What movie did you watch today?

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Tommy Bunz
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Post by Tommy Bunz »

I think you are definitely over-analyzing the shit out of things.
I thought Thirst was great.
And really, you should be expecting nothing else from a Park Chan-wook film at this point, especially from a visual standpoint.

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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

How did I manage to over-analyze in that brief description of my subjective experience as a viewer? Not sure if you misunderstood me. I acknowledge it's a really good film.
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Post by Tommy Bunz »

I meant by referring to his style as "visual posturing" and forced "artsiness". What you're referring to is pretty much established as a major part of Park's style. You should be expecting that going in and not letting it distract you.
And yes I fully realize I'm overanalyzing your overanalyzing, just sayin' is all.

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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

:lol: Fair enough, it's just that somehow I managed to be really invested in the other flicks of his I've seen. This didn't hit those chords for me, even if I think it looks really good and has a cool premise for a vampire movie, plot lacked the sort of intensity I was hoping for, and perhaps expecting.

On to his rom-com next, that one looks really fun.
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Post by Tommy Bunz »

Word. Different strokes and all, personally I found the relationship between the priest and the girl very compelling and unique and was sucked in immediately.

By rom-com I assume you mean I'm a Cyborg? You should watch it cause it's fantastic but be prepared that a lot of what didn't appeal to you with Thirst is a major major part of Cyborg's draw. Its almost all quirk and visual gags. Very little violence or comedy. It's wierd and cute in a fucked-up way.

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Post by drizzle »

cyborg might be his best movie

but this is not a popular opinon cause OMG BRO DID YOU SEE THAT MOVIE WHERE THAT ONE CHINESE DUDE FUCKED SHIT UP WITH A HAMMER AND THEN ATE AN OCTOPUSS OMG BRO YOU HAVE TO SEE THAT MOVIE ITS LIKE THE BEST JAPANESE SHIT I'VE EVER SEEN
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Post by Tommy Bunz »

I probably would agree with that 75% if the time but admittedly I seesaw back and forth on his best sometimes (has a lot to do with which one of the 3 I've watched most recently), either way his top 3 are that and Oldboy and Mr. Vengeance.

He's got his first English language movie coming up next. I think it's called Stoker. I am Stoke(r)d.

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Post by Spartan »

Nude Nuns With Big Guns (2010)
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Better than Joseph Guzman's previous movie, Run, Bitch! Run! but still a very weak and dull film. The film starts off decent but quickly runs out of steam within around the first fifteen minutes. The gimmick doesn't work here, and Guzman is obviously trying his hardest and failing to make this look like Robert Rodriguez's modern grindhouse efforts, including a very similar score to Planet Terror but it lacks a lot of his panache for OTT cartoonish violence and likeable characters. The film actually takes itself really seriously and tries it's hardest to offend rather than entertain. There are three nun rapes in here out of the four committed on-screen and in the hands of an incapable director like Guzman, they're neither shocking nor essential to the dull storyline which is based around evil clergy members working with a sadistic biker gang in drug trafficking. In terms of visual presentation, it actually doesn't look too bad, with colorful hues utilised in the same way as Hobo With A Shotgun that provide it with the dated warmth you would associate with films from the seventies drive-in era. Much of the dialogue is minimal and concentrates more on physical performances and since the actors' capabilities range from piss-poor to amateur, the film falls flat on it's face. Taking into account everything else mentioned, the film is bad and not in a "so bad it's good kind of way" which was obviously the film-makers' initial intentions. Some decent T&A and lesbianism ironically not from our female protagonist but from strippers working in The Titty Flicker (another RR rip-off) that woke me up from the film's dullness but hardly worth watching again. Insipid.

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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Yeah, NNWBG was kinda wack but it had it's moments.

Well on my way to becoming a fullblown Asiaphile, something I never would have imagined tbh...

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Blood and Bones (2004) - If you want to see Kitano beating, mugging and raping everything in sight for a few hours then this is your golden ticket. Can't say I was that entertained. It's a harsh depiction of patriarchal madness which partially stems from war-trauma and Korean hopelessness in the aftermath of war.

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Macabre (2008) - The Indonesian answer to Frontiere(s). A fairly gruesome show of events that occur after a traveling group of friends get invited to dinner after helping a young girl. I would strongly suggest people check out The Forbidden Door instead, it's one of the better horrors of the last decade and this pales in comparison, not that it's entirely fair to compare those two movies.

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Scorpion Female Prisoner Jailhouse #41 (or something) (1973) - Scorpion and friends are on the run from the cruel wardens of the prison they escaped from. Lots of awesome overblown symbolism and cinematic craziness. Not a WIP-movie as such since they're mostly on the run. I prefer the first one thus far but this is more than a worthy sucessor.
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Post by RacquetballGangsta »

Bellflower - 8.5/10

Just saw it today. pretty sweet. a few annoying things, but overall, the good greatly outweighed the bad. really visceral, intense. pretty to look at too.
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Post by drizzle »

your highness - liked it a lot, nothing mindblowing ust really funny and dumb in all the right ways. i liked that it wasn't really explicitly a genre movie about stoners like pineapple express. the characters just happen to smoke weed a lot, which i realized the next day is actually a nod to lord of the rings where almost every character casually smokes like 10 bowls in every scene

lord of the rings - rainy day marathon, all 3 extended editions back to back. took 12 hours. still awesome. 2>3>1

hanna - and the lord said 'lets make a bourne movie with a 15yr old girl instead of matt damon' and it was good. the obligatory character building 2nd act was maybe a bit too drawn out, and the score is obnoxiously over-amplified. but aside from that it was dope. can't believe this was made by the director of pride and prejudice and soloist
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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

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Ju-On 2 (2003) - A decent sequel with some meta-elements similar to Scream 2. It's about some people making a ghost-show for TV in the house the original took place in. Some of the scares are very well-crafted but the little boy-ghost doesn't do it for me, he made me laugh most of the time. The extreme tension on the first one is also present here but not to the same degree. Cool for fans of the first one though.

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Ebola Syndrome (1995) - Gross-out thriller about a scummy lowlife who ends up being a carrier of the ebola virus. It's a really sleazy and dirty freakshow but the acting of Anthony Wong makes it a much more credible film than it would have been otherwise.
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Post by Spartan »

love ebola syndrome, watched it again last week and couldn't stop laughing.

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Post by Dan »

Here's what I watched this week:

The Rules of Attraction (2002) - I went to se this when it originally came out in theaters back in 2002. The group that I was with (pretty sure that ThaJim2 was a part of that group)
instantly started hating on it. From the moment the film started running in reverse, we were bemoaning it. We never gave this film a fair chance. We ended up walking out shortly after and actually got refunded.
I decided to revisit this on my own to see if Iג€™d like it. I did. It wasnג€™t great, but it was enjoyable. Certainly not worth leaving a theater for.

The Ox-Bow Incident (1942) - This was like a noir western. Set in 1885, while a sheriff is out of town, news spreads that a beloved cattle rancher is robbed of his cattle and murdered. Instead of waiting for the sheriff to return, a posse forms to find the culprits and do their own vigilante justice.
This was very good and went places I really didnג€™t expect from a film made in the 40s.

Wet Hot American Summer (2001) - I listened to the Michael Ian Black Unmasked episode and heard him mention this film. Found it streaming on Netflix, so I queued it up.
Supposedly itג€™s a satire on summer camp movies. I canג€™t think of any summer camp movies that Iג€™ve seen other than Meatballs (which I honestly donג€™t remember a single thing about). So basically anything that was satired, I didnג€™t get the reference at all. Perhaps if I did I wouldג€™ve liked it more. Actually, I shouldnג€™t have even added ג€œmore.ג€ I really didnג€™t find this to be funny. Plus, how do you make an R-rated summer camp movie and not show tits? I thought that was a staple of summer camp movies?

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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

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Dark Water (2002) - Skipped this initially because I was dumb enough to go see the remake back when it hit theaters and I hated it "ooh, what a scary leaky ceiling Jennifer Connoly has". This movie is class though, Nakata is a master at crafting an atmosphere, like he did with Ringu. Loved the interactions between the mother and daughter, they're so natural and human. When people suggest horror is crude and stupid they should be beaten over the head with DVD-cases of this movie.

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The Japanese Wife Next Door (2005) - Bonkers sexcomedy with a touch of Visitor Q. It stars pornstar Reiko Yamaguchi who can fill out a d-cup with no problems and that was a joy to watch. It's about a man who marries a woman and discovers shes an unsatiable sexmonster who ends up doing the whole family.

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5150 Elm's Way (2009) - Based on a novel by Patrick Senegal who I have to read something from, some day. He also wrote the novel for the excellent revengeflick 7 Days. A kid named Yannick falls on his bike and asks for help in the wrong house. What follows is similar to the British movie Mum & Dad but this story is much more ambitious and layered. It's a clever movie by virtue of the strong ending and the philosophical implications. Another dope French-Canuck thriller.
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Post by Spartan »

5250 Elm's Way sounds like something I should've checked out already.

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Post by kato »

Spartan wrote:5250 Elm's Way sounds like something I should've checked out already.
you should def. watch it. I seen it a few months back and recommended here or in the horror movie thread.

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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Most epic chess-match ever(!)? Sorry Bergmann...
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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

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Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974) - J-sploitation in the style of other female-heroine flicks of that era. The movie is so colorful that it makes Suspiria look monochromatic, the colors really pop and look crisp. Fans of Lady Snowblood, Scorpion Female Prisoner and Sex & Fury should give this a look for sure.

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The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (2007) - A sexy home-tutor gets shot in the forehead, then she pushes the bullet in to the middle of her brain with a pencil and achieves hyper-intelligence and the ability to process information rapidly. Strange and funny film but a bit too weird for it's own good, she sees George Bush in a well and gets fingerfucked by him after finding a clone of his finger in a lipstick-container. Ehmm. Lots of philosophical and literary namedropping.

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Freeze Me (2000) - Artistic rape-revenge drama about a woman who decorates her appartment with big freezers where she stuffs her offendors from the past inside. It's a bit boring.

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Saw 4 (I think) (who cares) - Came on after a ball-game I saw at a friend's house. I'd rather have unlubed buttsex with the entire starting 5 of the Denver Nuggets than sitting through another pisspoor excuse for a movie in this moronic and incompetent franchise.
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tons of plotholes and inconsistencies, all handily excused by a great (somewhat overqualified) cast and some excellent action scenes. reminded me a lot of 13 assasins, this is not quite as good overall but def similar in plot and tone

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Considering Iglesia's career i expected lots of crazy shit here, turns out I was low-balling it. the movie operates on Miike circa 2000-ish levels of absurdity, and then some. ostensibly it's a revenge story + a love triangle between two violently psychopathic clowns and a hot masochistic acrobat, but it's also a metaphor for the Spanish civil war and the countries subsequent political climate under Franco's regime. one of those singular movies that just stands so far apart from everything else that it's almost impossible to judge comparatively. as a cult item it might even outdo Hobo With A Shotgun

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has the rep of being the goriest western of all time, but that's really a bum steer. the gore was allegedly spliced in later as a gimmick to drive ticket sales, it doesn't hurt but it doesn't particularly help either. there's not even that much of it. what the movie really deserves credit for is being bleaker and more nihilistic than most anything else in the genre, including The Grand Silence. I'm thinking it might be one of the most under rated eurowesterns out there, I really didn't expect it to be as good as it was.

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way more hitchcockian than most other things getting the same tag, albeit without the slick style and the sense of humor. excellent shit all around, the leads really sell the romantic entanglement even though on paper it seems like it should feel rushed .

Alien - been ages since i watched this attentively all the way through. somehow I never realized before how much of this movie is a humongous and likely purposeful FUCK YOU to star wars.
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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Circus has been trashed critically. Glad too see I'm not the only one who loves it.
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Post by Tommy Bunz »

Adding Cut-Throats Nine to my wish list. Did you watch it on the Code Red dvd?

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Post by Spartan »

Cut Throats Nine got released?

I think me and you are the only ones here that know about Eye of the Needle. One of Donald Sutherland's most underrated movies.

Agree with you about Ironclad. Flawed to the hilt but highly enjoyable nonetheless.

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Post by drizzle »

Comedy Quaddafi wrote:Circus has been trashed critically. Glad too see I'm not the only one who loves it.
like i said, this shit is way too different and most wouldn't know what to do with it. i loved almost every second (third act wobbles before coming together), but i can easily see how a person with more normal tastes would hate it.

cut throat's 9 did indeed get re-released by code red, with some Fred Willaims movie included in the package. the print is not the best but anamorphic and still very watchable, here's the info

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/51294/cu ... ine-joshua

spartan, Sutherland is defitely really underrated here. dude absolutely nails the sociopath role
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Post by Spartan »

Just ordered cut throats nine. Thanks for reminding me, completely forgot about it.

Oh my days! The Thing is on tv. Laters.

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Post by Spartan »

Black Devil Doll (2008)

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Reborn from his death in the electric chair, a black militant serial killer returns to life once more as a foul mouthed rapist puppet. Not sure what this film tried to achieve, blaxploitation throwback it certainly wasn't and neither was the comedy on offer funny at all, in fact it bordered on full on racism and self-hate for much of the time. There was a high level of Russ Meyer stacked women T & A, despite these chicks having busted stripper/hoe faces, they were a worthy distraction from the awfulness of this film. The film is so bad and amateurish that it makes Run, Bitch! Run! look professional. Would not recommend this to anyone.

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Post by Tommy Bunz »

Been a while so I ain't writing about everything I watched or posting pictures.

Fritt Vilt II (Mats Stenberg, 2008) ג€“ Aka Cold Prey 2. This takes multiple cues from Halloween II, most notably by setting the entire film inside a run-down hospital. But hey, if youג€™re going to steal make sure you steal from the best. Its kindof hard to give a shit about horror sequels these days but this manages to still feel pretty fresh, mostly because of the pacing and the direction. Not as good as the first one but a worthy follow-up and Iג€™m on board for the 3rd one.

How to Train Your Dragon (Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois, 2010) ג€“ Best animated dreamworks movie ever. Just lots of fun.

Dillinger (John Milius, 1973) ג€“ Mannג€™s Public Enemies might look prettier but this is a much better movie overall. Warren Oates is pretty great as Dillinger and you get a much better understanding of the man behind the myth. Him and Ben Johnsonג€™s Purvis have great rapport as robber and FBI agent, very similar to that between Hanks and DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can. Richard Dreyfuss playing a badass (Baby Face Nelson) was pretty surprising.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Byron Haskin, 1964) ג€“ Definitely an odd title for Criterion to single out for release but still rather entertaining if youג€™re into the novelty of old sci fi movies. Some great sets and landscapes, and appropriately 60ג€™s special effects. Its amusing to see what people imagined space to be like before we reached it, here the spaceman finds water on Mars and breathes the air.

Marooned (John Sturges, 1969) ג€“ This almost feels like the sequel to Altmanג€™s Countdown. Only a year apart but both films are real slow burns. This oneג€™s about a group of astronauts whose shuttle breaks down and are stranded in space, with everyone on the ground racing against time to put together a rescue before they run out of oxygen. Some great acting in this by Gene Hackman and Gregory Peck only to have the show completely stolen by Richard Crenna.

The Bank Job (Roger Donaldson, 2008) ג€“ Had a couple people tell me this was good so I bought this expecting just another Statham action flick, but this is a legitimate 70ג€™s heist movie. Really awesome. I wish someone would give Statham a more serious role from time to time, he has more talent than heג€™s often able to use.

Demon Spies (Tsuboshima Takashi, 1974) - This samurai film starts out with the training of orphans to become "demon spies", basically a group of rogue assassins disguised as devils. After they become of age, their master forces them to take turns raping the only girl demon, after which they band together and fight back against their master. Wierd. They end up going on a mission to uncover a conspiracy in the shogunate. Bloody good fun.

The Spirit (Frank Miller, 2008) - Not a good movie at all but also not near as bad as the million fanboys who just wanted a Sin City sequel will tell you. The story is a bit silly and the lead dude just sucks but the movie looks pretty and the female eyecandy is topnotch. I loved seeing my dude Edgar from 24 as the fat bafoonish clones. I paid $4 for this on bluray, and that sounds about fair price.

The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998) - Seen it a bunch of times but godddamn this movie looks tits on blu-ray. As I get older I seem to appreciate this a lot more every time, the philosophical aspect of it didn't appeal to me when it first came out. Caviezel and Nolte might not have ever been better than they are here. Side note, I never realized that Miguel Alvarez from Oz was the kid that got shot out in the open and was screaming like a banshee for mercy. Malick really needs to someday reconstruct that longer cut of this so we can see all the footage from all the stars that got cut from the final movie (Mickey Rourke, Martin Sheen, Viggo, Gary Oldman, etc).

Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) - Still pretty awesome the second time around althought the plot holes really stick out when you know whats coming. Also it seems to me that its pretty obvious that
(he's still dreamin)
at the end.

Planet of the Apes (Tim Burton, 2001) - I'm a bit of a Burton apologist but this also wasn't as bad to me as it was made out to be. Itג€™s certainly no sillier than the first official apes sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Doesn't hold a candle to the original classic obviously and is surprisingly tame (i.e. boring) looking for a Burton film. But seriously, I could watch Paul Giamatti as an orangutan slave trader for hours.

Che: Part One (Steven Soderbergh, 2008)
Che: Part Two (Steven Soderbergh, 2008)
- Really enjoyed these. Part One (the Cuban revolution) is much more interesting than the second part which focuses on Che's attempts to liberate Bolivia and his death. Appreciate these more on a film fag level than as a movie watcher though. Kudos to Soderbergh to even getting these made and even though his stick to the facts and the facts only approach makes for a boring movie at times, its really the only way to approach a subject as controversial as Guevera. Soderbergh acted as his own DP on these and he created some really beautiful images with the RED camera. Benicio is a perfect fit for Che and he's really great, definitely got snubbed by the academy.

Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Jones, 1982) - Really fun 80's slasher. Apparently lot of fuss is made about this because it was directed by a woman and the women are slightly empowered more than usual, but I barely even noticed it until I read the dvd booklet afterwards. Sure all the dudes get power-drilled to death but so do most of the girls and there is lots of T&A.

The Ice Pirates (Stewart Raffill, 1984) - This is as good as space parodies come. So much silly fun. Space Herpes!

Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall, 2002) - Getting bored of writing but this was excellent, despite a plot twist you can see from a mile away and low budget monsters. Lucius Vorenus and Sean Pertwee are sooo good here.

Silent Hill (Christophe Gans, 2006) - I'm a huge fan of Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf and Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite video games ever so I don't know why I waited so long to see this. You can tell that Gans and crew were fans of the game, cause they nailed the eerie vibe of the game and the look of the entire ghost town and hellish alternate realities perfectly. Made a fanboy proud. They had to change a lot of aspects of the storyline to make it work on the screen and it works for the most part. My biggest complaint is that they severely underutilized the Pyramid Head demon, who quite frankly scared the living piss out of me in the games. Although the scene where it rips the flesh off a screaming girl was really fucking brutal. A shame Gans isn't directing the sequel.

From Paris With Love (Pierre Morel, 2010) - Without Travolta this would be completely disposable. It might not be fare to compare everything Morel does from here out to Taken, but this was a major step back from Taken. Also this Jonathan Rhys Meyers dude kinda sucks asshole at acting.

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Post by Dan »

Here's what I watched this week:

Capturing the Friedmans (2003) - Iג€™ve been watching Morgan Spurlockג€™s TV show 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die these last few weeks. Though this documentary hasnג€™t showed up yet, I have a feeling itג€™s bound to show up somewhere on the list, so I wanted to watch it without the possibility of spoilers. I bought it on DVD a few years ago at Big Lots for $3.00 and just never got around to watching it.
This is a documentary about a Jewish family living on Long Island that seemed to document their lives on film and video. The father, a school teacher/home computer teacher, is arrested for having child pornography. This shakes up the family, then more charges come in as the father and one of his sons are charged with molesting boys at their home.
Thereג€™s no question the father is guilty of having child pornography, as stacks and stacks of pictures are found in the home, but youג€™re left questioning if he and his son are guilty of sexually abusing boys in their home. A few of the boys, now grown adults, are interviewed about what took place in the home. Only one claimed there was abuse, while the others flat out deny that any wrongdoings took place. Did the police bait these kids into admitting these instances took place?
It was really interesting. The DVD is loaded with extras, so thereג€™s a lot that wasnג€™t covered in the film that is shown that sheds extra light on the whole situation.
Iג€™ll be shocked if this doesnג€™t show up on Spurlockג€™s show.

Brotherג€™s Keeper (1992) - Hereג€™s a documentary that was listed on Spurlockג€™s show. Itג€™s about 4 uneducated farming brothers who live in a tiny shack in upstate NY. One of the brothers becomes ill and dies. However, police determine that he was indeed murdered by asphyxiation by one of his brothers. The film covers the 3 living brothers as they farm, go to trial to defend their brother, and become local celebrities.
As a viewer, you wonder if this was a mercy killing, like how a farmer would take out a sick animal, or did the police/medical examiner get it wrong to frame the brother.
This was really good. Way too much nose hairs though. Too many closeups on old people talking, showing a lot of nose hair.

The End (1978) - Burt Reynolds directed and stars in this dark comedy about a guy with a toxic blood disease, only given 3-12 months left to live. Instead of living out his life, he tries suicide, unsuccessfully. He ends up in a nut hut where he meets a fellow patient offering to help end his life.
That fellow patient is Dom Deluise. This is the first film where Burt and Dom teamed up.
It had its moments, but didnג€™t really start to shine until Dom showed up (about 45 minutes in). He really stole the show in this.

Cocktail (1988) - After all these years, finally decided to see this.
This was predictable throughout the entire thing. I realize you have to speed up a story to fit in an hour and 45 minutes, but everything just seemed so rushed. Tom Cruiseג€™s first night of bar tending goes terribly, he doesnג€™t know how to make drinks and heג€™s awfully slow. Then the boss says come back again in a week. The next scene at the bar has him doing tricks and making drinks left and right.
The women either were bad actors or just had bad dialogue, because some of the lines they delivered and emotion brought out was laughable.
Having said all that, I still found it be a decent film.

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Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

- Look, what do you have against Valerie, anyway?
- Nothing. She drinks too much milk.

- I think she's got a big mouth.
- Hey, it's not the size of your mouth; it's what's in it that counts.

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Post by drizzle »

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hooooooolyyyyyy shiiit, this was fantastic. had the dvd for like a year+, since the CC release actually, never got around to it till now - big mistake on my part.

i might be overreacting, but this is at like Long Goodbye levels of under rated existential neo-noir goodness. i'm really surprised it's not mentioned more often in nerd discussions, obviously it's not that obscure if there's a criterion release, but hardly anybody ever acknowledges its existence.

what's really crazy is how neatly this falls into a larger context of awesome cinema. on the one hand Frears' direction is clearly informed by both straightforward noir classics and Melville (one of the opening shots here quotes Le Samourai almost directly). at the same time there is a healthy dose of 70s genre self-reflection, married with the half glossy half gritty 80s look and style. and going forward, you can make a good case for it being an indirect precursor for certain aspects of Kitano's work (Sonatine, Fireworks), and maybe even some Coen Bros shit.
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo

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