Thursday, April 20, 2006

DVD REVIEW: Izo



Wow. Where to begin. I don't know how to say anything about this movie. But I'll give it a shot. First off let me say something about the director Takashi Miike. I love this sick mother f'er. If you have never seen a Miike film, then you are missing out on the most insane imaginative director working since Fellini. He was cranking out 5 to 6 films a year. I still can't keep up with the guy, and I'm only watching them. Check out Audition or the Dead or Alive trilogy for starters. And that's the normal stuff. I finally got around to watching his '04 film Izo. Oh my God.

I have never seen anything like this in my life, and I've seen a lot film. I don't even know if I understood it. In fact I'm pretty sure I didn't, but I couldn't stop watching this thing. The story is as much as I can tell is about Izo Okada (1832-1865), the historical samurai and assassin in 19th century Japan who met a tragic end: he was tortured and crucified. Miike's portrayal of the character (or rather his spirit) transcends reality (and time and space) and is more of a surrealist expose of Izo's exceedingly bloody yet philosophical encounters in an afterlife heavy on symbolism, occasionally interrupted by stock footage of World War II accompanied by acid-folk singer Kazuki Tomokawa on guitar. Kazuya Nakayama plays Izo, and the countless characters he encounters on his journey include for instance Takeshi Kitano and Bob Sapp.

My interpretation of it was this, Izo is trapped in this infinite hell loop of time and space for all his crimes. He is a killing machine that would make Jason or Freddy Kruger run for cover man. He cannot be stopped. I don't think I'm kidding here, but he must kill at least 300 people in this movie one by one. His punishment in hell is to just keep killing and killing to the point where he can't think of anything but killing to where he's mad at himself for not being able to stop. Along the way he starts wearing a batman type mask, has sex with his mom, and chops off a chicks head who shot an arrow in his eye, and as her decapitateded head lies on the ground butterflys fly out of her head and through a door up to the moon. Oh it's that kind of special folks. This is a very surreal movie that I defy anyone to explain to me. These types of movies are not always a good thing mind you, but Miike is so far out there and unafraid to do anything, that it's almost like jumping off cliffs. I found this film strangely invigorating.

Miike did a short film for Showtime Channel's Master of Horror series called, Imprint. They screen all the episodes to the Showtime execs before they air them. Apparently the execs freaked out to the point where they said that this cannot air even on pay cable. So it's supposed to come out on DVD sometime this year. I watched this in two parts over two nights, and Towards the end I thought i might be smart and make a huge leap of faith in my opinion of the film. Maybe Miike is trying to say, look I am capable of making other types of film, but all anyone pays me to make are these violent films, that I am so sick of making but for some compulsive reason I can't stop. Maybe Izo represents him in some way. I don't know but it bears further investigation. So go check this one out. It kicks from another planet.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

My Own Personal Film Festival


Good Friday was indeed good for me. I had the day off from work and a chance to get caught up on some movies in "the stack". Here are some quick hits on some flicks I watched:

THE WEATHERMAN:

This film surprised me. I was not expecting such an honest depressing movie about life from Hollywood. It was not over the top, and not very sugar coated. I guess that's why it never came out for so long and why ultimately no one saw it. I think that over time this will become a nice little cult flick that people will discover and latch onto. The film is about Nic Cage who is a successful weatherman in wintry Chicago who while dealing with his divorce finds his kids in all sorts of deviant trouble. His father played by Michael Caine is hilarious as a man who is even more successful than he is, and although he doesn't shove it in his son's face, you can feel the tension when they are together. Nothing ever goes right for Cage's character, and it's primarily because nothing in his life is real. He is not really a "weatherman" per se. He just reads what the teleprompter says from the meterologist. And that is pretty much the way he spends his life and people take advantage of that making his life less than bearable. But by listening and interacting with his kids he finds himself and his confidence again. For a a Hollywood movie this is a rare kind of film. Check it out if you get a chance.

DOMINO:

Well this is maybe the opposite of the above mentioned film. A good attempt, but considering the subject matter a failed one I think. Domino is a Tony Scott film that tries for over the top greatness, but just never quite makes it. This is a violent almost comic book style film about actor Lawrence Harvey's model turned bounty hunter daughter named Domino Harvey. The focus here is about her times with the bounty hunters, and their adventures. But where this movie lost me was its attempt to bring reality into the mix with making it a reality TV show and bringing in people from 90210 playing themselves. I was really into Mickey Rourke's character and that just got shelved for a Lifetime movie subplot to be honest. I fast forwarded through the Jerry Springer part. It added nothing. And for all the cool shots and quick editing I was all but pretty much disappointed. I think the Domino character was fascinating as well but she gets lost in the subplots. What a shame. I have heard that she was quite upset about the movie before she died last year. I think that reason may have made the better flick.

CRY_WOLF

Hommie Jon recommended this to me, so I gave a spin. I think I saw the Unrated version, but I'm not entirely sure. And I must concur with Jon that although I don't know if I liked it as much, it was not half bad. As far as low-budget Scream-esque teen stalker flicks go, this was pretty decent. I'm not going to spend too much time on it, just check out Jon's review here.

RUNNING TIME

A friend at work gave me this to check out a few months ago. It's a film shot in real time about a guy Bruce Campbell who gets out jail and immediately goes to rob a bank. Then of course things go bad and Bruce has to sort things out. I liked the concept and the Black and White photography. It reminded me of a Sam Fuller movie with the dialog. It's short running time at about 63 minutes I think is what ultimately hurts it. I wish they had tried to go all in one take like Figgis did in Timeode and Hotel. They give you the illusion it is, but there are cuts to be found as you would expect in film. Overall its a nice little flick and kudos to Ash Campbell for doing it. At times it has the charm of a student film, and its nice to see Bruce helping out the little guys again. So I would recommend this only if you are looking to watch some good experimental old school heist flicks. And who isn't!

THE WARRIORS: DIRECTOR'S CUT

Never seen this before in my life. And I am a major fan of director Walter Hill's work. I dug this movie, and I am kicking myself for not seeing it earlier. This is about a bunch of gangs that all band together in New York to take over the city. However the main leader is assassinated during the gang rally as it were, and in all the hoopla following the gang known as The Warriors are blamed. So now with not only the cops after them they have 60,000 gang members on their tail as they make there way home to Coney Island. Considering when this was made, its a pretty bold film. Hill chose to do it in a slightly futuristic over the top style. It feels like a graphic novel, and in the new directors cut he ups that feel substantially by transistioning the scenes with comic book panels. Fluid move that felt like Death Wish apocalypse. I really feel in love with this classic, and I can see why it has stood the test of time.

THE BROTHERS GRIMM

Ah new Terry Gilliam! Rejoice. I think like The Weatherman above that this film over time will indeed find it's audience. It's not true Gilliam I guess, but it's a nice little film. Gilliam feels a little restrained here as he tackles all the Grimm fairy tales and tries to tie them all together. Maybe not the best idea, but a good attempt at best. Matt Damon and Heath "Bar" Ledger play the Grimm brothers who run the country scheming local villagers as real life Ghostbusters if you will that will writes down in his story book as a potential book of tales. One day they come across a real life haunting and have to utilize all there skills that have to this point been only for show. The effects here are a mix of traditional and CG. Some of the CG effects leave a lot to be desired. Monica Belucci plays the evil witch they do battle with at the end. And in the Gilliam world it's hard to see where this one fits in. At times I would say Damon is horribly miscast. Ledger is fine, but they both seem out of place in the usual ugly world of Gilliam. Jonathan Pryce is great a French general in occupied Germany. And look for Garreth from the BBC version of The Office as the Grimm's assistant. There are some classic Gilliam visuals here, but it feels like half a Gilliam movie. There is a commentary track on the disc, that I flipped on here and there. It might be more interesting to watch this movie again with his commentary to get his take on it. Overall if you are Gilliam fan or Grimm fan go for it!

INITIAL-D

This is a Hong Kong flick I've had laying around for a while. It's based on the popular manga from Japan of the same name. For all of you that don't know what Initial D is, the D stands for drifting. Drifting is a popular form of street racing in Asia, and will probably be here too after Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift comes out. In the meantime we have the greatness of Initial D to keep us company. You see Drifting is when you take a sharp turn at say 100mph and slide successfully through the turn. Brilliant. But hey the kids are all doing it, why can't we? So Inital D is about a kid who works at a gas station and delivers Soy at night down this long twisty mountain favored by kids in street cars into drifting. His dad a former racer hooks him up with this great car for drifting and he begins to race pro drifters. I think you know the rest. Although the Adrian of the "Rocky" formula here turns out to be a prostitute for reasons beyond my comprehension. So if you are into "drfting" get this movie now. Seriously though themovie does have some incredible race sequences. Cars were not meant for this, but somehow they are. McQueen would be a fan.

Post Novus Ortus

Sometimes in life you take a chance, like getting out of bed in the morning. I took a chance in leaving MMI and signing with VNR1. However things did not work the way I would have liked. So as luck would have it, I am back with MMI. It's a long long story. One too long even for this blog! Ask me next time you see me...

Saturday, April 01, 2006

amyanderikwedding.com

I created a website for the big wedding day. It's www.amyanderikwedding.com.
I'm still working on it, so it's not all done. But you can preview it here:

Click here for the site

How to Lose Money in 30 Days....


Now this is a great story. I haven't updated the blog lately, because I've been busy with adjusting to the new gig and everything. But this story is pure greatness. Now I love my Amy, but this is so her luck, I can't help but laugh. OK, so every other week Amy and I go to the library to get some new books, music and movies, because they are FOC, and that's OK with me. So Amy is looking through the books and finds this book she had heard about by Suze Orman called "The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke". She checked it out with hopes of finding some tips on how to save a little money here and there. Good intentions right? I though so. So Amy has a history of having horrible luck with cars. Trust me she is cursed. So we go to Houston in my truck over the weekend. This particular weekend was the weekend it rained for 3 days straight. (We missed all of it) So now Amy's car, has a leak somehow where if it rains, there will be standing water in the back seat floorboard. Guess where she left the book, "The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke". That's right, in the only floorboard that leaves standing water after it rains... So now we get home and find the book floating in a lovely puddle. The book is ruined.

We go to the library and they tell her that not only must she buy a new book called, "The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke", but also the late fees as it was late, and return the soaked version of "The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke". So we went to Barnes and Nobles and got the book, and she returned it the next day but this library didn't make her pay the fine or return the "enhanced" version thank goodness. So now we have a mildew enhanced version of "The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke" by Suze Orman if anyone would like to check it out from our library. Its a reasonable rate and will go to the Amy's Bad Luck Fund that in turn goes to #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Suze Orman of The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke fame.