<Soundtracks For Them>

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Sixty Seconds On Film, May 2006.

Okay - so whats the deal? Well the plan is to do some pretty succint reviews of the films I see each month in one post, and then start another similar thread at the end of the next month. Films can be both contemporary, recent and old. Previous Sixty Seconds On Films have been written in April, March, Feb and Jan'06. This month has been very quite over-burdened as I am with work, but here it is..

Night Watch: This is a pure cinematic epic that remixes the mythologies of movies as varied as Highlander and Lord of the Wings. It's no surprise that Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov got his start messing around on music videos, with this piece ransaking the music video vaults of convention to add an extra stunning dimension to action sequences that remain controlled enough to avoid over shadowing a complex and intriguing premise. The vampires as junkies theme is certainly one that should prick up the ears of horror fans left feeling stunted dosing on B-movies that enter into a critical dialogue with their genre that is about as deep as Noddie is multi-cultural. What 28 Days Later did for the Troma movie fan, Night Watch could do just yet for Hammer obsessives.

Dagon: a strange journey into the heart of the Lovecraft watery pantheon here in a horror flick that echoes the tensions of a revived paganism gripping a small island community in a manner that prempted the Wickerman by decades. Well worth a gander, if not a little offbeat.

Tron: for those of us capable of recalling the monochrome glory of a Commodore 64 screen, watching Tron certainly elicits some memories of the delusional optimism of a new world blooming that accompanied that early '80's IT revolution. Anyone of us could have been that hot shot Pong playing kid from War Games that cracked into military hardware and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Tron sees the same idea unfold, the difference between video-gaming and hardcore computer hacking is miniscule, so you enter the game to take on the Master Control Programme, a fascistic device that's wrecking havoc inside the 8 bit world. Spill a load of philosophical drivel straight out of the determinism debate over the characters within the comouter and you've got a movie thats failings really highlight just how remarkable Gibson's early cyber punk visions.

Hostel: all the qualities and atmosphere of a nightmare abound in this intelligent aping of 1980's gore flicks. A duo of jocular Americans screw their way across Europe before heading back to the coal face of study in their Ivy league colleges. But a journey to the East sees these Adam Sandler moments being butt fucked with a broken bottle by the spirit of Japanese horror movies. Eastern Europe has always had a funny part to play in horror and this movie too descends into a strangely cliched imagining of its darker and more gruesome urban myths. But that certain xenophobic overdrive in relation to Eastern Europe is nicely compensated for with its bizarre treatment of the commodifaction of the flesh from prostitution to the more twisted end of the market. This isn't one for the squemish, there are plenty of moments where you feel like a needle is dangling above your eye ball about to poke it out but the gore doesn't drown what is a fairly intelligent movie, that remains griping through out.

Labels: Film

# posted by antrophe @ 9:03 PM

Comments:

Antrophe, I know you like to pretend you're going through a mid-life crisis, and get all nostalgic for your youth, but you're only 23. You don't remember the "early '80's IT revolution". You weren't born till 83!

On the other hand.... dingding

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:23 AM

Here...go suck a lollypop.

# posted by

antrophe : 3:43 PM

We all agree with Dr. Dingalicious, and find your patronising, dismissive reply quite offensive.

In the 7 years we studied under Professor Dingalicious, we found him to be an extremely intelligent, thought-provoking and inspirational mentor. You would do well to listen to him.

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:54 PM

Gee, thanks you guys, mighty kind words. How are you all these days? Keeping busy?

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:44 PM

Yea, we're ok, can't complain. We met up with Susan a couple of weeks back, guess what - she's getting married! I think it's next year some time, she said she'd send you an invite. It's some guy called Tom who she met at work, they were working on the same research project! So they've a baby on the way, and they're buying a house up in Maine. It's made us all feel very grown up! Apart from that, she seems happy and healthy. I think she really enjoys her job, and she's managed to get a transfer to Boston, which is good. She was asking for you.
There's not much news from here. nialler9's still internetting away, hoping to be completely digital by 2007. Noam... well, Noam's Noam, you know yourself. Toni's learning to cook, he's fattening us all up. He hopes to get a job as a chef some day, can you imagine?

so, write again soon and let us know how you're keeping.

all our love

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:53 PM


Tuesday, June 13, 2006 Sixty Seconds On Film, May 2006. Okay - so whats the deal? Well the plan is to do some pretty succint reviews of the films I see each month in one post, and then start another similar thread at the end of the next month. Films can be both contemporary, recent and old. Previous Sixty Seconds On Films have been written in April, March, Feb and Jan'06. This month has been very quite over-burdened as I am with work, but here it is.. Night Watch: This is a pure cinematic epic that remixes the mythologies of movies as varied as Highlander and Lord of the Wings. It's no surprise that Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov got his start messing around on music videos, with this piece ransaking the music video vaults of convention to add an extra stunning dimension to action sequences that remain controlled enough to avoid over shadowing a complex and intriguing premise. The vampires as junkies theme is certainly one that should prick up the ears of horror fans left feeling stunted dosing on B-movies that enter into a critical dialogue with their genre that is about as deep as Noddie is multi-cultural. What 28 Days Later did for the Troma movie fan, Night Watch could do just yet for Hammer obsessives. Dagon: a strange journey into the heart of the Lovecraft watery pantheon here in a horror flick that echoes the tensions of a revived paganism gripping a small island community in a manner that prempted the Wickerman by decades. Well worth a gander, if not a little offbeat. Tron: for those of us capable of recalling the monochrome glory of a Commodore 64 screen, watching Tron certainly elicits some memories of the delusional optimism of a new world blooming that accompanied that early '80's IT revolution. Anyone of us could have been that hot shot Pong playing kid from War Games that cracked into military hardware and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Tron sees the same idea unfold, the difference between video-gaming and hardcore computer hacking is miniscule, so you enter the game to take on the Master Control Programme, a fascistic device that's wrecking havoc inside the 8 bit world. Spill a load of philosophical drivel straight out of the determinism debate over the characters within the comouter and you've got a movie thats failings really highlight just how remarkable Gibson's early cyber punk visions. Hostel: all the qualities and atmosphere of a nightmare abound in this intelligent aping of 1980's gore flicks. A duo of jocular Americans screw their way across Europe before heading back to the coal face of study in their Ivy league colleges. But a journey to the East sees these Adam Sandler moments being butt fucked with a broken bottle by the spirit of Japanese horror movies. Eastern Europe has always had a funny part to play in horror and this movie too descends into a strangely cliched imagining of its darker and more gruesome urban myths. But that certain xenophobic overdrive in relation to Eastern Europe is nicely compensated for with its bizarre treatment of the commodifaction of the flesh from prostitution to the more twisted end of the market. This isn't one for the squemish, there are plenty of moments where you feel like a needle is dangling above your eye ball about to poke it out but the gore doesn't drown what is a fairly intelligent movie, that remains griping through out. Labels: Film # posted by antrophe @ 9:03 PM Comments: Antrophe, I know you like to pretend you're going through a mid-life crisis, and get all nostalgic for your youth, but you're only 23. You don't remember the "early '80's IT revolution". You weren't born till 83! On the other hand.... dingding # posted by Anonymous : 10:23 AM Here...go suck a lollypop. # posted by antrophe : 3:43 PM We all agree with Dr. Dingalicious, and find your patronising, dismissive reply quite offensive. In the 7 years we studied under Professor Dingalicious, we found him to be an extremely intelligent, thought-provoking and inspirational mentor. You would do well to listen to him. # posted by Anonymous : 3:54 PM Gee, thanks you guys, mighty kind words. How are you all these days? Keeping busy? # posted by Anonymous : 4:44 PM Yea, we're ok, can't complain. We met up with Susan a couple of weeks back, guess what - she's getting married! I think it's next year some time, she said she'd send you an invite. It's some guy called Tom who she met at work, they were working on the same research project! So they've a baby on the way, and they're buying a house up in Maine. It's made us all feel very grown up! Apart from that, she seems happy and healthy. I think she really enjoys her job, and she's managed to get a transfer to Boston, which is good. She was asking for you. There's not much news from here. nialler9's still internetting away, hoping to be completely digital by 2007. Noam... well, Noam's Noam, you know yourself. Toni's learning to cook, he's fattening us all up. He hopes to get a job as a chef some day, can you imagine? so, write again soon and let us know how you're keeping. all our love # posted by Anonymous : 4:53 PM Post a Comment	About Soundtracksforthem specialises in iconoclastic takes on culture, politics, and more shite from the underbelly of your keyboard. A still-born group blog with a recent surge of different contributers but mainly maintained by James R. Big up all the contributers and posse regardless of churn out rate: Kyle Browne, Reeuq, Cogsy, Chief, X-ie phader/Krossie, Howard Devoto, Dara, Ronan and Mark Furlong. 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