VIFF Finale

So I’ve been and watched the third movie of the day and, man am I whipped. All that theater-sittin’ and movie-watchin’ really takes a lot outta you :P. So here’s that last review…

The Eclipse

I haven’t seen a cross between a pretty serious drama and a jumpy horror film before, so in that respect this was cool to watch. Also, horror’s usually a living-room deal for me, so the audience reactions were fun, even if the scares weren’t too serious. Just some jump moments, and I suppose the heavier, slower-paced, serious drama bits and the somewhat-quirky comedic bits made the scary jumps more jumpy. What first drew me to this was hearing Aidan Quinn in the cast list, ‘I haven’t seen him in anything for ages,’ I thought, so I went along for the ride. He, along with the rest of cast (male lead, Ciarán Hinds, and female lead, Iben Hjejle) gave good performances in what’s essentially an entertainment piece that dabbles in emotion and fear, loss, grief and a bit of humor. Another film about life (adding to the day’s previous movies), this ended on a good note, a realistic one I thought, better than the usual romantic fare we get in mainstream cinema. Final word(s): good stuff :D.

Links:

VIFF Listing
IMDB

Lesbian Vampire Killers

Hahaha, oh this was great fun. I knew it’d be fun, and I knew it’s be sexy, and I knew it’d be…great. And it was. Great fun, hugely in the vein of Edgar Wright; tons of his camera moves, cutting style and great humor and campiness. Lots of fun watching MyAnna Buring as a virgin mythological studies student and her troop of scantily-clad (but non-lesbian) women friends tantalize the chubby Fletch to near-bewilderment. Lots of fun, worth checking out.

Late Night 80’s Sci-Fi

Holy cow.  Yea.  That’s about all I can think to say about this movie.  Tonight I had planned on having Elliot over for some filmmaking fun, but the weather tonight (freezing rain and other yucky circumstances) prevented that from happening.  It might have been just as well, since I was exhausted when I got home from work and was ready to collapse on the floor.  Of course then I showered and was revitalized for my late night 80’s sci-fi adventure.  Which brings me back to the main point of this…

I was going to watch a few sci-fi/horror movies with Elliot when he was here including The Insatiable, Soylent Green and Guyver.  I only ended up getting Guyver since I found out Elliot wasn’t coming, and oh by was I in for a surprise.  I thought Mark Hamill was good in Star Wars, and this movie sure is discouraging me from looking any further into his career.  As an actor, he does a fine job, decent.  But the movie is pretty close to god-awful.  It’s the typical cheesy 80’s puppetry (which they even used in Star Wars) with some crazy sort of twist that involves a scientific corporation developing something in relation to aliens who came to earth and created humans who are shapeshifters and can change into anything at any time, which is where all that crazy puppetry comes in.  Now I know this isn’t technically an 80’s movie since it was released in 1991, but the puppetry is equal to that of the original TMNT and films like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal… only bad.  But I guess that’s part of the fun of watching those movies now – to remember the fun it was the first time seeing it, and to relive the excitement of a childhood favorite, while at the same time mocking its ridiculous production value, especially in comparison to the stuff we see nowadays with the same kind of studio backing as those 80’s puppet-fests.

And I mean wow, did this film let me lose interest.  It’s fun to watch, a great laugh-out-loud-at-the-ridiculousness-of-the-thing kind of movie, but nothing I’d watch again, and certainly not under any serious or thoughtful circumstances.  However, if you’ve got some good-natured friends who loved some of the films I mentioned above, then this might be the choice for you guys to watch and pick apart some night when it’s cold and nasty outside and the food’s a-cookin’ inside, ready for a serious midnight chow-down with some guys and some mockery of a cheesy out-of-it’s-time (quite literally) sci-fi puppet movie.  I mean seriously, it just belongs in the 80’s, with all the rest of the goofy puppet movies.  Oh well.  Enjoy the (semi)recommendation, if not the others mentioned throughout the entry.  And if your weather’s anything like mine at the moment (because it is most certainly my weather), then I hope things are better in the morning for ya…. or else you might just be forced to bring this home and watch it during the day!

Late Night 80's Sci-Fi

Holy cow.  Yea.  That’s about all I can think to say about this movie.  Tonight I had planned on having Elliot over for some filmmaking fun, but the weather tonight (freezing rain and other yucky circumstances) prevented that from happening.  It might have been just as well, since I was exhausted when I got home from work and was ready to collapse on the floor.  Of course then I showered and was revitalized for my late night 80’s sci-fi adventure.  Which brings me back to the main point of this…

I was going to watch a few sci-fi/horror movies with Elliot when he was here including The Insatiable, Soylent Green and Guyver.  I only ended up getting Guyver since I found out Elliot wasn’t coming, and oh by was I in for a surprise.  I thought Mark Hamill was good in Star Wars, and this movie sure is discouraging me from looking any further into his career.  As an actor, he does a fine job, decent.  But the movie is pretty close to god-awful.  It’s the typical cheesy 80’s puppetry (which they even used in Star Wars) with some crazy sort of twist that involves a scientific corporation developing something in relation to aliens who came to earth and created humans who are shapeshifters and can change into anything at any time, which is where all that crazy puppetry comes in.  Now I know this isn’t technically an 80’s movie since it was released in 1991, but the puppetry is equal to that of the original TMNT and films like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal… only bad.  But I guess that’s part of the fun of watching those movies now – to remember the fun it was the first time seeing it, and to relive the excitement of a childhood favorite, while at the same time mocking its ridiculous production value, especially in comparison to the stuff we see nowadays with the same kind of studio backing as those 80’s puppet-fests.

And I mean wow, did this film let me lose interest.  It’s fun to watch, a great laugh-out-loud-at-the-ridiculousness-of-the-thing kind of movie, but nothing I’d watch again, and certainly not under any serious or thoughtful circumstances.  However, if you’ve got some good-natured friends who loved some of the films I mentioned above, then this might be the choice for you guys to watch and pick apart some night when it’s cold and nasty outside and the food’s a-cookin’ inside, ready for a serious midnight chow-down with some guys and some mockery of a cheesy out-of-it’s-time (quite literally) sci-fi puppet movie.  I mean seriously, it just belongs in the 80’s, with all the rest of the goofy puppet movies.  Oh well.  Enjoy the (semi)recommendation, if not the others mentioned throughout the entry.  And if your weather’s anything like mine at the moment (because it is most certainly my weather), then I hope things are better in the morning for ya…. or else you might just be forced to bring this home and watch it during the day!