I would disagree with that. I found the Coen Brothers version to be rather dull and lifeless, which is kind of strange considering that they claimed they made the movie because they had been so excited about the book it's based on. Plus, they seemed to have intentionally avoided doing anything interesting with the landscape cinematography, which to me is a cardinal sin in a Western adventure story.
Lynch's movies can vary widely in mass appeal. He has the more bizarre movies like Eraserhead to the much more accessible movies like The Elephant Man or The Straight Story. Blue Velvet seems to be in the middle of the spectrum, with a basic story that is easily grasped but a high level of detail and abstract symbolism that can merit a second viewing. I love his creativity and vision, which may stem from first being trained as an artist prior to moving over to film.
Everybody seems to love Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth. I've heard people recite his "Heineken?! Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!" line several times. He was in a bit of a crisis in his career due to substance abuse problems when he was cast in Blue Velvet, which worked out perfectly for this character. Hopper picked the gas the character would have used in the story, amyl nitrate, and knew from experience how different drugs he was abusing would affect him. For whatever reason, Isabella Rossellini got hammered by the press for this film. Anything and everything the press disliked about Blue Velvet seemed to be attached to her or David Lynch. She was an international model and cinema royalty considering who her parents were, but she took a chance on an art film and I thought did a pretty impressive job, yet she was the topic of most of the scrutiny, including Ebert's rages. I can't think of many models who would have traded high paying magazine cover photos for the type of role she played in Blue Velvet and was personally very impressed that she'd take such a risk. Her managers must have shat bricks when they saw Blue Velvet. I was curious to see what you would think of all the symbolic imagery. That element seems to be pretty polarizing. I watched it a second time before I picked up on certain aspects of the themes and symbolism. For example, I didn't pick up on the significance of the strange dream Sandy had described midway through the movie, but the ending with the symbolism from the blinding flash of light, the robin, and the darkness disappearing, ect. were all there at the ending sequence. By the way, the cinematographer told an amusing story about that robin in the special features. It turns out it was hard to get a robin for movie purposes, so they tried to hire a guy who had a "trained" robin and it was molting and looked awful. So as they were running out of time to get one, they discovered a robin had been hit and killed by a car near a school. They had it stuffed and used it. The cinematographer was very concerned that it didn't look very realistic, and David Lynch indicated that he loved that about it. It seemed to fall into his theme of separating illusion from reality. Lynch is a peculiar character.
Why was the crooked cop zombified at the end? It kind of looked like he was lobotomized by a gunshot to the head. Or did he get his head bashed in with the TV which was broken?
The Three Musketeers(2011): Just finished this and I really enjoyed it. A good entertainment and action film with a hint of comedy. Looking forward to a sequel.
Frank Booth seemed to brutalize and mutilate everyone he came in contact with eventually. He did a number on Don. He needed Dorothy for his weird sex rituals, but he left her nude and beaten half to death at one point for whatever unknown reasons. He probably just went crazy over something minor and lobotomized the Yellow Man. He was mentally unstable and constantly high on multiple substances all the time.
Vertigo It had good cinematography and nice twisty ending, but I actually didn't think it was one of Hitchcock's better movies. A lot of it was laughably dated and cheesy or just slow and boring. I also find it hard to take James Stewart seriously. His speech and mannerisms are laughable.
Driven Great movie! Ryan Reynolds can drive me any day!! lol 50/50 FINALLY I get to watch a FUNNY movie! Strangely it's about Cancer but... I thought it was really funny, and not that stupid. Seth Rogan is always stupid, but this movie is actually pretty serious in the scenes he's not in. Actually, yeah, it's really only funny when he's there. The rest is sort of sobby drama. I like sobby drama.
Inglourious Basterds on Blu-ray I had forgotten how much I loved this movie. Christoph Waltz gives a perfect performance. Brad Pitt is hilarious. And it's just so damn satisfying seeing Nazis getting scalped and clubbed to death with a baseball bat. Tarantino gave the Nazis the kind of justice they deserved but never got. As far as the Blu-ray, it had DTS and sounded pretty good, but the picture quality was pretty average and I think it was only 720p. Still, an awesome movie that I'm happy to have in my collection.
Pandorum: Was not expecting it to be good, but it was alright. I still don't know where those monsters came from though.
Spoiler Wasn't it the crew mutated over a very very long period of time? Been such a long time since I saw it but I am sure that was what it was. EDIT: Seems spoiler tags are not on or do not work here, sorry if I spoilt it for anyone.
There was some sort of mutagen that was supposed to help the colonists adapt to the new planet and instead they adapted to the ship.
Quatermass and the Pit The 1967 Hammer adaptation of the original BBC serial...the storyline for this film is truly one of the more imaginative blends of science fiction and the occult that you're going to see. It's an interesting puzzle that is slowly pieced together throughout and includes one of the better climactic endings for a Hammer film. I could easily see this being remade by a contemporary director like Del Toro.
30 Minutes or Less Not a really funny movie, just a fun ride. In the end I don't know who looks like an asshole, they all sort of do. And I guess that's the big joke. Sorry for spoiling it for you. Moneyball Monkey already went over this but now I'm thinking he just didn't like it since their was no chicks!! That and he didn't have a childhood. Me I LOVED it! Not one of my faves but easily enjoyable by a vintage baseball enthusiast like myself.
Chronicle This film was actually very good. I'm not normally into those movies that are meant to be recorded by the protagonists like Blair Witch but this was a great film. The closest thing I could compare it to that I've seen is, weirdly, Akira; one of the guys is blatantly Tetsuo. But yeah, you can tell it doesn't have a great budget but that doesn't spoil it at all. Can't rate it enough actually. The Rite Pretty decent horror film with Anthony Hopkins about exorcisms and demonic posession. Not something you'd go back to for repeat viewings but definately worth a look.
The Skin I Live In This was probably the most messed up revenge movie I've seen since Old Boy. A surgeon kidnaps his daughter's rapist and goes about transforming him into a woman so he can know what it feels like to be raped.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides It was better than the 3rd but this movie was no treasure. Yar har har.
I watched J. Edgar and liked it much. Might be because I have some obsession with Naomi Watts.. but Dicaprio's performance was extremely similar to his role in The Aviator as Howard Hughs. So basically, if you liked The Aviator, then J. Egdar would be very much for you. If not, skip it.