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Cameron H.

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Posts posted by Cameron H.

  1. Posted

     

    I wish I had some useful C&Os to post, but I've got nothing.

     

     

    To me, that's the problem with some of these movies. I really like picking apart movies for logical inconsistencies, but as soon as you introduce an unreliable POV character suffering from hallucinations, there's not much you can say. Cage's actions, accents, or mannerisms? Pretty much anything he does or says in this movie can be explained away as, "Well, he's crazy." In a way, it's the same problem I had with Gods of Egypt (which I did not watch all the way through) since it's about gods. Once you introduce the idea of "anything goes" then, to me, it really punches a hole in any argument you can make against it.

     

    Even though I'n glad I finally got to see what all the fuss was about, give me a Safe Haven or a Deep Blue Sea any day over Vampire's Kiss.

    • Like 6

  2. Posted

     

    Nah man, it's a great bad movie, there are so many times I laughed out loud, from his roach-eating (reminding me of when our cats catch and eat a bug), to his Nosferatu-like parade with plastic vampire teeth. That's amazing, and my roommate and I are weighing in on adding it permanently to our bad movie collection.

     

    That said, the stuff with Alva still hits a bit close to home, especially being in a living situation similar to hers, and I think that's the difference for me personally. Yeah, I can separate that it's fiction, so I'm not going to be all "omg how dare you like it!" I enjoyed it too. I don't think anyone is saying that one can't enjoy it, but sexual assault is a touchy and sometimes personal subject, so I understand why people are bothered even if the movie vilifies it.

     

     

     

     

    My roommate were discussing how Cage and the director seem to view the movie as a work of art, so we got the idea that there should be a big art gallery with large, looping projections of some of Cage's better moments from the movie. Including, but not limited to (in no particular order:

     

    "Alva. ALVA. ALVAA!" etc

    "ABCDEFGHI-" etc

    "I'M A VAMPIRE! I'M A VAMPIRE" etc

    The roach eating

    Serving nobody coffee in bed

     

    And so on. Clearly performance art.

     

    Agreed. I don't think anyone is saying, "You shouldn't like this movie." If you find humor and fun in it, that's totally fine. I think most people, like I said before, liked the movie, they just didn't particularly enjoy some parts of it.

     

    My feeling was that this was a piece of art. And as with any piece of art, it can be all things to all people--love it or hate it. Whatever. It doesn't really matter. I just think some people leaned more into the "comedy" of the movie and others were more taken with the "horror" aspects of it. Either way, though, is a completely valid viewing of this movie.

    • Like 4

  3. Posted

    While I completely support the posters who have expressed dismay about this movie's sexual assault content, I am still puzzled about the nature of this assault. She assumes he will rape her and tells him not to rape her, and while he absolutely attacks, assaults, and violates her (by tearing her shirt open) I got the impression that that was the extent of his physical assault. He says later he raped her and she assumes he did, but was there more that was not shown? I say all this because the Wikipedia plot summary says, in excerpt:

     

     

     

    This lack of clarity is hugely problematic, of course, but I was unclear on the nature of the assault. Did I miss something?[/font][/color]

     

    I think it's just not explicit. The fact that he hallucinates Beals at that moment and the fact that he rolls off of her like he got off, to me, implies that she was raped. Also, it goes back to Fister Roboto's initial post regarding vampirism as an analog for sex. Whether or not there was actual penetration of a sexual nature is kind of beside the point. She was 100% terrorized and violated.

    • Like 4

  4. Posted

    Ok, much of this movie is in Nic Cage's head. I'm pretty sure the 'so important' missing file/contract is in Cage's head also. Whether he's doing it intentionally or subconsciously just to torture his assistant. That's why it can't be found.

     

    While I agree with you that much of it is in his head, she does eventually find it--which leads directly to her rape. I actually think that at some point in the movie he stops going to his psychiatrist altogether, and probably goes off his meds, and the scenes with her are all in his head--especially the scene where he calls her up in the middle of the night. I mean, seriously. Are you telling me this psychiatrist just gives her home number to her patients? Of course not. This is why the psychiatrist's lover is introduced out of nowhere. It's his mind saying, "Everyone is in a wonderful relationship except for me."

    • Like 3

  5. Posted

    I think it's worth taking a brief moment to look at the timeline of this movie. Based on his conversations with the therapist throughout the film we can firmly establish that Nic Cage's character visits his therapist every Tuesday afternoon. With that in mind, given the first scene is with the therapist we now know that this movie takes place over the course of a month.

     

    Week one, he meets Jackie and has his encounter with the bat. He also gets the letter about the client wanting a copy of the contract.

    Week two begins with Alva still not finding the contract. That Saturday night he gets "bitten" and the following day goes to Jackie's art show. It is at this point he starts wearing the band-aid which he will do so until the end of the movie.

    Week three, Alva is still unable to find the contract. He's mean, but not full on cruel yet. On the weekend he tries to patch this up with Jackie only to be derailed by his delusions. It's the Monday at the end of this week when he chases Alva through the office.

    Week four starts with him reciting the alphabet and takes us to the very end of the movie.

     

    So what does this all mean? Well, even though we know the neck wound is from shaving what if he did get bit or scratched by the bat? Symptoms of rabies include insomnia, anxiety, increased activity, restlessness, and hallucinations. All of which Nic Cage's character starts showing by the second week of the bat incident. Rabies usually starts around three weeks which puts it in line with the scene of him chasing Alva. However, rabies can start showing signs around 9 days which puts it nearly exactly in line with his first encounter with Jennifer Beals. Based on his actions and how it corresponds to the timeline I think it's clear that this movie is about a depressed man with inferiority and relationship issues that get amplified to the nth degree and manifest themselves as a vampire fantasy when he is infected with rabies from a bat.

     

    The thing with the whole rabies argument is according to the CDC, "most bats don't carry the disease." I even remember a Biology teacher of mine back in High School telling us that you needn't worry about being bitten by a bat with rabies, because due to the erratic nature of rabies symptoms, they wouldn't be coordinated enough to fly toward you and bite you. The bats you have to be worried about are the ones flapping around on the ground. Don't pick those fuckers up.

     

    This isn't to say that him getting rabies from a bat wasn't the filmmaker's intention, just that it's an unlikely real world scenario.

    • Like 3

  6. Posted

    The testosterone thing makes sense, but what I picked up is that they both get dressed and leave in a hurry then go to the woman's place for the night. Thus when Loew's at work the next day, he's missing his socks. And because I noted the missing socks, I thought the article of clothing he picked up when he got home was one of his socks. I don't have a way to rewatch the movie to confirm this, so if anyone else can confirm it, please let me know! I want to understand the significance of that article of clothing lol

     

    You're right. I just re-watched that scene, He does leave with her and that is his sock. Good eye :)

     

    I revised that theory in my original post, hopefully it makes more sense now.

  7. Posted

    Okay, I thought about it as I was going to sleep and yeah...

     

    This movie is awful and certain parts were downright hilarious... while Cage's spiral into madness is in a way entertaining and the mystery of "is this really happening to him or not?" is fairly engaging, the harassment of Alva is simply too much and seems unnecessary to the telling of the story. Like I kept thinking back on how he harassed Alva and there is absolutely no good correlation between his transition into a "vampire" and how cruelly he treated her. It would be different, perhaps, if he stalked her as "prey", but he never sees her as such. He just has this disturbing obsession with making her life miserable. And as a female viewer, that especially is terrifying. Like if I could, I would just split this movie apart and leave only the non-office abuse scenes. Leave in him wearing the sunglasses at work, because THAT makes sense with his delusions. Come on, Nosferatu was less of dick.

     

    I actually have a theory about that. I was going to include it in my previous post, but I recognize that I tend to go on and on sometimes...

     

    If we accept that this movie is about a man's frustrations about being unable to fulfill his unrealistic fantasies--especially as it pertains to finding a romantic partner--then his treatment of Alva is the inverse of that. He feels powerless and miserable that he can't be with who he wants, so to make himself feel better, he finds a person he thinks he has control over and does the same thing to her. That's why her being the very last person on the office's ladder is so important to him--since rape is rarely about sex and almost always about power. I actually would have liked for her to be the one to kill him in the end since that would show that she wasn't as powerless as he thought. I guess her power comes from the strength and support she gets from her brother..? Which I admit isn't quite as satisfying, but I suppose it's something.

     

    But yeah, Cage's character was such a lowlife creep that he was almost impossible to follow. I was like, "Am I supposed to be rooting for this guy? I thought this was supposed to be a comedy like Once Bitten or Rockula."

    • Like 7

  8. Posted

    Jason, Paul, and June get it all wrong. It’s actually pretty clear that he is not a vampire in this film and that this is a story of a mental breakdown. I do not think it’s as ambiguous as they say. First off, NICK CAGE IS NEVER BITTEN BY ANYBODY OR ANTHING! Not the bat, not the girl, nada. I rewatched that scene and the bat never bites him and when he exits the room to meet the girl in the hall he does not put his hand to his neck as Paul remembers and we can see he has no marks. Then there are a few more scenes before we see him get bit by the girl and there are no marks so clearly—no bite. Then when the girl bites him it’s revealed this was not real by his waking up and serving coffee and talking to thin air—the girl was never there he just saw her and had a fantasy. Later we learn they don’t know each other. In these scenes in the morning he has no marks and then, he cuts himself shaving and for the FIRST TIME HAS MARKS ON HIS NECK BUT THEY ARE JUST FROM SHAVING! He wears the Band-Aid from then on. Every time he is with the girl it is a dream or fantasy, as is illustrated by her appearing in his office out of nowhere and then disappearing. Later Cage’s character shows us he is not a vampire by seeing his own reflection but acting like he can’t. This film would have shown no reflection if he was a vampire—this is a weird movie but not as directionless as the HDTGM team suggests. As for the bite murder scene, Paul was remembering it wrong again because they clearly show Cage take the plastic teeth out before biting the girl and put them back in after the murder—he used his regular teeth to kill her. At the end the obvious fantasy sequence with the doctor is the last and final revelation that yes, this man is crazy and is not a vampire.

     

    I just wonder if those mimes were actors or other real people from New York that day.

     

    Yes, you are 100% correct. I haven't had a chance to listen to the episode yet, but I am astounded that there seems to be some kind of confusion about this. In fact, I'd say that's where the "horror" comes from. Vampires aren't scary, because they don't exist; however, the idea that a person can become so deranged as to think they're a vampire is truly unsettling since that actually could happen. I think the real question is: why does he go crazy? As far as I can tell, this movie seems to be be about unrequited love, that leads an already troubled individual, down a dangerous path of obsession.

     

    The movie starts with Cage talking to his psychiatrist and he is telling her a story she seems all too familiar with--he met a woman, took her home, and made it clear to her the next day, that it was nothing more than a one night stand. However, there is a tinge of regret to Cage's story and he basically ends the session. Next, he meets another woman at the bar. He takes her home, and just as they are about to have sex, a bat flies in through the window and interrupts them. A regular, run-of-the-mill bat. And although this is an unusual thing to happen, there's nothing supernatural about it. The "battle to the death" with the bat then increases his testosterone level, which combines with his pre-existing arousal and confuses his mind. Somehow, he conflates the oddity of the bat with the woman he's obsessed with which leads him to "vampire.". This is where the movie takes a bit of a left turn, since any rational person would never come to this conclusion, but Cage's character is in no way rational. Perhaps it's because a womanizer like himself could never accept that a woman could ever hold that much power over him that his boo-coo-bananas mind automatically goes to a supernatural explanation...

     

    Throughout the rest of the movie, Cage is fixated on Beals' character--just some stranger who seems to frequent the same clubs as him and who also appears to already be in a loving relationship. This seems to be what Cage ultimately wants. This is why, randomly, one of his delusions is of the happily married cab driver and his wife. In fact, he seems to be assaulted with couples wherever he turns. It's also why, in his final delusion, he is presented with the "perfect" woman. You killed a person? No big deal. You raped someone? That's okay. I love you for who you are. The problem is, at this point, Cage has pedestalized Beals to such a crazy extent, that he can't even accept a woman his own mind makes up--even if she is "perfect." And this is why, by the time he makes it back to his home, he is already abusing his new "girlfriend."

     

    Basically, while this movie takes it to an absurd extreme, the movie is positing, if you idealize someone--especially someone unavailable--you're only going to drive yourself crazy. This also explains the subplot regarding the files which mirrors this crisis. Cage is obsessing about something that is alluding him (the files) even though the other party (the author) is ultimately indifferent to his fixation. The irony is, assuming Cage's character was a sane and likeable person to begin with, the woman Cage brings home with him at the beginning of the movie actually seems to be well-suited for him. But because he is so wrapped up in his fantasies of this unattainable woman, he completely misses out on what could have been a good and meaningful relationship

     

    Overall, I liked the movie, but didn't exactly enjoy it. I thought Cage was awesome in it, but it's not something I'd revisit anytime soon. Like Bonjourjamie said earlier, I really wanted this movie to take me out of the funk I've been in since Tuesday, and a disturbing movie about going insane and raping your employee isn't exactly what I was looking for. I thought it was going to be a comedy, but I was legitimately disturbed by it.

    • Like 9

  14. Posted

    CORRECTION:

     

    Paul is on the record stating that one of the signs you're watching a bad movie is when someone starts skateboarding. Well, I just got through watching Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and there were at least TWO instances where a character either skate or snow boards and that movie was fucking rad. This may be a case of the exception proving the rule, but I feel like his list might be in need of a revision.

     

    tumblr_mzzoq7toh11sq5tezo1_500.gif

    • Like 3

  15. Posted

    One other thing I was never clear on - does Kable win 30 battles because Kable is a brilliant soldier, or because Percy Jackson is a brilliant gamer? Wouldn't it be a much more interesting movie if Percy Jackson was controlling an avatar that wasn't a perfect killing machine? I would love a movie where we see John Leguizamo's character win 30 battles in Slayer, to emphasise the skill of the controller.

     

    That was my thought too! Theoretically, you should have been able to connect Waffle Fucker to Percy Jackson and had the same result. I also think this would have been far more interesting. But, from what I saw, I was like, "Why are they all about Kable? Shouldn't they be cheering the gamer him/herself?" That would be like beating Mario Bros and forming a cult around Mario Mario.

     

    mario_headbanging.gif

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

    Now, this may have been already addressed in the movie or in the episode, but I'll throw it out there anyway...

     

    I have to question the efficacy of Slayers as a tool for rehabilitation. Basically, they take already violent criminals, subject them to months of psychological trauma, train them on the use of advanced weaponry, and if they prove to be the most resilient and the best at murdering people, they are...set free? Wow. That's incredibly dumb. I mean, an otherwise non-violent person who commits manslaughter or a crime of passion, could theoretically come out of Slayers as a full-blown, murderous, psychopath.

     

    It's almost like the writers didn't put any thought into their half-baked, one-note movie about futuristic video games.

     

     

    Again, I never finished the movie. This may have gotten addressed somewhere in it. I just assume, from what I saw, it probably wasn't.

     

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

     

     

    Even though the account that I remembered the password for is Hufflepuff I still identify closer to Gryffindor.

     

    Shit, this all sounds like classic Hufflepuff denial to me. Although, I can't say I blame you.

     

    My American house is Wampus, but I don't really know what that means. I think it means I'm a Warrior Poet or something...kind of like Dom.

     

    9aca2b07cd66d64a090d62f9fe1d862a.jpg

    • Like 4

  20. Posted

    I'm so mad at myself that I didn't guess what Paul's Hogwarts house would be correctly.

     

    Jason, I still need yours to settle this forum debate.

     

    Everyone's done this by now, right?

     

    For the record, I'm a Ravenclaw with a Sparrowhawk patronus. What did everyone else get?

    • Like 4

  23. Posted

    Hey,

    Quick last minute announcement. We want to make Tomorrow's show in Anaheim a HDTGM Costume Party. Dress Up as your favorite HDTGM movie character. This will be fun.

    We'll give out prizes!

    -Paul

     

    Fuck! I wish I could make it. I was hoping to get all of your opinions on my Mathilda May costume...

    • Like 6

  25. Posted

    I watch every single movie from this podcast .. but I found this one just straight up horrible ..nothing fun or redeemable, I was just embarrassed for Michael C Hall.

    If I had to say something positive ..Milo Ventimiglia looks nice in rubber. Logan Lerman is attractive.

     

    I 100% agree with you! It just wasn't fun for me at all. I got about 20 mins in and quit. It's just fucking obnoxious and hateful.

    • Like 4
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