Rambling Film

Wow, I was not expecting this turn out. Thank you so much to everyone that participated! I'm so happy you decided to join in. (and if you haven't yet, I'll still add you if you are late) Plus this whole experience has turned me on to a few new blogs in the process, and that's always a great thing.  Here was my original post with the rules. Click on the banners to be re-directed to everyone's posts!

The always wonderful French Toast Sunday is hosting DanMay Boyle month! Anything about Danny Boyle is welcome, just click that link and contribute.  Danny Boyle is easily one of my favorite working directors right now. I'm constantly amazed by his work. Here's a round up of reviews of his films that I have posted on my blog.

James Franco has something to say. Netflix's summary of this film is the "re-imagining of 40 minutes cut from the 1980 film Cruising . Which is comical because the first thing film maker Travis Mathews says to his lead actor, Val Lauren is that he doesn't want to do a full on re-imagining of 40 minutes of what they thought was cut. Because that would be the wrong way to go about this.  At first, I wasn't sure where Franco was going with this, and I didn't feel like he was sure either. Then in a scene, he explains to Val that everything he's shooting here feels weird to him because of the world around him. Every commercial, every love story is a man and a woman, and he's sick of it. He also mentions sex being a story telling tool, and that people shouldn't be so afraid to put it into a movie. He doesn't see this S&M club as a dark evil place as depicted in Cruising , he sees it as normal. I feel like this film would've worked better ...

John over at Hitchcock's World is hosting his first ever blogathon ! Here are his rules: 1)Each choice must be a specific moment from a film, not the film itself, even if it's a movie like My Dinner With Andre or Twelve Angry Men. 2)Since picking out scenes is hard, you can write about as many different moments from as many different films as you like. There are no specific restrictions in what types of films you can draw from, even if it's one of Godard's movies or Tarkovsky's Solaris or any other film I have criticized in this blog. I'll even try to control myself is you pick a scene from one of Connery's James Bond films. 3) I'd encourage you to try and diversify your range of choices as much as you can. In both my lists I cover movies in the science fiction, war, western, comedy, surrealist, and adventure genres with periods ranging from the 1950's to the present day.  4) For each film you refer to you can only discuss one ...

So that's why Rock n Roll is bad for you! Rachel (Julia Garner, wearing an awful clip on braid) is from a fundamentalist Mormon community. She's curious, but sheltered by her father, Paul. (Billy Zane) Her mother, Gay Lynn (Cynthia Watros) isn't as strict, and tells her daughters stories of her travels outside their farm. One day, Rachel sneaks a VHS tape of a man singing, and then falls pregnant. She thinks the tape impregnated her. She runs away to Las Vegas hoping to find the singer on the tape, instead she meets a misfit named Clyde (Rory Culkin) who will change the way she views things. Mr. Will (Liam Aiken) who's accused of being the one that actually knocked up Rachel, chases after her. This is one of those movies where you REALLY have to suspend belief, because the ending is actually pretty ridiculous. Once you've done that, the film is actually quite sweet and enjoyable. The thought of a naive young girl going to Las Vegas could be a horror story...

What I knew going in: This was James Dean's second to last film. Jim Stark (James Dean) is a troubled young man that has moved around a lot in his life. Once he and his family settle in a new town, he makes friends with Plato (Sal Mineo) and becomes attracted to Judy. (Natalie Wood) Too bad her friends aren't as smitten with Jim as he is with her. An accident happens that changes this group of kids forever. Have you ever watched a film with a certain amount of expectations, then start to wonder if maybe you're watching it the wrong way once you realize you are having the polar opposite reaction that everyone else has had? That's kind of how I felt here. How was this movie nominated for Oscars? This is a joke, right? I'll get the good out of the way first. Wood and Mineo gave great performances. They were quite young when they filmed this, and they were solid. The story overall was solid too, despite all of the theatrics.  That's what threw me off here,...

Feels. I have too many of them. Mockingbird was filled with so many emotional scenes. I know I said last week that Dinklage's Emmy reel was probably in that performance, but he was even better this time around. Don't forget to click those gifs to be redirected to their makers.  We start out in Tyrion's cell, where Jaime is upset about Tyrion's decision to have a trial by combat. Jaime can't believe that Tyrion fell in love with a whore. Note the look on Jaime's face when Tyrion says "I was stupid enough to think she loved me back." Jaime tells Tyrion he can't protect him now, he couldn't fight a stable boy with his left hand, and Cersei has chosen The Mountain as her champion. We check in with Baby Mountain killing some randoms. Henceforth, he will be known as "Baby Mountain" because he does NOT look old enough to be The Hound's older brother. Why didn't they just keep the season one guy? Arya and the Hound find...

Ford Brody is having a bad day. Everywhere he goes, monsters show up. All kidding aside, Godzilla follows Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who is called back to his childhood home in Japan when his father, Joe (Bryan Cranston) is arrested for trespassing into former nuclear reactor zone. You see, Joe used to work there, and an accident happened in 1999 that caused the death of his wife. Now, the same thing is happening again, and he no one believes him when he says they're similar. Ford is reluctant to help at first, but follows his father. Two scientists, Dr. Serizawa (Ken Wantanabe, who permanently looks like he cannot believe what the fuck you are talking about) and Dr Graham (Sally Hawkins) know what's going on, but even they can't predict the destruction that lies ahead. On top of all of this, Ford is trying to get back to his wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and their young song back in San Francisco, where all this chaos is heading. Godzilla really has...

Halloween is fucked up. That's basically the moral of Trick r' Treat, a movie that I have taken way too long to finally watch.  Four intertwining stories follow different people in a small town on the night of Halloween. Steven (Dylan Baker) is a high school principle/serial killer. Laurie (Anna Paquin) is not impressed with her much sluttier sister and friends dragging her along to a Halloween party. Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox) is having the worst night ever. Some teens play a trick on a fellow student that goes horribly wrong, and some weird little kid dressed as a creepy pumpkin is reeking havoc. Actually, I don't really know what the fuck he is dressed as. It's weird. I can see why this is consistently on people's "Favorite Halloween movies" lists. It will certainly be on mine from now on. Trick r' Treat is quite the little gem. It has plenty of interesting twists, a good amount of gore, and a pretty killer soundtrack on top of it. I can s...

Time to bro out. Mac (Seth Rogan) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are a young married couple with a 6 month old baby. They are enjoying their house and their new grown up life, then they get new neighbors in the form of a fraternity lead by Teddy (Zac Efron) and Pete. (Dave Franco) At first, Mac and Kelly party with them and promise not to call the police if they get too loud, but once they break that promise it becomes an all out war between houses. At first I didn't think I'd enjoy Neighbors . The thought of douchey college guys playing pranks on a young couple with a baby just didn't sound interesting. (Maybe because I hated frat boys in college and I am part of a young couple with a baby) But that's what ended up making this movie so funny. The fraternity is made fun of, a lot. The things that Mac and Kelly talk about were at times relateable as well. And, you know, I enjoy a good dick joke. This film had plenty. Neighbors is easily the funniest movie of 2014...

This week was the first Stark-less episode ever in Game of Thrones . We finally got to see Stannis in the day light (it's been awhile) Braavos was added to the opening map (but still no Eyrie?) and Tyrion's trial took up the bulk of the episode in The Laws of Gods and Men . Click those gifs to be redirected to their makers. We open with Stannis and Davos sailing to Braavos. Great CGI shot of the titan, and I loved how they had multiple little islands like the book. At the Iron Bank, they meet Tycho "Mycroft" Nestoris. He doesn't believe in Stannis' cause because he doesn't have that many ships, or that many tradable goods from Dragonstone. He also makes a comment that thieves aren't given knight ships, looking at Davos. Davos puts that motherfucker in his place and explains the difference between a pirate and a smuggler. Then he shows them his hand, with his removed fingers. Stannis still punished him for crimes. He gives a long speech on why Sta...