Damned solid.
Terrifically shot (except for the damned slo-mo) with tense short lenses and unusual camera placement. The dialogue hums and the performances are great – even ol’ Sugar Tits is good in this one. A complete package.
Hardly the disaster I’d been led to expect, Lady in the Water is one of those movies that’s just too damned earnest to dismiss. It is strange, follows its own logic, and is bubbling over with its childlike sentimentality. It is, if nothing else, fascinating.
Maybe it’s just because I like restoration villages, but I found this movie to be quite fascinating and enjoyable.
An absolute joy of a book, collecting three new Alan Scott tales. Gorgeously painted and drawn with all of Scott’s outlandish color (and fear of wood.) Tongue in cheek only when absolutely necessary. Highly recommended.
This entertaining yarn of post-Cold War international intrigue goes to all the usual places, but does it in a sharp, clean manner. And involves the nefarious Cosmic Cube along the way.
Okay, maybe I went a little bit overboard.
But you can read my full review of The Crazies at UGO.com.
I used to argue with Kerry Douglas Dye that Scanners was the best of the early D.C. films, but maybe he was right all along.
This movie is so headstrong in its peculiar vision. It honestly couldn’t care if you follow its logic or not. It is also so, so creepy. Just lookit that image fer christsakes.
I wish all buildings looked like Toronto 1970s public facilities – or the Somafree Institute for Psychoplasmics. Then I’d be happy.
Awful.
The only parts that were marginally interesting were the plainspoken, joke-free conversations about theology – but mostly because I’m mildly fascinated with Catholicism.
I don’t have a beef with Kevin Smith. I’m sure he’s a really cool guy. I’ve just never connected with anything he’s done. Being “amateur” isn’t cute. If he was just a little younger and made his first flick in the age of video and not film, none of us would have ever heard of him. He’s a lucky dude.
Archer and T’Pol bond under duress and Trip forms a temporary alliance with the Andorians (Jeffrey Combs!) in showing the Vulcans that sometimes they can be total douchebags.
I still have a bit of a hard time seeing Vulcans behave in such a backbiting manner (not canon!) but, hey, I can deal.
Super Boxers!
Imagine all the dumbest elements of Rollerball put into one of the first Marvel magazine format one-shot “graphic novels” with lots of muscles and really predictable sci-fi tropes.
That’s Super Boxers! Something so stupid I’m proud to own it and proud to have spent a good hour (or was it even 90 minutes?) reading it on the couch this morning.
Super Boxers!
More on Super Boxers!
It’s been one of my secret shames that I’ve never seen this movie.
I understand its cult appeal – it is wonderfully fun, goofy 1980s shlock, but it is also sharper than you may expect. It is, beneath the synthesizers and the hair cuts, a really good story about a guy in over his head. The tension is real and the performances are great. Great picture.
Still looks great, still holds up.
I kinda remember the ending being more of an absolute punch in the gut, but maybe just because I was expecting it I didn’t feel it this time.
This might be one of the few Dave Grusin scores I adore – great NYC locations, all around terrific film (although the love scene w/ Dunaway is absurd.)
I know I may lose all sorts of Alamo Draft House cred, but this movie is loud, stupid and annoying.
A terrific intimate, strange portrait of machismo run amok.
This is a movie people who say they don’t like Clint Eastwood must watch.
It’s like somebody took The Andromeda Strain and moved it through a stupiding machine.
I think the B- is being too kind. This movie is kinda-good, but also kinda-terrible.
Read my full, tortured review at UGO.
Rewatched this for a UGO feature about Harvey Keitel’s Judas I put together.
This is a terrific film – but let’s forget about the theological implications for a second. It wins for “you are there” ancient civ reasons alone. The details about the chaotic way of life in Biblical times – truly, a fucked up time to live – are just terrific.
I think that maybe some of the dialogue, especially at the beginning, is a little too ominous and spooky and heavy for its own good, but this is still a movie you can come back to again and again and find in it wonderful stuff.
Like John Lurie as one of the apostles!
