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

[greg]

Didn't really have a problem with her visions being depicted as symptomatic of mental illness- usually when people claim to be doing God's direct bidding, it's because they're crazy, and things don't work out so well for them, or for the rest of us if enough of us happen to be in a less than skeptical mood that day.

I get what you're saying but... Okay, so you said you watched the Black Cauldron, right? Would you think the movie would be more interesting if at the end, it turns out that they really weren't using magic, but they were just all crazy and talking to themselves the whole time? The only movie I've seen in which it turns out that the protagonist is batshit insane and he was deluding himself the whole movie---and it turned out to be great---was Fight Club. I'm sure there are others, but it just doesn't work for the Joan of Arc movie. I guess what I expected from the movie is that it would portray a noble girl doing God's will who was betrayed and martyred. Instead it just turned out to be a psychopath tricking everyone into following her. (Kinda like how the Star Wars prequels turned out.) One makes for a compelling story, and the other turns out to be dull with a throwaway main character, not to mention a heavy-handed dissertation on religion in general, full of eye-rolling 10-year-old-kid type questions like "If God is real, how come bad stuff happens?" I was close to just giving up on the movie, but I decided to stick through with it until the end. Bad move, since apparently I didn't learn my lesson when I watched the first Hulk movie.

I think Jovovich did a good job acting crazy, but I guess her performance during the scenes when she's trying to be normal was a bit lacking. Now all she does is those godawful Resident Evil/Biohazard movies that apparently only liked by Japanese adolescent boys.

[davemerrill]

There are plenty of filmed beatific portrayals of Joan Of Arc in movies that show her as a noble girl who was doing God's Will who was tragically betrayed; I recommend the Bergman version, but I believe Leelee Sobeski played Joan fairly recently, as well. It would have been safer and easier for Besson to just follow that lead, but I think his decision to have Joan behave like everybody else who claims be God's telephone mouthpiece - i.e. nuts - actually works in the film's favor. It's not his fault that Jovovich can't act her way out of a paper bag. Wait, he hired her, so I guess it is his fault.

In terms of story, the Black Cauldron is a magical object that exists in a world where magical items exist and are seen and known by all. In Joan's case, we only know God spoke to her because she said so. The question of Joan's sanity was an issue at the time and it's an element of the story in every iteration I've seen, should we follow this girl, is she nuts, etc. It's a question that should be asked every time anybody shows up claiming to have a hot line to God. Usually this means trouble.

I mean, he could have made a film where the sky rolls back and we see God, a film that tells us flat out that She Did Talk To God, Who Apparently Was Very Invested In Norman Real Estate. But Besson wasn't making "The Ten Commandments" (or "Prince of Egypt", for that matter). The truth is that nobody knows if Joan talked to God or not, and the film doesn't answer that question either.

I would have actually preferred a Black Cauldron with LESS magical smoke and mirrors - what I like about Alexander's fantasy is that it's very grounded, the fantasy elements are all from Welsh folklore so at least have a kind of practicality about them. The Disney film is full of glowing smoke and fairy dust, to its detriment. See also THE SECRET OF NIMH, which took a perfectly serviceable science fiction story and jammed as much magical nonsense as it could into it.

[llj]

I like Milla Jovovich. She's not a great actress by any stretch of the imagination, but she's a trooper, and not afraid to get her hands dirty for a role. Someone in the industry once said that the reason there are so few "real" female action stars is because the A-list actresses don't like getting hurt (that's why they tend to be "one and done" action stars or they sign up for action roles with lots of CGI and costumes so that they can avoid most of the harder lumps) The B and C list actresses don't mind taking some lumps, but they're not as good acting wise, so they have to compensate for their lack of acting ability by being, well, tougher. Milla falls under the latter category. Not that it says much for the Resident Evil movies, but she really is the one person carrying that film franchise and much of its success should be credited to her.

She got some good notices for the recent psycho-thriller "Faces in the Crowd", too.

I suppose Angelina Jolie is somewhat of an exception. She's considered "A-list" and she's not afraid of taking a few lumps for the good of a film, but she does have "adequate" acting ability. Even if her star persona overshadows her acting skills by a large amount.

[_D_]

Just saw Elysium last night. Nice film but I sure wish they would do District 9 part 2. Looking forward to Riddick and Machete Kills next. Not much else on the schedule for August.

[llj]

Loved them both. Happy Birthday to Me is the first of my current mission to explore 80s Canadian slasher movies, and it was a good one to start off with--lots of hilarious deaths, dialogue and progressively ludicrous plotting--just the way I like my horror films! And I can't recommend Ninja 3 enough...it just has to be seen at least once in your life. Check the film critic in you at the door. Yep, it was a super cheesy Saturday night for me.

[greg]

Wow, that's a real find! I bet it's only on VHS, right?

[llj]

Both were seen on Blu-ray. If it's Ninja 3 you're interested in, Scream Factory released a BD/DVD combo of that film about 2 months ago in the U.S.

Hopefully someone releases Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja, the other Sho Kosugi movies of the "trilogy", on BD soon too.

[_D_]

Loved them both. Happy Birthday to Me is the first of my current mission to explore 80s Canadian slasher movies, and it was a good one to start off with--lots of hilarious deaths, dialogue and progressively ludicrous plotting--just the way I like my horror films! And I can't recommend Ninja 3 enough...it just has to be seen at least once in your life. Check the film critic in you at the door. Yep, it was a super cheesy Saturday night for me.

My bud collects horror films so I have access to his entire collection. There are hundreds of tapes, DVDs, LDs and Blu Rays in his upstairs library. He is still getting things in. I saw a BD of Street Trash at the store today (http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Street-Tr ... ray/69208/). He has also been collecting books and magazines like Rue Morgue for many years. Quite the guy. Let me know if you are looking for anything that may have no disc release. I'm sure my bud has it...

[llj]

Thanks for the offer, D. I suppose I'm not necessarily a huge horror fan, but I do like exploring cult genres and films that have fallen into obscurity. If there's an obscure movie I want to know about it, I'll give you a shout.

[greg]

Wow. Believe it or not, I just watched Conan the Barbarian for the first time ever. Pretty badass movie. I just never got around to it. I was always more of an SF nerd than a fantasy one growing up, so this movie has eluded me until now. With all the tons of crap I sold to Bookmans before I moved to Japan, I grabbed a stack of DVDs and other stuff with trade-in credit and got the Conan duology collection DVD along with a bunch of other stuff.

Last night I watched The People vs. George Lucas for the Nth time again. I'd watched it with the commentary recently, too. I love that movie. I love the amount of nerd rage in the film. I really identify with it.