That's All Folks

Yeah, this was a good idea for a blog, but I am way too far behind to catch up. So auf wiedersehen. Check out my main blog; I'm going to try to figure out how to get some of this info over there.

Mrs. Brown (1997)

Last night, we watched Mrs. Brown, which Da Man had really been wanting to see for awhile.

Grieving widow Queen Victoria (played imperiously by Judi Dench) withdraws into sadness for years, until plainspoken manservant John Brown (Billy Connolly) disrupts her mourning. Their friendship grows, resulting in personal and political ramifications for both. Funny, exquisitely shot and featuring sparkling performances, Mrs. Brown brilliantly portrays the woman behind an empire and the man who helped her live again.

I didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did. I thought it would be dry and slow, and it was at a few moments, but it was also pretty compelling. Judi Dench and Billy Connolly are great together. And it is a visually beautiful film, too. A fine couple of hours, for sure. Four out of five stores.

Bad Education (2004)

Almodovar rocks, but I haven't seen all of his work. Last week, I finally sat down with Bad Education.

Film director Enrique (Fele Martinez) is visited by his childhood Catholic school friend and lover, Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal). Ignacio gives Enrique a short story he's written that's a factual account of the molestation he sustained at the hands of their teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho). But as Enrique adapts the story, he uncovers a dangerous web of deceit and revenge in this stark film from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar.

I felt the push to see this movie after reading Nic Sheff's Tweak, which I wrote about on my main blog. Nic sees the film and wants to write a review of it. Ignacio is a heroin addict, which is why Sheff responds to it. It is an amazing film, full of twists and turns. It weaves fiction and nonfiction together at times. The story is compelling. Gael Garcia Bernal is amazing. I don't have a lot to say about this movie except that I loved it. Five out of five stars.

Back Sheep (2006)

Okay, yes, we do see pretty much every zombie movie ever made, which is why we saw Black Sheep.

On a quiet New Zealand ranch, a genetic experiment has gone horribly wrong, transforming a docile flock of sheep into killers hungry for human blood. Those they bite become ravenous were-sheep. As the body count rises, a desperate handful of outnumbered survivors take a last stand against the ovine onslaught. Who will live, and who will be the next victim of the vicious killer sheep?

Yeah, okay, it was bad. Some reviews on the Netflix site love this movie, but it was as bad as it sounds. I mean, you see a sheep driving a truck at one point. Well, kinda, sorta. People turn into sheep after they are bitten, which was bizarre to watch. And the guy who owns the sheep farm? Let's just say he really, really likes the one genetically-altered sheep he created. I mean, he really likes her. As in, there's a scene where he's with her and doesn't wear pants likes her.

Yeah, that says it all. One star because you can't give none.

Day of the Dead (2008)

In a recent entry, I wrote about Diary of the Dead. While writing that entry, I found a link to the remake for Day of the Dead:

Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2) directs this remake of George A. Romero's classic zombie flick Day of the Dead, in which a mysterious disease causes the newly dead to come back to life and threaten the living. Meanwhile, military and scientific experts clash as they try to arrive at a solution. Miner and writer Jeffrey Reddick honor the story and social relevance of the first film but put a fresh spin on this tale of horror and intrigue.

There really is no connection to the original other than having a conflict between military and science and having some scenes in an underground scientific facility. And those connections are stretching it. It's a fine zombie movie, though. These zombies, though, were something. A couple leaped onto the ceiling and crawled for a few feet. They seemed more capable of thinking and reasoning. One of the points was that they maintained some semblance of their original personalities. One zombie ended up protecting one of the women who was still alive, for example. That wasn't developed enough as an idea. I guess that would be my criticism. This movie had some spins to it that made it different from other zombie movies, but they were treated more like occasional tricks than developed plot points. Still, it was a fun movie. Oh, and it was a virus that caused all of this, so I need to add this to my list of virus films, too. Three of the five stars.

Oh, and what's up with these zombie movies that are not getting wide releases? This was better than a lot of the horror movies available on the big screen, and Diary of the Dead was a lot better. I don't get it.

Stranger than Fiction (2006)

I finally saw Stranger than Fiction (2006):

As a novelist (Emma Thompson) struggles with how to kill off her main character, IRS auditor Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) begins hearing her narration in his head and realizes he must prevent his own death. Crick's world turns upside down, and it's a life-or-death situation as he tries to persuade best-selling author Kay Eiffel to change the ending of her novel. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah lead the fine supporting cast.

I really wanted to see this because they filmmed all of Dustin Hoffman's scenes at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where I did my PhD. The architecture is very distinct. And this was a fun movie. Da Man hated it. It was too quirky for him. But it was those quirks that I loved. The actors are amazing. I make it a point not to see Will Ferrell moveis, but like other actors (Robin Williams and Jim Carrey), he is best when he is quiet. Emma Thompson was amazing, and the best great, too. And I love Chicago. It really looked like a Chicago movie, and I was glad to see they used so much of it in their locations. And I have a soft spot for quirky moves that are about the whole carpe diem philosophy but do it in unexpected ways. This was a fun one. I may end up buying it. Five stars.

The Lair (2007)

See my post from earlier today about how I was accused of controlling the Netflix queue (he who can remember the password does have the power). That's how we ended up seeing The Lair.

At an exclusive sex club called The Lair, vampires lure gay men with a promise of pleasure, only to kill them with blood-sucking pain. When bodies start piling up, a reporter threatens to uncover the secret, dismaying the club's lusty head vampire. Developed as a spinoff of the sexy supernatural series "Dante's Cove," this erotic episodic drama features Peter Stickles as the feisty vampire leader and David Moretti as a handsome journalist.

Wow, was this bad. It was amazingly horrible. I didn't know it was a TV series that aired on here! last year. One example? The "handsome journalist" has a boyfriend attacked by the "feisty vampire leader." The boyfriend is in the hospital. According to the doctor, he has lost a huge amount of blood and is barely clinging to life. Da Man then says, "Then why isn't he hooked up to a single machine or monitor?" Most of the actors are former or current porn stars. All sex acts are, of course, simulated since this is a TV show, even if on cable. Of course, that's no excuse for them to be so boring and fake looking. Except they then match the dialogue.

It was so bad, we had to watch all three episodes to prove it couldn't get better, and we ordered disc two. Each episode is only twenty-something minutes long, and the entire series consists of six total episodes. I gave it one star, but only because zero was not an option. I'll be back to say if the final three episodes are any better.

Edited on July 13: Yeah, disc two was just as bad. Rumors are they are planning a second season. Why?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

After reading about this in David Sheff's Beautiful Boy, I thought this might make a good choice for my pain seminar next year, so I moved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind up the queue.

This offbeat romantic comedy (which won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) stars Jim Carrey as Joel, who opts for a procedure in which memories of his girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), are erased after he learns she's already had the surgery done. But as his doctor begins to wipe out traces of Clementine, Joel decides he doesn't want to lose what's left of their relationship, so he squirrels away the memories somewhere else in his brain.

I just might end up including it in the course, though I have to say that it was not as comedic as I expected. I was kinda down at the end of this. It was very interesting in regards to what we can do about pain and its effects on our lives. It really gets you thinking about whether or not you would erase certain people from your life. It is visually fascinating, too. Kate Winslet is amazing, as always. And I am not a Jim Carrey fan, but this proves that he can act, that he can give a role what it deserves without being a cornball all the time (take notes, Will Ferrel). I gave it four out of five stars because it didn't blow me away like I expected, and there were several moments when it felt like something was about to happen when nothing happened. But it's really good and just might appear on my syllabus in the fall.

Diary of the Dead (2007)

Diary of the Dead is probably the first zombie movie we've seen since I started this blog.

While filming a low-budget horror film, Jason (Joshua Close) and his film school friends hear news reports of zombie sightings. As the living dead close in on the film crew, Jason seizes the opportunity to add real blood and guts to his movie. Meanwhile the American government promises to stop the violent uprising, but the relentless zombies gain an advantage by wiping out all forms of communication with the outside world.

Yes, you can put this in the category of Cloverfield and Blair Witch as having the movie within a movie. I like those kinds of movie a lot. But why did this movie only get a limited release? We'd heard about it and knew when it opened in NYC, but it never got here. It's written and directed by George A. Romero, the father of the zombie movie! And there is going to be a sequel. So why the lack of attention?

This was a really good movie, five out of five stars. It had the typical attacks of zombie movies with a cool plot between them to get people back and forth. There were some leaps in logic that there just are in zombie movies, but this was a good one. I'm sorry it's not getting the attention it deserves.

Torque (2004)

I have been accused of controlling what Netflix movies we watch on weekends. That's how we ended up with Torque.

Longtime biker Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) is framed for murder by rival Henry (Matt Schulze), the leader of a biker gang called the Hellions. Unfortunately, the stiff happens to be the brother of Trey Wallace (Ice Cube), the leader of the Machine, the most notorious and feared biker gang in the country. Torque does for motorcycles what The Fast and the Furious does for muscle cars. Prepare to burn rubber!

I'm a fan of the Fast and Furious movies; I don't know why. This so clearly wants to ride on that trend. It wasn't bad, as movies like this go. I was a bit confused at the beginning because I couldn't tell what the exact relationships were between the three biker gangs. They all had a history or working together and fighting each other, and it took a bit for me to get it. Not bad action, though. Some cool riding sequences. Two of the five stars.