Sullivan’s Travels (4.5/5 Stars)
Highly recommended. It will challenge the way you view films.

Cinexcellence - June 19, 2008, 3:07pm

Sullivan’s Travels (4.5/5 Stars)
Highly recommended. It will challenge the way you view films.

One of my favourites to just throw on and enjoy, and I absolutely adore this scene:

http://www.rowthree.com/2007/12/01/finite-focus-hey-am-i-laughing-sullivans-travels/

Just seen The Ruins - we’re a bit behind on this one in the UK, but didn’t matter because it feels like a movie for the Summer anyway. I was very dubious that Dreamworks could pull off a decent horror, but they managed to deliver some nice grisly moments (if not actual scares). Couldn’t believe who manages to survive though!

On dvd I’ve finally caught up with Iron Triangle, the To/Lam/Hark co-production. I was a bit worried that it would feel really disjointed but in the end I became so engrossed in the story that I couldn’t see the joins. I loved the high-farce ending in the ramshackle cafe. My only criticism is that it didn’t really know how to end. Oh, and it has one of the best soundtracks too.

The Machine Girl:

What an awful, cheap, immature flick.
Now, I love Gore and stupidity but when the script is written by what seems a 13 year old and has all the technical skills of a baby smacking the keyboard...I just can’t bear it.

I wanted to love this film so much, my friends helped make it, the trailers looked nice...but the end result was not the best.
Still, some [but surely not all] acting was nice and the actual gore effects were inspired.

I just wish the film was better made and had a person who understood characters [and editing and lighting and music] behind the helm.
I can forgive this stuff if the rest of the film has merits [Wild Zero or BioZombie come to mind]....but ugh.
Ughh.

A tale of Mari and Three Puppies:

This film was created for suckers like me.
I have a soft spot of dogs and any ‘dog movie’ ala Milo and Otis always brings me to tears.
Well, the creative staff must have decided to film the most tear wrenching film ever, as I probably cried for 70% of it’s running time.
Mari revolves around a little girl and her cute Shiba-ken puppy.
They grow up together in the beautiful Nagoya area of Japan [why is this locale not filmed in more?] despite a father who is scared by dogs and a grandfather getting old.
Mari has 3 super, hyper, ultra cute puppies and all is well until a massive earthquake destroys the region and their house.
With the Gran-dad injured, the little girl must leave Mari and her babies alone and then the tears start ‘a’ flowin’.

Aside from the dogs, this film was a joy to watch, with some of the best photographed shots of the Japanese countryside I’ve ever seen. The DP really should have won a bazillion awards for his work and everything else is on fire, from the acting to the soundtrack.
My only gripe was a bloated second act but that’s mute compared to the rest.

28 Weeks Later:

Yep, again, Japan gets the films very late.
I did not like the first one, which was completely my fault.
I wanted a zombie flick [the original kick-started the reborn zombie craze] and with the running and the not biting...I was let down by my stupid preconceptions.

With the second movie, I knew what I was getting but I never imagined how much I would get!
Sure, sequels can surpass the original but this one was awesome!
It was like the original but hyped up to the nth degree and with a stronger focus on horror and action this time.

Robert Caryle is a genius and this film had it all, compelling, dark story, nice horror/ action, well shot and with a haunting score.
A third film....please....now.

Short Cuts and I Heart Huckabees for the movieclub podcast.
Short Cuts is great. Huckabees not so much.

This should be a fun Cinecast (hopefully the audio bridges across continents!) I Heart ‘I Heart Huckabees’.  It’s like The Big Lebowski for me.  Extremely quotable “What, you don’t have time for infinity?” “We crushed locusts and made bread” “Jesus doesn’t love you, he’s very, very mad at you” “Mother-fucking, cocksucker, mother-fucking, shit-fucker, what am I doing? “

the sound test went fine last night, no delay so it should be good. Let’s hope the system handles five people at once though.

Yestarday i saw Mikio Naruses YOGOTO NO YUME at Bonn Silent Film Festival. What can i say but that this was simply one of the finest Japanese classics i did ever see. I`m totally blown away.

The last few years I’ve been missing films in the cinema like you wouldn’t believe, with the Rotterdam Film Festival being almost the only exception.

But for some reason I’m having a decent run lately, so here goes:


Hancock:
Far better than I anticipated. Who says Peter Berg had an attention deficit during this movie? I saw a very focussed effort, although it surprised me with the direction it took. Not a bad thing, by the way.

The Dark Knight:
It’s like two good Batman movies in a row. It goes on and on and on, and every time I thought it would end or leave things for a sequel, it started to combine and resolve instead! Most impressive, even if it’s a heavy sit-through.
Looking at the overall tone and what was chosen as level of reality, this was more like a “Mission: Impossible” movie than eh… the last two “Mission Impossible” movies.

The Mummy: Curse of the Emperor’s Tomb:
I liked the first Mummy movie but liked the second one a lot better. The heroes were actually preventing a disaster instead of causing it, the world weary humor was expertly timed, and the emotional scenes weren’t cringeworthy. Sure it was mad and overblown, but I was giggling like a twelve-year-old when I saw it in cinemas.
And now we have this. I’ll give it the first point (although the heroes have a strange set of priorities at all times) but the timimg of both humor and sentiment are slightly off. It hurts the film immensely. These were always popcorn entertainment and sure, there are some eyecandy moments but now this film was just too damn weak.
And every Asian actor in it gets shortchanged, which pisses me off. You have Anthony Wong in your movie as a villain, and you don’t give him the slightest bit of background? Why he does what he does? Un-be-fucking-lievable!