Mal: Well said. Wasn't that well said, Zoe? Zoe: Had a kind poetry to it, sir.

'Out Of Gas'


Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned  

A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


Sue - Dec 08, 2004 3:34:25 am PST #6866 of 10001
hip deep in pie

Has anyone seen Stephen Sonderbergh's Kafka ?

That has Kyle MacLachlin right? I think I saw it when it came out in theatres. I recall thinking it was okay, but not thinking it anything too special. But I don't quite remember any details.


Volans - Dec 08, 2004 3:46:02 am PST #6867 of 10001
move out and draw fire

Don't think so. I just checked IMdb and the cast list is Jeremy Irons, Theresa Russell, Joel Grey, Ian Holm and Alec Guinness. There's only one user review that says "Lots of homage and reference to Nosferatu and Dracula. " but doesn't say much else. Indeed, one of the characters is named Dr. Murnau, but the plot isn't vampirey - it's about an insurance agent and some anarchists.

Hey! New kids' book: The Insurance Agent and the Anarchists


Sue - Dec 08, 2004 3:52:07 am PST #6868 of 10001
hip deep in pie

Okay. I saw that one too. The Kyle MacLachlin one was a version of the Trial, I think.

I think it was good, but it was a long time ago.


Volans - Dec 08, 2004 4:08:26 am PST #6869 of 10001
move out and draw fire

I have to admit, I was thinking it might be about a guy who wakes up to find he's a cockroach. Still, it should play well enough on my monitor and I am movie starved!

You know what else I just realized? I own almost no science-fiction movies. Other than Blade Runner, Dark City, The Matrix and the first two Alien movies, I've got nothing. I guess I could break my rules about genre and put the Star Wars movies in science fiction. Huh.


Frankenbuddha - Dec 08, 2004 4:43:53 am PST #6870 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

Has anyone seen Stephen Sonderbergh's Kafka ?

Years ago - it wasn't particularly Kafka-esque. Beautiful black and white photography, some creepy moments, but it feels like the pastiche of old movies it is, rather than any kind of examination of Kafka or Kafka themes.


tommyrot - Dec 08, 2004 5:47:27 am PST #6871 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Years ago - it wasn't particularly Kafka-esque. Beautiful black and white photography, some creepy moments, but it feels like the pastiche of old movies it is, rather than any kind of examination of Kafka or Kafka themes.

ITA. No cockroach either. The Trial was better and much more Kafka-esque.


Frankenbuddha - Dec 08, 2004 6:05:18 am PST #6872 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

The Trial was better and much more Kafka-esque.

I never saw the Kyle Maclachlan one, but I did see the Orson Welles one with Tony Perkins (several times). I'm not sure it's really all that Kafka-esque either (more than KAFKA, though) but it's definitely Wellesian. I like it a lot. Some of the sets are just amazing.


Matt the Bruins fan - Dec 08, 2004 8:04:22 am PST #6873 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

From what we can tell from the "Blade" series, vampires are as easy to kill as ducks and there's no limit on them.

That was one of my complaints about the second movie - we saw from multiple confrontations with Donal Logue's character that anything less than a heart or head strike with silver weaponry was no more than an inconvenience. Then in Blade 2 they were going off like Roman candles even though we saw in slow motion that the bullets were hitting them in places that might not even be fatal to normal human beings. I expected to see a leftover Indian from a John Wayne movie keel over at some point.

Also, the conceit that vampirism is an arbovirus that can be manipulated by genetics. Yeah, an arbovirus that makes its host organism instantaneously disintegrate in a shower of sparks if its heart or brain is ruptured by silver—certainly nothing unscientific about that.


Sean K - Dec 08, 2004 8:19:09 am PST #6874 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

Has anyone seen Stephen Sonderbergh's Kafka ?

I liked it. It was weird and maybe a bit slow, but interesting. I'd say it's at least worth a look.

Also, the conceit that vampirism is an arbovirus that can be manipulated by genetics. Yeah, an arbovirus that makes its host organism instantaneously disintegrate in a shower of sparks if its heart or brain is ruptured by silver—certainly nothing unscientific about that.

Yeah, the "scientific" explanations of the second film were total crap.

Still? I rather enjoy both films. I may be kind of sad.


DavidS - Dec 08, 2004 8:54:42 am PST #6875 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Has anyone seen Stephen Sonderbergh's Kafka ? One of the Greek newspapers includes DVDs of movies and TV shows, and I just discovered they play in my computer despite region issues. The only one that looks appealing, sadly, is this one (well, other than The Mirror Crack'd, but I've seen that.)

I liked it. It was a bit studied, but the b/w photography was very cool and I liked the visual expressionism. For wacky Kafkaesque fun though, I'd have to recommend Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life with Richard Grant. Which (being a short) came with a supercreepy puppettoon about the Sandman (not the DC character).