Double Reading

Surprisingly enough (to me, at least), I just now watched Planet of the Apes (the original 1968 version). Why do I think this is surprising? Well, I like sci-fi stuff in general, and Planet of the Apes is such a classic, but oh well. I’m not sure why I’ve never watched it.
My initial reaction was: [...]

While watching Dead or Alive by Takashi Miike (who also did Izo, Audition, Visitor Q, etc.), I kept saying to myself, “Hmm, this is missing the absurdity that I love so much in Miike’s films!”
Then I got to the ending. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but it’s great. [...]

I watched the Kino Video version of Metropolis last night and I have to say that it is one of the best film restorations I’ve ever seen. The quality of this version of Metropolis rivals a lot of the Criterion Collection DVDs I’ve watched. For a movie made in 1927, the print was super-crisp (almost [...]

I now know of at least two instances when songs appear in films by Wong Kar-Wai and Pedro Almodóvar. It seems that Almodóvar is borrowing from WKW, but I can’t say for sure. All I know is that “Cucurrucucú Paloma” showed up in both Happy Together (WKW) and Talk To Her (Almodóvar) and that WKW [...]

Last night I watched Suicide Club. I would place it in a genre of Japanese films (see also: Audition, Visitor Q, Izo, etc.) that are strange and shocking for the sake of being strange and shocking, but still seem to reflect on serious issues that less strange and less shocking American films delve into.
Suicide Club [...]

Last week I saw Batman Begins: The IMAX Experience at the Pacific Science Center IMAX Theater. As far as the whole IMAX experience went, I’m not sure I would recommend it. Lately I’ve been coming to the realization that I like watching movies in my own apartment under my own conditions more than seeing them [...]

Watching the movie Closer tonight seemed to tie together a lot of thoughts I’ve been having about various things lately. Allow me to elaborate (in a bit).
First, I’ll say that I loved the movie. I wasn’t sure whether I would, given that the movie had some non-hype hype… that is, although I guess it wasn’t [...]

I’ve watched some pretty sexual, taboo-breaking movies in my day (The Dreamers, In the Realm of the Senses, Visitor Q, etc.), so I would say that I’m pretty used to explicit and strange sex on film. Now I can add Lies (Korean title: Gojitmal) to my list of sexually-intense movies.
I would also add that all [...]

I’ve been Spun. Jonas Ã…kerlund’s “ode to crystal meth” (I’m not sure if “ode” is the proper word…), Spun, is the junkiest of all druggie movies I’ve seen (and I consider myself a fan of drug movies…). Not only did the movie totally make me feel like I was on crystal, but it also made [...]

I hate to start ever review of a Wong Kar-Wai movie with something like, “Oh my god, this movie is amazing…” but it’s hard not to.
I watched his most recent (not counting the short “The Hand” from Eros) film, 2046 (Japanese promotional site, American promotional site), which could be described as a “loose” sequel to [...]