Cat's Eye

I had one of those "I don't know what I was expecting" moments while watching Cat's Eye. I'm a cat lover and thought, "Well, it's called 'Cat's Eye' but I bet that's just like, you know, a clever thing. I bet there really isn't much about cats or anything in it." Well at least nothing happened to a cat's eye. That's a positive.

Alone In The Dark (The Not Shitty One)

You might be aware of the Uwe Boll, video game adaptation film "Alone In The Dark", but you probably aren't. Which is good. But if you are and you're thinking, "Hey, I"m aware of that." this is not that. This is from 1982 which was a good year for slasher films apparently (and a good year for biths)(knowing wink).

My Favorite 100 Films (From When I Was 29) (EDIT: or 28)

Basically I found a notebook from 2011 with a list of 100 films that I can only assume I made while bored in a class. So these are what I considered to be my favorite 100 films, from 2011. They definitely no longer represent my cinematic tastes but are a good little window into what blew my hair back then. Most of these (the majority) I'm still a big fan of but admittedly if I were to make this list again today I would probably leave off The Dark Knight. And Sin City. Yeesh.

[EDIT: I thought this list was from 2011, but further on in the notebook there's evidence that it might be from 2010][Not that that really matters at all]

Anyway, the list embiggens after the jump.

Mad Max Is Not Healthy For Dogs And Other Living Things

So if you read my last entry, about my experience watching the first Mad Max film, I'm happy to report that my concerns over it's cult world or cult status are gone. I now totally understand why Mad Max is a thing and I now totally get all of the "fallen world without gas and roving mutant gangs of monsters" popular culture reference points. Happily the film clears all of that right away, right in the beginning of the film, with a few minute montage and a nice voice over telling you everything you need to know. It's like a live action Second Renaissance but without robots and more realistic because it's really plausible and there aren't robots. (Although, seriously, how great is the Second Renaissance? Still? To this day? A thousand years laters?)

(Spoiler's after the jump, mate)

Mad Goose

Mad Max is one of those cult films that I heard a lot about growing up, but never got around to watching. It's also one of those films that even if you don't actually see it, it manages to find its way into your brain through the countless references, spoofs and mentions it gets throughout popular culture. With the new Mad Max film currently heating up the message boards (what?) and bringing in boffo reviews and wads of cash in the theatre, I thought it was time that I checked out the original 1979 film.

(Spoilers Below)

"Gonna Shoot Some Pigs"

“I don't know whats happening to me. I get funny ideas.”

Targets (1969) is the first film from Hollywood renaissance man Peter Bogdanovich and it doesn't show at all. At least not in the sense that one would expect from a first film. I didn't even know it was his first film until it finished and I started looking for information on the internet about it. Hard Eight by Paul Thomas Anderson feels like a first film. Even Reservoir Dogs at this point looks a bit clunky compared to the films that Tarantino has grown into making. Maybe not “clunky” but some effects definitely seem a little, well, like the film devices of a filmmaker finding his voice.

Get Smart

Growing up in New England I was familiar with the name “Pamela Smart” before I ever had any idea of who she was or why she was famous. New England is like that with our monsters and victims, Charles Stuart or Pamela Smart or Lewis Lent or Lisa Ziegert. They're all names you'd hear growing up and you'd understand that there was something wrong or shocking or disturbing because of the way the grown ups reacted, the way they talked about it, but you weren't really able to suss it out for yourself. And, speaking only for myself, why would you want to? You're a kid and the news is boring.