Movie Tab II

Well, I haven't watched them yet, so I can't give you my thoughts on them. What I can say is that H.G. Clouzot is a fabulous director. I haven't watched a single one of his films that I'd categorize as mediocre or bad. Le Corbeau is a beautifully painted film about the pettiness of smalltown bourgeois communities and the nature of good and evil. It's surprisingly straight-forward in the topics it treats, especially drug addiction and adultery, which must've been absolute no-no subjects in that era, and it has an unforgivingly dark ending.


You know me, Mark, I like to watch comedies, but there's rarely a comedy that I really like. If I smile occassionally and laugh out loud a couple of times, that's a homerun for me. Clueless was especially annoying, because it's got such a layer of pubescent behavior all over it, which was probably the point, but didn't sit well with me.

And I thought The Amityville Horror was unintentionally funny, hence the relatively high rating. It was good fun watching that, although if its purpose was to scare anyone, it horribly failed.

Clueless is brilliant. That is all.

The Horde (2009)
Aka La horde
Directed by: Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher
Written by: Arnaud Bordas and Yannick Dahan

I remember when I was younger wishing that there were more zombie movies to watch, and now they are everywhere and coming from all different countries which is a good thing in my opinion. The movie starts with four police officers entering a huge condemned apartment building in order to get revenge for one of their friends that had been killed. Things immediately go bad, there is no wasting time in this movie. People start dying really quickly and equally as fast start coming back to life, the zombies in this movie are very fast, very strong, and almost impossible to kill (again). The cops and criminals soon join together to survive even though there is a ton of mistrust throughout the rest of the movie. The director said that he wanted to make an action movie and not just a zombie movie, he pulled it off very well I think. Parts of this movie will remind you of 80’s style Rambo films, tons of violence and way more than enough blood to please any horror/zombie fan. If you are the type of person who does not like fast zombies and prefers more of a Romero feel to their zombie films then this is not your kind of movie. The thing that stuck out to me was that I did not feel as if there was a lead/main actor, all of the actors were all equally intense and there was no real take charge person. The female actress (yes there is only one unless you count zombie women) is intense and quite often steals the spotlight off of the rest of the crew.



The movie was just zombie insanity, I believe the director said there were 300 extras and in some scenes it seems like they are all attacking the actors at the same time, like a huge zombie mosh-pit. I would compare this movie to 28 days/weeks later, the ferocity and intensity of the zombies felt the same to me. It’s a movie for the whole family.

I love the description written on the top picture.
“A ZOMBIE MOVIE that bypasses the BRAINS and goes straight for THE NUTS.”

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Another day, another huge gap between tab posts. There's probably some movies I'll miss, but here are the ones I remember...

Empire Records

Howl's Moving Castle

Hobo with a Shotgun

Yeah, I really don't watch movies anymore.

You're just a talking head...get a job in side show

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

Yep, I was counting Re-Animator as a "comedy" too. I cammot understand The Amityville Horror getting a higher rating.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Shaolin (2011)
Directed by: Benny Chan
Written by: Alan Yuen and Chi Kwong Cheung

Shaolin takes place during the early 20th century shortly after the collapse of the Imperial reign. This movie is all about different warlords trying to claim their piece of the pie, the main one being General Hou Jie. Hou Jie barely escapes with his life after a failed assassination on another warlord that goes very wrong, with his wife missing and his daughter dying he goes to the people who he thinks can help, the Shaolin monks. After suffering major losses Hou Jie find himself helping the cook (Jackie Chan) to get food to the starving refugees that had gathered outside the temple. Hou Jie starts to reflect on his life and all of the violence that has led him to this path in his life, he starts to embrace the Shaolin monk way of thinking which is completely different to the violent and heartless character that we see for the first 30 minutes of the film. Once Hou Jie’s brother realizes that the assassination attempt failed and Hou is still alive this forces the monks to decide how they are going to help Hou and also to save the refugees that are being held captive by Hou’s brother.



This is where the movie turned for me, even though this is not a Jackie Chan movie, he has his parts in the film but he is by far not the main character he is “just the cook”. The cook still plays a really important part in helping to guide Hou from his life of violence to the tranquility of the monk’s life. When Jackie Chan goes to help rescue the refugee’s we get transported back to every film he’s ever made. I was hoping I would make it through this movie without seeing Jackie Chan using some kind of prop to kick some ass, I thought I was going to get what I wanted but I just don’t think he can help himself. This is a great movie but Jackie Chan killed it for me, luckily he is such a small part that you can kind of just ignore it and move on.

I think the moral of this story is that Karma is a bitch.

Been re-watching some childhood favourites, a extraordinary political thriller I haven't watched in some time, and some films I've heard of, but never decided to see.

Highlander (1986)

It's very dated in parts, but still very enjoyable, the performances are likeable enough (Sean Connery especially), the sword-fighting sequences are still amazing, the Queen soundtrack is awesome, the dialogue is endlessly quotable and compared to the very poor sequels, it's a goshdarn masterpiece.

Behind Enemy Lines (2001) +

Despite a good central performance from Owen Wilson and some exciting moments, it is still bogged down in predictability and near-headache inducing camerawork.

Queen: Live At Wembley Stadium (1986)

Just plain epic.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) +

One of the funniest, most memorable teen comedies ever made. Matthew Broderick, Jeffrey Jones, Alan Ruck & Jennifer Grey are all great in their roles, and the film itself is iconic.

JFK (1991)

Superbly acted, edited, written and directed, this is Oliver Stone's best work.

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

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Holy Creepin' Crap, Batman!

Highlander (1986)

Yeah, nobody seems to mind the terrible casting (I know lets make Scottish Connery Spanish, and French ham Lambert Scottish) not to mention the slushy sentimentality and general boneheadedness of the whole thing.
Maybe Tyler's a Queen fan.

I thought this song was the best part of the movie, and I am not even a fan of Queen.

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Random movies I have watched in the past week.


Bad Teacher (2011)
I thought this movie was going to be hilarious, but it seemed like they just tried too hard to make it funny and it just came off as crass.

Mindhunters (2004)
I have not watched this movie since it originally came out and it was just as great as I remember, I think the casting is excellent and just the whole idea and the carrying out of the ideas was done IMO perfectly, the dark and intense feeling, the great twists just make for a really great movie.

Labyrinth (1986)
How can anyone not like this movie, directed by Jim Henson and with all the amazing creatures that came out of his imagination, Also David Bowie dressed up as David Bowie, Jennifer Connely is also amazing in this film.

The Dark Crystal (1982)
So I kind of got off on a Jim Henson kick, this is one of the greatest movies that I grew up watching, I have lost count of how many times I have seen this. This movie IMO still is great when compared to modern movies in the same genre, again crazy characters and the puppets that all came from the great mind of Jim Henson.

Bellflower (2011)
Directed by: Evan Glodell
Written by: Evan Glodell

Woodrow (Evan Glodell) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson) have been best friends since growing up in Wisconsin where their favorite movie was Mad Max and they watched it until they became obsessed with how they will survive after the apocalypse. Now they live in California where they spend their time building flame throwers and trying to build their own Mad Max car Medusa. Out at a bar one night the two guys meet Milly and Courtney, Milly get’s in a competition with Woodrow to see who can eat the most live grasshoppers, I was immediately hooked at this point. Woodrow and Milly begin to spend most of their time together thus making Aiden jealous and throwing a wrench in their plans to finish building there post apocalyptic devices. After some relationship issues and an extended stay in the hospital Woodrow and Aiden start drinking heavily, that is more than the already heavy drinking in the first half of this movie.




From this point on starts a chain reaction of some very psychotic, self-destructive, disturbing, and depressing actions that are just so awesome. There are some crazy twists in this movie that I did not see coming, I really loved this movie because I could identify with some of the characters, I have been waiting to see this ever since I randomly stumbled upon the trailer and it didn’t disappoint me.

I'm a BIG Queen fan, and the Highlander soundtrack contains some of their very best work as a group. But there's much more to my love of Highlander than the soundtrack. I watched it when I was maybe 9 or 10, and I'll never forget the first viewing. I wasn't very interested in watching the film, but I gave it a chance on account of me being interested in swords and the art of sword-fighting. But even at that young age, to me, the premise sounded a bit dodgy. But I gave it a chance.

Needless to say, I loved it. Having watched it at a young age, I didn't really notice, or for that matter, care about the terrible acting. Christopher Lambert looked and fought with a sword like a hero, so I liked him as Connor Macleod/Russell Nash, although I thought he sounded a bit weird. The Kurgan was a solid villian, hammy and over-the-top, yes, but provided Macleod with a physical and moral obstacle. He raped his wife and killed his best friend. I wanted to see Macleod take this guy's head off. Clancy Brown was pretty good as the Kurgan.

The sword-fighting sequences were pretty damn cool when I watched the film the first time, and they still are. I consider Highlander a first-rate fantasy adventure, an excellent action picture, and a classic '80's film.

Yeah, Highlander is terrible. In fact, it's trash. Eighties trash. The worst kind.

(for the record, I kind of like Highlander, even though I know it's pretty silly and has done the inconceivable by spawning an even sillier franchise - also, do you count Clancy Brown's Kurgan among the terrible casting?)

Now now there's no need for sarcasm.

You know I love 80's trash movies - but even so, I'm still allowed to be selective and criticise films I'm not so fond of. Besides with an estimated budget of $16,000,000 (it probably cost a lot more) I hardly think Highlander fits into the same category - and thus I'm less forgiving.

Clancey Brown is very well cast in the movie, but one out of three (the other two being leads) isn't really enough to save it for me.

I find Highlinder to be heavy handed and mawkish in it's sentimentality, and can't stomach the ever wooden Christopher Lambert (though I do like Stuart Gordon's Fortress and Besson's Subway).

My initial post was more of a reaction to the five popcorn rating meted out by Tyler which I think is excessive. Judging by Mark's post he probably thinks the same thing.

So hey, I'm sorry if I upset you guys by bashing Highlander, but I doubt it'll dampen your (and the thousands of others) future enjoyment of the movie

So since Saturday I've watched these movies: Artificial Intelligens: A.I., Batman Begins, Nowhere Boy and Pulp Fiction.

Okay so I'm not really sure what I thought of A.I. It was fine in the beginning with the robotboy (Haley Joel Osment) living with a family and trying to get the mother to love him. Then the mother abandons him and he meets Jude Law's character. Jude Law and HJO then go to Manhattan to find the blue fairy (From Pinnochio). HJO then ends up sitting in a boat-thing under water for 2000 years pleading the blue fairy statue to make him a real boy... And then it just got more and more ridiculous.

Well enough with the robots 'cause Batman Begins was awesome. I really enjoyed watching it and I was entertained the entire time, I'd already seen The Dark Knight so it was great to get the beginning. And finally I understood why one would call himself "Batman".

Nowhere Boy: So the movie is about John Lennon's (played by Aaron Johnson) teen years. John living with his aunt Mimi (and Uncle, but he died a few minutes into the movie) and trying to rebuild a relationship with his (in my opinion) inappropriate mother, Julia. Forming a band, meeting Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
Over all I liked the movie but I felt like something was missing, though it was both funny and sad. I liked Aaron Johnson's performance, but I am not one to judge that.

Pulp Fiction: I expected a lot from this movie. So I was disappointed when I didn't get a lot. The movie was funny and absurd and it made me laugh. But nothing more. I didn't care about the characters 'cause I never really got to know them... I'm sure it in fact is a great movie and that it's just me who can't see the greatness. Well I guess I'm too much of a girl for Pulp Fiction.

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

Norwegian Ninja (2010)
Directed by: Thomas Cappelen Malling
Written by: Thomas Cappelen Malling

What the hell, the movie is called "Norwegian Ninja." It takes one of the largest political scandals in Norwegian history and writes an alternate, and absolutely lunatic, version of actual events. However, I'm afraid some of the humor and satire might be lost in the translation for overseas audiences as we may not be particularly familiar with the source material, I know that I did not get much of the comedy, Norwegian comedy?. If you are expecting non-stop fighting and comic mayhem due to the "Ninja" in the title, you'll likely be disappointed by the non combatant way of the film. The movie plays more as an outlandish spy spoof than as an action epic. And the film's humor doesn't rely so much on jokes or pranks but on an absurd hyper-reality.



Mixing newsreel footage and fake educational films with the central narrative, "Norwegian Ninja" starts off with the capture of a high ranking diplomat spy. Based on the real life incident in 1984, It seems so according to first time filmmaker Thomas Cappelen Malling. Malling builds an elaborate world that includes international intrigue, secret plots, and an island paradise inhabited by an elite team of ninjas. It's all very cheesy, by design, capturing the feel of early era Bond with unusual contraptions, gadgets, and a flying car or two. This just reeked of a really bad late 70’s early 80’s very low budget action film, I really don’t know what to make of this movie except that I did not really care for it, but someone else might.

Yeah, I don't blame you - even I wouldn't give it 5 stars (at a guess, I'd say about a 3 at most without accounting for a "camp rating"). There's a reason I've barely watched over the past few years, but I guess I dig on the shoddy acting. Doesn't mean I don't agree with some of this: