Taking WoodstockIt made me want to do drugs, that's all I can say. It got off to a very slow start, but I loved the small, behind the scenes, 'anthill with voices of thunder' look at iconic Woodstock. 8/10
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Taking WoodstockIt made me want to do drugs, that's all I can say. It got off to a very slow start, but I loved the small, behind the scenes, 'anthill with voices of thunder' look at iconic Woodstock. 8/10
Avatar 10/10 Even though the story line has some familiarity to it, I thought it was super cool fantastic (yes I know I sound like a kid). I haven't seen a movie that I was so drawn into like that in forever! I even peeled it apart anthropologically and it was great. Yes, I am a nerd.
One of the perks to getting older is that Santa has quite a few notches on his naughty or nice slide rule allowing him to gain a better understanding of what makes us twitch. In addition to three wonderful books, I discovered “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die” under the tree, not the brain itself, but the movie.
Produced in 1962, (written and directed by Joseph Green) The Brain That Wouldn’t Die features Dr. Cortner (Herb Evers) and his quest to find a suitable voluptuous body for the head of his fiancé; Jan (Virginia Leith) to satiate his unethical rogue attempts at transplant surgery. I say “head”, due to the fact that the rest of her body was separated in a horrible automobile wreck that left her in multiple pieces while the doctor, who was driving, walks away with nary a scratch. The doctor runs back to the burning car collects the head and makes his way to his remote lab.
The lab is typical for 1960’s low budget horror flick, complete with a smattering of beakers with bubbling liquid, stretched steel springs to mimic tubes(?) or wires(?), an actual tube inside of which flows the mystery serum that gives life to the head. Oh yes, his fiancé’s head (i.e., the brain that wouldn’t die), well it sits in a pan, much like a turkey roasting pan filled with the life sustaining mystery serum. Of course, you can’t have a lab without an “Igor” and a misshapen creature (the result of a previous botched experiment) locked up in an adjacent room. We are kept suspended in curiosity as to what the creature looks like throughout most of the movie. All we know of the creature is that it emits sounds something like the grunting of a pig and hissing of the Gorn creature from Star Trek. Eventually the creature breaks free toward the end of the movie and we see that it appears as a grotesque form of “Cone Head”. Perhaps Saturday Night Live sought inspiration from this movie.
Anyhow, while the head is being kept alive, the doctor, who is an incurable cabaret lounge lizard, goes out in search of a buxom beauty in which to seduce, decapitate and salvage the body on which he intends to attach his fiancé’s head. While away, the head and the closet creature learn to communicate and conspire.
The climax is reached when the head commands the creature to kill the assistant, then struggles with the doctor, who had just arrived with the drugged body of a sexy model he was to decapitate, leading to a fire in the lab and the escape of the cone head with the drugged tart in his arms. The closing scene shows the doctor dead on the floor followed by the camera “panning” in on head that remains seated in the roasting pan surrounded by flames.
Are we to presume the brain burned up?, but then the title would suggest that the brain never dies. Hmmm… I will check to see if there were any sequels.
Summary:
What was the last movie I saw? : “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die”
Rate it: In the real world 2/10. In my deranged world of classic horror flicks – 5/10. (Using “Night of the Living Dead” or “The Killer Shrews” as a perfect 10 benchmark)
High lights: There is a saucy scene where two of the buxom lounge dancers wrestle each other in a jealous fit over the doctor.
Recommendations: This movie is a “heady” undertaking. It is fine for background conversation piece during a fete.
http://www.oldies.com/i/boxart/large...9218405470.jpg
Last night saw Up In the Air with George Clooney. I enjoyed it alot, plus the soundtrack was good too. I wouldn't go to see it if you've recently been laid off...too close for comfort. Some of the opening scenes were of people that had been laid off and you can understand all the emotions that are involved.
George Clooney was as good as ever. His performance was a little more controlled, not as much banter as usual, but still he had some good moments.
Very well written. My husband and I also saw recently, A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Both of course were animated. We enjoyed them as well, but it was nice to see real people in a low key movie for a change.
I believe I saw that movie in an episode of Mystery Science Theater! It is the definition of the term, 'awesomely bad'! :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle
Gilliatt, thanks for that writeup - it's really witty and fun. I think I saw this film once, too...total camp...it's funny as heck. I love your rating system. I have actually never seen "Night of the Living Dead"...wonder if Youtube has it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle
Corpse Bride by Tim Burton- 9 stars.
XOXO
I've been watching plays on DVD this week, since I bought a boxes set of Chekhov by the BBC....well worth the money and contains a lot of plays and some radio plays and narrated short stories, as well. I was lucky to spot it onsale on Amazon.
So far I have watched two productions of "The Cherry Orchard" - both with Judi Dench...early one is b/w TV production and Judi (much younger) plays the daughter; second side is the older production, where she plays the mother. Both were very good; but I particularly liked the second. I might add, the first one, the mother is played by Peggy Ashcroft, a fine actress. Many noted stars appear in this production such as John Gielgud, Ian Holm (very young), Anton Lesser, Timothy Spall (also young), etc.
Two night ago I watched "The Seagull" and found that to be very good and quite complex; the characters are quirpy and interesting; story relies more on character development and relationships than on any set plot. It starred Anthony Gates, Michael Gambon, Stephen Rea, to name a few.
The flip side of the DVD was the production of "An Artist's Story" taken and adapted by Chekhov from one of his short stories. I find now I have the desire to read that story. It starred a much younger Patrick Stewart as the brooding artist.
Way too shallow. It assumes that all filmmakers approach a project the same, but the fact is that the film is the thing and production information is outside of it. People may look at the chair wrestler and the racist teens and think that this is what Korine thinks of the Midwest, but that was real. It's in the film, because it exist and not because Korine wrote it. I love this film.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielBenoit
Saw the newest Harry Potter -- pretty dumb and hard to follow, like most movies. 4/10
500 Days of Summer
This movie is hard to rate, because I liked and disliked things that ran throughout it.
I enjoyed it overall. There is a mixture of honest moments and characters and movieness and genre stock. I liked the soundtrack, but was unenthusiastic about the score. The narrative and it's mosaic style is refreshing for a Hollywood picture (it's nothing new if you a familiar with French cinema), but the glossiness of the picture always distracted me; one could argue that it reflects Tom's job, but ... eh. lol
Avatar.
The visuals were pretty nice. Too bad you can't say the same for the plot.
4/10
All of those movies are pretty fantastic. And Up In The Air was my number 1 favorite movie of 2009.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynne50
I had been meaning to order and Gandhi for nearly a year previously to last week. I must say that I was pretty much impressed throughout the entire film, what a marvellous epic work! The DVD had lots of interesting extras on too (5 hours) which is always a bonus. I'd certainly recommend the film to anyone like me who hadn't seen this film before.
I think I am going to watch Kundun tonight, which is a story of the Dalai Lama's life by Martin Scorsese, it looks like it might be OK.
Neely, I loved that movie when it was first released. I actually believe I saw that one in the theater. It was wonderful. The acting superb. Do you recall who directed it? I can't myself...failing old age memory.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neely
I like Martin Scorsese. I was just going to list two films I saw recently; he commentated on the DVD for both of them. He's a big fan of The Archers.
Here's what I watched, these two Michael Powell movies:
A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven; US original release)
I can't say enough for this wonderful old film. It's quite different than anything I have seen before; very clever cutting and innovative technigues for the time. I saw some clips on Youtube and it made me want to see the film in it's entirity. It has this surreal scene of a stairway (escalator) leading slowly up to heaven. The DVD was marvelous, in that it was fully retored and the print vibrant and beautiful. The reality scenes are shot in vivid technicolor and the ocean scenes are stunning. The dream sequence or heaven sequence is shot in lighter tons of gray, b/w, which creates a luminous quality. One other cool scene stands out to me, of a ceiling of circles, which from the angle shot, looks like ovals and are very surrealistic. These parts reminded me of the Dali sequence in "Spellbound'...some parts actually remind me of "The Wizzard of Oz". The acting is a little melodramatic at times; but within standards of the day. I liked all the acting and thought the casting excellent and the actors top-notch. It stars David Niven, Kim Hunter. The script is witty and more meaningful than one first perceives. There is more here than meets the eye on first viewing. The more I thought about the film and the concept, the more possibilities I came up with. The film is actually based on a true story, in which an airman abandons his burning plane with no parachute, falls into the sea; and survives the fall; which is truly amazing. I won't give away anymore. That part is the beginning and there a lot more to come. I would rate this film highly and applaud the film-makers for coming up, at the time, with something entirely original; or so I believe it to be.
The Age of Constent
This is a later Powell film and I thought I might not like it as much but I was pleasantly surprised. I loved it! It stars Helen Mirren in her very first film role...she was wonderful. It also stars James Mason, who I have always thought a very fine actor. I don't have time to write fully write up the storyline; but it's shot in Queensland, Australia and it's stunningly beautiful. I think part is shot on an island of the coastline...very secluded and natural. Cora (Mirren) is a young girl who lives with an achohlic and abusive grandmother; James Mason comes there to the area thinking it's totally unihabited; he's an artist and looking to renew his inspiration in painting. Cora is saving as much money as she can to get away from the island and Mason (Brad) is happy finally to find a deserted place away from civilization and the critical art community. Of course, quicky he discovers to his grief that he is far from alone in this remote area of the world. Of course you can guess the read; their paths keep crossing and Cora eventually models for him; he is very kind and sweet and truly wants to pay her and help her to he goal. Of course, Cora is quite beautiful in a natural way. She is not the picture-perfect beauty one sees in magazines of today. She's actually a little overweight in the hip, bottom, upper leg area of her body.
There is a lot of comedy in this film, which I didn't expect. Brad's little dog is adorable and so funny; one scene has him slipping back into his collar when Brad returns to his ramshackle shack on the beach...that dog deserved an Academy Award! Another scene that really cracked me up was when they arrived on the island in a small outboard motor boat and the dog looked completely thrilled on the journey; but once there, when the transporter pulls away from the dock, he is whimmering on the edge, like he's begging the guy not to leave him in this God-forsaken wilderness.
I would definitely see this film many times over. It was a lot of fun and very touching as well. Being an artist myself, I think I very much appreciated how Brad felt. I would say it's a rare old gem and worth watching many times over. The supporting cast are really zany and funny. Seems this remote location has a few too many residents for Brad's comfort zone.
I got this entire set on Amazon for a very reasonable price. It was released and offered recently; I treated myself to some movie sets for Christmas.
I love the films of Powell and Pressburger! "The Red Shoes" is one of my alltime favorite films. A side note: Scorcess has a collection of memorabilia from the production. I saw it on my DVD features and it is very impressive; he adores the film! Hey, he has good taste in films!