Almost Famous (2000)

A recent Facebook conversation reminded me how little I really know about the work of Cameron Crowe. I had only seen one of his films, Elizabethtown, which I thought was pretty awful, and I just generally had a negative, mostly second-hand perception of his work. A friend recommended I see Almost Famous, so I did, I can defiantly recognize what people see in it, though I think that I came to it about a decade too late. It's a youthful story, fictionalized from writer/director Crowe's early days as a reporter for Rolling Stone. But I'm just not that much of a rock music guy. This is also the movie that made Kate Hudson a star, and it does have an all around good cast. I Feel a little torn about this one thought, I mean I get it, I just didn't quite feel it like I think I was suppose to. I think I can safely say that its a pretty great movie, its just not really my kind of pretty great movie. I got it, I appreciated it, I just couldn't quite love it. *** 1/2

Prometheus (2012)

I quite enjoyed Prometheus, even though I have never seen any other of the Alien films in there entirety. This film is a sort of lose prequel to the first Alien movie, it kinda sorta indicates where the Aliens in the later films came from. That being said its a perfectly self-contained piece of work. The story concerns the space ship Prometheus, on a privately funded expedition looking for the source of human life on earth, which the films protagonist Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) has determined was seeded on our planet by an alien civilization. It takes several years in suspended animation to reach the planet from which the source of man supposedly derived, during that time the Prometheus is run by an android named David (Michael Fassbender) whose a big fan of Lawrence of Arabia, and in fact looks a good bit like a young Peter O'Toole.

Anyway when they get to the planet they find some ruins, they explore them, and in coarse of time crew members start getting killed. It turns out of course that David has a secret ulterior mission that endangers the crew. The film doesn't always make the most sense but it kept my interest throughout. I liked the look and the feel of the thing, the alien world is sufficently alien, and the film has something of a 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe especially early on. Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce are in this, but its Fassbender and Rapace's film. I saw it in 3D but it doesn't really need it. I thought it was a good, slightly smarter then usual thriller. I'd say worth seeing.

Verdict: Good

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film (2009)

Solid overview of the history of American horror films with some good talking heads. You can watch it free on Hulu.
Good

Empire of Passion (1978)

A kind of horror tale/morality play set in 1890's rural Japan. A young man recently returned to his home village from service in the army (Tatsuya Fuji), has an affair with the unusually young looking wife (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) of the local rickshaw driver (Takahiro Tamura). Fuji convinces Yoshiuki to get Tamura drunk then when he's passed out they strangle him and throw the body down an old well in the forest (the well shots are remarkably beautiful). For three years the couple continues to see each other secretly while Yoskiuki puts up a front that Tamura got work in Tokyo. Then Yoshiyuki begins to have visions of the dead Tamura, and later so does Fuji. An inspector (Takuzo Kawatani) comes to town to investigate as more and more locals start to report supernatural happenings. Yoshiuki and Fuji both start to go kind of mad, interestingly each is willing to give up themselves for the other, but neither wants to live without the other so its a wash. This is a beautifully shot film, and the story is certainly unusual, I was surprised to find out how well regarded it is. There is some pretty frank sexuality in this which is kind of uncomfortable, and Yoshiuki's hysterics get kind of old, but again its all so slow and unusual that it becomes kind of hypnotic. This would only be fair if it wasn't for the artistry of the piece. Memorable. Good 

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

George Romero's second zombie movie, after the genre starting 1968 Night of the Living Dead. Other then the presence of zombies there is no real connection to the first film, which is how Romero does things, and which works. This film concerns a group of four refuges from a rising zombie apocalypse who end up taking shelter in a mall, though unlike in the 2004 remake it takes them more then half an hour get there (I'm reviewing the directors cut in this post). The 2004 version of this story is probably the first real zombie movie I ever saw, excepting Shaun of the Dead, and I really enjoyed it so I was kind of surprised to find that I liked this movie more. It's as good or better then the remake, and though the remake is certainly more slick, I liked the rough edges here and that it felt very near guerrilla film making. Most of the film was shoot in the Monroeville PA Mall at night, and as one who vaguely remembers that kind of period mall the look of the place alone was enjoyable. The later Romero zombie films like Land of the Dead are disappointing, but Dawn of the Dead, is perhaps his best. I really liked it. Good

The Purple Gang (1959)

Kind of an early, low level explotation film about the notorious Suger House Gang, also known as The Purple Gang, a group of mostly Jewish young gangersters who operated out of Detroit during prohibition (a major bootlegging drop off point from Canada). The nominal lead is Barry Sullivan as a crusaiding police lieutent, while a young Robert Blake gets 'the star turn' as William Joseph 'Honeyboy' Willard. Willard leads The Purple Gang to success, first in oposition to the mob, then as enforcers for the mob, then back on the mobs bad side again, or something like that I didn't follow it that well. It's not much of a movie, it has something of a poverty row feeling too it. The Purple Gang does some pretty nasty stuff, including the rap and murder of a lady psychologist who was trying to help them, by which I mean keep them out of juvi. The film has no sympathy for lax do gooder types, and when Lt. Sullivans wife is murderd by The Purple Gang, well Robert Blakes cowardly break down moment is not long in comming. I supose this could have been a good movie, it had some fair parts, but on the whole it had a hard time keeping my intreset, Poor

The Life of Brian (1979)

Monty Python's Life of Brian, along with the works of Flavius Josphus are among our principle sources on life in first centruy Palistine. Actully Life of Brian is a pretty smart parody of the numerious messiah claimants to have poped up in the Roman occupided Canaan of the 1st century. The late Graham Chapman plays Brian Cohen, a Jew who joins a resistance group against the Romans only to end up mistaken as the Messiah by an impressionable group of his coutnry men, and in the end sentenced to be part of a mass crucifixation. The quality of the humor varies, its Python, some times smart sometimes stupied, though the idea behind it is rather clever, and no this not a Jesus bashing film, its a religion bashing film. All of the Python players play multipal characters which can be a little confusing at times. I didn't love this like some, I liked the idea more then the execution, but there are enough clever moments that I can appreciate the effort. I'm gonna call it Good