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Author Topic: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014  (Read 38400 times)

1SO

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #170 on: October 19, 2014, 08:33:43 PM »
I think part of the appeal for a filmmaker is trying to crack the nut of the cult leader. Here's somebody who got a bunch of people to follow him, help him set up a sustainable community and then maintain that community while indulging in his own personal desires. People research Jim Jones or research the rise of Nazi Germany and wonder how the hell such a mass-brainwashing happened. Why didn't more people stand up to this guy and point out to everyone how stupid and insane his request had become. It's not something that just happened once. After Jim Jones there was Heaven's Gate. (Not the movie, though that cult also confounds me.  ;D ) I think Ti West cracked that nut well enough. He made believable some of history's most unconvincing acts.

Jared

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #171 on: October 20, 2014, 01:13:19 AM »
Godzilla

Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche are both so great aren't they? Honestly the movie probably could have just stayed on them and Id have forgotten it was supposed to be about a monster.

Unfortunately for this movie, the characters that we follow more just aren't as interesting, and nor do you feel the need to follow them all that much either. Elisabeth Olsen is a great actress and all but I just didn't particularly feel the need to follow her around so much.

That said, it manages to work here and there, and I think a lot of it is because it has actors that can spill out the exposition without it being dull or confusing (I would sadly apply that to a couple of the action scenes however...). Cranston, Wantanabe, and Hawkins do a pretty good job filling us in on what we need to know and being interesting enough to keep us focused for a lot of of scenes that might be pretty dull otherwise.

Bondo

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #172 on: October 20, 2014, 07:33:38 AM »
Weird, I had a double-feature disc of Homicidal and Straight-Jacket on my DVD queue on Netflix, but sometime in the past couple days that disc vanished completely from their site without notice. I guess that can be struck from my Shocktober slate.

Jared

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #173 on: October 20, 2014, 02:02:14 PM »
Black Widow

Perhaps a neo noir better suited to next month, but it is a thriller about a murderer so why not stick it here?

Debra Winger plays an FBI agent who becomes suspicious and eventually obsessed by correlations she sees between a few recently deceased dead people. Theresa Russell plays the killer she hunts  (not a spoiler, this is revealed before we even meet Winger) and goes around marrying rich people and killing them to get the money in their wills.

Pretty by the numbers stuff in my opinion. A lot of scenes where men in the FBI, local police departments etc push back against Winger's obviously correct theories and it gets kind of tiresome. Feels like the kind of scene that is in about just about every 80s movie of the genre, although I cant put my finger on which ones (a close relative to the rich dad trying to buy off his daughter's boyfriend in every teen/early twenties romance movie). There is no real room for ambiguity since the killer is revealed right from the start. The third act just feels kind of plain, with obvious twists.

What I liked about it? There is a pretty decent suspense scene as the two main characters go scuba diving. Also, Russell is a wonderful villain. She can ham it up or be cold and calculating. She wears in expression throughout the movie wherein you know she is smarter than anyone in the room, but also crazier.

Lukewarm on the movie as a whole.

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #174 on: October 20, 2014, 09:14:24 PM »
Phantom of the Paradise

I happened to run across this one at the library, so I decided to give it a try, after so many positive things were said about it on the forum.

A glam rock musical version of Phantom of the Opera, Faust and Dorian Gray, with a healthy dose of kitsch thrown in. It's hard not to smile at this film, there are so many throw away references to classic horror films, and some songs that are quite good.  This is the first feature by Brian DePalma, and it looks like it.  I wouldn't mind if he would redo this film, with his cinema skills honed.

Paul Williams, the songwriter of the film, seemed to really enjoy his villainous role, but the casting and acting was generally silly by all involved.  But that doesn't really take anything away from the film, which is too much fun not to enjoy.

Not scary at all, 3.5/5
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Junior

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #175 on: October 20, 2014, 10:35:35 PM »
Yep, I had a ton of fun with that one. So silly, but quite effective at creating a super strange and enjoyable vibe.
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1SO

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #176 on: October 20, 2014, 11:10:24 PM »
Phantom of the Paradise

This is the first feature by Brian DePalma, and it looks like it.  I wouldn't mind if he would redo this film, with his cinema skills honed.

Minor point. Phantom was DePalma's 8th feature, his follow-up to Sisters. (That's a solid Shocktober selection.) I also think around the late 90s his cinema skills abandoned him and his style collapsed into self-parody. I pin point the exact moment to Snake Eyes, which opens in dazzling style, repeats a lot of old tricks and by the end is just style for style's sake, abandoning any interest in story or character.

The goofiness of the film can be traced back to some of his earlier comedies, but attaching it to theatrical rock presentations made for one of the most fun channelings of all his film geek knowledge.

Mind if I ask you for a favorite song? I used to love the opener, but now it's the closer ("The Hell of It") that I think captures the tone of the film in all its goofiness.

1SO

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #177 on: October 20, 2014, 11:23:29 PM »
Godzilla
You're right about the cast, but what did you think about Godzilla? There's debate about how much screen time he gets, but I think they did right just teasing him out here and there so that the creature stuff never got boring.


Black Widow
Interesting pick. I'm not big on Russell or Winger, but I wonder if there's enough there to take another crack at the film today. Who do you think might be good in the roles? I'm thinking Rachel Weisz as the FBI Agent hunting Marion Cotillard.

Jared

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #178 on: October 20, 2014, 11:37:29 PM »
I thought the Godzilla screen time was fine, but thought it was weird how little he seemed to be the star of the show during that time. During parts of the final battle we see ATJ doing his thing while the monster battle happens in the background. It was very cool on the scene where they do the jump, parachuting in front of him from head to toe. The reveal with the flares was really cool too. At other times you just kind of wish they would stop doing the Jaws thing, since you've seen the shark and all.

For Black Widow, I think Id go with a dressed down Amy Adams and Penelope Cruz.

1SO

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Re: Shocktober Group Marathon 2014
« Reply #179 on: October 21, 2014, 12:19:04 AM »
Ha. I wrote Amy Adams and then deleted it because I would pretty much cast Amy Adams in everything. I'd watch a remake of Crimson Tide with Amy Adams as one of the two leads.

 

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