Cahiers du Cinema de Noize

Transporter 2 - not as good as Crank, the fight scenes are inventive but that Jackie Chan stuff gets old.

"An at times fascinating redux of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes, Jeffery Scott Lando's zero budget Savage Island deals with the problem of the middle class intruding on the demesne of primal man: digging plots on prime moonshine acreage, desecrating woodland gravesites, and working out their petty marital squalls against the backdrop of struggles for survival and the instinct to progeny. Shot on a terrible-looking digital video, even the format speaks, like The Blair Witch Project, of the sort of arrogance that technology breeds: forgetfulness of the savage immediacy of the Natural just on the borders of civilization and superego. (The tragic effect of a cell phone and its subsequent execution is surprisingly smart and surprisingly piquant.) Its acting forever on the verge of embarrassing, its locations "found," Savage Island also reminds of the zero budget frights of the seventies with its ability to evoke a feeling of irreducible filth and a bone deep discomfort. It works because it doesn't aspire to be much more than a straight reworking of the Deliverance dynamic--the logic of people defending their homes and aspiring for eternity through children (the child peril lifted almost whole from the Craven film), the idea of families at war with one another over land and litter remains ever vital and, handled with the disarming immediacy of terrible video, something that deserves to be respected as a statement about man, culture, and how they don't often make 'em like they used to. *** (out of four)"

no no i mean it's okay!

haha that was an xpost!
and now!

Miami Vice - never a good idea to let Mann do a 'director's cut.' Or maybe it just didn't hold up well to a second viewing/on a tv, it seemed kind of flat. Fewer 'whoa'-s, more 'omg I can't believe that Colin Farrell line made it into the movie'

I think Mann just screwed the rhythm adding footage and re-editing, and it just doesn't look as cool on 32" instead of a cineplex screen. He doesn't seem to realize his strengths are in the economy of words/action - so he tacks on a three-minute speedboat scene to set up the nightclub, and the Havana excursion gets lengthened and there's one hilariously bad music cue to kick off a sex scene I don't remember being their to start with.

i can't really say i liked the island. i'm trying to remember why. although i liked the plot twist with the real ewan mac-G.

*wipes tear away* I do it to myself every damned year.

Eric, homie, I joined you this year.

I liked the Spielberg WOTW too.

-- v (enemy.airshi...)

Its really great isn't it? Must get more from Resnais in general.

Got a copy of Chris Marker's Sana Soleil/La Jetee yesterday.

Caught Rushmore on TV again.

-- a mediocre black-and-white cookie in a cellophane wrapper (slytus...), December 26th, 2006.

it wasn't so much in this one that they showed the aliens as much as that they looked too boring. they were way too similar to the critters in independence day.

the 50's WotW had some genuinely creepy aliens in it, especially with those crazy tri-color camera eyes!

You just hate families.

i know, i know, the rat. but i'd rather have an obvious joke than obvious sentiment.