here are a few mini-reviews on three flicks i've watched recently...
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - 2002 (PG-13). (theater) Directed by Peter Jackson. Screenplay by Frances Walsh. A dazzling second installment in the LOTR trilogy. After some enjoyable character development, the film culminates in an epic and most impressive battle sequence. Computer generated imagery rears its head again, rather successfully, in the form of the wretched Gollum---a character you'll love to loathe and pity. All in all, an enjoyable fantasy masterpiece that (thankfully) moves a bit faster than the first. RECOMMENDED.
One Night at McCool's - 2001 (R). (VHS) Directed by Harald Zwart. Matt Dillon, Liv Tyler, Paul Reiser, John Goodman, and Michael Douglas turn in fun perfomances as (respectively) a bartender, a vixen, a lawyer, a cop, and a hitman. The group of mostly ignorant misfits unknowingly lead interconnected lives, all of which revolve around Tyler's sultry and manipulative character Jewel. It's no surprise that they'll all collide colorfully near the end of this movie and it's more fun than you'd think. A RECOMMENDED lazy day comedy.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man - Written and directed by Shinya Tsukamoto. Perhapse William S. Burroughs could have gotten this film; you will not. Picture a B&W narcotic-withdrawal fueled fever-dream and thrust it into live-action anime hell. This hyper-speed chaotic flick begins with some guy inserting an iron pipe into his leg and ends with another fellow turning into a human junkyard. The stuff in between includes stabbing, live-action stop-animation, body morphing, electrocution, and lots of disturbing imagery. I liken the experience of viewing this flick to that of reading Burroughs' "Naked Lunch." You know it's unique and on some level brilliant, but that doesn't mean you understand it or want to experience it twice. It's also similar to the ending of the anime masterpiece Akira only this is way WAY more out there. Most memorable, and perhapse disturbing, is the groin-drilling sequence; a guy's groin morphs into a huge drill bit---which leads to his girlfriends death. Basically, this flick immediately sets the weirdness-bar high and manages to keep raising it throughout. RECOMMENDED because it isn't like anything else around. And I mean anything.
for more Tetsuo info, check out the review here on badmovies.org:
http://www.badmovies.org/othermovies/tetsuo/index.html-mr. henry
