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

I finally got around to finishing The Lord of the Rings, yes, it took a few sittings. No, the original one. I imagine that it’s less “accurate” than the Peter Jackson films (it’s been quite a few years since I last read the books), but I still have a fondness for it. For one, I am a fan of Bakshi and his funny rotoscope style. But maybe that’s because I’m not really a fan of animation anyway. Of course, the ring wraiths were my favorite part of this movie, those and the orcs. The new movies have nice wraiths, but I don’t like the new orcs…. One thing that stands out right away in this old version is the title music. The music that they play for the opening credits sounds like it was swiped from The Great Escape or some ol’ WWII film… Hmmm. Anyway, I wouldn’t really recommend it to fans of Jackson’s films, but for us old Wizards and Heavy Metal crowd, this one is a lot of fun.

Then next was The White Diamond. Nothing to say but: Herzog and his nutty guys. You would think that he and Kinski would be enough driven ego for one lifetime, but seemingly Herzog needs to continue finding and filming such things. These men with very driven personalities, driven to the point of unsociability. I also can’t help but wonder why they flew an airship all the way across the world to test it. Maybe more of Herzog’s South American fascination? Anyway, it was pretty good to watch.

Last night it was all The Downfall. Started off scary. I already tried to watch the Hitler’s Secretary documentary, it bored me out of my head. So I didn’t finish it.. Now The Downfall starts off with the same bit and I was certainly hoping it would end if I fled to the kitchen for a moment. Well… It did. On with the movie! Made some “schnitzel” & kraut and red wine to go along with it and had a nice viewing time. The movie started off a bit disconcerting, having the air of a film which has had a lot of scenes removed. Trying to keep the ever changing cast of characters straight was a bit odd, what with everyone running about, but it all worked out. Speaking of cast, it was a good move to get Ulrich Matthes for Goebbels, he looked even creepier than the real thing. When he was on the screen, I was torn between not wanting to look at him and not knowing how to not look at him. Anyway, it was interesting. I always like it when movies show the difference between the regular German army officers and Nazi’s. I also thought they did a good job in expressing some of the public psychology of the time and, while they didn’t really get into the causes that led to Hitler’s power, they kind of showed some of the feelings that people had towards him. Anyway, but about the movie. It was interesting and well done and it’s engrossing. One touch I liked was showing the model for the Greater Berlin. It’s something that I have long had an interest in. Speer’s Neo-Classical designs, though rarely completed, are iconic in their scope and ideas. Though I have a book on his Greater Berlin plan with diagrams and photos of models, it was nice to see a full representation of the model.

the downfall 15:19

Tonight I watched Dog Soldiers. A recent and fairly highly thought of werewolf movie. Now, like I’ve said before, I’m not really into werewolf movies but I thought I would try this anyway. It’s a very low-budget affair, with lots of bloodshed and none of that cgi junk. I would say that they do a good job with what they have and it wasn’t too bad. One of those that I feel I may like more in retrospect than in the moment. The early vague shots of the werewolves looked a bit hokey, being silhouettes, but I actually got to kind of find it endearing after a while. Lot’s of removed limbs and lots and lots of shooting made it a pretty energetic movie after a kind of slow start and while the wolves weren’t top-of-the-line, I still liked them… very tall… Sort of reminded me of Pumpkinhead. One thing though, that seemed a bit off… The first night, they’re sitting around their camp and a dead cow with big bite marks falls into the middle of their camp. They decide to investigate it in the morning? Um? A big dead cut-up cow just fell, from above, into the camp? Yeah, let’s look later…

Then tonight I snuck out to Paul and Robin’s and finally got around to watching Up in Smoke. It occurred to me that I think I had seen it before, but it didn’t ring all the bells that the two movies that followed it did. Anyway. What to say? It was Cheech and Chong. Some parts were pretty darned funny. Including a lot of humor that I normally wouldn’t like, but with C&C I find acceptable. As Paul put it, the police were a bit too Keystone Kops, but Stacy Keach did a respectable job for his role. For the finale, though it was fun to hear the song from Earache My Eye again, the scene itself isn’t that great.