Author Topic: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013  (Read 53114 times)

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #270 on: October 22, 2013, 10:47:14 AM »
I see no value judgement there. I'd be happy to have an (insert any member name here) of a time.

I'm glad you had fun with this, 1SO. del Toro has always been good at the design stuff, and he really thinks about the frame he's working in as evidenced by that shot you put up there. I, too, wanted to see more daylight fights and the last battle was the least interesting outside one phenomenal shot. Would the movie have been better with a better story/characters? Certainly. Does it need those things to be a fun time? Not at all.
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

roujin

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 15508
  • it's all research
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #271 on: October 22, 2013, 12:09:53 PM »
roujin is higher than asuperplus, right?

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #272 on: October 22, 2013, 12:20:54 PM »
A Junior of a time isn't a measure of general quality, but a specific reaction that I saw what he saw in the film and enjoyed it on much the same level. He's right in that it's not a great movie but on a level of pure fun it's the most enjoyable film of the Summer.

Sandy

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 12075
  • "The life we build, we never stop creating.”
    • Sandy's Cinematic Musings
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #273 on: October 22, 2013, 01:15:21 PM »
Them!




What an intense snapshot of a moment in time past (or is it?). Throw in The Day the Earth Stood Still and Invasion of the Body Snatchers and it becomes a holographic image, depicting the realization that the threshold from innocence to "we have bitten off more than we can chew" has been crossed over. No turning back now, but must brace for the ramifications. The movie options are nearly endless for this type of horror and continue today. That's one of the reasons I asked or is it?, but the other is because we keep walking over that threshold. Why just today my sister went on about GMOs and hairy teeth. I thought I had stumbled into my own horror movie! I would defend Them! as groundbreaking, and it is, but then I must go back and look at Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to see that our "too big for our britches" mentality and the consequences it incurs have been going on for a long, long time.

As for the ants? This movie is way more impressive than I was expecting. The detail of the story's premise and the quality of the actors, as well as the care of the sets showing the destruction, offset the "pipe cleaner" antennae by a long shot. Very well done.

verbALs

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 9446
  • Snort Life-DOR
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #274 on: October 22, 2013, 01:40:57 PM »
Aw man I love this film from when I was a kid. The giant ants made a sort of crazy rattling noise. Flippin brilliant.
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #275 on: October 22, 2013, 04:39:22 PM »
Lords of Salem.

I knew what I was getting into. I saw the trailer before the Evil Dead reboot earlier this year and I looked over to my friend and said, "No way will I see that." But when plans go wrong and you find yourself with some free time there's no telling what will happen. Rob Zombie hasn't made a movie I've liked yet, and this is sure to be the worst of the year for me. There's some BS about witches and devil worshiping, which is really just an excuse for Zombie to try to shock us to death with naked old ladies. The horror! We're also treated to his wife, in the lead role, taking some time for herself on the toilet. That'd be tremendously shocking if I hadn't seen at least 3 other movies do the same thing. There are a few creepy images, but the rest is horrible music and even worse yelling. I guess the old suit and tie Devil has gone out of style and now he's into people with bad teeth and dumb hair yelling at him to come and impregnate them with demon babies or whatever. Rob Zombie is trying so hard here and all I can say in response is, "Who cares?"
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

Sandy

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 12075
  • "The life we build, we never stop creating.”
    • Sandy's Cinematic Musings
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #276 on: October 22, 2013, 11:14:29 PM »
Aw man I love this film from when I was a kid. The giant ants made a sort of crazy rattling noise. Flippin brilliant.

:)

You make me wish I'd seen this as a kid too. It would have made a huge impression.

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #277 on: October 23, 2013, 01:05:06 AM »
Doomsday Book (2012)

Having reviewed a VHS film and the ABCs of Death already this month, often commenting how the many weak points tend to weigh down the strong, I'm starting to ponder whether it is preferable to rate these films as a singular whole, just because they are packaged that way. After all, if you rented a short film collection (or watched a short film package at a festival) that bundled various shorts together as short films, you would take them as individual parts. It seems that all of these collections choose to bundle as much because that is the only marketable strategy for short films as any deep artistic demand. So perhaps we should see through the bundle and be willing to celebrate the individuals without regard to what is around it.

Doomsday Book ties three otherwise unconnected stories together with the theme of apocalypse. Vaguely speaking, these are the three well worn threats of zombies, robots and meteors, each with their own twist. The first film, using zombie apocalypse to comment on industrial food production, feels almost wholly uninspired, though in no way offensive either. The third act moves toward more interesting potential in the face of a meteor strike, but doesn't really deliver much. It is the middle film, from Kim Jee-Woon, that should be watched, even if in the midst of the others (though the film is on Netflix Instant and nothing is stopping you from forwarding to the middle film and stopping when it ends).

Heavenly Creature has a robot technician going to a Buddhist monastery to check on a robot that may be malfunctioning, in that it seems to claim, or be claimed by the monks around, to be the Buddha. This setting is quite rich for a fairly deep exploration of religion/philosophy and while much of it is pretty specific to Buddhism, one could reasonably draw this robot as a Christ figure. Would we accept Buddha/Christ or would we think him malfunctioning? Would we demand diagnostic proof or would we take it on faith? Where it gets more inherently Buddhist is when it draws more fully on the nature of a robot and how that can make it seem almost like a divine, superior being when considering what one strives toward in Buddhism to reach enlightenment/Nirvana. The film does feel weaker in its latter part which gets a bit too expository rather than meditative, but it is definitely worth seeing.

The entirety of the set rates very low on the scare scale, with only the first film registering any level of gore so it should be pretty accessible.

Heavenly Creature 4/5
As a whole 3/5

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #278 on: October 23, 2013, 02:47:54 AM »
Kim Jee-woon.  :D

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #279 on: October 23, 2013, 11:19:18 AM »
Sandy, I remember so little of Them by this time. I remember I enjoyed it, which I didn't expect because of the ridiculous premise. If I remember it's one of those films where you can say it's not really about the giant ants, but a bunch of other more interesting things. (I remember the ants being on screen for a very small amount of time.) Do you know about Matinee, starring John Goodman? It meant to be an affectionate tribute to Them and the movie theater promoters of the time. I don't like the film, but a lot of people do.


Junior, every time Rob Zombie makes a film I think "maybe this time" even though House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects and Halloweens I and II are in my Bottom 3 for the years they were released. I love his music but don't understand even the small amount of critical praise he has received. I read WHY you watched Lords of Salem but I still have to believe there were better options.


Bondo, I didn't realize Doomsday Book was the South Korean film with that Kim Jee-woon segment. All this time I thought you were going to watch Hal Hartley's Book of Life. I will watch that segment one day when I'm in the mood for some more KJW. He's so talented.