Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: 2005, dir. Shane Black. Seen at Regal Gateway (Dec. 4).
Arrrrgh. How do you write a clear, coherent review of a movie when all you want to say is, “Go see this! You liked Ocean’s Eleven? You get a kick out of riffs on noir with references to Raymond Chandler? You appreciate the rare film with clever dialogue? Well, find this movie and watch it before it leaves theaters, even though it mostly already has and you’ll have to dig it up in a discount theater or something.”
If you haven’t heard of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, that’s a real shame. I would gripe that its marketing/release campaign was poor, but how the hell do you convince people to see a weird-ass movie like this? The narrator stops the film at times and rewinds it a bit or jumps it to a different scene, fully aware he’s narrating a movie. I think the last movie where I saw this conceit was Elmo in Grouchland, which I cannot believe I am even mentioning in this review, and which is about 180 degrees different from — well, actually, if you think about the storyline …
Look, I had no idea I was going to like this movie. I skipped it at Austin Film Festival because it was showing only once, late at night, and I figured if the movie was any good I would catch it in theaters later. I thought it would have a wider release than it did, which proves that I didn’t know much of anything about the actual film. I heard that Harry Knowles was running a “Save This Movie” campaign, urging everyone to see it, but he is so happily exuberant about so many movies that I didn’t pay much attention.
Category: theatrical reviews
I survived the Turkey Marathon
So no one wanted to go with me to the Turkey Marathon of films at Alamo Downtown last Saturday night (and well into Sunday morning)? Well, fine. Wimps. I went anyway. I decided it would be a mini-adventure, that parking downtown would not be too terrible on a holiday weekend, and that I would enjoy seeing films in genres about which I am not very knowledgeable. Also, I told myself I didn’t have to stay for all four films if I got too tired, although I ended up remaining there for the whole marathon.
I did have a great time, although I wish more people had been in the audience. Maybe 30 people turned up for the first movie; by the time the fourth one ended, the number was down to 10. The Turkey Marathon movies were the kind that improve with a large audience. Still, the people who were there all seemed to be having fun. Tim League introduced the movies and then sat and watched the first two or three—he ran the projector for the final film.
I took advantage of the small audience to nab a sofa. Alamo Downtown has these nice squishy sofas in the back row. I’m not sure if I’d ever seen a movie from the sofas before. I’m not very tall and it’s difficult to see if you’re in the sofa row and the row in front of it is occupied. But no one sat in front of me, so I had a perfect view. I think I should pick the sofas more often, especially if I have someone with me like my boyfriend who can sit on the other half, as opposed to a stranger. (The other half of the sofa I picked had a crack in the seat, so no one wanted to sit there, luckily for me.) Let me tell you, if it weren’t for the comfy sofa I might not have lasted through all four films. I don’t know how those Butt-Numb-a-Thon people last through 24 hours.
six six-minute reviews: good night, grimm dying jerk
It’s time for another round of Six-Minute Reviews. I have the timer right here. I sent The Beau a long list of movies I hadn’t reviewed, and he sent me a magical URL that picks the titles for me, one at a time, in random order. (I was too lazy to rip up bits of paper and stick them in a hat.)
I have a huge backlog of films to review, including a few I didn’t include on the list because they haven’t been released in theaters yet (like The Ice Harvest). I’m going to review some of those for Cinematical and hopefully will find time to talk about the others here. Maybe they can get more attention than a six-minute review, but don’t count on it. I also didn’t include movies for which I already have a half-written review; I will deal with them later.
But for now, how about six reviews at six minutes each?
Continue reading six six-minute reviews: good night, grimm dying jerk
Man with the Screaming Brain (2005)
Man with the Screaming Brain: 2005, dir. Bruce Campbell. Seen at Alamo South (July 5).
Poor Beau. He’s so nice about accompanying me to all kinds of films, as long as they aren’t bawdy, advertised as Motion Picture Events about the Triumph of the Human Spirit, or independent films about poetry.
Last month I dragged him to The Forbidden Zone. Last night I dragged him to The Man with the Screaming Brain, a film directed by Bruce Campbell for the Sci-Fi Channel. Bruce Campbell, whom some of you might know from the Evil Dead movies, was at the screening to answer questions and sign his new book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. So you could say it was a motion picture event, but the fun kind, not the begging-for-Oscars kind.
Man with the Screaming Brain is a goofy, intentionally bizarre little movie that I think would probably play better on TV than it does in a theater. It wasn’t bad, but it might be more fun to watch in your living room with a group of Bruce Campbell-lovin’ friends and a case of beer and maybe some pizza.
twelve six-minute reviews
All right. For every job that must be done, there is an element of fun … find the fun, and then just do a half-assed job. It’s the American way. Or something.
I want to write 12 movie reviews on which I have been procrastinating dreadfully. So I’ve made a game of it. I have 6 minutes to write something about every movie, and that will be my review. The exception is the Enron movie because I already wrote a chunk of it and I just have to finish it (and maybe take out some of the old text since it was written while I was in A Mood about corporations).
I wrote down all the movie titles on little slips of paper, so we will randomly select the order in which I will review these movies. Now, let’s see how this will work. My boyfriend has kindly offered to draw out the first slip of paper …
Paper Moon: twice in three weeks
Paper Moon: 1973, dir. Peter Bogdanovich. Seen on DVD (April 25) and at Alamo Downtown (May 14).
Here is what happened with me and Paper Moon: Polly Platt spoke to a class I was taking earlier this year, and I was impressed enough with her comments on Paper Moon and the clip she showed that I realized I really wanted to see it. A month or so later, I heard that Peter Bogdanovich was going to be in Austin, showing the film at Alamo Drafthouse and answering questions about it. I was very excited. Then Alamo cancelled the screening and I rented the movie on DVD and watched it at home.
I liked Paper Moon very much and was particularly impressed with the way it looked. So when I heard that the Bogdanovich appearance and Paper Moon had been rescheduled, I decided I wanted to see it again, this time in a theater. Alamo Downtown showed an excellent print of Paper Moon—Bogdanovich noted the print quality—so I felt very fortunate to see the movie under such circumstances.
The funny thing about my experience with Paper Moon is that I have heard Polly Platt and Peter Bogdanovich both talk about it, and their stories are often quite different.
Jette: returning to the Forbidden Zone
When I heard that Alamo Drafthouse was not only showing Forbidden Zone at a non-midnight time on April 30, but that director Richard Elfman would be there, I couldn’t resist. I had to go. I wanted to see the movie one more time.
I first saw Forbidden Zone in college, on a videotape from a Baton Rouge video rental store. I don’t remember which store, or how we found out about the movie, or exactly when we started watching it. My guess would be that my friend Lara knew about it and found it. Lara knew about all kinds of weird and obscure movies, like Russ Meyer and Herschell Gordon Lewis films and the Cinderella porn film with the snapping pussy. We probably saw the movie some time in late 1988 or early 1989.
How and why a Baton Rouge video store managed to get and keep a videotape of an obscure 1980 underground cult film is something I suppose we will never know.
I didn’t have a lot of experience of low-budget or independent movies in 1988. Forbidden Zone was the strangest movie I’d ever seen. It looked like it had been filmed in someone’s basement, but it had Herve Villechaize in it, and Viva, and what seemed like the entire Elfman family, including Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo, who had done music for a movie I really liked, Beetlejuice. It was filmed in stark and less-than-glorious black-and-white.
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Kung Fu Hustle: 2004, dir. Stephen Chow. Seen at Alamo Village (May 5).
Now, Kung Fu Hustle was not disappointing. I don’t think I read a single negative review of this movie beforehand. Admittedly, I tend to read reviews on small weblogs rather than mainstream newspapers or magazines, so my sample of reviewers may have been skewed in some way. But I was looking forward to a lively, funny film and Kung Fu Hustle exceeded my expectations.
Kung Fu Hustle was a gigantic hit in Hong Kong, where it was filmed, although it didn’t do as well in the US. Perhaps American audiences didn’t know what they were getting into. My sister thought it was going to be a straightforward kung-fu action movie, wasn’t all that thrilled that her boyfriend and my brother dragged her to see it, and then loved it. My mom was surprised to hear that I talked my boyfriend into going, rather than the other way around. I don’t think people realized that Kung Fu Hustle is a comedy.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: 2005, dir. Garth Jennings. Seen at Galaxy Highland (May 15).
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the most disappointing movie I’ve seen so far this year. I didn’t expect it to be wonderful, but I thought it would be enjoyable in a fluffy summer-movie sort of way. But the movie didn’t work for me on any level.
I think the problem with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the same problem I encountered with the first two Harry Potter movies. The filmmakers try to be faithful to the books in appearance, but not in spirit. I remember being impressed with some of the visual aspects of the first two Harry Potter movies—the way Diagon Alley looked, for example—but there wasn’t much underneath. The characters were not portrayed with any depth and the director had a tendency to rely on annoying stereotypes. (The third Harry Potter movie was a great improvement.)
Continue reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Viva Les Amis (2005)
Viva Les Amis: 2005, dir. Nancy Higgins. Seen at Alamo Downtown (May 4).
Hey, did you know that Austin was a haven of peace and love and groovy local hangouts and wonderfulness until 1990 when bam! overnight, it became an Evil Corporate Monstrosity?
If you saw Viva Les Amis, that’s what you might think.
Since I moved to Austin in 1991, I guess I missed all the good stuff. Maybe I should just leave for Dallas or Houston and get it over with.
All right, all right. I did like Viva Les Amis, a documentary about the crazy little cafe near the UT campus that was open from 1970-1997. Les Amis Cafe is one of the settings featured in the movie Slacker. The documentary was less than an hour long and it was a lot of fun at times. I wish it had been less heavy-handed with its anti-development message, though.