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8MM is one of those rare psychological thrillers that take you through the dark part of the human psyche.  I thought Cage did a good job.
 
I think the last film I watched was Rumble Fish with Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke which has made me look at those two guys differently now.

Ok film but a bit complicated in places, Does Mickey Rourke (Motorcycle Boy) Have problems?  :huh:
 
A while back I had the misfortune to watch Walking in the Woods: The Motion Picture. Oh sorry, I meant The Blair Witch Project. Yes, only now, but hearing about the hype a few years back was extremely irritating and excess hype works only to make me (more) disinterested. Basically, the 'plot' involves 3 college students filming a documentary in the woods of Burkitsville, Maryland about a local legend named The Blair Witch. As they progress through the woods, get lost and argue incessantly, Really Bad Things Happen, involving hearing strange sounds, noticing piles of stones arranged in precise manners and stick figures constructed of wood in an apparently sinister manner. If you care what happens after this, then I suggest wasting your time and finding out. Don't say I didn't warn you.

But why do I find movie this to be so offensive? It doesn't offer anything thought provoking, nothing to mull over or discuss with friends after watching, it even fails on the level of basic entertainment. And of course, the shocking revelation: It's not scary in the least. Of course, the rebuttal is usually something along the lines of "It's what you don't see is the scariest part of all" or a reply from your local Asian horror hipster: "lIeK ofGM U dOnT UnDaStaNd dA sYkOlOgiCal tErorR yOu nEeD eVeRyTh1Ng sPelT oUt 4 u N pRobAly lIek sLasHaz liEk sCrEam!11!oneelven!". Maybe this is just random speculation on my behalf, but in addition to the hype of possibly being real (which of course, it's not), the 'psychological horror' aspect was probably just a cynical exercise to presenting an alternative (ofgm its youneek1!1) to the gore-laden teen slashers that had populated the horror genre in the late 1990s (Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer But Couldn't Care Less).

I guess what I really don't like about this 'movie' (yeah, the term is being use loosely here) is that it's using 'authenticity' as a ploy to garner attention and money, since at the time of the movie's release, a documentary entitled Curse of The Blair Witch was made (in addition to being completely fake) to hype the 'realness' of it all. After all, amatuerism sells. I believe that's the main lesson I've learned from The Blair Witch Project, if anything. With its constantly shaking camera work, juvenile dialogue (the word 'fuck' appears 154 times according to IMDB) and generally aimless plot (for the most part anyway) and of course hype, hype, hype, Artisan Films had a winnning formula and managed to officially make the most profitable film of all time, it is in the Guiness Book of World Records, the film cost $22,000 to make and made back $240.5 million, a ratio of $1 spent for every $10,931 made.

In a way, it reminds me of Andrew Keen's book, The Cult of The Amatuer, which is an excellent criticism on user-generated internet content and democratised digital media. In one section, he describes how corporate interests have effectively used YouTube videos and other sites that rely on user-generated content and participation (notice how Web 1.0 sites were measured in value by how many people visited them, and how Web 2.0 sites are measured in worth by the amount of user-generated content it has) as a form of guerilla adverstising, since more and more people have been converted to the cult of the amatuer and don't trust The Big Evil Corporations. An example would be Tea Partay, as described in Keen's book, it was revealed to be a Smirnoff advertisement for a new product of theirs, Raw Tea.

Okay, okay, this review is spiralling out of control, so I'll end it. I know writing a review on The Blair Witch Project seems as ancient as the city of Varanasi, but I'm listening to early 90s drums and bass here, so it doesn't matter.
 
I still have not seen the Bler Bwich Prajekt and don't care to. 
I've seen the modern western 3:10 to Yuma, which has been hailed as the best one since Unforgiven.  The movie did not disappoint.  Both Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are incredible actors and shine on this gem. 

The story takes place in the post-Civil war west.  Bale is a poor rancher whole land is threatened by a railroad company.  Russell is a well known murderous thief.  When their paths cross, Bale agrees to be a part of a team to escort Russell to a 3:10 train to Yuma prison for monetary compensation he hopes will save his farm.  Throughtout their journey, the viewer gains respect for both characters and their background.  I highly recommend it to anyone that likes such classic westerns as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Unforgiven.

I have not seen the original released in 1957, but I aim to for comparison reasons.
 
I've seen the original 3:10 to Yuma but Have not seen the newer one.  The old one is great so I don't know if I would see the newer one?

As for the Blair Witch, this movie pissed me off.  I thought those kids were stupid And I wanted to slap that girl with the flashlight!  Plus it made me have a headache. 

I watched "The Dead Girl" and was blown away by the story.  It is about 5 stories surrounding the dead girl.  Very graphic and sad.  Not emo sad but F**ked up sad.  Highly recommended.
 
I watched "Solstice" last night. It's a remake (or ripoff) of the Danish 2003 film "Midsommer" (which, incidentally, means Solstice :P ) "From the makers of Blair Witch", and a poor one at that. The original had a great sense of suspense and played beautifully on Danish/Swedish relations. This film had nothing of that sort, only a frame-by-frame copy of the original screenplay with a creepy little girl with bright eyes crammed in to please the jap-o-philes. The Americans are in dire need of a revolution in their horror films.

I then went on to watch Delta Force 5: Operation Python, about a small group of American soldiers caught somewhere in Kenya, mixed with some couldn't-care-less plot about terrorists, and spiced with about a gazillion ridiculous explosions. That one kinda writes its own review.
 
Kynisk Sokol said:
I know writing a review on The Blair Witch Project seems as ancient as the city of Varanasi, but I'm listening to early 90s drums and bass here, so it doesn't matter.
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Please tell me that you finally have a blog.
 
Seems I am the only one that actually liked the Blair Witch project. I thought it built tension nicely and I love the ending. Then again I was in middle school at the time...
 
Even though I didn't get the ending, I also was intruiged by the tension in Blair Witch project (I've only seen the first film, though)
 
Forostar said:
Even though I didn't get the ending, I also was intruiged by the tension in Blair Witch project.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one to see the ending in that way.

What did get me about this movie was the fact that when lost in the woods, they could not find their way out - but they passed a stream. A stream would turn into a river that would eventually split a settlement on its banks. Surely you just would follow the flow of the stream?
 
Well, didn't they loose the stream itself, later? Man, it was already nine years ago, when I saw it, hehe :-)
 
I saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets on the flight from the US to Europe. Needless to say another one of those completely un-believable Disney efforts with Nicholas Cage looking as astounded as I felt for about half the film. No wonder,
I mean, an ancient Maya city made entirely out of gold...underneath Mt. Rushmore? I suppose it makes for a passable kid's movie.
 
You think too much :p I thought it made a great adventure story, not as good as the first by any means, but still quite fun. One of the rare movies I actually LIKED the distortion of history (just like the first). rather clever IMO.
 
I could say something scathing about me being only half Mexican which would account for why I actually do think, but I won't go there. Oh wait, I just did.
 
Natalie said:
I saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets on the flight from the US to Europe. Needless to say another one of those completely un-believable Disney efforts with Nicholas Cage looking as astounded as I felt for about half the film. No wonder,
I mean, an ancient Maya city made entirely out of gold...underneath Mt. Rushmore? I suppose it makes for a passable kid's movie.
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.

Thanks Natalie.  Thanks a lot.
 
Natalie said:
I saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets on the flight from the US to Europe. Needless to say another one of those completely un-believable Disney efforts with Nicholas Cage looking as astounded as I felt for about half the film. No wonder,
I mean, an ancient Maya city made entirely out of gold...underneath Mt. Rushmore? I suppose it makes for a passable kid's movie.
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That's all Nicholas Cage does nowadays.
 
Forostar said:
Well, didn't they loose the stream itself, later? Man, it was already nine years ago, when I saw it, hehe :-)
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It's nine years since I saw it also, but once they found the stream - they should have stayed with it. Gone with the flow of the water.
 
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