Recent Viewings

[ulthar]

Mystic River

Sean Penn as a tough guy, Tim Robbins as a confused dude victimized in his youth and Keven Bacon as a cop who was friends with both.  In my view, this movie was okay, but not as deep and profound as it tried to be.  There just seemed to be too many forced plot devices, like Penn's character, a small time thug/respectable business man/devoted family man who ended up having his own little band of followers who could carry out his desires like he was some sort of major mob boss.

See it if you haven't, but don't expect it to blow you away.  Though it certainly thinks you should THINK you've been blown away.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

This one I liked.  I really liked the dichotomy of pitching science vs. religion in the courtroom.  Incidentally, the director (on the commentary) mentioned he never considered this to be 'part' of the ID vs Evolution debate; its symbolic role in that arena is fortuitous and (in his view) distracts from what this film is trying to say.

Though billed as "horror,"  I did not really think this was a horror movie; at least not in the modern sense.  True, it was very interesting, and there were some creepy moments, but I would label it more psychological thriller or perhaps some sort of hybrid.  The reason being is that all the key sequences are various character's memories, so we are only seeing their interpretation of what they saw.  There is virtually no blood in this movie, by the way.  It is not very scarey, overall, but quite engaging.

The real questions this movie asks are purposefully left ambiguous and the director levels the field between the two opposing ideas in an intriguing way.  The 'possession' side gets almost all of the visual support in the film, but the 'science' side gets very cogent, logically reasoned time in the courtroom.  Both sides have their flaws, as human constructs should.

I thought this movie used CGI brilliantly and in very subtle ways (except for the obvious visual effects).  For example, there is a close-up of Emily's watch on her nightstand that transitions from live to a CGI watch seamlessly.  There are background scenes seen through a bar window that are CGI, because the real bar was on the ground level but the director wanted a bar with a skyline view.  Good stuff, and the kind of CGI about which I think no one would complain.

I also liked the use of colors to define certain emotions - orange = terror, green = entrapment, white = hope.  Director Scott Derrickson requested some very odd color palettes for some scenes, and the effect, given to him by Cinematographer Tom Stern, is very striking.  Emily Rose is a very visual film without being overrun by beat-you-over-the-head visual effects.  As you all may tell by now, I really like films with subtlety, and this one fits the bill.  For example, there is a scene with Laura Linney in her apartment in which a small background light in a back room is a very subtle pink.  The softness of that light in a scene that becomes one of terror for the character adds a visual contrast in the safe-at-home-but-not-really sense.

Subtle, subtle stuff.

Mary Poppins

Believe it or not, I had never seen this.  So, I rented it for my daughter and thought I'd get to check off a 'classic.'  I fell asleep about 30 minutes into it.  When I awoke, I figured that I missed enough to not know what was going on, so I went to my office to do some work (which probably meant read badmovies.org forum).  I worked for quite a while and eventually went back to the living room.  Over two hours had elapsed.  Mary Poppins was still playing.

So, about all I can say about this one is that it is very long.  And I fell asleep.  My daughter did not comment one way or another.

Missile to the Moon

Okay, so this is the kind of movie I really love: total cheese 50's era science fiction.  I'm still trying to figure out why the moon in the dark is perfectly comfortable but in the sun will roast a man to his bones in the matter of about 2 seconds.

I enjoyed that the female "moon maidens" were portrayed by real beauty pagent queens.  Has that been done in other movies?  Anyway, I thought it was cool, though you sure could tell when they call came in smiling and doing their beauty queen walk.

I also liked the 'appear from nowhere' meteors, the giant moon-spider and of course the rock men.  And you gotta love how two escaped convicts can be trained to fly a rocket to the moon in a few minutes, especially when the most important part of their training was changing clothes.

If you have not seen Missile to the Moon, it's a must for the badmovies.org crowd.

[Scott]

MISSLE TO THE MOON is a must see as Ulthar has stated. Especially the giant spider and those gumby look alike rock men. I really enjoyed this one.



Here's a picture of Ulthar's Moon Maidens.

[odinn7]

I saw Emily Rose recently and thought the movie was pretty good. I was annoyed with the fact that it was played off in advertising as a horror movie when it was not one at all. I knew this before watching it but for some reason I just couldn't let that go. I think that's the only thing I didn't like about this movie and it wasn't really the movies fault now, was it?

[Just Plain Horse]

I saw Mystic River, and had mixed feelings about it. Sean Penn's character seemed to have a political element to him, and how insiders manipulate figureheads to get what they want. Bacon's character was surprisingly straightforward, and sadly the most likeable out of the three (I never thought I'd say that about Kevin "Hollow Man" Bacon). Tim Robbins character is the most unfortunate one of all- the outcast, and in his case, the ultimate outcast. Robbin's character seemed to be able to see the darkest elements in all those around him- no doubt due to his experiences... this in particular seemed to leave him somehow crippled, unable to take action, despite his awareness of things that seem to be transpiring. When his story comes to a close, he accepts it as unaviodable- a true example of how any culture can convince an individual that they do not deserve a chance. He seemed to have been broken by both those who used him and by those who claimed to know him. He was abandoned, and for nothing of any substantivity. Rare are the movies that make us view the often ignored aspects of our world and the things that go on around the edges that most of us would rather not view.

Mystic River isn't a happy, feel good movie... nor is it an excuse for vigilantism, the genre that gave its director his base for fame; it's something that makes you dislike what is out there, not just in the world of sexual predators but the world of misperceptions so-called civilized societies have of things they cannot understand (or maybe just don't want to). I can't help but feel it should be watched, even if it makes you feel bad. Sometimes that is how the best lessons are learned, conveyed and shared.

[daveblackeye15]

I enjoyed The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

I was a bit disapointed that it wasn't a straight out horror movie, however what it turned out to be was very good and just different.

[BoyScoutKevin]

The only one I've seen is "Mary Poppins." And Ulthar, if you ever get to London (U.K.), you can catch up on what you missed by seeing the stage production, which follows the movie quite closely, I believe.

Actually, after the success of "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King," Disney is thinking of turning another one of its animated classics into a Broadway stage production. Sometimes I hear it's going to be "Aladdin." Sometimes I hear it's going to be "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." And sometimes I hear it's going to be something else.