How did you like that movie / TV show / book?

Yeah, that kinda looks like Laura Palmer when she was found "wrapped in plastic" (should be spoken in Jack Nance's voice). I love both Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. But WAH is probably my favorite Nick Cage... him with a southern accent is hilarious, but in a believable kind of way.

Last week I watched "Con Air" (which I had never seen before) and he is so ridiculously over the top in it that it's spectacular. Is he for-real acting, or is he in on the ridiculousness? I don't even know, and I'm fine with that... no one else would do it that way. It was one of those movies where I was laughing through every serious part and would watch it again.

Speaking of Jack Nance, have you seen the doc "I Don't Know Jack"? It's a pretty damn fascinating look at his life. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292553/
 
interesting. you make con-air sound almost watchable, shooby!
ordinarily i don't come near that type of movie.

but me, i only know nance from the legend of eraserhead. would you like to know more, ruby-tuesday...?
 
Ike Savage said:
so... seems to be a commissioned piece for the "crazy 4 cult" (annual?) event / exhibition. i guess kevin smith persuaded the actors who played these characters to attend for that year (2007). something like that, anyway. i never heard of it before now.
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Well, if that's the case... then that's one of the coolest conventions I've ever heard of! And, believe it or not, you guessed exactly how that dog got her name!
Shooby, I am so gonna have to track down that Jack Nance bio. That part in BV where he smacks his hands together and then mutters "I'm Paul." For some reason that's one of the creepiest parts of the movie for me.
 
Ike Savage said:
interesting. you make con-air sound almost watchable, shooby!
ordinarily i don't come near that type of movie.
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Yeah, I very rarely watch cheesy action flicks, but I was looking over lists of "best films from the 90's" for something I had never seen, and somehow that kept popping up so I thought I'd give it a shot. It was entertaining in a cheesy way (which I still don't know if that was intentional or not), but in no way would I consider it a "best film". Nick Cage, southern accent, & his hands are lethal weapons.

It reminded me of something else as well: There was a time in the 90's when they incorporated a movie's soundtrack into the movie like it was music video. They would play the song really loud where it's all you would hear for about a full verse & still attempt to incorporate it into a scene. I remember they did it in "The Crow" as well to where it seems half the movie is an MTV music video. I don't know if soundtracks sold better back then, but I do remember reading somewhere that most people who purchase soundtracks are people who didn't normally buy music and got hooked on a particular song, like all the people who bought the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack and made it a best seller.

Which brings me to Titanic: top grossing film of the 90's, not because it's a great film, but because teen girls were hooked on Leo DeCaprio and each girl saw the movie at least 8 times.

But Jim Jarmusch made "Night on Earth" and "Dead Man" in the 90's, both excellent films. He also did "Ghostdog" in 1999, which I know a lot of people don't like, and it's no "Dead Man", but I still dig it.

I miss the independent film surge of the early to mid 90's. I think it was "Clerks", "Pulp Fiction", & "Shakespear In Love" that got that whole scene going. It was so fun looking for smaller films in the video store and easier to find little gems before the indy scene became over-saturated with junk.

And lastly, there's a pretty cool documentary about the early Miramax days. I don't remember what it's called but it's about one of the Weinstein bros and starting Miramax. There's another one about Cannon films, though I guess that's more 80's stuff.

90's film rant out...
 
clerks...
me, i'm kind of pissed at kevin smith. he started out with such unique promise but eventually caved to the 'celebration of ignorance' culture with such duds as "dogma" and over-reliance on the jay and silent bob schtick. his 'stream-of-conscience-quasi-philosophical-fast-talking' character device was beautiful when it worked across his first four films or so, and i erroneously thought it would become more of a cultural thing.

like the thug from repo man said, "i blame society."


night on earth...
the one about taxi ride stories across a range of world cities, right? i loved that. what would you recommend for me as another jarmusch movie, then? "dead man," like you said, or something else? btw, wasn't he the guy who played the awkward "french-fried-pertaters" employee in sling blade?


the music video-style thing in movies...
IIRC miami vice was the genesis of that, and later someone naturally brought it over to movies. in any case it's a pretty damn effective device IMO. "show, don't tell," is a critical principle in story-telling, and i think that works peas n' carrots with the 'music video' aspect of films. (thank you, forrest)


maybe one day someone could make a movie with hammy-awkward nicolas cage and hammy-awkward keanu reeves and as much of a hammy-awkward co-cast. but who would you guys pick for that potentially pinnacle of laughability?
 
And the crazy thing is, when Miami Vice became a movie, they dropped the music!
 
Patrick McNee (John Steed: "The Avengers") passed away at his home in Rancho Mirage, Ca. It amazes me how many famous British end up moving to The States, and particularly California. Is it any wonder that, when it was time to rebuild it, they moved the entire original London Bridge, brick-by-brick, to Scottsdale, Arizona, and The Queen Mary to Long Beach! Obviously though, selling off London Bridge produced the revenue to replace it. On a side note. it is said that The Royal Family rented out Buckingham Palace to paying guests around the year 1900, for family income.

I Loved The Avengers t.v. series in the 60's, particularly Diana Rigg, and her turn in the film, "Theater of Blood". She could be my Mom. I wouldn't mind. :)

And James Horner died in a plane crash in Santa Barbara on Monday. I never did see a penny for 'that boat song', though I have encountered Celene as "a customer rep" at the Bank of America in Burbank. She was kind, but she was representing my Mom's account, not my money! In spite of the reported history of Italian origins in San Francisco, that bank was founded on AT&T and Studio money.
 
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so, sleepy... i take it then you're not familiar with the 1988 galleries on melrose?

(assuming you read the recent discussion)
 
Ohhh yes. Melrose Ave. Bistros and tacky trendiness.
I avoid it like the plague...

I'm not active much these days, but I gravitate towards Hollyhock House, The California Museum of Science and Industry, and a rare trek to an indie film screening at the George Lucas Theater on the USC campus. Mostly the real and useful things in life that can be held in the hand.
 
Let's put it this way. Take a Street Tour of Melrose Ave. Turn to the left and head west. Do you see what I mean?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/G...6656!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xd3543c9312af6f11!6m1!1e1

I would be more inclined to go to Sunset Blvd. and stop at the Guitar Center, take a glance at the Rockwalk ( a Chinese Theater-like handprint-in-concrete display in front of the store for rock stars), but spend most of my time trying out the gear. The guitars and keyboards.

As for the fame stuff, I'd rather take my currently-broken Yamaha keyboard to the repair guy in Burbank who fixes gear for Stevie Wonder. I don't need better experiences than that.
 
My Jarmusch favorite has always been Down By Law, what with me being a pretty big Tom Waits fan. I also have a fondness for Mystery Train. Screamin' Jay Hawkins is hilarious in it. Plus, there's one scene of a Japanese couple leaving the Sun Records museum and, wayyyy off in the distance of the shot, you can see the hospital I was born in!
I, myself, hate the "music montage" in movies. At least the way it ended up being neutered of its ability to tell a story and repurposed as a marketing tool to sell a soundtrack. For example: "Layla" in Goodfellas? Great music montage. Homoerotic volleyball game in Top Gun set to crappy Kenny Loggins song that's not "Danger Zone"? Bad music montage.

Whoops! Almost forgot to mention what a disappointment Kevin Smith has become! Well... I guess I just did. Same with Tarantino, to a certain extent. I remember a time when I couldn't get enough Quentin. Now I wish he'd shut the fuck up!
 
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Ike Savage said:
clerks...
night on earth...
the one about taxi ride stories across a range of world cities, right? i loved that. what would you recommend for me as another jarmusch movie, then? "dead man," like you said, or something else? btw, wasn't he the guy who played the awkward "french-fried-pertaters" employee in sling blade?
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Yeah, Night on Earth is the Taxi one. Dead Man is a black and white cowboy/indian movie featuring Johnny Depp. Tom Waits and Iggy Pop are in it for a bit too. It's a must-see. A very unique film.

"Mystery Train" is one of my favorites. "Down by Law" is excellent, and I also like "Stranger Than Paradise", though it's a bit more artsy.

Sling Blade was Billy Bob Thornton though.

When I was talking about the soundtracks though, I didn't mean like montages or standard soundtrack music... I mean there was a studio or 2 in the 90's that incorporated it into the movie like it suddenly turns into a music video. Not a montage or scene change, it's a straight-up not-subtle-at-all advertisement for the music. I tried to find something on youtube but couldn't, and the only 2 movies I can think of where they did it was "The Crow" and "Con Air", but I know there were more.

Kevin Smith: "Clerks" was the best thing he ever did, and I think it was because he was both ambitious and naive, and got really creative because he didn't have a lot to work with. "Mallrats" is fun. "Chasing Amy" is great, but I consider it a complete fluke - he just got really lucky that the laughs and emotions hit in just the right places at just the right times, but I don't think he completely planned it like that... it was a lucky fluke. He couldn't recreate that formula in a million years, and he's tried. But it's great fluke, I love it.

Has anyone seen "Red State"? It's pretty damn good and if you didn't know Kevin Smith wrote and directed it before going in, you would never have guessed he made it. John Goodman is awesome in it. "Tusk" sucked though. I can see what he was going for, but he missed the mark by a long way. But it's nice he's trying new stuff and not just going strictly with dick-jokes anymore.

I always enjoy Tarantino films. In the end he's just trying to make a fun movie... no messages or morals, just sit your ass down and have fun and enjoy these crazy characters.
 
One of the first films I remember doing that was Dog Day Afternoon... and it is really sly about it! A great Elton John song, too.

 
Shooby, I agree with you to a certain extent. I didn't get off the Tarantino train until after the Kill Bills... but there was Jackie Brown. Jackie Brown was extremely different from anything he's done before or since. A different pace, a different feel. It was so... adult, yet it didn't sacrifice any of his stylistic flair. If anything, it forced him to be more subtle. I guess I thought Jackie Brown showed this amazing potential for growth and it just feels like he kind of backslid since then. Hey, I saw Django, I liked Django, Leo should have won his Oscar for that but playing bad guys rarely gets you a win (except for Christophe Waltz)... but it ain't no Jackie Brown. And Samuel L. Jackson should have won his Oscar for that but playing bad guys rarely gets a you a win (except for Christophe Waltz).
This just came to me, but feel free to quit reading because this is just gonna get more boring. Remember that anime scene in KB Vol 1, the "origin story" of Lucy Liu's assassain? That's what all of Quentin's post Jackie movies feel like... comic book movies. And sometimes they're very good comic book movies. But it just seems like his filmmaking career could have been so much more because those first three movies? Classics, every one of them.
 
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Bill, you would be right about villains and awards, but you forgot all about Dr. Hannibal Lecter. And I think the one villain most deserving of the OSCAR was Jack Palance in "Shane". That is one of the coldest performances that I have ever seen.

But Man! You made my day with that Dog. It is Definitely One of My Favorites!
Based on a news report that I thought would make a very interesting story. But that's not making me happy now. Wanna pitch pennies?

Watching that opening sequence again, if it weren't for the dated cars, the Kent Cigarette billboard, and the lack of an ATM Machine (ATM's were still in development in '72), I couldn't tell that this isn't a new film. Almost everything in sight looks current, the one or two short haired men and the camerawork.

Say. Ever stop at a burger restaurant and have Pacino hit you up with talk about pulling a red wagon with a rooster in it? I mean, like a Schizo?

And then later showing up at the apartment, as a Hispanic Manager. He wore a blue cap. When I asked him about his face, he said he was not the manager. Said he was "A Dodger".
 
thanks for the suggestions, mateys.


@shooby,
i double-checked and it was indeed jarmusch in sling blade. here's the short, awkward scene between he and thornton:


 
sleepy said:
\
Say. Ever stop at a burger restaurant and have Pacino hit you up with talk about pulling a red wagon with a rooster in it? I mean, like a Schizo?
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Nah, it happened at a tilapa joint up here. If it had been calm, quiet Pacino from Godfather II, I would have done it. But, alas, I got stuck with Scent of a Woman shouting Pacino.
"Look! Just... LOOK! It's a rooster! It's in a red fucking wagon! And you... YOU!... you pull the fucking wagon. PULL THE FUCKING WAGON! WITH THE ROOSTER! PULL... THE WAGON! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!" Yeah, I had enough of that shit. Lee Van Cleef was down the street trying to get a ferret to ride a Big Wheel in front of the Noodles & Company. He was much more reasonable. Fucking ferret bit me on the finger.

Gee, how can you tell that's Jim Jarmusch? Oh, yeah... because no one on earth who's not part of the Alien Invasion Force looks like that.
 
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ehhh...'Chu maek funn. No?
 
It cuts both ways. Could be "Revolution Pacino"...
 
Yeah, it very well could be! Since he mumbled his way through that movie he might have been using a Spanish accent.
 
Ike Savage said:
thanks for the suggestions, mateys.


@shooby,
i double-checked and it was indeed jarmusch in sling blade. here's the short, awkward scene between he and thornton:


Click to expand...

Oh wow, I don't think I've seen Slingblade since VHS and before I knew who Jarmusch was. That's a new film-fact for me.

ruby651 said:
One of the first films I remember doing that was Dog Day Afternoon... and it is really sly about it! A great Elton John song, too.

Click to expand...

Now that's a nice montage. I finally found one, but now it doesn't seem quite as bad as I remember... it's still bad though. The ones in the crow are horrendous. Maybe it's just that they're horrendous songs.


ruby651 said:
Shooby, I agree with you to a certain extent. I didn't get off the Tarantino train until after the Kill Bills... but there was Jackie Brown. Jackie Brown was extremely different from anything he's done before or since. A different pace, a different feel. It was so... adult, yet it didn't sacrifice any of his stylistic flair. If anything, it forced him to be more subtle. I guess I thought Jackie Brown showed this amazing potential for growth and it just feels like he kind of backslid since then. Hey, I saw Django, I liked Django, Leo should have won his Oscar for that but playing bad guys rarely gets you a win (except for Christophe Waltz)... but it ain't no Jackie Brown. And Samuel L. Jackson should have won his Oscar for that but playing bad guys rarely gets a you a win (except for Christophe Waltz).
This just came to me, but feel free to quit reading because this is just gonna get more boring. Remember that anime scene in KB Vol 1, the "origin story" of Lucy Liu's assassain? That's what all of Quentin's post Jackie movies feel like... comic book movies. And sometimes they're very good comic book movies. But it just seems like his filmmaking career could have been so much more because those first three movies? Classics, every one of them.
Click to expand...

Yes, Jackie Brown is the most re-watchable out of all of them and probably my favorite. It's also the only movie that Tarantino did that was based on a book and not completely written by him. Kill Bill is the least re-watchable and mostly good only if you like cheesy kung-fu or revenge movies. I guess all of his movies are homages to entire genres. Pulp Fiction: 70's Gangster, Jackie Brown: Blaxploitation, Kill Bill: Kung-Fu, Inglorious Bastards: WWII, Django: Spaghetti Western, Death Proof: Car Chase. I really like Inglorious Bastards and Django, and his next one (The Hateful Eight looks like it could be decent - it's got a great cast. I've read the script but apparently it's changed a lot since then.

I have Dog Day Afternoon in my DVD collection and just put it in about a month ago after not seeing it in several years. Good stuff.
 
yeah, i'll believe that when statues come to life!


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(completely random post alert)
 
Somewhere along the line and, despite having seen Sling Blade, I forgot what a crazy-looking mofo Jim Jarmusch is!
Inglorious Basterds rates at the bottom of the pile for me. It was overstuffed with far too many plot lines and, being a boring history major, I felt it had about as much relation to actual events in WWII as the destruction of the first Death Star does. I know... that's the point of the whole exercise, what would a WWII movie be like if it was made by someone who doesn't know anything about WWII... but it still pissed me off. Oh, and Mike Myers is in it. Here's hoping Adam Sandler isn't in the Hateful Eight. Actually, since Quentin misspelled "bastards", maybe it should be the Hateful Aight. I like a lot about Kill Bill but there was just no reason it had to be that long.
@nic: you goddamned weirdo! Keep your "statue porn" to yourself!
 
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brandon in shaker square has said he's open to the idea of me bringing my karaoke equipment over to his restaurant... provided it's a good idea. he has to evaluate the idea / safety / logistics with partners, i think.

i'm both hopeful and nervous. but... so there.
 
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