A Japanese Spaghetti Western? The NYT describes Sukiyaki Western Django as “Sergio Leone Meets Reservoir Dog in Japanese Pastiche.”
“Sukiyaki Western Django,” the latest offering from the protean and prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike, is a feast for genre fetishists, a loving and lurid pastiche of the spaghetti westerns that were themselves lurid pastiches of classic Hollywood cowboy pictures. It is fitting that the honorary master of ceremonies at this film-geek orgy is Quentin Tarantino, dean of the international film-geek fraternity, who elegantly disembowels a snake in the opening scene and who appears later to fill in some plot holes and speak in bizarrely accented English.
The film title itself alludes to the original Django, directed by the other Sergio, Sergio Corbucci (not Leone). Django spawned over 30 sequels, with only one being official.
FT.com reports that Columbia University’s Nobel laureate economist Robert Mundell says Taxi Driver is the world’s most lucrative film for a very interesting reason:
John Hinckley, the deranged would-be assassin who attempted to kill Ronald Reagan in 1981, claimed that he was inspired by it. He said that his action was an attempt to impress Foster. (The movie features a scene in which a mohawked De Niro attempts to assassinate a politician.)
According to Mundell, the wave of sympathy for President Reagan that was engendered by the assassination attempt deterred Democrats in Congress from voting against his proposed tax cuts. Due to this accident of history, the US administered a big fiscal stimulus at the same time that Paul Volcker at the Federal Reserve was administering tight money. This, for Professor Mundell, was vital in creating the era of prosperity that followed.
“Taxi Driver is the most important movie ever made from the standpoint of creating GDP,” Mundell told delegates. “It’s the movie that made the Reagan revolution possible. That movie was indirectly responsible for adding between $5 trillion and $15 trillion of output to the US economy.”
In One Year to Midnight, there are some awesome photos of the characters from the film adaptation of The Watchmen.
When A Man Falls is a film about three men, but one in particular; Gary Fields. They all have problems that similarly affect their personal lives. Gary avoids his wife by refusing to talk to her about his problems work. After work, Gary stays at the office until 10pm and then goes home to open a bottle of wine for himself and then sleeps on the couch in front of the T.V.
Then there is Bill, the janitor at his office whom Gary passes by on his way out. Bill is obviously socially awkward and probably a little OCD. He has no confidence and avoids confrontation at all costs, just like Gary in a way. Bill’s only escape from the insecurities of life is through his dreams.
Then there is Travis, an old friend of Bill’s. Travis sold his car after the death of his wife in a car wreck. He hasn’t driven for years and hasn’t seen any other women since his wife’s death.
This film was great because of the way it expressed the emotions of the characters via the portrayal of their thoughts and actions, and especially everything was tied together at the end. Despite the pacing of the film being somewhat plodding and slow, it was interspersed with some quirky and funny moments via Bill’s dreams. I also enjoyed the music, which was composed of the operas to which Bill listened while cleaning up the office at night.
I recommend watching the film if you can.
I’ve never seen such a mixture of seriousness and ridiculousness, sadness and happiness, mystery and intrigue. King of Kong is a documentary about two classic arcade gamers fighting for the world record for Donkey Kong.
All the characters in the film can be described as geeks or nerds, but all have their interesting quirks, traits, and hobbies apart from their passion for gaming. There were moments that gave me goosebumps (or was it because of the lack of heating in my apartment?). There were many moments when I laughed out loud, such as when Steve Wiebe’s kid daughter exclaimed that people sorta ruin their lives to get into that book, meaning the Guinness Book of World Records.
I know this wasn’t a well-written review; I wrote this down while watching.
