southern train to doomsday

Monday Muzak: Highways and Cigarettes

2012-02-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Lina Romay (1954-2012)

2012-02-23T15:05:00.002-06:00

I just heard the unfortunate news - Lina Romay - the beautiful and talented Spanish actress and muse to my favorite cult film director Jesus Franco - passed away last week at the age of 57.

I've had LORNA THE EXORCIST sitting in front of my DVD player for a week or so now - waiting to be watched - I love the cover with Lina hovering over her victim with blood trickling down her tongue - so it's been a nice couple weeks just looking at the cover. I've seen her recently in JACK THE RIPPER, THE RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN and FACELESS - but her most wonderfully, surreal and beautiful role was of the Countess in FEMALE VAMPIRE which I will need to watch again soon.

It's sad news - but as any artist passes - they will live on forever in their work - thank you for everything Lina

Monday Muzak: Tiny Explosions

2012-02-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Presidents Day!!!!!!!!!! Boom!

Angela Lindvall

2012-02-18T08:00:00.001-06:00

I CQ Agent Dragonfly - come rescue me...

January 2012 - Movie Count

2012-02-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

January (12)

1. 1/2/2012 - Modern Times (1936)
2. 1/4/2012 - Straw Dogs (2011)
3. 1/5/2012 - Monamour (2006)
4. 1/6/2012 - Blood & Black Lace (1963)
5. 1/7/2012 - Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2011)

6. 1/14/2012 - Jack the Ripper (1976)
7. 1/14/2012 - Fright Night (2011)
8. 1/15/2012 - Eugenie de Sade (1970)

9. 1/15/2012 - Midnight in Paris (2011)
10. 1/20/2012 - Casino Royale (2006)
11. 1/20/2012 - Quantum of Solace (2008)

12. 1/24/2012 - 50/50 (2011)

Get Your Hands Off of My Woman, Mother Fucker!

2012-02-16T15:51:00.004-06:00

I've spent nearly all day listening to The Darkness and Andrew WK - and just now during Get Your Hands Off of My Woman (The Darkness) (probably my 6th time hearing it today) - this scene flashed through my head... say it with me... "Hey you... Get your damn hands off her!"

Funny how I can spend some days listening to the same 5-6 songs over and over - and still keep my ear available for new music all the time...

Monday Muzak: Home Again

2012-02-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

Clemence Poesy

2012-02-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

I prefer not to think of her as the irresistible Fleur from the Harry Potter movies - but think of her as the irresistible drug dealing vixen from In Bruges...

Monday Muzak: North Side Gal

2012-02-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

Bad Movie Day

2012-02-02T11:03:00.004-06:00

Interesting day when it comes to movies currently developing...

I rented BABA YAGA from Netflix a last week - and it came cracked in half - I sent it back right away - requested another copy - they sent me the cracked in half copy AGAIN... So, I held onto the cracked in half copy - requested a another - then once I got a good copy - I sent the cracked version back... Just got an e-mail today - Netflix only received a empty envelope.

Now, I will be surprised if they try and charge me for it - it seems like a common loss issue with that kind of company - but they can't expect me to pay for a disc that was cracked in half... Could they?

This is ironically funny because I rented it along with SUBMARINE - which I rented a month or two ago - only for it to be delivered to the wrong address - and returned immediately - then their auditing program asked me when I recieved it... NEVER! I never got it! Why isn't NEVER an option?

So, I'm fairly certain SUBMARINE is a cursed movie.

Then...

First week in January I decided to start catching up on Jess Franco films - going throught he Amazon Marketplace - I ordered a used copy of JACK THE RIPPER which has been out of print for a while - and a new copy of LORNA THE EXORCIST which suddenly was out of stock everywhere - causing me to get nervous that this brand new release was already out of print.

I got JACK THE RIPPER right quick - watched it - loved it - and on the 10th I got notice that LORNA was only a couple towns away. Then I waited... And waited... And sent a note to the seller - they told me to wait - even though it had been two weeks since it was checked in a couple towns away... So, I waited again...

I asked once again yesterday and got a response today that they will be issuing a refund and if it ever shows up to send it back... BUT I STILL WANT IT!!!!!

So, I headed back to Amazon - and they had a copy - shipping from Amazon - for cheaper... Bastards... I'll get it on Saturday... FACE PALM!!!

I can't help but laugh at the movie madness today - hoping my movie luck gets better later tonight...

In yesterday's news... I watched my blu-ray copy of DRIVE - so motherfucking good - it made me wonder where it "ranks" it's so good - and it might be a TOP 10 FAVORITE

Monday Muzak: My Favourite Game

2012-01-30T08:00:00.002-06:00

I made this!

2012-01-25T09:56:00.004-06:00

I'm sitting here typing out how I want to introduce the fact that I'm either going to start an art blog - or every so often you will get some art spam on this blog - but it's sounding more and more bullshitty every time I type it out

This started as a movie blog - but has now encompasses music - video games - movies - chicks - now "art"? Shit! Some of you people didn't sign up for this crap!

I'm also trying to articulate that it's been a long time - probably 10-years - since I had been dedicated to working on my artistic talents - so if it looks like crap - know I'm working on getting better - I promise it will look better to you than to me because I see the details that I missed and the spots where I really fucked up (and the cheap oil pastels don't help) - I have such a critical eye for myself - as I think most creative people do

But my articulations into narrative words that make a sweet little tale of how I'm making myself happy by drawing/painting and whatnot just keep sounding like I'm shitting out of my mouth - so SHIT - here I made this...

Shed & Wagon (based on a photograph) - in (really cheap) oil pastels on mixed media paper - 1/22/2012

This one was a result of overworking my art to death for several days - so I sketched it in 45 minutes in charcoal and called it a day - Rashomon - 1/17/2012

Oscar picks from someone who shouldn't be picking his nose...

2012-01-24T14:14:00.005-06:00

The Academy Award nominations have been announced today - and they all sound very bland to me - nothing unexpected - mostly just going through the motions. Big name directors/actors/actresses who made films - got nods - big push Oscar bait films got nods. Even though I'm underwhelmed with the nominees - I'll make picks. Unless there's a Norbit 2 in any of my picks futures - I'll stick to my premature picks.

Best picture - The Artist will win - Oscar voters have proven they love nostalgia and they rarely go out on a limb unless it's to award something that truly doesn't deserve to win over something "controversial". This film panders to them perfectly with celebrating Hollywood and it's got the silent film novelty shine - perfect bait.

Best Director - Whoever directed The Artist - that seems to be the Oscar voters usual MO - whoever wins best director wins best picture.

Best Actor - George Clooney will take this one over Brad Pitt - the academy loves Clooney - but I'd prefer to see Gary Oldman win it. I really like the three of them - so whoever takes it I'll be happy.

Best Actress - Michelle Williams will finally get her bell rung for this one - and why not? She's a great actress - she is quite deserving of the award - she's been "owed" this one. Streep is always a threat though.

Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer - without Albert Brooks in the race (who seemed a shoo-in for a nomination) Plummer is a given - gotta honor these legacy actors before they die.

Best Supporting Actress - Berenice Bejo is my pick - I think The Help actresses will cancel each other out - it's fun that Melissa McCarthy was nominated - but she'll probably not win for a raunchy comedy - and so it's between Bejo and McTeer - and without a bulk of major nominations for the film Albert Nobbs - I'll assume that they'll prefer to give another nod to The Artist - thus I pick Bejo

Original Screenplay - Midnight in Paris will win this one - because can a silent film really win for a screenplay? I mean - it can't - can it?

Adapted Screenplay - The Descendants will win this one - seems to have the momentum to win this one

Monday Muzak: Bad Blood

2012-01-23T16:54:00.000-06:00

Ruth Wilson

2012-01-21T09:31:00.007-06:00

A couple of days ago I finally was able to watch series 2 of LUTHER - and even though I loved the show - it was more intense and gratifying than any cop show I've seen in a long time - I found myself disappointed that the lovely Ruth Wilson was not featured more. I am a fan of her lethal smile.

2012-01-18T14:47:00.002-06:00

STOP

SOPA

PIPA

Thoughts on The Artist

2012-01-17T09:34:00.003-06:00

I do not want to see THE ARTIST – to me it reeks of nostalgia grasping and clown-hammer forced emotions. It’s sad because people who would never watch an actual silent film will watch this for the novelty of it all – like it’s the hip trendy thing to do. I don’t care if it becomes a gateway to people rediscovering films of the silent age – to me it looks like Forest Gump – “this is how you should feel – feel it” kind of film.

I’m not saying I will never see it – or one day love it – or even purchase the ultra-deluxe 6 disc blu-ray version with life-size cut outs and autographed collector dildos. I’m saying – right now – at this moment in time – I find the idea of it being forced down our collective throats offensive.

The main thing that drive me away from the film is that usually the first descriptor of the film is it’s a ‘silent film’ – which is fine – that indeed describes the film – but what if it was a talkie? What’s the freaking plot? It makes me nauseous that people don’t describe the film like any other film – and then say – “by the way it’s a silent film” – it just solidifies that the only reason why people are masturbating so heavily to it is that it’s a novelty. Just like 3D. Since we’re going backwards next we’ll get a kaleidoscope – and we can all pay $7 for a spin of watching a horse gallop and people will chop off their own heads over that.

Or I hear ‘it’s a celebrating of cinema’ – which is wonderful – more fake nostalgia for an era we are too young to have known. Just like Forest Gump. We are thoughtlessly in love with the previous era without appreciating how much we should enjoy our own – I find it ironic that Midnight In Paris came out the same year as The Artist.

Like I said – I’m not saying I won’t watch it or love it – I’m saying I don’t want to – I will give it a few years to age and if I feel like watching it then - I will. I pray it doesn’t win the Best Picture Oscar – I think it would be a major mistake looking back – because it seems to me everyone is in love with the idea of it more than the film – and I fear we’ll have another debate in X years whether Shawshank Redemption or Pulp Fiction was more robbed.

Now, get off my bridge before I grind your bones and put them in my stew!

Monday Muzak: Holdin' On to Black Metal

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Moonrise Kingdom [2012]

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

Yes, new Batman looks great. Prometheus looks amazing. But Moonrise Kingdom has become my MOST anticipated film of the year!

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil [2011]

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

As what typically happens – I publish my end of the year list – and not too long after I watch a movie that deserves a mention on that list. If I had waited just one day to publish the list – I would’ve been able to add this movie because I saw it the day after I published it.

The movie of course is TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL – which when Netflix kept recommending it to me – I kept ignoring it because it always appeared next to such films as SUPER SNAKE VS MEGA CROC VS MECHA-SHARK and that kind of straight to DVD trash in the horror section.

TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL is ridiculous fun – it’s one of those movies I wished I came up with the concept for. It’s such a great twist on the killer hillbilly horror/slasher films – and the best part is – I went in cold – no previews – no synopsis readings – no review readings - so I didn’t know any of the jokes or any of the “twists” if they were meant to be twists or not.

Therefore I can’t give this film a review or a synopsis – because it’s a better film to me because I had no clue what to expect. All I can say is if you like horror comedies – this one is up there with DEAD ALIVE, ARMY OF DARKNESS and SHAUN OF THE DEAD – it is in the ‘top of the top’ class. To adjust my recently published Favorites of 2011 list – this one would push its way in the middle pretty easily – no lower than the #5 spot.

Monday Muzak: Absolute Beginners

2012-01-09T08:00:00.001-06:00

Erase Me/Replace Me

2012-01-07T10:52:00.002-06:00

Today, I feel like...

Top 6 Favorite Films of 2011

2012-01-06T11:39:00.008-06:00

Screw what that other guy said yesterday – I’m going to put up my TOP 6 favorite films of the year because I feel like it! Why should it be just 5? I can stretch it out to be 10 if I wanted to add in a few other titles – but I want to just put down my absolute favorites of the year – not just the movies I liked. I liked X-Men: First Class, I liked The Ides of March, I liked The Muppets, I liked Super 8 – if you feel the need to make it a full round 10 – but below are the movies that I give a solid 5 outta 5 – not an iffy 5 outta 5 – or a hesitant 5 outta 5 – or a drunk 5 outta 5 – below are my only real 5 outta 5 films of 2011.

#6. Super – what I really liked about Super was that it didn’t let down at what it was advertised as – it was a dark comedy involving topics and situations that you wondered if you should laugh at – disturbing and graphic – tragic and funny – the heart ultimately is to save himself he must save the girl – there’s something wonderful about that to me

#5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes – great performances – solid effects – and a truly believable story of the scientist who sets in motion the end of the world at the hands of the apes – Andy Serkis was outstanding as Caesar blending in a mind boggling way the differences between what is ape and what is human in the performance

#4. Win-Win – Thomas McCarthy’s knack for turning what could be a depressing topic and finding the human spirit that lifting out the optimism without forcing it – this time with a displaced kid who’s looking for the home he never had and the coach/lawyer who was looking for inner strength but not knowing where to find it

#3. Source Code – what stuck with me about Source Code ever since I made it the first film I saw in the theater this year – was the optimism – science fiction tends to lean toward the loss of humanity and the hopeless struggle of it all – but with Source Code the idea of the hopeless struggle and pulling victory out of the jaws of defeat was so wonderfully conceived and executed
#2. 50/50 – a pleasant surprise – figuring I was in for a raunchy stoner comedy (thanks to Seth Rogen) but turned out to be a true comedy with some heart – laughing at the face of tragedy – no cheese – just great performances – the strength of the script – the fact that it never discounted the situation but never used it to drag the viewer down – it wasn’t just a “cancer comedy” – it was more of a true to life cancer story #1. Drive – intense, atmospheric, mesmerizing action, pitch perfect acting – Drive kept my excitement up well after I saw it – thinking about scenes – thinking about the execution – thinking about so many aspects – it’s the mark of a great film the resonance of it well after watching it – still feeling that atmosphere lost in questions and memories of it

Doll Me Up In My Bad Luck

2012-01-05T10:38:00.001-06:00

You know in all of the time we shared – I’ve never been so scared – doll me up in my bad luck – I’ll meet you there – I wish I had never taken this dare – I wasn’t quite prepared – doll me up in my bad luck – doll me up in my bad luck – I’ll meet you there...

Since, I’ve only watched MODERN TIMES and half-watched the STRAW DOGS remake while I made dinner and did some sketching – I don’t have much to movie blog about at the moment. I just kind of wanted to blog because I want to write – and with nothing really happening at work – I’ve got the time.

I’ve got a pad of paper, some charcoal pencils and soft pastels and have been doing some sketching. It’s something to take my mind off of stuff – and found out last night that it’s a good way to release some steam. I’ve done a couple of DVD covers – and that seems to be good inspiration for me for right now. I attempted a landscape but I ended up scribbling all over it – a good therapy session that was.

I keep thinking I should make a Top 10 movies from 2011 – but I don’t have 10 movies I want to put on a list – I’ve got about 6 – maybe I should chop it and put it up.

As for albums – my top 5 are – in order of artist:
- Wasting Light by Foo Fighters
- Mockingbird Time by The Jayhawks
- Circuital by My Morning Jacket
- I Am Very Far by Okkervil River
- Ashes & Fire by Ryan Adams

This is the first time in a long while a couple of my favorite artists have had one of my favorite albums of the year – Foo’s and Adams have been coasting a lot lately. Okkervil River on the other hand is getting close to a point where they seem like they might start coasting – their album was great but not any better or worse than their previous albums.

I hauled a bunch of stuff to the resale shop – and got a fair price – then I looked in the closet and questioned why I sold some of it and kept the other. I sold an album by The Broken West – and ever since I’ve listened to it over and over – and after all that hunting I did to get it – I’m disappointed I sold it without giving it a fair chance. It’s at the top of my list to reacquire for this year.

With the new year always comes the horoscopes of what to expect – and I liked mine – it aligned with what I wanted to accomplish (be more artistic – put myself out there a bit more) – but there was one that kinda creeped me out. It was on the Huffington Post – where it aligned books with star signs – the book for my sign was Hunter Thompson’s The Rum Diary... Which just so happened to be the book literally on the top of my pile of stuff to read.

A sign I’m going in the right direction? I don’t know – but damn cool – if not a little creepy.

One last thing before I quit – I never wanted any more than I could fit into my head – and still remember every single word you said and all the shit that somehow goes along with it – still there’s one thing that comforts me since I was always caged and now I’m free...

Monday Muzak: Jan Pehechaan Ho

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

Movie Blogging in 2012

2012-01-01T09:54:00.004-06:00

Do you have any end of the year/beginning of the year movie traditions? What's the first movie you'll be watching in 2012? Any movie related resolutions?

The end of the year usually meant that I would watch all the Lord of the Ring extended cuts consecutively in one day... But I didn't do that this year for various reasons.

I've been wondering what movie I should watch first - I've got Chaplin's MODERN TIMES on Blu that I received for the holiday and the Bollywood film GUMNAAM that are the finalists...

As for movie related resolutions - I'm thinking of trying to make sure I watch more of what I've got before I buy new movies - and try and get back to watching more cult films. LuLu and I broke up in the past couple months - and last year I didn't watch as many movies from out of my own vaults because I was better entertained with LuLu - and I think it's probably about time to catch up.

Monday Muzak: Heartbeat

2011-12-26T08:00:00.001-06:00

Monday Muzak: Damn These Vampires

2011-12-19T08:00:00.001-06:00

Cult Films - defined

2011-12-17T08:00:00.001-06:00

I’ve been thinking of my “cult film” confusion – the term seems to be double sided – it both refers to incredibly popular films that lots of people follow – but that makes sense because it’s a popular film – and it also refers to obscure films.

The problem with the popular “cult films” is that it doesn’t refer to every film that has a devoted following – why are the Star Wars films “cult films” and the Twilight films not? Star Wars has made more money than the Twilight franchise – and each has an equally obsessed fanbase. Why is Harry Potter NOT a cult film but the Lord of the Rings films considered a cult film – they both came out the same time – and both have huge followings – with one known for having fans dressing up as the characters to watch the films? Seems like Potter would be more the cult franchise with the dressing up – than Rings – but you saw that list – Rings! No Potter!

I’m wondering if the term needs to be updated in order for there to be clarity to the topic - here’s what I propose...

Cultural Film: These are the films have become ingrained into the culture of our lives. You can point to these films – and most anyone will know what you are speaking of. “We’re not in Kansas anymore” “Use the force” “My precious” – have all been used out of context enough that we know what people are speaking of when these lines are said. These films may have a larger impact on certain groups – who may follow the film more intensely than groups – but it’s safe to say the films are universally known.

These films could have started life as relatively unknown films – and been picked up on by the culture and later ingrained – or they could be blockbuster films. These films are generally regarded to as “classic” films.

Cult Film: Is a film that a much smaller group of people know of – and those who do know of the film follow it with great interest – with a cultish like following.

These films could have started life as flops and have gone mostly forgotten – or could have never been known to the majority of the mainstream film watchers – yet still hold a strong following with certain subcultures.

-o-o-o-

I know it’s not perfection as a definition as there might be a few holes – but it’s better to me than the amorphous blob that is the “cult film” definition that has been put out there. What do you think?

Monday Muzak: Ten-Twenty-Ten

2011-12-12T08:00:00.002-06:00

100 Cult Films - NPR List

2011-12-09T08:00:00.004-06:00

NPR just posted this list - now there are somethings I LOVE about this list - Fulci, Franco, Dargento, Jack Hill, Romero, Waters, Ed Wood Jr... Django... Daughters of Darkness... Mixed in with some real modern cult films like early Peter Jackson and Terry Gilliam... But then Wizard of Oz? Star Wars? Lord of the Rings? Cultish like following - certainly - but "cult films"? Huh? I guess I don't get what or why people lump VERY POPULAR movies in with "cult films".

It feels backwards in that aspect - but it's wonderful to see a "cult film" list that features some of my favorites. Might even inspire me to write something for this blog (been in a major funk - if you couldn't tell)

Top 100 Cult Films

Source: "100 Cult Films" by Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik

2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick, 1968

Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988

Angel of Vengeance, Abel Ferrara, 1981

Bad Taste, Peter Jackson, 1987

Baise-moi, Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000

Begotten, E. Elias Merhige, 1991

Behind the Green Door, Artie Mitchell, Jim Mitchell, 1972

La belle et la bête, Jean Cocteau, 1946

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Russ Meyer, 1970

The Big Lebowski, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 1998

Blade Runner, Ridley Scott, 1982

Blue Sunshine, Jeff Lieberman, 1978

Brazil, Terry Gilliam, 1985

Bride of Frankenstein, James Whale, 1935

The Brood, David Cronenberg, 1979

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920

Café Flesh, Stephen Sayadian, 1982

Cannibal Holocaust, Ruggero Deodato, 1979

Casablanca, Michael Curtiz, 1942

Un chien andalou, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí,1928

Coffy, Jack Hill, 1973

Daughters of Darkness, Harry Kümel, 1971

Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero, 1978

Deadly Weapons, Doris Wishman, 1974

Debbie Does Dallas, Jim Clark, 1978

Deep Red, Dario Argento, 1975

Dirty Dancing, Emile Ardolino, 1987

Django, Sergio Corbucci, 1966

Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly, 2001

Don't Torture a Duckling, Lucio Fulci, 1972

Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton, 1990

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Aristide Massaccesi, 1977

Emmanuelle, Just Jaeckin, 1974

Enter the Dragon, Robert Clouse, 1973

Eraserhead, David Lynch, 1977

The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi, 1981

Fight Club, David Fincher, 1999

Flaming Creatures, Jack Smith, 1963

Freak Orlando, Ulrike Ottinger, 1981

Freaks, Tod Browning, 1932

Ginger Snaps, John Fawcett, 2000

The Gods Must Be Crazy, Jamie Uys, 1981

Godzilla, Ishirô Honda, 1954

The Harder They Come, Perry Henzell, 1972

Harold and Maude, Hal Ashby, 1971

Häxan, Benjamin Christensen, 1922

Hellraiser, Clive Barker, 1987

The Holy Mountain, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973

The House with the Laughing Windows, Pupi Avati, 1976

I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur, 1943

Ichi the Killer, Takashi Miike, 2001

In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, 2008

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel, 1956

Invocation of My Demon Brother, Kenneth Anger, 1969

It's a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra, 1946

The Killer, John Woo, 1989

Lady Terminator, H. Tjut Djalil, 1988

The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, 2001–3

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, George Miller, 1981

Man Bites Dog, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde, 1992

Manos, the Hands of Fate, Harold P. Warren, 1966

The Masque of the Red Death, Roger Corman, 1964

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, 1975

Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow, 1987

Nekromantik, Jörg Buttgereit, 1987

Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero, 1968

Pink Flamingos, John Waters, 1972

Piranha, Joe Dante, 1978

Plan 9 from Outer Space, Ed Wood, Jr, 1959

Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon, 1985

Reefer Madness, Louis Gasnier, 1936

Repo Man, Alex Cox, 1984

Ringu, Hideo Nakata, 1998

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jim Sharman, 1975

Rome Armed to the Teeth, Umberto Lenzi, 1976

The Room, Tommy Wiseau, 2003

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975

She Killed in Ecstasy, Jesús Franco, 1971

Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven, 1995

Soul Vengeance, Jamaa Fanaka, 1975

The Sound of Music, Robert Wise, 1965

Star Wars, George Lucas, 1977–2005

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Todd Haynes, 1988

Suspiria, Dario Argento, 1977

Tank Girl, Rachel Talalay, 1995

Tetsuo, Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, 1974

This Is Spınal Tap, Rob Reiner, 1984

Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Bo Arne Vibenius, 1974

Thundercrack!, Curt McDowell, 1975

El Topo, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970

The Toxic Avenger, Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman, 1984

Two-Lane Blacktop, Monte Hellman, 1971

Two Thousand Maniacs!, Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1964

The Vanishing, George Sluizer, 1988

Videodrome, David Cronenberg, 1983

The Warriors, Walter Hill, 1979

Witchfinder General, Michael Reeves, 1968

Withnail & I, Bruce Robinson, 1987

The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming, 1939

Monday Muzak: Got It All

2011-12-05T08:00:00.001-06:00

Monday Muzak: Southern Decline

2011-11-28T08:00:00.002-06:00

X-Men: First Class [2011]

2011-11-23T08:00:00.003-06:00

The story of how the X-Men got started.

I didn’t expect to like this one too much – but the 60’s short dresses – lingerie and plenty of attractive women showing their curves – sold me that this is the GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME!! There were some guys in it and they did stuff too – but did you see all the cleavage? Wow! Lots of hot leg action too! January Jones is already a porn name – but that’s her REAL name – she played the lady who dressed in shiny white leather – boobs! James Fassbender and Michael McAvoy are in this movie somewhere – and I’m sure they did a fine job doing the things they do – but Jennifer Lawrence as the blue naked chick – yes please! I watched it and thought maybe I should watch it again in slow-mo! There’s even some Nazi killing too – which is all fuck yeah – did you see the caboose on that chick! They should make movies with just chick being almost naked – or even a little naked – that would be awesome! I’m going to start a film studio that specializes in that!

The Rite [2011]

2011-11-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

A faith questioning priest is sent to learn the ways of exorcism in Rome.

Based on another true story of exorcism... Okay, really? I’m starting to believe that the Catholic Church is really in the movie business. I want to make a dark dark comedy where this is true – and they decide to keep doing this shit with all these fucking exorcism movies that come out “based on true stories”. I mean – I guess we can say “it’s true it’s based on a story” – because all these films are starting to feel like propaganda. I appreciate that the faith questioning priest was thinking mental disorders – but of course Hannibal Lector was there to help encourage him that it’s real. I’m not taking a piss on the religion of it all – just the movies – and since all these exorcisms are done in secret without records of it – there’s no way to officially debunk everything. The movie was okay – nothing great – just enough to make me not turn it off.

Monday Muzak

2011-11-21T08:00:00.003-06:00

Monday Muzak: No Distance Left To Run

2011-11-14T08:00:00.000-06:00

SKYRIM Friday - live blogging event

2011-11-11T07:01:00.011-06:00

7:01 AM: Good morning everyone - I've been up since about 4 - it's been a rough week - when I woke up - I was up - no hope of getting back to sleep with all the brain worms. Since it has been a rough week - I was really debating if I still wanted to do this entry. Hell, despite being excited for SKYRIM for the past couple months - I debated not even playing the game... (real world drama portion erased)... Well, the package from Amazon is Out for Delivery - I'm thinking of doing some cleaning and maybe seeing if I can get an hour worth of napping done. 7:08 AM

7:09 AM: Oh yeah, just finished watching JEWEL OF THE NILE - what a dumb movie - harmless but dumb 7:10 AM

8:20 AM: The bathroom is clean and stinks of pine - and I'm checking around on Amazon for the first fake "reviews" - I like to poke the trolls when there's obviously a really stupid review such as describing the game as "WoW for xbox" (World of Warcraft)... So, let me play dumb for you and show what my comment read...

Wait? I don't get it... It's Wow for the Xbox - but it's bad? Wow is something that I EXCLAIM when I find something amazing... Like "Wow! These are some good McNuggets!"... So, is this like when bad means good? Like "you are so 'bad' at writing reviews"?

I'm really hoping that it is "Wow for the xbox" like your review suggests - because I want to constantly say "wow" - I might even say "wow" to the UPS person who comes by to drop off the game!

At least tell me that they kept Hogwarts in this game - and the kill streaks... I'm really looking forward to multi-playering up some noobs to play some serious gaming.

Aren't I a stinker? 8:23AM

11:46AM: I'm really tired now - been up since 4 - so it's not really a surprise is it? I keep reminding myself to go back and look at my shipping history on Amazon and see if UPS usually drops off the game at certain times and maybe then if it's far enough away take a quick nap... I watched last night's Conan, and both episodes of Beavis & Butthead off the DVR... Had second breakfast - and thinking about lunch now... I bought a shit load of food last night after work ready to spend the day holed up in my apartment eating and snacking - it was a solid call on my part - but probably should've bought more caffeine - other than coffee... Oh well... 11:49AM

11:57AM - Got it!! Might take a nap before I play it though... 11:57AM

12:05PM - Who am I kidding? After 5 minutes in bed - I can't sleep yet - I'll try food - maybe make more coffee - then game or nap... 12:06PM

1:18PM - The controls are going to take some getting used to - I picked a Dark Elf character called him Etain Mitra (that is two Neil Marshall references) - and have just seemed to finish up the first part... Almost let my Hungry Man dinner/lunch get cold playing through it... Fun stuff - nice visuals! 1:19PM

3:42PM - Been playing pretty much non-stop - fun stuff - leveling up on certain paths with ease - cleared a dungeon already (it was the one in the big half hour preview - it had a few more and a few less surprises than the preview) - completed two "achievements" - killed an elk - the leveling up and skill points save until you remember to check so spent my skill points without guidance from guide book which oddly is shipping out to arrive on Monday - been munching on Chex mix - still tired - still a little taken aback from this week - but this game will help lose myself - I'm putting it down for a little while going to watch a movie or tv or something - I will probably keep this live blogging going this weekend because it's a bit of therapy for me... The item/spells/map menu screen is a bit of a bummer - not caring for it at the moment 3:48PM

Centurion [2010]

2011-11-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

A Roman legion is ambushed by the Picts (a Scottish tribe) and the few survivors must try to make it back safety before they are hunted and killed.

Neil Marshall’s play on the legend (mostly myth) of the Roman 9th legion in Britain – an unstoppable group who went “missing” while guarding their post. What I really liked about the movie is that you are given two sides – both give the viewer equal justification to root for. The Picts are defending their land against invaders – as well as Etain who has her own brutal reasons for wanting to hunt down the Roman scum. Then you have a somewhat likable group of Roman soldiers headed by Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender – who plays the title Centurion) – who you realize are pretty much left up to their own – with no cavalry coming to save them simply looking to get back home.

Marshall gives us his traditional theme of having strong women characters who don’t need men to save their asses – and they don’t need to show their asses. His films are violent and gory – and very masculine in that sense – but you throw in the strong female badasses in his films they are very feminist. That duality is one of my favorite things about Marshall’s films – the female characters don’t cower until they are “saved” – they stand up for themselves the entire time.

I think the cast did their part quite well - Fassbender brought a weight an sympathetic side to Quintus which worked very well and Olga Kurylenko was awesome as the silent assassin Etain. – and though the plot was thin – it was good enough for a fun survival-chase “genre” film. It’s a “you get what you pay for” Neil Marshall film – with plenty of gore and in camera effects – instead of the computer generated nonsense.

I wasn’t as enthusiastic about Marshall’s direction of Centurion as a whole – I felt he had a real energy and eye in his previous works – I’m not sure what really happened in this one. He still managed some beautiful shots – and some great compositions – but it felt a bit more vanilla.

Out of the 4 feature films Neil Marshall has done – it has no place to go but 4th on the list due to the strength of his previous work and obvious weaknesses in Centurion. Being a dork I just realized that this is his first film that didn’t start with D – The Descent, Doomsday & Dog Soldiers – and he was attached to Drive for a long while before Winding Refn took over the project (that would have made a VERY different film – but equally as awesome in a different way).

I liked the movie – but I can easily see how others would think it is derivative and just a boring hack and slash film. It is just a lot of bloody fun.

Captain America: The First Avenger [2011]

2011-11-09T08:00:00.002-06:00

The USA designs a super soldier in order to combat the Nazi’s and their very own super soldier project.

I thought this movie was a lot of fun. Really I did. I kind of didn’t expect that – I figured it would be kind of a paint by numbers affair – but it was good. There was some good heart – some good action – Chris Evans worked well as Steve Rogers/Capt America. The majority of the film took place back in WWII – like 99.8% – I was somewhat worried about it becoming a time travel movie. The Red Skull effects were all right – nothing special – not like the skinny Chris Evans effects – those were top notch! I really liked Agent Carter – Hayley Atwell – she was a looker! I would’ve asked her to dance even though I am built like the skinny Chris Evans!

I didn’t like that there seemed to be way too many forced references to the other two franchises of Thor and Iron Man – I felt like this should have been Captain America’s story – we can leave the other characters out of it for a while. I actually thought the Thor shit was REALLY annoying – I didn’t get the reference – and I didn’t like the weight it carried – it became a case of you should have known“well of course if you do that – then this will happen” – which lead to a VERY ANTI-CLIMATIC ending. I guess I didn’t take enough notes when I was watching Thor and should’ve realized that I needed them to follow this movie.

Overall – it was fun – I just wish they had a better ending action sequence that didn’t hinge on shit.

Video Game Challenge - Final Weekend

2011-11-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

Only 2-days before the “dragon born” sets out on his quest.

This was the last weekend for my video game challenge – and considering I did not play any video games this weekend – my mission will end incomplete.

Let’s recap – I set out to beat Fallout: New Vegas, Crysis 2 and The Saboteur – only 3 games. I beat Fallout: New Vegas (twice with the freeze glitch) – it was easily the longest of the 3 games. The Saboteur was left mostly untouched. I started on Crysis 2 and even at the easiest play settings – I really sucked at it – so I gave it up and replaced it with Batman Arkham Asylum and Mass Effect 2.

I beat Batman Arkham Asylum – which was a lot of fun – a lot of button mashing – but a lot of fun. I looked to dust off my Mass Effect 2 skills – but quickly got bored with the game once more – and didn’t play it again.

So, I beat 2 games – left 3 unbeaten – but was only looking to beat 4 in total. I can’t say that I’m sad though – 2 games is a lot better than I normally do in 2 months – dedicating only a few hours in the weekend mornings to games. In 2011 – I beat LA Noire, Bulletstorm, Fallout: New Vegas, Batman Arkham Asylum – as well as got 100% completion of Lego Star Wars 3 – I did good.

Instead of playing games this weekend I watched movies mostly – and used my Groupon to a local used book store on the out of print Criterion version of The Third Man as well as finally getting a copy of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary. They also had a video game I would’ve normally purchased – but I put it back – because I know there are only a few days before all games are put aside and SKYRIM is all that’s in my XBOX.

Not enough SKYRIM talk for you? Well, come back on Friday – I’m taking the day off and plan on spending all day on Blogger updating the Friday entry with what I’m doing. I’m hoping it’s not just me sitting around blogging about how I’m waiting on UPS all day – taking a big chance on that. The thought has crossed my mind to run out and buy a copy then return the UPS copy the next day – but that seems extreme.

Monday Muzak: Bomb.Repeat.Bomb

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

Starship Troopers [1997] Blu-Ray

2011-11-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

I finished reading Joe Haldeman’s THE FOREVER WAR (great read) and it put me in the mood to watch STARSHIP TROOPERS – as I remember it being similar (if only because it involved war against aliens on other planets and sex).

I guess it had been long enough since I saw it that I didn’t remember the cheekiness of it all – the little commercials and how everyone was “perfect”. I think I honestly just remember it being a war, bug, boobie flick. Starship Troopers is a sci-fi war satire – it’s fun – but I’m not sure if it holds up enough for me.

I mean – how can you not be all over that chick, Dizzy (played by Dina Meyer), if she constantly fawns over you and Denise Richards (your "girlfriend") is constantly flirting with other guys? Is it the boobs? I guess he’s just out of high school or college – or whatever – and he hasn’t learned there’s more to life than great boobs... Aw... I think I just broke my own heart with that comment... With her dying breath – she thanked God that she was finally able to have sex with you for 20 minutes? I mean – c’mon!!!!! That out does boobs any day!

One thing I never ran into before was that my Blu-Ray player refused the disc – even though it looked perfect. It was an older release so I didn’t expect that I needed to update my firmware – as even with brand new releases I’ve never had to. So, I returned it to N’flix as defective and asked for a new one – and the new disc gave me the same grief.

A quickie Google search and I discovered that I needed to “add” more memory to my Blu-Ray player to get the disc to play! I’ve never heard of that!

I grabbed the podunk SD camera card that came with my camera (which I never unwrapped as I purchased a better card at the same time) – I slid that into my Blu-Ray player and the movie loaded up fine. That’s just weird to me.

The movie looked AMAZING! It’s a fantastic looking movie on Blu – if you love the movie – you will want to upgrade (or wait until the XXth anniversary release that is sure to come out). If you like the movie and want to watch it – rent it on Blu – it looks great.

Sucker Punch [2011]

2011-11-02T08:00:00.002-05:00

An orphan girl [sad song] is sentenced to a lobotomy so that a crooked man [sad song] can steal her inheritance [sad song] and she imagines that she’s fighting back [techno song].

I swear I watched a solid half hour of this film – then the fast forward button was used liberally. I counted those music queues and there were 3 within the first 17 minutes of the movie – this started to make me really angry – because I felt I was watching a series of crappy sad sack music videos.

OPEN YOUR POUTY ASS MOUTH AND TELL THE FUCKING POLICE WHAT THIS GUY WAS DOING AND FUCKING STOP STANDING AROUND LOOKING FUCKING SAD!!!

Sure, there were some nice visually nifty action sequences that I forwarded through – but it became an obvious style over substance issue for me. I’m glad I didn’t waste my time watching the full movie – because to get to THAT ending would have pissed me off.

Video Game Challenge - Progress of weekend Oct 29 & 30

2011-11-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Other than playing a couple hours of Lego Pirates – I didn’t do much gaming this weekend. I have been a little concerned about burning myself out prior to SKYRIM’s release on 11/11/11.

I kind of wish there was more information floating around out there about the game. I’ve been curious as to the different “races” in the game. I will usually play a human character in whatever game I get a “race” choice – but I’m thinking wood elf sounds like the kind of character I want to play in SKYRIM – but I’m not sure – as there doesn’t appear to be THAT much info on the game out there right now.

People talk about Oblivion too much when in regards to SKYRIM – which makes me kick myself for not playing Oblivion first. I think the last sword and sorcery game that I played was Might & Magic: The Clouds of Xeen – I loved that game. You got a group of 5 characters – different classes and races – and you go adventuring. Then Might & Magic turned into a conquest strategy game – and I moved on with my game playing – playing mostly baseball games and Sims games – with casual Mario games mixed in.

That is until I watched my brother play Fallout 3 – then I decided I must own an XBOX 360 – and play THAT GAME!!! That story is amusing to me because when the Wii came out I told my brother I wanted to get an XBOX – and he was so into his Wii that he shot down that idea – brought up all these negative aspects of it (which I agreed with) – and took the wind out of my sails. I went to Australia on business – received a big payday out of all that travel time – and bought a Wii (based on my brother’s glowing reviews and the high fail rate on the XBOX). The Wii was fun – but when I told my brother about my purchase – he told me how much fun he was having with his XBOX – the system he kept convincing me NOT to get.

Well, my thumbs have still been sore due to all my button mashing games – and texting – so I think a weekend of no real gaming was important. Gotta recharge them thumbs. Of course this means in the 11 days that I’ve got left – I will probably fail my challenge – with only 2 games completed out of the 4.

The Saboteur came up a couple random places this weekend while I was goofing off on the intertubes – and my interest was elevated a bit into playing it again – but never got around to it.

Amazon and Target are having buy 2 get one free sales on really good selections of games – but I’ll hold strong in the belief that I will not get to enjoy them once SKYRIM comes out (plus as much as I want to spend it – I ain’t got the scratch). Still the temptation... The trials... 10 days!

Monday Muzak: Wolf Like Me [cover version]

2011-10-31T08:00:00.003-05:00

I don't do commentaries for my Monday Muzak's (much of everyone's relief) - but last year I used TV on the Radio's 'Wolf Like Me' as my Halloween track - unfortunately their bassist passed away earlier this year after a long fight with cancer - and I can't think of a more fitting song and a more fitting tribute...

I’d Pharaoh you anywhere, Mummy

2011-10-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Awful Dr. Orlof [1961]

2011-10-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Dr. Orlof and his assistant Morpho are out on the town kidnapping pretty women – so he can force them to donate their faces (and bodies) to his disfigured daughter.

Remember when I said Franco likes to do medical oddity films? Well, I also should have mentioned that he likes to repeat the same themes – even plotlines of previous films. The Awful Dr. Orlof was remade by him as the film I reviewed for yesterday – Faceless. I wish I knew that before I went in – but I tend to hit the jackpot when I watch several Franco films in a row – they will end up being the exact same plots – Franco remaking Franco.

So, the Howard Vernon Dr. Orlof reference is no longer lost on me from Faceless.

The film was fairly fun – it had an old monster film feel to it – though I thought they spent too much time in the investigation than in the “horror” – so I was a little bored by the film. Morpho was a very disturbing monster – I quite liked the portrayal by Richardo Valle. The mask was a bit cheesy – but how he would walk, his posture and how he mouth words was actually fairly creepy.

Actually the entire cast was very good – though the roles were fairly standard. Vernon was a creepy Dr. Orlof – San Martin was a great straight up detective – Lorys was a steamy but sassy love interest with backbone.

I was a little taken aback when there were a few flashes of bare chests – I just wasn’t expecting that. It seemed as though this was a fairly mainstream horror film – like something along the lines of the Universal classics – so when Morpho grabs the girl and he rips her shirt off and we zoom in to see her boobs struggle – I was surprised. There wasn’t much of it – but maybe a full 15 seconds in the entire film – but like I said – I didn’t expect it.

I have a hard time with explaining this film – as it just felt like something was missing and I can’t really pinpoint it. Something with the story – it just felt stop & go with the plotlines – it just felt off. I kind of liked the movie – I kind of didn’t.

You can tell Franco was at the helm for the most part – but he was playing up as a sort of a classic monster movie director – so there wasn’t much exciting to talk about when it came to the style of direction.
The story was fairly coherent – though I would’ve liked more time with Orlof explaining his desire to reconstruct his daughter’s looks (and I’m not sure if I missed an explanation as to what happened to her). The direction was solid – the movie was kind of fun in that classic monster film sense – but was lacking – another take it or leave it Franco film for me.

Faceless [1988]

2011-10-27T08:00:00.004-05:00

Also known as - Les Preadateurs de la Nuit

While having a night out on the town a disgruntled ex-patient confronts Dr. Flamand with a beaker of acid – missing him and dumping it on Flamand’s sister’s face. Flamand becomes dedicated to figuring out how to do a face transplant surgery in order to save his sister’s, Ingrid’s, beauty – by kidnapping and forcing donors.

There I go again with another long synopsis – sorry about that.

Everything was a bit too 80’s for my taste – especially since it’s a Jesus Franco film. It was apparent he’s got a budget – and a one really crappy 80’s synth pop song to play over and over. In a way it the 80’s is a great decade for Franco to do another medical oddity film – considering that seemed to one of his favorite genres – the 80’s you have the rise of excess and plastic surgery – it makes sense.

The problem with giving Franco a budget though is that some of his filmmaking charm gets lost – and with a budget also comes producers wanting to wrap things up before they go over budget – so not every little fun part Franco may have planned can be included.

The acting was fairly solid – I was pretty impressed and happy that everyone fit into place wonderfully. Helmut Berger was delightful and intense as Dr. Flamand – and his devious sexy assistant Natalie [played by Brigitte Lahaie] made for a great duo with solid on screen chemistry. Chris Mitchum was a slimy private eye – looking into one of the missing girls – not sure if the role really needed slime – but it worked.

There was a fun cameo – with Franco alums Howard Vernon as Dr. Orlof and Lina Romay as his wife. I’m thinking I might need to dig into my Orlof box-set that I picked up on the cheap – maybe this will be a Jess Franco Halloween? Who’s with me? Who knows what the hell I’m talking about? Yay!

Anyway, Dr. Flamand had a really creepy obsession with his sister – it kept confusing me if it was his wife or his sister. I mean – getting off watching his sister playing dominatrix with their grunt is a bit much – and those lingering full lipped kisses in his flashbacks. Creepy. But hell – sexual deviance is a mark of a good Franco film – so I’ll take it!

The effects were pretty good – though it was obvious that Ingrid was tearing off latex from her face when the acid was thrown. The Nazi face transplant specialist tearing up the dummy head when the operation went bad was odd – and cheesy – but it was a solid effect. That’s one thing a budget will do for you – increase the realism/creepiness of the effects – which isn’t something that I’ve personally seen in a Franco medical oddity film.

The plotline was easy to follow – which was very nice. The pacing worked and the direction was solid. My only issue was that my copy just didn’t seem to work – every 20-minutes or so it would jump to the main menu – then I would have to fast forward through the chapter selection to get to where it left off and it would play fine for another 20-minutes.

It seemed like Franco wasn’t happy with the film – but said in the interview that with time he seemed to think “it’s not all bad” – and I’d agree. It’s all right – certainly watchable – not especially memorable.

This is my 400th published entry – thanks for reading & checking me out! I appreciate it!

The Rites of Frankenstein [1972]

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Evil Caligostro sends his evil bird vampire woman creation to kill Dr. Frankenstein so that he may steal his monster to have it do his bidding!

The middle part of the film was a bit of a mess – and I’m not really too sure what Caligostro was aiming at having the monster kidnap beautiful women. It sounded as though Caligostro wanted the women for himself as Melisa mentioned at one point – they were to be of such beauty and please him – but suddenly he was interested in creating his own woman monster to pair up with Frankenstein’s monster. The purpose was also very unclear – maybe he liked watching monster sex?

There was a VERY undeveloped sub-plot involving Lina Romay as Esmerelda – who heard evil voices – that mostly liked to repeat her name. She would ask some old lady what the voices were all about – but I’m not sure if this old woman knew she was in a movie – she looked very concerned that this young woman in thigh high boots and a frock kept putting her head in her lap.

It’s especially a muddled up mess when you are introduced to the zombies – which I thought were called Panthos. I later come to question if they were just zombies and Panthos was some kind of demon spirit they all worshiped. If Caligostro had an army of zombies – why did he need Dr. Frankenstein’s monster? They didn’t explain that. From what we saw of the zombies – it only looked like they were good at wandering through the woods with sheets wrapped around them – with their faces poking out - looking like ghosts that were afraid they would bump into stuff.

Melisa the bird vampire creature was kind of fun – but the tweeting sound effects she made when she stalked or feasted was (really) annoying. She was hot though! Vera Frankenstein was a misguided character – I thought she was all about bringing down Caligorstro – but she pretty much turned herself in – and submitted to his will. Caligostro himself was a master of having Melisa speak for him – even though he was not mute – but it gave him time to stare with his eyes very wide. The monster was actually pretty good – a big man covered in silver paint – there wasn’t much more needed.

Here’s the thing – if you go into a Jess Franco film thinking that you’ll understand everything that is happening right away – or be able to follow a simple plot line – you’re going to be disappointed. He seems to provide puzzle pieces at times – and expects you to take the leap with those pieces in order to complete his story. It’s not exactly a successful narrative style – but for people who enjoy his work – it’s fun.

The other thing fans of Franco’s work expect – is a bit (of a barrel full) of sleaze – and for some reason there were plenty of great opportunities for sleaze – but no sleaze! A woman is strapped down to a table – perfect opportunity for her to be buck naked. There was an artist model posing fully clothed – and it made me really wonder if a nude portrait would be more fun. There’s a woman who’s taking off her clothes – another fairly good opportunity for her to be shown in the buff – but she’s a modest undress-er on camera. It turns out that the Synapse release was some non-sleaze version – where all the sleaze was actually hiding in the ‘Alternate Footage’ section of the DVD – but it also shows all those scenes redone with nudity.

Overall – for a Franco film – it was more coherent than some and fairly fun. I wish my version had the sleaze in the film – which would have made it better. Also, if Lina Romay got a chance to do anything more than lay her head on an old woman’s lap and sit by a creek – it would’ve been even better. Yet, as it is – it’s okay – a take it or leave it Franco film.

Video Game Challenge - Progress of weekend Oct 22 & 23

2011-10-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

This weekend I didn’t so very much gaming – I don’t have much progress to report. I spent most of the weekend cleaning my apartment out – so that I could help clean-out my stuff from my parent’s basement.

The worst part of doing that was - as soon as I moved out over a decade ago my folks built a metal shelf in the middle of my closet – and blocked off all access to all my junk – so I’m going through stuff wondering where it all came from. There were plenty of great things in there that I could have passed down to my niece or my best-friend’s kids – that may go to Goodwill or Toys for Tots.

And the thousands of baseball cards... Some of which might actually be worth looking at – but most will probably end up in the recycle bin. I hope comic book shops buy comics in this area. All the adolescent song lyrics – so tragically bad!! My comic book novel I wrote and submitted to a publisher. I also found my anthology of comic strips that I drew – which I’m thinking of scanning – because they were actually quite silly.

~ Anyway – if you tuned in for the video game talk – here it is ~

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: Is fun yet frustrating – as most of the Lego games are. There are 6 characters – 5 of which are NPC (non-player characters) – and they are all trying to jump and land on a small platform at the same time – which knocks the player character off - which means you have to start from the previous platform – which means all the NPC characters jump back to the previous platform and knock the player character off... Or the NPC character will try to climb up the wrong side of a ladder – get stuck – and you have to restart the level because there’s no character reset feature – or you can’t get far enough away for the character to reset itself.

I didn’t play anything else – so I won’t talk anything else.

Monday Muzak: Tigers

2011-10-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Thing [2011]

2011-10-23T08:00:00.002-05:00

An alien spacecraft and creature are discovered under the Antarctic ice – they send a scientist down to meet with the established Norwegian research crew to discover what it could be. The creature – breaks loose and starts mimicking the humans – leaving everyone uncertain who is human and who is alien.

Usually, I leave the synopsis vague – but since this is a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 remake (of The Thing from Another World, 1951) – I think we all know what’s really going on. The ultimate question is – does it hold up to Carpenter’s remake – in a word: Yes.

Sure, the effects are updated a bit – given a nice computer upheaval for elements that simply would be too difficult to do without computers – but there also seemed to be plenty of analog effects that worked just as well as they did back in 1982.

The scares were plentiful – and I’m not sure if it was just the theater I was in – but my ears are ringing a bit from all the intense sound effects. The story stayed true to the 1982 version – and you want to stay and watch the ending credits sequence – and run home and pop in your copy of the 1982 version.

The direction was just what you needed in a horror film – going from intense calmness or lingering fear – to scare! The acting was fairly standard – though some of these Norwegian’s looked the same to me (I don’t mean it that way – don’t give me that look – NO not all Norwegian’s look the same – you know what I mean – sorry – okay). The questions in regards to who is a Thing is a fun one – I liked how they tried to get to that – and I liked how for the most part the pieces fit.

Here’s the thing (didn’t mean the pun) – if you haven’t seen the John Carpenter version – it’s ultimately more creepy to watch that one and not even bother with the prequel (though it’s a good horror film) – because the aftermath of everything that happens is shown in the very beginning of that film – and it’s almost always better to be left with that air of mystery with a horror film. Carpenter’s version is one of my favorite films of the 1980’s – it holds up very well – I recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

I do recommend this film – if you’re looking for a big screen scare this Halloween – especially if you enjoyed Carpenter’s version and would liked to have a few questions answered. It’s a good film and it stands alone by itself – it encapsulates its very own story. I’m not going to tell you it’s creative – because it’s a retread of a lot of the ideas from the Carpenter version – but it entertains and doesn’t insult you and that’s just as good.

[SPOILER – there’s a Thing in this room!]

The Howling [1981]

2011-10-22T08:00:00.003-05:00

A TV news anchor, Karen White, is investigating a series of gruesome murders – ends up so traumatized she is sent off to a relaxation camp – unfortunately for her – it’s not too relaxing.

The film really set a great atmosphere. Investigating a serial killer – the dark claustrophobic city – the way everyone was so intense about this crazed killer – the close-up shots. It was exciting.

Then we find ourselves whisked away to the “woods” or the “beach” or the “mountains” (I really could not tell) to a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest set of weirdos – and it became fairly comical. How anyone was expected to “relax” at that “resort” is beyond me. The psychiatrist’s relationship with Karen and the rest of her news team really confounded me – and it didn’t seem so weird in the beginning – but as the film went on and his relationship with his resort really made me question the legitimacy of his character within their world.

The film ended up boiling down to be an effect film (which were saved up for the end as they were either really cool or really cheesy) – but felt like kind of a horror comedy. When someone is turning into a werewolf in front of you – you don’t just hang out and watch – make your move and attack or run (wolfmen have nards remember). The bizarre nympho woman character was entertaining I guess. The most likable character was killed – which is always a bummer in a horror film.
- -
So, I have a stack of 8 horror films waiting to be watched for the posts leading up to Halloween – some of the films I have seen previously but haven’t watched my copy of it – some of the films I bought blind. This was one of the movies I bought blind at the Goodwill – I figured that since it spawned a series sequels (some notoriously bad) – it might be worth a looksee. Unfortunately, it’s making me question watching these blind purchase horror films.

Somewhere [2010]

2011-10-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

A world famous actor stumbles through the course of a few days looking for meaning – when his daughter is dropped off.

The acting was solid – the tired and lonely quality of the performance was not lost on me. Stephen Dorff was great – that was fairly surprising to me – not that I can recall something that he was in. The directing was a lot of just let the camera sit and let’s watch – so it felt very lazy – because not much happens – Sofia Coppola was smart to use that technique but considering not much happens – I wish one style would have changed – but that’s not what the movie was. The two scenes with the twin pole dancers were shot in an uncomfortable way. It felt like a letter from Sofia to her father or something along those lines about how she felt isolated as he was famous. Ultimately, I felt like this movie fell short of its potential and abandoned any narrative structure for a considerable more style over substance - and it was a frustrating film.

If you want to watch this movie and you are sensitive to SPOILERS – please look away.

By the end of the film – I was frustrated with it. They portray the main character as needing a direction – and when he gets his daughter for an extended period you start to think “this is that missing direction he needs” – but it’s not. He drops her off for camp – apologizes – and you expect that he’s going to correct his direction and make his life about his daughter. Yet, at the end of the movie he checks out of the hotel – abandons his car in the middle of the road out in the middle of nowhere and walks away – and gives a smirk to the camera. Thusly, abandoning his daughter at camp – and honestly – I don’t get it. The smirk is what gets me – I get the “fuck the world” kind of rebel attitude – but it just felt like it was misdirected and made an odd twist to what was expected.

Dead Man [1995]

2011-10-20T08:00:00.003-05:00

An accountant from Cleveland, Walter Blake, comes out west on promise of a job working for an eccentric tycoon – only to be turned away – and become an outlaw.

This was a great star studded dark comedy – which also made for a great western. Neil Young’s soundtrack was exceptional and made Blake’s journey more unnerving. Jim Jarmusch’s direction as interesting – he allowed for very static shots where nothing was happening while the distorted guitar would blare – and somehow it worked at being interesting as opposed to being annoying. Johnny Depp was off kilter as Blake – he had some great acting chops even back then - I wish he’d have gotten the credit and continued down that quirky road – instead of being Burton’s go-to puppet. I loved how this film could be left up to interpretation as to what was actually happening. I loved how it seemed like this film was kind of a commando production done in the back woods. It was most certainly dialogue driven in a better way than Tarantino’s films. I really loved the metaphysical change in Blake from an inept accountant to outlaw.

Overall – it was a great film – my presumption disparity may be off on this one – so the shock of being pleasantly surprised may tamper my long run view of the film – but I really liked it.

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop [2011]

2011-10-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

Shot after he lost his job on the Tonight Show through the planning of his tour and concluding before the beginning of his new show on TBS debuts.

Conan the human seemed unafraid of letting his feelings be known – and he was very bitter and angry at times. Even though he felt this way – he claimed he couldn’t stop himself from entertaining because he doesn’t know how – that entertaining was all he knew. For his emotional well-being it appeared taking a break would have been good for him though. His humor seemed more bitter and angry towards his wife, staff and friends. He claimed that it was all a part of who he was outside of the show – having a cutting sense of humor but ultimately being out of love – unfortunately that’s something we wouldn’t know.

Can’t Stop was an apt title – as throughout the documentary he didn’t have any downtime – but that was how he scheduled himself. He could have easily taken the summer off – and relaxed with his family – but instead he did 44 live shows – and personal appearances between at the Bonaroo music festival and at his 25th Harvard anniversary – not to take into account all the meet & greets he would do (insisting it would be impossible for you to request an autograph from him and not get it). You could look at it as an “I’m down but I’m not out” attitude – or a subconscious need for attention.

The documentary was mostly upbeat – it did a fair job of portraying Conan in the moments that he wasn’t on television in the light in which he was. I’m not sure if it attempted to go for an overall positive light – or if it seemed he was simply a more upbeat person – with times of sadness.

The story of what happened at NBC between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien is an interesting one. Fearful of losing both stars – NBC made some really poor decisions – and the only real loser in this situation was Conan. He paid his dues – put on his own silly and popular show in hopes of one day obtaining the coveted Tonight Show gig – unfortunately NBC didn’t take into account how his style of humor didn’t really fit the branding of the Tonight Show – thus probably shouldn’t have lead him on.

He’s become a kind of pop culture folk hero – an underdog.

I have watched Conan since he premiered – I wasn’t always a regular viewer – but ever since his new TBS show started I have been DVR’ing it and watching it the next day after work. Some of his humor is great and it helps cut my post-work funk – some of it is lame – but he’s got a good energy to him – and I appreciate the fact that he’s willing to point out if a bit went bad. I really liked seeing him in a different light in this documentary.

Video Game Challenge - Progress of weekend Oct 15 & 16

2011-10-18T08:00:00.003-05:00

Despite yet another roller coaster weekend – I made a lot of progress toward my goal of completing video games prior to the release of SKYRIM – 11/11/11.

I’ll start off by saying – it’s really quite nice to have some sort of goal to reach toward in my recreational life. Having a movie watching goal isn’t as exciting as it’s more of a passive experience – so playing video games – though popularly called a “slacker activity” – makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something.

Batman Arkham Asylum: The game has been defeated! Hooray! The boss battles were a disappointment – but the gameplay was fun throughout. I followed along with an online guide – and times they were saying I was walking into a really tough part – I found those parts not so tough (easy setting might have had something to do with that). It was fun – worth the time invested.

With the sequel to this game coming out TODAY – I really really want to run out and buy it (for those interested there are many incentives to do so – Wal-Mart is giving away a copy of the first game with the purchase of the second – Kmart is giving out a $30 game credit if you sign up for their free reward program).

I know if I do purchase the sequel now – I won’t beat it and by the time SKYRIM comes out I will forget it. So, it will wait. It will wait until it drops down in price.

Mass Effect 2: Now, I remember the other reason why I did not complete this game. Once I was done playing Red Dead Redemption – I came back to ME2 looking to reconnect with the controls – unfortunately I was at a point where all the missions were completed.

So, I went from system to system looking for mini-missions – and couldn’t find any – and essentially became “space mining” the game - so I got bored and played something else. Same story on Sunday – I was starting to fall asleep playing the game. So, I really have no choice but to start the “suicide mission” and die a few times trying to get the hang of all the special powers and guns and such.

The Saboteur: Still sitting at 47% completion – ME2 should only take a short play session to beat (unless I can’t master the controls) – and I’ll get back to beating the snot out of Nazi’s again.
- - -
At this very moment – I am HALF done with my “challenge” with about 25 days left until SKYRIM – I’m betting this gets done easily. UNLESS, I somehow purchase another game... Like Lego Pirates of the Caribbean if it should happen to be $15 on Gamefly (used) this past weekend.

This was my compromise with myself – I kept obsessively thinking about getting the new Batman game and I saw this sale on Gamefly – and jumped (first time I’ve seen it for less than $20) – and now I keep telling myself I spent my video game money for the month (so I can’t buy Batman). It depends on when I get the game – whether I add it to the challenge – but this could be my no-brainer game that I resort to when I’m neck deep in SKYRIM.

Monday Muzak: The Letter

2011-10-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Devil's Nightmare [1972]

2011-10-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Poison Ivy

2011-10-15T09:30:00.001-05:00

I always felt that if it was appropriate that Batman wear his underwear on the outside of this costume - the same should be done with a villain... Or villainess to be exact... (this game is fun - I'm actually heavily considering getting the sequel on Tuesday - even if I'm behind in game playing)

The Ides of March [2011]

2011-10-14T08:00:00.002-05:00

In a tight race for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States – a young political consultant learns what politics are all about.

This is an actor’s piece – filled with lots of talking and facial expressions for all the wonderful actors to display how well they can flex. Ryan Gosling, Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti, Phillip Seymor Hoffman all jump in with George Clooney (who acts & directs) and make faces at each other and say stuff that makes you think they are saying important stuff – so you better pay attention.

Sorry.

I liked the movie – but you know when you want to see a movie – and you go to the theater and your phone told you the wrong time? So, you pick something else that you kind of want to see – when you have yourself hyped up for something else? Well, I went to see Moneyball and get lunch at the local brew & view – my phone said it started at 1PM – but it really started at 2PM – and I had already killed time waiting until 1PM – and I was really hungry for a burger and some waffle fries. So, I watched The Ides of March – and I could tell you everything you want to know about it – but I just can’t review it.

It’s about loyalty – and dirty politics – and how shitty life is. It’s good – really good – compelling – it felt like a 2 hour movie but it wasn’t – usually a mark that lots is happening and you are engrossed – and I was certainly grossed in. Great pacing. Good directing. Great performances. You should watch it if you like political thrillers and/or the actors involved.

It made me feel icky. It made me feel like I needed a shower. It did its job. Really good – seriously I’m not making fun of it – I’m just having a rough go of it lately – so let me have this one.

Thanks, I'll try better tomorrow - I promise... But since it's the weekend - I might not try at all... I am sorry to all you readers...

The Magnificent Seven [1960] blu-ray

2011-10-13T08:00:00.002-05:00

A small town is under attack by a gang of hoodlums – and they go out and hire seven gunfighters to protect them.

I had fond remembrances of this film – it’s good – not great – not sure how people could really say that it is better than SEVEN SAMURAI with a straight face. It’s a cute film – but it’s just too Hollywood’ed up. This viewing what I really took away from it was how great a performance Eli Wallach put into this film – how Robert Vaughn’s character is the most interesting and complex of the Seven – and how skivvy Steve McQueen’s character made me feel. I mean, did he really long for the simple life? Or did he just want to rape some women? I felt he was far too aggressive with the women and the town folk had every reason to hide them away. And I still want to samurai sword chop that “kid” and his romance story.

Anyway – this was a really great looking blu-ray conversion. Everything was crisp and clear and nice – up until there was a fade out scene – then things got really muddy. This being a Hollywood western – there were many fade-outs – but I wouldn’t know how you’d fix something like that. I saw only a few small scenes where the full picture wasn’t as crisp as you’d hope – but the blacks were black and not grainy. If I loved the film – I would get the blu-ray of it.

50/50 [2011]

2011-10-12T08:00:00.002-05:00

A young man is diagnosed with a rare type of cancer that the internet says he’s got a 50/50 shot at survival – this is the story of how he copes.

Honestly, this was a great movie. Much better than I had hoped - but my presumption disparity was geared toward expecting a lower brow stoner comedy – with “heart”. Mainly due to the fact that Seth Rogen was involved – I find him amusing at times – and much (much) less than amusing at other times.

Happily, the film remained in the correct tone throughout – it had its ups – it had its downs – and the performances remained strong. Not once did I feel like it betrayed the topic and tried to make it all a big laugh. The film generated laughs organically – from the story and from the characters – not from gags. The only thing crude and/or low-brow was some of the language – but who the fuck cares anymore?

The film kept up a good pace – allowing us to dwell in some of the down times for just long enough as to not be depressing – but to get a solid feelings across. I’ve seen a lot of great performances on the big screen this summer as I’ve been picky with what I’m paying to see these days – and Joseph Gordon-Levitt gave a powerhouse performance. That scene of sudden intense fear before surgery was subtle and beautiful – that scene will stick with me. I expect Levitt and Angelica Houston to both get a lot of much deserved Oscar buzz.

The film was written by Will Reiser based on his experience with having cancer – so the truths explored in the film were rooted in reality – and all that makes it all the more hopeful of a film. It’s a great screenplay – something I would like to read – time to do some research.

I don’t know if it’s too early for me to say this – as it’s still all too fresh – but it’s certainly the frontrunner for my movie of the year.

Video Game Challenge - Progress of weekend Oct 8 & 9

2011-10-11T08:00:00.002-05:00

In the immortal words of recently un-cancelled Gob Bluth “I’ve made a huge mistake”

I don’t want to say that I’ve failed my video game challenge – maybe I just over estimated my skills as a gamer. Not to say I was thinking I was anything better than a novice but it turns out that Crysis 2 is beyond my skill level even at its lowest difficulty.

When I think about getting a first person shooter – I will look at gameplay videos before I take a dive into one. I find those really popular war games to be too detailed – meaning I can barely tell the difference between the enemy and the background – so I spend my time shooting at falling leaves while these crack shots are pounding me repeatedly. The first level – which is basically a tutorial – I died 10 times or something insane – against the easiest of foes.

So, unless I find an invincibility cheat – I won’t be able to beat this game by November 11th.

I’m going to have to adjust my challenge.

Fallout: New Vegas: Still beaten – but it is funny how there was a Bethesda sale over the weekend and I could have picked up two of the expansions for the price of one. I passed though.

Crysis 2: You win. I lose.

The Saboteur: Still sitting at 47% complete – I will get to you later.

Batman Arkham Asylum: I loaded up Batman again this weekend and saw that I was 19% of the way through – and said “bullshit” – started looking up info on the interweb – and I was 12 chapters into the 16 chapter game as one gamer put it. I guess the game is counting all the Riddler challenges and secret-secrets that I either couldn’t get to or didn’t go for.

After a few thumb injuring sessions this weekend – I’m hunting down the Poison Ivy with the antidote for the crazy juice the Joker gave her. Then from my understanding it’s on to beat up on the Joker.

Mass Effect 2: If it wasn’t for Red Dead Redemption – I would have beaten ME2 a while ago because I was almost done with it by the time RDR took over my XBOX. I have my crew’s loyalty – I’ve got my ship upgraded – the portal thingy is ready to go – and all I needed to do was to make the jump through the portal and I was on the very last level.

So, I’m adding 2 games to replace Crysis 2 – so the challenge has been upgraded to beating 4 games before SKYRIM comes out on November 11th (one month from this post). I’m fairly certain I will get 3 out of 4 of them done – and if I don’t get one done it will probably be The Saboteur.

As a side note – I played some Lego Star Wars III – and got that up to 100% completion – which I won’t count towards my challenge – but it is pretty neat.

Monday Muzak: Up in the Dark

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

the blog entry of eternal annoyance

2011-10-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

I sat down in the theater with my buttery popcorn and extra-large soda – the floor was sticky and the seat was soft and cool to my bare naked ass. There was a lady in front of me that smelled like dog biscuits – her hair was in a bun and there were dried peaches on her shoulder. There was a large man in short shorts behind me and in his bright yellow bag next to him there was a sedated cat that was part of his murderous routine of drugging alley cats and bringing them to the movie theater to be strangled. Then the lights dimmed and I experienced what would fast become another forgettable movie that I’m super excited to tell you all about right now!

I’m sorry – I’m sick of this Journalism 101 painting the scene of whatever. Sick of hearing some bullshit that has nothing to do with what people are writing about – I don’t care about your physical experience with whatever happens before – tell me the actual experience of it all.

Upon meeting my hero for the first time – I cut my toe nails in the shape of his name – shave my forearms – ate a 12 lb turkey and basted my crotch with garlic sauce. My hero came striding confidently into the room while eating what appeared to be an elderly man’s shoe. He sat down and started complaining that the chair was not rust colored like he requested – and began to belch big gassy burps that had the faint smell of vanilla and elm trees all while he checked his belly button for lost Smarties Candies.

As much as I painted an interesting picture for you – you’ll never really know what the physical experience was actually – the reader is not there. I am guilty of it – I’m sure – but I try to steer away from it at a crutch.

I’m just raging on because I’m reading too much lately – I need to start watching more stuff – reading is stupid.

Trollhunter [2010]

2011-10-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

Trollhunter was a fine concept – but unfortunately it was the narrative structure that they chose for the film that was their downfall. College film students decided to follow a suspected bear poacher – and soon discover that he’s not a poacher at all – he hunts trolls. I thought that with the whole cinema verite style that they chose to tell the tale – was a good choice – but ONLY if they wanted to stay within that realm and not venture off that path. I don’t know many documentaries where instead of shooting what they were out to shoot – they relied so heavily on showing reaction shots of the filmmakers. When there’s a troll coming your way – and it’s never been filmed – and you’ve got a big huge motherfucking amazing story to show the world – something that exposes and causes doubt in everything as a society we all believe – why do you turn the camera away from it in order to see the sound girl gawking? SPOILER: With about 30 minutes left in the film they bring on a new character – essentially to replace one of the other characters – this whole thing broke my suspension of disbelief – they are no longer student doing a documentary but now something entirely different. Students are still students – and to replace a character like that doesn’t make any sense using the narrative structure they chose.

Otherwise – it was an all right film – like I said I liked the concept of it all – but if they would have just dropped the cinema verite structure and made it a straightforward film – it would have been much better. Neat effects.

Bullit [1968] Blu-Ray

2011-10-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

I finally unwrapped my BULLIT Blu-Ray disc that I got for cheap on Amazon – I really wanted to follow along with the plot this time – all my previous viewings left me lost by the time Frank was being talked down to by his girlfriend for being too callous. I really liked the styling’s of the film and the car chase was amazing – and that kept me coming back to this film – and though I lost the plot it didn’t matter to me as much.

This time I kind of spaced in the beginning of the film – and came back to the film usually where I lose the plot. I still like the film – but knowing it completely hasn’t made me jump to the love plateau. I somehow feel like that chase is the climax of the tension of the film – and you’re almost left with a bit of a new plot to figure out. Maybe it’s because it’s more internally developing as opposed to the external – “let’s sit down and review what has gone on thus far” kind of plots.

If you haven’t seen it – I recommend it – it’s a very good movie. I’m going to give it more time and try and watch it all the way through again.

As a Blu-Ray – unfortunately it’s not as great as I had hoped. There seemed to be a fair amount of static in the background and in the dark scenes – the foreground was crisp and the colors really popped well. Steve McQueen and the cast looked great! The car chase left certain things blurry (as they should have been) - but certain classic scenes looked really nice. When it comes to the other scenes - I have to wonder if they were skipped over. For that reason, I have been putting off getting older films on Blu-Ray because I get the feeling that studios aren’t going to put the money in to doing a FULL clean restoration of older titles unless they are TOP titles. I get the feeling that they are just sharpening them up and releasing them as Blu-Ray to pad their catalog.

Then again I may not fully understand Blu-Ray. I do remember an in-store demo showing how in a battlefield the blurry soldiers behind the focal point – were clear. And I remember seeing the boat on the ocean where the background waves were as crisp and clear as the ones in the foreground. I’m not sure if that’s really the point of the medium or if it’s a mere selling point to get you to jump.

My experience with films shot before Blu-Ray and digital technology – has been mixed – but mostly on the poorer side. TERMINATOR did not look great / FRENCH CONNECTION looked horrible / THE WILD BUNCH was so-so (though I stopped watching a half-hour into it – I wasn’t in the mood for it) / BULLIT was nice in the foreground – spotty in the background.

It will start becoming a cost selling point if I don’t start seeing a big improvement in the Blu-Ray’s that I rent of older films. If the Blu is cheaper – I’ll do it – but if it will just look like an upconvert of the cheaper DVD – I might as well save the coin. Though I have been noticing in some of the newer releases on Amazon of the films I have been interested in that the Blu-Rays are coming up cheaper than the DVD – but these are newer films – I think that’s the beginning of the possible phase out (I hope not though).

Video Game Challenge - Progress of weekend Oct 1 & Oct 2

2011-10-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

Despite other things – this weekend I finally defeated Fallout: New Vegas – it wasn’t as much of a thrill as I had hoped – but I’m now a third of the way through my pre-SKYRIM video game challenge.

Fallout: New Vegas: I took no sides apparently – I was hoping that I was lining myself up for the side of the “good guys” – but I must have overstepped one quest or the game’s glitches closed a door for me – I cannot honestly say.

I had been following along with my strategy guide – reading up on what requirements I needed for each outcome – and at no point did I read – if you do THIS you will never get to THAT on the path I took. Oh well.

The glitches were pretty funny though – as I only played the game for maybe a half-hour to wrap it up – BUT with it freezing twice – it turned out I had to restart several areas and that made me play it for about an hour instead. I mean right as the narrator was about to tell me how my actions affected the Mojave – the game froze – and with no auto-save chronicling my fight with The Beast from the East – I had to face off with him twice to officially beat the game.

The Saboteur: I loaded up the game to see how far along I was officially – and I’m 47% of the way through the game. I’ve got many Nazi’s still walking around and guard towers and such to annihilate – so this could take a while.

Crysis 2: I finally unwrapped the game and flipped through the instructions – I wonder how long it will take me to beat that one.

Monday Muzak: 7/4 Shoreline

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Nevermind again...

2011-10-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Listening to this album 20 years after it has been released in the newly “remastered” form – really doesn’t add much to the experience honestly. It’s not like the original cut was so muddy or that the remaster was cleaned up incredibly startling so that we can hear so much more – it’s pretty much the exact same album (minus pretty much all the time between Something in the Way and Endless Nameless).

I wonder if they could have published this remaster with different takes – or analog – or whatever they’ve got back in the vaults. Something like that would have made it an easy purchase for me – rather than the hesitant purchase that it was.

I think I hear Breed cleaned up a little – but it’s not as amazing as the Butch Vig rough cut on the box set. Territorial Pissings seems to have lost a bit of power in the build up from intro to song – Kurt’s voice seems crisper – but with a song like this it’s almost better that it’s muddy and lost in the music a bit. The moan at the beginning of Lounge Act is crisp and gave me a little chill. I prefer the down and dirty fun of Pay to Play to what ended up on Nevermind as Stay Away – so this cleaned up version just makes me miss the original that much more.

The b-sides off the singles sound nice – even though I have all those songs from various sources already – the solo to Even in His Youth had me bouncing up and down like a nerd. The Smart Session tracks are nice – they are great to hear how some of the songs progressed (especially Imodium (Breed)). I love their VU cover of Here She Comes Now – one of my favorite VU songs and just a hell of a cover. The “Boombox” demos – are interesting and kind of fun – but mostly unlistenable sound quality wise.

I’m about to speak some (what many may perceive as) blasphemy – so if you are sensitive Google up some kitten pic’s and skip this paragraph:

I’m a fan of Nirvana – but I am willing to admit that Kurt’s overall songwriting capabilities were still in such a beginning stage at the point of Nevermind. Though narratively stronger than people give him credit for - he relied on several little tricks – and a few of the songs sound very similar to each other. Not to say that I’m going to bash him for being a terrible artist at this stage – because he was revolutionary musician. What I’m doing is comparing him to himself – and even though he was great – he wasn’t amazing on Nevermind considering his body of work. Kurt really blossomed into an exciting songwriter in In Utero – he took his edgy – jokey – personal shit out in that album – and I think it’s a vastly superior album to Nevermind. That being said – I still love Nevermind.

Did you enjoy your kitten pictures?

When you think about this album – you really must place it in the context of the time in which it came out – because it’s been forever imitated ever since it was released.

My favorite song on Nevermind is Breed – I love the play on the words throughout the song (we can plant a house we can build a tree) – the fact that it’s a hard song but he’s playing the role and telling the story from the woman’s perspective. The other reason is because I used to be a singer in a horrible little garage band – and this is one of the songs we finally were able to really nail once we got a great drummer.

With all that’s been said about this album – I think my bullshit hasn’t really added to the conversation – but it’s still my bullshit and I like to share. I would get the album if you really want it – I would ask for it as a gift if you kinda want it but don’t want to part with the scratch – if you love the original and don’t feel that you need another copy – I wouldn’t blame you.

The Bridge On the River Kwai [1957]

2011-09-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

I liked THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI – but honestly I wished I liked more. The movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes – and it felt every bit of it. It was two different stories – and they weren’t blended together well – even though I understood why and liked each story it just felt like “we showed the British officer’s side of the story – let’s now show the American soldier’s side of the story”. There were some great performances – and I really liked the build up to the conclusion (even though it’s become one of those famous scenes that you can’t help but run into – so you kind of already know how it ends). I’m glad I finally watched it – but I’m also glad I didn’t purchase it like I intended to at the Half-Price Books Labor Day sale – it’s not a keeper to me at the moment.

The Thing [2011]

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

I will sit and bitch and complain with you in regards to how annoying all these unnecessary sequels, prequels and remakes are. Hollywood is addicted to proven commodities and not willing to take any risk in exploring new ideas - and potentially great films. There's just too much money involved these days.

That being said, I will happily hold my tongue about this prequel.

John Carpenter's interpretation of THE THING is amazing as a stand alone 80's horror film - but it also left a lot of backstory that could easily fill an interesting movie - and from the trailers - it looks like someone actually nailed it...

Win Win [2011]

2011-09-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

I love how Thomas McCarthy captures what on the surface seems to be a bleak experience and makes it into heartwarming hopeful film. A down on his luck lawyer decides to take advantage (ever so gently) of one of his elderly clients in order to make ends meet – and when his client’s teenage grandson comes into the picture – he brings him under his wing. Just like with THE STATION AGENT and THE VISITOR he takes his lead character’s want for one thing and flips it on its ear in order to show that they actually need something completely different. I really love how the high school wrestling element of the story is just a glue for binding the characters together stronger – much like trains in THE STATION AGENT and music in THE VISITOR. Great performances by the entire cast and great story – make WIN WIN a wonderful movie.

Video Game Challenge - Progress of weekend Sept 24 & 25

2011-09-27T08:00:00.005-05:00

As I predicted – LuLu politely listened then called me a nerd – and Toad is unresponsive (probably rolling his eyes) – so since it’s of interest to me I’ll blog about it.

My video game challenge is going like this after this past weekend.

Fallout: New Vegas: Apparently, I’m at the point of no return. If I go and talk to one character – the entire region erupts in war – and once I complete the war – the game is over. Not in a Fallout 3 – download the expansion and you get to keep playing after the credits roll sense of over – it’s over over. Even if I want to play Old World Blues or Dead Money expansions – I will have to start from an old save file.

This gives me pause.

Do I complete the game? Or do I continue to fuck around?

For example - I cleared the way to recruit all the possible followers (achievement points – yay!) – but declined each opportunity when originally presented and decided to keep Veronica because she was able to use this really great weapon I found (which she went and fucking lost between saves – stupid fucking glitches!). So, do I go with the points – and possible extra side quests? Or just wrap this fucker up? Which is the whole point of my challenge!

Argh...

Speaking of fucking around in this game - I do really want to walk into the Ultra Luxe casino and shoot the place up with a mini-gun - it's not a side quest or anything - it's just something that needs to be done (even if I don't save it)

The Saboteur: Still not sure how far I am – I could check that little percentage thingy in the game – but I was wrapping shit up in New Vegas. I checked fairly early on and it said 15% - and that was after not doing much – so I’m betting I’m around 40% or so by now.

Crysis 2: Still in the cellophane – but I think it shifted around in the drawer when I opened it – so it has at least moved since last update.

I’ve got 46 days until Skyrim is released – and my challenge should be completed! I may have to play a bit more than just weekend mornings - and with my lack of interest in any TV shows that aren't BREAKING BAD and COMMUNITY - I may take up doing some night-gaming...

Monday Muzak: Dead End Friends

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Video Game Update - The challenge begins

2011-09-24T08:00:00.003-05:00

I bought an XBOX 360 a couple years ago to play FALLOUT 3 – a game in which I refuse to play all the way to the conclusion of the game. I’ve been having too much fun playing the game for the open world environments – plus the main story kind of bores me. I’m still on the same character – hundreds of hours into the game – but I haven’t played it in months.

I have been playing FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS though – and despite how glitchy it is – I find it fun. The main story is kind of disjointed – but I decided recently that I will be playing that through to the conclusion soon – because I have pre-ordered SKYRIM.

I have not played an ELDER SCROLLS game but decided that with how intriguing the previews are for SKYRIM - I decided this will be the one I will start with. Looks epic and fun – the fact that it’s developed by the same team that did FALLOUT 3 – has me sold it will be solid.

The problem is now I have been also playing THE SABOTEUR and ordered CRYSIS 2 (when it was a PENNY when Amazon had a *glitch* sale) – and I feel the need to complete all three of these games prior to the release of SKYRIM on 11/11/11 – and who knows maybe I should plug in FALLOUT 3 and complete that one too. (This is not counting a few other games started but not completed in my game drawer – ARKAM ASYLUM – looking at you bud)

I am NOT a gamer – and I could imagine others thinking this is NOT challenge – but to me this will be epic. I typically only play a couple hours while drinking coffee in my underwear on weekend mornings - but I did beat BULLETSTORM, LA NOIRE and a couple of LEGO STAR WARS games during that time this year – which is odd enough – but also means I’ve got a bit of momentum on my side in beating video games.

I will try and give updates on how I’m doing on my blog because I want to talk about it and LuLu will only humor me and Toad (my little brother) will probably roll his eyes at me (as he is a big gamer).

FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS – have all the allegiances – just need to declare which side I’m going to play for.

THE SABOTEUR – I have a hard time understanding how far along I am in this game – but I’ve cleared out a lot of areas of Nazi’s.

CRYSIS 2 – still in the cellophane.

Honestly, as this is scheduled to post - I will be sitting on my couch - drinking some coffee and playing my XBOX

Drive [2011]

2011-09-22T08:00:00.006-05:00

By night he’s a getaway driver – by day he’s a Hollywood stunt driver – when he gets mixed up with a girl and the mob - things get violent.

First of all, I have been anticipating this film for several months now. The talent in front of the camera (Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks & Bryan Cranston) as well as the talent behind the camera (Nicholas Winding Refn) got me pretty psyched up for what appeared to be a hard hitting fast paced action film.

I really did not expect the film that I watched though. My presumption disparity was blown out of the theater – and though I expected something with more pep – I got an intelligent, beautiful film that’s going to linger with more far longer than what I went in expecting. I should have expected this considering Winding Refn was at the helm – as this was an essentially an extension of VALHALLA RISING – slow build ups – questions everywhere – and graphic acts of terrifying violence.

The film was all about building tension – the slow thoughtful pacing of the film – the long pauses in conversation – the low key ethereal synth music soundtrack – the static camera – was all carefully crafted and used in order to really help build up the underbelly of the film. When an act of violence would happen – it was graphic and startling – just the way it should be – it was realistic and horrifying. I gasped – LuLu Danger jumped – it was satisfying.

The acting was top notch – Ryan Gosling at times has an approach of being blank and not showing anything and it bothers me (FRACTURE) but when given a different context that bored/blank look of his has underlying issues – there’s nobody better. His lack of emotion – his lack of dialogue – just made his character endear to me more. LuLu and I walked out asking each other back and forth questions about him – agreeing there’s ton more that we’ll never know about him – and we loved it.

Carey Mulligan was sweet and complex – there was a certain level of complete perfection about how she behaved – the elevator scene will go down as one of the greatest scenes of her still very early career – she showed a maturity unlike many actresses and hit every emotional queue in such a broad spectrum like a fucking pro.

Albert Brooks is one of my favorite comedic actors of all time – but in DRIVE he terrified me. As much as Gosling kept it internal – Brooks allowed it to flow through his pores a bit more – and I got the feeling he was a man willing to do anything (there’s early Oscar talk for Brooks in this role – and I agree – I was seriously terrified of him). Bryan Cranston has a knack for acting fatherly and believable in whatever role he tackles – which he mixed with a slimy fast talker into this role – and he did it with a certain expertise.

I don’t have any complaints about the film. There is no other director that could have pulled off a film like this – the tone – the artistic styling. The acting was all exactly pitch perfection for what this film became. Maybe it needed more driving considering it was called DRIVE – but that’s not the point.

The comparisons to exploitation films are fair – with a slow building sense of tension exploding into graphic and perverse violence. I can see how this film wouldn’t speak to everyone’s tastes – as I realized how the tone of the movie was being set very early on – I worried LuLu wouldn’t like it – but I think it’s the reality of the film’s story and the compelling performances - really proved me wrong and she loved it. I did too.

P.S. LuLu and I were enthralled by Gosling’s white satin jacket the entire film – there was a certain fucking badass look to that jacket – though it was a dated look. It really reminded me of how Christina Lindberg looked in THRILLER with the eye patch and trench coat and how there’s something simplistically amazing about it. If LuLu and I ever make it to a Comic Con – I think I know what I would like for us to dress up as.

P.P.S. I'll throw my hat in there and say even though I've been incredibly picky about what I've watched this year - this is my favorite of the lot thus far in 2011.

I don't get it...

2011-09-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

I don’t understand how certain major movie blockbusters are referred to as ‘cult films’ (Star Wars, Blade Runner, Star Trek) – I understand that they have a very strong following (a “cult following” as they say) – but doesn’t that just make them ‘popular’?

You wouldn’t find people calling Disney or the Harry Potter films ‘cult’ films – but they have huge strong following.

It rubs me wrong in the same way as when people call the Star Wars prequels ‘independent films’ – they may have been made outside of the “major studio” system – but with the same money and with the same distribution major films get.

Monday Muzak: Thirty-Three

2011-09-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Monday Muzak: Through & Through & Through

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

New York, New York

2011-09-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful day – a day without a cloud in the sky – perfect weather and a slight breeze. One of those days that is so nice – but should’ve been very forgettable.

On my way to my favorite class, a film study class, I overheard on a truck’s radio about a helicopter crash at or around the Pentagon – I didn’t really think much of it – other than maybe it was a small bump that the news was calling a “crash” or if it was something else.

When I finally got to class I picked up a copy of The Northern Star – which was an amazing school newspaper that was really well presented and well written. One of the lead stories was that Michael Jordan was making a comeback – so when I entered the auditorium (the same that a few years later was the scene of a Valentines day mass shooting) – I figured the buzz that was apparent in the room was in regards to Michael Jordan.

The teacher came into the auditorium a few minutes late and said that there was something we needed to see. He turned on our big screen projector – the same screen that we’ve been watching Kubrick, Coppola and Orson Welles films – some of the finest works of fiction ever put to film – and we watched as Tom Brokaw speak to us over images of a couple big buildings smoking.

He said that America had been attacked – and no group has claimed responsibility – and replays of planes crashing into these buildings replayed in front of our eyes. I was in shock – not really understanding what was going on – that’s when one of the buildings collapsed. It didn’t seem real.

Our teacher said that America was going to move forward – and not let these terrorists disrupt our lives – and after a few minutes turned off the screen and began his lecture. I tried my best to listen – but I knew that my father was always traveling to the east coast – and things were so confusing and it was reported that there were more planes missing. Once class ended I ran home and called home – to find out my dad wasn’t traveling that week – and my mom said I could come home if I wanted - and I did want to – but I didn’t.

I called my best friend who signed up to the Marines not but a year before – and his base was locked down with him inside – and his wife and I spoke for a little while and it calmed me.

The rest of the day I was pretty numb – even though classes went on like normal. I settled down at home – without cable (a luxury that my roommate and I decided to do without) – and I listened to the radio - listened to music that reflected how I felt being in that moment and reflected on life.

Monday Muzak: Stormy High

2011-09-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

Quick Picks - Sept 4, 2011 Edition

2011-09-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

Peep World [2010]

A bunch of adult kids have taken divergent – yet miserable - paths in life after they left the nest – and it’s all their asshole daddy’s fault.

I didn’t like this movie. All the characters were fairly weak caricatures and that made them boring. One son is aloof (Rainn Wilson) – the other is struggling architect (Michael C. Hall) – the daughter is a bitch (Sarah Silverman) – and the youngest son is profiting off their misery in his thinly veiled novel about the family (Ben Schwartz) – and they all hate their father with good reason. I felt the writer of this movie has some daddy issues – and made a movie – not that there’s not potential in it but you got to do better than this. I wanted to shake each and every one of them and tell them to grow up and make your own decisions – live your own life – grow up!

I hated the penis joke – so fucking dumb – I almost turned off the movie at that point – make a dark comedy and have fun – but a penis joke? Why not make some poop and fart jokes? I didn’t hate the movie – I really hated parts of it – I kind of liked other parts – but it’s not funny in a way that I would recommend.

Rango [2011]

A pet lizard finds himself lost in the desert and wanders into a town of desert creatures – where he saves the day and takes over as the town sheriff.

I really enjoyed this fun little spaghetti western homage. I loved the two “cameos” in both a nod to Depp and a nod to the genre – and because I was pleasantly surprised the cameos will go nameless in my blurb. The animation was beautifully done – though it’s animated it’s not a film made for kids – kid friendly most certainly – but too much over the head dialogue. I liked how the town animals were modeled after Leone’s town folk characters – even the snake was a nice nod to Lee Van Cleef. Overall, there’s not much to say – it appealed to some of my likes – but it was a good enough movie – never really grabbing me and pulling me in – but also not disappointing me.

Quick Picks - Sept 3, 2011 Edition

2011-09-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

Love and Other Drugs [2010]

A shallow guy meets a hot girl – they have a bunch of sex – then fall in love – they do it some more – break up – and get back together.

Anne Hathaway has an amazing rack – and she shows it aplenty in this film – they even give her some “drama” to do while she’s not naked. Jake Gyllenhaal is becoming an interesting actor – and he coasts for the most part through this movie – hitting his marks when he needs to be shallow and when he needs to be sweet. Not spectacular but lots of boobs – more of a romantic dramedy – with lots of boobs – could Hathaway be the lead in a remake of NUDE ON THE MOON please?

The Company Men [2010]

A bunch of guys lose their jobs and have to cope with being unemployed.

The problem with this movie is they followed the plight of a bunch of well off guys who get fired. Who the fuck cares? If they cut their fucking spending – took a “lesser” job – they would be able to coast. Does Affleck do that? No! Do I feel sorry for him? No! Boo hoo he has to work blue collar – until he’s offered out of the fucking blue a job that pays a fuck load! I call bullshit all over this movie – though it was scary because everyone got fired after their company got bought out – and my company just got bought out a week or two before I watched this movie. There was some good yet very muddled messages mixed in there – but the problem was they took the wrong approach to get to them.

I don't know what this is...

2011-09-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

BUT I LOVE IT!!!

13 Assassins [2010]

2011-09-01T08:00:00.003-05:00

The Shogun’s younger brother is an evil man with hate and cruelty in his heart. When the depth of his evil becomes apparent to a senior government official he hires the samurai Shinzaemon to assassinate him before he can ascend in power. Shinzaemon goes on recruit 11 more samurai for the mission – who are joined on their journey by a hunter – making it the tale of the 13 assassins.

This is a remake of a film of the same name and though I can’t find the original to rent and compare – it seems moot as it’s the exact plot of SEVEN SAMURAI – with the main differences being the number of characters – and the threat is from the government rather than bandits. Let me remind you – Rule #1 – originality is overrated. You’ve seen this movie before – I promise you – but the story is compelling never-the-less.

Given the nature of the heroes of this film are samurai – and samurai are not normally known for being expressive – that leads to what can be perceived as little character development – that perception is mostly reality. This lack of character development though – does not lead to any less desire to wanting to see them succeed with every ounce of your being. The majority of the real character depth is with the villain – and he is such a wonderfully evil villain. With his apparent evil and condescending above the law nature – you wouldn’t care if smurfs were after him – as long as someone was.

The villain’s character development is a major triumph for this film – because if you consider giving 13 characters a personal sense of purpose – goals – motivations – and the like would be exhausting and make the film 4 hours long – much like SEVEN SAMURAI (which is one of my top 5 favorite films of all time – so I’m not knocking it). But if you give the bulk of the character development to the villain – you come to accept the assassins as being in the right even if you don’t know them – and it makes each of their deaths equally sad.

The film – in the cut that was released to Blu-Ray in America is roughly 2 hours – with the final 50 minutes of the film being essentially a bloodbath. Not once through the final battle did I think that it was taking too long or getting boring. I saw it as less of an extended action scene and more of a dramatic scene that kept me engaged throughout. There was no music playing over the bulk of the battle – as to not falsify the emotion and give you the traditional movie triggers to tell you to care. The clangs of the swords, the screams and shouts and the visuals of the mud and blood – was enough to jar me into caring and kind of leave me dumbstruck.

That’s not to say the film was essentially a build up to the action scene – as the assassin’s quest prior to the battle was an interesting story. There wasn’t a cheap scene in the build-up – which is just strong storytelling. The conclusion of the story was extremely satisfying – and even a little bit of a twist that didn’t exactly fit in with the exact nature of the story – but it was pitch perfect to resolve the film (though I interpreted it one way – and considered it the only solution – I guess some could want to believe the other).

For some, I can see how the lack of character development could lead to a lack of recognition while they fought and died muddied and bloodied – but with such beautiful noble samurai deaths – it didn’t phase me. Several of the assassins were given a small bit of this or that that allowed me to recognize them upon their demise – several were not and I didn’t recognize them as being X or Y – but like I said – it didn’t worry me.

I guess I found a few small instances of new technology a tiny bit distracting – but it was used so few and far between that it didn’t impact me that much. I would say for the most part – a lot of old school directing techniques and action sequences helped sell me.

Netflix refused to send this movie to me for a while – though it sat on the top of my rental queue with no wait – which brought up my excitement – and could have easily made the presumptive disparity hard to overcome – but it met and exceeded my expectations. This is not just a renter – but a movie I want to own and kind of wish I didn’t already returned it because I want to watch it again already – I highly recommend it.

* I apologize for lack of pictures – I like to use them to break-up the text – but it appears that once I Googled some up most have been removed due to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act – which is a shame it’s a visually stunning film and would like to showcase it in my review

Presumption Disparity

2011-08-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

There’s a phrase that I learned about recently that describes a lot of movie watching; ‘presumption disparity’ – it’s the difference between the actual reality and the perceived reality. If you walk into a bar and ask for a tropical drink – what the barkeep would hand you would be far different than what people in the tropics actually drink – that difference is the ‘presumption disparity’.

When I get really excited about seeing a movie – I’m wagering that it I have no ‘presumption disparity’ – and that it will live up to exactly what I want it to be. When I’m pleasantly surprised by a movie – it usually means that I expected the movie to be all right – but exceeded my expectations.

When I sat down to watch BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID – I thought it was going to be a more traditional western – but it turned out it was a kitschy buddy film. This affected my opinion of the film quite a bit – but is it the film’s fault? No. My ‘presumption disparity’ was too large and that is made it seem poor to me – I didn’t fairly judge it for the content that was – I judged it based on the content that I wanted it to be.

I try my hardest to go into movies with a 5 out of 10 mentality – and it’s the movie’s job to either improve on that score or degrade that score. It’s hard not to get excited about certain films – people are paid to figure out ways to get you excited and advertise based on that excitement. It’s also hard when you go in expecting a “classic” when you’re told over and over how great something is.

People have told me that THE BLUES BROTHERS is hilarious – one of the best comedies ever – which isn’t really fair considering that this praise puts an unfair burden on this film to deliver. Thus, when I finally get around to watching it my ‘presumption disparity’ is probably going to be way off – and I’ll think it’s overrated. Unless everyone of course is dead on and not exaggerating about their love for a film – which is a blog topic onto itself.

As I’ve been thinking of this ‘presumption disparity’ factor more and more – I decided to axe my ratings of ‘x out of x’ – and just give an honest opinion of what I watch. I will lavish praise on films I like and give reasons as to why I loved the film. I will cut down films I dislike and I will argue as to why it was not good.

I think cutting out a rating system will reduce the amount of high marks given out based on an initial exceeding of my ‘presumption disparity’ – which is more common than I care to admit. I also feel like it will give people more to think about if they chose to take my movie recommendations rather than “it’s a 5-star film so it better be great” – and with 5 followers – I’m really concerned.

The Purple Rose of Cairo [1985]

2011-08-30T08:00:00.002-05:00

A disenfranchised woman escapes her dismal marriage by going to the movies. She goes so often that one of the actors in the movie notices her and steps off the screen to be with her.

This was actually quite a charming little film about the escapism people experience when they are really drawn into a movie. It is set in the depression era New Jersey – so the escapism in films was probably even more intense as it is these days considering that Hollywood movies were so glamorous.

I was charmed by Mia Farrow in her role as Cecilia and Jeff Daniels in dual roles as Tom Baxter the escaped actor and Gil Shepard the actor who plays Tom Baxter.

I thought the writing was a little off with the character of Tom Baxter – who keeps explaining that his character has X defined trait and X defined knowledge of such things – because it wasn’t clear that he could learn outside of those designed character traits. In one scene he finds out his money is fake movie money – in another scene he hands some out to a man waiting in line at the soup kitchen. It doesn’t make sense to me – unless it’s just a gag – though the film didn’t seem to rely too much on gags.

I was also confused with some of the direction – Cecilia leaves her abusive husband early – then we see her wander around – and then show up at a door and enter it. Up to this point we haven’t been introduced to the outside of her house – so I wasn’t sure if she was going to her sister’s place or retreating back to her abusive relationship – especially considering they don’t show Cecilia together with her husband for some time after that scene.

Harmless errors – that are easy to overlook as it turns out it was really a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching the other actors in the film that Baxter stepped out of bicker and complain about not being able to go on with the movie (for a little while). The audience interacting with the actors was kind of fun (with a few characteristically Woody Allen jokes). I really liked the love triangle that developed between Cecilia, Baxter and Shepard – it would’ve been interesting to hear what would’ve happened to Cecilia if she stepped into the film with Baxter to live happily ever after and the film ended its run (a depressing technical question that shouldn’t be asked in a fantasy film such as this).

I’m getting more serious about considering purchasing and learning to play a ukulele.

Anyway, it’s real charmer of a film – and would recommend it to you if it sounds like something you’d like.

Monday Muzak: Don't Look Back

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Oh nevermind...

2011-08-28T08:00:00.004-05:00

I was finally made aware that the 20th anniversary box sets of Nirvana’s Nevermind were available for pre-order – not that I was eagerly waiting – just wondered what new material would be released. I’m disappointed to say the least - especially in the 5-disc set.

The 2-disc you get the remastered album – the b-sides – and demo recordings of the album for less than $25. Which is a fairly solid deal considering...

In the 5-disc set you get the 2-disc set – plus a different mastering of the album – a live concert CD and on DVD – along with a 90-page booklet for only $110 more! That’s right – for 2 more CD’s – a DVD – and a book - $110!!

It’s not like there’s NEW music – which I’m suspicious that they are holding out on. Where are the studio versions of Spank Thru and Talk to Me? Kurt was a demo junkie – I’m sure he had stuff down for his scheduled session with Stipe before he was murdered (yeah, he was murdered). I’m sure we’ll probably have to wait for the In Utero remaster for more

Anyway – the concert is intriguing because it’s been claimed as the only full concert of Nirvana’s that was filmed – on actual film – thus could be remastered for Blu-Ray release – and with only the DVD as a part of that 5-disc box – why cough up the scratch for it if you can get the concert separate on a “better” format?

Yes, I would LOVE to have the concert CD – as I’d get far more use out of it - but NOT $110 love...

I refuse to speak for Kurt – but I know the over marketing of his works makes me sick - and I’m not sure if it’s in the spirit of that era in music to gouge the fans like this – but that’s business – every other Christmas have some “new” Nirvana repackaged bobble to sell.

If it bothers you so much - why are you going to buy the 2-disc set? Well, I'm a big fan - and one of my favorite tracks from off the box-set is the Breed (rough cut) - which was so brutal and wonderful so I'm hoping for some more remastered rough cuts... Plus, I'm a sucker...

Talk to Me

2011-08-27T08:00:00.001-05:00

I kind of already got the feeling that even though I have a 3-day weekend - and having expired many of the things that I would do to normally entertain myself... I will be sitting around talking to myself...

Double Feature Friday: [REC] (2007) / [REC 2] (2009)

2011-08-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

A news segment about a reporter following a local Barcelona group of firefighters on their nightly routine suddenly becomes documentation of some kind of outbreak of some contagious disease that causes people to become rabid killers.

[REC] is one of my top 5 favorite horror movies of the past decade. It’s essentially a zombie movie – but it’s far more thrilling than the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake because it’s told from a first person point of view. It blends what feels like news footage from a war zone into what’s simply a claustrophobic zombie experience.

Throw in the intrigue of how quickly the building is quarantined and the intrigue into what mysteries are being hidden and where – the film works on a variety of levels for both thrills and on-the-fly narrative. The direction of the film must have been tricky – as you would have to have your cinematographer running around as a character – and monitoring the adlibbed both camera movements and dialogue – it’s an easy recipe to fail at for someone who didn’t have a big pair of brass balls. The lead actress is likable and convincing as both a fluff news reporter – and as a terrified as she becomes as the situation unfolds.

[REC] was remade almost shot for shot in the US and released as the film QUARANTINE – I beg you to SKIP that version and go straight to the source.

Nearly an hour since the events in [REC] a swat team is sent into the quarantined building along with a priest to find out what’s going on.

What [REC] succeeds at – [REC 2] tries to tweak only mildly. Each swat team characters has a helmet camera to monitor what they see – so there are multiple cameras at work as opposed to the single camera in [REC]. Then it takes what the audience perceives as the rabid zombie virus and turns it on its ear – which is hinted at toward the end of [REC] – but even if there was never a sequel – one could be happy with the direction of the first film without this film as an addendum.

[REC 2] does more story telling than the first film – it leads the audience down a certain path instead of spinning them around in an office chair and dropping them into a mess. So, in a way they are two completely different films – but the same concepts were being used as story telling elements. I do admit that the freshness of the first film doesn’t come off as well into the second – but I think that has more to do with the storytelling in the second – which is understandable – you have to change the formula a bit for a sequel to this kind of film.

I love how it turned the zombie element on its ear – I’m honestly getting a little bored of zombies – not as much as I’m sick of vampires – but there’s too much zombie stuff going around these days. There are some good twists – and some head scratchers in this film – but after a step back from watching them both – they make far more sense than most American horror movies.

Though I have not seen QUARANTINE 2 – from the previews it appears that it abandon’s all that the premise that makes [REC 2] special – which actually makes me curious to see Q2 a bit.

Two additional [REC] films are being planned – reading that just now gives me a little chill up my spine – I can’t wait.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011]

2011-08-25T08:00:00.005-05:00

A young scientist eager to discover a way to create virus that will reverse the damage Alzheimer’s does to the brain – creates something that makes the apes he’s testing it on super intelligent.

I watched all I could of the original PLANET OF THE APES films – which consisted of the first film – quickly losing interest in the second – and the boring Tim Burton remake. So, I was quite surprised when I found myself becoming more excited for this “reboot” – or origin tale – I’m not sure what it’s meant to be. It seemed to be garnering a fair share of positive reviews – and less scrutiny than I figured it would get – even some Oscar talk for Andy Serkis. I had to admit after watching the commercial a few times – it looked well executed – even if all they advertised was the apes going nuts – it might be a fun action film.

The first thing I noticed was that the tone was grounded in Will Rodman’s quest to help his father defeat Alzheimer’s – but as discoveries were made and the focus shifted to Caesar the heart of the original tone remained strong. It’s easy for effect films to start out strong with identifiable feelings to get the audience to connect with the characters – then use that initial connection to get you through the nonsense effects that follows – but this isn’t one of those films. It successfully worked with the special effects to create a fully realized story – something that could work without the effects.

The effects were wonderful – you’re never lost on the fact that Caesar was a chimpanzee – which is glorious considering he was being portrayed by Andy Serkis and motion capture. The effects weren’t distracting as make me feel like I was watching a fake monkey. The human aspects Serkis brought were so smartly used that the blurring the lines between the two species were difficult to grasp. Serkis’ performance was powerful – it really made Caesar a sympathetic character and the most fully realized rounded character of the film.
When it comes to the human characters each was essentially a caricature of the mad scientist/misunderstood creature film – but it works because they were framed creatively and each character is allowed to hit their marks instead of being forced into each plot point. The story was injected with enough heavy handed moments to make the story as a whole a success.

Casting was a great strength – James Franco was excellent as Will Rodman the man who was desperately trying to discover a way to save his ailing father Charles - played expertly by John Lithgow. Brian Cox is an expert at playing the uncaring asshat who runs the animal sanctuary – and Tom Felton who plays his son is dangerously close to being typecast as a menacing little git – this should be his last Draco Malfoy performance for a while.

My only regret was watching this movie at a brew & view – where I was pulled out of watching some of the scenes by a waitress asking if I wanted a refill on my iced tea. Trying to get the pen to work and sign my tab – made me miss the culmination of the major end battle scene. Missing some of the big action though didn’t detract my enjoyment of the film – as I thought it was a great film for the entire journey not just the results of the journey.

The possibilities of sequels were hinted at throughout and nods to the original series were made – I hope for the continuance of the intelligent filmmaking that made RISE a success and never to give up the real emotional threads for effect films. I’ve only seen 4 movies in the theater this year – but this is my pick for best summer movie.

Stray Dog [1949]

2011-08-24T08:00:00.004-05:00

Set in post WWII Japan - a rookie cop is pickpocketed and loses his gun. He begins a desperate search to find his weapon in fear of what damage it could cause in the wrong hands.

The film unfolds as if it’s meant to be a modern day fable of not allowing the weight of the world crush you – yet there’s a bit a disconnect when it comes to the universal “ah-ha” moment we are meant to feel at the end of a good fable. We are given the “wisdom” of a senior officer – and it basically boils down to “you’ll get over it, kid” – which even though may be true – isn’t as powerful as you’d like for a fable or a movie.

I’ve only really seen Toshiro Mifune in Kurosawa’s samurai films – and could barely recognize the man – but the intensity of his performance was ever present. As he investigates the emotional build up keeps showing itself through Mifune’s face and body language – the guilt he feels – as if this major dishonor to him speaks for the culture of post war Japan.

As he learns of the crimes his missing weapon has been involved in – he is encouraged not to put the weight of the world on his shoulders even though it’s hard not to feel guilt in a situation like this. He must learn in order to deal with his own humanity that it’s the choices that people make that define them – not the mistakes and curves life throws at them. He could have chosen to move on with his life and career – he was given a punishment – but instead he chose to move forward with the investigation and retrieve his weapon because of the character of his being.

Thus again – this would speak as maybe a message from Kurosawa to post war Japan – to not be in shame and use the defeat to lead down the road to bad things – but to learn from the mistakes and grow from out of those lessons.

Actually, as I write this I’m beginning to realize how the fable actually works very well as a message to the society as a whole - though I would’ve liked to see a major “ah-ha” moment – but I guess you can use that ambiguity to say “it’s your move, society”.

As for the film – you’ll find me pretty hard pressed to say that Kurosawa doesn’t know what he’s doing – because he’s as good as a director as have ever been. He keeps the story engaging throughout – uses the composition of his shots, lighting and single continuous shots wonderfully as always.

I had reservations about the story – but after having time to think – it’s quite good – though I realize I’m not always in the mood for ambiguity – I’d recommend it if it sounds interesting.

Insidious 2: Never Say Never [2011]

2011-08-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

Now, my completely FAKE review of INSIDIOUS – based on what the poster looks like.

A family tries to buy a home from Justin Beiber – but he doesn’t want to sell it at all! When the courts award the house to the family because even the courts think Justin Beiber is a spoiled little shit – he gets really mad.

So mad he TURNS RED!!!

Beiber shows a much darker side than what I ever expected of him – but that’s what puberty will do to you!

His first strategy for getting the family to give back his house was obviously to sing and dance out in front of the house on the sidewalk – you’ve got to have the kiddie music tie in if you’re gonna have a horror movie based around Beiber. I understand that but to the length that they went and how well the family acted impartially-terrified was horrific all in itself. I actually went into the kitchen and started looking for my Rachel Ray knife set ready to slit my own wrists and sign over my apartment to Beiber in my own blood.

When that didn’t work – and Beiber got even more enraged he started standing in front of the house just staring into it with his face unchanged – just like in the poster – for what appeared to be days. When the dog came up and piddled on his leg for the 4th time – is when I think Beibs went from a human to a demon – the 5th time was just too much if you ask me. I get the 6th time was to drive in the emphasis of his mission – but the 7th time kind of made me sick to my stomach.

Beiber then decides to pull out the ACME catalog and orders a doggie door – installs it on their back door when they are at work – and then later that night sneaks in and rearranges their potted plants – caught by the wife character – she calls the police – Beiber is arrested and spends the night in jail – only released out on bail when he seduces a local gang member by doing more singing (the head resting on the bars of the cell – and the other inmates rhythmically banging their metal cups against the bars – made for a sweet scene) – once out of jail Beibs heads right back over to the house hides in a pile of dead leaves and waits for them to leave for work the next morning – then he goes through the doggie door once again – only to discover they boobie trapped the house to explode if he enters the house – melting his face but leaving his hair intact – we see Beibs apparently dead body and we zoom in on his eyes that pop open and scare the bejesus out of everyone... Thus setting the scene for the sequel; INSIDIOUS 3: BABY BABY BABY

Monday Muzak: Woe Is You And Me

2011-08-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Insidious [2011]

2011-08-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

A family moves into a new house – and suddenly their son is in a coma and the wife sees a bunch of creepy people all around who menace her newborn and attack her – but when she calls for hubby’s help – they’re gone! So, they move – and it keeps happening!! What’s going on here?

After a certain amount of dropping piano sounds and screams – I became apathetic to the whole movie. It wasn’t a bad movie – it just relied too much on those aspects to get scares – when I thought it was doing a fine job building suspense on its own – it didn’t need to result to cheap tactics.

The movie reminded me a lot of the atmosphere that the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY movies were trying to build (and it’s from the makers of – so it makes sense) – with the calm eeriness – then something happens that grips your throat and you’re instantly freaked out. Instead of allowing that air it self out though they threw in a loud bang sound effect – which I honestly couldn’t tell if they wanted you to believe that it was coming from inside the house or from the soundtrack.

I also felt the filmmakers almost intended to make a simple haunted house movie by the way they introduced the books falling off the shelf while everyone was in the kitchen eating breakfast in the beginning. If you’ve seen the movie and know the “twists” – then you’ll know how this scene doesn’t make any sense – unless it’s JUST the house. I guess they will leave those answers to the eventual sequel.

The ending was a shame – there’s a lot of horror movies that end the exact same way – and I would’ve just liked to see the opposite because I felt that would’ve made for a BETTER twist.

Again, it wasn’t a bad film – there were some redeeming qualities – such as the reliance of the idea of what is left unseen. I’m not sure if it was intended as part of the freaky nature – but the relation of where things/people were in relation to each other was left me confused and it brought me into the story a bit because it wasn’t set in a way that I could immediately identify. I tend to think it was a bit of bad filmmaking but it worked for me.

From the advertisements I saw – it was pimped as being from the ‘makers of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY’ – even if it was directed by the creator of the SAW franchise. So, when the SAW puppet made a blatant cameo I felt that was a dick length scene – the “I’ve spawned more sequels and I was on the scene before you PARANORMAL ACTIVITY guy” – because I CAN’T see the point of having that puppet drawn on the chalk board in hubby’s classroom. No point – other than Ego of the director. It’s fine if you want to work the puppet in – but making that blatant? There’s a lot of moving boxes – couldn’t the puppet be somewhere in the background half hidden by boxes? No... Let’s essentially turn a scene where we’re supposed to concentrate on the lead character having a phone conversation – and put a drawing of the puppet over his shoulder the entire time!

The film isn’t bad – but it’s just above average for me – you’ll get for the most part what you expect from it.

35th Avenue Crazy

2011-08-20T08:00:00.002-05:00

Went to my first ballgame of the year last night - that only means that the summer is officiailly coming to an end...

(Yeah, I know it's on 35th Street - but the song is '5th Avenue Crazy' - had to compromise)