Image #1 is forbidden, what is it?

Sutherland evidently is the band's manager...gets played on 'XRT a lot, just your typical AAA rock tuneage.




Friggin' art-house movie posters make every foreign film look like a sex romp. Which this movie in particular isn't, or so I have been told.

aggy, first pic is Farce of the Penguins.

Bob Saget putting dirty words into penguins' mouths....I'm intrigued, especially because Samuel L. narrates.

Don't bother with FARCE OF THE PENGUINS.

Real pointless. Not funny.

Hilarious!

Best line by George Takai: "You've mispronounced my name for over 40 years!"


Ridiculous!

3 edits of the film with enough bonus material to choke a zombie.


Brilliant!

Definitely made my birthday a blast. I can't believe I hadn't seen it before.... The flea circus alone is worth the price.

k, so no on the penguins, check.

watched Cabin Fever recently. Entertaining for a weeknight before Wednesday.

o yes. watched Crumb again. it had been a while since my original viewing and i hadn't really noticed what a prick this guy is when i watched it the first time.

Been on a doc kick.






And I'm judging Documentaries for the Indianapolis International Film Festival:

I'm too tired to watch a bunch of old guys talk about bombs and shit! Those explosions are cool, though.

I'll watch the second half tomorrow.

mississippi masala omg denzel is like 16 in this.

civil rights violated blah blah blah...pretty cool music video at the 1 hour:20 minutes mark though.

pretty good film. it's by Lou Ye. a chinese film director i've never heard before. it's a tragic love story, but without those existentialist twists that wong kar wai puts in his films.

I saw a bunch of films at the Chicago International Documentary festival last week. Here's a quick blurb about each film that I saw.



Britian's First Suicide Bombers

This chronicles the lives of 2 young male residents of London whose frustrating lives turned them into radical Islamist terrorists. The film culminates with the 2 men strapping bombs on their backs and blowing up a Tel Aviv nightclub. Interestingly enough, the main focus of the film (Omar) had a bomb that short-circuited and never went off. After his partner's bomb went off, Omar tried to elude capture by swimming in the ocean where he ended up drowning. Overall, this was an interesting look into the minds of what drives these guys into killing themselves all for the "cause".

Grade: B



Hot House

This film spends the majority of the time interviewing Palestinian extremists in Israeli prisons. All these people were fanatics before they arrived in prison and now they're even more fanatical and hate jews even more. Hardly a surprise. If anything, it shows that the palestine/israeli conflict isn't getting better anytime soon. I can't say I learned much from this one.

Grade: B-



The Stone Silence

This chronicles the 2005 story of an Afghan woman who was stoned to death for committing adultery. The international media latched onto this story causing a worldwide backlash. The director of this story visits her hometown and interviews the families that were involved. I didn't like the way the director essentially turned the film into an Afghan version of "Law and Order". Essentially, the story has never been proven - leaving the audience to wonder. The soundtrack was awful and when the Q&A followed the film, several audience members blasted the director for the poor choice of music.

Grade: C+



Manda Bala - Send a Bullet

This won the documentary prize at Sundance this year. Directed by Jason Kohn, a former protege of Errol Morris, this depicts the political corruption and brutal kidnapping crimes in Brazil, most notably in San Paulo. This film had Errol Morris written all over it. The interviews with men who spend their entire careers as kidnappers were especially chilling. The differences between the haves and have-nots in Brazil make it all the more obvious as to why Brazil has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Note to self - do not plan on visiting Brazil anytime in this lifetime.

Grade: B+



Trelew

This recounts the story of the 1972 massacre of 18 Argentinean political prisoners in a remote prison in the city of Rawson located in the bare Argentinean Patagonia. Retold by the 100+ prisoners who overthrew the main penitentiary in Rawson, a group of 18 of them were stranded at the airport (a group of fellow prisoners hijacked a plane and left without them). The stranded 18 were then massacred at a remote military prison. This was a fascinating story throughout - from the elaborate plans to overthrow the prison followed by the chilling conclusion. Good stuff.

Grade: A-



A Lion in the House

I discussed this upthread when I saw it last week. This was by far and away the best film that I saw this week and was actually one of the best films i've ever seen. Filmed over a period of 6 years, the film follows the lives of 5 extraordinary children stricken with cancer in Cincinnati Childrens Hospital cancer ward. All 5 children's (and their family's) stories are told in heartbreaking detail. Most importantly, this film is not meant to shock. The directors handled the stories with exceptional grace and compassion. The film is 4 hours long and I cried for at least 2 of them. I'd imagine this film would be extremely difficult for those that have children (I don't). At the minimum, it would offer parents a sobering dose of perspective. I guarantee you'd hug your kids alot more after seeing this.

Grade: A+

Sleeper Cell Season 2. Man, I can't believe that this show wasn't picked up.

very interesting post, helmet

i hope i get a chance to see something like that too

Finally watched:



Yeah, def one of the best Bond flicks. The new guy kicks ass. Tended to get a bit obvious near the third act (and the pop song during the opening credits was flat-out horrible), but on the whole this was quite enjoyable. Loved the free running sequence.

brilliant comedy from early 90's.

I watched Infernal Affairs as a followup to The Departed recently. It's interesting to compare the two films. IA seems like a Cliffs Notes version of TD with surprisingly more warmth and humor (or is it not so surprising?). Funny how the two protaganists of IA actually look a little like Damon & DiCaprio.

Also note the totally cheesecake, American-style, completely fabricated imagery for the box.

lovin' it. got the entire series on dvd. the pot episode (excepting the bullshit aside @ the end) ranks up there with the brownie episode from barney miller.

My favorite episode was "When Food Goes Bad," where the leftovers revolt and General Chow takes the Baby hostage.

"These are our demands: 1. Jogging outfits, 2. A Comprehensive Dental Plan, 3. 40 Million Hellicopters and a Dollar... What's that [listens to his cabbage] Oh, that's 40 Million Dollars and a Helicopter, and 4. Our Own Saturday morning cartoon show."

"It's like they saw our lives and put it right up on screen!"

I got this little gem from the Library:



The Return of Chandu the Magician

An old cliffhanger serial staring Bela Lugosi as Frank Chandler, known throughout the mysterious East as the Mystic Chandu, who has to save the last Egyptian Princess from being sacrificed by the evil Cult of Ubasti in order to bring their Priestess back from the dead and return the Black Magic-based Empire of Lemuria to the ascendancy it knew before the fall of Atlantis...

Basically the best things about this series is Bela staring into people's eyes Hypnotically, and all the cool old bits & bobs the production borrowed from the RKO prop department, including the entire Skull Island set from the original King Kong.

I went to New York
in a van
with my friends











1. TMNT (30 Votes, 9206 points. Two #1 Votes)

Oh wow, I almost forgot how great this movie was. Loved it back in '02 and I popped it in last night and it still holds up beautifully. I can't imagine anyone else in that role but Sandler, who does probably the best acting job of his career.

fuck if this isn't a top 2 or 3 episode...nah, fuck that, it's either at 1 or 2...great episode.

edit: so i've had a second, and for these top spots i have to also consider the episode that features earl throwin' mother-in-law into the tar pits.

Amen...incredible film. I facilitate an anger management group a few times a year and have started showing it at our last sessions. I tell folks we're going to watch an Adam Sandler movie and have pizza...don't think this is quite what they ever expect.

"The Good Shepherd" is pretty good. A little long, but if you like long, drawn-out John Le Carre-like spy stuff, you'll like it. Billy Crudup is almost unrecognizable. By jingo, he's good.

finally, had a chance to watch godard's "my life to live" ( the dvd that i got the other time wouldn't play for some reason). that was a pretty good movie. karina was great. probably the strongest role out of those that i saw her play.

Oh Shit!
I need this

I'm not sure how I feel about being the sort of person who likes Eraserhead better than Die Hard. Ultimately, they both work at a very visceral level--Eraserhead just happens to have a thin veneer of pseudo intellectual pretension. Ok, a fairly thick veneer, but still. . .

Lol that the Eraserhead poster describes it as a "horror movie." It is pretty unsettling, but talk about stretching the limits of genre just to keep things in relatively marketable categories.

how do you separate pseudo intellectual pretention from an intellectual pretention in general?

Feel compelled to watch a Fellini movie about 2 times a year. Great on so many levels.

Ha, this kid (who is a square) at school was like, "Dude, this movie is insane, see, like, you watch it and it makes you see crazy visions on your ceiling and shit!" And I was just like, "I don't know, I just thought it was a cool movie. Whatever, dude."

All three (Serkis, Morton and Broadbent) Nominated for BAFTA's today.

By way of example, for starters: David Lynch (who I love) is all about pseudo-intellectual pretension (i.e., trying to come across as deep without having much to say), whereas Fassbinder is, at least occasionally, clearly very pretensious, but raises some interesting questions in a thoughtful way.


"who is a square"? Seriously? People say that? If so, I am most definitely a square.

Lynch says what he says entirely in visual terms. He doesn't need the characters to 'discuss' the themes.

Eraserhead is my least favorite film EVER. I have zero clue why anyone actually liked that dreck. Never saw Die Hard, but I'm pretty sure it's better than Eraserhead.

Kubrick apparently screened it for the cast of 'The Shining' as a hint of the sort of mood he wanted to achieve.

Maybe he just knew it would make Jack all stabby.

[quote name='Slackmo' date='Apr 11 2007, 03:29 PM' post='356331']
[quote name='Tony' post='356303' date='Apr 11 2007, 03:09 PM']
Kubrick apparently screened it for the cast of 'The Shining' as a hint of the sort of mood he wanted to achieve.
[/quote]

As if Danny Lloyd wasn't going to get fucked up enough from his role!


(Evidently, he's a college professor nowadays, but doesn't want to talk about his experience:

Yeah, I think that's basically right. But what he "says" is more about creating a mood, a feeling (and he does that very effectively, never more so than in Eraserhead)--which I don't view as a particularly "intellectual" enterprise, given that it appeals more to the emotions than the intellect.

What would be a cinematic way to appeal to the intellect? I think Jerry Lewis in his best films (The Ladies Man, The Nutty Professor) uses screen space with considerable intellect. Moreso then any Woody Allen film I can think of.

God. who cares? I mean seriously. this creating a mood crap. fuck. "uses screen space with intellect" what the fuck does that even mean? seriously. ugh. I dunno about that Jerry Lewis thing. I don't give a crap if Woody Allen is a poor "filmmaker" i just know i like his movies.

I don't give a rat's ass what mood kubrick felt it conveyed. eraserhead is a turd. I did dig Lynch's "The Elephant Man" however.

If you care about the aesthetics of cinema then you care. 'The Elephant Man' is the least Lynchian of his movies. The opening sequence is great.

Er, I must also admit to never being interested in Eraserhead. Every time I tried to watch that one, I would fall asleep within, oh, 20 minutes. I even tried it back in me ol' acid days, and yes - it would still put me to sleep. Which should have been impossible.

I mean, I like an art film as much as the next kid, but...

Hmm--I guess I wasn't thinking in such formalist terms. I guess I assume that there's a difference between putting thought into how to frame a shot or some other aspect of the craft of the filmmaker and using film to be thought provoking (i.e., to provoke an audience into think about something other than filmmaking). I'm not sure this is a great example, since I haven't seen it in several years, but I was thinking of Faustrecht der Freiheit, which I think of as an interesting treatment of the relationship between class and money.

watched this last night in my film class. it was excellent. very interesting to see how out there and almost vulgar this was for 1932. Jean Harlow was beautiful and hysterical. In a class of almost 300 everyone was laughing out loud and cheering along with this movie, which i thought very interesting for such an old movie like this.
It has aged very well and I highly recommend it. "Buy It"

great film, indeed. mastroiani is amazing. and how the hell did nico get there?! it was her, right?

people usually call "8 1/2" as the most "difficult" fellini film. but i find "la dolce vita" being much more complex. and it's amzing how dark this film is. i mean, literally, often things happen and you can't even see them.


i also watched this today:


my first kurosawa film. i rather liked it. i want to learn something more about the director and that samurai film genre.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

One of the greatest Movies filmed in San Diego! I'd forgotten how weirdly random the Musical segments were, the cheezey battle sequence that goes back & forth across the same block from half a dozen camera angles (where you can actually see some of the characters stop in the middle of the street, turn the other direction, and start running back the other way), and that Mars Attacks stole it's Slim Whitman bit from the Donnie Desmond "Puberty Love" bit in AotKT (Donnie Desmond was played by Matt Cameron, drummer for Soundgarden & Pearl Jam).

Idiocracy

I gotta hand it to Mike Judge. His work has been rapidly improving since he switched to live-action films. Office Space was a huge leap forward in his writing and direction, and Idiocracy is even stronger. This is one of the best sci-fi / comedy films I've ever seen, actually verging on some Brazil-era Gilliam. My only fault with Idiocracy is: it could have been longer. Such a terrific concept, brilliantly performed by the entire cast (well, except maybe Maya Rudolph - she was kinda blank in that role). OK, so there were 2 things wrong. 2 very minor things. On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the hell outta this film.

It felt unifinished and not just in length. It really peteered out in the Third Act. Judge seemed to run out of ideas. And it looked so cut-rate.