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| chillywilly |
 Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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| I think the term was used to describe the hold the addiction had on Dan. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| grace |
| Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:14 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 3215
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mo_flixx wrote: We're talking major hunks here...not Claude Rains or Jose Ferrer, puhleeze. 
If you don't recognize the heat quotient on Claude Rains....well, there's just no hope for you!
(just kidding, but I hate emoticons) |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 1:07 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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grace --
I also hate emoticons, but if I don't use them people think I'm serious and nasty. |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 1:39 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
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 I'm going to eviscerate you with a dull knife  |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:27 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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Cabin Fever
Director Eli Roth went on to make Hostel, so I guess in its way this is the Lake Tanganyika of current horror. It's also famous for not living up to Peter Jackson's wild praise. But Pete might have been right. I almost turned it off a half-dozen times. Yet I kept watching and by the finale's perfect punch-line, I thought I might have just watched some kind of insane minor masterpiece. I don't know when the stick-a-bunch-of-kids-on-a-weekend-trip-in-a-cabin-and/or-minivan-and-do-nasty-things-to-them plot stopped being a cliche and started being homage, but Cabin Fever, reusing David Hess's corny yet menacing Last House on The Left folk-rock, knows where it's coming from. The characters aren't any less characterized than the stick-figures of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Evil Dead, yet they seem more asinine and unlikeable. Are young folks less likeable than back then? Maybe, and this plays into Roth's fairly clever point, which finally clicks into place with a brilliant final joke that upends the film's political scheme, subverting the cliche of redneck racists and making us reconsider the young "heroes" as a bunch of narcissistic twits who rotted from their own frathouse-fit, devour-the-world self-satisfaction. It could still have been better done. The script drags badly even at 89 minutes, and particularly in an encounter with a neo-Barney Fife policeman who's a closet party-animal, pads itself cripplingly and tosses in dumb oppurtunities for gore (goratunity?) when it feels like it. But there's something here.
It reminded me, in turn, of a near-brilliant little film of the late '80s, called The Carrier, where citizens of a small town are beset by a plague. It channeled Stephen King American Gothic and allegorical weirdness into a work that fairly nags at the memory. It was in many ways superior yet nothing came of the folks who made it.
After Cabin Fever I watched My Darling Clementine for the 2nd time. God, I love me some John Ford. |
Last edited by Rod on Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:09 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| I awoke from a fevered codine dream Saturday at 11:58 a.m. Not real time, movie time; to Will Varner writing out his will, Katy Jurado and Grace Kelly fleeing town, the townspeople all sitting, tense, nervous, afraid; a brilliant, heart pounding montage in a great movie. And I thought, ah, the Oscars.... The only place on earth where a pile of circus elephant dung beats out High Noon. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:31 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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whiskeypriest wrote: I awoke from a fevered codine dream Saturday at 11:58 a.m. Not real time, movie time; to Will Varner writing out his will, Katy Jurado and Grace Kelly fleeing town, the townspeople all sitting, tense, nervous, afraid; a brilliant, heart pounding montage in a great movie. And I thought, ah, the Oscars.... The only place on earth where a pile of circus elephant dung beats out High Noon. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:57 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Riding Alone for Thousand of Miles. Zhang Yimou has lately been doing a lot of historical spectacles like Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower, but he alternates them with more intimate films like The Road Home and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles.
In this one, a man's daughter-in-law calls him to his estranged son's bedside, but the son refuses to see him. She gives the father a tape of his son's trip to China where he filmed Chinese folk opera. The son was unable to film one of the operas, "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," due to illness of the lead singer so the father goes to China to film the opera as a last gift to his son. There, he discovers that the actor has been thrown into prison for an assault. The father has to move heaven and earth to get a chance to film the performance, since the Chinese have had bad experiences with foreigners filming in their prison. When he does so, he discovers the actor is unable to perform because he has never seen his own son, so the father has to make his own journey into rural China to find the actor's son.
It is worth noting that once people understand what he is trying to do and why, they are very cooperative, it's just difficult to get across the cultural and language barriers. There are no villains at all in the movie. In fact, I thought the Chinese authorities in the movie were remarkably patient.
I didn't think the movie amounted to very much. Certainly not enough for 104 minutes. The big scene, however, is moving and reveals the journey was about something more than it seemed at the time.
If you want to see Zhang Yimou in his more intimate mode, I'd recommend the lovely, romantic The Road Home, which is also a rather slight movie, but has a very sweet performance by Zhang Ziyi and looks stunning. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:58 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Am I the only person excited that that they've found and restored the original Chicago? |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:59 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Joe Vitus wrote: Am I the only person excited that that they've found and restored the original Chicago?
Nancy is. She has the original play. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:19 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Nancy automatically becomes a member of the Top Ten Coolest people I know. (I don't have to know them in person if they are cool enough to deserve a place on my list.) |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:53 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Syd wrote: Riding Alone for Thousand of Miles. Zhang Yimou has lately been doing a lot of historical spectacles like Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower, but he alternates them with more intimate films like The Road Home and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles....
I didn't think the movie amounted to very much. Certainly not enough for 104 minutes. The big scene, however, is moving and reveals the journey was about something more than it seemed at the time.
If you want to see Zhang Yimou in his more intimate mode, I'd recommend the lovely, romantic The Road Home, which is also a rather slight movie, but has a very sweet performance by Zhang Ziyi and looks stunning.
Syd --
I saw this movie a few months ago on a huge screen with a pristine print. I was very impressed. I probably liked it more than you.
I wrote about it here. I also recommended it to a friend who is immersed in Chinese culture & a guide (over 150 trips) and fluent in the language. I think that this movie requires an Eastern mindset to truly appreciate. Certainly yes, to a Westerner it seems too long - but I was knocked out by it. This is a movie in which the viewer must give himself up to the total experience. Not to mention, the amazing photography of the Yunnan region (which I visited in 2005 and believe is one of the most unique areas of China). |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:55 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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chillywilly wrote: I think the term was used to describe the hold the addiction had on Dan.
Thanks. I hadn't thought of it that way, but now I believe you're right. |
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"I have a suspicion that you are all mad," said Dr. Renard, smiling sociably; "but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship." |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:06 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| mo: Yunnan's a pretty impressive place. It's still relatively wild for China. I think this is the first time I've seen a film from there. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:11 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Syd wrote: mo: Yunnan's a pretty impressive place. It's still relatively wild for China. I think this is the first time I've seen a film from there.
Yunnan and SW China (where there are still minority peoples) is truly awesome. I hope I have a chance to return someday.
I said this before - but we did visit the WWF Ctr. that Edward Norton's father worked with in Lijiang (a UNESCO World Heritage site).
Also, THE PAINTED VEIL conveys some of the special beauty of the area - altho' I gather it was shot in a different province. |
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