What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Dracula (1931)

Although i'd seen this several times before i realized i'd never watched the 1988 version with the newly commissioned Philip Glass score with the Kronos Quartet conducted by Michael Reisman, Glass' usual conductor.

The original track of the film is often music free and thus sound effects lead the viewer rather than a soundtrack. Glass adds this soundtrack which gives the film a feel and sound more reminiscent of a silent film, the score playing as that, a score, or musical suite, rather than enhancing the action on screen for large parts. The strings adding emotion in my opinion rather than frights.

Flipping between the two versions occasionally it becomes clear that the new music although lovely to listen to distracts from the films foreboding atmospherics a little. For example Renfield's carriage journey to the castle which to my ears loses the haunting atmospherics because the gentle score washes over you rather than the sound of wolf howls and rickety carriage wheels on dangerous mountainous tracks.

Dracula is nowhere near my favourite Universal Monster film. (That honour goes to The Black Cat). No matter how many times you change the soundtrack you still can't change Lugosi's stilted performance and the frequent, dreadful zoom close ups of his face which show him seemingly having one eye larger than the other.

[SCM]

Watched Xtro on Saturday night, that birthing scene?!
Damn good sci fi flick (midget clown that is all you need)

[Invid Ninja]

Originally Posted by SCM

Watched Xtro on Saturday night, that birthing scene?!
Damn good sci fi flick (midget clown that is all you need)

Always liked Xtro, one of my formative 'Did I just see that on screen' movies.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Last week's viewing:

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

These are the films I watched the week before:

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Nos what did you think of the Magnificent 7 sequels?

I don't think i've seen any due to poor word of mouth.

[keirarts]

PACIFIC RIM.

So I went in with lowered expectations... and really enjoyed it. More so than MAN OF STEEL.

First things first, rated against Guillermo del Toros back catalouge its more a Blade 2 than a Pan's Labarynth but thats ok. I was expecting the former more than the latter in terms of content and quality and wasn't dissapointed.

While it references both Kaiju films such as Godzilla and big robot anime, in terms of content it favours the latter. It has all the hallmarks of a lot of the 26 episode series like evangalion, raxephon and all that came in their wake. The mechs all have specialised looks and weaponry and for an otaku like me it even had a rocket punch! Given the films about two hours (though felt a lot shorter to me) it dosent go into as much depth with the characters as a series might and the main problem if I were to identify faults with the film is theres so much detail and so many characters its all a bit crammed in for a single film.

The comparison with Michael Bay is WAAAY off the mark. It would be like someone watching Deep Red and saying it was a bit like Giallo in Venice without the mysogyny. Theres big robots in both and thats the ONLY similarity. I sat through Transformers 1 and disliked it immensly, I sat through Transformers 2 and actively hated it to the point I wished someone would find the negative and rape it. Pacific Rim is more like a textbook example of how to handle these scenes correctly. Michael Bay edits the s**t out of his action scenes to the point of giving me headaches, its like he read up on Russian montage editing technuiques and took it to mean just cut everything really quickly and skipped the notion of juxtaposing shots because he didnt know what Juxtapose meant. The action scenes in Pacific Rim are clear and easy to follow while at the same time feeling kinnetic and intense. Unlike Transformers I wasn't struggling trying to keep up with a style of filmmmaking that feels like ADD mixed with Red bull.

Essentially the films the product of an anime geek trying to fit all his obsessions into one film and barely leaving any room. Its not perfect, no film is but compared to a lot of summer blockbusters its still got a lot of style and origionality to make it feel fresh and interesting.

[trebor8273]

Originally Posted by keirarts

PACIFIC RIM.

So I went in with lowered expectations... and really enjoyed it. More so than MAN OF STEEL.

First things first, rated against Guillermo del Toros back catalouge its more a Blade 2 than a Pan's Labarynth but thats ok. I was expecting the former more than the latter in terms of content and quality and wasn't dissapointed.

While it references both Kaiju films such as Godzilla and big robot anime, in terms of content it favours the latter. It has all the hallmarks of a lot of the 26 episode series like evangalion, raxephon and all that came in their wake. The mechs all have specialised looks and weaponry and for an otaku like me it even had a rocket punch! Given the films about two hours (though felt a lot shorter to me) it dosent go into as much depth with the characters as a series might and the main problem if I were to identify faults with the film is theres so much detail and so many characters its all a bit crammed in for a single film.

The comparison with Michael Bay is WAAAY off the mark. It would be like someone watching Deep Red and saying it was a bit like Giallo in Venice without the mysogyny. Theres big robots in both and thats the ONLY similarity. I sat through Transformers 1 and disliked it immensly, I sat through Transformers 2 and actively hated it to the point I wished someone would find the negative and rape it. Pacific Rim is more like a textbook example of how to handle these scenes correctly. Michael Bay edits the s**t out of his action scenes to the point of giving me headaches, its like he read up on Russian montage editing technuiques and took it to mean just cut everything really quickly and skipped the notion of juxtaposing shots because he didnt know what Juxtapose meant. The action scenes in Pacific Rim are clear and easy to follow while at the same time feeling kinnetic and intense. Unlike Transformers I wasn't struggling trying to keep up with a style of filmmmaking that feels like ADD mixed with Red bull.

Essentially the films the product of an anime geek trying to fit all his obsessions into one film and barely leaving any room. Its not perfect, no film is but compared to a lot of summer blockbusters its still got a lot of style and origionality to make it feel fresh and interesting.

Might give another go, as said in my post might of been a bit harsh and had idiots in front who would not shut up giggling, talking and playing with there phones.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

Might give another go, as said in my post might of been a bit harsh and had idiots in front who would not shut up giggling, talking and playing with there phones.

In fairness its not a film for everyone. I'm a BIG fan of both giant robot anime ( I Literally geeked out at the rocket punch) and Kaiju eiga and thought it payed homage to both really well. It certainly did its thing better than monsters and the godzilla remake... I also liked the Del Toro focus on weird creature design..

I should also state my only other real problem with the film, not enough Ron pearlman.

[Slippery Jack]

Originally Posted by keirarts

I should also state my only other real problem with the film, not enough Ron pearlman.

To be fair, that's a problem with most films in general . . .