come on people, let’s get this thread back on track.
Saturday Night i went to an all-night horrorthon at the aero theater in santa monica where they screened night of the living dead, re-animator, house by the cemetary, castle of blood, pumpkinhead, and burial ground. House by the cemetary basically re-affirmed my distaste for fulci but it had a few cool moments.
Back at home I watched Near Dark and Slither from netflix. both were alright but nothing special. I thought Slither picked up in the second half but it mostly missed the mark, maybe because Im pretty zombie-d out by this point. Near Dark was cool but ended up being just too convential to really get into.
My mom sent me the Halloween 4 and Halloween 5 divimax edition dvds and I started watching 4 last night. I think I like it more each time (I hated it the first time I saw it). The mask takes some getting used to but the plot is much better than what follows. I still have bad feelings about part 5 but Im looking forward to the extras. I always had a fondness for part 6, especially considering the two that came after.
living in san diego, do you know how few chances we ever get to watch old movies on the big screen? there is like 1 good theater in all of san diego and not surprisingly, its in the heart of the gay community. its an old theater, but the audiences are always awesome and the movie choices are always good. it one of the only non-campus places you can watch documentaries.
onto october movies - i watched all of my faves this month. the only ones i haven’t watched are the haunting(og), the omen and psycho. watched carrie for the first time in probably 15 years, i was very impressed by it. normally i am very, VERY annoyed by de palma’s directing, but i liked some of the sequences in this one. my fiance had never seen the devil’s rejects, so we watched that. i think i enjoyed it much more the second time. i went on a zombie fest back in august with all of night, dawn and day of the dead, along with dead alive and fulci’s zombi 2. zombi 2 was all in all boring. shark vs zombie was funny, but mostly i found myself wanting to fast forward.
i watched the 100 scariest moments on bravo also. i don’t know why i watch those shows. i am always overly annoyed by their choices and placement. the follow-up 30 was even worse, but i really hate most of the modern horrors. they did put dead alive and old boy on their list, but if anything, they belonged on the first…
L.A. is revival heaven. We have the American Cinematheque which encompasses both the Egyptian Theatre on hollywood blvd and the Aero in santa monica; then there is the New Beverly which has 2 screenings of a revival double feature every night (3 different double features a week) as well as 1 grindhouse double feature a month, and holiday screenings (tonight and tomorrow night they are showing Fright Night and Friday the 13th).
Then there is the Nuart which does revivals occasionally along with indie stuff and foreign genre (from bubba ho tep when it originally screened to azumi, etc). And the Laemmle theaters have midnight revival shows on the weekends.
Then there is a foreign revival theatre in west l.a. that shows a lot of kurosawa stuff as well as a silent movie theater which is supposedly the last one in the country.
Man, and I’m forgetting that the El Capitan (Disney’s big theater on the blvd) does weeks worth of old disney movies all the time (usually coinciding with dvd releases or anniversaries), and across the street the Graumann’s chinese usually screens revivals every once in a while (lots of Amblin titles) and even the Arclight has some occasionally.
To top it all off, since this is L.A., most of the screenings mentioned above are attended by the directors, cast, cinematographers, etc who do Q&A’s.
I gotta say, Spike Lee is a great director. I can say he is up there as my top 5 fav directors/producers.
I recently watched ‘Do the Right Thing’ and ‘Clockers’, both of which are amazing films. I also watched ‘25th Hour’ and was pleased with it. Right now I have ‘Girl #6’ and ‘Malcom X’ in queue. Further down I have ‘Jungle Fever’ and ‘He got game.’
After watching ‘The Departed’, I’m on a huge Scorsese high, and just finished watching ‘Casino.’ Sharon Stone played a superb role as Ginger. I can say comfortably Casino > Goodfellas.
I also finished watching Gangs of New York. Overall the movie was excellent, I was a little disappointed with the music composition though. It didn’t feel like a Scorsese movie, especially when they started playing ‘U2’ during the credits of the movie.
I also have ‘A Better Luck Tomorrow’ in my next queue. Gonna see how that pans out.
Just finished watching ‘Boogie Nights’ and realized the homosexual guy who was infatuated with Dirk Diggler was Philip Seymour Hoffman! Good stuff. Great movie. I just added ‘Capote’ in my queue. Wondering how good that one is.
Recently watched ‘Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels.’ I was watching it with the ‘Snatch’ mentality throughout the movie. I guess I was comparing it too much to Snatch, but Guy Richie did a good job. Overall it was a good movie, but lacked the one liners that Snatch had, as well as some of the ‘coolness’ factor. I did like the ending a bit more though.
Also has anyone watched ‘A Scanner Darkly’, w/ Keanu Reeves? It’s been on my netflix queue forever and it has no indication of coming out on video.
i can say in a way i never meant it before - i hate you pg…i’ve got to get up to la more often…is there any place i get get listings online of whats showing at these theaters or is it more like go to them and see whats playing. what are the crowds like? how early would you suggest showing up for a movie?
Did you also notice Thomas Jane as the friend/instigator in the drug dealer scene?
I actually havent bought the criterion Dazed and Confused because the Bev shows it generally twice a year and I always go see it. Same with Fast Times…every time it screens, I go.
other listings are on yahoo movies or the like if you browse by area code
crowds are not an issue; it is a regular thing so even the most popular screening is fine. I’ve been to screenings with david cronenberg, quentin tarantino, stuart gordon, etc and crowds were never a problem and you dont have to get there too early.
Another good thing about the egyptian is that they show the 70mm prints of some movies like Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, Playtime, and Baraka which you really cant see anywhere else and dvd does not do justice.
ok, so we are coming up on the “oscar season” of films. which films do you think will be worth seeing. the only one i’m excited to see is mel gidsons new film, i think it will be an amazing piece. i want to see volver, i hear its another very good film, and i still need to see the departed. i don’t know if i will have a chance to see the departed though, maybe it will get a re-release at oscar time…
I’m pretty sure Scorcese will get snubbed again for The Departed… I don’t see a movie of that subject matter (as well as an adapted story) getting a lot of praise… I see it getting nominated for Best Screenplay (would this be an Original or Adapted Screenplay? Don’t know) and Supporting Actor for Mark Wahlberg or Jack Nicholson, and other technical awards… but like I said, I’m counting on a total snub.
I hope there isn’t another Eastwood jerkfest at the Oscars, regardless of how good Flags/Letters is supposed to be…
i was watching goodfellas last night and literally laughing out loud at the fact that kevin costner and dances with wolves took the oscars that year. if nothing else, that proves how much of a farce the oscars are…
Swordmaster 2 looked pretty cool from a trailer I saw. Anyone seen it?
Watched Legend Of A Fighter… great film. It has a funny sequence where the son is so angered that his father won’t teach him kung-fu, that he runs off to the forest to cry. Apart from that, it’s a cool film with great characters, and alot of focus on actual fighting and martial arts.
