Because this movie was a commercial success in Korea, I had imagined it to be very different. I had anticipated the humor, which was certainly there (although I’m not sure if it was as funny in translation), but the “serious” subject matter was a surprise to me. Overall, I thought the film was an interesting mixture of fantasy and a cautionary tale, with a sci-fi/comic book visual aesthetic.

If you haven’t seen it don’t read any more.
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Okay, I am now officially very intensely waiting for The Squid and the Whale. While waiting, I got thinking about Noah Baumbach’s earlier films, and thought I ought to write something about them here. Matt Feeney beat me to it, at Slate, so I’ll just point you to him. That said, he doesn’t mention Highball, a strange little film about a cocktail party, which seems like a throwaway, except for some great dialogue and some glorious scene-stealing by Peter Bogdanovich, who keeps doing impersonations of various filmmakers and actors.

The best thing in both of Baumbach’s first two movies–despite the always brutally funny Chris Eigemann–is the strangely sincere earnest silliness of Carlos Jacott. But Feeney nails how good Jacott is, so, again, I’ll cop out and let his piece stand alone.

One small bit of dialogue, though, spoken by Baumbach and his brother in Kicking and Screaming, to the hero. They pester the protagonist about which animals he’d fuck, basically haranguing him into choosing an animal just to shut them up. But when he says, exasperatedly, “Cow,” they look bitter and hostile and call him “Cowfucker” for the rest of the movie. That, my friends, is comedy. Even the Hungarian will have to admit that.

It seems appropriate that a post on Rob Zombi should be sandwiched between posts about animated films about bunnies and penguins.

I forgot to mention that even better than the Wallace and Gromit film was the Madagascar Penguins “A Christmas Caper.” It was funny, engaging, and damn those penguins are adorable. Since it was only 10 minutes long, I’m not going to write any more.

Just watched House of 1000 Corpses and Cocksucker Blues. The first half-hour of House of 1000 Corpses is fantastic. I watched it twice and could have watched it again. The dialogue between Sid Haig and Michael Pollard (Scrooged, Roxanne, Bonnie & Clyde) is hilariously vile. If the whole film had been them talking and occasionally slaughtering some people I’d have ben thrilled. The rest of it is not as good, but pays tribute to the old 1970s American International exploitation drive-in flicks in fine form. It’s also beautifully shot, and fantastically colored. Some of the between scene cuts in negative and orange and blues are too much, and distracting, but I wouldn’t want Rob Zombie to be overly restrained… I eagerly look forward to the relase of the sequel on DVD soon.
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We went to see Wallace and Grommet: Attack of the Were-Rabbit on Saturday. I enjoyed it. I suppose if it takes you five years to make the clay move, you have plenty of time to think of a story. It wasn’t original, but it was solid with nods to the genre. I felt a little ripped-off that the bunnies (whence the were-rabbit) looked so slapdash, I mean, they had five years to make them. It scared the kids, and there are a couple of funny double entedres that indicate it’s not really for them anyway. The best part is that I now know how to revive Pete should he die.