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I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
You Don't Know What It's Like To Love Somebody
You Don't Know What It's Like To Love Somebody baby you don't know what it's like to love somebody the way I love you. This song keeps playing in my head along with the scene it had been used in in the movie. I knew this song before, loved it, but now it's forever bound to this movie and I like it.
When I took the DVD I thought I was taking a comedy that makes fun of gay people, not in the bad way, people are aware now of others' feelings, so it was anyway would be harmless. But I thought something like "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry", may be Jim Carrey's character had to pretend he was gay for some reason, I didn't dare imagine he would play a real homosexual, I almost felt sorry he wouldn't, and then - the A-bomb went off. I had no idea it was going to be this deep heart-breaking drama presented in bright colors.
A story of a burning heart hungry for adventure, messed up in direction, but so clear in passion. The heart that can't stop and finally is smashed and crashed by the system, like so many before. The main character is nothing but passion, he's got no common sense or responsibility, he's smart, but refuses to see reality, he is swept away in a dance of deception that naturally it flows into financial deception, which is no bueno. Beautiful tale with a heart-breaking ending. But then again, HE LOVED and WAS LOVED. You can't say he wasted his life.
I've never seen so much passion for life in any other person I know, the tornado-paced passion. Tornado lives several minutes, but what a life it has! P.S. Both Carrey and McGregor gave the best performance making the picture simply brilliant. I rarely say this but there was nothing that needed adjustment in this movie - perfection itself. I fell in love with both of their characters and now these actors are in my Top 5, especially McGregor.
Vanishing Point (1971)
Nothing Gives You the Feeling of Freedom Like Driving, No, Nothing Like SPEEDING
Jezz, I love this movie! I learnt about it in Deathproof, - that's how I learn about the classics - I hear it from Tarantino, - and thought it was gonna be another piece of c*ap that he usually talks about so enthusiastically.
(Don't get me wrong, Rio Bravo, Leone movies, Taxi Driver are OK, but name them in your personal top 3?!!! Besides, after watching the original Inglorious Bastards I left any hope of figuring what the guy was made of.) But it was Tarantino's words so I was obsessed, even possessed by the idea of watching this movie. And OMG! I couldn't believe it! It's amazing, I felt myself behind that wheel, driving, driving, driving the he*l out of the car, the road, everything! It is so breathtaking just to drive pass all the barriers and lines. I hate being stopped by traffic lights, by speed limits, by some slow-ass upfront, by idiots crossing the street where they feel like, not where are supposed to according to the law, it is so unbelievable to drive beyond all that!!!
I remember when I first drove in town, I couldn't believe this new feeling, the feeling of going fast, the feeling of being FREE, of being ALIVE. I really felt that I had never lived before. The instructor told me not to floor the gas, but I didn't feel like flooring it, so I told him so, after a couple of times he gave up and said: "Ok, FLOOR IT!!!". I took it as a licence to kill. After the ride there was all the lectures and shouts about security and other boring stuff, but then I just was FREE!!! The cops stopped someone and were checking him, the instructor went pale and informed me that he washed his hands and if anything happened I should talk to the cops myself. We flew right past them, they didn't even notice. I was too happy to care! I figure had something happened then, like an accident, I'd have died happy.
I loved watching that movie, I loved that Kowalski had that feeling for the entire ride, for hours, the feeling of true happiness and joy. Outdriving and outsmarting the cops and anybody else who tried to challenge his skills and FREEDOM. He didn't really hurt anyone, but the society (the cops) tried to bring him down. Just being a free individual you're committing a crime against society. He's a true hero.
I so much loved the ending, even though I cried, I know that Kowalski at that moment was the happiest man in the world!!! A free soul. I just don't agree with Soul that he is the last free soul in the world...IMO.
Beowulf (2007)
A very boring film
It has battles, but no action, - just MOVEMENT.
The lines are not dialogue, just WORDS spoken.
There are no characters, but carton figures.
Very rarely I wish the movie would end faster. Usually, almost every time I don't want the movie end, ever, but this one made me doubt my bigger-than-life passion for cinema.
Like Tarantino says there are films and movies, and films are for those who don't watch movies. Well, I base my definition on that, but in my interpretation it's "a film is a boring movie", so Beowulf is DEFINITELY a FILM.
Nice director, cool writer, big studio budget - one could expect more.
Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995)
Tarantino Is the One Who Is the Whole Movie Himself.
Tarantino Is the One Who Is the Whole Movie Himself.
Actually I saw this movie just because of Tarantino. Even though James Belushi was tops too, the movie is a mediocre piece of work: trivial plot line, standard dialogues and so-so acting.
If you ever thought of getting into the Emperor's (Tarantino) soul, you can find the portal right here in this movie. There was the shot that covered all costs of getting this film, the shot where Tarantino goes still for a moment, and that very moment the whole different Universe opens in his eyes. That moment lasts less than a second, but you can catch it. It's right in the end, when at the restaurant Johnny, the cops, and everyone is watching the girl's show, after the cop says: "Hey look, it's that guy
", then there is a shot of Johnny (Tarantino), and first milliseconds of that shot is actually the portal.
I would say that he is a male Giaconda there, but not as twisted and troubled as she is. She is an oppressed strong woman, with unbelievable personal magnetism, Leonardo succeeded in transmitting her energy of a fighter in the portrait, since then she is fighting with everyone who looks at her. It's possible to defeat her, but it is easy to be defeated. Tarantino possesses the same, if not more powerful, personal magnetism and it is clearly seen in that shot. His eyes are open, undisguised there (this kind of unmasking can take place only when one is too tired to be able to hold his mask, - after Pulp Fiction he really was tired and "Destiny
" was just in time to "catch up" his real unmasked self), and you can really see how deep, deeper than the blue, they are. So much depth, power and knowledge reflected in them, that you almost think you are looking into the Infinity itself.
Well, just for the sake of that shot I take the DVD again and again, every time I want to dive into the Soul Ocean of the most devout movie worshipper ever existent on the planet Earth.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction As The New Testament of Cinema.
Pulp Fiction As The New Testament of Cinema.
Tarantino is always the body and the spirit of his movies, his movies don't exist apart from his personality and he is there (Mr.Brown, Jimmie, Chester Rush, Warren) personally to mark his territory. Tarantino is close 'cause we see him in his movies Rodriguez don't pet us with cameos, while he is times more attractive than Cutie
Anyways, when I first saw Pulp Fiction I was 13. Next day at school everybody was discussing that movie, our hips were saying "Tarantino" about a hundred times a minute. I was never hip, so when I asked which of them was Tarantino, they gave me a look that could kill. "Tarantino is THE DIRECTOR, and by the way, he played there too." It was very funny they considered knowing that so valuable, to me it was no more than just "a" movie then. "Who did he play?" I asked. When they told me I was shocked: "What?! That pathetic imbecile in the robe was actually the director?!!!" How could I know that that imbecile's IQ is 160 to my 118, but I didn't know it then and I didn't care.
Funny, that exact dialogue that made me revere Tarantino years later, that dialogue is cut off the most of the copies of the movie, and the Cannes saw the cut version too. At least, the script is available for free and anyone can enjoy the full version, which contains even the unfilmed scenes.
The main dialogue of the movie is cut. It is where Mia is giving Vince a third degree. It is here where Tarantino speaks himself and for himself (even though everyone in his movies is Tarantino, even bacteria in the actors' sweat speak Tarantino "F" English, still here it is his dream and his dream-girl), it's his fantasy, it's the questions he wanted to answer he actually dreamed of getting beaten up by a girl, he loves Amazons, and his other works prove it (Jackie Brown, Kill Bill vol.1, Death Proof, etc.) Only strong men like to see strong women by their side.
Tarantino and Roger Avary share the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, but actually the full script was written by Cutie only, the stories were developed together. It was Roger Avary who developed the hideous rape scene, he said about that like all writers do the characters did that on their own to the author's surprise, because he is a nice person, who would never invent something like that.
Anyway, it's a movie that arouses a wide variety of interpretation, from seeing the deepest philosophical "ditch" in it to the calling it the lowest pop chuck, to me it is a classic Tarantino, and that says it all. He loved to see his beautiful child with the people, he would go to the cinema and watch it every time like the first time with them, noticing when they tensed and when they laughed, being tensed and laughing with them, being the happiest guy in the whole wide world then. I really think that he was the happiest guy then, you wouldn't find another like him.
Well, there is one thing I hate when some very sophisticated and very spiritual specimen start to zoom around about some irony of the movie, the irony of Cutie, who is against violence on the screen, and in his movie he is saying: "People, look at what you are doing, and stop!", and they say it in such a pompous voice that it makes me almost physically sick. One of them happened to blabber in that way in my company. She had some good ideas too she pointed out it is not the bodies that shock, it is the attitude towards them that does. That is a nice phrase that sums up the reason why his movies seem to be and they are extra-violent. Okay, but then she goes again people, look blah-blah-blah. I couldn't stand any longer: I told her about the first script, where Vince shot Marvin in the throat, and then with Tarantino little talk shot him in the head, Cuite changed that scene into one shot in the head she was happy and said: "Because it is softer!", "No, - I gloated, - HE actually said himself that he changed that because the straight shot in the head was FUNNIER". She almost freaked out.
Look, you may see anything you want in it, even Nostradamus prophecy, but keep in mind, that Tarantino is a brilliant guy who loves action, crime and kung-fu movies just for the fun of it, and we love him for that. You may see anything you want in Marcellus's case (from Marcellus's soul to Da Vinci manuscripts), but keep in mind that Tarantino and Avary concealed its contents only because their initial idea seemed too trivial to them diamonds. They say: "It depends on viewer's mind", well, of course, it does, but I want to know what it is on your mind, that's why I watch your movie.
So, one may see Da Vinci manuscripts, yet it may be plainly diamonds, but the movie is really epic. (I can't say that it's a must see, I don't like the word "a must see", like something forcing you into something) It is more than a fantastically good movie, it is the New Testament of cinema new way of speaking in the movies, new way of storytelling, new way of being in the movies, new way of seeing the very movie-making idea.
Planet Terror (2007)
Rodriguez is a Cervantes of Communication Era.
Planet Terror Rodriguez is a Cervantes of Communication Era.
Cervantes wrote "Don Quixote" as a parody of the knights' novel but it was accepted as a philosophical drama, while Bertie (Rodriguez) wrote Planet Terror as a nice retro horror, but it is more like a parody of all horrors. Actually, the trailers were the same. You know, I, as many, was waiting for this child of the two brilliant minds (Rodriguez / Tarantino), I was reading absolutely everything concerning their project, and knew about the trailers.
Gosh, I was talking about their project non-stop every time I saw my friends. They all knew where and when the shooting was taking place: wow, today Rodriguez has finished his part! Wow, today Tarantino is shooting in Austin, the traffic was blocked! Tarantino is looking for the girls in Sweden for his "Cowgirls in Sweden" (by the way, what happened to this trailer, I didn't see it)! The trailers, guys! I spent some time in St. Petersburg and there I was telling my friends and video-rentals' clerks about the greatest project of the decade that was coming to "kill".
I was saying: "The trailers of the movies that do not exist! You can imagine what a shame! How badly we would like to see those movies, - silly me in reality it was better: they made trailers of the movies that you do not want to see, but the movies you watch very often. I mean myself here hey, I love horrors, and I don't like the social irony and sarcasm that they spitted at us, at people who love horror genre. They showed us all the absurdity and dirt of such movies, I felt myself a total jerk, you know, but anyway, they did it well, those trailers' creators were good at putting people in their own sh*t, and yes, it was funny too, very funny Nicolas Cage (Werewolf Women of
) and that cop's phrase "born" to kill: "It's blood" (Thanksgiving), nice "Don't", very nice it was us, horror lovers, so we are total jerks to these people, alright, I'm okay with that.
Machete was absolutely Bertie style, you can find some references to Desperado the scene on the top of the limo his style is Mexican gun-show-off-style or simply Mexican show-off. He loves orange and deep yellow (especially you can see that all orange Spy Kids and Desperado), the colors of Mexican land and houses, I don't love them, I prefer calm colors green, blue, light yellow, so his movies almost every time give me a feeling of discomfort. So, apart from that his movies are nice.
So, back to Planet Terror, it is a joke. May be Bertie didn't intend to make it a joke, but it turned out to be one. You know, every time a brilliant artist does something he or she doesn't feel like doing, it turns out wrong. Their project failed. Bertie shouldn't have listened to his friend with that 70s idea: "everything like in the 70s, equipment, the sets, all!" This works for Tarantino, but for Rodriguez 3d and graphics works best (Spy Kids, Sin City). He was fine there, but no, Tarantino came up with that stupid idea, okay the idea was brilliant, but they couldn't make it right, because it was not Rodriguez's spirit the 70s, it is Tarantino's, so working together they messed it up. I mean they messed it up for the box-office and the critics, but not for the history. Again, Planet Terror is a fine parody, practical joke about all that blood and guns stuff that we love. Poor plot line, mossy sets, dim lights and mediocre performance that is Bertie's idea of the 70s movies. Who can blame him? He made a parody of all those sh*t*y retro and low budget horrors.
A friend of mine, who wasn't trying to see it in general said: "You know, it seems that they were stoned during the making of it." Some people just don't want to see what's behind, or to see the bigger picture. That's why the movie flopped.
Be that as it may, however, where is always on the top, where he is always a god, is music. Gee, I was watching the opening credits again and again, just to listen to the music, and the closing scene dozens of times. I don't know, his music makes me love the world I share with him. God personally gifted him the music, as he gifted Tarantino the dialogues.
The movie, of course, is not one of those you want to see again and again I pointed it out before it is not smart poor plot line and dialogues- it is not smart at all, may be it was intended to be so. Anyway, at least, I hope they had a lot of fun during the making of it, I know it. They do what they love and they love how they're doing it that's bliss. I would say the making of it (including the writing of the scripts they lived in one house while writing) was the biggest party in history to make a double feature was good for the soul, - $67 million or so on having a good time together and with the Co. The two MOST brilliant minds of world cinema can afford that.
Eraserhead (1977)
The Greetings From the 20s Artists
Eraserhead
This contains some spoilers.
I was expecting this movie to be slick, unpleasant and uncomfortable for the thought. That was a result of familiarity with the other Master's works. My first acquaintance with him and love was the Twin Peaks TV series. I was twelve and watched it in petto, so, I missed a number of episodes. What I saw was confusing, but fascinating, like some violent and mystic fairy tale for the grown-ups. I honestly believed that I didn't get it simply because I hadn't seen all the series. Silly me. In fact, years later, when I saw all the episodes, the questions brought me just to the more academic ones.
So, this time, watching Eraserhead, I was equipped with non-susceptibility intricacy-wise my credo being: "never get surprised no matter what, no matter how hard He tries".
From this point of view movie seemed a little boring, but still I couldn't resist a certain charm of Lynch's that is peculiar to everything He touches.
The picture is dark and has a smell of a mould. Existentialistic moods, the early stuff, I would say the cinematographic materialization of Kamyu's "Sickness" the sickness, or the landscape that makes you physically sick. But Kamyu's man was going to his mother's funeral, while the Lynch's one to meet the parents of his girlfriend.
Everything here is designed to shock you. Everything, but the baby. The baby is absolutely normal. What is interesting, some critics say the baby is a mutant, but do they think so in the movie? They treat it like a normal child feed it, talk to it, and the child acts like a normal one screams, gets sick and plays up. OK, it looks ugly, but it looks so to us, how do we know how it looks to them? Or how do we know, that we see what it IS, and not what Henry and his wife SEE it to be? The answer is we don't know that. The child is bald, big-headed and nasty. Babies are usually such. Or they are such to Lynch, Henry, etc. They didn't need that baby, didn't want it, it caused some troubles to their lives, it changed them for worse, it took their sleep away (actually, this list of pains all the babies bring) - they are definitely not happy with it, so it IS UGLY TO them.
This dimension of the movie raises everyday life misfortunes and reflects social consciousness of some family issues. Everything that concerns society and social perception is more or less clear and familiar (like the marriage she -doesn't - want thing). But when it comes to personal visions and submergence you fall into the jack rabbit's hole.
Talking about horror effect, the Lady in Radiator is brilliant. She is the most terrible and terrifying thing I have ever seen, but you like her! You can't take your eyes from her, she has a mesmerizing effect of some unknown power. It is disgust, shock, interest, confusion, acid in the mouth, fear, desperation, and paralysis that you feel all at once, almost physically in your body. Her song is just continuing what her dance started but now she gets the total possession of your mind the rhythm sticks to you and you can't get it off your head even hours later.
In the end, I'd like to point the stunning work at spec effects - the baby is made perfectly, and you don't have a clue, how you can tell it's alive, a real alive repulsive creature.
So, I can't say, that I liked the movie. "Like" wouldn't be the word, I don't usually like the movies like that. I don't really have a word for the feeling this masterpiece gives me. What is more, I can hardly call it a movie per se. It's rather a picture. Yes, an alive, moving picture by an artist of some Dadaist or Surrealist circle of the 30s. Now, I feel all the absurdity of a try to explain it surrealism, cubism, even impressionism, - you have to feel them. Once I had a discussion with a literate individual on Malevich's "Black Square". After an hour of my speech, he says he still doesn't understand it, and won't understand it until he hears a SCIENTIFIC explanation. The moment he said that I knew I was wasting my time "What a jerk, - I said to myself, - when on earth art needed scientific explanations?". The attempt to analyze Lynch now reminds me of that talk, and now it's me who acts like my thickheaded friend then. You can't catch the elusive. You can't UNDERSTAND it. You can only SEE it. That's why the Master himself never explained it because it's not for understanding, it's for seeing your own, unique eraserhead.