The Master (2012)

The Master
Well, this was one of my most anticipated movies of the year.
I'm a big P.T Anderson fan.
Finally saw this today in 70mm at the Alamo Ritz.
I was wanting more out of the story.
What I got is some very damn good performances.
I mean, we got an alcoholic high tempered Joaquin Phoenix.
We got a relaxed philosopher played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Good shots.
Good score (by the guy from Radiohead).
But, the story?
I was a bit disappointed.
I mean, I get it.
It's a master trying to save a lost soul.
That's basically the story. 
It's nothing to do with the rise and fall of this cult
or philosopher. 
It's about the relationship between the characters.
Lots of drinking happens in the movie.
Some of it was too hardcore for my taste.
But, it did make me want to order some hard stuff.
I'll added to my P.T Anderson section when it comes out on DVD.
If I didn't have that section, I might not add this.

Kung Fu Friday: Enter The Dragon

KUNG FU FRIDAY 

Every fourth Friday of every month this year,
I'll be checking out a kung fu movie of any period.
Gives me an excuse to kick the walls and break blocks of wood.
Also gives me the excuse to go to I Luv Video or Vulcan Video
and catch up on some great kung fu flicks out there.

Enter The Dragon
Finally got to see Bruce Lee's most famous movie.
I saw only a few scenes before throughout my movie
watching addiction.
But, never took or made time to watch this as a whole.
Well, a few months ago, I bought this
DVD to go along all the other Bruce Lee movies I have
in my Kung Fu section.
Yes, it's a blind buy (which I usually don't do).
This was sitting on the shelf for months.
Now, tonight, for Kung Fu Friday, it is on.
I enjoyed the storyline.  
There wasn't a lot of Bruce Lee action until
the end (which kicked ass).
I love the grindhouse feel and music on here.
Some of the story reminded me of the Mortal Kombat movie.
Maybe they stole from this movie.
A bunch of fighters get on a boat to compete in
a tournament hosted by a high profiled criminal.
Bruce Lee plays an undercover agent ready to kick ass
and bring this criminal down.
The ending was so and so.
But, it was cool to see some moves.
The famous mirror fighting scene was cool.
A must see for Kung Fu fans.

Tai Chi 0 (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

 Screening #32:

Tai Chi 0
Steam-punk Kung Fu.
That's what they said this was.
I never heard of the term, Steam-punk.
This kung fu flick from China was not as good as I thought.
There were some cool fighting sequences.
My favorite sequence is when the whole village
started throwing watermelons and other fruits
against their intruders.
I liked this story but it was cut short
and it was kind of unexpected.
I don't know why they did the ending like that.
Instead of doing a cool cliffhanger, they decided to end
the movie and then while the credits roll, they put
a trailer to the next movie to this series
(which is Tai Chi Hero).
I was left disappointed because the story in this
movie didn't quite finish.
But, oh well, this is my personal opinion and I'm sticking
to it.

This was my last screening for this year's Fantastic Fest.
Here's my list of movies from the festival
(from most favorite to least favorite):
1. Young Gun in The Time
2. I Declare War
3. Black Out
4. Graceland
5. Unit 7
6. Frankenweenie
7. Wrong
8. Outrage Beyond
9. Cockneys Vs. Zombies
10. Dredd 3D
11. The American Scream
12. Bring Me The Head of Machine Gun Woman
13. Plan C
14. Lee’s Adventure
15. Cold steel
16. Greatest movie ever rolled
17. Two Rabbits
18. No Rest For The Wicked
19. Combat Girls
20. The King of Pigs
21. Flicker
22. Tai Chi 0
23. Vulgaria
24. Doomsday Book
25. Here Comes The Devil
26. Vanishing Waves
27. The History of Future Folk
28. Holy Motors
29. The ABC's of Death
30. Cold Blooded
31. Berberian Sound Studio
32. Taped

Lee's Adventure

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #31:

Lee's Adventure
Jackie Chan's son is in this time travel movie from China.
It was pretty cool.
There's a love story on here.
The main character is a big gamer.
Eventually, he learns to travel in time.
The story was fast paced.
I love the animated sequences on here.
There's this one sequence where our hero
is telling the cops a story.
It becomes an animation for about 5 minutes
about him kicking some ass.
They go back to reality and the cops were stunned
by his story.  Loved it.

Greatest Movie Ever Rolled (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012
 
Screening #30:

Greatest Movie Ever Rolled
Damn, this has to be one of the best movie
experiences ever. 
The mockumentary was okay.
What made it really good was the ambiance.
Doug Benson was here.
He introduced the movie and told the
audience that he spoke to Tim League (owner of the Alamo Drafthouse)
earlier and got his permission to allow smoking some 420
during the screening.
Right when the movie started,
many audience members pulled out their stash and lighters
and started sparking it up.
The guy next to me, offered me some.
I "respectfully" refused.
I did order a beer and the Up In Smoke'd Bacon pizza.
The guy who brought us Super High Me is back to bring
another Morgan Spurlock title rip-off. 
It was a good ride.
Picked up two things:
A shot of Crown mixed with Butterscotch is highly recommended.
And, one can use an apple as bong.
Good to know, good to know.
I think I'll add this movie to the Stoner section.

Doug Benson was here to get high and do a mini stand up for the audience
after the screening:

The American Scream (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #29:

The American Scream
Big fan of Halloween?
This is the documentary for you .
I loved it.
The same director from "Best Worst Movie"
comes back with this doc about a group of
families who dedicate their time every year to make
the best Halloween haunted houses.
It's an inspirational movie.
While most go all out for Christmas,
here we have strong bonding of families
helping each other out to make scary stuff happen.
There were a lot of cute moments with
the kids helping out their dad.
A good montage when it came down to
Halloween night. 
Love the details they put into this movie.
A must for the Documentary section.

No trailer found for this movie.

Doomsday Book (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #28:

Doomsday Book
This is the film I was most excited to see from
this festival.
I mean, come on!!
How am I not going to be excited for a
Korean movie composed of three stories about the end of the world
one of the stories directed by the director of I Saw The Devil?
Well, I hyped it up for myself.
I was let down.
The concept was great.
The first story deals with a zombie apocalypse.
I loved it.  My favorite story of the three.
The second story is about a robot who has more feelings than
humans.  Basically, the Korean short version of "I Robot."
Except this one was more dramatic than action.
And the last story was about a big 8 ball colliding with Earth.
Thus, bringing destruction everywhere.
It's also part alien.
That story was my least favorite and made the movie not that
great.
Jee-Won Kim directed the robot story.
I think that one should of closed out the movie.
But, I understand why it didn't.
Well, there you have it.
Okay to see.
I'll only buy it for the Jee-Won Kim section.

Two Rabbits (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012
 
Screening #27:

Two Rabbits
Very fast paced cool little action flick from Brazil.
The synopsis for this movie misled me.
They said it was a revenge/gangster flick.
While I can see part of the revenge,
it wasn't enough to call this movie a revenge movie.
It's a cool Guy Ritchie type of movie.
A bunch of loveable characters.
Crazy dialogue like remembering to bring
the sword out of the car and stuff.
There's a love story on here as well.
The movie is rollercoaster ride.
It takes many turns.
Very stylized. I liked it all the way to almost the end.
The only part I didn't like was the last moment
after the good climax.
But, that's just my personal view.
Not going to write any spoilers.
Good action flick to see.

Plan C (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #26:
 

Plan C
We got ourselves a dark comedy/crime movie from the Netherlands
(Coen Brothers style).
I enjoyed it a lot.
The beginning it's a slow build up to a great movie.
If plan A didn't work. And plan B made it worse,
then stick to Plan C.
It's been done in other movies where they get a group
together to rob something and they always bring someone
else into the group that makes things worse for everyone.
That's case in here.
There was some nice quirky dialogue.
This is reminded me a bit of the movies, "Fargo" and "A Simple Plan."
Good checking out.

Flicker (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #25:

Flicker
This Sweden movie was pretty funny.
It was a nice blend of dark comedy and a
cute comedy (if that exists).
They say this is the Office Space of Sweden.
It's kinda like it but in another level.
It's not a laugh out loud hilarious movie like Office Space.
But, it's definitely one of those movies where you can
relate if you work for a major corporation.
Depressing but loveable characters make for a
good laugh in their situations.
My favorite is the lady who is scared of spiders.
It was a hit at the festival.
I saw this at midnight and my brain was all fried out by then.
But, I still managed to like it somewhat.
It didn't suck.
Maybe, next time I'll be more alert and might like it a lot more.

Vanishing Waves (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #24:

Vanishing Waves
I didn't know what to expect out of this Sci-fi/ Romance
from Lithuania.
In fact, I've never heard of this country ever until this festival.
This one won the Fantastic Award yesterday at the awards.
So, I wanted to check it out.
The only problem was that it was during the same time
as the movie, "Aftershock," with Eli Roth.
I thought about it hard and I figured,
"Aftershock" would most likely be on DVD faster than this movie.
Who knows when this movie will be out.
So here's my chance.
By the way, I heard "Aftershock" wasn't that good.
Back to this movie.
This was a trippy ride.
We got this guy who gets put into this machine
and he goes to this surreal world in his imagination.
At the same time, this girl who is in a coma, is also strapped
to this machine.
So this guy and this girl are passionately and crazy
in love with each other in this other state of mind.
There's a lot of crazy images.
But this movie makes more sense
than movies like Melancholia and Tree of Life
(both of these I didn't like one bit).
It was okay to see once.
I don't think it's worth buying.

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

 Screening 23:

Berberian Sound Studio
Crazy sounds made this horror movie from the U.K a little creepy
but I didn't find it all that good.
I like the first half where they show how they make
all those good scary sounds in horror movies
but when the actual horror part of the story came into play,
it didn't make sense.
I mean, I didn't really get it.
Just that the sound guy was going crazy working
in a horror movie.
That's it.
I was wanting more out of this story. 
Kudos for paying tribute to some of the giallo films.
Next time I see a horror grindhouse I'll make sure
to remember those sounds.
This one is one of my least favorites from this festival.

Bring Me The Head of Machine Gun Woman (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #22:

 

There is no IMDb link or trailer to this movie yet
but here's more info on it from the Fantastic Fest site:
Bring Me The Head Of Machine Gun Woman
Another great modern grindhouse from the guy who brought
us "Mirageman" and "Mandrill."
The term and company "Latinsploitation" was introduced
into the audience.
Some good kills.
Very 80's feel to this.
This was fast paced and short.
Love the high heels killing scene.
Fans of "Machete" will not be disappointed.
All we need is Robert Rodriguez to use some of his
power and support movies like these rather
than the bigger Hollywood movies.

Director Ernest Diaz Espinoza and Machine Gun Woman herself
were present for this screening:

Outrage Beyond (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #21:

Outrage Beyond
I saw part one to this movie at Fantastic Fest 2010
and now two years later I saw this awesome sequel.
Straight up yakuza flick.
Takashi Kitano strikes again.
Just like the first one,
it's a slow build up for craziness in the second half.
Best death scene I've seen in Fantastic Fest.
What is the death scene?
There's a part where they strap the guy in the battling cage
with no helmet.
All the balls hit his head until he dies.
Brutal!!
This movie has a good ending.
I own the first one already and can't wait to own this one.
Thinking about a Yakuza section for my shelf.

Taped (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #20:

Taped
My least favorite film today was this thriller from the Netherlands.
I started today with another movie from this country (Black Out).
By the way, that was my favorite movie today.
This one takes place in Argentina.
A couple going through a possible separation
decide to go to Argentina to see if they can rekindle
their relationship.
Instead, they witness a cop murdering someone
and now they're being chased around the city.
While the premise was okay, I was disappointed by
some of the actions these characters did.
But of course, if they would of done the smart thing,
then we wouldn't have a thriller, would we?
Yes, it keeps on your toes through the whole thing.
But, it gets tiring towards the end.
Just go home already, dammit.
These are my comments and I'm sticking to them.

Cold steel

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #19:

Cold Steel
Lots of Japanese heads get blown off in this
World War 2 movie from China.
It was well made.
It is a sniper movie and part love story.
I love the shots on this movie.
One particular moment that was kick ass was
the moment where our hero jumps to the other
building and breaks through the window.
The camera follows him.
This was done in one of the Bourne movies
except the actor in this movie did his own stunt.
Lots of gunfire and explosions in this one.
I have to admit, this was a surprise.
I thought it was going to be more dramatic than
it was, considering there's a love story in here.
But, good old war movie.
War between the Chinese and the Japanese.
This movie is best served with hot tea.

The director (David Wu) was present.
He has worked a lot with John Woo and the Shaw Brothers.
He's a cool person to talk to.
Reminded me a lot of Quentin Tarantino.
 

Vulgaria (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

 Screening #18:

Vulgaria
Just when you thought you were safe
to talk about having sex with mules!
This Hong Kong comedy about the movie industry
had its moments.
Now I thought it was going to be very explicit.
Yeah, there's talks about blowjobs, handjobs, porn,
and even bestiality.
But, it wasn't all that crazy.
It was a bit funny.
My favorite moment has to be the dinner scene
with "the boss" aka "the potential investor."
Other than that, the rest was pretty cool.
It goes back and forth between the movie producer talking
to a class about the business and the scenes about his daily
life in the business.
The ending was funny.
I probably wouldn't buy it but it was cool to see.
If you ever see this, I suggest you buy some Pop Rocks
and have a good time with your other half after it's over.
You'll know what I'm talking about.
Wink, wink!!

Black Out (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #17:





















Black Out
If the last movie I saw from this festival
(Cockneys Vs. Zombies) reminded me of Snatch,
this one is more like Snatch and Guy Ritchie style.
Instead of a diamond, it's cocaine.
And it gets passed around between characters.
Of course there's a lot of Tarantino influence on this movie as well.
Hell, one of the characters even mentions "Kill Bill."
I loved this movie.
Good gangster movie from the Netherlands. There's a lot of characters.
A lot of twists and turns.
The dialogue was also great.
I just wanted to have a beer with some of these characters.
Good music too.
This one is good for the Gangster section.
Another festival favorite.

Director Arne Toonen was present for this screening:

Cockneys Vs. Zombies (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #16:

Cockneys Vs. Zombies
At first I thought this was going to be some kind of
Shaun of the Dead ripoff being that it's a zombedy from the U.K.
But, this wasn't like it.
It's a mix of Snatch and Shaun of the Dead but with its own style.
I loved it.
A lot of zombie kills (more than most movies).
Love the characters.
I especially like all the scenes with the elderly (led by that one
guy from Snatch).
A lot of cool little moments, most of them funny.
Smooth zombie action that satisfies any fan of this genre.
Can't wait to put this in the Zombie Section some day.

Director Matheas Hoene was present for this screening:

The History of Future Folk (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #15:

The History of Future Folk
I ordered me some beers to go along with this Sci-fi/Music/Drama.
This was okay.
It's about this band from outer space.
They came to conquer and discovered music
and now they're here to stay and play banjo music.
I was wanting a lot more music scenes.
But, this movie focused more on the drama.
There was the sci-fi aspect but not enough to
satisfy the sci-fi craving.
I guess the mood kind of went down because
we realized right near the beginning that the
main alien here actually is married to an Earthling
and they have a daughter together.
I didn't buy that part of the story.
But, I went with it. The music was cool.
The set up was good in the middle.
All in all, it was okay.
If they would of made this more as a Musical, would of been a hit.

No trailer found but here's a clip of the group:

Wrong (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012

Screening #14:

Wrong
This was a nice surprise.
It's from the same director who did "Rubber."
Now, I saw "Rubber" two years ago at Fantastic Fest.
I was a little disappointed with that one.
So I didn't know what to expect with this one.
It was another weird absurd movie.
But it was cute and charming.
I like this style.  It's not for everyone.
I was cracking up throughout the whole thing.
It was like a milder David Lynch movie.
It's a guy who loses his dog and he goes
on with his life searching for him.
Along the way, we meet crazy characters.
I love the detective.
I repeat, this movie is not for everyone.
This is for fans of absurd humor.
The director created a whole new world in this movie.
I liked this one a whole lot better than "Rubber."
Kudos!!!

I Declare War (2012)

FANTASTIC FEST 2012 

Screening #13:

I Declare War
I love this movie.
Can I say that again?
I love this movie.
These are the kinds of movies I go to Fantastic Fest for.
Sure, maybe they'll come out on DVD one day.
But, seeing this on the big screen and with a whole
bunch of genre fans, make this priceless.
This is a movie from 
At first this seems like Son of Rambow (which I totally love),
but this is a beast on its own.
Kids playing war and lots of weapons and crazy moments?
Hell yeah.
And there's a lot of cussing going on here.
The dialogue was funny!
I was laughing and moving my body with excitement
as the movie played.
Love the style.
Love the rules of this war.
This movie is about friendship, betrayal, love, and a bunch
of water balloons filled with blood.
These kids all did a great job.
I haven't seen a good kid performance in a while.
A must have movie from Canada.
Hope they get distribution soon so I can see it again.

The Co-Director and Producer for the movie were present: