Speed Racer

Directors: The Wachowski Brothers
Writers: The Wachowski Brothers
Released: 2008
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, Paulie Litt, Willy and Kenzie

STEVE says: It's been more than a decade since the rumours started flying about a live-action Speed Racer movie. Johnny Depp was rumoured to be playing Speed (that's how long ago this was) and I think Sherilyn Fenn might have been mentioned as Trixie, but it's possible that part was only in my head. (I have a large catalog of fantasies involving each individually, and it's quite possible that they've merged.) It was on and off for a while, and finally the Wachowski's picked up the ball and ran with it. It looked like my wait for a live-action Speed Racer movie was over.

Not so.

Turns out, this movie is really nothing more than a live-action cartoon. I don't think there was one scene that wasn't shot against a green screen, and that's disheartening. The movie itself can't be distinguished from a cartoon in that 98% of it was CGI.

With all the flashing lights, quick cuts and bright colours, the Speed Racer movie is the cinematic equivalent of an all-syrup Squishee. I'm just trying to decide whether that's a bad thing.

3/5

First Sunday

Director: David E. Talbert
Writer: David E. Talbert
Released: 2008
Cast: Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, Katt Williams, Chi McBride, Loretta Devine, Michael Beach, Keith David, Regina Hall, Malinda Williams

They're Among Us

Director: Adam Weismann
Writers: Joshua Hale Fialkov, Christian Ford, Roger Soffer, Mark Wheaton
Released: 2008
Cast: Gil Bellows, Maxim Roy, Carlo Mestroni, Judd Nelson, Isabella Rossellini

Timber Falls

Director: Tony Giglio
Writer: Dan Kay
Released: 2008
Cast: Brianna Brown, Josh Randall, Nick Searcy, Beth Broderick, Sacha Rosemann

Slacker Uprising

Director: Michael Moore
Writer: Michael Moore
Released: 2008
Cast: Michael Moore, Steve Earle, Michael Stipe, Eddie Vedder, Tom Morello

[Steve also watched The Texas Chain Saw Massacre again, with film class.]

Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming

Director: Ernie Barbarash
Writer: Ernie Barbarash
Released: 2007
Cast: Rob Lowe, Marnie McPhail, Ben Lewis, Tatiana Maslany, Shawn Roberts, Vik Sahay

Yella

Director: Christian Petzold
Writers: Simone Bär, Christian Petzold
Released: 2007
Cast: Nina Hoss, Devid Striesow, Hinnerk Schönemann

STEVE says: Okay. First: Not a bad movie. Beautifully shot, well-acted. Somehow managed to make corporate accounting, if not interesting, at least a source of intrigue. But by the 12-minute mark, I could see where it was all going. Am I the only person who's seen Carnival of Souls?

As the movie went on, it became less a question of What's Happening? and more How Will These Events Lead to the Inevitable Conclusion?

As a movie on its own, it probably deserves a higher rating, but it was hard to buy into the suspense when I couldn't get Carnival of Souls out of my head, so it's losing some points there.

2.5/5

Doomsday

Director: Neil Marshall
Writer: Neil Marshall
Released: 2008
Cast: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Adrian Lester, Craig Conway, MyAnna Buring, Lee-Anne Leibenberg

Not Quite Hollywood

Director: Mark Hartley
Writer: Mark Hartley
Released: 2008
Cast: Phillip Adams, Tom Burstall, Jamie Lee Curtis, Everett De Roche, Bob Ellis, Richard Franklin, Anthony I. Ginnane, Barry Humphries, Stacey Keach, Russell Mulcahy, Quentin Tarantino, Brian Trenchard-Smith

Anamorph

Director: Henry Miller
Writers: Henry Miller, Tom Phelan
Released: 2007
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Scott Speedman, Clea Duvall, Peter Stormare, James Rebhorn

STEVE says: This was interesting, but not altogether good. The concept of a killer arranging his murders as art is cool - if not completely original (David Bowie did a concept album, "Outside" on the subject in 1995), but after a while you've just got to ask yourself, "Wouldn't it just be easier to shoot these people, or stab them or something?" The answer here is "Yeah, sure... I guess. Leave me alone!" But of course it's all about the art in the first place; the murders are incidental. And that's what I liked about it.

The thing is, there's no resolution to the story. Is Dafoe the killer? Is he the copycat? If so, who's the guy he was chasing if not the killer or the copycat? Does Dafoe know he, himself, is the killer if, in fact, he is? All questions the director felt we didn't need to know the answers to.

Normally, that's something I'd dig - a story where the journey is more important than the destination - but this time, I just felt cheated.

2/5

[Steve and Nikki also watched Hot Rod again.]

Night of the Living Dead

Director: George A. Romero
Writers: John A. Russo, George A. Romero
Released: 1968
Cast: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley, Kyra Schon, Russell Streiner, Bill Hinzman

NIKKI says:
Moonlight movie on Halloween. It was very cool. And the darkness and the wind only added to the creepiness of the movie. I do have to say, though, I'm glad to see the back of horror month. I want some fun. I want some bright colours. I need to laugh.

What can you say about Night of the Living Dead? It sets the bar. It's still the best zombie movie of all time, still one of the smartest horror movies ever, and still fucking scary. I love it, and I enjoyed a lot the experience of watching it outside. Fulci, however, was "TOO SCARE" through the whole thing. Wind and zombies was too much!

5/5

Dark Night of the Scarecrow

Director: Frank DeFelitta
Writer: JD Feigelson
Released: 1981
Cast: Charles Durning, Robert F. Lyons, Claude Earl Jones, Lane Smith, Tonya Crowe, Larry Drake, Jocelyn Brando, Tom Taylor

NIKKI says:
Wow, one of my all-time favourites. This is about as scary as movie get. Again, it's all to do with the atmosphere, the themes, the paranoia that comes with guilt and distrust. Of course, there's also a sackheaded scarecrow which is way fucking insanely creepy, but he's not the cause of all the creep. Not really.

It's really a horror movie fairytale, with poor Larry Drake attacked after saving the little girl from the scary dogs. So, on that other level, it's about love and understanding, unconditional friendship. Drake's revenge is very sweet, and I don't think I can think of a death scene more horrifying than the guy in the big silo. Ughghgh. It's horrible.

Good movie -- scary and beautiful.

4/5

Frankenstein

Director: James Whale
Writers: Garrett Fort, Francis Edwards Faragoh
Released: 1931
Cast: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye

Dracula

Director: Tod Browning
Writer: Garrett Fort
Released: 1931
Cast: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloane, Herbert Bunston, Frances Dade

Lifeforce

Director: Tobe Hooper
Writers: Dan O'Bannon, Don Jakoby
Released: 1985
Cast: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Mathilda May, Frank Finlay, Michael Gothard, Aubrey Morris, Patrick Stewart

The Lottery

Director: Larry Yust
Writer: Larry Yust
Released: 1969
Cast: Olive Dunbar, William Benedict, William Fawcett, Joe Howarth

STEVE says: There's something to be said for a film that manages to be suspenseful and shocking, even though it has one of the most famous endings in literary history.

I tried to watch this as someone who wasn't familiar with the story, and it wasn't easy. Like the last ten minutes of The Wicker Man, where you just know Edward Woodward is going to be burned alive, but you're still waiting for someone to swoop in and rescue him - no matter how many times you've seen the movie. It was a lot like that. But I was able to appreciate the lead-up a lot more, knowing how it was going to turn out. Yust (and Shirley Jackson, it must be said) highlights the banality of evil before the audience is even aware that evil is in the picture. Genius.

After watching this short film, I'm reminded of the woman in Fahrenheit 9/11 who was pro-war until her son was killed. In The Lottery, Tessie Hutchinson - like everyone else in the town - is all for the lottery, until it affects her personally. Then, suddenly, "It isn't fair!" Considering "The Lottery" was published in 1948, this short was made in 1969, and the themes were still relevant in 2004... Well, "the more things change", I guess...

3.5/5

NIKKI says:
There's something about old farm-lookin' dudes from the backwoods that just creeps me out. And this has lots of 'em. But that's not the point of the story... so it is a famous story, and it's still as scary as it ever was. Amazing how after so many years and so many retellings you still sit there in shock that the townspeople are actually going to go through with the ritual. Maybe it's because after all those retellings, there's still no actual reason why they do it.

Steve and I decided the themes in the story have much to do with conscription and sending kids off to war. We openly and randomly choose names from a hat and send people to war to be killed. This is a simplified exploration of that very strange practice that, when laid out in this way, just seems insane. Like so many things, I guess.

3.5/5

The Dark Half

Director: George A. Romero
Writer: George A. Romero
Released: 1993
Cast: Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, Michael Rooker, Julie Harris, Robert Joy

STEVE says: Not one of the best Stephen King adaptations, but surely one of the better ones. The fact that it's Romero gives it a bump, as well.

3/5

Burn After Reading

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Writers: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Released: 2008
Cast: George Clooney, Francis McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins

STEVE says: I haven't seen a Coen Brothers movie in the theatre since O Brother, Where Art Thou? in 2000. Coincidentally, I haven't cared for much of their work since then, either. So the fact that Burn After Reading had me excited enough to get into the theatre seemed a good sign.

Now I'm wishing I'd waited for the DVD.

I didn't hate it as I did The Ladykillers, wasn't indifferent to it as I was to Intolerable Cruelty, and wasn't bored by it as I was to The Man Who Wasn't There. But I didn't love it. Better than Fargo, but it was no Miller's Crossing or Lebowski, films I can revisit again and again and never get bored with. Burn After Reading had its moments. They were just too few and far between.

3/5

NIKKI says:
Wow, about as MEH as you can get. Well, maybe it would have been less meh had it not been a Coen borthers movie of which I expect so much more. But, you know, maybe I shouldn't. The guys haven't really been all that impressive with their original stuff of late. (No Country, of course, was brilliant, even if it fucked the ending of the book.) I don't know -- everything I really don't like about the Coen brothers was all over this movie. I'm not into wide-eyed Fraces McDormand characters who are supposed to perhaps be lovably stupid, but come off as just stupid. I'm not really inot the whole Brad Pitt playing the fool thing. And I didn't really care for the intertwining stories rehash.

This was a failed attempt to pout every cool Coen trait inot one big star-filled movie as if the stars would detrct from the really kinda lame plot and poor execution. It was horrible or anything, but it wasn't anything special either. The guys, it would seem, are out of Lebowskis.

2/5

Dawn of the Dead

Director: Zack Snyder
Writer: James Gunn
Released: 2004
Cast: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, Lindy Booth

STEVE says: It's like Remake Central here at Casa de Steve y Nikki. Either this says that there are more good horror remakes out there than we'd thought, or that we like crappy remakes more than we let on. You decide.

I think I'm in the minority on this, but I actually like the Dawn of the Dead remake, crappy or not. There are things about it that annoy me, to be sure - like its lacking the social commentary of the original - but overall it was fun and violent and gory, and that's pretty much all I was hoping for.

3.5/5

The Fly

Director: David Cronenberg
Writers: Charles Edward Pogue, David Cronenberg
Released: 1986
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Gina Davis, John Getz, Joy Boushel, Les Carlson

They Live

Director: John Carpenter
Writer: John Carpenter (as Frank Armitage)
Released: 1988
Cast: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, Peter Jason, George "Buck" Flower

NIKKI says:
I'm loving this week. This is the coolest movie. So, maybe John Carpenter forgot how to direct after this one? And write, too, apparently, because this is such a good story. Could it be before it's time? Or at least aware of its time. This one is all about the media keeping us asleep with mind-crushing advertising and blinding pretty pictures making unfulfillable promises.

Roddy Piper get s pair of shades that allow him to see through the advertising to the real, black and white world underneath. He's suddenly exposed to everything and must fight those crazy aliens keeping us all down. Someone once described Roddy's journey as a "battle of self-awareness", and I really like that desciption. It's something we all fight every day; the constant search for truth amid the bullshit. It's a great representation of that battle. I love it, even despite the ten minute fight scene. It's a ten-minute battle or self-awareness, Steve!! Get into it!!

4/5

The Thing from Another World

Director: Christian Nyby
Writer: Charles Lederer
Released: 1951
Cast: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James R. Young, Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, William Self, Eduard Franz, Sally Creighton, James Arness

STEVE says: Watching the original again, I'm thinking it's unfair to call Carpenter's version a remake, as the two share very little in the way of similarity. Sure, they both take place in the arctic, and they both have an alien antagonist, but that's really where the similarities end. Carpenter's movie (and, indeed, the original story it's based on) deals with a creature that consumes and imitates whatever life it finds here on Earth, and Nyby's creature is just James Arness with a prosthetic forehead, hiding in the snow and occasionally smashing through a door.

It's a classic, yes, and I enjoy watching it - I'm just not sure it earns the "based on a story by John W. Campbell, Jr." credit.

3/5

Harold and Maude

Director: Hal Ashby
Writer: Colin Higgins
Released: 1971
Cast: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles, Charles Tyner

Re-animator

Director: Stuart Gordon
Writers: Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon
Released: 1985
Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale, Robert Sampson

John Carpenter's The Thing

Director: John Carpenter
Writer: Bill Lancaster
Released: 1982
Cast: Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, TK Carter, David Clennon, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, Thomas G. Waites

STEVE says: John Carpenter could live to be 2000 years old and direct every movie made in that time, and still never come close to making anything as good as The Thing.

4.5/5

NIKKI says:
Man, the '80s was a good time for campy, awesome horror. This is another movie filled with crazy looking monsters that the cast plays entirely seriously. It really works. I like this movie a lot. It speaks to all my scare-points -- isolation, paranoia, darkness. It groups those things in a really cool way so that you feel just what the characters feel. The tension is quite real throughout, and it all feels so authentic that when the big spider thing jumps out, you're not going "oh whatever!" but "oh my holy fuck look at THAT?!!"

Movies like Waz could take a lesson in what it is that makes an out of this world horror feel real -- atmosphere, development, and timing.

What happened to John Carpenter? It's like he made this and then forgot how to direct. Sad.

4/5