09 September 2013

Warm Bodies (B-) #195

"Bitches man...." haha, great line.  Zombies that can barely communicate.  Struggling to think.   And one of them musters up the line -- "Bitches man....".  Funny.

I haven't bought a soundtrack in a while, but I bet this one is pretty good.  Lots of music involved for a romantic zombie flick.  Even a song off the Pretty Woman soundtrack, or wait, was that Dirty Dancing?  You know what else?  This love story could have used perhaps Information Society's (c) Pure Energy or maybe The Order of Death by PIL (youtube (c)).   Yeah Hardware reference!

I needed to tell you that I am beginning to like Dave Franco.  But I'm not sure why he was in this movie.  As in, not sarcastic dripping, they could have cast Brendan Sexton III to play his role, or maybe that guy who played Napoleon Dynamite....Jon Heder.  I guess Dave Franco is still just a role player and not a featured actor yet.  Also, why was John Malkovich in this piece?  I thought he was busy filming Red 3 with Bruce.  But seriously, the main girl...who is she?  She reminds me of a mix between Kristen Stewart and Amanda what's her name from that Stepfather movie.

I guess this movie was fun.  But not amazing.  More of a slow plodding thinker, that really requires zero thought.  I think my favorite part was thinking about what if I were a zombie or perhaps dead and my ashes were sent flying into oblivion, or in this case, a zombie ate my brain; and then said zombie got to live my life for a few minutes - as a rotisserie of still art photos.  That is what I hope happens.  Either one.  If'm I'ma a zombie in the future, I would like to be able to get a quick movie of someone's life when I eat their brains.  But moreover, when I'm dead and my ashes are flung all over, I want each worm....hell every member of the detritus world, to get a piece of me in them.  And I will be famous!!

08 September 2013

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1976) (A) #194

Very good.  Creepy.  Anathema.

"This slow plodding thriller could suit normal movie-goers who are looking for a quiet, intense and blood-tingling cult classic."  Qlog Sept 2013

Where did this film come from I ask?  How have I never heard of it?  Especially with a epic cast of Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen....coupled with some great supporting characters in Mort Shuman (cop) and Scott Jacoby (magician), both I've never heard of before but they were really good.  This movie had the rhythm of The Abominable Dr. Phibes, the intensity of Calvaire, yet was still cloaked with the classic 70's thriller-style feel - where you see minimal yet you don't see what you need to....  Essentially, not all answers are given which forces the imagination of the viewers to create their own vivid imagery....awh man, I'm still just thinking about some of the craziness that ensued.

The basic plot is a young Jodie Foster lives by herself.  Both of her parents are dead, most recently her father.  But she is independently able to fend for herself, and makes it her mission to ensure others in the town think that her father is still alive - per Jodie's character Rynn, he is just 'not available' at the moment (out of town, writing/transcribing and can't be disturbed, or resting).  A pedophile, played by Martin Sheen, spends the entire movie attempting to get Jodie to be his.  Left alone in the world, all by herself, Rynn befriends a teen magician named Mario and boooooom, they become lovers.  Together they attempt to cover up a giant tangled mess and fend off pedophiles.  There is an apparent tone throughout the movie consisting of that old-school thinking....such as 'I-am-your-superior/elder,-you-will-listen-to/obey-me', which occurs between the adults and Jodie.

Each film I watch like this ends up opening so many doors.  As in, 'Oh, you liked THAT@!?  Well if you liked that then you will most certainly like this....(fill in next awesome movie journey/tangent).'   So, I'm happy to have found it and will look up some new classics based on this theme.  I don't know how to place this one on the list, but I think it might be top 30-40??  Could that be possible?  I might need to sleep on this, watch it a few more times, and then judge where this will fit within the grand picture.

Quickly, just to mention a few taboo type items as I read about this film.  Apparently Jodie disliked filming this and thought the director (I think) was creepy and took things too far.  Even if asked till this day, she barely refers to the film and says she wasn't acting at her best.  She didn't like the nude scene that was requested of her - which ended up being played by her stunt double older sister....and she didn't love the scene with the hamster.





03 September 2013

The Baby 1973 (B-) #193

1973 was a good year for movies, but at first I was not fully sold on this one.  The end had me feeling the vibe of Rosemary's Baby (not just because of the titles)....so it got better.  But for my first impressions however, I had a few gripes.  The actor that plays "Baby" makes this dreadful fake baby noise throughout the film.  Some part of me feels any actor could do a better job then this guy.  Even Jim Caviezel or Brendan Sexton III.  Actually, in a remake effort, Brendan would be a great choice.  Anyway, I tried my best to get by the whiney adult baby noise aspect.  Now onto the plot.  It seemed weak.  I'm used to the more elaborate plots of today, even when not always done well.  I ended up really rooting for the crazy family.  Opposite of what the director probably had in mind.  To me, they were more entertaining and had a more robust character build.  As the movie droned on, I just found myself hoping for them to win.  Perhaps it would make the movie good?  With that said, I could have used some more crazy 'Pink-Flamingo-type' events rising out of them - to give it that whacky edge it seemed to be missing throughout the first hour.  This was part of the hype I thought would endure in The Baby prior to pushing play.  The family was fairly tame compared to today's sick movie portrayals existing on the big screen.



There was some 70's thriller suspense towards the end, with added in awesome music, as the family searched around for Baby in the case workers house.  It seemed like a 20 minute scene, with congo drums, and tenor saxophones - perhaps some fancy oboe work.  Then they classically cued up the rapid psycho violins and ordered jars of splatter ketchup for the actors to share!!

Then came the ending.  Wow, totally awesome demented ending!  Great job 70's movie!  Pretty typical for a thriller from this era, build slowly, not much happens worth getting excited about....and then WAM.  The ending happens and you smile realizing that the people who were the forefathers of horror had it right back then.  They knew how to create suspense and capitalize on it.  I can't stop smiling right now.  Seriously this movie took me for a ride I didn't expect.  If only they could put The Baby into a 25 minute short film, I would not have had to waste so much time with the first hour of the film.  I suppose it was necessary, but just tedious.  Worth a watch.