If you’ve navigated the dense series of electric tubes that (I’m told) comprise the internet to Twitch, chances are you’re a “movie person.”  That is, when people think of you, they think of film – specifically, the sort of oddball titles that cascade down our beloved online home on a daily (often hourly) basis.  Being a “movie person” has, among its many perks, a great big plus in that people will often come knocking for cinematic suggestions.  It’s always great to tout something you love to someone new and impressionable.  What follows is a(n abbreviated) list of my go-to titles in a few genres – I consider all to be accessible (not just in terms of tone and style but availability) but still outside the realm of most average viewers – in the event my “movie person” status goes active.

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If you’re like me this year you’ve have next to no time to prepare for the holidays and they start tomorrow! Where did the time go? With Christmas Eve just hours away you’ve got to get into the Christmas spirit and you’ve got to do it fast! Luckily we’re here to help. We’ve got a list of helpful suggestions for your holiday viewing pleasure. We’ve got everything to meet the needs of those stuck in the past, or who like things to be more animated, or those who like to laugh, or those who like their Christmas to be full of action or bloody. Who doesn’t want that? Peruse my list of required viewing pleasures and be sure to add your own after the break so others too can get into the Christmas without relying on spiked egg nog.

Happy Holidays everyone!

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Over the course of the coming weeks, end of year lists and kudos begin to dominate both print and web media.  Comeback and break-out stories along the lines of Mickey Rourke, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and heck, even James Franco are expected to pop up just about everywhere.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  But rather than being drowned out by the chorus, this Twitch-O-Meter aims to highlight five actors who have been around for some time, usually popping up in character roles, or generally not quite getting the full recognition of the special qualities they bring to the films they ‘inhabit’ rather than simply ‘appear’ in. 

To put it another way, if it were 10 years ago, this list would look something like Mads Mikkelsen, Tadanobu Asano, Timothy Spall, Natascha McElhone and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  These are great character actors doing stand out work in small or even occasionally rare lead performances.  In a perfect world their opportunities would go on or near the A-list without compromising their ‘falling into a role’ or quality character work that makes them so special such as those listed above.  Over the course of 2008 (and echoes of 2007 and 2006) here are five actors that stood out in one way warrant some love yet will likely be well below the mainstream media radar during awards season.

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Over the past year here at Twitch I know for certain that both Kurt and I – and I believe Ard as well – have commented on the sad death of the PG-rated kid-oriented adventure film, a category of film that was pretty much a thriving sub-genre unto itself for a period in the eighties before MPAA rules squished it flat.  It was a sad loss because these were the films where imagination was allowed to reign supreme without any of the cynicism or extreme violence that marks the supposedly “serious” and “adult” versions of the same genres.  I’m all for cynicism when it’s called for but these where the films where you got to dream and where, while those dreams may include a touch of danger, they were always ultimately films where possibility ruled.

I don’t think it’s any surprise that the group of us mention these things from time to time simply because all three of us are fathers and, if we’re honest, half the fun of parenthood comes from being able to pass on the things you love to your own kids and while Walden is at least trying there’s really no equivalent to these older classics.  And so, last week I introduced The Boy to The Goonies.  And the next night he asked to watch it again.  Which brings me to the topic of this installment of the Twitch-O-Meter: Five films to get your growing geek-child started off right.  There are a good number of big, obvious titles not included in my list so feel free to jump in and throw your two cents in.

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We’ve written quite a bit about Nacho Vigalando’s Timecrimes, starting even before its world premiere at Fantastic Fest a little more than 14 months ago. The film, which opens in New York and Los Angeles next week (Friday, December 12) after a long and triumphant festival run, made me feel sad and bittersweet and thoughtful and reflective. But I also felt hopeful, because I knew I’d seen something out of the ordinary, made by a filmmaker with a gift for intelligent storytelling and a deft ability to avoid cliches and upend expectations.

The fact that Nacho had chosen to take on time travel, and managed to give that worn-out movie sub-genre a fresh spin, only increased my fondness for Timecrimes. In honor, I’ve assembled my top 5 favorite, personally influential time travel tales, listed in chronological order, after the jump.

I invite you to share your favorites—whether they be underrated, unknown, unfairly maligned, or just flicks that hit your own personal sweet spot—in the comments section. But if anyone says A Sound of Thunder, I will not be responsible for what happens ...

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Time flies when you’re having fun, especially if you can’t count.
I expected that shortly we’d have to do a special Twitch-O-Meter because number 100 was coming up. But when I finished counting them all, guess what: I was already too late. Last week was actually the hundredth of these that got published.
Which makes this Twitch-O-Meter number 101.
And that gave me the idea to put up a list with links to all the 100 which had come before. 
Sometimes we do get asked what the Twitch-O-Meter is supposed to be, or what its purpose is. What it is is quickly answered: it’s a weekly column, mostly (but not always) in the form of a list or a countdown.
What the purpose is takes a bit longer to explain, but it basically amounts to this: here at Twitch, most of the time we write about news. New movies, new plans from actors and directors, new DVDs…
But we didn’t become film fans because of news. We started to love films because of specific titles, specific events, specific genre highlights. The Twitch-O-Meter was invented so we had a chance to write about things we love and hate. And to share opinions and other stuff which does not necessarily constitute news.
These are our labors of love, or at least they should be. And what have we done with the freedom this column grants us? Find out after the break!

Continue Reading "What Came Before 101: A Big List Of All Twitch-O-Meters So Far"...

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When you start collecting films it sometimes is hard to stop, especially when you finally land the sort of job which gives you the financial thing to buy a crazy thing or two. Looking at my collection I certainly did my share of “blind buying” and sometimes that means you end up with a few duds. Then again, really bad movies are a fun and beloved genre all by themselves, and sometimes you even see truly crummy movies get a lovingly lavish DVD edition.
Sometimes I have the mind of a magpie. I can’t resist shiny things.
Which means I have bought a few titles solely on the basis of them being rather flash editions, or having a set of extras I was really interested in. It’s an odd thing when the “making of” documentary is more fun than the film it describes, but that does happen. Sometimes it’s because the feature is an epically bad movie and therefore easily eclipsed by some standard extras, but sometimes the movie isn’t really bad, yet the documentary is just so damn good.
A good example of a film I grabbed solely for the extras was “Faces of Death”, which I reviewed earlier this week.
Even though I hold that film (and indeed its entire genre) in low esteem, the commentary track and documentaries on the disc easily warranted acquiring this disc.
 
So after the break you can see my list of five other examples of DVD-editions where the extras in my opinion outshine the main film.

Continue Reading "WHEN EXTRAS ATTACK (or: when disc 2 is actually better than disc 1…)"...

The misplacement of trust is a go-to device within the whole of dramatic storytelling.  It allows us to root for or against a protagonist’s decisions, and can make us question our own beliefs and prejudices.  There’s a subset of films out there that take this notion and apply it not to characters but an institution, and within that subset there’s a wonderfully campy corner we’ll examine today.  Past ToM’s have addressed plants and animals run wild – it’s time to tackle technology.  If you can’t trust your dishwasher, what can you trust?

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One of the movies which is extremely high on my anticipations list is the upcoming vampirish thriller “Thirst” by Park Chan-Wook, starring both Song Kang-Ho and Shin Ha-Kyun. It will be the third time these three major talents are gathered together for a film, and with the first two being “Joint Security Area” and “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” I can say my anticipation is deserved.
Song Kang-Ho already got his turn here at the Twitch-O-Meter, but today let us look at Shin Ha-Kyun. His specialty might be portraying quirky and likeable characters, but nearly every role he played had far more meat on it than normally expected for a “funny guy”. Shin Ha-Kyun uses his comic talent and flexible mug to endear us, and that makes it hit all the harder when tragedy strikes. Given a good script and a good director, I don’t think there is anything he cannot do. He is that good.
Take his role in “No Mercy for the Rude”, where he plays a caricature of a killer-for-hire. The character is mute and often wears big sunglasses (no eyes visible), so all Shin Ha-Kyun had to work with was bodylanguage and timing. Not only does he pull it off, he does it subtly.
So once again I’m going to use a turn in the Twitch-O-Meter to do a gallery of 5 close-ups of one of my favorite thespians. Guess which 5 movies they’re from.
No competition, no prizes, just for fun, try to see how far you get without using IMDB.
And I’ll post the answers on Tuesday (earlier if someone has all 5 of them right).
Good luck!

Ever notice how Halloween allows for the opportunity for the fairer sex to dress with an extra helping of vamp-camp during a costume party?  A scary and sexy transformation make for a heady combo, perhaps the only day of the year that solves the paradox of the so-called madonna/whore complex.  In classic noir cinema, the femme fatale is as key to the story-telling as the lighting and urban cynicism.  She is a two-faced manipulator that leaves the poor fellas reeling and to the point of not knowing what side is up and what side is down.  Of course, there are hundreds of great lists of classic noir ladies who fit the bill and at least one modern incarnation (the femme fatale on steroids) is included in this list.  But here the focus is on the unleashed supervixen who might quite literally be a man-eater as she brings her generally-not-so-innocent victims into her web or stares down the barrel of her heavy caliber weapon.  When giving Rick Dekkard his target briefing in Blade Runner, his boss uses the phrase, “Talk about beauty and the beast - she’s both.”  The sexy-killer has transcended the stereotypical cult origins (notably the brawnier Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS and the lady trio of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) to populate all manner of movie and genre; from action movies to sly satire pieces, and high camp to seriously disturbing horror.  This kind of crazy-sexy-cool can (and should) invite a little Halloween role-playing.

Continue Reading "Sexy-Killer, Qu’est-ce que c’est?  (Seven Crazy Ladies To Die For)"...

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Last year I moved to another address so I had to put everything I own into boxes. This automatically makes you aware of just how much stuff you collect over the years, and packing my CDs I noticed how many of those were soundtracks.
Not too surprising I guess (being a movielover), but then I noticed how many of those were from Japan and that DID surprise me.
Surely there is no shortage of listenable and / or catchy soundtracks from other parts of the world?
Anyway, I seem to gravitate towards Japanese movie soundtracks and one of the reasons is that they sure do have some fine composers over there. I own several anime series soundtracks too as they are often matching their movie-counterparts in quality
So after the break, read my list of five people who each created several unforgettable Japanese scores…

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Do these five movies have anything in common?

5. Jersey Girl (2004)

The most damning praise that can be heaped upon Kevin Smith’s Jersey Girl is to call it “sweet” and nothing else.

All his movies have a core of sickly sweetness, but his other movies—including his upcoming Zack and Miri Make a Porno —masquerade the sentimentality beneath a blisteringly outrageous stream of obscenities and sex talk. If he were born 70 years earlier, he could have become a perfectly competent scriptwriter, perhaps following in the wake of Preston Sturges and becoming a writer/director of tart-tongued witfests that pushed the boundaries of the time. But he was fortunate enough to be born in 1970, coming of age in the early 90s when technology had advanced sufficiently to allow him to make a movie that showcased a sense of humor itching to push the boundaries of his time.

Despite the occasional salty/sexy dialogue, Jersey Girl could have been made in the 1940s. It would have worked better if it had been set in that era, substituting straightforward sudsy melodrama for the profanities and diaper jokes. George Carlin still would have given the best performance.

After the jump: Spoilers for Atonement, plus: what the movies have in common.

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In 2001 / 2002 the first mutterings and rumblings around “Shaolin Soccer” arrived on Western movienews websites, and I was very surprised when the articles mentioned an actor who was MORE popular in Hong Kong than Jackie Chan.
Huh? Was that even possible?
That actor was Stephen Chow, and although the type of comedy he excells in doesn’t always travel well beyond Chinese borders, on occasion he shines with utter brilliance. He is not the best actor out there, not the best fighter and not the best acrobat, but he has a vision for gags which combine his talents splendidly.
Even bad jokes can be a lot of fun when the timing is right, but Stephen Chow adds an unbelievable amount of effort and special effects to that, always pushing it slightly farther than you would expect at first. None of his movies will be in my personal top ten, but I cannot deny that they all contain sequences that are near-perfect.
Case in point: one of the reasons why this article is so late is because I couldn’t stop watching the films I took the screenshots from. I had to go to a certain scene to score a close-up, but before I knew it twenty minutes would have passed.
Anyway, in the end I managed to tear myself away from the screen. So once again I’m going to use a turn in the Twitch-O-Meter to do a gallery of 5 close-ups of one of my favorite thespians. Guess which 5 movies they’re from.
No competition, no prizes, just for fun, try to see how far you get without using IMDB.
And I’ll post the answers on Wednesday (earlier if someone has all 5 of them right).
Good luck!

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Some people look weathered, but few people look leathered!
I don’t know what Danny Trejo has been doing with his skin to make it look like that, but I’d hate to try it myself.
With a face that transcends conventional opinions about “beautiful” and “ugly”, the man has been a walking special effect since his near-accidental tumble into the film industry in “Runaway Train” at age 40, and from the start he has been almost lethally recognizable and continuously typecast.
But instead of wearing out his welcome Danny Trejo only became more popular, especially after Robert Rodriguez started to use him to great effect in his movies.
Even though he is by all accounts a very nice guy these days, Mr. Trejo has had a rather, eh… checkered past, so to speak, spending nearly all of the sixties behind bars in a wide selection of famous prisons. Funnily enough he still gets asked at auditions if he can play a convict.
Next year he’ll turn 65 but there’s no sign of him retiring yet. In fact the man is almost insanely prolific: in 2008 alone Danny Trejo was already visible in more than 10 films, another 10 are scheduled to be released later this year, and he did television work too!
Anyway, Danny Trejo’s face almost seems created just for the purpose of being zoomed-in on. Which means that once again I’m going to use a turn in the Twitch-O-Meter to do a gallery of 5 close-ups.
Guess which 5 movies they’re from. No competition, no prizes, just for fun, try to see how far you get without using IMDB. Because he always looks more-or-less the same I’ve kept it relatively easy and stuck to movies which have opened wide. So forget about those titles which were released Direct-To-Video only, these shots come from real movies with real budgets!

For those not aware, the first debate in the upcoming U.S. Presidential election is this Friday, September 26th.  It’s currently impossible to avoid – whether trolling the internets, turning on the TV, opening a newspaper, or even just walking outside – the crush of political pontificating and posturing on display 24/7 in the weeks leading up to the election (November 4th).  With all this inexorably in mind, I’m taking this week’s ToM to touch on a few beloved(ish) pictures set in the political realm – all of which lay bear more truth than 90% of what passes for news reporting these days.  There’s no shortage of great films focused on Washington’s glories and gaffes and the genre, if there is one, is endlessly malleable so sound off below – what are some of your favorites?

Continue Reading "Politics as Usual"...