Mars Attacks!

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

A favourite of mine, completely ridiculous but I still do enjoy the 50's sci-fi hammyness of it all. Another very early big CG show, those martians are bloody great.

I like the preposterous cast they managed to wrangle for this film. I like that out of the 22 listed in those great opening credits only 6 survive the film. And I like Danny Elfman's cheesy score.

Pulp Fiction

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

I remember staring intently for a long period at the poster for this film whilst waiting in line on a year 4 excursion to a small theatre to watch some boring play. I couldn't place it at the time but that seductive minx on the cover was the girl from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen who rode the clam.

NON LINEAR STORYTELLING ZOMG.

It's been soooo long since I've seen this. I've had it on bluray for a while but never had an excuse to plop it on. I have never noticed before that Steve Buscemi was in this. Great.

This film just never lets the audience know where it's going. With it's jumping story lines and huge chunks of dialogue about nothing in particular, the whole film feels like on big tangent. At the end of it I'm not sure exactly what the point of it all was but it's a pretty fun ride nonetheless.

Invaders from Mars

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Ichina

I saw the original 1953 film for the first time a year or so ago and thought it was pretty neat. Tobe Hooper's remake seems to be directed at kids and is a very clunky. The ending is more than a little upsetting, I thought the whole "It was all a dream" ending was just an example of bad writing, not something that people ever really used...

What is does have is some very funny looking alien creature work from the late great Stan Winston, some very theatrical lighting and a nice little score by Christopher Young.

There are some delightfully cheesy moments throughout, unfortunately I didn't much care for the kid.

Mr. Popper's Penguins

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Yeah, not great. What can I say, I just don't like penguins. And this film doesn't offer anything more than penguin poop jokes. Honestly the only reason I watched this was because I knew Angela Lansbury was in it, that's not nearly reason enough.

On the bright side, it's a step up from Zookeeper.

*cue obligatory Vanilla Ice song

The Thing

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan, Josh, Tyler

I'm glad we watch this one directly after the new prequel. It only goes to emphasise how much they worked to link them up.

Glorious effects. My favourites being the head that detaches and grows little spindly legs and the arms being bit in half by an abdominal cavity that grows teeth. But there's a whole load of crazy cool stuff in this.

That dog at the beginning of the film is one of the creepiest dogs ever. Brilliant dog acting. The cast are great too. Kurt Russell is such a badass. They really push the paranoia and the slow build. The blood test scene is intense and so great to see again.

I almost forgot how bleak the ending is, but I really enjoyed catching up with this classic.

The Thing

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan, Josh, Tyler

This new film functions as a direct prequel to John Carpenter's, the closing credit shots being practically identical to the opening of that film. It's filled with details in the production design and the sequence of events that matches it very closely to the '82 film.

The film is much quicker paced than it's predecessors, it's a louder more flashy version of the story, although there's nothing stylistically, besides the effects, that would be out of place in the original remake. The effects, practical and digital, are just awesome. And you get a good look at them too. The practical effects in the original remake are infamous and it does a great job of getting that look but making it more... realistic? Mmm.

The film focuses more on the action and less on the paranoia. It's the kind of film that goes for jumps scares rather than suspense but I think it's a worthy addition. I'm not as precious about Carpenter's as some, I thought it was quite fun.

The Thing from Another World

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

Time for a Thing marathon starting with this, the original adaptation of the story. I've only seen this version once before and it plays out just as I remember. The thing here is a kind of lumbering frankenstein-like guy who is basically described as a very strong and super intelligent carrot.

I like the discovery of the space ship in the ice. I like the melodramatic score with an awesome theremin. I like how they keep referring to SCIENCE!

WATCH THE SKIES! It's almost red scare propaganda. Although the latter films make a better case for that kind of paranoia. Still, it's a lot of fun.

Red State

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

Bit of a change up for Kevin Smith and a welcome one too. It's a film that I think overall had more good bits than bad. The set up is pretty standard, but where it goes from there is a little different from your average horror film fare. In fact classifying this as just a horror film would be misleading. It still has traces of his trademark humour throughout and I might consider it a very dark comedy if I didn't find the themes just a little too tragic. It's almost the same message as Dogma but delivered in a much grittier way.

The pace is all over the shop. Michael Parks' introduction is basically a 15 minute monologue. It's quite something and I actually didn't mind that. But despite there not being much fat, running at a brief 88 minutes, there are long sections that seem to hinder any kind of build up to the climax. Especially when it just turns into a stand off, an extended gun fight.

That climax is something I have mixed feelings about. I'll have to ponder it more. Once an extreme idea has been dropped in you lap in the final moments like that, there's a part of me that wishes it wasn't there and there's an even greater part of me that wishes they didn't chicken out and just went full on with the concept. As it is, it makes for an amusing and pointed ending and it definitely works but the pay off doesn't seem great enough for throwing the audience like that.

The cast he's assembled is quite impressive and a few horror film conventions he sets up are gleefully thrown out the window. There are a few areas where you can really notice the rolling shutter issues on the Red camera, but on the whole it looks pretty good. Overall there is far more of the film that I liked than didn't.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Well this is where the real meat of the prequels is. It's like he spread the first act of the story over 2 entire films and then saved the last two acts for this one when really, that ratio should have been inverted. As it is, I like this one most out of the prequels. Hell, even Ewan McGregor riding that Lizard is pretty cool.

It's essentially a tragedy and as such is probably one of, if not the most emotional of the Star Wars films. And they slaughter children. How can I not love it?

Man I'm buggered though, It's 4:30am. I'll do the original trilogy another day.

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Better. Much better in fact. I quite like clone wars, if only for the action in it.

Strange to think it was just shot in HDCAM, one of the first features to go digital, certainly the first Star Wars to be shot this way. With affordable 4k cameras just around the corner it seems almost amateur. Those telephoto shots of Anakin and Padme in the green field look the worst, probably because they have the most real imagery in the film, they rest of video look is hidden by the huge amounts of CG and compositing it's placed in. I always remember those shot in the cinema looked strange, you could see the digital compression in the film print. Looks much better on bluray, but still has that slight video look.

This film is going for two things, a mystery story line and a love story. The mystery goes nowhere really. That love story sets up the events for the rest of the films, so you might think they would spend a bit more time with it. I can believe Anakin's turn to the dark side, he's a real dick. But I cannot for the life of me buy into that love story. It just does not work. Some horrific dialogue the actors do their best to sell. Rolling around in the grass laughing does not equal love.

Once they get to Geonosis things really pick up. The monster fights, the Jedi battle, Yoda vs Dooku, all good. On the whole a much easier film to watch, besides a few moments like C3PO's head swap, there are a lot less annoying kiddie contrivances holding up the proceedings.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Finally about time to go through my new bluray set. Thought I'd check out the new commentaries made from interviews and such.

It's interesting watching how far computer graphics have come since the first of the prequels. Just looking at the new digital Yoda replacement next to Jar Jar it shows. Still, all groundbreaking at the time. Replacing puppet Yoda is just one of the constant revisions George Lucas has made to the films. I guess people don't care so much about tinkering with the prequels though.

So I haven't seen this film for a very long time. I was overwhelmed by the effects and action when it came out but as that fascination wore off the film that is left is probably my least favourite of the 6. Poor Jake Lloyd. Fan hatred will follow him around forever whether it was his fault or not, but he is terrible in the film.

Even more annoying is Jar Jar Binks. It's hard for me to feel such hatred as some though. I grew up with Return of the Jedi more than any other Star Wars film and I loved the Ewoks. I still love the Ewoks. I still own the 2 Ewok TV movies and love them too. Many people regard Ewoks with the same hatred as Jar Jar though, so although I can;t stand him I understand he's there to serve a function, a very stupid and annoying one. That goes for a lot of this film.

Darth Maul is pretty cool though.

Bunraku

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

Another one I'm not entirely sure will ever see a release in Australia. It's is a hyper stylised post apocalyptic samurai western mash up that somewhat resembles a comic book version of a 1930's musical except in the place of music numbers are fights.

And the fights are pretty great too, I especially liked a continuous sequence that took place going down 4 floors of a prison and another on a trapeze. You can see from the trailer how the production design is a major feature. It's been created to resemble a pop-up book and it makes for some great eye candy. Also stylised are the lighting and the crazy camera moves.

Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson and J-pop megastar Gackt are all cool. It's a lot of fun to watch and has some rather amusing narration. Style might be too much for some, I personally like the crazy films like this and found this one to be quite enjoyable.

Wide Awake

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Little known M. Night Shyamalan film. So little known I only managed to find the trailer in German. Still, why not give it a look.

So a kid's grandpa dies and he wants to know if god exists. It's all faithy stuff that's also prevalent in his other films. Meh. But DOES IT HAVE A TWIST? Well kinda, if you include one of the classmates headaches being symptoms of epilepsy and the quiet kid in the corner being God. Yes you read that right.

It's very fluffy family friendly faith stuff. The cast are ok. The film is meh.

Super

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Loved it! Glad I finally got to see it, and still don't know if it's every going to get a release in Australia. It goes places even Kick-Ass wouldn't touch, especially in the insane finale where James Gunn really shows his Troma filmmaking roots. Such a bloodbath! Brutal, psychotic and hilarious and even shocking and sad in moments.

Ellen Page is just priceless as Boltie. Even more insane, and filled with such glee, than Rainn Wilson. Kevin Bacon is also a stand out here as the bad guy that steals his wife. They are all just a joy to watch. Liv Tyler gets drugged out raped by a black guy too, so that's good.

I'd liken this to Observe and Report, a film I thought was the best comedy of the year but one that no-one else seemed to like at all. The way they find some very dark humour in these deeply disturbed characters is right up my alley.

Immensely enjoyable, keep an eye out for it, or just order it from overseas where's it's been available for months.

The Hunter

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Somehow this movie managed to keep my attentions despite being very slow paced and never really going anywhere. Well I guess it did, it's just a very subtle film, no grand character arc or story here, very straight forward.

What it does have is great landscape photography or areas of Australia I haven't seen much in film until recently, with Van Dieman's Land and Dying Breed. For me it's a much more appealing view of Australia than the red desert outback that's so prevalent.

Overall I think the film works but is just to slight for my tastes.

Hinokio: Inter Galactic Love

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Well there's nothing intergalactic about it that I could see, or to my mind anything particularly romantic. But there is some love in there.

Oh the Japanese love mixing their super high tech with melodrama don't they. This one is innocent enough but doesn't really hold together, especially at the end with things start getting metaphysical. The robot is pretty neat though.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Matt, Skyler

Finally managed to get a decent copy of the original theatrical release. The one where Elliot calls Michael penis breath, the one where Michael wants to dress up as a terrorist for Halloween, the one where the kids are chased by cops with friggin shot-guns. The good 80's version.

E.T. is simply one of the best films ever. Don't mess with it.

The Bad Seed

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Glad I finally got around to watching this film. I do love my evil child films and this one to many is the granddaddy of them all. It's pretty darn great too.

From what I understand they kept the broadway cast, who all do a great job, but they changed the ending which is a bit of a shame. And they made the odd decision to have a cast call at the end of the film which really kills the effect of the abrupt ending.

You can tell it's based on a play, it's very talky and there's only one or two locations. But Patty McCormack is such a delightful little shit of a child and the others are fine so it manages to hold your attentions.

Zookeeper

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

It's gotten to the point where if I see Happy Madison Productions written on a film I know I should just avoid. God knows what I was thinking seeing this. The only enjoyment I got out of it was guessing the voice cast.

Don't do it to yourself.