Movie of the Moment

[mr h atom]

BUBBA HO TEP !! what a hoot !
very low budget, but highly entertaining don coscarelli film...the guy who gave us the splendiferous 'phantasm' movies

'bubba..' is based on a short story by the equally splendiferous joe lansdale...great story...cannot recommend his stuff more highly, one of my favorite authors...

bruce camplbell as foul mouthed, very much alive elvis in a nursing home fighting a mummy !!

...and, his sidekick !

loved 'gran torino'..eastwood has been on quite a roll the last decade...well, ever since 'unforgiven', at least....

[chris]

i'd like to talk about the movie "the book of eli" for a sec.

right off the bat, i thought, not very original. seems to be a lot of apocolyptic films all of a sudden. last years "2012". then we had "the road". now, denzel washington's "the book of eli". i thought i'd give it a shot. equal parts old western, mad max, and ass kicking (not to mention sword weilding and shotgun swinging) do-gooder. the film was shot in odd blue and brown hues to give the feeling of both dispair and vulnerability. and that was most effective.

a gunslinging traveller walked, alone after a nuclear winter, across country. he was carrying something of remarkable value. the remaining survivors were lawless. the gunslinger chose when to involve himself in others business and when to mind his. until he arrives in a small western town. run by the fantastically dark and sinister gary oldman (who made a career of playing bad guys long before he became batman's commisioner gordon).

evil town leader wants what the wanderer has. with this in his possesion, he could rule the world, he thinks. there are shootouts only bruce willis or arnold schwartzenegger could ever possibly win. but the mysterious wanderer pulls it off. and who saw a pretty young girl getting involved?

the gunslinger walks off. but the pretty girl follows. girl gets captured and gunslinger has to trade away his most valuable possesion to save girl. this...is where the surprising twist ending(s) occur. i have no problem with one of them (that the possession was not exactly what it was thought to be). but the other one totally ruined the movie for me. made it an unbelievable waste of time. i will not ruin it for those who haven't seen it. but he could NOT have done what he did for as long as he did it if the sh!t surprise ending happened.

i know movies are for entertainment purposes. and some things need not be analyzed, poked and prodded for authenticity. but a filmaker's job is to make things believable for me. they do that...i enjoy their movie. they do not...i don't. some exceptions obviously apply (oh, i do enjoy my zombie movies)

but i ask...what are other opinions of this movie? did the ending work for you? this film had an honest 2 1/2 to 3 star rating from me...until the ending. it lost at least a full star because of it.

this reviewer says the book of eli should have been returned, permanently, to the library.

[bonovox66]

Has anyone seen Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney? I just watched it and it confirmed that everyone in Hollywood is absolute scum, especially those working in "Reality TV". I can't say I would recommend watching this movie unless you are interested in seeing the seedy side of Hollywood.

On another note, saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World a couple days ago and have to say I loved it. Now don't go into it expecting a gripping story. In fact the only boring parts of the movie were in the first 20 minutes when they tried to establish a background story. Once they get past the attempt at a story it turns into the coolest rock n roll action movie I have ever seen. It also happens to be the best directed and best shot film I've seen in a long time and yes I have seen Inception.

[mr h atom]

the last exorcism

liked it...another jiggly-camera, faux-documentery...

built the tension in a nice, old fashioned way.

the surprise ending did not surprise me so much: more of a 'ah-ha !' than a 'WHOA !!'

[bonovox66]

You know, I keep hearing good things about the Last Exorcism. I might have to give it a try. Considering that I have not liked any of the previous movies (the Linda Blair classic among them) that is saying a lot.

[chris]

In any good spooker, it has as much to do with the down moments...building tension...in between the scary parts. A lost art, I suspect, in the making of a good horror flick.

[mr h atom]

agreed wholeheartedly...

[chris]

where the wild things are. a children's book recreated. sounds simple. if i recall the book i read by the same name had no more than ten sentences. director spike jonze does an amazing job of making a young boy's fantasy (okay, or nightmare) seem perfectly real. boy gets in trouble with mom. mom sends him up to his room without dinner. instead of going to sleep, he runs away and finds a boat. with this boat he sails a stormy sea. then he finds an island where unpeakably horrible monsters reside. they should eat him. they don't. in fact, max (the child) convinces them to make him their king. why? because it is max's fantasy.

i loved this movie. the different characters on the island each had a human emotion you could perfctly relate to. and they looked real. at least i felt they did. it was not as if i were watching some CGI character. at least i don't think it was. they were not lovable. they were dangerous. they were unpredictable. they were...like life.

he ends up where he has always been. at home. with mom. with all the reassurances mom can provide. he is home. safe. you will like this movie even if you do not recall reading the book as a child. but as an adult, if you did read the book, you just may remember, if only for a brief moment, what being a child was really like. see this movie.

[bonovox66]

Saw Where the Wild Things Are in theaters, and to be honest I was quite annoyed by it. I kept waiting for someone to slap-or eat-that kid. I normally love movies based on kids books, but this one fell flat for me.

Since there seem to be so many horror fans on this site has anyone seen Nightmares in Red, White & Blue The Evolution of the American horror Film? Very interesting documentary, there is a lot of political bashing that goes on but it is nice to hear from the writers and directors of some classics (all hail George Romero!) talk about there inspiration behind these films. Highly recommend for any horror fan. Only downside was no interviews with Raimi or Bruce Campbell even though they did talk about Evil Dead's influence on the genre

[chris]

it is scary (no pun intended) how many horror afficianados have not seen the evil dead films. raime really knows how to push the bloody envelope. and i still to this day smile when i see bruce campbell.