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pavo6503
Reviews
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
I would hardly call this film "chilling"
Neither good for it's many credits nor bad for its faults, Nosferatu is worth more for its film trivia value. I'll save us all the plot summary, plenty of those already.
I have a newer DVD version, without the colorization or silly soundtrack. I personally prefer to watch this movie with a CD playing simultaneously, like the Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz trick. I have found the Clockwork Orange soundtrack (minus the Lighthouse Keeper song), Isao Tomita's Snowflakes Are Dancing and Everything You've Always Wanted to Hear On the Moog... albums work particularly well. Their use of synthesized classical music make up for the camp and thespian-ism of the film.
Let's get real, this movie is NOT scary, creepy, hair raising, terrifying or worth any of the other accolades I have read on this site. Max Schrek's makeup is good, but he is TOO stiff an actor. Harker is a goof-ball. Nina looks like a 7 foot goon in most of her scenes. The captions are laughable, Renfield serves no purpose in this version of the film and so on...
I have found the more recent Nosferatu (from the '70s) to be a better vampire film. If anything annoys me the most about these Gothic horror classics is their EXTREME camp. Tone it down, it will give us less to laugh about.
I DO enjoy old films, but I watch them for their historic value, and to put my toddler to sleep when it's bedtime. Nosferatu may have some hypnotic powers, but so far he can only compel a 2 year old to sleep.
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
Suprizing what the Russians were capable of
According to the trivia behind this movie, it was a Russian production re-dubbed for western audiences. It's a fun and pulpy romp to Venus, loaded with action, bizarre dialog and some even more strange humor. The costumes are cool and the robot is absolutely AMAZING. When they made Starship Troopers not too long ago, they should have kept the powered armor and patterned it after the robot. Instead they went for the big army look, full of extras and other silliness rather than Heinlein's original vision. Come to think of it, the other special effects in the movie are really good too. The little land speeder one of the teams cruises around in looks like it inspired George Lucas. I love watching this movie with my son, give it a shot!
Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru (1956)
strange...
Ironically, there is no irony in this review or in the movie. I bought this movie as part of a collection and didn't realize it was Japanese. The story is almost total nonsense, I would imagine that has a lot to do with it being re-dubbed in English for western audiences. The plot is typical of many "beings from a far away planet must save humanity from itself" movies, but it is almost completely lacking exposition. The humans and aliens act in an almost cryptic way, I was never quite sure of why they were doing anything they did. Had it not been for my watching the extra features on the re-release of THX-1138 I would be completely lost. For those who haven't seen THX-1138 there is an interview with George Lucas where he is explaining the style of THX. He says the Japanese don't explain anything in their movies, they just do it. Some odd little cultural aspect often comes off as a complete mystery to people not acquainted with eastern culture. This movie is one of those odd things. Imagine this... a samurai and a geisha drink tea, but go through a long and complex ritual of setting all the clocks in the house before sitting down for tea. Why the hell did they do that!?! Just drink the shizbangin' tea for God's sake! My son likes the starfish shaped aliens.
Superwoman (1979)
One of the best
This was one of the first adult movies I've ever seen that managed to pull together on so many levels. The campy plot, the sex, the HOT women, all of the lesser parts came together to make a classic adult movie. Some say that plot is pointless in an adult movie. I disagree, Burt Reynolds' character in boogie nights had an excellent goal. Making a movie interesting enough to keep the audience engaged AFTER they jerked-of is quite a feat! I'll actually sit through this movie to watch ALL the sex. The plot is silly as all hell, but it's just enough to make me want more. Why are porn producers so incapable or unwilling to write a decent yet simple plot outline for their fans these days? Maybe I've just downloaded too much... The women are great too, all natural, all attractive, all able to pull off some sort of acting ability. Why are porn stars now only interested in being humiliated on screen? I don't know, but you somehow get the impression that these girls are really getting into their work on all levels. The sex pretty good too, if not tame by today's extreme standards. These people are having sex the way real people do which, for me at least, is a bigger turn on than watching a woman pull beer cans out of her ass while giving oral sex with a plastic bag on her head. Besides, the grand finale in this movie is one of the best EVER! An interstellar super-hero orgy on a flying saucer while Ms. Magnificent is being screwed to death with a kryptonite-dildo-wielding mad-woman from outer space then being saved by her boyfriend, John Holmes, has to be the most ambitious end to any film I've seen in recent years.
Pavo6503 says check it out. This movie IS available online in VHS and DVD format, by the way.
Lola rennt (1998)
You must be joking...
>"Lola Rennt" is no film for the casual moviegoer who just wants to see another mainstream movie as we so often see it in Hollywood movies. It is in nearly every aspect different from the average movie and has a lot of stylistic (animated sequences, split-screen, etc) and narrative twists that you won't see in most films today.<
This movie is a long music video. Its philosophy is sub-Matrix quality and the Matrix was pretty shallow. Natural Born Killers mixed animated sequences, split screens etc. before this punk rock movie came out. Lola Rennt even finished with a silly, boring and predictable happy ending, like so many of Frank Capra's films. If you don't know who Frank Capra is, you should stop writing movie reviews.
Gummo (1997)
I hate this movie but keep watching it. Why? why...
This movie tries to defy all your expectations of film, starts out strong then falls into a rut. A clichéd rut of "look how shocking I am, oooooh! Look at these young girls torture their nipples, it's soooooo taboo!" Puh-lease! There is no plot to figure out, so don't waste your time complaining about the lack of it. There is no character development, so don't complain about it. Don't complain or nitpick this movie at all, you will be wasting your time. But you SHOULD watch this movie, especially if you have high expectations of it or are stuck in a Hollywood rut. It will fail to please you in every way. It's almost refreshing to watch a truly bad film and hate it. B movies have low production quality and unknown stars, but they are fun to watch. They are like reading comic books, or the Enquirer. Light entertainment. Hollywood films are like bestseller books, entertaining, somewhat thought provoking mostly passable, albeit bland, entertainment. You know what you are getting, like shopping at Wal-Mart. This movie just fails to please all around and it gives the viewer a rock-bottom baseline to start from. You know ANYTHING you watch after this will be better. I keep watching it over and over to remind myself that my life could be worse.
Star Wars (1977)
I'll tell you why this movie is so great...
I was four years old when I saw this movie and I remembered the whole thing, from beginning to end. It was summer and my family was spending a month at our camp. One day my sister (2 years old at the time) and I had been fighting all day. My parents sent us off to bed for a nap before dinner and I grudgingly complied. I was awoken by my father, he was asking me if I wanted to go see a movie. "It has spaceships, and robots, and lasers, you'll love it!" I looked at him through swollen eyes and asked, "does Jenna get to go to?" When I heard him say no, I knew I was in for a HUGE treat. We arrived at a nearly empty theater, and took our seats. When the first jarring chord of the theme hit me, and my father began reading the opening story, I was captivated. It was the happiest day of my life. To hell with all your nitpicking. When something makes that great an impression on a four year old, you know it has to be something truly special. By the way, I'm wearing the Boba Fett t-shirt my son's mother gave me as a gift. And no, I'm not some greasy, Star Wars obsessed dork. Well, not any more...
The Making of '...And God Spoke' (1993)
Very different from Spinal Tap
I really like this movie, I'll throw it in the VCR whenever I need some background noise I can enjoy. I am upset by the number of people who are wasting their time comparing this movie to This Is... Spinal Tap. Spinal Tap HAD money behind it, had very good writers, established talent and a great source of material to draw from: the music/entertainment industry and its history. And God Spoke is NOT hilarious but it does require some knowledge of the movie making process. If you have never made a movie, even a 30 second short, then you may not find most of this movie funny. It isn't anything really revealing, just a bunch of exaggerated in-jokes. If anything, this movie is a poke at movie making and itself.
Waking Life (2001)
Philosophical Pornography
Let's begin by renaming this movie. I'd call it "Wanking Life, a bunch of metaphysical masturbation. I'm saddened by many of the positive comments I've seen so far about this movie. The film, first of all, is a quasi re-hash of "Slacker", one of Linklater's first films. 90+ minutes of people wandering around vomiting the philosophical appetizers Linklater was able to jam in one script. Linklater has this funny way of tempting you with what appears to be very deep and "outside the box" thinking but very little of the story is really any of his own original material. Most of the script takes ideas from established philosophers and spits them right back at you. In fact, in Slacker there is a scene where a female character accuses her male friend of that very same thing. She claims he pulls bits and pieces from the books he has read and mish-mashes them together in what sounds like his own original thoughts. In reality, he (the character) is nothing more than the sh*t he reads and uses it to boost his ego by condescending to other people. He has nothing *real* inside. The Slacker redone feeling is reinforced when you start recognizing actors from Slacker in Waking Life PLAYING THE SAME CHARACTERS THEY PLAYED IN SLACKER! This movie does for people the same thing that bands like Rage Against the Machine does. Both give the consumer the false notion that just being aware of an issue makes him or her qualified to address the issue. Tell you what, I'm going to compose the greatest philosophical work EVER by cutting the most poignant, yet out of context page, from every book written by every philosopher whom ever lived. I'll even include the Bible, Koran and the most important Zen koan collection to date. I will then have created an existential work that does a great job of touching the surface of existence and leaves the reader with all sorts of passages and ideas to quote but utterly fails at providing any substance. Be wary of anyone who tells you this is a brilliant film. It is a clever film, but not brilliant.