The Warriors's Recent Activity - Spout

Film:The Warriors

Tue, 12 May 2009 02:44:24 GMT

Title: The Warriors
Year: 1979
Director: Walter Hill
Plot: Walter Hill's hip, super-stylized action film unfurls in a dystopian near-future, when various gangs control New York City. Each gang sports a unique moniker ('The Men in Blue,' 'The Baseball Furies,' 'The Rogues'), with a costume underscoring its "theme"; each, in turn, is also responsible for one geographic borough. Hill sets up the landscape as a massive, violent playground - replete with bridges, vacant subway tunnels, parks, abandoned buildings and the like, all ripe for exploration and adventure. Within this framework, the titular Coney Island gang decides to surmount every obstacle in its path to make it to the Bronx, for a city-wide meeting of rival gangs; en route, a black female radio DJ reports on their progress, in the style of a baseball announcer. The Warriors' quest grows decidedly more complex and dangerous, however, when the psychotic leader of a rival gang, The Rogues (David Patrick Kelly of Dreamscape) assassinates the head of the city's foremost gang, but The Warriors are pegged as culpable. This sends the gang fleeing through the labyrinthine city, with every thug in Manhattan in vicious, homicidal pursuit. Throughout, Hill keeps the onscreen violence absurd, exaggerated and unrealistic, downplaying death to an extreme degree; despite this fact, the film sparked a massive amount of controversy and an ugly backlash for allegedly inciting violence and destruction in several theaters where it initially played. James Remar, Michael Beck and Deborah Van Valkenburgh lead the ensemble cast. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 16
Number of Lists: 33
Number of blog posts: 5
Number of discussion threads: 12
SpoutRating: 3

Spout Post: 10 Movies Featuring Allegorical Ghosts

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:01:25 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 9/17/2008 4:01:25 PM
Body: If you took one look at the existence of the new movie Ghost Town and dismissed it on account of its familiarity, you’re ignoring the potential of one of the most valuable plot devices available to fiction. Sure, the employment of ghosts in a narrative may also be evidence of laziness, as the device is just as much a convenience as it is a useful tool for storytellers. Not everyone can be Shakespeare, and of course there is a lot of redundancy and (excuse the pun) lifelessness in the majority of movies involving ghosts. However, ghosts can also be highly representative and/or serve a film on a deeper level than the surface story. To use another pun, ghost movies are not always so transparent. Like zombies, their plot-device sibling, ghosts have a way of signifying greater ideas, subjects and themes, and aren’t always merely about scares and talking-to-thin-air gags. In a conversation with Cinematical’s Erik Davis, Ghost Town director/co-writer David Koepp had this to say about the significance of ghost stories: Part of the reason they’re so enduring is because, well, first off all they give hope — because if they are ghosts, then it means we don’t die when we die. But also because they work really well in a number of genres. Ya know, in a drama like Ghost, or a horror movie, suspense or comedy in our case — I just think they offer so many dramatic possibilities; to have someone that’s dead, but still around to talk about it really suggests a lot of great situations. Okay, so that bit of promotional fluff is actually more about the literal dramatic qualities of the ghost device than the figurative and subtextual, but the quote at least jumpstarted my thinking. Initially I had thought about simply outlining how ghosts have been applied to different film genres, but then I fortunately switched my goal to seek out ten specific ghost films (from the seemingly thousands out there) that utilize the device for more meaningful purpose. Poltergeist (1982) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) Ghosts = Threat to Middle-Class In his book Media Culture: Cutural Studies, Identity and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern, critical theorist Douglas Kellner points to a multitude of ideas represented by the ghosts haunting the Freeling family in Poltergeist. In fact, these ideas are discussed over 11 pages (viewable on Google Book Search), also concern the first sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, and include everything from threats of TV’s hold on children to the disintegration of the 1960s counterculture. Generally, though, Kellner sees the first two Poltergeist movies as being about threats to the middle-class and nuclear family in an era of economic insecurity. The ghosts in Poltergeist, Kellner argues, stand in for working-class and racial “others,” and they signify in their actions the break-up of the family unit and fears of losing one’s home and job. With these representations in mind, it’s not so unnecessary, perhaps, that a remake of Poltergeist is currently in the works. The Amityville Horror (1979) Ghosts = Financial Insecurity This is merely a companion to the Poltergeist films in terms of its ghosts’ representation, but seeing as it was released prior to the first Poltergeist film and it received its allegorical reading from none other than Stephen King (in an article titled “Why We Crave Horror Movies” published in Playboy, quoted in Kellner’s book), I had to include it. Here is what King had to say about the film: “The movie might as well have been subtitled ‘The Horror of the Shrinking Bank Account’…. The Amityville Horror, beneath its ghost-story exterior, is really a financial demolition derby.” Ghostbusters (1984) Ghosts = Obesity or Scum of Old New York Although it was meant as a joke, the Volkswagon ad in which a projectionist argues his idea that Ghostbusters is a serious warning about the obesity epidemic facing America isn’t completely ridiculous. The points about blobby figures, Dana’s fridge and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man are fair evidence for such an argument. But I’m slightly more interested in the “libertarian” reading of the ghosts as representations of old New York, particularly the filthy, near-bankrupt old New York of the decade preceding the film’s release, which was recently proposed by Karina on this very blog. The Ghostbusters as gentrifying force and pre-Giuliani city-sweepers is interesting, though it might have been more clearly conveyed if some ghosts were in Warriors-like gangs and/or peddling porn in Times Square and/or getting kids hooked on “slime” that can be smoked through a pipe. But I do love the idea that the ghosts are a threat to primarily wealthy New Yorkers just as in real-life it was the homeless and other scum clashing with the new money Manhattanites. Karina also sees the ghosts in the film as a sort of reminder of the New York history that goes back further than the financial and criminal problems of the ‘60s and ‘70s: “Ghostbusters plays on an entire city’s anxieties that, as renters, our spaces don’t belong to us, that there’s a history to our homes that we’ll never know, and probably shouldn’t know.” The Sixth Sense (1999) Ghosts = Insignificance I love facetious readings of movies, both because I think film scholarship is sometimes too serious and because I think such readings can often be taken more seriously than intended. I’ve already pointed to one example with the VW Ghostbusters ad (there’s a whole series of these ads, of which I find the Toy Story one to be the most hilarious and cogent). Now, I present a humorous address of the major plot hole in The Sixth Sense, part of a Cracked.com list, which asks, regarding the unlikelihood of Bruce Willis’ complete obliviousness to his ghostly existence, “What kind of lifestyle was he living before his death that would make him fail to notice that no one could see or hear him?” Implausible, sure, but it’s also representative of insecurities many of us have about our significance in the world. The Sixth Sense is therefore kind of like the antithesis to It’s a Wonderful Life by showcasing the possibility that your life is so meaningless that were you invisible or dead you would experience no difference. Ghost (1990) Ghosts = Love’s Bond The fact that, in The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis doesn’t notice his nonexistence even when in the presence of his wife says something about his character’s perception of and role in that marriage. On the other side of the coin, perhaps, is Demi Moore’s character in Ghost. A precursor and inferior film to Jonathan Glazer’s Birth, it deals more slightly with the same themes of faith and knowability as they pertain to love. This earlier film is far less cynical, though, evident in the employment of a literal ghost rather than simply an outlet for the dead (Ghost would be more similar to Birth if we, like Demi Moore’s character, only saw, heard and had to trust Whoopi Goldberg’s psychic character). There’s still a bit of initial skepticism that love’s bond is nothing more than shared secrets and memories (as if the first convincing evidence that Sam is there, the response “ditto,” couldn’t have been overheard by someone outside the relationship), but continued proof of the ghost’s existence turns the device into an allegory for the spiritual bond between lovers. And it’s apparently a strong enough bond to give Molly (Moore) the faith that she’s kissing her dead husband, even if it may look like she’s kissing a con woman (Goldberg). Over Her Dead Body (2008) Ghosts = Memories of Ex-Lovers Now, imagine if in Ghost, Goldberg’s character actually wanted to pursue a relationship with Molly and was unfortunately haunted by Molly’s previous lover. That’s kind of the premise behind this movie, which proves that even lame ghost movies can at least be allegorical. Here, a psychic character (Lake Bell) falls for a veterinarian (Paul Rudd) and must win his love while being literally haunted by his jealous former fiancée (Eva Longoria). Here the ghost represents that memory of an ex-lover (whether a dumper, dumped or deceased) that can torment the mind of either party in a new relationship, making it difficult to move on to or trust a new lover. Of course, Over Her Dead Body wasn’t the first movie to deal with such a theme, and you’d be better off watching something older and better, like Blithe Spirit, but I wanted to reference some bad films on this list, too. Just be glad I didn’t go ahead and include Ghost Dad as an allegory about inheritance. visit videodetective.com for more info The Univited (1944) Ghosts = Lesbians Continuing a link to the Demi Moore-Whoopi Goldberg kiss (in which Patrick Swazye’s ghost is superimposed over Goldberg to play it safe for the audience), here is a film in which a ghost actually allegorically represents the “spectral presence of lesbianism,” to borrow a phrase from film scholar Patricia White, who writes of this film and others in her look at the correlation between Hollywood ghost movies and lesbian movies in the book Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability. In addition to implying an actual lesbian relationship, which ended with the death of one of the women, the film’s ghost also seems to represent threats of maternal identification and the female Oedipus complex. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) Ghosts = Cross-Gendered Spectatorship The ghostly theater audience members in this Tsai Ming-liang film may represent the death of the moviegoer or of cinema itself, but I also see the transvestite ghost as being representative of cross-gendered identification experienced through film spectatorship. 13 Ghosts (1960) Ghosts = Communists Okay, this one is a total stretch, but it works for me because (1) thanks to Joe Dante’s Matinee, I’ve always looked at William Castle films as having a Cold War context and (2) I’m shocked that there aren’t actually any Cold War-era films that more clearly employ ghosts as representatives of a Communist threat. I guess monsters, pod people, witches and aliens were sufficient allegories, but I also think it a missed opportunity to relate ghosts to Karl Marx’s phrase “spectre of Communism.” Anyway, in forcing this film into my wanting of such a Communist allegory, I have only this argument: the goggles used both in the film and (as one of Castle’s many gimmicks) outside the film to detect ghosts could be taken as a sort of fantasy for Americans wishing they had special goggles that could detect any Reds living among them. It’s almost like a counterpart to the goggles that detect capitalistic aliens in They Live, right? No? Well, I tried, and hopefully someone can make a modern ghost story that at least employs ghosts as terrorist allegory. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re:Best Fights

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:19:35 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Martial Arts Films
Post Date: 8/19/2008 1:19:35 AM
Body: 1.) Bruce Lee and John Saxon vs. Hahn's 'army' at the end of Enter The Dragon ... the fight that begins as soon as John Saxon 'kills' Bolo Yueng... 2.) Bruce Lee vs. 20 or so karate students AND their teacher in The Chinese Connection . 3.) Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris in Return Of The Dragon . 4.) Bruce Lee vs. the big Russian Guy in The Chinese Connection . 5.) Bruce Lee vs. the boss's son and his gang of thugs in the ice-house at night in Fists of Fury . 6.) Chuck Norris vs. the sherrifs deputy in the bull corral in Breaker! Breaker! . 7.) Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul Jabbar in Game Of Death . 8.) Bruce Lee vs. the 'escrima stick guy' (Danny Inosanto) in Game Of Death . 9.) The 'bar fight' in Kill and Kill Again . 10.) The 'rest-room fight' in The Warriors .

Spout Post: Re:Martial Arts starter kit

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:37:31 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Martial Arts Films
Post Date: 8/5/2008 8:37:31 PM
Body: It just so happens that the 'martial arts' film is easily my second favorite genre after Horror Movies! There are even a couple movies that dip into both genres! Does anyone remember the TERRIBLE Chuck Norris movie about an unstoppable killer called Silent Rage ? There was also the one with Peter Cushing in Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires ... But anyone interested in getting into martial arts should start with Bruce Lee and progress from there... And I am talking about ALL of his movies including: The Chinese Connection and Fists Of Fury ... up through Enter The Dragon and Return Of The Dragon ... and even The Game Of Death ... These are some SERIOUS Martial Arts movies! Next you should look into Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris and Jeff Speakman and Jason Stathom and especially the old films of Sonny Chiba! ... Also, since boxing and sword-fighting and fighting in general are considered to be 'martial arts'. I would recomend The Warriors and The 13th Warrior and The Ultimate Warrior ... as good examples...

Spout Post: Episode II: ‘Streets of Fire’

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:09:52 GMT

Post By: usesoap
Post To: Natsukashi
Post Date: 6/30/2008 3:09:52 PM
Body: Download Episode II:Streets of Fire By: Rob Rector Streets of Fire (PG) – 1984Directed by: Walter HillStarring: Michael Pare as Tom CodyDiane Lane as Ellen AimRick Moranis as Billy FishAmy Madigan as McCoyWillem Dafoe as Raven Shaddock Tagline: “A Rock & Roll Fable” Personal Pre-screening Recollections: Tonight it what it means to be young indeed! There are some films that come along at just the right time in your life and consume your thoughts, affect your decisions (“What would Indiana Jones do if his mom asked him to clean his room?”) and make you want to be that person on the screen. Tom Cody was one of those people for me. Street of Fire affected me on several levels: Musically : Granted, the film’s most popular tracks are rather weak, resembling some overly embellished piece of pomposity that even Meat Loaf would have snickered at. Soundtrack aside, it was the film’s score that really got to me. I felt hip among my elders to proclaim my passion for blues-guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder (who scored many a Walter Hill film). Visually: The rainy streets, the violent neon. It was all so Blade-Runner-esque to me. And because Harrison Ford was a childhood idol, anything remotely resembling his films was of automatic interest. Narratively: I know I’ll get crap for this, for the plot could be written on the back of a cocktail napkin, but each scene was stages like it could comfortably fit in a comic-book panel, which it seemed as though it was trying to emulate. Perversely: In the first half hour, I could get my steady diet of cuss words, booze-swigging, chain-smoking heroes, and get flashed of nippledge from a rather homely stripper (but let’s face it, when you are in those formative years, that nipple could be placed on a woman’s earlobe and still elicit interest). And all of this was safely under the just-about-to-be-changed PG rating, which meant no parental supervision! Critically: I can remember using one of my spiral notebooks purchased for school (which, of course, was typically blank inside) and beginning my career of a film reviewer. It was the kind of booklet that had the little colored tabs on the side, which I used to alphabetize the volumes of films I was devouring at that age. Streets of Fire got four stars (the highest). I really wish I held on to that little book. *silent weep* Physically: Thank you, Diane Lane for that wonderful trifecta of “The Outsiders,” “Rumble Fish” and “Streets of Fire” for jump-starting my puberty. Emotionally: I recall being crushed upon learning that “I Could Dream About You” was sung by a white guy Dan Hartman). Yet I still continued a slavish devotion to all actors in the film, including Stoney Jackson, who only pretended to sing the song. I remember watching him all his Jheri-curled glory in the “Miami Vice” ripoff “The Insiders “(featuring a Phil Collins-led Genesis theme “Just a Job to Do”), where he played a reporter teamed up with a honky to solve crimes. Right around the same time as Flip Wilson’s Cosby Knock-off “Charlie & Company” Cinematically: Walter Hill was a cinematic god to me, between this, 48 Hrs, Brewster’s Millions, Extreme Prejudice and Trespass (not to mention that The Warriors was on constant rotation on HBO back then), he defined machismo (even though I failed to emulate it in real life). Heroically: I was convinced between this and Eddie and the Cruisers, Michael Pare was destined to become a star. Only now do I realize that those two films would be the apex of his ability. I followed every player in his/her next project, from the aforementioned Stoney Jackson (perhaps the coolest name ever!) to Moranis to Dafoe. Viewing the film today It came as no surprise that this film held up as well as it did, partially because it was set in an ageless alternative universe, filled with ersatz 50s-era style, retrofitted with 80s sensibilities. Pare stars as Tom Cody, a delinquent who is summoned back to his home town by his sister played by Deborah Van Valkenberg of “Too Close for Comfort” — Ted Knight, rest in peace) after his former flame Ellen Aim (played by Diane Lane) is abducted onstage by a gang of bikers. Ellen is currently shacking up with her nebbish promoter Billy Fish (played by Rick Moranis), and together they team with McCoy (played by Amy Madigan) a drifter/former soldier to rescue the chantreuse back from the clutches of Raven Shaddock (played by Willem Dafoe). That’s it. Honestly. The film’s plot is as economical as its 90-minute runtime. But its brevity allows viewers to focus on the many other aspects of the film – from the host of supporting actors (hey, there’s Bill Paxton, testing out his portrayal of Chet from Weird Science a year in advance; poor Robert Townsend,relegated to a non-speaking role. So this is what led him to Hollywood Shuffle; Ed Beagley Jr.? Is that you?) to the steamy, rain-slicked set design. As I watched, I was still amazed at how much they were able to slip into this PG-rated picture – drinking, swearing, smoking, non-stop violence and gunplay and even the aforementioned boob shot from a Sandra Bernhard lookalike stripper at the Torchy’s nightclub. The cinematography is really what keeps this film from aging. Even the film’s puddles are vibrant, shimmering with the neon-soaked streetscapes (a la Blade Runner). It certainly isn’t the pulpy dialogue, which seems straight out of a cut-rate Dashiell Hammett or Mickey Spillaine novel (Sin City owes a helluva lot to this film.) The film is a textbook definition of “style over substance,” but when a film oozes this much style, it’s easily forgiven. New Memories I don’t care if he looks like a pissed off Gorton’s fisherman in his rubber clamming trousers, Dafoe still can summon legions of hell with his scream. He creates some of the film’s most iconic scenes with just a stare. I noticed, too, that the score is so much better than the soundtrack which was the most popular thing about the movie after its release (made for $14 million, the film only grossed $5 million at the box office). I wish legendary guitarist Ry Cooder would make more films solely for the opportunity to say the words “Ry Cooder.” The acting ranged from wooden to spasmodic, but little in between. Pare was perfect in the roles of stoic bohunk, required to be little more than a 3-D cartoon. How badass is Tom Cody, you say? So badass that in the first scenes in which he appears he’s antagonized by a butterfly knife-wielding gang, he slaps the leader silly, takes the knife, closes it and hands it back to him, telling him to “Try again.” Every character possesses that hyperbolic sense of self. For example, Moranis is not just a nerd – complete with a wardrobe so mismatched, sparks fly when they come into contact with one another – he’s a nerd with a smart mouth, a yellow streak and a look that is just shy of a “Hit Here” tattoo on his forehead. But that was the picture’s whole wonderfully deranged plot. I still consider myself a devotee and fervent supporter of this film, even now that I view films with a much more critical eye. It’s whisp of story and vacancies in dramatic deliveries are far eclipsed by the sheer visceral candyland in which it places it’s audience. Sure, Streets of Fire wears some of its 80s heart on its sleeve, but it’s just loopy enough and short enough to remember “what it meant to be young.”

Spout Post: Violence in movies...

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:15:39 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Violence on film
Post Date: 11/19/2007 11:15:39 PM
Body: There are certain movies that are all about the violence! (insert your favorite horror movie here) And then there are some which are more 'drama' but with at least one or two really violent scenes for an 'attention-grabber' . In other words, in some cases the violence helps to tell the story, and in other cases, the violence IS the story... here are some examples... The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and ALL of the Clint Eastwood westerns ... Up to, and including, Unforgiven ... ALL of the Bruce Lee movies and most of the Steven Segal movies and Jean Claude Van Damme and Don 'the dragon' Wilson and Jeff Speakman , etc ... No. My favorite violent movies are the ones about real warriors... THAT is what it's all about! Movies like The Warriors and The Wild Bunch and The Magnificent Seven and The 13th Warrior and 300 are excellent examples of movies which are all about the violence... not to mention the Kill Bill series and every movie ever made by John Woo as well... They ALL have one thing in common, what some would call 'excessive' violence...

Spout Post: movie year countdown #33 - 1974 - The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:29:30 GMT

Post By: Risselada
Post To: Risselada Blog
Post Date: 10/31/2007 4:29:30 PM
Body: This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”. To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.The Taking of Pelham One Two ThreeThis movie is just fucking awesome!Everything about it makes it the perfect action/thriller movie. Well it's not strictly an action movie, but the pacing definitely feels like one. It's very tight and exciting from the very moment it begins to the end. It's hard to make a movie like that where the excitement feels real and not manufactured. The film achieves this by keeping a lot of mystery and revealing bits at a time. It also has a lot of humor and charm.One thing I noticed as a motif in this movie was situations was the ways in which people are stereotyped. Someone would get information about one person and make all kinds of incorrect assumptions about them. Here's a few examples. When Garber finally meets Inspector Daniels and you can tell he didn't expect him to be black. People kept speculating about whether all the cop on the train might be a woman and if a woman would be capable of action. There's absolutely no evidence one way or another but people get so obsessed by the idea. And then when Garber finally goes up to the male cop who was on the train, he can only see him face down, but because he has long hair he calls him "Mam". There is also the situation where the Japanese officials from the Tokyo transit system they assume can't understand English because they never respond in English and act naturally very Japanese. But they are embarrassed when they talk crap about them and realize they understood the whole time. There is also the situation of all of the assumptions that they make when trying to track down the perpetrator. I wish I would have written them down but there are many more examples. For some reason this motif made the movie just seem even more full. It didn't seem forced or cliché and it pushed the script into perfection.Seriously this movie is tight. All the roles are written and cast perfectly.The woman who sleeps through the whole ordeal on the subway just kills me too. See, I love when movies play with this kind of seriousness and hilarity simultaneously. But it's a difficult thing to pull off. The funny has to be brilliant and the seriously has to be intense.But oooooh NO NO NO NO NO! Doing research for this review I have realized that Tony Scott is going to be remaking this wonderful movie!! Well it was based on a novel, so maybe technically he is doing a new adaptation rather than a remake, but what is the point when it has already been done so perfectly. And look who is going to be cast. John Travolta and Denzel Washington!! NO NO. This does not bode well. How can Denzel play Gerber and still have the moment where he is surprised the police inspector is black! Well maybe you could say that it just wouldn't happen these days. Well in that case maybe this movie is really about the early 70's. Heck if they are going to make it for current times aren't many of the procedures for the subway going to be totally different? I read on wikipedia (so it may be dubious) that the system for naming trains is different now anyways so the title shouldn't even be called Pelham One Two Three. Anyways they could always update everything for the current day and age, but I'm not sure if I trust this team of filmmakers. Apparently he is also remaking The Warriors too! WTF! Fuck, why did my review of such an awesome movie have to turn into this tangent of ill foreboding?Rating: 10/10

Spout Post: Re:Re:Re:Re:Behaviour & Censorship

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:02:28 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Violence on film
Post Date: 10/30/2007 6:02:28 PM
Body: 'Laws', Rizzo? That is not what seperates men from beasts. 'Laws' were created as more of a 'code-of-conduct' among very primative people eons ago so they could live together without butchering each other. MANY so called 'animals' adhere to the same, or a very similar, 'code-of-conduct'. Wolves for example or lions or seals or dolphins or prairie-dogs... they all have one thing in common, they must work together in order to survive. Their so called 'laws' enable them to do this.... We are no different. I guess the big difference is that we are a bit too smart for ourselves and we have WAY too many ludicrous 'laws' for our own good! Our prisons are overflowing because of all of these 'laws' and the world is really no better off for it... I would suggest that you watch Planet Of The Apes one more time and you might want to throw in The Lord Of The Flies and The Warriors as well... not to mention MANY old westerns that deal directly with this subject matter! Young Guns anyone? This country was founded on violence and lawlessness ... that is what we are. Not unlike Australia! < GOR >

Spout Post: Re:Re:Re:Behaviour & Censorship

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:14:54 GMT

Post By: Risselada
Post To: Violence on film
Post Date: 10/29/2007 12:14:54 PM
Body: If we are just animals then why do we have any laws! Other animals don't have laws. Then again they don't have any rights either. Although some animals do seem to have social structure.

Spout Post: Seventh Year of the Sublime Sylvia Warriors

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:52:29 GMT

Post By: dibot
Post To: dibot Blog
Post Date: 9/30/2007 1:52:29 PM
Body: I'm super behind again.I saw Sylvia on Lifetime, so I'm not sure how much they cut out of the film. I liked the mood and the way the film looked. It seemed to get more and more gray as Plath descended into her depression. Of course, Gwyneth Paltrow ("The Good Night") and Daniel Craig ("The Invasion") gave solid performances as poetess Sylvia Plath and husband Ted Hughes. I liked that as a biopic, it didn't try to encompass Plath's whole life, just the time from when she met Hughes to her suicide. But despite the good qualities, it just wasn't all that interesting.Sublime is further proof that one should never blind buy no matter how cheep the DVD is. The plot sounded good. The day after his 40th birthday, a man goes into the hospital for a routine colonoscopy but things go wrong and the hospital isn't everything that it seems. Creepy hospital. Botched surgery. A recipe for success? Alas, no. The production was good. Very nice lighting and colors. A good dosage of gore. But the film moves slow. And it's needlessly confusing. I'm sure we were supposed to be feeling the character's frustration. But, instead, I got annoyed. And then the horror movie cop out that makes me the most angry. [spoiler] It was all in his head [/spoiler] Totally lame.Year of the Dog starts out following Molly Shannon ("Evan Almighty")'s lonely life with only her dog as her companion. When he dies, her world is thrown into a spiral as she quests for meaning and purpose. This film captures the Shannon's loneliness of living alone and frustration of being surrounded by people who don't understand or support her passions, trying to force her into the mold they think she should fit. The sadness is mixed with a good dose of humor. And the plot went somewhere I never expected. A rare thing. I really enjoyed this film. This is the directorial debut for writer Mike White ("Nacho Libre") and I am very interested to see where he goes next.The Seventh Seal is my second Bergman, and while Smiles of a Summer Night was an easy introduction, this film is much heavier and stranger. Netfilx calls it a "powerful meditation on God and the meaning of life." A knight, played by a very young Max Von Sydow ("Rush Hour 3"), returning from the crusades, meets death and challenges him to a game of chess. The game spans several days as the knight and his squire (the best character in the film) travel home and meet all sorts of strange people. Again, some of this film is very absurd and funny. But much of it is painful to watch. The cinematography and many of the shots are gorgeous. And I understand why this film is so famous, but I'm not gung-ho to watch it again.The Warriors just makes me want to chant, "Warriors, come out and playay" over and over. Set in the future, all the gangs of New York gather for a meeting where one man tries to unite them against the rest of the city. He's assassinated and the Warriors are framed. The rest of the film follows them as they try to make their way through a hostile city back to their own turf. The really great thing about this movie are the costumes of the other gangs. Especially the Baseball Furies. Awesome. The synth music is everywhere and, I think, very influenced by the Halloween theme. It's gritty and really just a lot of fun.

Spout Post: Re: Top five favorite Soundtracks

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:01:03 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Movie Soundtracks
Post Date: 9/5/2007 5:01:03 PM
Body: Ok.... Well.... eliminating all of the obvious 'concert films', I feel I can come up with a pretty good list... 1. "Heavy Metal" 2. "The Warriors" 3. "Reservior Dogs" 4. "Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf" 5. "Rocky III"

Spout Tag:funny

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:10:58 GMT

funny
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Spout Tag:awesome

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:23:33 GMT

awesome
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Spout Tag:future

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:16:33 GMT

future
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Spout Tag:escape

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:51:44 GMT

escape
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Spout Tag:surreal

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:29:29 GMT

surreal
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Spout Tag:gangster

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:37:08 GMT

gangster
Number of films tagged: 4065

Number of people who tagged: 60

Number of times used: 145

Spout Tag:survival

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:43:56 GMT

survival
Number of films tagged: 67

Number of people who tagged: 48

Number of times used: 98

Spout Tag:assassination

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:55:14 GMT

assassination
Number of films tagged: 1052

Number of people who tagged: 44

Number of times used: 90

Spout Tag:killing

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:01:54 GMT

killing
Number of films tagged: 7191

Number of people who tagged: 31

Number of times used: 96

Spout Tag:radio

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:33:14 GMT

radio
Number of films tagged: 345

Number of people who tagged: 30

Number of times used: 46

Spout Tag:gangs

Sun, 03 May 2009 23:37:04 GMT

gangs
Number of films tagged: 32

Number of people who tagged: 27

Number of times used: 43

Spout Tag:home

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:30:23 GMT

home
Number of films tagged: 844

Number of people who tagged: 23

Number of times used: 35

Spout Tag:tension

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:24:52 GMT

tension
Number of films tagged: 183

Number of people who tagged: 16

Number of times used: 17

Spout Tag:rampage

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:08:16 GMT

rampage
Number of films tagged: 1183

Number of people who tagged: 9

Number of times used: 16

Spout Tag:gangwar

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:13:22 GMT

gangwar
Number of films tagged: 210

Number of people who tagged: 8

Number of times used: 8