Be Excellent To Each Other

I really want to see Moon, but none of the nearby cinemas showed it when it came out (and I couldn't find a torrent either). Looking forward to the BluRay release.

This weekend I decided on doing an impromptu Back To The Future marathon, as I hadn't seen the films in years. I can report they are still very, very good and I don't think they've really aged at all either. Plus, everytime I see them I notice new details that I hadn't spotted before and it's remarkable how a time-travel story can be so remarkably devoid of plot holes - the film-makers seem to have pre-empted virtually every pedantic criticism anyone could make of the overall plot. I think I'd actually go out on a limb and say the original is one of my absolute favourite movies and probably one of the best proper 'blockbusters' ever made.

There is a motorbike, they steal it. It's part of the plot. Happy Meal merchandising be damned.

Look, it's just fucking great, okay? Don't think about the book, though the film does clew quite close to the plot, it just throws in all this extra character stuff that works excellently. It's a Wes Anderson film completely, so if you hate those, you'll dislike this. But it's funny, charming, idiosyncratic, lovingly made, beautiful to look at and whimsical.

I'm going to watch it again.

Spook!
viewtopic.php?p=300607#p300607

Heh! Funnily enough I spotted Elijah Wood in BTTF II and was thinking to myself "I know I read he was in this but can't remember where...".

Still though, it amazes me how meticulously well thought out everything in the plot is.

One of the best little touches is in the first one - Marty goes to Twin Pine mall to meet the doc at the beginning. When he travels back to 1955 for the first time, he drives away from the angry farmer and runs over a sapling pine tree. At the end of the film, Twin Pine mall is called Lone Pine mall

In the Loop: Not much of a movie, more about 90 minutes of people insulting each other. But still watchable with some funny quotes.

Knocked up: How did Seth Rogen got the job as an actor? The man can only act as himself, and he's a prick. The movie is pretty much depressing. We got this pretty and smart girl who gets pregnant by a piece of shit and we're supposed to be happy for them to try to work out things?

One I never noticed until last night was how Doc volunteered to meet Clara at the train station in BTTF III. When Marty shows him the tombstone photo and it becomes fairly clear that this is the 'Beloved Clara;, he chooses not to meet her after all. Except him and Marty do end up at the train station after all, to speak to the driver of the train Clara comes in on to see how fast the train can go. Immediately after this they look at a map of the railroad on the train platform. In the background you can see Clara, waiting for someone to meet her.

Or the dealership the Marty's 4x4 gets delivered to in BTTF. It's called Statler Toyota. In 1955, the Statler dealership is still there, selling 1950s cars. In BTTF III, you can see a billboard for 'Honest Joe Statler's Horses & Wagons'.

Or the whole Shonash Ravine/Clayton Ravine thing. At the end of BTTF III, Clara had been rescued by the doc, but the train pushing the DeLorean did end up falling down the ravine. Presumably the townsfolk thought Marty/Clint Eastwood was on the train when it fell, as in 1985 Marty goes past a sign for 'Eastwood Ravine'.

I do so luffs the BTTF movies.

Ooh, dead interesting these spots. Now I have to watch 'em all again - hurrah!

And Biff is great. Not enough props to the actor who plays Biff. "Think McFly! THINK!"

Totally. Thomas Wilson is awesome as the various incarnations of Biff and you can tell he must've had a massive laugh playing Bufford 'Mad Dog' Tannen in Part 3.

Anyway, got work to do, so I better make like a tree and get outta here.

Is the box set out on BluRay? With none of the 'repeatedly shittily reframed and exposed by a complete incompetent' palaver that meant I never got the DVD?

Edit: No.

It's been years since I watched any of them and I have the boxed set so I've no excuse to remedy that.

Saw Whistle Down the Wind last night, for the first time the early 1960's B&W flick set in Lancashire about three kids who find 'Jesus' in their barn. It's one of the best films I've seen, and reminded me of childhood days oop North and all the old things the old folk would say.

"Use yer loaf."

"Yeh daft, yeh are."

An' all that. The film's completely devoid of sentiment, every frame shot is a work of art in itself and the child acting is superb and very funny. Best bits are with the youngest of the three, the little boy Charles played by Alan Barnes.

(Apropos of nothing while eating egg at breakfast table...)

Charles: "Hunnerd an' ninety-eight."

Cathy: "What?"

Charles: "Hunnerd an' ninety-eight eggs ah've had since Easter."

Strongly recommended. Bernard Lee's excellent as the dad too. The ending doesn't cop out either but remains true to reality.

Battlefield Earth was on the other night. Did anyone watch it? I was looking forward to shaking my head at what is pretty much universally considered the worst film in the world. It was, however, not even entertainingly shit. Just bland and dull and stupid and ridiculous. Bonus point for exclusively employing narcoleptic cameramen, though.

I watched maybe an hour in total, on and off. 0.03/10.

You got further than I did.

I watched all of it. Do I win a prize?

You get to watch it all over again!

Years ago I had a job as a till tart in one of our local branches of Game. We were, at the time, one of the only shops of any kind in the town that opened on a Sunday (since 90% of the shops were in a shopping mall that was at that point owned by the Church). As we used to get an average of two customers all day, myself and the manager would mostly spend the day watching films. Once we watched Battlefield Earth. In between praying for customers to walk in, I spent the day cleaning, dusting, sorting out the pre-owned sections... anything, anything that would be more interesting than that dull as shit film. God it's awful.

They even managed to make AV-8B Harriers vs Spacechips dull, for christ's sake. Aeroplanes vs anything is usually a surefire winner.

Off work sick today, watched double bill of Nosferatu and Shadow of the Vampire. Highly recommended.

Shadow of the vampire is excellent.

Stuff wot I seen recently:

Zombieland - generally easygoing, fun and likable zombage. Bizarrely seems to get all the gore out of its system in the first ten minutes, spending the rest of it shying away from money shots almost entirely. It won't change the world, but it'll pass an evening quite nicely. Great use of vintage 'tallica in the opening credits.

Sukeban Boy - Early effort from the director of Machine Girl, starring cute-as-a-button Japanese pornstar Asami as a teenage boy with the face of a girl, who infiltrates a girls' school populated by sadists and perverts. Also featuring a bunch of other pornstars, action scenes that would've been outtakes in anything else, a surprisingly good leading turn by Asami and no actual porn. And looks like it was made over a weekend with change from a fiver. Loved it, though your mileage may (hugely) vary.

And just got Coraline on dvd. I'm so looking forward to seeing that again I'm saving it to treat myself on a crappy day. Joint film of the year for me, along with Let the Right One In.

Saw Drag Me to Hell yesterday. Not scary but bloody good fun.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil.

Excellent documentary. Very amusing but also touchy. I felt really sorry for the guys because of that disastrous european tour. But still, even if they don't play my kind of music, i'm glad things are working out for them since the documentary has been released.

Saw Saw VI earlier. Not bad at all. Easier to follow than the last one, certainly.

From the trailers before the film -
Law Abiding Citizen. Looks good and might be worth another trip to the cinema for.
Harry Brown. Looks another good 'un.
Twilight - New Moon. First I've really seen of this Twilight stuff.. god it looks awful.
The Descent:Part 2. First one was rubbish so why bother with a sequel?

The Descent was awesome, bitch.

It was, wait for it..... decent. AHO!

Yes. You are correct.

Are you sure you're not thinking of 'The Cave' which was indeed awful.

The Cave wasn't great but I preferred it to the Descent. I think every character in the latter got what they deserved. A pretty, but hateful, cast.

What is it with 'pretty but hateful' casts nowadays, eh?

We need more, "Awww man!" moments as beloved ugly dudes bite the dust in films. Dudes like Dick Miller.

I could fill that role.

Phone Joe Dante circa 1980, I'm sure he can work something out.

All hail devilman, rightful king of all Wrongolia!

Given how much The Descent and Doomsday rocked my face, I really ought to get round to seeing Dog Soldiers at some point.

More characters like Cooper in Event Horizon. "Here I come, motherfuckers!"

And, of course, William Hurt in Dark City.

That role was perfectly used, I reckon. He was obviously the comic relief, but only had about six lines, and wasn't just a one-liner spewing machine - you and the other characters could actually take him seriously, and know that when things got bad he would shut up and not be all "Sheeee-it, muthaaafucka."

I love Event Horizon. Even though it's never quite good enough to be amazing or really enduring, it's a very well-made film, with lots of small but effective touches. If I were a film lecturer, I'd be all over it. And then kill myself, or get a less pointless job, obviously.

I wanted to see what it was like to be Mr Chris without wasting all that time doing Law.

I'd like to know why people think it's good though.

Personally, I found it well-acted, hugely tense even before Really Bad Things happen and awesomely, chokingly claustrophobic. It's a proper horror film. Plus: great ending.

Scenes from Doomsday were filmed outside my old flat in Glasgow. There was an old primary school there which was all boarded up and they covered it with Doomsday related graffiti. They also covered the whole street with vine like things all over the outside of the buildings so you couldn't see the flats and it looked all overgrown and they put upside down burnt out cars in the street.
We had to park across the main road and up the street a wee bit in a designated area, it was quite annoying. Still not seen the film though, I should really watch it.

Jennifer's Body - It was quite well shot. Set design was often quite nice. The music was often pleasant (which surprised me). However the direction was terrible and Megan Fox still can't act. The script was trying to be good and did achieve some good moments of witty lines but mostly it's pretty flat. The male lead was astonishingly bad.

but more importantly, is she naked?

You should, it's pretty good. Dog Soldiers is fucking brilliant, however.

She does get naked but there's nothing shown properly. She's usually shot from behind (ooer) or it's a close up of her unzipping her top so you see the bottom of her breasts. She does make out with whatserface who plays 'Needy' if you like that sort of thing. And even if you don't she still does it.

That's utterly. Bastard. Groovy.

Doomsday is like every trashy eighties action movie you've ever seen thrown in blender and turned up to Awesome. I've got chums who really took against it but I absolutely loved it.

Lovefilm queued.

Doomsday should be called Mad Maxine and the Knights of the Round Table: Escape from Scotland 48 Hours Later.

Yes. Of course, the best thing about Doomsday is that it has Rhona Mitra in.

yes, she's like a still quite wealthy man's Kate Beckinsale.

Holy crap she's in Rise Of The Lycans!
/orders

And she does sexy time in that too.