Archive for the ‘Fantasy/Swords’ Category

Goodbye, 20th Century

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

Well what do you know there are alot of individuals out there who think Vern is an ignorant fuck. He doesn’t know the films of World Cinema, only the latest hollywood crap or at best, the art house darlings. And I mean yeah, most of those individuals are right.

HOWEVER, I must point out that this is my second review IN A ROW of a movie that’s not in English. And this time, most of you motherfuckers probaly haven’t even HEARD of this movie. I mean how many of you could even NAME a movie from Macedonia, let alone review one?

Ha! I scoff at you, because RIGHT THIS SECOND I am in the process of reviewing the Macedonian film GOODBYE, 20TH CENTURY. For your information Macedonia is a country in the Balkans, which, I mean I couldn’ tell you exactly where that is. But there’s war and shit. It’s not pretty.

Here are the words that people would use to describe the style of this picture:

  1. dark
  2. arty
  3. apocalyptic
  4. surreal

I see a little bit of Jodorowsky in this picture, and a little bit of City of Lost Children. What it is about is an Antonia Banderas lookin fella in the year 2019, which is sort of your typical Mad Max style post-apocalyptic wasteland type place. You know – desert, weirdly dressed punk savages, people crying because there are no trees. (more…)

Vidocq

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

[Originally Written for The Ain't It Cool News - received no response]

HARRY — A while back you were real excited about a french picture called VIDOCQ. It’s directed by the fellow Pitof, who did special effects type work for CITY OF THE LOST CHILDREN and ALIENS RESURRECTED and the joan of arc picture with Milla Jovovich. Also Marc Caro – the only man in the world who can say he directed DELICATESSEN but has never done a romantic comedy – designed the look of the characters. It’s based on some old detective character called Vidocq, who I guess must be the french Sherlock Holmes although americans have never heard of him on account of his name is spelled weird.

Well I am only a simple american but I have seen VIDOCQ now so I have a few words on the subject. I sort of agree with the frenchmen who reviewed it on your sight because this is not gonna be anybody’s favorite movie of the year. No pants will be wet. The characters and story are not dead on perfect like AMELIE and there is no hardcore pornography in there like other french films that have made it to US art house type theaters lately. But that does not mean it’s a bad film. In fact it is a pretty fuckin good one and most people who see it will be glad they did. It is clever and the connection to THE LOST CHILDREN is pretty obvious not only in the visuals but in some elements of the story.

You see this is a movie that combines france of the 1830s with fantastical type elements. The story begins with a thrilling battle between Vidocq (Gerard Depardieu, who americans first fell in love with in 102 DALMATIONS) and The Alchemist (some dude in a mask). The whole time they are dancing around a big pit spewing phoney looking digital flames, so you know one of them is going down. (more…)

Only 1 person likes this post. Kinda sad.

Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil’s Son-In-Law

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

I always wanted to see this one but never got around to it back in the day, and now it is available on DVD for the first time since its original release, as well as the first time ever. And it was worth the wait, because this is the best picture I have seen Mr. Rudy Ray Moore involved in.

Rudy plays Petey Wheatstraw, a famous comedian and rhyming Badass much like Dolemite without the criminal record. In the introduction he is a godlike narrator in some netherworld rhyming about all the great things he can do because he’s the devil’s son in law. Then it shows him being born on a stormy night. First thing he does is bite the doctor. He comes out looking about 13 years old and beats the doctor’s ass for slapping him.

But then for some reason he is just an ordinary comedian and there is an explanation for how he becomes the devil’s son in law. What happens you see is Petey is putting on a show at the same time that two flamboyant fat businessmen Leroy and Skillet (played by Leroy and Skillet) are putting on their review. Leroy and Skillet are very competitive so they send their thugs after Petey’s friends who are putting up signs to advertise the show. There is a struggle and a little boy, no more than 13 years old, gets shot and killed.

I thought damn, they would NEVER do that kind of shit in a movie these days. Right at the beginning a little kid gets graphically shot and killed. It’s a real downer. Then there is a very sad funeral scene and all the sudden, a car pulls up and the thugs get out and machine gun every last motherfucker at the funeral! Ladies and gentleman we are talking Cinema with balls. (more…)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

Alot of you know that I am a big fan of the surrealist movement. Well actually I do not know a whole lot about the history of the movement but among respected film Writers I’m pretty damn sure I am the biggest supporter of Jean Claude Van Damme’s surrealist period, which is best represented by his collaboration with Tsui Hark and Dennis Rodman, Double Team. Well someone pointed me towards Louie Bunuel the famous surrealist and I was able to catch one of his later works, the discreet charm blah blah blah, on the Bravo network.

Most of you sickos probaly know Louie from that old porno The Andalusian Dog where some sick fuck cuts a lady right in the eyeball (but it’s actually a cow’s eyeball which is almost as bad, I mean jesus). He did that one with Salvador Dali and in his later solo work he still loved the dream logic of the surrealism but he used it to make comedies making fun of dumb rich people. And this my friends is a good fucking use for a movie.

Discreet Charm, aside from some gunplay, isn’t as action packed as Double Team. But it is almost as weird and freaky assed. The “plot” is about a bunch of uptight ambassadors and ambassador’s wives who are always inviting each other over for dinner, and a bunch of weird shit happens before they ever get to eat anything.

My friend that recommended this picture to me explained it like this: “There is a scene where this ambassador is having a meeting, and he sees a woman out his window walking a mechanical dog. He says, ‘Don’t worry, I know just what to do,’ then he pulls out a rifle and shoots the dog.”

There are many great Cinemanic moments like this and what makes it so funny is how unimpressed these characters are by all the weird shit that happens around them. They are so wrapped up in inviting and entertaining and choosing a good wine that they never think to question bizarre behavior or bombs going off outside their house. There is one scene where some soldier they’ve never met comes to the table and says that he would like to tell them the tragic story of his childhood. He does, then immediately gets up and leaves, and they don’t even seem to think it’s weird. (more…)

Only 1 person likes this post. Kinda sad.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

Well I got my wish, they made a part 2. When last we left Merlin, Frodo, Viggo, Sam, Dwarf, and Elf, they were all split up. Merlin fell down a hole and there was no giant talking bird to save him this time. Everybody was separated or something. Frodo and Sam were going to go throw the ring in the volcano. I can’t remember what else.

Well part 2 picks up right in the middle of part 1, not where it left off. We find that when Merlin fell down that hole actually he did it on purpose to fight a demon in mid-air. It was awesome.

What this movie is about is they continue going to the volcano in three separate groups, and they never get there. But there are many wars. There are goblins that eat people’s legs and each other’s intestines. They ride on these monsters made out of computery animation. There are cameos by Dracula and Liv Tyler and the guy who did the voice for Chucky. As soon as you see him you go wait a minute, I think this guy MIGHT be evil. It’s just a feeling I got, I can’t explain it. You never shoulda trusted that guy just like you never shoulda gone to Dracula’s castle in part 1.

Merlin survives the extreme demon jumping but he starts dressing in all white and at first it seems like he lost his memory. So maybe instead of trying to destroy the ring, this one will be about him trying to remember who he was. He goes around and he finds out that he has these magic powers and he thinks maybe he was in the CIA. But then he remembers who he is so the story stays on track.

Also the invisible guys are back, but they don’t do as much. They’re on giant flying bat monsters. At the end there is a huge war between Viggo, a couple other guys, and 10,000 wet goblins. (more…)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

This is the story of some magical midgets called the hobbits (sort of like the smurfs except caucasian instead of blue). What they do is, one of them inherits a powerful magic ring created by an evil individual from the past. If this took place in america in 2001, the hobbits would just go ahead and use the ring, and everybody would be all for it. It might not even make the headlines, it might be buried on page 11 like the story I read yesterday about how the Bush regime is already developing “small” nuclear weapons to use in the caves in Afghanistan.

But this is Hobbitland or whatever so they do the right thing, they take the weapon, they REFUSE to use it because they know it corrupts them, and they travel toward the Mountain of Doom, the only place it can be destroyed.

But it’s not easy to travel, because cars have not been invented, or jetpacks. They just use a horse. Also, there are 9 invisible guys in cloaks and about seven to eight hundred goblin monsters trying to kill them.

Meanwhile Ian Mackellan plays the mentor wizard Merlin, sort of Ben Kenobi with a more tacky beard. This guy is pretty wise except he smokes alot of weed and that slows his mind down, just like all you potheads that read my sight. In one scene he is so high he decides to go to Dracula’s castle for advice. Christopher Lee reprises his role as Dracula and he does pretty much what Dracula always does when you go to his house, except instead of seducing and biting Merlin he just does a magic kung fu fight with him (my favorite scene). (more…)

Only 1 person likes this post. Kinda sad.

The Devil’s Backbone

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

Now I’m not saying there is anything wrong with being excited about a Mexican horror picture. This is from a fine director who did the CRONOS which the box is a picture of some blond gal but the movie is about an old grandpa who licks blood off a bathroom floor. This guy also came to Hollywood directed a picture called MIMIC which I will not mention in this article. It had some good parts though. But I won’t mention them.

However this is more important than your average mexican horror picture. You know why, because this is a mexican horror picture from the director of the most highly anticipated movie of next year.

Yes my nerd friends, you know what I’m talking about. Now I already admitted that your x-men were good and everything. I liked your hobbit picture and what not. Hell I mean even superman and fishman are not all that bad, in my opinion. just kind of fruity. But lets get real here.

When it comes to the real thing, the serious big time comic book movies, you and I both know there is really only one movie that can possibly fit the bill. That movie is Mr. Wesley Snipes as BLADE.

I know I know I know. Wesley Snipes. Always hangin around with Woody Harrelson. “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. An address that changes all the rules.” Yeah, I heard ‘em all. (more…)

2 people like this post.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

(working title: BORING: THE MOVIE)

All right, you computer nerds have fucking done it. You’ve spent millions of dollars and years of research and god knows how many man hours of animation, and you’ve created the closest thing yet to photorealistic, computer generated, human-type individuals. And then you’ve put them in the most boring sci-fi movie since the extended director’s cut of Wing Commander.

And both of these are based on fucking video games, come to think of it. I’m starting to notice a pattern here.

What this is about is a bunch of people, who are trying to find eight “spirits”. This will save the world from something, I believe. When it ended, I wasn’t sure if they had done it or not. I may have missed whatever happened because I was so busy praying. Please oh lord, I know I haven’t been the most moral person ever, but I swear I will straighten up if you just give me this one break, and let this action part here be the climax so this god damn movie will end and we can all go home. If there is one more part where they talk about spirits or have that same boring dream about aliens or if there is another spirit they have to find inside a bird or a tree or something I’m gonna turn my red vines into an improvised noose.

It’s not like it’s really that dumb. There’s not too much bad comic relief or moronic plot twists. Well, there is this whole thing about the “phantoms.” These are these ghostly, transparent alien bug things that inhabit the cities. They look like ghosts and the people call them “phantoms” and the movie is called “The Spirits Within”, so I figured they were ghosts, right? But then the characters also refer to them as alien invaders, so I started thinking that they were actually aliens, but since they looked like ghosts the humans had nicknamed them “phantoms” and “spirits.” (more…)

3 people like this post.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

This is a movie where Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow teams up with a fat Mexican dude named Benicio Del Toro, and these two drive to Las Vegas on 700 different types of drugs to cover a motorcycle race for a magazine. I believe Bill Murray played this same Ichabod character back in the ’80s based on the real guy, Hunter S. Thompson who wrote the book.

Now as you know I’m sober as the Pope during Lent, but I can still appreciate a good drug movie at least as long as it’s this good. The filmatist behind this one, Terry Gilliam, creates a nightmare Las Vegas world where hallucinations of dripping floors and cocktail drinking lizards and nippled buffaloes becomes reality. And the real trip is in the last act of the picture when suddenly Ichabod wakes up in the most trashed hotel room of all time – it looks like a junkyard on top of a lagoon – and tries to remember what happened. All the sudden he has an alligator tail and he’s dictating to a tape recorder duct taped to his mouth. I mean I think we can all relate to that type of morning in my opinion.

The reason this picture works is because of the two actors, Ichabod and Benicio, who are both funny and crazy but likable. Well, at least Ichabod is likable. My favorite scene is when Benicio pulls a knife on some people in an elevator and later declares that the woman fell in love with him, he could tell by the eye contact. “It’s serious, man.” I mean these are two crazy motherfuckers, you can’t believe the shit they are doing, and it seems like they just don’t know how to be any other way. I like the part where Ichabod walks into a police convention and the movie does an x-ray number on his suitcase to remind us that it is filled with every illegal drug ever invented. (more…)

2 people like this post.

Fantasia 2000

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

In 1940 the Walt Disney animation company unleashed a bold new experiment, Fantasia, a collection of animated pieces inspired by classical music. Unlike say a Bambi or a Pinocchio this is a movie with no dialogue or traditional feature length narrative story. In a stunning display of craftsmanship and artistic achievement the animators listened to the music and created stories, sometimes retelling a fairy tale like The Sorceror’s apprentice or riffing on some goofball premise like dancing hippoes or mushrooms. At fantasia’s best moments it triumphs in bold flourishes, splashing abstract type shapes across the screen or depicting evolution and the rise and fall of the dinosaurs. My favorite is the night of the bald mountain king sequence in which a demonic demon comes out of the mountain and all the ghosts fly up, and then afterwards a whole bunch of people are marching along with candles I believe.

This film fantasia was Mr. Disney’s attempt at respectability for the Artform of the funny cartoons however everyone pretty much told him to go fuck himself on that one. The movie received poor reviews, was cut down to 81 minutes and used as a b-movie on double bills, and even 22 years later Igor Stravinsky described it as “unresisting imbecility.” But I mean the dude’s name is Igor how do you expect him to behave, go get me a dead body Igor you piece of shit.

Anyway it wasn’t until the 1960s that LSD hit the market and people were more willing to sit through the movie. Today many film academics and grown adults who watch cartoons everyday believe that Fantasia is the best of the Disney cartoons. They recognize the uniqueness of the concept, the way it respects the cartooning as an Artform and seeks to elevate its craft, as well as the fine work done by the animationists and the musicians on the many great sequences. However I think the whole idea of this being the disney movie they most enjoy to watch is a HUGE load of shit, i mean tell me do you have more fun watching the pinocchio movie or watching this fantasia. And how many times have you watched it all the way through without falling asleep, pal, seriously I’m asking. (more…)

Page 5 of 6« First...23456