The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

[robodaz]

Conan... I'd forgotten about that.

Must. Watch. Soon. (tm)

[llj]

Conan the Barbarian is a great swords and sorcery fantasy flick, but I feel like it featured Arnold about 5 years too early. People who are familiar with Conan know that the character was a pretty sociable guy actually, and had a great sense of humour. The Conan in this movie doesn't talk much and doesn't get much of a chance to show his charisma. Contrary to popular culture's impression of the character, he wasn't just a big jock, he was the type of character you wouldn't mind sharing a beer with, and was usually smarter than he let on. All this is more in line with 1988 Arnold, but in 1982 Arnold was still very green and unsure of himself. Not to mention Hollywood hadn't yet realized how funny he could be, so they kept his lines down to a minimum.

[_D_]

I remember buying the Lancer edition books in the late 1960s (still have the set) and reading them through my High School years. The character could be very moody and withdrawn at times. I never envisioned him as a big muscular jock either, but more in line with the way Barry Windsorsmith first drew him. But the Arnold version has stuck in people's minds ever since the release of the movie. Hard to fight that...

[llj]

Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982)--Futurama fans will want to check this one out. Remember the episode where Fry went back in time to sleep with his own grandmother to essentially become his own grandfather? Well, I think this is the first time that gimmick appeared in a movie. Pretty fun stuff. Timerider is essentially "Back to the Future part 3 with a motorbike", but it has its own modest pleasures and tricks to bring to the table as well. Strangely enough, there were sequences in the film that made me think of Megazone 23 part 1. I guess the music is a big part of it--motorbike sequences set to 80s synth bgm will always make me think of Megazone 23. This was Fred Ward's first big starring movie role. (Someone needs to re-release Remo Williams on both blu ray and DVD again, by the way)

The Funhouse(1981)--More 80s horror. This is actually a pretty well known film, but I'd never seen it before. Tobe Hooper showed great promise working on his first studio film here (before essentially getting his career destroyed by Steven Spielberg in Poltergeist), displaying a great sense of how to shoot Panavision widescreen compositions. This is easily one of the most underrated displays of visually appealing widescreen photography from the 80s. The film is bursting with color, and there's a formal elegance to the way each frame is composed that belies its b-horror status. There are a lot of shots here that are just beautiful--the last shot of the film in particular is one of the most memorable shots I've seen from the 80s (it owes more than a small debt to Orson Welles' crane shot from Touch of Evil, though. As do ALL crane shots that came after Touch of Evil, come to think of it). It's very unusual; you don't see a lot of American films from this time period with this sort of approach to visual framing, making it feel more like a Japanese "Tohoscope" film at times. The Japanese were absolute masters with widescreen 'scope' ratio during the 60s and 70s--I believe one critic of Japanese film said that no matter how bad a Japanese film during this time period was, the majority of them always displayed a keen sense of visual composition. As for the film itself, it's rather tame and basically a monster movie in the Frankenstein tradition, but it does excel in mood and atmosphere.

To Rome with Love (2012)--Slightly inspired by some of the buzz Woody Allen's new film is getting, I'm watching some of the stuff he's been doing recently, starting with this one. This is as lightweight and depth-free as they come, but every now and again Woody throws in a great line or two that makes you guffaw. I've come to realize that Woody Allen really doesn't make films for other people, he makes films for himself. So all those complaints about him being out of touch and anachronistic is rather useless when you consider that his films are less an attempt to reflect the world objectively than an attempt to Make Sense of the World According to Woody.

Resident Evil Afterlife (2010)--Yeah, okay, I've seen some of the films from this franchise. I admit it. And I didn't always want to kill myself afterwards. Nothing much to say here. You need to enjoy this on a purely surface level. As film critic Glenn Kenny once said: these are some the most subtext-free zombie films ever made. There is absolutely nothing underneath to dig for. I can't help but think that if Paul WS Anderson (no relation to the OTHER, more ACCLAIMED PAUL "T" ANDERSON) just tried a WEE BIT harder to be original, these could have been considered memorable cult genre films. The best cult directors have some spark of originality or artistry, but WS pretty much grab bags all his tricks from better directors. So yeah, he's a hack. He's got some skill with a camera though--I'd still rather watch this guy's movies than Marc Forster's stuff. Boy, that guy can't direct an action scene if his life depended on it.

[greg]

Resident Evil Afterlife (2010)--

At least it's worth a good laugh!

[llj]

Yeah, yeah...

Honestly, I don't really laugh at it either. It's just...the enjoyment I derive from this franchise (and its sister franchise, Underworld--still love ya, Kate!) is more akin to the Homer/Bart Simpson level of "The best part was when the building fell down! Man fall down...funny!" It's my vegging time.

Anyway, I watched The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) last night after marathoning through the hilariously grim Basilisk anime series (spurred on by a looming library due date). The Glass Bottom Boat is often considered minor Frank Tashlin by film snobs, but I think it's worth a second look. It definitely features one of Tashlin's stronger treatments of a female lead. Doris Day in her day was the kind of actress that's similar to how Sandra Bullock is considered today (America's Sweetheart, lightweight but loveable, etc), but I have to say her movies have had a pretty good batting rate with me. I've enjoyed most of her stuff, actually, and her movies aren't as saccharine or eye rolling as her reputation suggests. And yes, I've seen all her movies with Rock Hudson and liked them.

[greg]

I watched Free Enterprise again over the weekend. It was my second time watching this. It is full of geek references for sure, but it's not quite as fun to watch as I expected when I first bought the DVD. Bill Shatner plays "himself" in it, which is a little fun, but the main characters don't seem to grow. The two main guys have glaring problems (one is completely irresponsible and the other is heartless), and although eventually they call each other out on their issues, by the end of the movie neither of them seem to have changed much.

[greg]

I watched Escape From New York for the first time last night. I rented it from Tsutaya. I looked for it there before, but that's because I was searching for "Escape from New York" and all I saw was "Escape from LA." I happened to find it under the Japanese name of "New York 1997."

So the movie was pretty entertaining. I was told that Snake from Metal Gear Solid was directly patterned after Snake from this movie, and the characters are very similar (except Snake from MGS has a mullet and no eye patch). I'm curious to watch the sequel now.

I also rented another SF movie I've never gotten around to watching: Logan's Run. Again, the Japanese title is different, and I'd translate it as "Journey to the year 2300." I was really looking to rent Silent Running, which I have also never seen before.

[_D_]

I take is Turner Classic Movies is not run in Japan? Lots of films on there you may be unfamiliar with. My PVR is full of films I never saw like "A Thousand And One Nights" with Cornel Wilde and Phil Silvers. They have been running the Hammer horror films for several weeks now and a lot of obscure sci-fi and fantasy films (along with a lot of classics). Stuff I have yet to watch includes a couple Arsene Lupin films, several swashbucklers, several westerns, The Story of Riki (run in a late night cult films slot), etc.
I should see if there is a streaming site you can get the channel from...

[yusaku]

I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who episodes lately. I am a big Tom Baker fan. Also, I have been watching Breaking Bad on Netflix.