Monday, March 17, 2008

Weekend movie bonanza...and Frak me I'm Irish.

Hey all,



Wow, look at me being a good Irishman...didn't even know it was national "Free to get Pissed" day. Dammit! What a fookin' arse.



Well not to totally plagorize (sorry Drew) but this clip I saw on AICN has always been engrained in my head every St. Paddy's Day since I saw it in 1990 and was blown the fuck away. O The Coens...How I loves ya.

So this weekend...holy shit we watched some flicks. Got a lot done around the new apt, which is great to finally see the boxes start to dwindle away, but we have priorites, gosh darn it.



FUNNY GAMES: I was dying to see this flick since it was announced, and the curious marketing only whet me whistle some more (jesus, am I atoning for my sins by trying to sound more irish? Bollocks)...one of which you can check out at the funny games site where "Peter" & "Paul" send you a little love note...

Luke, Gena and i trekked over to the Arclight to see the flick, the theater only 1/3rd full. Not shocking one bit.

Not even 10 minutes into the film (must have been :30 seconds past the time that the ushers-who are nothing like the cordial, accomidating staffers at the Hollywood Arclight-have left the room) there is a fight breaking out between people who dont know what "no talking" means, especially in a film that has long spurts of silence (to counter-balance the John Zorn metal screaming that punctuates moments and freeze frame, the same exact song from the original), so to me it's the perfect place to see such a confrontational flick like FUNNY GAMES. I loved the original, and actually thought that this US version, while somewhat pointless to make, actually works it's message better in certain ways with hollywood faces, but loses the impact of non-celebs playing the victims and tormentors because the original felt more real, raw, like a true fly on the wall. I wont go into the plot or the points, but Michael Haneke is someone I really admire as a filmmaker, and the balls to make a practical shot for shot remake (seriously, the music, the font, the house set, hell even the programming on the TV is exactly alike), it felt like a travelling theater troupe translating their euro-play for Off-Broadway. The ideas were there, even moreso than before, but the players were new, ready for action. I really dug it, and yes there were a few walkouts (I think Haneke would be pissed if there wasn't) and I'm glad I got to see and hear the reactions from the audience over the many crazed moments of cinematic meta-mayhem. The movie is meant to evoke a reaction, and glad i got to go along for the fucked up ride and feel like a dirty, dirty movie lover in the process.

I think it's apt to quote the great Ebert: "...if you liked those pictures from Abu Ghraib, you'll love "Funny Games"!



DOOMSDAY #3: This was actually Bri's doing, confirming that i have truly unleashed the inner geek in the girl. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But we felt like we enjoyed D-DAY so much at the Thursday screening, and the film needed all the help it could get (even though it opened at #7 at the B.O. by the time we went), so we headed over to the OTHER Arclight to check it out. Yes, we are spoiled by the Arclight. Funny how "night and day" the two Arclights are...I guess you can try to take the Ghetto out of the place (Sherman Oaks Galleria) but you can't drive the assholes away from going (and working) there. Oh well.

Seeing DOOMSDAY again only confirmed my geek love for the flick, how unapolagetic it is in it's cribbing John Carpenter's style (who, as Neil would profess too, is a hero of mine as well) down to the font and the music. Jesus, composer Tyler Bates better get some radically different gigs coming up since between HALLOWEEN and this, he's becoming the Depalma of Movie Composers, known to just copy a previous master in Carpenter's previous work. Not to say it's a bad score at all, DOOMSDAY I mean, but the signifigance is funny enough to note. God knows Tyler knows...

But watching the film again, I saw so much I missed last time (never saw the severed head blink..or the baseball Furie in the crowd!! Awesome!) and in the half packed theater (for a Sunday, not bad actually) I got to smile and enjoy the crowd laugh, scream and go "Oh shit!" multiple times. I love that. I love seeing a reactionary crowd, which only confirms why the theatrical experience will hopefully never die. DOOMSDAY was made for that, for the fans BY a fan, and hopefully people will get to see it through positive word of mouth (fuck critics...they're pissed that they actually had to PAY to see it since there were no press screenings...why Universal, WHY!?!?). At the very least, the theatrical experience will get buzz going for the DVD, and then the sucker will sell like Johnny Cakes on Sunday.



On Saturday Bri and I protested in front of Posh Puppy, a Bev Hills pet store that sells pups from mills, which is clearly the WRONG thing to do. Assheads. We had a good time standing in front of the place, booing the few ignorant people who walked in, only to find out that there weren't any dogs for sale because of the people who dedicate their time to inform the masses to NOT buy a dog but to adopt.

Oh and I got a ticket on Saturday, which Im gonna fight; seems that the fucktard gave me a ticket 7 minutes BEFORE my time is up. Fuck a duck...and its time to fuck the man.

Well back to the grind.



Erin go Blargh!

Staying Irish,

Joe

ONE MORE THING....

...if I ever come within 50 yards of David Motari, let me say now...I will throw this fucking fuck off a cliff. I'm dead serious. Fuck you, you horrible idiot. I wont post the video that sparked this seething hatred for Motari, my apologies, but click his name to at least get an idea of what a dripping cuntlick this guy is...a shame that this is the image that the world sees of our troops.

Please send all hate mail and death threats to:

David "Dicksnot" Motari
24419 Florence Acres Rd
Monroe, WA 98272-9662
Phone: (360) 794-7191

1 Comments:

Blogger Adam Barnick said...

Albert Finney remains a total badass. I still remember being gobsmacked by the TRAILER to Miller's Crossing in 1990!

Hey, I like Washington State quite a bit; if you want howzabout you and I head up that way with Tommy guns, we can reenact the Finney scene at Motari's house. I'm total game.

6:37 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home