On Watching Crappy Movies - Sometimes, You Get A Surprise

I'm watching my pile of crap movies...

You know me.
You know that my gut reaction is to HATE anything that could possibly pass for a "chick flick".

...which is funny considering that my boy is the biggest, teenage girl you've ever seen... (laughs)

So anyway...

I've just finished "Uptown Girls" and "Mona Lisa Smile"... and while I wanted to despise them both - they were actually less vile than I anticipated. This IS NOT to say that either was 'good' - just that neither made me want to tear my eyes from their sockets.

On the other hand... I'm watching "Hatchet" - which is a little on the painful side.

As much as I love horror - I hate crap horror. I hate "film school" horror.

I remember watching the commentary on a H.G. Lewis movie - the interviewer asked him about making "bad movies" and Lewis replied, "I don't make bad movies. Everything is in focus. The dialog is synced to the film." (or something to that end).

And he's right; it can be said that he made "low budget movies." Or that he made "exploitation movies", but very, very technically, he did not make "bad movies".

But 'hatchet' - bad. period.
Maybe I'm too critical.
Maybe I'm too cynical.
Maybe I don't give people enough of a chance.
Maybe I'm not fair.

... yeah, and maybe I'm happy that way.

Comments

The Witch (2015)

You know the drill - there's ALWAYS spoilers. Don't want the movie ruined for you, come back after you've seen it. Also - I'm still without an editor - typos and bad grammar await you! I keep hoping that the cultural obsession with zombies will end; literally every other damn movie that comes 'round seems to feature some sort of shambling, undead being bent on devouring the weak flesh of regular humans. Once upon a time, zombies have have been used as a metaphor for the blind consumerism created by our capitalist society, or the perceived depletion of resources by immigrants, or even the ravages of time and disease on our frail bodies. Now it seems that the deeper social commentary has been lost as audiences mindlessly consume "zombie fiction" in an attempt to keep up with trends. ( How very meta - a film buddy of mine commented on this assessment! ) All of this is just a sideways rant, leading up to my actual point: it seems that zombie may actually...

Mother!

Alright friends and readers–this one is probably doubly filled with typos and grammar errors because I wrote it while angry. Good luck and happy reading. There are unpopular opinions in every realm. As a film student, you can truly strike a nerve when you say things like, "I fucking hate the self-indulgence of independent films and the way people idolize them." Or, you know, "Low lighting and slow pacing does not a good movie make." Or whatever. You can of course, objectively, understand how this happens. When you are creating art–when you are outside the system so to speak–you are free to explore things (subjects, techniques, etc.) that may need to be addressed and that freedom can become intoxicating and go to one's head. While it may seem only right or only fair to respect and accept each creative endeavor that every artist undertakes, it is unreasonable to believe that the world will remain forever patient with the self-obsession artists have. Th...

The Babadook

Spoilers and typos! Enjoy. We often look back nostalgically on childhood, envious of the joy we felt and the boundless imaginations we possessed. How conveniently we forget the other side of that coin: as children, we experience a depth of terror our adult selves continually try to recreate for cathartic entertainment. When we try to bring those childhood fears to life on the screen, we often end up with movies about "things that go bump in the night," which is a somewhat superficial approach. While it does provide an opportunity for a supernatural experience, it ignores the root of our fear: the unknown . As children, we lack life experience. We lack nuance. We lack understanding. Not knowing creates in us fear. Yes, we fear what lurks in the darkness but we also fear the adult world because we do not understand how it works. The Babadook works to exploit both those fears. The short story: a widowed mother of a young boy experiences a mental breakdown and tries to...

i'm kael's ghost

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