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Post by loverofbeers on Oct 30, 2015 12:50:45 GMT -5
In my sickliness I fucked up my last post so... from Burlington, Vermont: And finished my third breakfast beer which was "meh" from a "meh" to me brewery so far. My second beer from Horny Goat Brewing Company out of La Crosse, Wisconsin is/was Hornacopia Pumpkin Ale. Meh and grumbles. This one is not dedicated to Stevi, you sexy heart stealing Brochick of mine. And my newly coined term "Brochick" is dedicated to my favorite podcast of the last calendar year, Nowthisispodcasting and Makingstarwars.net. They coined the term "BroShek" from the Star Wars Tatooine character BoShek a few months ago. starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BoShekAnd the caption to the following picture reads: "BoShek directs Obi-Wan Kenobi to Chewbacca, beginning the long and historic involvement of Chewbacca and Han Solo in the Alliance to Restore the Republic."I see a long day of coughs, Great Pumpkin beers, drunkeness, George Romero, Wes Craven, and Universal magic ahead of me. Oh and yeah, a scattering of films from the 1910s, the only decade I have ignored so far this month. And I will be breaking my record of 49 movies before tomorrow and the end of this competition! Cheers! and off to lunch with my BroChick. The Great Pumpkin by the way....
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Post by loverofbeers on Oct 30, 2015 17:03:16 GMT -5
Had lunch with the BroChick and then I watched two more shorts.
First was La Legende du Fantome (1908) directed by Segundo de Chomón. I loved this overly weird short film that had a huuuuge cast, a ghost, demons, Satan, a demonic car, a giant frog, man-bats, pyrotechnics, firecrackers, an earthquake, underwater scenes, and myriad giant animals like lizards and who knows what else. A cool film. I recommend it.
Next I watched a short by that infamous white supremacist, D. W. Griffith. It was The Sealed Room (1909) about a king that catches his love cheating on him and has her and her lover walled in the room where he caught a glimpse of their activities. They perish by asphyxiation. Meh.
And this is officially the most movies short or otherwise I have ever seen in any particular month. Can you dig it?
LOB-50
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Post by loverofbeers on Oct 30, 2015 21:52:57 GMT -5
Three more to add. First, one of my possibly top five favorite Horror films that I first watched at the not so tender age of about eight on the USA network watching Night Flight back in 1983, or so. George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). I could write a college level paper about this movie and TTCSM and what both films had to say about Vietnam war era America and Americans. I will rewrite what I wrote my special lady while watching this great film over a few texts, cleaning up the typos that my grubby fingers committed: "Horror has such lessons to teach the awake". "This movie is timeless. I am in awe thirty years after my original viewing. Much social commentary. Very clever message in the Vietnam War Years". "The so very tragic end is nigh. This movie teaches a huge American history lesson of race relations with a heartbreaking end". "Patriarchal society dead by rifle shot by young black man. wife doesn't raise a finger. Loathes scumbag husband. It is a movie about the youth movement, women's lib, racism, and the bankrupt white patriarchy that has ruled my country. "Agitate, agitate, agitate". A Cheers! to Fredrick Douglas. And a Cheers! to my lovely Stevi". "Grinding my teeth for ten minutes. 1968 wins. One of the best movies ever Horror be damned. Film critics be damned. This was as great as when I saw it long ago. Damn." I drank an 18% alcohol by volume beer while watching NOTLD and typing that. I am sure it shows. I drank an Avery Rumpkin which was aged in a rum barrel. The strongest pumpkin beer I have ever had. Shit, this was one of the three strongest beer in this beer god's experience. That is over thirty years of devotion to American craft beer! Second I watched Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912) an American film directed by Lucius Henderson. I watched it last year and didn't like it. This year it grew on me as all silent films have progressively been doing over the last five Octobers. Last I watched what is generally considered to be America's first Horror film, though I disagree and considered to be Edison's Frankenstein (1910) Edison was a rip-off artist (cough, cough Tesla) and was the producer of this film The director was and always will be J. Searle Dawley. This was a lost film I never thought I would watch that I knew about since the very first years of the 1980s. Now I have watched it for five years in a row. A Rogue Dead Guy (The beer I am currently consuming from The Rogue Brewery in Newport, Oregon, a non-pumpkin German style Maibock or Helles Bock) to my someday viewing of my Holy Grail film, Tod Browning's London After Midnight (1927) starring Lon Chaney Sr. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_After_Midnight_%28film%29LOB-53
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Post by loverofbeers on Oct 31, 2015 0:38:17 GMT -5
Just finished watching another favorite of mine, the Dario Argento cut of George Romero's great film Dawn of the Dead aka Zombi (1978) in the European market that Argento edited. About to start John Carpenter's Halloween, a post midnight Halloween tradition of mine in recent years. But first a Cheers! for Ken Foree, Tom Savini, George Romero, Dario Argento, Roger, Flyboy, and Flygirl. Currently drinking a collaboration beer, an Imperial Pumpkin Porter by Epic Brewing Company from Salt Lake City, Utah and DC Brau from I believe Denver, Colorado, Fermentation without Representation (8.4% ABV). A great beer but last year's batch was better. LOB-54
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Post by loverofbeers on Oct 31, 2015 2:51:07 GMT -5
Just finished watching a classic and a favorite of mine, John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). This year a small handful of fools compared The Babadook to this great slasher and psychological masterpiece. As beer is my witness, those that made that comparison know not Horror. So from an asshole, me, a big fuck the fuck off to these tourists of my genre. That said, a Cheers! to John Carpenter, the goddess PJ Soles, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran, Nick Castle, The Boogeyman, The Shape, and Debra Hill. Oh yeah, to Jamie Lee Curtis too, a true lover (cough, cough, bullshit) of the genre that placed her on the Hollywood map.... ug. This Rogue Farms Pumpkin Savior Wheat and Pumpkin Wit (Newport "Independence", Oregon) is dedicated to ya'll. A million thanks for creating a classic so close to my heart. Cheers! LOB-55
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Post by loverofbeers on Oct 31, 2015 12:21:54 GMT -5
Before passing out last night I watched another favorite as I mentioned, John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). I love PJ Soles!
I just finished watching The Madness of Doctor Tube aka La Folie du Docteur Tube (1915) anbd directed by Abel Gance. I found this French short on a list of silent era Horror films on IMDB. A description follows: "A scientist develops a powder that he believes will have the effect of distorting reality for those who take it. To test its effect tries it out on his assistant, a dog, himself and two young couples." This was a trippy short with very strange visual/camera distortions. A fun watch.
LOB-57
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Post by loverofbeers on Nov 1, 2015 1:19:31 GMT -5
Two more to add. Gonna try a third before I pass out so I can reach my goal of 60 movies. So close, but still sick and exhausted. First I watched Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Johnny Depp dies and Freddy Krueger is born.. Once again, Rest In Power Mr. Craven and thank you for the nightmares. Next I watched Les Quatre Cents Farces du Diable aka The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906) once again from Georges Méliès. A very fun film and a much longer short from this early pioneer of cinema. I drank a great beer I aged from last year at 10.6% ABV, Crown Valley Brewing Imperial Pumpkin Smash, an Imperial Pumpkin Stout out of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, was black as my soul and yet a beauty. Aged perfectly. LOB-59
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Post by loverofbeers on Nov 1, 2015 1:31:57 GMT -5
I counted Halloween twice. I am sick and my noggin is scrambled so I deduct a point not earned. Watching movie #59 now. Might try for sixty but have to be up early to work.
LOB-58
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Nov 1, 2015 1:43:05 GMT -5
First I watched Jordan Rubin's 2015 American film Zombeavers, which doesn't star but cameos one of my favorite comedians Bill Burr, and it is about zombie beavers. The acting in this film is good, the cinematography was great, the gore (some of the organs looked bad in the first scene) was ok or great, the soundtrack (a mix of horror strings, synth, pop, funk, and the glorious jazz song of the same name as the movie), the acts of violence looked bad-ok, and the special effects were bad (but in a hilarious way). Let me start out by saying that the audacity of such a movie existing both amuses and delights me, I mean my god... zombie beavers. The zombie beavers are clearly puppets ,but despite this are entertaining do to how insane their movements, growing, glowing eyes, and intellgence they are. As soon as I saw the first one I knew I was going to be in for a treat. The beavers also apparently gain intelligence when zombified because they gained th ability to understand how to cut phone lines and perfectly cut trees to fall on cars and the people who they bite turn into werezombeavers who somehow retain their human abilities (such as being able to aim and fire a gun). The characters are annoying and/or cliche ,but that is the whole point. The bloopers at the end of the film were also hilarious and made me appreciate the film even more. I did like how some of the characters had rare signs of intelligence such as cheking for zombeaver bites and attempting to go for help. Overall this was a a fun, quick film.
Then I watched Matthias Hoene's 2012 British zombie comedy Cockneys vs Zombies, about a pair of brothers and their cousin who plan to rob a bank to save their grandpa's retirement home ,but get caught up in a zombie invasion, and they are Cockneys. The acting is good, the soundtrack is great (a combination of horror strings and percussion, mainstream rock songs Monster by the Automatic Automatic, How You Like Me Now? by The Heavy, one other song I couldn't identify, and their own hilarious zombie song), the cinematography is great, the gore was either bad or great (which was dependant on whether it was CGI or practical, respectively, which reminded me of The Walking Dead), and the acts of violence looked good-great. I know I've stated it before, but when you go from great practical gore to CGI gore it is incredibly jarring because it looks almost too smooth and like it lacks weight and/or isn't really there. I also agree with Neal's assertion that quality gore effects make a horror comedy funnier because it just adds to the rediculous chaos as the characters become increasingly soaked in gore, such as in The Evil Dead 2. The film referenced other zombie movies, making fun of the fast zombies from 28 Days Later and The Dawn of the Dead remake, remakring that you can't really expect something dead to be that fast anyways. It also made fun of people who start fights and drag their friends/family into it and people who don't know when to just be quiet in a situation (something I've had to deal with before), I mean the character Clive should understand that you don't tell your kidnappers that you're gathering their information to make a police report when your are trying to convince them to let you go. It also poked fun at the more "posh" characters having more trouble than the other characters when dealing with the zombies because she's never been in a fight before and I liked how casually the protagonists acccepted that there was a zombie invasion. One of the things this movie had going for it was it's creative and funny zombie scenarios: at one point they shoot a zombie in the head (who had a penchant for headbutting while alive due to his hard hear) and the bullets repeatedly richochet, you have a rival zombie football hooligan brawl, a zombie jaw being left in a mans arm after it is blasted with a shotgun, and a baby zombie being punted into a wall. One of the things that bugged me was how the characters who were inexperienced with guns started nailing head shots left and right like it was nothing, but considering the overall light tone of the movie it didn't bug me nearly as much as it does in The Walking Dead. While the characters aren't deeply developed they still manage to all have distinct and likeable personalites. Overall this was a fun film.
After that I watched the 2012 international horror anthlogy The ABC's of Death, with 26 stories for each letter of the alphabet. There ar too many to talk about right now, but I agree with LOB that like most anthlogy films the story quality of each varied. One of the refreshing aspects of this was that despite being over a two hour movie because of the length of each story the film still went by very quickly. However, it lacked one of my favorite parts of hjorror anthology films which is the twist that comes with the connecting narravtive story.
Then I watched Peter Strickland's 2012 psychologicla British horror film Berberian Sound Studio, which is about an English sound engineer who travels to Italy to work on a giallo film and begins to experince things he can't explain. The acting is great, the soundtrack (a mixture of horror strings and Italian horror style organ music) is great, and the cinematography is great. What's interesting about this film is that most of the horror is actually happening in the film that the protagonist is working on which is rarely seen ,but instead discussed and heard. However, there is clear emotional and psychological turmoil going on for the protagonist during the filming. One of the main themes is the dichotomy between the English (and overall Britsh/UK) and Italian culture, with the English having traditionally been seen as more uptight and/or stogdy then the rest of mainland Europe, especially when compared to France, Italy, and Spain. This is shown in how the main character is at first very polite and shy, while many of the Italian characters are shown to be more forward and rude. They also explored the idea of people involved in horror being afflicted with pretensions and refusing to acknowledge that something they've created is in fact horror when it is obviously just that (this is something that has always boggled my mind, but a little more on that later). One of the best aspects of the movie is simply showing movie magic,, showing how you can create such great sound effects with the use of cooking utensils and food. I also liked how they showed how you can transform mundane audio performances and make them something fearsome, while at the same time making fun of how badly done some of the screaming in horror has been done. The movie also explores how the main character is out of his element not only in terms of country culture ,but in the subject matter he is working on, as he appears to have worked primarily on are animal/nature documentary style films. While the director and producers are both thoroughly unlikeable assholes, they both make good poitns that I agree with (the prior that when showing a historical matter in film it should be done with brutal realism for the intended effect and that the protagonist shouldn't be so disturbed by the content because he is seeing firsthand how it is made, which I think applies to some viewers of film as well). Overall, I thought that it was a great movie and a reccomend.
I closed out the night by watching two films that are Halloween traditons of sorts for me: Child's Play (1988) and The Thing (1982).
In respone to your question I'm sort of like Randy Orton and have always had sort of sensitive shoulders (especially my left one) and I got a little lax on stretching and just woke up one night and it felt like it exploded and then like it wasn't there ,but I just tried not to aggravate it and it mostly fine now. I didn't really realize until later on (a large part of it was listening to WYH interivews and hearing how low budget horror was hypocritically sort of persecuted in the 80's in America and also the whole Video Nasty thing happening in the UK at the same time), as well as hearing people recognized for their work in horror almost hating the fact that they are/were associated with it. I think it comes mainly from two things 1) the pretensionn that sometimes seems to prevail among actors and Hollywood in general and 2) the idea that it is LCD base trash that anyone can do or make, simialr to how pulp style novels and stories were looked down upon. The latter reason really reminds me of how people look down on pro wrestling, ignoring the fact that it has been insanely popular, profitable, and able to incense people to the point of violence; however, these people aren't able to achieve such sucess, undercutting their point. As far as pretension, I always think of the Billy Bob Thonton (whose work I've really enjoyed) having that blowup in that interview when they had the audacity to mention his film fame (you know the thing you're most known for) before focusing on his new music. Jamie Lee Curtis is an example of this thing and I've also heard that Christopher Lee (I agree rest in power) and Stepehn King refused to ackwoledge the fact that they worked in horror later on. While I can understand wanting to do a variety of work, I don't think I'll understand the vehemence for my favorite genre. On a sidenote, trick or treating seems to have come back strongly (at least in my area), there were over 100 trick or treaters this year flooding my place while I watche dmy last two films. Happy Halloween LOB.
JAS-11
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Post by loverofbeers on Nov 5, 2015 13:48:52 GMT -5
Weeeeell (read in a Rowdy Roddy Piper voice),I fell asleep during Friday the 13th Part 2. That would have been my 59th movie. I really wanted to watch at least one movie with Michael Myers, one with Freddy Krueger, and one with Jason Voorhees, the three monsters of America cinema from the "modern" age. Next year I will again try to watch 60 movies. So many movies I wanted to watch I couldn't make it to. Poops.
On Sunday when I am off of work I will post the remaining beers I drank in October as well as those I missed posting last October.
But it is time to move on to November.
LOB-58
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