Okay, I have SO run out of money now, but life? Life is GOOD.

( Six things that have made me happy this week! )

So yes, that's what I'm currently being happy about. I hope you guys are all good, too. *attempts to hand around the happy in case anyone would like some*

Laters,
Rath

Okay! Prompted by rumblings from tribe sternenstaub's general direction, here is a list of Thirteen Films Rath Loves And Will Show At The Slightest Provocation (there are more, but I thought I'd limit myself a little...)

Trick or Treat (being the definition of what one certain strand of the eighties was ALL about, yes. Featuring Sammi Curr, the greatest fictional rock god of all time.)
Streets of Fire (rock opera. Only not. Only gritty and badass and snarky and slashy and amazing. This film makes me want to explode for joy. With added Jim Steinman songs! And Willem Dafoe in black vinyl!)
John Carpenter's Vampires (is sleazy and rough-edged and politically incorrect, violent and sexy and has an old priest, a young priest, a fantastic vampire, and James Woods being utterly brilliant)
Ghosts of Mars (because I want to see it again dammit and nobody ever wants to watch it with me. Primarily a visual-spectacle flick, recommended for anyone who likes glossy-edged, darkish, vaguely incomprehensible SF and anyone with a kink for sharp objects/piercings/body mods/black leather/pain.)
Last Action Hero (anyone who loves the way stories and worlds fit together should see this film. As should anyone who likes their villains intelligent, well dressed and dangerous. Warning: contains Arnold Schwarznegger sending himself up, which is dangerous levels of adorable.)
The Ninth Gate (I normally don't do the Johnny Depp thing, but when he's playing a complete bastard of a book dealer who's chasing down a book co-written by the Devil? Hell yes. Also, Frank Langella does his Bad Guy routine in this to wonderful effect. WIN.)
Batman Forever (because it's so slick and nineties and glossy and ridiculous and eye-candy, and I cannot get enough, ever, of this version of Two-Face and the Riddler - seriously, seeing is believing.)
David Cronenberg's Crash (I love this film and it's a lot more than just the shocker it was made out to be on its release, but just about everyone who has ever reviewed it has managed to make me go "What, no, YOU HAVE NO CLUE" so I always like rewatching it. But it's one that not many people I know have the stomach for, sadly. :/ )
Dracula (the 1979 version, for my money the finest portrayal of the Count ever, courtesy of Frank Langella. Beautifully sensual, ambiguous, subtle, and gorgeously shot, this is a lost classic of the highest order.)
Mortal Kombat (I will not try to be coherent about this film, never going to happen, seriously. Characters/design/fight cinematography/music/EVERYTHING++++++)
Ghost Rider (...obviously.)
Sin City (makes me cry and ache and cheer and gasp out loud every time. Best comic-noir movie ever made except, just possibly, Watchmen.)
The Shadow (most gorgeous America-that-never-was in the universe, Mongol warlords, and Alec Baldwin hamming it up. I love this film not so much for what it straightforwardly is, as for everything I can see just off the edges of the frame.)

If anything on that list sounds like something you want to see/resee/geek about, please leave a comment below and I will see what I can do! :)

Love,
Rath

So I was walking through town last night and spotted a double-decker bus with an advert on the side, as you see around English towns. My brain registered black, white, gold; sleek, hard, action-movie lines; a title, the face of the man at the bottom of the image. Thought process that followed went something like:

"Ooh, Bangkok Dangerous, must make sure I don't miss that... heh, I like that tagline.^[1] And ooh, Nic Cage is kinda hot in that shot - wait, what?"

*headdesk* Seriously, brain. I didn't even fancy Nic Cage when he was playing Johnny Blaze, for gods' sakes! Why now? What IS it about me and asdfghj long hair on guys?!

[1]A movie about a professional assassin with the tagline "It's all in the execution" is always going to have me on-side from the word go. Me and most of the voices in my head, for that matter. ^_^


*** Meanwhile, in other much more important news, I have a mysterious silver shiny in the post! And evidence suggests that this may be the fault of princess_kessie - thank you hon! *huggles* It's beautiful. ^_^ ***


And now, to work, wishing all the while that someone would come round, sweep me off my feet and take me out to lunch. I'm feeling a little worn down at the moment, not to mention hungry. Where's my handsome Prince of Darkness when I need one?

Laters,
The Navigator

Just watched 3:10 to Yuma with (lj)oml404 and I honestly can't recommend it highly enough. It's a classic Western of the old school, beautifully shot, laden with character and that special kind of controlled emotion that the genre does so well. Short version of the premise: a crippled war veteran whose ranch is on the verge of repossession volunteers, in exchange for the money that can save his family, to help escort a captured outlaw to the "3:10 to Yuma", the prison train that will take him up to his execution, and the long and convoluted road there causes both men to reassess their own ideas of honour, courage and loyalty. Both Christian Bale as burned-out good guy Dan Evans and Russell Crowe as charismatic, blackhearted villain Ben Wade turn in magnificent performances, and the ending moved me to the brink of tears. I won't say more because it's one I'd honestly rather people saw than were spoilered for, but it's wonderful. See it!

We followed that up with Jet Li's Fearless, which while it doesn't grab me so hard as some of the Chinese epics I've seen is certainly pretty good. It doesn't quite have the emotional intensity of things like House of Flying Daggers or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - mostly, I suspect, because Jet Li's acting honestly isn't all that - but any great martial arts movie should stand or fall on its fight scenes, and in that regard Fearless delivers and how. (Although at a couple of moments I admit I was thinking "dude, this is actually just ancient and honourable Chinese version of the WWE, isn't it?")

And finally, while we're talking videology - Youtube blindsided me this morning with one of the more startling things I've ever found on it. This is an old bit of camcorder footage from a Mayhem rehearsal, back in 1990 when both Euronymous and Dead were still in the band. I clicked this with interest, having seen a snippet of the footage before, and for a moment I thought it was actually some kind of joke - because - oh, just click it and you'll see. The opening segment looks like one of those dream sequences from some feelgood family movie, or possibly a Timotei advert. Like it couldn't possibly have less to do with the lords of true necro Black Metal.

Except of course it isn't a joke, it's a real clip. Boys and girls, Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin, singer for Mayhem and Morbid, suicide victim at the age of twentyone, legend of the Black Metal scene - and someone who got himself caught on camera, out of all the poses he could have been throwing, like that. Flowers in his hair, no less. Laughing in the sunshine and then ducking into the shade to join his friends and pick up the mic and sing his heart out like the world would never end. If someone had written that sequence into a Mayhem fanfic they'd have been crucified for OOC, and it's real. I love that.

(I know most of you won't know or care what this is about, or why it affects me so much - but for the two or three people who will, there you go. Inner Circle Kodak moment, just for you guys. *s*)

Laters,
The Navigator

PS - and for the one person who might want to know this, keep watching that Mayhem video if you've ever wanted a good look at Hellhammer's nipples. Seriously, I have no idea what was going on there. O_O

-N.

Saw Wanted last night. I have... absolutely no idea what I thought. It's completely insane. ^_^

I definitely enjoyed it, because it's slick and grimy and beautiful and filled with breathtaking stunts and gorgeous cars and highly charged gun and knife play and the kind of lush, hot, breathless over-visualisation that Bekmambetov does so well; but I'm damned if I can tell you whether it's a good movie or not. And also, the words "evil rug" are going to be a feature of my memetic vocabulary for WEEKS. >.>

Meanwhile, my PC at work has started making a noise like an ailing flying saucer about to crashland five miles away. Should I be worried?

...and as I started typing this post, someone outside the window started up a barrage of light electro/trance complete with symphonic bleepy effects on what sounds like a concert-size PA. It's obviously THAT sort of day today.

How is everyone?

Laters,
The Navigator

Remember my post yesterday about that CD I couldn't afford and should've bought when (lj)oml404 got his copy?

Well, he only went and GAVE me his copy when he saw me last night. O____^ Not only that, but he also threw in another even rarer EP that I also love and didn't own for the same reason! Thank you so much mate!

It's funny to think that this kind of impulsive act of human kindness could come from the same guy who was responsible for this video blog post. Warning: funny, in a very sick way, but NSFW, NSFbrains, NSFanything, really. Though anyone who's ever been annoyed by a certain badfic trope may find this deeply hilarious - I won't say more for fear of spoilering.

Oh, and speaking of spoilering (or not), The Incredible Hulk is good, go see it if you fancy a fun four-star superhero movie; it would have had to be as powerful as Ang Lee's old version to rate a five, but I can't point to any actual flaws that would take it below a four (unless of course you count Liv Tyler, who can cost any movie a point off its rating just by wandering onscreen and who was clearly only there to provide slashproofing). Though speaking of slash, for those who enjoy such, it does have one of the best "...you didn't just say that" slanted sequences I've seen in a long time, between Emil Blonsky (here excellently portrayed by Tim Roth) and a minor cast member. I will say no more, but I honestly couldn't stop laughing. ^_^

So yeah, today is a good day, although I still need more sleep. How's everyone?

Love,
Rath xxx

I've been hopping off to the movies a bit more often than usual of late, for some reason. As a result, I've drawn up quite a shortlist of Films I Need To See This Year. I'm listing them here mostly to make sure I don't forget any, but if anyone wants to volunteer to come to the pictures with me, do say so... ^_^

Wanted - It's Timur "Night Watch" Bekmambetov, I needed no further incentive - but just in case I did, the plot centres on a young man who discovers that he is the son of a supernaturally gifted assassin who worked for a secret fraternity whose job is apparently to protect the world from the things nobody else can protect it from. And his dad has just died, and he's got to pick up the torch and learn to be a super-... well, what? Hero? Antihero? Villain? It's not clear from the trailers, entirely. But it looks dark and dangerous and glamorous and generally right up the Rath alley, so I'll take this one as I find it.

Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army - I could very much take or leave the first Hellboy movie, but the trailer for this one made me fold up and flail violently the moment I saw it. Guillermo del Toro has finally decided that he's going to do exactly what he loves even when he's working Hollywood, by the look of it, and since he has a breathtakingly eerie and magical imagination, that can only be a good thing. Plus, the plot has the Prince of the fae realm (played, for added delights, by Luke "okay I used to be in Bros but I was fantastic in Blade II, so bite me" Goss) trying to take over/take back the regular world from the humans, and that generally makes for the kind of bad guy that I get so behind I'm peering over his shoulder going "are we there yet?" I can't wait for this one. "Let this remind you why you once feared the dark..." *shivers*

The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - I only just found out about this thanks to a trailer on the latest Indiana Jones. Now, call me a sucker, but anything with the Mummy franchise sticker in front of the title will have me falling over my own feet to see it. I know, I know, they're trashy cut-rate adventure movies with plot holes that you could (and indeed they occasionally do) drive a bus through, totally pulp movies for the modern era, but I have a blind spot a mile wide for anything featuring the Undead and the Mummy series have always done that side of things really well. So, er, yeah, anyone who can't handle my unwholesome interest in the walking dead, DON'T come with me to this one or indeed talk to me anytime in the three days following. >.>

The Forbidden Kingdom - I'm not sure if this is going to be amazing or terrible. It's got kung-fu comedy, which normally makes me back right up, but it's also big-scale and big-budget and has Jet Li as well as Jackie Chan in it so it might be more than just silly. Also, there's a beautiful and deadly-looking white-haired girl who I want to find out more about, so I'm going for her (damn, that's so unusual for me, I NEVER notice female leads!)

The Dark Knight - I can normally take or leave Batman (Marvel fan to the death, here!) but I admit, from the trailers, this does look fantastic. I'm actually quite keen on seeing this. (Don't tell anyone, though!)

ETA: Just found out about Outpost - horror movie based on the idea of Something That Survived from the Nazi's "experiments" in WWII. I know very little about this but the premise alone is enough to raise the hairs on the back of my neck, so I'm there...

(Distant descendent of edit: Just to remind myself not to miss Nic Cage's new vehicle Bangkok Dangerous either. My headcast want to see that one.)

So what's everyone else looking forward to? And have I missed anything?

Cheers,
The Navigator

Ladies and gentlemen, there will now follow a very short review of Grindhouse:



FAPFAPFAPFAPFAPFAPFAP... *pant*... fap. *splat*

^_^



( Longer review of Grindhouse, with some spoilers, under here. )

Oh, and, sternenstaub? Just for you (and Weiss), here's the trailer for Werewolf Women of the SS. Did I mention that the other cool thing about Grindhouse is the trailers for fictional exploitation flicks that are stuck in front of the two feature films? Well, it is. And I saw this one, I laughed an awful lot, and I thought of you guys. ♥

So, yeah. Sorry that was a long-ass rambling review, everyone...

Laters,
The Navigator