Unhinged: bad B movie. I hope Crowe was wearing a fat suit
Unhinged: bad B movie. I hope Crowe was wearing a fat suit
Unhinged
'I am Maximus Decius Meridius... and I am parked outside your home, at 4:03 AM.'
You do NOT mess with Russell Crowe .
Especially on the freeway.
Serpico
Pacino jumping off rooftops, yelling at beautiful women, getting shot in the face.
You know, the usual.
Of these facts there cannot be any shadow of doubt: for instance, that civil society was renovated in every part by Christian institutions; that in the strength of that renewal the human race was lifted up to better things-nay, that it was brought back from death to life, and to so excellent a life that nothing more perfect had been known before, or will come to be known in the ages that have yet to be. - Pope Leo XIII
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Postmodernist masterpiece.
Transcends space and time.
10/10.
Three Days of the Condor
This is like...
Casablanca and Conspiracy Theory and The Fugitive in one movie.
Faye Dunaway is just too fine.
Redford's not bad either.
Really smart film.
Monster Squad
Some say it's a cult-classic.
It does paint an homage to the old classics and it has some beautiful shots.
But it's waay too campy for me, right now.
If I would've seen this as a kid?
Well, maybe.
Spree
Guy from Stranger Things goes mad on social media.
Halloween
A perfect film.
What have we learned?
1. Michael Myers ALWAYS gets back up.
2. Evil cannot be destroyed.
3. Jamie Lee Curtis looks great in blue jeans.
Halloween II
A modest sequel.
What have we learned?
1. You never get involved with patients. Now nurses? That's a different story.
2. Michael Myers can go all night with 6 bullets in him.
3. Laurie Strode aged a couple of years in one night.
4. Michael Myer's mask did not age well.
5. Dr. Loomis always fires a warning shot.
6. Michael Myers can go all night with 11 bullets in him.
7. A Halloween movie with neither Loomis or Laurie Strode is no Halloween movie at all.
The Mandalorian S2 E1. Go watch it.
Zardoz 1974 (post apocalyptic 007 is sexy OR Sean Connery is my violent messiah)
In an age of drugs, hippies and weird ing experimental movies... Zardoz actually isn't that bad. Lots of people complain that they don't understand the movie, which I had no issues understanding the plot or the themes. The thing that really kills the movie is the guy at the very start literally spoiling the entire plot. What was even the point of that?
Zardoz is smart but somewhat pretentious, still completely more intelligent and more relevant than what another stoner like Jodorowsky would try to make. This movie has like 5 different layers of commentary. One about machines and AI, another about immortality and aging, another about advanced societies and the collapse of civilization, then another about religion, then another about Human nature and biology. Maybe that is why people are confused but it isn't hard to see how these things are all interconnected.
Seeing Sean Connery run around in his hilarious outfit was, well it was hilarious. But it became more normal as the film went on and wasn't that distracting. Admittedly because I kept staring at his junk. Then it dawned on me that he was like a red Gandhi bandido. Actually the amount of nudity is so common place and sterile that it doesn't feel off. The opening was also pretty interesting what with a giant stone head hovering above the country side and spitting guns out of its mouth, then a bunch of cultists chanting "the gun is good" and "Zardoz! Zardoz!".
This was directed by John Boorman, obviously a capable director who was perhaps trying too hard and doing way too many drugs (no seriously). Zardoz and Exorcist II are considered his major flops. Understanding this context, Boorman tries way too hard and I can't stress this enough. Not only in trying to give this various levels of meta commentary, but also in trying to make this an iconic movie. The cast is good, the directing is good despite being nonsense, the general idea isn't too bad either. But he set out to make a popular sci fi movie and turned it into a trippy critique of society. How did Connery even agree to this?
In conclusion you might want to read some Ibn Khaldun cycle of civilization. But that aside you probably won't enjoy Zardoz unless you like trippy cult movies or you like to go on a drug induced trip while watching movies.
Personally I give it 10/10. Zardoz promised me Death and it delivered.
EDIT: Although I used lots of drug humor, please don't do drugs. What you are feeling is not actually your mind going through a cosmic gateway into the center of the Universe. It is actually your brain slowly dying and giving you schizophrenia.
Also I decided to add some links to the above, to prove some of my statements.
Six Degrees of Separation
Sophisticated movie for sophisticated people.
What have we learned?
1. Never be afraid of rich people. All they want is a fancy jar of jam.
2. Stockard Channing is a fox.
3. 'The Kandisky is painted on both sides.'
4. Stockard Channing is a fox.
The Bonfire of the Vanities
More sophistication coming your way, gentlemen!
Nice to see Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks in the same movie.
What have we learned?
1. That decency is what your grandmother taught you.
2. That even if you gain everything and lose your soul in the process, it's not so bad at the top.
3. That a man and his wife talking to each other at an event is a no-no.
In the Tall Grass
Decent horror flick.
Remember, it's not the grass that gets ya, it's rock music!
'Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on you...'
Triggered
Not bad.
For a horror/slasher/adventure film/comedy?
This movie tries hard to find out what it wants to be.
Also, do people really talk this much when they're being chased through the woods?
Favorite line:
'I knew you were a psycho... when you didn't cry at the end of T2!'
Space Force
Great.
I actually laughed at this one.
Better than Avenue 5 and the Good Place.
Way better.
The real amazing thing about Zardoz is that Boorman got people to fund it at its budget level. Since you went on the Connery angle. It was a better move even with the nut sack costume to be in than say First Knight which was just a pay check. At least you could count on Boorman trying to do something interesting. Not sure what to make of Exorcist 2. My understanding is Boorman did not like the original which would seem to make a poor choice as the fix it replacement guy. For boorman there was probably an interesting movie there had he started from scratch (that is no forces attachments to the original), but train wreck was always likely to be the result of the actual situation.
IN PATROCINIVM SVB Dromikaites
'One day when I fly with my hands - up down the sky, like a bird'
But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at such a place; some swearing, some crying for surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left.
Hyperides of Athens: We know, replied he, that Antipater is good, but we (the Demos of Athens) have no need of a master at present, even a good one.
The First Knight was done by Boorman? Wasn't that Jerry Zucker? I saw it as a kid, found it very meh. Sean Connery as King Arthur was alright. Julia Ormond as Guinevere was... okay? Ben Cross as Malagant, also an okay choice but quite weird. Richard Gere as Lancelot... wtf? It was an... interesting take on the Arthurian legends.
I assume you meant Excalibur? It is the only good adaptation of Arthurian tales that I have seen, at least in my opinion. The cast, much like in First Knight is good, but just works so much better than the Zucker film. I think what Zucker lacked was a real vision and an interesting movie. Boorman did it really well with Exscalibur.
As for Zardoz, I was largely commenting on how bat crazy it is. But also how it actually does make sense. Maybe people don't get it because they are distracted by how strange it is. Boorman tried to make an original film but he ended up making a thesis about the decline of the modern world.