Director: Stephen Frears
Genre: Comedy
Key Players: John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Jack Black, Todd Louiso
Facing his ex-girlfriend's new lover, John Cusack's mild mannered music geek Rob Gordon, finally loses it, thinking up a plethora of ways to hurt this man (Tim Robbins) standing before him. It's well executed and quite unexpected and proves that unprovoked violence sure is fun!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
#24 The Exorcist: Alonetime with Jesus
Director: William Friedkin
Genre: Horror
Key Players: Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn
Much like Kubrick's The Shining, The Exorcist is a slow creeping unsettling affair dealing with possessed people doing weird shit. In The Exorcist we follow young girl Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) and her mother (Ellen Burstyn), when the daughter, by serendipity, is taken over by ill-minded demons. In one terrifying moment, Regan is masturbating with a giant crucifix shouting the famous line "Let Jesus fuck you" over and over. Perhaps calling it masturbation would be to sugarcoat it a bit. This is more of a violent act causing severe damage to her down under parts. When interrupted in her most joyous and intimate moment, she forces her mother's face into her messed up blood soaked genitals (thankfully, nothing explicit is shown though!) screaming "Lick me! Lick me!". Not only is it a weird scary moment but it also sums up, in a very visual way, my view on Christianity.
Genre: Horror
Key Players: Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn
Much like Kubrick's The Shining, The Exorcist is a slow creeping unsettling affair dealing with possessed people doing weird shit. In The Exorcist we follow young girl Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) and her mother (Ellen Burstyn), when the daughter, by serendipity, is taken over by ill-minded demons. In one terrifying moment, Regan is masturbating with a giant crucifix shouting the famous line "Let Jesus fuck you" over and over. Perhaps calling it masturbation would be to sugarcoat it a bit. This is more of a violent act causing severe damage to her down under parts. When interrupted in her most joyous and intimate moment, she forces her mother's face into her messed up blood soaked genitals (thankfully, nothing explicit is shown though!) screaming "Lick me! Lick me!". Not only is it a weird scary moment but it also sums up, in a very visual way, my view on Christianity.
#23 The Three Musketeers: Dungeon of lard
Director: Stephen Herek
Genre: Adventure
Key Players: Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt, Chris O'Donnel
The thing I remember the most from this childhood favorite, is when the musketeers raid the king and queen's castle in the end (sacrifice your life for your king? What a ludicrous idea!) and the battle with the fat keeper of prisoners and said piece of lard being impaled on one of his very own torturing devices. Who could have seen that coming?! In retrospect, The Three Musketeers would mark a professional highlight for many of the included players: Chris O'Donnel has as of yet, not made a movie that surpasses The Three Musketeers; Charlie Sheen married Denise Richards; Kiefer Sutherland found minor fame chasing Russians, Muslims and corrupt politicians and Oliver Platt had a short but amusing stint on The West Wing. Director Stephen Herek went on to make such classics as Holy Man and Man of the House. Good going everyone!
Genre: Adventure
Key Players: Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt, Chris O'Donnel
The thing I remember the most from this childhood favorite, is when the musketeers raid the king and queen's castle in the end (sacrifice your life for your king? What a ludicrous idea!) and the battle with the fat keeper of prisoners and said piece of lard being impaled on one of his very own torturing devices. Who could have seen that coming?! In retrospect, The Three Musketeers would mark a professional highlight for many of the included players: Chris O'Donnel has as of yet, not made a movie that surpasses The Three Musketeers; Charlie Sheen married Denise Richards; Kiefer Sutherland found minor fame chasing Russians, Muslims and corrupt politicians and Oliver Platt had a short but amusing stint on The West Wing. Director Stephen Herek went on to make such classics as Holy Man and Man of the House. Good going everyone!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
#22 300: This. Is. Not. Getting. Old
Director: Zack Snyder
Genre: Action action action
Key Players: Gerard Muscle Mountain Butler
By the sheer power of his voice (and a bare superhuman upper torso) Gerard Butler screamed his way to extreme fame and into the movie history books. Overnight, the "This Is Sparta" moment, became legendary. The Internet flooded with jokes and gags and numerous movies/TV-shows has since been exploiting and parodying it (with different results: South Park, yes. Meet The Spartans, no!) for their own purposes. Regardless, this is the moment that grounded Zack Snyder's Frank Miller adaptation in pop culture for all the time ever in history. It's really macho and overly aggressive. But hey, I guess that's Sparta.
Genre: Action action action
Key Players: Gerard Muscle Mountain Butler
By the sheer power of his voice (and a bare superhuman upper torso) Gerard Butler screamed his way to extreme fame and into the movie history books. Overnight, the "This Is Sparta" moment, became legendary. The Internet flooded with jokes and gags and numerous movies/TV-shows has since been exploiting and parodying it (with different results: South Park, yes. Meet The Spartans, no!) for their own purposes. Regardless, this is the moment that grounded Zack Snyder's Frank Miller adaptation in pop culture for all the time ever in history. It's really macho and overly aggressive. But hey, I guess that's Sparta.
# 21 Slither: Pop goes the stomach
Director: James Gunn
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Key Players: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry
In keeping with the exploitation spirit, this is Slither. Troma connected James Gunn, struck gold with his low budget cult splatter-comedy Slither where Joss Whedon favorite Nathan Fillion (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Serenity) lends a great deal of charm and wit to his small town police officer Bill Pardy as they are invaded by slimy malicious worms. And as with most creatures, they all tend to come from a "mother" or host if you will. Well, these slithery worms are no exception. Cue huge bloated woman hidden in the woods (spoiler alert: she later explodes!). Funny and gruesome. A great deal of fun.
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Key Players: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry
In keeping with the exploitation spirit, this is Slither. Troma connected James Gunn, struck gold with his low budget cult splatter-comedy Slither where Joss Whedon favorite Nathan Fillion (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Serenity) lends a great deal of charm and wit to his small town police officer Bill Pardy as they are invaded by slimy malicious worms. And as with most creatures, they all tend to come from a "mother" or host if you will. Well, these slithery worms are no exception. Cue huge bloated woman hidden in the woods (spoiler alert: she later explodes!). Funny and gruesome. A great deal of fun.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
#20 Grindhouse: Coming attractions
Director(s): Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth, Robert Rodriguez
Genre: Horror/Comedy/Action
Key Players: Udo Kier, Nick Frost, Danny Trejo, Eli Roth, Nick Frost and many more...
The best thing about Quentin Tarantino's and Robert Rodriguez's horror project Grindhouse, were in fact not the movies themselves, but the slew of fake trailers attached to them. Put together by a notable bunch of friends from the industry, these trailers, despite their short running time, were hell of a lot more entertaining and bizarre than the feature films combined. A great hoot indeed. Here's a short breakdown.
Genre: Horror/Comedy/Action
Key Players: Udo Kier, Nick Frost, Danny Trejo, Eli Roth, Nick Frost and many more...
The best thing about Quentin Tarantino's and Robert Rodriguez's horror project Grindhouse, were in fact not the movies themselves, but the slew of fake trailers attached to them. Put together by a notable bunch of friends from the industry, these trailers, despite their short running time, were hell of a lot more entertaining and bizarre than the feature films combined. A great hoot indeed. Here's a short breakdown.
Werewolf Women Of The SS
This is a take on the sleazy Nazi exploitation movies such as Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS and SS Experiment: Love Camp, mixed with a little bit of monsters. There's blood, sadistic experiments, Nazis in the snow, a weird decadent cabaret show, women in gas masks, weird outfits, werewolf's with machine guns and Nicholas Cage.
Don't
Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) contributed with a 70's inspired horror film starring (among several others) Wright regulars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost with a gutwrenchingly awesome voice-over by Arrested Development's Will Arnett. Dark hallways, dank basements, monsters and really cool graphics. An authentic throwback to the old haunted mansion "Don't go in there" type movies. Really funny.
Thanksgiving
Tarantino protégé Eli Roth's trailer for this holiday slasher film, is by far the most disturbing. Within the time span of a couple of minutes, several people have lost their heads and a woman is stabbed in the vagina when bouncing up and down on a trampoline. And then there's the famous killer-fucking-a-turkey-combined-with-human part in the end.
Machete
Written a long time ago for Rodriguez's pal Danny Trejo, then, later, turned into a fake trailer for Grindhouse. Fast forward to present day: Machete is now in production to be turned into a full feature film. Based on the trailer. Whacky stuff. This mexploitation action piece will most likely be in the same spirit of Rodriguez's other Mexican action films as well as Planet Terror. And if the trailer is any indication of how this full length feature will shape up, considering the rouge cast Rodriguez has gathered (Robert De Niro, Cheech Marin, Lindsay Lohan, Steven Seagal, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson), then, this is something you'd want to keep an eye on. Or not?!
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