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alyssa - 17 July 2008 05:27 AM

Lars Von Trier set me on a path to becoming a large television owner. Deeps and I had a tiny 13” TV and tried to watch the Kingdom on it. We pulled our crappy sofa (aka the other piece of furniture we owned) close to it but it still wasn’t enough to watch 6 hours of Danish horror. So we scraped our money together and bought a 27” TV and hauled it up three flights of stairs to our tiny apartment.

It didn’t work.

But after exchanged it we spent some quality time with The Kingdom. I’m not a fan of all of Von Trier’s work, but some of it is quite enjoyable.

Funnily enough, I first watched The Kingdom on a TV about the size of a postage stamp too.

Okay, this is a bump, but a bump with a purpose.

I had to shut down the queue for a couple of days to get my shit together (what a summer), but now it’s back and despite Netflix’s best efforts to keep their films from my domicile (they were having major, unspecified shipping errors THE DAY I re-subscribed), I got some quality mailed to me this Saturday.

Fletch: I had never seen it before.  Seriously.  And after we did the Pineapple Express review, it occurred to me that this was probably another influence on PE and that I should watch it.  Turns out I’d seen a lot of it on TV before, but the through plot-line never made sense until today (it’s a little too complex to be gleaned from the random chunks I’d seen on TBS).  It also turns out that I loved it.  Kind of a no brainer, that.

Phenomena: I’ve seen a lot of Argento, but not this one.  *Spoiler Alert* Jennifer Connolly sicks an army of flies on a retarded pre-teen with massive facial deformities at the end of the film.  So yeah, it was pretty good.  The rest of the film though, kinda boring.  Not enough psychic flies attacking cripples for my taste.  Although the film also features Donald Pleasance as a Scott who owns a razor blade brandishing chimp (the real hero of the film). 

Buffy: Season 7: The Last MuthaFugging Disc: I’m finally done with the series, and after the last few episodes, I have to say that I’m glad it’s all over.  The series has had it’s ups and downs, and I’d consider this one a down.  Had things ended last season, it might be a bit easier to call the series a classic, but it didn’t, so it isn’t.  It’s close though.  The show is a lot of fun, but aside from Nathan Fillion as the “Big Bad” it ended on an overwrought and sour note.  Too bad.

Fletch was on pay cable this weekend. I will watch it in whatever form, whenever it is on. I love Fletch.

Have you ever read any of the books? They’re very short, funny and cinematic - they almost read like screenplays. I’m not sure how I feel about a remake or “re-launch” of the series… especially if some d-bag is involved.

It’s hard to remember a time when Chevy Chase was almost handsome and very charismatic.

Now go rent To Catch a Thief!

I’m working on it.  Next up is Lost Boys 2: The Tribe, Cat People/ Curse of the Cat People and Mannaja: A Man Called Blade.

I’ve recently added Joe Versus the Volcano, House of the Dead, Batman and Robin, American Beauty, The Relic, Lethal Weapon, Amelie, Conan the Barbarian, Mallrats, Knocked Up, Rogue, and The Green Mile to my Queue.

I’m getting a little burned out on the so-bad-they’re-good kind of movies, to be honest. I feel like I need to start catching up on some of the essentials.

True, the so-bad-it’s-good stuff is junk food and should never be eaten as a substitute for a real meal.  Plus, if you’re watching those sorts of films on your own, without drunk friends around to yell things at the screen, you’re not really going to enjoy them in the way that you probably should.  Not that I’m advocating underage drinking, although, you know…

Also, forgot to mention that I just watched Shampoo and loved it.  Hal Ashby is one of those directors that I’ve semi-neglected for longer than I should have now (I’ve loved Harold and Maude for years, but haven’t sought out much else by the guy).  I’m trying to remedy that.  The Landlord is next if I can find a copy.

Ooh - The Landlord is also good. It’s been showing up on cable a lot lately. Might do a scan there too….

Just got some new stuff in.  Cruising (yes! yes! yes! yes!), The Man Who Fell to Earth and All About Eve.

Loved Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, liked Mannaja and was indifferent to Lost Boys: The Tribe.  I think I’m going to write some reviews for HodgeBlodge, so y’all should check that out in the next few days.

I’d be very interested in reading your thoughts about Cat People/Curse of the Cat People.

I think I’m going to have to take a break from the Netflix for a few months - TV starts again next week and I’m going to have to wade through a bunch of crap…. I mean, future classics.

In My Skin, Plankton, Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare, 2001: Space Odyssey, Psycho, and There Will Be Blood are all on their way.

Ooooh.  You’re going to have to let me know what you think of In My Skin.  All of those, actually.  I love them all to some degree.

I plan on watching In My Skin first. Can’t put it off any longer. I gotta admit, I’m pretty curious. I know next to nothing about the film, besides the fact that it’s nearly vomit inducing. Is it a legitimately good movie, or is it all shock value?

A’ight, recent additions include The Big Lebowski, Death Race 2000, The Tenant, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cats Don’t Dance (shut up), Apocalypto, The Roost, Monster Camp, Darkon, The Fall, The Foot Fist Way, Frankenhooker, and Death Bed: The Bed That Eats.

Yep.