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Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog
And why would the 70s be bad? Such a great decade for film... why is there a lot "to like about the movie" in spite of the 70s?
I did not say in spite of the 70's, what I meant was that the 70's parts, haircuts, dress style are some of the best things about the movie. I guess I just didn't type it out right.
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Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog
Thor (2011)
I thought this movie was going to suck because it just seemed like something that would be so easy for a director to screw up. I was completely wrong, this movie was great and I was completely entertained and loving it the whole way through the movie.



Captain America: The First Avenger


I am glad that I watched Thor first because I caught a lot of the parts that tie the two togother along with Mr. Stark I am assuming getting everyone ready for The Avengers. This was another really great movie especially the way they made Chris Evans look so short and thin, especially knowing what he looks like in real life. Another Great movie, I am probably the last person to see it but if you haven't then definitely watch both of these movies.




A system of cells interlinked
Ironclad (English, 2011)




This flick covers the events directly following the signing of the Magna Carta. It's the story if King John's continued resistance to the document and his attempt to slaughter everyone that had signed it. I liked it. A bit too much splatter/gore in some sections, but I guess this is a film where that is probably close to what was actually happening, historically. I guess I just don't need to see it over and over again in all the grim detail. Otherwise, I found this to pretty a fairly strong piece of work. Giamatti's King John is as corrupt and vicious as they come, and Purefoy plays Marshal convincingly. Also, some great photography is some segments. The romance aspect is pretty tacked on, never really developing beyond the allegory it represents, but it was played pretty well for what it was.
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



A system of cells interlinked
I did not say in spite of the 70's, what I meant was that the 70's parts, haircuts, dress style are some of the best things about the movie. I guess I just didn't type it out right.
Gotcha, and I agree! I like the shots of Washington near the end, as well...



StageFright (1987) -

The Last Starfighter (1984) -

Inland Empire (2006) -

I'm a fan of Lynch, but was disappointed in this. My two main gripes are both technical though. The lighting (usually a high point in Lynch films) has a horrible contrast that makes it difficult to make things out much of the time, and it's just unpleasant to look at. The audio also ranges from too soft to too loud (the kind of abrupt loudness that your speakers will love).

Lynch's films usually have the ability to spark interest out of confusion and peculiarity, but if you've seen much of his other work, this seems like a bit of the 'same old,' and gets overbearing for three hours.

The Toxic Avenger (1984) -

I normally love 80's tongue in cheek splatter/horror comedy, but the humor in this got a little tiresome after an hour and a half (though it is fun for a while).
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Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog


Rika: The Zombie Killer (2008)
Aka: High School Girl Rika Zombie Hunter
Directed by: Ken’ichi Fujiwara
Written by: Ken’ichi Fujiwara and Takeyuki Morikaku

This well cast low budget, silly and goofy Zombie movie has actually got some really great parts, the fight scenes are actually pretty good and the film has a strong lead actress and a very diverse cast of characters. Fun and entertaining and fans of films like Tokyo Gore Police or Machine Girl will dig this. Nudity = check. Swearing = check. Gore=eh, a little. Blood = hell yeah and a lot of it.



The film revolves around a scientific program gone haywire. While the emergency sounds are blaring in the background, the main scientist seemed to have slept after having an erotic dream after looking at a porn magazine. When he wakes up, he finds out that his colleagues are now zombies and instead of running away, he looks at his comrades in the eye and ends up being bit by one and thus becoming a zombie. We then see the exploits of a European wandering zombie hunter via a streaming video clip that a guy is watching on his computer. But somehow in this film, the main protagonist is defeated by a huge zombie monster which ends with the hero's arm being cutoff (and evidently, the hero is killed). We then see the monster take the cut off arm (which is still holding the sword) and throwing it towards the forest. It appears that this was not a fake movie but a real clip that had happened.




Enter Rika and her high school classmate and BFF Nami as they ride in the subway and talk about Rika's grandfather who is a skilled surgeon who moved away and Rika still missing him. The two suddenly have an idea to run away and visit her grandfather Ryuhei at his summerhouse. We then see the grandfather who seems to be an invalid and just sits down with hardly any movement. A woman named Sayaka is seen taking care of him and happy that her brother is to be coming to visit. While at this village, we see Rika and her friend at the village and come face to face with a zombie. The town seems to be filled with zombies and now Rika and Nami try to run away and encounter some gangster guy named Tomoya. The three are then chased by zombies and end up escaping together and go to the summer home where Rika's grandfather is at. Meanwhile at the village in which zombies are growing and growing, three guys (who are like the comedy support of the film) try to find a way to escape the village. The three managed to make it to the village and we learn that Sayaka is the wife of Rika's grandfather and Tomoya is her brother (fake). Sayaka explains to her that her grandfather has Alzheimer's and Dementia but in truth, it was a plot by Sayaka and her boyfriend Tomoya to get money from Rika's grandfather and plans to kill him off in order to get the insurance money. Also, arriving to the residence is the original scientist who was responsible in everyone turning to a zombie. Supposedly, despite now being a zombie, he has resisted his zombie urges and wants to help Rika and everyone. Anyone who is a fan of the Ultra-Gore Japanese films should definitely watch this, great zombie movie, tons of blood and enough action to please anyone.
Forgot to meantion one last thing and that being Rika is bitten in the arm. For Rika's grandfather, being the master surgeon that he is, knowing that a zombies bite can turn a person to a zombie, the only way to save her is to chop off her arm and replace her arm with... the original zombie hunter's arm.






Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog



Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)
Directed by: Brad Anderson
Written by: Anthony Jaswinski


VANISHING ON 7TH STREET taps into one of humankind's most primal anxieties: fear of the dark. An unexplained blackout plunges the city of Detroit into total darkness, and by the time the sun rises, only a few people remain surrounded by heaps of empty clothing, and abandoned cars. A small handful of strangers that have survived the night (Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo and Jacob Latimore) each find their way to a rundown bar with a working generator to keep the lights working. With daylight beginning to disappear completely and whispering shadows surrounding the survivors, they soon discover that the enemy is the darkness itself. It seems if a shadow catches you then you just disappear the same with any kind of darkness. Luckily they have a generator however they are running out of gas (of course) to keep the lights on.



This movie for the most part is entertaining and a good story in general, however there are so many unanswered questions and the ending just sucks. There are some really intense moments so if you like the sci-fi thriller genre then watch this movie, and you get to see Hayden Christensen do something other than screw up Star Wars movies.






Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog



The Terminal Man
Directed by: Mike Hodges
Written by: Michael Crichton and Mike Hodges


A computer scientist (George Segal) is in a car accident, and the resulting brain injury causes him to have sudden, violent seizures. When he assaults his wife, he is imprisoned. Now, he's a volunteer in an experimental new medical procedure that might end his rampages, with electrodes planted in his cerebral cortex that are supposed to control and ease his bad impulses. The operation seems to be a success at first, but--as in FRANKENSTEIN--there's a downside to playing God. The electrodes malfunction, and he escapes from his hospital room. He's at large in a big city, and it's a matter of time before he becomes uncontrollably violent again....



I have always been a huge Michael Crichton fan and The Terminal Man was the first book I read by him, to this day it is still one of my favorite books. But as in most cases the book is far better and much more interesting. The movie is good but it is long and very drawn out, about the first hour of the movie is just prepping for surgery and then the operation. If you are a fan of movies like the original Andromeda Strain or just a Michael Crichton fan then you should watch this movie.

I gave it a 3 just for being so drawn out, otherwise it would have gotten a better rating.



Margin call (2011) - Chandor

Set in a fictional Wall street investment firm on the very last day of "let's party like it's 1999." The film is ridiculously low budget, but they were clever enough to shoot most of it during the night in empty offices and gridlocked cars, matching the story's arc. The film is slightly abstract and morally empty; there's no real heroes or villains, they are all just doing what they are paid to do and are more then adequately over-compensated for it. The bonuses for this one day of work are absolutely insane.

I'd like to signal a wonderful bit of acting business from Kevin Spacey, during his last rousing speech to his crack team of stock brokers, he seems to be fiddling with an imaginary ring on his finger. Of course, he sacrificed his marriage to the company years ago and the company is now all he has left.



Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) - Durkin
 
The set-up? A woman gets a call from her younger, estranged sister she hasn't seen or heard of in a couple of years. The film divides between two periods, her visit at her sister's posh home in country and flashbacks to her time spent on a communal farm.

I'll explain the title. Her real name is Martha. When someone first comes to the farm, the head guy (John Hawkes) gives everyone a new name (new identity?) in her case, Marcy May. And in their dealings with the outside world, the women all share the same name, Marlene.

There's a slight stumble at the end, when the film leaves everything up to the audience to decide, which was unfortunate. The director managed to sustain a delicate sense of foreboding through-out almost the entire film, building quite effectively to a finish that never comes---which I think it was a little bit of a cop out. I think the film deserved more of resolution. Also the heroine Martha, lacks any kind of self awareness which tends to alienate her from the audience.







You guys ready to let the dogs out?
The Rock



After a 13 year break from the genre, Sean Connery returns to action movies in The Rock, this time without the famous tuxedo and martinis (shaken not stirred). He is without a doubt the star of the movie and steals the spotlight away from 1996 Oscar winner, Nicolas Cage. Connery's ability to mix action and comedy make it seem as if 007 has merely aged and changed his name. The chemisty between Connery and Cage builds nicely throughout the film and results in a classic buddy action movie.The rest of the cast is also top class with Ed Harris pulling off a very good portrayal of the key villan in the film. David Morse, John Spencer and Michael Biehn also put in good performances to complement the main stars.

There are a couple of reputable gentlemen behind the scenes as well with Michael Bay of Bad Boys fame in the directors chair and doing a commendeble job taking control of a the action genre and making it his own. Jerry Bruckheimer adds another excellent title to his already impressive resume alongside Top Gun and other classics.

One of my main critcisms of the film would be it's length. Certain aspects could have been cut down to shorten the running time to be more in line with other action movies. The beginning of The Rock featured a bit too much character building for my liking however the flaws are more than made up for the fast paced action and usual action move sequences.

If you're looking for an action movie that's just a little bit different from the usual overdose of violence with weak storylines then I'd recommend giving The Rock a look.




Predators



After the shockingly bad Alien vs Predator 1 & 2, Robert Rodriguez does his best to breathe some life into a slowly dying franchise. Rodriguez's best move was pretending the previous cross-franchise movies never existed which works to create an installment which doesn't look out of place against previous Predator films.

One particular aspect of the film I enjoyed was seeing good and bad individuals come together to fight a common enemy, something you don't see too often in many, if any movies. Director, Attal makes some attempts to give the main characters degree of development but as expected from a Predator film, they're anything but 3 dimensional. The plot of the story is very much the same as any horror or alien movie, with the audience merely guessing and placing bets as to the order of how the characters will die.

I found the pacing of the movie to be completely uneven. It begins at a very slow pace with the characters walking around a jungle, without much character development or plot development. In contrast the final third of the film seems extremely rushed and a little too much happens in a very short period of time.

As far as casting goes, Adrien Brody as the lead in an action movie was never something I thought I'd see and certainly wasn't something I'd thought would ever work, but somehow...it does. Unquestionably, Brody has the acting talent as shown in The Pianist, but in Predators he displays a different side of his talents, taking on the role of the anti-hero. With a new physique and deep growling voice to boot, he manages, against all odds to convincingly portray a hard-ass special ops vet. I had no qualms with the rest of the casting as these characters were merely fodder for the Predators. I did however take issue with Laurence Fishburne's appearance, a role which very seemed like it was written for someone else and thrown to Fishburne as a last resort.

Fans of the Predator franchise should definatly watch this film, as it's one of the better installments in the series. If you're looking for a bit of entertainment that doesn't require much brain power check it out as well.




Last night I watched Face/Off:



I liked it pretty much and I actually cared about the action scenes, normally they're not what I find most entertaining in movies.
The movie had me laughing, looking away and "oh my gosh'ing".
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Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog



Night of the Comet (1984)
Directed by: Thom Eberhardt
Written by: Thom Eberhardt


“Since before recorded time, it had swung through the universe in an elliptical orbit so large that its very existence remained a secret of time and space. But now, in the last few years of the twentieth-century, the visitor was returning. The citizens of Earth would get an extra Christmas present this year, as their planet orbited through the tail of the comet. Scientists predicted a light show of stellar proportions. Something not seen on Earth for 65 million years. Indeed, not since the time that the dinosaurs disappeared, virtually overnight”



This movie follows two valley girl sisters in a post apocalyptic Las Angeles, after the strange comet passes by Earth everyone who was outside it seems has been reduced to dust just leaving there clothing behind. Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) and Samantha (Kelli Maroney) find a radio broadcast and decide to track the signal and head to the radio station thinking that the signal is live. Once at the radio station they find another survivor Hector (Robert Beltran, better known as Chakotay from Star Trek: Voyager). Hector is a truck driver who has to head to San Diego and try to find his family promising that he will return and find the sisters. While Hector is gone a underground laboratory somewhere in the desert find out about the two girls who have survived and send people to bring them back to the lab for further testing. The people in the lab seem innocent at first but they might not be quite what they seem. There are a few other survivors it shows in the movie, but they are the typical looters and generally bad people you would expect in this kind of movie.



There are some great early 80’s shopping montages set alongside the incredible 80’s horror film music. The shopping scenes are hilarious and have one of the best quotes of the movie when the younger sister asks the older which outfit she should take and the sister responds, "That one, it'll stay in style longer". It’s only a good line if you remember this is in a post apocalyptic world. The music, and especially the clothing fashion is one of the things that just makes this movie so awesome, if somebody tried to do a modern remake and change all of that it would be such a disaster. I saw this movie about fifteen years ago and just watched it again 16 years later and it’s still just as good as I remember, Horror/Zombie fans have probably already seen this movie but if not then you have to watch it.




Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog



Incendies (2010)
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Written by: Denis Villeneuve and Wajdi Mouawad


Starting in Canada twins Jeanne Marwan (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin), and Simon Marwan (Maxim Gaudette) are being read their mothers Last Will and Testament. The dead mother, Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) asks that the twins go and find their father whom they thought was dead and a brother that they did not know existed. Simon does not have much of a part in the first half of the film, mainly it is Jeanne somewhere in the middle east (I believe in Lebanon as most of the flashbacks take place during the Lebanese civil war during the 1970’s) trying to find anyone who has a connection or any information about her mother. There are flashbacks during a lot of this showing Nawal Marwan taking a major role in the civil war and ending up in prison, the flashing from past to present at times for me was a little confusing, this is one of those films where you really have to concentrate and not miss a single line of dialogue. I think that’s all I will say about the flashbacks as to not spoil anything for others who have not seen this because most of the story and twists in this movie happen during those moments.



During the second half of the film the brother has a large part when he starts helping his sister retrace their mother’s past, but for the most part I did not feel like he made much of an impact in the movie at all. The twins start discovering stuff about their mother that they would never have imagined and parts of their childhood that they were much too young to remember. I really think this is an amazing story of what a mother will do for her children as well as the lengths the children will go to too make their mother’s last wishes happen no matter what obstacles come up along the way. There is a bit of violence in the movie and it is the kind that is quite disturbing as most of it happens to very young children, but I am sure a lot of that kind of violence especially in that part of the world happened much too often in real life. This is an amazing movie, a very moving movie, and a twist ending that I did not see coming and it blew my mind, everyone should watch this.




I'm not old, you're just 12.
A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas - Crude, crass, tasteless, and I loved every minute of it. Somehow it's also a kind of heartwarming Christmas film...sort of...

Transformers - Dark of the Moon - Expected to not like this one, and I actually loved it. Crazy action, for once well directed by Michael Bay who must have remembered to take his Ritalin...It downplays all the things that were annoying about the second film, and offers up a coherent and even sort of clever plot. Plus Leonard Nimoy!
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"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/



What I've watched over the past couple of weeks. Some sci-fi, some horror and a slight H.G. Clouzot binge. Curiously, I haven't yet watched his 2 most famous and revered films. Saving those for a rainy day.

Gattaca (1997, Niccol):
+



Re-Animator (1985, Gordon):
+



Le Corbeau (1943, Clouzot):
(rewatch)



The Amityville Horror (1979, Rosenberg):




The Sound of Music (1965, Wise):
+



The Duellists (1977, R. Scott):




Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011, Wyatt):
+



Quai des Orfèvres (1947, Clouzot):
+



La Vérité (1960 Clouzot):




Silent Running (1972, Trumbull):
+



Clueless (1995, Heckerling):




Night of the Demon (1957, Tourneur):





Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
I thought if I posted it might make it turn up. Looking at it now, I see a continued pattern of low-rated comedies but how the heck did The Amityville Horror piece of junk rate so high? I also know that Night of the Demon is a cult flick, but I think it's overrated by most cultists.