Last Seen 70s/80s Movie

[neverending]

That looks like Ferret in the picture.

[psycho d]

House of 1000 Corpses. Better than i thought it would be. i dug on the seemingly random dark imagery. Characters were pretty flat (good guys) and hard to care about. Hopin' that The Devil's Rejects will show that Rob Zombie has matured a bit as a director. Still, a fun watch. Ashe.
d

[ChronoGrl]

Originally Posted by _____V_____

Very good. Wonderful script, awesome cinematography, killer background tracks and some very solid performances. A very unique movie.

I d say watch it asap, you ll dig it. Recommended also to Alky, Fortunato, NE, Return, Chrono, etc.

Looks great, and I'd like to support Ferret's budding career. :p

Unfortunately not available on Netflix, but will continue to keep my eyes posted. Thanks for the rec, V.

[ChronoGrl]

It's been a LONG time since I've posted movie reviews in this thread, so I figure I should catch up.

For the most part I've seen a lot of BAD and DISAPPOINTING movies, but there were a couple of good ones in there too...

The highlights (of the good and bad I've seen recently):


Synecdoche, New York



When I like Charlie Kaufman, I LOVE Charlie Kaufman. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is in my top 5 movies of all time. It's visionary, brilliant, clever, and honestly touching. Adaptation is another favorite of mine, one that goes into the mind of the obsessed writer and drags the audience along with it. Being John Malkovich was one of the first movies to introduce me to absurd intellectual cinema.

However.

When I DON'T like Kaufman, I find him absolutely miserable. The first movie to introduce me to this phenomenon was Human Nature, a strange meandering self-indulgent flick with unlikable characters following ambiguous motives. This was the first movie to convince me that perhaps the unfettered Kaufman is not exactly a good thing.

And then I saw Synecdoche New York. I was looking forward to this film. Quit a bit, actually. The last Kaufman film that I had seen was the aforementioned Human Nature and I was looking forward to something that would be reminiscent of his whimsical earlier works. And with the brilliant cast (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Hope Davis, Emily Watson, Dianne Wiest) I thought that this MUST be great!

Boy, was I wrong. What started out as a slice-of-life struggling drama with compelling characters slowly disintegrated into a meandering theater metaphor for the predestined, bleak human condition. Laden with swollen symbolism and muted overtones, Synechdoche was nothing but pretentious, long, painful, and self-indulgent. I want that time back.

I would LOVE for those who liked this film to chime in (Fortunato - I AM CALLING YOU OUT) because I simply do not understand how this miserable showing could be palatable.

1/5 - Points for good performances and some decent direction and imagery. But overall turgid and disappointing.


...


Tideland



Good GOD how long I waited for a Gilliam production to resurrect my favorite director in my eyes after the Brothers Grimm debacle... But this was not that film.

Gilliam is a favorite director of mine. With the exception of the occasional lemon (*cough* Jabberwocky), his films are pure cinematic brilliance. Imaginative, whimsical, visionary, funny- from fractured children's fairy tales (Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Time Bandits) to well-done scifi (Brazil and 12 Monkeys) to British humor (Monty Python!), he has always been a successful director in my eyes.

Which is why Tideland was a particular blow to my senses.

The movie opens with Gilliam appealing to the audience, explaining that this movie was an exploration into the inner child and that he discovered that his inner child is a little girl. Charming, no?

Well, not so much so when the story unravels to this little girl's world of neglectful junkie parents, filling heroin needles for her father, disconnect between life and death, and a pedophilic relationship with a retarded farm boy - THIS is Gilliam's inner child?!?!

Gilliam took the story from Mitch Cullin's book of the same name, framing the adaptation with nods to Psycho and Alice and Wonderland. The parallels are interesting, but ultimately it is unclear to my what appealed to Gilliam about this wretched little tale. I had a really difficult time trying to figure out why - WHY he would do a miserable movie such as this and the only answer I can come up with is that this is Gilliam's true opus. And Gilliam is a disturbed, disturbed man.

This movie is painful to watch. Painful. And not in a good way.

1/5 - Extra points because it's undeniable that he IS a skilled director. This movie was beautiful. Truly gorgeous... But the subject matter, plot, story, characters... was just not enjoyable to watch.*






*I have to note that I don't generally write off movies that are "not enjoyable to watch." Visitor Q is a perfect example of a film that revels in the discomfort of the audience but I think is a brilliant piece of groundbreaking cinema... I draw a line between the two because there ARE movies that can turn discomfort and bleakness into beauty... With Tideland there is just bleakness and miseryy.

[ChronoGrl]

King of California



Best movie I've seen in a looooooooong time. I just spent my last post railing against Gilliam's worst film to date. Well, King of California reminded me a lot of one of his classics, The Fisher King. King of California follows the storyline of teen Miranda (played by Evan Rachel Wood, who is becoming one of my absolute favorite up-and-coming actresses) whose schizophrenic dad (played by an artful and almost unrecognizable Michael Douglas) enters her life again, convinced that Spanish gold is buried under California. The two of them embark on a journey in search for this gold and the question becomes (must like Fisher King), what is real and what is in her father's mind.

King of California is whimsical, inventive, and absolutely charming. Michael Douglas as the schizophrenic father is frenetic, obsessive, and right on point in this role (surprising to me as I don't necessarily look at him as a skilled thespian). Great story, fantastic writing, brilliant acting, and gorgeous direction. Definitely touchy/feely, but a great little film. LOVED it.

5/5

[cheebacheeba]

The new f13.
Wasn't bad...I liked the "underground lair" bit, and that the character wasn't just a walking machete the whole time...but yeah, wasn't scary, didn't do much for me really.

[The_Return]

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

Second half of one of the greatest action movies of the modern day.

I find this half has the better script...you really get to dig deeper into the characters and their history, and - as always - Tarantino gives us some fantastic dialogue. Plus we get to legitimately meet Bill, who is nothing less than the definition of badass and one of my favourite screen villains.

R.I.P. David Carradine


Out for Justice (1991)

It's trash, of course...but entertaining trash. Seagal is at the top of his game here...not that it means much, but if nothing else his movies can usually serve for an action fix. The pool hall scene is pretty much a B-movie masterpiece.

[hacelikewhoa]

Watched I Spit on your Grave/Day of the Woman(1978) last night.

Not sure how I feel about it. I hated about half of the movie.
///SPOILER ALERT///
I hated that the girl had about 3 chances to get away from the guys and fucked it up every time. AND when she made it back to the house she took her jolly old time reaching for the phone...Is she retarded? She should have went straight upstairs to the gun. But NOOO she gets raped yet again and got her ass beat. Okay well on top of all of this, after she got rapped by 4 men, she takes A FUCKING SHOWER! wtf..All of the evidence is gone. Then, she doesn't leave! She stays there for the rest of summer? WTF??! I mean I'm glad she ended up killing everybody but she actually had sex with the one retarded guy before she killed him... Why didn't she just shoot all of them in the head and be done with it? Idk this movie pissed me off a lot.
///END SPOILER////

EDIT:
And Killer Klowns from Outerspace(1988)

This one actually made me happy haha.

[Angra]

Originally Posted by hacelikewhoa

Watched I Spit on your Grave/Day of the Woman(1978) last night.

Not sure how I feel about it. I hated about half of the movie.
///SPOILER ALERT///

Why, why, why, why, why, why?..

Because it's from the 70s. ;)

[fortunato]

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)