I don't think I've seen much Cronenberg, but I have to believe that his movies are better than Splice. So my complaints are two-fold:

a) it went to a several really fucked up places

b) the movie didn't earn it

I appreciate all the deep reading into the movie as cultural critique, but in some ways, I feel like that's trying to do a deep reading of Freddy Got Fingered. I'm not a fan of A Clockwork Orange, but everything in that movie had a point. The shocking moments were deserved.

I wouldn't have been so put out by the layers of the fucked up in the final act if I thought I was watching a decent movie - one where all this stuff felt deserved or warranted. I literally felt like I was watching the performance art parodied in "Spaces" where they might as well have filmed someone standing on stage rubbing himself with sheep.

I can't decide if this is making me want to see Splice more or less.

Heh - ways to guarantee Jess will never see a movie:

1 - compare it to The Cell

2 - compare it to Cronenberg

I think the latter comparison is much more apt. #1 was just to discuss a movie that one could argue had/didn't have much of a story. Content, visually, the two movies are quite different.

Concerning the Cell, am I right in concluding that saving the remaining victim in fact had utterly nothing to do with Jennifer Lopez' psychic foray? I recall the detective pursuing a completely unrelated line of enquiry that led him to the guy's Aquarium of Doooom.

yes, I think you are right about that. I haven't seen the movie since it came out. On top of that, the detective had to go into the crazy and rescue her.

I'm currently watching Jaws on Encore. They're just getting to Quint's USS Indianapolis monologue--best movie monologue ever.

I just picked up Jaws for $5 at Walmart! I love to watch it once a summer. And you're right, that story Quint tells is fantastic.

I have an unreasonable fondness for The Cell, even though it's not a very good movie. It's so visually rich and fucked up, though.

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went straight to my head

After Jaws was first shown on tv around 1978, the next day everyone at my junior high was singing that song.

Ha. Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Inception is named Cobb, like the guy in Following. Nolan must like that name.

Last night, I also finally watched In Bruges, thanks to the magic of Netflix. It was very McDonagh-y. Good stuff.