Noriko's Dinner Table This is a sequel to Suicide Club. It references the scene where the 54 girls jump to their deaths at the train station. This movie was way too long. It focuses on the drama of two sisters who joined this Suicide Circle but that's not really about suicide. It's about having an alternate family. To be honest, I found most of it to be boring. There's a couple of standout scenes but I think this movie should of been an hour shorter. The pacing drags off after half and hour. Some of it felt surreal. The ending was so and so. Despite the positive reviews on this, my personal advice, just stick to the first movie better.
These are the only two movies I haven't seen from Fincher. I started a David Fincher section in my dvd shelf. So, I had to get these.
Alien 3 A little disappointing. I heard negative things about this movie and went in with low expectations. The part where Ripley finds out that she has an alien inside her wasn't convincing. It felt a bit rushed. And the Terminator 2 ending ripoff wasn't cool either. But, I think this came out during the same time as T2. I got this out of the way. I understand this is a studio film and not a Fincher film, but still thought this could of been a lot more.
Panic Room Great visuals and shots. Definitely a lot better and entertaining than Alien 3. But, it's one of those one night stand kind of movies. I thought all the actors were great. The only part I didn't like was the part where the ex husband shows up and surprises the burglars. The burglars weren't very convincing that they were really surprised. It felt random. But, kudos to all those long shots, even though they were cgi. Now I've seen all the Fincher films. I say half of his films are badass. The other half are so and so.
A Bittersweet Life We got ourselves another winner here from Kim Ji-Woon. This gangster drama was awesome. At first, I thought this was going to be predictable, but it has its surprises and its punches. Love those last 30 minutes with all that gangster shooting. The whole thing felt poetic. I put this one up there with The Good The Bad The Weird and I Saw The Devil. The intro to this right away had gangster written all over it. Beautiful music. Man, I can't wait for this to officially come out on DVD here in the U.S. I am now officially a member of Vulcan Video. That's where I picked this up from. This past Tuesday, I went to I Luv Video to see if they had Mesrine: Killer Instinct. Surprisingly, they didn't have it. I strolled into Vulcan out of curiosity, and there it was. So I got a membership and at the same time, by coincidence, I saw this movie sitting on a shelf near me. I knew I had to check it out. Props to Vulcan Video for pleasing my addiction.
Backstory: The other day I saw a used copy of The Blood Spattered Bride for sale. I always wanted to see it and my grindhouse night was coming up so i decided to buy it and see it with another movie like it. The movie was going to be Hatchet for the Honeymoon. Then a few days before the event, upon internet research, I found out that during the grindhouse era, The Blood Spattered Bride was shown as a double feature with a movie called, I Dismember Mama. So I decided to go with that as a tribute to that era. Picked up "I Dismember Mama" from I Luv Video and here we are.
Here's a clip I found on youtube regarding both movies:
The Blood Spattered Bride Weird stuff here. It got my interest in the first half, but then it got really bloody interesting in the second half. Definitely has the grindhouse feel all the way. My favorite part, well the scene that is shown on the cover (which happens in the first half). This can be considered a vampire movie even though it's not a full on vampire movie. Few blood scenes, lots of nudity, and a quick ending. Decent to have for the grindhouse section. FYI: Quentin Tarantino referenced this title as a title for one of the Kill Bill chapters. It gets confusing but still fun for a midnight screening.
I Dismember Mama For some reason, I thought this one was going to be more crazy and messed up than the last film. But, a little disappointing. There's hardly any kills and if there is, we don't see anything really. I do like the 70's music on here. Some sleazy scenes. Cheesy plot. It didn't quite deliver for me in the end. I was expecting to see some gore and was waiting for this killer to actually do what the title of the movie states. But, neither of those happened. On the positive side, this was very weird and trashy. Perfect for 3am screening. But only to experience once and then forget about it. Time to move on!!
Hard Revenge, Milly Man, this fooled me. It was under 50 minutes long. According to imdb, this is still considered a feature. Well, I'm here to report that this short movie was more like an extended prologue to the next movie, Hard Revenge, Milly:Bloody Battle. This had some cheesy moments. Milly cuts the head off this guy and his body still manages to shoot some rounds around the room. That's the kind of stuff you only see in movies from Troma. My favorite kill: She makes carnitas out this dude at the end there. Too ridiculous. The story wasn't all that.
And because it was unexpectedly a short movie, I decided to watch the next Hard Revenge Milly tonight.
Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle This played at Fantastic Fest 09. The intro gave us a quick recap from the first movie. And the story continues. This story gets a little better here. Not as ridiculously bloody like the first one but keeps its cheesiness. Well, it didn't blow me away. I guess you see one and you've seen them all. Unless you're a big fan of Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police, and others like it, there's no other reason to see this. I'll save you the trouble.
Bravo!!! A must for fans and collectors of Gangster cinema. Love everything about this. The tension, the suspense, the smoothness and roughness of these characters. Man, Vincent Cassel, great actor. I like his acting in Ocean's 12, Irrerversible, Eastern Promises, and Black Swan. But, in this movie here, best performance yet. And it's only part one. One of my favorite gangster scenes has to be the scene where Mesrine stabs the Arab and buries him alive. And after that we go to another scene with a slow love song and I swear I wanted to cry with all this cinematic love and excitement. Once again, bravo. Part 2 comes out on DVD next month, entitled, Mesrine: Public Enemy #1. I'm there!!
The Substitute Clever and spooky alien film from Denmark. I guess you can call it, the Danish Faculty movie. This was a big hit at Fantastic Fest a few years ago. I can see why. Good freaking moments like this alien teacher eating a live chicken and another scene where she shrinks this man and then eats him. And what about the moment where all the children are on the bus with their mouths open because she stopped the bus with some kind of alien power? Good stuff. The ending was a little choppy but overall, decent to have for the Alien section. Speaking of alien movies, this is the year of for Aliens. There's at least six I want to see: Battle: Los Angeles (March) Paul (March) Cowboys and Aliens (July) Super 8 (sometime this summer I guess) Extraterrestre (Fantastic Fest 2011) The Thing Prequel (October) Fantastic time!!
Julie & Julia The reason for watching this is that it's part of a rough deal that I made. Don't want to discuss that deal here, but, I'm a man of my word, so here's my proof that I saw this. This actually wasn't bad. I say bad because, at first glance and all, this ain't my type of movie. But, actually checking this out was good. Wanted to eat everything this Julia lady was cooking. Don't know much about her except for this movie. My favorite dish that looked the most tastiest has got to be beef bourguignon. Need to try that one day. I like the way they told this story. Back and forth between the two females here in two different time periods. Charming moments and the kind of movie you have to drink some wine to. Being a blogger myself, I kind of understand some of the things the character, Julie, was going through in her mind. For example, Julie wants to stay true to her blog no matter if there's anyone watching or not. So she committed to it. She had to have some kind of an imaginary audience. That's what I do with this blog and a few others that I have. So thanks for reading, my imaginary audience, and anyone else who happen to be reading this.
Still Crazy Alright comedy!! I never heard of it until a few weeks when one of my co-workers was talking about it and let me borrow it. There's one part that I thought was really funny. It's the part where they're back on-stage for the first time in years. And they sucked as a band. The rest was so and so. I guess, I'm not much into comedy from the U.K. (Excluding Shaun of the Dead, of course). Even though, I've never seen it, this might be a good double feature with the Spinal Tap mockumentary.
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer Well, it got awesome the last 25 minutes of the film. The first hour kinda sucked a little. When I'm going to see a movie with a title like this, I expect to see some crazy stuff. I was waiting for the monster parts, I was waiting for the gore. I had to wait patiently for the bloody climax. It was alright, though. Never heard about this movie until I researched Fantastic Fest movies from the past. I came across this one and another movie I'm going to watch next week called, The Substitute. Supposed to be some crazy stuff too. But, need to lower my expectations, I guess. I like that this felt like an 80's movie. We got Robert Englund in here for god sakes. It started out good with the Bobby Darin song, "Beyond the Sea" while the monster was killing Jack's family. The plot was a little too easy. I wish this could of been more fun for me. I wonder why it got honorable mention at Fantastic Fest a few years ago? Then again, seeing this at a theater with a whole bunch of badass cinema fans, would have probably make the experience better. Speaking of Fantastic Fest, the countdown is 7 months and four days for Fantastic Fest 2011.
Every third Thursday of every month of this year, I'll be watching a yakuza flick. Love the yakuza genre but haven't really seen a whole lot. There's a lot of classics out there. This will help me explore these Japanese movies. I'll be watching a few from directors, Kinji Fukasaku, and Takashi Miike, as well other yakuza flicks from the 60's and to the present.
Tonight is another movie from Kinji Fukasaku:
The Yakuza Papers Vol. 1: Battles Without Honor and Humanity Man, oh man, this is probably the best yakuza flick I've ever seen. With my yakuza research, this title kept coming up on top yakuza films. In fact, Kinji Fukasaku is known as the master of yakuza films. What Sergio Leone did to Spaghetti Westerns, is what Kinji Fukasaku did to the yakuza genre. There's five parts to this big story. After seeing part one, I'm hooked. This is packed with yakuza traditions and violence. Love everything about it, never a dull moment. There's lots of shootout scenes. Lots of kills. Love that the ending gave us somewhat of a little tease of things to come. Next month, we'll look at part two of this series. For now, I toast with an imaginary bottle of sake to this great night.
This is the only trailer I can find. It has German subtitles or something.
New Release Tuesday was supposed to be yesterday, but due to work, it was pushed back for tonight.
Unstoppable Adrenaline rush by Tony Scott. Hell of a lot better than his last film, The Taking of Pelhalm 123 remake. Didn't like the sappy backstory to Chris Pine's character, but, the action of chasing this train made up for it. Rosario Dawson cooler than ever. My heart was pounding in some of these sequences. As usual, very fast paced editing like other Scott films. One thing that bothered me was the media coverage for this. I work for the media industry, and what I saw here was too exaggerated and too unrealistic. We got news helicopters chasing this train, and every reporter gaining access to every location and interviews with officials. In real life, there would be no official interviews to the press until the situation is under control. Other than that, great popcorn movie.
Flipped Sweet cute story we have here. Perfect for Valentine's Day. From Rob Reiner, the guy who brought us "Stand By Me." This one has the same kind of Oldies music. At first, I didn't like going back and forth between the boy's perspective and the girl's perspective, but after a while, it got interesting telling the story that way. The only other thing that bothered me was the boy's father, that one guy that came out in Revenge of the Nerds. I think his acting and character could of been better. But, overall, enjoyed this good little story. Set the mood for a decent day.
South of the Border I liked it. The intro reminded me a little of Michael Moore. But, this is Oliver Stone, one of my favorite directors of all time. Actually, I was a bigger Stone fan back in high school than I am now. Here, he is attacking the media once again about how they politically shape everyone's thoughts and make most of the world believe who are the bad guys. Learned a little bit and got the chance to know some of these leaders around South America. If you're a Che Guevarra fan like me, you will enjoy this. But, if you're a fan of Fox News and stuff like that, all I can say, don't bother with this one, because no matter what, there's always going to be something to be mad about.
It's Complicated Not as bad as I expected. Definitely not a movie I would ever pick but that's the point of Linda's Saturday Pick. Every once in a while, Linda watches some of the movies that I see everyday. She likes some of the stuff that I like. But, for those other movies, that I won't give a chance to, this is her chance to screen it for me. Some funny moments on here. Good acting by Meryl Streep. Not a big fan of hers, but I liked her here. My favorite part, of course, when they smoke a doobie. Good times, my friends. One or two more scenes like that, would of made this a stoner movie. If you're a wine lover, this movie might go good with that. Other than that, no reason to watch this unless, (if you're a guy) your better half makes you watch it. I guess it's okay for you females too. Raise a toast goodnight!
A Woman, A Gun, and A Noodle Shop This is an Asian remake to Blood Simple (one of my favorite films from the Coen Brothers). It's very hard to top the original. This one didn't even come close. This felt more like a parody at times, while other times were serious. I love the beautiful imagery and the fact that they set this in older Asian times rather than doing a modern piece. The sounds were great. But, overall, it left me with an alright feeling. Just wanted to see this because I was curious to see how they adapted "Blood Simple." If you never seen Blood Simple, shame on you, great first film and dark comedy from the Coen Brothers. Love the song "It's the same old song" by the Four Tops. This Chinese version is at your own risk.
[The second Wednesday of every month I'll see a movie that I am ashamed to admit I've never seen before. A movie that most have seen and it's usually referenced in pop culture. As a fan of cinema, I shouldn't have missed these movies, but I did, and shame on me. This will give me the chance to catch up on those movies.]
Because Valentine's Day lands on this month, I focused on "romantic" movies that guys like or that are part of the story. I had a hard time coming up with five romantic movies that I'm ashamed for not having seen. These were the picks: Annie Hall The Graduate Dracula Weird Science High Fidelity
The Graduate wins by majority vote from my film experts.
Runner Up: Dracula
The Graduate Shame on me people. This morning I woke up to finally see this classic. The only thing I knew about it was that in Wayne's World 2, they spoof this movie. This was great. I believe there was only four songs on here, but, they kept on repeating them throughout the whole movie. The first half wasn't much of a romantic story but the third act delivered on that part. Love that whole sequence of him rescuing his love before she's married (exactly what Wayne's World spoofed). I now I can say I saw this film. No more being ridiculed by some of my peeps. Definitely, a must have for the collection.
Middle Men Fun movie. Great memorable dialogue. It's got the same attitude like the movie, Blow. It's even narrated kind of like Blow. And it also reminds me of another side to The Social Network. Love the casting. Can't go wrong with bringing Boris from "Snatch" to play the big Russian boss and James Caan as a washed up hustler. Seriously, this was a good time. There were times that were a bit silly, but, overall, I felt like this delivered. This has a little bit of everything: a little dark comedy, laugh out loud comedy, and a little bit of gangster. Music was badass too. Couple of Rolling Stones songs doesn't hurt either.
[To expand my knowledge in this genre and for the sake of trying something different, every first Monday of every month this year, I'll be checking out a musical I've never seen before.]
Didn't feel like the usual musical but I enjoyed it. Yesterday, I saw Nowhere Boy, and I just couldn't help but choose this at the last minute for this month's musical night. A few good known Beatles songs and there's few more that I haven't heard in a great while. Like some of the smart humor on here. Would of wanted to see more random musical sequences. My favorite part: Paul's grandfather in the movie kills a pigeon. Favorite musical sequence: "Can't Buy Me Love." Short, simple, and another great movie for fans of The Beatles.
Nowhere Boy Great drama. Aaron Johnson from Kick Ass does a wonderful performance here playing the early years of John Lennon. This focuses on his relationship with his mother and aunt and the early days of his band. He meets Paul McCartney and George Harrison here and it shows the start of a legendary band. This has some emotional scenes for me. Love the music like Jay Hawkins song, "I Put A Spell on You." A must see for fans of The Beatles. You're in the mood for a new drama, check it out.
Monsters An alright drama flick with a couple of suspenseful scenes. We see a monster (actually an alien) in the beginning of the film. It dies. We see a few glimpses of other monsters throughout the film. Couple of teases. But, mostly we're following this guy and girl through northern Mexico and the fear they have to live with. Love the concept, but the movie didn't do full on delivery for me. The last monster scene could of been a lot better. When they first enter the infected area, that reminded me of Jurassic Park. And I thought that this was going to blow me away after that. Maybe not by monsters but with the story as a whole. It just left me with an okay feeling, I guess.
Antichrist What the hell did I just watch? A movie that may have lots of meanings and interpretations. Lars Von Trier has done it again, but, this time less enjoyable. I've only seen three other films from him. Dancer in the Dark was trippy and Dogville and Manderlay were good in their own way. I didn't know what to expect with Antichrist. I've seen way worse and more controversial films. I guess what makes this one hardcore was those sexually explicit scenes. The part that was messed up was when "She" cuts her own "pleasure" thing off. That was a crazy moment. Lots of crazy imagery here. Never going to a cabin in the middle of the woods, I can tell you that much. I don't straight out recommend this film. If you want to feel some creepiness and some surrealism, check this out.
Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zen This is one of the movies I missed out on last year's Fantastic Fest. I had the ticket to go but due to a car problem in the middle of the day, I missed out on it. Well, thanks to I Luv Video for having an international copy of this movie, got to see this tonight. Donnie Yen kicks ass like usual. Fast punches. This one didn't feel like a kung fu flick. There was some great martial art scenes but it was mostly war stuff. It gets a little bloody. Lots of guns and explosions. The final showdown at the end was pretty awesome. The story was okay. This feels like a sequel to Fist of Legend, but according to research, it's a sequel to a Donnie Yen TV series called, Fists of Fury. I actually prefer Ip Man 2 more than this one. And of course, you can't beat the first Ip Man. Good entertainment.
