This is my favorite comedy ever. SO fucking funny. Me and Brian (42-year-old dude who is in all my movies) quote it all the time. "You ithopie... ETHOPIAN..."

Attic Expeditions is crazy. I like the dream sequence that is seriously like LSD: Dream Simulator on the PS1... but with Naked City on the soundtrack..

I've got Face of Another to watch soon...

My fiancee REALLY HATED KickAss. REALLY hated it. Thought it was a crap movie. She could only get through about 1 hour before she fell asleep.

I need to read the comic though, beause the film was either missing something, or the comic source matertial is actually quite juvenile, and attempting to be grand and deep.

I havent seen it yet, but I still get the feeling I won't like it.

Kick-Ass was great. Best film of the year next to SCott Pilgrim and Inception. It was just an entertaining movie, nothing more nothing less. NR, you've posted "I have a feeling I won't like it" probably 30 times. Just see the movie already! Haha. It's nothing mindblowing, but it is good.



El Mariachi - 8/10

This film was made for $600 (yes, film processing costs made it $7000.. and then, when cleaned up to be shown in mainstream theaters, it cost $1,000,000... but just to shoot it, it cost $600). And is about a thousand times better than most "Hollywood blockbusters". Clearly inspired by John Woo. A great film ,often overlooked, and definitely Rodriguez's best. Check it out. This is the kind of "auteur" film I was talking about the other day, I just love guys who edit, write, shoot, compose music for, direct, do special effects, produce, etc etc etc etc....

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:I...ages/0.jpg&t=1
Dementia (1955) - 7/10

Amazing atmosphere.

El Mariachi (in spanish) is fucking great. It is PLAUSIBLE, you know? shit goes down funky in small Mexican towns man.

and that lady at the jail who takes money to let hitmen in and then tips off the guy and takes money for tipping him off? IT IS EXACTLY LIKE THAT!

Love El Mariachi.

with all their flaws, that movie and Clerks really proved you just need to try and entertain the audience, and you can make a good film for nothing at all.
they just go about it in different ways.

You have not yet seen Spy Kids. It is really good. The Incredibles basically stole the set-up of Spy Kids.



Re: Kick Ass, I need to see it again. It was entertaining, but it lacked something which I cannot yet place.

I think I got it. there are NO CONSEQUENCES in Kick Ass. In that sense it is more like a cartoon than a film taking place in a real concrete world, even though many attempts are made at hinting that this is an actual real world, as oposed to a magic make believe world of cartoons/superhero comics.
every character is two dimensional at BEST.
this works because it is a fun flick, but it lacks depth.

I love Spy Kids. I saw 2 and 3 in theaters.I still have the 3D glasses. I think Rodriguez is brilliant, I'm a fan of him, more personally than his films. His movies are just fine, just nothing I'm overly fanatical about.

And, yes, I love Clerks. And.. Mall Rats was alright... and after that, eh, I hate Kevin Smith.

You'd think with really good camera costing a couple hundred bucks nowadays, there'd be all kinds of Kevin Smith/Rodriguez-type success stories. The most recent one I read about was a $70 zombie movie that played at Cannes. All my movies are $0 and have screened in theaters and been on DVD, but I'd hardly call them a "success".

I think Kick Ass lived and died by the 12 year old girl superhero in it. She was the best part. It just felt like a Hard Boiled type action flick sometime (though toned down) and a superhero parody at other times. It had a confused tone, but it was genuinely disturbing (Nicolas Cage's character and what happens to him and stuff -- in front of his daughter, who he had trained to be a killer!). I dunno. I liked it, the trailers certainly made it seem like something completely different...

oh I know it's just really low on my list of shit to watch. And I only watch like 1-3 movies a week.

at least it makes ya think (re: kick ass!)

that alone makes it a worthy flick in my eyes.


I too have wondered why people are not making more personal movies with cheap quality flash drive camcorders. You can get a quite nice one for $500, borrow a friends bad-ass Mac and edit that shit yrself. There should be tons of people making like 20-30 minute short films right?

maybe there are and there is no way to distribute or share them...

I just bought Rebel without a Crew!!

...a ...book?

Rebel without a Crew is amazing! I'm sure you'll love it. I've read it 3 times already!



You're right, with the quality of low-priced cameras, editing software, and the internet - being an indie filmmaker is now cheaper, and easier than ever. The problem is that the market is now a bit over-saturated with these kinds of flicks... and most of 'em, sadly, are average at best. Plus, many casual moviegoers still seem to think that major studio supported smut like Juno, Across the Universe, or what-have-you, are the pinnacle of indie film.

I don't think the answer to more modern, similar to Rodriguez or Smith success stories is that there aren't enough filmmakers trying to follow in their footsteps, I'd say it's a lack of proper distribution for these types of films.

A lot of mumblecore films have gotten popular, which is cool, since those films were truly independant when they came out -- no professionals, lots of improv, no financing... but now they're just basically regular ol' indie films, with shakey cameras.

8.5/10

El Mariachi! Luv! :cool:



Vincent Moon is phenomenal. This man, this visionary... he takes the band Mogwai (one of my favs) and drenches the standard live concert film in black and cracks the haunting and climatic levels through the roof. From this using his skills, drops in shots of band traveling around New York and blends it with their live performance. Mogwai is in fine form, as always, belting out classics and some tunes from their The Hawk is Howling. Which I didn't know was so damn good! Beautiful. I got the deluxe version with the Live 2 LP, CD+DVD, T-shirt, and autographed poster! *hugs*

ET just cause I hadn't seen it in years. It was eh, I've seen better

wow, this souns AMAZING. gotta check it out.

does anyone know what this is?

^ Air Bud 3?

It's Mirror/Zerkalo

salo (120 days of sodom) 1975 version.
disturbing & graphic violence. +

Haa, I find Salo so silly haha. Even that picture is silly. It was so over-the-top that I laughed a bit, was mostly bored though. It was like "OH THE HORROR!" the whole time, just silly. Cool music and interesting atmosphere notwithstanding, it was pretty dull, well over 2 hours of awkward performances are bad direction. Why did Criterion release it? More importantly, why did the director get murdered over such a bad film?

I highly reccomend the book.

rewatched


der todesking - 8/10

One of my favorite "horror" films ever! I wish more films could safely be described as "art horror". 7 days, 7 suicides, each filmed in a completely different style, just a classic.

hadn't watchd in a few years. BTW, one of the best sndtrks ever. This film started my Les Baxter obsession.

I watched that one yesterday. After Ivan's Childhood, Stalker and The Mirror, Tarkovsky keeps escalating on my favorite director's top. Easily one of the best filmmakers ever, specially when it comes to technical aspects. Can't wait to see some more of his films - I actually get incredibly hyped just by seeing screenshots of them, so...

raise the red lantern



which was fucking awesome. so beautifully shot. the story wasn't the best ever but was good-- good enough to make me want to start a revolution in china.

the cinematography was to jizz for.

Should I watch...



or



?

I'd watch Dead Man, but then again I don't care for movies about shoes.

ha!

Dead Man, easily. Fantastic film.

And agreed about Tarkovsky. Visually, he's probably my favorite director, since all of his movies (well, at least those I have seen) are so extremely beautiful to look at. You can basically freeze one of his movies at any time and just take the picture, frame it and put it up on yr wall.

Indeed. Shoes.. I know! The cover did really catch my eye, so I was just to making sure its not the best shoe movie of all time or something.

look out for Gibby Haynes and Iggy Pop in Dead Man!

Blah, didn't care for Whatever Works at all. Larry David's great, Woody Allen.. uh.. has done some cool stuff, but man. What a movie. Heh. And I don't mean that in a good way.

Also, Tarkvosky is a good director, but I feel like Bela Tarr has bested him at his own game. Satantango is better than anything Tarkovksy did, by far.

Anywho...
After being announced what seems like a lifetime ago, the absurd, ridiculous, surreal masterpiece HAUSU will finally -- after 33 years -- be unleashed upon the American public, via Criterion (!?!).


October 26th, and only $26 to boot. Includes Nobuhiko Obayashi's amazing short "Emotion"!


Films I've watched today:

la captive - 5/10

Well, I usually like Akerman a lot (News From Home is one of my favorite films ever) but this movie... I dunno.


the wayward cloud - 8/10

what time is it there? - 8/10

The Red Shoes

Def. the Red Shoes. Dea Man's got a cool soundtrack and decent photography, but like most Jarmusch films, it doesn't do much for me.

Dead Man is straight allegory man!