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Aw, man, I absolutely LOVE QT's guest spot in Alias. He's one of my favorite short-lived villains of the first two seasons (which is all I've watched). Maybe my favorite. Those episodes were awesome.

He's directing the season finale of CSI (original flavor).

I am a big QT fan. Except the dude should never ever act. REALLY not his forte.

I make an exception for his spot in Sleep With Me, but I realize I'm unreasonable about that movie.

I make an exception for his spot in Sleep With Me, but I realize I'm unreasonable about that movie.

The bit is hysterical. Like the movie a whole hell of a lot too, but the TOP GUN but is priceless (if another sorta-steal).

John Bloom/Joe Bob Briggs has a great essay about Resevoir Dogs in Profoundly Disturbing, and talks about the City on Fire thing. He speculates that maybe Tarantino felt weird about taking the plot from a recent movie by a contemporary, because he's usually pretty open about what he's lifting things from. And it certainly would have been better PR if he had, but yeah, it's not like Resevoir Dogs is just a remake.

He also makes an interesting argument that it's really a horror movie.

The critics who have dissed it -- for violence, for cynicism, for self-conscious artiness -- are looking for moral and philosophical content in a film that has none. It's a horror film, but instead of one Jason Voorhees, we have eight of them. And the most sociopathic of them all -- Mr. Pink, the character Tarantino modeled after himself -- is the only one who gets to survive.

The biggest influence on the style of RD, though, hasn't been mentioned. It's Mamet with guns. And Mr Pink dies; you hear him shot by the cops.

I'd submit that Joe Bob is mistaken. It's not a horror film; it's a heightened-reality tragedy of honor, just like its Hong Kong generic forbear. The point is that, between the Veteran and the Traitor, there's honesty -- apology for his treason -- in the end.

To draw from David's discussion of yesterday, it's very like the scene in Rififi where Cesar confesses to having ratted out his mates. He accepts the mandate that Tony le Stephanois execute him -- agrees that that is his due, takes it with dignity, and is perversely redeemed. Honor among thieves, all that.

I saw a fun movie last night called Nightwatch that I think Buffistas would enjoy. In the world it sets up, there are "Others" that live among us regular humans who have various powers -- shapeshifting, vampirism, clairvoyance, etc -- and must choose to be either "Light" or "Dark." A long time ago, a truce was established between Light and Dark, with each side setting up a police force to make sure the other side plays by the rules. (The Light's police are called the Nightwatch, the Dark's police force are called the Daywatch.)

The style is kind of like David Fincher playing in the Buffyverse. (There's even a scene where Buffy vs Dracula is on the TV in the background.) There's very little about it that's original, and the plot is a bit of a mess, but it's tons of fun and I was intrigued enough to want to see the rest of the trilogy (called Daywatch and Duskwatch, respectively.)

No idea when it's getting released here -- it came out in Russia a couple of years ago, and is screening now, so probably later this summer.

No idea when it's getting released here -- it came out in Russia a couple of years ago, and is screening now, so probably later this summer.

Was it a Russian movie? It may have to get renamed since there was an American remake of a Dutch film a few years back with that title. Of course, we've got that other CRASH coming out, but since the Cronenberg one is Canadian, that might be why the name wasn't an issue.