the music of chance. adapted from a paul auster book, with james spader. something creepy about it.
“Wasn’t Seven Per Cent Solution a book first?” – How soon they forget. It was a NYT Best Seller, written by Nicholas Meyer, who also wrote the screenplay. He went on to write two more Holmes pastiches – “The West End Horror” and (much later) “The Canary Trainer” (Holmes meets the Phantom of the Opera!). Meyer was also co-writer and/or director of the best of the Star Trek movies, and (as I have mentioned elsewhere) the underappreciated King of TV Movies.
Another virtually unknown film – “Day of th Triffids”. No, no, no! Not the 1963 Howard Keel movie in which they dissolve alien plants with sea water. I’m talking about the circa 1988 BBC production that was FAITHFUL to the John Wyndham book on which both this and the earlier movie was based. As in the book, he plants are our own creation, and the blindness that affict most people on earth was also ultimately due to human actions. A scary flick, but almost unseen. Not available on video, unfortunately. I taped my copy off PBS.
This is a totally awesome list! The only one that doesn’t fit so far, IMO, is The Langoliers, which I thought was really, really stupid. However, the story is one of the few by Stephen King that I even sort of liked. Go figure.
One of my favorite movies, but so obscure that it isn’t even listed in the movie & video guide books anymore, is a made-for-TV movie called “The Guardian.” (No, it’s not the William Friedkin horror movie.) This one stars Martin Sheen as a tenant in a co-op apartment building where some break-ins have occurred, and Louis Gossett Jr. as the militaristic security man he hires to protect the place. The one review I’ve found on the Web is very, very negative (probably why it’s not better known). However, I think it’s a very plausible, creepy examination of the tension between security and freedom.
Finally, kudos to all who have seen and appreciate Pi. If you haven’t read Foucault’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco, you should.
Hmmmm…sounds interesting. The book was pretty good.
Talk of the BBC and the end of the world reminds me of another movie, “Threads”. It was on TV (must have beem PBS) about the same time “The Day After” was shown. Makes “The Day After” look like “Duck Soup”. I can really believe that’s what living through a nuclear war would be like. Ok, that doesn’t exactly make it sound like a fun movie. But it’s a fucking great movie.
If you can get it (?) it would great to rent with “The Rapture”. You could have a “This is the Way the World Ends” night :).
Starhops. I saw it on tv back in the early 80’s.
I don’t even know who directed it.
Has anyone rented “American Movie”
Malcolm: An Aussie film from the mid-1980s sometime. Very funny, and almost no one seems to know it, which always surprises me.
Okay…if anyone has seen either of these movies, I’d like to know what YOU thought of them.
First, “The Reflecting skin” with Viggo Mortensen. It is beautifully filmed, and has such a strange feel to it…
The second, “Twin Falls, ID” is a bit newer. I just loved it. I cried a lot. They just really portrayed the true sadness of the situation in this movie.
Both are great!
betenoir wrote:
Talk of the BBC and the end of the world reminds me of another movie, “Threads”. It was on TV (must have beem PBS) about the same time “The Day After” was shown. Makes “The Day After” look like “Duck Soup”. I can really believe that’s what living through a nuclear war would be like. Ok, that doesn’t exactly make it sound like a fun movie. But it’s a fucking great movie.
My comment:
I’ve talked about “Threads” in other… well, threads. I agree that it is much more realistic than “The Day After” (which is still a powerful flick – Nicholas Meyer is responsible for this one, too.), but even more impressive than “Threads” is “The War Game” by Peter Watkins. This is NOT the Matthew Broderick film, but a movie commissioned by the BBC in the 1960s and never aired by them. By far the creepiest and scariest flick about nuclear war. Hard to come by, but it IS available on video.
oooh… one I forgot
Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels
What? I mentioned it. Wonderful movie.
There’s a movie creepier and scarier than “Threads”?! I’m not sure I’m prepared to deal with that. I haven’t even gotten over “Threads”.
Betenoir:
Yup.
“The War Game” was made on a shoestring budget, but that adds to its “charm”. Shot in black and white, and frequently with hand-held cameras, it has a documentary feel to it. Real disaster footage (firemen fighting fires, etc.) look more real than the usual recreations used for these movies. But the part that got me the most was panning past a group of survivors. They’re covered with something black – dirt? blood? – and they all have a blank expression in their eyes, and they’re rocking or shaking. Unlike the people in “The Day After” or “Threads” or “Testament” these people LOOK like they’ve been through a nuclear war.
The British government is shown taking harsh methods (but necessary ones) to keep order and stop looting in the aftermath of the attack. This, some claim, is the REAL reason the BBC nevere aired the film.
Have to add my ditto to Cube, Brazil, Run, Lola, Run, Dark City, Gattaca, and The Quiet Earth
[list]
[li]The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T-From 1953, A live-action musical in color with set and costume designs by Dr. Seuss. Starring Tommy Rettig (of ‘Lassie’ fame), Hans Conried, and Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes (popular 1950s TV personalities)[/li]
[li]Sopyonje-For fans of Korean cinema, this tragic story involves itinerant pansori singers during the Japanese occupation. Directed by Im Kwon-taek, from 1993.[/li]
[li]Zardoz- Really campy science fiction featuring Sean Connery as an Exterminator wandering the wastes of 24th century Britain who gets mixed up with immortal, hedonistic[/li]scientists who long to die.
[li]Phantom of the Paradise-A mid-70s rock musical pastiche of Phantom of the Opera, Faust, and the Picture of Dorian Gray. Starring Paul Williams, who also wrote the score.[/li]
Salo–Pier Paolo Pasolini’s adaptation of De Sade’s “The 100 Days of Sodom,” is horrifying, disgusting, and beautiful.
Titus-Julie Taymor’s theatrical magic makes this version of “Titus Andronicus” the best Shakespeare movie ever, IMHO. Jessica Lange, still smolderingly sexy at 53, makes an evily treacherous and wanton Tamora, Harry Lennix makes Aaron crackle with glee in sheer evil, and and you can hear echoes of majesty and madness in King Lear, Shakespeare’s last play, in the title role, Shakespeare’s first play.
A movie that won two Oscars and is still hugely popular at the video store isn’t “unknown.” 
Dunno if it’s come up yet, but I loved Boondock Saints.
Geeze, how’d I forget this one? Bizarre, campy, very “glitter rock” period and a lot of fun. I should hop over the IMBD and find out what happened to the featured players in that (other than Paul Williams, that is).
– Bob
Zentropa
Anything by John Sayles (Limbo, Lone Star, Secaucus Seven)
Life on a String
Bottle Rocket
Blood and Concrete
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I just remembered another cool movie this morning. Samurai Fiction, starring rock musician Tomoyasu Hotei. It’s a great satire of the old samurai/cowboy genre that can stand on its own as an exciting action/drama. Cool soundtrack, too.
–sublight.
Jacob’s Ladder, with Tim Robbins and Elizabeth Peña. My favorite weird movie that everyone else has ignored. Truly weird, deeply weird, and weirdly beautiful. It plays with your head in various disturbing ways, has touches of secret government drug experiment conspiracies, Meister Eckhardt’s mystical theology, the extremely gross-out hospital from Hell, and its plot is inspired by a story by Ambrose Bierce. Makes you question what is reality.
Ofelas (The Pathfinder) is the only film in the Sami language. Set in Norway’s Lapland, it tells the story of a mystical Sami legend. Has the obligatory sauna scene.
Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), from Spain, is another play-with-your-head movie that makes you question what is reality. As powerful as The Matrix, but achieved without any special effects, through pure psychology. Very well directed. Has the stunningly beautiful Penélope Cruz.
Masala, directed by Srinivas Krishna, is a film shot in Toronto, on the imbroglios of the Indian immigrant community in Canada. It’s outrageously over the top, complete with political satire, social satire, religious satire, sexual satire, drug satire, and satire of Indian movies from Bollywood. Sure to offend just about everyone! Zohra Segal is a feisty old woman who keeps her blue Hindu god on a videocassette (just like the mythological movies in India), and when she wants to talk to Him she pops in the video, then they get into arguments. It’s hilarious. This film rocks. Nothing is sacred. Comedy with a dark side. There are several plot threads and at the climax they literally all collide in the street. One of the best movies no one has ever seen. Not even my Indian-loving friend from Toronto had heard of it.
Let me add my vote for Dark City, Gattaca, Dead Alive, and Brazil (how can you go wrong with De Niro?).
Also:
Menno’s Mind - low-budget sci-fi flick with Hollywood cheesey action scenes, but the concept is sound … plus it has Bruce Campbell, so it’s an automatic must-see
Crime Wave - whacko comedy, also starring the infamous Bruce Campbell
Spoiler - low-budget sci-fi/thriller/drama with a hint of action … great story
Naked Lunch - David Lynch (Twin Peaks…, Dune, Lost Highways, Blue Velvet, etc.), so you know it’s weird … starring the illustrious Peter Weller … drop some LSD and throw this crazy flick on the screen
Gridlock’d - i must admit, Tupac is a decent actor … also starring one of my favourites, Tim Roth (Four Rooms, Deceiver, Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction)
Deceiver - Tim Roth, Michael Rooker (“There’s about 40 of 'em … and they’re all wearing badges”), and Christopher Penn … great thriller
City Of Industry - Harvey Keitel … 'nuff said
Mulholland Falls - Nick Nolte, Chazz Palmenteri, Christopher Penn, Michael Madsen, Jennifer Connely’s breasts, and John Malkovitch … nice film about some violent, justice-seeking cops in the '50s
Bad Lietenant - absolutely shocking (Harvey Keitel)
That’s all for now. I have millions more.