I just saw Saw 2 last night, pretty good movie, I liked the first one alot better though.

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That was an awful movie.

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I tend to like alot of the shitty trendy horror movies.

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Its part of the whole ultra violent horror movie wave right now. An acquired taste I guess, but i love that shit.

Er, recently I watched clerks. Not as good as id heard, I much preferred Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. Sorry for the lack of intelligence in this post.

Im also doing a study on narrative tools used in SAW. Its a bit more complex than you might think, when I do my essay Ill post it here. Though some devices I dare say are a happy accident.

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my friend showed me the origional dark water the other day, as with the origional ring it wasn't scary at all. i havn't seen either remake, and now don't intend to.

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It's not supposed to be scary, just because it's from the creators of Ringu doesn't automatically mean it's going to be scary dude.

I remember falling asleep within the first twenty minutes of watching the Japanese Dark Water....

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well then what's it supposed to be then? insightfull? my mate built it up to seem like it would be a scary film. maybe thats why i was dissapointed.

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Meh, I liked it. That is to say, I liked what I saw--which was only until a little after the second death. I still haven't seen the rest of the movie.

haha, p.s. no pun intended.

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That was my point, the film being blown out of proportion on the scary side led to the dissapointment for the very reason it's not supposed to be scary.

It's the same with The Eye & A Tale Of Two Sisters - it's just a story with some creepy goings on thrown in for good measure, which tends to be obvious since they are so few and far between.

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The concept of it is cool along with some of the torture ideas, but it wasn't done with the right hands or writing.

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Ohhh, but there were some badass lines in there....

"oh yes, there will be blood."

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I thought Saw II was good as well..I was expecting a lot worse after hearing what some people said about it.


And has anyone seen Battle Field Baseball?

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i saw Jar Head and it was pretty freakin good has anyone seen the hills have eyes?? it looks pretty interesting with the retards and all

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The hills have eyes is a good old horror movie...very entertaining.

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They just remade it. He's presumably talking about the new one.

Saw II's narrative devices weren't new or particularly interesting. It utilizes a potentially cool but simple fold and a lot of grisly fluff. 'Duck Amuck' would make a better subject of an essay.

Oh right, I remember hearing about that remake.

And what do you guys think of running/smart zombies? FearFrost hated the remake of Dawn of The Dead because the zombies ran...narrow minded cunt! The Return of the Living Dead did it well..as well as Land of the Dead(then didn't run but they learned).. I personally don't give a shit, they seem more threatening than the mindless, slow walking bigots.

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i rented the aristocrats. im looking forward to watching it tomorrow

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i bought "cube" today, totally not what i expected, really good tho

Good call, Tranny. Not just a funny movie; basically a series of tunnels into the brains of some of the funniest English-speaking people on the planet. It just played at my University theater and I was reacquainted with what was so funny about it.

The thing about the slow-moving zombies is that, in that case, the sense of inevitability rather than immediate threat is enhanced. Basically zombies are these faceless, effectively harmless things that threaten by sheer numbers and implacability, slowly overwhelming the last fortifications of humanity, from which there is no escape. So I understand the slow zombie purists. But fast zombies are pretty cool and showed up late enough in the game to be a real surprise to zombie movie fans, which is usually good. I liked Land of the Dead, a lot, actually.

Whatever you do, don't watch the Cube sequels!

Well said PST. I liked Land Of The Dead a lot as well...and best zombie gore bar none in a movie to date.

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Oh dear.

My sister has just handed me a dvd remake of "The Fog". I hadn't even heard that this was remade....it's got that blond bird from Lost in....I'm not looking foward to this.

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hahaha, I've never seen the fog.


....Starship Troopers II??? I saw it a few days ago in a cd warehouse....

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It's safe to say that it can join the pile of "Uninspired recent remakes".

Anyway, I've just finished downloading a very strange UK film called MirrorMask (think Labrynth produced, written & directed by everyone involved in Cirque Du Soleil - with added mushrooms). It's got Rob Brydon in it, so, that's a plus so far.

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yeah it never made it to the movies because it was sopposed to be so bad ive been meaning to watch but never get a chance

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Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story rules, in case anyone's interested. If you are interested, go quick; it's probably already out of theaters where you are.

Is that the one with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon?

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has anyone heard anything about a movie called "cache"? i read a review of it in the paper today. seemed like a great idea for a movie

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It was in my mind while I was awake but when I went to bed I completely forgot about it and lost all details concerning it.

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It is, and a must see.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403358/

Just wondering if anyone has heard of that? I only clicked on it thinking it was a movie version of a Terry Pratchett book....

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Yeah, I've heard really good things about it. I'll get it when it's in the bargain bins at play.com.

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Urgh crhist, Cameron Diaz, or, as I prefer to call her "Lessons in how not to act"/"Lessons in how to be an irritating bitch whore". I couldn't stand that film, the first time I watched it I had no idea who was in it, as soon as I found out that hell hound demon dog was in it I thought I had condemed myself to a slow, slow suicide. Aside from that Daniel Day was super sound in it...I have no opinion on Leonardo DiCaprio.

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The notion, coupled with that film, is seeming to be more fitting in Europe at the moment. (apparently anyway)

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I saw "The Waiting" last night on dvd, a very funny comedy surprizingly. I would recommend it for sure.

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I watched 'The Machinist' last night.

Very fuckin trippy movie Quite a lot like fight club

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Yeah, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, directed by Michael Winterbottom. Very funny stuff. Definitely must-see. It's already out of theaters in Chicago, though, which is disappointing. Interestingly, Winterbottom went on to make a movie about the Tipton Three, which got the actors involved in it hassled at US customs for 'being in a political movie.' Stupid goddamn world.

People should have heard of Night Watch, as I think it's the Russian entry for foreign language film this year. I don't know much about it but am interested in seeing it. I believe it's out now or soon in this country.

Cache is awesome, as is almost anything by Michael Haneke. Nobody makes films as cold and ruthless as he does, and very few do it as well. The premise is pretty similar to that of Lost Highway, but the two movies turn out as different as Haneke and Lynch. Apparently some people who saw it thought it ripped off Broken Flowers, but, again, it's as different from that film as Haneke from Jarmusch. Good movie. Apparently very frustrating to many.

I think I've become increasingly annoyed with The Machinist over time. Imagine Lost Highway done poorly, almost a decade later, with a really strong lead performance.

Hm, well I downloaded it after watching the trailer...I'm a bit pissed I didn't know it was based on the book because I've been wanting to read that for a while now but can't find it anywhere. Anyway, I'm sure if you've read the book you can gather some kind of idea of what it's going to be like - atmosphere and visual wise anyway.

I've got the sequel now too, but a total lack of subtitles.

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thanks man. did you see it in the theaters or what? i dont think anyone around here is carrying it

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Oh the sequel's out already? Aside from the lack of subtitles, how does it compare to the first film? I'm not really a fan of the first one.

I saw it in theaters here a few weeks ago. According to a friend of mine back home it just hit theaters in Rochester. I don't know what the theater system is like in Saratoga, but it's either there or it isn't. It'll be out on DVD soon enough, anyway, and probably have a fairly wide release. Almost all Blockbusters have some of Haneke's more recent work (usually The Piano Teacher and sometimes The Time of the Wolf), and this has gotten more exposure than any of his previous, so I'd expect it to be fairly easy to find.

I don't know much about Night Watch, but it doesn't seem to be based off of any English-language book. They're already making a third. That's really impressive machinery. I actually kept hearing about this and thinking that it's the same thing as Nightwatching, Peter Greenaway's current project about Rembrandt's inexplicable financial downfall and how it might be connected to certain things he allowed to insert into the painting. Think of The Draughtsman's Contract but with an excuse to use Rembrandt's lighting scheme and shot on HD video. That I'm looking forward to. This I'm not sure about but will probably watch.

It seems the name of the Greenaway film has been changed to Nightwatch. Interesting. Also, does anybody know Greenaway? If not, try and learn.

No it's not english-based, the first time I heard of it I got it mixed up with Pratchett but it's actually a Sergei Lukyanenko trilogy of books - which, because of Russian copywriting(or something)is hard to find in English. Anyway, the sequel came out some time this year and is already available on torrent sites (but lack of subtitles at the moment), the third should be out sometime at the start of 2007.



http://www.torrentz.com/torrent_500286.html - I can't remember which site I got the torrent from, but in the comments there was talk of a site that had subtitles on (link included) - I couldn't get the site working, but that's probably because of my shit computer.

But yeah, that's the only available torrent for the sequel I know of.

[edit]
I haven't actually bothered watching it yet, I'd prefer to get the subtitle files.

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we have the Spectrum in schenectady which carries the under the radar movies. that ones got Capote which everyone is raving about. other than that its regal cinemas at the mall which is nothign but crap

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I'd expect Capote to get wider distribution Upstate. Hoffman's an Upstate boy. The Regal chain in Rochester is the only chain that gets some of the art house movies; it actually is putting the art house cinema out of business for this reason. Cunts.

Yeah, I saw that it was a Sergei Lekyanenko novel, which means nothing to me. Odd that they're not available in English. Vampires work best in movies, though, even if the majority of vampire movies suck. When one hits it (say, Pages From a Virgin's Diary), it gets hit hard.

I see there's no love for Greenaway.

As in Peter Greenaway?

If so, the only things I've seen that he's been involved with are The Pillow Book and a few of his short-films. Though, I have been wanting to see A Life In Suitcases for a while after someone I know didn't stop going on about it - though, as usuall, I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

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A Life in Suitcases or The Tulse Luper Suitcases? I've been trying to see the latter for some time now. It was screened in Chicago last year and, although I did take advantage of the event to meet Peter Greenaway and attend a workshop he did, I didn't get downtown to see them. A Life in Suitcases is, I believe, an online video game.

The Pillow Book and his shorts are as good a place to start as any.

Either or I think, he said that it was a trilogy or collection of films or something like that. Meh, I'll check up on imdb before I fuck off to bed. Maybe this online game explination may be the reason I've never been able to find the aforementioned...but ah, I missed out "The Cook the Theif His Wif & Her lover" from the previous "seen that" list.

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The Tulse Luper Suitcases is a film trilogy with a huge amount of background material, Greenaway believing that a movie should be able to have the kind of hinterland projects an art installation might. So there's the three films, the online game, a website serving as a kind of encyclopedia for the film, a number of CD-ROMs, and so on. A Life in Suitcases is one part of the whole, but it's the game, I think. The only actual movies are called The Tulse Luper Suitcases parts 1-3 and are supposed to have the most complex organizing principles he's yet used, synthesizing a lot of the PiP stuff he used in his book projects with a huge scope. I want to see it if only for the sheer ambition of it, and the fact that he managed to make what seemed like a lifetime's work fit into a few years.

I just assumed you'd seen Cook, Thief anyway.

Excellent, I'll have a go at downloading it once I free up some space. (Btw, I don't need subtitles)

Just saw a film called Chopper. It was pretty good and quite amusing actually. The guy who played "Chopper" played the part really well, very charismatic.

(Oh and Chopper is supposed to be based on a best selling author/serial killer)

PST i just watched a film called slacker (not the lame hollywood one i'm sure you know)

what'd you think of that? im almost sure you've seen it. i thought it was great escapism and fun in the vein of coffee+ cigarettes.... i forgot i was in upstate new york. the filming was cool (seemed like it was a bit primitive...grainy) and the audio really made the person feel like they were in austin

the stories were cool too. don't want to discuss 'em if you havent seen it

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The character is based on Mark "Chopper" Read - not a serial killer as such, just involved in the criminal underworld, and yes, that is Eric Bana's best performance in a film, ever.

I have the DVD, it has an interview with Mark Read himself, and is a pretty interesting watch.

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Chopper launched Bana's American film career, immediately getting him work with Hollywood's best directors (Ridley Scott and Ang Lee, oddly enough neither of them actually 'locals'), and eventually its best-known. It's a fun movie. And yeah, it's definitely a send up of the 'real' Chopper's self-created myth. Fun.

Slacker as in the Linklater film in which the camera drifts from mini-story to mini-story over a 24 hour period in Austin? It was a bit grainy, but I think Linklater's attracted to that, as he often uses DV or video. Pretty good movie, though I don't remember any of the stories that well aside from the men reading the 'if he had smiled why would he have smiled?' catechism passage out of Ulysses in some ex-girlfriend support group. Interesting note for you: Slacker, along with Jim Jarmusch's (Coffee and Cigarettes) Stranger Than Paradise, are essentially what inspired Kevin Smith to make Clerks.

thats a Richard Linklater film, it's the only one i havn't seen of his. if you liked that and havn't seen it, check out Waking Life. Linklaters one of my fave directors

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awesome fact! i honestly didnt know that but i can the similarities. yeah you got the right movie, and ill look into other stuff by him. are they all short story pieces

edit

how could coffee+cigarettes have influenced kevin smith? that came out way after. i know it took like 10 hours to film so it probably was talked about before released and he may have seen it

did i answer my own question

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I just posted that so you'd be sure to know who Jarmusch is, since I don't know if you know him. Stranger Than Paradise, in which each scene is a single static take, inspired Smith because he realized he could set people up in front of a camera and not have to know a hell of a lot about directing to get a movie made. If you've ever seen Stranger Than Paradise you'll probably notice the difference between Jarmusch's commitment and Kevin's, but I guess he was thinking on a purely technical level.

But Coffee and Cigarettes is compiled from a series of 'sketches' Jarmusch has made over the course of his career, starting in 1986 with the Stephen Wright/Roberto Benigni one. Many if not most or all of those conversations were filmed years ago.

thanks for the clarification

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Got to see Days of Heaven on a 35mm print earlier. The DVD transfer isn't doing it justice. Wow.

One of the shittest sequel's in existence.

Do you want to translate it for me?

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Haha, no way. I'm not a language nerd.

Saw a film called Suicide Kings yesterday, it was with Christopher Walken. Pretty awesome movie, not the shitty late 90's crime-thriller I expected it to be.

i saw The Skulls yesterday. it was pretty good.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/gore/mmd1.jpg

I just watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures...for the first time in probably 10 years..

"Put them in the Iron Maiden!"

"Iron Maiden? ...EXCELLENT!"

hahaha..what a great movie.

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i just watched The Virgin Spring directed by bergman. my least favorite of his films, it didnt seem to have a lot of emotional impact, it didnt seem to have a theme...it was just kind of ... a story

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I watched the Shining last night.....after I bought the DVD

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I love the Shining. I love most of Jack Nicholsinson



What the hell is that from? It turned me on.

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I don't know The Virgin Spring, and you shouldn't just watch every Bergman you come across (he made 60 films in about 60 years, and nobody who makes that many is consistently good), but as I understand it the themes are something about naive charity and equally blind revenge. Whatever else he's done, Bergman has never been about stories, and this is especially true in the 60s. So, while it might fail, I seriously doubt it's just a story.

The Shining is cool, but a bit weak by Kubrick's and Nicholson's standards.

Suicide Kings is all right even if everybody involved was just playing a character he'd played in another movie.

yeah, the chariy theme is there. theres a great scene, the best in the movie, which is a far away shot of von sydow wrestlinga birch to the ground for firewood. that was intense

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ahhh, give him a break, it was during his beginning years--hence the fact that some great movies that put actors on the map used their actual real name.
Jack nicholson
Jack Torrence

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I love this chick....
http://www.mistymundae.com/

She makes/stars in campy horror films.
Made her first one at 19.
Softcore sex and gore are the themes of her films....they're famous for not editing out a really crappy mistake and letting the cameras roll.

Females never "turn me on" but damnit...she comes close.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...afra/2006-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...afra/2006-4.jpg

i too, love her. i have that one shes in "roxanne". i think the movie sucks ass, but i only bought it cause shes hot anyway. so i guess it doesnt really matter that it sucks. i first saw her on "playmate of the apes", which equally sucked.

Exactly....her films are simply horrible as far as concept and script.....but hell....watching them while fucked up is a blast though.
And it's a mood thing too....I cant just plop down and watch anytime.
Gotta be in the mood for that weird shit.

I have seen a few interviews with her....she's remarkably intelligent and laughs at her craft as much as we do.

The 80s weren't Nicholson's beginning years, they were the nadir of his talent, when he did the most coasting on star power. For some reason he broke out of that funk and now, again, rules the universe and keeps pushing himself. That doesn't mean he doesn't rule in The Shining, just that it's a lesser light.

I thought he whipped himself with the tree branches?

by the way, have you seen Roxanna? for some reason a line from it popped into my head earlier today. its the one where shes says "is your dick that bored that i have to fuck this chick". that might not be the direct quote, but i thought it was incredibly rediculous when she said that line. oh, and that pic you linked with her on the bed makes me want to buy that "satans school..." one, haha.

I saw Roxanna I think.....not sure.
I have three of her films but might have rented Roxanna...

"An Erotic Vampire In Paris" is my favorite.

Jack Nicholson's first film was in 1958.

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I would be watching donnie darko, had i not given it to my philosophy proffessor to analyze a month ago.

My favorite movies of all time:

Audition
A clockwork Orange
Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE is the best zombie movie. hands down. (and i have a strange obssesion with zombies too and i dont know why)
the boondock saints
I heart Huckabees
Almost anything monty python
the red violin



there are more but i am kind of sleepy.

and the best parts of King Kong included Dinosaurs. I was literally giggling with excitement about the dinosaurs in the theater.

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I fucking hope you mean the 30's version and you managed to catch a re-run of it.

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I havent seen the old one in forever actually. I was reffering to the new one. The rest of the movie sucked ass but i love dinosaurs.

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I don't think powers was being serious.

I would really rather not see a new vs old Kong discussion here, if possible.

I saw The Girl From Monday, which I'll want to see again before evaluating, and re-watched Last Year at Marienbad earlier on today. If you haven't seen that last, and I'm pretty sure you haven't, just stop watching other movies until you do. Chances are everything you like was done there first.

hell, we already got into the discussion of b movie flicks and starletts. peter jackson should be honored

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That I don't mind. Anything that can provoke a lot of angsty movie fanboy bullshit I'd rather avoid; if I want to see it, I can go check out the forums at imdb.

i guess ill throw this in, deron miller is a huge misty mundae fan and had her come in and be a part of the "shock and terror" video on the IDR video album

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i dont know how keen on the movie most of you would be, but you should watch rent, its awesome, the music is great.

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Man... I feel like a moron but one of my favorite movies now would be Vampyros Lesbos, a campy 70s cheesy horror/softcore porn, and I can say with all honesty that I watched it for the storyline. Really avant-garde,.. and campy. I love this movie, and Soledad Miranda is one of the hottest women I've ever seen.

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id rather watch wishbone four times in a row than any musical. ever.


actually, wishbone wasnt a bad show.

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Was that the thing with the talking dog who had trouble adjusting to life, so he would create adventures for himself or some crap like that?

If so, then it was fucking dire.

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Wishbone was shitty, and don't talk about TV in my movie thread.

Some musicals are very good. Maybe a dozen. They all have the opportunity to be great, but 99% shit the bed.

Nothing wrong with loving Jesus Franco. Actually there's a lot wrong with it, but not in every case - when you make 180 or so films, some of them will suck. But he's got the production system so figured out he gets to do some genuinely interesting cinematic things so long as he gets his films done on time and under budget. Kinda like a Spanish Suzuki Seijin if he'd never been fired.

wishbone the dog, yeah

jeez pst SORRY


how many of you do netflix? i dont watch nearly enough movies to warrant getting it

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I should get it but haven't. It appears to be incredible, though, as it has some movies it's difficult to get anywhere else.

And goddamn right you're sorry.

i just bought road warrior last weekend. hadnt seen it in a few years. this is one of my all time favorite movies. weak plot, low budget, mediocre to bad acting but fucking brutal. the best car chase scenes ever, the best bad guys ever, the most bad ass concept of a movie<being post-apocalyptic,everyone vs everyone>, its like as if this movie was made by stuntmen, acted by stuntmen and was a free for all car crash stunt compilation. this movie took balls to make, i dont know how the good guys were refining diesel fuel out of crude oil, i dont know where they got thier water or food, i dont even know where they got all the american football pads,but hey fuck it, they didnt have the time or budget to explore these minor plot flaws. this movie is the best bad movie ever with escape from new york a close second

another thing about this movie is that its a sequel to a movie called mad max<which im sure everyone knows>, which was like a biker b movie. but the transition this story went for the sequel is fucking amazing. the fall of civilization,nuclear war. this is the way sequels should be made ladies and gentlemen. none of this rehash shit<granted theres car chases in all three mad max movies>none of this nonsense you see in the theatres nowadays......total fucking armageddon, end of times. if i made movies, id make this kind of movie.

edit: actually the blues brothers has the best car chase scene now that i think of it, but its only these two movies and nothing else that compares to them

Aah, I can remember watching Mad Max as a kid. As for "biker movies", Akira is cool. Its anime though and is one of the very few I like.

I'm watching Beetlejuice right now for the who knows how many times. Great movie. And along the lines of Tim Burton I also love Peewee Herman's Big Adventure. I haven't enjoyed the last few releases he has done although I never did see Ed Woods. Elfman and Burton are a great team.

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I just heard of a new movie like Tim's Nightmare Before Christmas. I'd like to see it someday....

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all the goth kids fucking love nightmare before christmas. i dont understand that at all, i tried to watch it and fell asleep a few years ago

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Its boring as fuck yo I went to the cinema to see that shit, straight up boring.

I have a nightmare before christmas mug but I am not willing to use it.

Edit for content:
Saw Presentation notes. Pretty much an unstructured and unpolished 2000 word essay purely on the narrative devices used in the film, Saw.
It is quite interesting Im told; I gave my seminar on it on wednesday and people found it interesting, although the colour theorys only really touch the surface and sometimes, some elements may be happy accidents

Please let me know if you read it, and what you think.

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Are you black?

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uh oh paging the internet police

Jesus christ. I put content in to the topic anyways and yet you still find something to moan about. gg.

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I was moaning?

Mm, this pc won't let me open this file. Stupid LiveKiosk.

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Ah, I have to watch that and Corpse Bride with my friend soon.. she told me I had to see it and so I told her she has to see Evil Dead. I really hope it's not as bad as you described it, gawt damn....

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I know what you mean, man. They all worship it, and i have no fucking clue why.

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A Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride both rule, though probably not for the reason Goth kids might like them. I also won't explain why.

The Saw presentation was all right. Could have used some clearer technical terms and closer formal analysis, but I guess it's not common to do that. For what you do do, though, a few suggestions:

1. Your understanding of the color scheme is messy. It would be better if you didn't subject it to such a primary color analysis and also brought in some of the many examples of using this kind of color-coding in the past (Vertigo, The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, her Lover, almost anything by Soderbergh, but especially The Underneath, The Limey, and Traffic, others). Vertigo and especially the Soderberghs definitely informed the practice here. Also might be useful to see the Three Colors trilogy, where a different color is assigned to a different character and narrative stance. I don't actually know this film, but if a color is associated with both character and tense, as you indicate, there should be some exploration as to what this signifies; i.e. why is such-and-such a character associated with such-and-such a tense.
2. In you discussion of the fast-forwarding through narrated scenes you don't point out that this implies that the eye is controlled by the person who's telling the story. This movie, and the entire genre it grew in, is about control of the narrative, so something that shows that whoever controls the narrative can change what you see and how you see it is key, especially when it's not clear who is in control.
3. I'd have to see the movie to assess your discussion of the pan from past to present. Similarly, I'd have to see it to discuss the use of the security camera, though I think you're too focused on 'keeping in time' when you think it's failed. But maybe not.

I should probably see the film if I want to say anymore, and since I don't really want to see it (even less now than before), this is probably the last I'll say. But, regardless of having seen it, you definitely could use some more precision and some reference to or consideration of previous films. This one wasn't made in a vacuum.