It’s been a looong time since I (or anyone) wrote anything on this blog, but I’m pretty sure that all of the authors have good excuses. I know I do, since I’ve got some jobs, a kid, and a bunch of stuff to do.

So I think I’ll try to just post shorter things, so I don’t feel like I need to make huge posts every time I want to add something to the site.

This time around, I wanted to call your attention to the Walk of Life Project, if you’ve not heard of it before. Basically, a man/mad genius has taken the ends of famous movies and laid the song “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits on top of them. It sounds weird, and it is. In fact, it’s borderline stupid, but also borderline amazing. I know in my heart of hearts that it’s really dumb, yet I laughed at each one that I watched. My favorite is probably for Planet of the Apes.

Anyhow, check it out. And thanks for reading!

As you may know, I really like Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve written about it on my own blog and I’ve even written about it on this blog (last year–check here if you want). Since it’s Easter, I thought I’d mention it again, especially because I’ve seen a few news items related to the movie and the musical in the news lately.

First of all, have you heard of Muppets Christ Superstar? I’m not sure what to make of it, but I think it’s pretty funny, at the very least. I tip my hat to the guy who made it, although Gonzo will never be able to sing like Carl Anderson:

Next up: Apparently Ted Neeley, the original Jesus from the musical, is reprising his role and taking the show to Rome. He’s hoping to get the Pope to check it out. If I were the Pope, I’d definitely go. But then again, you probably have to be Catholic to be Pope, so this scenario probably won’t play itself out too soon.

Finally, I came across this article talking about how a group of prison inmates in Peru will be performing the play. You really should check out the pictures of the stage. I wish there were some video, too, but I guess I’ll have to head south and commit a crime if I want to see it.

I know not too many people read this blog, but has anyone else watched this movie lately? If not, see it tonight! Thanks for reading, and Happy Easter!

In a recent post we were talking in the comments about movies that make us cry. I happened to mention that as far as I knew or could remember, I couldn’t think of any movie that had made me cry. I was like the guy in this Johnny Cash song:

But the timing was impeccable, because just a few weeks later we watched Hachi (also known as “Hatchi,” “Hatchiko,” and “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale,” for whatever reason). This little-known gem is a 2009 movie directed by Lasse Hallström that I found on the Entertainment Weekly list of 50 Best Movies I’d Supposedly Never Seen. Hallström is the Swedish director who brought you all kinds of emotional movies, including Mitt Liv Som Hund, so his pedigree (pun intended) of heart-touching dog movies is top-notch. (Fun Fact I Didn’t Know Before: He also directed a staggering number of ABBA videos–seriously, check out his stats.) Anyhow, Hachi stars Richard Gere and the cutest freaking Akita puppy you can possibly imagine:

Awww, who can turn away a cute little creature with such an adorable little face? And the dog’s not too ugly, either.

The strange thing is, it never got a release date in the US, so it’s not very well known, apparently. I won’t tell too much about the plot, but the movie is quality. It’s based on a true story of a very faithful dog. And yes, it’s a bit emotional. To call this a “tearjerker” is not quite correct. Hachi will jerk tears out of you, sure. But Hachi will also haunt your emotions. Hachi will punch your heart in the balls. Hachi will grab your tear tear ducts, hold a gun to their heads, and blindfold them in the bank safe, holding them hostage until the police meet its demands –namely: a helicopter; a million dollars in unmarked, nonconsecutive bills; and a single tear to trickle down every viewer’s cheek.

And strangely enough, there was indeed a single tear that rolled down my cheek as I watched the end of this touching movie. I might have even had a second tear in me, but I was distracted since I had to attend to my bawling wife. But I can now say that I have indeed cried for a movie.

And knowing is half the battle.

Oh, what do we have here? A faithful old dog waiting in the snow for his master? Uh oh, here we go!

Anyhow, I’d give this movie a 15/17. It’s very good, and the dog will charm your pants off and put them on your head, but now that I’ve seen it, any subsequent viewings would be spent trying to avoid the emotional build-up to the end. That just seems exhausting, and worth about 2 points on a 17-point scale.

Watch it, though.

Having trouble staying awake during movies? Step into my office!

I wanted to start the Movie Log section of the site based on an idea I stole from Deuce. But it’s a good idea, and it was the basis for starting this blog, actually. See, Deuce keeps really impressive records of the movies he watches, and I always thought that was an interesting thing. Captains keep Captain’s Logs. Oenophiles keep Wine Logs. And Scandinavians keep Jule Logs. All in all, we could do with more logs.

So my idea here is that if we have shorter reviews or only a quick comment about a movie, we might as well put them here. I know that personally I feel like in order to post something to Cinematic Attic, it needs to be big or thoughtful. But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. I know that I’m truly interested in the answer when I ask someone “What have you been watching or reading these days?” or “Seen any good movies lately?”

I also included a “Quotes” page, since I’ve always been a fan of quotes from movies and books.

For any CA writer who wants to put a post into either of these categories, just write a normal post, but before publishing, label it “Quotes” or “Log,” respectively, in the “Categories” section. If you add any other categories, it’ll show up on the home page of CA, but that’s also OK if you want it to. But if you only want to write a quote and put it on the quote page, then only categorize your post as “Quotes” and you should be OK. Same goes for a Movie Log post: if you want to do that, only categorize it under “Log.”

So, that’s about it for now. If anyone still follows this page, then great–you’re welcome here. If no one else is reading, I’ll keep carrying the torch myself.

Ummm… mazol tov!

I’d only seen 13 movies on their list, but I actually just saw five of them because of the list. So I thought I’d mention it here on the site and see if anyone else has seen some of these, and what their thoughts are. I’ll also give a one-sentence “lightning review” of each one I’ve seen, making sure to not actually tell you anything of value about the movies. I’ll start with the five I saw because of the list.

Five New Movies

1. Devil’s Playground – It was good but I already reviewed it here, so check that out.
2. Idiocracy – It’s almost as funny as Office Space, but much less subtle.
3. Layer Cake – When Daniel Craig was cast as Bond, I originally thought Clive Owen would have been better but after seeing this, I can see why they chose Craig.
4. Moon – It’s easy to dislike Sam Rockwell, but hard to dislike this movie.
5. My Summer of Love – In her first big role, a powerful Emily Blunt shows her talent and hints at more success to come (and by “talent” I mean “naked breasts”).

Eight I’d Already Seen

1. Bubba Ho-Tep – I saw this with Dustin a long time ago, but it was good.
2. Fly Away Home – It’s got birds and stuff, so if you hate birds, don’t watch it.
3. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - I thought this was popular, since it was really good and a lot of people I know have seen it.
4. Lilya 4-Ever – I saw this Swedish/former-Soviet-Union movie when I was on a Swedish kick.
5. Primer – The most realistic and confusing time travel movie I’ve seen.
6. The Ref – It’s got Dennis Leary and stuff, so if you hate Dennis Leary, don’t watch it.
7. Rescue Dawn – I was enthralled until Christian Bale caught a giant snake then skinned it with his teeth.
8. The Rules of Attraction – I’m hard-pressed to think of a more depressing movie, except maybe Requiem for a Dream (but Requiem was depressing and great).

So what about you guys? Have you seen any of these, or from the rest of the list? I’ll put the list in the comments, so it won’t make the rest of the post huge and crappy-looking.

I love that the blurb for this poster comes from Sex Gore Mutants. Brilliant!

The film was actually pretty awesome. The “infected people” basically look like bad make-up Lepers (Dustin described them as looking like the Toxic Avenger) and they constantly attack and bite people’s necks and drink their blood like they are vampires. If I didn’t know better, I would think that Danny Boyle and Alex Garfield saw this film before making 28 Days Later but since Boyle is so adamant that his film is NOT a horror film and doesn’t share anything with the horror genre, I would suspect this wasn’t the case. But the monsters in this film do share many characteristics with those infected with the RAGE virus: they’re fast, they’re angry, and they’re super violent for no explicable reason.

Like many Italian zombie flicks of the era, this one is filled with gratuitous gore and nudity (and a wonderful disco dance scene added in case we get bored). Sometimes the two meet as when one unlucky dancer (in the aforementioned disco dance show) gets her breast cut off and eaten. The dubbing is fairly bad and sometimes the dialogue literally made no sense at all. You won’t find any award-winning acting either, but Stiglitz DOES do all of his stunts and wields a gun and hatchet fairly well.

Aside from an ending that makes no sense at all (and nearly ruins the rest of the film), Nightmare City is a fun, gory film for fans of Lucio Fulci (Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead), Romero and other Italio-zombie films. I give it a 14 out of 17 on the Sitz-O-Matic Scale.

As an added bonus, Quentin Tarantino has a funny story about a time when Eli Roth met Lenzi and told him Tarantino was a big fan of his “zombie” film, Nightmare City, and Lenzi began yelling (in a strong Italian accent) “they are not zombies, they are INFECTED PEOPLE!”

OK, I guess it’s not been that quiet here, and I imagine we writers got all hot and bothered for the Oscars and then ended up taking this week off to recover from our fainting spells (since most of the writers for Cinematic Attic are old-fashioned Dandies through and through). Plus, I have a feeling I’ve been thinking about dystopian futures more than usual lately.

The “Cover-inside-the-cover” of Veronica Roth’s “Divergent”

As a side note (and a bit of inevitable self-promotion), I’m reading a book a week again this year (you can see the list here). It just occurred to me recently that a lot of the books that I’ve been reading lately –and indeed, a lot of books that are popular in general– deal with alternate, post-apocalyptic futures. And that has also affected the types of movies that are being made, too.

For example, this year so far I’ve already read Veronica Roth’s Divergent and Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, both of which are part of series that explore a world after some kind of catastrophic event. And in the last two years of my project I also read such titles as Apocalypse Z: The Beginning, Cloud Atlas, Ready Player One, The Stand, and the three books from the Hunger Games series. But if I had to list the movies that dealt with these kinds of topics, the list would be so long I’d have to do it on a separate post.

OK, to be honest, I only read the novelization of this one.

I was surprised, then, when I was recently talking to two other Cinematic Attic contributors who happen to have a baby. I’ll give you 5 extra points if you can figure out who I’m referring to. Anyhow, they told me that ever since having their child, they don’t like to read dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels. I thought that was interesting, and although I’m definitely hesitant to second-guess them seeing as I have no kids of my own, I think that such novels and movies could be a good way to deal with the realities of now, by seeing how crappy the future might be if we mess things up.

Then again, that might just make a new parent more stressed. I don’t know.

Anyhow, it was just a thought, and I wanted to share it with everyone to see what kinds of comments you had.

Here are my lists, by the way, since I know a lot of us are into that:

RYAN’S TOP 5 DYSTOPIAN NOVELS THAT HE CAN THINK OF ON THE FLY AND LIST WITHOUT PUTTING TOO MUCH EFFORT INTO IT:

5. Ready Player One – Ernest Cline: A double win, as it combines a depressing future in Oklahoma with fervent 80s nostalgia.

4. World War Z – Max Brooks: This guy really did his homework.

3. The Road – Cormac McCarthy: Lock up the booze and guns before reading.

2. Brave New Fahrenheit 1984 – 3 Authors: The three times I’ve read these, I read them together, so I just think of them as one giant, awesome bummer.

1. The Stand – Stephen King: One of my favorite books ever.

Escape from THIS, Harry Dean Stanton! (If that really is your real name)

RYAN’S TOP 5 DYSTOPIAN OR POST-APOCALYPTIC MOVIES THAT HE CAN SORTA MAKE UP AS HE GOES ALONG:

5. Cloud Atlas: This would be higher (and in the book section, as well), but over half the novel takes place in the past.

4. Death Race 2000: I’d say the title says it all, but it leaves out two things: “David” and “Carradine.”

3. Legends of the Fall: I shudder to think of a future in which I’d need to watch this shitty movie again.

2. Children of Men: A future with no need for birth control.

1. Blade Runner: Mainly since it’s great, and because everyone always uses it as a touchstone for talking about dystopian futures.

I also want to end with a few questions. Please answer in the form of a complete sentence.

1. Do you like post-apocalyptic or dystopian novels and movies? If so, why? If not, why, and what’s the matter with you? What it is about their topic matter (or our human nature) that makes them so popular?

2. What titles or movies have you enjoyed, and which haven’t you liked? Explain.

That’s all I’ve got for you today. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

Actually, you can watch this documentary online. I’ll even embed it here, so go nuts because it’s great and relatively short (one hour).

PARALLEL WORLDS, PARALLEL LIVES from EELS on Vimeo.

If it’s not working or if you’d prefer to know what the documentary is about before getting into it, I’ll tell you. It’s about Mark Oliver Everett’s quest to find out more about his father. That’s a pretty standard storyline, but in this case Mark is the founder of the rock band The EELS (one of my all-time favorites), and his father was a quantum physicist who came up with the theory of parallel universes. Seriously. It’s a strange concept but its results are excellent and entertaining. And you may even learn something.

Mark Oliver Everett, better known as “Mr. E” or simply “E,” contemplates the mysteries of physics.

Oh, and by the way, today The EELS came out with a new album. From what I’ve heard of it, it’s quite good. And at least while I’m writing this, it’s available to download from Amazon for only $5 here. You can also stream it on the band’s site.

I give the movie a 16/17 for soundtrack (using almost exclusively EELS songs), a 13/17 for thought-provokingness (it’ll take me longer than an hour to understand quantum physics, apparently), and a 15/17 overall.

Waltz With Bashir

Here’s yet another movie from my “List of Movies to Check Out,” but like so many entries, I have no idea where I heard about it. It could have been a recommendation from a trusted friend, or I may have written a note only containing the movie’s title, simply because I read an article in National Geographic that said the movie mentioned Lebanon. The world will never know the mysterious ways of my “List of Movies to Check Out.”

The world may also never know exactly what happened during the events that this movie depicts. It’s an Israeli movie, told from an interesting perspective. All the people in the movie are real (or at least composites), and it’s all based on real events. But the main character (and the movie-maker) has forgotten his memories of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. This is critical, since he thinks he may have taken part in a massacre of Lebanese civilians. This concern leads him to interview friends and other soldiers that were with him in the early 80s to see what they remember. Adding to the film’s unique perspective, the whole movie except the last two minutes or so is animated in a “looks like Rotoscope but isn’t Rotoscope” effect.

The movie gets a bit surreal at times. Unless a giant naked blue woman carrying off one of the main characters doesn’t count as “surreal” these days.

The movie is engrossing despite its often disturbing subject matter (and implications). I’d give it a 17/17 for originality (at least for me), a 15/16 for thought-provokingness, and an overall score of 15/17.

Devil’s Playground

First of all, it seems that there are about a dozen or so movies with this same title, although most of the others look a lot more messed up than this one. This is the one about the Rumspringa, the Amish rite of passage in which the community allows their youth to live like “English” (non-Amish) people for a while, normally for a year or two. During that time, the kids can dress how they like, do what they want, use electricity, date, and do all sorts of other things that aren’t allowed in the Amish community. The idea is that there shouldn’t be compulsion to get baptized, and that it should be each member’s own free choice. Of course, that choice can’t be made until they’re mature, hence the Rumspringa.

It’s a pretty cool idea, if you ask me, and I learned a lot more about the Amish than I ever thought I would. The movie also dispelled a lot of misconceptions I had about them (once you see an Amish teenager who sells crack, you also might experience a paradigm shift). This movie clocks in at about an hour and a half, so you should be able to add it to your next documentary marathon with no sweat.

For the Special Achievement in Bonnets and Beards category, I award this film a 17/17. For thought-provokingness, I give it a respectable 15/17, which means that its overall score works out to about a 15/17.

That’s it from me, at least for now. Has anyone else seen any of these, or does anyone have any good documentaries to recommend? It’s kind of fun to go on a “Docu-bender” now and then.

Thanks for reading!

Wikimedia Commons assures me that this is Emily Blunt… is anyone else unconvinced?

The last time we came back to Costa Rica I brought with us some old copies of “Entertainment Weekly” that my family was done with, and some of the movies that came up in lots of reviews and interesting comments happened to involve Emily Blunt. I then decided to watch three of them (I guess four if you count Looper, which I saw a few weeks ago…but I don’t count that one since I didn’t actually realize it was Emily Blunt until the end credits). Here are my flash reviews of each:

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Kudos to the only movie that has ever made me give half a shit about fishing.

This is the story of a Yemeni sheik who wants to bring British salmon to Yemen. As someone who can’t eat fish and doesn’t really care about them, you’d think this story would leave me cold, but it didn’t. Blunt does a good job, and the sheik is very good, too. But Ewan McGregor certainly gives us the best performance of this film. I hadn’t realized that it’s been a while since I saw him in a movie, and it’s a good reminder of how good and naturally charismatic he is.

Blunt Force Rating: 14/17

My Summer of Love

Answers to the FAQ: 1) No, I could barely understand what that other girl was saying most of the time. 2) Yes, there are indeed boobs. 3) Most likely.

This was on an “Entertainment Weekly” list of “The 50 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen” or something like that. I had actually seen some of the movies, but I’m making a deliberate effort to see more of them (and more about that list in a future post). In any case, in this movie Blunt is a rich girl who befriends a poor girl. They fall in love, but at times we get the feeling that Blunt is just using the poor girl as a plaything. But it’s a good compact movie (less than an hour and half), and Blunt gives an excellent although alienating performance. Unlike Salmon, though, this movie might be hard to re-watch.

Blunt Force Rating: 13/17

The Five-Year Engagement

Alright, but seriously: am I the only one who doesn’t see any resemblance between this Emily Blunt and the Doppelgänger in the first picture??

I didn’t have very high expectations for this movie, but I do like the two main actors (Jason Segel and… ach, crap, what’s her name? Oh yeah, Emily Blunt!). However, during the end credits I discovered that Judd Apatow was involved and then I was fairly amazed that I’d not realized that before. Like most Apatow comedies, the relationships between the characters seem realistic and less glossed-over than most movies. The characters seem genuine, and one gets the feeling that they might have really existed somewhere. There are some drawbacks, too, though. The movie is quite a bit longer than it needs to be (then again, if it were shorter or cut differently, it’d seem unrealistic, so what the hell am I complaining about?), and there are a few subplots that seem a bit overlong as well. But Angela and I both enjoyed this movie, so that’s a plus. Highlight: I know it’s stupid, but for some reason Violet (Blunt) and her sister doing Elmo and Cookie Monster voices cracked me up.

Blunt Force Rating: 12/17

What about you? Have you seen any of these, or any other Emily Blunt movie? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

For Your Consideration: Moonrise Kingdom

By Mike2D2

In response to the Academy’s snub of Moonrise Kingdom, I’m going to find a tree to chop down (that will make more sense if you saw the movie). They really dropped the ball on this one but it’s nothing new for the Oscars. Sure, Wes Anderson got an original screenplay nomination (and rightfully so) but this is my favorite film of the year. There’s room for a musical and a romantic comedy but not a classic like Moonrise Kingdom. Something is wrong with the Academy when the Golden Globes gets it right, folks.

Well, if you haven’t seen this movie yet let me give you the low down. It’s 1965; two tweens who have fallen in love flee their homes to go on an epic first date/elopement/adventure. All the while, a scout troop, the island police, and Suzy’s family are hot on their trail. There’s a storm a brewing and it’s not just the emotions welling up inside the star crossed lovers. Bob Balaban, playing double duty as narrator and weather man, creatively spouts out exposition on the New England island and the twice in century storm that will soon transform the landscape and bring an exciting conclusion to the film.

Wes Anderson has a style all his own and you can tell from the second the opening credits role that you’re in for a unique experience. I think what really attracts me to his pictures is the artistry that goes into every detail. Each scene is a painter’s canvas full of color and nuance with all the characters fitting perfectly into the composition. The picture itself even takes on a yellow hue reminiscent of movies of the time. And all the details, my word, there’s so much to see and watch it’s great. Every scene is brimming with eye candy; great examples include the lavish Sunday school production of Noah’s Ark and the bustling Fort Lebanon Regional Hullabaloo.

Not only does this film contain great visuals it also makes excellent use of music. Utilizing The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten, the opening is an aural and visual feast; and I would even suggest sitting through the credits for this one. Hank Williams cranks out some old chestnuts and an obscure French Artist, Francoise Hardy, provides the soundtrack for Sam and Suzy’s beach party. And, of course, there’s an excellent score to boot.

Anderson brings in his usual stable of actors in Bill Murray, playing the cuckold husband, and Jason Schwartzman as the ‘Minderbinder’ of Fort Lebanon. Those two stars and Wes are usually all you need to get me in the theater but this time around he takes some risks. The young leads are newcomers to Hollywood and their greenness plays perfectly for the niceties of a burgeoning romance. But with such witty lines, I think anyone could shine. Bruce Willis reprises his role of John McClain if he had been a cop on the quiet island of New Penzanze instead of the crime ridden New York City. And if that weren’t enough, Ed Norton plays the straight laced Scout Master of Troop 55 (and math teacher on the side) who loses a scout and then all his troops.

While I love Wes Anderson’s style and humor so much that I can forgive an incoherent story (Life Aquatic) or a deluge of characters and dark tone (Royal Tenenbaums), he has a fully engaging story here that has a lot of heart. In my humble opinion, this is Anderson’s best live-action film since Rushmore. Some might find Anderson’s style quirky and his framing rigid and therefore artificial, but he paints such a wonderful picture why get caught up in that. Let go and let him take you for a ride. I had a smile on my face from start to finish; I can only say that for one other movie in recent memory.

Thanks to Mike2D2 for his great insight–we’ll look forward to many more articles from him. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of Cinematic Attic Editors’ Top 12 Movies of 2012, in which we’ll reveal our group’s list! In the meantime, be sure to take our Readers’ Poll and vote for your OWN top movies of 2012 if you’ve not yet! You can do it here, and then we’ll compare our lists. Thanks, and have a great weekend!