Friday, August 28, 2015

Netflix This Movie! Vol. 144

All due respect to Zac Efron, but WE are your friends. We tell you what to watch on Netflix.

Adam Thas: Winnebago Man (2009, dir. Ben Steinbauer) Andy Warhol once famously said that “Everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” An interesting statement by itself, but Winnebago Man continues Warhol’s quote by exploring what would happen if you were completely embarrassed by those 15 minutes. Much like the Jerky Boys and the Tube Bar Tapes, the Winnebago Man started as a video that had been passed around for years made up of outtakes from a Winnebago sales commercial in the '80s. The tapes gained notoriety through “Found Film” festivals and the fame grew. All the while, the man who had been known as the “Winnebago Man,” Jack Rebney, seemed to drop off the earth. Winnebago Man follows the director Ben Steinbauer in search of Mr. Rebney. At this point I am going to stop playing spoiler and hope you see the movie. What I will say is that I got completely swallowed by Steinbauer’s quest and the story behind this tape as it slowly unravels. There are so many themes going on in Winnebago Man from such a simple subject as it explores the many people that have been impacted by this seemingly forgettable video shoot. At only 85 minutes, Winnebago Man is definitely worth the time.
Heath Holland: Wing Commander (1999, dir. Chris Roberts) A few months before Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Matthew Lillard appeared in She's All That, they starred in this unfortunate clunker. Why am I recommending this movie? Well, while Wing Commander isn't even close to being good, it offers a fascinating case study. The movie is based on an extremely successful video game series of the same name, but the video game differs from the movie in that it had experienced actors like Malcolm McDowell, Mark Hamill, Christopher Walken, and John Hurt holding down major roles instead of Prinze, Jr, and Lillard. The movie -- which was distributed by 20th Century Fox -- also takes a major turn away from the established universe of the games, leaving its devoted fan base completely cold and failing to ignite interest from a general movie audience. Remind you of anything at the theater right now? Here's the thing, though: the movie wasn't directed by someone who didn't have experience with the property. It was directed by the CREATOR of the video games, Chris Roberts. The dude that made the games such a huge success and created a universe full of depth and gravitas is the same guy who was in charge of making the movie. SO MANY QUESTIONS. Also, even though it's a failure, Wing Commander is not as bad as people make it out to be, and it's perfect for late night viewing.
JB: For The Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2008, dir. Gerald Peary) Clearly, I was attracted to the subject matter of this documentary, but initially put off by its style and structure. The film is broken into too many little bite-sized sections, as if its source, Public Television station WGBH Boston, was planning all along to show it on pledge nights, interrupted every fifteen minutes with fevered appeals for additional funds. But I stuck with it, and I am glad I did. The film clips are great and well chosen. (Hint: You have seen too many movies when a short clip of Edwin S. Porter’s 1906 Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend is shown, and you shout, “DREAMS OF A RAREBIT FIEND!” before the filmmakers identify it onscreen.) The script and narration are both top notch. The film’s treatment of the ongoing battle between Pauline Kael (who I read avidly in high school) and Andrew Sarris is probably the high point here. The importance of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel on television is discussed. The film features some interview footage with Ebert when he could still talk, which left me wishing that he was still alive. The film concludes with talk of the myriad movie websites, blogs, and podcasts that sprung up in the Internet age to supply a new generation with insightful criticism. F This Movie! is not mentioned (although, to be fair, we did not exist in 2008.) Boo.
Patrick: Gun Woman (2014, dir. Kurando Mitsutake) Half of this Japanese import from last year is deliberately provocative trash -- crazy violence and rape and people having sex with corpses. Shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior. But the back half of the film, in which a young woman (Japanese porn star Asami) is trained by an older man to be an assassin (yes, another one of those), takes some insane and inspired turns. They have to sneak a gun into an impenetrable fortress, and the only way to do it is to cut the heroine open and sew the pieces inside her -- and that's just the jumping off point for what follows. Only recommended for those with strong stomachs and a tolerance for this kind of "extreme" cinema, but the good here manages to outweigh the bad...just barely.

12 comments:

  1. Did a critic just criticize the style and structure of a documentary on criticism? That's gotta be one for the books. Seriously though, I liked the doc, but it could have gone a little deeper into the history of criticism. I recommend the book The Complete History of Film Criticism, by Jerry Roberts. (At least until I come across a better book.)

    Yay, Gun Woman!

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  2. Holy shit - This Last Dragon Blu Ray looks AMAZING!!!

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    1. I think there are people that like The Last Dragon "ironically". That's some bullshit. This movie introduces more characters correctly that most hollywood movies these days. You remember every set design, every sound cue and every character whether they have a bit or large part. They are so well defined and written. I've seen this movie probably for the 25th now since I first saw it in the theater and I still get excited. It's in my top 20 - no question.

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    2. I'm definitely not in the ironic camp. I never did see it in a theater (you lucky bastard). I caught on cable as a kid, taped it, and watched it consistently to the point it's stenciled to my brain. I saw a t.v. spot for the new release yesterday that had a Best Buy logo at the end. So I was all excited that I would step in Best Buy and leave happy. No such luck. And only one out of three employees I spoke to had even heard of the movie. Sigh. Oh well, I order it online.

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    3. No doubt, Mike G. I have mentioned a few times on here that I was very fortunate to have a Mom that would take me to movies that I wanted to see all the time as a kid (the theater was two blocks from our house). I got to see so many gems all thanks to Ma Dukes. I actually told her that I got the Last Dragon Blu Ray. After explaining what Blu Ray is to her :) we reminisced about seeing this in the theater together. Freaking awesome, man!

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    4. I had a mom like that too. I'm not sure why I never saw Last Dragon in the theater, though. It's weird. She took me to see quite a few R rated movies too. We had a drive in and a Twin movie theater right across the street from each other down the street from my house, and went to one of the first multiplexes ever opened in Brookhaven, New York. I saw Aliens, Predator, Robocop -- all in the theater upon release. I started watching R rated films on cable when I was 5, maybe 4, because my father didn't care whether I was in the room or not, he was going to watch what he was going to watch, and that's that. But my mother was always there to remind me it was all make believe. I was thinking today about how lenient my parents were about what I watched, at such a young age. I was a dyed in the wool Friday the 13th fan at 5. That's young.

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    5. My Mom would not take me to Rated R films in the theater that often (Last Dragon was PG-13) but there were a few but my Mom would let me rent any Horror movie for some reason (I've discussed this before on here). She's the best and I am soooooooo grateful even though I guess todays standards would probably have her in jail or some shit.

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    6. Yeah, same here. I have the same thoughts about today's standards and my upbringing.

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    7. And I can't say all those horror movies at such a young age left me unscarred. I had really awful night terrors when I was a kid. One was so bad one night my father called the cops. By the time the officer got to the house I was sleeping more peacefully.

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    8. Fair enough, I never had any problems. The things that scared me as a kid were the sisters from The Shining (which I initially saw on TV) and an episode of Tales from the Darkside (TV as well) so for whatever reason I wasn't affected by the Horror movies I was renting.

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    9. I saw The Shining on TV also. For the first time, I think, at around 5. It's hard to recall my first viewing, I watched it so often. My father's two favorite films were The Searchers and The Shining, and he watched them almost constantly.

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    10. That's awesome! I remember seeing The Shining for the first time and being REALLY affected by it. Especially that young; it's friggin' powerful. Not until Fire Walk With Me (in which I was around 15 or 16) had I been so frightened by a film.

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