January films

January
1/3 - Nine
1/4 - Thankskilling
1/7 - Columbus Day
1/8 - The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
1/9 - Sherlock Holmes | Deranged
1/10 - Equinox
1/12 - Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon
1/13 - Appaloosa
1/15 - Avatar
1/17 - Under the Yum Yum Tree | Exorcist II: The Heretic
1/18 - Eating Raoul
1/20 - The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula
1/23 - 2012
1/24 - Frankenstein Created Woman
1/30 - Fantastic Mr. Fox
1/31- Legion

Selected commentary

• Any movie that attempts to present Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson as more desirable than Marion Cotillard is fundamentally flawed. (Nine)
• I’m surprised that Thankskilling ended up being just good enough to hurt my brain.
• Columbus Day is interesting, because it was written and directed as an indie drama, but produced, reshot and marketed as an action movie.
• Imaginarium isn’t Gilliam at his best, but it is Gilliam back in shape. I’m not sure that the more confusing aspects of the story were deliberate, however.
• Deranged is, in a lot of ways, a perfect example of ‘70s exploitation. Ninety minutes of boredom with one surprisingly effective WTF scene at the end.
• Equinox is H.P. Lovecraft by way of Sandy Frank, with some kickass stop motion as a bonus.
• Oh, Albert Pyun. Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon was so bad that it broke my XBOX 360.
• Ed Harris is a fine actor, and has directed well in the past, but Appaloosa was a little clunky and contains some of the worst closing narration I’ve heard. The movie is a solid swing and a narrow miss, aiming at some interesting themes of masculinity not often directly addressed in westerns.
• The hypnosis scene is genuinely clever, and locust cam looks terrific. This is enough to make me hate Exorcist II less than most people.
• I’m not sure how a movie about using fetish-specialty prostitution to murder and rob people can be as cute and wholesome as Eating Raoul is, but it is. With appearances by Buck Henry, Ed Begley Jr., and Commander Chakotay.
• 2012 reached a point of moronic excess that I actually began tear up, unable to cope with pure apocalyptic stupid attacking my senses. I have no choice but to like this movie. Mutant neutrinos!
• Peter Cushing just adds class to anything, even kung fu vampires. Even the deliberately exploitative and nonsensical re-edit of kung fu vampires (The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox seems to have had a message, but I’m unsure what it was. I think Wes Anderson might’ve gotten confused by his own tweaking of kid movie conventions and muddled it a bit.
• Legion is bad. If someone can explain why the one person’s thumbs fell off in that one scene, I’d appreciate it.