LADY VENGEANCE

LADY VENGEANCE aka SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE



In one word, phenomenal.
I started watching this film at lunch today. I saw about 20 mins of the thing and was immediately hooked. It could be that I am a fan of Park Chan-Wook and I am biased to his style of film or his scripts. Mostly, I enjoy his idea of revenge and the outcomes or no-comes of what happens from it.
Dang, so you have this girl of nineteen that goes to prison for a kidnapping/murder and begins plotting her revenge against the antagonist. But really, is she a protagonist. Yes, I think maybe so. Thirteen years in prison, planning. Precise movements for when she will be let out.
The violence is less than his previous works and it suggests that he moved toward a more mental idea of violence. I guess. Shit, I dunno, the film was badass for so many reasons. If you know anything about Park Chan-Wook's works, you know that he has some sweet cinematography. Sometimes beautiful, but more beautiful in a sort of geeky film nerd way. Like, dang how'd he go and cut that in with that other shot so seamlessly? Fuck yeah! That's why this guy is a complete fucking sweet dude. As far as director's go.
So, it's a Korean film. It's subtitled. If you don't like foreign films that are subtitled, well then, you probably don't like good movies. Sorry, it's really just the truth. The fact that you don't want to "read" while watching a movie is most likely because you aren't that good at doing two things at once. So please, if you are reading this and you have stopped chewing your bubble gum, then maybe you should stop reading now.
Okay, the dumbheads are gone. Fuckin' yeah! So watch this if you are into thinking about terrorism, vengeance, love, happiness, innocence, beauty, film making, empathy, understanding, despair, justice, anger, parenthood, childhood and emancipation.

Oh, and you should probably know that this is the third in Park Chan-Wook's trilogy on revenge. The first is Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the second is Oldboy. So you may want to see the other two first but I don't think it will really matter because they all hold up on their own. I would see them all if you like good things. Oh, and they can get pretty violent.


I GIVE LADY VENGEANCE A NETFLIX RATING OF 5 STARS FOR KICKASS BEAUTY THOUGHT LOVELY-NESS

(update)
I hadn't thought about it until now. A movie trailer!

STAND BY ME

STAND BY ME



After thinking about this movie, I decided to watch it for the billionth time.

Sometimes called a "coming of age" film, Stand By Me has become something of an obsession in my life. Rob Reiner crafted a masterpiece from Stephen King's short story. You will find a lot of interesting film ideas that are simple but affective.
One of which happens when our protagonist Gordy LaChance is walking down the street in the small Maine town. You will find that Gordy is walking on the sidewalk but seemingly going nowhere due to an easy camera effect. This is a summation of the better part of the movie - going somewhere without actually going anywhere. The movie - to me - has nothing to do with the 4 friends finding Ray Brauer's dead body, but finding out who they are and who each one is.
This film envokes many ideas in the viewer without really having to try. It wraps many themes but the strongest is our sense of mortality and the power of friendship. What are we without that which we are remembered by? This, in a sense, is what immortality is. What not of anyone if they are not remembered for their good where-with-alls and their bad?

A few things -

Everyday by Buddy Holly is something of a strange childhood song that will forever be haunting and stunning to me. When I saw this film in the theatres (just before my first communion), I was absorbed by the time period and the music. Of course, like the nerd that I was, I had to get the soundtrack. The money from my first communion was plentiful and afforded that pleasure. I would play Everyday and tight rope walk the edges of my waterbed frame for hours. Making the rounds from one end of the waterbed frame to next until the song was over. Then, I would rewind the tape and play it again. And again. And again.
Strange that when I heard it used in Gummo by Harmony Korine it had much of deeper meaning during the montage he had created during the film. But I always thought it belonged to me and it always will.

When Vern finally spots Ray Brauer's body by the back Harlow road, Gordy voice over states that none of them could breathe. Since the first time I watched this film, I would hold my breath during that part wanting to feel like the rest of the 4 boys. I still hold my breath during that part. It's almost a silent acceptance of being alive I guess.

Mostly this film filled my mind with the experience of being a young boy and curious of death and mortality. For the better part, it makes me think of my own experiences - my own best friends when I was making the "change" from a boy into a teenager. But always, it will remind me of the friends I had when I was twelve and the fact that they were some of the best friends I had ever had. But unlike the last few moments of the film, I still have good friends and I feel that they are as good as I had when I was twelve. Of course, we're all grown and I don't think like I did when I was twelve. But sometimes, sometimes I still do.

I GIVE STAND BY ME A NETFLIX RATING OF 5 STARS

THE REAL MCCOY

THE REAL MCCOY



Whoa-kay. I was looking thru the movies I have that my friend Mike's dad (who is also named Mike) gave me. His dad was on this thing all not renting from Blockbuster (fuck those guys, and fuck you Aaron Spelling) and other places and just buying movies at the "previously viewed" price for years. So he ended up with all kinds of sucky and also pretty good movies. Well, he was downsizing and knowing I'm a movie buff, he went ahead and gave me most of what he had.
This was one of the movies that was given to me. So I have this crazy love for Val Kilmer that pretty much started with Real Genius (which is possibly one of the greatest nerd comedies of all time, and a good buddy flick too). Immediately when I saw that Val Kilmer was in it I was thinking "Oh shit dood, another good one where he's all slick like in the remake of The Saint and shit, aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh guy, this may be alright. Or really, just what I want to watch" - A movie with Val Kilmer.
Well, it was ok I guess. I've never been much of a fan of Kim Bassinger. I mean, she was good in Nadine with Jeff Bridges but that just may be that I have a love for Jeff Bridges. Shrugs.
So she's this chick that's badass at robbing banks and she goes to jail because this dude wants her to rob a bank for her and she gets let out six years later and yeah, she has a kid that she wants to get back in contact with and boo hoo.
Guy finds out she got paroled and and it's all BAM in your face - I'm kidnapping your kid, bitch so it's time to rob a bank with me and my stooges.
Whatever, I mean, it was ok. There were plenty of things that were predictable but my most favorite was the dude that blackmails her has this affinity for animals that KILL. He has a couple of tigers on his estate so of course I thought, "Alright! I know one of these baddies is gonna get eaten by a jungle cat sometime around the end of this thing". And yeah, I was almost right. Fat chunk of a dude almost gets eaten by the tiger but they didn't show the details of his escape. I guess maybe he shot the cat with his gun or something. It was just disappointing to not see what happened in that scene. Like, if the cat attacked him and he got all mauled like in that Altar Boys movie.

I GIVE THIS MOVIE 3 NETFLIX STARS JUST BECAUSE I WAS HAPPY THAT COOL VAL KILMER WAS IN IT. BEYOND THAT IT WAS DECENT AND THINGS

Also, Val and Kimmy get away at the end and that is kind of good to see. SEE BAD GUYS GET AWAY

ON A SIDE NOTE

SPOILER : THIS IS NOT A MOVIE REVIEW

I watch lots of movies. Sometimes I don't review them. If you would like to be my Netflix friend, I would be happy to be yours. My email is function213@gmail.com!
Sometimes, I leave notes about films on that site. If you are not a Netlix member and like movies, I suggest you get an account. I like it and have been a member for many years. It is good.

THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION

THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION



Ah, romantic comedies. Mkay, so a dude who is gay and a chick that says he can live with her because he has just been dumped by the main dude on Wings the tv show. There's some good stuff, mostly the idea of a more mainstreamed acception of "different lifestyles" and what not. That was good. Then I got to thinking about the role of mainstream culture in media when it comes to the "gays" and what have you. So people have been attracted and acted on their attraction to the same sex since forever. Shit, even animals are gay. So come on, why are we so upset about the unification of same sex partners? Anyway, this kind of tested the idea of the junk we think about. Like, Jen Aniston is all wanting Paul Rudd's nuts and wanting him to be the dad of her kid - but wait, so the biological dad of the kid is the dude who was the brother on that show with Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser. So he's all "what up? dude's gay. why are you living with him" and all that stuff and then she drops a bomb all "I want gay dude to live with me and lalalala to raise the child". Drama ensues and they are getting all huffed about some relationship with some would-be actor that gay dude is seeing. Anyway, it turns out good and super cute with them being all nice and happy.
I liked it. Shrugs. It was a different turn on your typical romantic comedy. You want Paul Rudd to get "straight " again and be Jen Aniston's lover/husband/father. Well, dude's gay. LAY OFF JEN ANISTON! SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE GAY, JESUS!
Not the most incredible romantic comedy about a gay dude getting all best buds with some straight chick but it was pretty interesting.
Alan Arkin was pretty good as an editor or some garbage.

I GIVE IT A NETFLIX RATING OF 3 STARS FOR BEING SO-SO AND COOL FOR MAKING ME THINK OF WEIRD SITUATIONS INVOLVING GAYS AND STRAIGHTS. IF YOU LIKE ROMATIC COMEDIES WITH ENDINGS THAT AREN'T ATYPICAL YOU WOULD ENJOY THIS MOVIE

THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION - PRESENTED BY MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000



I like MST3K. A lot. But you know the story that sometimes they are pretty boring. Anyway, I meant to come home and do laundry and maybe warsh some dish or two but I found another Netflix guy cold marinating in my mailbox and decided that it would be better to watch it first to kind of "lay low on the gunny-tide" for a bit.
The movie was some b-thang from '75 and yes, it sucked. There were some good things about the drolling commentary that I thought were particularly funny but it was not one the greater MST3K episodes. I'm still waiting for the "golden moment" when they really kick thru. Getting on with it, this is one from when Mike Nelson took the show over and while he is not as funny as Joel Hodgson, it still was pretty ok. For the most part, my heater wasn't really kicking out the goodness and I was under a blanket on the couch watching it drinking the finely brewed lager from Missouri. It didn't really help to push the comedy to it's nth. This review is lame because I didn't feel the episode.

I GIVE THIS EPISODE OF MST3K : THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION A RATING OF 2 NETFLIX STARS

Next in my queue is Star Trek : The Original Series Vol. 4

SLITHER



I'm watching the dang ole Slither thang. Kind of a zombie/alien/end of the world sort of thing. My favorite character is this middle aged dude that I think is the Mayor of this small town that they are in or something. He's got some good lines and he goes on about the fact that he likes Mr. Pibb in this one scene and it's pretty histerical. OH SHIT! So I guess his name is Jack and they just got him! DAMMIT! I liked that dude.
At any rate, so at the beginning the guy from Mallrats that plays the dad of the girl of Jeremy London's affection gets attacked by this alien worm and becomes a crazed monster that uses this girl as a womb for more little worms. They find this girl in a barn all bloated up like homeslice in Strange Brew when he drinks all the beer in the beer tank. It's pretty rad how she goes on about how she's all hungry and junk and can't stop eating and then BANG! she pops and all these alien worms come out and infect the town. The cool parrt about it is the guy who first got attacked is pretty much the mind of all the zombie victims any of the worms attack. His wife, Starla, gets all batty when she finds out that he is still alive but in multiple bodies that can spit zombie poison acid and junk.
I've been trying to finish it for the past couple of days here and there but it's been hard because Tracey is not into the genre of HORROR! Oh yeah, Nathan Fillion from Firefly fame is in it. Dippity-dooed Malcolm Reynolds playing all sheriff in a small town with infectious alien worm ridden zombies!

UPDATE: I just finished Slither and it was Slitherific! I mean, if you enjoy alien wormed zombies, explosions, monsters trying to impregnate you with their hook like phaluses, romantic comedies you would love it!

I GIVE IT A NETFLIX RATING OF 4 STARS FOR FUNTASTICNESS

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY


Before sitting down to watch this again, I told Tracey to "get ready for a cinematic EXPERIENCE!!!" She asked what made it an EXPERIENCE!!! and I told her that it had to do with the fact that there are "themes" and "philosophies" in the film that would just about blow her mind and please sit down and stop doing laundry. To which she replied "2001: A Nap Odyssey". har har.
I guess I never paid attention to the 3-5 minute black screen in the beginning of the film. You hear an orchestrated bit of weirdness that is audible but not too audible. This made me turn the volume up. I was all waxing like I had a pair and told Tracey that "this is symbolic ... it's all 'in the beginning there was nothing' kind of thing". I don't think she buys my thoughts on "symbology" sometimes.
Ok, so I'm lying on the couch and just kind of getting into the 2001 thing while she's cleaning up and walking around and not enjoying the film when Mike Graves calls and is telling me that there is an Ali G marathon on HBO right now and I should watch it and yadda yadda.
I turned off the movie and watched some Ali G all cold cracking on some wrinkly geriatrics. Anyway, I ended up watching 2001 a couple days later with some beers and Tracey on the couch. I love this movie. It is awesome. I think I said "this is badass because there is no CGI" like 28 times.

I GIVE 2001 A NETFLIX RATING OF 5 STARS IT IS AN AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT AND MANKIND SHOULD BE GREATFUL TO STANLEY KUBRICK