The Movie Thread

Crickey!!
Vanhelsing started a thread, 'bout the respective merits of the
"i am legend " remake, nearly responded to it, due to it's inherent interest.

But i didn'nt.



Yes, i actually thought vanhelsing's description of "holy mountain " was a laughable parody, gawd know's it should be.

That was'nt a send up? Aw geez............

i feel so ripped off.
 
acronym,

Well, as I said, I haven't seen it, but from the description it's certainly an allegory and maybe it's meant to be a parody as well or has elements of parody, so maybe you're not that far off. Certainly, from his description, it would seem to have those qualities. Maybe it's the story of Christ as interpreted by Cheech and Chong...

H
 
As for I Am Legend, I'm all for a remake, since it's a good story and the first two were terrible, cheap B-movies that didn't do it the slightest bit of justice. It could be much better remade today, w/quality acting and direction and FX.

H
 
The Holy Mountain is a real movie. The description I gave is accurate. Despite having a very convoluted plot, it is a movie that you will think about for weeks after you watch it. The film just seems to linger in your mind. Before becoming a filmmaker, Jodorowsky was a famous comic book artist from South America. As a director, he was able to produce powerful and disturbing images on film. Unfortunately, it has been impossible for the film to get distributed in the United States. The reason has to do with a legal battle among the original investors and their estates over the film rights. The film was originally financed by three of the Beatles and some executives at Apple Music. John Lennon often said that El Topo (Jodorowsky's first film) was his favorite movie of all time. At the time it was made, the film was the highest budgeted Mexican production ever. I own a Japanese laserdisc of the film. I think a DVD version has been planned to be released, but several plans have fallen through in the past. Hopefully, the DVD will be out in the next few months.

Hcour, I agree that Kinski could give brilliant performances, particularly when working with Herzog. The two had a complex relationship with one another. Sometimes they would be good friends and other times would literally be on the verge of killing each other. If you haven't seen the documentary "My Best Fiend", it is worth checking out. The documentary covers their relationship in very good detail. Their arguments and fights with one another were legendary. Nosferatu the Vampyre is definitely on my top 25 list. The imagery in the film is amazing, particularly the scenes of the plague with hundreds of rats and the coffins. Isabelle Adjani was/is one of the most beautiful women in film. The guy that played Renfield was very entertaining also.


The Holy Mountain:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/
 
"Friend" is my Netflix queue, should get to it soon. I have seen "Burden of Dreams". Both Herzog and Kinksi were a bit nuts. And there's the infamous scene where the natives ask Herzog if he wants them to kill Kinski for him.

H
 
United 93

The deceptively simple title of this great movie, shot in a documentary-like style, carries the theme of the film w/in its multiple meanings: Beside the flight # itself, which is a deep part of the lore of 9/11, it also connotes the United States; but most importantly it speaks to the passengers' heroism and the bond they must have experienced in order to pull together to try to save themselves and others, the first real combatants in the new war against terrorism - literally only minutes after it had actually begun.

It is the realism of the film that makes it so convincing and emotionally devastating. There is no sentiment nor histrionics. In the famous moment when one passenger says "Let's roll!", just before they attack the hijackers, it's not presented w/a hero standing up in the aisle, shaking his fist and shouting before he makes a final stand, but rather from a man sitting in the background, as a quiet impetus to his fellow-passengers, in an almost "Let's hurry up, let's go" whisper, as the group debates too much and wastes too much of what we now know was very little precious time.

The whole film is fascinating as we watch the escalation of events from a single tragedy to devastation on several fronts. The scenes on the ground are a study in steadily unwinding chaos; clearly it shows that neither the FAA nor the military were in any way prepared or equipped for such a wide-ranging catastrophic event. Given that fact it's admirable that many of the main characters on the ground are played by the real persons, several of them quite extraordinary.

The final 20 mins or so all takes place on the plane. I don't see how a family member could watch this footage, again I can only speak to the sheer realism and believability. As the passengers attack the first 2 hijackers and then beat in the cockpit door and finally get inside and to the controls, and as it becomes more and more chaotic and imperative toward the end, the coherence of the filmmaking also falls apart, becoming as desperate as the characters, the camera-work and the narrative completely break-down as the final moments are sheer turmoil, madness on the part of both parties. The silence after the final quick blackout will break your heart.

H
 
'Being There' with Peter Sellers.Nice study of innocence that led to funny moments.The only thing that spoilt it were the outtakes of Sellers corpsing at the end.Probably cost him the Oscar imo.
 
Lucky Number Slevin

I have no idea why this movie has been compared to Pulp Fiction except that it has a couple of flashbacks and several (contrived) references to pop-culture and is very violent. Calling it Tarintino-esque is like calling an episode of "Friends" Preston Sturges-esque. The first hour and 15-mins are just about unbearable, w/cutesy-poo dialogue that thinks it's clever and is built on repetition; it's like an Abbot & Costello routine that goes on and on, trying so hard to be absurdist but w/o the wit; it's not absurdist, it's just silly. Then the movie does an about-face from light-comedy into a dark revenge fantasy that doesn't hold any real suprises because the opening sequence that sets everything up gives away much too much (unless you've never seen a movie before) so we already know pretty much who "Slevin" is and pretty much why he's there, even if we don't quite get the specifics yet. The morality of the film is muddled to say the least since the "good guys" seem perfectly willing to kill anyone necessary to carry out their plan whether they deserve it or not. (For instance, what's the moral justification for killing the gay son? Because he's a jerk? Or the character in the opening sequence? Because he's sleazy?) The only bright spot in the whole movie is a suprising turn by Lucy Liu, who usually plays such hard, dark characters; here she's sweet and charming and innocent, the only person in the film we can root for. Stupid title, dumb characters, silly plot, bad movie.

H
 
'Being There' with Peter Sellers.
More...
Great flick, a classic. This was Sellers dream role. He was quoted as saying something like "Most actors dream of playing Hamlet, mine was always to play Chance the Gardner."

H
 
Just to add colour to some other poster's opinions, eric bana is a bloody marvel, if you havent seen "chopper", you should.

He didnt totally suck in black hawk down,(pretty damn good, given the limited role)
nor did he phone it in in TROY, (unlike the pitt meister) and if you havent caught his work as a stand up, it isnt too shabby either, the guy is a chameleon,
fantastic, and i havent seen the hulk yet.
Uh, that could be a huge let down, but you know.


Im a movie buff of sorts, and i just saw kill bill vol 1 (the kind of movie buff who sees these things on commercial telly), i liked it.

Alas, hcour's plea of independant assesment, leaves me wanting on this one, it really IS like eating popcorn, like all the critics said.


I wasnt expecting it, you know-i'd just read reveiws etc, i guess, ive watched enough manga/kung fu schlock to think i was immune, or at least, expecting more from tarantino, on this one.

Yet it delivered, on all the above premise, and left me wanting more.

But thats what many critics said , and i cant find a reason to disagree, overall.
I am dissapointed, by that fact.











SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!!!!!!!
 
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