roujin's first foray into this disgusting thing called the 80s US Bracket
Ghostbusters vs. Near Dark
Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)
Small Texas towns with teenagers taking the truck out for the night and looking for opportunity. Of course, there is a girl and that girl brings trouble. The Lesson: if something wants to feed off you, don't let it. Our hero will learn that lesson well. There is a strange beauty to these slightly idyllic magic hour moments, they straddle the two absolutes that the film deals in: night and day. After meeting the pretty cute girl, all he will know is night. One of the things that I found interesting was just the setting and the kind of people that are in this film - dusty small towns along the highway, rough and tumble truckers with knives ready to flash. It's not that different of a setting from something like
No Country For Old Men. Motels play a key role in this film as well. The night is so bright and loud and the feeding scenes between the boy and the girl are quasi-orgasmic (keeping with all that vampiric shit). But the boy isn't part of the crew yet. I don't really know what I'm saying. Something about how bad ass and scary it is when the crew goes out the bar. They test him, show him their strength. Who needs the day anyway? This movie is simply bad ass, Tangerine Dream score and all and, at its best, is ridiculously exciting and compelling (and when it actually goes thru with the whole western/vampire thing, it's pretty awesome). The performances are pretty good for what they are, you know? Bill Paxton is fantastically over the top as Severin and Lance Henrikson is all quiet leader bad ass. The boy and the girl are nice and all but it's not really about them. It's about the pull and that magic hour and wanting to live in the sun and wanting to die at night. Shit's good and it's filmed pretty well, too and all that stuff. Right away, its textures are interesting and all that stuff. eh, life sux, get over it.
Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
I didn't laugh that much. I mean, it was pleasant and all. There's something very
nice about it which I liked. I think Sean mentioned it wasn't cynical and all that stuff. Yeah, there's something very wide-eyed and optimistic about the film. I dug that. But, I just didn't laugh that much. Bill Murray was pretty funny being his usual smug self. His face by itself could just make laugh. The rest of the cast was good but not up to his level (although Harold Ramis's line readings were kind of funny). I don't know what to tell you. I've never seen this movie before because I figured it was a nostalgia thing, you know? I can see some of the merits but I don't see what makes this all that great. I must say that the ending with the Stay Puft Marshmallow man deserves its iconic status and all that junk.
This bracket is going to be insane. CINECAST! this shit. Kill yr idols,
Near Dark moves on.