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Post by cesque on Jun 17, 2008 15:52:27 GMT -5
Haha, well, I would have guessed it doesn't fit with your style. I liked where the movie set a border between being open to interpretation and being plain bizarre - and I know you prefer to have that border more on the latter side  |
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Post by ronnoc on Jul 8, 2008 22:49:34 GMT -5
Hey Cactus, have you seen the movie Russian Ark (the English title)? I find it amazing, and I think you might like it, although it is a bit entrenched in slavophilia.
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Post by cactus on Jul 10, 2008 15:13:52 GMT -5
I've heard of this movie before. I think my parents saw it when it came out... Don't quite understand the appeal, the whole one take thing seems like a bit of a gimmick. What makes the movie interesting? The only good russian movie I've seen is "Come and See" (or Idi i Smotri):   Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMKwMzLj8Ow |
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Post by ronnoc on Jul 21, 2008 15:20:24 GMT -5
I've heard of this movie before. I think my parents saw it when it came out... Don't quite understand the appeal, the whole one take thing seems like a bit of a gimmick. What makes the movie interesting? The one-take thing is a bit of a gimmick, but I found the appeal in the movie to be the fact that it makes very little sense. In the end, it appears the faceless narrator, and his sometimes friend/sometimes antagonist are trapped in some kind of Russian hell, forced to live through its history, or something really deep like that. Mostly I found it to be rather random, and incredibly funny at points, although I don't know if it is suposed to be. The ending made me really sad, bordering on depressed, and I don't know why, so that's something. I'll be sure to check out Come and See (apparently, Cyrillic doesn't work here, which is strange, considering that Japanese characters do). Russia has a tendency to produce bad movies, so it's nice to receive a recommendation. |
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Post by hydra9 on Aug 2, 2008 11:01:23 GMT -5
Nice list of movies! I love Jodorowsky's work. El Topo is definitely my favorite - It blew me away the first time I saw it. 'Santa Sangre' is good, too.
As for Russian movies: I really liked 'Stalker' by Tarkovsky. Though it was *incredibly* slow-paced, I thought it worked. Beautiful camerawork and amazing music.
Cannibal Holocaust is one of the few movies on your list that I haven't seen. That surprises me, as I love horror movies. One of my favorite low-budget, arty exploitation flicks has to be 'The Driller Killer' (Abel Ferrara).
What else do I recommend? 'Point Blank' by John Boorman. And 'Turks Fruit' (aka. Turkish Delight), an early film from Dutch director Paul Verhoeven.
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Post by thelastdefender on Aug 10, 2008 19:27:45 GMT -5
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Post by cactus on Aug 10, 2008 19:39:31 GMT -5
Oldboy's definitely a good movie. I wouldn't mind recommending it, but everyone's heard of it already, right? |
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Post by ronnoc on Aug 17, 2008 20:11:15 GMT -5
Oldboy's definitely a good movie. I wouldn't mind recommending it, but everyone's heard of it already, right? And, most people who have heard of it know the twist, which makes them feel as if they don't need to watch the wonderful Korean cinemography. |
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Post by thelastdefender on Aug 18, 2008 20:06:45 GMT -5
And, most people who have heard of it know the twist, which makes them feel as if they don't need to watch the wonderful Korean cinemography. Beautiful camera work, and the lighting is nothing less then amazing. |
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Post by snarkyhamhocks on Jan 25, 2009 22:26:35 GMT -5
If you're interested in the strong stuff (and guessing by Cannibal Holocaust I'd say you would be) I'd reccomend Ichi the Killer and Audition, both by Japanese director Takashi Miike. I'd rather not describe them in too much detail. Suffice to say, they're some of the most thrilling and horrifying movies I've ever seen.
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Post by cactus on Jan 26, 2009 7:34:58 GMT -5
Seen (and read) Ichi, but not Audition. I prefer Miike's less extreme movies, though. Dead or Alive 2 is the best movie I've seen so far from his works.
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Post by donrobert on May 14, 2009 1:26:55 GMT -5
the links are not working. but i do love loathing las vegas...
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jot2b
Good member
Posts: 23
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Post by jot2b on Dec 13, 2009 20:12:24 GMT -5
THE ROOM, directed/written/starring Tommy Wiseau. I went to a midnight showing at the Belcourt in Nashville, Tennessee and it was the most fun I've ever had at a movie theatre. People throwing spoons and footballs, laughing, partying, shouting at the screen... This movie is bad, cactus. And not bad, like the kid says about the power glove in The Wizard. This movie is truly, distinctly awful and hilarious. I give it a strong recommendation for anybody who has a love for the absurd. It may not be showing where you live cactus, but rent it, buy it, download it, whatever you can. THE ROOM trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCj8sPCWfUw |
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Post by cactus on Nov 18, 2012 13:31:16 GMT -5
A few days ago I rewatched an old anime called "Angel Cop". It's generally considered to be some of the most exploitative violent trash ever produced, but I can't help but highly disagree with this reception as I absolutely loved it.  Angel Cop is a brilliant 6-episode direct to video anime that boils down the 80s and extracts some disgusting goo that might be the darkest and least desirable vision of a close future I've ever seen. It steals openly from Terminator, Scanners, Blade Runner, Fire Starter and Robocop, replacing satirical elements with straight up antisemitism, pro-torture, anti-communism, anti-nationalism and nationalism. It hates criminals and it hates cops, it hates Japan and it hates the US. There's so much hate and so many double standards, it's hard to figure out what parts are meant to be criticism and which parts are genuinely angry. It could either be about how Japan is reverting back to the days of WWII and should not repeat old mistakes, or it just openly believes in antisemitic conspiracies. Either way, I find it fascinating that it's so ambiguous and that something like this could never be produced in this day and age. Just the fact that it was ever made and then actually brought overseas is something of a miracle. It also gets some things right in a rather amazing way. For instance, Angel Cop probably has the only tough female protagonist I've ever liked. She's a cold hearted bitch and there's nothing remotely likable about her. She blows people's brains out without blinking and leaves her partners to die if they're wounded. (They do screw this up in the end, where she grows a conscience and becomes a bit more soft.) The way they show the police force is equally unsympathetic, they kill terrorists and when other people kill terrorists they try to kill them as well. There's no likable character to be seen anywhere really. I love it.  The animation is pretty stellar; up until the last episode almost every single shot reeks with style and atmosphere. It has some of the most intense and beautifully animated action/gore scenes I can remember. The music is often really good, especially the darker tunes which capture an amazing feeling of unease and something sinister in the air, and the sound effects are nothing short of amazing. The story starts out really nice and interesting, there's a special task force created to subdue communist terrorist that are trying to bring doom to Japan (which has now taken the place of the US as the world's most powerful country). It soon becomes apparent that the communist image is just a front and that there's something larger at play, and that someone else has started eliminating the terrorists for reasons unknown. Turns out it's a vigilante posse with psychic powers. It does kind of spiral out of control from there, but remains enjoyable. I'm sad there's so little information on the web about it, it's really hard to get a grasp on what the show was actually about or how it was received in Japan. Another fun fact is that the ending sequence in Hotline Miami (and grading screen) is a tribute to Angel Cop: (I love this song by the way!) |
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