Mixxy_Mona

This is an excellent example of a film that makes me feel so many things, that I ultimately feel nothing. The good aspects of this film, which is a taped stage production, are the ones that capture the essence of theater. The energy maintains throughout the film, and the actors are all very talented, though not perfect. It's flaws are hard to overlook unfortunately. The films introduces several characters that are never mentioned again, which left me anticipating their return. These extraneous characters draw the film out longer than it should, and the whole thing loses both momentum and coherency. Also, good musicals typically have songs that add to character development or explain a plot device. This production's music seems to be unconnected to the acting at times which put me off. A lot of great ideas and imagery (how clothes shape a person, how people want contradictory things, gender politics, etc) aren't used to their full potential. The flamboyant, sexually harassing gay character was stale, and the Reverend using the church money he harasses from people to pay for his daughter's trip to Paris seems to negate the insistent, over-arching Christian themes throughout. Can we get a though-provoking, conceptually solid black musical that doesn't simultaneously use the stereotypes it attempts to dismantle, soaked in Christianity?

When I go to thrift stores and buy a bunch of obscure VHSs this is exactly the kind of gem I am hoping to find, particularly since I may not find it any other way. Antonio Gaudi is an artist who I was familiar with and enjoyed before finding this but had not extensively studied. Now I feel like I understand the life and work of the artist whose name gave birth to the adjective meaning ornate and over-the-top. This film is a gorgeous and mind blowing gallery of videos and stills taken of the interiors and exteriors of the Spanish architect's incredible and pioneering buildings as well as sketches, blueprints and some history of Spanish architecture. There are some brief segments of scholars talking about the artist, but mostly it is silent film backed by haunting and unique soundscapes that I felt truly enhanced the visuals. The films main focus (Gaudi and his work) is truly deserving of such a deep and quiet examination, and the buildings are still incredibly ahead of their time, each one a timeless work of art that could be explored for days or years. Simply put, this was the most breathtaking film I have watched in recent memory and highly recommend for lovers of art and experimental films, art nouveau, medieval architecture, and Wendy Carlos-esqe musical scores. Before it was even halfway through it was already in my list of favorite films!

This very quick short could have been much better if it were only a minute or two longer. As it is, it's a nightmare with brueghel-esquire imagery, though with more Hindu/Asian influences in the depictions of various hell dwelling deities. My two biggest problems were that all the people suffering in hell were naked women being assaulted by what appears to be masculine demons. Why are there no men in hell if there is seemingly no purpose to have it depicted this way? I also felt that the animation (stop motion) would have been better exhibited here if the whole film were a little longer, giving us the viewer more time to take in the environment and get a better sense of place. But at only a minute long, there's not much that can really go wrong.

When making a movie about LSD or people using LSD, think about your audience. What do they want to see? They'd probably like bright colors and cool patterns, funny weird stuff happening, people dancing, kooky plot twists, maybe a little dark and scary at times, or social commentary about the pros and cons of drug use or how altered states can change the society or raise questions about what is real. You know, anything worth sitting through. Well this movie lacked all that and then some. There was hardly any plot. Our protagonist is a long haired (metal, not hippie) loser who is in a bunch of scenes talking and sometimes there's other people there too. He goes to jail at one point. There's some women in not much clothing on several occasions. The trippiest scenes in this movie consisted of a cg ripple filter added on top of the film while people talked. (In reality, it looks like this was filmed on a digital camera and not actual film). There's also a scene where a couple cg sharks come out of a toilet. That's it. The main character was very unlikable, he treats women with no respect (and most of the male characters as well), is a jerk to his girlfriens and makes a few homophobic comments. Also, apparently Bill Zebub decided it was better to get lots of shots of women in lingerie bouncing around in slow motion than to give the characters lines some thought.

This movie is NOT groovy. It is a misogynistic and narcissistic directorial doodle on a cocktail napkin. Based on the script and the fact that the director is the main character, I would assume that he got the idea for this movie by fantasizing about himself in various porno movie plots without the confidence it would take to actually make that movie. The ONLY female character in this movie that doesn't slut it up for our 'auteur' here is his negatively depicted mother (whom he lives with)

Throughout this film I had no idea who this was made for. It has a PG rating, though the whole movie is basically about hooking up with alien guys. There's also scenes of adultery, some sexual nudity, and references to drug use. This movie makes women seem like adult little girls who don't know what they want and allow people to use them. It makes men look like shallow sex addicts who care about nothing else. I was a little insulted that they would expect me to suspend my disbelief when they took the aliens to a salon and made them look just like attractive beach guys, I mean come on. There are also random song and dance numbers thrown in the midst of this romantic slapstick comedy love story thing. This is definitely NOT for kids, and seems really vapid and immature for adults. I didn't like any of the characters either, which made this movie feel lifeless and uninspired.

This is a very quick short, a few minutes tops. It is done in a minimalist style which I appreciated, and they didn't drag it on unnecessarily long, like I am going to have to do with this review because there is not much to be said about this short without overstating it. Basically it's just a blue weirdo with big yellow eyes and lips who's head is there and a butterfly flutters by, and the head eats it, and then continues on just as before with a slight smirk. That's it. It's very simple but I was amused at the art direction and the cute/freaky dynamic. I watched this on a collection of short animations called The Rocketship Reel.

So this movie's pretty dated, it happens with technology based animation. Kids today would probably take one look at this and laugh, having seen the likes of the countless number of modern big budget computer animated movies, or even the low budget ones. But for it's time this must have seemed like a huge milestone and was clearly made for younger kids who probably don't have the highest standards for entertainment anyway. I would guess that the target age range for this movie was 3-8. It starts off by introducing us to Elroy, at home on his computer, when a strange computer chip character starts talking to him and shows him various 1 to 5 minute segments of animated fantasy. The colors are bright, the patterns are tacky, the music is weird and the animation nowhere near perfected, which makes this a great movie to watch with friends and have a cocktail (if you like oddities, that is) I mean it's a kid's movie, why else would you be watching an old kid's movie? Run time is 30 minutes.

I honestly could not believe when I read the other reviews of this movie about how they loved it. This movie was awful. This movie takes place in a bygone era, but that doesn't excuse the awful behavior of the protagonist girls as they take a trip to Myrtle Beach for some retro, old fashioned manhunting and retro fun, yet remaining strangely stuck up. Also, I don't care when a movie takes place, but no means no! One character in particular allows herself to constantly be pushed into romantic situations with a man despite being engaged, and is eventually won over by his ignoring of her requests to not kiss her, to put his shirt back on, that it's wrong, etc, etc. Another character, desperate to be the southern sweety in some boardwalk beauty pageant, actually puts on a bikini and does a sexy dance with a confederate flag, and in another scene a girl is on stage in a stars-and-bars swimsuit. The movie opens with the word "SHAG" with a confederate flag background. There are also huge plot holes. For example, the girl who's house they are staying at instructs the others not to use the phone because the house is supposed to be empty and her father will see the phone bill, even though her parents know she is on a trip. But they still freely use electricity and water and other utilities throughout the movie, even throwing a massive drinking party and trashing the house. Think of it like a retro "From Justin to Kelly" without music but just as terrible, or really any other archetypal boy meets girl summer flick. I could go on and on with the ways this movie fell short but it is not even worth it. Another note I'd like to make, this is not a movie that is so bad that it's funny which is why this is rated a two instead of a one, because it's really just mediocre and annoying.

In terms of cinematography, scripting, and acting this film would rate about a 5. For the average viewer, I doubt that they would finish it, let alone "get it". I loved it however, as a great b-movie/midnight underground trash flick. It's a parade of weirdos, for the most part they are playing screen versions of themselves (the infamous gaggle of 90's NYC club kids including Michael Alig and James st. James) in fabulously outrageous outfits snorting/shooting/swallowing drugs at Disco 2000 in the old limelight nightclub. It's full of snarky drag queens and whorish druggies throwing shade and talking trash. More than a few die. The plot is a little disjointed, basically a fictional night-in-the-life-of that follows each character as they mingle in the club, interact with one another, and endure the horrible things that keep happening, sometimes branching off into other segments or breaking the fourth wall. So tacky, I loved it! I doubt you will find a copy that doesn't look grainy. This movie is pretty rare and hard to come by, "footage" of a legendary underground club scene that has since then self-destructed and his movie shows why.

This movie is a heaping pile of garbage. The entire movie is grainy, the audio is poor and the acting is terrible. Let's put it this way, I got this at a DOLLAR store for FIFTY CENTS. The plot is totally unrealistic. A college dropout convinces his family to sell their house, and tour the country in a house-bus. There's a snarky old granny, the concerned but wanting to be hip parents, and the annoying lead who falls for a dying hippie chick at a woodstock-type concert where they park for a while. There's some racist depictions of black hippies as basically African witch doctors, complete with bone through nose. I did not find any of the characters likable, which made this movie feel dragged out and ultimately lost any point it was trying to make about the counter-culture of the sixties. I say booo to this movie, try watching if you like old drugsploitation and sixties pulp stuff, but don't expect much.

I don't even know where to begin. This movie is like a series of vignettes of this drug fueled motorcycle gang of hipsters who like to frequently make stops to get high, make out, or kill people. Or all three. Nothing makes sense, but then again the central plot is that the gang is searching for a pyramid in the desert made out of giant lsd sugar cubes that is the entrance to hell. Yes seriously. Throw into the mix tons of nudity, make out sessions, motorcyle montages, racist depictions of native Americans, knife fights, robbing people, turning into the devil, coming back from the dead, and a strange opening sequence of clock sounds and people doing repetitive things and it's just too, too bizarre. Don't get me wrong, I love this kind of trash, but I'm not shy about what it is.

This wasn't the best, worst, or weirdest movie I've seen this week but still weird enough to be enjoyable for me. The acting was campy and good, Bill Paxton's character was perfectly annoying as the main character's best 'friend'. This movie is sort of a cruel and painful tapestry of exploitation, deformity, and misfortune. A comedian who doesn't seem to realize that he's terrible is gullible enough to be roped into a sordid number of entrepreneurial endeavors not unlike the television show "Tom Goes to the Mayor". The camera work was interesting at times and the sets used the right colors, though not lush still evocative. The overall feeling this movie left me with was hope despite the series of horrible and terrible things that keep getting worse, or better, or worse or whatever.

I asked myself why, for what seemed like the first two thirds of this movie there were no chupacabras. Then I saw possibly the cheapest CGI I have ever seen and realized why. This movie was terrible. It was totally incomprehensible, I had no idea what the characters's names were, who they were, and I'm pretty sure the plot went back in time which made no sense. Add to that mix, sterile wooden acting, a senseless plot and unlikable characters and you have a hot mess. The chupacabra was utterly laughable, looked familiar if anyone has seen the also terrible flick "Demon Island". I had at least three serious laugh out loud moments, but it did not redeem this movie for this connoisseur of ENJOYABLE movie trash. This was just... awful.

This is a crummy relic from the genre of 80's educational videos meant to be shown in school. This movie is not only misleading about drugs, but makes some strange metaphors as well. It states smoking marijuana is six times as lethal as smoking cigarettes which is not true, and completely ignores questions such as 'If all drugs are bad then why are alcohol and tobacco legal while pot is not?'. This series of shorts follows a golden white boy as his skateboarding friends try to pressure him to use drugs. When he's put in a tough situation, a mystery angel named cosmo comes and takes him up in a space elevator where there's bad songs about drugs and lots and lots of brainwashing. The truly hilarious part is when the film focuses on the media's role in creating a distorted image of "drugs", because the whole movie distorts information and presents an untrue image of drugs as well. There are very very crummy special effects and awful songs and nonsensical metaphors and the whole thing is actually pretty enjoyable if you can get your hands on something this movie tells you not to do. I didn't watch this expecting it to be good, and it wasn't, but it is a good laugh if you like making fun of trash.