OMG: Netflixing!
Yes, it's been months and months and months since I've posted some Netflixing.
So let's chip away at the gigantic pile of flix, oui? Oui!
Don't be surprised if you see me mention the Sibling's opinions of certain movies.
Like I said, it's been a looooooooong time since I've posted some Netflixing.
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
Sidney Lumet is alive and well and still directing rings around other directors. You may have heard of him,
he directed a few little films like "12 Angry Men", "Dog Day Afternoon", and "Network". Yeah...
This movie is about a robbery gone absolutely, utterly, and completely wrong, and the catastrophic
consequences arising thereof. And of course, you don't discover the extent of the catastrophe all at once.
Oh nooooooo. It's fed to you in little bits, with multiple viewpoint flashbacks. This movie is a series
of "OHMYGOD!" moments, as you gradually realize the full HORROR of the circumstances. Not a happy film!
Turning in some very strong performances are Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei,
Albert Finney, and Rosemarie Harris (Aunt May from the "Spider-Man" movies!).
Hoffman looks a bit like TV's Frank (Frank Coniff) from MST3K in this, so I kept trying to imagine Frank
acting out some of the scenes in the movie, and urrrrr, it didn't work. The movie is just too grim!
The title of the film is taken from an apparently Irish expression that goes:
"May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you're dead."
This movie was loved by critics, but nobody went to see it.
It's a shame, because it's really good. Though it is very grim.
Fantastic Four (1994)
And speaking of grim, Ben or otherwise...
Oh my god, this animated series is soooooooooo BAD!!
Here's the blurb from Netflix: "Featuring first-rate animation and nonstop action, this popular TV series
follows the adventures of the planet's most renowned superheroes: Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman,
the Human Torch and the Thing. Banding together, the fearsome foursome use their powers to thwart
the malevolent plans of miscreants, including the despicable Dr. Doom and his villainous myrmidons."
Okay, first of all, the animation is anything but first-rate. And the character design is as bland as
bland can be! I could not believe this was made in 1994! It looked like your basic mid-'80s Sat-AM fare!
The characters all look the same, Johnny Storm is very buff for no good reason, the voice acting blows,
the writing is atrocious, the music is awful, and can you believe they actually used the word
"myrmidons" in the above blurb? Did Stan Lee write this? Oy gevalt, as Ben Grimm might say.
When you see crap like that, it's hard to believe that, at the time, "Batman: The Animated Series"
had already been on the air for over two years! Marvel obviously learned nothing from it.
Anyway, yeah, I hated it.
Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes Volumes 1-2-3 (2006)
Wait a minute, didn't we just leave this party?!!? Oh no, this is totally different!
Produced by a French company called Moonscoop, this series has been airing on Cartoon Network.
It mixes traditional 2D animation with 3D CGI and the character design is very anime-ish.
But you know what? It works! It's kinda weird at first, but you get used to it.
The writing is much better than the previous series! It's still a kid's show but it's not lame like the
previous series did. And it's just a lot of fun. Johnny and Ben prank each other, Johnny screams like a
little girl when stressed, and Reed Richards spends a lot of time doing what he does best: super science!
I've rented all 3 volumes currently available (each one has 4 episodes on it) and I want more!
So I checked Wikipedia (hee hee) and it looks like 26 episodes were made in all!
And a boxset containing all 26 episodes will be released on June 10th! Oh my! I may have to get that.
So, urrrrrrr, yeah, I like it. And the theme music is nice: minimalistic and somewhat Bond-ish.
The Descent (2006)
It's that movie about the chicks who go down into a cave, become trapped, and get stalked by monstahs!
I didn't watch it, but what I glimpsed reminded me a bit of "Alien" for spelunkers.
That's a fun word. Spelunkers, spelunkers, spelunkers.
Anyway, the Sibling seemed to enjoy it for its horror movie monster goodness.
And it's not about a bunch of cheerleaders, like the bizarrely-designed poster seemed to suggest.
(Yeah, I know it's supposed to be a skull. Some people still thought it was about cheerleaders.)
Hot Rod (2007)
Another crap SNL movie. I have no idea why I thought it had potential. It's just another piece of turd
expelled by Saturday Night Live, a show that ceased being funny a decade ago.
Makes me want to rent the SNL Season 1 and 2 (and 3 and 4 and 5) DVDs...
Interstella 5555 (2003)
This one is a bit odd. It's a Leiji Matsumoto anime film set to Daft Punk's entire "Discovery" album.
There is no dialogue at all, and I seem to remember a few sound effects here and there, but I could be wrong.
If you ever saw "Starblazers"/"Spacecruiser Yamato" and/or "Captain Harlock", then you're already familiar
with Matsumoto's style. It's a really nice piece of anime eyecandy with an actual plot, just no dialogues.
If you like Matsumoto and/or Daft Punk, y'all should check it out.
More later...