just watched paperhouse (imdb), a 1988 fantasy/horror movie, about a girl suffering from pfeiffer’s disease who, during her feverish dreams, happens to stay in a world which looks like one of her drawings. she finds out that she can modify the world by modifying the drawing while being awake between the dreams. reminds me a bit of the butterfly effect, even though there the modifications are completely different in that they change the whole timeline in the butterfly effect, while in paperhouse, the modifications only affect the dream world. both ideas are very intriguing.
posts about movies. (page 1.)
just watched all three indiana jones movies (imdb: #1, #2 and #3). i’ve seen the last crusade before, but not the other two. i must say that it reminds me a lot of james bond. a james bond with a hat and a whip. and a bit more back in time.
featuring plenty of action and humor, brutality and love. makes one think about things, like the problem of to whom antique stuff belongs. the finder? the country in which it was found? the country where it was originally crafted? and it’s also funny to listen to the german (mainly used by the nazi characters), laughing about the fact that it sometimes has a strong american accent. and laughing about how stupid most of the german babbling sounds.
the triology has a nice ending. the holy grail is secured, the bad guys are dead. indy, henry, marucs and sallah ride into the sunset, accompied by john williams‘ great score. unfortunately, in real life, it never has such a good ending.
just watched romeo must die (imdb), yet another adaption of the romeo and juliet theme. this time, two gangs, one black and one chinese, are fighting for domination. differently from the classic story, romeo and juliet (r.i.p.) are not really part of this scenery, but are sucked inside when their siblings are killed. the film features lots of kung fu, has many funny scenes, and plays plenty of hip hop, which isn’t exactly favorite music style, but fits pretty well.
while watching a friend of mine typed on icq that this one is really good. he’s so right.
yesterday, i watched kabhi khushi kabhie gham (imdb), a bollywood movie. in fact, it’s the first bollywood movie i’ve ever seen. on the first glance, this 3 ½ hour epos about a family split-up and reunion looks like a filmed dime novel: the story is pretty straight forward, there’s a happy end, everything is painted in light, great colors, dreams come true, true love wins, it’s obvious what is white and what is black, beauty everywhere, wealth and luxury all around, lots of dance scenes (it often feels like a musical theatre), clichés all over the place.
on the other hand, the movie also covers other aspects. it shows how the father’s egoism, who seems himself as the only and infallible instance of making decisions for the family, destroys the family. it also denounces discrimination of lower classes.
i’m still not sure what to think about it…
ingredients:
- the big lebowski (imdb).
- a sufficient amount of vodka.
- a sufficient amount of kalúha.
- a sufficient amount of milk.
- some hardware to play the movie.
- some glass for the white russian(s).
- optionally, some ice cubes.
instructions:
- pour some of the vodka, kalúha and milk into the glass. add some ice if needed.
- start watching the movie, while drinking the white russian.
- as soon as the glass is empty, pause the movie, refill the glass and continue the movie.
- repeat until the movie is over.
the amounts should be chosen high enough to ensure that you won’t run out of white russian during the movie.
well. seriously. (as serious as one can be after watching the movie and drinking several white russians.) the big lebowski is a movie by the coen brothers about a hippie slacker, called simply the dude, who is drawn into a kidnapping case which turns out to be a bit more complicated, with a bunch of different parties taking part in the game. the movie features great characters, most notably el duderino, his friends, donny and walter, and the german nihilists (nagelbrett by autobahn!), some great dream sequences, lots of bowling, and lots of white russians, all drunken by his dudeness.
if you’ve never seen it, watch it. and don’t forget the white russians.
i just watched william shakespeare‘s romeo and juliet, or, more precisely, baz luhrmann‘s 1996 interpretation romeo + juliet (imdb). i must admit that i only knew few crumbs of the story, but have never read it nor saw it as a play or movie before. (though i’ve been in verona at the house which is claimed to have been capulet’s, seeing there a bronze statue of juliet.)
i think there’s no need to spend many words on the story. there’s love, there’s hate, there’s death. tragedy. love and death, going hand in hand once more.
the movie transports the old tale into the new world. guns instead of swords. cars instead of horses. even though, the dialogue has not been touched: besides a few omissions, it’s shakespeare‘s original one. that made me turn on the subtitles after the first few words, fearing to miss something important, even though i stopped looking at them after a short time. it’s the most successful adaption of an old tale which i’ve seen so far; i usually tend to dislike or at least being annoyed by such modernizations.
while listening, i noticed that the soundtrack includes garbage‘s #1 crush, a song i like a lot. another familar tune showed up, with the ending credits, namely radiohead‘s exit music (for a film). it’s time to listen to them again…
to sum it up: it’s beautiful. absolutely. touched me, deeply.
good night.
yesterday, i watched the movie snakes on a plane (imdb). well. i think enough has been said and written about this one. it gives the viewer exactly what it promises: snakes on a plane. and it still manages to fill 100 minutes of movie without getting boring. filled with lots of action, lots of clichés, lots of horror elements, lots of things to laugh about (even if some of them are not exactly funny for the persons involved) and, well, lots of snakes. lots of gore. some sex. a few guns, though mostly outside the plane. well, also crime. and there’s no need to think while watching this one (which makes it especially good if you’re suffering from a headache…).
well. simply don’t show this one to kids. and don’t watch it if you can’t stand the things listed above.
just watched corpse bride (imdb), a beautiful love story done completely in stop motion. besides being technically perfect, basically making one feel the thousands of hours of work and devotion spent in the creation of the movie, it tells a gorgeous story about love and death, marriage, treason, goodness and malignity, well, a cute tale about life. a pitty i haven’t seen this one earlier.
today i watched léon (imdb), one of my favorite movies (next to dead man and fight club). it’s really beautiful. so tragic. filled with emotions and lack of emotions. it’s about love, and it’s about death. it’s about learning to value life, to enjoy life, about losing life. about how good and bad life can get. at one point, mathilda is asking léon, “is life always this hard, or is it just when you’re a kid?” he simply replies, “always like this.” he’s so right…
saturday evening, i watched jim jarmusch‘s movie night on earth (imdb). knowing before only ony movie by him, namely dead man (imdb), one of my favorite movies, i was really anxious to see another movie by him.
night on earth is divided into five stories in five different cities around the earth, namely los angeles, new york, paris, rome, and helsinki. each story being centered around a cab driver, cruising through the city early in the morning. some being funny, some being very sad, some just being daily life, dream life; stories about love and death, about life. some making you laugh, some making you cry. a great movie.
