connorstelle Reviews

Summer of Sam (1999)

One of the most underrated movies I've ever seen

[6 June 2014]

At the time I watched Summer of Sam, it had an average rating of 6.6/10 on IMDb. For a while, I didn't think much of the movie, as I didn't think it was supposed to be very good. However, after reading Roger Ebert's praising review, I decided to check it out. 2 hours and 20 minutes later, I was amazed. How is this movie not talked about more? This is easily one of Spike Lee's best films, along with Do the Right Thing and 25th Hour. A small detail that tells a lot about what to expect is the film's title. Most people expected a profile of the Son of Sam serial killer. However, the movie is called SUMMER of Sam, which tells what the film is about. It's about the time period and the paranoia that gripped New York during the killings, not the killer himself. There are several scenes showing the killer's life, who is played excellently by underrated actor Michael Baddalucco, but these scenes do not take up the majority of the film. Though he isn't the main character, the film belongs to Adrien Brody as wannabe punk rocker Richie, who is slowly believed to be the Son of Sam by his paranoid friends. His performance is eccentric, dramatic, and just close enough to over-the-top to be believable. The film's best sequence is about halfway through the film, in which Richie rocks out to The Who in his garage, and the scene is dazzlingly intercut with Richie moonlighting as a dancer in a sleazy club and the killer doing his business. I must also give a large applause to the film's top notch editing and soundtrack which play a big part in making the film unique. Despite any negative reviews you've heard, I highly recommend this film for any fan of unique thrillers and Spike Lee's other work.

Escape from Tomorrow (2013)

A must-see, but not for all good reasons

[8 May 2014]

When I first heard about this movie, I was dying to see it. This was mainly because it was illegally filmed at Disney World. When I happened upon it at my local Target, I knew I had to buy it. I sat down on my couch, popped it in the player, and proceeded to experience the strangest hour and a half of my life. Is the movie worth watching? Definitely. Is it good? Not really. There are to good things I can say about the film. 1. For being filmed secretly, the filmmakers did a great job getting away with this. 2. The movie keeps you talking about it for a while. So what exactly is it about? It's a very complicated story, so I'll give you the bare bones: an extremely horny dad takes his family on a vacation to Disney World. While there, he gets fired over the phone. The rest of the film consists of him either having bizarre hallucinations on the rides or dragging his children along as he pursues any and every woman he sees, specifically 2 French teenagers. So what all is wrong with the film? For starters, unbelievably bad acting. The father character is so poorly written and acted, you spend most of the movie hoping he dies. The "sexy" French girls are extremely annoying, and the sexiness the filmmakers were going for is obviously forced, as is much of the movie's odd sexual content. As I mentioned, it's very confusing and hard to follow. It seems the filmmakers thought of all this stuff they wanted to happen in the film, but didn't think of an explanation for why it's happening. Also, I'm surprised this movie hasn't been sued due to copyright infringements. Some of it is removed, but very poorly. Any licensed logo has a censor bar over it, all licensed songs are edited out, and every time the word "Disney" is said, it's beeped out. However, the company Siemens, which is made the villain of the film, doesn't have anything censored and their logo is pasted on nearly everything evil in the movie. There's also an unbelievably confusing ambiguous ending which I won't go into detail on, but it involves something called "cat flu" and will give you and your friends something to debate about. In conclusion, the movie is pretty bad, but it's bad in an entertaining way, like "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" and "Rubber". It's so strange and outlandish that it must be seen to be believed. I highly recommend watching this one, just don't expect an Oscar-winning masterpiece.

Fight Club (1999)

The first rule of Fight Club is to watch Fight Club!

[16 June 2013]

I watched this movie along with District 9 on a long car ride. I approached both the same way I approached the 1986 version of The Fly: is this going to be so disgusting I'm going to barf ten minutes in? Luckily, like The Fly, both movies were incredible, and Fight Club was definitely the better of the two. The plot tells the story of an insomniac man (Edward Norton in his best role) who wants to improve his life. He gets that chance when he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt in one of his best roles), an increasingly insane soap maker who creates the fight club of the title. Finishing off the terrific team is director David Fincher, whose work includes Se7en, The Game, and The Social Network. Without giving anything away, the 3/4 mark of the film gives us a MAJOR unexpected twist. After finishing the movie, I didn't know what to make of it. Five minutes later, I knew this film was a modern masterpiece that deserves its place at #10 on the top 250 list.

The Meaning of Life (1983)

Comedy more sacred than you-know-what

[26 April 2013]

This is definitely one of the funniest movies ever made and the best of the Python movies in my opinion. I still love the Holy Grail as much as this, and I unbelievably haven't seen Life of Brian, but this is definitely the movie for anyone who wants belly laughs delivered by Britain's funniest, Monty Pyhthon. A series of nine hilarious sketches and a Terry Gilliam-directed short film are loosely connected by the plot of a tank of fish attempting to discover the meaning of life. From the bizarre yet hilarious animated title sequence to the final revealing of the meaning of life, the film keeps you laughing from beginning to end. Some of the highlights include: -Michael Palin and his hundreds of children singing a shockingly hilarious song about an equally shocking topic -Eric Idle and Palin attempting to explain why they're dressed as a tiger -An incredibly strange "Middle of the Film" sequence called "Find The Fish" -Idle emerging from a refrigerator to sing a song to Terry Jones (in drag) about his/her insignificance in the universe -Graham Chapman's "Christmas in Heaven" musical finale Just a head's up though, the film is not for the squeamish or easily offended. These events include: -a quite graphic sex education class with John Cleese -an overly bloody "live organ transplant" -Jones's incredibly obese, constantly vomiting Mr. Creosote -Chapman's death at the hands of...I shouldn't spoil it for you, but I will say it isn't good to show your children. Hopefully these haven't scared you away because you would be missing out on the hours you'll spend laughing yourself half to death with this unique, strange, shocking, and above all laugh-out-loud hilarious film.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

1964: A Santa Odyssey? I don't think so

[22 December 2012]

This is tied with 1959's Mexican Santa Claus movie as the ultimate weird, terrible, and surprisingly hilarious Christmas movie. For people like me who enjoy watching and laughing at terrible movies (especially Christmas movies), this is a must-see.

The film starts with an awful musical number (with sing-along over the end credits!) filled with poorly drawn cartoon Santas. We then see on "Kids News" an interview with Santa himself. Martain children see this, and they're so depressed without Santa that they won't eat or sleep. So their father goes to see an old troll in the deserts of Mars who apparently knows everything. The troll, who looks like Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python, jumps to the conclusion that they need Santa on Mars.

The martians get confused when they see a Santa everywhere, so they get 2 kids who without a struggle get in the martian spaceship and go to the North Pole. Once there, the kids escape and face an oh-so-menacing guy in a polar bear suit crawling around on his arms and legs, and a large cardboard robot called Torg. The martians kidnap Santa and use a poor freeze-gun that is supposed to keep them from moving. They still move.

On Mars, Santa sets up a mechanical toy shop that only builds 5 or 6 different toys and plays horrible organ music when it's working. If tampered with, it puts teddy bear heads on dolls and doll heads on teddy bears! This movie is terrible, but everyone needs to see it once in their lives. This, also like Mexican Santa, could be shortened to probably 30 minutes if all the filler was removed. WARNING: You may only survive the first 30 minutes before turning it off.

Santa Claus (1959)

Demons, Merlin, Plastic Reindeer? It could only be Mexican Santa Claus

[22 December 2012]

I got this movie imported from somewhere as a gift. So I sat down and watched it. As soon as it was over, I just sat there with my mouth open, thinking "this is the worst movie ever made." Here's why: The film opens with something like 20+ minutes of Santa playing an organ and making weird facial expressions as the narrator shows all the stereotyped children working in Santa's workshop. I guess the elves wanted to stay in The Lord of the Rings series. Then we see Santa's magical spying machine to watch the children on Earth. By the way, did I mention that Santa's castle is sitting on a cloud? Anyways, Santa's magic machine consists of a giant set of swollen-looking lips, a radio antennae with a large ear on it, and a large telescope with a tiny plastic eye on a stick attached to it.

Then we meet Pitch. Pitch is a pathetic demon sent by Satan himself to stop Santa from coming to town. With the sound of an annoying piano key, Pitch literally pops up here and there, trying to convince children to be naughty.

Then we meet Lupita, the girl who wants a doll more than anything, and she's determined to be good. But when she finally does get a doll, which is about as big as she is, she appears to care very little! Then there's Merlin. Merlin lives in Santa's castle and spends his time making odd things for Santa, such as a "flower to disappear". Merlin is also just filler to lengthen the movie. In one scene, he needs to brew something for Santa in an urn. Now, Merlin walks in a very slow, limping gallop-ish walk. Every time he walks across the room to get an ingredient, guess what? He forgets the urn! Then he has to walk all the way across the room in his weak, Merlin-walk.

As the film progresses, we meet three little boys who Pitch has under his spell, and a boy who is neglected by his parents and wants "their love" for Christmas. Boo-hoo for little boy. Then it just gets weirder as Santa begins flying around in his sleigh (flown by plastic reindeer!) and also, as we soon find out, Santa brews magic cocktails! This is the weirdest and worst movie I have seen (so far), but I recommend that every person see this at least once in their lives.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Possibly the greatest comedy movie of all time

[22 December 2012]

I rented this movie and watched it immediately. As soon as it was over, I watched it again, and again, and again. This may not be as funny as other comedies like The Hangover, but it has clever characters and clever dialogue that keep the movie moving.

The film focuses on the events in the life of Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski, and how, through a case of mistaken identity, he is forced to save a millionaire's kidnapped wife. Unfortunately for The Dude and his slightly psychotic friend Walter, that means facing nihilists, pornographers, and 15-year-old thieves.

I especially recommend this movie for fans of the Coen Brothers. If you've seen at least one of their movies and enjoyed it, then you will love The Big Lebowski.