thehefner | Movies!

Since so many people seem to be busy, I've used what little free time I had to scour the video store for some interesting-looking fare. Here's what I saw this week:

"Wizards"- This seems to be the only film of Ralph Bashki's that pretty much everyone agrees on as being good. I mean, the man has a pretty mixed track record between "Fritz the Cat," "Heavy Traffic," "Cool World," and the failed incomplete "Lord of the Rings." Personally I thought his "Rings" was far better animated and interesting than "Wizards," which I found to be a mixed, uncertain, uneven work of animation. The animation appears very sloppy at times and very cutesy, which makes the violence all the more shocking, but even still one can't help wonder if Bashki was intending any of this to be ironic or not. Either way, I'm not sure it would have made me enjoy the film any more. It was very good in parts, especially the final showdown between Avatar and Blackwolf (which, kick-ass as it initially was, I can't help but wonder if it wasn't cynical or even hypocritical of Bashki... I wonder what he intended by that?).

"Audition"- Just saw this today, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. I've heard a good deal about Takeshi Miike's film and about how notoriously disturbingly violent he is, so I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about. Much of the movie seems to be a kind of sad, albeit a little twisted, romantic story between a middle-aged widower and a depressed young girl, but then things take on a decidely... disturbed direction, as the advertisements promised. Oh, this movie made me wince. I actually had to look away from the screen once. But by the time the credits began to roll, the inevitible question popped up: "What was the point?" And for such a critically-lauded film, I'd really like an answer.

Here's the thing: I'm a STRONG believer that there's a place for even the most explicit, extreme violence in a film, so long as it's there to further the story/message. Kill Bill and Saving Private Ryan, both examples where the violence his quite explicit, but in my opinion, never gratuitious (yes, I'll argue this for Kill Bill). But like the GOD-AWFUL Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (one of my most hated movies of all time) the violence here seemed to serve no purpose other than to shock, disturb, and disgust the audience. And I have no use for a film like that. Then again, sometime I wouldn't mind seeing this film again with someone else, because there was a lot of good stuff there, mainly in the non-disturbing human relations stuff. So we'll see.

"Aguirre, Wrath of God"- Awwwww yeah. Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog (who did the awesome German remake of "Nosferatu"), together in what many critics hail as their masterpiece. This was one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, but disturbing in the good way; I mean, you walk out of it with chills yet you feel completely invigorated. "Deliverance," the original "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," and "Clockwork Orange" are all films I would list under the category of "good disturbing," and "Aguirre" is right up there with them.

Apparently the Mexican Indians made up the legend of El Dorado to distract and mislead the Spanish conquistodors. I did not know this. It's an awesome setting- tired, exhausted, hungry Spaniards lost in the merciless jungles of Peru, slowly growing greedier, hungrier, and insane. For those who don't know Kinski, let me give you a little discription: when he played Nosferatu, they didn't have to add too much makeup. In "Aguirre," he looks like I've always imagined Shakespeare's Richard III looking like (and it doesn't hurt that he looks kinda like a longer-haired, ugly

fiveseconddelay), and his performance here is frickin' awesome. The last shot of this film is still burned in my memory, and I have yet to shake it. I love that feeling.

"Mousehunt"- Gore Verbinski's ("POTC," "The Ring") first movie, a visually awesome live-action Looney Toon with Nathan Lane at his old-Hollywood curmudgeon best (seriously, am I the only one who thinks he's the modern equivalent of Jackie Gleason and Zero Mostel?). Plus, add Lee Evans (the fake cripple from "Something About Mary"), William Hickey (the Puppet Master himself, in his last film role), and Christopher Walken as a mouse-shit-tasting exterminator, pit them all against one mouse, and hilarity, man does it ensue. This film never should have bombed. It deserves to be seen and quoted by every single one of you.

That's all for now. Unless I get something more of a social life soon, we'll see what other weird shit I can rent.