Filmage: The Story of the Descendants/All

 Filmage IMDb

Awesome, awesome documentary about the first pop punk band, the Descendents.  I saw this late last night after a big coffee rush.  What a coincidence that this band sing about love, angst, and coffee?!  They sing about other things as well like fishing and etc.  Didn't know they were from Hermosa Beach, Ca.  I love that place.  I first got introduced to Descendents by my brother Robert back when I was living in L.A.  I was a little kid loving "It's a Hectic World."  I have a lot of respect for them and even more so now after watching this doc.  It covers their beginning, their name transformation to ALL, and troubles.  And also how they influenced a lot of other bands like Green Day and Blink 182.  A lot of interviews here with not only the band members but other well known people in the punk world as well as Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters, Mark from Blink 182, and Mike from NOFX.

Great documentary I would highly recommend to punk fans.  It's a must.  Hell, even if you aren't a fan of punk, this is good as a history piece itself for rock music in general.

Zatoichi and the Fugitives

Zatoichi and the Fugitives IMDb 

Zatoichi, motherfucka!  Put this on late last night on the quest to finally finish my Zatoichi box set.  Man, this was another badass one. It starts with a bloodshed scene.  Literally, Zatoichi strikes
a bully and a bloody fountain erupts.  That was the only blood spraying scene in this movie but there were a lot of other awesome battles.  As with every other Zatoichi film, Zatoichi wanders into another village full of trouble.  This time he is targeted by a group of fugitives who are hiding for a few days.  Zatoichi saves a female servant from a yakuza, kills a random snake, and drinks sake with his enemies.  The usual.  He comes very close in getting killled in this one.  Zatoichi is golden though.

7 more Zatoichi films to see before placing the box set with the rest of my collection.  Fuck yeah!

St. Vincent

 St. Vincent IMDb

Sweet, sweet dramedy we have here.  Some cool charming moments and some dramatic ones.  Bill Murray does his usual mean sarcastic awesome performance except he has a Brooklyn/Irish accent in this one.  And speaking of accents, I was bothered with Naomi Watts's Russian accent. That was one of the few things I didn't like about this movie.  I wasn't into it at first but after 30 minutes in or so, it picked up for me.  Awesome story about a "father figure" teaching some things about life to a young boy.  This "father figure" is one drunken jobless cold son of a bitch but somehow he is recognized as a saint to a pair of young eyes.  That's not a spoiler, after all, the movie is called St. Vincent.   Love the soundtrack too.  

Good recommendation if you're in the mood for a dramedy.  If you can get past Naomi's accent, you'll enjoy it a lot more.

End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones

End of the Century IMDb 

I'm going to be very bias here.  Wait a minute, this is my movie blog, it's supposed to be bias.  I grew up with two older brothers that are big fans of the Ramones.  It wasn't until I reached my teens when I realized how good they really were and it took over from there.  This documentary shows some of the highlights.  From the beginnings and their rise to fame in the punk rock world.  Would've wanted more details but that wasn't the focus of this doc. I did learn some new things.  Joey Ramone had OCD.  I did not know Phil Spector was at one point their producer.  I got to learn some of the drama.  Enjoyed it.  

Definitely worth watching for you punk rock fans out there. My brother Robert and my niece Stephanie hooked me up with this doc.  Kudos!  Can't wait for the Ramones biopic directed by Martin Scorsese (it might be a while).

The Knights of Badassdom

 Knights of Badassdom IMDb
I, personally, never played Dungeons and Dragons.  I would watch the occasional medieval movie here and there but not a hardcore fan.  I do love Willow, though.  I didn't mind watching this one.  Actually, I enjoyed it.  There were a lot of cheesy moments but enjoyable.  I like the setup, some of the characters, and the plot.  The only thing I hated was the ending scene.  All these guys are supposed to be nerds cosplaying different medieval characters.  Things get twisted and sooner than you can fly, you have demons and dragons.  Spoiler Alert: The ending scene is when our main character all of a sudden shows off his muscular body and performs a metal song in order to destroy the beast.
Nope, didn't like that part.

Kudos on the horror aspect to this.  And Peter Dinklage rules.  Now, this is coming from a guy who is not a hardcore fan of Dungeons and Dragons and etc.  If you are a fan, then this is worth watching.

Time Travel Tuesday: Predestination

Predestination IMDb 

Pretty clever time travel movie.  That's all I have to say about this movie.  Actually,  the less you know,  the better.  The first half was somewhat annoying and it dragged on for a while but that second half though.  Clever twists for a pretty clever time travel movie. Reminded me of one of my favorite time travel movies: Timecrimes. 

Worth checking out for sure.

Rosewater

Rosewater IMDb 

Can you believe Jon Stewart directed this very serious film?  It's based on a true story of an Iranian that was interviewed by the Daily Show and because of that, he was captured and accused of being a spy.  Gael Garcia Bernal, a Mexican, plays that Iranian.  Now that was hard to believe.  He did okay.  I've seen lots of films about imprisonment, terrorists, and torture.  I thought this movie could have been better as a whole.  I couldn't feel for the character.  Such a shame because I really wanted to like it.  There was some good scenes towards the beginning but it felt flat later.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it.  A good recommendation would be: Road to Guantanamo.