Movies you've recently watched

[Malthus]

Duh, the only normal reaction is to post the entire essay from this great author while limiting your own enthusiasm or contribution to this smiley  and an incipit of great wisdom in the form of: «Wow !» or «I love that movie», or «I can't wait seeing it again» or «Good!».

Yeah, I was going to say, Timmy isn't one to criticize another for excessive enthusiasm. 

I would disagree - think of all the images of nature that the film-maker frames the scene with: the spiders' webs, the bunnies being snatched by hawks, etc. This is done expressly to draw attention to the notion of the preacher as predator and the kids as his prey (also in the name of the movie, which is "night of the hunter" and not "night of the demon"). The movie has lots to say about the nature of religion as well of course ...

One of the great themes in the film is that of dualism. This is made explicit by the "love" and "hate" on the preacher's hands, but shows up in all sorts of ways throughout - like the duet at the end: the preacher and the orphan-woman share a religious background, only she is if you will the good expression of religion and he's the bad.

I don't know about you, but I've never seen an owl reach towards the light in prayer before eating a mouse.  That said, I think this is a false dichotomy I brought up; a predatory nature is implied in the term "demonic", I think, and my argument with you is more in terms of vocabulary than anything else.  I think Max Cady serves as a better example of a "force of nature" as he's really just an animal, but I see your point.

I must say that is an awesome scene.

Leads into a pet peeve of mine: the lack of cinematic imagination which uses gore rather than well thought out imagry to instill fright, all to prevelent these days.

[Habsburg]

I hardly talk about her "all the time", but the subject has come up before. She's my dad's sister.

We share the same last name.

Kindly pass on the word she penned one of my favourite all time fiction works (Handmaid's Tale) and one of the scariest.   She was about 20 years ahead of her time.  But my highest regards. 

[Queequeg]

I must say that is an awesome scene.

Leads into a pet peeve of mine: the lack of cinematic imagination which uses gore rather than well thought out imagry to instill fright, all to prevelent these days.

Yup.  The original Cape Fear and Night of the Hunter are both a lot scarier than the remake of Cape Fear which tried to combine the two but was burdened with an inferior script, Juliette Lewis, overly post-modern aesthetic and an excess of violence.

[CountDeMoney]

Thank God for HDNet, and their sneak previews.

Watched Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience last night;  it wasn't Che or The Limey, but it had its moments.  In a Soderbergh kinda way.

[katmai]

Malthus aunt is a famous writer!

[The Brain]

[CountDeMoney]

For all you Michael Ironside fans, I strongly recommend Jennifer Lynch's Surveillance.  Excellent story and characters.
And you can never have too much Michael Ironside.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

watched last night: Outlander. Well hell a very decent SF/Fantasy/Monster flick. old school in the way the monster angle is played... scarier when you don't see it, but when you do it's pretty cool. CG/SFX is great in this  flick. Vikings and Aliens = AWESOME.... Good SF, and good Viking picture at the same time. Jim Caveizel (sp?) is stoic and speaks only when needed.

8.5555 "dragons" from space who eat you and your enemies with equal relish outta 10

Also was surprised by the latest Mickey Rourke actioner to go seemingly straight to dvd. "Killshot" the blandly named thriller, of the same name as the Elmore Leonard novel.

Nuanced performances from Rourke, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Diane Lane, and Thomas Jane lift this movie out of it's pulpy(ie: more than one homage to similar 70's flicks) roots. a nice fresh take on Leonard from the director of "Brick". Should have got a wider release as one of the better Leonard adaptations out there... Banal title aside.

8.555 mouthy annoying yet alarmingly cute psychopathic sidekicks to quiet methodical killers who outta 10

[Admiral Yi]

Saw Mr. Baseball again.  Still a damn fine movie.

[Ed Anger]

Terminator Salvation

A soulless piece of CGI effect laden crap. I think Vinnie is right nowadays. The third movie was better than this empty piece of shit.

Rating:

[Savonarola]

The Dybbuk (1937)

Polish Musical film about a Jewish village; 18 years ago two men made a sacred vow that if their pregnant wives had a son and a daughter the children would be married.  They do, but the mother of the daughter (Leah) dies in childbirth and the Father of the son (Chasson) drowns.  Now the father of the girl has grown to an avaricious money lender and wants to marry his daughter off to the son of a rich man.  Using the Kaballah and numerology Chasson sells his soul to the devil in order to be with Leah; which he accomplishes by dying and then possessing her as a Dybbuk, or wandering spirit.  So Leah's father takes her to a famous Rabbi in order to exorcise the Dybbuk.  There's also a lot of singing and dancing in this and Satan shows up to deliver valuable lessons. 

The film isn't great; the camera work is static and the acting is like Yiddish Community Theater.  It's interesting as it depicts a rural Jewish village in a time an place where rural Jewish villages were about to disappear forever.  Many of the films actors would die as part of the Final Solution.

[Norgy]

10.000 BC. 
Body of Lies. 

Also watched John From Cincinatti. 

[Liep]

Oh God, anything Von Trier makes me want to scratch my eyes out.  Add Charlotte Gainsbourgh and Williem Dafoe and just NO! 

Cannes critics have ravaged it, though my beloved Manohla Dargis of the NY Times was lukewarm.

Gainsbourgh just won the best Actress award. Deserves somethinge for cutting herself up like that.

[Martinus]

I've been watching through the first series of Torchwood recently. Love it. 

[Tamas]

I've been watching through the first series of Torchwood recently. Love it. 

Let me guess: it's because it has gay sex in it?