Our Feature Presentation

DeadChannel · 11-16-2015, 03:58 PM

Hi everyone. It's been a little less than a year since my last post, but i want to start doing this again. I'm going to start moving away from reviews and towards more analysis of films and some other things. Probably write something tonight, stay tuned!

DeadChannel · 11-17-2015, 10:58 PM

OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION: NEW AND IMPROVED

Okay, so, it's been a long time since I updated this. I wish I had continued with it, but I'm glad that I have some perspective now. I stopped because I got bored with it. I'm not Trollheart, and trying to watch and review a quota of movies just wasn't fun. I like movies because movies are ****ing badass, but having to review them made the whole experience a lot less badass. I also felt like a lot of the reviews were lacking stylistically. A lot of the prose is cringeworthy in its turgid, awkward rigidity.

I'm starting it back up today because I still think that it's worthwhile having a place to write about cinema. If I'm ever going to be able to make films professionally, I'm going to have to understand how they work, right? So, this is going to be a bit more free-form from now on. Don't expect me to focus as heavily on reviewing things unless I really feel like I have something to say. Rating **** out of ten is boring. Instead, I'll be posting general impressions and writing about the type of **** that really gets me excited. I might pop in with the occasional essay or analysis as well, if it's a film that I'm passionate about. Yeah, lets see where it goes. Hopefully I can post with a certain degree of frequency, but don't expect regularity!

Top Whatever Films That I Really Like That Came to Mind When I Thought About Movies That I Love But Aren't in any way Definitive Except Insofar as I Would Recommend Them to Anyone with Eyes

So, now, onto this list I've made. I don't really feel comfortable with making a definitive top ten movies of all time. That seems too final: my list changes all the time, and I'm still watching movies daily. How can I do that if I've barley scratched the surface of what cinema has to offer?

No, instead I'll be copying the buttlard. He keeps making top ten lists of the same thing.

Welcome to “Top Whatever Films That I Really Like That Came to Mind When I Thought About Movies That I Love But Aren't in any way Definitive Except Insofar as I Would Recommend Them to Anyone with Eyes”. This time, I'll be focusing on films with real intensity that make me squirm. Some of these are great character dramas, or crime films or whatever, but they're all (in my mind) classics). I'll throw down the two for now, because this has ended up being longer than I had intended, but expect more soon.

Some of you already know my love of Come and See by Elem Klimov, and it ought to by all right be on this list. However, I already wrote a full review a while back, so I wont be including it. Anyway, onwards and upwards!

My first pick is a 1995 French crime film by Mathieu Kassovitz called La Haine or “Hate”. It's a film that deals with a lot of hard hitting real world issues, such as police brutality, racial tensions and Parisian inner-city life through the lens of its 3 leads, Said, Vinz and Hubert. As someone living in the Canada, it's interesting to see these topics dealt with with such raw realism because over here we typically massively romanticize France, and especially Paris. La Haine is filled with funny, over the top yet naturalistic dialogue interspersed with moments of actual horror. Few movies can spin on a dime like this one. Plus, it's got one of the most chilling endings in film history.

A Lot of people compare it to Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Personally, I understand why the comparison is made, but I don't necessarily agree with it. People say this because the film is a smart, witty, intense indie crime film with great dialogue and moments of true brutality, yet plenty of laugh-out-loud funny moments as well. Plus, it came out just a year after Pulp Fiction, and is definitely associated with the 90s indie upheaval. It's possibly that Kassovitz garnered influence from Tarantio's piece de resistance, but I'm reluctant to rob La Haine of its identity as a great film unto itself.

My next pick is Scorsese's 1976 magnum opus Taxi Driver with Robert Deniro, Jodie Foster and Harvey Keitel. When a lot of people first go into this movie, they expect immediate, explosive violence. It is a Scorsese film, and it's been built up to an almost deafening level. It's well known for its bleak outlook and extreme violence. However, while the film goes off like a cannon by the end, its protagonist Travis Bickle (Deniro) just sort of lurks just below the surface until that point. It is chiefly a character study. Indeed, one of the greatest character studies layed to celluloid. Travis haunts us over Bernard Hermann's masterful score.

But lets not forget about the other characters! Jodie Foster, of course, paints a really disturbing portrait of a 12 and a half year old prostitute. The mannerisms, the way she tries to act much older than she actually is... Brilliant and terrifying. This is a performance that truly stays with you for a long time. Harvey Keitel's performance is badass as well, but what do you expect from him at this point? One of the greatest actors ever. Good thing he's in one of the greatest movies ever too!

Okay, that's all folks.

Unknown Soldier · 11-18-2015, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadChannel

It's not really a genre that I've delved too far into, although I'd like to at some point.

Any recs to get started with?

Saw you were back on this thread and forgot to answer this before, so here's 16 I recommend that are amongst the best and highly representative of the genre, but there are countless others out there that people recommend as well. Best to watch them in the order I've put if possible and all are between 1971 to 1973 the glory years of the giallo, with the exception of Blood and Black Lace which is from 1964 and Deep Red which is 1975.

Blood and Black Lace (Bava)
The Bird with the Crystal Plummage (Argento)
The Strange Vice of Mrs.Wardh (Martino)
In the Folds of the Flesh (Bergonzelli)
The Cat O' Nine Tails (Argento)
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (Fulci)
A Bay of Blood (Bava)
Short Night of the Glass Dolls (Lado)
The Bloodstained Butterfly (Tessari)
Black Belly of the Tarantula (Cavara)
The Case of the Scorpion's Tael (Martino)
Mt Dear Killer (Valerii)
Don't Torture a Duckling (Fulci)
What Have You Done to Solange? (Dallamano)
Torso (Martino)
Deep Red (Argento)

DeadChannel · 11-19-2015, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

Saw you were back on this thread and forgot to answer this before, so here's 16 I recommend that are amongst the best and highly representative of the genre, but there are countless others out there that people recommend as well. Best to watch them in the order I've put if possible and all are between 1971 to 1973 the glory years of the giallo, with the exception of Blood and Black Lace which is from 1964 and Deep Red which is 1975.

Blood and Black Lace (Bava)
The Bird with the Crystal Plummage (Argento)
The Strange Vice of Mrs.Wardh (Martino)
In the Folds of the Flesh (Bergonzelli)
The Cat O' Nine Tails (Argento)
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (Fulci)
A Bay of Blood (Bava)
Short Night of the Glass Dolls (Lado)
The Bloodstained Butterfly (Tessari)
Black Belly of the Tarantula (Cavara)
The Case of the Scorpion's Tael (Martino)
Mt Dear Killer (Valerii)
Don't Torture a Duckling (Fulci)
What Have You Done to Solange? (Dallamano)
Torso (Martino)
Deep Red (Argento)

Coolio, next time I get on a stable connection, I'll grab a few of these. Thanks.

DeadChannel · 11-19-2015, 11:27 AM

Mini Reviews

I'm thinking that this might be a good format that allows me to cover more ground without it becoming a chore. I'll go more into depth on films that I've seen multitudinously, and ones that I really love or have something to say about. Let's begin.

I Saw The Devil (I Saw the Devil (2010) - IMDb)

I really liked this movie. It's a quick, smart yet brutally violent Korean revenge thriller -- probably the best of the bunch. A similar film, Oldboy, was much more popular overseas, but in my opinion this is the better movie. It's a lot of fun if you don't mind the gore, and I'd highly recommend it. Probably the second best Korean film I've seen so far, next to Memories of Murder.

8/10

His Name Was King (Lo chiamavano King (1971) - IMDb)

This film left me wanting. I recently bought a Mill Creek box set of like 12 spaghettis for $5, and this was included. I put it on because its theme song was recently featured in Tarantino's Django Unchained ("His name was king/he had a horse/along the country side/I saw him ride..."), and also because it features German actor-turned ******* (and probably pervert, but still a great actor) Klaus Kinski. I've been impressed by him in other spaghettis like The Great Silence. Sadly, this movie has Kinski in it for like five or ten minutes max. Really dishonest advertising here! He has a few good moments, but it's interspersed with a lot of Kinski-less drovel. I can usually dig on low budget spaghettis, but this just didn't do it for me. The soundtrack is super dope though, but that was probably the only think that kept me watching (that and the fact that the movie is only like 75 minutes long...)

4/10

DeadChannel · 11-19-2015, 11:17 PM

Mini Review

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) - IMDb)
Another Korean flick, another masterpiece. Granted, it's one that seems to be divisive, but immediately I'm in love. Up until this point, I'd only seen Chan-wook Park's Oldboy, which lead me to expect something entirely different from what I got. I was anticipating a raw, violent, tense revenge thriller, but instead I got this sad, surreal, but still very violent revenge drama. There were legitimately a few moments that I started choking up.

See, the film sets off as a brilliant surrealist tragedy, and remains a tragedy until about two thirds in, when, after about an hour and a quarter of melancholic tension building, it explodes into a shower of gore. But this isn't the irreverent yet no holds barred violence of something like I Saw the Devil. No! However shocking, however brutal, it's almost poetic.

Perhaps the film is at times alienating. The first part seems poised to bore some who'd be attracted by the second part. The second part might scare away those attracted by the first. The way the film plays freely with narrative and style might be too much for typically mainstream audiences to stomach. However, when you put all of these elements together you get something nearing perfection: you get Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance.

It might be worthy of a ten, I'll get back to you on that.

DeadChannel · 11-22-2015, 03:11 PM

Mini Reviews

I've got a few more to post my thoughts on!

The Bad Sleep Well (The Bad Sleep Well (1960) - IMDB)

I'm a big fan of Akira Kurosawa, and this certainly didn't disappoint. It's a lengthy, complex white collar crime epic with Toshiro Mifune and Takeshi Shimura. Mifune's performance is particularly impressive here: gone are the manically hot-headed, physical and often slapstick driven roles he played in films like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Instead, we get something more akin to Superman's Clark Kent. This performance is a thoughtfully complacent facade with some deep secrets and designs on revenge. I guess Mifune isn't an actor who I typically associate with a large range (although I love him), so this was a pleasant surprise. Shimura also gives us a pretty solid performance, and, as usual, the film is beautifully shot. At two and a half hours, it has very few moments of boredom, so I think it deserves an 8/10, and sits as one of my favorites of Kurosawa's works.

Sharknado 2: The Second One (Sharknado 2: The Second One (TV Movie 2014) - IMDb)

From time to time, I really love a stupid so-bad-it's-good b-flick, but **** this movie. Seriously. I've always felt that there's a distinct difference between a film by someone like Ed Wood and a film by The Asylum (the studio cashing in). When I watch an Ed Wood movie, I expect to be able to laugh at the incompetence of the filmmaker. Ed Wood actually thought he has good at what he was doing, and made films because he loved movies. He just sucked, and there's something charming and entertaining about that. Not so with the people at The Asylum. They don't in any way suck at what they're doing. They know that making a bad movie in a certain way can put some hella change in their pockets, and that seems to be their only motivation. That's the thing about sharknado: the idea that it's a good-bad movie is just a facade. It's good in all the ways that won't alienate viewers, and bad in all the ones that will make them laugh. It's stupid as hell, but never slow, because the type of people who they're aiming this piece of **** at are not going to accept slow. It's totally fake, and I'm not of the mind that you can intentionally recreate the feeling that an intentionally bad classic like Zaat provides us with. I couldn't help but feeling like the wool had been pulled over my eyes at the end of this one, and I wont be returning to it. **** this movie.

3/10

VEGANGELICA · 11-28-2015, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadChannel

Come and See is a 1985 Russian war film starring (and introducing) both Aleksei Kravchenko (Florya) and Olga Mironova (Glasha) and directed by Elem Klimov. It's a beautiful and terrible example of soviet cinema. [...]

The music compliments what's happening on screen perfectly. It's seriously some if the most provocative movie music ever. I guess you could describe it as ambient, but, like, the most unsettling ambient music EVER (okay, probably not, but when paired with the movie...).

[...] I also noticed a few split diopter shots (a lens split in two parts, with each part having a different focal length, often used to get deep focus, see. Rather than simply using these shots for deep focus, the film creates some really beautiful visual compositions.

[...] Come and See is a masterpiece, and among the greatest war movies ever made. I can't recommend it for the faint of heart, but if you want to see something truly great, go and see.

10/10

A great review, DeadChannel! It makes me want to see "Come and See" even more than I wanted to before.

I like the information about the split diopter shots, which I wouldn't have known about otherwise. I'm also looking forward to hearing the unsettling ambiant music soundtrack.

DeadChannel · 11-28-2015, 06:46 PM

Hey, thanks. Let me know what you think of the film.

Tristan_Geoff · 11-29-2015, 04:15 PM

Jeez, I've never even heard of any of these. I really need to get caught up.

How do you even find out about these?

11-17-2015, 10:58 PM	#42 (permalink)
DeadChannel Music Addict Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Canada Posts: 1,259	OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION: NEW AND IMPROVED Okay, so, it's been a long time since I updated this. I wish I had continued with it, but I'm glad that I have some perspective now. I stopped because I got bored with it. I'm not Trollheart, and trying to watch and review a quota of movies just wasn't fun. I like movies because movies are **ing badass, but having to review them made the whole experience a lot less badass. I also felt like a lot of the reviews were lacking stylistically. A lot of the prose is cringeworthy in its turgid, awkward rigidity. I'm starting it back up today because I still think that it's worthwhile having a place to write about cinema. If I'm ever going to be able to make films professionally, I'm going to have to understand how they work, right? So, this is going to be a bit more free-form from now on. Don't expect me to focus as heavily on reviewing things unless I really feel like I have something to say. Rating out of ten is boring. Instead, I'll be posting general impressions and writing about the type of ** that really gets me excited. I might pop in with the occasional essay or analysis as well, if it's a film that I'm passionate about. Yeah, lets see where it goes. Hopefully I can post with a certain degree of frequency, but don't expect regularity! Top Whatever Films That I Really Like That Came to Mind When I Thought About Movies That I Love But Aren't in any way Definitive Except Insofar as I Would Recommend Them to Anyone with Eyes So, now, onto this list I've made. I don't really feel comfortable with making a definitive top ten movies of all time. That seems too final: my list changes all the time, and I'm still watching movies daily. How can I do that if I've barley scratched the surface of what cinema has to offer? No, instead I'll be copying the buttlard. He keeps making top ten lists of the same thing. Welcome to “Top Whatever Films That I Really Like That Came to Mind When I Thought About Movies That I Love But Aren't in any way Definitive Except Insofar as I Would Recommend Them to Anyone with Eyes”. This time, I'll be focusing on films with real intensity that make me squirm. Some of these are great character dramas, or crime films or whatever, but they're all (in my mind) classics). I'll throw down the two for now, because this has ended up being longer than I had intended, but expect more soon. Some of you already know my love of Come and See by Elem Klimov, and it ought to by all right be on this list. However, I already wrote a full review a while back, so I wont be including it. Anyway, onwards and upwards! My first pick is a 1995 French crime film by Mathieu Kassovitz called La Haine or “Hate”. It's a film that deals with a lot of hard hitting real world issues, such as police brutality, racial tensions and Parisian inner-city life through the lens of its 3 leads, Said, Vinz and Hubert. As someone living in the Canada, it's interesting to see these topics dealt with with such raw realism because over here we typically massively romanticize France, and especially Paris. La Haine is filled with funny, over the top yet naturalistic dialogue interspersed with moments of actual horror. Few movies can spin on a dime like this one. Plus, it's got one of the most chilling endings in film history. A Lot of people compare it to Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Personally, I understand why the comparison is made, but I don't necessarily agree with it. People say this because the film is a smart, witty, intense indie crime film with great dialogue and moments of true brutality, yet plenty of laugh-out-loud funny moments as well. Plus, it came out just a year after Pulp Fiction, and is definitely associated with the 90s indie upheaval. It's possibly that Kassovitz garnered influence from Tarantio's piece de resistance, but I'm reluctant to rob La Haine of its identity as a great film unto itself. My next pick is Scorsese's 1976 magnum opus Taxi Driver with Robert Deniro, Jodie Foster and Harvey Keitel. When a lot of people first go into this movie, they expect immediate, explosive violence. It is a Scorsese film, and it's been built up to an almost deafening level. It's well known for its bleak outlook and extreme violence. However, while the film goes off like a cannon by the end, its protagonist Travis Bickle (Deniro) just sort of lurks just below the surface until that point. It is chiefly a character study. Indeed, one of the greatest character studies layed to celluloid. Travis haunts us over Bernard Hermann's masterful score. But lets not forget about the other characters! Jodie Foster, of course, paints a really disturbing portrait of a 12 and a half year old prostitute. The mannerisms, the way she tries to act much older than she actually is... Brilliant and terrifying. This is a performance that truly stays with you for a long time. Harvey Keitel's performance is badass as well, but what do you expect from him at this point? One of the greatest actors ever. Good thing he's in one of the greatest movies ever too! Okay, that's all folks. Last edited by DeadChannel; 11-17-2015 at 11:03 PM.

11-19-2015, 11:27 AM	#45 (permalink)
DeadChannel Music Addict Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Canada Posts: 1,259	Mini Reviews I'm thinking that this might be a good format that allows me to cover more ground without it becoming a chore. I'll go more into depth on films that I've seen multitudinously, and ones that I really love or have something to say about. Let's begin. I Saw The Devil (I Saw the Devil (2010) - IMDb) I really liked this movie. It's a quick, smart yet brutally violent Korean revenge thriller -- probably the best of the bunch. A similar film, Oldboy, was much more popular overseas, but in my opinion this is the better movie. It's a lot of fun if you don't mind the gore, and I'd highly recommend it. Probably the second best Korean film I've seen so far, next to Memories of Murder. 8/10 His Name Was King (Lo chiamavano King (1971) - IMDb) This film left me wanting. I recently bought a Mill Creek box set of like 12 spaghettis for $5, and this was included. I put it on because its theme song was recently featured in Tarantino's Django Unchained ("His name was king/he had a horse/along the country side/I saw him ride..."), and also because it features German actor-turned ******* (and probably pervert, but still a great actor) Klaus Kinski. I've been impressed by him in other spaghettis like The Great Silence. Sadly, this movie has Kinski in it for like five or ten minutes max. Really dishonest advertising here! He has a few good moments, but it's interspersed with a lot of Kinski-less drovel. I can usually dig on low budget spaghettis, but this just didn't do it for me. The soundtrack is super dope though, but that was probably the only think that kept me watching (that and the fact that the movie is only like 75 minutes long...) 4/10 Last edited by DeadChannel; 11-22-2015 at 07:31 PM.

11-19-2015, 11:17 PM	#46 (permalink)
DeadChannel Music Addict Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Canada Posts: 1,259	Mini Review Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) - IMDb) Another Korean flick, another masterpiece. Granted, it's one that seems to be divisive, but immediately I'm in love. Up until this point, I'd only seen Chan-wook Park's Oldboy, which lead me to expect something entirely different from what I got. I was anticipating a raw, violent, tense revenge thriller, but instead I got this sad, surreal, but still very violent revenge drama. There were legitimately a few moments that I started choking up. See, the film sets off as a brilliant surrealist tragedy, and remains a tragedy until about two thirds in, when, after about an hour and a quarter of melancholic tension building, it explodes into a shower of gore. But this isn't the irreverent yet no holds barred violence of something like I Saw the Devil. No! However shocking, however brutal, it's almost poetic. Perhaps the film is at times alienating. The first part seems poised to bore some who'd be attracted by the second part. The second part might scare away those attracted by the first. The way the film plays freely with narrative and style might be too much for typically mainstream audiences to stomach. However, when you put all of these elements together you get something nearing perfection: you get Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. It might be worthy of a ten, I'll get back to you on that. Last edited by DeadChannel; 11-22-2015 at 07:34 PM.

11-22-2015, 03:11 PM	#47 (permalink)
DeadChannel Music Addict Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Canada Posts: 1,259	Mini Reviews I've got a few more to post my thoughts on! The Bad Sleep Well (The Bad Sleep Well (1960) - IMDB) I'm a big fan of Akira Kurosawa, and this certainly didn't disappoint. It's a lengthy, complex white collar crime epic with Toshiro Mifune and Takeshi Shimura. Mifune's performance is particularly impressive here: gone are the manically hot-headed, physical and often slapstick driven roles he played in films like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Instead, we get something more akin to Superman's Clark Kent. This performance is a thoughtfully complacent facade with some deep secrets and designs on revenge. I guess Mifune isn't an actor who I typically associate with a large range (although I love him), so this was a pleasant surprise. Shimura also gives us a pretty solid performance, and, as usual, the film is beautifully shot. At two and a half hours, it has very few moments of boredom, so I think it deserves an 8/10, and sits as one of my favorites of Kurosawa's works. Sharknado 2: The Second One (Sharknado 2: The Second One (TV Movie 2014) - IMDb) From time to time, I really love a stupid so-bad-it's-good b-flick, but ** this movie. Seriously. I've always felt that there's a distinct difference between a film by someone like Ed Wood and a film by The Asylum (the studio cashing in). When I watch an Ed Wood movie, I expect to be able to laugh at the incompetence of the filmmaker. Ed Wood actually thought he has good at what he was doing, and made films because he loved movies. He just sucked, and there's something charming and entertaining about that. Not so with the people at The Asylum. They don't in any way suck at what they're doing. They know that making a bad movie in a certain way can put some hella change in their pockets, and that seems to be their only motivation. That's the thing about sharknado: the idea that it's a good-bad movie is just a facade. It's good in all the ways that won't alienate viewers, and bad in all the ones that will make them laugh. It's stupid as hell, but never slow, because the type of people who they're aiming this piece of at are not going to accept slow. It's totally fake, and I'm not of the mind that you can intentionally recreate the feeling that an intentionally bad classic like Zaat provides us with. I couldn't help but feeling like the wool had been pulled over my eyes at the end of this one, and I wont be returning to it. ** this movie. 3/10 Last edited by DeadChannel; 11-22-2015 at 07:38 PM.

11-16-2015, 03:58 PM	#41 (permalink)
DeadChannel Music Addict Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Canada Posts: 1,259	Hi everyone. It's been a little less than a year since my last post, but i want to start doing this again. I'm going to start moving away from reviews and towards more analysis of films and some other things. Probably write something tonight, stay tuned!

11-28-2015, 06:46 PM	#49 (permalink)
DeadChannel Music Addict Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Canada Posts: 1,259	Hey, thanks. Let me know what you think of the film.