Any fans of Paris, Texas (1984) here?

What a marvellous film!


'Paris, Texas' is a slow, subtle, dark and moody film that deals with love, forgiveness and redemption. It starts off with some stunning desert images where a Harry Dean Stanton wanders around until he is found by his brother. The enigmatic soundtrack stays in tune with the situations. The cinematography adds a spacious but lonely feel.

The ending is incredibly moving - one of the most emotional passages in any movie I've ever seen. The speech lasts nearly ten minutes! It lingers with you long after the credits roll.

What is your record of most movies watched in one day?

My record would be five. Certainly for me - five or more in a single day would be the absolute most I could manage. I would tend to get 'burnt out' after five.

What is your record?

After how many would you start to become fatigued?

Halloween Party - Let's Make the Soundtrack!

With Halloween fast approaching, what better way to get in the mood with a festive soundtrack to set the tone? Horror movies, candy binges and rock n' roll, baby.

I remember threads like this on imdb always popping up in October so let's get a good playlist going, alright?

I'll start with an obvious classic

Black/Dark Comedy Discution Thread

Talk here!

The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Here's some more public domain gold for you. The House on Haunted Hill is an old school ghost story of sorts in which our devious host Vincent Price will pay $10,000 to anyone who can last the night at this supposedly haunted hill house.

The movie reminds me 'Clue' in how a small group of various folk are locked in a mansion for some ulterior motive while the plot thickens. And like Clue, this movie is set in a place where modern day conveniences are out. No phones, no escape. Just sit back and try to last the night. Can't be too difficult, right?


William Castle was a fun filmmaker. What a day when theaters would do gimmicks like this one, and have skeletons flying around. Sure, that whole skeleton scene is cheesy as hell, but you got to wonder how it affected people back then. That sort of thing always interested me. Like recently, I saw a mention somewhere of how people wouldn't even see The Exorcist because they were too afraid of the mere idea of it. Now, everyone's got an iron stomach, and you can do anything on-screen and people aren't affected in the least. Sigh...

So a few notes on this one... I was actually a bit creeped out when that old hag showed up in the shadows. I still don't know why a blind person would pose like a witch for no reason, so that part is still kinda funny, but whatever.

Also, another thing I kept thinking of is how much the main actress Carol Ohmart who plays the conniving wife looks like Sophie Turner from X-Men. I think they could do her up to look just like her, if they ever wanted to do a(nother) remake.


But yeah, Vincent Price is the best, and he always puts out a great performance. You can basically predict what'll happen in this movie, but it's still a great little horror flick for parties or background noise.

Bill Paxton had an interesting career

I miss that guy. Looking over his filmography, he really was in some interesting movies. Even after he achieved some degree of mainstream fame and success, he continue to appear in really weird, offbeat films like "The Dark Backward" and "The Vagrant."

Of course, he started his career in horror with "Night Warning" (according to his filmography; I honestly don't remember him in it, but it's been over a decade since I last saw it) and "Mortuary." Then he appeared in a bit part in a little known movie falling "The Terminator" and would end up again working with some dude named James Cameron a few more times. I love his wimpy role in "True Lies."

Then of course he's an utter badass in "Near Dark." A role any horror fan is well familiar with. By the mid 90s he was in a lot of major Hollywood blockbusters but still took the time to star in Sam Raimi's awesome "A Simple Plan."

I dunno. He just seems to have had a hell of a career and I really think he had some serious acting chops when you think about the wildly different characters he would portray.

What do you think? Do you like him as an actor? Favorite movie or role of his?

Dragged Across Concrete: Another Hit for S. Craig Zahler

I've watched Dragged Across Concrete twice now since it was released to streaming this past Friday. It's not quite as good as Zahler's previous Brawl in Cell Block 99, but it's still pretty damn good.

Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn play cops who get suspended after someone records them on a cell phone using excessive force during a drug bust. They also may or may not be racists. They certainly aren't politically correct. Financially, the suspension is a problem for both of them. Gibson and Vaughn have people in their lives they care about and some extra money would do a lot to improve those people's lives. As a result, Gibson drags Vaughn along on a scheme to make some money in a not-so-legal method.

Then you have Tory Kittles and Michael Jai White. Kittles gets released from prison and soon discovers that people in his life could also use money. With the help of his friend, White, he's given an opportunity to make money. But like all good crime movies, Gibson/Vaughn and Kittles/White inevitably cross paths and some violent shit goes down.

It's great to see Mel Gibson again. I know he's had a lot of issues in his personal life, but I'm still a fan of his movies, particularly the Lethal Weapons and Mad Maxes. Where's Lethal Weapon 5 (7)? Vince Vaughn's not as cool in this as he was in Brawl in Cell Block 99, but this is still a huge improvement over the shit he used to make. "Anchovies."

I'm not really familiar with Tony Kittles or Michael Jai White. White played Black Dynamite, but outside of that and some small roles, I'm clueless. Apparently he was in Toxic Avenger Part 2 and 3 though. Nice start.

As I said, Dragged Across Concrete is good. Compared to Zahler's previous films, it's not as good as Brawl in Cell Block 99, but it might be a little better than Bone Tomahawk. If anything hurts Dragged Across Concrete, it's the length (two hours, thirty-eight minutes) and slow pacing. In my opinion, it's Zahler's slowest movie so far. Fortunately, the slowness is filled in with great dialogue.

I don't know what else to say besides, I'm drunk. I drank a bunch of whiskey during the second half of my rewatch of Dragged Across Concrete and because I felt bad about that, but I still wanted to drink, I switched to beer. I might have a problem. It's also past 7 AM here. Fuck sleep. As Ron Perlman says in Alien: Resurrection: "Sleep when you die, man." (I'll no doubt require a nap sometime between when I wake up this afternoon and before I sleep again. Irresponsibility is fun like that.)

Oh yeah, I remember what else I was going to mention: Zahler's next movie, Hug Chickenpenny. It sounds really different compared to his first three movies. According to what little I can see on IMDbPro without signing up:

"Hug Chickenpenny is an anomalous child. Born from tragedy and unknown paternity, this asymmetrical and white-haired baby inspires both ire and pity at the orphanage, until the day that an elderly eccentric adopts him as a pet. The upbeat boy's spirit is challenged in his new home as he is exposed to prejudiced members of society in various encounters."

I don't know what to expect. It doesn't sound anything like the movies he's made so far. Very... not violent. Is it fantasy? Animated? I'm sure we'll find out more soon enough.

Anyway, if you liked Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99, go watch Dragged Across Concrete. You'll probably like it as well.

Anyone seen Spring (2014) or Horns (2013) ?

I blind bought these two recently and plan on watching them at the weekend.

Any thoughts on these two movies?

Sin City

Anybody remember how cool this movie was when it came out? A star-studded cast in a violent noir setting, stylish as hell, and unforgiving. Boy, I must have watched this movie a couple dozen times when it first came out on dvd. I was obsessed. Then, I bought that "extended cut", which turned out to be really shitty, because they'd split the damn movie up into segments, and added an end credit sequence to ALL of them. So yeah, there's an additional 30 minutes of footage, but 2/3rds of that are repeated end credits. Ugh...

But if you stick to the theatrical version, you're in for a ride. It ain't grounded entirely in reality, because people take beatings that NO man would survive. They get shot to shit too, and tend to come back from it.

I think all of the stories are pretty decent. Bruce Willis has to stop that yellow bastard from raping little girls, Mickey Rourke has to avenge a prostitute's death, Clive Owen has to dispose of a dead body, and more. A lot of clusterfucks going on in this movie, but it plays out wonderfully.



We were promised a sequel quickly after the movie. It took 9 years, and I think most of us lost our interest, because by the time it came out, it didn't have the same affect. Sure, it was 3D and looked mostly the same, but it lacked a lot of the gritty charm of the original. I mean, it ain't terrible, but it just wasn't anything new at that point.

On a side note, I know they made that movie "The Spirit" which was made in the same style, but didn't look appealing at all. Anyone seen that one?


Turn the right corner in Sin City and you can find anything.

New Notification System

Basic stuff here. That bell icon up top will notify you when 1.) You get a new reply, 2.) You're tagged in a post/comment, and 3.) Someone likes your post/comment.

It ain't perfect yet, but it's good enough for me now. I still need to adjust tagged users when a post/comment is edited, incoming emails, mod notifications (only admin has them at the moment), and give it audio, but I'll get there. Just figured this was necessary to fix that bit on how a new PM would stay in your notifications forever.