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The Adventures of Barry McKenzie

Post 221

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

I never saw that one when it came out but I think I've seen clips from it. Is there a scene where he says something like "No thanks, I never eat on an empty stomach" and then orders a beer? Barry McKenzie was originally a comic strip I think.

I'm very curious as to how you came to watch that one. It's a bit obscure, even in the UK where Barry Humphries is far more known Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson. That can't be too many people who remember Barry McKenzie.

Ah, 70s humour smiley - bigeyes


Flix

Post 222

Baron Grim

I'm not sure myself. I'm pretty sure this one was in my queue before it was available. I did watch some Ozploitation flick about a year or two ago and I might have added it after seeing that one, which I can't remember now... hold on...

OK... I might have added it to my queue after watching Not Quite Hollywood, a documentary about Ozploitation films.

As far as that quote, I don't remember it, but I didn't catch every line. The sound on this DVD is abysmal. The I had to turn the volume up 50% above my normal LOUD just to hear anything, and of course there were no subtitles. That line could also be from the sequel, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own. Barry McKenzie was indeed first a comic strip by Barry Humphries.

Seeing Barry Humphries from 1972 was just weird. I'm so used to seeing Dame Edna with white (or pink or blue) hair and with a bit of plumpness. I actually didn't recognize Barry Humphries in one of the roles in the film, that of one of the hippies with an American accent.


Flix

Post 223

Baron Grim

Heh, speaking of quotes, I just checked IMDb for quotes in the sequel and got a good laugh from this one. I look forward to slipping it into conversation.

Foureyes Fenton: G'day Alec. They keeping you busy?
Sir Alec Ferguson: Busy as a one-armed taxi driver with crabs.

smiley - laughsmiley - rofl


Flix

Post 224

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

smiley - bigeyes


Flix

Post 225

Baron Grim

BTW, I think I've decided to follow your lead and stop rating the films I watch. It has absolutely NOT improved netflix suggestions for me. I had hopes for their big ranking algorithm contest several years ago. But I think they gave up after realizing what polarizing films do to their computer rankings.

I don't know why I thought they might be able to suggest films I'd like to see in the first place. I have an aversion to popular media. I don't listen to the pop hits, and I don't watch blockbuster films typically. Eclectic sums me up best. And how do you quantify taste? I like odd, quirky films. I liked Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I absolutely loathed Napoleon Dynamite. What does one have to do with the other? I don't know. Why should I expect some algorithm to figure it out?

However, all that being said, I may just keep on rating the films I see. Not to improve my suggestions, but to remind me if I saw a film and what I thought of it. I just noticed Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais at the bottom of my queue and I apparently saw it two years ago (smiley - starsmiley - starsmiley - star). Obviously it was forgettable.


Flix

Post 226

Baron Grim

I watched an odd one this weekend. "Beyond the Black Rainbow". I had to double check the disc sleeve to make sure it was made in 2010. It is an homage to the experimental sci-fi horror films of the 60's - 80's. The basic story is about a mysterious clinic/cult. A young girl is being held under sedation in the clinic and observed by a strange, creepy doctor. The style of the film is characterized by vivid monochromatic lighting in primary colors, off center and out of focus framing and droning electronica in the sound track. The pacing is glacial. I've never seen someone walk or talk more slowly in a film. If you thought 2001: A Space Odyssey was too quickly paced, Beyond the Black Rainbow is just for you. One warning. The ending absolutely as unsatisfying as it could possibly be. That it was made so deliberately makes it no less infuriating.


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 227

Baron Grim

Wow, I've been slacking on this thread lately. 6 months, yikes.
Granted many of the films I've seen in that time haven't been worth talking about. Why bother even mentioning stuff like Ted, Prometheus, Craigslist Joe or MIB3?

I have seen some good films though. Another Earth was interesting, I only rated it smiley - starsmiley - starsmiley - star I see, but I did like it.

Across the Universe was a fun film. Turning Beatles songs into a musical about the period, but not the Beatles specifically; interesting idea. A bit flashy, but still fun.

I watched Gormenghast again. Still good. I watched it before I read the books. I'm still surprised by where the third book takes the story.

Brave was great. I loathe Disney but Pixar is still Pixar. And no, Disney should not slut up Merida for their "Princess" line of brash commercialism.

I also finally watched Cold Mountain. I don't normally watch films like this. By that I guess I mean historical films set in tragic times. I was surprised by some of the casting. I wasn't expecting to see Ray Winstone, nor Jack White. It wasn't until about 10 minutes after Renee Zellweger's character enters the film that I remembered this was an Oscar winning film.


Anyways,

Last night I watched The Cabin in the Woods. Again, I couldn't remember why I rented this one. I'm still not sure. I don't bother with horror films very often. When I do, it's because Guillermo del Toro or somebody like that made it. There I was skipping through the ELEVEN trailers on the disc, one crappy looking horror film after the next and I'm thinking, this can't be good. Why did I pick this one? But then I saw Joss Whedon's name on the opening credits. smiley - biggrin OK... This should be fun. I relaxed and enjoyed the show.

I won't spoil it here, but Joss made a wise move tipping off the audience early that this was not your usual horror film... well except for it being, in a way, exactly like your usual horror film... on purpose. If he'd played that closer to the chest for much longer, (and if I hadn't seen his name in the credits) I'm sure I would have ejected it and sent it back.

I'm glad I didn't.


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 228

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

Is that the BBC Gormenghast with Ian Richardson, Christopher Lee, Celia Imrie etc? I can't remember when I've seen better casting for a production, with one exception - Jonathan Rhys Myers as Steerpike. He didn't do it for me. It seemed to me that he was trying too hard, and in doing so he lost all the menace of the character.

I heard something on Radio 4 recently about Gormenghast. I didn't think to record it smiley - flustered I believe there were going to be more books which Peake didn't have time to write, but his widow wrote her version of the fourth. I'd like to read that.


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 229

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

Ha! It wasn't a radio documentary, it was this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22464374smiley - spacesmiley - facepalm


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 230

Baron Grim

That's the one. And I somewhat agree about Rhs Myers. I like him, but I don't like him. He could have been good in it if he'd just tuned it down to 10 instead of 11.

But everyone else was brilliant.


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 231

Magwitch - My name is Mags and I am funky.

I hope you don't mind me dropping in, Baron, I found this while I was looking for something else and just wanted to agree with you about Gormenghast.

I read the books years ago and re read the regularly, I agree with you about the direction of Titus Alone. Apparently Mervyn Peake was going to write more Titus novels, obviously didn't get round to them before he died smiley - sadface

The series was fantastic, even though Fuchsia and Steerpike were too pretty. They were nothing like the illustrations in the books. Gormenghast castle was *just* how I'd imagined it. Must watch it again soon.

I'll now return you to your usual programming...


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 232

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

I haven't read the books for many years - I'm holding out for hardback copies from Half Price Books, but I've been holding out a very long time. I might have to get them from somewhere like Alibris, or smiley - doh buy them new *Faints* ::THUD:: ©®


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 233

Baron Grim

I bought the trilogy in one large paperback. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. You can really chew on Peake's writing. I still get a tingle remembering when I read the description of the two men about to duel outside the city walls as "walking in pools of their own midnight"; or something very similar, it's been 10 years since I read it.

I've been trying to get a Russian intellectual friend of mine to read the books. He suggested I read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun books. Mmyeah... I think I win. I think my friend likes Wolfe because he uses very archaic language in an interesting way. He uses unfamiliar words for things like horses to indicate they're only "like" horses. But Peake knows how to write prose poetically. How to use imagery and rhythm to express things. I had fun just reading individual sentences.


The Cabin in the Woods

Post 234

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

The paperback trilogy is the copy I used to have. I wish I could remember why I don't have it any more.


Flix

Post 235

Baron Grim

You loaned it out, but you can't remember who you loaned it to.

That's the only thing I like about the draconian DRM on e-books. I can't loan them out so I can't lose books that way now.


Flix

Post 236

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

Yeah, that's probably where it went. I know for sure that's what happened to my hardback *and* my paperback copies of 1066 and All That smiley - sadface


Salesman (et alia)

Post 237

Baron Grim

I watched an interesting film last night. Salesman is a documentary from 1967/68 that features 4 traveling bible salesmen. It really makes one consider the choices we make in life and why we do so. The feature salesman, Paul (the Badger) Brennan, has a running joke about the options for a young Irishman in Boston. In a thick, affected brogue he repeats the normal advice, "Join the farce. You'll get a pinsion[sic]. Your uncle joined the farce. He got his pinsion. He had a lavish retirement... for two weeks. Jest look at his great tombstone." Instead, Paul obviously thought the life on the road held more allure. But when he's lucky to make one sale a day, he seems to be deeply considering his choice.

The film is also a great snapshot of the late '60s. The ubiquitous cigarettes, the housewives in their house coats.

Again, I'm not quite sure why I 'flixed this, probably from the AICN list... but I'm glad I did.


There've been a few other films I've watched recently that deserve mention here. The last film I watched was Django Unchained, but all I can say about that is I found it to be my least favorite Tarantino film to date. It wasn't bad at all. But it really did seem like Tarantino took some lurid pleasure with the vocabulary.

Before that I saw a film called Wrong. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1901040/ I probably should have hated this as it made about as much sense as a David Lynch film, but without any of the visual style and emotional tension.

Before that was The Revisionaries. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2091398/ I can't recommend this enough. It should be required viewing in PTA meetings. It's a documentary about the Texas State Board of Education and how religious conservatives have dominated their decisions regarding the content and selection of science and social studies books in recent years.

Previously I also watched Seven Psychopaths, Argo and The Master. All were very enjoyable but I have nothing in particular to say about any of them.



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064921/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


The Age of Stupid

Post 238

Baron Grim

I read the title mentioned in another thread here and looked it up on Netflix. It was available on streaming for just 4 more days, so I skipped the disc I have at home and watched this. I thought it might be something like a more thoughtful Idiocracy from the brief description and the title.

It's not. It's simply a documentary/polemic about climate change and how humans are stubbornly destroying ourselves and the planet despite overwhelming evidence and knowledge that we are doing so. The film is told through a future "archivist" who compiles "old" documentary and news footage and tells the story of how we destroyed ourselves, how we committed suicide as a species. The stories he tells include that of a man starting an airline in India; a British man who is trying make a difference by living green and building wind farms when he can in the face of NIMBY and other resistance groups; A man in New Orleans putting his life back together after Katrina (and a career for Shell Oil); A young woman in Nigeria who wants to become a doctor to help all those around her impoverished and sickened by the oil industry's rape of her country; and a couple of Iraqi children living as refugees in Jordan and have no love for Americans.

It's a good film. I won't describe it as heavy handed as the subject can't be understated. It's definitely worth watching... Too bad it's going away on Netflix.

These limited availabilities on Netflix are frustrating. They promise video on demand... but they keep changing what's there to see. They want to switch fully over to streaming but I just can't drop discs as more often than not the kind of films I want to see aren't available on streaming either because it hasn't been made available yet or it was and they've removed it. smiley - cross


Kes

Post 239

Baron Grim

A brutally dark tone to that one. Billy Casper's resignation is relentless. While Kes makes him happy, I disagree with other reviewers who say that Kes represents a spot of hope in an otherwise hopeless existence.

If this had been an American fillum, then the scene with the employment counselor would have lead to a future working with animals, maybe on a wildlife reserve or possibly a zoo even. NOPE! The kid is heading for the mines at the end of that film

****SPOILER ALERT*******




























































And what's the deal with using a real dead kestrel? smiley - yikes

...


OH, WOW... From IMDb:

>>Three kestrels were used during filming and David Bradley (Billy) helped to train them. He was told that one of them would be killed for real, when the final scene was shot. Billy's look of anger and disgust during that scene was not just a performance for the cameras: David Bradley was horrified that one of the birds that he had helped train had been killed. He only found out later than all the bird were still alive and the dead bird was one that had died of natural causes. The director had misled David in order to get the genuine reaction of disgust that he wanted.<<

The rest of the Trivia for Kes is equally interesting.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064541/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2



Anyway, I just knew the kestrel would be killed at the end of it. So, it's probably not that much of a spoiler. A Boy and His [INSERT ANIMAL HERE] films ALWAYS kill the animal at the end.


Kes

Post 240

There is only one thing worse than being Gosho, and that is not being Gosho

That is a bloody good film, and a good book too. Bob knows where my copy went, but it went a long time ago. An early outing for both Colin Welland and Brian Glover (Glover's first film or TV role, apparently).

He was one of the best things about Alien 3, also a part-time wrestler on the pro circuit, as well as a voice-over artist.

And a professional Yorkshireman.


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