Quick thoughts on a ton of stuff I've watched and never wrote about:
Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012) - Watched this again last night, wanted to see how it held up at home compared to the theaters and I gotta say it's a much much better film the second time around. I was one of those people who really enjoyed it in the theaters but felt it had some issues, I think with my expectations in check and a better understanding of what's coming you can see just how finely crafted this movie is. The plot is actually explained much more than you can take in on one sitting. The whole cast is great, especially Fassbender who is brilliant (his character's obsession with Lawrence of Arabia really appeals to my inner film nerd) and Noomi Rapace is a great homage to Ripley. Best sci-fi movie of the past decade possibly.
Count Yorga, Vampire (Bob Kelljan, 1970) - For some reason I was sure this was the vampire movie that was the origin of the "you have now been infected with space herpes" meme that Reggie used to spam the boards with. I was disappointed it wasn't but once I got over it I realized this is an excellent movie in its own right.
Letter Never Sent (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1959) - Awesome Russian film about a group of geologists looking for diamonds in remote Siberia who soon get trapped in a massive forest fire and have to desparately traverse the brutal wildnerness to survive. Beautifully shot and some of the most stunning photography I've seen captured on film, the Soviets didn't have the luxury of special effects so they are filming inside of seriously dangerous/actually fully burning forrests....the whole shit is batshit insane to watch, burning trees falling within kiling distance of the actors and whatnot. Mesmerizing film, one of the reasons I love Criterion so much is that they unearth gems like this that I never heard of.
Dora-Heita (Kon Ichikawa, 2000) - aka Alley Cat. This has a bit of a reputation as a disappointment, considering it was written by four of the greatest Japanese directors in Kurosawa, Ichikawa, Keisuke Kinoshita and Masaki Kobayashi in the late 60's but not filmed until 30 years later. Personally I loved the shit out of it, great mix of humor and action all wrapped up in a web of deceit and plot twists.
The Town That Was (Chris Perkel & Georgie Roland, 2007) - Had to watch this when I discovered this, it's a documentary on Centralia, location of the never-occured
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meet and the old coal town in PA that caught on fire and had to be abandoned and the coal veins are still burning underneath it to this day. Decent.
Sunflower (Vittorio De Sica, 1970) - One of the many collaborations between one of the sexiest woman ever to grace this earth, Sophia Loren, and one of the greatest Italian directors. This is more serious than a lot of their films, about a woman who's husband is missing in action in Russia during WWII and her desparate search to find him. Excellent.
Dark Shadows (Tim Burton, 2012) - Call me crazy but I enjoyed this quite a bit. The trailers made it look a lot like it was Addams Family Lite, but it has a lot more going for it than that. Really fun cast, everyone rises to the occasion quite well, Eva Green so hot she was making me rise to the occassion on a personal level. Good fun, way better than Burton's last 3 live-action movies.
Hugo (Martin Scorcese, 2011) - Loved this, was kicking my ass for not going to see it in 3d in the theaters. Shit is film nerd heaven. Beautiful, impeccably crafted love song to movies, surprisingly carried by competent child actors with great support from Kingsley, the gawd Christopher Lee, and Sacha Baron Cohen in a probably his best acting performance yet, which is a perfect throwback to the physical slapstick of the greats from the silent era like Keaton and Chaplin.
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (Takeshi Kitano, 2003) - Fuck this fucking movie. Kitano's version of the legendary character is similar in two ways: his name and he's blind. That's it. All of the humor that defined the character is gone and instead of fighing mostly out of defense, here Ichi is attacking people for no fucking reason...there's really no connection at all to the Katsu character at all. Plus Kitano's swordplay game is weak as fuck and and the fights are poor, boring and filled with awful low-budget CGI blood. Did I mention there's fucking dance numbers? Only good part of the entire movie is the fat retard who runs around swinging his sword in his underpants from time to time.
John Carter (Andrew Stanton, 2012) - Also not nearly as bad as its rep. Quite fun, mindless entertainment. Riggins does a good job with what he was given, all the big budget scenery looks great, plus you get Willem Dafoe as a giant lizard thing and McNulty as a villain. Also has the best alien-dog hybrid since the big-mouthed bitey dog from Dark Crystal.
Milano Calibro 9 (Fernando Di Leo, 1972) - Finally started getting into this Di Leo set. This was soo damn good.
Scream 4 (Wes Craven, 2011) - Fun addition to the series. Craven has an eye for young ladies, he got a ton of my favorites in here. All the meta-meta shit got a bit silly to me, but I guess that was kind of the point.
Galaxy of Terror (Bruce D. Clark, 1981) - Even though I knew about the giant maggot rape scene going into this, actually seeing it was still shocking to me, like "wow, that giant maggot is really raping the shit out of that girl".
Freebie & The Bean (Richard Rush, 1974) - Drizzle was 100% right on about this, one of the most criminally underrated buddy cop films of all time. Alan Aarkin and James Caan play off each other so well, understated comedic tour-de-force shit and just loaded with tons of great dialogue.
30 Minutes or Less (Ruben Fleischer, 2011) - Meh. Short and filled with a few funny moments but ultimately forgettable.
Trick 'r Treat (Michael Dougherty, 2007) - Pretty solid portmanteau, very much enjoyed.
Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932) - So good, Charles Laughton seems to be having a ton of fun in the evil Dr. Moreau role. For as old as it is, the human/animal hybrid costumes are pretty fucking amazing looking.
White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949) - Seen it before obv, but still one of the best gangster movies ever made and probably in my top 50 all time. I made it Ma! Top of the world!
ton of more stuff i need to write about, will try to do more later.