Book: Yes, I'd forgotten you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now. Got your next heist planned? Simon: No. But I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist.

'War Stories'


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.


Sophia Brooks - Apr 29, 2005 5:45:23 am PDT #2289 of 10002
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

I'm with Nicole. And I own very few movie DVD's (lots of TV ones). In fact, I own Newsies, Swing Kids, Moulin Rouge, and the LOTR series.

however, I do have to say that the song "Sante Fe" is both earwormy, and a little off-key.


Frankenbuddha - Apr 29, 2005 6:22:18 am PDT #2290 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

I keep saying this but t hearts JZ. And seconds everything she said.

The remake is well worth catching too. I don't think it's as good a movie, but they did some interesting things with the story that play on ones expectations. Also, like the original, the performances are really, really good.


Jessica - Apr 29, 2005 6:27:00 am PDT #2291 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

I don't think it's as good a movie, but they did some interesting things with the story that play on ones expectations.

I agree. (And paired with the original, it's just fascinating to see how paranoia has evolved over the years.)


Kathy A - Apr 29, 2005 7:10:06 am PDT #2292 of 10002
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil

So quietly snarkful, so sure of her attraction to Sinatra and his to her; all their dialogue is loopy and sideways and seriously makes no sense at all, but her delivery is just weirdly irresistible. It's not quite like a seduction; it's like she already knows they're going to end up together, that it is just as much a fact as the train they're on. A fact that hasn't happened yet, but no less sure and solid for that; the quietly nutty dialogue is purely a formality, the path they walk to arrive at that fact. It's totally meaningless and serious and perversely fun all at once.

Roger Ebert tells how he was going over this movie in a film class once, and I think it was one of the students came up with the theory that Sinatra was another Manchurian Candidate, and that Leigh was his handler. This might explain some of the chemistry and language used in this scene.


Frankenbuddha - Apr 29, 2005 7:35:45 am PDT #2293 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

Roger Ebert tells how he was going over this movie in a film class once, and I think it was one of the students came up with the theory that Sinatra was another Manchurian Candidate, and that Leigh was his handler. This might explain some of the chemistry and language used in this scene.

I read that (I think he mentions it in his GREAT MOVIES essay on the film), and it's a fun idea, but I really am glad there is no evidence of it, because I love the idea even more that Rosie is actually just who she is, as she's one of the most loveably loopy characters since Katherine Hepburn in BRINGING UP BABY.

The fact that she's in this movie is so bizarre and random and yet feels just right, and she is a wonderful break from everything else that's going on in the film, which, despite the healthy doses of satire ("There are exactly 57 card carrying communists..." - James Gregory was so good in this too), gets really violent, grim and tragic.


P.M. Marc - Apr 29, 2005 7:38:23 am PDT #2294 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

I adore the Manchurian Candidate. It's up there with The Lion in Winter for the Fucked Up Films I Love Award.

I have never seen Newsies. However, I've seen Velvet Goldmine often enough (I've owned it for five years) to half-expect my Batman to put on eyeliner and masturbate to pictures of Ewan boykissage.

Though I'm not sure how much of that's Velvet Goldmine, and how much is an overdose of Batfic.


JZ - Apr 29, 2005 7:52:56 am PDT #2295 of 10002
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.

Hee. Frankenbuddha is so very much me on Leigh's Rosie. The idea of her being another handler is enchanting, but I would cry if anyone involved in the film actually said that this was in fact so. Her weirdness, deadpan slyness, and quiet sexual and romantic confidence were iconic to me, one of the defining images of someone who owned (in her quietly whack-ass way) the pleasures of adult womanhood. I never wanted to be a teenage girl or a giggly postadolescent, but God, did I want to be her (still do, pretty much). And God, do I not want her to be part of the conspiracy.


Sean K - Apr 29, 2005 7:59:11 am PDT #2296 of 10002
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

Loved MC (still haven't seen the remake). Liked Newsies a lot.

It worked for me, but if he hadn't ended the movie the way he did (with Sam Jackson letting Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer go, and what he said to them when he did) it might not have had as big an impact.

What Frank said about Pulp Fiction. That last segment of the film really brings it all together for me. Not that I didn't like that film up until that point, but the ending (middle) sequence just brought everything right back together.

Still, I think that, to date, Reservoir Dogs was by far Quentin's best film. No other movie has left me quite so speechlessly horrified at the end of it. Carpenter's The Thing comes closest.

Both those things kind of lend some creedence to the horror theory.


Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 29, 2005 8:03:21 am PDT #2297 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

Though I'm not sure how much of that's Velvet Goldmine, and how much is an overdose of Batfic.

I was about to say, you needed Velvet Goldmine to make that image seem feasible?


Frankenbuddha - Apr 29, 2005 8:08:09 am PDT #2298 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

Still, I think that, to date, Reservoir Dogs was by far Quentin's best film. No other movie has left me quite so speechlessly horrified at the end of it. Carpenter's The Thing comes closest.

See, for me, more and more, it's been JACKIE BROWN that I think is the best. Certainly it's his most mature. And as horrific as the ending of RD is, I prefer the quiet, tragic melancholy of Robert Forester not being able to let himself run of with Pam Grier, even though he desperately wants to. Apples and oranges, I know, and my preference probably has something to do with getting older.