Movies to watch

[jiminnm]

Sorry for the repeat, I'll try not to drink alcohol in the future - not. It's cold, rainy, and gray out here. And I have a hard drive full of old Seger, Mitch Ryder, and Rational tunes, Hmmmm.

Bigb, if you're looking for some more of that 60's Michigan RnR on CD, I suggest Michigan Nuggets [[probably have to go bootleg) and Best of Hide Out Records. i see that a couple of CDs by the Rationals are now available [[I think there was eternal litigation about their music). I've been meaning to get the Best of A-Square Records to add to my collection but haven't gotten around to it.

[Bigb23]

Bigb, if you're looking for some more of that 60's Michigan RnR on CD, I suggest Michigan Nuggets [[probably have to go bootleg) and Best of Hide Out Records. i see that a couple of CDs by the Rationals are now available [[I think there was eternal litigation about their music). I've been meaning to get the Best of A-Square Records to add to my collection but haven't gotten around to it.

Those postings were supposed to be for another thread, and I goofed! But I have the Michigan Nuggets album, that besides having the early major acts, also has 60's acts like Southbound Freeway and Tim Tam and the Turn On's. That's quite a collection.

"Psychedelic Used Car Lot" that mentions Livernois St. is pretty cool.

[401don]

Just got around to watching IN BRUGES. Recommended by several friends. It's a black comedy/drama about two British hitmen. Best movie I've seen in years.

[Iris Johnson]

I recently watched "The Big Kahuna" starring Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito. It's about three salesmen in search of the big account who end up waxing philosophical.

I also watched an Israeli film on cable called "Jellyfish". It hasssssss a coule story lines around the theme of saving someone, I think. It was very surrealistic.

The Big Kahuna movie sounds interesting. I haven't watched this yet but surely, I will. Thanks for sharing!

[black gold man]

[Django]

Usually violence in movies doesnt bother me too much. Gannon loaned me a copy of Children of Men. I had to turn away during the first death scene. I really liked the movie for the most part despite the loopholes. The way it was shot was disturbing for some reason. Really made me feel like I was a part of a modern day holocaust.

Ive been re watching episodes of The Shield and now am really into Southland, Hell on Wheels, Justified and cant wait for Breaking Bad and Walking Dead. Im always looking for a good movie. If anyone shares my taste let me know whats good.

[maxx]

"Possession". Isabelle Adjani having a bad day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssf6l...eature=related

[maxx]

A classic cartoon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXrCMDoQbtQ

[G-DDT]

Gee, I maybe contributing a Detroit-related item, on a non-Detroit-related thread on a Detroit-related site, but a really nuts film worth watching is "Crimewave". Early '80s film done by Coen Bros. and Sam Raimi and with Bruce Campbell. This was before "Hudsucker Proxy", but just as kooky. Shot in Detroit, the chase scene on the Davison Frwy. is worth it alone. "I'm captain of this elevator, and we're stopping on all floors".

[Jimaz]

Might be too campy for some but I enjoyed it : Crimewave - I'm Captain of This Elevator

[G-DDT]

Matewan is a must-see. Just the first fifteen minutes lays out why unions were necessary.

[Now&then]

Just came back from seeing the Whitey Bulger "Black Mass" movie. It's based on the book i read by the Boston Globe guys. It really downplayed his involvement in drugs in South Boston, and my son pointed out how he saw the damaging after affects while there. Johnny Depp had blue eyes, rotten Boston teeth, the whole thing, and the guy who played his brother, Billie, was talented but a bit too tall. I'd recommend seeing it.

[G-DDT]

Yeah, there aren't full discrepancies between the "Black Mass" book and Howie Carr's "Brother's Bulger" [[a Herald writer described as a liar and a loudmouth by many who don't even have ties to Bulger), if one wanted to see them complimenting each other, but Carr's seems too far-flung and apocryphal [[in fact, the footnote at the back of "Sources" in "Black Mass" showed how the writers wanted to stress that they avoided the many myths portrayed by other writers).

Knowing and getting a very strong feel for how Boston folks passive-aggressively backbite, character assassinate, and straight-up make up outlandish Frisby-esque lies about each other [[seen far too many occasions where that happened back and forth between parties-made one not respect either side of an issue), I'd say Carr is full of a lot of hooey about Bulger. He had a strong hatred for Bulger, making him a very biased source of information. He paints Bulger out to be a pedophile who bought off families of young men he seduced and installed one-way mirrors in Girl's Catholic facilities. I think it was his book that said Bulger had a tricked-out blue Chevy that could spit out a thick cloud of black smoke or an oil slick to evade pursuers.

Yeah, Bulger started out a small time criminal prior to being given lots of LSD by the CIA in Leavenworth [[just like Manson did before he was oddly situated in a cell with a Scientologist). He was a satellite operator of Southie [[South Boston-very blue collar Irish-not to be confused with the South End which is mostly Latino and Gay) for Howie Winter's gang in Somerville [[which is now very Latino), before rising up in power. He was ruthless and murderous, but leave it to Carr to portray Bulger as some ridiculous super hybrid of a James Bond Villain and Caligula.

The movie showed Bulger as cold [[yet affected by things like the death of his young son) and the kind of guy who will have one of his own guys plug someone while shaking hands with the guy. He rigged lotteries, trafficked guns, pumped drugs into town, extorted folks, and some of the violence scenes in the movies get ugly graphic.

Was his partner Flemmi a green-corn eating tree-shaker? The books both attest to that. Did Jimmy help Billie by appearing at rallies personally to root for Republicans who could cause friction for stronger Republican candidates? That sounds like Carr talk [[and not the kind you get from the radio). Even when Weeks was carted in and out of court sessions, he looked over at Carr and said "Be kind, Howie."

Spoiler: one thing the film captured perfectly was the look on Connally's face towards the end, when it all went spiraling down. It's the same "Wha' happened?" look he has in the books at his arrest.

[G-DDT]

Any Abbott and Costello like "Hold That Ghost" or "Meets Frankenstein [['s Monster) and Dracula" are worth it around this time of year.

[G-DDT]

To answer Jimaz's earlier question, aside from the Holy Bible and my huge assortment of nonfiction and books on history and civil rights, I'd make sure a copy of "Martian Chronicles" and "Confederacy of Dunces" was available. I was never too satisfied with the made-for-T.V. version of "Martian Chronicles" [[even if it had Darren "Kolchak" McGavin in it), and I'd hate to see a C.G.I. version of it cranked out today.

There was talk for along-time of doing a movie of the tragic John Kenndy Toole's hilarious book "Confederacy of Dunces", but some stupid "curse" is on it. I'm not a big fan of everything Galifanakis [[spell check comes up "Semifinalist"-how odd!) is in, but he'd do very well as the main character in that. In fact, it would be all toooo fitting to have the Coen Bros. get involved and have this Mingus song play at the end credits .

[G-DDT]

I was very disappointed with the cultural famine that started around 2000-2002. Unless, you are a big fan of C.G.I., epic films with people screaming into the air at formed battlelines [[death and guts and glory and all that), and formulaic films that only disgust [[horror films that try too hard to shock but don't, comedies that horrify more than make us laugh, confrontative independent films that only piss you off at their biased, short-sighted pretentiousness, sappy chick flicks, etc.) the last 15 years of films have sucked. Not that the '90s was all that well thought-out and good with films [[lots of them hyped and touted, but in the end, people got wise and hardly bring them up anymore-especially those that are of the "Brad Pitt of Despair" oppressive style or the "What is reality" genre, and I think many of us wised up after Kevin Smith's third film).

Still, a few flicks pop up to surprise me. I've enjoyed many of the Pegg & Wright comedies, along with some of the Guillermo Del Toro films [["Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" flew under the radar, but I highly recommend this remake for Halloween-along with "Cronos" and "Devil's Backbone"). I thought "Zombieland" was okay [[but because it broke the rules of using the word "zombie" and explaining right from the bat how it started and also, letting the zombie situation take a backseat to the human character situation, I've always thought that the movie had a cabal for something else-like having the three parties of persons representing the three major Eastern philosophies of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism-but that's just my weird interpretation.). I liked some other under-the-radar types like "Fracture" [[with Anthony Hopkins) and ""Unknown" [[the one with Greg Kinnear and Joe Pantoliano and three other guys waking up in a locked warehouse with no recollection of who they are and how they got there). I liked Birdman, as well-as muddled and undefined in poetry it seemed.

Most good ones lately came from other countries-like "I'm a Cyborg and That's Okay", "Attack the Block", and "The Host" [[which has one of the coolest broad daylight film monster attack scenes I've seen in a whilehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaxwv1rndPI)-all of which make good Halloween selections. "Happy Times" and "Nobody Knows" are some bittersweet if not all out sad good films to watch. Than there is all of the Miyazaki animated ones [["Howl's Moving Castle" and "Spirited Away"-which brings back the whole girl in OZ/Wonderland type situation-are best around this time).

There were many interesting documentaries [[many of them about Kubrick-"Stanley Kubrick's Boxes" is a rather good one) that briefly blipped on T.V. I still have yet to see "Dear Mr. Watterson", but that seems like a very good one. I also would like to see "Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies" re-aired on cable.

[G-DDT]

The '80s had awesome films. Mostly because film quality improved, special effects took some time [[the "rubber man" as Wilford Brimley called it during the shooting of "The Thing"), and film-makers knew that-like gardening-pruning is essential. Thanks to the internet we can now see all the deleted scenes taken out of the '80s classics that would've made them suck [[the gear scene in "Beetlejuice" looks kinda cool, but scenes from "Gremlins" were unnecessary, and the scenes taken from Ghostbusters would've made Bill Murray's character look like a total d*ck-beyond just shocking students-though the idea of having Murray and Ackroyd play dual-roles as a pair of chess-playing homeless street philosophers-as was in the book-for the script went through like ten revisions since Ackroyd first envisioned it-would've been cool.). though they should've kept the octopus in "Goonies".

Some weird films went under the radar in the '80s, and they weren't all from Troma. Films like "Miracle Mile" or Scorsese's comedies "Afterhours" [[about the worst night in one man's life-with Teri Garr, Catherine O'Hara, and Cheech & Chong) and "King of Comedies" I rather liked. I thought I liked surreal films like "Static"-but it seemed like an attack on religion with a depressing ending.

When the '80s weren't giving us cold, glistening horror films [[Cronenberg, "Ghost Story", "Wolfen", "Shining") in the early part, they gave way to ID-entrenched violent flicks [[part of our suppressed feeling towards no drugs/no sex at the time) that had Freddy Kruger and Arnold Schwarzenegger [[and eventually the Crypt-keeper) delivering ugly James Bond style puns after some unlucky person gets killed. All of which culminated to Robocop which was so heavy with violence that it set a new precedence. Another pivot point is with "Beverly Hills Cop" which marks when dark eastcoast nighttime big city skulking crime thrillers shifted locations to sunny, gaudy California and Miami-[[as in Vice?) style locations.

Fantasy films were huge in the '80s [[many of them with some kind of German influence). Yet, classics like "Labyrinth", "Dragonslayer", "Princess Bride", "Time Bandits", "Erik the Viking", "The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen", and "Return to Oz" [[which actually scared some kids though it stayed true to some on the the Baum books) were worth it then, and worth dusting off now around this time.

[Jimaz]

To answer Jimaz's earlier question, aside from the Holy Bible and my huge assortment of nonfiction and books on history and civil rights, I'd make sure a copy of "Martian Chronicles" and "Confederacy of Dunces" was available.

[[I think this answer is in reference to the great library fire in The Name of The Rose.) I always thought the Foxfire books would be worth preserving for future generations. They taught how to do things from scratch the way our ancestors did [[make soap, moonshine, bacon, etc.) instead of being so dependent on corporations.

I was never too satisfied with the made-for-T.V. version of "Martian Chronicles" [[even if it had Darren "Kolchak" McGavin in it).

Not to mention Rock Hudson. That was way beneath his stature. Bradbury's book was great of course but that TV version seemed somehow unbaked. I can't quite put my finger on why.

There was talk for along-time of doing a movie of the tragic John Kennedy Toole's hilarious book "Confederacy of Dunces", but some stupid "curse" is on it. I'm not a big fan of everything Galifanakis [[spell check comes up "Semifinalist"-how odd!) is in, but he'd do very well as the main character in that....

I was thinking Jack Black would do well playing Ignatius. Curious that our two choices look so similar.

From Wikipedia:

The book's title refers to an epigraph from Jonathan Swift's essay, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

I'd recommend that book to anyone who likes a constant stream of surprises in their reading [[although it could get a bit vulgar in places).

[G-DDT]

Come to think of it, every decade has some weird classics that slipped under the radar. The '70s had a lot, including "O Lucky Man" [[with Malcolm "my main droogie" McDowell) and student films by Carpenter [["Dark Star"-a guy in a spacesuit arguing Descartian philosophy with a "smart bomb" to keep it from detonating-classic!) and Alex Cox's "Edge City" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...kaaKttsJvRavWf[[which has stoned poolside epicureans getting randomly sniped during the filming of a beer commercial). Also, there was "Simon" with Alan Arkin, Madelin Kahn, Wallace "incontheievable" Shauwn, Fred Gwynne, and I think, the dad from Alf about malicious government think-tanks manipulating folks into believing in extraterrestrial life and things involving cults [[best lines include "I've been doing things with cockroaches" and a scientist responsible for tampering with the Nielsen's saying "Donnie and Marie have never been popular.").

In the '60s you had "The President's Analyst" [[highly recommended, especially the ending-though it has a great spy-kill-spy scene that rivals that of the Oktoberfest scene in "Pink Panther Strikes Again") and Waugh's "The Loved One" a dark comedy with Jonathan Winters [[in multiple roles), Milton Berle, Sir John Gielguld, a young [[and still short) Paul Williams, James Coburn, and Liberace [[who debates the issue of "dampness proof coffins").

"The Man in the White Suit" and "Our Man in Havana" have Sir Alec Guinness, so you know they are classics [[he's the only thing that makes the original "Ladykillers"). I'd mention "Larceny Inc." and "The Great Rupert" [[with a taxidermied squirrel animated by George Pal), but those are more holiday classics.

One that does have connections to Detroit I recently viewed was "The Black Legion", a rather early Bogart film, and I highly give that a recommendation.

[Bigb23]

II just got off YouTube where they have the full movie and individual battle scenes for Zulu, the 1962 movie that in my mind, is the best war movie ever made.
And 100% accurate in it's portrayal, which is few and far between nowadays.
Thumbs up to the English. 10,000 to 150.
Also YouTube the Royal Irish Regiment home coming parade. They know how to treat their vets from Iraq. Please America, let's do it too!

[Now&then]

Murders in the Zoo is a disturbing pre-code film I just recently saw. They clearly were not taking aims to protect the animals in this one. Yet, it was well done, and has some disturbing parts in it. Different type of thing to watch around Halloween.

[G-DDT]

Two under the radar captured the Amazonian feel some early '80s [[late '70s) films captured when things weren't all "cold" were "Emerald Forest" and a dark and intense film that got overshadowed by Star Wars called "Sorcerer" [[with some Tangerine Dream soundtrack that at times sounded like the 1980 Olympics ads or something for Seiko) about desperate men being consigned to drive very unstable explosives through the bumpy South American terrain. This was what kind of led up to the nuances of films like "Romancing the Stone".

[G-DDT]

Another under the radar weirdo flick was by Richard Elfman [[Danny's brother) who appeared on the Gong Show with Oingo Boingo as a rocket man and made a movie with them [[think a tacky John Waters meets Max Fleischer) called the "Forbidden Zone".....

BUT I'm not recommending that one! Because, this one is far too bizarre.

[G-DDT]

Also, if one were to be into that Beetlejuic-ian craziness, there is a lot from Japan [[a lot!) that gets very imaginative. Fans of folklore will benefit from reading up on something called Yokai. They are like mystical bogeymen that have gotten notoriety through the ages [[like Mothman or Bigfoot has gotten here). Even if one isn't into folklore the very interest in them can bring up some child-like wonderment this Halloween.

Yokai range anywhere from mischievous tricksters [[like the Betobeto-san that looks like something from the Hitchhiker's Guide covers and lurks behind people only to disappear or Tsukumogamo which is a class of yokai that were once aged inanimate objects that have gained life) to rarely fatal [[like the Nekomata-which is a vengeful two-tailed feline sorcerer who exacts revenge on those who have mistreated cats). Some are well-known like the Kappa [[which I first heard about from playing the Oriental versions of AD&D), a sort of turtle simian with an indented bowl in his head which remain full of water to retain his strength, the Tanuki [[trickster shape-shifter-or Obake. Racoon-Dogs with large testicles that were featured in the movie "Pom Poko"), or Futakuchi [[a woman with a large ravenous mouth in the back of her head who feeds herself on all of your food with her hair-tentacles). Many lists exist online http://matthewmeyer.net/blog/2013/10...-day-te-no-me/[[with folks artistic renderings, of course) and there is an area in Japan that features mini-bronze statues of them.

I mention this because there was a wild movie that came out in the last decade called "The Great Yokai War" [[not to be confused with the 1968 film "Yôkai Hyaku Monogatari") mostly for the kids. It has a lot of themes Miyazaki brings up in his films [[environmentalism some Animism, etc.). I know what I post here will be removed in time off youtube but if one just skip to 31:30 one will see a rather freaky scene played out that may interest others further [[did I mention Beetlejuic-ian?). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=290Pqsnwg5w

I bring it up since it is all silly fables to fire the imagination, but around this time it doesn't hurt to flex our fascination just a little bit. Also, I always kind of wished some of the women in Detroit [[like the ones who took interest in Comicons, Zombiewalks, NGO, or the Roller Derby stuff) would put together a Kuchisake-Onna night near Halloween, where a pub crawl exists [[with pre-paid passes to all of the bar) and there are women with surgical masks lurking about [[with hideous slash-mouthed makeup underneath) with permanent red markers who will brand you if you don't give them hard candy [[or something like that...).

[G-DDT]

HBO as been running one which is actually worth it. It's called "What We Do in the Shadows", and it is a Spinal Tap style mockumentary about old world vampires living as roommates and trying to adapt with the modern world. The humor is balanced and cool in a way that hasn't been around for a long time with comedies. The soundtrack is awesome and contains this song in the opening credits.