p e n g u i n d e v i l

I watched Animal House. I hadn’t seen it in quite a while. While I admit that it loses a bit of its spark as the years have worn on, as do most comedy’s, it is still a classic that I get a good deal of enjoyment from. At this point though, I no longer think it is a film that I would recommend to just anyone.

These last two days though, I also went through Scarface. I really must pick up the DVD sometime. These old fullscreen VHS tapes I have just don’t do it justice. I remember watching it again a couple of years ago and being rather nonplussed, it didn’t seem quite to be able to grab me like it had before. This time though, I really got into it. I feel like it’s one of Pacino’s best roles. He seems to really get into the part and it looked like he had a lot of fun (“yell everything, spit while you do it and be sure to use the F word constantly”). I also always get a kick out of seeing F. Murray Abraham as a cocaine dealer. The soundtrack though, I soo cannot imagine Giorgio Moroder ever being considered the right music for a movie. Some music dates really badly.

Then last night, I finally got around to watching Shaolin Soccer. I started it a bit a few months ago, when I was obsessed with Kung Fu Hustle, and I wasn’t too moved. This time around though, I was very entertained. They really are very similar movies and though Kung Fu hustle I do still prefer, I would strongly recommended Shaolin Soccer to anyone who liked it.

Today, taking advantage of the funny weekends I also finally watched The Testament of Doctor Mabuse. The 1962 version. I definitely liked it a lot. There are soo many old European crime movies (by the way, did I really read at imdb that Pacino is in a re-make of Rififi? When, oh please when, are they going to stop pillaging the classics of the past to make a buck? Yet another cruddy overblown hollywood travesty on the way… Of course, maybe it’s a different Rififi. They’d better stay away from Melville though, If I ever hear about a re-make of Le Samourai there will be hell to pay)… Anyway. It was very good. I mostly like seeing Gert Frobe playing a role aside from Auric Goldfinger… Though of course, I now feel an urge to watch Goldfinger again. It also made me ponder the series as a whole. I admit that I haven’t really looked into it but it seem that there must be 10-20 Mabuse films. That would be an interesting (yes, and I bet tiring) process to watch them all. Anyway, this one was really a fun film. Though I do not have the courage to tackle the original silent version, I must get my hands on the Lang talkie from 1933.

On another kind of viewing, I went out Sunday to the Doug Fir, where I hadn’t been before. It was a mighty cool place, possibly a bit too hip for me to like, but I made an exception for it. I just thought it was just really nice. I think it would be a neat place to take out-of-towners.

I saw Adelaide and Her Space Holiday… Adelaide was pretty good, kind of an electro-shoegazer kind of thing. I thought their music was good and I always like bands that have projectors as part of their shows. The projected imagery was more secondary then the other concerts I seen with them (Butthole Surfers, Godspeed and, the best of the music films combos I’ve seen, Yo La Tengo at the Guild Theatre playing with the films of Painleve, which was really incredible… (Oh, and I guess I could count the silly video montage Ozzy used at the Ozzfest I attended) but I still like the effect. The Young Machines is all that I had heard of Her Space Holiday but it seems that I do like his songs quite a lot. Some of the lyrics are a bit too honest and sad and the music is good and interesting. Surely worthwhile if one is into this kind of thing. Plus he had double LP’s for sale and that always pulls me in. Anyway, though I only got to maybe a show a year now, I still think that it was a really good show.