Netflix Triple Feature-8/15/2005

Well, my excitement with Netflix is starting to dwindle. The service itself is still great, I'm just getting burnt out on movies. Watching 3 or 4 a week is starting to drain me. But I still watched some movies, and here are the reviews for them. Enjoy.

Freddy vs. Jason directed by another who gives a shit director.

This movie was boring. I disliked it. I dislike the fact that I watched other Freddy and Jason movies. They are decent, but I realize that they are not my type of movies. Oh well, you live and you learn-just like Alanis Morisette once sang. It's not quite that ironic though.

Overnight directed by two guys whose names I can't remember.

This is a movie about a guy who made a movie. His name is Troy Duffy. He is an asshole. He burns bridges, both personally and professionally without any hesitation. He made the Boondock Saints, a movie I have not, and will not ever see. I just don't have the desire to see it. But the documentary about his collosal meltdown is great. Hearing a man just yell at everyone is great fun, for the whole family. Anyone who has the balls to call Harvey Weinstein a cocksucker-has big balls, big dumb ass balls. I've got nothing else to say about it though-other than that you should see it. It's hilarious and unnerving all at the same time. Hooray for gigantic dumbasses.

Quills directed by Phillip Kaufman

This was a good movie. I enjoyed the hell out of it. The Marquis de Sade is one crazy ass man. And Geoffrey Rush plays him like a pro. Kate Winselt is good in it too. Overall it's a good movie. and I think others should watch it.

So as you can see-my desire to write paragraphs about every movie I watch is starting to trickle. Right now I have Casablance, The French Connection and Night and the City at my house right now-but I might wait until next week to watch them, as I'm right in the middle of a season 2 of The OC marathon. I'm enjoying the shit out of it. So until next time-be well.

The Five Alive Netflix Feature 8/14/05

Netflix has been continuing to impress me, getting 4 more movies to me this week, and I watched one from the week before-giving me a grand total of 5 movies this week-add to that my Saturday Quentin Tarantino marathon-and I put in a good amount of movie time this week. So here we go with the movies

Knife in the Water directed by Roman Polanski

I had no idea what to expect going into this movie-and yet it still defied my expectations. I guess I was expecting a suspense thriller-and there were bits of that-but this was mostly a character study about people in the upper class and people in the lower class. After nearly running over a hitchhiker-a wealthy man and his wife invite him along to go on their sailboat. From that point on, the rich man continually tries to prove he is better than the lower class man. The suspense lies in assuming that the lower class guy is going to do something, but that is not what this movie is about. It goes in quite unexpected directions, and it feels plausible. I really enjoyed this movie-the cast was great-just three people on a boat for an hour and a half is pretty much all you get-but they make everything believable. Polanski does a great job at creating a moody atmosphere, but it never feels claustrophic.

I recomend this movie. It is definetely not for everyone's tastes-but it is a great class study with a great cast acting it. Go see it!

Run Ronnie Run directed by some guy.

I love Mr. Show. To me-there is hardly anything better or funnier than that show. So it was with gitty excitement that I finally got around to watching their feature length movie. And shit, was it ever disappointing. It just felt like every other forgetable SNL skit turned movie. I was hoping for more from these guys-they were given the chance to turn those crappy SNL conventions on their head with this movie-and instead they end up tredding the same familiar territory. There are a couple of really funny moments, unfortunately those are few and far betweem. The saving grace to the movie is a weird song interlude by Jack Black, where he sings a song called Kick Her in the Cunt. It's done in a Mary Poppins' chimney sweep style, and it is hilarious. It is worth sitting through the entire movie just to have seen that. But unfortunately this movie just sucks.

I do not recommend this movie as a whole-but there are a few moments that are worthwhile. Watch at your own risk.

Friday the 13th directed by some guy.

Confession time. It is the year 2005, and I have never, ever seen any of the Friday the 13th movies at all. I had been wanting to see them for some time, because I had been wanting to see Freddy vs. Jason, which I felt I could not watch until at least seeing the first entries in both of those series. So I was excited to see this movie, but assumed that the scares wouldn't hold up well 25 years after its release. I was wrong. Dead wrong. This movie scared the hell out of me. I was sitting on the edge of couch freaking out during some of the stalk scenes. My only complaint comes as a result of who the killer is. I have a hard time believing that this person was able to do some of the shit they did. But other than that, this movie kicked my ass-and I loved it.

Highly recommended for fans of slasher flicks. This is one of the best ones out there. Pure, trashy, bloody fun.

Friday the 13th Part 2 directed by some other guy.

This movie was interesting. The opening was very good-very scary. And also the obvious inspiration for the Scream opening. But the rest of the movie followed the same formulas as the previous one and didn't really offer anything new at all. Jason was suitably creepy-but he also looked kind of silly with that bag on his head. I enjoyed this movie and am thinking about picking up the box set of all the movies-because I figure if I enjoyed the first two-the rest would be just as enjoyable-no matter how bad they get.

I recommend this movie as a good installment in a cheesy horror franchise.

A Very Long Engagement directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

I loved this movie. That Jeunet has so much style and bring such interesting things to the plate that it is hard to find faults in his movies. Hell, I even love Alien Resurrection. And Audrey Tautau is just so goddamned loveable, even more so than Salma Hayek, and believe me, that's saying a lot. This movie has everything. It's a good love story, a good mystery and a truly great war movie. The style brought to the battle scenes is amazing-doing stuff that I haven't seen in other war movies out there. I am seriously thinking about adding this to my collection-I liked it that much. There isn't more I can say about it. Just go and see it.

Highly recommended. Go see it now-for the love of God!!!

So that's it for last week. Please join me next week, where I will be watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy vs. Jason, The Fog of War, and Overnight. And possibly Casablanca if it gets to me. But I don't think it will.

The Films of Quentin Tarantino

Yesterday, (8/13) I was trying to decide what movie marathon I was going to undertake, The Godfather Trilogy, or a Quentin Tarantion marathon. I ended up with Quentin. It was roughly 10 hours of great moviemaking. Starting with Reservoir Dogs and ending with Kill Bill Volume 2, it was interesting to watch a careers worth of movies in one sitting. References between movies are much more apparent, though those references generally die out after Pulp Fiction. It is my theory that all of Quentin's movies take place in the same universe, one just slightly skewed from ours. And with that, I will now discuss each film in the order of which movie I like better. Now bear in mind I love all of his movies, so just because something is last, that doesn't mean I don't like it, I just like the other ones a little more.

Pulp Fiction

In my mind, this is a perfect movie. It's two and a half hour run time is a breeze to get through. I there is something wrong with this movie, I haven't found it. My only slight concern is that Butch's girlfriend doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than to forget his watch. I like the scenes with her but it just seems like she isn't given a lot to do. Casting wise, this movie couldn't be more perfect. Sam Jackson and Ving Rhames are cool, bad ass mother fuckers with a vengeance. And believe it or not, there was a time when John Travolta was also a bad ass mother fucker. Too bad every movie he made after this is him trying to remind people that he was once cool. Bruce Willis is great, Uma is great. Everyone is great. Every story in this is great, weaving in and out of other stories, creating a time line for all the events in the movie. From classic lines, to c lassic scenes-this movie has it all. I love it.

Jackie Brown

It used to be that whenever I watched Jackie Brown it became my favorite Quentin movie. And then when I watched Pulp Fiction, that became my favorite. But for the first time ever, I actually watched them on the same day-and now having done that, Pulp Fiction becomes the better of the two. Jackie Brown is still an excellent movie, but the world it creates is not nearly as engrossing as Pulp Fiction's. Acting wise, this movie delivers insanely strong performances from everyone in the cast. And there isn't a wasted character at all in this movie. Everyone has a purpose and everyone helps move the story along. Sam Jackson is again a bad ass, but he is dislikeable bad ass, and I feel that that hurts him. Sam Jackson is a guy I always want to root for, and I just can't do it in this movie. Pam Grier is perfect as Jackie Brown and gives the character so much attitude and likeablity. Robert Forester is great as the lonely bail bondsman who wears his motives on his sleeve. And Chris Tucker is dynamite in the five minutes he has in the movie. I love this movie-but I love Pulp Fiction just a little more.

Kill Bill both volumes

I love this movie. And since I can no longer watch volume 1 without following it up with volume 2, I consider it one movie. Everything about it is great. The over the top violence, Uma kicking ass like she never kicked ass before, the stylish set pieces-the anime sequences being one of my favorite. There are a couple of slow points in the movie-but those come and go quickly-and we are dropped right back into the action. Again, casting is dead on. Everyone shines-even Darryl Hannah-who I usually don't like. I love the shit out of this movie and every time I watch it, it just keeps getting better. Hooray!

Reservoir Dogs

This was the first Quentin movie I saw-so it holds a special place in my heart. I still enjoy this movie-but it just doesn't seem as solid as everything else. As usual, casting and acting is dead on-with Tim Roth being the standout. Buscemi is great too-and I find myself liking everyone in this movie. So I guess I just don't like that no one gets away in the end-I liked these guys too much to see them all go down in the end. Even Michael Madsen I like-because how can you not like him? This is a great movie, but just falls a little short in the grand scheme of Quentin movies.

So there you go. There is Quentin for you. I love the man and I will always anxiously await everything he ever does. And no matter the quality, I will still love it-because that is how I am. Hooray for Quentin!!!

The White Stripes Live in Berkeley(8/12/05)

I have been anxiously awaiting this concert since the moment I first hear about it a few months ago. I saw the White Stripes in Portland a couple years back-and it blew my mind. They were so good. Listening to their albums, you get a sense of how good a band they are because the songs they craft are so fantastic-but seeing them live is a completly different experience. They breathe new life into their songs, creating an experience that is completly different from listening to their albums. I've seen the Strokes twice now, and while they are good live, they don't veer too far from the album. But the White Stripes seem to take painstaiking measures to make their live show seperate from their albums. There is not a boring moment to be found at a White Stripes concert-they put total energy into the 80 minute set they have put together. And it was knowing this, that I eagerly awaited yesterday to come.

The last time I was at the Greek Theater was in high school, and it was to see Third Eye Blind. Yeah-they were decent, but the White Stripes edged them out as a better show. I got to the Greek around 7:15 or so and managed to get a great seat with a great view of the stage, and of the crowd, which I also like to have a good view of. The opening band was decent, but I didn't really pay much attention to them. At around 9 o'clock, the lights went down and Jack and Meg walked onto the stage. They opened with Blue Orchid-which is a great song. However, there were some sound issues, and this song sounded muddier than it should have. The vocals needed to be turned up, but I could watch the sound technician working hard to fix this, and in not much time, he did. After Blue Orchid, they tore into Black Math, which they opened with the first time I saw them. Black Math live is an experience, as they absolutely tear that song up. Now as usual, the setlist gets fuzzy around here-and I can't quite remember order-but I do remember songs. They did a few songs off their first album-playing When I Hear my Name, which is a favorite of mine from that album, as well as Astro, which also rocks. De Stijl was largely ignored at this concert, with Death Letter being the only song they played off of it-but they still did a fantastic job on that song. White Blood Cells had a good showing-with Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground(which, now that I think about it, probably followed Blue Orchid), Hotel Yorba, which is a great live song, and my favorite off of that album, Offend in Every Way. They repeated the second verse and omitted the third verse, but aside from that, they killed that song. They also played I Can Tell that We are Going to be Friends, which was shortly interruped when a balloon from a local radio station found its way on stage, finding itself face to face with an angry Jack White. He stopped the song, and said "What is this? A fucking radio promotion? What the fuck is this?" He then kicked back into the song from the start and upon finishing it, continued with this: "Now before we get blacklisted from the radio station for what I just said, I would like to request a written apology for interrupting my song." This was met with thunderous applause. I for one am glad it happened because it was a side of Jack White I hadn't seen. They hardly talked to the crowd at all the first time I saw them, so it was nice to hear it, even if it was more out of anger than anything else. Elephant had a good showing as well with Seven Nation Army(which I love what they do with that live), Black Math, I Just Don't Know What to do with Myself(which killed, they did a great jon with that) A great version of Ball and Biscuit which allows Jack to tear it up on the guitar for 7 minutes, which he does a great job doing. That man is fantastic at playing the guitar. And they of course did a rocking version of The Hardest Button to Button. And not to be outdone, Get Behind me Satan had a very strong showing as well, seeing as that it is the album they are touring in support of. Blue Orchid opeend the show. They played The Nurse-which was awesome, with Jack on a huge red and white xylophone, and Meg with a distorted guitar noise on an electric kit positioned near her standard kit. Everytime she hit it, it sounded so great. They also played My Doorbell, which I expected a lot more from, as it is one of my favorites on the album. It just didn't have the energy I was expecting it to have. They played Forever For Her, which was awesome. And they played a great version of Little Ghost, which Jack almost forgot some of the words to, but quickly saved himself. Meg also got a chance to shine on Passive Manipulation, which they played not once, but twice. And both times were great, with Meg pounding away on the red and white tymponies on the stage-which answered my question as to what exactly they were going to do with those. Her voice sounded great and as sexy as ever, although hearing her do Cold, Cold Night was sexier. One of the better songs of the evening was I'm Lonely(But I'm Not that Lonely Yet). It was the first song after the encore, and only Jack came out and played it on the piano and it was fantatsic. He put a lot of emotion into it. And to close the evening they played De Ballad of De Boll Weevil, which was a suitable closer. And he left the stage proclaiming his love for San Francisco since it was the first city in the US outside of Detroit to really embrace the White Stripes.

Overall this was a fantastic show and I will not hesistate to see them the next time they come around. They are one of the best bands in the whole world and their live show easily show why that is the case. They make it all look so easy while making it sound complex. They rock hard, possibly harder than any other band out there. Go see The White Stripes, you will not be disappointed.

Netflix Quadruple Feature(8/7/05)

Hello hello. Last week I was quite impressed with Netflix. They managed to get 5 movies to me in one week(I'm impressed with myself for watching them as well-but that's just because I generally have shit else to do). So without further ado, here are the movies that I watched last week.

Basquiat-Directed by Julian Schnabel

Recommended to me by my friend Aimee while we were at the SFMOMA, this turned out to be a wonderful movie. Going into this movie, I had no idea who Jean-Michelle Basquiat was. Aimee had a calendar of his in her house, so I got to see one painting before I saw the movie. His art was really very interesitng-very off the wall, very frantic. I went to Borders the other day and looked at an art book of his and saw pictures of the man-and the actor, Jeffrey Wright, looked just like him. I liked this movie much more than Pollock because Basquiat was much more sympathetic. There were times when he was an asshole, but never with the consitancy of Pollock.

This movie also had a huge cast of actors in it. Benicio del Toro was in it and did a fantastic job. Gary Oldman had a great subdued performance, which I enjoy. He does crazy amazingly, but also does low key just as well. Parker Posey was in it, and was good. Claire Forlani was just as beautiful as ever, and also did quite well. But the real standout is David Bowie as Andy Warhol. I'm going to assume that Bowie was friends with Warhol, and with that could draw from his experiences. But he was Warhol in this movie-he had the look and the mannerisms down. Bowie rules.

Overall I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys art. It's got a good story and interesing style to it. Go see it!

Frida directed by Julie Taymor

This movie was visually stunning. It had a surrealness to it that I really enjoyed. Salma Hayek does a decent job in this movie, but she is just do damn cute and in love with this role, that you root for her the entire time. Alfred Molina is amazing as always as Diego Rivera. The surreal moments in this movie are amazing and the best parts about the movie. The scene with Frida and Trotsky on top of some pyramids is very impressive. There's not much more for me to say on this movie. I enjoyed it, but it isn't something I'm ever going to watch again.

I recommend this movie for it's visual style. It looks great. Check it out.

Constantine directed by Some Guy.

I must admit something. I didn't hate this movie. I thought I would. I thought it would be fucking terrible, but turns out-it was decent. But my question is this: If you're Keanu Reeves-how do you follow up the Matrix trilogy? The answer-make the same movie, but with the Devil. The premise to the movie is absurd, the special effects look rushed, the acting is pretty terrible-but goddamn I was rooting for Constantine. I wanted him to kick the shit out of all those demons. But Keanu Reeves needs to move away from special effects movies-and try his hand at a real movie to see if he is a good actor. Because in special effects movie, he's not a good actor. Rachel Weisz-also not a good actor. She's pretty attractive, but I kind of wanted to gouge her eyes out, which is never a good sign.

But the best part of this movie lies in one piece of casting. And that is this: Peter Stormare as Satan. Genius! If the devil had himself a body-he would look like Peter Stormare-cocky, frightening and you can't trust him. (For any of you not aware of who Stormare is-he was in Fargo as the guy putting Steve Buscemi in the wood chipper, he was one of the Nihlists in The Big Lebowski, gave Tom Cruise new eyes in Minority Report and does a lot of great stuff). Whoever talked him in to being in this movie deserves a medal, because it was genius.

Overall I'm going to go ahead and recommend this. It isn't good, but it is entertaining as hell. Watch it, turn your brain off and enjoy.

The Fearless Freaks directed by Bradyley Beesley

This is a great documentary about one of my favorite bands, The Flaming Lips. It's an honest journey through their long ass career. They are a cooky band who make beautiful, surreal, intense music. Musically, I'm not too interested in their earlier work-I'm more of a recent fan. But it was interesting to see how the band started out as a kind of Coyne family band and progressed into what it is today. Overall this movie was highly entertaining and very good examination of a band that still remains down to earth to this day.

Overall this is recommended if you are a fan of the band, or just good music documentaries. Watch it-then go and listen to The Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. You'll love it!

So this week I should be receiving Run Ronnie Run(the Mr. Show movie) A Very Long Engagement, and some Friday the 13th movies. And from last week, I'll be watching A Knife in the Water, a Roman Polanski joint. Should be awesome. Until then-see you then.

Netflix Triple Feature-8-1-05

Last week only delivered 3 movies-but I was in a weird funk most of the week, punctuated by me acting like a jackass at a 5 year high school reunion get together. I'm coming out of that funk, but I think it's going to be a fairly continuous funk, as it seems like a "I need something more in my life" kind of funk. And I just said funk entirely too many times. Apologies. Anyway-on to the three movies I watched. These reviews are not going to very long. FYI.

Pollock directed by Ed Harris.

I enjoyed this movie. My friend Aimee(who recommended it to me)loved it and seemed quite disappointed that I did not love it. All the art in the movie was really neat-and everything dealing with the art I enjoyed. But Ed Harris seemed his usual yell at everyone self. The supporting roles were all good. I recommend this movie if you enjoy art.

Crash directed by David Cronenberg

For a movie about sex and car crashes, this movie was really boring. I turned it off halfway through. Some people think it's genius-I guess I just didn't get it. Oh well-I'm moving on.

Klute directed by Alan J. Pakula

This was a quite good detective movie. Jane Fonda plays an interesing prostitue and Donald Sutherland plays a good square forced to spend most of his time with her. They make an interesting couple. The movie gets pretty intense, but it never reaches real nail biter intensity. I recommend this movie. Watch it. (P.S. this is the same director that brought us All the President's Men-another excellent movie.)