Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead was fun. The ending sucked, but the rest was pretty entertaining.

Melancholia - 2/5

I really wanted to like this, as it looked like a film I would be into - slow burning, apocalyptic themes with some real life relationship shit sprinkled in, cool settings, etc. But it really did just fall flat for me...this is definitely a film some people will get something unique and powerful out of, but that's the main problem for me - it's just too much a blank canvass to project your own experiences onto. There's scraps of a story about a depressed woman, the world ending, general feelings of helplessness, depression, mental illness - but it's all very vague and really didn't come together enough to stand out on its own as any kind of statement. It's the sort of movie you're supposed to interpret and find meaning in and really dig deep, but more and more I just think those movies are bullshit when not done well, and this reminded me more of a Nicolas Winding Refn film like Only God Forgives than anything. It had its moments of intrigue, the acting was excellent and there were a lot of very nice looking things in it, but the story was empty and I didn't glean the kind of character study Von Trier wanted us to see. Some people probably will get a very evocative story about depression and hopelessness from this movie, but again, I really just think there isn't anything there in the movie itself, so much as whatever experiences you bring to the table from your own life. Interesting but not something I'd really say moved or inspired me like it wanted to.

Finally saw To The Wonder the other night. I knew it was heavily panned so I expected to feel the same, but didn't. The cinematic language Malick uses is just exquisite, unlike anything else. I don't know why, but it just clicks with me. Call me an art fag for whatever for feeling that way, that's just what I get from his movies. I can see why people view them as pretentious, but to me they're the opposite of pseudo-intellectual headaches like Birdman. I hope more movies continue to move in the direction he's taking them, away from the scripted and literary.



I think there was a definite statement there. It just wasn't as well done as say, Inland Empire, which had a similar message but totally different approach which sought to depict personal experience in a very clever way. Melancholia was a literal depiction of events so needed the vagueness to, as you say, paste your experience on to the protagonists's, but then you get an empty detachment which isn't all that interesting as a film. If you've been through severe depression it really does feel pointless and apocalyptic and when it ends it is a revelation, much like the events of the movie. So it can only really resonate with a small subset of viewers who interpret it in that way. I'm a sucker for depressing movies with happy outcomes and still don't have any desire to see it again, even though I admire what it was trying to get across.

Yeah, I mean, it dragged like hell for me and I didn't really find the characters interesting, but what you said is true enough and it raises an interesting point - how far can movies go in that "blank canvass" direction, and is it a worthwhile artistic pursuit to make something so vague that it really just matters what you bring to the table more than the actual story? Movies in general always require some form of personal experience anyway, that's why taste is so subjective. Melancholia was just taking that to another level. And it was certainly better than a shitfest like Only God Forgives in every way, so there's that. I can see the case for it being a successful movie, albeit being rather frustrated with it on a lot of levels.

Melancholia kicks the shit out of Inland Empire - the latter was just intentionally obtuse for the sake of its own ideas, the former, I think was a genuine portrayal of human beings as...I dunno - empty vessels? I liked the singularity of it - but I also thought Only God Forgives was fuckin cool and the fact that the director seemed to almost have a disdain for the audience made me hella happy.

Also, anyone seen this movie?

http://steelforbrains.com/post/11404457 ... ker-ragnar

I HATED Melancholia. Such an incredibly boring, empty movie. That and Antichrist basically turned me off of Lars von Trier. Nymphomaniac doesn't look any better.

Melancholia was a terrible movie. I started to watch Antichrist and couldn't get more than 10 minutes into it. I guess Lars von Trier just isn't for me.

I liked the second half or so of Melancholia but the first have was super dull. Antichrist was good but only "good." I honestly feel like movies like that would've worked much better with a lot of static camera angles and stuff. All the handheld camera work doesn't really fit the atmospheres he's going for.

If it was obtuse, it was only in the context of the narrative. In what it tried to convey (successfully) it was far more 'singular' than Melancholia, and in my mind it's a masterpiece. Would having a narrator telling you what's going on in each scene improve it for you?

I liked both films but really, von Trier is just incredibly overrated for what his moderate amount of talent is capable of.

Rewatched Jaws tonight. Hadn't seen it in years. So well-made, and it still freaks the shit out of me. Huge great white shark and the ocean. Yikes.

Lars Von Trier seems to be one of those directors who make films based on really mindblowing ideas that end up falling a bit flat in the final cut.

Rewatched Tango and Cash on bluray, not as bad as I remember it, some of it is all kinds of Looney Tunes wtf like Jack Palance eating up every scene and Kurt Russell in drag. All in all though it's a fun ride, some of the comedy and abundance of quips works well.

I've had that for a while, still unwatched. Came in a 2-pack with Demolition Man and for some fucking retarded reason they used the altered European version of DM with all the Taco Bell references badly changed to Pizza Hut

Tango and Cash is greatness haha, wish we got another one with those two together.

Over the Top and Cobra are both hilariously fun too.

Yeah I remember it pretty well from multiple VHS viewings back in the day. 80s Stallone in general is always entertaining.

I bit the bullet and watched Curse of Chucky a few weeks ago, it's easily better than whatever Seed of Chucky was and the 3rd film that's set at a military school for some reason. Brad Dourif's daughter is a good actress and jumpscares/CGI were kept to a minute amount. I liked the premise of a female protagonist confined to a wheelchair, probably the most interesting set up in the series. 'Clown' released this year is also pretty good, the first half is really darkly comedic with cringe-worthy moments like when Tom Hanks smashed out his abscessed tooth with an ice skate in Cast Away. It's also got Peter Stormare. That counts for something, right?

To Live And Die In LA...,
maybe 8 Million Ways To Die,
The Boys Next Door w/ charlie sheen perhaps,
possibly Manhunter

Watched Tremors just now. Man, that is the definition of a bare-bones story! No explanation of where these monsters come from, and a really simple solution to getting rid of the last one. (Also, the few we see are the whole species?)

On the other hand, the Gummers are my kind of characters: wild west, gun-hoardin' survivalists holed up in a big-ass bunker - hell yeah! And it's the film debut of Reba McEntire, whom I find is a very admirable woman.

Reba is one of my least favorite people purely because I hated her TV show so much and Tremors is like the best bad movie out there. Granted it's probably all about nostalgia because I watched it all the time with my grandparents when I was a kid, and the sequels are all bona fide terrible, but I watched it again recently and still had a lot of fun with it.

Granted I was hammered but still.

I watched Tremors when I was a teenager and thought it was good, many years later I went and bought a copy at a second hand store, took it home, made myself some Doritos with 2 kinds of melted cheese and it started pausing and skipping at the last 20 minutes. There was no dust or scratches on the disc at all. I'm not sure if that aided in my disappointment of the movie but I felt overall it wasn't horror enough be suspenseful and not funny enough to be note worthy, all the kills felt really predictable and boring, all the characters felt pretty stupid in a crisis situation and as characters as well.

If you like Dogville only half as much as I do I will marry you.

Dogville and Manderlay are films so flawless they've sort of deadened my enthusiasm for watching other movies. Zentropa and The Element of Crime are almost as perfect, and Dancer in the Dark is easily the best musical ever made. I did like Melancholia a lot more the second time through; an awful lot of the symbolism will just fly right past you if you don't know what to look for. It still was nowhere near as good as the other films though.

I'm very lukewarm on everything else he's made; Antichrist and Breaking the Waves were gorgeous but had too much dead air, and far too little to say by the time their respective credits rolled. The Idiots was a very orthodox entry into his own Dogme 95 code, but surprisingly it was one of the weaker ones overall. Dear Wendy (which I don't think he directed but he did write) was one of the worst movies I've watched to completion.

I haven't seen Nymphomaniac yet but I don't think I'm going to like it very much. It looks like Antichrist Redux: Now With Even More On-Screen Penetration!

^ Don't bother, it sucks ass.

I actually really really liked Antichrist - I don't know what it was, but the atmosphere just totally sucked me in, it's exactly the kind of horror I love. Lars von Trier does that for pretty much every movie of his I've seen - creates this thick atmosphere and doesn't really care about much else. If the atmosphere works, great, if not...you'll probably get bored really fast.

Who are you people who don't like Tremors? Tremors is life.

I re-watched it last night after seeing it was still on Netflix, and yeah, easily one of the most cathartic and disturbing films I've seen. Just such a masterful depiction of grief and of those characters - Dafoe in particular acted really well. The setting was creepy as shit, the sadness and sorrow were palpable and the use of sound was really powerfully done...very artful yet explicit, no-holds-barred horror with a lot of drama in the mix too.

And yeah, Tremors is great fun.

Watched Heat and The Drop recently. Heat was great as everyone already knows - I liked how it played off the usual cop/crime movie cliches and went further with the themes of the overworked cop/criminal who neglects his family. At first I thought that aspect was a bit dated, but as the film went on it proved that it was more than just another angry shouting man and irritable wife cliche - very well acted too, with Pacino a lot of fun and De Niro in one of his last great roles. Really fast, fun plot too, one I look forward to watching again and picking up smaller details and intricacies. Definitely a classic.

The Drop is a Dennis Lehane-penned story and a great crime film. It takes its audience seriously and has a lot of really well done characters and acting. I couldn't get enough of this and wouldn't have cared if it went on even longer. Themes of faith and responsibility as well as a terse, tighty-written plot and a great wintry northern US setting just make this a killer flick. Definitely one of my top favorites from last year now.

Yeah, one of the best aspects of Heat is how it doesn't just introduce some cops and criminals and leave it at that, it actually goes into the mindset that led them to becoming (and remaining) cops and criminals. With Pacino's detective it's a chicken-and-the-egg scenario - was his extreme dedication to the job what wrecked his personal life, or was a shitty personal life what drove him to work so much as a form of escapism?

And actually the black driver, a minor character, best illustrates what makes the criminals stick to being criminals - he's trying to make an honest living as a lowly line cook in a shitty diner, but his boss treats him like shit and taunts him that, with his criminal history, who else would hire him? On the other hand, as a criminal, he is skilled and respected for that skill by his colleagues, who value him highly and treat him like a friend rather than an employee.

It's rare that a film will go that deep into its characters, while also having some really fucking cool action.

Yeah I forgot about that black guy, he was great. A small part of the film, but really detailed, especially for how little he actually appeared in the entire 3 hour runtime. The only equivalent to this movie we have now that I know of is The Drop and another Lehane adaptation, Gone Baby Gone, and both of those have less high octane action and focus more on the mystery aspect - more slow burning. We need more stuff like Heat now for sure.

Unfortunately, Michael Mann has been in a real slump lately. I haven't seen his latest, but it wasn't received well, and Public Enemies was a real letdown :/

I enjoyed the hell out of The Drop, out of the recent Hollywood movies I've seen it's up there with Whiplash and Nightcrawler in terms of quality. Funny thing with The Drop is that is pretty predictable and we've all seen it before and know how it will turn out, but it still works because of a strong cast and just because stories like that are great to begin with. Pretty happy to see a lot of good movies coming out of America again, sadly we are in a slump right now, post-Oscars pre-Summer, so the recent movie scene is pretty dire at the moment. Well, watched Alien again so that was cool, but cool can only be repeated that much, really aching for new good quality movies, even the awesome Danish movies are wearing thin at the moment.

I dunno, it was a conventional story, but the twist at the end I didn't see coming when I read the book right before seeing the movie. It put a smile on my face like some of my old favorite movies/books.

HHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG


It seems like they kept the "Bond has an evil brother" synopsis that leaked some months ago, at least parts of it. I'm not really excited by that but I'm sure it will be super good and fucking Christoph Waltz is magnificent. No Monica Belluci in that teaser though :'(

Saw It Follows last night. Really cool, fun, scary horror flick, exactly as good as everyone was expecting. Cool soundtrack, really terse, creepy moments all throughout and a certain unpredictability that made it better than a regular horror film. Really good characters just rounded out an already impressive movie. I did a review on the blog, but the short of it is, go see this if you can.

So they're bringing back Mr. White...who seems to have aged 20 years in two movies. I don't mind, his scenes were so few it was almost a waste of such a good actor.

I guess he's now one of the longest-running villains in the Bond films?

I just got the 3 disc set of The Beyond from Grindhouse Releasing. I've seen it plenty of times but I'm pretty excited to see what the set offers.

I'd recommend "Mommy" which is a Canadian movie from last year. Intense film about the relationship between a mother and her mentally ill son, it has great critics and the acting is superb. Not to be missed if one is a fan of visceral dramas.

Saw a whole bunch of movies over the last few months again.

Gone Girl: I liked this. Mostly for Rosamund Pike, and surprisingly Tyler Perry, but i liked it. The dialogue was engaging, Pike was insane in an entertaining way, it had some nice little détails, and the ending made me smile. My girlfriend thought her actions were romantic so I sleep with a knife beneath my pillow now. Was it David Fincher's best movie? Not in a universe in which Zodiac exists. Was the cinematography anything special? No, it was bland. As was the soundtrack. But the pacing was excellent, and it seemed more like a book than anything. I have no intention of reading the book, but I'd think the movie didn't leave much out. There isn't much more too it. 7 on 10

Born on the Fourth of July: This movie, along with The Doors, and Natural Born Killers are the only 3 good movies Oliver Stone has made. Platoon is bullshit, I'll always stand by that. Tom Cruise gives one of his best performances, and his evolution as a character is gripping. It's got that overly American feeling that Oliver Stone just loves so much, but here it doesn't feel cheesy and kill my enjoyment. Willem Dafoe is in it for only a short while but he leaves a big impression, and that wheelchair fight is epic. It was never going to not be hilarious, no matter how much it was built up or how it was shot, but I'm happy it's in the movie. Lots of sad touches. I liked Tom Cruise's relationship with his parents, who were well developed 1950's generation characters. The movie has a great sense of time and place. Saw it a while ago so my thoughts aren't the most focused, but it's worth seeing. 8 on 10

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: This was epic. I enjoyed most things about it. It had that irritating muted colour palette that I strongly dislike about modern action movies, but it was all post-apocalyptic and shit so I'll let it slide seeing as it comes with the territory. You know CGI has gotten ridiculous when you find yourself thinking ''man, this ape is a good actor.'' It makes some pretty obvious juxtapositions between the apes and humans, and overall thinks it's so clever that it needs to keep hammering it in in different ways, but I didn't mind because it was entertaining while doing it. I didn't quite like it as much as Rise, though. Good shit. 8.5 on 10

Whiplash: Most Excellent! A lean, mean fighting machine with no interests outside of being as focused a study on the obsessive need to be the best at something. Miles Teller's performance is bare bones, while J.K. Simmons goes in the opposite direction, and their interplay is fantastic. The scene with the car crash! Powerful stuff. I barely even like jazz and I thought the soundtrack was mindblowing. This is the type of movie that is more kinetic and fast moving than an action movie while lacking explosions and boobs. I would reccomend it to just about anyone. It's a well honed blade that can cut through anything, and it deserves whatever oscars it won. (Did it win oscars?) 9 on 10

Ed Wood: I thought this would be better. It's alright I guess. But eh. Tim Burton, just stop. 5 on 10

The Master: Weirdly paced, strongly acted, lots of beautiful shots, and overall kind of boring. It's strange. Paul Thomas Anderson seems to make movies to prove a point. And sometimes that leads to things that are only semi-enjoyable, or only enjoyable in theory. I mean, he can be masterful, as Boogie Nights proved, but something like this creates several conflicting feelings. Joaquin Phoenix is amazing in this, and single handedly keeps you watching. He has scenes that are incredibly powerful. The scene where Philip Seymour Hoffman first interviews him is gripping. PSH could have been better, but I can't say he was given all that much to work him and the movie was only tangentially about him. What I did enjoy was that there were no easy answers, and the movie rang very true to life. I would see it if you really have almost 3 hours to spare on a difficult movie, or if Paul Thomas Anderson is your homeboy. 7 on 10

The Den: I've come to the personal realisation that I REALLY enjoy found footage when it's done this well. It's become something of an accepted conclusion that the style mostly sucks, but I've seen a lot of really excellent examples of it. Just avoid the bad ones, guys. The internet exists for a reason. Anyways, this is a steamroller of a movie. The characterisation is strong, no stupid decisions are made, the gore game is on point, and it's actually all around creepy. It's a modern film which explores modern fears with fantastic acumen. It goes in directions that you don't necessarily expect, it's super lean and short, and never lets up. Who says modern horror is bad? The good shit just rarely makes it to theatres. 9 on 10

Stage Fright: Slasher film nirvana. This is wonderfully bizarre. Owl masks! Saxophone dance numbers! The set is a theatre! The characters aren't one dimensional! The ending feels like an inside joke I'm not in on! Really, if you like Italian horror, or slasher films, you need to see this.
8 on 10

ABC's of Death 2: Like the first one, this has a few sweet segments, and a large number of crap. The opening is the best part, with a sick theme. D, H, K, and Q were notable standouts. With D is for Deloused actually succeeding at being super creepy. I can't in all good conscience tell anybody they should watch it, but maybe check out D is for Deloused if it's on YouTube or something. 5 on 10

Spirited Away: Beautiful! Hyperbole is an understatement when talking about this film. I had never seen a studio Ghibli movie before, and what an introduction. That animation is wonderful, the story is so engaging. It's an overall joy to behold. The dubbed version I watched was super competent, and the only dub I've heard of anime that didn't suck massive cojones. It's long, but doesn't feel long. And there's some subtly creepy imagery for you older folks. 9.5 on 10

Howl's Moving Castle: The other side of the coin. Tedious, cheesy, and a horrible dub. What was Christian Bale doing? Why does he spend the entire movie either sounding creepily overly sensual, or doing his Batman voice? Why does the random scarecrow turn into a prince out of nowhere at the very end and the war that had been looming over all the events suddenly end as if it was nothing? Why is calcifer so god damn annoying? Honestly, if I hadn't been watching this with friends and riffing on it, I wouldn't have finished it. Hard to believe this is Studio Ghibli too. 3 on 10

Yet more movies.

Coherence: Watched this on the reccomendation of PhilosophicalFrog. The man is after my own heart. This was almost perfect. Tiny budget, crew of mostly unknowns, largely improvised dialogue, and the opposite of the mess one would expect with that description! It's dense as hell, and there's two ways to watch it. You can let it wash over you and appreciate all the things it does super well. Or you can brew some coffee and get OBSERVANT, noticing all the intentional continuity ''errors'' and keeping track of who is who at all times. It's so much fun, and maybe my favourite take on parallel universes. It's really short, too. You can squeeze it in if you've got a bit of time to spend on some sweet sci-fi.
9.5 on 10

A Most Violent Year: Oscar Isaac seems to be in a lot of movies that look appealing to me these days. (Ex Machina looks fantastic.) This was not what I expected from the movie at all, based on the trailers. I was expecting a semi-slow burning gangster movie, what I got instead was the slowest movie ever about a man mostly resisting doing things in a crooked way while everything around him falls apart. It was interesting in it's own way, and Isaac was super intense. But why, though? He was clearly channeling classic Pacino, and people in the movie respected him, but I never got why. He does nothing. He just talks. Then he barely solves the problems. Too slow for my ADD addled brain, I suppose. I can understand how others would enjoy it more than I did, but I would never rewatch it. 6.5 on 10

Boyhood: I enjoyed this for two reasons. First, because of all the references to the years of my childhood and music and things that were around and in style at the time. The sense of time and place is incredibly strong and inspires powerful nostalgia. Second, because the conversations between the father and the kids and the mother and the kids echoes so many conversations I had with my parents growing up. It's like Richard Linklater stored those growing experiences perfectly and never forgot them so he could represent them some day. It's a movie that is super true to life. That was it's intention, and it succeeds. It wasn't the most gripping thing ever. It wasn't the most fascinating thing ever. But it does what it sets out to do with grace. 8 on 10

Mr. Jones: Low budget movie captures nightmare in visually appealing way. Mental illness is implied. What truly happened? What was merely a fabrication of our unreliable narrator? Movies don't do this enough. The visuals and photography were seriously above what I expect from a movie with this kind of budget and unknowns attached to it. The last 20 minutes are a serious clusterfuck of awesomeness. This is a movie you will either adore with all of your being, or loathe. I'm part of the former group. 9 on 10
Also, Sarah Jones is fucking gorgeous ok.

Inherent Vice: BOOOO! Garbage! Over 3 hours of intentionally muddled and confusing storytelling. I felt like I was high on low grade drugs while watching this. I'm not sure why I watched the whole thing. Many characters don't have more than 2 scenes. It basically tries to be The Big Lebowski, if that movie's plot was shitty, didn't tie everything together, was unfunny, and didn't understand what made Big Lebowski work so well. Just please don't waste your time on this. God damn it, Paul Thomas Anderson. I have a poster of this movie up in my room because it's a badass poster and every time I look at it, I weep. 2 on 10

More to come later.

I watched two movies recently - Kingsman and Grave Encounters. Kingsman was a lot of fun, it keeps you entertained throughout with comedy and action. I think they chose the actors well for the roles. I had low expectations of Firth (feel he's a boring actor) but he blew me away. If there's ever a sequel for this, it better have this fella too -

Grave Encounters was fairly goofy from the get go. I'm not sure why I continued to watch it but towards the last quarter of the movie it got slightly interesting. The movie revolves around an abandoned mental hospital where a group of ghost-hunters (if I may call them that) film their indie show. All along they hadn't encountered anything paranormal until they chance upon this place. The rest is history. Some of the scenes are freaky but I feel the scares could've been employed even more effectively. All in all, it wasn't that bad a movie but it wasn't good either.

That's screwed up. I'd be sleeping with one eye open.

Been watching some random movie called The Ambulance, it's about a comic artist and his crush goes missing after being taken away in a mysterious ambulance. Yep, it's bit of an odd 1990 movie. James Earl Jones performance is really bizarre like the director said do 8 out of 10 crazy. Eric Roberts is actually watchable here, not overly nauseating with wavering voice like his usual norm. Although his character harasses a woman at the start which is a little uncomfortable to watch after that '10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman' video.. Oh and because he's a comic book artist guess who he works with? Stan Lee! I think there might even be other comic book artists that cameo but I'm not sure. This could either be a train wreck or a cult classic.

It Follows - 8/10

So like how 2014 had The Babadook, It Follows is probably going to be the most talked about horror movie of the year for 2015. Overall, I wasn't really terrified at any point during the movie, but I definitely enjoyed the retro-80's aesthetic that it was going for, and simply for the fact that it was a horror movie that tried to scare you through tension and atmosphere building than jump-scares and gore. It was gorgeously shot and the John Carpenter-lite synth soundtrack was fantastic, and I actually cared about most of the characters, even if they were a little flat at times. My only real gripes with the movie were
but that's really just nitpicking and I thought the last scene of the movie was really well done. It's not exactly reinventing the wheel, but I'm just glad I saw a horror movie that at least tried to do something original instead of another lazy found-footage Exorcist ripoff.