Red Hill
Julia's Eyes
Monday, August 30, 2010
Cropsey
Cropsey
I saw Cropsey the other night. It's one of those rare instances where the trailer is better than the movie. It just didn't grab me. I thought it was going to be something really tangible and interesting but it just kept slipping around. In that way it reminded me of Prodigal Sons.
I saw Cropsey the other night. It's one of those rare instances where the trailer is better than the movie. It just didn't grab me. I thought it was going to be something really tangible and interesting but it just kept slipping around. In that way it reminded me of Prodigal Sons.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Valhalla Rising
Valhalla Rising
I have to admit a soft spot for movies which feature battle axes and leather pants in conjunction with each other. I want to love each and everyone I see yet I rarely do. I've been really yearning for one lately and was rewarded with Valhalla Rising. It's extremely violent at times, in the above image, Mads Mikkelsen, as One Eye, is about to remove and discard this guys guts like a pile of clean laundry. There is a lot of vague talk about Christianity and heathenism, some debating about where the group of Scottish crusaders One Eye has taken up with are going and where they actually are which gets a little contrite but, hey, they have to talk about something until the next time someone gets their brains beating out with a rock. The film is set in Scotland and the dense greens and mist cast sort of a diaphanous pallor over most of the imagery. It makes the violence all the more striking. Overall it reminded me a lot of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man but there was also something sort of David Gordon Green/Terrance Mallick-y about the whole thing. The characters were barely developed and One Eye has no lines of dialogue, which could be a hurdle for some on the road to enjoying this film but it didn't bother me in the slightest. It was kind of like the director, Nicholas Winding Refn, stripped the film of possible plot holes and just left the skeletal remains of the movie. In this case I think it worked quite well.
I'm rapidly becoming a huge fan of Mikkelsen. I loved him in the Pusher series, which Refn also directed, and he stole those James Bond movies. Especially when he fucking cried blood. But I also thought he was great in a movie nobody seemed to see called Flame and Citron. Check it out, it's about the Dutch resistance during WWII. He plays the titular Citron.
I have to admit a soft spot for movies which feature battle axes and leather pants in conjunction with each other. I want to love each and everyone I see yet I rarely do. I've been really yearning for one lately and was rewarded with Valhalla Rising. It's extremely violent at times, in the above image, Mads Mikkelsen, as One Eye, is about to remove and discard this guys guts like a pile of clean laundry. There is a lot of vague talk about Christianity and heathenism, some debating about where the group of Scottish crusaders One Eye has taken up with are going and where they actually are which gets a little contrite but, hey, they have to talk about something until the next time someone gets their brains beating out with a rock. The film is set in Scotland and the dense greens and mist cast sort of a diaphanous pallor over most of the imagery. It makes the violence all the more striking. Overall it reminded me a lot of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man but there was also something sort of David Gordon Green/Terrance Mallick-y about the whole thing. The characters were barely developed and One Eye has no lines of dialogue, which could be a hurdle for some on the road to enjoying this film but it didn't bother me in the slightest. It was kind of like the director, Nicholas Winding Refn, stripped the film of possible plot holes and just left the skeletal remains of the movie. In this case I think it worked quite well.
I'm rapidly becoming a huge fan of Mikkelsen. I loved him in the Pusher series, which Refn also directed, and he stole those James Bond movies. Especially when he fucking cried blood. But I also thought he was great in a movie nobody seemed to see called Flame and Citron. Check it out, it's about the Dutch resistance during WWII. He plays the titular Citron.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Watching Battlestar Galactica with Lauren
I convinced Lauren to watch the first episode of Battlestar Galactica with me. These were her comments:
That lady is ugly.
All the actors on this show look like 90's douchebags.
What's with her outfit? It's like 9021-android.
I don't like this captain, his face is too wrinkly.
This show isn't as good as that other show with the captain whose face is wrinkly.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Expendables.
The Expendables
So Sean and I actually paid money to see the Expendables the other day. I came away with two things. The first thing was that I love watching Sylvester Stallone run. None of the movements involved in making that slab of beef pie (not cake, pie) move seem to be in conjunction with each other. His shoulders bunch and remain motionless, his legs piston for more than they're worth and he apparently has a stroke but at no point do his arms ever do anything that seem to help him move. I think I could watch his running scenes on a loop for maybe five minutes and then later again for two minutes and then probably never think about it again until I caught The Expendables in some sort of situation wherein I would not be able to get away. Like if I was paralyzed in the hospital and couldn't reach the remote. And then it would probably register a grin. Unless my situation was particularly grim.
The other thing I came away with was a new word for when I'm taking a shit. I'm taking an Expendables.
So Sean and I actually paid money to see the Expendables the other day. I came away with two things. The first thing was that I love watching Sylvester Stallone run. None of the movements involved in making that slab of beef pie (not cake, pie) move seem to be in conjunction with each other. His shoulders bunch and remain motionless, his legs piston for more than they're worth and he apparently has a stroke but at no point do his arms ever do anything that seem to help him move. I think I could watch his running scenes on a loop for maybe five minutes and then later again for two minutes and then probably never think about it again until I caught The Expendables in some sort of situation wherein I would not be able to get away. Like if I was paralyzed in the hospital and couldn't reach the remote. And then it would probably register a grin. Unless my situation was particularly grim.
The other thing I came away with was a new word for when I'm taking a shit. I'm taking an Expendables.
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