- Welcome to Badmovies.org Forum.
Recent posts
#1
Off Topic Discussion / Re: Gloomy Question For Vetera...
Last post by Dalmatian Bobby Samaritan - Today at 05:36:49 PMQuote from: Metropolisforever on November 11, 2008, 04:15:29 PMRumors have persisted that Bush plans to bomb Iran at the very end of his presidency.
The government has denied that they plan to bomb Iran... but they also denied that they would invade Iraq.
Guess what? They DID invade Iraq, and it's very likely that Bush may attack Iran, just before Obama becomes president.
I have a strong feeling that a nuclear war may start with Iran.
Really what this is is basically a silent movie and we are segwaying to a new Teddy. Taking a crap. I am one of those weirdos who believe that morality is still something. Not memorizing how many baseball players are able to speak perfect english, which is a "miracle" based on where they are from — this is the Hawaiian islands in the pliocene and we are waiting for Pat Robertson to get his love Dove head on and get us ready for the new armageddon.
Where I am from. Elongated Skull land apparently. A-Louie, Louie, no, no, no, no. That is a good song by the way, the conclusion is the Queen of the Gorgons is making a comeback. Sergeant Richard Swain fight me! And prove to me that virtual urban warfare is some sort of hasbendish deal, like listening to Jessie Jane Duff talk about brain tumors in veterans. Because you know this Derek dude would be all over it. He can tell you how elongated skulls solved the problem of brain tumors and
Ah, Sturgeons law. 90 percent of everything is crap. Ok I used crap maybe a couple too many times in this post. But I wonder sometimes who would win in a quotes war The Amazing Criswell or Theodore Sturgeon. Because a lot of both of those guys quotes are like common sense.
The Iran War is basically just like the game Killer Instinct. It rises. And then it falls and disappears completely. And then wait like ten or twenty years later and it is resurrected. Ok I will go with Sturgeon's Law. No offense to Amazing Criswell fans afficionados. The strait of hormuz or George Strait. Do people really know or care?
#2
Humorous Captions / Re: Hey, how do I access that ...
Last post by Rev. Powell - Today at 05:07:04 PMLike my new haircut? I call it the space mullet.
#3
Humorous Captions / Hey, how do I access that one ...
Last post by sprite75 - Today at 05:00:47 PM
Hey, how do I access that one holodeck program? You know, the one where you strangle me? I really want to try out that program for myself.
#6
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by lester1/2jr - Today at 04:02:42 PMTrue Nature (2010) - What a conundrum this presents. One the one hand: The acting and dialogue are clearly b level. On top of that, the story itself is absurd. A woman goes jogging and gets kidnapped (or something?) then comes back with no memory of where she was. She isn't found, she shows up at her parent's house where she left a year before. She was somehow down the street and also somehow has no memory of where she was for a year and no one seems to be particularly curious about it.
And yet, there is the seed of an idea in there. It just badly needed some sort of sci fi or folk horror element to help make it work, and probably an entirely different setting, as well. This got terrible reviews on Letterboxd except one person gave it a 5/5. True Nature could work with a radical mega overhaul. It is, in most measurable ways, a real turkey, though.
3.99/5 but it was compelling for what the plot sort of could be!
And yet, there is the seed of an idea in there. It just badly needed some sort of sci fi or folk horror element to help make it work, and probably an entirely different setting, as well. This got terrible reviews on Letterboxd except one person gave it a 5/5. True Nature could work with a radical mega overhaul. It is, in most measurable ways, a real turkey, though.
3.99/5 but it was compelling for what the plot sort of could be!
#7
Off Topic Discussion / Re: The New Happy Birthday Thr...
Last post by Ed, Ego and Superego - Today at 04:00:47 PMHappy Birthday to YOU old Uncle Z.
Ed
Ed
#8
Bad Movies / Re: RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie...
Last post by M.10rda - Today at 03:00:30 PMTHE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928):
First-time viewing, another in a parade of depressing silent flicks, and this one really smarted. I knew it wasn't a horror film but it isn't even the revenge melodrama that most reviews suggest. It ain't much of anything, unfortunately, and no one would ever speak of it at all if Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson hadn't seen it and appropriated the title character's exact appearance eleven years later for their little comic called "Batman #1"...
In a role that Lon Chaney understandably refused, the great Conrad Veidt is spectacular to look at, generally, because - well, he looks exactly like the original version of the Joker. But Veidt's performance is almost certainly the weakest I've seen him give, maybe because he's hobbled by make-up that apparently prevents him from opening his rictus-grin more than half an inch. Ashamed of this surgical deformity, his character spends much of the film covering his mouth w/ his hands or a cloth. Like w/ Chaney in HUNCHBACK (and less disastrously in PHANTOM), Veidt is deprived of approximately half his face - an actor's most vital tool when he's playing most of a role in close-up or medium shot. It's a silent film, so at least the make-up doesn't prevent Veidt from speaking - though of course hearing Veidt's voice would also contribute to a better performance! (I don't even want to imagine how his character eats - maybe he's on an all-liquid diet?)
When Veidt's character is a little kid, King James has Veidt's dad put in an iron maiden (an almost cool scene) and then has a crazy surgeon permanently deform Veidt, just for giggles. Years later Veidt is a jester (of course) in a traveling sideshow. His childhood friend is a pretty blind girl who is in love with him but he thinks he's unworthy of her because he's deformed. It isn't until his performance attracts the fancy of a Duchess that it occurs to him that maybe he is a happenin' guy! Personally I find this plot very relatable.
When you're a young ugly guy, you don't trust the first girl who ever gives you some attention - you think she's crazy or something. Then when a second girl is somehow into you, then finally you begin to accept that you might be able to be in a relationship.
But, what of the Revenge? Well - in this flick, there is none! There's a lot of romance, a lot of court drama that Veidt isn't even involved in, and a lot of... time frittered away, when Veidt could be, y'know, avengin'! Also like HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS is apparently based
on a Victor Hugo novel, and it reflects a lot of the same issues w/ confused adaptation that Chaney's HUNCHBACK suffered from. Five screenwriters apparently worked on this screenplay - how?! Adaptations of the sprawling Les Miserables have often suffered w/ similar confusion about what's important and what isn't (though the stage musical pretty much figures it all out): many films include Marius' family, who really aren't important; almost no versions include Azelma, the sister of Eponine and daughter of the Thenardiers, who is a minor character but would help us learn more about her family; and some version even exclude the Thenardiers, 
which (obviously!) I think is a fatal error. Hugo is tough on screenwriters, I guess.
Trivial trivia: Superstarlet Mary Philbin plays the blind girl, is billed above Veidt, and barely makes any impression. Olga Baclanova plays the Duchess and you'd know her better as "Cleopatra" in FREAKS. The mad surgeon who operates on young Veidt looks like Matt Berry, which is amusing.
The old guy who runs the sideshow looks like a cross between Zlatko Buric and Mel Brooks as "Yogurt". The main villain (not King James) is defeated at the end not by Veidt but by dog that everyone calls a wolf though he looks more like a hound, and that wolf's name is "Homo", and yes, it's kind of funny when the intertitles read "Homo, no!" and so on.
2/5 at best. Sad that Veidt couldn't join the ranks of Tim Curry and Tadanobu Asano as Best Joker Performances (by Actors Playing A Character Not Called The Joker) but the material just isn't there.
First-time viewing, another in a parade of depressing silent flicks, and this one really smarted. I knew it wasn't a horror film but it isn't even the revenge melodrama that most reviews suggest. It ain't much of anything, unfortunately, and no one would ever speak of it at all if Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson hadn't seen it and appropriated the title character's exact appearance eleven years later for their little comic called "Batman #1"...
In a role that Lon Chaney understandably refused, the great Conrad Veidt is spectacular to look at, generally, because - well, he looks exactly like the original version of the Joker. But Veidt's performance is almost certainly the weakest I've seen him give, maybe because he's hobbled by make-up that apparently prevents him from opening his rictus-grin more than half an inch. Ashamed of this surgical deformity, his character spends much of the film covering his mouth w/ his hands or a cloth. Like w/ Chaney in HUNCHBACK (and less disastrously in PHANTOM), Veidt is deprived of approximately half his face - an actor's most vital tool when he's playing most of a role in close-up or medium shot. It's a silent film, so at least the make-up doesn't prevent Veidt from speaking - though of course hearing Veidt's voice would also contribute to a better performance! (I don't even want to imagine how his character eats - maybe he's on an all-liquid diet?)
When Veidt's character is a little kid, King James has Veidt's dad put in an iron maiden (an almost cool scene) and then has a crazy surgeon permanently deform Veidt, just for giggles. Years later Veidt is a jester (of course) in a traveling sideshow. His childhood friend is a pretty blind girl who is in love with him but he thinks he's unworthy of her because he's deformed. It isn't until his performance attracts the fancy of a Duchess that it occurs to him that maybe he is a happenin' guy! Personally I find this plot very relatable.
When you're a young ugly guy, you don't trust the first girl who ever gives you some attention - you think she's crazy or something. Then when a second girl is somehow into you, then finally you begin to accept that you might be able to be in a relationship. But, what of the Revenge? Well - in this flick, there is none! There's a lot of romance, a lot of court drama that Veidt isn't even involved in, and a lot of... time frittered away, when Veidt could be, y'know, avengin'! Also like HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS is apparently based
on a Victor Hugo novel, and it reflects a lot of the same issues w/ confused adaptation that Chaney's HUNCHBACK suffered from. Five screenwriters apparently worked on this screenplay - how?! Adaptations of the sprawling Les Miserables have often suffered w/ similar confusion about what's important and what isn't (though the stage musical pretty much figures it all out): many films include Marius' family, who really aren't important; almost no versions include Azelma, the sister of Eponine and daughter of the Thenardiers, who is a minor character but would help us learn more about her family; and some version even exclude the Thenardiers, which (obviously!) I think is a fatal error. Hugo is tough on screenwriters, I guess.Trivial trivia: Superstarlet Mary Philbin plays the blind girl, is billed above Veidt, and barely makes any impression. Olga Baclanova plays the Duchess and you'd know her better as "Cleopatra" in FREAKS. The mad surgeon who operates on young Veidt looks like Matt Berry, which is amusing.
The old guy who runs the sideshow looks like a cross between Zlatko Buric and Mel Brooks as "Yogurt". The main villain (not King James) is defeated at the end not by Veidt but by dog that everyone calls a wolf though he looks more like a hound, and that wolf's name is "Homo", and yes, it's kind of funny when the intertitles read "Homo, no!" and so on.2/5 at best. Sad that Veidt couldn't join the ranks of Tim Curry and Tadanobu Asano as Best Joker Performances (by Actors Playing A Character Not Called The Joker) but the material just isn't there.
#9
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by FatFreddysCat - Today at 02:55:15 PM"Frank Miller: American Genius" (2024)
Biography of Frank Miller, the artist/writer who revived Daredevil, re-imagined Batman, and created the "300" and "Sin City" franchises over the course of a nearly 50 year career in comics and movies. A cool trip down memory lane, lloaded with interviews with friends, colleagues and fans, and plenty of nerd trivia. Worth checking out.
Biography of Frank Miller, the artist/writer who revived Daredevil, re-imagined Batman, and created the "300" and "Sin City" franchises over the course of a nearly 50 year career in comics and movies. A cool trip down memory lane, lloaded with interviews with friends, colleagues and fans, and plenty of nerd trivia. Worth checking out.
#10
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by Trevor - Today at 01:49:31 PMQuote from: M.10rda on Today at 01:10:28 PMI've seen SPACE MUTINY. I assure you, SPACE MUTINY is an infinitely more valuable contribution to the international community of cinema than the films being pooped out in Buffalo, NY by Fred Olen Ray et cetera right now!
My friend and mentor Vincent Cox ASC photographed SPACE MUTINY. That and THE DEMON 😳😉