I’ve been pretty open about my absolute love for everything Tom Waits-related, and the above video is further proof of his genius.  He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songwriters of all time.  I own every album that he’s ever done (35 years worth of material) and I’ll buy every one that he ever puts out because it’s all gold.

Seeing Tom Waits in concert is a rare treat.  The guy doesn’t tour.  Really, he doesn’t need to.  I had a chance to see him about two years ago, and it remains the greatest concert experience of my life.  I thought that would be the only time I’d ever get to see him.

Well, it looks like I was wrong.  As you can see by the video above, he’s announced a new tour and he’s coming to Atlanta on July 5th.  So unless some catastrophe prevents me from getting tickets next Friday, I will be seeing Tom Waits again, and this time, in what might just be my favorite music venue: The Fabulous Fox Theater.

I’ve been to the Fox on three separate occasions and they were all pretty much life-changing: Bright Eyes, Bjork and Ben Harper.  The first two, I saw for the first time at the Fox and, while I’d seen Ben Harper on numerous other occasions, there was something pretty magical about the Fox show (though it still doesn’t compare the Ben Harper show at Myrtle Beach’s House of Blues which was akin to a religious experience), so I’m expecting lightning to strike a 4th time at the Fox when Mr. Waits invades.

I can’t wait.

(Previously on Lost: “The Shape of Things to Come“)

Well, obviously I never got around to writing an actual recap of this episode (training for a new job has ways of keeping one’s mind occupied) but I did get far enough along to search out the above screen cap, and I started outlining a recap of the Jack-centric “Something Nice Back Home.” Maybe it’s because my thoughts kept drifting back to several scenes of Kate sans britches. Anyways, since episode 4.11 just aired a few hours ago, I’m going to have to start processing my thoughts on it, so here are the questions that I started to use for last week’s episode. Discuss, and I’ll be back tomorrow with a recap of “Cabin Fever.”

• Why is the Island letting Jack get sick?
• What was Kate doing for Sawyer and why was she hiding it from Jack? Did it have to do with Clementine?
• How is Christian appearing to Jack?
• What was meant by Hurley’s message from Charley: “You’re not supposed to raise him, Jack”?
• How is Christian on the Island?
• Did Miles really see him or see him as an apparition?
• Where did Christian and Claire go and why did they leave Aaron behind?
• How did Keamy and Co. survive the Smokey attack?
• Does Jack know that he’s related to Aaron?
• Beeping smoke detector: subtle clue (Smokey) or random coincidence?
• Why does Charlotte know Korean? Is she possibly working for Paik?

Nazis in Space.  What more do you need to know?

This is a very visually stunning trailer and I can’t wait to see the end product.  But, unfortunately, that YouTube video doesn’t have the quality to really do this thing justice, so I suggest heading over to TwitchFilm and watching the higher quality version (which is where I first saw it, but WordPress won’t let me embed Twitch’s videos, not even using VodPod).

I never thought I’d find myself saying this but… Harmony Korine’s new movie looks good. Like, really good.

And I hate Harmony Korine. I don’t mean as a person, since I’ve never met him. (Although if I believe what I read, I don’t think I’d want to meet him.) And while I admire his dedication to cinema as art, and his dedication to actual independent filmmaking, I think he goes to great lengths to be overly pretentious, without any real reason for doing so, other than to be “the weird guy.”

Some people, it seems, go to great lengths to be outcasts and weirdos. It doesn’t come naturally. It’s not their “personality.” It’s just their way of getting attention. (Don’t get me wrong: There are genuinely weird people out there who fall into those ways naturally. I’m not talking about them. They’re usually kind of awesome.) That, to me, is what Harmony Korine is, as a filmmaker.

Gummo is a film that’s weird for weird’s sake. It’s not weird in a David Lynch sense of the word because Lynch’s films which are, let’s face it, freaking WEIRD, actually tell a story and they’re very intelligent. Gummo is about retards killing cats and wrestling chairs. It’s stupid, and it has no redeeming values. I’d heard from several reliable sources that it was a movie that I’d enjoy (this was years ago) so when I saw it coming on IFC one night, I stayed up ’til 2 am to watch it (again, this was years ago, so Tivo wasn’t around). When it was over, I was apalled. I was literally angry. I was angry because the movie sucked when so many had recommended it and I was angry that I’d stayed up watching it when I could’ve been doing something more productive like sleeping.

Then, I borrowed Julien Donkey Boy from my friend DJ and while I didn’t hate it like I’d hated Gummo — at least this one had a plot — I still viewed it as overly pretentious and self-important. Harmony Korine seems to have the ego the size of Jupiter (notice the size of his name on the poster shown above) and the movie was further proof that in Korine’s world, he was the most prolific filmmaker of all time.

And now, I see the trailer for his new film, Mister Lonely, and I’m amazed. The movie looks weird still, but more of a quirky kind of way, in a pretty appealing kind of way. The plot of the film is pretty clever and the casting is hilarious (a Mexican, Diego Luna, is cast as Michael Jackson, and a Scot, Samantha Morton, is cast as Marilyn Monroe).

Maybe Korine has gotten his self-importance out of his system after a heroine and meth addiction nearly ended him. But whatever it was that happened, it seems that he might be making a different kind of film now: one that I can watch without wanting to hurly chairs through windows.

You can watch the trailer for Mister Lonely over at Apple.

Week 16:

The Ruins [Regal Hollywood 20] - IMDb
Monty Python’s Life of Brian [DVD] - IMDb
There Will Be Blood [DVD] - IMDb

Week 17:

Inside [DVD] - IMDb
Tombs of the Blind Dead [DVD] - IMDb
C.H.U.D. [DVD] - IMDb

Week 18:

Cloverfield - IMDb
Iron Man - IMDb
Witchfinder General - IMDb

Wow. Where have I been? I knew I was a bit behind on these movie journal entries, but I had no idea that I was three weeks behind. In my defense, I do have an excuse. I just quit my job, and then just started a new job, while at the same time, starting another side job that will kind of keep me busy sporadically.

So I’ve been lucky to even be able to watch any movies, let alone write about them.

If you look at the movies that I’ve viewed these past three weeks though, I think you’ll get a better picture of the kind of stuff that interests me, more so than some weeks would show. Five of the nine movies listed here were first time viewings and I’ve been lucky enough to actually enjoy all of them on some level.

In fact, I’ve enjoyed two of them enough to write full reviews* (Inside and The Ruins), something I’m going to try to do more often.

Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to write a little more in the upcoming weeks than I’ve been lately. I’m still in the midst of training at this new job, so studying for my testing and whatnot for that is going to have to take priority** but, hey, it’s like Mr. Torrence said “All work and no play…”

As mentioned, I’m going to try to write more short reviews for films (I won’t bore you with 2000 word diatribes), trying to stick to movies that I either have never seen or that it’s been so long since seeing it that watching it again is practically like watching it for the first time.

And now, I’m off to watch film #1 for week 19. As usual, you’ll find all of the trailers for the films mentioned here, after the jump.

The Ruins

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

There Will Be Blood

Inside

Tombs of the Blind Dead

C.H.U.D.

Cloverfield

Iron Man

Witchfinder General

*A third review — for Iron Man — may be on the way as well.

**Granted, this particular week, Grand Theft Auto IV has also been a thorn in my side when it comes to productivity.

Holy crap. If I had Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s phone numbers, I’d call them up and try to get some sort of explanation as to why this movie went straight-to-DVD instead of released in theaters nation-wide like it should’ve been.

It’s insane. It’s the kind of movie that just kicks you in the face and doesn’t quit until the final moments of the film. It deserves to be seen with an audience and, unfortunately, most of the people that watch it won’t be able to have that experience (myself included) but instead will watch it on DVD, often alone, doing the film a grave injustice.

There are scenes of sudden and surprising carnage in this movie that would make any audience member gasp. It’s that collective reaction that would be part of the ride of seeing this film with an audience. But alas, it’s not to be. Instead, it’s been released as part of the Dimension Extreme line of straight-to-DVD horror films.

I do have to give the Weinstein’s respect just for having something like Dimension Extreme under their belts. I haven’t seen many of the films that they released under this umbrella, but the ones that I have seen, I’ve really enjoyed (and I’ll hopefully be adding one more — Teeth – to the list tomorrow). These are, really, the kind of movies that After Dark should be seeking out for their Horrorfest lineup (or better yet, Dimension Extreme could start it’s own festival and show those After Dark guys how it’s done).

I also realize that the amount of violence and the context of the violence in this film wouldn’t allow it to be released with anything less than an NC-17 from the MPAA. So maybe DVD is just where it needs to be, if only because it deserves to be seen in its entirety.

I realize that I’ve already written 300+ words without saying anything about the movie other than the fact that it’s really violent. Well, that’s because I think the movie would be much more effective if you were to see it knowing as little as possible about the plot. I’ll just say this: Pregnant woman + Stranger arriving in the middle of the night = Great idea for a horror movie.

And that’s all I’m going to say. If that’s not enough, then I’m sorry. I’m just going to have to ask you to trust me and go seek out this movie (it’s pretty easy to find) and watch it. If you don’t agree that it’s one of the most intense and effective horror movies in years, then I invite you to come back here and rip me a new one. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

The Ruins, which isn’t getting nearly enough love (which won’t be helped now that the summer blockbuster has been officially kicked off with the spectacular Iron Man), is something of a rarity in this day and age: a no-holds-barred R-rated horror flick. Of course, it got its butt kicked at the box office by the likes of abysmal-looking Prom Night (which I haven’t seen, so can only judge by the trailers and word of mouth).

Which is a shame because it’s really, really good. I was a big fan of the original book by Scott Smith (who also penned the book upon which A Simple Plan was based) and the entire time that I read it, I couldn’t help but imagine it as a film because it’s almost as if Scott Smith wrote the novel with the movie in mind. If done right, I thought, this could be a really cool, really different type of horror film.

And it is. And it’s pretty faithful to the book, though some of the situations were flipped around to affect different characters (and I believe one character was taken out completely) and the ending was changed.*

But that’s beside the point. It’s nice to get a horror movie with some balls every now and then, you know? The movie doesn’t showcase violence in the way that something like Hostel does, but the violent content in the film is very important, and the scenes that we do get are visceral in a way that makes the movie more effective. Most of the movie, yeah, could’ve been sold as a PG-13 affair if they’d cut out the language (and an all-too-brief topless scene featuring Laura Ramsey) but the brief scenes of violence are integral to the story.

I hope the movie finds a bit of a following once it hits DVD because, while it may not be a “classic” horror film and may not even end up being the best of the year (so far, it is), it’s still a worth entry into the genre, and one with a villain the likes of which we’ve never seen on screen before. Well, except that one time.

from www.thedailytube.com posted with vodpod

I’m definitely not on the Juno Haters bandwagon. I loved the movie when I first saw and still love it. But this is pretty hilarious, even so.

from www.filmdrunk.com posted with vodpod

Lou Reed - The Orange Peel - Asheville NC (4/29/08)., originally uploaded by cinefreak7.

Amazing. As expected.