Green Lantern

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

Martin Campbell's strong point has always been the staging of physical action, so he seems a very odd choice for a film which ends up being computer animated. There's barely any live action ACTION in this film. As it stands the action is fine but nothing memorable.

This film is much more interesting when Earth is nowhere to be seen. Like I said about the first Hellboy, they feel tentative about fully embracing the more fantastic elements of the stories. I loved some of those creature designs though, and there's just so many of them, it's too much to take in in one go.

I do love Ryan Reynolds and he's great in the part but has to sell a lot of bad writing, motivation changes that take place out of nowhere and relationships that just don't work. Peter Sarsgaard is funny, he's also giving it his all. But I love him at the start when he's just a boring nerd, his posture is hilarious all by itself.

But overall this isn't a very memorable film. I'm really feeling the superhero fatigue right now and as spectacular as some of the imagery and action is, it all ends up just feeling like yet another comic book superhero film. The completely unmotivated coda at the end of the credit sequences also left a very bad impression but for the most part I didn't complain to much watching it. I'm pretty sure I've already forgotten about 80% of it though.

Space Camp

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

Space Camp guys. Space. Camp.

Terry O'Quinn has hair! Joaquin Phoenix was still called Leaf! JINX is the worst robot ever!

Space Camp!

In The Loop

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

Love this. Hilarious and slightly horrifying. A great political satire that reminds one of Dr. Strangelove or Wag the Dog. And just a great script and performances. Always enjoy looking at this again.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Paul, Kim

Here's my previous write-up. Great film.

Hellboy

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

A little Hellboy marathon to end the day. I'm greatly anticipating the new cut of Mimic. This one I think you can see in the script the hesitance to fully embrace the fantastic. Human characters are the antagonists (albeit with the powers of gods of chaos. And Nazis.) and although the character of John Myers give an unsuspecting audience a gateway to the world he's a very underdeveloped character that has no other purpose. It's no wonder in the next instalment he's practically erased and the fantasy world takes over, which ends up making for a much more enjoyable film.

That's not to say this film isn't enjoyable. I think it's very successful in setting up the world, it's not as funny or charming as the sequel but the action is still fun, the creatures and effects are pretty great. And you can definitely see how much H.P. Lovecraft's writing influenced Guillermo del Toro.

The whole romance stuff seems to forced to me though. I like that Kroenen dude though. He's neat.

Running Scared

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

Yes I watched this one again. I have a hard time convincing people this film is worth while. But it is damnit. It is.

The Night of the Hunter

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

Another classic I was well overdue in seeing. In fact it's been sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get around to it for well over a year. I knew of it mainly for it's reputation of high key lighting but I didn't know it was going to be as stylised as it was. It does look damn amazing. You can really see every single frame has been immaculately constructed, very painterly, realism be damned.

I can also see why there's an entire generation to which this was the scariest film they ever saw, however I'm sad to say it's lost a little of it's edge in todays film landscape, a major factor being the rather foreign filmic and acting language to what I'm used too. I don't think the kids are very good in this, but kids aside, The rest of the performances are very "of the time" as is much of the writing. Those soliloquies kill me. Imagine trying to do one of them in a film today, you could never get away with it.

Also unexpected, the film is practically a musical the amount of songs people sing in it.

However I can very much appreciate the brilliant direction, the amazing imagery, creepy folk songs and large performances. I'm glad i've finally seen this one, another to cross off the list.

Cure

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

That trailer give away far too much for my liking but it's the best I can do.

I've been severely lacking in my foreign films watching of late. (besides German day the other week). To get this one in I had to disregard my no subtitles after 10:30pm policy and I think I will continue to do so because I miss my foreign films. But you need to be able to really sit down and watch them and lately I've taken to watching films while I work. So I'm very glad I got this one in here, it's one of my all time favourites.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a fascinating director. This film plays out like Seven as shot by Michael Hanake. A very strange and creepy twist on a serial killer procedural shot in a very detached and objective style leaving a lot of the heavy lifting up to the audience. It's deceptively simple, no score for the most part, scenes play out in long static shots and yet it has some of the creepiest and suspenseful moments in any serial killer film I've seen of late. It does so mainly through great acting and very precise editing. The film almost manages to mirror it's thematic content in that way which is just astounding. Purposefully numb, devoid of emotion towards it's subjects and yet mesmerising, hypnotic...

It's very hard to describe, it's much better if you just watch the film. Please watch this film. And any of his other films, they are well worth your time and effort to track down, even his j-horror efforts like Pulse and Retribution. But this is by far his masterpiece for me. And it finally got a dvd release in Australia, so no excuses. It's a definite must see for me. Even if you hate it, it's worth it.

The Room

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Matt, Bonnie, Rob, Felicity, Jim, Jess, Ashley, Claire, Steve

The worst film in the world.

I've tried on a few occasions to watch this by myself but it never works. But never fear, the cult smash hit is back, being projected on a beautiful 35mm print, in the cinema, with a packed house of eager fans ready to throw spoons. The way it is meant to be seen. I'm so lucky.

This is the 2nd time I've sat through the whole thing, the first being one of these events a year ago. It's also the only audience participation screening of a film I've ever been too. That's right, never saw Rocky Horror on the big screen. (Nor have I been to one of those sing-alongs that a scarily coming back in fashion...) But really, it's the only was to watch this film. It really is God awful. Just unbelievably bad. But also a lot of fun with a good crowd.