Mad About Movies links to a Times Online piece outlining the ’13 most terrifying movie scenes ever’. That’s a bit of a misnomer, because they often don’t reference specific scenes. Still, it’s an enjoyable list. I followed a link and enjoyed the Jurassic Park trailer:
Note how Spielberg never shows a full shot of a dinosaur in nearly three minutes of trailer. My favourite moment in that film is the ‘reveal’, as we watch Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern react to seeing the dinosaurs for the first time. Man, I had such a crush on Ms. Dern growing up.
I can’t imagine that would happen in 2007. I never found Jurassic Park particularly scary–thrilling, yes, but not scary in the Blair Witch sense. On the other hand, they’ve failed to include Aliens on the list, which is nearly as scary as the original.
I quite like Q host Jian Ghomeshi, but he was definitely fighting above his weight. Greenaway lectured him on a number of topics, including the ‘death of cinema’. I agreed with much of what Greenaway said, so I transcribed a few bits (only transcribe opinions you concur with, I always say):
Cinema now, with the laptop generation, Generation X, is really to do with an interactive, multimedia world and cinema can’t be that. Cinema cannot be democratic–it cannot create multiple endings. You can’t interface with it in any satisfactory way.
So, I think if we’re going to excite imaginations with the potentiality of this grand audio-visual experience, we’re going to find new ways of doing it. I would argue that the ‘Casablanca’ syndrome–that cut-and-dry bedtime story for adults–is really finished. It doesn’t really have a place anymore.
That’s not to say the screen is going to disappear. I have a mobile phone in my pocket, and I suspect you have too. And it has a screen.
And here’s another good bit:
We’re now all lateral thinkers, and certainly we are encyclopedists. We are browsers, we are laptop users. So we have to refashion this media to be relevant to contemporary imaginations.
I’m fond of saying that, before too long, going to the cinema will join the ballet and the opera as dated, niche entertainments that appeal to a few. Mr. Greenaway just said it better.
This is making the rounds about the web, but in case you haven’t seen it, it’s a list entitled Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time. There’s no original commentary–just plot summaries from other sites. That’s a bit lame, but it’s neat to see all these movies in one place, as dystopian worlds are a favourite setting of mine.
Here are a few less popular films from the list which I enjoyed and are worth mentioning:
Equilibrium – It’s not a very good film, but it has its charms. Plus, I’m a fan of Christian Bale–I think he’s a little under-appreciated.
District 13 – A French film, and only remarkable because of its excellent fight and chase scenes.
Dark City – A head-wrecking, visionary film that mixes a beef stew of influences into something new and deeply weird. Plus, I could watch Jennifer Connelly watch paint dry.
The City of Lost Children – I don’t remember much about this movie, but I do remember being impressed.
Code 46 – This is a wonderful film that hardly anybody saw. Do yourself a favour and rent it. The leads–Samantha Morton and Tim Robbins. I wrote a review when I saw it in the theatre.
I think the fan-boy (and fan-girl) factor has pushed V for Vendetta and Serenity too far up this list. And I’m not even sure if the latter qualifies–where’s Star Wars, then?. They’re both good movies, but they certainly don’t merit their placings at #23 and #15 respectively.
I started this entry assuming I’d be able to find trailers for both films, but I couldn’t find one for Redacted. That’s surprising, given that it’s receiving plenty of media attention. So here’s a trailer for In the Valley of Elah, and an interview with Brian De Palma in Italian with some footage from Redacted:
I’m looking forward to In the Valley of Elah, as it’s written and directed by Paul Haggis, who recently racked up writing credits for Crash (which he also directed), Million Dollar Baby and Casino Royale. He’s Canadian, and about 15 years ago he created Due South, for which I have a fondness.
I was just listening to a bootlegged tune by Feist. It includes the announcer’s introduction, and he welcomes her to the stage with “please welcome Interscope recording artist Feist”.
On a related note, why does every movie begin with several title cards for the studios and production companies? These are familiar and pretty much meaningless to 99% of moviegoers. Nobody chooses a movie because it was bankrolled by Paramount. Admittedly, as a cinephile, I have a few vague feelings about Dreamworks, Miramax and MTV Movies, but they never determine whether I see a particular film.
These announcements have zero marketing power, and only exist to stroke corporate egos. If the entertainment industry cared a little more about its customers, it would eliminate this useless wankery and get us to the stuff we paid for sooner.
The Movie Blog points me to Filmwad, and their slighly gross article about the top ten torture scenes in modern cinema. I was a little disappointed in myself when I skimmed the list–I’ve only seen about half of these movies.
I was glad to see the legs-crossed-in-sympathy torture from Casino Royale making the list. The article isn’t for those who have lived a sheltered life:
Enraged foreigner Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) doesn’t need lasers or shark-filled pits to torture his captives. Nope, he just needs a broken chair, an exposed ball-sac, and a nice wet piece of rope. Too bad, Bond’s gonads are as bad-ass as he is, and this super-spy takes the groinal beating and keeps on asking for more.
The obvious oversight on this list is the ear-removal scene in Reservoir Dogs, but maybe that’s not sick and twisted enough?
And speaking of cinematic torture, I see they’re working on a remake of Adventures in Babysitting. Though, in truth, Elisabeth Shue was one of my first movie crushes.
I just caught the second half of Guy X on one of our crappy movie channels. I don’t know that it got much of a theatrical release in Canada, though I do remember seeing a poster for it in a cinema in Dublin in 2005. It has no entry in Wikipedia, no reviews on Metacritic, and only a smattering on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s a black comedy set in 1979, about a soldier mistakenly posted to a military base in Greenland. Jason Biggs, Jeremy Northam and the lovely Natascha McElhone (who really seems to struggle to disguise her accent) star.
I don’t think it’s a very good movie. The Globe and Mail’s Kate Taylor puts it well, calling it “a jack of all formulas and master of none.”
One of those formulae is the subversive army movie, in which the enlisted men are smarter and funnier than any of the officers, and get up to no good. Hilarity usually ensues. I’m not really talking about war movies here–these are generally peacetime films set in existentialist army bases.
For some reason, I love these movies. I was first introduced to the genre through Stripes, which features excellent comedic work by Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. Another early influence was MASH, which I still love. More recent examples include Buffalo Soldiers and Jarhead.
What do I like about them? There’s always a kind of absurdest angle, and I suppose the general anti-war vibe. Maybe it’s just the tightly controlled setting of the base which makes for high drama and wacky set pieces.
