A few films recently watched.

had to watch the 1940 John Ford film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath and analyse it as a primary source historical document. hadn't seen it before, was rather disappointed at how watered down the "red" sentiment in it was. while the novel was this massive condemnation of capitalism, the film was like "capitalism sucks sometimes, sure, but it's a lot better than bein' a dirty red!"

i dunno. it was pretty good, though! stands up, in a sense, to modern films, as it manages to avoid a lot of the cliches that make me not so fond of "classic" films, you know the talking-really-fast-and-nasal kind of thing... i'd give it a good i dunno, 8/10 or so.

next film i gotta analyse like that is The Negro Soldier, a piece of World War 2 propaganda by Frank Capra. already snagged it from KG and it looks booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring. go figure.

just watched Hardware. my new favorite movie ever. those who like Tarkovsky's STALKER will definitely find it ammusing

fuckin great film, probably gonn check out Dust Devil next, another one from the same director

I love J K Rowling.

Me and my friend finally watched The Human Centipede last night.

It wouldn't have been so much of a surprise if anyone had mentioned that it's not only a film following a crazy concept but that it is also a VERY BAD FILM altogether with incredibly poor acting. The German bits were embarrassing for someone who actually understands and speaks German. And thank god he sewed those two American twats up for the second half so they couldn't blabber about anymore. It's a shame not even Dieter Laser delivered as I always thought he was brilliant as Mantrid in Lexx. And what was that whole business with the incredibly shitty "German" cops? They looked like two pedos from Vienna and acted even worse than the rest of the cast. Well I think one of them never even said a word anyway. So all in all, there were a few lols here and there but mostly it was quite the facepalm experience. It's our new Hostel now.

  On 9/11/2011 at 2:54 PM, Terpentintollwut said:

Me and my friend finally watched The Human Centipede last night.

 

It wouldn't have been so much of a surprise if anyone had mentioned that it's not only a film following a crazy concept but that it is also a VERY BAD FILM altogether with incredibly poor acting. The German bits were embarrassing for someone who actually understands and speaks German. And thank god he sewed those two American twats up for the second half so they couldn't blabber about anymore. It's a shame not even Dieter Laser delivered as I always thought he was brilliant as Mantrid in Lexx. And what was that whole business with the incredibly shitty "German" cops? They looked like two pedos from Vienna and acted even worse than the rest of the cast. Well I think one of them never even said a word anyway. So all in all, there were a few lols here and there but mostly it was quite the facepalm experience. It's our new Hostel now.

Awesome. One of my colleagues told me to watch it and now I totally wanna watch it.

It's not as bad as he said imo. I'd say 5-6/10 I thought it was rather tasteful. I was pleasantly surprised, going in thinking it would be good for a few shocks and nothing else. I am not German however, so he was looking through a different set of eyes so to speak.

I guess I was expecting something more "mature", I thought there was going to be a proper portrayal of an insane serial killer, but "Dr.Heiter" (which btw means "Dr.Cheerful") was never even threatening to me. In fact I was kind of sympathizing with him rather than with his victims because they were such dull replaceable (and rather annoying) characters. It seemed like the film wasn't sure whether it wanted to go down the serious route, rely on shock value only or create a bizarre parody of serial killer movies. So it ended up being stuck somewhere in between. And the bad acting was in fact pretty blatant during the German bits (probably because they thought it didn't matter as the main target audience doesn't speak any German), but the two American chicks were the worst imo. So was the dialogue, although I read some was improvised, but either way, these: "Look Ashley there is a light over there, maybe it's a house!" - "Aaawgh for some reason I don't believe you!" are not lines one should have in a movie that's trying to be serious, improvised or not.

Oddly, my fried (who was playing the part of Dr.Frankenfurter in a stage performance of the Rocky Horror Show) said there were quite a few quotes taken from the original in the movie. Which makes me wonder even more whether it was trying to be serious or not. But then again, the movie is supposedly based on a joke the director made to his friends, and I read on wiki that audiences in Spain regarded the movie as a comedy of sorts and kept laughing throughout. I mean, so did we, but ...

I don't think the film didn't shock me at all because I'm desensitized or anything, I was fucking disturbed by Irreversible and even more so by Funny Games (original, haven't seen the US version yet), it's just that certain things that make a film into a film for me weren't there in Centipede, so I never got a chance to see the people in it as actual human beings. Oh and I thought it was a bit lazy of the filmmakers they didn't even show a single bare arse but have those diaper-things all the way through. I kept imagining the actors going "Ew I'm not gonna touch THAT with my MOUTH!" - Let's wait for The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), which is supposedly much more graphic and hence probably an even worse film.

Watch it, Squee, just don't expect a good OR very shocking film imo, but a rather funny and sometimes embarrassing experience. It was entertaining nonetheless, especially with a friend around.

  On 9/11/2011 at 7:37 PM, Terpentintollwut said:

Watch it, Squee, just don't expect a good OR very shocking film imo, but a rather funny and sometimes embarrassing experience. It was entertaining nonetheless, especially with a friend around.

I'll go make myself a cup of coffee and then watch The Human Centipede

  On 9/11/2011 at 7:37 PM, Terpentintollwut said:

I guess I was expecting something more "mature"

Really? I was expecting much less mature. I was thinking it was going to be troma levels of immature.

Man, that was some bad acting.

Told ya Still "enjoyed" it though?

i dunno, was ok i guess.

submarine - 6.5 /10. Alright in an overly twee way... what the fuck is that big plughole in the water scene when he's dreaming about his girlfriend's mum's death and not going to the hospital??? That scene was genuinely disturbing. It looked like something I would only expect to see in a dream - something that doesn't really exist but apparently it does. I'm presuming it's some kind of drainage hole for a dry dock or something and I've been searching around Swansea on google earth but can't find anything. It gives me the shivers just thining about it. Might notch it up to 7/10 on that basis.

I''m a sucker for good dream sequences and that thing sounds interesting, should I watch the whole film because of it or can someone link me the scene or a picture of it ... ?

Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog)

Sequences of life in the desert set to musings on mythic history (the creation, paradise, the golden age) by three different narrators. This is like watching the psychedelic ending of 2001 but one that is teeming with life. An exceedingly beautiful film that will make you smile. I wonder what's with the sunglasses.

Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog)

wtf this has to be a joke on the left? A bunch of eh dwarves have much anarchic fun while harassing their eh former oppressor. Some flat-out classic sequences involving a car running in circles and monkeys but this is quite scary overall. I also kept thinking of Harmony Korine, Jackass and Beavis and Butthead, which is not a good thing. Or maybe it is I'm not sure.

The Ister (David Barison and Daniel Ross)

Bernard Stiegler, Jean Luc Nancy, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Hans Jurgen Syberberg guide a travel into the Danube river, Heidegger, Holderlin, the history of the west civilization, the ultimate essence of technology and it's relation to mankind with delightful imagery and so much other stuff I can't even start to mention. Sounds dry but it is actually v exciting, each of the protagonists are super awesome in their own quirky way, it's like fighting the final boss of the history channel videogame.

  On 9/11/2011 at 3:29 AM, chenGOD said:

  On 9/11/2011 at 12:15 AM, sneaksta303 said:

 

hey, guess what? I'm getting a little weirded out by you being so unnecessarily harsh toward me for no reason lately. Maybe you yourself should fuck off no?

err what? I think this is the first post I've ever replied to you directly. Plus I wasn't serious - if I were being serious I would have lectured you rather than appealed to emotion. Plus I was drunk.

Soo...fuck uuuuuuuu.

 

  On 9/11/2011 at 1:11 AM, delet... said:

Potter is better than tron 2, seriously tron 2 had NO story. Was an utter content vacuum.

Which I never disputed - but I don't think they even attempted to have one. It was just a piece of aesthetic beauty. Potter tried to have a story, failed miserably and should be banished. I only let my kid watch it because she wants to be able to talk with other kids at school. She really likes Miyazaki Hayao though, so I'm not too fussed - she's got the quality control down pat.

Cool, i just wanted to back up poor old sneaksta, would you believe it. But it's all good now twikst yall. Also, potter isn't that bad, once you get over your native predjudices. (i had a few reservations going in. but in the end it's like a well made TV series, not challenging or original, but a reasonable thing to do to pass the time.)

  On 9/12/2011 at 3:38 AM, Terpentintollwut said:

I''m a sucker for good dream sequences and that thing sounds interesting, should I watch the whole film because of it or can someone link me the scene or a picture of it ... ?

It's not particularly "good dream sequence" and that particular location is featured for like 10 seconds. It's just the image of this big plug hole in a large body of water that I can only presume is some kind of drainage system that particularly appealed to me. There is one very brief shot from the land to the side of it and another shot through a metal scaffold style bridge directly above it. It just surprised me and creeped me out as I've never seen anything quite liek it before...

I would recommend the film anyway on it's overall merits.

the war zone - that chick had nicec tits id hit it A+ 10/10

source code - michelle monaghan (that is the entirety of my review) 8/10

  On 9/12/2011 at 1:08 AM, Terpentintollwut said:

Told ya Still "enjoyed" it though?

Nah... The German doctor annoyed the hell out of me and nothing much really happened. Plus, it wasn't as disgusting as I had been told it would be.

  On 9/12/2011 at 3:24 AM, LUDD said:

submarine - 6.5 /10. Alright in an overly twee way... what the fuck is that big plughole in the water scene when he's dreaming about his girlfriend's mum's death and not going to the hospital??? That scene was genuinely disturbing. It looked like something I would only expect to see in a dream - something that doesn't really exist but apparently it does. I'm presuming it's some kind of drainage hole for a dry dock or something and I've been searching around Swansea on google earth but can't find anything. It gives me the shivers just thining about it. Might notch it up to 7/10 on that basis.

i just watched this too and i totally agree. 6.5/10. alright i suppose but although initially interesting and refreshing, the whimsy got tiring. the blurb on the box said 'laugh out loud hilarious, best british comedy since whatever' and i know they exaggerate but i barely cracked a smile. in fact i found it quite depressing... paddy considine is awful in it. and alex turner's original score was hideously wordy and indulgent. i liked the young guy (alex turner look-alike) and his dad brought me the closest to laughing, especially when he had 'the chat' upon learning that his son had a girlfriend .

i also wondered where that was in the dream scene... i thought maybe a walkway over a circular weir but i can't find anything on google with a walkway. maybe they built their own walkway for the scene?

http://www.fogonazos...-hole-ever.html

"During the drier months, when Lake Berryessa's water level is well below the rim of the glory hole, skateboarders and bikers sometimes use the spillway's horizontal exit as a half-pipe”.

DUDE I THINK THATS A FULL PIPE

*shudders*