Bunch O' Stupid Movies

[Mofo Rising]

It's been a banner few days for movie watching for me.  Over the last 48 hours I've watched:

THE SEVENTH SEAL
THE HOBBIT
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?
EATING RAOUL
VIDEODROME

Well, that's not so much, but it's a lot for me.

THE SEVENTH SEAL I watched twice.  Once regular and once with commentary.  I was happy to find that it was nowhere near as inaccessible as one would think.  I liked it.

THE HOBBIT.  I'm busy reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy before the first movie comes out this December.  I finished off THE HOBBIT, so I rented the cartoon.  I don't recommend doing so directly after reading the book.  The cartoon fits it all into 80 minutes and races through the material.  I did enjoy the animation techniques somewhat.  They're very different in execution than today's cartoons.  I don't know about the character designs, though.  It had a definite Gahan Wilson quality to it, but the dwarves were quite a bit different than the AD&D fellows I was thinking of.  More like SNOW WHITE dwarves with more wrinkles.  (Bonus trivia:  Richard Boone, star of BUSHIDO BLADE, was the voice of Smaug.)

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU is one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen recently.  I really wanted to see this in theatres, but I couldn't find anybody to go with and having no car, well, that theatre is really far.  I especially enjoyed the lotus-eating baptists.  And of course the soundtrack is full of catchy bluegrass (not the political rally stuff).  Interesting fact, a new film processing technique resulted in the whole thing be digitally recolorized.

EATING RAOUL I heard quite a few good things about.  I enjoyed it, but don't feel the need to ever see it again.  I liked the matter of fact way everybody did everything.

VIDEODROME I really, really enjoyed.  It's very reminiscent of Philip K. Dick novels, and deals with the reality subverting I really enjoy in sci-fi.  I'd love to go on and on, but I'll save that until I decide to make my own webpage.  Too bad the DVD didn't have much in the way of extras.

Coming up:

FUNNY GAMES
DEAD RINGERS
THE INTERVIEW

[Squishy]

Rankin-Bass did "The Hobbit," as well as "The Return of the King," which was kind of a indirect fill-in for Ralph Bakshi's unfinished version of "Lord of the Rings." The Rankin-Bass style is unique but not for all tastes. I would recommend highly, though, their theatrical release, "The Last Unicorn;" the cast is excellent (except for Jeff Bridges), Christopher Lee's soliloquy should've gotten him a friggin' Oscar.

[Rakie]

I really loved Videodrome too!  I could watch that dumb movie all day, especially when the guy loses his gun in his stomach (don't you hate when that happens?).

[[atticus]]

Let us not forget another fine animated film, The Flight of Dragons. More fun stuff as it's science vs magic with John Ritter at the helm! Tee hee hee.

[Nathan]

My first exposure to The Hobbit was in the book issued in conjunction with the animated film; Tolkien's text, cels for illustration.  It's colored my imagination of Middle-Earth ever since.  But I've never been able to force myself to sit through the animated film.

Nathan

[Gerry]

I would definitely advise watching the Rankin-Bass Hobbit first, then reading the book.  The experience will be much more enjoyable that way.  I loved the R-B Hobbit as a kid.  Smaug and the goblins and the trolls and the goblins were all frightening and cool at the same time.  I didn't read the book until later on.

[Gerry]

I guess I was impressed by the goblins, eh?  I meant gollum the second time.  Typing faster than I think I guess.

[Mr.Smashy]

This movie was great for a number of reasons.
1) Hand/Gun Bio-mechanical mutations
2) Weird Sex
3) David Cronenburg's messed up script (which somehow manages to take some interesting philosophical etc...like material, and make it odd...)
4) Using VHS to control people through openings in their stomach's that look like...cough..cough
5) Making passionate love to your pulsating and bulging TV
6) I could go on....but I think I've ruined enough of this movie.

I think the best part is the ending. I remember coming home from school one weekend and  catching only the ending (just as he walked into the boat (?) and sat down around the fire). It messed me up for days. I went back to school and tried to explain the sheer coolness of someone hailing the new flesh...but no one understood. Once I saw the whole movie and had an oppertunity to appreciate the full meaning of his otherwise cryptic statement, I could barely contain my overexcited love of film. Unfortunetly, there were few people in grade nine who wanted to discuss the deeper questions raised in this film, so I ended up chucking a bucket at one kid and chipping his tooth....no wait...that was unrelated entirely to this.

[Steve.]

Videodrome was brilliant. Dead Ringers (Also made by David Cronenberg) is as good, but in a more "accessible" way. Watch out for one of the twins' "instruments for mutant women". As for "Funny Games", be prepared for a mind-****. It starts out quietly enough, being yer average tale of two Austrian psychopaths, but it soon gives you that sinking feeling in your guts - you just know it's gonna turn very bad.

[peter johnson]

While I no doubt am sure that all of these movies deserve attention, SEVENTH SEAL is one of the greatest movies ever made, if not THE greatest.  I'm glad Mr. Mofo didn't find it as "inaccessable" as he thought it may have been, but I sure hope nobody else is avoiding it out of a similar concern:
Burning Witches!!  Mass Hysteria!!  Insanity!!  Death as a Person!!  Rotten Plague-Ridden Corpses!!  Swords!!  Rape!! Slapstick Comedy!!  Filth, Lust & Treachery!!  Flagellation, Self-Mutilation, Sado-Masochism & Torture!!  Pretty Girls!!  Vengeance & Violence!!
As well as some of the most breathtaking black-and white photography put to screen.
I'm very glad Mofo liked it --
Bet the rest of you would too . . . .

[Mofo Rising]

Well, I was under the assumption that it would be like a French perfume commercial.  Lots of people framed in silhouette uttering cryptic sentence followed by long, drawn out silences.  Happily that wasn't the case.

They totally ripped off the name of Castle Elsinore from STRANGE BREW, though.

[peter johnson]

Mofo -- very funny observation!!  They even ripped off the star for STRANGE BREW for that matter:  Max von Sydow=Bad guy in BREW & Good Guy knight in SEVENTH SEAL.  Bet there are other references too -- The Second City/McKenzie Brothers crew were/are big Ingmar Bergman fans --