(First Blockbuster)
Sure, we've all seen it, but this tense thriller is always worth another watch. It's one of those that you usually end up being gladly being sucked into if it happens to be on TV. Steven Spielberg made a huge splash in the industry when Jaws was released and made an unprecedented 100 million at the box office. Many blame the film for ushering in a new era where dollars meant more than substance, but I think Hollywood was always about the dollars, although the surge of “event movies” with huge budgets, advertising, and loads of hype all for crap movies is a long standing trend worth lamenting. But aside from any impact Jaws had on the industry, it still stands on its own as an exciting film based on the 1974 Peter Benchley novel. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw represent all degrees of manliness and are all perfect, as is the phenomenal John Williams score. In the off chance you have not seen this movie, you should really get with it and rent it today.
Movies »Jaws
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Movies »True Stories
True Stories is one of my first favorite movies. As unconventional as you would expect from Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, this musical comedy starring John Goodman, Swoozie Kurtz, and Spalding Gray will leave you feeling off beat and up beat.
Byrne based his characters on eccentric people he read about in tabloid newspapers and places them in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas during the “Celebration of Specialness”. The result is a truly delightful movie that never hits a wrong note, nor does it resemble any other mainstream “uplifting” film I've seen.
Byrne uses his quirky eye to capture some mundanely beautiful scenes and the Talking Heads provide their ever-wonderful music. A must for anyone interested in experimental narrative film or cult movies.
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Posted on December 25, 2006
Movies »Dancer in the Dark
I cried and cried and cried when I saw this movie, and it was in a public movie theater which made me feel especially vulnerable, but what else could I expect from Lars Von Trier, a director notorious for his brutal subject matter and infamous manipulation of both his actors and his viewers.
Any movie that ends in an unjust hanging is pretty tough stuff, but the aching unfairness that leads to this is some of the most difficult yet stunning stuff put to film. The cinematography is almost unreal, especially when you consider the entire film was shot on hand held video cameras. There is also some lovely music and dancing.
Yes, diverging from what is expected and safe, Von Trier presents this hopelessly bleak story as a musical – but it works. I don't think I could handle watching this again, but I highly recommend this haunting and anguishing film. Just make sure you have a box of tissues and a plan to do something to take your mind off of it after viewing.
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Posted on December 18, 2006
Movies »A History of Violence
While I hoped A History of Violence would be good, my expectations weren't too high despite the good news that Cronenberg was directing, because, I'll tell you a secret, while Videodrome totally rules, Scanners is not nearly as good as the scene of the exploding head would lead you to believe. But fortunately he put his stamp on this movie in the best way possible.
It's gory, as in the Amazon.com “plot keywords” include the phrase “Nose Pushed Into Brain“) so it's not for the squeamish and that goes for the sex scenes as well.
Based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, History seems to also owe a lot to noir films of the past, especially the Robert Mitchum classic Out of the Past (which would make a perfect double feature).
Everyone really delivers in this film. Viggo is hot at being hot and I absolutely believe it when he beats up like seven people at once. Maria Bello finally got the respect from me she's been shilling for in penance for Coyote Ugly (but failed to get) since the sub par Cooler. Even the weirdo stilted kid ends up growing on you. William Hurt earned an Oscar nod for his flourished performance, but for my money, Ed Harris owns this movie and is possibly the best “Bad Guy” to grace the screen in a long, long time.
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Posted on December 11, 2006
Movies »Burden of Dreams
Master documentarian Les Blank, whose films include another amazing Herzog portrait: Werner Herzong Eats His Shoe, travelled to South America to chronicle the shoot of Fitzcarraldo, the one about the mad man determined to build an opera house in the middle of the jungle.
Like a lot of Herzog's films, Fitzcarraldo is not an easy watch–but Blank's documentary, Burden of Dreams, is simply phenomenal.
Herzog can't help himself, he casts his best fiend, fellow German lunatic and best actor ever to play a character that totally freaks out, Klaus Kinski, as the leading man. Problems develop rapidy, Kinski is truly psychotic, and it isn't long before Herzog is holding a gun on him from behind the camera.
The production could not be more insanse: deep up the Amazon, totally off the grid, Herzog hires two warring tribes to serve as the cast and crew (many of whom want Kinski dead) and will only shoot during magic hour (twilight time). It's hard to describe just how nuts this movie is–you've just got to see it for yourself .
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Posted on December 4, 2006
Movies »Ed Wood
Well, our days of living large are over as adults with a mortgage. But that doesn't mean the fun has to end. So this week I pay tribute to all things cheap.
While I admire Tim Burton immensely, I often find myself not always completely satisfied with his movies. He is a creative force with a singular vision, but this talent makes it that much harder when a movie falls short of greatness.
Ed Wood, however, is a great movie chronicling one genius (of sorts) by another. Wood was lucky to have his compelling life as “the worst film maker that ever lived” documented by an obvious fan of his Z-movies. While his films, notably Plan Nine From Outer Space, are famously bad, they also hold the spirit of their director, a determined and passionate man brimming with energy and a zeal for movies. The black and white cinematography is lovely and Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, and Bill Murray are radiant in this movie.
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Posted on November 27, 2006
Movies »Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
“This is my happening and it freaks me out! ” Thanksgiving is the holiday of excess and this weeks blog is all about decadence and indulgence, two things Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert know something about. Nothing is subtle or under-done in this trippy, groovy movie.
The editing is spastic, the sets are eye popping and garish, the costumes are over the top, and of course, this being a Meyer film, there is nudity and sex in every nook and cranny he could stick them. Word is Ebert was equally sex-happy while writing this film and if he ever got on Meyer's nerves on set, he'd have a girl “sit on his face”.
The ladies are hot: from the man-eater porn actress “Ashley St. Ives”, to the cute redhead rock singer with stars in her eyes “Kelly MacNamara”, to the soft spoken and devoted beautiful black girl drummer “Petronella Danforth”, to the shy foxy guitarist with lesbian tendencies “Casey Anderson”. And the men they tango with aren't so bad either. There's the brokenhearted, naive ex-boyfriend and manager “Harris Allsworth” who looks like a prototype for Paul Rudd, the bedroom-eyed gold digging blonde “Lance Rocke”, and of course The Z Man: the lunatic fairy sensation “Ronnie Barzell”.
The dialogue is priceless, almost every line is quotable. I am shocked this doesn't make the midnight movie scene more often. By the way, this movie has nothing to do with this week's book, they were just riding on the success of the novel (kind of like if Uwe Boll made a movie called “Beyond the Da Vinci Code” but had a disclaimer up front that it had nothing to do with the book The Da Vinci Code and the characters were always having sex and or naked).
This classic is finally available on DVD so please do enjoy!
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Posted on November 20, 2006
Movies »Lawnmower Man – and possibly Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War
Now, I realize this may come as a surprise. Not that I count on anyone really defending this techno-virtual-reality stinker, but can Lawnmower Man really be the worst movie? The answer is yes.
I remember watching this on video at a sleep over at my friend Dana's. So excruciating was the experience of bad CGI stiff body flying and Jeff Fahey playing a retard that we stopped in the middle to brace ourselves to finish it in the morning.
I still remember the pain, although to be fair to the film which is “notable mainly for the fact that Stephen King sued over the use of his name” (yes, that's correct, even Stephen King–the man who is always ready to give Steven Weber a second, third and forth chance, who hated Kubrick's version of the Shining then basically raped and plundered his own legacy by producing the worst adaptation ever–even he was not on board with this one).
I do not remember most of the movie itself, just the sickness it left behind. Please note that I did not subject myself to the sequel “Lawnmower Man 2 : Jobe's War“. In this one, thankfully (perhaps) Fahey is replaced with Matt Frewer (aka Max Headroom) and has no arms and legs. Again, who can say if this is for the better. It seems from Amazon member reactions that the sequel may actually be the worse of the two movies, but I simply can not go through it.
I have seen (other close contenders for the category): Doom Generation, Spawn (in the theater no less) AND Little Black Book in its stupid entirety, so please have mercy.
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Posted on November 13, 2006
Movies »Withnail and I
Welcome to my one year anniversary. That's right, I have recommended stuff for 52 weeks and in celebration I am choosing my very best for this week. It was difficult to decide (some more than others) and here are the final choices.
This category was probably the most difficult, being a movie nut and knowing that the “best” movie often depends on mood and situation, I decided to go with Withnail and I because it's a little less well known and I really hope more people watch it. It is laugh out loud funny and poignant. A winning combination when done right and this is done to perfection.
Here is what I said then (Dec. 12 – 18):
To say this is a comedy about two actors who leave the city to go to the country where hilarity ensues would be misleading. Even though this statement is true, this movie is much more than you might expect. Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann are flawless and I laughed out loud during this movie more than any other; but it is also an extremely bittersweet story about the end of an era (the sixties) and the inevitable end of the friendship between two men growing up. Please watch this movie.
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Posted on November 6, 2006
Movies »Suspiria
I know, it's unbelievable, but Suspiria is the very first Dario Argento movie to grace Brix Picks. Aside from being a horror film buff, I am also crazy, crazy for Argento, so go figure.
Suspiria may be his most well known, and it deserves the attention. The stunning first sequence alone is enough to recommend it, not to mention all the crazy and cool stuff that happens the rest of the movie.
One of the last films shot in beautiful Technicolor, Suspiria doesn't just bleed, it bleeds bright, thick, orange-red. The cinematography is dramatic, edgy, and inventive while the sets and locations are truly stunning.
This is the first of Argento's “Three Sisters” trilogy which was followed by Inferno, which also has an amazing set up and one of my favorite scenes in any of his films (the underwater scene with the dead body), but lacks the follow-through of Suspiria. The trilogy, if you believe the rumors, is supposed to be completed sometime next year. Let's hope the delays on that one don't spell trouble.
Over all, many critics site Suspiria as his best work and feel he never lived up to it, but as a fan who has seen nearly all of his movies, there is always something to cherish in each of them, despite their flaws. But if you want flawless, then this is the one to go with as it is totally deserving of its “Masterpiece” status.
Plus it boasts a soundtrack by Goblin (a previous – and actually the first – Brix Pick for album).