City of the Living Dead

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

I haven't seen that much Lucio Fulci. I should work on that. This one's a doozy. They throw everything in. And of course it makes no sense but hey that doesn't matter really as long as there's some good gore.  This one has quite the drill scene... And a lot of maggots...

So I don't really know if there are zombies in this film or ghosts. Or ghost zombies. The rules are never really established and these zombies appear and disappear like ghosts. The don't seem to want to eat brains, they just want to squish them with their hands, which they do, repeatedly.

There's some Lovecraftian references, there's magic and fortune telling and the zombie ghosts commanded by this evil priest dude that looks a bit like Christopher Lee as Dracula. It's a confusing mess and has some hilariously bad dialogue but I guess that's part of the fun too.

Noah

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

If you ever wondered what Darren Aronofsky's telling of a biblical epic would look like, well you're in luck! To be honest I could not imagine what that would look like but now that I've seen it, well yeah that's exactly what Darren Aronofsky's telling of a biblical epic would look like.

It's the story of Noah that we all know, but Aronofsky pimps it out with beautiful visuals and fills it with a lot of really dark emotional turmoil. It's rather amazing and sometimes completely baffling.

I really love his version of the Watchers. Their stop-frame like animation reminds me of the rock gnomes from Return to Oz. So cool. And the seed from eden and the story of creation sequences are pretty stunningly told with a sort of timelapse photography style. Super cool.

I love the setting and the fable feeling of the whole thing. And just how dark it goes. It is a horrifying story and we aren't spared those aspects. It tends to lose me when it goes bombastic and adds in action. Especially so towards the end where a character is blatantly kept around in order to facilitate an act 3 climactic one on one fight. I get why he might be there to thematically re-iterate some points but I don't think it was needed.

Oh and Clint Mansell is just reusing his score from The Fountain. Kinda lazy...

It's a really odd one to nail down. To do this kind of mythological story in a realistic tone is always going to result is some slight goofiness by virtue of the story being told, but the actors all dig in and they try real hard to make things matter. Ultimately I think there's much more about the film that I like than I didn't. It's a great experiment and I certainly hope it leads Aronofsky to do more big budgeted fare. I think that's the most important take away from this exercise.

The Spectacular Now

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

Write Up

Such a great film.

Phantasm

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

Kooky low budget 70's cult horror fantasy that kicked off a very unusual series. I've only seen the sequels once before but I've seen this first one a few times and although it's very rough around the edges it has quite a few fun things in it. And a lot of left turns.

The Tall man is kind of iconic. As is that chrome ball of death. What the hell is that thing? Just bizarre. And I love how the sequels keep up with the series of twist endings. Cool theme song too.

Ride Along

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Buddy cop comedy! Pretty straight forward. It was ok. I didn't find it all that funny though. I don't get Ice Cube. 

I, Frankenstein

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Kate, Lauren

Stuart Beattie's made another film. I don't recall gargoyles and demons in the Frankenstein story but this is hardly by the book. From the Underworld universe comes another light vs darkness, with an iconic character as our anti-hero. 

Aaron Eckhart is all angry and action man. There are many CG creatures. The story is predictable. Everything is Teal or Orange. That's pretty much all you need to know. It's not that good.