Confessions of a Netflix Addict

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Freaks! That's what they call us!

Freaked isn't for everyone. But it's certainly for those cult fans who don't mind turning off their brains, and just enjoying stupid funny. Yes, there is such a thing as stupid funny-- comedy that is ridiculous and brainless enough to be incredibly funny. I would not consider this a time waster. Humor along the lines of Top Gun, Airplane! and Beetlejuice, maybe. So, if you're of fans of movies like that, you will like this.

The premise follows ex-child star Ricky who is hired to be the face of a shady, sleezy multinational coorporation who makes dangerous toxic biochemical fertilizer. Ricky is pretty sleezy himself in the beginning, and doesn't care about the poor, underdeveloped country where this toxic waste is being used--as long as he gets paid.

He goes to the country, with his best friend, Ernie, where they run into an activist, Julie, protested the company Ricky works for. Ricky, following only one head, hits on Julie and soon the three end up on a road trip together, (with Ricky deguised) until he reveals himself, upset when she badmouths him. Unexpectantly, they end up at a roadside freakshow, there the freakmaster, Skuggs, seems to get his freaks when curious innoncents stop by for a looksee.

After that, funny mayhem ensues.

Disgusting most of the time, but still very, very likable, and not too offensive. It was actually on cable a few days ago. If your humor runs a little quirky, check this out.

posted by Gunngirl @ 5:40 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

This Weeks Worst. Movies. Ever

As I have plenty of Worse. Movies. Ever. This is this weeks pile of garbage, and I only have five this time. I plan on doing many lists, because I like them. Lists are fun, and I love telling people my favorites in hope that they may become your favorites.
Anyway, let's move on to the list:

1. Lil' Pimp - The Gradiose of bad, the Mother of all terrible movies. (At least for this list) Seriously, if this is above House of the Dead, it's bad. This movie is about a little white boy who doesn't know what he should do in life, until he realizes he wants to be a pimp. (?) Good god. He ends up pimping out his mother, who is oblivious to her newly ho life, and being seduced by hookers. An offensive, stupid, sleep inducing, crude, time waster.

2. House of the Dead - Are horror movies supposed to make you want to impale yourself on a machete? Terrible action, bad acting, horrendous dialouge and even worse plot. The movie poster is its only saving grace.

3. Torque - Ice Cube directed and acted in this. Not that Cube is a terrible actor, but was he serious with this? Boring, stupid, laughable and ludicrous. And everyone was so serious, which made things even worse. Featured the dumbest motorcycle battle in movie history.

4. Dr. Suess' The Cat in the Hat - This "children's" movie is the worse thing for kids I've ever seen, and, yes, I've seen a lot of children's movies. Mike Meyers made The Cat in the Hat a crude, stupid, shameless, irritating, boring joke. Nothing funny here except that this drivel is supposed to be for youngsters. Seriously, I'd rather my 5-year-old (if I had one) watch HBO's OZ than watch this. Yes, this is that bad.

5. The Chronicles of Riddick - A science fiction movie that does nothing to pull you into the convoluted, sensless, snoozy plot. Probably, two or three cool fight scenes, and I liked the death kill at the end. But, overall, this will put you to sleep before it entertains you. Vin Diesel was best in Pitch Black.

posted by Gunngirl @ 5:20 PM 1 comments

Monday, September 05, 2005

You'll Want to Reverse This

In foreign films this week I have a movie I found by accident, like most of the movies I find. It's called Irreversible. Irrerversible, in simple story form is about a man, Marcus, bent on revenge for the unspeakable act inflicted on his girlfriend, Alex. Marcus' friend, Vincent accompany's him on his tunnel vision search for the culprit, maybe because he also felt very deeply for Alex at one point, or because Marcus is so out of control that he needs someone there to watch his back.

At any rate, the moves starts out backward, working its way from end to beginning. Camera angles swirl and twirl and make you feel like you're on a merry-go-round/space shuttle. Needless use of camera movement. This is a French film, subtitled.

I don't know nothing else of the Director, Gasper Noé, and never heard of him before this. This film is brutal, violent, disgusting at times, and...did I mention violent? At one point I ran hurling to the bathroom. I don't want to give things away, suffice it to say you will never see a sexual assult like this in American cinema.

Perhaps it is too violent, too misogynistic, too merciless at times for some of the more squeamish audience. Parts were long, confusing and became anvilicious. The directors intentions were clear more than once, we didn't need to be hit over the head.

The road to get to the truth was brutal, chaotic, interesting, heatbreaking and ultimately unsatisfying and emotionally draining. I only watched it once and can't bring myself to go through it all again.

On the one hand we empathize with Marcus and can see where he is coming from. He didn't see the ugly details, only the aftermath, but we do, so we certainly want him to catch the shitty guy. Confusing shots, noise and lots of dark are used quite effectively in the beginning as Marcus (with Vincent on his heels) forges his way through an S&M club, hot on the heels of the suspect. It's frantic, just as Marcus is, and we feel his anger, panic, confusion and rage as he searches.

For a movie working backwards, we are still kept pulled into the story, even if we mistep along the way. Hard to say if I liked it...but I did. I liked the relentless search by the two male leads, I liked the relationship bits, I liked getting backstory on Alex's relationship with both Vincent and Marcus, and I liked Marcus and Vincent's friendship.

A certain fact we learn later seems to serve as plot device, only to tug our heartstrings harder, but I could have done without. Things were already bad enough.

I'm not reccomending all the movies I post here because some may not be everyones taste--like this one. I'm just telling you what I found and how I felt about it. I thought it had interesting elements, and should be viewed if for no other reason than it's foreign and seeing how they do it is usually and eye opener.

This is certainly a movie you'll be saying something about.

posted by Gunngirl @ 4:00 PM 0 comments

Saturday, September 03, 2005

My Feeds

I noted, with surprise, that two people subscribed to my Netflix feed. However, I had to change the feed address, so the address you were previously subscribed to no longer works. If you're one of the two people who were subscribed, I hope that you subscribe again. Simply scroll down and click on the 'xml' button two the right.

Thank you! And thanks for subscribing!

posted by Gunngirl @ 3:51 PM 1 comments

Come on in, snacks are on the table!

Welcome! This is the first official post for this blog. If my title isn't sel-explanatory enough, what you'll find here are all the strange or interesting movies I rent through Netflix. Some are blockbusters, and I'll just give my musings or praise, but others are more obscure and are picks I either just found by chance, or read a review of on Netflix or perhaps read about through someone else's Netflix Profile.

You'll learn quickly some of my favorites are Horror, Anime, Independent, Documentary, Romantic Comedy and Action. But believe me, I don't just stop there.

I'd also like to thank Undr and Carissa for being the first two posters a while back.

So, to begin, I picked a pretty rarely seen, if heard of movie, called The Wicker Man. It's my Cult Movie of the Week pick.

The Wicker Man has all the makings of a cult movie: It's esoteric, it's only known through a small number of people or through an underground fan base and it's strange. I found it one day while watching Bravo's 100 scariest movie moments

The story revolves around an English police inspector who travels to Scotland to investigate the disapearance of a young girl. As he investigates, he learns people either don't seem to know much, or are covering something up. The longer he stays and the more he investigates, the more insane he believes the small towns inhabitants are -- and he's right. There seems to be a sick joke going on--that he's the butt of.

This movie starts out like a regular detective movie, but quickly delves into the strange, the sick, the twisted, the crazy and the unthinkable. It's a whacky musical, to say the least -- maybe too much musical for some people.

Still, it's definetly a cult movie, and will leave you feeling...something.

What did I think about it? Hard to say. This is not for everyone. There's not much out there to compare it too, unfortunately. It might be a little long, as the bizarre starts quickly and is able to hold your attention quit sufficiently. It's a murder mystery of sorts, but fans of ONLY murdery mysteries stay away. Seriously. If you love Murder, She Wrote and Poiroit. Forget this.

I was quite disturbed at the end, and just flat out couldn't believe some scenes. However, I've seen enough cult movies to know just how they look, and they look like this. I'm open to pretty much all genres, so if that's you, you might want to give this one a look.

More links:
Metaphilm - wicker man

The Wicker Man

posted by Gunngirl @ 12:12 PM 0 comments

Suggestions, rants, favorites, the best, the worst and the strange from a movie maniacs mind.

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Name: Gunngirl
Home: Chicago, IL, United States
About Me: Just a fan of blogging, the internet, and computers in general
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