What was the last movie you've seen?

[YoshiEgg25]

The Other Guys. Will Ferrell is not funny when he's the lead. In Old School he was pretty okay but anything that he stars in just is awful. I hate that the previews make the movies look good.

[dsheinem]

Will Ferrell is not funny when he's the lead.

[dsheinem]

So I haven't watched many movies since early November. Only 4, actually. That should pick up pretty sharply here in the next few weeks.

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009) – I watched this as part of the month-o-horror back in October, and was pleasantly surprised by what was a fun flick. The setting reminded me much of many of the places I have lived, so that added much to the film for me, and probably bumps the rating some. The 3D was a nice touch, and fits the film well.
Grade: 3/5

God’s Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick (2008) – Growing up in a very religious household, I am quite familiar with Chick’s tracks and his full size comics, so I found this documentary to be fascinating in subject matter. As a documentary, though, it really isn’t that good of a film – it consists of almost entirely interviews and some of the choices of people to talk to seem less than well thought out. The animated segments are quite good , though.
Grade: 2.5/5

Gasland (2010) – Another documentary I watched back in late November/early December. This one is much better, and again hits quite close to home (geographically). The film is worth a look for anyone interested in the consumption of natural resources, and the director mostly avoids being preachy until the last few minutes (why do so many documentarians follow Moore’s lead on this – it is usually what drags down his films, too!).
Grade: 3/5

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) – Somehow I had avoided seeing this for a long time, and though it starts slow, it gets much better about 30 minutes into the film when tension is introduced. This is a nice counterpoint western to something like the Man With No Name trilogy (from a few years prior) or even The Wild Bunch (from the same year), and the two leads are both quite good in their roles. I would recommend it to a casual western fan, as the wit is interesting and the film is very easy to watch and follow.
Grade: 4/5

[Limewater]

Snipped Anchorman Pic

Am I the only one who didn't find Anchorman funny? I saw it in theaters and considered it a disappointment.

[fastbilly1]

Snipped Anchorman Pic

Am I the only one who didn't find Anchorman funny? I saw it in theaters and considered it a disappointment.

Right there with you Limewater. I think if they shot it in mockumentary style - ala Spinaltap or Mighty Wind, it would be more enjoyable.

[Gamerforlife]

Was trying to watch Machete On Demand yesterday, and the movie kept pausing or the image kept breaking up. I finally gave up. I'll just have to go and buy the actual disk to watch this I guess

Thanks Brighthouse, paid five dollars to order something I couldn't even watch

[REPO Man]

Finally finished:


PS: the pic is a link to the Wikipedia page

Pretty good. Considerably gonzo. Totally recommend it.

Although due to a lack of film restoration services in India, combined with the natural conditions (temperature, e.g.), the print is considerably damaged. As such, Purana Mandir was actually featured as a special feature on Bollywood Horror Volume 2, released by Mondo Macabro.

Despite this, the film has quite a legacy.

[PixelPixii]

The last one I saw was True Grit.

AWESOME MOVIE!

[Bootaaay]

Sorry for the essay, I got carried away :p

Profound Desires of the Gods (1968) by Shôhei Imamura



Shôhei Imamura was already a well known name in Japanese cinema by 1968, having worked as an assistant to legendary film-maker Yasujirō Ozu and with a string of light-comedy, drama and documentary successes under his belt. 1968's Profound Desires of the Gods was to be his biggest undertaking yet, however the film's production was fraught with problems, running wildly over-budget and with the original shooting schedule of 6 months spiralling to 18 months by the films completion, a lot was riding on the success of the film, for both Imamura and production company Nikkatsu - unfortunately for both, the film was a huge failure at the box-office, too obscure and unconventional to gain the mainstream success it's production costs demanded. After it's failure Imamura retreated to documentary work for more than a decade, while Nikkatsu would not make such a lavish, high budget production again for many years. This huge failure probably goes some way to explain the film's lack of recognition on the international stage. For many years it was entirely unavailable to English speaking audiences, but thankfully that all changed last year with Eureka! entertainment's deluxe blu-ray release finally opening up Imamura's lost and misunderstood masterpiece to an international audience.

Profound Desires of the Gods is an engaging, provocative and bizarre piece that ostensibly explores on a number of different levels the duality of Japan's relationship with it's own culture and tradition versus the tide of modernisation and influence from the outside world. The story takes place on the fictional, but obviously Okinawa-inspired, southern Japanese island of Kurage and centres on the lives of the Futori family, who hold the claim to the oldest blood-line on the island. It is quickly made apparent that the Futori's are heavily inter-bred and are shunned and ostracised by the island's community, who refer to them as 'beastly' and believe that their incest is responsible for the islands misfortune. The family's patriarch, old and possibly-senile Yamamori, is both Father and Grandfather to Toriko, a dumb-witted girl whose childlike manner belies her almost feral desire for sex, while Toriko's Mother and Yamamori's Granddaughter Uma is a noro or seer, who lives away from the family at the local shrine (the last remaining fresh water source on the island). Meanwhile, Uma's Son Kametaro is the most normal of the group and struggles to come to terms with his incestuous feelings for his sister Toriko and the islanders distaste for his family, while his Father and Yamamori's son Nekichi is imprisoned by his Father at the bottom of a flooded pit for his crimes against the community (dynamite fishing, and attempting an illicit incestuous relationship with their seer, his sister Uma) and given the near-impossible task of dislodging a huge boulder that has blocked the flow of water to the island's rice fields.

The rice fields point to a recurring parallel in the film, representing Japan's traditional agricultural past versus the modern uptake of sugar farming that the islanders turn to after the rice fields become untenable. Yamamori's desire to see the rice fields restored represents his families struggle to retain their ways in the face of the islanders scorn, while the incestuous relationship his family is born from and the parallel it poses to the islands' creation myth (where two sibling deities are married) represents the uneasy relationship some have with their superstitious past and their desire to see it forgotten from the islands culture. This is the central theme of the film, which in itself is a product of the mindset of Japan as a whole at the time the film was made, a Japan almost embarrassed by it's past and wanting to be perceived as modern thinking on the world stage. Although the Futori's incest marks them as outcasts and the negative results of such relationships are on display for all to see, Imamura effectively paints the family as sympathetic characters, symbolising traditions and religious and superstitious beliefs that fall in the face of modernisation, while casting a disapproving eye on the effects Western influence ultimately has on the island.

Profound Desires of the Gods is a complex and often bewildering film that moves at a disjointed, almost leisurely pace. Imamura has us firmly positioned entirely as voyeurs for much of the film, always watching events unfold at a distance, his characters enveloped by wide-angle shots of the beautiful Okinawan scenery that provides us with a cinematic feast for the eyes. His themes of east versus west and tradition versus progress are always present, yet never hammered home until the films climax, leaving the viewer to piece together the entangled web of the Futori's relationships and admire the films cinematography and the natural beauty of Okinawa. And in that regard, the film is a huge success, making up for what it lacks in pacing and narrative with sheer visual beauty and a deeper subtext that ultimately paints Kurage island and it's inhabitants as an allegory for what Imamura perceived as an increasing abandonment of Japanese culture and tradition to serve modern and Western needs. Surreal and thoughtful throughout, accompanied by beautiful and expertly shot visuals and with a message that's as pertinent today as it was then, Profound Desires of the Gods most certainly isn't a film for everyone, but it is in equal turns an epic and singular piece that surely must rank among Imamura's best.

[REPO Man]

Just watched:



Awesome. And don't you just love Winona Ryder in that era? She seemed both unobtainable and approachable, with an air of mystery that totally makes her the antithesis of the cute girl next door.

And I kinda wanna do a movie similar to this, but the concept would basically be "'Heathers' with a Y-chromosome by way of 'American Psycho', with a Gregg Arakian sense of dreamlike imagery and a John Waters-like sense of black-humored depravity".


Currently watching:

Havoc is a 2005 American film about the lives of wealthy Los Angeles, California teenagers whose exposure to hip hop culture inspires them to imitate the gangster lifestyle. They run into trouble when they encounter a gang of drug dealers, discovering they are not as street-wise as they had thought.

The cast includes Bijou Phillips, Anne Hathaway (who goes toppless and sucks off her wigger boyfriend, played by Dean from "Grounded for Life"), Freddy Rodriguez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and a virtually-unknown-at-the-time Channing Tatum in a small role (he'd later reunite with Havoc costar Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the set of GI Joe).

Though it's been panned by critics, but I liked it (and no, Hathaway's tits don't influence my decision).

And FYI, there's a movie out there called Normal Adolescent Behavior: Havoc 2, which is in now way a sequel.


And if I'm still up when it comes on:



I've seen it only once before, I believe.

But regardless, I wouldn't consider it one of DePalma's top works. I say the top three belongs to (in no order) Phantom of the Paradise, Sisters, and Scarface, though I say that not having seen Dressed to Kill.

But I do like this movie, don't get me wrong. Though it actually, I just prefer the concept of "Carrie", which I as a former high-school outcast can relate to.

I'm also working on a similar movie concept, potentially part of a pseudo-trilogy of Stephen King-styled works, about a young man with destructive powers. And believe me, it's in no way a "Carrie" knockoff. My antihero is much darker, more methodical and is more "unholy lovechild of Carrie White and Charlie X".