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Colin Newman recommended Sexuality by Sebastien Tellier in Music (curated)
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) in Movies
Mar 2, 2021
I Know What You Did Last Summer opens with the Type O Negative cover of Summer Breeze, which is always going to be a winner in my book.
This film is rightly considered a bit of a classic these days, and there's really not a whole bunch to complain about. It has well written characters, a decent cast, a visually creepy villain, an engaging whodunit plot, one of the best chase scenes in slasher movie history (that's right), and still manages to stand on its own two feet in a world where it's constantly compared to Scream.
I find this to be an unfair comparison. Beyond the 90s setting, teen characters, slasher tropes, and shared writer in Kevin Williamson, there's not much else that ties them together. Scream is of course a fantastic horror, but relishes in being satire, whereas IKWYDLS is a straight shooting horror. Its the exact kind of film that Scream takes aim at, but it still manages to be a decent slasher without feeling silly, and delivers some well earned jump scares for good measure. I also really enjoy it's fishing town setting and the hole movie is accompanied by a hilariously epic score courtesy of John Debney. It's great.
I will always have a lot of time for IKWYDLS, overshadowed by some of its contemporaries, but a hugely satisfying and entertaing horror in its own right.
This film is rightly considered a bit of a classic these days, and there's really not a whole bunch to complain about. It has well written characters, a decent cast, a visually creepy villain, an engaging whodunit plot, one of the best chase scenes in slasher movie history (that's right), and still manages to stand on its own two feet in a world where it's constantly compared to Scream.
I find this to be an unfair comparison. Beyond the 90s setting, teen characters, slasher tropes, and shared writer in Kevin Williamson, there's not much else that ties them together. Scream is of course a fantastic horror, but relishes in being satire, whereas IKWYDLS is a straight shooting horror. Its the exact kind of film that Scream takes aim at, but it still manages to be a decent slasher without feeling silly, and delivers some well earned jump scares for good measure. I also really enjoy it's fishing town setting and the hole movie is accompanied by a hilariously epic score courtesy of John Debney. It's great.
I will always have a lot of time for IKWYDLS, overshadowed by some of its contemporaries, but a hugely satisfying and entertaing horror in its own right.
Laetitia Sadier recommended Sea Change by Beck in Music (curated)
Gaz Coombes recommended track New Values by Iggy Pop in Heroin Hates You by Iggy Pop in Music (curated)
David McK (3251 KP) rated Sharpe's Rifles in TV
Jul 11, 2021
The first of the Sharpe adaptations from the early-to mid '90s, based on what was then the earlies set novel in Bernard Cornwell's long-running series set during the Napoleonic Wars.
I say what-was-then, because - since the culmination of the various TV movies, and even right up to date (the most recent to be released in a few months time, in late 2021), Cornwell has released plenty more such novels, quite a few of which are set even before the start of the Napoleonic Wars, never mind those set 'in-between' the core set of novels; said set of which provided the basis for the TV adaptations.
And that is what these are: an adaptation, rather than a straight re-telling. Sharpe, for instance, is supposed to be a dark haired Londoner rather than fair-haired Cockney (although Sean Bean's portrayal would win over Cornwell, who would later 'retrofit' his character to be closer to Sean Bean). That is probably for the better: literature and film, after all, are two distinct mediums: what works in one may not work in another.
To this day, though, I would still love to see a proper big-screen adaptation, with the budget to match, of one of these stories ...
I say what-was-then, because - since the culmination of the various TV movies, and even right up to date (the most recent to be released in a few months time, in late 2021), Cornwell has released plenty more such novels, quite a few of which are set even before the start of the Napoleonic Wars, never mind those set 'in-between' the core set of novels; said set of which provided the basis for the TV adaptations.
And that is what these are: an adaptation, rather than a straight re-telling. Sharpe, for instance, is supposed to be a dark haired Londoner rather than fair-haired Cockney (although Sean Bean's portrayal would win over Cornwell, who would later 'retrofit' his character to be closer to Sean Bean). That is probably for the better: literature and film, after all, are two distinct mediums: what works in one may not work in another.
To this day, though, I would still love to see a proper big-screen adaptation, with the budget to match, of one of these stories ...
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Road Trip (2000) in Movies
Sep 21, 2020
Deplorable, only a few meager steps above the likes of shit hall-of-famer 𝘋𝘦𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘸: 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘎𝘪𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘰. Bargain bin 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘪𝘦 meets injudicious 𝘍𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘉𝘶𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘖𝘧𝘧 mixed with elements that we'd later see Phillips use to his benefit in better films like 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 and 𝘋𝘶𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘦 - but are 0% amusing here. I challenge you to find a more stagnant road trip movie than this, why even cast Tom Green at the peak of his fame (who, along with DJ Qualls, are the only perfect performances) if you're only going to have him do a couple outrageous things? Like yeah don't overdo it but come on you can do better than this. I mean hell even similarly awful 30 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘴 did at least fifty times more with Fred Ward. Also worth noting how much this films hates women. The entire plot of this movie hinges on the Meyer (who is worse than terrible in this) character rightfully being in danger of his girlfriend finding out he undisguisedly cheated on her but we're supposed to not want that to happen because him and his noxious jackass friends are funny... but they aren't? Some of the ugliest aesthetics and soundtrack offerings of the crime of good taste that was the late 90s/early 2000s style. I'm usually a Todd defender but this is just wretched. 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘦.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Titan A.E. (2000) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
Design-wise nothing short of extraordinary, the blend of astounding nu-age CGI and trademark Bluth animation should by no means work but it ends up looking like heaven. Definitely also helps that this has exactly 0% fat to it and rides on one fun, kinetic wave from start to finish that's full of rapturous action sequences and endlessly creative visuals. That being said, outside of a couple nice turns the story is total copy-and-paste sci-fi template - but I digress, I guess it's still serviceable for this type of thing but this is just *begging* to have some depth injected into its potentially thought-provoking story. What kills this from greatness for me is how chained it is to the era it was made in; granted it still could have turned out much worse but the fakey-sounding, faux-edgy soundtrack sucks so much shit (sans a couple okay song choices [thx Powerman 5000]) that it single-handedly knocks the whole rating down a half star, and the totally repellent "tude" that was required in all of these mid-late 90s/early 2000s kids' films makes me want to rip my hair out. I suppose you can write this in with 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 for flawed early-aughts orgasmically animated sci-fi bombs that I'm still a total softie for. Gets pretty gnarly sometimes, too.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Unfaithful (2002) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
A deceitfully simple erotic thriller that goes from idle 0 to 100 so suddenly it could cause whiplash. A lot of things I love about this one: the trio of stellar performances from Gere, Lane, and Martinez; the way it reaches its cold tendrils into numerous different genres; and while it isn't as visually attractive as 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘭 (still looks great though, as is standard with Lyne) it's eight billion times more subtle. Though perhaps the highest nuance for a film that so easily could have been another anemic dump into the ever-sterilizing late-90s-esque trashy erotic thriller genre is how all of these events and the subsequent domino effect they set in motion don't really start out from your standard 'nondescript failing marriage' trope. This is a relatively happy, normal, even healthy family which still ends up... in an Adrian Lyne movie. It gives a false sense of hope and thus almost this feeling of normalcy, like even though you're a model citizen something of this severity could still somehow happen to you or someone you're close with, which quickly becomes rather traumatizing. Has a lot of solid banter and shit-your-pants "get me the fuck out of here" moments strung together nicely. Wasn't sure where it was going at first, but it all made sense in the end.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Amélie (2001) in Movies
Sep 21, 2020
Rich cinematic comfort food, not only am I wholly befuddled by this - but shocked at how many people don't hate it. By most means this shouldn't work let alone as remarkably as it does: it exudes any and all of the qualities that defined late 90s/early 00s Miramax-style cinema which sort of began with 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 and plateaued with 𝘉𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 where everyone was randomly obsessed with people doing 'adorkable' quirky things for little to no reason (i.e. painting the same Renoir piece once a year for 20 years, looking under photo booths for torn up pictures that you then put together into an extensive photo album collection [??]) and ubiquitous, fast-talking overnarration that just explains a lot of excess details that only exist to be eccentric. I myself will most certainly cop to having a huge warm spot for that sort of film - for the most part - as now we've sort of crescendoed back into the 'monotonous, stock Wikipedia article' type of film. At any rate, this was just so wonderful. An ode to the good in life with pretty much spotless dialogue, scenes that snap together like puzzle pieces, and a deservedly iconic aesthetic - the way better version of 𝘗𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥. Audrey Tatou deserved *so* much better than slumming it in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦 after this.
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Porno (2019) in Movies
Nov 27, 2020
Porno is unfortunately a swing and a miss. It has a great cast, but they're trapped in a by the numbers horror comedy that never commits hard enough to either genre to be convincing as either.
Set in the early 90s, Porno revolves around a group of Christian movie theatre workers who unwittingly stumble into a seperate, sealed off abandoned movie theatre underneath they one they work in. They find a mysterious movie reel in the depths and watch it, unleashing a Succubus intent on doing a bunch of evil things. I think. The motive isn't made particularly clear.
It's horror element doesn't work as it's too shy to show the gore one would expect from a film like this, but it still takes things too seriously to fully bring the laughs.
It's still humourous though. The cast are all likable, and the script manages to be funny on occasion, in what is essentially a silly semi-horror. Much like it's flirtation with genres, it also touches on some more serious issues, such as homosexuality and it's acceptance by religion, but once again, never quite goes all the way if you will.
Porno isn't awful by any means, but it feels like a wasted opportunity, a fun idea that isn't quite executed well enough to be a film worth returning to.
Set in the early 90s, Porno revolves around a group of Christian movie theatre workers who unwittingly stumble into a seperate, sealed off abandoned movie theatre underneath they one they work in. They find a mysterious movie reel in the depths and watch it, unleashing a Succubus intent on doing a bunch of evil things. I think. The motive isn't made particularly clear.
It's horror element doesn't work as it's too shy to show the gore one would expect from a film like this, but it still takes things too seriously to fully bring the laughs.
It's still humourous though. The cast are all likable, and the script manages to be funny on occasion, in what is essentially a silly semi-horror. Much like it's flirtation with genres, it also touches on some more serious issues, such as homosexuality and it's acceptance by religion, but once again, never quite goes all the way if you will.
Porno isn't awful by any means, but it feels like a wasted opportunity, a fun idea that isn't quite executed well enough to be a film worth returning to.