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Has anyone else seen that other thinly propaganda film for "horror-zealot" extremist scare tactic evangelism (also starring Nicholas Cage) called KNOWING?
It's kind of a "Rapture-as-apocalyptic-alien-takeover" film. It *really* tried to pass itself off as just another action-adventure-conspiracy-disaster catch all Hollywood blockbuster. Which makes the absurdity of its eventual unmasking as an ultraviolent Old Testament kind of no nonsense smack down all the more disquieting (though still unbelievably hilarious). What happened to Nicholas Cage? He was in Leaving Las Vegas for Christ's sake! And Raising Arizona. And... probably a few other films that were not completely terrible. Now he's pushing his *seriously insane* dark ages fire and brimstone shit, stealthily, into the public semi-consciousness. That is, when he's not playing a daredevil motorcyclist who sells his soul to the devil for a mullet made of fire and a prenenially dated but damn sturdy leather jacket... I will take Tom Cruise's weird but harmless off-screen Scientology over this creepy shit any day. Cage is absolutely trying to recruit motherfuckers here, and I thank God above that nobody watches his movies because they're so bad and he is so bad in them. It's the little things, after all |
 I'm so bored of the usual type of music biopic that this was a total breath of fresh air. Both Paul Dano and John Cusack were just brilliant. For me, it's one of those films that I found myself thinking about for days afterwards, and that can never be a bad thing. |
the other day i watched "the imitation game"
it was semi-interesting but it was marred by the silly repetition of "the lesson". you know, when hollywood wants to teach you a bit of stupid morality they make sure to repeat it 3 times at key moments in the movie (or have the protagonist explain it at the end of a tv episode). here it was "the people who do things no one can imagine bla bla bla". triple-cringe. ugh with "the lesson". i was also mistyfied by everyone getting "fired' or threatening to "get fired." i thought the english gave each other the sack. made me think this show was linguistically bowdlerized for 'merica. especially in 30s lingo. yes? no? |
 Rewatched Palookaville this evening with a couple of friends who'd never seen it. It's one of my favourite of the mid/late 90s batch of American indie films, my friends enjoyed it too, |
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Mmmm... Yeah, Brits do say "got the sack" or "sacked", especially, I think, when talking either in the first of third person. But I don't know if that necessarily means that "fired" isn't a phrase over there. It's hard to imagine a Colonel walking into a top secret code-breaking room during war time and saying "'t'sit Turing, I'm sackin' ya!" Also, I'm not sure about this, but I think "the sack" is more like "being laid off"... And it also is probably associated with a certain dialect... there are so many fooking dialects and accents and social/class related linguistic traits in Britain. And for some reason I feel like "the sack" might be a bit too working class for the likes of world-renowned mathematicians, cryptographers, military higher-ups and decorated scholars/academics. But I'm really not sure. I loved the movie. It was fantastic. But I've always been fascinated by Dr. Turing's life and work. I was pleased to see that the film was clearly striving for greatness on all levels. |
I just watched this:
 Better than I expected. I'm not sure why I didn't expect much, since Fincher usually nails it, and the scores provided by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross have really taken his films to another level. I just never got wrapped up in the hype surrounding the book, and I don't much like Ben Affleck, and I thought Reese Witherspoon was going to play Amy.... I am not really a fan of Mrs. Witherspoon, but she can act when she has to, and I found Rosamund Pike to be quite dry and dull and crappy especially for the first half of the film. Overall, it was a good story, and it really does kind of rope you in... but I would have cast Brad Pitt in the lead role. Brad Pitt and Reese Whitherspoon. Then it probably would have been Oscar candy. Fucking amazing score, of course. Makes me want Reznor and Ross to start composing for David Lynch. what an excellent match that would be! 3 stars (out of 5) |
^^ yeah i did like a lot about the turing movie, enough to feel irritated by "the lesson" which i take for granted in lesser movies. here it was like "hey, great movie..!. oh no, here comes the fucking lesson..."
i think frumious bandersnatch was fantastic as usual. i think the whole subplot of why the machine is named christopher was sad and sweet. the period reconstruction was good, etc. the structure with 3 timelines worked for me-- not at the beginning but soon it made good sense. i also never tire of keira knightley's strange but beautiful face. so there was a lot to like. the fired vs sacked wasn't really a problem, just a question i had that momentarily ceased suspension of disbelief--- what i really hated was the fucking lesson. not that it was there, or the meaning of it-- but how it was so on-the-nose. a concession to the general public i suppose. things one has to live with in mass entertainment. |
a few great things lately
--> ALL IS LOST. a movie without dialogue that adds a few unnecessary lines at the beginning when it doesn't really have to. i hate concessions to the stupids. but fantastically great job!! --> THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. starts great, then gets a bit rambling for my taste, but still, great movie about... alcoholism (or something). i don't know why it works but it's great, and bowie is great in it, and the way the science fiction is done without much... what... spacey shit. really good, and enough meat in it to analyze and interpret for a long time. --> MAD MAX (1979 original). this is another movie you could watch without dialogue and totally get everything. it does exactly what it promises. as good as indie/low-budget gets. and it opened an era i think that peaked more or less in 1984 with the terminator. |
I think i watched Edge of Tomorrow which i found much better the second time and Money Train yesterday.. early Woody Harrelson is just terrible, good thing Wesley Snipes was in it with some J-Lo eye candy
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The Blue Lagoon.
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Re: Keira Knightley
YES. I used to think Winona Ryder was the most beautiful woman in the world (well, you know... The most beautiful "fake" woman), but Keira, partly by virtue of her looking a bit like Winona Ryder, has quite officially taken her place at this point. Ever seen Atonement? Classiest sex scene ever. No nudity. But DAMN. |
i haven't seen it-- but i will now i guess
she was really fucking great in that jung/freud movie cronenberg made--made the ugliest possible twitchy grimaces. she can really act. |
Followup from last night, I watched "The Girl Next Door" after The Blue Lagoon.
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Solaris (1972, Tarkovsky)
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Finally watched it. Hadn't read the book but generally felt a bit non-plussed. There were some good moments, it looked great and Joaquin Phoenix is obviously brilliant, but it didn't really hang together as a movie for me. I am a big PTA fan so maybe hoped for too much. |
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an incredible beauty Quote:
i know you've mentioned im as scorsese's potential successor in the "intensity" department, so this one is not like that at all--this one has the pynchon paranoia but also its goofiness. in spite of the crime and all the drama, it's definitely a comedy-- both in the way it looks at people and in the classic happy ending form. [SORRY SPOILERS] now i'm curious about something-- i know you favor horror (it's not really my thing, save some great exceptions). but how do you feel about the comedies in general? |
Inherent Vice - pointless forgettable useless waste of everything ever. I hated this film more than I hate anything I have ever watched other than Pedro Almodova's bullshit.
I walked out of the theater 40 minutes into Inherent Vice and wanted to shove my feces in the face of everyone associated with the fucking theater. what a horrible horrible horrible experience. |
I like some comedies but not the 'goofy' ones so much. I like Manhattan-period Woody Allen, that kind of thing, oh and I'm a massive WC Fields fan, but I generally don't watch many out and out comedies. Funnily enough (ahem) a lot of the films that've made me laugh out loud the most wouldn't really qualify as comedies at all. Bits of Goodfellas I find hilarious. Same with Robert Downey Jnr in Iron Man. Iron Man isn't a comedy but some of the lines in it are far funnier than what I've heard in most films that supposedly are. If that makes sense.
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Hahaha!!! I was honestly thinking, when I wrote that post about it, if you'd seen it and the potential amount of hatred you'd feel towards it if you did. |
I like my comedies to be self-consistent, yet not try to tell me melodrama crap.
I loved like 1/2 of Pineapple Express. ha! |
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yeah, i figured you relate to comedy the way i do to horror-- we all have our biases. for example, inherent vice had shit right out of the zucker brothers (naked gun, etc)-- like the beatdowns he gets from the cops. see: http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/...-inherent-vice and there's nothing goofier than the zucker bros.--except maybe manuel in fawlty towers. |
Yeah, that stuff doesn't really do it for me. I can respect the artistry involved but it rarely makes me laugh, which obviously defeats the object. And as for Fawlty Towers, I always thought Sybil was a million times funnier than Manuel, and even Basil, for that matter. As you say, we all have our biases.
EDIT: One sitcom I loved without reservation was Bilko. But that probably links with the WC Fields thing. |
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ha ha ha, i get it now. i see her as the mean adversary-- but she's the "clever" one i suppose. i hate her. yeah, i'm all for a big stupid laugh just like you go for the blood porn. that basic primal pre-frontal thing, just of a different note. my idea of a great horror movie is eyes wide shut-- i find the menace of social class much more terrifying that some demon parasite that chews people's livers (or something like that). |
The funny thing is, most of my favourite horror films I don't find scary at all. And some of them, like Basket Case, actually border on comedy. Rather like finding non comedies often funnier than actual comedies, plenty of films that've really scared me aren't actually horror films. The original version of The Vanishing terrified me far more than any horror film I can think of, and Midnight Express still gives me nightmares.
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did you like the big lebowski?
borat? or should i say instead--did they make you laugh? caddyshack? the first monsieur hulot movie, when he goes to the beach? |
Big Lebowski made me laugh a lot, but only in terms of the dialogue. I haven't seen Borat or Caddyshack.
I love Jacque Tati movies and Hulot's Holiday is probably my fave of the lot, but I don't really laugh at them. Trying to think of some comedies I really liked and laughed at. Annie Hall; Manhattan; The Bank Dick (and a few others by WC Fields) ... god I'm really struggling ... there must be some more but I can't actually think of any. Damn, I must come across as being really humourless. Anyway still the funniest thing I've ever scene in a movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE_2uqCc_K4 I literally can't watch that without almost crying with laughter. |
i've never seen any wc fields-- i remember you recommended him but haven't had a chance.
hulot's holiday i couldn' stop laughing. from the dog that eats the fish all the way to the end. i like physical/ gag comedy. all kinds of comedy really. only thing i don't like is the overly mean stuff. i remember trying to watch peep show and just feeling "ughhh." too mean. except for "the baddies". hah ha ha ha haha ha. "the baddies". maybe i'll give it a chance again in the future. |
Watched Jackie Brown.. i forgot how brilliant it is
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Yeah, while Fields could do the visual stuff as well as anybody, it's his dialogue that I love most. And there's a world-weary darkness to him. He was notoriously difficult in real life, not just because of his drinking but his general personality, and that really comes across. So even he might not qualify as 'pure' comedy. I suppose he's the epitome of the angry clown. |
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It's my favourite QT film by far. |
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Oh! Yes, A DANGEROUS METHOD! That was one of my favorite films of 2011, and certainly one of the most underrated from that year. An excellent movie. Yes, Ms. Knightley can act. Can act the shit out of Winona, certainly. If she's in q movie, chances are I'm going to like it. |
For my part, I just watched the EVIL DEAD re-boot.
I was really engaged by the actress who played the main part. I didn't research it at all, so I was expecting a re-telling of the first film's story. I'm glad it came back around to focus on the "Bloody Mia" character, and I hope they make at least one sequel. With Raimi and Campbell on a producers, it would be a great way to form an "Evil Dead Universe" that connects with the first three films. And I think he girl who played Mia could be quite a big star. Also - fucking bloodiest movie ever. Ever. like... shit, that's so much blood that it's pointless to even comment on how bloody it is. Way beyond gratuitous. Saying "that's a lot of blood!" would be like announcing that someone farted at the dinner table. Everyone knows someone farted.... we're just trying to be polite over here. Shut the fuck up. But even so... There WAS a LOT of blood. |
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i can't see that youtube right now and i yet have to confirm this but what i suspect you really like is wit. i do too btw. but also the stupid stuff. like, really dumb non-verbal shit-- monkeys. stooges. zucker brothers. farrelly brothers. mel brooks. shit, piss, boogers, fart noises, untimely erections-- the stupider the better. also the grotesque-- gargantua & pantagruel, etc. anything that reveals the ridiculous ape behind the human facade. i think i fucked up a small detail-- the dog that eats the fish i'm now pretty sure is at the beginning of "mon oncle." under the cart. hilarious! though there's another street dog in holiday, which moves away when the car drives through at the beginning. but yeah, holiday + mon oncle i laughed all throughout. |
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I think that's it. Fields was certainly a great wit, Allen too, and Phil Silvers. Plus I love reading Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker, so I think you've nailed it there. Quote:
Brooks is a perfect case for me. I love his standup but can't stand his movies - with the possible exception of The Producers. Blazing Saddles left me cold. I appreciate the art and comedic intelligence that goes into more slapstick kinds of humour, as well as their potential for subversion, but it does nothing for me as entertainment. Essentially, I suppose, I 'watch' comedies more with my ears than with my eyes. Quote:
Yeah, he seemed to like dogs, both for what they were and as metaphors. He's great, similar to Chaplin but far funnier. He's rightly celebrated as a great visual filmmaker but also really innovative in his use of sound (interesting connection to above, about watching more with my ears than my eyes). The interview scene in Mon Oncle, for example, the squeaky door in Hulot's Holiday, the tennis balls. But they also have a quite easy going, free spirited charm to them, Holiday, especially, which kind of transcends comedy. |
 This was made to look like a riotous Coen Bros. in comedy mode kind of thing in the previews. Like Burn After Reading or the Coens-lite Men Whp Stare At Goats. I'm not sure why they felt the need to misrepresent the film like that. It's actually quite a beautiful and bittersweet story. Very well acted, very patiently scripted and paced. Beautifully stylized. But not at all an oddball comedy. If you go into it knowing that, it will be easier to get into. I was expecting to laugh my ass off. But it's a war movie, and it deals with some very thorny subjects. One of Clooney's better directorial works. I really enjoyed it and now I find myself wanting to read the book and learn more about the true story upon which the film was based. Good stuff. |
Just tried watching godard's "Weekend".
How fucking tedious. Listening to a video essay now explaining all the obvious tired shit I had to fast-forward through. I hate this gutless "clever" shit. Everyone giving speeches to the camera. Clever not intelligent btw. Just noise. Words words words. A fucking illustrated sermon. On-the-nose preaching. Pamphletary and painfully dated. |
Anyway, yesterday finally watched "The Thin Blue Line" which was really a brilliant documentary. So well done. And the disc extras were great as well--- Morris talking about his experiences making it, Joshua Oppenheimer ("The Act of Killing") talking about the influence Errol Morris had on everyone and the importance of documenting the fictions we live by, the impossibility of "direct cinema", etc.
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yeah a film ive tried to like but never been able to. clever but not intelligent. Spot on. Although I increasingly feel like that about Godard generally. |
The Jackal.. and a few pointless minutes of Alpha Dog which seemed like a rich suburban white kids version of Belly
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Wasn't there a pretty disturbing rape scene in that one? I remember liking it as a child, and suddenly very strongly disliking it when I was in my teens, and I think it had something to do with a very grisly scene involving the murder of a naked woman?? I never watched it again after that. |
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