Can't you ever get your mind out of the hellmouth?

Buffy ,'Touched'


Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video  

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.


Polter-Cow - Apr 08, 2005 5:32:39 am PDT #1569 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

Glad to see the Willis love. I'm a fan.


Frankenbuddha - Apr 08, 2005 5:34:16 am PDT #1570 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

You um, didn't think Guard Dog was a little on the dark side?

Well, maybe the very end, but it pretty much was what I expect from Bill Plympton. Compared to Fallen Art or Ward 13 it was straight-up funny.


Jessica - Apr 08, 2005 5:36:01 am PDT #1571 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

Ward 13 was awesome. I also really liked Rockfish, which surprised me since I thought Gopher Broke was total crap.


Nutty - Apr 08, 2005 5:50:14 am PDT #1572 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

Noir is Calvinist, fated. You don't die redeemed.

Well, Victor Mature in Kiss of Death would disagree. He sends his daughters into the country, stays in the city by himself, and gladly takes several bullets to guarantee their safety. (In fact, he doesn't even die at the end!) But it's a classic film noir.

I don't think noir protagonists usually are fated to die, so much as they make bad choices, either mistakes (Harry Fabian in Night and the City ) or intentional leaps into badness ( Out of the Past, Victor Mature's initial suicide-by-cop attempt in Kiss of Death ), get caught up in problems, and can't get out of them. It's pretty rare that a noir protagonist is just plain doomed; usually you can see the path of his downfall, often long before he can see it himself.


Frankenbuddha - Apr 08, 2005 6:11:04 am PDT #1573 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

Ward 13 was awesome.

Indeed it was - I kept thinking "Tim Burton needs to start a production company (if he hasn't already) and sign this guy (these guys?) up pronto". Although, that was from Australia, right? So maybe PJ can scarf him (them) up.

I also really liked Rockfish, which surprised me since I thought Gopher Broke was total crap.

Never saw Gopher Broke but my one disappointment with Rock Fish was I was hoping it would turn out that the guy was just a sportsman/big game hunter, rather than a miner, and that we'd see the head of the big beastie mounted on a wall at the end . Visually stunning though.


Vonnie K - Apr 08, 2005 6:27:18 am PDT #1574 of 10002
Kiss me, my girl, before I'm sick.

Sin City has a lot of trappings of a noir, but I don't know. It felt off to me as a noir. (Yeah, yeah, my own eloquence blinds me.) It's not the theme that felt wrong, but rather the style. It's just... way too exuberant for a noir. Noir anti-heroes are not supposed to show that much sheer glee as they are getting crushed body and soul. The dark revel in all that luridness struck me more of of a Sam Fuller territory than a Jacques Tourneur. I expect a bit more restraint in my noir--rage should be bottled up for explosion at appropriate times, the vista should be more muted and bleak; More austerity, less operatic grandeur, etc.


§ ita § - Apr 08, 2005 6:44:09 am PDT #1575 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

God, I dislike Bruce Willis. He's no Ford.

As much as I adore H2G2, I totally see where there might not be a blockbuster level of appeal.


Scrappy - Apr 08, 2005 6:47:52 am PDT #1576 of 10002
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

He makes crappy choices, but I think he is as good an actor. Check out In Country or Nobody's Fool.


Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 08, 2005 6:52:51 am PDT #1577 of 10002
"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

The latter and Pulp Fiction make me think he's really much better as a character actor than he is as a leading man. I tend to be bored out of my skull at movies with "BRUCE WILLIS IN..." over the title.


§ ita § - Apr 08, 2005 6:59:52 am PDT #1578 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

He makes crappy choices, but I think he is as good an actor. Check out In Country or Nobody's Fool.

I have 342 discs in my Netflix rental queue. I don't think he's in any of them. I may die having a horribly wrong impression of Bruce's work, but I'll just have to pay that price. Outside of Death Becomes Her and The Siege, he's poisoned all his movies for me. Sin City is something I'm seeing hoping to ignore him.