Dogtown & Z-boys // Lords of Dogtown

            Well, these are two distinctly different movies, and  they are both excellent and both 2’s in their own right, they deal with essentially the exact same material. Skateboarding. What is it, where did it come from? Who did it the best and what was the culture of the first skaters? Former pro skater, surfer, and film maker Stacey Peralta (Portrayed by John Robinson, Elephant) takes us through it in an amazing and epic journey filled with dangers and hopes.

            Skateboarding was big in the 60’s but fell way off along with hoolahoops. Skateboards had clay wheels. When Polyeurathaine was invented, people made wheels out of it and skateboarding returned to California. To many it was a sideshow, but a group of skateboarders from the Zephyr Surf and Skate Shop in Venice (aka Dogtown) came to be known as the Z-boys.

            Three of the Z-boys rose to prominence or at least had the potential. Stacey Peralta became one of the greatest and most well known skaters in the world, and went on to form the Bones Brigade tour, discovering and promoting Tony Hawk. Tony Alva (Victor Rasuk, Stop-Loss) took a much more personal and flashy approach to skating, and created his own series of boards. Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch, Speedracer), the youngest and most creative of the Z-boys became a sponsored and successful skater, but soon joined a gang and fell off the earth to be a criminal. He is currently in jail.

            The story of Z-boys in Dogtown is one of arrogant underdogs. They didn’t want to skate like a sideshow, they were surfers, they wanted to skate like they were riding the wave of their life. They used their hand and performed ankle breaking turns. At a skate expo, they took every award with their unorthodox innovation. Soon they started draining pools to go skating, and through long summers of experiments, invented freestyle vert skating.

            There was always tension, always drama, and always the cusp of greatness that all the skaters flirted with. It was a phenomenal birth of a eye-dazzling sport that has really taken the world by storm, and it really started with a bunch of punk Z-boys draining pools and playing grab ass. 2 for each, and anyone that ever picked up a board should really appreciate these films that explore the nuances behind the movement.

Julius Caeser: Time & Again

Julius Caeser (B & W)

            The version that has Marlon Brando (The Formula) as Mark Antony is definitely superior in most aspects of it’s composition, compared to the later version with Charleton Heston. The supporting cast, and all the aspects of it’s prduction seem to outshine the job on the later one, and even Heston’s performance leaves something to be desired compared to Brando’s wonderful work.

            It’s tha classic Shakespearian take on the last days of the most famous emperor of all time. Not much more can be said, but this is a two, and a great job of transitioning the play to the Silver Screen. Great classic black and white, stunning use of light and talent.

Julius Caeser (Color)

            A fitting rendition of the classic by William Shakespeare, this version is noted for it’s performance of Marc Antony by Charleton Heston (The Ten Commandments). The speech following the assassination is so well done, and the feeling and the emotion, and everything is played down quite well by the famous over-actor.

            The rest of the play is a little flat, particularly a much anticipated performance by Jason Robards (1000 Clowns) as Brutus, who comes off strikingly flat. The mood and mode of film was not taken much advantage of, and though the scenes and battles do come into play more, many of the scenes appear very two-dimensional, and the scenery is not used to the fullest potential.

            Overall, I give this movie a 2, it is worth watching as a visualization if you cannot get to a real performance of the play, and as I said, the best Marc Antony is in this movie, the rest of the characters come up short.

House of 1000 Corpses // The Devil's Rejects

            Rob Zombie, leader of the legendary thrash metal band White Zombie, is an artist. He’s branched out in a variety of ways. This is his first movie directing gig. He’s phenomenal. It’s so natural. We begin the day looking at the work of one Captain Spalding. A strange horror clown who owns a novelty freak show. He is visited by 4 travelers who are traveling across America on the “Backroads”.

            They can’t pass up the opportunity to explore the hall of serial killers and are especially fascinated by the legend of one Dr. Satan. An evil Dr. who kept his victims alive as he tortured them with unnecessary surgeries.

            After the hall of mystery, the inquisitive young motorists find themselves headed towards the home of the notorious firefly gang to find a haunted tree. Soon, their car has broken down, and they are subject to Ma and Baby Firefly’s Antics. It isn’t long before in a torrent of rain they flee for their lives, only to be brutally overtaken, tortured and killed. All except for one that is, but can she escape the sadistic gang?

            Well, this is an absolutely hysterical take on the violent horror genre, and it’s a wonderfully entertaining romp through the psyche of psychosis. I loved it a 2, and the sequel is almost better.

            In the sequel we see the police closing in on the Firefly gang after one of the sherrif’s deputies (as well as brother) was killed in the previous installment. They raid the house in a hail of gunfire, and are able to capture Ma alive. Otis and Baby escape and manage to take some hostages along the way.

            Things go south when Captain Spalding is ID’d and the fugitives must leave their context and seek out the help f farther and more exotic criminals. They wind up falling right into the Sherrif’s trap, and are hustled in by some hired goons.

            That is when the movie becomes it’s most sadistic, and it’s most uproarious. I was so entertained by this piece, it was just crystalline joy in the form of absurdist ultrarealism. It’s a rare jem to see the art that Rob Zombie is bringing to the screen.

Brick

            This movie is amazing. I love independent movies, and this one is actually a really unique concept. It’s all at once a serious and enveloping drama, as it is a dark comedy, and funny romantic detective story. SO it’s actually my favorite genre of all time, so it’s hard to go wrong.

            This is a film noir. This is like any detective story with Humphry Bogart. This is the Maltese Falcon. The catch, the hook, is that it’s set in a high school. All the classic devices in film noir are translated into the nature and culture of high school. The best example is that instead of saying “He knows where he can find me” or something to that affect, the characters say “He knows where I eat lunch.” Because lunch is the big social time at high school.

            There’s a hundred good adaptations of the same nature. The dialogue is brilliant, and the characters are all so thematic and archetypical. It’s beautiful. Shot at San Clemente High, this is a no apologies crime drama set in a world just like high school.

This is the movie I dreamed about making in high school, but wasn’t creative enough to write.

            It also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Halloween H20) who is one of the more unapologetic and subtle actors of his generation. He’s not a teen heart throb silly  boy like Josh Hartnett, although he could have been packaged that way. So, his lead is perfect for the story. Other characters are all the independent, subtle approach, but all experienced. It’s a terrific murder mystery that turns into a narcotics mystery.

            Abslutely Brilliant 2.

Away We Go

            This movie is a hilarious look at what it means to have children and be a family. Two young people (Jim from the office and one of the girls from SNL) play a hilarious couple who have just become pregnant, and are wondering where they should raise the baby and what that would look like to be a family.

            They take a few weeks and travel around to different people, his aunt and uncle, who have a horrible family, and she’s always picking on the kids and alienating them. His cousin who is a super hippie, and contributes one of the funniest scenes in the movie when she shares her view of strollers.

            Their friends from college who have adopted and are foster parents, but have had a series of miscarriages, her sister in phoenix, I don’t remember the problem there. His brother in Miami who’s wife just abandoned him with the kids, and a series of thoughts bring up some of the real underlying problems, like the fact that they’ve never gotten married because she is still mourning the passing of her parents.

            In many ways this is a fun and hilarious road trip that really symbolizes what many movies have brought up latelt, including Into the Wild, which is thye search for connection and home. Ultimately they decide to live and raise the children in her parents home, which is an ultimate homecoming and the start of a new connection, so it really is a redemption moment as they discover where they belong.

            Belonging is essential, really, and that’s what Away We Go is all about. 2.

The Longest Yard: Then, Now and Somewhere Else

The Longest Yard (Original)

            This is a funny and hilarious classic tale of Paul Crew (Burt Reynolds, Smoky and the Bandit) a defamed NFL quarterback, barred for shaving points, who finds himself living off his wife who he can’t stand. One day she upsets him so that he goes on a wild drunken ride of mayhem, and sufficiently pisses off the cops that he lands in jail for a long time.

            There is confronted with the idea of coaching the guards prison league football team, or suffering a great deal for defying the warden. He is tricked into having to decline, and then offers the warden a compensation: a tune up game.

            He then turns to training all the prisoners into a team to play the guards. At first fueled by revenge, the prisoners begin to look more and more like a real team under the leadership of Crew, and then tragedy strikes, and caretaker, the team manager, gets hit and killed. The team is distraught.

            It’s up to crew to take them into the game and lead them to victory. This is a classic beef-cake roll for Reynolds, and it’s a hilarious 70’s style comedy, reminiscent of the Mel Brooks Movies of the time. Like the Blazing Saddles of football movies. 2, and well worth a trip into the film vault.

The Longest Yard (Remake)

            This is a remake of the original. It’s a lot different, even though it follows almost the exact same plot, structure and devices. This one is also fueled by some major major Hollywood talent. Paul Crew (Adam Sandler, Click), football villain, runs out on his wife (Courtney Cox, Scream) and gets arrested in a hellraiser car chase. He winds up in a dusty Texas Prison, where the warden (James Cromwell, LA Confidential).

            He runs into Caretaker (Christ Rock, Beverly Hills Ninja) and they begin the plot of the original. The noteable differences are Michael Irvin and Nelly as the afircan American players, as well as the guards and some of the prisoners are all played by some Professional Wrestlers.

            The twists and turns, the little references back to the original, and the modern setting are all great. It’s a really charmning adaptation of a classic, and brings to light some more modern settings, though I think for the uninformed, it is a bit of a non-sequitur in some instances.

            The whole thing is really packaged well, and is a great and fascinating expose of comedy.

It’s a lot of fun, with a real group of winners. 2.

Mean Machine

            This British version of the film listed above is based around English football, or soccer as we call it in the states. It's got some lovely character work by Vinnie Jones (Snatch) and Jason Statham (The One), Ian McShane (Deathrace) as well as a host of other Brits. It lacks some of the inside flurishes that the remake has, but makes up for it in original construction and character development.

Overall, it's a really fun movie, and a necessary adaptation for the rest of the world to appreciate and understand without the confusion over sport. Easily rewatchable and fun. 2.

The Island

            From Michael Bay (Dir. Bad Boys) comes this sci fi adventure rich in texture and depth, and yet relatively dependent on all that sci fi has already put forth. We find ourself in a Logan’s Run like world, maintaining civilization after the outside world has been “contaminated”. It’s peaceful, where all the inhabitants wear white, and live in innocence, awaiting a lottery that sends them to a marvelous island paradise. All they know is a base existence, exercise, work, and recreation. Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor, Shallow Grave) has lived here for three years and has recently had a series of nightmares that cause him to question the entire system.

            In addition to all the great things around them, there is also the guards who wear black, lead the by the mysterious Dr. (Sean Bean, Fellowship of the Ring). They monitor just about everything. Lincoln finds a living organism from the outside, and thanks to a friend (Steve Buscemi, Airheads) he makes his way through the tunnels to a different level of the complex. There he sees ‘winners’ of the contest who went to ‘the island’ being euthanatised, and having their organs removed.

            What’s worse is that Lincolns best friend, Jordan Two Delta (Scarlet Johannsen, Lost in Translation) has just won the lottery and is scheduled to go to the island in the morning. They soon escape and make their way to LA in attempts to tell the world what they really are: Clones. They are insurance on organs and tools for suffering. Clones can bear the babies for mothers, and then are euthanatized.

            It has so many layers, and different ways to interpret it. There is a lot of symbolism. The white and black contrast show a clear understanding of evil and good, and the Dr. is definitely a satan-character, putting himself in the place of God, masquerading as the creator, and sending forth forces to do his will, yet all the time buffeted by unseed forces that seem to direct the flow of the world.

            There is also a very Genesis like feeling, where innocence and questioning the will of what we’re presented can somehow lead to something “better” and sin is definitely portrayed in a positive light, in the same vain as in Pleasantville. This movie also raises a lot of questions about cloning, which I’m not sure how to answer biblically. Cloning isn’t anymore wrong than any other kind of science, and clones will be individuals with souls. For example, test tube babies, same principle. We cannot “program” clones, they are simply genetic twins, not literal twins. They will look and be different, by the laws of genetic variance, adaptation and such.

            This story takes much from stories like Logan’s Run, The Sixth Day, The Matrix, The Machine Stops, and many other stories like these. The acting is great, I think. I am biased, but Johannsen is wonderful, and much more beautiful than in other films, and McGregor does well in a double role, playing Lincoln Six Echo, using a flat, regionless dialect, and his Scottish counterpart, Tom Lincoln. 2. I’d watch it again, and write a paper on it.