The Lemmy documentary was pretty cool - I just wished they'd have spent more time on his background, years with Hawkwind, early Motorhead stuff, etc. There's gotta be more terrific stories there that haven't seen the light of day yet.
I'm about to go off on a rant here, so bear with me.
Last night, I'm watching the last half hour of Transformers 2, killing time until Game of Thrones starts (Hell of an episode - Courage Wolf in tha house, yo!), and I'm already getting overloaded on Michael Bay's in-your-face "Robot fight, I wanna fuck the military so HARD, explosion, wave American flags, explosion, you can see down Megan Fox's top, explosion, robot fight, explosion, wreck Egypt 'cause they ain't U.S., explosion, Shia's saving the day, explosion, F-16's in formation, explosion, etc." fest. I'm trying to figure out exactly what the fuck I'm watching here as two robots (Optimus and The Fallen, I think) are beating the shit out of each other/dry humping/whatever as the US Army is taking out robots with their weaponry, when I came to a realization that I never really appreciated before.
I'd said before that I thought the Transformers designs for the film were very busy looking and were a far cry from the stuff I remember when I was a teen. Hell, I was taking it on blind faith when someone said this robot was Bumblebee, this was Optimus, this was Megatron, etc. because they looked nothing like what I remembered the characters looking like. No biggie - the Japanese changed up their appearances a lot in subsequent anime/toys/whatever. But it occurred to me last night that the design of the film robots also made them extremely vulnerable, too. All those gears, pipes, wires, etc. were on display for all to see, and I'm watching soldiers unloading AR-15s and small arms into the robots, taking them out by hitting their innards. It'd be like going into battle with your intestines on display. Just because. This got me to thinking, about how the fuck could these robots be fighting for millions of years, when these obvious design flaws should've wrapped up such a conflict in about an afternoon.
The problem is simple, and something I'm seeing more and more in sci-fi and superhero blockbuster flicks - the tendency to overdesign characters in an attempt to try and be more realistic/real world, often to the point where the character often loses his identity, and a lot of times IMHO, isn't really necessary.
I'll have more on this in a bit - I'm trying to get my thoughts together here to bolster my argument, so as not to be one of those "I don't wanna see the Wonder Woman pilot, cause she's gotta have bigger cans like in the comics" folks.
The Fast and The Furious - God...the music really hurts the movie. I mean, it's not a great movie, but I had almost forgot the horrible raprock numetal years.
2 Fast 2 Furious - Still love this one. The unintentional scorned gay lover angle between Paul Walker and Tyrese is incredible. I just can't believe the writers didn't have that planned, there are just too many moments where it fits perfectly.
The Thing - Completely forgot Mr. fucking Boogedy is in this. Also, Keith David - under appreciated cool black dude in movies. Delroy Lindo is good, but lets give Keith David more love beyond just his voice.
Big Trouble In Little China - I really appreciate that my mom let me watch this as many times as I wanted in my childhood. It obviously molded me into the man I am today. I love how the floating eye monster and the mutated orangutan are never given the slightest bit of reference. Just like "oh shit floating eye SHOOT IT" and nobody thinks anything else of it...but when in the sewer ol' Jack Burton flips his shit at the wormfish that eats one of the red shirts.
'Cropsey' is one hell of a documentary focusing on Staten Island and unexplained disappearances of mentally handicapped kids and the trial surrounding the one guy that seems to be tied to it yet no hard proof is ever given. It's proper fucked. Also, the footage from Geraldo Rivera's expose on the Willowbrook (I think that's what it was called) institution was fucking chilling. There is a good horror movie waiting to be mined from this.
'TimeCop'. If you haven't seen this, watch it now. Still holds up in my opinion. Decent action scenes, neat premise and Ron Fucking Silver.
"Looking like Nic Cage dressed in Kurt Cobain's closet. I mean that as a compliment" - BillyG
"Too cunty for wine bars, too dainty for real bars." - Anderson
Big Trouble In Little China - I really appreciate that my mom let me watch this as many times as I wanted in my childhood. It obviously molded me into the man I am today. I love how the floating eye monster and the mutated orangutan are never given the slightest bit of reference. Just like "oh shit floating eye SHOOT IT" and nobody thinks anything else of it...but when in the sewer ol' Jack Burton flips his shit at the wormfish that eats one of the red shirts.
Your mom is rad. BTILC is one of the best movies ever. In fact, I just don't know why we don't stop making movies altogether. Nothing will ever best that flick. Not even Juno.
I just watched Victory on the military channel. There some problems with plot holes, but man, what a fantastic movie. One of my favorite Michael Caine movies.
Your mom is rad. BTILC is one of the best movies ever. In fact, I just don't know why we don't stop making movies altogether. Nothing will ever best that flick. Not even Juno.
Big Trouble 2 - Burton has a Hamburger Phone CB radio.
When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."
"Fuck Rob. Also, he has a podcast called Podcaust. Edgy Holocaust humor lulz indeed." - The Faraci
Sheitan is a French film starring a whole bunch of dumbasses, a hot girl for a penchant for associating with insane people, and Vincent Cassel in what must be his strangest fucking performance to date, here playing the greasy nutbar of a groundskeeper in Joseph.
It may have been because I was at the easel for a good eight hour stretch or the lack of sleep, or maybe even both, but the final image had me laughing for a solid minute after the fact.
It's an absolute mess, but one who lacks coherence should be able to follow along quite nicely.
And this was followed by Dead Alive. I'll admit to not seeing it in much aside from a butchered print a long time ago, and at that point didn't really enjoy it. It's a completely impressive splatterhouse here, and the finale is amazing in its inventiveness, but overall it was little more than a showcase for gory spectacle. A younger me would have loved it on such merit alone, but now it feels like the most out of place things are the absurdist humor stylings, as they fall flat while the gross-out stuff and Lionel's bogan Uncle Les carry the more enjoyable moments.
Impressive nonetheless as a monument to practical effects work and sheer audacity.
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