Movies I watched in October.

After Hours – It’s not much of a comedy, though it is tremendously fascinating.  Griffin Dunne tries to get home during one particularly awful evening in new York City. In lesser hands than Scorcese’s the film probably wouldn’t have worked.  Still, it would have been fun to see Tim Burton try, as apparently he almost had the chance.  It’s a tense, taut, awkward comedy that really needs to be seen to be understood.

 

Choke – I do enjoy Chuck Palanhiuk more than just about any author I can think of, and as Choke is pretty true to the novel, it’d be hard to dislike it.  So, I liked it.  It was funny in that smart-ass Palanhiuk way, in addition to being well directed, well acted and well written.  Like any Palanhiuk novel, its not for everyone, but if it is up your alley, you should be pretty happy.

 

The Company of Wolves – My local video store (ie – the library) doesn’t have this title, so when I saw it was On Demand for free, I jumped at the chance to see it.  My third werewolf movie in just over a week, I will confess I saw this during a full moon as well, though I didn’t know it until the following day.  But the movie isn’t overly scary or anything, in fact, I found it almost entirely not scary.  Yet, it was still my favorite of the three.  Why?  Because the movie is breathtaking!  The dull colors collide with a creepy aura to make a movie that is so entriely mesmerizing, it hardly matters what’s happening on screen.  Okay, so Neil Jordan may not think that that’s a compliment, but it is.  The screenplay deals with feminine changes and it’s link to lycanthropy, but I can take that or leave it.  The Steven Rea transformation, the swell forest set design, the wedding party and the suave wolf at the end show such imagination in design and in wrap-around story-telling that it’s a freaking shame this movie isn’t more classic than it is.  It deserves to be seen.

 

Curse of the Jade Scorpion – A stupid ending notwithstanding, this Woody Allen film gets most of its mileage on an interesting premise, and less on the should-be laughs.  It does have funny moments, but very little about it suggests that it could convince Woody Allen’s haters that they’re wrong.  For those enjoy the Woodman, though, there’s certainly a lot worse.

 

Cursed – A brother and sister turn into werewolves in a movie that’s too preoccupied trying to be hip and clever, that is forgets to be very good.  It’s somewhat scary, and it’s pretty enjoyable I guess, but it doesn’t have any heft or any emotional impact.  Watching it you may get chills, but when it’s over you probably won’t care.  And that’s kind of a problem, since in my opinion, a good horror film should last beyond the run time.

 

The Daleks Invasion of Earth: 2150 AD – “Hello, my name is Doctor Who.”  That very line sends shivers down my spine, in a bad way.  I alos didn’t quite like the Benny-Hill inspired crapiness that came with it.  Still, it’s hard to disgaree with a run time that is half as long as the televised version.

 

Déjà vu – Denzel Washington is a cop working to solve a murder, when he finds that not only can he control events in the past (pre-murder), but that he may be able to go back himself.  The movie is somewhat memorable, even though it doesn’t really make much sense when you think about it.  Then again, it’s rare that a time-travel movie does, so it’s hard to hold it against the movie.

 

The Devils – I first heard of this from a Roger Ebert review, and he hated it.  Our ideals don’t always collide though, so after seeing a fairly positive score on the imdb, I decided to give it a shot.  And it was okay.  Fairly infamous for it’s overt sexuality, gore and general immorality, the film is interestingly made, and pretty intriguing.  That said, it struck me as being a bit too much like an immoral Man for All Seasons, so if you’re in the mood for this movie, and don’t mind an absence of nudity, gore and debauchery, I’d just recommend the latter.

 

Doctor Who & the Daleks – So, I’m not a Dalek fan as much as Doctor Who fan, as I have always felt that Daleks are a bit overrated.  But, making a kvoe of them did make sense at the time, and the vibrant colors work to the films advantage.  Still, it’s hard to really appreciate this film, given it’s lackluster attention to Doctor Who theology, and mediocre script.

 

A Fistful of Dollars – If only because its shorter than The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, this is my favorite of the Eastwood trilogy.  It’s slick and seemingly fast-paced, with a clean cut case of good and evil.  Okay, evil and slightly less evil.  But a low key performance by Eastwood, steaming cinematography, and a dialogue-light screenplay make this a must-see western.

 

In the Cut – Meg Ryan is under-sexed, Jennifer Jason Leigh is ditzy, and both have a lot to fear from a local serial killer.  Eh.

 

Lady in White – I’ve held on to this for years, waiting to see it on Halloween, and I finally did this year.  I know from experience that it woks for kids, as it’s just scary enough to haunt them.  For me now, though, it’s pretty weak.  An experienced director could have dome something with it, as too much of it feels amateur, including some crappy blue-screen effects.  But when it’s chilling, it works, at least on some level.  The plot deals with a 10 year old boy who witnesses the death of a girl in ghost form, and his attempts to solve the mystery of who killed her.  Parts of it are too adult-oriented, so I’m not really sure who its for, but overall, it’s probably not worth searching out.

 

Paprika – Dreams and the reality clash in this 2007 anime film, about a device that allows the user to enter, and sometimes manipulate others in their sleep.  It’s interesting, although a bit too whimsical for the subject matter.

 

Pineapple Express – This is not what I thought it would be.  Yes, it’s funny, but it’s got one hell of a violent streak running smack through the middle of it.  In fact, it’s terribly uneven, so much so that try as I might I can’t quite recommend it.  I’m not even sure I liked it, and that’s a weird feeling to have.

 

The Punisher – Thomas Jane dons the superhero outfit to take on baddie John Travolta.  Superhero movies have a calling to me, so even with middling reviews, I was interested in this one.  I wasn’t bored, but it hardly left any kind of lasting impression.  It does get some points though for a making Travolta a believable, somewhat realistic villain with normal motives.

 

Rocky Balboa – Stallone returns to fight a pro-boxer 1/3 his age is the sixth installment of the franchise. Smartly, the film goes for the realism and emotion of the first installment, avoiding the ridiculously exaggerated moments that started to plague them as they went along. Does that mean it work?  Not quite, but it’s got its heart in the right place, at least. It’s a little too standard, and its hard to believe that Balboa, no matter how hard he tries, could even begin to be able to fight (the plot realizes this, but they wouldn’t have a movie if they did it realistically right?).  Whatever.  It’s fine.

 

Romancing the Stone – An early 80’s classic, this movie is probably more deserving of credit than it gets nowadays.  Equally comedy, action/adventure and chick flick, it was the first of the Kathleen Turner/Michael Douglas pairings.  It’s not perfect, but it is breezy enjoyable fun, and a near-perfect movie for a lazy Saturday morning.

 

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Like Lady in White, this is another childhood spooky favorite.  Unlike Lady, though, this one looks great.  Again, it’s a children’s horror film, but the pristine transfer to DVD, the decent special effects, and the good technicals team up for a movie that not only still works to this day, but works ona  few levels, most of them intriguing.

 

They Live – Personally, most classic John Carpenter films are not my cup of tea.  I have a newfound appreciation for Halloween, but Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog and Escape From New York are all pretty lacking in my eyes.  But I do enjoy lesser appreciated fares like Escape From LA, In the Mouth of Madness and Big Trouble in Little China plenty.  I think it has to do with a sense of humor, really.  They Live especially has a wicked sense of humor to it, grounding the self-seriousness Carpenter has a nasty habit of lumping onto his films.  They Live, a thinly veiled treatise against Reagan-era policies in which the well-to-do are all aliens that can only be seen with special glasses, has plenty of stupid moments, and an inexplicable ending that seems sudden and unfulfilling (which Madness had in spades), but it’s also got a lot of great moments and visuals to go along with it.  It’s not for everyone, but it has a special place in the hearts os a good chunk of my generation.

 

The Untouchables – Brian De Palma’s gangland epic is not as good as it should be, as it glosses over facts to get to exciting set pieces and clever characterizations.  I have always loved the movie, and still do, though I’m not sure I’m proud of it.  I love the soundtrack, too.

 

V for Vendetta – I know I saw this in theaters, but I don’t think I liked it as much as did on follow-up.  A tremendously beautiful, colorful and creative epic, Vendetta deals with anarchy and fear in such a way as to seem almost dangerous, like it’s the rare movie that dares to have ideas.  Maybe it doesn’t, maybe I’m just swept up in clever rhetoric and propaganda.  If my Friday the 13^th addiction says anything about me, it’s that I’m a sucker for a villain in a mask.  But I’d like to think it’s provocative and thought-inducing, and I’m thinking I need to buy this.

 

The Wolf Man – Lon Chaney Jr.’s legendary performance as a tortured soul with a curse is not very scary, unfortunately.  At the time, yeah, I could see it would have been, but nowadays, it’s quaint, almost naïve (in a good way).  What works well in the movie is the emotion though, as you can see Chaney’s pain and frustration with his situation.  Modern horror afficionados won’t be very impressed, bu film lovers in general may find a lot to like.