All the Tired Horses

The First Year of Scott Snyder’s Batman Is Simply Splendid

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:04:00 -0400

The First Year of Scott Snyder’s Batman Is Simply Splendid :

A new article I wrote for Sound on Sight.

My first published piece with Sound on Sight. A comics review for Superior Spider-Man.

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:21:10 -0500

My first published piece with Sound on Sight. A comics review for Superior Spider-Man.

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 10:05:32 -0500

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 10:03:00 -0500

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 09:55:11 -0500

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Death by Hanging (1968, Nagisa Oshima)

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 09:49:16 -0500

Death by Hanging (1968, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:11:02 -0500

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:08:20 -0500

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:05:35 -0500

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:02:22 -0500

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Takashi Miike view tally: 27

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:31:00 -0500

Films I may be watching in the near future:

The City of Lost Souls
Blues Harp
One Missed Call
Full Metal Yakuza
Crows Zero II
MPD-Psycho (miniseries)

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:23:32 -0500

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:20:55 -0500

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:18:09 -0500

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

I think one of the worst things you could say about a Takashi...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 08:58:00 -0500

I think one of the worst things you could say about a Takashi Miike film is that it’s uninspired. Sadly, that word sums up pretty well some of his earliest movies, when he was a direct-to-video film maker churning out unmemorable Yakuza action flicks. I recently watched two of these, Bodyguard Kiba (1993), and its first sequel, Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse Carnage (1994). They are at their most entertaining during their competently - though a little unexciting - action sequences, which sort of fuse martial arts into their urban setting. Any attempts at characterizations fall completely flat. I got fed up with the poorly paced narrative and found myself waiting for the next fight. And this is some years before Miike developed his unique aesthetic.

Unfortunately, I do realize I have more films like this in my future, considering I plan to watch every Takashi Miike film available online. He’s one of my favourite film directors and I want to go through the good, the bad, and the ugly of his filmography.

Current Miike Progress: 26 films seen (out of 84ish)

A couple days ago, my girlfriend and I started watching Star...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:34:00 -0500

A couple days ago, my girlfriend and I started watching Star Trek: The Original Series. I have been a fan of the series for half a decade; this is her first exposure to the universe (outside of the 2009 film). We have thus far watched the first 11 episodes and she has quickly become a fan. I am enjoying it as much as I always have. I have watched none of the other shows and we have both interested in them for a while - particularly The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. We made sort of a day-late New Years Resolution to watch every episode of these three shows this year. That’s 434 hour-long episodes. And I decided to toss in The Animated Series for the hell of it. It’s only 22 half-hour episodes; something we can get through in just a couple days. And of course we’ll be watching all of the ten films whenever we get to their respective parts in the timeline. We can be hardcore television watchers when we set our mind on something, so perhaps this goal will be an all-too-easy one for us (in which case, we might as well bring on Voyager and Enterprise - both of which we currently plan to watch in 2014). Perhaps we’ll have our moments of Star Trek burnout and end up going on lengthy breaks, which is quite possible. Plus, I need to get her into Doctor Who this year (I have seen all of the Modern Era and selected serials of the Classic Era). She wants to watch the 2004-series Battlestar Galactica at some point (I have already seen it) with me. The Prisoner will be a weekend-long viewing for us at some point. And we’re long overdo on The X-Files (I’ve only seen up to season four and I don’t think she ever finished season one). What’s to learn here? We both love science fiction, so hard.

Then there are the seasons one and two DVD box sets of Babylon 5 on my DVD shelf that desperately need accompaniment from their later season friends.

And we slowly chip away at The Twilight Zone. I do, anyway. She’s quite a bit behind me.

Adventure Time With Fiona & Cake - Issue #1I don’t buy...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 05:39:15 -0500

Adventure Time With Fiona & Cake - Issue #1

I don’t buy the Adventure Time comics in issue format; I sit and patiently wait for the trade paperbacks. My patience is challenged once more, when I saw the debut of this delightful miniseries.

willowwatchesmovies: Dust Up: Ward Roberts, 2012 The Lovely...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:03:28 -0500

willowwatchesmovies:

Dust Up: Ward Roberts, 2012

The Lovely Amber Benson, plus Lens Flare

It’s no surprise to me whenever a Takashi Miike film ends...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 20:38:34 -0500

It’s no surprise to me whenever a Takashi Miike film ends up being one of my favourites of the year. I think he’s one of the most exciting film makers of the last twenty years and I love his works more often than not. I just didn’t expect to enjoy Ace Attorney as much as I did. Maybe it’s the stigma that video game adaptations have. Maybe because it’s based on a video game series that doesn’t appear to be all that “cinematic”. Maybe it’s the mixed reactions I heard from people whose opinions on film interest me. Ace Attorney is 135 minutes long. Perhaps unnecessarily long, and Miike is no stranger to filler, but I was never on the verge of losing interest. The film’s tangents and flashbacks and side-plots gave me more to hold on to and to enjoy. Ace Attorney is funny and tense, sometimes in the same scene. It’s a courtroom film that’s sometimes as funny as the court scenes in Woody Allen’s Bananas and other times as intense as To Kill A Mockingbird. It’s expectedly bizarre (it’s what you get with Miike). And it all works somehow.

Holy Motors (2012, Léos Carax)One of the most creative as well...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 20:27:00 -0500

Holy Motors (2012, Léos Carax)

One of the most creative as well as aesthetically and intellectually stimulating films I’ve seen all year. I have the opportunity to catch it in a cinema in early 2013 and I’m greatly anticipating it.