Anime watching continues -- I have not dropped anything yet, though some series are getting close.
Ga-Rei -Zero- annoys the crap out of me, but I am ashamed to say I am keeping it (for now) solely for the villain, a psychotic, katana-wielding ghost chick who is apparently killing all the main characters. That is fine with me. For anyone curious, it is definitely not worth watching 15-18 minutes of garbage just for her, unless, like me, you have no life.
Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka's second episode is a solid improvement; it has just enough good things to keep me hanging, which is a backhanded compliment, I guess. Second episode of Hyakko is also fun. I liked the running gag with Tarako saying the group would take on the World Cup, World Series, Wimbeldon, etc. with every new club they attempted to join.
Picked up To Aru Majutsu no Index, which is fun through two episodes, although nothing incredible. Lastly, Chaos;Head is excellent -- no complaints there. Everyone should watch it.
Anyway ... now to blabber about movies lolz. A good batch this week, if I do say so myself!
Hard Boiled (1992): Definitely one of the ultimate action movies of all time. I remember liking The Killer more on first watch, but now I am not so sure. The story flowed a bit better for me this time, and I got more into the action scenes (which are pretty insane). Worth mentioning: The guy who plays Johnny Wong (the main villain) just looks like an incredible douchebag in this. I wanted to punch him in the nutsack every time I saw him.
Targets (1968): Notable for being the first movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who went on to direct The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, among others. Anyway, this is pretty good, although it is also a bit weird. It follows two stories -- one about an aging horror star (Boris Karloff -- no, really) who wants to retire, and the other about a young, clean-cut man (Tim O'Kelly) who goes on a shooting spree, and who is obviously modeled on Charles Whitman. The movie does this parallel thing where the old monster, represented by Karloff, confronts the modern monster, represented by O'Kelly. It kind of works and kind of doesn't. The shooting scenes are uber-creepy and really effective, though.
Away from Her (2006): Really powerful movie that basically observes the deterioration of a woman (Julie Christie) due to Alzheimer's, and the effect this has on her husband (Gordon Pinsent) when she requests she be put in a nursing home. Christie rightfully earned an Academy Award nomination for her acting, but Pinset is just as good; watching his wife's memories fade away just destroys him, and he struggles to come to terms with the fact his wife is just not the same woman she once was.
Hud (1963): Catching up with more Paul Newman -- great performance from him here. He plays a really selfish, greedy, hedonistic guy who just about breaks his father (Melvyn Douglas) and provides a horrible example for his nephew (Brandon De Wilde). Hud is such a tragically flawed guy -- he is capable of some compassion, and he has done good things in his life, but he is incapable of making real connections to people due to his basic nature. Newman is so great at playing these arrogant, flawed assholes, haha.
The Hidden Fortress (1958): Moar Kurosawa, woo! This is a really fun adventure that had quite the influence on Star Wars (there is a lot of R2D2 and C3PO in the two peasants, for example). Watching Toshiro Mifune in this is a bit of a shock for me, because he plays a completely different character than he does in Rashomon -- he's a super badass here. My favorite scene is where he confronts a group of soldiers and challenges their leader, and before he fights, he walks among the soldiers and takes their spears one at a time, tests them out and throws away all the ones that don't have enough KILL POWA. Such a great scene. I like the princess (Misa Uehara), too, although her screeching voice gets SO old by the end of the movie lol. Seriously, she is, like, shouting her thanks at the end. WTF?
Seven Samurai (1954): Sometimes I will be scared away from a movie due to its insane reputation; other times I will be scared away due to epic length. Seven Samurai has an enormous reputation AND epic length (207 minutes!!!!!). However, watching it made me realize how retarded I was for not seeing it much sooner. Epic movies are so difficult to make, because it is easy for a movie to overstay its welcome (Munich, for example, is a good movie that did not need to be two-and-a-half hours long). However, Seven Samurai earns every second of screen time -- the pace is absolutely perfect, and the characters are all wonderful and carry the movie beautifully. From Toshiro Mifune's show-off braggart to Takashi Shimura's direct pragmatist to Seiji Miyaguchi's silent badass (my vote for most awesome samurai EVER), everyone is great. It also has a ton of action that would fit right in with any movie today (save for a huge lack of bloodiness), great moments of humor (one particular moment with Mifune's character and a horse had me rolling) and tons of poignant scenes concerning the nature of class and individuals. Absolutely see this movie if its lofty reputation has scared you away up until now -- you will not be disappointed.
On the queue for this week: Borat (2006), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) and Ikiru (1952).
Movie Count: 88 (Live Free and Die Hard, Time Bandits, The Hustler, Black Dragon (Miracles), Hollywoodland, Blood Diamond, Animal Crackers, Marie Antoinette, Inside Man, The Fountain, Tombstone, Jurassic Park (Rifftrax), No Country for Old Men, Juno, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Rifftrax), There Will Be Blood, Rize, Born Into Brothels, Eastern Promises, Gone Baby Gone, Hard Candy, The Matrix Reloaded (Rifftrax), Hot Fuzz, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, Phone Booth, The Dark Knight, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Predator, Ratatouille, Renaissance, Pretty in Pink, Scanners, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Stop Making Sense, The Killing, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rifftrax), Voices of a Distant Star, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Amadeus, Touch of Evil, Paths of Glory, Gangs of New York, Five Easy Pieces, Perfect Blue, Novocaine, A Fish Called Wanda, A Hard Day's Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, Out of the Past, The Lady from Shanghai, The Wild Bunch, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bringing Up Baby, Pleasantville, Citizen Kane, They Live, The Terminator, The Adolescence of Utena, The Castle of Cagliostro, The Professional, High Plains Drifter, In the Heat of the Night, Michael Clayton, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Munich, Traffic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bug, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Maltese Falcon, Rashomon, Big Trouble in Little China, Sleeper, Badlands, Johnny Guitar, Mildred Pierce, Shadow of a Doubt, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Hard Boiled, Targets, Away from Her, Hud, The Hidden Fortress, Seven Samurai)
