Wrong subforum. This is where we talk about movies. Everyone knows documentaries aren’t movies.
Wait, hold on…
Sold!
-Tom
Hostel: Part III
Surprisingly good.
Thanks, Jason I’ll check it out.
I can’t be friends with you anymore. But I do like the opening scene, which has about ten times the cleverness of anything Eli Roth ever did.
-Tom
Sold. There used to be one of these plaques outside my old office building in Chicago.
I don’t know that first one, but I heartily recommend Goon and Louie.
Thanks for the heads up, russellmz00.
-xtien
np. i haven’t actually gotten around to watching the first one, but it was brought to my attention in a couple past qt3 threads.
Watched the pinball documentary Special When Lit. It was more or less exactly what you would expect from a pinball documentary. Profiles of various people, some super awkward, some charming, some sad. Some melancholy for the loss of history.
There were a couple of really interesting moments where they talked to table designers about their designs. Some guys from Stern mentioned it takes a year to design a table, and basically admitted some are more successful than others.
Also, and this should have been obvious but I never thought of it, there’s a big grognard capture problem in pinball design, but of course that’s what happens when you only have a couple new tables a year, and only a small audience playing them. There a bit where one of the designers talks about an “obvious” “short term” goal, which has like 12 steps and takes 5 minutes to explain, let alone execute.
Pretty good, but I liked Chasing Ghosts better.
Both are very good. I wish Chasing Ghosts lived-up to it’s title more, as I expected more of a critical look at the retro game sub culture. I found no fault with Special When Lit. It did the job it set out to do.
What I liked about Chasing Ghosts is that because it had the group of people to focus on, it felt more like it was telling a specific story, and its good luck that there was really a lot of story to tell. I also loved how differently each of their lives turned out. It just an amazing cross section of the weird variety life can have.
Special When Lit just felt like another documentary to me, it didn’t have any kind of special hook to draw me in. But as you said, it totally did what it set out to do.
Jag
2793
Just noticed Sliders is on instant. Not sure how it holds up, but it was a favorite show of mine for awhile.
IIRC it got really fucking bad once they moved to Sci-Fi and added Kari Wuhrer to the cast.
Jag
2795
Yeah it did, but she was pretty easy on the eyes at least.
I remember it got pretty terrible on Fox, then it moved to Sci-Fi and got better for a season. Then both brothers left and it got terrible again.
Watched Card Subject to Change, a documentary about indie wrestlers. Pretty good, if you’re interested in the weird, fucked up world of professional wrestlers and how broken everybody involved inevitably is. They hit all the bases: a promoter, some fading legends, an up-and-comer, a kid at the top of the indie’s who’ll never go any further, etc.
If you’re squeamish, there’s one pretty gross part, where they show footage from an indie “death match” hardcore promotion, but otherwise it’s pretty tame. It does also feature the last filmed interview with Sensational Sherri before her death. It’s kind of bittersweet when you know that (they don’t mention it until the credits), she’s just talking about how much she loves it, and how she wouldn’t want to ever do anything else.
One of the indie guys they follow disappeared midway through filming, re-connected later after having OD’ed and then also gone to prison for drug dealing. It really perfectly captures just how messed up wrestling personalities are. You think “what are the odds?”, and then realize that you’d be surprised if something like that didn’t happen.
For all that though, it really captures the extent to which wrestling is a weird labor of love for these guys. It’s all they ever wanted to do, and they’re happy just being able to perform. Whenever I saw footage of indie shows, I always wondered what goes through those guys minds as they wrestle for 20 people in an empty VFW hall. What goes through their mind is apparently “I am doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do. I am living my dream.” So strange.
Khoram
2798
Couple of period asian movies if that’s your thing:
The Hidden Blade and The Twilight Samurai are a little similar, both set in the waning days of the samurai culture in Japan. Of the two I like the Hidden Blade more. Both are more “slice of life”/character driven dramas that action movies, so keep that in mind. The Hidden Blade has a really cool part right near the end - I had been loving the movie, but wondering “why the heck was this called the Hidden Blade?” and then - bam! - “oh…!!!”
Probably already been mentioned, but Ip Man and Ip Man 2 are great Hong Kong Kung Fu movies. Fictional accounts of the historical man who eventually taught Bruce Lee. Ip Man 2 in particular is phenomenal - almost non-stop badass kung fu. I love Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey and Hero), he’s probably my second favorite Hong Kong style martial artist after Jackie Chan. Also has Sammo Hung in a good secondary character role. Highly recommended.
I’ll second those reccomendations Khoram. Great samurai movies, both from the same director, and Ip Man is just fun!
I really enjoyed The Twilight Samurai. I’ll have to check out The Hidden Blade.
