Bits and bobs

I've just returned from the cinema. I don't go nearly as much as I should but I'm hoping that will change at least over the next couple of weeks as there is a growing list of films I very much want to see. I went to see Che: Part One which was actually my third choice of film but I am forbidden to see The Wrestler or Slumdog Millionaire without Jordan (I may just go against that as there is a chance I'll be having a day off this week and I'm really itching to see The Wrestler). The film was actually really good and I'm looking forward to the release of part two. I have to admit that my knowledge of Che Guevara was fairly limited before seeing the film. I love Benicio Del Toro and as always he's really fun to watch - once he dons the iconic hat you can really believe that he really is the famous revolutionary. I feel like I learnt a lot from seeing the film and it definitely didn't feel two and half hours long.

At some point this week before I see The Wrestler I'm planning on re-watching Darren Aronofsky's previous three films - Pi, Requiem For a Dream and The Fountain. Anyone familiar with the former two will know that that will be a pretty heavy day if viewed together. I know it's not a popular viewpoint but I'm really looking forward to watching The Fountain again. As Darren Aronofsky himself describes it 'it's a 40 million dollar art film.' It's not supposed to be mainstream. It's not supposed to have a nice, clean happy, ending. It's meant to be ambiguous and personally I think it's one of the most beautifully shot films of this decade. 

/rant

In other news I've had my first 'celebrity' acknowledgement on Twitter. If you've not heard of Twitter it's basically a mini blogging site. You are limited to 160 characters in each 'tweet'. It's much the same as Facebook's status updates - in fact, you can install an app in Facebook that updates your status every time your post to Twitter. At the moment I don't have many people following me so it sometimes feels like a relatively pointless exercise although I'm hoping that people will catch on in time.

The great thing about it is being able to follow famous people that interest you. Steven Fry is a very popular tweeter. He's fun to keep up to date with as he's always jetting off all over the place and often has many witty comments to make. Another person I am following is Jhonen Vasquez - an alternative comic book writer responsible for Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, I Feel Sick and the cartoon Invader ZIM. He's especially fun to follow as his tweets are more on the surreal side of things. This is how things went...

JhonenV Other game systems need miscreant mascots like the 360's 'Xbox Taco Assailant'. Put on your Helm of Brainstorming and get this shit done.

JhonenV PS3 Burrito Murderer? The Nintendo DS Sausage Ronin? The PSP McMuffin Rapist? I'm seeing a fighting game in this.

Louisblack @JhonenV Atari Jaguar Chrizo Child Molester

JhonenV So far Atari's gotten the worst of it from you lot. The Atari Chorizo Child Molester? Atari Hamburger Fucker? Good god, guys. Well done!

Very fun indeed.

I was going to write about Jordan's growing obsession with Viva Pinata as well but I think I'll save that for another day. 

1001 Movies

A few years ago my girlfriend received a booked called 1001 Movies to See Before You Die. Due to Jordan's love of ticking things off lists, we decided that it would be fun to tick off the films that we have seen and work our way through the book. To be honest, we haven't been the dedicated high brow film watchers that we hoped but we have managed to watch a fair few. 

Some time last week we decided to make a concerted effort to work our way through the list. We have also set up a spreadsheet to mark off each film so we get a running total... it also makes searching for a film on there much easier.

So this week I have watched...

Roman Holiday 

Annie Hall 

The Great Escape 

Wolf Man 

Notorious 

Easy Rider 

Grave of the Fireflies 

Things to Come 

Frankenstein 

The Maltese Falcon

The Great Train Robbery 

Only Angels Have Wings 

Rabbit-Proof Fence 

Muriel's Wedding

There was, I'm sure, one other film on that list but I cannot for the life of me remember what film I watched before The Maltese Falcon. I suppose that says something about how much I enjoyed The Maltese Falcon... good ol' Bogie.

For any one curious about what's included the 2008 list can be found here.

3x3 Eyes

As I have mentioned many times before I grew up watching Japanese animation. Not the nice Studio Ghibli stuff, but the fairly mature films and series. One of these series was a four parter called 3x3 Eyes. It followed the story of a teenager who meets up with the last of a race of triclopse who is on a quest to become human. The fourth episode ends with a fairly exciting cliff hanger. This being the early-to-mid 90s there was no (for me) internet in which to discover that this was in fact based on a manga series and there was lots more to the story. 

After rediscovering, and subsequently watching, many of my old anime videos I realised that there were probably more episodes available. I managed to grab the last part of the series a few months ago but never got round to watching it due to travelling. Well, today I sat and watched a couple of episodes today and it feels so odd continuing the story about thirteen years on.

A similar thing happened recently with the release of an updated Guyver series that was much closer to the original manga and expanded on many story elements that were left out of the early 90s series. 

On a side note, it seems very odd that Hollywood haven't tried to remake any of the high profile anime. I'm surprised we haven't seen a live action Akira starring Leonardo Dicaprio as Kaneda yet... oh dear... after writing that I did a search on IMDb and found this. 

I despair, I really do.

What next? Ghost in the Shell with Keira Knightly as the Major and Orlando Bloom as Batou?

Movies of Last Week

The Hunger
Deliverance
Grease
Bubba Ho-Tep

Movies of Last Week

The Green Mile
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises

I've just finished watching Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg's latest film. One thing I really can't get my head around is that fact that Cronenberg is not considered one of modern cinemas greats. His last two films, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, are arguably two of the most stunning pieces of cinema of this century. Both films have been highly praised by critics but very few people seem to have seen them and although recognition from the film academy has provided a few nominations, performances from Viggo Mortensen and Cronenberg's direction clearly deserve more.

As anyone who speaks to me will know, The Fly is one of my all time favourite movies. I also consider Videodrome and Scanners as two of the best ventures into body horror by any director. Cronenberg, however, has moved away from the grotesque body and seems to be focusing realistic and altogether more disturbing event - violence, human trafficking, rape and families being torn apart by lies (made even more frightening when it's set in your future home city). 

These latest ventures may not make your skin crawl like watching Jeff Goldblum pull out his finger nails but at least you know the chances of becoming a human/fly hybrid are slim to none... getting embroiled with the Russian Mafia on the other hand...

Movies of Last Week

I'm very pressed for time as I need to get back to work, but here is this weeks Movies post. Have a look at my previous post on Diary of the Dead for my reaction to the new Romero Dead film.

Sin City

Sixteen Candles

No Country For Old Men

Diary of the Dead

Diary of the Dead

I was pleasantly surprised on Tuesday of last week when I discovered that the new Romero Dead film was being released this week. 

I was, however, less than pleasantly surprised when I actually went to the cinema to see it on Friday. I'm not sure I like the emerging 'found film' genre  that we've been seeing recently. I absolutely despised 'The Zombie Diaries' - a low budget British attempt at the zombie genre that was presented in the form of 'found footage'.  Cloverfield is probably the best recent attempt although it still suffered from annoying characters and awful acting...

I think that is the real trouble with these films.  When watching a regular film, we expect the acting to be just that - acting.  The action is stylized and we accept this because it is a film... it's not real.  This does not work when a film is masquerading as a documentary or a home video (with the obvious exception of Rob Reiner's Spinal Tap, Best in Show... etc).  The audience has to be completely convinced that the actors are real people dealing with real (although completely impossible) events.

Anywho... Diary of The Dead has all of these faults and more and this is coming from someone who loves all four of the other movies... hell, I even love the Tom Savini remake of Night of The Living Dead. The acting is atrocious, the characters are arseholes and the story is almost non existent.

I think the real problem is the lack of claustrophobia.  The thing that made the original trilogy, and to a lesser extent Land of the Dead, great was the interaction between the characters while they were holed up either in a house, a shopping mall, an underground bunker or a fortified city. Zombies are just a sideline in these films - a threat that brings a group of mismatched people together and forces them to cooperate (or not) to survive.  

I did, however, enjoy the 'zombies don't run' jokes. You're right George, they really don't.

Movies of Last Week

This is what I have been watching over the past week...

Juno
Cloverfield
Wrong Turn 2

Godzilla Vs Mothra Vs King Ghidorah

Resident Evil Extinction

Desperado

Juno is an amazing film.  I cannot recommend it highly enough and I'm glad it picked up an oscar.

This week I am hoping to get in Charlie Wilson's War and No Country For Old Men.

Movies of last week

Okay, so I meant to do this yesterday (it would have been a lot more logical) but better late than never. I've decided to make a list of films I watch each week, just to keep track if anything.

This week I have mostly been watching...

Atonement
Casablanca
Young Frankenstein
Dangerous Minds
Don Jaun Demarco

I feel bad that this is the first time I had watched Casablanca, especially after doing a film degree! I am glad to say that I wasn't disappointed - Bogey is always a pleasure to watch.
Atonement, however, was fairly awful. The excellent James Mcavoy just couldn't make up for the talentless Ikea Knightly (nod to Mark Kermode) and it really felt a wee bit pretentious in it's playing to the Oscar crowd.

I'm hoping on Friday to make it to the late night screening of Bladerunner (Final Cut) at the Duke of York. Other than that, I have a few films I would like to watch or re-watch this week including M and a few more James Cagney's from Jordan's new box set.