Joel's Reviews

Thanks. I'll probably order one.

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Proceed with caution. Ladt time I went to purchase a 2nd disc his paypal acct email was inactive. Not sure about anymore?

Beverly Hills Cop is a mother lovin masterpiece! Glad to see it get its proper due!

It really is a great film! I saw it in theaters back in 1984 and was blown away. Never saw anything like it. Of course today, someone seeing it after many movies followed it, probably wouldn't have the luxury of the fresh factor? Hard to say...

Murphy was so brilliant in BHC, 48 Hours, and Trading Places. After that he seemed to lighten up and he was never quite the same.

I think his last solid film was "Coming to America" in 1988. After that he went limp. He had flashes of brilliance in "Boomerang" maybe, and a few others, but not the same consistency. It wasn't until "The Nutty Professor" series that he got his stride back and was able to really branch out with his talent. Sadly, those were short lived. "Metro" had moments but again, not enough. Lately he's been just lacking and underused. "Tower Heist" barely used him at all, which is a shame because it may've been a good movie-had they utilized Murphy more, and "Mr. Church" probably meant well, but was miscast with the people surrounding Murphy, which made the film fall like a brick of familiarity and not much conviction for such a heavy story. Shame. Here's hoping Eddie still has a few home runs left. Wishful thinking!

RARE BIRDS (2001)
Director: Sturla Gunnarsson



I had no idea what to expect from this movie going in. I couldn't say either way if I was a fan of William Hurt or not. I enjoyed "Altered States" (1980) dir. Ken Russell, the sci fi acid trip spirituality mind melt thriller he was in, but didn't consider him a heavyweight.

"Rare Birds" may not have changed my mind 100% about the impact Hurt had on me, but it certainly was a role he took to very well and I was disarmed at the comedy and self deprecation he was willing to go through.

This is a very light picture. Its heart is light, the scenery is beautiful, the dialog is funny and odd, the female co-star is very beautiful. There's a lot to like here.
Things get strange and the story goes really south. Really, really south. I did not mind this. I enjoyed it. It was endearing and adventurous.



I really do not want to give anything away about this film. It's a little gem of a movie. It may not be for everyone because it could possibly come across as awkward, dopey, missing the mark, etc, etc.

Too bad I cannot explain what I mean by this. I'd say if cooking gourmet food, doing drugs, scamming for customers by exploiting duck watchers curiosities and government spying for new methods of non battery, electrical or solar lighting is your thing..you must check this movie out.



I recommend that you do not have too much on your mind before starting this movie. I suggest you are comfortable and not in a bad mood, either. Have tea, seltzer, chips, toast, or any assortment of light snack food by your side. Lights should be dim, air should be fresh, temperature should be cozy but not stifling.

Once you've made these adjustments, press play. It's just a goofy little ride with some very nice moments and things to look at. Not much more.

Dang ! Who's the hottie ?

Kinda looks like Alyssa Milano.

CONSENTING ADULTS (1992)
Director: Alan J. Pakula

Kevin Kline plays a tv jingle writer who shows hot passion for his work resulting in very good comedy. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays his long time supporting wife. They've just gotten new neighbors (Kevin Spacey and Rebecca Miller) who aim to show the people next door a bit of fun.

Richard (Kline) is wary of Eddy (Spacey) at first because Eddy and his wife Kay (Miller) are so free spirited and dangerous. Soon though, Richard and his long time, supportive wife Priscilla (Mastrantonio) warm up, then it's time for biking, grilling, sailing, you name it. The yuppie olympics begin for some very swank, high end montage.

Long time supportive wife being supportive at breakfast


Eddy wants to swap wives, he confides in Richard. Time has happened in the montage and now it's time to roll some sleeves up and get down and sleazy. Richard balks at Eddy. How dare you?! I love my wife! Eddy persists. Richard deflects. Priscilla and Kay have become fast friends as well-and can be seen blurred out in the background, probably drinking coffee or something, in another scene completely, at night.

Indecent Proposal on 10 speeds


Then, all of a sudden, morals get put into the fire..and something unexpected happens! What could it be?

"told ya those weekend getaways were relationship killers.." - George Costanza

.

Consenting adults is a very well photographed thriller so far fetched, that, by the end, we actually have an uzi come into play. Picture a big suburban mansion in a new neighborhood at night, with splashes of moonlit blue painting the walls. Then picture a shirtless yuppie spraying his sheet rock with uzi bullets. Sophisticated, right?

Kline, dirty doggin' it.


Spacey, concerned about the firmness of the noodle.


As ridiculous as all of this sounds, and believe me, I'm leaving all of the "twists" out, there is still a good movie in there. The acting is more than competent, and there are even some intriguing moments here and there. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's "atmospheric" but the settings are breezy and colorful, even when hanging out in insurance company themed houses you'd find in Simsbury, CT, at the end of a cul de sac, with mailboxes big enough to fit a half dozen Christmas wreaths inside.

Remembering the better times with new neighbors (10 minutes prior)


I liked this film. I enjoyed it enough to watch it 4 times since its debut on vhs, and will most likely watch it once more before I pass away in a flurry of high tax bracket uzi pellets.

Never seen this movie. Wondering if I should throw it into my Netflix Q.

You definitely should. If you like thrillers from 1992 that ogle their own set design and locations as well as employ Kline and Spacey and involve adultery and other nasty things, you'll be taken care of in spades.

Just added it to my Q. Thanks.

Brain Damage (1988)
Director: Frank Henenlotter



Frank Henenlotter makes f#cked up movies exclusively. He isn't like Stuart Gordon (ReAnimator), who sometimes writes and directs for Disney (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit). He is a raw and vile man with an equal imagination. His movies are disgusting, disturbing, depressing and ugly. Back when he debuted his film "Basket Case" in 1982, we had to sit through a scene where a deformed, stop motion siamese twin blob creature rapes a young woman with some illustrious sound design.

In 1988, he kept going, and this time he concentrated on drug addiction. "Brain Damage" is about an ancient turd like slug creature about the size of an adult film penis that bores a hole into the back of an unsuspecting man's neck and manipulates the man to bring him out on the town for fresh kills, so he can eat human brains. The reward for the young man is that he gets an injection of blue sunshine lsd into his brain which makes him trip the live fantastic while this small creature named "Elmer" feasts on the minds of security guards, sluts and whoever else happens to be in the general vicinity while they are on their night time walk.



It becomes a powerful addiction. The man hates that he is the host transportation to bring Elmer around the city to kill for food, but the injection Elmer gives him in the back of the neck is such a good high, that withdrawal would be unbearable.

First of all, I want to say that, yes, there are some clever bits in this film. The effect work, though dated, does still hold its own, and there are inspired visual light effects I enjoyed. But because I am 41 years old now, and have pretty much burned out my curious clutch of revisiting my dreadful horror aficionado past on these cheap home video release deluxe treatments we are getting by boutique cult labels nowadays, in glorious HD, I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed Brain Damage. I mean, it's dumb. Elmer escaped his old owners to find another host. Just the fact that he escaped and is able to scurry across floors and jump out at people and attach to their faces in the dambdest of places such as a bathroom stall, just that fact alone would mean Elmer, I'm sorry, AYLMER, doesn't need a host to begin with. He can DO IT HIMSELF!!

Secondly, I'm tired of seeing sick movies. Yeah, I get it. It's shocking, it's twisted. Yay.
I'm not a teenager anymore. I'm not even a twentysomething, or a thirtysomething. I've been there and I have done it (if you can count watching movies alone doing anything at all).

I see Brain Damage as a good indicator that my tastes have changed. I guess I also cannot understand how an intelligent man in his 60's or even 70's can continue being cool with making totally messed up sicko movies. I listened to the commentary out of curiosity. The guy is clearly blowing rails of coke off during his endless tirade of mile-a-minute blabbing. He barely takes a breath. I felt low even listening to the track, to be honest.

I don't hate Brain Damage. It's a pretty damn good little freak out movie that surprisingly deals with addiction fairly well and also has some really brilliant moments in the way of exposition, focused on the origins of the Aylmer (Elmer for slang).

I can't discount the fun of it, even though, if I'm being honest, it really wasn't that much fun at all. I found myself depressed during it. It's not cheery, doesn't have any kind of uplifting message. It's shot dark, it looks dark, it's an ugly mentality. What is to gain from that? It's like watching a movie with people being burned alive or tortured. I do not understand the appeal. Not anymore. Not sure I ever found it appealing. Other factors were responsible for my interest in films like Brain Damage.

Those other factors are asides that can be carried over, leaving the trash behind.

My final thought is that there is entirely too much inspired whackiness in Brain Damage to fully slag it off as a failure film. It's not. It's clever, well made, and yeah, I guess parts of it are well written, sure. It looks great on blu ray, and the music, though dopey, does have a certain something going for it. Maybe it's because it sounds like something anyone could play on an old Yamaha DX-7. Frank Henenlotter may be a twisted, line sniffing old man, but he has gotten my money, so at least he's a decent businessman.

GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI (1999)
Director: Jim Jarmusch



Jim Jarmusch is one of my favorite directors of all time. He's a very funny and clever man. His films turn the volume up to 10 without so much as a sound. The intensity and focus of such mundane proceedings makes his movies fascinating. I don't know how he exactly does it, but he does it just the same, and he does it better than any American film maker that I've seen. I mean, you can be sitting there watching a Jarmusch film, and it can just fly right over your head. You'd say "what? I see nothing." Jarmusch knows his humor. He inserts it in unconventional ways. The method he uses, from what I can see, is that he will keep little details in his movie, let them just exist there. Maybe it's the sound of a trumpet that gets cut out and switched abruptly to another scene of odd tempo. Maybe it would be the meditation on something so obnoxiously boring that you'd be waiting for the punchline and there wouldn't be one aside from another scene stepping in as if nothing is nothing, carrying on with a slow story going nowhere at breakneck speed. You have to just surrender to his movies. You love them or you hate them, I'm guessing.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is about a..well, a Samurai who becomes a Samurai because way back about 10 or so yrs ago, before he became Ghost Dog, he was almost killed by a gang in a back alley way. Well, along comes a rough and tumble elder Italian gangster type who saves his life with a flash of a pistol and some grouchy stink eyeing. Ghost Dog feels in debt to this man so he dedicates his life to serve this mafioso guy as a sort of servant.



Cut to years later, Ghost Dog dreams on pain and death mixed with deep philosophies and spirituality daily, living a lonesome life. He uses a carrier pigeon to communicate with the mob, and anytime they need him to do a "hit", Ghost Dog complies.



Forrest Whittaker plays Ghost Dog perfectly. No one could have done it better and this is genius casting. His soft spoken presence, droopy eye, and full frame makes this such an interesting contrast to the usual Hollywood portrayal of a bad assed warrior.

There are highlights of comedy throughout the entire film, all the way down to a disjointed score by RZA of Wu Tang Clan who gives a score so raw and fresh sounding that I swore I was in NYC back in 1994. Take that same music and intercut it with a flying pigeon and for whatever magic reason, you have comedy of the highest order. I laughed myself silly. Deep, guttural laughing. Like I was eating macho man steak with William Shatner on an outside patio of a swanky restaurant, laughing like I just dead lifted 600 lbs.

I really like Brain Damage. Never really knew anything about the director (seen a few of his movies though). I saw it with zero expectations and thought it was really entertaining & more substantive than Basket Case or Frankenhooker . I think it's one of the better of its kind.

I love Jarmusch and Ghost Dog too, and like what you said about Whittaker. Blockbuster movies going out of their way to seem 'badass' is sort of a peeve of mine, and comes across as so forced and cringey. Ghost Dog gives me some fresh air.

I had seen Brain Damage when I was 11. Something about it kept me revisiting it. Frankenhooker only works for me if I'm really high and I don't do that anymore so..lol.

And yeah, Ghost Dog is so damn good!

GHOST WORLD (2001)
Director: Terry Zwigoff

This was once one of my favorite movies but I admit that after seeing it over 10 times that some of the mean spiritedness in the script and performances does wear me down.

Zwigoff definitely injects his goofy and easily missed humor into Daniel Clowes' comic premise, and some of the humor works well but other jokes feel like they are trying to appeal to the general movie going crowd. For example, we get a completely insane manic performance from some shirtless guy in a convenience store, and as soon as he finishes his best line, we get a cutaway to reaction shots of 3 people laughing at his antics. Things like this just scream "let me finish the joke for you". It's a small complaint but one I've had since my first time seeing this movie There are a few other moments similar that prevent this from being a perfect comedy.

Still though, there are more than enough scenes to make up for some of the missed comic opportunities to resolve unscathed. Terry Zwigoff hires incredible set designers and costumers so his vision of this story is highly attractive with lots of experimental outfits and styles happening.

As far as plot, I don't really want to touch on that because I don't feel the need to try and "sell" this movie to anyone. I believe from now on I'll just review for myself. If someone wants to see Ghost World, they will.

The music score is beautiful. The cinematography is top notch. Performances are believable, funny and touching.

DEATH WISH III (1985)
Director: Michael Winner

I wasn't a huge fan of the first Death Wish film, and absolutely not a fan of part II because it was way too rapey and f**ked up. Part 3 to me hits them action and comedy notes like gangbusters. When things start rolling, they roll outta control, and it's basically a Vietnam war movie in NYC..or Chicago..or Canada, wherever they shot it.

We get bazookas, rocket launchers, machine guns, 357's, 45's, big knives, and plenty of people being kicked in the face, nuts, stomach and kneecaps. Bronson is the executioner here with a little help from his friendly, elderly neighborhood friends.

It looks like the film makers just took a bunch of Cannon money and went nuts and documented it for the rest of time. I appreciate that. Sometimes you just need a disgustingly over the top and absurd action picture to put you in a good mood.

The music score is creepy, with Jimmy Page offering up some more of his satanic synthesizer work. And no, that was not Jimmy Page doing the opening theme.

My dad took me to see Death Wish III when I was 14. It was pretty crazy compared to the first films.

I watched Ghost World a few months ago on Miss Vicky's rec-great movie.

Maybe I should add Ghost Dog to my watchlist, I see nothing but love for it.

I think you'll enjoy Ghost Dog.