Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[william kent]

Alligator (1980) - fantastic Jaws rip-off with Robert Forster and Henry Silva in full on bonkers mode.

I was looking around for a cheap DVD of this and couldn't find one then discovered a bunch of people have stuck it on YouTube,

 

[william kent]

thanks for the link, great to know Alligator is somewhat lauded in certain circles. I'm curious about UFOs Are Real now. I don't know those films you mentioned, are they worth it? I just read a quote from someone describing Return of the Secaucus 7 as "dull proto-mumblecore with moments of sincerity". sounded interesting to me at least.

I liked Secaucus 7 and didn't think it was dull. I watched it when I watched a bunch of reunion films - The Big Chill, Beautiful Girls, The Decline of the American Empire - and it was a toss up between that and Decline... for my favourite.

 

[sus]

It has a killer theme by Cipriani, too:

You weren't kidding, the whole soundtrack slays

 

[craner]

You weren't kidding, the whole soundtrack slays

I never kid.

 

[IdleRich]

Cipriani is great. Femina Ridens soundtrack also good I seem to remember



What else?

 

[IdleRich]

Craner - or anyone - have you seen those pastiche ones by that husband and wife team? Probably we discussed before, I mean Amer, The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears and Let the Corpses Tan? I'm sure you don't like em anyhow, but the soundtracks are well chosen, again just regurgitating the classics, but the classics are so good...

 

[craner]

No, I haven't seen any of them.

I've seen Femina Ridens, though, that is a FANTASTIC movie.

 

[IdleRich]

You know the films I'm talking about though right? I've only seen the first two and I enjoyed them though I struggle to understand why they exist.

 

[craner]

I do and I feel the same, they look so pointless.

 

[IdleRich]

The problem is not that they are giallo pastiche but more that they are so much so that it feels that there must be some sort of obscure rationale behind their choice to do that.

It's not as though they are some guys who love 70s Italian film and so their films inevitably show that influence, it's more that they did some sort of re-edit* of the genre and presented it as a challenge; see if you can figure out what this is about eh? And I can't so I feel as though I am completely failing to understand some post-modern joke.

*I originally wrote remix, but a remix is done by someone with privileged access to the bits of the original, it might feature vocals that didn't appear on the a-side or it can be pulled apart and put back together differently, ultimately it's less in hock to the original. A reedit where someone just has the overall track and can cut it up and extend bits or loop them or change the order or whatever, but can never be more than another version of the original is much more apt here.

 

[nochexxx]

I was looking around for a cheap DVD of this and couldn't find one then discovered a bunch of people have stuck it on YouTube,

That's how I watched it too. Also found Tentacles there, which I thought was fun. Charmed by the super rediculous pacing. YouTube is a bit of a goldmine. I'm hesitant to post links in case they become deleted. Next of kin is on there and the cut is ace.

 

[william kent]

Exit Wounds (2001)

Ridiculous. Everyone's ripped and a martial artist. Steven Seagal jumps over a car. DMX runs up a wall. The cops tase each other in the locker room for fun. I'd almost forgotten Seagal did proper films at one point.

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Meryl really turns it up to 11 in this one, also Bruce Willis goes completely against type and plays a horrible, scheming, wimpy, "nice guy". Some amazing effects and set design too; didn't expect the body horror stuff at all and there are lots of lavish, gothic interiors.

"This is life's ultimate cruelty. It offers us a taste of youth and vitality, and then it makes us witness our own decay."

 

[william kent]

I was only half paying attention, but a Marilyn Monroe thing called Don't Bother to Knock was on TV earlier and she was really good in it. I don't think I'd ever seen her in a serious role before, just The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot.

 

[IdleRich]

She was in All About Eve.

 

[luka]

I was watching a Fassbinder film about some gays and it was ok but I got bored and had to switch it off

 

[luka]

I watched a different, more confusing one of his earlier in the day anyway

 

[william kent]

I've only seen Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.

 

[luka]

did you like it? I'm gearing up for a really depressing one next.

 

[william kent]

Yeah, I did. Very moving. I haven't watched it since and I'm rarely in the mood to, but I'm glad I did. Fassbinder himself's in it as the main character's obnoxious son.

 

[luka]

I might watch that or bitter tears of Petra von Something