Films watched Aug 28

Machotaildrop

Watch this movie if you love skateboarding. Shackle Me Not + Clockwork Orange (sans 'ultra'violence)
Charlie and the chocolate factory except you don't buy chocolate bars to win, you send in a skating video, winner gets sponsored by Machotaildrop; Willie Wonka is The Baron. Skateboarding is presented as a high cultural pursuit. Machotaildrop skaters live in a mansion filled with kitsch Victorian art e.g. plastic busts, a plastic horse, rococo wallpaper etc. The retired skaters work in the basements making skateboards. The young protagonist hunts for untouched concrete to grind in some forest and comes across a group of lost boys called the Manwolfs (who dress like Pussy Riot).
Shows the use of what Barthes called 'motivated' symbols. Great old school skating reminiscent of H-Street.
Good one to watch on class A drugs but not booze cause you will lose the intricacies of the plot.
BTW they are fucking 'manwolfs' every retarded review I read writes 'manwolves'. geesh

Your Highness

This movie is soo bad. My guess is the actors all have the same agent who was in debt to the mafia and to pay them back he had to force all these actors into this retarded movie. Natalie Portman shows true professionalism by even turning up; she has a body double so they can do a 'spy on the girl while she bathes in a waterfall' scene, for fucks sake. James Franco seems to be in to it though. They smoke some weed.... so I guess it has that going for it.
Like all fantasy its about losing your virginity - guy is inadequate because he acts childish - he overcomes trials and tribulations finally beating the dragon and learns self-confidence and maturity - he wins the maiden. (Unless she turns out to be your fucking sister - thanks George) Fantasy gotta be my favourite genre - better than realism where the plot basically represents anxiety over sexual inadequacy due to the failing performance found in middle age.

Bernie

Jack Black made a reasonably cool film for once - go Jack. He plays a squeaky clean funeral director who befriends a lonely old woman and eventually murders her and puts her in the fridge Alex DeWitt style. Great scenes where Jack sings Christian songs.
The genre is dark comedy but the message is really 'the crime is irrelevant, sympathy or condemnation is proportionate to the amount of charisma you possess'. No one in the town liked the old woman and they all loved Bernie so they were willing to overlook his one minor indiscretion.
We see this all the time - for example when white collar criminals get a slap on the wrist while sex offenders can't leave prison even when they have done their time.

The Hunger Games

I just don't get it? This movie was less than average. My guess is that the book is good and people who have read it just fill in the gaping huge plot holes with their knowledge from the book. I don't even understand why they even have the Hunger Games in the first place, it wasn't clear. No one looked even slightly hungry? If they can build huge super-fast trains and giant tv screens and have a fight in a lush green forest surely they can grow some cabbage or something to eat. Made absolutely no sense to me. Fuck I hate films that are supposed to be good but aren't. Everyone should be shot.

Never Let Me Go

I like it when an alternative society is portrayed as simultaneously a utopia and a dystopia depending on your placement in the social structure, because that is what real life is like.

Sort of seemed like a blending of themes that have already been done such as short-life spans: Blade Runner, organ clones: The Island, brainwashing: Brave New World, what does it take to be considered a human: Blade Runner.

Mad Men: Season 5

This last season wasn't really necessary as they had basically tied everything up in season 4. I see it as a 'thank you' to the fans. Nothing really 'big' happens but I watched it over 3 nights so was satisfied, if it was stretched out over 12 weeks I prob would have got bored. In the end Don ends up where he started - married to the girl who does the commercials, drinking wiskey, smoking luckys and attracting the young ladies. I really enjoyed this series. The message is: 'fuck it' just do what you are good at and enjoy life.

American Reunion

I thought it was funny. But its just French fries - not really worth talking about.

Bladerunner

This is a classic science fiction film. Ridley Scott did a fucking great job.
It strikes me as a movie about masturbation. If we see Deckard as a replicant whose job it is to hunt down and kill other replicants then it symbolises that he is constantly beating himself up or beating himself off. He tries to quit but he is pulled back in. In the final fight even having his fingers broken can't stop him from jacking off. Sure in the end he finds a girl but she herself is a replicant and hence being but a 'fake' woman represents a fleshlight.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Obi-Wan Kenobi is hermitting when he meets a kindly Hutt who wants to import trout into a lake on his palace grounds on the far side of Tatooine. Tusken Raiders sabotage the plan but Obi Wan is resilient.
The message: Don't fuck with the Jedi.