The House With Laughing Windows is a good one. I'm going to watch it again so I should have my mini-review up later.

Given more consideration, I've decided to raise this score to a 3.5. It's a pretty thought-provoking picture.

I know The House with Laughing Windows; wrote about it here a few months back, in fact. That's a great movie.

So I'm done with my Hellraiser spree, and am not planning to watch the last 3 as I just can't take any more of this shit. They're all bad, people. Bad, bad, bad movies.

Damn, I was really looking forward to you finishing them off. Can't argue with you though, I watched Hellraiser IV a couple weeks back it was a painful, painful experience.

Seems like you have pretty good taste. That is a rather essential one. I need to get it, actually.

HOly hell guys...
This talk of House with Laughing WIndows inspired me to finally watch the other film from the same director I have, Zeder. You all should see this because it's an awesome movie. While House had a sort of vague suggestion of supernatural elements that came through at the end, Zeder makes this the central focus. You could even almost place it in the "zombie" subgenre, if you believe in such a thing, because it concerns a writer who discovers, by accident/coincidence, that some research was being done in certain areas that are imbued with a special property that can resurrect the buried dead. Part mystery/conspiracy thriller, part creeping, unsettling horror, this film is just magnificent if you want something with a truly weird and distinctive atmosphere. Like House, there's a chilling prologue that just pulls you in immediately and has you on the edge of your seat. What this film does differently though is space out its moments of stark horror more evenly throughout, and there are some really unsettling moments, to be sure. There's also a damn fine soundtrack that's more than a tad Goblin-ish (not by them, though) which accentuates the tensest parts with a rather proggish main theme. Totally first rate stuff; I think i can even say it's an unsung complete classic of the genre.

Soylent Green
~ 3.5

Watched this for the first time last night. Not until this morning did I get that a lot of Idiocracy's references are to that movie, filtered through the bizarre, filthy colander that is Mike Judge's brain. anyhow ..

It's a bit anticlimactic when all I know about a movie is the very end. Still, I liked it, and I'm glad I finally saw it. I definitely put it in the same row with Logan's Run as far as "good content/amusingly bad execution/ futuristic morality" film. I liked it in general terms, though my main enjoyments came from getting to look at the 'furniture' (which was quite nice), being glad that Saul could actually cook when he got all those fresh vegetables (though diminished somewhat by being reminded that I didn't have any bourbon), and thinking about the yumminess of strawberry jam. But my favorite things (apart from Shirl's breasts) were the scoopers. I love that scene.

I liked how convincingly different the atmospheres of the affluent apartments and Home were from the outside world, hot, muggy, and constantly uncomfortable without enough potable water to ever be properly hydrated. I wanted Thorn to kill Charles.

My favorite character was the priest. I'd like to think I'd end up like him in a situation like that. I don't mean dead in a confessional. "All truth" may have been destroying him, but I enjoyed his exhausted persistence at making people comfortable in their final hours. I wonder how the book ends. Does Hatcher go into the Exchange and kill them all? I'll have to read it and find out. Might make a double header of that book and .. Electric Sheep.

Oh man, Dumb and Dumber 2. I'm shamelessly SO excited!

I just view everyone after the first as a teen comedy and they all kind of make sense.

Watched a film yesterday called 'Elephant' released in 2003.

This time when I took a recommendation from by buddy, I had advance warning that I was going to be watching an 'artsy' film. It's a movie about a bunch of kids who all go to the same highschool, and the events of one particular day.

The first 2/3 or so of the movie is extremely slowly paced, as we are introduced to the stereotypical highschool kids by ones and twos. We get a quick glimpse into what these kids are made of, and an idea of their routine I suppose. We see some of the days events through each of their eyes, and where their paths meet, building up to the final events of the film. Some foreshadow is introduced, but for the most part the movie is shot documentary style, will extremely long following shots of the students. I'm not exactly the biggest film buff, but the way the film was shot really left the plot with the kind of 'pure' tone to it. What I mean by that is, I never really felt like the movie coloured protagonists or antagonists, and you were really left to come to a 'Why' conclusion on your own, rather than be handed some justification on a platter just before the credits.

The slow first bit is definitely worth it, as it gave this kind of a harder atmosphere to the movie. Anyways, I thought it was really good, although I would almost say you have to be in a certain 'mood' to sit through the first 2/3rd's. This movie wasn't entertaining in the traditional sense, but got the overall message across extremely effectively.

Watched a film yesterday called 'Elephant' released in 2003.

This time when I took a recommendation from by buddy, I had advance warning that I was going to be watching an 'artsy' film. It's a movie about a bunch of kids who all go to the same highschool, and the events of one particular day.

The first 2/3 or so of the movie is extremely slowly paced, as we are introduced to the stereotypical highschool kids by ones and twos. We get a quick glimpse into what these kids are made of, and an idea of their routine I suppose. We see some of the days events through each of their eyes, and where their paths meet, building up to the final events of the film. Some foreshadow is introduced, but for the most part the movie is shot documentary style, will extremely long following shots of the students. I'm not exactly the biggest film buff, but the way the film was shot really left the plot with the kind of 'pure' tone to it. What I mean by that is, I never really felt like the movie coloured protagonists or antagonists, and you were really left to come to a 'Why' conclusion on your own, rather than be handed some justification on a platter just before the credits.

The slow first bit is definitely worth it, as it gave this kind of a harder atmosphere to the movie. Anyways, I thought it was really good, although I would almost say you have to be in a certain 'mood' to sit through the first 2/3rd's. This movie wasn't entertaining in the traditional sense, but got the overall message across extremely effectively.

Watched a film yesterday called 'Elephant' released in 2003. 3.5/5

This time when I took a recommendation from by buddy, I had advance warning that I was going to be watching an 'artsy' film. It's a movie about a bunch of kids who all go to the same highschool, and the events of one particular day.

The first 2/3 or so of the movie is extremely slowly paced, as we are introduced to the stereotypical highschool kids by ones and twos. We get a quick glimpse into what these kids are made of, and an idea of their routine I suppose. We see some of the days events through each of their eyes, and where their paths meet, building up to the final events of the film. Some foreshadow is introduced, but for the most part the movie is shot documentary style, will extremely long following shots of the students. I'm not exactly the biggest film buff, but the way the film was shot really left the plot with the kind of 'pure' tone to it. What I mean by that is, I never really felt like the movie coloured protagonists or antagonists, and you were really left to come to a 'Why' conclusion on your own, rather than be handed some justification on a platter just before the credits.

The slow first bit is definitely worth it, as it gave this kind of a harder atmosphere to the movie. Anyways, I thought it was really good, although I would almost say you have to be in a certain 'mood' to sit through the first 2/3rd's. This movie wasn't entertaining in the traditional sense, but got the overall message across extremely effectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjK5OC2P ... ture=share I'm sure you guys have seen this music video many times. Any Gore/Horror experts mind telling which movies are featured in this video?

Just saw The Serpent and the Rainbow. What a clusterfuck.

The Burning , Opera , Driller Killer, Phantasm, City of the Living Dead, Pieces , Wrong Turn 2 , Friday The 13th Part III , Dawn Of The Dead , Deadbeat At Dawn , Videodrome , Maniac ! , Cube , Bad Taste, Evil Dead II , Robocop , Inglorious Bastards , Taxi Driver , Commando , and The Godfather

Gus Van Sant is a bit slow, and "arty" but i don't mind his films.

Going to watch Waterworld tonight...

...no honestly. Films of questionable quality are so cheap on DVD second hand that I can barely resist. And I don't consider it to be too abominable.

Honestly, when I first saw it on television, I rather liked it. It's still mildly entertaining in a mindless sort of way, at least. I also think the idea of a post-apocalyptic water planet is pretty cool, although the way it's portrayed in the movie doesn't make any scientific sense. Isn't Waterworld's main issue just that they blew so much money, effort and time on filming it and this is the result rather than it being an unsalvageable, awful movie?

Which ones? I've seen Good Will Hunting, Milk and Paranoid Park. Milk was good, I liked that one. I did not think much of Good Will Hunting, found the characters shallow, but it's been a long time since I saw it. Paranoid Park was just bad, half the film was slo-mo shots of kids walking around.

Agreed - It's the budget to quality ratio which is off, and not the quality in it's own right.

Last recent movies I watch was....The Human Centipede 2 and Hellraiser 2. Thinking about finishing the series.

Emp would like a word with you.

The Lady Vanishes: An early Hitchcock thriller. Played for laughs for quite a long time, but turns very serious in the middle. The feeling of mystique and mystery is quickly dispelled though. Obviously the writer got really lazy or it might be a reason of producer meddling, but there are some very lazy plot devices so that we get where we're going.

The Lady from Shanghai: Orson Welles is a naive sailor who has been all through the world - gotta wonder how that goes. The lady from Shanghai doesn't vanish nor does she end up in a lake though. She is gorgeous though, Rita Hayworth. The beginning takes place on a luxury yacht where Orson is hired as Rita's bodyguard by Rita's devious and scheming yet old and physically disabled husband. He's also very rich which, of course, is why she is married with him. It's a very strong beginning, the atmosphere of decadent pondering upon the meaning(lessness) of existence is very strong, especially in the Caribbeans where the three rich people (the husband's business partner is also there) drink and feast themselves merry while the natives serve and entertain them and the crew go about their duties or getting drunk. The three snipe at each other, drawing Orson into it as well, but as a world weary man, he knows what's what and shows them their lack of direction and meaning in their lives. This drives the rich people into self-examination for the night, but as always is the case, everything is forgotten in the morning. The film also forgets this aspect of it as it dives into more familiar film noir territory of its time. Orson is naive as plot demands and - as the boat gets where its going (San Francisco) - gets drawn in ridiculous schemes. Two corpses get produced and Orson naturally gets framed and has to prove his innocence. It's alright, but this has never been Welles's strong case, it's more in the themes of the beginning, same themes that are explored in his other films. The scene at the end at the house of mirrors is very striking.

The Illusionist: Entertaining the first time around, very dull the second time around. Edward Norton hamming it up as the magician. What is up with that accent? Giamatti is strong, but can't carry the whole movie on his shoulders. As far as magicians in Victorian setting go, the contemporary Christopher Nolan flick, The Prestige, is much stronger and much more ambitious. This is pretty much a B-grade version. Lazy writing all around.

The Lookout: The kid from Third Rock from the Sun (very annoying comedy) plays a successful high school graduate who fools around with a car, kills two of his mates and gets his mind twonked so that he can't function properly in society anymore. There's a heist (sub-)plot in there as well, but it's pretty much just about the kid's struggle to come to grips with his new reality, to overcome the consequences of his mistakes and to forgive himself. The film visits a lot of things exactly as you'd expect - an awkward family dinner, trying to get a girl, a friendly stranger turning out to be a huge douche. But the movie does it with class even if bad guys are bad to the bone with no redeeming values (well, there's the... I better not say) and good guys are good to the bone. Fortunately it is also shown that the family are not douches, but they're also trying to come to terms with this new person that inhabits their son's/brother's body, but they have no clue on how to do that, how much give him space and when to reel him in.

M (1931): Need this be introduced? One of Fritz Lang's classics from his German times. A child murderer is loose in a German town, the crowds are going crazy and both the police and the underworld want to catch him. Both get a lead on him at the same time and the chase is on. Some great visuals though not so much as in say Metropolis. Some scenes drag quite long on, but the commentary on society is excellent, especially near the end at "the people's court". As is the murderer's and his defender's plea for his life and human rights.

Money, I positively love M! The dialogue crackles, even in translation.

Just saw Worlds Greatest Dad. What an incredibly dark and brilliant comedy.

^ fo sho. great movie man.

I just saw, for the first time ever, Repo Man...HOLY BALLS. That movie is so awesome. The perfect mix between oddball humor, comentary and grindhouse homage. What a great flick.

Titanic 3d- very boring with pointless 3d(which only gave some of it depth).

Saw The Blair Witch Project. I thought that while it did succeed at building an atmosphere of dread based off very little, it wasn't a very good movie. Definitely better than the legions of crappy flicks it inspired though.

^ right on.

Checked out The Hunger Games earlier today. I haven't read any of the books so I have no idea about the comparison, but it was an entertaining flick. Some interesting ideas and fairly nicely executed, even if it did have plenty of odd foibles. I suppose it's one of those films you have to "just go with" at times, disbelief-suspension that has to happen at certain points, etc, but overall it was pretty enjoyable and involving. I do wish they'd bothered to justify/explain a lot of little things throughout, and the fact that they didn't gave the whole piece a somewhat shallower feeling overall than it might otherwise have had, but it was a neat dystopian trip that might actually inspire some people out there. Might!

I can't be the only one who thought it was terrible, right? Both the romance and action aspects of the film were shoddy, and the final fight scene was horribly anti-climactic. The "rule revocation" was an interesting twist, but what happened after that was... lame. (Though I suppose that was in the book so I'll blame the author)

Don't feel like saying much more, but yeah, I can't say I enjoyed it very much. 4/10

I got the opportunity to watch District 9 without anyone pestering me about anything yesterday. I must say I like the movie a lot, it may be the best and most original sci-fi flick of the past decade. A very good combination of mocumentary and basic movie storytelling, and the South African setting is an added bonus with a refreshing deviation from the norm. 97% right there.

I also took the kids to see The Hunger Games on the local premier night, and it was a positive surprise. I knew nothing about it beforehand, save for a quick glance at the backside of the book a day earlier, so I wasn't expecting anything more than a movie for 12-year-olds. It actually had a story, a pretty nice visual setup, a well designed world with its eccentric looks, and despite the teenager romance aspect, it didn't turn into soap or bubblegum. No, I would not rate it too high, either, but it was a well-made flick, and way more than tolerable, considering the target audience.

Yeah, I'm with the majority here, The Hunger Games was a decent flick, definitely a good weekend movie, and not nearly as bad as a lot of fad book/movie series.

If you care at all about action movie, you must go see The Raid. Went to a ten pm showing with a friend who didn't know anything about the movie and he was completely blown away. I was like, "The Raid tonight at ten. You get off at eight. It's playing in one theater, and we're going."

Absolutely awesome, tense action and a cool premise. I hope to see more from these guys.

Gotta be a good occasion for one of those delicate and important father-daughter talks that requires the right moment: woodland survival skills, how to effectively lie in wait for human quarry, and the various ways to kill another child with only a stick.

District 9 is one I've been meaning to get back to. I couldn't stay awake through it the first time, but it did seem pretty unique and interesting, all things considered.

Watched Logan's Run again last night for the first time in a long while, which was fun. It sort of unwinds into odd nonsense by the conclusion, but it's interesting to view as a piece of fantasy/sci-fi created under fairly stringent budgetary limitations. Sort of like the old-school Clash of the Titans in that sense... seeing how the filmmakers tried to make the most of the capabilities and resources they had to work with, and how most of the time they succeeded surprisingly admirably.

Gamer: Yeah, don't ask why I was watching. I knew it was going to be crap, but I was tired and needed winding down and it was on the telly. Didn't finish because I got too tired, though mostly because I wanted to fucking kill the director. Or whoever was responsible for the cutting. I would definitely suggest against watching this if you suffer from epilepsy. Worth looking into if your attention span is shorter than a second.

God Bless America- loved it. Recommended especially if you hate reality/american idol/trendy shit.

YES, Yes, Yes.

I absolutely love this movie, Robin Williams is brilliant.

Cabin in the Woods- 5/10 at best. I wont spoil all of it, just minor stuff and for the big spoilers

I've got Glengarry Glen Ross, A Serious Man and Raising Arizona all lined up to watch. I've heard great things about the first one, and I love Pacino up until Devil's Advocate and Donnie Brasco.