20/10/2012: Killer Joe [2011]

I just finished watching Killer Joe, a film that has been dividing audiences as it made it's quiet way around festivals and a limited release, being praised by some and disgusting others. However I don't think William Friedkin gives a damn whether you like it and I think Tom Bonnington put it best when he said Killer Joe "not only disregards Hollywood’s current blandness but shoves its greasy, poultry goodness down the throats of an audience not ready to consume this neo‐noir masterpiece. Yet."

13/10/2012: Soylent Green [1973]

Charlton Heston, you must pick roles specifically based on the memorable ending lines. After leaving such an impact on cinema as Taylor in Planet of the Apes, Heston returns to another dystopian envisioning of earth, a world with just as dark a secret as the Planet of the Apes. While Soylent Green may not be the widely famed classic Planet of the Apes is, I don't think anyone who watches it will ever forget the ending.

14/07/2012: Salon Kitty [1976]

Last night I decided it was time to dive back into the world of Naziploitation once again with Salon Kitty. As always, any naziploitation film is rife with controversy but this one is actually grounded on some interesting historical facts. While sure all the excess of sex, nudity and Nazism is bound to ruffle some feathers, it is interesting to see a film that doesn’t exactly draw to many lines, and is in fact an Italian production. Overall, for a film I can’t compare with anything else, I would say Salon Kitty is quite an interesting watch.

10/07/2012: Constantine [2005]

Constantine is one of my guilty pleasure movies. Sure it wasn’t a box office hit nor has it unfortunately spawned a number of sequels, but I’ve spent almost a year thinking about rewatching it. Well, memory served right, and while I had forgotten much, it only served to make Constantine better the second time. With the perfect mix of some of my favourite themes and styles I can only hope that a sequel is still to come.

06/07/2012: Catch .44 [2011]

Sometimes when I watch a movie it will just scream the name of another movie at me. I don’t know if I’m picking up on some underlying similarities or if just one thing will set it off, but throughout the entirety of Catch .44, my mind silently, and quite belligerently yelled Reservoir Dogs at me. But does Catch .44 bare more similarities to one of Tarantino’s masterpieces than just an interesting and irrelevant dinner conversation for an opening scene?

29/07/2012: Jackie Brown [1997]

I keep cutting it close on the Tarantino Blogathon, but once again I buckled down and watched Jackie Brown. Jackie Brown is probably the most different of Quentin Tarantino’s films but as always it is shear gold, with an interesting story, great cast and just a taste of violence. It doesn’t scream Tarantino as much as some of his other works, but there is definitely no mistaking his influence and style, no matter how subtle it might be.

23/06/2012: Heathers [1988]

Heathers is once again a movie that surprised me immensely. I had picked it up mostly because it was The Lamb’s movie of the month two months ago, and it had Christian Slater in it. I put it on finally because I wanted a change from the continuous cycle, of James Bond, B-movie, horror movie that I had fallen into that last week or so. I thought hey, let’s get a high school romance movie to lighten the mood, and relive the good old days of cliques and bullies. Instead, I learned just why this had been picked as movie of the month.

22/06/2012: Cannibal Holocaust [1980]

So I just finished watching Cannibal Holocaust, and that is one hell of cinematic experience. Cannibal Holocaust is probably one of the most controversial movies ever. Banned at one time or another in some 50 countries, Cannibal Holocaust feature footage so real and disturbing the filmmaker was arrested for murder when it was released. Yet, Cannibal Holocaust is not just mindless violence, it is an important piece of film, and is still significant today as a social commentary on modern society.

16/06/12: Lost Highway [1997]

 Once again David Lynch is able to create the strangest of stories in the first 10 minutes, with the dial cranked all the way up. Then suddenly he is able go beyond the dial and create such an inexplicably weird movie that is undoubtedly surrounded by hundreds of theories with everyone frantically piecing together the story in any way that makes sense. That is why I love David Lynch and why you should expect some spoilers ahead. But even with those, Lost Highway will turn you around enough times you still won’t know what happened.

11/07/2012: Savages [2012]

Oliver Stone returns with Savages, and like everyone I was curious to see whether this would be his next big thing or another flop. He sets us up for a tale of two entrepreneur drug dealers against the Mexican cartel, promising us violence, drugs, and sex. I must say, he delivers that and more, although he does have a few weakness. The ending however may be my favourite part, and continues to show why Oliver Stone is such a bold filmmaker.

07/07/2012: Moonrise Kingdom [2012]

So yesterday I headed out to the theater with my friends to spend the entire day watching movies. I had not really planned anything and had simply been told that we were heading out after lunch and they had arranged it so we could watch as many movies as possible for the rest of the day. The first movie on their billet was Ted, but when we arrived, I saw to my surprise Moonrise Kingdom was playing and while I was five minutes late, I figured I’d only miss the previews. 

04/06/2012: Mother's Day [2010]

By now you must have realized I have the largest pile of unwatched movie lying around in my room. Once again, with a nudge from a fellow blogger, Kalyn over at Gore Galore, Mother’s Day was dug out of the box, and put on the screen. Even as I was throwing it on, I had my doubt about the remake, but within minutes I was gripped, and strapped into a ride that wasn’t going to let me go.

02/06/2012: Franklyn [2008]

I picked up Franklyn after reading a list of Eva Green's other notable movies after I watch Dark Shadows. I actually had a bit of difficulty finding it, and only a couple weeks ago found it in my favourite used DVD store. I quickly picked it up, along with a couple of other movies I had been having trouble finding. Unlike, most of my pick-ups, Franklyn did not disappear into the pile of DVD I have yet to watch, and within a week and a half I had watched it. But was my intrigue satisfied?

28/05/2012: Bad Lieutenant [1992]

Bad Lieutenant is the typical bad/corrupt cop story taken to a whole notha' level. Harvey Keitel gives us one of his greatest performances, and build us a character unlike many others. The Lieutenant is a gambler, a thief, a junkie, a killer, a cop. He is the character that disgusts us all and yet, he is so much more than just another bad apple.

26/05/2012: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [2011]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a movie that was hyped about for quite a long time and yet, in the end never came to a theatre near me. I was a little disappointed, and only now have I finally had the chance to see it. For those of you who don't enjoy slow-burn mystery thrillers, stay away, the rest of you, jump on in.

24/05/2012: Anonymous [2011]

So Anonymous blipped onto my radar sometime last Christmas with a visually appealing trailer, although the subject matter didn't exactly draw me in. But then after a couple more glimpses, it disappeared and I thought it fell off the radar. Then, to my surprise, I saw it was showing on the movie network. Many times that can be for the best, although Anonymous definitely didn't deserve to fall completely off the timeline in the first place.

29/04/2012: The Night Porter [1974]

This was the third Criterion Collection film I watched this week, and like many audience dividing films do, it comes from Italy. The Night Porter is the most famous work of Italian director Liliana Cavani, and is damned by some as a perverse exploitation of the Holocaust while others read the story as a dark psychological thriller of disturbed characters with a darker past.

27/04/2012: Being John Malkovich [1999]

"Ever wanted to be someone else?" That is the tagline for Being John Malkovich, but isn't that the entire reason we watch movies? To be someone else? Being John Malkovich may be one of the strangest movies out there, but it does ask an important question, one everyone already knows the answer to.

26/04/2012: El Mariachi [1992]

Robert Rodriguez is a pretty recognizable name in the movie industry since he gave us Sin City, however, while you've probably seen his later works Planet Terror and Machete, how many of you went back, or even new Rodriguez back when he was just a man with a dream and a video camera?

23/04/2012: Up In The Air [2009]

So after watching a surplus of horror movies the week before this I decided to mix it up, and put on something a little happier and more lighthearted. I still can't believe that Up In The Air acme out almost 3 years ago now, but I finally got around to seeing it, and it wasn't exactly what I was looking for when I chose it. It is however a strong movie that examines some strong issues.