| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vampire's Kiss - R | What the hell Nic Cage? What the hell!? | November 30, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Ghosts...Of the Civil Dead - Unrated |
Wow. This is John Hillcoat's extremely bleak and dismal feature film debut, written and scored by Nick Cave, and it certainly is a brutal one. The film follows a series of events in a maximum security prison that led to a riot and a lengthy lockdown; how the events were reported vs. how they actually occurred, showing the way in which the prison system is manipulated in order to create fear and subsequently the demand within society for protection. This is done almost entirely through narration with very little actual dialogue exchanged, though the characters within the prison all take on realistic, believable and individual qualities throughout. The end result is something very powerful and thought provoking. The film falters a couple times in attempting to explain itself too much. A bit of narration towards the end pretty much sets out in detail the entire message of the film which is a shame as up until that point the film had done a good job of avoiding such direct exposition. Still, all in all, it's a great film and yet another addition to the list of prison films that are a billion times better than The Shawshank Redemption. Not quite as good as Scum, but up there. |
November 29, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Limits of Control - R |
There are so many comments on this film calling it boring that I'm left wondering what exactly people were expecting. It's Jarmusch for christ's sake, he had his one black assassin killer "action" movie with Ghost Dog. Did you expect him to just repeat that? Okay so it's a little self-indulgent at times, but in a way all of his films are. The truth is, while this most certainly is not among Jarmusch's best, it does create a beautifully woven together little piece of surrealism that's sure to entrance you if you're willing to let it. It's hardly boring if you just let it take you like you're supposed to. Isaach de Bankole does an excellent job, as do most of the wonderful vignette characters, especially John Hurt. The only real problem with this is the rather disappointing speech that Bill Murray gives towards the end. It's a shockingly mundane and poorly written attempt to explain a film that didn't really want or need to be explained. |
November 29, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Hired Hand - R | Warren Oates and Peter Fonda make this slow-building western something extraordinary. Their friendship is the real focus of the film, and it's a beautiful thing. | November 29, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Shock Waves - PG |
Alright this is a film about aquatic Nazi zombies going around killing all of the members of a boat outing Captained by John Carradine after they end up getting stranded on an island whose sole inhabitant is a particularly lanky ex- SS comander played by Peter Cushing. Oh and there's Brooke Adams (in her Days of Heaven years) lookin damn fine in a little yellow bikini. So it must be incredible right? Not quite. Here's the thing, it seems that the only way these zombies like to kill people is by drowning them. Watching six people get their heads dunked under water isn't particularly what I'm looking for in a zombie flick. Well at least there's some zombie killing blood & gore right? Again, not quite. It seems as though the way you kill these zombies is by knocking their sunglasses off. Again, not really what I want to see. That said, the zombies are pretty creepy, it's a neat concept, and there are some good bits, so it wasn't a total loss, though John Carradine gets knocked off way too early. |
November 13, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Private Parts - R |
Paul Bartel's feature film debut is an expectedly hilarious and campy combination of The Tenant and Psycho taken over the top, though it definitely could've pushed it further. It's the classic story of a young girl running away to the big city with her friend, getting caught spying on her friend's sexual adventures, moving to her overprotective Aunt's hotel inhabited by several odd characters and meeting a nice young Peeping Tom who likes to fill blow up dolls with water and inject them with a syringe full of his own blood. Crazy, funny, good, but lacking something. |
November 13, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Last Big Thing - R | A scathingly hilarious satire of pop culture in the 90s, most of which transfers right on over to today. It almost has the feel of an early Hal Hartley film so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of Zukovic's influences. But it's a bit more cynical than the average Hartley flick and certainly a lot angrier. Like Henry Fool mixed with the sardonic comedy of the British television series Nathan Barley. I'm surprised this isn't out on DVD yet as it certainly has enormous cult potential. Time to try and seek out Zukovic's other film, Dark Arc. | November 10, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Man is Not a Bird (Covek nije tica) - Unrated | Dusan Makavejev's feature film debut is an interesting take on the plight of the workers in 1960s Yugoslavia. Granted, most of the politics is lost on me and in this case I fear that perhaps some of the humor I love to see from Makavejev went with it, other statements seem to be perhaps too obvious. Still, the little love story nestled in there along with some beautiful cinematography make the film worth watching. It's not the director's best work, but everyone's gotta start somewhere. | November 10, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Innocence Unprotected - Unrated |
One of the stranger documentaries ever made. It's a curious amalgam of clips from Yugoslavia's first talkie, present day interviews with the cast, high flying feats of daring, World War II footage, and poetry among other things; with each medium evoking another in what becomes a continuous stream of almost experimental imagery. It may not be one of the director's best works, but it certainly is a fascinating look at a culture pulled off with Makavejev's signature streak of comedy and eccentricity. |
November 8, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Cutter's Way - R |
A rough, simmering, character study in which the mystery/thriller plot takes a back seat to the exploration of the relationships of the three lead characters; the one-eyed, one armed, one legged paranoid Nam vet Alex Cutter, his depressed alcoholic wife Mo, and his laid back, playboy friend Richard Bone. When Bone thinks he recognizes the rapist/murderer of a young girl as being one of the local "royalty " figures, it gives Cutter a place to put his mind, a place to let all of his paranoia run wild and to take a stand for justice. Bone is reluctantly dragged into Cutter's fantasy which slowly starts to show signs of being a reality. Even so, Bone is hesitant to take action, though he's more than happy to involve himself with Cutter's wife. A dark, bleak, tragedy ensues. John Heard gives an almost unrecognizable performance and certainly one of the best of his career as Cutter. He grumbles, drunk, shouting, cursing, but at the same time charming. Jeff Bridges, too is excellent. There are some funny parallels to The Big Lebowski to be seen here as well. It's just an excellent film with a hell of an ending. Highly recommended. |
November 7, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Love Affair - Unrated | Dusan Makavejev has one wicked sense of humor. It comes across in such away that you don't even realize it at first. The elegance and sweetness with which this piece is executed is so entrancing that one might almost forget to take a step back and laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, though Makavejev would never let that happen. | November 4, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Zombieland - R | Much better than I expected. I'm still getting annoyed by this whole Zombie fad thing, but it's hard to deny that this was an enjoyable addition to the genre. I could've done without the narration, but at least it wasn't done in that quasi-intellectual British "Hitchhiker's Guide" way that was, for some inexplicable reason, present in all of the film's trailers. It's bloody, it's funny, and it's not nearly as wink-wink nudge-nudge quirky as it could have been. But seriously, this was one step away from pissing me off...let's end this zombiemania here...please...before we ruin a good thing. | November 4, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Trick 'r Treat - R |
A well played little horror anthology, but I was expecting something so much better. It had a few moments of originality, but on the whole each segment is about as unpredictable as your average episode of The Crypt Keeper. You know there's some goofy twist coming, so you expect it and you're usually right. Also, a note to filmmakers, cut this comic book shit out. Especially if your film has absolutely nothing to do with comic books. I don't need to see your "awesome" storyboards in the credits. It's played out, and a waste of title sequence time which could be put to much better use. |
October 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Thief - R |
Michael Mann's best film, hands down. James Caan gives an incredible performance, that scene in the diner with Tuesday Weld alone is probably some of his best work. And what a godamn amazing finish. Don't get me wrong, Heat is a perfectly respectable film, but if people would stop fawning over it for two seconds maybe they'd have the time to look a little bit more into Mann's work and find this absolutely brilliant gem. |
September 27, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Crank 2: High Voltage - R |
I'll admit it. I really did like the first Crank film. I felt it was one of those fuck-all-logic, blast-off from start to finish action films that never got boring while freely acknowledging how stupid it really was. In other words, it was fun. Crank 2 comes off as a desperate attempt to recreate that free-for-all fun that was present in the first one, only this time Neveldine and Taylor aren't the least bit sure how to proceed at any given moment so they fill all that empty time with an hour and a half of junior-high vulgarity, unabashedly stupid racism, nauseating editing, and repetitive action. It's too bad this is one of the last things David Carradine was involved in. Between this and Gamer, I think Neveldine and Taylor may well be on their way to producing the first film that is truly unwatchable. |
September 20, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Antichrist - Unrated |
There are films that are self-indulgent, then there are films that are wildly, bombastically, perhaps even comically self-indulgent. Lars Von Trier's Antichrist falls into the second category and succeeds because of just how damn committed to it's excess it is. This is a film with a gigantic pair of big, fat, hairy balls and it's not afraid to shove them right down your throat, multiple times, till you're gagging on ball sweat. Chock full of long, gorgeous, drawn out scenes that will hypnotize you, haunt you, disturb you and maybe even make you want to vomit. All of this set to a complexly cerebral story of self-loathing, misogyny, pain, and chaos. All the while Von Trier makes us painfully aware that he's aware of how artistically mad he's really being, and just when you're starting to think "damn this guy takes himself seriously," he goes and throws you a talking fox or a bird that won't die in some bizarrely jolting feat of comic relief that comes right out of the screen and punches you in the stomach yelling "I know what, I'm doing asshole" because whether you want to or not, in the end you will feel this film. And you might hate it, and you might call it pornography, or vulgar, or boring, or extravagant, or artsy, or lazy, or stupid...and you might be right, but you still felt it. Truth be told, Antichrist plays to just about every single one of my soft spots. It's bold, darkly whimsical, emotionally moving, overtly melodramatic, uncomfortably horrific and, though it hides it well, satirically aware of itself. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe are exquisite as the only two characters in the film outside of a little boy who dies at the beginning. Their performances are right up there with Adjani and Neil in Possession which is appropriate as there is no doubt in my mind that, though he dedicates the film to Tarkovsky, Zulawski was somewhere in Von Trier's head when he made this film. And though Antichrist is nowhere near as good as Possession the similarities in theme are delightful: the desperation between a husband and wife, the clash over a child, an examination of the drives of women in an utmost misogynistic fashion and the violence created by a broken love, among others. What I'm trying to say is that people will hate this film. Loathe it, even. In a theater I wouldn't be surprised to see hoards walking out early, but I think, to some degree, that's the point. It's subversively brilliant, and easily one of the best films of the year. |
September 19, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Grace - R |
Just another evil baby movie, but not really a bad one. The theme of the film is similar to Baby Blood; it's that oh so strong and potentially irrational bond between mother and child. Jordan Ladd does a fairly good job as the mother, but not much can be said for the rest of the cast, especially the woman who plays her nursing obsessed and somewhat poorly written step-mother. It would've been better had the film not insisted on forcing all of these secondary characters on us like the lesbian midwife and her assistant, or the step-mother's personal doctor. What Baby Blood did so well was to focus solely on the mother and child, never letting us get distracted by extraneous details l, never getting too tangled up in it's own subplots. That said, this film definitely had some fairly tough and disturbing scenes that were pulled off quite well. So yeah, there are worse ways for a horror fan to spend their time, I guess. The extras on this DVD were pretty nifty though. It makes you appreciate the film a bit more seeing how modest the shoot actually was. I mean, I've been involved in shoots that were really not that far off from this one equipment wise. It's cool to see the whole thing unfold over the 17 days it took to shoot and it really shows a young director that has a passion for what he's doing. Oh yeah, and certain scenes in this are strikingly similar to stuff I've had in one of my scripts for over a year now, so fuck this movie for getting in my head or hacking my computer and stealing my ideas. I hate it when that happens. |
September 19, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Dead Snow (Død snø) - Unrated | Frozen Nazi zombies... doesn't get much more fun then that especially when you've got a director and cast that really know how to pull it off. Bloody, gory, campy and hilarious which is sayin something as this Zombie fad is starting to wear on me a bit to the point that I wasn't sure if I could actually get into this one at the beginning of it ... luckily those doubts were quickly dispelled. | September 13, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Xia dao Gao Fei (Full Contact) - Unrated | Hyperkinetic HK action/revenge flick from back when Chow Yun Fat was still one badass mofo. This is what action films are supposed to be. All out, no holds barred, over-the-top, ass kickery steeped in all sorts of vice and campy well-executed cliche. | September 11, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Dracula cerca sangue di vergine... e morì di sete!!!, (Andy Warhol's Dracula) - R |
This is the sort of comedy that just doesn't exist anymore. I think it went extinct somewhere in the eighties, replaced with the sort of in your face bullshit we're bombarded with today. It's the sort of thing where you're not sure whether the director's in on the joke or not, but oh Paul Morrissey is. Of course you could call it a bad film, but only if you're trying to take it seriously., and in doing so completely missing the point. That acting that is laughably bad, it's supposed to be laughably bad. You're laughing aren't you? It's funny. It's a comedy that makes you laugh. How can you fault it for that? Anyway, besides all this. It is also an extremely beautiful film. Pause it at nearly any point and you'll pretty much have a work of art on your screen which is impressive considering the low budget and short shooting time of the film. See it. Enjoy it for what it is. And pray for a resurgence of this sort of comedic brilliance. |
September 10, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Gamer - R |
In the future everything is really glitchy. I swear to god, not a second goes by that the camera doesn't shake or some artificial artifacts don 't pop up on the screen. Combine that with the filmmaker's need to make every single light in the film a strobe light and you've already got one hell of a nauseating movie. Then there's the plot. Death row inmates "compete" in a game for freedom or death. Been done before, only this time I'm still trying to figure out what the game is. They're trying to make it to a black diamondy lookin thing, but there're are people shootin at them. It doesn't appear that there are teams as most of the people we actually see appear to not be shooting each other but there definitely is somebody shooting at them. What's their motivation for shooting at each other if the only thing they all have to do is get to the black diamondy thing? There's an evil billionaire, a resistance army, a wife and kid thing...you see where this is going. What the hell is Allison Lohman doing in here? Why is she wearing dreadlocks? Hey, didn't she just get blown to hell with a machine gun? Guess not cause she's back on screen riding a motorcycle. Hey look, Gerard Butler has a tattoo on his arm. What does it say? "I'm right here with you" What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Right here with who exactly? Whoever you happen to be sitting next to at the time. And the award for most unnecessary tattoo ever goes to... Oh boy, it's a showdown between Gerard Butler and Dexter on a basketball court. Looks like Dexter's winning, but wait...the resistance has hacked the system and is now broadcasting to the world everything that's going on in that room... because apparently they've hidden a film crew on the court as well. Oh it's over...good...I'm glad...Gerard and his family are driving on the side of a mountain...how scenic...oh no...foreboding music...a tunnel...don't drive your family into the tunnel Gerard. It's dark in there! GAME OVER! (insert coins) What? Did they all die in the tunnel? What just happened? Where were they driving to anyway? For that matter where were they driving from? Godamn this movie has some existential implications. |
September 7, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Inglourious Basterds - R |
This really needed to be about 45 minutes longer, there was so much more story here to tell in this Nazi-era section of the Tarantinoverse. Even so, the film works on enough levels to be a success, I just wish the Shosanna part had been expanded a bit and a few of the characters had been fleshed out a bit more. As everyone has already stated. Cristoph Waltz is excellent playing a villainous, but still human Nazi nicknamed the Jew Hunter. Brad Pitt, too, turns in another great performance. There's a nice bit of self-reflexivity in the fiery finale as well if you care to look for it. It's not his best, but for what Tarantino tried to accomplish here, it works. |
August 28, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Barquero - Unrated | Who wouldn't want to watch the untouchably badass Warren Oates in a stand-off against Western legend Lee Van Cleef? | August 28, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Badlands - PG | Terrence Malick juxtaposes violence and innocence like no one has done before. Badlands is a beautiful, thoughtful, and extremely well-acted look at two young lovers who go on the run and live according to their own set of values and morals derived from notions of heroism and honor present in the films of James Dean. Anything that comes between or threatens their love most be destroyed even if that includes killing loads of people, and the funny thing is that we get so caught up in the innocence of their relationship that after a while, we're on their side. | August 28, 2009 | N/A | |||
| A Perfect Getaway - R |
This works very well as a farce, though I'm still unsure wether that was intentional or not. It follows every little cliche of a bad genre film so perfectly, up to and including an obvious yet nonsensical twist, and it does it with such commitment, energy and wit that I have a hard time believing that this wasn't intended to be a parody. Little lines thrown in here and there, other lines hilariously overemphasized and a tendency to comically over push certain characters as the villains certainly support that theory, but then there's this bizarre fascination the writer/director, David Twohy, has with Oliver Stone's thoroughly mediocre Natural Born Killers to which this film makes reference multiple time. This would lead me to believe that perhaps Twohy was oblivious to how ridiculous his film actually is. Either way, the acting was pretty solid (again, especially if this was a joke, and I mean that seriously because I'm really unsure). Kiele Sanchez really whips out the badass-chick mode in the third act. And I can't say that I didn't have a fun time. So bonus points for entertainment value, minus points for too many Natural Born Killers references, and a big question mark as to whether it was ultimately a success or failure. For now 3.5/5, but that could change either way. |
August 13, 2009 | N/A |
515 ratings
358 reviews
