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Space Truckers -


Could Stuart Gordon (R.I.P.) do no wrong? With a title and premise like Space Truckers', I was certain this would be the first bad movie I've seen from him and that it would at least be so bad, it's good, but I sincerely had a blast with it. It's a story of a cantankerous, veteran independent trucker (Dennis Hopper), a trainee (Stephen Dorff) and the veteran's would be "green card" bride (Debi Mazar) on the run from a space truck station to Earth while transporting very, very deadly cargo. The movie is the perfect vehicle (no pun intended) for Gordon in that it leverages his talents for genre thrills, creating moments you're not sure whether to laugh or puke at (there are actual square pigs, for example) and making the most of a small budget. The highlight is easily when the gang are captured by space pirates, led by a Charles Dance that is very far removed from his Game of Thrones villain. Also, while it came out in 1996, its theme of the evils of privatization and ill-gotten political power make it an even better fit for these times than its own. It is cheesy and not always in a good way, and while it's no Re-Animator or Dolls, it's bound to maintain your Gordon fandom like it did mine. Oh, and speaking of Dance, I can think of no better way to cleanse your mind of what he did on Game of Thrones - or of the series in general, really - then watch him pull a crank to start his mechanical...enhancements.




By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48828389

Eddie the Eagle (2016)

It would be typical of me to trash the hell out of a movie like this. We've had Cool Runnings and what must be 1000 similar sporting triumph films. "Cookie-Cutter", "Paint-by-Numbers" and "Auto-script" would have been terms bandied about, but by hell this film managed to win me over. There's something utterly infectious about what Michael Edwards achieved (or failed to achieve) in real life and Taron Egerton's portrayal of him - not to mention ski jumping itself, which I never realised. I would have given this film an 8 if they hadn't of felt the need to beef up the cast with Hugh Jackman and Christopher Walken, who just end up being big distractions. Jim Broadbent's BBC commentator is perfect though - and loads of fun.

7/10
I watched this recently too though I forgot about it, I’d probably give it an 8 and agree with your review.



I see we’ve given it the same rating



Space Truckers -


Could Stuart Gordon (R.I.P.) do no wrong? With a title and premise like Space Truckers', I was certain this would be the first bad movie I've seen from him and that it would at least be so bad, it's good, but I sincerely had a blast with it. It's a story of a cantankerous, veteran independent trucker (Dennis Hopper), a trainee (Stephen Dorff) and the veteran's would be "green card" bride (Debi Mazar) on the run from a space truck station to Earth while transporting very, very deadly cargo. The movie is the perfect vehicle (no pun intended) for Gordon in that it leverages his talents for genre thrills, creating moments you're not sure whether to laugh or puke at (there are actual square pigs, for example) and making the most of a small budget. The highlight is easily when the gang are captured by space pirates, led by a Charles Dance that is very far removed from his Game of Thrones villain. Also, while it came out in 1996, its theme of the evils of privatization and ill-gotten political power make it an even better fit for these times than its own. It is cheesy and not always in a good way, and while it's no Re-Animator or Dolls, it's bound to maintain your Gordon fandom like it did mine. Oh, and speaking of Dance, I can think of no better way to cleanse your mind of what he did on Game of Thrones - or of the series in general, really - then watch him pull a crank to start his mechanical...enhancements.
Agreed, it’s a good bit of fun and Charles Dance is definitely memorable.





5up 2down, 2006

Santo (Kirk Acevedo) is good friends with artist Hunter (Isaach de Bankhole) and Hunter's girlfriend, Allie (Paz de la Huerta). All three are serious drug addicts. As a new show of Hunter's approaches, will the trio be able to survive their latest binge?

Oh, so I see that someone decided to just gather together everyone I had sort of a tangential crush on in the early 2000s (Aceveco, de Bankhole, de la Huerta, Mike Doyle). Neat. Unfortunately, the movie is kind of a mess.

The title of the film refers to the way that the trio lives---getting high for days at a time, then sleeping it off for 48 hours. A complication comes in the form of Santo's brother, Benny (Andre Royo), who wants Santo to get clean. That aspect of the film is fairly straightforward, if a bit cliched. The three central actors have an easy chemistry with each other, and they are believable as long-time friends.

But there is this weird--and I mean weird--subplot about how Santo and Hunter knew each other in a past life, with Santo having been a white blacksmith who helped Hunter's past-self slave escape. Through the film we are shown visions of this escape, and Santo himself frequently talks about visions that he has. Hunter himself is also "tuned in" to this past, and we see that he would rather paint crowd-pleasing floral scenes than engage with what's really happening on the inside. And this part, to me, was just way cheesy. On top of which, it also clashes a bit thematically with another big idea in the film, which is Hunter's inability to trust having come from an abusive background.

The actors are all likable, which really pull you through the film. But I found myself overall not very satisfied with the narrative itself or what it had to say about art and addiction. It also does something that I find so off-putting, which is to feature multiple sex scenes in which the men remain fully clothed (or framed off-camera except for their faces), but a ton of semi-nude or nude female bodies are put on display. The movie already suffers from looking low-budget, and these sequences gave it an unpleasant air of desperation.

Unless you are a really big fan of someone involved, probably one to avoid.




I forgot the opening line.


Dogs Don't Wear Pants - (2019) - Finland

WARNING: spoilers below
Eccentric surgeon Juha accidentally stumbles into dominatrix Vaimo's studio and finds out that being suffocated brings him closer to his dead wife.


I found this film challenging to watch - and director J.-P. Valkeapää (who co-wrote) seems to be urging himself to create a film that makes the audience uncomfortable voyeurs from the very start to the very end with little let-up. It has less sexuality and eroticism then you'd expect from such a film, instead choosing to go with darkly subconscious undercurrents of grief and obsession. The comedic tone was lost on me - probably drowned out by the graphic torture and awkward masturbatory scenes - so if I were to rewatch it my score might be radically different. As it is, I found it really tough...and I have to be honest...

5/10



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
In The Cut (2003) 4 or 5/10




Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)


[rewatch] Still one of the most brilliant examples of non-linear storytelling that I've ever seen. Barely a misstep in the whole thing -it hits all the right buttons intellectually and emotionally without straying into corny territory or getting too clever for its own sake. The way Gondry uses visuals (camerawork, editing, sets, lighting, effects, etc) to materialize Kaufman's complex script, esp. in the 'journey through memory world' part (which basically makes up the majority of the film), is nothing short of breathtaking - an absolute miracle.



the samoan lawyer's Avatar
Unregistered User
I have really fond feelings toward Joy Ride (an admittedly fun, but just slightly above-average thriller) because when it was released my college roommate and I were at a formal dance. We weren't digging it, and we went the college's theater instead. We were the only two people there (9pm showing on a Saturday night) and so we watched Joy Ride in our fancy dresses and our bare feet up on the seats in front of us and got to enjoy talking to each other during the film in a movie theater without being horrible monsters.

Given the choice, I wouldve done exactly the same.
__________________
Too weird to live, and too rare to die.







Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - This 1944 production directed by Mervyn LeRoy is a respectfully accurate narrative of the 1942 Doolittle Raid in which 16 fully loaded B-52's took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and bombed selected targets on mainland Japan. If you can make it past the first 30 or so minutes of overly schmaltzy buildup you will be rewarded with a gritty (by 40's standards) and authentic retelling. It's based on the book by Captain Ted Lawson (Van Johnson) and uses actual footage of the launch from the Hornet. And I was sure they used combat footage of the raid but it turned out to be some really good FX. Who knew miniatures and models could be used so convincingly? Spencer Tracy plays Doolittle and gets top billing but he's only in the film for a combined minute or two. The first act goes overboard on the backstories and lays on the jingoism a little thick even by wartime era Hollywood standards but the actual raid and it's aftermath make this a winner.






Dogs Don't Wear Pants - (2019) - Finland

WARNING: spoilers below
Eccentric surgeon Juha accidentally stumbles into dominatrix Vaimo's studio and finds out that being suffocated brings him closer to his dead wife.


I found this film challenging to watch - and director J.-P. Valkeapää (who co-wrote) seems to be urging himself to create a film that makes the audience uncomfortable voyeurs from the very start to the very end with little let-up. It has less sexuality and eroticism then you'd expect from such a film, instead choosing to go with darkly subconscious undercurrents of grief and obsession. The comedic tone was lost on me - probably drowned out by the graphic torture and awkward masturbatory scenes - so if I were to rewatch it my score might be radically different. As it is, I found it really tough...and I have to be honest...

5/10
I liked the dynamic of investigating what it means when someone has self-destructive impulses and that self-destruction involves another person. I agree with you that it is trying to make the viewer uncomfortable. I was honestly much more concerned about portraying really dangerous stuff as being somehow normal domination acts and how it was not made clear that the main woman was incredibly unprofessional in many parts of the film.



Girl (2018)


A movie about a transgirl ballet dancer and how her life sucks. Too long and repetitive but the actor who played her is such a cute trap (he is the one on the left).
Good film I thought. Tough watch at times but really good performances.







La Ronde - If this French 1950 Max Ophuls film was ever remade it would probably be more of an extended PSA and titled Le Chlamydia. A prostitute (Simone Signoret) goes off with a young soldier (Serge Reggiani) who falls for a chambermaid who knocks boots with the young son of her employer who starts an affair with a married woman whose husband has a fling with a perpetually hungry shopgirl who falls in love with a poet who wants more than a quickie with an actress who invites a nobleman into her bed who somehow ends up with the prostitute that started this STD-fest rolling, thus completing the merry-go-round. There are little flourishes that have been reused over the years in movies like fourth wall breaking courtesy of an omniscient narrator and the cinematography and lighting are especially commendable. It's part of the Criterion collection so someone somewhere thinks highly of it.




Victim of The Night
Space Truckers -


Could Stuart Gordon (R.I.P.) do no wrong? With a title and premise like Space Truckers', I was certain this would be the first bad movie I've seen from him and that it would at least be so bad, it's good, but I sincerely had a blast with it. It's a story of a cantankerous, veteran independent trucker (Dennis Hopper), a trainee (Stephen Dorff) and the veteran's would be "green card" bride (Debi Mazar) on the run from a space truck station to Earth while transporting very, very deadly cargo. The movie is the perfect vehicle (no pun intended) for Gordon in that it leverages his talents for genre thrills, creating moments you're not sure whether to laugh or puke at (there are actual square pigs, for example) and making the most of a small budget. The highlight is easily when the gang are captured by space pirates, led by a Charles Dance that is very far removed from his Game of Thrones villain. Also, while it came out in 1996, its theme of the evils of privatization and ill-gotten political power make it an even better fit for these times than its own. It is cheesy and not always in a good way, and while it's no Re-Animator or Dolls, it's bound to maintain your Gordon fandom like it did mine. Oh, and speaking of Dance, I can think of no better way to cleanse your mind of what he did on Game of Thrones - or of the series in general, really - then watch him pull a crank to start his mechanical...enhancements.
And now I wanna watch Space Truckers.