Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
I really liked Phase IV. The only feature-length film directed by legendary master of title sequences Saul Bass. Barry malzberg's novelization is interesting, too.
What was the last movie you saw?
- Thread starter Tabitha
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WaylanderToo
Well-Known Member
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- Jul 18, 2015
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I liked the film although I thought that a lot of the ant CGI was shonky. MD and PR were great and there were some standout scenes and fun moments to be had. Overall worthwhile
J Riff
The Ants are my friends..
BUG is on the menu tonite, so I skipped Victoria's review for the moment. Still recovering from The Night of 1000 Cats, here.
Disorganized Crime is a good laugh. Poor Frank. )
Disorganized Crime is a good laugh. Poor Frank. )
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
Last Night:
Barbarosa - stultifyingly long 2 hour epic abut the formation of the Lombard League in the 12th century, stuffed full of fascist symbolism and Rutger Hauer. Actually it was really stuffed full of horses. The script was a real clunker full of people telling each other historically important things the audience need to know but which they would have been fully aware - "Yes, these new taxes that the newly installed Pope Bendict the whateverth are really hurting the people..." Blah blah blah. Real local radio advertising dialogue. "Yes, June with the Lombardy League you get not one but two chances of fighting for.... " Blah blah blah.
Mixed in with this guff there was a subplot about a woman who had visions, was due to be burned as a witch - but wasn't by order of the Empress (who burned someone else instead) and ended up, for some totally unexplained reason, in armour on the battlefield (though whose side she was on is anyone's guess). The only thing that kept me watching (apart from the insane hotness of the witchy woman Kasia Smutniak) was giggling with glee at every new interior. For some reason (maybe he had shares in a candle company) the director had his set designers stuff every interior full of candles.
Inside a peasant's hut late at night as the occupants try to go to sleep there were at least a dozen candles alight in the room. A dungeon cell had another dozen and when the hero and heroine fall into bed at last - in daylight - in a ramshackle hut with sunlight streaming in through every crack and crevice - candles. (And yes it rained in the funeral scene too. But only only round the grave itself. The people standing in the back were in brilliant sunshine and dry as bones.) Between the candle scenes we had the horse scenes. Horses filled up a lot of screen time. Sometimes they went this way, sometimes they went that way, sometimes they were in slow motion (which usually meant there was a river, or at least a big puddle, coming up for them to splash through). I would guess a quarter of this film's running time was spent on shots of people riding across the screen. Gallumph gallumph gallumph. Or marching back the other way. Gallumph gallumph gallumph.
People appeared and disappeared from the narrative and then reappeared when you'd forgotten who they were. Not that I could tell them apart because everyone stomped about in identical generic middle-ages movie beards, straggly movie hair, , and generic shapeless brown movie clothing. Or armour. The only people I could identify after a while with certainty were delicious Kasia Smuttynicks (who, sadly, did not get ANYWHERE near naked), F Murray Abrahams who was having a whale of a time chewing the scenery to bits, and Rutger Hauer who looked as bored as I was.
The whole thing has the appearence of smething shot as a miniseries cut it down to a movie. And the wrong bits cut out . Another quid wasted in Poundland and another one off my 'Watch Rutger Hauer's Entire Career' list.
Tonight:
Vertigo - for her turn in our nightly, while the rest of the family are away, turn and turn about movie watching binge Daughter Number One swithered between this and 2001: a Space Odyssey. Getting very grown up tastes in movies for a 13 year old is No 1 Daughter. I'd never seen it before. I loved it. Not sure she was deeply in awe of Mr H's sure direction and weird sexual overtones as I was but she enjoyed it. Had some interesting things to say about the acting too.
Barbarosa - stultifyingly long 2 hour epic abut the formation of the Lombard League in the 12th century, stuffed full of fascist symbolism and Rutger Hauer. Actually it was really stuffed full of horses. The script was a real clunker full of people telling each other historically important things the audience need to know but which they would have been fully aware - "Yes, these new taxes that the newly installed Pope Bendict the whateverth are really hurting the people..." Blah blah blah. Real local radio advertising dialogue. "Yes, June with the Lombardy League you get not one but two chances of fighting for.... " Blah blah blah.
Mixed in with this guff there was a subplot about a woman who had visions, was due to be burned as a witch - but wasn't by order of the Empress (who burned someone else instead) and ended up, for some totally unexplained reason, in armour on the battlefield (though whose side she was on is anyone's guess). The only thing that kept me watching (apart from the insane hotness of the witchy woman Kasia Smutniak) was giggling with glee at every new interior. For some reason (maybe he had shares in a candle company) the director had his set designers stuff every interior full of candles.
Inside a peasant's hut late at night as the occupants try to go to sleep there were at least a dozen candles alight in the room. A dungeon cell had another dozen and when the hero and heroine fall into bed at last - in daylight - in a ramshackle hut with sunlight streaming in through every crack and crevice - candles. (And yes it rained in the funeral scene too. But only only round the grave itself. The people standing in the back were in brilliant sunshine and dry as bones.) Between the candle scenes we had the horse scenes. Horses filled up a lot of screen time. Sometimes they went this way, sometimes they went that way, sometimes they were in slow motion (which usually meant there was a river, or at least a big puddle, coming up for them to splash through). I would guess a quarter of this film's running time was spent on shots of people riding across the screen. Gallumph gallumph gallumph. Or marching back the other way. Gallumph gallumph gallumph.
People appeared and disappeared from the narrative and then reappeared when you'd forgotten who they were. Not that I could tell them apart because everyone stomped about in identical generic middle-ages movie beards, straggly movie hair, , and generic shapeless brown movie clothing. Or armour. The only people I could identify after a while with certainty were delicious Kasia Smuttynicks (who, sadly, did not get ANYWHERE near naked), F Murray Abrahams who was having a whale of a time chewing the scenery to bits, and Rutger Hauer who looked as bored as I was.
The whole thing has the appearence of smething shot as a miniseries cut it down to a movie. And the wrong bits cut out . Another quid wasted in Poundland and another one off my 'Watch Rutger Hauer's Entire Career' list.
Tonight:
Vertigo - for her turn in our nightly, while the rest of the family are away, turn and turn about movie watching binge Daughter Number One swithered between this and 2001: a Space Odyssey. Getting very grown up tastes in movies for a 13 year old is No 1 Daughter. I'd never seen it before. I loved it. Not sure she was deeply in awe of Mr H's sure direction and weird sexual overtones as I was but she enjoyed it. Had some interesting things to say about the acting too.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Little Murders (1971)
Directed by Alan Arkin; written by Jules Feiffer, from his play.
I knew that this film had a reputation as a very dark comedy indeed, but nothing quite prepared me for it. This in due, in part, to the fact that it begins almost like a cynical romantic comedy.
We begin with a woman (Marcia Rodd, who went on to do lots of television, in her first film role) in her New York apartment. Things seem pretty normal. A noisy alarm clock wakes her up, she gets out of bed, and so on. There seems to be a lot of shouting outside her window, so she threatens to call the cops. Unfortunately, when she dials 911 she only gets a busy signal. Being a tough-minded optimist, she goes down herself to take care of the problem. She uses her purse to rescue a photographer (our hero, played by Elliott Gould) from some young street punks who are beating him up. However, when they turn on her instead, he simply walks away.
Thus begins a very unlikely romance between the completely apathetic Gould, and Rodd, who is determined to mold him into something better. This effort would seem doomed to failure, since Gould (who plays this role something like a Woody Allen neurotic without the nervous energy) has blocked himself from almost all feelings. Somehow these two wind up in love (or something like it) when Gould opens up enough to say "I nearly trust you."
Things get a little edgier when we meet Rodd's family. We have Mother, who puts on the persona of a cheerful housewife. (We see the cracks in her facade when she has to leave the room when she brings up the subject of her older son, who was murdered some time before the film begins.) We have Father, who is so tightly wound that he seems ready to explode. We have Rodd's younger brother, with whom she seems at first to have a teasingly incestuous relationship, then who proves to have serious gender issues.
The movie goes in another direction when the two decide to marry. (I should say, she decides to marry and he doesn't object.) The fact that they want no mention of God in the ceremony leads to the first of a handful of long monologues which will interrupt the story. (With these interludes, and the limited number of sets, it's easy to see that this was a stage play.) This comes from a judge who delivers a harangue about the struggles his immigrant parents had to overcome.
Our next long speech comes during the wedding ceremony, when Donald Sutherland steals the movie as a hippie-ish minister. His "sermon" (no mention of a deity, as agreed, even though Father bribed him to add it) is the comic highlight of the film.
Rodd, desperate to change Gould, sends him back to see his parents, with whom he has had no contact since he was a teenager. She even gives him a list of questions (such as "Was I breast fed or bottle fed?") to try to figure out what went wrong with him. At first his parents avoid the questions, and just drop names like Freud and Adler. At last they have to admit that they simply don't remember anything about their son's childhood.
After this scathing satire on lack of communication, we have a scene which does not seem intended to be funny at all. Gould related a experience he had some time ago, when someone was assigned to read his mail. He wrote letters to this unknown person by addressing them to himself, eventually making a sort of contact with the person spying on him. It's a strangely moving anecdote, delivered by Gould in the dull monotone he uses for almost all of the film.
At this point, about an hour into the film, we have a sudden shocking plot twist which I will not reveal here. After wandering around a bit, the film shows its fangs and goes far beyond the level of dark satire we've seen so far. The only thing I can compare it to (although the two are otherwise quite different) is the mood of After Hours. The last half hour goes in directions that the viewer is not likely to be prepared for.
Despite some missteps (director Arkin plays a nearly psychotic police detective, who delivers one of the long speeches in a manner which many will find too broad), this is a remarkable film which often amuses, but which eventually grabs you by the throat.
Directed by Alan Arkin; written by Jules Feiffer, from his play.
I knew that this film had a reputation as a very dark comedy indeed, but nothing quite prepared me for it. This in due, in part, to the fact that it begins almost like a cynical romantic comedy.
We begin with a woman (Marcia Rodd, who went on to do lots of television, in her first film role) in her New York apartment. Things seem pretty normal. A noisy alarm clock wakes her up, she gets out of bed, and so on. There seems to be a lot of shouting outside her window, so she threatens to call the cops. Unfortunately, when she dials 911 she only gets a busy signal. Being a tough-minded optimist, she goes down herself to take care of the problem. She uses her purse to rescue a photographer (our hero, played by Elliott Gould) from some young street punks who are beating him up. However, when they turn on her instead, he simply walks away.
Thus begins a very unlikely romance between the completely apathetic Gould, and Rodd, who is determined to mold him into something better. This effort would seem doomed to failure, since Gould (who plays this role something like a Woody Allen neurotic without the nervous energy) has blocked himself from almost all feelings. Somehow these two wind up in love (or something like it) when Gould opens up enough to say "I nearly trust you."
Things get a little edgier when we meet Rodd's family. We have Mother, who puts on the persona of a cheerful housewife. (We see the cracks in her facade when she has to leave the room when she brings up the subject of her older son, who was murdered some time before the film begins.) We have Father, who is so tightly wound that he seems ready to explode. We have Rodd's younger brother, with whom she seems at first to have a teasingly incestuous relationship, then who proves to have serious gender issues.
The movie goes in another direction when the two decide to marry. (I should say, she decides to marry and he doesn't object.) The fact that they want no mention of God in the ceremony leads to the first of a handful of long monologues which will interrupt the story. (With these interludes, and the limited number of sets, it's easy to see that this was a stage play.) This comes from a judge who delivers a harangue about the struggles his immigrant parents had to overcome.
Our next long speech comes during the wedding ceremony, when Donald Sutherland steals the movie as a hippie-ish minister. His "sermon" (no mention of a deity, as agreed, even though Father bribed him to add it) is the comic highlight of the film.
Rodd, desperate to change Gould, sends him back to see his parents, with whom he has had no contact since he was a teenager. She even gives him a list of questions (such as "Was I breast fed or bottle fed?") to try to figure out what went wrong with him. At first his parents avoid the questions, and just drop names like Freud and Adler. At last they have to admit that they simply don't remember anything about their son's childhood.
After this scathing satire on lack of communication, we have a scene which does not seem intended to be funny at all. Gould related a experience he had some time ago, when someone was assigned to read his mail. He wrote letters to this unknown person by addressing them to himself, eventually making a sort of contact with the person spying on him. It's a strangely moving anecdote, delivered by Gould in the dull monotone he uses for almost all of the film.
At this point, about an hour into the film, we have a sudden shocking plot twist which I will not reveal here. After wandering around a bit, the film shows its fangs and goes far beyond the level of dark satire we've seen so far. The only thing I can compare it to (although the two are otherwise quite different) is the mood of After Hours. The last half hour goes in directions that the viewer is not likely to be prepared for.
Despite some missteps (director Arkin plays a nearly psychotic police detective, who delivers one of the long speeches in a manner which many will find too broad), this is a remarkable film which often amuses, but which eventually grabs you by the throat.
hardsciencefanagain
Well-Known Member
lovely bit of cinearcheology,Vic.
AA was a great actor too,I loved him in Little Miss Sunshine
AA was a great actor too,I loved him in Little Miss Sunshine
J-Sun
⚡
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2008
- Messages
- 5,323
I'll have to check that out, Victoria - I'm not as big a fan of Scorsese as some people but I love After Hours. I get that you're comparing moods more than anything else but, still, that grabbed my interest.
(Also like to echo all the love for Ed Wood. It's "perfect!")
(Also like to echo all the love for Ed Wood. It's "perfect!")
Samsara (2011) How to describe this one...Shot in 70mm film, it's a kind of spiritual journey through our existence on this planet with stunning visuals and a slowly unfolding theme. Containing no narrative and filled with juxtaposition, it doesn't preach - merely shows our place and effect on Earth. I found it beautiful, enthralling and, ultimately, terrifying.
Of course, others might simply find it boring.
Of course, others might simply find it boring.
Jesse412
Old Curmudgeon
Halloween (1978)
Carpenter rewrites the serial killer archetype in what is arguably the most important movie of the slasher genre despite the films production flaws.
Carpenter rewrites the serial killer archetype in what is arguably the most important movie of the slasher genre despite the films production flaws.
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
Cabaret - Money money money, Money money money, Money money money...
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
She Wolves of the Wasteland (aka Phoenix the Warrior) - another of the near inexhaustible supply of 1980s post Mad Max, post-apoc movies which ticked most of my post-apoc movie checklist: big hair, fingerless gloves, battered cars with excessive amounts of roll bars (but sadly no spikes this time), night scenes illuminated by pointless fires in old oil drums, an arena where our protagonist is expected to fight to the death, really crap acting etc.
This time though the tedium was leavened with tits. Loads and loads of tits.
It kept me watching.
Whenever the scriptwriters ran out of idea they must have just pasted a page or two from Playboy into the script. (Actually there was one almost interesting scene in the film. - apart from the big breasted girl having the shower under the waterfall, and the dark-skinned naked girl doing the dance, and the.... okay, there was one almost interesting scene in the film that didn't rely on large breasted girls waving their norks at the camera: our wandering fleeing heroes encounter a bunch of mutant types who worship the ancient ways and bury their dead in the open air, on hilltops, sat in recliner armchairs before an old television. An possibly novel idea which is allowed to fizzle out before it develops.)
Did I mention the tits?
This time though the tedium was leavened with tits. Loads and loads of tits.
It kept me watching.
Whenever the scriptwriters ran out of idea they must have just pasted a page or two from Playboy into the script. (Actually there was one almost interesting scene in the film. - apart from the big breasted girl having the shower under the waterfall, and the dark-skinned naked girl doing the dance, and the.... okay, there was one almost interesting scene in the film that didn't rely on large breasted girls waving their norks at the camera: our wandering fleeing heroes encounter a bunch of mutant types who worship the ancient ways and bury their dead in the open air, on hilltops, sat in recliner armchairs before an old television. An possibly novel idea which is allowed to fizzle out before it develops.)
Did I mention the tits?
J Riff
The Ants are my friends..
Apocalypto, a Mel Gibson effort. Plenty blood n guts as the tribes go at it. For some reason I didn't care and it went past like a jungle documentary.
Then I watched Reef Life of the Andaman, a fabulous 2 hrs. of coral reef life. Fish, crabs, snakes, slugs, worms, shrimp, barracuda! It's a good one to put on along with some appropriate strange music and watch the aliens of the ocean cavorting.
Up next is the Great Barrier Reef, where I'd like to live someday. )
Then I watched Reef Life of the Andaman, a fabulous 2 hrs. of coral reef life. Fish, crabs, snakes, slugs, worms, shrimp, barracuda! It's a good one to put on along with some appropriate strange music and watch the aliens of the ocean cavorting.
Up next is the Great Barrier Reef, where I'd like to live someday. )
Boneman
Well-Known Member
Oh my God.... The Monuments Men... now I know why they offered it to me for £2.99 at the video store. What a complete load of cr*p, from start to finish. How do major stars (George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville) fall for the slackest script ever written? I guess because it was written by Clooney, directed by Clooney and starring Clooney, and they're all big buddies. Based on the gripping true story of a group of art specialists who are gathered together to try to retrieve art stolen by the nazis at the end of WWII, it turns into a series of limp-lettuced scenes where bugger-all happens, no tension is raised and no character development rears its head. But, guess what? Once the Englishman (Bonneville) and the Frenchman (Jean Dujardin) are killed off, the Americans do regain millions of pieces. Oh yeah, Cate Blanchett is in it, as a frenchwoman, but her accent is curiously German, and I still haven't worked out what the heck she was doing! (In the film - her character, I mean)
Seriously, if you want this movie, send me the postage and I'll gladly pass it on!
Seriously, if you want this movie, send me the postage and I'll gladly pass it on!
So, you're still on the fence about this one, then?
WaylanderToo
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2015
- Messages
- 2,070
you're being kind saying "largely silly"!! I really wanted to like this film and it had some gorgeous visuals and SFX - however the 'story' was beyond poor
and shows that the Wachowski's shouldn't be allowed anywhere near another big-budget concept movie
KyleAW
Gaming Obsessed
Inside Out. Lots of fun for adults (especially who have children) and it got me in the feels...
JunkMonkey
Lord High Vizier of Nowt
you're being kind saying "largely silly"!! I really wanted to like this film and it had some gorgeous visuals and SFX - however the 'story' was beyond poor
I thought they had proved that when they made The Matrix but I am in a minority there.
????
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