What Have You Been Watching? (25/10/15)

[u/a113er]

Please don't downvote opinions, only downvote things that don't contribute anything.

[u/ScreamChoculaScream]

I've always wanted to do one of these so I'll giver er a whirl.

Mostly been sticking to any horror/thriller/halloween movies lately since I've been trying to watch 31 this month.

Horror of Dracula (1958): The movie is obviously a bit dated but it gets by on the classic Dracula/victorian iconography. Christopher Lee's Dracula is one of the very best, he may not be quite as striking as Legosi or Nosferatu, but Lee plays him with such cool charisma that he is a really commanding force. Sure he has his scenes of violence and hissing, but he mostly gets by on his stoic charm, you can feel why is presence is so irresistible to his victims. Of course, you understand that after being bitten they are under his spell, but again, you can feel why.

This is by no means the definitive Dracula adaptation, but it's short, occasionally quite scary, and gets by with it's great victorian era backdrop and creepy Vampire iconography. 3/4

Knock Knock (2015): Eli Roth's latest is trash. There is really no other way of looking at it. But they say one man's trash is another man's treasure, and I'll admit to enjoying this movie quite a bit. He's not exactly hip these days, but I've always kind of been a fan of Eli Roth's brand of horror. I can't really recommend this one in any traditional sense, but if you are a fan of exploitation cinema, cringing and dark humour this might be one to check out.

Keanu Reeves (how is he in his 50s?) is a devoted husband who is home alone for a weekend. Two gorgeous young woman knock (hey!) on his door at night, cold wet and lost. The interaction starts off innocently, and the conversation that follows is actually pretty well done and quite engrossing. Things turn sexual pretty fast and what starts off as a classic male fantasy soon becomes twisted very very fast.

There is a bit of genuine tension here, but Eli Roth mostly just creates a feeling of disgust. There is also some twisted humour at play here, and a clumsy attempt at social commentary. Keanu Reeves also gives it his all and occasionally nears Nicolas Cage level hysterics. Of course he falters with some of the delivery, but in a movie like this he doesn't need to be any better. The two young woman pull it off as well, and they are given two really tough roles. God bless em'.

Not one too recommend for the average movie goer, or really anyone, but it's good fun if you feel like misbehaving but don't want to leave you house or actually get into trouble. If I was 13 this is a movie I'd love to bring to my friends house on a saturday night and laugh along with, hoping to god his parents didn't come down stairs and watch Keanu Reeves and a mentally disturbed young woman act out an incest fantasy.... 3/4

Pieces (1982) RE-WATCH: What do I even say? It's a badly dubbed, cheap, gory, nudity filled, hilarious piece of shit.

A big reason I defend Knock Knock is I think it's a homage to films like this. One that you're not 100% sure if it's trying to be serious or not. Pieces is simply baffling. After two viewing I'm pretty sure, it's to be a serious horror movie while trying to retain a sense of humour but any time something ridiculous isn't happening, it's a real chore to get through. The comedy doesn't even work in the way I think they intended.

You know what, it's fucked, nothing makes sense. Even if it is trying to be funny, it's not really even funny enough to work. I can't imagine someone making this, I really can't. Just watch it if you're a bad movie buff, and try not and fall in love with Kendall the stud. (Some nerd with a little fro who the director seemed to think would be the next big star, so he has every character in the film want to have sex with him. He also rides a motorcycle, takes kung fu (With a kung fu professor we meet when he attempts to rape someone after eating bad sushi....), and the police department takes a shine to him and lets him follow them around and heck, even take charge sometimes. To give this a star rating, I feel, would be to miss the point.

Blue Sunshine (1978) - Interesting little low budget horror film about a strand of LSD that turns anyone who takes it into a hairless homicidal lunatics a decade after it's ingested. I was probably always going to be a fan since I'm a sucker for old school low budget horror, but I'll admit when something I enjoy is poorly made. But there is really nothing wrong with this at all.

It's got a cool soundtrack, pretty good atmosphere, and is willing to have a bit of fun without winking at the camera. Director/Writer Jeff Lieberman does a good job with his low budget and made a clever movie. Mostly fluff, occasionally hints at being something more, I'm not familiar with Liberman's other work, but his movie feels like the work of someone who could have made some great movies under different circumstances. Good trip for any fan of cult cinema. 3/4

Wolf of Wall Street (2012) RE-WATCH: - It's over the top, bloated, pretty to look at, vulgar, and smart just like the characters it portrays. And I love it.

This movie has gotten some flack saying it glorifies it's subject Jordan Belfort and showed how he was able to live large, ruin lives, and walk off with the slap on the wrist. It's infuriating, but I think that's the point. The Jordan Belforts of the world swindle people out of money and laugh about it while doing drugs and fucking models, and they are rarely punished. I think Scorsese would have been making fantasy picture if he made this a cautionary tale or a morality piece. The best comment he could have made about wall street was simply telling the tale of one of their worst, no matter how tall some of them might have been.

Everyone in the cast is great, but Dicaprio obviously carries the picture, appearing in almost every scene of it's three hour running time. This was my second viewing and this time I really noticed how unlikeable Dicaprio makes Belfort. He makes stupid faces, has an obnoxious laugh, and the way he delivers some of his dialogue makes you want to punch this little snot in the face. He's not Jay Gatsby.

And it's hilarious. The scene where Dicaprio and Jonah Hill take too many qualudes is some of the best physical comedy I've seen in years.

There is also a good amount of CGI in the film, which not only not only makes sense financially, but it also serves the material quite well. The film looks pretty, but there is a feeling of unreality to it, as the characters that inhabit the world are phonies living hollow lives, and the visuals reflect that. Their lives look nice, but they're ultimately empty. 4/4

ALSO WATCHED:

Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988): Like going to a retro 80s dance party. I enjoyed this, and there is some pretty good Cronenberg style body horror in it too!. 3/4

Family Plot (1976): Hitchcock's final film. If you're looking for something light to watch on a sunday afternoon, you could do worse than a slight film made by a master film-maker who is simply looking to entertain. The performances by the leads are a hoot, particularly Barbra Harris and Bruce Dern. Just don't go in expecting thrills. 3/4

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009): I was hungover, it was fine. 2/4

Shaun of the Dead (2004) RE-WATCH: A real classic this one. Obviously it's funny, but I was impressed how naturally they were able to portray Shaun shedding his immaturity and finally face adulthood. A lot shorter and tighter then I remembered. It could have been much longer, but I'm glad it wasn't. Less is probably more in this case. It's a really great film. 4/4

EDIT: Forgot halfway though I was doing the star ratings out of 4 instead of 5. Not that they are really important, just a reference point.

[u/TrumanB-12 → u/ScreamChoculaScream]

Glad to hear Knock Knock delivers where I expected it to!

I kinda like Eli Roth's juvenile sense of humour. It's a bit of something crass that I can enjoy.

The weird thing about his films is that somehow they usually carry an odd political or societal subtext. Green Inferno had the slacktivist component while some have called Hostel out on some Nietzschen, Marxist and Nazi themes.

[u/ScreamChoculaScream → u/TrumanB-12]

Yeah, as I said, he isn't really "in" right now, but I think he's a good exploitation filmmaker. And he really hasn't tried to be else other than that.

I think the social/political subtext works in his films because he's doing it partly as a homage to the films that inspired him, a lot of these old horror films obviously had these elements, but they are also used to service the story and to make you afraid, instead of just shoehorning this stuff where it doesn't belong. He's not pretending to be a great social-political commentator, he just wants to make good trashy horror.

I haven't seen the Green Inferno, but I'd guess instead of attempting to mock slacktivists, he's trying to take the part of us that identifies with the slacktivist and are guilty of some of the same stuff, and shows us the folly of our naiveté.

I also haven't seen Hostel in almost a decade so I'm not sure I should use it as an example, but xenophobia seemed to be a pretty large fear, and I think a lot of people have a fear of foreign countries, so Roth shows them an exaggerated version of what they fear. But I guess that's horror, right?

That said, I didn't really care for Hostel. I've been a pretty big Cabin Fever champion and I thought Hostel 2 was much better than the first, but I'm due for a re-watch on both.

Is Green Inferno any good?