Interesting videos to watch

Here are some interesting videos that are out of the mainstream. These are a couple of my favorites:

El Mariachi: Spanish, Directed by Robert Rodriquez

The Lunatic: Jamaican, Music by Wally Badaroo

Countryman: Jamaican, great reggae soundtrack again Wally Badaroo plays a major part in the soundtrack

Quilombo: Soundtrack by Brazil's musical legend Gilbeto Gil

Bottlerocket: American, Owen Wilson's acting debut with an bitchin eclectic soundtrack

Diva: French weirdness

Blue Juice: English. Limey surfers gettin' along and coming of age

Mystery Train: American, Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Great oldies soundtrack, featuring Tom Waits, Joe Strummer and Steve Buscemi.

Seven Samurai: Japanese. Classic film from legendary Asian director Akira Kurosawa

Spirited away: directed by Hayao Miyazaki excellent japanese animation.

Princes Mononoke: another animated masterpeice by Hayao Miyazaki

Please keep adding to the list. I really dig watching videos that completely depart from Hollywood.

Chongolio

[ Edited by: Chongolio on 2003-12-24 01:12 ]

if you like Miyazaki you gotta see MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO!!! both spirited away & princess mononoke are great! totoro is an earlier work along the same lines as spirited away.

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris on 2003-12-24 06:23 ]

Off the top of my head:

Amelie - A feel-good, unpretentious French flick

Crumb - All about the comic artist, Robert Crumb and his highly disfunctional family.

Happiness/Ghost World - a couple of recent American indie gems

The Italian Job - The Brit 60's classic, not the crap Hollywood re-make

The films of John Waters and Russ Meyer - Not artistic masterpieces, but somehow make the world a better place. (Try Serial Mom/Pink Flamingos or Faster Pussycat Kill!Kill!/Up!)

Just ordered 'City of God' - Brazilian & 'Battle Royale' - Japanese, both of which I've heard very good things about.

Trader Woody

Kissed-Canadian-Over the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.

Gangster #1-British-Chronicles the rise and fall of a prominent, and particularly ruthless English gangster.

Sexy Beast-British-Brutal gangster Don Logan recruits "retired" safecracker Gal for one last job, but it goes badly for both of them.

Donnie Darko-American-Highschooler Donnie is plagued by visions of a giant evil rabbit who orders him to commit acts of violence and predicts the impending end of the world.

Secretary-American- A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.

Trees Lounge-Steve Buscemi stars and directs-A story about one man's search... for who knows what.

Dogtown and Z-Boys-Stacy Peralta- Documentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skating team.

The Limey-Peter Fonda, Terrance Stamp, & Luiz Guzman-An extremely volatile and dangerous Englishman goes to Los Angeles to find the man he considers responsible for his daughter's death.

Way of the Gun-Benicio, Juliette Lewis, Ryan Phillippe, James Caan-Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man.

That's all I can think of right now but I'll submit more later!

Scotty

[ Edited by: Scotty on 2003-12-24 07:03 ]

[ Edited by: Scotty on 2003-12-24 07:07 ]

"Man of the Century" (USA, 1999) is a must for the vintage- and retro-obsessed.

Caveat: 1920's vintage, not midcentury.

http://www.finelinefeatures.com/sites/manofcentury/index_flash.html

Johnny Dollar, representing for Johnny Twenties

Some great films have already been mentioned, but here's a couple more obscure gems with links to descriptions,

After Life

In the Mood for Love

Solaris (1972)

Films are my big part of my life, and I started to recommend a lot more, but decided to just list just three so as to emphasize what high regard I hold for these particular films. If you're interested in some other ideas for films, check out my collection here. I think it includes pretty good cross-section of indie and foreign films presently available on DVD.

An older movie I still love. I didn't know until today that Scorsese did it!

After Hours

Chongolio - been meaning to pick up El Mariachi forever. Loved the sequel (the name escapes me & will drive me crazy) w/ Antonio Banderras, Selma Hyek(SP?), Cheech Marin & Tito Larriva (the Plugz).
Trader Woody - Crumb is probably my all time fave documentary...I had it on VHS & watched it so many times the damn tape finally broke & I tossed it. Maybe Santa will bring me a new (DVD) copy for Xmas!
Check out John Water's Desperate Living. It's one of his earlier films & guaranteed to offend all members of the family.

Scotty, we have serious overlap on our favorites list. Another one to see, which has slipped off most people's radar is "Blood of Heroes" starring Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen. A pretty cool post-apocalyptic flick by the same guy who wrote "Blade Runner."

Also:
"Deadman" - starring Johnny Depp
"Brotherhood of the Wolf" - French film
"Office Space" - by Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis & Butthead

"Deadman" : stupid white man!

"Brotherhood of the Wolf" : stupid french man!

"Office Space" : if you could work Saturday, that would be greAAaat....

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2003-12-24 13:30 ]

One of my absolute favourites is Mario Bava's 1968 Danger: Diabolik! which also have a great soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. This film is sooo cool!

The Surfites

[ Edited by: Klas on 2003-12-25 10:37 ]

City Of Lost Children (French, you'll have to read subtitles but well worth it, this ovie is o beautiful it's like your looking at a painting)

The Jerk (Steve Martin, "I was born a poor black child")

The Warriors (Coney Island gang is framed for killing Sirus, a gangleader from The Riffs, who was going to unite all the gangs to conquer New York. The Warriors are trying to get back to Coney Island while all the gangs are trying to kill them.)

Brazil (like 1984 with a demented humorous twist)

Popeye (starring Robin Williams, Popeye sets out to find his pappy, but finds love with Olive Oil who is engaged to Bluto)

Planet of the Apes - Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (Yep the 4th is my favorite)

They Live (starring Roddy Piper, A man finds glasses which allow him to see alien invaders who are living among us as humans. He joins an underground resistance to stop the aliens. This movie has the best line in any movie ever, "I came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum")

Thr Three Amigos (Goodnight Ned)

I forgot to list my all-time favorite repeat-watch vid, "The Big Labowski."

Two of my favorites have Indianapolis connections (I'm a hoosier by birth) GOING ALL THE WAY--No, it's not a teen sex romp. It's about a couple of friends trying to become artist in 50's Indiana. Ben Afflect (sp?) plays the goodlooking war hero who's friends and parents can't believe he's lowering himself by befriending a nerdy weirdo. Despite Mr JLO's presence (he's actually quite charming here) this movie is not "hollywood" in any way. It's got a killer 50's soundtrack, too.
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS-- Based on the book by Kurt Vonnegut. Has a great exotica soundtrack (lotsa Martin Denny) and wild performances by Bruce Willis and other stars.

Also, all of Peter Jackson's earlier movies are great, especially DEAD ALIVE (The sweetest, most romantic, bloodiest zombie movie ever made) and HEAVENLY CREATURES (a touching little movie about two girls plotting one of their mother's murder.

Here are my choices:

Blue Gardenia

La Dolce Vita

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Repulsion

Yee-Haw & Aloha,

The World of Tiki Kiliki

[ Edited by: tiki_kiliki on 2003-12-26 05:14 ]

On 2003-12-26 05:13, tiki_kiliki wrote:
Here are my choices:

Blue Gardenia

La Dolce Vita

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

What in the wide, wide world of sports is "The Eyes of Tammy Faye". That one totally got past me. If it's about who I'm thinkin' it's about, I might not wanna know any more.

cool old paul newman movie that i caught late last night on amc (while STILL digesting christmas lunch!) was HOMBRE!

also, after that (while still digesting) i caught an eddie izzard stand up act recorded somewhere in the states. it was hilarious! & eddie summed up the history of the world as only un travesti d'action could!

I'm heading to the video store to see which ones I can check out!

Hmmm, listing is tough, but that won't stop me:

A Face in The Crowd: Great Kazan movie with Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal about the media and power. Very up to date but filmed 50 years ago!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Great communist-threat era sci fi.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Probably the first pro-tolerance movie I remember.

Apocalypse Now: Kind of a surreal war flick.

Breaking Away: Best bicycling flick ever.

Chilly Scenes of Winter: Good depictions of depression and the moment of recovery.

The Graduate and Little Big Man: Kinda the same movie, but set in different centuries.

The Seventh Seal and Love and Death as a twin bill.

The Hunger: Best vampire flick I can think of.

Choose Me: Relationship stuff.

Wizards: Fun animation by Ralph Bakshi.

Yellow Submarine: Great icon of the look of its time.

Warriors: The template for all future Nike ads.

The Royal Tanenbaums and Rushmore.

Sorry to go long!

Brother From Another Planet - John Sayles Director

O Brother Where Art Thou - Some people have a problem with this one but definitely one of my favorites.

The Killer - First John Woo film seen and I believe the best (storyline killer if you pardon the pun).

Just saw another one to add:

Cherish

Shy San Franciscan Zoe is a twenty-something love-starved animator who spends countless hours listening to KXCH Cherish radio, losing herself in a syrupy romantic fantasy of '70s and '80s pop songs. Her mushy world is shattered, however, when a policman is hit and killed in a mysterious car accident, the assailant flees the scene and Zoe is unfairly left facing a vehicular homicide charge. While awaiting trial, Zoe is confined to house arrest, where she alternates falling in love with her frequent visitor and parole officer, Daly, and trying to prove her innocence to regain her life and freedom.

Great 70s/80s soundtrack!

Scotty

Been watching a lot af oldies lately - a few that stood out:

Donovan's Reef- the Duke, Lee Marvin & tikis. Can't go wrong there.
Diamonds Are Forever- Sean Connery's Bond is always 1st rate.
Petrified Forest- Bogart's baddest bad guy since...
Dead End- Bogey & the Dead End Kids...nuff said.
Hawaii- title says it all.
Son of Frankenstein- the blueprint for Young Frankenstein, and just as good.
The Magic Christian- no list would be complete without a Peter Sellers flick.

Hey Scotty,

CHERISH was great, I agree, but....

FOUR MOST DREADED WORDS TO A TIKICENTRALITE.......

GREAT SEVENTIES/EIGHTIES SOUNDTRACK!!!!!!

Though not as bad as "great Jimmy Buffett soundtrack!"

Scotty

True Romance-Gangsters, Hollywood,Drugs, Hookers, Pimps, Elvis

The Man With the Golden Arm, Drugs,Insanity, indy film championed by it's star Frank Sinatra, 1st film portraying drug abuse.

American Pop, an animated musical journey of Jews fleeing Russia and their musical legacy through 20th cent. America including swing,rock and---drugs!

PS The sequel to El Mariachi was Desperado.

And the sequel to Desperado was "Once Upon a Time In Mexico" - and it's a lot of fun.

Here's two of my favorite 70s double features:

Watch "The Boys From Brazil" and "Marathon Man" back to back - creepy old Nazis!

Watch "Colussus: The Forbin Project" and "Demon Seed" - classic 70s techno-paranoia. (I don't think these have made it to DVD yet)

And don't forget the "Charlton Heston In The Horrible Future" trilogy:

Planet of the Apes
The Omega Man
Soylent Green

(Rose's Grenadine is PEOPLE!)

Big Jim McLain-Commies infiltrate Hawaii

The Blue Gardenia-Murder and a Polynesian restaurant

U-Turn-Oliver Stone noir..."I'm So Lucky!"

The Mysterious Fu Manchu- 1930s Karloff Raiders Of The Lost Ark like fun.

Red Rock West-Blood Simple-The Last Seduction

Oomu Oomu The Shark God-She Gods Of Shark Reef

Bulldog Drummond- more 1930s ROTLA inspiration

Murder Is My Beat-Tiki Bong's house in the 50s-Bamboo and Hawaiian decor, Gill airbrush paintings and more!

Voodoo Woman-1940s with tiki and Mannix

Weird Woman-need I say more?

Forgot about Two Hands, an obscure Aussie crime drama/comedy!

"A 19 year old (Heath Ledger) finds himself in debt to a local gangster (Bryan Brown) when some gang loot disappears and sets him on the run from thugs. Meanwhile two street kids start a shopping spree when they steal the missing money. Rose Byrne co-stars as a country girl, who Ledger starts a romance on his trip."

For a twist-of-noir replete with a great soundtrack including some Les Baxter, check out The Woman Chaser.

And for the story behind one of the technical hearts of exotica:
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey

A.

Saw two again I had forgotten about this weekend.

Ginger Snaps- Obscure Canadian werewolf movie that's actually pretty good aside from the bad CGI job on the werewolf. Co-stars Mimi Rogers. Apparently has a strong cult following-website.

Hotel de LoveFunny Aussie love story about twin brothers that meet a childhood sweetheart at a tacky hotel and rediscover their love as they renew their competition for her affection.

Keep 'em coming!

Scotty

On 2004-01-05 07:42, Scotty wrote:

Ginger Snaps - Obscure Canadian werewolf movie that's actually pretty good

Not obscure in Canada -- was a big hit. A sequel AND a prequel (both shot in Edmonton last year) coming soon.

Six-String Samurai is your average, run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic, rock & roll, kung-fu movie. Film takes place in Soviet-ruled America after they nuked the United States in 1957. The only part of the U.S. left is Las Vegas where Elvis rules as king (duh). Well, Elvis keels & Buddy (who looks a lot like Buddy Holly) must travel through the bad lands to Vegas where he will take over as king. Oh, I should mention Buddy is a guitar-slinging-swordsman who knows Kung fu. He battles Russians, weirdos & even death on his travel to Lost Vegas. Strange movie with a great sound track. Hey, I enjoyed it. http://www.badmovies.org/movies/sixstringsam/

Six string was awsome and completely strange!!! I had completely forgoten about that one.

Waydowntown Came on last night. Trippy Canadian film about four young office workers have a bet going to see who can last the longest without going outside. In the maze that is the downtown core of a large city, glass skywalks connect apartment buildings, office towers and shopping malls. Its day 28 of the bet and over the lunch hour, as the office prepares for the company founder's retirement party, things start to seriously unravel.

Scotty

Thanks all!
Tiki Chris- have been looking foer My neighbor Totoro but have yet to see it.

Trader Woody- Ghost world is a good one so is Ghost dog. I dig the stuff from Russ Myers but John Water is too much for my delicate constitution. I am going to look for "city of god"

Scotty- Dogtown and Z boys is classic. Nice pick.

Klas- Yeah, Danger: Diabolic I have only seen parts of it. I need to own that one! Check out the Penetrators site to see thier surf/spy video:
http://www.penetrators.com/video.html

Suicide Sam- You and I are on the same tip when it comes to movies. City of Lost Childen is a great film. There is another Frenchie movie that has a few of the actors from City of Lost Children in it. I believe it was called Delicatesean (sp?)
Can you believe I just saw The 3 Amigos for the first time. I was completely cracking up. Especially during the singing parts. Thanks for bringing that one up.

Mr Hansel- I am going to keep an eye out for Breakfast of Champions. Vonnegut is cool.

Nice fishy- Big Lebowski is a nice call too.
The dude abides!

Tiki410- I liked O' brother also.

Sneaky tiki- I will have to rent the Man with the golden arm. I have seen it at the vid store but always pass it by.

Bongofury- None of the video stores have nothing close to the videos you mentioned. I wish I could find more of older stuff like that. I do own She Gods of Shark reef on DVD. Now I have to buy a DVD player.

Bamboo Bob- Six string Samurai was entertaining . I liked the concept of the film, but that little kid's groaning got pretty irritating after awhile.

And here are a couple more that I have seen and liked:

Psycho Beach Party- Campy comedy with plenty of sexual inuendo and an apperance by Los Straitjackets.

Basquiat- The story of the artist Jean Michelle Basquiat. Great acting and chock full of cameos.

The Count of Monty Christo ( The one with Richard Harris)

I still need to get out and see Kill Bill and Once upon a time in mexico.

OK this is a long shot but here goes.
I have Tiki decals for anybody who can get me the lyrics and the translation for the song that El Mariachi sings in the cantina in the first El Mariachi movie. I figured out the chords but my spanish isn't as good as it once was.

Mahalo again for all the recomendations.

I don't know the answer to your Mariachi question Chongo, but I'd like to recommend Robert Rodrigues' book "Rebel Without A Crew" which is his diary of making El Mariachi in Mexico for 7,000 bucks (intended for the Mexican video market) and ultimately selling it to Columbia for a quarter of a million dollars. The part where he's writing the screenplay while participating in clinical drug trials to raise money to shoot the film is hilarious. It's a great primer for anyone thinking of making a no-budget film & includes the screenplay with "commentary".

-Sweet Daddy T.
Because crap doesn't buy itself.

[ Edited by: Sweet Daddy Tiki on 2004-01-11 23:39 ]

Chongolio, most of the movies I mentioned are available on VHS and some on DVD except Oomo Oomo The Shark God and Murder Is My Beat. Amazon will have most of these. Sinister Cinema may have the hard to find stuff. And I made a mistake on the Karloff flick, it's The Mask Of Fu Manchu. Also check out The Breaking Point from the 50s with John Garfield. It has a long scene in Christian's Hut ( used to be in Newport Beach). PM me if you can't find the ones you want. I may have extra copies.

I am going to have to revisit this post with the following "hit" movie: RUBIN AND ED. Have you seen it? It is hilarious. A great little nugget of weirdness. This movie stars Crispin Glover, Howard Hesseman and Simon the cat. A complex tale about two republicans hell-bent on burying a frozen cat. Movie features such fine, memorable lines such as "my cat can eat an entire watermellon" & "This is what happens when you leave the house". Crispin Glover's performance as Rubin Farr -- an autistic, four-eyed, hairstyling victim with a near-lethal pair of platform shoes -- is considered to be the essential Glover performance by hard-core Glover aficionados. Rubin and Ed functions as a quest story, a road movie, a buddy film, and a study in abnormal psychology all rolled into one. Rubin, traumatized over the death of his cat (which he keeps in a refrigerator), spends his days alone in his room squeaking a toy mouse in synch with a symphony. Ed (Hesseman) is a ne'er-do-well involved with a motivational cult called the Power of Positive Real Estate who mindlessly listens to a tape recording of the cult mantra: "I am a powerful real estate professional moving higher and higher on the path to success." Rubin bamboozles Ed into accompanying him on a desert trek in order to find the metaphysically right place to bury his dead cat. Along the way we are shown how much these two men are out of touch with the female gender, in spite of how much they yearn for their presence. In Rubin's case, it is in the form of a swimsuit model from a watery part of his unconscious who also functions as an angel watching over him. In Ed's case, it's his ex-wife, the seemingly ageless Karen Black, who has dumped him for not bringing home enough bacon. Rubin and Ed end up on top of a desert mountain (the film bulges with symbolism) where they each discover something important about themselves before heading back to civilization. If you are up to making the search for this hard-to-find gem, it will be well worth your effort." http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/RubinEd-1038315/preview.php

[ Edited by: Bamboo Bob on 2004-01-28 11:00 ]

"Rear Window"- Everytime it's on, I end up watching it until it's off.
"Hot Rods To Hell"- Great B-movie. (Listen closely when some of the hot rods skid and you'll hear the exact sound effect that is used when Fred Flintstone skids his car to a stop on The Flintstones).
"Touch of Evil"- Great Charleton Heston, Orson Wells 1950's Mexico flick.
"The Killers"- Good '40's noir gangster film.
"Highway Dragnet"- EXCELLENT 1950's Vegas B-movie by Roger Corman.
"War of the Worlds" (1953 version). Very well done with some "flying saucer" campiness.
"Them"- Excellent giant ants movie from '50's. Good for a late Friday night.
"The Wild One"- (I like looking at classic bikes).
"The Deer Hunter"- Great watching if you have 3+ hours to kill.

http://www.samgambino.com

Yay for Danger Diabolik! I showed that at my big housewarming party last year - and you should have seen the jaws drop! Especially with what's-er-name writhing around on that bed of folding money!

A film i just saw was pool hall junkies, not a big budget movie , also love swingers.

On 2004-01-28 13:08, Frenchy Polynesia wrote:

Yay for Danger Diabolik! I showed that at my big housewarming party last year - and you should have seen the jaws drop! Especially with what's-er-name writhing around on that bed of folding money!

Yeah, that's a great scene!

slacker

it's classic.

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2004-02-10 10:47 ]

I forgot to list my all-time favorite repeat-watch vid, "The Big Labowski."

I think the Big Lebowski LIVES in my DVD player. Everytime I see it, I still laugh as hard as I did the first time!

other films (not mentioned yet):
The Gods Must Be Crazy (just out on DVD too!)
Barton Fink
The Dish
The Secret of Roan Inish

I think we can safely say, that a lot of our "favorite" or "classic" film choices overlap. Wonder why... :D

Check this cool video...Well, sometimes we discount to think first before acting or reacting something, which leads us to disaster, like this video i found earlier from clash. It really kills me every time I see it. Well I want to share this to you;-p Check it out here… face plant. So does it hurt? Lol