who has never seen much japanese animation.

First was Wicked City, which I just love the art for, especially the way the women are drawn. Great lighting and action sequences too. Speaking of Lovecraft, I sort of wished the film had gone in a different direction with the protagonist being unaware of this other world and randomly drawn into it, rather than the typical manga/anime "bureaucracy of evil" where silly details smother the mystery. The problem with overdefining otherworldly elements in scifi/fantasy is that the otherworldly aspects never survive their "illumination" and you're then left with typical human drama. Snooze...

Also watched Neo Tokyo (meikyuu monogatari), absolutely great. Especially the first short... sad to see this only has 7 reviews on IMDb?!

[xbl0x180]

I'll have to check that Lovecraft radio program out. I've read all his stories and regularly attend the Portland Lovecraft film festival, though I didn't go last year.

I watched a couple 80s anime films last week. I've been revisiting all these classics with a friend who has never seen much japanese animation.

First was Wicked City, which I just love the art for, especially the way the women are drawn. Great lighting and action sequences too. Speaking of Lovecraft, I sort of wished the film had gone in a different direction with the protagonist being unaware of this other world and randomly drawn into it, rather than the typical manga/anime "bureaucracy of evil" where silly details smother the mystery. The problem with overdefining otherworldly elements in scifi/fantasy is that the otherworldly aspects never survive their "illumination" and you're then left with typical human drama. Snooze...

Also watched Neo Tokyo (meikyuu monogatari), absolutely great. Especially the first short... sad to see this only has 7 reviews on IMDb?!

The first short with the mime done by Rin Taro? I think he used to work with Matsumoto Leiji before, so he has some classic chara designs from the 70s and early 80s, which I really dig. Personally, I prefer "The Running Man" segment directed by Kawajiri Yoshiaki (who, coincidentally, directed "Wicked City"). I love almost everything Kawajiri has done, including the weaker OAVs

[mesh control]

Blade Runner, again.

I need to cancel my netflix account. I never use the damn thing.

[Skykid]

Dark Matter.

It was just ok. Meryl Streep really over acts, it's so irritating.

[JBC]

Watching Switchblade Sisters.

[drauch]

^Aces flick!

[GaijinPunch]

Blade Runner, again.

I need to cancel my netflix account. I never use the damn thing.

I almost busted this one out last night but it's something my ho must see, so I held off from watching... just as I hold off touching myself if some action is on the menu in the next couple of days.

[JBC]

Blade Runner, again.

I need to cancel my netflix account. I never use the damn thing.

I almost busted this one out last night but it's something my ho must see, so I held off from watching... just as I hold off touching myself if some action is on the menu in the next couple of days.

TMI bro, TMI.

[Acid King]

Take Shelter - Moody and atmospheric drama/horror with Michael Shannon doing his patented man going crazy routine.

Bad Lieutenant - Harvey Keitel is good in this, and though the movies are only related in title, I have to say I liked the Nic Cage movie more.

[mesh control]

Blade Runner, again.

I need to cancel my netflix account. I never use the damn thing.

I almost busted this one out last night but it's something my ho must see, so I held off from watching... just as I hold off touching myself if some action is on the menu in the next couple of days.

TMI bro, TMI.

knowledgeable

[jonny5]

Bad Lieutenant - Harvey Keitel is good in this, and though the movies are only related in title, I have to say I liked the Nic Cage movie more.

Really? I saw this on netflix and figured it would be really bad. Might have to check it out, as I loved the original Bad Lieutenant; actually watched it again not too long ago.

[Acid King]

Bad Lieutenant - Harvey Keitel is good in this, and though the movies are only related in title, I have to say I liked the Nic Cage movie more.

Really? I saw this on netflix and figured it would be really bad. Might have to check it out, as I loved the original Bad Lieutenant; actually watched it again not too long ago.

I think the plot unfolds better in the Nic Cage movie and his interpretation of the character is.... unique, to say the least.

[BIL]

I had no idea Quarantine (2008 [REC] remake) got a sequel. I thought the original Q was good silly fun with some credible atmosphere and a neat alternative to the source material's occult bent, so I gave Q2 a watch. Expected an utter shitfest, but actually, it was an okay little horror movie. Nothing at all groundbreaking or really memorable in the "lunatics run around biting people" horror subgenre, but the rabies peeps have a certain creepy ferality when not loudly losing their shit, the settings are good and the pacing is decently tight. Not bad.

[Necronopticous]

Bad Lieutenant - Harvey Keitel is good in this, and though the movies are only related in title, I have to say I liked the Nic Cage movie more.

Really? I saw this on netflix and figured it would be really bad. Might have to check it out, as I loved the original Bad Lieutenant; actually watched it again not too long ago.

Directed by Werner Herzog, man! It is incredible! Get in there!

[xbl0x180]

The original was directed by Abel Ferrara. Dude's a Grindhouse and Indie king for movie buffs. Besides, it's got nicolas coppola in it, so it's gotta be s***