The first movie of this year was supposed to be the horror classic Suspiria directed by Dario Argento. Unfortunately my Xbox couldn't play the English dub included in my copy of the movie, and I don't know Italian. So as a backup we watched The Order, released in 2003 and starring Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, and Peter Weller.
The basic plot of the movie follows Ledger and Addy, the final remaining members of an obscure order of Catholicism, as they attempt to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of their mentor, an excommunicated priest. They meet creepy demon children, The Black Pope (Chirac), and the Sin Eater.
The beginning is pretty strong, story wise, and actually quite creepy several times. However the narrative kindof loses focus shortly after the meeting with Chirac, and meanders a bit before finally latching back onto Ledger's character and the Sin Eater. The end is also fairly strong, though not nearly as interesting. The unfocused middle bit kindof ruins the possibilities and the film ends without having explored all the various threads of the mythology that were introduced in the first act, leaving me feeling a bit short changed.
Definitely entertaining, and with some very interesting moments and concepts, but just a bit lost in itself and finally unable to deliver. Not a bad movie by any means.
Next up: The Omega Man
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
October Horror Month 2011
Another year has elapsed and we once again find ourselves drifting further from the sun. The days are getting shorter, the weather gets colder, and for whatever reason everyone loves to tell ghost stories and tour graveyards. Our personal tradition as always consists of dividing the 4 weeks of the month into themes and attempting to watch a horror/thriller film every night.
This year's themes are: Cults, Re-rerererererere (Remakes, Reimaginings, Sequels, etc.), Found Footage, and Around the World (Each film from this week takes place on a different continent).
I'm going to once again try to post a short review of each movie every night, including a relevant trailer. It was a good exercise in writing discipline, although there are movies I saw that I didn't get the chance to finish reviewing. I might revisit those later when this month is over. Anyway, back soon. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.
This year's themes are: Cults, Re-rerererererere (Remakes, Reimaginings, Sequels, etc.), Found Footage, and Around the World (Each film from this week takes place on a different continent).
I'm going to once again try to post a short review of each movie every night, including a relevant trailer. It was a good exercise in writing discipline, although there are movies I saw that I didn't get the chance to finish reviewing. I might revisit those later when this month is over. Anyway, back soon. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Bourgeois Beer: Brewdog's Tactical Nuclear Penguin
The second installment of Bourgeois Beer comes to us both as a surprise. I had ventured to my nearby liquor store in search of a good Scotch. It's been a while since I had Scotch and I felt this situation needed to be remedied. When I got to the store, however, I was surprised by a sign in the beer aisle that stated "Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismark, we have them. See the management." Ok, the name is pretty intriguing, I now want to now what this is all about.
TNP and STB are both freeze distilled "Superbeers" from BrewDog. For those unfamiliar with the freeze distilling concept, the long and short of it is that an alcoholic beverage is subjected to a very cold temperature and since water freezes at a much higher temperature than alcohol a portion of the water becomes ice. This ice is removed and the remaining liquid now has a higher concentration of alcohol. Compared to regular distilling, where alcohol is boiled out of the liquid and the rest is left behind, freeze distilling produces a drink that's a lot more like what you started with. See the wikipedia article here.
TNP is made by taking Brewdog's Paradox Imperial Stout, aging it for 14 months in the same types of used sherry casks used to mature Scotch whiskey. It's then freeze distilled up to 64 proof. Yeah, this stuff makes Utopias look like baby's first bottle.
The bottle was cool when I got it home so I decided to try it cool->warm first. I used my Utopias glass since I figured $90 beer deserves a glass made for a $200 beer.
The beer pours a dark amber with almost no carbonation, and is very clear. I take that back, there is no carbonation, the first bubbles were just the result of being poured. This beer isn't nearly as dark as some others I've seen, but it is just about as thick.
I'm still not entirely sure what I sniffed in that glass can be considered beer. It immediately tells even potent Rauchbiers that their weaksauce smokey flavor will not be tolerated in the Penguin's house. The beer smells like black pepper, smoke from a backyard grill, and burnt wood with a solid background of alcohol and chocolate. I am now prepared.
I wouldn't recommend drinking this too warm as that quickly destroyed whatever semblance of subtlety the flavor was holding on to and really plays up the alcohol flavor, making it obvious you're drinking a 32% ABV beer. When it was still relatively cool the other flavors were strong enough to mask the alcohol at least a little. First off, it's smokey as all hell. It takes a good few seconds for anything besides that overwhelming smoke flavor to present itself. I guess in this way it has something in common with the Scotch I was looking for but I never like my scotches this smokey. When it's finally done with that it switches to a flavor I can only describe as smoked kielbasa. It's thick, still smokey, spicey, and meaty. I maybe picked up a little over-roasted coffee, but it vanished pretty quickly. I couldn't get any of the more stout like flavors of nuts or chocolate that the sniff hinted at. This beer takes you for one helluva ride. It's almost like Baijiu in that respect. Also the tendency to remind of meat, although Baijiu gave me more a deli meat...salami or ham character.
In contrast to the wild flavor explosion that is tasting the beer it actually feels pretty flat in your mouth, probably due to the complete lack of carbonation. If you've ever used cold cream to remove makeup, it's kindof like that. (I was a zombie for Halloween, don't give me that.) I guess I'd say maybe a very thick version of "silky". It didn't really feel like my mouth was being coated with it, like most dark beers that are this viscous feel like. Although the aftertaste did hang around for quite a while, and was very very smokey.
While TNP goes around the superbeer complaint I voiced in my previous Bourgeois Beer on Sam Adams' Utopias, it just ends up being unlike beer or wine and becomes...sausage. Seriously, folks, it's strange.
(I would note that after I wrote this up I did manage to convince a visiting friend to buy a bottle of Sink the Bismark and let me try some. I didn't get enough or remember it well enough to write a full Bourgeois Beer on it, but I will say that it deserves its higher BeerAdvocate rating and actually tastes like beer. In this case it's very close to a Belgian Strong Ale like Duvel, without as much yeasty character. Actually very good and completely belies its 41% ABV. It's supposed to be an IPA, but I just didn't get that.)
Drink on!
--PXA
TNP and STB are both freeze distilled "Superbeers" from BrewDog. For those unfamiliar with the freeze distilling concept, the long and short of it is that an alcoholic beverage is subjected to a very cold temperature and since water freezes at a much higher temperature than alcohol a portion of the water becomes ice. This ice is removed and the remaining liquid now has a higher concentration of alcohol. Compared to regular distilling, where alcohol is boiled out of the liquid and the rest is left behind, freeze distilling produces a drink that's a lot more like what you started with. See the wikipedia article here.
TNP is made by taking Brewdog's Paradox Imperial Stout, aging it for 14 months in the same types of used sherry casks used to mature Scotch whiskey. It's then freeze distilled up to 64 proof. Yeah, this stuff makes Utopias look like baby's first bottle.
The bottle was cool when I got it home so I decided to try it cool->warm first. I used my Utopias glass since I figured $90 beer deserves a glass made for a $200 beer.
The beer pours a dark amber with almost no carbonation, and is very clear. I take that back, there is no carbonation, the first bubbles were just the result of being poured. This beer isn't nearly as dark as some others I've seen, but it is just about as thick.
I'm still not entirely sure what I sniffed in that glass can be considered beer. It immediately tells even potent Rauchbiers that their weaksauce smokey flavor will not be tolerated in the Penguin's house. The beer smells like black pepper, smoke from a backyard grill, and burnt wood with a solid background of alcohol and chocolate. I am now prepared.
I wouldn't recommend drinking this too warm as that quickly destroyed whatever semblance of subtlety the flavor was holding on to and really plays up the alcohol flavor, making it obvious you're drinking a 32% ABV beer. When it was still relatively cool the other flavors were strong enough to mask the alcohol at least a little. First off, it's smokey as all hell. It takes a good few seconds for anything besides that overwhelming smoke flavor to present itself. I guess in this way it has something in common with the Scotch I was looking for but I never like my scotches this smokey. When it's finally done with that it switches to a flavor I can only describe as smoked kielbasa. It's thick, still smokey, spicey, and meaty. I maybe picked up a little over-roasted coffee, but it vanished pretty quickly. I couldn't get any of the more stout like flavors of nuts or chocolate that the sniff hinted at. This beer takes you for one helluva ride. It's almost like Baijiu in that respect. Also the tendency to remind of meat, although Baijiu gave me more a deli meat...salami or ham character.
In contrast to the wild flavor explosion that is tasting the beer it actually feels pretty flat in your mouth, probably due to the complete lack of carbonation. If you've ever used cold cream to remove makeup, it's kindof like that. (I was a zombie for Halloween, don't give me that.) I guess I'd say maybe a very thick version of "silky". It didn't really feel like my mouth was being coated with it, like most dark beers that are this viscous feel like. Although the aftertaste did hang around for quite a while, and was very very smokey.
While TNP goes around the superbeer complaint I voiced in my previous Bourgeois Beer on Sam Adams' Utopias, it just ends up being unlike beer or wine and becomes...sausage. Seriously, folks, it's strange.
(I would note that after I wrote this up I did manage to convince a visiting friend to buy a bottle of Sink the Bismark and let me try some. I didn't get enough or remember it well enough to write a full Bourgeois Beer on it, but I will say that it deserves its higher BeerAdvocate rating and actually tastes like beer. In this case it's very close to a Belgian Strong Ale like Duvel, without as much yeasty character. Actually very good and completely belies its 41% ABV. It's supposed to be an IPA, but I just didn't get that.)
Drink on!
--PXA
Monday, October 25, 2010
October Horror Season 2: Day 18
This night's movie was "Se7en" starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Kevin Spacey.
I first saw this movie several years ago at the recommendation of a friend of mine in High School. At that point I hadn't really conceived of a good movie that ran at a rather slow pace and used horrible, depraved crimes as something other than "AHA!" shocking gross-outs. Se7en presents these murders so matter-of-factly, even while its characters wretch on screen. To a degree I think the evenness of the treatment between routine police work and investigating mutilated corpses with deadly sins written in blood does the film a disservice, dramatically. On the other hand I can see it might be trying to make the point about the tediousness of work and the horrifying banality the killer sees in every day life. This was also one of the first movies I'd seen with Brad Pitt in it, and back when I originally saw it I was surprised to learn he was a very good actor.
While it's more a really tense drama with a few shockingly gross scenes than a thriller of any sort, it's still a really well done movie.
Tomorrow will have been "High Tension"
I first saw this movie several years ago at the recommendation of a friend of mine in High School. At that point I hadn't really conceived of a good movie that ran at a rather slow pace and used horrible, depraved crimes as something other than "AHA!" shocking gross-outs. Se7en presents these murders so matter-of-factly, even while its characters wretch on screen. To a degree I think the evenness of the treatment between routine police work and investigating mutilated corpses with deadly sins written in blood does the film a disservice, dramatically. On the other hand I can see it might be trying to make the point about the tediousness of work and the horrifying banality the killer sees in every day life. This was also one of the first movies I'd seen with Brad Pitt in it, and back when I originally saw it I was surprised to learn he was a very good actor.
While it's more a really tense drama with a few shockingly gross scenes than a thriller of any sort, it's still a really well done movie.
Tomorrow will have been "High Tension"
Sunday, October 17, 2010
October Horror Season 2: Day 17
Day 3 of Serial Killer week's feature presentation is "From Hell". This 2001 film was directed by the Hughes Brothers (previously known for Menace II Society and Dead Presidents) and based on the Alan Moore graphic novel.
Now, I confess I've seen this movie before, and it is one of my favorite movies. I don't know if it's Top 10, but I've always really enjoyed it. It seemed to be something that was artistic and stylish but still accessible a violent, so I felt I could enjoy it without feeling like a brute who just loves bloody movies. I think the assessment still holds up, but after repeated views and thinking about this after some slight "Film Schooling" by my better half, it's probably not as high art as I originally thought.
In fact, part of the reason I probably noticed the filming style was how heavy handed the use of angle and colored lighting was in the first act of the film. Later on, they seemed to film more using natural white light and enhancing certain elements with color. From what I understand from the DVD commentary the film was shot mostly chronologically, so it could've just been the brothers getting used to directing a movie like this, or perhaps some additional budget being allocated to allow them to film on locations instead of sound stages. Either way, after the funeral scene the quality of the lighting improves significantly. Also, while I really enjoyed the graphic novel style angles and contrasts in the early movie, I will admit that the later style feels a lot more natural while still maintaining some signatures (like the shot of Jack walking up the ladder shot from underneath the carriage).
Aside from the shaky start cinematography-wise, there really isn't much playing against this film because it's still very well directed and very well written. The cast includes Johnny Depp, Robbie Coltrane, and Ian Holm, so the acting is all very good. Even the lesser known actors and actresses playing the Masons and the Whitechapel hookers are very good. In fact, the worst casting choice was probably Heather Graham.
This almost hedges out Feast as my favorite movie of the month so far, but I still love the prodigious amount of unapologetic gore Feast pumps out. If I was trying to seem higher class than that, though, I'd put From Hell up front. Definitely see it if you haven't.
Tomorrow night was supposed to be High Tension, but due to already having the DVD and needing to catch up, we watched Se7en.
Now, I confess I've seen this movie before, and it is one of my favorite movies. I don't know if it's Top 10, but I've always really enjoyed it. It seemed to be something that was artistic and stylish but still accessible a violent, so I felt I could enjoy it without feeling like a brute who just loves bloody movies. I think the assessment still holds up, but after repeated views and thinking about this after some slight "Film Schooling" by my better half, it's probably not as high art as I originally thought.
In fact, part of the reason I probably noticed the filming style was how heavy handed the use of angle and colored lighting was in the first act of the film. Later on, they seemed to film more using natural white light and enhancing certain elements with color. From what I understand from the DVD commentary the film was shot mostly chronologically, so it could've just been the brothers getting used to directing a movie like this, or perhaps some additional budget being allocated to allow them to film on locations instead of sound stages. Either way, after the funeral scene the quality of the lighting improves significantly. Also, while I really enjoyed the graphic novel style angles and contrasts in the early movie, I will admit that the later style feels a lot more natural while still maintaining some signatures (like the shot of Jack walking up the ladder shot from underneath the carriage).
Aside from the shaky start cinematography-wise, there really isn't much playing against this film because it's still very well directed and very well written. The cast includes Johnny Depp, Robbie Coltrane, and Ian Holm, so the acting is all very good. Even the lesser known actors and actresses playing the Masons and the Whitechapel hookers are very good. In fact, the worst casting choice was probably Heather Graham.
This almost hedges out Feast as my favorite movie of the month so far, but I still love the prodigious amount of unapologetic gore Feast pumps out. If I was trying to seem higher class than that, though, I'd put From Hell up front. Definitely see it if you haven't.
Tomorrow night was supposed to be High Tension, but due to already having the DVD and needing to catch up, we watched Se7en.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
October Horror Season 2: Day 16
For serial killers day 2 we watched "Horsemen" from 2009, starring Dennis Quaid.
For a movie written by the man behind "Doom" and "The Expendables" and directed by someone who primarily does concert videos, this is surprisingly competent. Unfortunately as a good thriller it falls flat. The direction and the editing is jumpy and often confusing. The writing isn't horrible but it's not too impressive either. They seemed like they wanted to take the Pseudo-biblical overtones of "Se7en" and mix in a touching father/son reconciliation story, what they ended up with was a mess. Don't get me wrong, the movie was sick and disturbed, which helped as a payoff but it couldn't save it. There was no investment in the characters, especially not the victims since they barely even mentioned most of their names.
And the ending twist of Crying Emo kid Apocalypse was just sad.
Thorough disappointment, since "Se7en" already exists and does the same sort of thing so much better. As much as I enjoy visiting Dennis Quaidia and President Dennis Quaid, I can't recommend this either.
Stay tuned for "From Hell".
For a movie written by the man behind "Doom" and "The Expendables" and directed by someone who primarily does concert videos, this is surprisingly competent. Unfortunately as a good thriller it falls flat. The direction and the editing is jumpy and often confusing. The writing isn't horrible but it's not too impressive either. They seemed like they wanted to take the Pseudo-biblical overtones of "Se7en" and mix in a touching father/son reconciliation story, what they ended up with was a mess. Don't get me wrong, the movie was sick and disturbed, which helped as a payoff but it couldn't save it. There was no investment in the characters, especially not the victims since they barely even mentioned most of their names.
And the ending twist of Crying Emo kid Apocalypse was just sad.
Thorough disappointment, since "Se7en" already exists and does the same sort of thing so much better. As much as I enjoy visiting Dennis Quaidia and President Dennis Quaid, I can't recommend this either.
Stay tuned for "From Hell".
Friday, October 15, 2010
October Horror Season 2: Day 15
(Please note: This and the next several days will be back-dated to appear on their correct day while I play catch up. I was not able to watch for several days due to unforeseable circumstances.)
Day 15 kicks off Serious Serial Killer week with 2007's "Zodiac" which stars Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal among other big names. Really an A-list cast.
Directed by David Fincher the film is just about guaranteed to be incredibly well constructed. While I'm sure there's limitless possibility for film-nerding on this one, for a layman it just really didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was good, no doubt, but I couldn't really interest myself in the shots unless something was actually happening in them. With a film that clocks in at ~2.6 hours, holding attention is really important.
A good job is done here and I didn't really find myself wandering away from the movie for too long. The only thing I could really hold against it is that in certain places they did a lot of time skipping, so you'd see "2 weeks later", and then maybe 35 seconds of film, and then a fade and "3 weeks later". I'm told they did this to stay accurate to the actual time line of the case as laid out in the book, but it's really distracting when it happens so quickly. If you've ever seen the Sphere adaptation, they stuck the actual chapter names from the book as transitions between sequences and it really cut up and ruined the action.
Aside from that, Downey Jr is always a pleasure to watch, even Jake isn't bad playing the doe-eyed cartoonist. He fails a little as the serious journalist later, though.
Definitely not bad, but I wouldn't really do a recommend on this. I guess maybe since I'm too young to remember the Zodiac news coverage, if it had been my time I might be a little more interested in it.
Tomorrow serial killers week continues with "Horsemen"
Day 15 kicks off Serious Serial Killer week with 2007's "Zodiac" which stars Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal among other big names. Really an A-list cast.
Directed by David Fincher the film is just about guaranteed to be incredibly well constructed. While I'm sure there's limitless possibility for film-nerding on this one, for a layman it just really didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was good, no doubt, but I couldn't really interest myself in the shots unless something was actually happening in them. With a film that clocks in at ~2.6 hours, holding attention is really important.
A good job is done here and I didn't really find myself wandering away from the movie for too long. The only thing I could really hold against it is that in certain places they did a lot of time skipping, so you'd see "2 weeks later", and then maybe 35 seconds of film, and then a fade and "3 weeks later". I'm told they did this to stay accurate to the actual time line of the case as laid out in the book, but it's really distracting when it happens so quickly. If you've ever seen the Sphere adaptation, they stuck the actual chapter names from the book as transitions between sequences and it really cut up and ruined the action.
Aside from that, Downey Jr is always a pleasure to watch, even Jake isn't bad playing the doe-eyed cartoonist. He fails a little as the serious journalist later, though.
Definitely not bad, but I wouldn't really do a recommend on this. I guess maybe since I'm too young to remember the Zodiac news coverage, if it had been my time I might be a little more interested in it.
Tomorrow serial killers week continues with "Horsemen"
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