Recent viewings

[lester1/2jr]

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Scott Walker 30 Century Man -  I bought Scott Walkers Tilt not really knowing what it was when it was reissued by the hip US indie label Drag City back in the 90's .  At first I hated it but it grew on me in a big big way eventually becoming really one of my favorite records ever.  I knew a guy who was into his earlier neil Diamond -ey stuff and liked it but didn't own any of it. So this documentary was a good way to figure out that I need to get Scott 4 and Nite Flights, not to mention Climate of the Hunter.  

Basically Walker, an american, had a high brow but also romantic sensibility that was well tailored to Britain in the 60's. As one commenter, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, noted, he was as much a part of that era as Cream just in a different less universally appreciated way. This is not to say he wasn't popular there, he was his band The Walker brothers (they weren't brothers or named walker) had a bunch of huge hits but it wasn't the stuff of teen rebellion and peace protests and so forth, more like gothic romance novels or something.

Eventually Walker went in a very different direction and didn't bother trying to do anything remotely commercial. A funny part of the movie is when Marc Almond of Soft Cell talks about how much he disliked Tilt which makes sense.  It's an avant garde album.  There is some really good stuff of him recording the follow up The Drift, which is also an incredible album.  He uses all sorts of weird instruments, stuff he has built and a 36 piece orchestra who are tasked with "sounding like a ww2 bomber 50 miles away" real eccentric stuff, but it's all planned out and and it all works.  David Bowie produced this and he and people from radiohead, blur, Pulp a bunch of british people I don't know and unfortunatly Sting are in this.

5/5

[3mnkids]

I've been in a Johnnie To mood   

Exiled
Triad Election
Mad detective

Exiled is my favorite of these three.

[lester1/2jr]

Narrow Margin (1948) - not the atmospheric existentialist sort of noir more just a good straightforward crime story. Set on a train: The cop is transporting a gangsters widow and from the get go other gangsters are trying to kill him and get to her. Marie WIndsor is the moll and she is very good as one of these tough broads they have in these movies. Often when noirs try this basic sort of approach they end up talky and dull but this one works if it's not as wildly imaginative as some others. tightly packed into 72 minutes, check it out 4/5

[Rev. Powell]

ARTOIS THE GOAT (2009): An intellectual young man becomes obsessed with creating a perfect goat cheese, jeopardizing his relationship with his fiancee.  There will never be a movie that captures the thrill, excitement and romance of cheesemaking---milking the goats, separating the curds from the whey, aging the finished product---as well as this one does.  It's got a good heart and provides a few chuckles.  2.5/5. 

[SkullBat308]

Alien and Aliens, love them both 

[Newt]

It was a rainy afternoon: I finally watched The Evil Dead.  I enjoyed it - but I am thinking it probably was a bit more...impressive...in 1982?  I found the continuity flaws distracting and I shouldn't have.     Definitely a two-slimer like Andrew's review says.

[Jim H]

I saw Roxie Hart a while ago.  This is the second version of Chicago, before the most recent incarnation with Catherine Zeta Jones.  It was a decent screwball comedy.  Pretty tame content wise compared to the original, from what I gather.  Some good lines, though like a lot of screwball from this era, a lot of the humor just doesn't really work for me.  Still, its brisk 75 minute run really helps.

7/10.

[Jack]

The Phantom Empire (1989) - A group of people go into a cave system looking for treasure.  Instead then find some really silly looking creatures.  Then Michelle Bauer shows up and leads them to the other end of the cave, where they find Sybil Danning, an alien who wants to do, I dunno, something with them.  Directed by Fred Olen Ray, this was just way too goofy for my tastes.  The first half of it was pretty boring as well.  About the only reason to watch this is that Michelle Bauer spends a minute or two running around topless, and of course Sybil Danning shows off some cleavage.  2.5/5.

[El Misfit]

Airplane! (1980) I guess everyone saw this and kept laughing.... Also, I believe that this is one of the key spoof movies out there, as well as Scary Movie and Blazing Saddles.

[Rev. Powell]

MIRRORMASK (2005): With her mother due to undergo surgery, a circus girl enters a dream where an evil queen and a good queen fight for control of a magical land (and for the girl's soul, obviously).  It's virtues mildly outweigh its faults and its hard top dislike, but this LABYRINTH-style psychological coming-of-age fantasy is extremely uneven, right down to the extremely imaginative but often fake-looking CGI design.  3/5.    

[dean]

Just saw The Other Guys [2010]:

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are desk-bound cops who step up to become the 'hero's when Sammy L Jackson and The Rock, the city's previous top cops, fall off the scene.

Overall it was a solid 3/5.  Some funny moments with a great performance by Eva Mendes by the by, but I felt like overall that they pulled their punches: there were a few jokes they could have made but didn't.  Still, it had some silly action, some good banter between Wahlberg and Ferrell and I always like seeing Ferrell scream like a girl...

[SkullBat308]

Blade Runner- Kinda slow but very interesting, this was my first viewing of this I'm ashamed to say. I liked it 

Planet Terror- One of my favorites, good, gooey fun by Gregory Nicoteros KNB effects, love this movie 

[dean]

Blade Runner- Kinda slow but very interesting, this was my first viewing of this I'm ashamed to say. I liked it 

Which one of the million different versions did you watch, if you know that is?

I think there's the Original, the Workprint Cut, The Director's Cut and the Final Cut [and I'm pretty sure I'm missing one still as well...]

They're all great of course, but the crucial difference being that some have a voice over, and some don't.

[SkullBat308]

Blade Runner- Kinda slow but very interesting, this was my first viewing of this I'm ashamed to say. I liked it 

Which one of the million different versions did you watch, if you know that is?

I think there's the Original, the Workprint Cut, The Director's Cut and the Final Cut [and I'm pretty sure I'm missing one still as well...]

They're all great of course, but the crucial difference being that some have a voice over, and some don't.

It was the Final Cut, and I don't remember if it had voiceover or not. Which part were they located? I read that Harrison Ford didn't like the voiceovers and clashed with Ridley Scott.

[lester1/2jr]

Hollywood High 2 (1981)- I liked this but it wasn't as crazy and awesome as I remember. It's second generation vhs copy transferred to DVD and I think it was cut because I remember there being more nudity. There's still some and the girls are pretty hot and it has a good plotless "Malibu Beach" type feel. If someone would rerelease this and part 1, which as I recall was funnier but has less nudity, that would be perfect.

4/5