Movie Tab II

The Wrestler



Aronofsky's Wrestler was a gritty look at a guy on the downside of a life that wasn't all that great to begin with. Alone, poor, and slightly pitiful, Randy 'The Ram' is making a living scraping by on his former 80s glory as a wrestler. He tries to reclaim his status after his manager makes a match with an old rival.
Randy is a good guy that has lived life by "burning the candle at both ends", and that life has included drugs, alcohol, and wrestling, but has excluded building personal relationships.
I felt tired and worn out watching Mickey Rourke as The Ram. He really embodied the role, and it was awesome to watch. A good story, with fine acting from Rourke and Tomei.

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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Johann von Goethe

*Sigh* Thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, I'm so utterly confused with my opinions regarding films. This is going to be sort of weird.

Cabaret - I thought this was extremely good. Not my absolute favorite musical, but still the most well-made and important I've seen.

Grease - This is my favorite musical. I have my sisters to thank for that, because when we were younger they would always watch it. I think I would get sucked into it along with them. So it's pretty nostalgic, as well.

Slumdog Millionaire - I don't know what to say, really. It completely messed with my perspective on film. I just want to start with a clean slate (reason I removed my top 10 for now). We'll see what happens.

I also think "extraordinary" fits this film, in my eyes anyway. It was SUCH a big surprise, too, as the film never even looked that good to me. I just decided to see it on impulse.

Now... all last night, I was in a bit of a daze from Slumdog. I don't mean I was lying down for hours just thinking about it, but every film besides it seemed so mediocre and kind of lame. I just felt like watching was some pointless, animated comedy. So I started Surf's Up, and didn't finish it because I was so... out of it. I liked the movie but it wasn't the right time to be watching a movie, I guess. I'll have to finish it tonight.

So today, I went to see Slumdog Millionaire again. Man, what a film. There was some guy near me who would NOT STOP CHEWING HIS GUM and he was completely oblivious to the fact that it was loud and annoying. So the experience wasn't as good as yesterday's. But I still loved the film just as much. Thankfully though, I'm out of that daze and most other films are back to looking more than mediocre.

But I'm still confused with my opinions. It's hard to have a definite top 10 because I'm still seeing a bunch of great movies I've never seen before. And I've seen some damn good ones lately... Midnight Cowboy, Rosemary's Baby, Little Big Man, Million Dollar Baby, Slumdog Millionaire. All of those feel like they should be in my top 10.

I guess I'm just in a little bit of a funk right now. Hopefully I will get out of said funk soon.

Angel Heart (Parker, 1987) -

This was recommended to me by somebody off another forum who was checking out all of Mickey Rourke's films in the wake of seeing The Wrestler. It was a rather good choice, both as a Rourke film and as a compelling mystery.

Rourke is private eye Harry Angel, who ends up being hired by a mysterious businessman (Robert De Niro) to search for a missing person called Johnny Favourite. Harry's search for the missing Favourite leads him from New York to New Orleans, right into the midst of a handful of brutal murders and the truth behind Favourite's wherabouts.

Angel Heart is actually a surprisingly good mystery thriller. Rourke delivers a great performance as the talkative, neurotic Angel and his scenes with De Niro's smooth, intelligent Cypher are great and just small enough in number to not feel overdone. The way that the tale unfolds is rather interesting, even if most of the exposition occurs in the final 15-20 minutes of the film (but still, what exposition it is, laced with some particularly unnerving editing that only serves to make the twist seem even more shocking). I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good mystery, although I should warn that it is definitely not for the faint of heart.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Jawbreaker -

An awesome cast with a pretty entertaining plot and storyline. This is my first rewatch--I haven't seen it in years--and I liked it a lot. The movie feels rushed and some dialogue sequences seem awkward, but all that aside, Jawbreaker is a fun comedy and a decent movie. It may be deserving of a slightly lesser score, but my personal enjoyment for it and nostalgia raise it to that level for me.

Charlie's Ghost -

Cheech!

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"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
John Milton, Paradise Lost

My Movie Review Thread | My Top 100

In Bruges -

Wow, holy crap is like the only way to describe just how great this movie actually is. I guess the best place to start off with is that, if is wasn't for The Dark Knight coming out in 2008, this would by far be my absolute favorite of 2008. This easily tops Gran Torino and Wall-E, which were my other two favorites from 2008, hell this even comes very close to beating out TDK for me, which also reminds me that it's time for another rewatch of TDK. I actually wasn't very sure if I'd like it that much, because first of all it's just a very weird movie to me, the movie really doesn't take long to get to the point though.

I guess 2008 was just the year for Cloin Ferrell, I mean IMO, his two best performances, this and Pride And Glory both came out in the same year. I really can't decide which was better though, because his roles in both were very different. Pride And Glory was more of a serious of a movie with a very serious performance from Ferrell, this was more of a dark action comedy but he was still very great in both. Jordan Prentice was my favorite character in this though, I don't know what it was about his character, but he was just super likeable. Anyways, Clémence Poésy was very hot, I want to see her in some movies because it was good seeing her on screen with the time she got. I felt Ralph Fiennes should've had some more screen time though, other than his voice, he wasn't even in the movie until the last 30 minutes of it.

This for me was the biggest surprise of 2008 by far, I mean the trailer just looked plain weird so I really wasn't sure what to expect. Actually I really had no interest in seeing this from the trailer, and the only reason I even saw this was because of great I kept hearing it was. I'm really, and I really mean really, glad that I decided to go out and buy this tonight. I'm a little sad that it didn't get nominated for 'Best Picture', but then again none of my 4 favorites of 2008 made it in there either. I have no doubt that it'll take home 'Best Original Screenplay' though, it's very easily better than anything else it's running against. If you're skeptical about seeing this, like I was, do yourself a favor and actually see it. Especially is you like dark comedies, because I'm sure that you won't be disappointed a bit.

The General (Bruckman & Keaton, 1927) -

I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think the last time I ever watched a silent film all the way through was when I watched Un Chien Andalou a few years ago (and that was only fifteen minutes long). Granted, by most feature-length standards, The General is still on the short side, but fortunately it gets everything it needs to across in the space of an hour and fifteen minutes.

The General is about a hapless train driver (Buster Keaton) and the two things he lives for - his girlfriend (Marion Mack) and his train engine, the titular General. When the American Civil War draws close to home and cause both girl and train to be captured by Union soldiers, Keaton's character pursues the thieves and in doing so ends up caught in the middle of an impending battle.

The General is damned good in many respects. It's first and foremost a comedy (and Keaton does pack plenty of jokes into the short runtime, and many of them are downright hilarious), but I was also surprised at just how much more it seemed than that. The storyline - a competent, possibly true, story of one particularly intricate Union plot and Keaton's ingenious yet foolish attempts to foil it - was strong, as was the production itself, which felt like much more of an epic with its heavy usage of period costumes, buildings and objects. The depiction of the Union as the enemy was also rather unusual, at least to me.

If there's anyone out there who doubts in the ability of a random silent film to make a person laugh - this one will definitely do just fine. Now I think I'll try seeking out some of Charlie Chaplin's work.

Keaton did the stunt work himself of course. That scene of him at the front of the train, knocking the logs away from his path, that's pretty dangerous. As for Chaplin, well I'm sure you know the one's to pick from, Modern Times or City Lights are my favourites of his silent work.

Now I'm going to watch This is Spinal Tap for probably the tenth time.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Will do. I've also seen Spinal Tap about fifteen or sixteen times. Good stuff.

It makes me laugh every time, the sign of a great comedy.

Rashomon - i know its a classic and all but it isnt an 'enjoyable' film, i dont think people watch this for entertainment purposes anymore. Of course the editing and the non linear storytelling approach are interesting to watch but thats about it for me.

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

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I used to be addicted to crystal meth, now I'm just addicted to Breaking Bad.

You do know this is a prequel????? If you dont understand the story or the characters, and dont even like Underworld at all, why see this?

This was a pretty good prequel for this storyline. The story was laid down well and the characters were nicely written into the story. As for Kate Beckinsale, I dont know why she was even placed at the end. They used footage from a previous Underworld and just stuck it at the end. That was freakin lame.

Say whaaaaaaaaat? My write-up was for the second Underworld but you make it sound as if I was critiquing the newest one. I'm well aware that it's a prequel and I list my reasons for watching Evolution and my intentions to watch the newest installment in my review. I'm glad to hear you liked Rise of the Lycans though but I'm not glad you spoiled the Beckinsale cameo at the end. I had my fingers crossed they'd superimpose her face in somewhere but you've ruined that tantalizing dream for me. Thanks. A lot.

Body of Lies(Ridley Scott 2008)-

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I'm in movie heaven

Taken -

Review up for Taken in my Movie Review thread.

Vanishing Point (Sarafian, 1971) -

Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a car delivery man. He's been assigned to drive a Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco. Simple enough, except that his high-speed driving is considered a menace to society and the police start trying to bring him in. However, he becomes something of a hero to the people, thanks largely in part to "Super Soul" (Cleavon Little), a blind DJ who broadcasts updates of Kowalski's progress over the radio.

The hype surrounding Vanishing Point had led me to believe this was a simple action movie that revolved around one large chase between one man and the police. While that plot is a rather apt description of what happens, Vanishing Point is less about thrills and excitement and is more of a journey of self-discovery of sorts for Kowalski. It does seem to fit in with the general vibe of road trip movies that were so popular in the wake of Easy Rider (which Vanishing Point bore many similarities to in my mind). As a result, there are plenty of occasions where Kowalski ends up meeting odd characters or having strange experiences. These have little if any effect on the film's actual plot and were probably thrown in to have some deeper meaning or some such thing (as did the film's ending, which I have to admit I did not see coming).

Or did it? I often wonder if some of the stuff was thrown in for the hell of it (like a naked girl on a motorcycle) and whoever watched was supposed to get something out of it. I guess it's supposed to help develop Kowalski's character (as are a handful of random flashbacks and police reports) and make us care about what actually happens to him over the course of the movie. Or not, as the case may be. I don't know. I wasn't really ready for some kind of ham-fisted social commentary.

Even the car scenes don't feel that exciting. Even though I've realised that the chases in and of themselves are unimportant compared to the importance of the characters who are involved, surely the chases could be at least halfway engaging. Be a little considerate for whoever picked this up looking for a mindless chase movie, not for some sort of metaphorical exploration of existentialism. While I admit that can work for me, in the case of Vanishing Point it was a little too far and really did slow the movie up a lot - and for a chase movie, that's a handicap.

Agreement. Douchebaggery

Ms. 45 aka Angel of Vengeance (Abel Ferrarra 1981) +
I'd only ever seen the heavily cut (by a massive 1 minute and 42 seconds) UK version of this movie entitled Angel Of Vengeance. US prints run a little longer on dvd but are still nevertheless slightly cut. The only complete version of the film is the French dvd release entitled L'ange De La Vengeance; naturally it's become highly sought after and regularly exchanges hands for silly money on the internet. Recently I was lucky enough to get my hands on a dvd-r copy of the French release allowing me to finally see this cult gem as Ferrarra originally intended.

The story is about Thana (the late* Zoë Lund billed as Zoë Tamerlis here) an incredibly beautiful mute girl who works as a seamstress for a successful New York fashion designer. On her way home from work one evening Thana is dragged into an alleyway and raped by an opportunistic masked attacker. Deeply traumatized she stumbles back to her apartment, only to be met with an intruder there, who at gunpoint, rapes her for a second time. Desensitized by such violent misfortune Thana fights back, managing to bludgeon the man to death with a paper weight. Now armed herself, a disturbed Thana begins a one woman crime-wave systematically murdering would be rapists, pimps, and ultimately any man who even looks in her direction.

This is quite possibly the best 'rape-revenge' exploitation flick I've ever seen; it easily rises above such depraved efforts as Wes Craven's The Last House On The Left, and Meir Zarchi's 1978 crapfest I Spit On Your Grave (which granted wouldn't be very hard). I'm actually reminded more of Roman Polanski's classic 1965 horror Repulsion when I watch this. There are indeed huge similarities between Deneuve's near mute, prudish, emotionally detached Carole, and Lund's seemingly vulnerable, shy mute Thana; It's merely their separate descents into madness that differ.


Much of the success of this film lies in Ferrarra's decision to make his protagonist a mute which is inspired rather than compensation for limited acting ability. Lund is sensational as Thana with her incredible expressive features perfectly conveying terror, despair, resignation, and ultimately an unhinged ruthless disregard for human (correction, male) life. The rape sequences whilst never pleasant are also remarkably restrained for this type of fare, with Ferrarra nearly always keeping the camera fixed on Lund's amazing facial expressions. As a result the tansformation in Thana from timid beauty to insane femme fatale is always convincing, even if the setup is a little contrived. Ultimately you care a great deal about her, not just because of her misfortune and Lund's beauty, but because Ferrarra's savvy direction effectively puts you in her shoes.

I can't deny that Ms. 45 is a very basic film with a cynical exploitative premise, but all things considered it's also a very good one that completely deserves it's cult status. The only titilation on offer here is in seeing Thana casually dispatch countless mysoginistic scumbags who completely deserve it; plus not only that but doing it with a high degree of style. For a film labelled as exploitation there's absolutely no nudity or gore on offer, just the promise of an arty kick ass movie. Recommended.

* Zoë Lund, a firm advocate of herion use sadly passed away in 1999 from drug-related heart failure.

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED