Here’s a short dump of movies I’ve seen lately:
V for Vendetta: Well, that was disturbing.
Note to fascist totalitarian regimes: It’s probably a good idea to not pick black, red, and white as your colors—it’ll make your fascism a little less obvious.
Nightwatch: This movie deserves a much bigger audience than it’s getting in the States. The idea is that there are “others” among us, who look like humans but have powers, like vampires, shape shifters, seers, etc. The others are divided among the light and dark, and are maintaining a tenuous peace that is being threatened.
A cute thing is that they dubbed the film to English with Russian accents. If you’re into fantasy/vampires/werevolves/all that kinda stuff at all, you should check this out. I’m waiting eagerly for the next installment in the trilogy.
The Matador: I had high hopes for this one, but they were brutally crushed. Slow and doesn’t know what kind of movie it wants to be.
A terrible waste of Pierce Brosnan and his mustache.
Ginger Snaps: Brigitte and Ginger are Goth sisters in suburbia, obsessed with death. Then Ginger is bitten by a werewolf and things go from bad to worse.
Nice to see the werewolf used in the “classic” way as a symbol of puberty.
While a bit weak when it comes to special effects, Ginger Snaps does an excellent job with the teen angst—the first 15 minutes are pretty much what you’d get if you could melt down the whole of LiveJournal and pour the contents into a movie.
Evil: Yet another Swedish movie where nobody gets to be happy. Based on Jan Guillou’s autobiographical novel of the same name, the movie is about a young man with an abusive father who gets sent to a rich boarding school run by upper class fascists.
Well-made and intense, although the bullying is awfully hard to watch in places. Excellent job by the actor portraying the number one upper class bastard—you just want to punch him in the face.
The Ice Storm: For a change, an American movie where nobody gets to be happy. Drips with suburban angst, emptiness, and isolation.
Not exactly a feel-good movie. There’s a “key party” scene that will make you want to stab ice picks in your eyes.
Alien Versus Predator: Dear Hollywood executives: please stop snorting coke.
Ultraviolet: Shudder.
What’s really terrible is that this could have been an okay movie. The idea is stupid, but not too stupid, and the effects look good. And yet … shudder.
Soundtrack: Stream from Swedish Radio
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I know, I know. I liked Alien vs. Predator. I know this makes me a bad person.
But it had mild entertainment value! I swear it!
(So says the woman who loves B horror films.)
I’m quite impressed you would admit that in public, even though I am also disturbed you could find something that dreadful entertaining.
But to each their own…
AvP was really not that bad if you approached it with an eye for B grade sci-fi with rampant fanboy satisfaction as the main goal. I really liked it for that. It didn’t try to be anything other than an excuse for aliens and predators to fight.
I enjoyed V far more than I thought I would. And it was actually a little less heavy handed than I expected. I wish they did a little more explaining of why V was super human, but one can look it up I guess.
I suppose it’s good you two found each other so you can have a little support group for people with no taste who enjoyed AvP…
There can be no excuse except severe drug poisioning or psychosis to enjoy AvP.
But I have also enjoyed movies that most of the rest of humanity found wretched, so I guess my opinion really means nothing.
OK I have to put in my five cent’s worth on AvP. While the title suggests that this is going to be no more (or less) than a “rampant fanboy satisfaction”…”excuse for Aliens and Predators to fight” (I like that ‘fanboy’ entity; I’ve seen ‘im many times. I think his favorite movie has to be Hellboy), it actually aspired to do and be more, or should have. The fact is that Alien was one of the very best SciFi-Horror films – and subsequent franchises – made, and Predator, while it starred Arnold and other steroid meat men, was also passable SF storytelling, at least on the “action” end of the spectrum. The story in AvP was weaker than anyone had a right to couple with the above concepts, in my view, and the performance of the lead actress (yeah, I still call female ‘actors’ that) was one of The Worst I’ve seen in any contemporary american film genre. Last shot: People in Antarctica breathing without facial protection? without even having their breath fog? I hated this so much it was almost pleasurable… but only almost.