LAWN DOGS

Heh. Funny thing about this film, I first saw it years ago at about 3am on one of the terrestrial TV channels. Can't remember which one. I was jobless at the time and because of this I had taken to waking up around midday and staying up til about 5am, doing god knows what. So anyway I was in a bit of stupor and I couldn't really sleep since I'd jacked up my sleep cycle so much. I was flicking through the channels and saw the title for this film. Thinking it was something completely different I flicked over and was quite perplexed that instead of Michael Madsen soft shoeing to 'Stuck in the middle with you' while slicing ears, I was treated to a little girl stalking some lawnmower dude. However I sat through the whole thing and found it charming. Then I went ahead and forgot about it. Years later I was browsing through the cheap section at HMV when I saw this DVD, I again mistook it for Reservoir Dogs, but read the blurb and vaguely remembered liking it when I saw it that time at 3am. So I bought it and watched it again, and a couple more times after that. 

Obviously this had nothing to do with that.

 It stars Sam Rockwell (whom I have nothing but love for)

and a very young Mischa Barton (whom I go back and forth on)

 seriously, really young...

So if I remember it correctly. Sam Rockwell, mows lawns in a very upscale gated community. the community members look down on him because he is working class, despite the fact that they are all awful selfish dickheads. Even one of their own is secretly sleeping with him. Devon (Mischa Barton's character whose name I do remember for some reason) is the child of one of those selfish asshats. She doesn't like her community or her parents because she is precocious and wise beyond her years and sees their behaviour for what it is. She attempts to befriend Sam Rockwell's character. He resists at first, because... you know, creepy. But she is persistent and they end up finding that they get on well and have a lot in common. They embark on what is an innocent friendship but throughout the whole movie you just know that the outside world, namely Devons community would not view it as such. Eventually Devon slips the beans about her friendship with Sam Rockwell and the pitchfork wielding (or gun in this case) villagers head up to... TRENT! That was his name. So the villagers head over to Trent's to punish him for something they have assumed he did. As Trent is about to be beaten to death, Devon, who accompanied the mob (I may be exaggerating here) takes the gun and shoots one of them. She allows Trent to escape and then climbs a tree. A significant tree I think, though I can't remember why it is significant.

After a rewatch:

Hmmm... I have concerns. So yes their relationship is very innocent, but the movie and namely the director doesn't seem to be. There are few scenes which gave me many head scratching moment. For example an older guy running a bullet along ten year old Devons lips.
 

What are you doing with that?

 

No... just... no

and knowing what I now know about the director, I have a slight uncomfortable feeling. However I still love the film, I like Devon and Trent and I like them together. They seem to understand each other in a way no one else around them really does.

The film devolves into magical realism at the end which when I first watched I found off putting and unrealistic but when I think about it, the entire film has an unreal quality to it. The gated community reminded me a little of the pastel coloured suburb in Edward Scissorhands (talk about magical realism). It seemed to exist in the middle of nowhere. It is very much a fairy tale.

The tree is significant because it forms part of the story Devon repeatedly tells throughout the film of Baba Yaga, a Russian witch who eats children. I know somehow that the story is supposed to be symbolic, but I still don't quite get how it fits. Devon gets Trent to hang ribbons in the tree for her. At the beginning of the film Devon is the child who needs help escaping from the witch, in the end it is she who helps Trent escape. While disjointed and a bit odd the film has a mesmerising quality to it and the two leads have such a sweet chemistry you can't help liking it.

It has interesting things to say about class and about perception. It's one of the DVD's I own, that I can watch repeatedly. It's beauty is in it's simplicity.

Who would love to dance to Bruce Springsteen on the roof of a truck?

 

Thumbs up for this one.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN

Funny thing about this one. I know it had some buzz or whatever but when I bought it I had no idea about any of it. When I bought it I only had a vague idea of who Judd Apatow was, he's practically a genre now. Back then I saw this movie on the shelf and it made me chuckle because I actually happened to know a 40 year old virgin at the time. He used to come into the gym where I worked. He was odd, very sweet but stood a little too close to you when he talked and held eye contact for longer than was comfortable. He started dating a young woman. She was 24 and had a kid and was... well she was bit loose and she terrified him. Seriously he would have whispered conversations about how scared of her she was. I don't really know what happened there, I always wonder if he did ever lose his virginity. But I digress. I bought the film because I was in the mood for a comedy. I noticed it had that guy from the American version of The Office,

  it had Conrad from Weeds,

 
it had Paul Rudd, who to me will always be Josh from Clueless

Oh, you the fodder of my 13 year old dreams

and it had Seth Rogen who had a lot of love left over from me for Freaks and Geeks. They all did. James Franco is quite quickly burning through his though.

Just keep counting your paycheck. Don't even try.

Yeah so I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I found it very funny and surprisingly touching. It's been a little while since I've seen it though. Here's what I remember:

'Steve Carell (can't remember his characters name) is a quiet unassuming nerd who works in an electronic store. A bunch of the sales guys including Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen and Conrad from Weeds are having a poker game and one of their usual members dropped out. They notice Steve and ask him if he would like to join the game despite him being a bit a quiet fellow who keeps to himself. 

Steve, desperate for friends, agrees. At the poker game the talk turns to the raunchier side and the guys start discussing conquests. Steve, having never done any conquering, makes some shit up. This immediately exposes him as a virgin. The guys it take upon themselves to get Steve laid. They take him to a nightclub where he ends up in a car with a drunk woman who scares the pants off of him, and pukes on him. So he doesn't sleep with her. They get him a prostitute who turns out to be a transvestite which has some unfortunate implications for Conrad. 

The Mona Lisa of transvestites

Then they take him speed dating where he meets a series of slightly odd women. 

By chance a nice lovely older lady comes into the electronics store. She and Steve get along really well and she gives him her number. He is too afraid to call. Some other stuff happens, there's a funny scene with a skanky Elizabeth Banks, where he keeps repeating what she's saying and it apparently works as a flirting technique.

However Steve really likes the woman he met at the store and starts dating her, he meets her kids who he manages to win over. But he's still really scared of sex. Throughout all of these encounters Steve is encouraged to grow up and change his life. Actually getting promoted at work and getting rid of his man child flat full of toys. There's a thing with a box of porn and a bit where Paul Rudd puts a video camera down his trousers. 

Steve finally has sex and all ends with a wedding. I think.'

After a rewatch: 

So, Steve Carell's character is named Andy. His love interest is named Trish. The movie does not differ much from what I described. There are a lot of non plot related scenes that I had forgotten about, but a lot of it is not worth recapping. The movie is fairly narrative free and there seems to be a lot of improvisation between the characters. To be honest I could have done with less bickering between the Smart tech employees. It wasn't that funny.

Also Jonah Hill how you've changed:

Would you?

Would I?... Nope, still wouldn't.

The various adventures and attempts to get Andy laid actually end up helping all of the Smart tech guys to grow up a little and invest in some adult relationships.

Trish and Andy's relationship is interesting because despite the fact that Trish has three kids, in her own way she's just as childish as Andy. In different ways neither of them really got to get past adolescence. Andy because he was incapable of having a relationship and Trish because she had children and got married really young.

Trish and Andy manage to get past their relationship misunderstandings, which to be honest that's all it was. The conflict came from Andy being to afraid to admit to Trish that he had never had sex. They get married and consummate the marriage. Happy days.

Awwww...

Yeah and then this happens. 

It's.. amusing? I don't know what it is. I don't hate it and I guess it fits with the sort of free wheeling make it up as you go along feel of the film. But still. What?

 

This film rested on the shoulders of its leading man. The virgin needed to be believable and sympathetic and Steve Carell made Andy very lovable and managed to carry the whole film so well. I think he needs to be given a lot of credit for this, I watched the semi follow up 'Knocked Up' and I loathed that film (it's not part of my DVD collection) and I think I hated it because Seth Rogen is not a great leading man, he's great as the sarky BFF or the goofy sidekick. But in that film he came off as mean and childish and I have a feeling they were going for the same lovable man-child thing they had here. Here because of Steve Carell it worked. There it didn't.

DIRTY DANCING

What can I say about Dirty Dancing? This was not an impulse buy. It was an on purpose buy. I bought this DVD because I wanted it. I'm not ashamed to say I unabashedly love this movie. I'm the type of person who is usually allergic to loving the things lots of other people love. Especially, lady romance movies. No, I like movies where stuff blows up, people get their heads eaten by monsters and usually yes, that is my thing... but I love Dirty Dancing. I will try to be as unbiased as I can but it will be a little difficult.

I was quite young, I think, the first time I saw Dirty Dancing. I loved it then. It must have been because of all the dancing and stuff because a whole load of that movie went right over my head. I can remember being perplexed when Watermelon guy said Penny was knocked up. 'Knocked up?' I thought, 'what the hell does that mean?' I ran through a few options in my head. She got in a fight? Nah, someone knocked on her door and then ran away before she answered? Nope. No idea. I chose to just dismiss it and focus on the bits I could understand. Baby liked Johnny, Baby's dad couldn't stand Johnny for some reason, eight year old me just assumed it was because he was poor. Where I'm from there a lot of people who seem pissed at other people for simply being poor.

However I've watched it again and again since then and each time I seem to find something new to enjoy. I think watching and enjoying it so young means the movie has a special place in my heart. Though I don't think the youth thing was the only factor because I also loved Cocoon when I was eight and having seen it since I have no idea why that was. I think I was wowed by all the old people smiling all the time. All the old people I knew hardly ever smiled.  Dirty Dancing is just a good movie.

I'm probably not going to say anything about it that many many other people haven't already said. But I haven't read any of that and this will be my personal take on the movie. If that counts for anything.

It stars the late Patrick Swayze

I fricking love 'To Wong Foo...

Jennifer Grey

 and Jennifer Greys old nose.

So. Before I started writing this I had watched the movie just over a year previously. Here's what I remembered before I rewatched it for the reveiw:

'Baby (Jennifer Grey) and her family are heading to an activities resort for the summer. It's the '50's and Baby wants to go to college and join the peacecore, like a good little liberal. This makes her daddy proud. 

Her sister Lisa is shrill and annoying. On arriving at the Resort, Baby and her family, being quite well off, make the acquaintance of Mr Kellerman, the resorts owner. His creepy son Neil and Robbie, a waiter, who is Ivy league bound. Baby's dad immediately likes Robbie, because he is also from a nice family and has ambitions and shit. Lisa likes Robbie because she is shallow. But Robbie swears by Ayn Rand, so we immediately know he's a dick. They also spy Johnny (Patrick Swayze) the dance teacher, who is brutally hot, wears black wife beaters and is working class. 

Baby sort of dates Neil but he is creepy and gross and thinks a story about how he stole some guys girlfriend because he had more money than the guy makes him look awesome.

Shudder...

Baby is clearly repulsed by this man, though she doesn't say anything. She mostly just ditches him.
Baby also makes the acquaintance of a guy, who I remember was Johnny's cousin but I can't remember his name. I'm going to call him Watermelon guy.

Baby manages to snag herself an invite to the raucous (and clearly more fun) staff party by helping watermelon guy with his watermelons.

There, everybody is getting dooown. Baby, who really wants to get down too, bobs around off to the side. Johnny notices her and tries to teach how to move her hips. To varying levels of success.

...awkward

I had a hard time watching this scene. Not because I can relate. I know how to get down. But due to second hand embarrassment. My second hand embarrassment is so severe. There are some things I just can't watch because my insides curl up just thinking about it.

Anyhoo. Penny, Johnny's dance partner, is pregnant and needs money to pay some Doctor to get rid of it. Because this is the '50's and abortion is illegal. Baby offers to put up the cash. She gets this cash from her dad. Only problem is Penny and Johnny have a show the only day the abortionist can come and they're poor, so they really need the money. Baby says she''ll do it, no charge. Oh to be so flushed with cash you'll do things that require time and practice for free. Oh hold on, she gets to rub up against a hot older man. Never mind, I see where the payment is.

Penny and Johnny teach Baby their routine, in the sexiest way imaginable.

I mean... look at those abs

During the course of this Baby and Johnny fall for each other.

Turns out Penny's abortionist was not as qualified as one would assume a backstreet abortionist should be and so he jacks Penny's shit right up. Baby gets her Doctor dad to save the day. Johnny claims responsibility for Penny. Which makes Baby's dad very very angry. But Johnny's not the father! Evil capitalist Robbie is and he couldn't give any fucks about any of it.

Baby's dad is now very disappointed that Baby would choose to associate which such miscreants and gives her the silent treatment. Baby like any woman with any sense, decides to shag Johnny's brains out.

So then there's an end of summer show. Lisa plans to screech her way through that. It's bloody awful. Seriously, listen.

 

Oh and some devious cougar who doesn't like the fact that Johnny isn't her gigolo anymore frames him for theft.

Of course he didn't do it. That was the night of the aforementioned shagging. Only Johnny's not supposed to be shagging guests, especially not barely legal ones. Baby comes clean to save Johnny's job but he gets fired anyway and Baby's dad slut shames her with his eyes.

'My daughter has been sullied forever'

Johnny shows up at the end of summer show and drags Baby from her corner. They dance, everyone sees just how Johnny has made Baby a woman. Robbie owns up about his wayward penis and Baby's dad realises Johnny isn't such a dirtbag. Everyone's happy and they all dance.

Presumably Baby goes to college, moves to New York, gets really into Bohemia for a bit, marries a college professor and becomes a writer. Johnny presumably joins his dad's construction firm and never dances again.'

Love it. So I re watched. Honestly I remembered pretty clearly what had happened. Oh, except that Watermelon guys name was Billy. I had to rewind it twice to catch that. Ha ha rewind. No one rewinds anything anymore. Also it was the 60's not the 50's.

This movie had a lot for me. I'm a dance geek and have been since I was little, so the dance aspect would have won me over immediately. Seriously, I have seen a lot of dance movies and most of them are terrible. But on re watch Dirty Dancing has got a lot more issues than I at first realised. There's the whole class panic. Johnny's from the wrong side of tracks and everyone involved has to re address their bigotry when Johnny and Baby get together. So yes it is your typical Princess and Stable boy romance, but there's a reason those are so successful. Plus I like the abortion angle and the championing of the independent woman who is control of her own body and decisions. I really loved it. It spoke to the nostalgia of those long summers when you're a teenager longing for romance. It's a coming of age story. It's a wonderful film that makes me smile every time I watch it. Not to mention the awesome soundtrack. Even 'She's like the Wind' which has just enough '80's cheesiness to make you forgive it.

There's a good reason this one is in my DVD collection and it will probably stay there until I grow old. Or until the next thing after DVD shows up, and it's not Blu Ray, that's just a fancier DVD.

Oh Johnny, put a shirt on.

DRACULA 2001

I have quite the eclectic collection of DVDs. Way back when DVDs were a new thing I was adamant that I was not going to buy into it. Just a fad, I said, you saw what happened to mini-disc, I refused to buy a DVD player. I lasted quite a while but my first year of Uni I caved. They were selling them cheap and well, VHS really sucked, it was awful. You watched a tape a few (hundred) times and suddenly everyone talked all wobbly and there were white lines all over everybody's faces. 

So I bought this DVD player and with it came the option of getting two free DVDs from a very terrible selection. I chose two, Dracula 2001 and Evolution. Thus began my collection of DVDs. At the time I had little to watch and I didn't really know what I wanted to watch so I would go to my local Woolworths and buy whatever film was on offer that I hadn't seen. Eventually I got a Blockbusters card and didn't do that anymore, but some of those films have stayed in my collection. Some because I actually liked them and some because I couldn't even give them away. I also bought DVDs for film courses, and because I actually wanted to see and keep them. Anyway, I'm trying to streamline. Now the inspiration here has come from being asked what my favourite movie was, and with a lack of an adequate response, I'd tell people just to look at my DVD shelf. I haven't actually looked at my DVD shelf for a while. So now I'm going to and I'm going to talk a little about the films I own here. Because I love movies and because my taste is so eclectic I might surprise myself, my DVD collection is like a documentation of my history. I can remember when I bought them and usually why. So I may ramble a little bit about that before I get to the actual movie, but we'll see how it goes.

So I'll start with the first (and arguably most terrible) DVD I've ever owned.

DRACULA 2001

Technically this film is supposed to be called Dracula 2000. But it was released in the UK in 2001 and apparently it just wouldn't make sense calling a film Dracula 2000 if it was released in 2001. By that logic 2001: A Space Odyssey really should have been called 1968: A Space Odyssey... Yeah, doesn't quite have the same ring. Neither does Dracula 2001. Since the whole purpose of the 2000 thing was that this Dracula was supposed to be the Dracula for the millennium or whatever. But I digress.

Like I said previously, this DVD came with the DVD player and for a long time it was one of the only two movies I had to watch, since I had no internet connection in my room for a few months. I will admit to watching this DVD more than once because I had nothing else to do.

It stars a then unknown Gerard Butler

 I've just noticed he isn't even mentioned on the DVD cover. Oh how times change.

He's Dracula. It also stars Johnny Lee Miller as a Van Helsing type, chasing Dracula about the place

and also this woman...

I'm sure we won't see her again...

I didn't know who anyone in the film was apart from Johnny Lee Miller, because he was in Trainspotting and Jeri Ryan, because I watched a lot of Star Trek. 

Unpopular opinion: I really liked Voyager, and one of the reasons I picked this film instead of one of the others was her presence. She was a strong woman in Voyager, despite being male fan service. 

The other reason: Vampires, this will be a recurring theme in my collection.

So here's what I remembered about the movie before I re watched it. Written in real time, no edits:

'Some idiots rob a museum or maybe a bank. The idiots include Omar Epps, a guy from Scary Movie and a woman who I remember being in Spin City. In this Bankseum is a coffin, the idiots steal it (???) Thinking it will contain anything other than a dessicated corpse and therefore is of value. I don't really know what happens next but then they're on a plane and somehow Gerard Dracula wakes up, can't remember how, I think maybe he eats the guy who was in Scary  Movie. The plane crashes in Florida (???) or somewhere with a swamp. Oh wait, now I remember, it was in New Orleans. Seven of Nine is a reporter and she's kind of bitchy and Gerard Dracula eats her cameraman. She becomes the first bride of Dracula.

So then we're with this woman, with a pixie cut, since I can't remember her name I'm going to call her Pixie.

She's a Brit, but she lives in New Orleans and works in a Virgin mega store (Ha! Remember those), with her friend Vitamin C. She has dreams, I think they're of Dracula, but anyway. Johnny Lee Miller is in London with his mentor Van Helsing. Van Helsing knows the coffin is stolen, because it was in his vault (???) He thinks Dracula will be after his daughter, Pixie. He's too old to go gallivanting around the place so he sends Johnny to go track Dracula down. Here's where I go a bit fuzzy on what happens. Somehow Gerard Dracula ends up Vamping Vitamin C. Very sexily, if I remember correctly. Johnny Lee Miller has a fight with Omar Epps who is a vampire now. I think it was Mardi Gras, but that's a given as it's always Mardi Gras in New Orleans. More stuff happens that I don't remember. Gerard Dracula seduces Pixie. OH SHIT!!! I just remembered, Nathan Fillion was there at some point, as a priest!

Blah blah blah, Seven of Nine, Vitamin C and woman from Spin City are the Brides of Dracula.

Mrow

They writhe around sexily for a bit and then comes the one part of the movie I remember very clearly.

Gerard Dracula is on a roof, overacting the hell out of a monologue in which he reveals that he is actually Judas Iscariot TWIST!   

Oh, the hair.

and vampirism is his punishment, hence the wood (cross) and silver (coins he was paid) allergies. He cries, spits a lot and then I think Pixie stabs him.

The End.'

After a re watch

It was neither a bank nor museum, it was Van Helsings house. He's an antiques dealer and Spin City woman, Jennifer Esposito or Selina as she is known here, works for him. She enlists a group of hi tech burglars, Hyde from that 70's show! Dude from Save the Last Dance! Ponytail extra! To help her steal from the vault as she thinks Van Helsings level of security means he must be hiding untold riches. Finding nothing but the aforementioned coffin they steal it as they can't get it open without Indiana Jones style traps beheading them all.  Scary Movie guy and Ponytail extra die here.

It turns out Johnny Lee Miller's character Simon, isn't a hunter at all he's just some rando who works for Van Helsing and loves to talk about vampires. Which means the entire purpose of his character is someone for Van Helsing to exposit to, which he does. A lot. There is so much exposition, done so clunkily too, while the camera spins and spins around them because the director thinks you won't get bored if the picture doesn't stop moving.

Van Helsing didn't send Simon BTW he followed him. Shows how much attention I paid.

To be honest all the stuff that I had forgotten happening wasn't worth remembering so I'll skip most of it. However It turns out Van Helsing in this movie is the original Van Helsing from the Bram Stoker story. He's kept himself alive by injecting a little bit of Dracula's blood into himself everyday and of course he passed traces of this onto his daughter. Hence her Dracula dreams and his obsession with her.

At one point Simon holds the Bible out to Gerard Dracula and he's all 'not afraid of books dude' and then Simon opens the book and all the pages fly at Gerard Dracula while on fire.

Ha ha, what?

So anyway. Lots of running, chase scene through a graveyard (???) covered in fog (???) Judas scene. Wire work.

So many unnecessary back flips

Oh and  Pixie doesn't stab him, well she does, but that doesn't kill him. She hangs him from a neon cross and god finally accepts his death or something. Ugh, by that point it was like whatever .

Yeah so, this film was not great. However, I don't think I hated it at the time. I had very low standards and it was entertaining. There are some lovely horror moments.

Gah! Eye leech!

After listening to the commentary I discovered that this originally was a very different type of film. Much darker in tone. Apparently the only reason Johnny Lee Miller signed on was because the original script had him as some blood addicted Vampire hunter who was torn between wanted to hunt vampires down for the good of mankind or use their blood to sustain his youth. When the script was diluted and passed around it became the muddled mess that made it to film and Johnny still had to do it as the ink had dried on his contract.

So as a woman. I like my female characters in movies have some depth, to be honest this should not be predicated on the fact that I am a woman. Before I re watched the movie I couldn't remember what Justine Waddell's (Pixie) characters name was. On rewatch I realise why. She is supposed to be the main character and she has no personality... at all... seriously she does nothing. She slinks around whispering at everybody and looking waifish and then relies on Johnny Lee Millers character (who's characters name I remember as she whispers it all the damn time) to  rescue her. She does back flip fight Dracula at the end but I have no idea why since she seems to lack motivation for anything. She was just so boring and don't get me started on the brides. Their entire reason for being was T&A. Though I'm not against a little sexiness.

Johnny's character could have been interesting but again he was just a shell. The most interesting person in this film was Dracula, and only because Gerard Butler was the only actor in the movie that actually made an effort. He seemed to be the only one taking it seriously, while everyone else mouthed their lines around him.

I don't know what the film was supposed to be. The Bram Stoker story to me was about the fear and allure of sexuality and death. It was Gothic erotica, Dracula was the creeping other who gave women power over their sexuality. He was the Freudian id untamed. I'm not sure what the point of Dracula 2001 was. I guess they wanted to get across the Judas thing. Though that felt like it was left over from the earlier script. I read somewhere that there was supposed to be a satirical element to it, like all the sexuality that maligned Dracula in Victorian times was rampant in boobs and beads land, but the tone didn't seem right for that.

One of the things that annoys me most is watching a film that has potential and because of laziness, meddling, budget, any of the myriad reasons that films turn to shit, just fails. I can usually see the awesome movie lurking beneath the surface and it irks me. There was potentially something interesting with this one, that's why I picked it up but alas it never came to be. 

Whoa, how'd that get in here?