Movie Tab II

Most of what I've watched over the past 2 (?) weeks:



Dawn of the Dead Director's Cut (1978, Romero):

Some explanation as to my rating: A horror film should first and foremost scare you. If it doesn't, it's got a pretty big problem. I didn't think Dawn of the Dead was scary at all. I didn't care for the characters, so it left me completely cold whether they'd eventually be infected. I found it to be too slow of pace and the social commentary injected felt pretty forced. All in all, this was a big dissapointment.




The Black Stallion (1979, Ballard):



The Fox & The Hound (1981, Berman, Rich, Stevens):



Germinal (1993, Berri): +



Carrie (1976, De Palma):



Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011, Ficarra & Requa): +




Night Moves (1975, Penn):

Thankskilling - Yes, I actually watched this. And surprisingly, I laughed out loud for nearly the entire film.

__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

Viridiana (Luis Bunuel, 1961) - 5/5

2nd Viewing. This definitely IS master Bunuel's masterpiece. Yes, i have seen The Exterminating Angel, Los Olvidados, Un Chien Andalou and The Discreet charm of the bourgeoisie. Viridiana is one of the best satires ive ever seen. And a very wicked satire indeed.



Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981) -5/5

Its 3 hours long, and i enjoyed every single minute of this film. One of the greatest films of the 80s.

^ I just saw Das Boot for the first time a few weeks ago and completely agree, I have always just brushed it off as something that would be boring and now I feel bad that I waited so long to see it.

Oldboy -

After sitting in my streaming queue for ages, I finally got around to watching this. I really liked the movie. I felt the cinematography and lead actor were some of the strong points of this movie. What I really liked was that although this is characterized by many as a revenge film, it went deeper than that. It explored more of the psychological aspects as well as developing a story further than the typical revenge story. Just a little side note for those that haven't watched it, it's not subtitled, it's in English, which is not what I would have expected. It didn't influence my rating, just a little fyi.

__________________
"I know, honey. Look at the map. We go your way, that's about four inches. We go my way, it's an inch and a half. You wanna pay for the extra gas?"

^ I never watch dubbed foreign films. And i always have the subtitles on, even on english language films

Oldboy's certainly not in English natively. I've got it on DVD and Blu Ray (my only 7.1 title ) and have never listened to the dub track.

__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

To Live (Zhang Yimou) -3/5




Often called the Chinese 'Gone With The Wind', Zhang Yimou's To Live was banned in China for its blatant protrayal of anti-Maoist historical events. One down-side of this movie is that it tends to rush through the 50 years or so of history, and so before we are completely immense in one event the movie immediately changes to another. Now for the great part of this movie .... it's sad. Yes, i enjoy sad movies, and i dont mind crying.

City Of God (Meirelles, 2002) -5/5



City Of God has lost none of its visceral power since my first viewing 2 years ago. It continues to fascinate and pulls no punches. At times you feel like turning away from the violence on screen because its so so brutal. But that is what makes this brazilian film a masterpiece of the 21st century.

The Last Supper (1995)

__________________
"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

Vigilante (1983). Pretty much what I thought it'd be like. Not as violent as I expected, but a pretty surprising scene during the home invasion.

French Quarter (1978). A movie that didn't know what it wanted to be. Horror? Drama? Fantasy? I couldn't really tell. Definitely not the best film I've seen in the last week or so, but not the worst either.


Red Velvet (2008) Intriguing. Probably one of the best slashers this side of the millennium, not that I've bothered to watch many - nothing beats the '80s for that subgenre.

Night of the Scarecrow (1995) I don't know how many like-minded movies I've seen, but this one doesn't stand out. An average horror film.

Ice Cream Man (1995). Clint Howard was great as a disturbed, homicidal Ice Cream Man; the children catch on to his homicidal ways and try to stop him. One of the better horror films of the decade.

Troll Hunter (2010)
Directed by:Andre Ovredal
Written by:Andre Ovredal and Havard S. Johansen

This mockumentary starts with 3 young college students making a documentary about Bear Poaching (I’m guessing, it never really sais), soon it becomes obvious that one of the men is not a Bear Poacher but something else entirely. Of course the naïve kids follow the man into the forest at night and discover that he is hunting Trolls. None of the kids believe in Trolls but the man lets them follow him as he goes on a Troll killing spree.



At the beginning they really try and make you think that this is a real documentary with footage that was just found and analyzed by professionals and found to be authentic. They do a really good job of that in the film also, the special effects are really good and the story line was pretty good. The only thing that killed it was that the girl (only one in the movie) was smiling way to much instead of being scared stupid.



There is some good dry humor to help this movie along, such as the almost Monty Pythonish armor the actor wears in one scene, and learning about the secret government squad known as the TTS. The Troll hunter complaining about how he gets no overtime or benefits from his job, saying this as he’s jack hammering the remains of a troll he just turned to stone. This is a Norwegian film so yes there are subtitles even though I am sure you can get a dubbed copy somewhere. In my opinion it is well worth the 1 hour and 44 minutes it takes to watch this film, and I really suggest you do.

The Holy Mountain (Jodorowsky) -3.5/5



Why did i ever watch this movie? It's so messed up that it makes David Lynch's movies look like clowns. There are dwarfs, weird alchemists, naked men&women smeared in blood, and lots of perverse violence. If there was a list of cult movies, this would be at the top of it.

I've been putting off watching that movie for a year.

The Holy Mountain is nuts, so unashamedly surreal. Love it. Definitely a cult classic, though El Topo and it's 'Midnite Movies' rep seems to edge it up in a lot of Cult Lists. Try Santa Sangre, it's a little more narrative driven but still has some fantastic imagery.

__________________

Un Chien Andalou (1928)- For the life of me, I can't figure out what the hell this movie was even about. Sorry to anyone who regards this film as a masterpiece, but I can't see it as anything other than an exercise in insanity. Please enlighten me.

(NOTE: I give this film 1 star rather than 0 only because it's just 16 minutes long.)


Sunset Boulevard (1950)- Very interesting and provocative look inside show business. It's built on Gloria Swanson's performance, which is all at once psychotic, manipulative, and sad.




Platoon (1986)- Entertaining enough, but war movies aren't really my thing in the first place. Apocalypse Now minus the grandeur.

__________________
"Puns are the highest form of literature." -Alfred Hitchcock

I think it serves more as an artefact of cinema (look at when it was made) or a moving expression of Dali's surrealism. I don't know if it's meant to make literal sense, should just enjoy it for what it is, a little film to illicit the kinda reaction you had- consider the confrontational/controversial opening image and that kinda sets the tone. But it's art so you're meant to pretend to like it.

It's surrealism, so yeah ... it is a deliberate exercise in insanity. It's open to any interpretation you want to place upon it.

The image of the ants in the hand, is supposedly an expression in French which means "I''ve got an urge to kill". I wouldn't be surprised if there were lots of Spanish proverbs and expressions in the film, Buñuel and Dali both being Spaniards.

I was surprised by the film quotes that I didn't realize were film quotes. The scene in "The matrix" when Mr. Smith waves away Neo's mouth during first interrogation, that image of the startled man without a mouth comes from here. Also, the poster for "The Silence of the lambs" is here. A close-up of the Death's head moth puts in an early appearance.

It's deliberately multi-layered, so You need to see it several times. I also saw this recently for the first time, and I'm definitely going to rewatch this in the future. I gave it an ...

^ Interesting observations Thracian. I watched Un Chien Andalou a few months ago so i cant really remember many of the scenes. My favourite scene, which i still can recall, is the 2 men pulling the piano using strings. I never understood what it meant at all.

I thought seeing ants was meant to be a sign of depression, though might be thinking of Oldboy just as much.

Last night I watched Edward Scissorhands



I loved it! Though I would've liked Edward to say more.

And I also watched The Illusionist



Ah great! I really liked the story, characters and acting. And also the fact that I was never actually sure whether or not it was realistic.

__________________
Don't talk out loud, Anderson. You lower the IQ of the whole street.