NathanGordon

Not over Purple Noon*, you heretics. *Which was not even mentioned! For shame.

I'm totally stoked for that New Mutants movie, it was one of my favorite comics when I was a kid. It looks like they have most of the classic characters, with the notable exception of Doug and Warlock (who is probably too weird and silly to appear in this). Looks like Arya Stark is playing the Scottish werewolf, and that lady from Split is Colossus' little sister. New Mutants is notable in that it was killed by Rob Liefeld -- he took it over as artist and writer, and within a year had replaced it with his own shitty creation, X-Force. This movie looks like it's adapting an old arc though, which pleases me.

I was listening to old Harmontown episodes -- on an early one, Bobcat says he's been sober since he was 18, which I have a lot of trouble believing.

"Sound Dragon" lol

Oh man, I am so jealous of anyone watching Miami Connection for the first time! My life has improved dramatically since I made "Against The Ninja" my morning alarm. This is probably the last great unironically bad-good film. With films like Birdemic and The Room, although they have their unabashed champions (like me!), a large amount of their fanbase seem to be sort of complicit in (at the very least) ironic snark and (at worst) exploiting the delusions of a filmmaker who sincerely believed in their craft. I don't know; I'm approaching middle age and trying to reject the kind of kneejerk sarcasm and cynicism that has plagued pop culture since the 1990s. Is that really a bad movie? I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but I LOVED the soundtrack. "Coming To America" is still a fucking jam and a half.

I was hoping to flex my music nerd knowledge but yeah -- the cool electronic score in Ninja Terminator is mostly from Tangerine Dream (I think the Le Parc LP), except for the Pink Floyd stuff during the fight near the end. Godfrey Ho uses a lot of "krautrock" in his films. I gotta say, the guy has pretty good taste.

I can't believe it's taken this long for HDTGM to cover a Godfrey Ho movie. These ninja/kung fu flicks were my bread and butter when I was younger; nothing used to be better than hanging out with some college friends and drinking beers while watching dudes slap the hell out of each other in poorly dubbed British English. Ninja Terminator is pretty infamous among lovers of shitty martial arts films -- Godfrey Ho is like the Ed Wood of the genre, and Richard Harrison was his muse. Ho was resourceful and incredibly prolific -- his imdb (which lists 136 films directed) is probably nowhere near accurate, as the guy was constantly reediting and reusing footage to make other, slightly different films, often under a variety of pseudonyms. With directors like this, I think you just have to admire their bizarre dedication to the craft, if not the subtlety of the art. Hmmm, is the guy in yellow pajamas a ninja or not? p.s. Undefeatable is one of the best martial arts films ever! Cynthia Rothrock is a queen.

Black Orpheus is canon for the Antonio Carlos Jobim soundtrack alone.

I was hoping against hope that this might turn out to be at least watchable. For some reason, Hollywood has been utterly incapable of producing a decent Universal horror monster revival -- Coppola's Dracula years ago was probably the best attempt to mimic the style (though it had serious problems, the production design was spectacular). I know studio execs are hoping to start a sort of Universal cinematic universe with this film, plus it's probably the biggest non-Mission Impossible movie Cruise has done in forever. It looks like your basic "Tom Cruise running" film, plus the now obligatory CGI nonsense. It's hilarious/disappointing that they made the mummy a sexy lady instead of, you know, a shriveled up corpse.

FYI you can sign up for a 7-day Showtime trial on Amazon and watch all the episodes there. That's how I did it (two different trials so far). I put off Inland Empire for years because I'd heard mixed opinions, so my expectations were quite low going in -- I actually ended up liking the film quite a bit. I think the low res digital video works to its advantage; it helps distort the "reality" of when Laura Dern's character is actually on camera or not. And the cinematography and lighting are still very sumptuous and interesting.

I miss The Fogelnest Files so much (((( I listen to that episode with Dave Hill and Julie Klauser trying to explain Kars For Kids once every couple months, it's one of the best things Tom Sharpling isn't a part of. Yes on Female Trouble.

Glad to see this forum is active again! I hope everyone has had the opportunity to see the recent-ish print of Eraserhead that's been showing in recent years. Lynch did a new mix of the sound, and it is MONSTROUS. The NW Film Center had a run a few years back and though I'd seen it a few times, I was completely taken by surprise at the sound and how integral it is to the experience of Eraserhead. It really made me respect the film even more -- and I take issue with comments like this: "Student film" is probably not meant as a compliment, but it's also not true; "experimental" implies there's anything unintentional about the film. If anything, David Lynch is not an experimental filmmaker. Every element of his films is a specific choice and has intent behind it. He may draw from dream imagery but there's nothing random about his methods. Calling Eraserhead an "ambitious student film" implies that its reach somehow exceeds its grasp, and I don't think that's true at all. It's a wholly realized, complete work from an filmmaker who is probably our single greatest argument for auteur theory. (also no offense intended.) Nah, Lynch seems to have a strong work ethic and remains productive in whatever medium he's currently active in -- music, painting, comic strips, Flash animation, and film. Look at Inland Empire: partly self-financed, and then self-distributed. Cimino tanked because he was an inefficient narcissist (Heaven's Gate is still a beautiful movie anyways!) who was pursuing his vision at any cost. Even if Lynch had never made another film after Dune, he would have been notable for other work. And Eraserhead would probably be even more revered. Anyways, I really enjoyed the guest's arguments for Eraserhead and it swung me that way yesterday, but upon reflection I'm going to side with Blue Velvet. I think Eraserhead may be the more important film in terms of cultural impact as well as a more powerful cinematic experience, but Blue Velvet is the quintessential Lynch work. The technique, the images, the cast, the writing -- it's almost perfect. It might be perfect. p.s., new Twin Peaks is SO good.

Oh thank god, that's a relief. I was having Mordecai PTSD. With Branagh, maybe this could be good; he's certainly capable.

Oh no, is he playing Poirot? I can't bear to watch this trailer, his accent is going to kill me.

Welp, we finally got an answer on Southland Tales. Such a bummer. I think we had figured that it was because of Earwolf friends, but at least we know finally.