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Excellent film, that. My favourite film to star Elke Sommer. If you liked that, then I would recommend another Bava film (also with Sommer in the lead), Baron Blood. Like Lisa And The Devil, Baron Blood is stylish and creepy.
Will have a look at it! Thank you very much for the suggestion. (:
The Philadelphia Story - with Stewart, Hepburn & Cary Grant a very smart and well written movie that is brilliant to see every time and amusing as well.
Don't mention it. :) I will be interested to see whether you liked it more, less or as much as Lisa And The Devil.
Incidentally, have you ever watched Romero's Dawn Of The Dead?
A few minutes into it I nearly choked on the cake I was having with my coffee. Should have been more careful. I consumed the rest of the cake and coffee swiftly and with more care during bits where there was no dialogue. Russell's sympathy and love for the characters was again obvious. He doesn't write comedies as such, but stories about people - the people matter more than "the plot" - but unlike actual comedies his movies actually make me laugh. (Some comedies do as well, but it's rare.) There's great humanity there though, people's peculiarities and silliness don't get mocked, the humor isn't at the expense of anyone, which is probably why I like it so much, and people aren't judged for not being perfect or doing wrong things. This was obvious in The Fighter and American Hustle and it was obvious in this one, too. A very enjoyable movie.
This film has the most incredibly credible CG effects; they're used to great effect create the sharks.
<font color=#334455 size=5><b>10</b>Red State (2011)</font>
Instead of responding to Cop Out's disappointing results by returning to his familiar turf, Kevin Smith went even further away from the Viewaskewniverse when he made Red State. Inspired by the Westboro Baptist Church and their cruel judgements and insulting protests, Red State became a cold and violent thriller with some survival horror elements, set in America's Bible belt.
The charismatic Michael Parks plays a hate spreading pastor who, with his rather large family, performs bloody sacrifices during sermons behind locked doors. When three young guys go looking for some horizontal pleasures, they are caught by the family and prepared for the kind of punishment that takes you straight to heaven... or hell. Meanwhile, however, an alerted ATF special agent, played by John Goodman, decides to invade the place. But Parks and his gang, including Melissa Leo and Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, are ready for some gun action.
Red State is nothing new. Take any cheap Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip-off they put out for 20 000 dollars today and you're almost there. But only 'almost'. This time, Smith's grasp on the genre, his talents as a writer of dialogue and his smart casting choices lift this film well above the average. Also, it helps to know that Smith and the Westboro Baptist Church have a real-life kind of quarrel going. (Smith was raised Catholic and openly talks about his respect for Jesus, but he rightfully condemns radicalism and fundamentalism.) A couple of rather unexpected twists grabbed me by the throat and the ending, though not the one that was originally planned, kept me in a bit of a tension as to where Smith was going to take the story. If not entirely exciting, at least it was very interesting.
One of the neat things about survival horror is that it can be made on the cheap. Extra layers of blood and gore don't necessarily make things more expensive either. Yet Red State isn't torture porn like Saw or Hostel. It's more about brutal gun fights, shot as if the whole thing was ripped from modern society's uglier newsflashes. And I must say the film looks good as a violent horror flick. Things certainly look a lot better than Cop Out. Clearly, Smith understands this genre very well. And even though Red State is more B-level than A-level horror, closer to the quality of a straight-to-DVD flick than to that of a heavily promoted theatrically released horror movie or thriller, it's nevertheless an entertaining, at times tense and overall well acted little film. Well done, Kev!
The verdict
Zack And Miri Make A Porno (2008): 8,5/10
Red State (2011): 8,5/10
Clerks II (2006): 8,5/10
Jersey Girl (2004): 8/10
Chasing Amy (1997): 7,5/10
Dogma (1999): 7/10
Clerks (1994): 7/10
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (2001): 6/10
Cop Out (2010): 5/10
Mallrats (1995): 4/10
Although the tag-line for the film claimed 'all you hear is true' this is of course a highly fictionalised account of Mozart's life. From the additional 20 mins extra the stand-out scene is one in which Salieri embarrasses Konstanze, where we finally get to see her bosoms which have been threatening to pop out for most of the picture!
Have to say slightly disappointed with the blu-ray transfer of this film, could have been so much better, but where it does score is in the Dolby True HD 5.1 sound. Magnificent. A truly great Oscar-winning (8) film that everyone should see…and hear!
You might want to consider giving his follow-up horror flick, Tusk, a chance. I'm reviewing that one soon.
Endless Love: I only watched this because it was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Awful title song. But my gosh, was Brooke Shields stunning in this movie.
Bye Bye Birdie: thought I might watch this to understand a particular Mad Men episode better. It was ok, but I hate it when a girl has to choose between two equally unappealing partners, and then ends up making the make the most 'moral' decision between the two.
Mes Nuits Sont Plus Belles Que Vos Jours: Sophie Marceau isn't given enough credit on this website for her sleaziness. Plus people are always saying Eva Green has a great figure and is particularly sensual (which she is) but sometimes I wonder whether anyone has even seen this movie or La Note Bleue or a lot of her early 90s stuff.
Rope: I think even Hitchcock himself called this a failed experiment. Dial M for Murder was also set in one room and based on a play, so I don't know what went wrong here.
The Uninvited (1944): on the subject of Hitchcock, this movie reminded me of Rebecca. It's lovely and when I retire in 101 years, I also want to live in a omnious house by the sea.
La Piscine: A re-watch. Good acting, gorgeous setting, great movie overall, etc. but I'm not gonna lie... I watch this mostly because of Alain Delon's stunning face. Also Romy Schneider really got more beautiful with age (not that she started out ugly).
La Novia Ensangrentada: my favorite 70s lesbian exploitation horror movie. A re-watch as well. It's just incredibly entertaining, though it's more the kind of movie to watch around winter time.
I'm all set to watch Baron Blood as well speak, which some of you recommended me. It'll be hard to top Lisa and the Devil. Even though it was a little campy (which is by no means a bad thing (: ), there were a few very tender moments and I love how well Bava used Concierto de Aranjuez on the soundtrack. The ending was great because when she gets back to the square you get the feeling it's finally over, but then on the airplane the nightmare continues and it leaves the viewer feeling wonderfully gloomy.
I might do actually, I saw the trailer for it. Thought it looked really weird, in a good way, and I like Justin Long, so I might check it out :)
Neither film appealed to me. The first had elements of Space Odyssey, but it nowhere near that classic on any level. The second was an interesting idea that never got beyond interesting idea.
Same. Thought he was great in Die Hard 4, very likeable and had great chemistry with Bruce Willis (something Reginald VelJohnson and Samuel Jackson also had in their respective Die Hard films, but that Jai Courtney lacked in Die Hard 5).
I think you'll like Baron Blood, if you liked Lisa And The Devil. The former has some nice sequences, one especially set at night.
There is an alternate cut of Lisa And The Devil, it's called House Of Exorcism. LISA is how Bava intended the film, HOUSE is a product of the studio having seen The Exorcist, and re-cutting (inserting more scenes) LISA to piggy-back off of Friedkin's film. HOUSE is included as a special feature of the Arrow release of LISA. I need to update my copy of LISA to that one, same with BARON.
Gerard Butler plays the action part well, Obviously 300 is by far his best. Have to say I loved this popcorn movie which in parts reminded me of the Expendables and it was great to see Rick Yune again ina more convincing villainous role.
Jason Statham is fantastic as the villain. He actually doesn't get many lines but Statham is naturally badass enough for that not to matter, the guy oozes badass, and he's built up as a real threat. Whenever he shows up, you know shit is gonna go down. The UFC chick from Expendables 3 (who you may remember as the only member of the new Expendables who you didn't wish would piss off so you could watch Sly and co) was in it and she had a cool fight scene with Michelle Rodriguez.
Sadly Tony Jaa was pretty wasted. I mean his fight scenes were good, and it's nice to see him in a big budget Hollywood blockbuster, but he didn't get much screentime given what the man is capable of (he's done some insane stunts in his martial arts films, seriously, suicidal stuff) it is a bit of a disappointment.
The ending was pretty well done though with how they paid tribute to Paul Walker (my wife isn't even a big fan of these films and she was getting teary eyed) and they did a good job setting up the future of the franchise
A pretty enjoyable, if a bit overblown, action film that continues down the direction that Fast Five established (it took them five films to get it right, I wasn't a fan of the first four, but then they really nailed it with that one), and a great tribute to Paul Walker.
1) Fast Five
2) Fast and Furious 6
3) Fast and Furious 7
4) Fast And Furious
5) The Fast and The Furious
6) Tokyo Drift
7) 2 Fast 2 Furious
EDIT: I forgot to mention the real highlight for me. I've mentioned before that I'm a big Mad Max fan and that I'm looking forward immensely to the new one. Well before Furious 7 started there was a 5 minute preview of Mad Max Fury Road! Looks really cool, visually stunning and seems to have captured what was great about the first two. They showed the trailer and a clip from the film which sadly didn't feature Tom Hardy so I still don't really have any idea how good he'll be in the role. The thing that stood out to me most was Nicholas Hoult. It was really weird watching him knowing that he was Tony in Skins and, before that, the kid in About a Boy. Really talented actor.
<font color=#334455 size=5><b>11</b>Tusk (2014)</font>
Kevin Smith is a man of many talents. He writes comics (and ones I rather like), makes movies (which is of course the reason why I'm doing this retrospective), performs at fascinating and funny Q&A's and hosts a podcast, the SModcast. During an episode of said podcast, Smith and his regular movie producer Scott Mosier conceived the idea for what would soon become the film Tusk.
Justin Long plays an arrogant young man who hosts a podcast with former 'cute kid' Haley Joel Osment. For this podcast, he travels to Canada to, basically, make fun of unfortunate people. But fate takes him to a very remote place where he meets a disabled Michael Parks. This encounter goes dark pretty quickly as Long is drugged and then anatomically rebuilt to become a walrus-like pet friend for Parks. Alarmed by Long's sudden disappearance, his friend Osment and his girl friend Génesis Rodríguez try to find him. They call upon the services of a rather weird private investigator played by none other than... Johnny Depp. Yes, THE Johnny Depp. Will they find Long in time?
Let's forget about the impressive cast for a moment and return to the story. One very obvious little thing is how much it resembles The Human Centipede. So if Red State went for a Texas Chainsaw vibe, Tusk clearly emulates the heavily debated, controversial sadism of Tom Six' Human Centipede series, except for the turds. But there's something really intriguing about this story, especially with the strange mix of body horror on the one hand and outrageously "carnavalesque" silly inspector stuff with Johnny Depp's Guy Lapointe, who, by the way, at times looks a lot more like John Malkovich.
There's that cast again. Yes, look at some of those names. I'd think Long, Osment (sort of), Parks and Rodríguez are impressive enough but to have Johnny Depp and his daughter Lilly-Rose in a Kevin Smith film is downright awesome. And if you thought that Captain Sparrow was eccentric, you must see what Depp does with Lapointe. Depp doesn't act as Lapointe; he acts as a ridiculously bad actor trying to be Lapointe. The funny thing is that you can't take your eyes off him. Smith must also have realised the potential of this silly character because Lapointe will be back, but more about that soon.
Tusk, despite its obvious weak points, is crudely entertaining. We are hurled in a whirlpool of surprises, strange choices and constant reminders that this is still a Kevin Smith movie. Like a bad dream being told about while half forgotten, several chunks of story are almost incoherently pasted together but somehow Smith's managed to get a fairly decent horror film out of it. Sadly, the film didn't perform very well, but that, apparently, won't stop Smith from pursuing a trilogy of films all set in Canada. Tusk is the first in this so-called True North trilogy, with Yoga Hosers and Moose Jaws numbers 2 and 3. Yoga Hosers will bring most of the Tusk cast back, including Depp and his extravagant character, and is up for release in June this year. But until we get there, I can only say: recommend on Tusk. It's nothing too special but it's pretty amusing.
The verdict
Zack And Miri Make A Porno (2008): 8,5/10
Red State (2011): 8,5/10
Clerks II (2006): 8,5/10
Jersey Girl (2004): 8/10
Tusk (2014): 8/10
Chasing Amy (1997): 7,5/10
Dogma (1999): 7/10
Clerks (1994): 7/10
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (2001): 6/10
Cop Out (2010): 5/10
Mallrats (1995): 4/10[/quote]
After this
Despite Kevin Smith's previous announcement that he'd quit making movies, his True North trilogy seems to be taking shape and meanwhile a Mallrats 2 and Clerks 3 are being prepared too. It'll be interesting to see Smith return to the Viewaskewniverse he left behind him, at least in film, about a decade ago.
And I'll proudly continue watching Smith's films, reading his comics and watching his 'Evening With Kevin Smith' Q&As, which I still think are hilarious and interesting at the same time. I'm a Kevin Smith fan after all. It should show that I am. Only Mallrats is a failure in my opinion, the rest I like and some I like very much. I understand that I'm in a minority position here. Most people who have seen Smith's films dislike him or mock him, but I believe in Kevin Smith. His talents as a filmmaker have grown considerably over the years and a couple of those latter movies are really well-made. He's one of the 'cult' directors for my generation and I still think he's underrated.
Snooch.
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus - a bit messy, I think, and I did enjoy it more in theatre, where it probably belongs more than the much smaller tv, but it was still interesting and fun enough, and it is definitely much better that this movie exists than that it wouldn't. I appreciate everyone involved making the extra effort and all the changes needed to the script and everybody's schedules, and Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell lending a hand (them being added actually works well in the story), to get the movie finished despite the tragedy that struck in the middle of production.
I wasn't prepared for the text at the end of the movie, before the rest of the credits, where normally it would have said "A Terry Gilliam film" it had, instead "A film from Heath Ledger and friends". :(( And some of the dvd extras, well... :((
This may come as a surprise but I had never seen this film before except once when I was far too young. And now I'm constantly asking myself why. I really love this film! DeNiro is great, for once I actually like Nolte (just this once), Lang and Lewis are great in their roles too and Joe Don Baker is delicious. Mitchum and Peck... man, I can't wait to see the original in which they play the lead parts, but I appreciate the cameos.
Great score! Bernstein took the original Herrmann score and slightly re-arranged it; makes me looking forward to that original even more.
Martin Scorsese is the right director for Cape Fear. I'm not sure Spielberg would have made it quite as tense, yet he was originally going to direct it (and Scorsese was originally going to do Schindler's List... Strange how things turn out.)
Of course being the Simpsons fan that I am, I sort of knew this film already... ;-)
Cat-Women Of The Moon (1953)
Uh yeah, like I could resist with a title like that. Come on, "Cat-women of the moon"? That's like milk and I'm the hungry feline. Besides, this hardly counts as a film with barely 60 minutes of material. Black-and-white material. And sci-fi. And from the 50s. And definitely not one of the greats like The Forbidden Planet, The Thing From Another World, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, ...). By the way, when I say sci-fi, the emphasis is on the "fi".
I can't believe this crap got put out. We just land on the moon because, well, that's like really simple, and we walk around as if one sixth of Earth's gravitation doesn't make a difference. Furthermore, to demonstrate that it gets really warm in the sun, a guy burns a cigarette. On the Moon. In total absence of oxygen. Right.
But never mind because there are women. Cat-women. From a 2 million year old Terrestrial civilisation that figured out how to get to the Moon and, get this, build Greek temples and such. In a style from barely a few millennia ago. Oh and suddenly everyone can breathe... outdoors, mind! I guess the trick with the cig wasn't too fantastical after all.
Make no mistake, that title is still worth it. But unless you're exceptionally trained in watching cheap 50s sci-fi that hardly merits the effort, you're going to loose your mind over this, either from cracking up like you never have before, or from trying too hard to get something out of this. This is bad stuff, folks. It's bad now and it was bad then. I'll take Pitof's Catwoman over this any day. Oscar winner Halle Berry swallowing cat food? Still a whole lot better than Cat-women Of The Moon.
I saw Nolte in Hulk and that performance totally messed up my feng shui.
Besides, he got to star in a movie with Jacqueline Bisset in the 70s, which makes me dangerously envious of him.
He was great in Rich Man, Poor Man.
Anyway, I watched GATTACA the other day. The subject of genetics is a very interesting one, so why was this film so mindnumbingly boring? Even the score was way off.
Wow, seriously?!
Now now, that is of course your opinion. ;-) I remember sitting through the film for the first time and going WTF! in my mind all the time, but I couldn't wait to see it again when it was finished. It's been my favourite film since. The amazing images, the great camera work, the wonderful use of music, the story... This is a superb piece of filmmaking! And all of it done without computers, without CGI. I'm in awe everytime! :-)
As a whole 2001 is slow moving, but the direction can't be beat