What’s up with me? Werner Herzog is one of my top filmmakers of all time, and yet up until tonight I’ve never seen one of his most popular titles. What can I say? I am an enigma.
Anyway, Grizzly Man delivers. It isn’t Lessons of Darkness but when your funding comes from Discovery Channel you have to play ball a little.
The DVD comes with a featurette of Richard Thompson & co. creating the terrific soundtrack. Dynamite.
Ann, Kerry and I all agree: this movie is mesmerizingly bad. I recommend it strictly as train wreck.
God, I don’t even know how to describe it. There are some good points — it feels like other, classic Nic Roeg films. Extremely well shot and loaded with editing dazzle. The problem is that there really is no story. It isn’t that the story is hard to follow – there is just no there there. At times I was thinkin’ that maybe there were some similarities to, say, Turkish Delight, but the only real similarities are Europe and nudity.
Yeah, lots of naked Art Garfunkle. Which in a way is cool. Garfunkle’s performance is the stuff Razzies are made from, but I salute him for his earnestness. The movie isn’t his fault. Roeg’s camera does make him look cool, in a unique way. Thin tie, jew-fro, chain-smoking, deadpan delivery. Theresa Russell suffers the indignity of flashing her private parts to zoom lenses and overblown, ridiculous music on the soundtrack (”Who Are You??” Harry Partch? You have to be shitting me.) I can’t deny a fascination with this movie, but, oy, it is awful.
1/2
Even though the whole concept of a Reg Barclay character doesn’t sit well with me, I can’t deny the fun of this episode. And I remember enjoying quite a bit when I first saw it sixteen years ago. It is basically a retread of the TOS episode Where No Man Has Gone Before, but that is hardly a complaint. Barclay gets brainy and he attatches lasers to his brain. Then some Santa Claus-type aliens appear. Huzzah!
Here’s an episode that makes me want to punch someone in the back of the head. A fine enough mystery, some cool effects, but just BAD decision making. My problem, this time, is with Worf.
Now — Mr. Worf, I know you have it rough. Every single frickin’ time you make a suggestion Picard shoots you down. “Sir, I suggest we raise shields,” you say. . .and Picard always has to humiliate you by jiving you with some “we are here to make contact, Mr. Worf, not posture for battle.” And then, of course, the probe or energy mass or whatever starts zapping the shit out of the ship.
But just because Picard is always dissing you doesn’t mean you can slack off on your job. You are chief of security. Didn’t you think to, I dunno, maybe attach a webcam or something at LaForge’s work station to make sure he doesn’t mutate into a glowing blue alien??! Because everyone knew he was going to. Everyone on that away team 5 years back became a glowing blue alien and then disappeared — and LaForge was the last one. Dr. Crusher basically made a big announcement. And then. . .no one thinks to watch him? WTF?!?
Best is when he does disappear – he is on the holodeck. Fine. So when you, Mr. Worf, and the others race on the holodeck, what do you do? You begin searching the nooks and crannies of the planet program LaForge created. “You check inside the structure! I’ll go behind that ridge.” Now, I know this makes for a cool moment that mirrors exactly what happened 5 years prior (discovery of ripped uniform) but, shit, this is NOT what a chief of security should do. A chief of security should bark out “END PROGRAM!” and then quickly spot the missing LaForge in the little black room with yellow grids. Ridiculous!!!!
I get very angry about things like this.
There are some really horrible special effects in this episode (Troi’s dream sequence looks like a Eurythmics video) but if you can get past that there are some rewards. It is fun to watch the cast suffer sleep deprivaiton, and the concept of communication through dreams is interesting enough. Mixed review.
Max Roach has died. His friend and personal alarm clock (”Good morning MAX!!”) Phil Schaap has scheduled a week-long marathon memorial on WKCR.
I am not the man to eulogize Max Roach. I’ll just say that he was the beat of bebop and, if you check your favorite jazz albums, you’ll find that he’s playing on 9 out of 10 of ‘em.
I saw him perform a few times. Once in a “supersession” environment at the Blue Note, where he played it stylish and cool. Similarly at the Charlie Parker fest in Tompkins Square. But I’ll never forget the time, late in the evening midsummer on the campus of Columbia University – he and Cecil Taylor, neither of them young men, got up on the bandstand and just fuckin’ wailed for a breathless forty-five minutes. No charts, no pause, no mercy. Absolutely unbelievable.
Max Roach was an artists, a civil rights leader and a very cool New Yorker. It was cool knowing he was always around, ready to call Phil Schaap up and give him shit, and still working the clubs. With Max Roach gone there are perhaps no true living links to the golden age of bebop still around. Listen to Max Roach.
These are a times of miracles and wonders…
You know, life is pretty good as it is. I have a place to sleep, a caring woman and feline waiting for me there, I have ten fingers and ten toes, I wear Klingon T-shirts to work and say things like “stop being a dick” to my boss when he’s being a dick — there isn’t much to complain about. I’m a happy guy! Who knew that just like THAT (I just snapped my fingers) my life was going to get exponentially better?
Today I had to go to the Rite Aid to pick up some crap & I called Ann to see if we needed anything around the house. “We’re running low on toothpaste.” The toothpaste aisle is overwhelming with choices – I usually get so flustered I go for the blandest, basest selection I can find. But today this one called out to me: Crest Whitening Expressions – Lemon Ice. I don’t want to sound like a freak or anything, but I can’t stop brushing my teeth!
“It’s like Lemon Marangue Pie!” Ann shouted, as we both hovered over the sink bowl. “Greatest toothpaste ever!” I countered.
I know my grampa used to clean plaque from his mouth by swishing a handfull of gravel in his mouth, and my purchase of this product makes me tout de wuss, but I can’t hide my feelings. O! You geniuses at Crest and parent company Proctor and Gamble — I love you from my molars to my incisors!!
I don’t normally shill for the Man on my own blog, but I think JH.c readers will be tickled by the current Dance moves and pick-up line contest UGO is running with the cast & crew of Superbad. Check it out and vote for your favorite.
I so wanted this to be good. The trailer looked good and Oliver Hirschbiegels first two films were both pretty kick-ass. But there’s a key problem. Does the movie want to be taken seriously, as Roger Rees’ “red-in-tooth-and-claw” monologue suggests? or is it just fun popcorn, as the wacky zombies climbing on Nicole Kidman’s car suggests? As it stands now, it is neither and, therefore, a drag. Things take an awfully long time to get rolling – as exposition is slammed down our throat we also get double-doses of gratuitous Kidman-in-panties and product placement shots. (Hats off to those plastic surgeons and the good people at Mountain Dew!) Midway through, thankfully, some shit is hitting the fan and zombies are running around vomiting on people. Police are out rounding people up but, strangely, there is no menace. Somewhat surprising, given that Hirschbiegel’s first two films were all about the breakdown of social order. The Invasion pales in comparison to the films of George Romero or, say, Children of Men.
Listen: bad sound design CAN ruin a movie. Bad sound design and overbearing, cheap music. ‘Cause the acting is fine, the script (except for one or two moments) is fina and the cinematography is fantastic. But the music. Oy. And the slapped on effects. Double oy.
All that aside, this is a very simple movie. A journey, really, as a young woman raised in a military camp goes out to fulfill her destiny. But will the wise old man (who doesn’t know she’s an assassin) change her point of view? A simple story, at times well told. Points for being ahead of Paradise Now and Day Night Day Night, neither of which I’ve seen.
I was there for work, I swear.
Anyway, my big gallery of photos is here. Some of ‘em are pretty amazing. (Shappy: I met Denise and Mike Okuda!!)
LaForge learns that his dreamgirl from the holodeck is actually a human being, and Crusher and Worf perform a Cesarian on a giant dead space squid. Kinda lame.
1/2
An inside-out story, a ticking clock AND Bebe Neuwirth as an alien-loving nerd? Awesome. A very philosophical episode that gets into the nitty gritty about how and when a planet will be tapped for membership in the Federation. We’ll see this again in a similarly named film. Fun to see current Earth represented as an alien race. Hot stuff.
I probably woulda gone my whole life without seeing Saw, but I met James Wan at Comic-Con and he was so cool I figured I’d check this movie out. It made nine kajillion dollars but I’ve never met anyone who thought it was actually a good movie. Surprise one: it’s a little indie movie! Surprise two: that can’t be. . .oh my God it is! What the hell is Danny Glover doing in this movie? Surprise three: this isn’t nearly as violent as I thought it would be. Surprise four: indeed – there’s actually a plot! Not a good plot, but this isn’t just torture-porn like I thought. Surprise five: ah, that’s a cute little zing at the end. I didn’t see that coming. Surprise six: what was all that nonsense about? But kudos to these guys for making it for peanuts. And do we have any frozen waffles left?
This is not the greatest Richard and Linda Thompson album – not by a long shot. Nevertheless, for the past three days I have been listening to it nonstop.
I wear headphones frequently at work — mostly to block out office noise as I write or, more commonly, dick around with long strings of mls of the ht or x variety.
For three days straight I’ve played nothing but this album. This slow, somewhat dark album with kinda morose non-harmonic voices. Which only has one kickass guitar solo on it. The rest is just slow, repetitive and, I dunno, for some reason, awesome.
Thompson was under the thumb of a maniacal Muslim mullah who forbade him to rock out on the guitar. (No I didn’t make that up — RT is still a Muslim, but a reform Muslim.) As such, he only kinda takes a mellow, Mark Knopfler-like solo on the 8+ minute “Night Comes In.” Because his guitar work is so spare on the rest of the album, it makes this piece sound like a shredder masterpiece. (Which it certainly isn’t, but in the desert a little drop of rain can feel like a monsoon.)
Anyway, I’d like to listen to this album under different circumstances. Maybe I’m not paying enough attention? Maybe it is the greatest background album of all time???
1/2
When this episode started up I thought for certain I was going to hate it. Damned Holodeck nonsense! But, thankfully, that gets nipped in the bud quick — save for the concept of “following clues,” as Picard must do to come to the somewhat startling conclusion at the end of this episode. I gotta admit, I didn’t see it coming, but then it all made sense. I don’t want to give too much away.
Now, this is a lot of fun, but Picard (spoilers ahead, I guess, but that’s nothing new for me) is awful quick to bend to the Paxans’ demands. Maybe just cause there’s only three minutes left in the episode? He’s looked down the barrel of a loaded phaser plenty of other times – the Enterprise’s mission is to “seek out new life” — would he really be that quick to say, “never mind” just ’cause some planet says “We want to be alone!” I’d like to argue with some Trekker about this some time.
“Devil’s Due” is one of those dopey-assed episodes that are 100% predictable and yet. . .are quite enjoyable to watch.
Picard is so quick to fight for the rights of this dummy planet – hey, if they want to hand over control to a charlatan, they have the right, don’t they? It’s not like they’re asking for help. Where’s the Prime Directive now, sucka?!? On the other hand, is this woman an idiot? Isn’t she happy enough with control of the planet – she wants the Enterprise, too?! Absurd! She HAS to know that they’ll fight back – AND send the Federation in for backup. Dumbass.
You’d think I hate this episode, but, like I say, it is goofy fun (Picard in his pajamas) so I am willing to overlook it.
Pretty stinkin’ awesome.
Frank Miller’s dialogue and David Mazzucchelli’s illustrations. Much of Batman Begins comes from here, but not all of it. The real star here is Gordon, not Batman. Nice to see some Catwoman, too.
Fun to read on the subway.
