I took this weekend off as far as review writing is concerned. If anyone still cares, I saw Thumbsucker and March of the Penguins. Were I in any kind of mood to write them up, they’d both get a three1. Once I realized that the best acting performance I’d seen all weekend was Keanu Reeves, I had no choice but to take a break. Woe.
I’m half-way through rewatching House of 1,000 Corpses. IFC showed it this weekend, so I figured why the hell not. It’s not quite as terrible as I recall, but it’s not good either. Far, far too overdone stylisticly, and lacks enough decent acting to pull itself back up to speed.
I guess I mostly watched it to refresh myself on the backstory of the Firefly family. What I learned is that Grandpa was far more annoying than my memory would allow, and that Bill Moseley plays a far better Otis in the sequel. I guess the key to a good Otis is all in the beard. Without it, he looks too much like Chop-top from TCM2.
Chop-top was annoying.
I’m really considering going to see the new Hills Have Eyes remake after reading this review and its followup. But, just like I did with the Devil’s Rejects, I’ll most likely end up waiting for the DVD. Either way, I’ll be keeping an eye on that website, it’s pretty interesting.
1Edit: Maybe. See comments. Either way, my wife liked them both more than I, so take that for what it’s worth.
Manny Sucks March 13th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
You just don’t want to give Keanu any props.
m13b March 13th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
It was more that I couldn’t bring myself to string together coherent sentences about flightless birds or whatever Thumbsucker was supposed to “mean”. (Wasn’t a fan of the last act of that movie.)
I really thought Keanu did a great job.
Peter March 14th, 2006 at 11:21 am
I really think Thumbsucker was the worst film of ‘05. Wildly uninteresting and incredibly uneven in its narrative, it was just minute after minute of contrieved psedu-quirkiness. These not-so-indie-but-called-indie flicks need to stop trying to be hip, because they aren’t.
I can’t even remember entirely why I hated it so passionately, but I do remember that after seeing it a friend had asked what movie we had just seen and I called it “Filmsucker” without even thinking about it and didn’t realize I had done so until he pointed it out. I hate it even on a subconcious level…
m13b March 14th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Hey there, welcome.
I liked the beginning, especially the game of “tag” that the thumbsucker and that girl played at the beginning, but lost interest in her once she went all goth. Or hippy. Or whatever the hell sub-culture she was supposed to have joined.
The early bits and off-stereotype combo of Keanu and Vaughn shined through enough for me. Couldn’t take the end as seriously as the director would have liked me to though.
I reserve “hate” for things like Uwe Boll and Cabin Fever.
Peter March 14th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Haha, I hear ya on that last point. And while this may taint my credibility, I actually really, really enjoy Cabin Fever. I can entirely understand why a lot of people think it is a horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible movie - and they have perfectly valid points - so I can’t try to sell the movie to anyone, but it has an energy to it that I really like. I’d love it to be a more serious, hard boiled horror flick, but even in its jokey-but-straight way I like it.
m13b March 14th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Bah, credibility is for suckers. We all have our guilty pleasures. (Even if sometimes we momentarily forget what they are. Damn!)
A old friend of mine got herself married to a guy named… Eli Roth. Neverending joke opportunities abound.
Veering off-topic: If that plugin or whatever it is you have on your site is any indication, you keep pushing Seven Samurai from the top of your Netflix queue. I know you’re trying to run a horror site and all, but Samurai transcends all that. Hell, just take it out of the queue and buy it blind.
Peter March 14th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
I know, I’ve been sitting on Kurosawa’s best works for weeks now, but I’m gonna stop bumping it down after this next batch. I love horror, but it still only makes up a fraction of the movies I really enjoy.
I’ve gotta stop holding out on these classics. I only had my first real exposure to Godard a few weeks ago (Alphaville, after watching Cache at the theater…intense French double bill right there).
m13b March 14th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Believe me, I have the same problem. You can’t always be in the right mood for French New Wave, which makes it especially hard to Netflix that stuff. It arrives, and you get mad at it because you could be getting other stuff in if only you just got around to watching it.
Kurosawa, for the most part, is way more accessable.