Movies: February

[trinityvixen]

I appear to be thwarted in my attempt to talk to the woman I might end up working for today, seeing as her lab has been showing around a prospective post-doc and she's been in meetings and interviewing him all day. It'll have to hold until tomorrow.

Until then! We're done with February and I have a list of movies I've seen. I'm rather disappointed with the rate I'm getting through all of these. I realize a whole week in February was given up to Mass Effect 2, but, really, I need to step up the pace. I've only seen 32 movies so far this year!

Clash of the Titans: The effects don't really rescue the movie, sad to say.

Videodrome: ???

Terminator Salvation: Oh boy. Where do I even begin? This movie left me so uninvolved. I couldn't care less about anybody in the movie. I never, not once, felt like it was a Terminator movie. It was so alien from all the Terminator movies before it, even T3, that I completely missed obvious callbacks to it as being significant. For instance, someone actually said "I'll be back." Five minutes later, while I was being bored by some other random action sequence, I was like, "Oh, it's that line. That Arnie says in movies. Right."

I completely missed I'll be back, you guys. That's how little it felt like a Terminator movie. My reaction can be summed up in one word: apathy. I didn't give a shit. I was not angry enough about what was going on to hate it, even though the story was abusively stupid. I certainly didn't like it, but I felt like I hadn't even seen a movie by the end. It's like I lost time watching this. I could have spaced out for two hours and been no worse for it. It's like watching someone else grind their way through a video game. It was an utter non-entity.

I mean, what else could I add to that to drive home how curiously empty this film felt? The acting? Nonexistent. Christian Bale shouted at things. Sam Worthington slouched around with nary an emotion to be seen. In fact, Sam Worthington was in small what the entire movie was in large: a non-entity. He just slides through the film without affecting the landscape. He's like the person leaving the bank right before the heist begins, except that he was supposed to be the main character. His Big! Heroic! Moment! at the end was not even anti-climactic. It would have to have had tension building up to that moment to be anti-climactic. There was no tension because he just wasn't there. I could have forgiven that of a character playing a robot, but he didn't know that! WTF, McG?

Pathology: Forgettable, if twisted thriller about doctors getting away with murder for fun.

Re-Animator: Oh, Jeffrey Combs! You just always were freaky as shit.

Swamp Thing: Satan is a vegetable superhero and Catwoman is a damsel in distress!

The Wolfman: See my previous laments about this could-have-been-worthy remake.

Let the Right One In: Atmospheric, tender, and subtle--all the things I suspect the American remake won't be.

Ghost Ship: This is worth watching for the credit sequence and the opening five minutes alone, for totally different reasons.

Sands of Oblivion/The Day the Earth Stopped: Eugh.

Night of the Comet: AWESOME! Had to drop a comment on this one because there is something amazing about this schlocky little post-apocalyptic movie. That something is the heroine. When we first meet her, she's currently claiming another spot on the top ten scores of an arcade game. She then proceeds to have sex with a guy she likes--but doesn't love!--joking about how him giving her a cut of his bootlegging deal better not make her a prostitute. 'Cause if it does, she wants to be paid better! ZOMG LOVE HER.

When the apocalypse falls, she doesn't freak out. She goes to get her sister, who also survives, and the two of them continue to be awesome through the whole movie. Their dad was in the army, so they know how to use a variety of weapons. Her sister, the cheerleader, shoots up a car with an automatic weapon and throws a reasonable fit about how she'd prefer to have the less jam-prone Uzi. They're not ninjas, they're just chicks who know guns. IT IS AWESOME.

Mantis in Lace: I believe my Twitter comment was "surprise softcore is surprising!"

Jennifer's Body: Not as grating as I expected, though for every decent line, there were four or five others that just groaned.

Comments

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

It's like watching someone else grind their way through a video game.

Now, that's not fair to video games. I could be far more entertained watching someone else grind their way through either Bioshock or either Mass Effect than I was watching T:S. cubby_t_bear watched me play through the last 5 hours of Fallout 3 and was quite happy to do so :)

I was actually painting miniatures the first time I watched through it, and when I realized I had no idea what was going on, felt I should watch it again paying attention. It didn't help.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I'm not talking about playing a game and having someone watch. That can be fun because you get to look at pretty stuff and watch (basically) a movie, and there is plot and the occasional excitement of a boss fight. That's not what I was talking about with Terminator Salvation.

I'm talking about grinding: repetitive, directionless leveling just to be able to survive the finale. Only this movie didn't even get to the finale. It's not even as intellectually challenging as when you have to constantly restart a difficult boss battle, just killing shit over and over and over again until you get enough items to buy the good stuff you need or your character maxes out some stat. That movie was like watching someone double- and triple-check a room to be sure they haven't missed any items. We're talking about repetitive and dull, no highlights, no lowlights, just the same old, same old, for two hours.

[habiliments.livejournal.com]

One of the worst things about Terminator: Salvation to my mind — and I'll admit, I was ferociously angry about what a waste of, well, EVERYTHING that movie was — was that everyone in it should have been dead in basically the first half hour. The robot wouldn't put its hand on John's shoulder; it would kill me! The robot eel things would have destroyed the people stupid enough to fly their helicopters so low over the river! And so on and so forth. That's my theory for the disconnect: These idiots are all dead anyway, so what am I watching?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, once the robots/zombies/monsters are in the water and the air, you're pretty much hosed. For me, though, the disconnect was less that everyone ought to be dead as much as it was that no one had any character worth saving.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I have a soft spot for Night of the Comet. I own on it on VHS, but I don't think I've ever found it on DVD. I might have to.

Ghost Ship, I agree. And Wolfman. I enjoyed Jennifer's Body, though. [heh]

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I was so glad Night of the Comet lived up to my fond memories of it. I'll definitely pick up the DVD one of these days. The other childhood favorite I need to get is Night of the Creeps.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Still gives me the shivers, that one. I remember seeing part of Night of the Creeps and not being able to sleep well for a week, lest some bug crawl down my throat.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Night of the Comet is a little bit of a nothing-so-much story, but it had this awesome lead character in it that made the movie so watchable. Because she was not a useless, screaming female! That is relevant to my interests!

Ghost Ship, holy hell. The opening credits confused me and the folks I was watching with so much, we almost stopped it just to be sure we had the right movie. It was like The Love Boat, with the pink swirly girly letters. Then the mass dismemberment! (I called that, btw.) SO AWESOME.

Jennifer's Body had a real problem of focus. Stuff happened that didn't make much sense. Jennifer, too, had less agency than even Megan Fox typically has in a movie. She was given amazing, if awful supernatural powers and she never takes it out on the guys who killed her. She's just there to be hot, not to actually have any control over the situation. Only the "ugly" girl has to because, really, what else does she have going for her? (And, yes, grr at Amanda Seyfried being the "ugly" one.) The movie just couldn't decide whether to like or loathe Jennifer, and that was too schizophrenic to sustain an enjoyable time throughout.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Night of the Comet is one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies ever. I used to watch it every single time it was on one of the jillion movie channels we had when we first got satellite at my parents' house.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You're fired for not telling me sooner how awesome it was, then! FIRED!

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I've mentioned it before!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

FIRED.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Clash of the Titans: The effects don't really rescue the movie, sad to say.

The old one, right? The point of that movies is that it's utterly ridiculous and the lead can't act for shit. (Speaking of, need to see the new one.) If you're looking for classic Harryhausen, I'd go for Jason and the Argonauts or the Sinbad movies.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone needs to see the new one, least of all if you're looking for a lead who can act. The new Perseus is Sam Worthington. You can see why I could give a shit about the remake, then. Okay, I'm almost convinced by Liam Neeson saying "Unleash the Kraken," but then, wham! Sam Worthington is motherfucking EVERYWHERE else that that's not happening. So thanks but no thanks.

I will check out the other Harryhausen. I'm not knocking the effects because they're dated, by the by. Just that they're not as awesome as I was lead to believe.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Clash of the Titans was toward the end of his career. Watch Jason and the Argonauts. Seriously. Then think about having to do that without computers. There's a reason why the skeleton fight scene is so widely immitated.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Jason and the Argonauts is legitimately awesome. I'll watch it again.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

My mom is a big Harryhausen fan, btw. And she's on this quest to find one movie that she remembers from when she was a kid, but only remembers one scene from. So we've watched a lot of fifties/sixties fantasy movies, Harryhausen and not. (Day of the Triffids? Surprisingly not crap.)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I see the artistry in what he's doing, don't get me wrong, I think it's just been overhyped to the point of not really being able to live up to repute.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I think with Harryhausen, appreciating him is as much about what he was able to accomplish with the technology as the final product. The skeleton fight on Jason in the Argonauts has a dozen or so animated skeletons and three or four (can't remember) actors. To film it, that's three or four people going through a choreographed fight sequence a hundred moves long in wide shots with several of them in the frame with nothing to fight against. I mean--it was practically impossible to film. So there's the level of, that looks really cool, and then there's the level of holy crap how did he do that? I feel just coming from a CGI film world without knowing about what he did, it would be easy to be underwhelmed.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I have seen the skeleton fight, and it remains impressive in the way that stop-motion animation does. I'm impressed, and I'm definitely impressed all the more for the "How the heck did they manage that?" angle.

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

The new Clash of the Titans? o.O

Haha I enjoyed T:Salvation, but I have trouble not enjoying most of the films I watch on some level or another. Christian Bale was the most annoying part of the movie for me. Oh and that one trailer with the NIN song was better that the movie itself.

Re-Animator! God that's such a classic series and Jeffrey Combs is always fantastic. I heard they're a new one coming out and he's going to be in it. Looking forward to that.

Swamp Thing! Wow, speaking of classic. I haven't seen Swamp Thing or Swamp Thing 2 since I was about twelve. I didn't even know Michelle Pfeiffer was in it. And wait -- which Satan? (too lazy to look it up)

Yours is the first review I've heard of Wolfman. Bummer that it fell short, but I still want to see it. I was pissed when I heard they were remaking it until I read that Del Toro was starring. One of my very favorite actors AND he seemed perfect for the role.

Still need to see Let The Right One In. Are they really doing an American remake? o.O

I've never heard of Night of the Comet, but that sounds amazing! Must see asap.

Haha my 13-year-old niece wanted me to take her to see Jennifer's Body in the theater.

Nice list! I should do something like this sometime...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Oh and that one trailer with the NIN song was better that the movie itself.

Agreed! NIN is one of my absolute favorite bands, but I know now that any trailer using one of their songs is to be avoided at all costs. The last two were 300 and Terminator Salvation...

Re-Animator was ridiculously silly fun, Swamp Thing was far too serious and ended up being only just passable as a result. And "Satan" would be Ray Wise, who plays Swamp Thing--he played the Devil in the TV show Reaper

My proper review of The Wolfman, no spoilers, is here. (http://trinityvixen.livejournal.com/696185.html#cutid1) I actually really liked Benecio del Toro in the adaptation, only because he was so believably miserable, long before the movie descended into over-the-top shenanigans to make him even more so. I recommend seeing it, but it's a disappointment all in all.

Let the Right One In is oddly charming, though it won't ever be a favorite. And, yes, they're remaking it. Because Americans can't be arsed to read. No, really. They're remaking Death at a Funeral, a British movie, which is in English because Americans can't possibly tolerate accents. So that would leave subtitles right out.

Max Headroom is coming to DVD, btw, in case you hadn't heard!

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yeah 300 is no good. They need to start treating NIN songs with more respect. Well, at least the Salvation trailer (I thought, at least) was well made.

Ray Wise was the first name that crossed my mind, but I couldn't imagine him playing a hero after being so used to him as Satan in Reaper, which a friend and I finished a few months ago, and also as a villain in an episode of Burn Notice. I knew it wasn't Pacino or Gabriel Byrne. Anyway, I'm definitely going to have to watch it again someday just to see for myself. Or maybe I'll just look up a couple scenes on YouTube...

Gah! Death at a Funeral, too? WTF?!

Eeee! Max Headroom on DVD! I had not heard and you just made my morning! I think I may have asked back when I first friended you, but have you watched/do you watch Eureka? Matt Frewer's character in that show is fantastic.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I have not watched Eureka. It came on during a period of SRS BZNS Sci-Fi Channel watching, wherein I only turned on the TV for Battlestar Galactica. Anyway, it is on my netflix queue, so I'm sure to get around to it some time in the next four years.

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Clash of the Titans: The effects don't really rescue the movie, sad to say.

I'm sorry but Clockwork Owl FTW! I remember seeing this in theaters and liking it a lot. The effects for the time were pretty damn good. The storyline managed to hold my attention (a rather good feat when I was that age). I hold very little hope that the remake will be any good by comparison.


Videodrome: ???

What? You a problem with meat VHS tapes being shoved into people's abdomens? ^.^

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The owl was cute. That's about all I can say there.

Videodrome was gross and pointless and gross. Also James Woods.

[cbreakr.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with Videodrome? Just let it peel life apart a little bit. IMDB pops up a version for 2011... it'll be terrible and I hope Cronenberg isn't directing (and I'll be damned if I'll let imdb siren-song me into a "membership"). You should watch A History Of Violence if you haven't already.

I felt so bad for the little boy in Let The Right One In. He got nothing but screwed (though he was screwed before that for being in Soviet dominated Sweden in the first place). Ice, ice, ice, vampire, ice, ice, ether, ice, blood, ice, ice, ice,ice... how did people live?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Videodrome is the sort of drivel that people only find "genius" because they're either told that it is or because they're high. It was just weird for weird's sake, and not in a way that interests me in the slightest. And I have seen A History of Violence. Didn't particularly love that one, though certainly it was better than Videodrome.

Let the Right One In is just hopeless enough to be sad but cute enough to avoid being utterly hopeless.

[cbreakr.livejournal.com]

Videodrome wasn't genius (I think AHoV was), but it wasn't just shit on a screen, either. It was about the subtle shifting of culture and belief and boundaries of comfort that comes from technology made explicit, exagerrated, and, like everything DC does, very visceral. His movies take the direction of finding disgust with some aspect of culture that he finds illusionary, or outside of a more basic human nature. A videotape is a convenient modern-at-the-time metaphor for how the things we create can spawn changes in what is considered acceptable that grate against existing values, alienate the old, alter/reinforce power structure, and absorb us into their world just as much as we utilize them. It's all about using stark imagery to make you feel it rather than think it or specifically understand it. The problem is that it's too broad and vague of a theme to be put into a single film or even a proper narrative, so it's chaotic (though in a way that adds to the sense of disorientation). Then again, that whole narrative thing is for suckers, anyway.

AHoV is one of my favorite films, displaying how our fictionalized sense of violence and its place in the world has been distorted far enough to take away our sense of its reality, and splicing that with how the reality of violence distorts the perspective of those involved. It's a film in two parts: in town, and back at the mob house. In the former, any violence is sudden, brutal, unnforgiving, and disgusting, leaving marks on everyone involved. In the latter, it's almost slapstick or cut out of an action flick, with the targets effectively dehumanized and the audience being lulled into the "us vs them" mindset that is so dangerously part of human nature. Viggo's character serves as a warning that there is no real point of balance between the two, that damage done remains damage done.

As for Let the Right One In, the cuteness of it wore off for me a little while after leaving the theater and getting some food. The idea of that boy about to start a life of, effectively, goddess-worshiping human sacrifice coupled with abandoning all other meaningful human contact (as if the first wasn't enough) is a little sickening, especially given how awful all of the deaths in the film were.

Thankfully, I decided last night to bask in the smooth 70's Paul Newman-yness of Slapshot and that awesome episode "Blink" of Dr. Who. Ahhhh...

[saturn-shumba.livejournal.com]

MANTIS IN LACE! I really shouldn't like that movie, since it's softcore ridiculousness, but I can't help it. She had scary trips about bananas. She chopped dudes up. I think I read somewhere that when the movie was first released as a sexploitation flick (called "Lila") it flopped. Cue a year later, when they rename it and sell it as a horror film: success! You gotta love that.

I really love Daivd Cronenberg a lot, but his most recent efforts (History of Violence, Eastern Promises) don't really resonate with me the way his body horror flicks of the 70's and 80's do. With Videodrome Cronenberg was starting to delve into a more avant garde type of filmmaking (something he perfected with Naked Lunch) but some of his earlier films like Scanners and The Brood were a bit more coherent. And disgusting (I made the mistake of eating during the finale of The Brood...I will never eat chili again). If you haven't seen it, The Brood is probably the best original body horror film he's done. And if you like Re-Animator, From Beyond is a nice pick too.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Cronenberg is going to have to officially be on the list of "Things I Do Not Get" after Videodrome and A History of Violence. Sometimes, it's that I don't get what the shit is going on. Others, it's that I just don't get why I should care. It's bizarre. I have heard good things about his horror, and I may still give The Brood a chance (heard good things about it in my horror class).

From Beyond? Mm..