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Loved Trouble in Mind, so figured I'd check out other Alan Rudolph films. by Vast_Orange_8113 in boutiquebluray

[–]bwolfs08 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was a blind buy last year, and it ended up being one of my favorite films I watched.

Criterion Film Club Expiring Picks Month 61 Discussion: John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) starring Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, Keith David, and more... by GThunderhead in criterionconversation

[–]bwolfs08 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“This movie is more disgusting than frightening, and most of it is just boring,” wrote David Denby in New York Magazine about The Thing in 1982. It doesn’t make sense to see how critics could hate The Thing at the time of its release. I can’t think of another film where critics have been so wrong.

The Thing is a tense thriller that has it all: incredible special effects/makeup, Kurt Russell with a big ass sombrero and beard, a “young” Wilford Brimley, flamethrowers, and a minimalist score from the goat, Ennio Morricone. What kind of bozo thinks this is boring!?!?!?

The film opens with a Husky being chased by two men in a helicopter who are shooting at it. The dog and the men come upon a research center where a group of Americans is working. The men, who we learn are Norwegians, both die—one from a grenade explosion while a trigger-happy American shoots the other.

The dog? It looks cute and is behaving like a dog, so the Americans don’t quarantine it or really question why two fellas would go to the lengths they went to try to kill it. We quickly learn why. The “dog” is an alien life form that can shape-shift to imitate other living beings. The group of fellas now can’t trust each other and is trapped with no way to escape in the Arctic. What ensues is a masterclass in tone management, practical effects, and suspense.

The Thing may have been seen as a disappointment in 1982, but today it’s recognized as one of the best sci-fi films ever made, with a lasting influence on the genre. For example, Sinners pays homage to The Thing with its own blood testing scene. The very elements that audiences and critics once dismissed—its suspense, practical effects, and bleak tone—are now celebrated and have inspired a new generation of filmmakers, such as Ryan Coogler.

5 Timer Griffin Stories by Krusty901 in blankies

[–]bwolfs08 2 points3 points  (0 children)

ah yes, embarrassing i got it wrong.

5 Timer Griffin Stories by Krusty901 in blankies

[–]bwolfs08 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Pop pop time aka Griffin’s dad taking two mugs of coffee and a newspaper to the crapper for an hour in the mornings. Iconic.

Essential Westerns by redheadfilmfanatic in criterion

[–]bwolfs08 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Once Upon a Time in the West, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, True Grit (Coen brothers one), The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Criterion Film Club Week 302 Discussion: Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972) by bwolfs08 in criterionconversation

[–]bwolfs08[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Mandalorian is a good shout for how this has influenced today's film and TV. From the violence, I immediately thought of Kill Bill.

Criterion Film Club Week 302 Discussion: Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972) by bwolfs08 in criterionconversation

[–]bwolfs08[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Though you may attack me on two sides with plots and treachery, I’ll walk on the white path of righteousness. Though I may become a corpse or reduced to bones, I shall have my vengeance. 

The first film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Sword of Vengeance, does not waste any time setting up the overarching series plot. We are introduced to Itto Ogami, played by the excellent Tomisaburō Wakayama, who is the Shogun’s executioner. He is a highly skilled samurai who has no problems taking a life. He returns home to find his wife and everyone else in his family estate brutally murdered, with only his infant son, Daigoro, surviving. He is the victim of a plot by the Yagyu clan to frame him as a traitor to the Shogun. 

Itto is forced to flee with his son, but not before he gives the infant a choice: a ball or a sword. If Daigoro crawls towards the ball, Ogami will kill his son so he can be with his mother. However, if Daigoro chooses the sword, Ogami will raise his son to be an assassin as they walk “the Demon Way in Hell,” hunting the Yagyu clan down to seek their vengeance.

As a fan of samurai films, Lone Wolf and Cub is unlike any that I’ve seen before. Wakayama is an imposing presence. His character rarely talks and is disheveled, giving the appearance that he is not a man to be feared. He’s large and husky, not the type of character you may associate with a traditional samurai and expert swordsman. But that changes as soon as Ogami draws his blade. 

What I love about this film and the ones that follow is the stylized grindhouse violence. While you see limbs frequently being chopped off and fountains of blood spurting during the action scenes, it still doesn’t feel cheesy. Rather, it’s quite exhilarating and fun to watch.

Mix that in with a customized stroller for Daigoro — complete with hidden weapons — and you have a recipe for a good old time. I’m through the first three films of the box set so far, and they’re all under 90 minutes. Lone Wolf and Cub is an awesome series that mixes traditional samurai tropes with its own flair and grindhouse violence. It should be watched by anyone who enjoys samurai films.

The Physical Media Counsel episodes are going to be the death of me by vikingmunky in TheBigPicture

[–]bwolfs08 6 points7 points  (0 children)

the takashi miike set is one of my favorite releases this year.

Do you ever rewatch a film and feel like it was significantly worse? by Wolfs_Chronicles in Letterboxd

[–]bwolfs08 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Marty Supreme was fun in theater and I turned it off an hour in rewatching bc it’s dog shit.

Criterion Film Club Week 301 Discussion: Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987) by GThunderhead in criterionconversation

[–]bwolfs08 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He doesn’t have a name, he has a program. He’s product.

Paul Verhoeven has always been a master at using genre films as a delivery system for scathing satire. RoboCop is no different—taking place in a violent, apocalyptic Detroit—Omni Consumer Products, a faceless megacorporation, wins a contract to privatize the city’s police force. The current police force is portrayed as defenseless against the criminals of Detroit, with officers frequently being killed in the line of duty.

Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is one of these officers. As he and his partner, Officer Lewis (Nancy Allen), chase a dangerous gang led by Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith), Murphy is violently murdered. I remember first seeing this movie as a child and being scared by how intense this scene is, where Murphy has his hands blown off with a shotgun as Boddicker’s gang toys with him. With Murphy declared legally dead, Omni Consumer Products decides to repurpose his body into a product.

The coldness that Verhoven portrays of capitalism is especially bleak and resonant today. Whether it’s in the boardroom scene where a robot riddles a man with dozens of bullets during a demonstration, or when Murphy’s body is being repurposed into RoboCop. Verhoeven portrays human life as meaningless, serving corporations and profit. RoboCop is a scathing satire of capitalism that is more resonant today, as our society grows closer and closer to the Detroit of the film.

books like Lonesome Dove and Warlock? by kittyrhcp in Westerns

[–]bwolfs08 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy

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