Fast & Furious 6 (2012)

Fast & Furious 6 was a lot of fun. It was dumb, cliched, and unrealistic. But as long as you suspend your disbelief, suspend it waaaayy up there, your gonna have a good time. 6/10.

Also, thanks to reddit I found a picture that sums up the whole movie nicely...

Donovan's Atlantis in Goodfellas

Scorsese is the master of the soundtrack. How anyone would think to match Donovan's Atlantis to a scene involving Joe Pesci and Robert Deniro beating Frank Vincent to a pulp is a mystery, but it works magically: Here's the song. Here's the scene.

Mazes and Monsters (TV 1982)

Mazes and Monsters is one terrible made for TV movie. Supposedly about Tom Hanks going crazy while playing Dungeons and Dragons (though they couldn't use the copyrighted name cause its basically one of those "D&D is the devil" stories), its terribly written, cornily acted, and the visual quality is basically shit. Tom Hanks is his usual genial self, but he doesn't have much to work with. I cant believe I used to think this movie was good... of course I was 9 last time I saw it. But it still holds a special place in my heart, so I can't give it too low a rating. 5/10.

The villainous Stephen from Django Unchained

Django Unchained was a painfully/joyously cathartic film. A true masterpiece. But I would like to take a moment to comment as to why I feel Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen was a truly villainous villain, brilliantly written by Tarantino and utterly inhabited by Jackson.

To start with, DiCaprio's Calvin Candie was utterly villainous himself, but he's your standard "petulant child emperor" character. Like Commodus from Gladiator he is bored with his existence and only cruelty and domineering over others brings him pleasure. This kind of sadism, while utterly villainous, is a different flavor from Stephen's twisted villainy.

Stephen was utterly villainous for the following reasons:

One, he was a conniving, plotting, Shylock-like weasel of a simpering villain. Devising and sneaking around doing his evil masters bidding. The only character that comes to mind for true comparison is Shakespearian courtier Iago from Othello, or Iago the parrot from Alladin for the pop culture referral.

Two, he is a manipulative villain, always putting ideas of cruelty in Candie's head. When Candie admonishes him or dismisses his intentions, he makes them even sweeter with his devil's tongue to the point that he has become the master of this household of horror.

Three, and this is most prescient, he is a traitor. A traitor to his race. Candie was evil, but his evil was aligned with the one systemic norm of the time, racism. I don't believe Stephen even identifies himself as black anymore. He goes so far as to maintain the brutal household's financial affairs, to personally oversee the torture of his fellow slaves in far crueler methods and durations than his master, and upon identifying opportunities overlooked by his master to practice cruelty upon his brothers and sisters, he happily guides Candie's hand to the literal whip.

Lastly, he's a player hater, plain and simple, through and through. Taking joy in the cutting down of others to or below his level is his sustenance. Take Clifton Powell's Chauncy from Menace II Society. Multiply it times 9,999, you're getting closer to Steven.

So it is with all these villainous traits in mind that we experience the utter jumping-up-and-down-hand-clapping joy in witnessing that side of violence that Tarantino calls "the cathartic fun of violence"

Assault Girls (2009)

Assault Girls was lame. I was expecting a live action anime full of stylized action and cool visuals. Instead I got a weakly made art film involving cheap CGI and almost no plot. Do not rent. 3/10.

Serenity (2005)

Watched Serenity for the second time. Last I saw it was... 7 years ago (?) when it came out on DVD. Liked it better this time around, maybe cause I was more invested having watched part of the series now. I always liked Wash and Jayne, probably because Tudyk and Baldwin are two of my favorite character actors. But I appreciated Mal much more this time around knowing more of his backstory. I still hold that Nathan Fillion is too likable a person to convincingly play the tough as nails take no shit captain he did through most of the series without coming off like an irredeemably dislikable character. He just doesn't have it in him to convincingly be that kind of character. But I think he and Whedon found the right balance in Serenity to pull off the gruff captain with the heart of gold. And Chiwetel Ejiofor is awesome as always. Quite enjoyable outing this time around. 7/10.

One thing though. What is Joss Whedon's fetish with killer-tough bad girls all about? Buffy, River, Echo, Akima, it's like I can hear his eyes rolling into the back of his head writing these chicks. lol.

More DC Comics Animated One-offs

All-Star Superman (2011) starts with Superman trapped into being poisoned by Lex Luthor. His final days involve super-battles with a number of super-foes, finally revealing himself to Lois, and Luthor gaining Superman's powers for a day. Good animation and quality voice work in this one. The relationship with Lois was fleshed out nicely, but I really liked the scenes between Luthor and Clark Kent where Lex discusses his antagonism with Sups. 8/10.

Superman/Doomsday (2007) was just OK nothing more. I remember getting the graphic novel of this story back in the 90's when it first came out, and newspapers were running articles titled "The Death Of Superman". It ended up being a weak comic writing wise, and this movie is even weaker. Choppy, relatively cheap looking animation, with the storyline thinned out to the point of being melodramatic and anti-climactic. 5/10.

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008). This was a pretty fascinating concept. Basically a Watchmen like origin story of the League set at the height of the Cold War circa 1960, with an H.P. Lovecraftian enemy bringing the heroes and the world together. Neat animation style with character designs following the golden age comics' look and feel. Unfortunately it included the jingoism of the era. Not to mention a horribly miscast Jeremy Sisto as a gravelly Batman. All in all a pretty neat concept, but not done as well as it could have been. 6/10.

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (2010) has the Justice League going to a parallel dimension to battle evil versions of themselves alongside a good Lex Luthor. It felt kind of long, but the battles were above average. Some nice character touches on Bats and J'onn J'onnz, with the latter even getting his Martian freak-on with the parallel president's daughter. Having the parallel superbeings "Crime Syindicate" being modeled after and talking like the New York mob was a nice touch too. However, the voice casting was abhorrent. William Baldwin as a wispy voiced Batman? Mark Harmon as a stiff throated, slightly nasally Superman? Ugh! Good thing there were quality fights where not much talking was done. Plus the whole parallel Superwoman trying to make Bats her boy-toy thing was pretty cute. I liked it as a whole, but would've rated it higher with better voice work. 7/10.

The Devil's Rock (2011)

Watched The Devil's Rock on Netflix. A New Zealand horror film set in WWII on one of the channel islands off the coast of France. It takes place on the eve of D-Day and involves a Kiwi SAS officer, a Nazi SS occult officer and a succubus from hell. Very well done for a low budget horror film. Wonderfully atmospheric and occult accurate. Well acted with good make up effects by WETA. I really enjoyed it all around. 8/10.

R.I.P. Roger Ebert (1942 - 1913)

At The Movies With Siskel & Ebert, and later Ebert & Roeper, fanned my fire for the medium of cinema as a youth. Later his solo writings did the same. His output of quality literate film reviews is stunning in its number. I imagine he was able to do this because he was so passionate about film that the words simply flowed like butter. The man was a humorous and brilliant critic, well versed in film and a cadre of other subjects. And he was a person generous of heart. Without any restraint or falsehood, I can say the man was a real american treasure. God bless Roger Ebert.

"Roger Ebert dies at 70 after battle with cancer" - Chicago Sun-Times

The Elephant Man (1980)

This morning I watched David Lynch's The Elephant Man for only the second time in my life. I clearly remember watching it when I was 8 or 9, and it was such a powerful experience that the emotions it evoked have staid with me all these years. It is perhaps the saddest movie ever made, yet vividly illustrates the beauty of human compassion. I think that schools should show children this Academy Award nominated film. Every human being should see it. 10/10.