XTRO (1983)

OVERLOOKED HORROR FILMS PART 1

This is going to be the first in a series of short reviews of horror films which I think have been overlooked for the most part, either by critics or the general public. The first entry in this series is XTRO.

Directed by Harry Bromley Davenport in 1983, this is a pretty bizarre film but great fun indeed. One of those movies which people immediately write off, yet the images and atmosphere seem to stick with you for years. I remember the first time I watched it when I was about 13 or 14. I saw the cover at our local video store and knew it was something I just had to check out. Back then, the local rental shop was just a convenience store up the street with a selection of maybe 300 titles. How XTRO ever made it into that tiny little bumfuck convenience store in Bath NB, I'll never know. My guess is that the distributing company probably couldn't sell it so they gave it to as many stores as they could just to get rid of it's foul stench.

Anyway, here's the fuckin plot all laid out, which isn't much. Tony's father Sam, was abducted by aliens three years earlier, returns to earth (through a pretty disgusting re-birth scene) and seeks out his wife and son, but Rachel has since been slappin bellies with another guy so the reunion is not the best timing and the feeling when he comes back is obviously pretty tense and uncomfortable. Joe doesn't like or trust Sam, and Rachel's feelings for her two men are pretty confused. Sam is not the same as when he left, and he begins "affecting" Tony in frightening ways. One day, Tony catches his dad eating snake eggs and gets upset. Dad explains to Tony where he's been and that he's "changed".

Tony begins to notice that he has power to bring things to life. Action figures come to life and kill the nosy neighbor, the toy clown in Tony's room comes to life and starts putting alien eggs in the bathtub, shit just starts getting fucky from here on in. There's a scene with a black dog that serves no purpose to the film whatsoever, but it still creeps the shit out me every time I see it. The overall atmosphere of the film is pretty disturbing and dark.

There's no shortage of good gore scenes. The birth scene is truly gut-wrenching and pretty realistic looking. For the small budget the director had to work with, I think the special effects are pretty good. There's no CGI in the movie, this was made before it was the "in" thing to do.

If you want a truly entertaining horror movie, don't pass this up. The story is pretty inconsistent and scattered, but that's not so important as the atmosphere and mood. You'll be pleasantly surprised I think. Just don't have any expectations like this is going to be ALIEN or anything, cause it's not.

WONDER SHOWZEN

A friend of mine turned me on to this bizarre "kids" show recently. It has to be one most original ideas on TV to come around in awhile.

On the surface, it looks like a lids show, modeled after Sesame Street with puppets interacting with real human beings, plus animated spots. But this ain't no kids show. And even though I say that, I think kids SHOULD watch it for that reason. This show tackles some very deep social issues in a very entertaining and funny way. This may be the perfect way for kids to learn about issues like racism, freedom of speech, how the US treats war veterans, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc... Schools and most parents these days seem to just want to hide their kids from the harsh realities of life by not telling them anything. I don't think age makes any fucking difference.

Anyway, every episode that I've seen so far is full of goodies. The SPACE episode where the blue puppet "CLARENCE" interviews people about things like Freedom of Speech. He just keeps cutting them off as soon as they start to say something, then he gives the constitution to a black guy in the park, who proceeds to burn it.

Another thing Clarence does to piss people off is to walk up to people talking on their cell phones and get right in their face constantly telling them it's rude. Another show, he decides to take a trip to Harlem to interview people to find out "what makes people angry?"

The songs are hilarious, especially "SLAVES" showing kids happily jumping around shouting the chorus:
SLAVES!
Build the Pyramids
SLAVES!
Build the Parthenon
SLAVES!
Build America
SLAVES!
This is your song, thank you

If you have any sort of sick twisted sense of humor like me, then do yourself a favor and watch this stuff. You'll piss yourself laughing. Season 2 is still running on TV, so it's not out on DVD yet.

NB/East Coast Slang Part 6

ain't-she-wha \'ain[t]-shee-'wah\ interj - Basically a simple question tag literally meaning "isn't she, what?" and equivalent in meaning to "isn't it, though?" or "don't you think so?" or the unmistakably Canadian "eh?" Usually used as an emphasizer.

EX.1 "Jesus, she's pretty hot, ain't-she-wha?"
EX.2 "She's a looker ain't-she-wha?"

The picture above is from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, where Indy says to Brody "Them's good potatoes they got there in New Brunswick, don't-they-wha?"

CCBE at MySpace

Ben Wilson, the other retarded cohort from our duo, Cream Corn Barf Extravaganza, has set up a MySpace site if anyone is interested. The link is on the sidebar or just click HERE. Not many people has looked at it or added anything, and we don't expect many people will. It has some song samples that are not on the Flux site, so go and get retarded fuckers.

George Lucas sucks balls

I'm sure you have all heard by now that George Lucas, being the greedy self-centered prick that he is, refuses to release a good anamorphic version of the original Star Wars trilogy. His idea of fulfilling the purist fans' wishes is to transfer them from Laserdisc to DVD with no clean-up.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm glad they are finally being released and I am optimistic in thinking that we will get a new transfer from the best possible film source materials Lucasfilm has. No digital cleanup, no recomposited special effects, no remastered audio. Just a nice transfer from fairly clean elements with all the original flaws intact. That's fine with me, because to be honest, I don't like the "clean up" job on the 2004 trilogy box set. the black levels are off, and the colors are too "enhanced" for my liking.

It's the fact that George Lucas is so adament about protecting his artisitc integrity and vision that his attitude is to just ignore his purist fans, which he owes his career to. We, the fans, made him the rich bastard that he is today. To snub them off is very rude, in my opinion. It would have really easy to do it right the first time around by putting out a proper boxset with either 2-sided DVD's, the original untouched movie on one side, the "enhanced" version on the other. But he made his fans BEG just to get him to put them out at all. Even a petition site was created that many people signed before he gave fans their wish. That's prettty low. Yeah, they are HIS movies, but without his fans, he'd be nothing.

In the new "enhanced" versions, none of the new additions are necessary or crucial to helping the story, and some of the changes are just downright stupid, especially at the end of Return of the Jedi where they replace the ghost of Anakin Skywalker with Hayden Christenson. What the fuck?

All the movies in the second trilogy suck balls. Jar Jar Binks sucks balls. Hayden Christenson sucks balls. And most of all, George Lucas REALLY sucks balls. Piss off and retire already, ya Kurosawa rip-off...

SANTANA LOTUS

If you're a SANTANA fan, you should definitely obtain a copy of the new Japanese re-issue of LOTUS in the mini LP-style paper sleeve. I'm a big fan of these little paper sleeve versions of CD's and I have quite a few. I even bought paper sleeve versions of CD's I already own, that's how much I like them. I know it's crazy, but I guess it's the collector in me.

Anyway, this is a combination of 2 live shows that were done in Osaka in 1973, part of Japan tour in support of the Caravanserai album. If you are familiar with the original LP pressing of this which only came out in Japan, you'll know that it has some pretty eye-popping artwork and packaging, one of the most elaborate record sleeves ever.

Of course the scaled down version is every bit true to the original, right down to photocopied flyers that came with it at the time. It's an 11-part sleeve, that was designed by Yokoo Tadanori, and is expected to enter the Guinness Book of World Records this month as the biggest record packaging ever. It was also really fucking expensive to produce, with Japan at the time suffering from high paper prices resulting from the "oil shock". This legendary package has 22 sides and folds out like a lotus blossom. When you put the different fold-outs together, it's supposed to form some kind of trippy-dippy "dimension" cube.

Awesome package, but let's not forget the music! This album captured Santana in their peak and is considered one of the best live albums ever recorded. I'd have to agree. Santana is on fucking FIRE here!!! His best guitar playing ever, sometimes bordering on chaos. My favorite track the 16 minute masterpeice "Incident at Neshabur", my favorite Santana song of all time. If you listen to the full 2 hour set with no breaks, you'll be satisfyingly exhausted.

Anyway, I'll say no more. Listen to it for yourself. Also check out CARLOS SANTANA/BUDDY MILES (another equally great live album), C. SANTANA/JOHN McLAUGHLIN -LOVE DEVOTION SURRENDER, MOONFLOWER, SANTANA 3, WELCOME! and CARAVANSERAI, all great albums. Stay away from his newer shit like SUPERNATURAL and ALL THAT I AM because that's what it is. SHIT. Looks like he's lost the fire...

JEFF WALKER does "CUNTRY"??

What the fuck??!!! I couldn't belive my eyes when I saw this at TOWER yesterday. Former CARCASS member Jeff Walker has made a fucking country album. It's called "JEFF WALKER UND DIE FLUFFERS - Welcome To Carcass Cuntry" on Cargo records which includes notables like Ville Vallo on bass/vocals from H.I.M., Hellacopters' Nicke Andersson, former Carcass bandmates Bill Steer and Ken Owen, Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost and Billy Gould,, Faith no More's ex-bassist.

I haven't heard it yet and I don't know if I will buy it or not. I'll probably just download it first to see what it's like. After I'll add a review to this post. I DO know one thing. This is probably the WORST album cover I've ever seen. It would've been cooler to see Jeff Walker all dressed up in cowboy attire on a horse roping in some cattle or something. This cover is just rotten.

Anyway, go HERE for a review of it.

Nikon Coolpix S6 first impressions.

Finally got a new digital camera. I went out yesterday to experiment with it. All in all it's a pretty decent camera that takes good pictures and it's really easy to use. Nice design which which is really light and thin, very comfortable to hold. I like the blur warning and the one touch brighten button. If your pictures are underexposed, you can brighten them in playback mode with one touch without erasing the original.

Things I'm not so happy with are the flash, which is a bit on the bright side and the zoom. If you zoom in too close, even in the daytime, pictures can be a bit blurry or grainy. Maybe I just have to keep experimenting with different settings. It's only the first day using it after all. Another small but annoying thing is the on/off button, which is too small, so someone with big hands may have a hard time turning it on.

I took around 2 shots with it, and most of them turned out pretty well, very crisp image quality at 6.0 Megapixels. Colors range from from pretty good to very good, but not excellent. Anyway, I usually tweak the colors in Photoshop to my liking anyway. This is a pretty good camera for the money and a good choice for graphic designers I think. The only big difference with this one and the lower priced Coolpix S5 Camera is that the S6 has a slightly wider image area and wireless download capability, which is worth the extra dough.

Read more specs about it HERE... Cheers!

Seven Samurai remake!?

Oh No. Someone told me this and I thought they were lying until I researched it myself. This is just terrible terrible news. KUROSAWA will be rolling over in his grave. Get this. They even changed the title to "SAMURAI 7", how original. George Clooney's gonna be in it? F'kin c'mon. . ... this remake shit has got to stop.

Also being remade is THE GREAT ESCAPE and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. What's next? Jesus, why don't they just remake BACK TO THE FUTURE while they're at it? It's not too soon is it? Kevin Spacey can play Marty. How about Indiana Jones? Cast Leonardo diCRAPIO as Indy. How bout a STAR WARS remake? Tom Cruise can play Luke and Reese Witherspoon can play Princess Leia. Celine Dion should be hired to do the soundtrack.

I wish these overly ambitious, shitty producers and "directors" (if you can call them that) would fuck off and stop flooding the market with pointless remakes. Get some new ideas for chrissake.

Read more about 7 Samurai HERE:

Celtic Frost is BACK!!!

I gotta say that when I heard about CELTIC FROST getting back together and this new album coming out, I had mixed reactions. Considering that their last few albums sucked before disbanding in the early nineties (especially VANITY/NEMESIS and COLD LAKE), I wasn't expecting the new album to be a revelation or anything. Boy, was i DEAD wrong! From the opening chords of the first track, I knew this was a true comeback of a legendary band that I have sorely missed for a long time. It's really awesome to see the old logo being used again too.

Don't expect MORBID TALES or TO MEGA THERION, but MONOTHEIST is definitely Celtic Frost returning to form and THE BEST metal album of the year so far. They've never sounded better. The producer on this one, Peter Tägtgren helped the boys get a great sound, everything raw but not too polished. This is as heavy as anything they've ever done in my opinion. Tom G still has the rough-edged voice, the guitars still have that classic Frost sound. There's really some fresh ideas here and even though it's unmistakably Frost, they sound like a new band. This album is more doomy and dark than anything they've ever done before but it's still got an accessibility to it that will interest new metal fans as well as pleasing the old die-hards like myself.

The first 2 tracks PROGENY and GROUND are pretty fat and brutal before we get into the sludgier, darker territory starting with track 3 DYING GOD COMING INTO HUMAN FLESH which is one of my favorite tracks, reminding me a bit of "Dethroned Emporer" from MORBID TALES. The next track DROWN IN ASHES opens up with some beautiful guest vocals, courtesy of Lisa Middlehauve from Xandria. Tom does some pretty creepy vocals on this track too. Very mysterious reminding me of the more experimental CF like INTO THE PANDEMONIUM and TRAGIC SERENADES. The next track OS ABYSMI VEL DAATH is a very heavy fucker indeed, with an interesting dark ambient part around the 4-minute mark, returning back to the chorus then bleeding into the bonus track "Temple of Depression". Really effective. Believe me, buying the digipack version just for this track is worth it.

OBSCURED is probably the most commercial on the album with a definite gothic feel, especially because of the female harmonies. Catchy chorus. Not my favorite, but still a good track nonetheless. DOMAIN OF DECAY is another heavy bastard full of good riffs and wicked vocals. This is another one of my faves. AIN ELOHIM is one of the faster tracks on the album, with some pretty creepy vocals near the end and a short freak out noise guitar part.

TOTENGOTT is one of the more ambient tracks with a lot of programmed stuff, synths and some truly chilling and sick vocals by Martin Ain. Kind of reminds me of Skinny Puppy's CHORALONE off RABIES. The fifteen minute SYNAGOGA SATANAE is the epic doom track of the album full of orchestral and choir arrangements which mix perfectly with the heavy parts. Martin does a spoken word part in German that is pretty alien, to say the least.

The last aptly-titled track, WINTER is a perfect closer, a classical arranged piece which sounds like a mix of real strings and electric keyboards.

I'm predicting this will be on a lot of "top metal albums" lists this year. Try to get the limited digipack version if you can, it's got a different cover (which is better than the jewel case version), a poster and an extra track TEMPLE OF DEPRESSION which is absolutely worth having.

It's glad to see CELTIC FROST are back. Let's hope they're going to be around for a while to come.

Small change to the blog

Starting this month, I'm going to have my top ten lists part of the sidebar on the right. No big deal, I just thought it would be more logical to put it there. I'll probably add some more stuff to the sidebar later...

HANA"MUTHAFUCKIN"TARASH!!!

the BOREDOMS and their various members, especially frontman, Yamatsuka EYE, have released a ton of recordings over the last 20 years or so, most of which are out of print now and probably will never be repressed.

Let's start with the various works, bands and side projects of Yamatsuka EYE (otherwise known as Yamantaka EYE), mostly known as the lead screamer and king of fuckery for the BOREDOMS. For a more complete version of the BOREDOMS side projects, you have to check out the SORE DIAMONDS page. It's pretty impressive indeed. I've talked to many people in Osaka, including Yamazaki Maso (Masonna) and EYE just flat out refuses to re-issue most of his back catalogue for some reason. Especially the classic HANATARASH 1, 2, 3, and 4, DESTROY 2, UFO or DIE, Puzzle Punks, DJ Carhouse & MC Hellshit, etc. I notice some of the BOREDOMS CD's are back in print, like Super Roots 3, 5 and 6, but quite a few remain OOP.

It's a shame, because I've seen various bootleg incarnations of the Hanatarash CD's floating around on Yahoo Auction and they are fetching quite a high price for a CD-ROM bootleg. A few years ago someone put out a 5 CD-ROM compilation of the early Hanatarash cassettes out titled "We Are Hardcore!! early tapes of the Hanatarashi" under no label. Not much info is known and I think it was very limited. I'd like to get ahold of it though. I do have a few of the Hanatarash cassettes and they're some of the best of EYE's discography.

There was talk years ago about a 100-CD set of John Zorn and Yamatsuka EYE, The Complete Hong Kong and China recordings, but the label that was supposed to put it out went tits up. It's unknown as if it will ever see the light of day.

It would be nice to see the HANATARASH catalogue get the proper boxset treatment. Same with the BOREDOMS, or UFO or DIE. But it seems EYE wants to leave the past buried. I guess it makes owning the originals that much more precious. It's a shame, because EYE used to release shit all the time, but nowadays we're lucky if we see anything at all.

Most of the other stuff by other members is still in print. I think everything from Yoshimi's popular OOIOO project is still in print. Most of Seichi Yamamoto's stuff is in print. On the other hand, almost everything by Hira's band, HANADENSHA is out of print.

I have a pretty hefty BOREDOMS collection which I'm pretty happy with, but there's still lots of holes in it and it probably pales in comparison to some people in Japan. Actually, I acquired most of it BEFORE I came to Japan. So when I came to Japan, it wasn't long before I filled in the essential holes.

Anyway, below are some links of interest if you want dive into BOREDOMS madness a little further:
BOREDOMS EYE EAR NOSE THROAT PAGE
BOREDOMS TEMPLE OF WORSHIP
UNSOUND
HANATA "MUTHAFUCKA" RASH PAGE

Layers Magazine

Just some news that my work is going to appear in the July/August issue of LAYERS magazine, the "how-to magazine for everything Adobe". This is the same company that publishes PHOTOSHOP USER magazine. This'll be the 5th time my work has been published in a magazine, but the first time to be in a U.S. Magazine. Anyway, please look for it when it comes out. For those of you who live in Japan, I guess it may be hard to find. They're sending me copies, so that's the only way I can see it. By the way, the cover pictured here is not the cover for the July/August issue, it's only used for a reference point. Cheers...

Neil Young: Time Fades Away

I was thinking about this album today, like I do every so often, and think, fuck, why hasn't this classic live performance of Neil Young been properly re-issued on CD? This is widely considered by many people to be not only his best live album, but best album, period, the "holy grail" of his catalogue. I'd have to agree i think. This was recorded right after Harvest I believe, maybe I'm wrong.

I also wonder if this is a full performance or just parts. My guess is that it isn't the full show, it'd be nice to see a "complete" version of it come out.

In an effort to get this gem of essential Neil Young released, fans have started a petition at THIS SITE requesting that the album be officially released. MUCH MORE information about this album can be read at this site. Those interested in obtaining a legit copy of Time Fades Away are encouraged to sign the frikkin petition. Whether it will make a difference or not, who knows, but if you really love this album, it can't hurt to take the 30 seconds to sign it.

Until it gets a proper release, you can download mp3's of it from this site, they're just burned from the LP. Go to the March Archives, scroll down the page and you'll find the post:
http://www.buddyhead.com/mp3blog/

Long live Neil Young!!!!!!!!!!

The Genius of Andrei Tarkovsky

Only recently I have been turned on to the amazing cinema of the famous Russian director, Andrei Tarkovsky. Better late than never I guess.

I had only seen 1 film of his a long time ago, SOLARIS, which is widely regarded as one of his most accessible films and has very well known recently because of the remake a few years that came out, with George Clooney, which was totally unnecessary. Needless to say, it didn't even come close to the original, but it wasn't a total disaster either, like I thought it would be. Anyways, I have to admit that when I saw Tarkovsky's original, I didn't really like it. That was at a time when my taste in films weren't very wide-ranging. It was just too slow for me. I was still conditioned by the Hollywood sensibilities. But re-approaching it after 10 years or more, the film blew me away. Some critics refer to it as Russia's answer to 2001, but I think that's a weak comparison. This movie stands alone as one of the most memorable and beautiful sci-fi movies ever made. The story follows a scientist and space explorer on a strange journey to a planet where memories can take physical form. Sounds like a very simple story, right? But the further into it you travel, the more fucked up everything seems. Sometimes the meaning is hard to grasp and the pace is very slow, then suddenly after 2 1/2 hours of space headfuck trip, it moves into a twisted, unsettling vision of memory and home. Check it out.

I've haven't seen all of his films yet, but I would say a perfect starting point for the beginner is Зеркало (Mirror) from 1974, which is probably his most personal film where he's at the peak of his powers. This is an autobiographical work in which Tarkovsky mixes flashbacks, dreams, historical footage and original poetry to illustrate the reminiscences of a dying man about his childhood during World War II, adolescence, and a painful divorce in his family. The story interweaves reflections about Russian history and society. The film opens up with a stuttering boy cured by a hypnotist and announcing that he will now speak clear and strong. It's a very strong opening to a film. Tarkovsky really represents dreams in a way that I've never seen in cinema before. The images and sounds are just simply beautiful. One of the most haunting and surreal scenes is the rainstorm inside the house. Don't try to make any sense of the movie, just sit back and allow the images and sounds to wash over you. It's a truly wonderful experience for those who appreciate such beauty. I know that sounds fruity, but it really IS something else.

Another notable epic is Andrei Rublev, a collection of metaphorically related scenes that loosely follow the life of Russia's great medieval artist, Andrei Rublev, about nothing less than the struggle between mankind's spiritual nature and carnal temptation. It's one of the few "Christian" films that neither belittles the faithful nor holds religon as more important than the "unfaithful" ones. This is a pretty dense story, so don't expect a family blockbuster kind of epic like "TROY" or even "LORD OF THE RINGS". There are some pretty brutal scenes of violence and nudity, there's one scene where it shows a guy carving out another man's eyes. Lots of realistic battle scenes in the second half of the film. If you're an animal activist, you may be shocked, there's a few animals that die in this movie. I don't think it was faked. Whether you're Christian or not, you'll still enjoy this film. The best version of it is on Criterion, it's the only version which has the full cut.

The other film I'm going to mention is his first 43-minute short film "The Steamroller and the Violin" which is just a simple film with the central characters being a young boy, Sasha, and a steamroller-operator, Sergei. Sasha has studied the violin for two years but his musical genius far surpasses other kids his age. One day Sasha is bullied by a bunch of snot-nosed ruffians when Sergei steps in and scares them off. From here, the relationship between them begins. The interesting thing about them is that they are one and the same person, just at two different levels of artistic experience. Sasha has imagination and ability and Sergei has more practical discipline and so he serves as the male mentor for Sasha. The only thing that really divides them is age, social purpose, personal abilities, etc; yet, these two very different people become good friends. Igor Fomchenko plays Sasha, the young boy, and he's brilliant. Very vivid colors and memorable throughout. My only complaint is that i wish it was longer.

I haven't seen STALKER yet, but I am going to order it next week. I'll probably post my comments about it after I watch it a few times. Anyway, if I've sparked your interest at all about Tarkovsky's films, and you would like to know more, a good place to go would be the NOSTALGHIA website. Great site devoted to the man and his art, has very thorough DVD reviews and comparisons between different versions of his films on DVD.

Go and Sign the Petition: Let the public gain control the way information is broadcasted, not the corporations

Hats off to organisations like Adbusters who give a shit about what's happening to our world, trying to make people aware of over-consumption and the effect it is having on our natural resources and general well-being. It's very unfortunate that Japan, Canada and many other countries are becoming like the USA, run by huge corporations and WE ARE LETTING IT HAPPEN! They try to dictate our way of living and thinking and they are very much succeeding. If just a few million people started making conscious choices by not supporting corporations so much, things would radcially change and the ppower would eventually fall back into OUR hands, not the corporation.

With your efforts, we can gain equal access to the airwaves.

The following text is taken from the Adbusters website. Please read it, follow the link and take the measly 2 minutes to sign the petition:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

— Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19


For years, the Adbusters Media Foundation struggled to buy television airtime for its no-holds-barred series of anti-consumption, pro-restraint campaign spots. When the network reps were feeling generous, they would impatiently explain that they don’t run any advocacy ads (not true), or that our spots are inimical to their business model (unbridled consumption). More often than not, they would decline to give us any reason whatsoever (the big business equivalent of “because I said so”). And the rejections kept rolling in.

Finally, in 2004, we decided that we’d had enough – enough of media conglomerates arbitrarily deciding what ideas can be broadcast over the public airwaves, enough of unfettered commercial access to those same airwaves, and enough of the government’s inaction allowing it all to continue. We hired an expert lawyer and filed a lawsuit against a few of Canada’s biggest media barons.

Things did not initially go as planned. (Read the rest of the article HERE

BAD BOY BUBBY

Well, what we have here is a brilliantly mad and touching story of "Bubby" played wonderfully by Nicholas Hope and directed by Rolf de Heer. Bubby's been shut within his crazy mom's dark, dingy apartment for his entire life (35 years). His mother constantly tells him the air outside is poisonous so he's not allowed out. Every day he does various activities to keep himself busy, like wrapping a cat up in plastic (to see if it breathes), catching bugs and playing with them, fucking his mom, sitting in a chair looking catatonically into space, etc etc.

Things change when suddenly one day Bubby's dad shows up after 35 years, not knowing he has a son. Wanting to patch things up with his wife and son, he moves in, but quickly realizes his son is a fucking weirdo. "Christ kid, your a weirdo!" as he puts it.

Bubby only seems to be able to communicate by mimicking what others say and do and there's a really funny sequence where he imitates his dad by putting on his dad's uniform and cutting off about half an inch of hair from his head, then pasting it on his face to make a beard just like daddy's. It's a truly funny and warped scene.

When Bubby's parents go out drinking one night, he completely trashes the place and seizes an opportunity to escape, and starts on a twisted journey into the outside world of sex, booze, crime and pizza.

There are so many memorable scenes in the film. Actually I can't think of one bad scene, everything is weaved together perfectly, despite the film having various cameramen. The thing that really holds the film together is the strength of Bubby's character.

I gotta say that there have been many actors who've portrayed "mad bastards" like Dustin Hoffman in "Rainman", Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" and "One Flew over the cuckoo's nest", Billy Bob Thornton in "Sling Blade", etc etc etc., but Nicholas Hope's portrayal of Bubby is one of the best and most convincing performances I've seen to date, I shit you not. It's flawless.

At times the movie is really dark, at times sad, at times funny. I know it's cheesy to say this, but this film will really change you. This film will leave you thinking for weeks, months, years maybe.

One reviewer on Amazon had a good description of the film. "It's a social commentary that goes 'outside the box', and delivers a thought provoking, if not exaggerated portrayal of the world around us, and how humans function, or not, within it."

Best film I've seen in a long time. Hollywood could've never made this movie.

Brokeback Mountain

The only reason I watched this film in the first place is because my wife kept bugging me to download it because she wanted to see it. All she told me was that it was a "gay cowboy drama movie" based on true events back in the 60's somewhere in bumfuck USA. So my first reaction was a little mixed.

I did some research to find out that Ang Lee was the director. I'd only seen 2 other movies of his, HULK, which was OK, and the somewhat over-hyped CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON. So I thought it might not be so bad.

First of all, let me just say that I'm not gay, but I have nothing against people who are. I'm also not a homophobe or a gay basher or anything like that. In my opinion, love is love, and if a man happens to love another man, well, that's his choice and it should be respected. Doesn't have to be understood, just respected. So if you're going to watch this movie you obviously have to have an open mind. In other words, rednecks and racists need not apply.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how good this film is. Everything works on a grand scale. Great acting, great cinematography, good script and an awesome soundtrack of existing tunes plus beautiful sparse compositions written especially for the film by Gustavo Santaolalla, who also did music for the recent film MOTORCYCLE DIARIES.

What surprises me is that nothing is contrived, and Hollywood is not deceiving us with any tricks here or false emotions. It's a very simple story told with brutal truth and sincerity. It's the story of 2 men's lives and that's it. It doesn't matter what orientation you are, gay or straight, this movie will move you. I think it will definitely make many people think differently about same-sex relationships, life and love after watching this film.

Anyway, check it out for yourself. You can read tons more reviews on amazon or imdb, so draw your own opinions...

Top 10 lists April 2006

Top 10 lists for March 2006

Spins

Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Bathory - Hammerheart
Rolling Stones - The London Years Singles Collection
Fairground Attraction - The First of a million kisses
Hafler Trio - 7 Hours Sleep
Edward Artemiev - Film music for Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris, Stalker and Mirror
M.O.D. - USA for MOD
Amon Tobin - Chaos Theory
Amon Tobin - Out from out where

Movies (by Director)

The Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky
The Steamroller and the violin - Andrei Tarkovsky
Ivanovo Detstvo - Andrei Tarkovsky
Ubijtsi - Andrei Tarkovsky
TheBattleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
Alexander Nevsky - Sergei M. Eisenstein
Woman in the Dunes - Hiroshi Teshigahara
Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee
The Wanderers - Philip Kaufman

Stagefright: Aquarius

I just stumbled across a Japanese version of a film called "STAGEFRIGHT" a few days ago by popular Italian director, Michele Soavi. The Japanese title is "AQUARIUS". My decision to buy it was purely based on the cover image which shows a posterized owl head, and the main picture is a stage full of corpses with this dude in the middle wearing a big owl head. I thought it looked pretty cheesy, but I was morbidly curious and it was only 100 yen anyway.

It's actually not as bad as it looks. I didn't expect much to begin with, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a pretty good stylish piece of 80's Italian slasher film. It kinda drags for the first half before all the killing starts, but gets better in the second half. Towards the end it gets pretty creepy and tense. The acting is far from awesome, it's actually pretty bad but that was pretty much the standard for 80's movies slasher movies of this type anyhow. All this aside, it's still worth watching at least once. The music is pretty much your standard 80's Goblin rip-off, with heavy synth, drum machine, phased guitar, etc...

There isn't much of a plot to this, and you never really get too close to the characters. The director is a complete ass, another guy is an over-the-top gay stereotype with a lisp, the other actors are pretty much just faceless victims.

Anyway the basic plot is that a killer wearing a big owl mask goes apeshit at a light-night rehearsal for a musical. How did he get the owl mask? OK, well, the killer is a guy who happened to break out of an insane asylum the same night and he goes to the rehearsal and kills the gay guy, hides his body, then steals his costume, including the owl head.

All the actors become trapped in the building when the key is lost, and the only person who knows where it is has been murdered. The reason she has the only key is because the director is a major hard-ass and makes them work all night by locking them in the building.

For the first 40 minutes or so, the characters pretty much just stand around and talk or complain about nothing in particular, or rehearse their shitty musical. But once Mr. Owlhead comes into the picture, it doesn't take long for him to polish everyone off. The murder scenes are pretty well done, with the FX being pretty mediocre: pick-axe through the mouth, stabbing, chainsawing, drill impalation, an axe decapitation and a chick gets ripped in half.

One of the best scenes involves a stabbing during a rehearsal of the play. The killer (the guy who escapes from the mental institution) is mistaken for the gay actor in the play, and proceeds to stab the victim in front of everyone. It cuts between shots of the killer attacking her and close-ups of each of the witnesses faces, showing their confusion and horror.

The other memorable and somewhat famous scene of the killer hanging around on the stage with his victims is pretty creepy. It ends with him sitting down and stroking a cat, with his victims lying all over the stage, and a fan blowing feathers around the stage with music playing in the background. It has little meaning, but it's still pretty awesome.

Anyway, check it out. It should also be noted that this director worked with Dario Argento on a few of his films, so I think he got his "basic training" from Argento.