rik_tod

Member since 7/10/2007, last signed in awhile ago.

"Nothin' but the Truth..."

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Re:Africa Unite
By rik_tod in Spout Mavens
"Read rik_tod's review of Africa Unite here " [More]

Africa Unite

Spout Mavens Disc #8: Africa Un ...
By rik_tod in The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
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"Cinema 4 Rating: 7 I didn’t really think about it at the time, but in retrospect, it almost seems like the arrival of the Africa Unite screener from Spout in late January was an intentional tie-in to the annual Black History month held the following month. After all, watching it and reviewing it would, if things went the normal course, cause my own review to be placed up on Spout in that month of African-American celebration. I, myself, am not, to the best of my knowledge, of that particular descent, except perhaps in the manner that we all are of this planet descended eventually by way of that continental plate. But this does not mean that I don’t have any great interest in this very important, and generally neglected, aspect of the history books. It’s just that I was thinking, at the time of its arrival, as Africa Unite being a mere “concert film.”Unfortunately, circumstance precluded a viewing of the screener occurring in my household until just las ... " [More]

Re:Out of Balance
By rik_tod in Spout Mavens
"Secure your environmental equilibrium with riktod's take on Out of Balance here. " [More]

Out of Balance

Spout Mavens Disc #7: Out of Ba ...
By rik_tod in The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
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"There has been much discussion lately about whether a film marked primarily with the label "documentary" has a certain responsibility to present a balanced detailing of the particulars surrounding a subject, representing opinions on both or multiple sides of a debatable issue. Certainly, Michael Moore is due a certain amount of blame for this discussion. His films are unfailingly one-sided, and yes, he does have a tendency to push things in his favor; some even go so far to say he creates situations to lead to such a result. I couldn't care less for two reasons. The first is that I am, without any doubt, squarely on his side on all of the issues upon which he has has planted his weighted camera lens, even if he is a bit of a tad of a not-even-sort-of a dickhead. So, don't come crying to me if you feel he treated Charlton Heston in much the same manner that Heston chewed his merciless way through script after script over the years; if you take a very public positio ... " [More]

Re:The Rocket
By rik_tod in Spout Mavens
"Click here to read my post. " [More]

The Rocket

Spout Mavens Disc #6: The Rocke ...
By rik_tod in The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
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"Director: Charles Binamé // Canadian, 2005Cinema 4 Rating: 7 Of course we generally go to movies in which we either have an interest in a personality involved in the film, whether it be a star or director or even the author of the source material, or we love a particular genre and wish to see new examples of such, or we have heard or deduced that there is an element within the plot which forms that interest. In most cases, those that love dinosaurs are more apt to see a film if it involves dinosaurs than a film that doesn't, and more so than those that don't appreciate large, lumbering prehistoric beasts. The wall into which I have slammed my nose time and again through the brief period I have been part of the Spout Mavens group is constructed firmly by layers of DVDs containing films and subjects which I have absolutely zero interest in confronting in real life. And I have mentioned this time and again as well, though I have managed thus far to spew out some sort ... " [More]

Re:Roads to Koktebel
By rik_tod in Spout Mavens
"Rik_Tod's not-a-review can be found here. " [More]

Roads to Koktebel

Spout Mavens Disc #5: Коктебель ...
By rik_tod in The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
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"Writing about this disc would have proven to be a far simpler journey, had all of the Roads to Koktebel, trod upon by a homeless father and son on a sojourn through the lonely expanses of Russia, not crossed against my own personal Jetstream to Orlando and Roads to Anaheim Via Similarly Barren and Somewhat Dull Routes Through Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and California. You see, this disc arrived just as I was returning from my first vacation at Walt Disney World and its various and sundry neighboring parks, from which I slunk back to my abode with a rather sullen attitude at the prospect of returning to a life where I actually had to work to earn my keep, as opposed to lounging about a cabin in the woods, through which I strode happily every morning, and then spending each day riding rollercoasters and each night eating at 4-star restaurants.This despondency was displaced swiftly, as I drifted unluckily into a week-long bout of the flu, which left me able to watch movies, but unable to r ... " [More]

Tomorrow's Children

Psychotronic Ketchup: Tomorrow' ...
By rik_tod in The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
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"Eugenics is such an ugly philosophy, even for a person like me who is constantly exasperated with much of the human race. I don't have a problem with most people until I start to survey the idiotic choices they have made, but because I believe freedom of choice is an inherent right of all men and women, I am basically forced to swallow this feeling as I watch the world insert ever more feet into an already swirling toilet of stupidity. However, whenever I do start physically retching over the ploddings of mankind, I step back and examine my own choices -- some that have done me much harm, some that turned out fortunate by some degree, most of little serious impact -- and know that while I might get riled up over the nascent idiocy surrounding me, I really do not have a lot of room to speak. We all have choices to make, and not all of them work out, and some of them are not even choices at all.Meet Mr. Mason. Mr. Mason chooses to drink himself into unconsciousness, and will even ... " [More]

Down in the Valley

Recently Rated Movies #56: Amer ...
By rik_tod in The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
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"Yes, I have my devised own system for rating movies, but it doesn't mean that 1) it works perfectly, and 2) that I am completely satisfied with it. (Am I ever completely happy with anything?) The problem with ratings systems is that they are, by state of being, merely numbered lists, and cold and swift in their doling out of opinion. There is no allowance in their efficient little stabs of icy preference over finely hewn lines of art, distinction or purpose between films of decidedly different ilk, nor is one able to discern within such ratings the notion of a film that is, in the parlance, "so bad it's good" as opposed to a film that is simply "good" or "bad." The number "6" is just a "6," and what that number means to the reviewer still requires further dissemination from that reviewer publicly for it to make true sense to the outside eye; to the reader, unless they are distinctly attuned already to the scale the reviewer has set as a pattern for judgment, they will have ... " [More]

By Way of Introduction (For Som ...
By rik_tod in The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
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"As one of my major interests in film criticism is in the influence life experience plays on personal opinion and how knowledge of that experience by others further influences their opinion of your opinion, and as I have recently plunged headlong into the network of movie fanatics on Spout without so much as a "howdy-do," and as it is too frickin' hot to really write today, I have decided to do just that: introduce myself in a somewhat formal fashion. In the interests of my personal national security, it shall be first and middle name only, no rank, no serial number, and will consist of only the truths I feel comfortable divulging. Those of you who have read The Cinema 4 Pylon, or the Cinema 4: Cel Bloc or have known me for a quarter century may feel free to wander about and peruse the literature bins while I forge through this. Others, if we have not met, in much the same way that we should get to know people before forming friendships, I will inform you that I consider this to ... " [More]

13 Tzameti

Spout Mavens #4: 13 Tzameti (2 ...
By rik_tod in Spout Mavens
"About two days after I was halfway through my third, frustrating viewing of 13 Tzameti, I started having nightmares. Not the type of nightmares that leave you waking up -- cold sweat -- shaking -- whizzin' the bed, but the type where you wake up going, "What the fuck was that?" And the dreams had nothing to do with the ratcheted-up gun violence in the center section of the film, where a high stakes daisy chain of pistol-packing morons blasting holes in each other's heads makes Hollywood positively cream over the thought of reaping even bigger profits than the illegal cash the winners in the film land by remaking 13 Tzameti in a country where professional football players can earn a little extra bling green via underground dogfighting, even if they occasionally have to kill an unlucky puppy by smashing its body into a wall. The dream actually involved a couple of incidental characters in the film: 1) a gangster named Jean-François Godon who overdoses early in the film ... " [More]

Lists

Films I've seen (6507)
Films I've seen

Films I want to see (2698)
Films I want to see

Films I Own On DVD (896)
Very incomplete... I actually have over a thousand, but I need to take some time to catch this o ...

In the Ol' VHS Library (1287)

Films I want to buy (1679)
Films I want to buy

Forged in Childhood: The Deepest Influences (563)

Needs to be on DVD... RIGHT FRIGGIN' NOW!!! (53)
There's absolutely no excuse to be made... I need these films in my collection immediately! (Luc ...

Would You Believe I Saw This In A Theatre...? (585)
Mainly a refuge for films that I was either too dumb to avoid in theatres, or that I was cajoled ...

Afternoons in Rapture: KTVA Matinees 1976-79 (79)
The Alaska CBS affiliate, KTVA Channel 11, ran an afternoon movie matinée show from 3:00 to ...

Monstrously Painful Disappointments at the Movies (165)
Not just bad movies, but ones that I felt at some point before seeing them that I was going to h ...

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