FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: films of a certain quality

[Wombaticus Rex]

I see. My apologies for my misunderstanding. I thought you might have enjoyed the article.

I did, thank you, bud. All artists are thieves, and Verbinski is a good one.

[Iamwhomiam]

Works for me. Yes, they are and he is.

[Cordelia]

Recommend film I recently found in my dvd library: Costa-Gavras from 1989, about a woman's journey in coming to terms with her father's past, her relationship with him and with herself as a woman/daughter/mother.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcfMaMnr81E

(Her former father-in-law, a WWII oni/oss officer, played by Donald Moffat, is also an interesting character.)

[DrEvil]

And now for something completely different.

For some reason I decided to watch Resident Evil the Final Chapter yesterday, and ohmyfuckinggod it's bad. I mean, I already knew it would be bad but had a small hope that it would at least be a mildly entertaining monster flick type of bad. No such luck. Everything about it sucks.

The acting sucks, the dialogue is laughable (what little there is), characters are introduced with literally one line of dialogue and we're supposed to care about them, there is no suspense whatsoever, no build up, no tense scenes, things just happen, and every time there is a quiet scene it lasts for about five seconds before a "scary" monster jumps out, and finally the editing. Oh god, the editing.

The entire movie is just one long fuck you to epileptics. The editing is so hyperactive it's impossible to see what's going on (and even if you could it wouldn't make any sense because the "plot" is so bad a monkey could have done better, including retconning the previous five(!) movies for the third or fourth time. Seriously, the director/writer can't even keep his own story straight between films). One single punch takes four or five cuts to get through, and dialogue isn't any better. It's insanely bad.

Oh, and a small spoiler alert: The previous movie ends on an epic cliff-hanger. This movie starts after the cliff-hanger has been resolved and is hand-waved away with "it was a trap and everyone except the main character died because fuck you".

Tl;dr: If you want a master class in how not to do it, watch. Otherwise, don't. It's not even bad in a funny way.

[lucky]

Maybe its because I was born in the 60's but imo the road movies form the 70's are still some of the best ever made....Badlands, Vanishing point, Paper moon, two lane blacktop, Five easy pieces....and that's just from my crumbling memory. The vast open skies and beautiful scenery and the hot air almost pouring out of the screen, what say you RI'ers....how could I forget easy Rider

[brekin]

Maybe its because I was born in the 60's but imo the road movies form the 70's are still some of the best ever made....Badlands, Vanishing point, Paper moon, two lane blacktop, Five easy pieces....and that's just from my crumbling memory. The vast open skies and beautiful scenery and the hot air almost pouring out of the screen, what say you RI'ers....how could I forget easy Rider

Seems most current movies have to have an obligatory road trip plot point, sequence or at least montage pulling from the above movies and ones following, "Thelma & Louise, Cannonball Run, Little Miss Sunshine, etc." Funny because I watched Logan last night and didn't get all the buzz about it. The plot was pretty derivative and uneven. And the road trip part especially felt flat and almost contractually de rigueur (if not going to Hong Kong for the third act). Logan on the road was kind of a "Little Miss Sunshine" meets "Serenity", "Paper Moon" meets "The Professional", with the rest of the movie being a "Hanna" meets "The Wrestler".

Sad that one of the greatest road trip novels, On The Road, as a film is usually dead on arrival.
Kerouac actually had some cool ideas about how it should be filmed and tried to get Brando to sign on as his costar:

Dear Marlon

I’m praying that you’ll buy ON THE ROAD and make a movie of it. Don’t worry about the structure, I know to compress and re-arrange the plot a bit to give a perfectly acceptable movie-type structure: making it into one all-inclusive trip instead of the several voyages coast-to-coast in the book, one vast round trip from New York to Denver to Frisco to Mexico to New Orleans to New York again. I visualize the beautiful shots could be made with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak. I wanted you to play the part because Dean (as you know) is no dopey hotrodder but a real intelligent (in fact Jesuit) Irishman. You play Dean and I’ll play Sal (Warner Bros. mentioned I play Sal) and I’ll show you how Dean acts in real life, you couldn’t possibly imagine it without seeing a good imitation. Fact, we can go visit him in Frisco, or have him come down to L.A. still a real frantic cat but nowadays settled down with his final wife saying the Lord’s Prayer with his kiddies at night… as you’ll see when you read the play BEAT GENERATION. All I want out of this is to be able to establish myself and by mother a trust fund for life, so I can really go roaming around the world writing about Japan, India, France etc… I Want to be free to write what comes out of my head & free to feed my buddies when they’re hungry & not worry about my mother.

Incidentally, my next novel is THE SUBTERRANEANS coming out in N.Y. next March and is about a love affair between a white guy and a colored girl and is a very hep story. Some of the characters in it you know in the Village (Stanley Gould etc.) It easily could be turned into a play, easier than ON THE ROAD.

What I wanta do is re-do the theater and the cinema in America, give it a spontaneous dash, remove pre-conceptions of “situation” and let people rave on as they do in real life. That’s what the play is: no plot in particular, no “meaning” in particular, just the way people are. Everything I write I do in the spirit where I imagine myself an Angel returned to the earth seeing it with sad eyes as it is. I know you approve of these ideas, & incidentally the new Frank Sinatra show is based on “spontaneous” too, which is the only way to come on anyway, whether in business or life. The French movies of the 30’s are still far superior to ours because the French really let their actors come on and the writers didn’t quibble with some preconceived notion of how intelligent the movie audience is, they talked soul from soul and everybody understood at once. I want to make great French Movies in America, finally, when I’m rich… American theater & Cinema at present is an outmoded dinosaur that ain’t mutated along with the best in American Literature.

If you really want to go ahead, make arrangements to see me in New York when next you come, or if you’re going to FLorida here I am, but what we should do is talk about this because I prophesy that it’s going to be the beginning of something real great. I’m bored nowadays and I’m looking around for something to do in the world, anyway — writing novels is getting too easy, same with plays, I wrote the play in 24 hours.

Come on now, Marlon, put up your dukes and write!

Sincerely, later, Jack Kerouac

http://flavorwire.com/247318/read-jack- ... n-the-road

Easy Rider, how could we forget. Really, they won't let us.
Easy Rider, American Graffiti, etc. No much has changed really. You aren't spit in America unless you have wheels and aren't really "free" as every car commercial reminds us and Easy Rider II below spells it out again.



Saw The Invasion, the latest rendition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Lawd, it was made during the Iraq War and its basically a justification of it.
I can't find the ending scene online, but Spoiler: after the body snatchers have been defeated who were pushing basically complete and total world peace, albeit of the boring one hive mind variety, things return to "normal" with wars and atrocities back in the newspapers. Because that's what makes us human and not soulless plant people.

[Cordelia]

Maybe its because I was born in the 60's but imo the road movies form the 70's are still some of the best ever made....Badlands, Vanishing point, Paper moon, two lane blacktop, Five easy pieces....and that's just from my crumbling memory. The vast open skies and beautiful scenery and the hot air almost pouring out of the screen, what say you RI'ers....how could I forget easy Rider

'Badlands' is my favorite on the list (Terrence Malick's first film and, along w/'Days of Heaven', I think his best).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcFx06cBmbk

Early 1960's TV sometimes aired re-runs of a1958 road film, 'Thunder Road'; I had a secret crush on Robert Mitchum and imagined a girl character written into the plot, played by Haley Mills (not 'Pollyanna', more from 'Tiger Bay', in which I probably imagined a Robert Mitchum playing a role).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qePVlBTN_Yc

Early 1970's, Spielberg's first two full-length features were road-trips...

'Duel', about a driver-less truck stalking a motorist:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdMBr0yuiTI

and 'Sugarland Express':


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRsMXxfw0SI

[brekin]

Maybe its because I was born in the 60's but imo the road movies form the 70's are still some of the best ever made....Badlands, Vanishing point, Paper moon, two lane blacktop, Five easy pieces....and that's just from my crumbling memory. The vast open skies and beautiful scenery and the hot air almost pouring out of the screen, what say you RI'ers....how could I forget easy Rider

'Badlands' is my favorite on the list (Terrence Malick's first film and, along w/'Days of Heaven', I think his best).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcFx06cBmbk

Early 1960's TV sometimes aired re-runs of a1958 road film, 'Thunder Road'; I had a secret crush on Robert Mitchum and imagined a girl character written into the plot, played by Haley Mills (not 'Pollyanna', more from 'Tiger Bay', in which I probably imagined a Robert Mitchum playing a role).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qePVlBTN_Yc

Early 1970's, Spielberg's first two full-length features were road-trips...

'Duel', about a driver-less truck stalking a motorist:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdMBr0yuiTI

and 'Sugarland Express':


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRsMXxfw0SI

Lest we forget the great Vampire Road Trip movie.
Near Dark.



Bill Paxton was great as usual.

[semper occultus]

yeah I love the romance of those American road films - we've posted a bit about Zabriskie Point before.

I recently invested hard earned shekels in the Region 1 DVD of this



the reviews absolutely stink but WGAF at the end of the day right ? I'll just grok that beautiful grainy 70's film stock of beautiful grainy 70's people in beautiful 70's Hollywoodland....it features John Lithgow's first screen appearance & is based on the following book - co-written by Michael Crichton & his brother Dougals



...whilst I'm enjoying that the edgy kids on here might be into :

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/bitc ... _of_orties

The bloodiest, most unsettling coming of age film since Ginger Snaps, Julia Ducournau’s Raw is lithe and feral body horror that turns budding teenage sexuality into a lawless apocalypse of teeth, claws, and gnawing, unholy hunger. Already a legend due to reports of moviegoers vomiting or fainting during viewings, this low-budget, high-impact French film repulses and titillates in equal measure, an authentically visceral cinematic experience.

[Cordelia]

^^^
I remember the film 'Dealing' (but not the book) and being a Barbara Hershey fan; she, along w/drug use, was heavily promoted at that time as a hippie-chick role model who shocked early 70's 'The Dick Cavett' live TV audience when she breast-fed the baby she and David Carradine named 'Free', before or after she changed her own name to Barbara 'Seagull' ('Hershey' wasn't her real surname either), after/when she believed a seagull that died during filmmaking inhabited her body, before changing her own name back to Hershey and 'Free' later changing his name to something more traditional. Trailer for an early Scorsese (rail)road film starring Hershey, along w/ David and his dad, John Carradine.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtorFyipCac

Brekin wrote

Bill Paxton was great as usual.

RIP Bill Paxton May 17, 1955--February 25, 2017

[brekin]

^^^
I remember the film 'Dealing' (but not the book) and being a Barbara Hershey fan; she, along w/drug use, was heavily promoted at that time as a hippie-chick role model who shocked early 70's 'The Dick Cavett' live TV audience when she breast-fed the baby she and David Carradine named 'Free', before or after she changed her own name to Barbara 'Seagull' ('Hershey' wasn't her real surname either), after/when she believed a seagull that died during filmmaking inhabited her body, before changing her own name back to Hershey and 'Free' later changing his name to something more traditional. Trailer for an early Scorsese (rail)road film starring Hershey, along w/ David and his dad, John Carradine.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtorFyipCac

Brekin wrote

Bill Paxton was great as usual.

RIP Bill Paxton May 17, 1955--February 25, 2017

Two favorite "train movies". These are early pre "Snowpiercers", dealing with class and freedom on the rails, but much more raw and less stylized.

Emperor of the North w/ Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, & Keith Carradine.
Trailer is basically the whole movie, minus some of Marvin's (A Number 1's) cool braggadocio rants.



Runaway Train, impossible to watch this film and not have hair grow on your chest.



Guilty Pleasure: The New Voltron reboot. And I wasn't even into the original series.

[stefano]

I watched Hell or High Water last night, very stylish Western/cops and robbers movie. Jeff Bridges is in it, and the always excellent Ben Foster. The photography is particular was great. Cool film.

[Cordelia]

Mac's thread on impending mass-executions in Arkansas brought to my mind this film about the impact of capital punishment on its survivors and on those who work to carry it out.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRdOU0gq-1Q


(I found the scenes with the executed man's young son and the scenes w/Heath Ledger particularly gut-wrenching. It's a powerful, disturbing film and I've got a copy somewhere in my old vhs library, but I know I can't bring myself to watch it again.)

[Wombaticus Rex]

Some horror updates - I've been on a bit of a binge.

"The Void" was simply incredible, a low-budget indie that hits like an acid trip. It emerged from the Astron-6 crew, who have done some memorable trash cinema in the past ("Father's Day" remains my all time favorite gross-out X-rated horror film) but this here is a whole other animal. It manages to be much more bleak than anything Rob Zombie or Eli Roth could dream up, because it's such a human film with such a strong cast. Very, very heavy on body horror and gore, though.

"Sam Was Here" - aka "Nemesis" was supremely odd. At the time, I said it was like watching a horror film by Quentin Dupieux - very French, very surreal, very shaggy dog story. But a week later, it still haunts me. It's an unfinished dream allegory with a great actor, gorgeous photography, and zero fucks given. Definitely recommended for anyone that sounds good to.

"The Autopsy of Jane Doe" was hardly perfect -- too reliant on jump scares for my taste -- but it's also got Brian Cox in the lead role and a very unique premise/script. Definitely recommended for genre faithful. The opening 30 minutes is a clinic in subverting expectations, too, I really enjoyed the fact that midway through the film I just had no f'ing clue what was going on.

[Iamwhomiam]

"Sam Was Here" - aka "Nemesis" was supremely odd. At the time, I said it was like watching a horror film by Quentin Dupieux - very French, very surreal, very shaggy dog story. But a week later, it still haunts me. It's an unfinished dream allegory with a great actor, gorgeous photography, and zero fucks given. Definitely recommended for anyone that sounds good to.

Supremely odd I'd have to agree with. Very surreal indeed. And more than a bit twisted. I feel certain there's a particular scene that haunts you, as certain as I feel it now will me, looking back on it, if you get my gist.

Taking the fantasy a bit further, I imagine such a community of RI posters like was once discussed would be not so different than Eddy's.