Showing posts with label The Black Hole. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Black Hole. Show all posts
29 November 2012
At the movies: The Black Hole.
11 October 2008
At the movies flashback!
So today, I wanted to hype up some of my first net-published film criticism, for my friend Joe Robin's now-defunct Opposable Thumb Films site. These were written from 2001-2003, and while I find my sensibility pretty much the same, I'm glad that we finally have a DVD release for The Fog (and that the current Blue Underground disc of The Stendhal Syndrome ups the ante considerably in terms of visual presentation).
So here you have it, my reviews for Opposable Thumb films.
Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi's Baise-Moi.
Gary Nelson's The Black Hole. This film needs some serious special edition love.
My double review of modern feminist horror classics: Bernard Rose's Candyman and Neil Jordan's In Dreams.
John Carpenter's The Fog. The screencaps were from a VHS dub of the laserdisc, at that time the only way to see the film in a home environment in a letterboxed fashion. And well before that abysmal remake...
Alexandre Aja's Haute Tension, which I still adore.
Michael Mann's The Keep, which needs to get some form of DVD or Blu-Ray or whatever release, because I worry my laserdisc is going to disintegrate and then what will be left?
Ah, Jack Sholder's A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. This review actually achieved me a small bit of eFame, and it still periodically pops up on horror boards, which is fine by me. I'll grab ahold of any morsel of attention I can.
And finally, Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome. I will not bash Troma (they certainly showed the film more love than Miramax did), but I'm glad that Blue Underground stepped up to the plate and showed what a kickass transfer can be like. If only they could do that with all the Argento films that have fucked up DVD presentations in the US that they're responsible for (Suspiria, Deep Red, I'm looking at you).
So here you have it, my reviews for Opposable Thumb films.
Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi's Baise-Moi.
Gary Nelson's The Black Hole. This film needs some serious special edition love.
My double review of modern feminist horror classics: Bernard Rose's Candyman and Neil Jordan's In Dreams.
John Carpenter's The Fog. The screencaps were from a VHS dub of the laserdisc, at that time the only way to see the film in a home environment in a letterboxed fashion. And well before that abysmal remake...
Alexandre Aja's Haute Tension, which I still adore.
Michael Mann's The Keep, which needs to get some form of DVD or Blu-Ray or whatever release, because I worry my laserdisc is going to disintegrate and then what will be left?
Ah, Jack Sholder's A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. This review actually achieved me a small bit of eFame, and it still periodically pops up on horror boards, which is fine by me. I'll grab ahold of any morsel of attention I can.
And finally, Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome. I will not bash Troma (they certainly showed the film more love than Miramax did), but I'm glad that Blue Underground stepped up to the plate and showed what a kickass transfer can be like. If only they could do that with all the Argento films that have fucked up DVD presentations in the US that they're responsible for (Suspiria, Deep Red, I'm looking at you).
06 July 2008
My twenty-one favorite fictional spacecraft.
Because I am the biggest geek ever.
In ascending order...
21. The Swinetrek
Everybody now- "Pigs- in- Space!" From The Muppet Show.
20. Starfighters
Although technically a class of ship, I'm going to let that distinction slide. From former Nashville Film Festival Artistic Director Brian Gordon's favorite movie of all time, The Last Starfighter.
19. The Probe what Fucks Up Earth and Talks to Whales
From Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
18. The Planet Express Ship
From Futurama. Voice of Sigourney Weaver. Dark matter engines. Alcoholic robots. I'd be a fool not to (which I was, initially).
17. The Acanti
From The X-Men's Broodwar back in the late 160s. Originally, these were beautiful space-dwelling creatures, but a parasitic race known as the Brood enslaved them and turned them into living ships.
16. The Ubbo-Sathla Umbrella Cruiser
From Lifeforce. It doesn't look like too much, but three of this thing's nude crew turned London into a ravening soul-sucked bastion of madness and frothing out the face.
15. The Heart of Gold
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. Because who wouldn't want an Infinite Improbability Drive?
14. Icarus II
From Sunshine. The only reason the Icarus series doesn't rank higher is because of the unfortunate tendency of everyone who crews them to die horribly.
13. The Nightflyer
From Nightflyers (moreso George R.R. Martin's book than the muffled 1987 film version, but either one will do). And it's not even so much because of the design, but rather that it comes with a telekinetic murderous ghost wired into the ship's crystalline hard drive.
12. The Millennium Falcon
'nuff said.
11. Klingon D-7
Threatening but graceful.
10. Serenity
09. Borg Cube
Because I had a Physics teacher tell me this was the most practically-designed spacecraft he'd ever seen.
08. The LV-426 Derelict
From Alien. Because of all the 'alien' spacecraft that the movies throw at us, this one actually looks like it could have been made by aliens. It is made according to a kind of symmetry we simply will never understand.
07. Martian War Machine
From War of the Worlds (1953 and 1988 versions). Technically, we don't see these in space, but they're alien and they fly, so why pick hairs. Graceful and deadly monsters, these.
06. Spacing Guild Heighliner
From Dune. Not much to look at, but if Norma Cenva designed it, then you better believe it has some awesomeness to lay down. It doesn't travel through space- space travels around it.
05. Voyager 6/V GER/Vejur
From Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
04. The TARDIS
From Doctor Who. Timelords know how to travel in style.
03. USS Cygnus
From The Black Hole. Simply awe-inspiring. Truly a ship to go mad in, with its majestic corridors, transport systems, and comfortingly sinister design. Truly unique.
02. USS Grissom
From Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Still the most elegantly-designed (if horribly impractical) Federation ship in all of Star Trek history.
01. USCSS Nostromo
From Alien. A monster in space. Practically a city, except that most of what we see is a portably refinery, traveling for decades across space while processing ore to keep earth running. The most influential internal ship design in the past thirty years.
In ascending order...
21. The Swinetrek
Everybody now- "Pigs- in- Space!" From The Muppet Show.
20. Starfighters
Although technically a class of ship, I'm going to let that distinction slide. From former Nashville Film Festival Artistic Director Brian Gordon's favorite movie of all time, The Last Starfighter.
19. The Probe what Fucks Up Earth and Talks to Whales
From Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
18. The Planet Express Ship
From Futurama. Voice of Sigourney Weaver. Dark matter engines. Alcoholic robots. I'd be a fool not to (which I was, initially).
17. The Acanti
From The X-Men's Broodwar back in the late 160s. Originally, these were beautiful space-dwelling creatures, but a parasitic race known as the Brood enslaved them and turned them into living ships.
16. The Ubbo-Sathla Umbrella Cruiser
From Lifeforce. It doesn't look like too much, but three of this thing's nude crew turned London into a ravening soul-sucked bastion of madness and frothing out the face.
15. The Heart of Gold
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. Because who wouldn't want an Infinite Improbability Drive?
14. Icarus II
From Sunshine. The only reason the Icarus series doesn't rank higher is because of the unfortunate tendency of everyone who crews them to die horribly.
13. The Nightflyer
From Nightflyers (moreso George R.R. Martin's book than the muffled 1987 film version, but either one will do). And it's not even so much because of the design, but rather that it comes with a telekinetic murderous ghost wired into the ship's crystalline hard drive.
12. The Millennium Falcon
'nuff said.
11. Klingon D-7
Threatening but graceful.
10. Serenity
09. Borg Cube
Because I had a Physics teacher tell me this was the most practically-designed spacecraft he'd ever seen.
08. The LV-426 Derelict
From Alien. Because of all the 'alien' spacecraft that the movies throw at us, this one actually looks like it could have been made by aliens. It is made according to a kind of symmetry we simply will never understand.
07. Martian War Machine
From War of the Worlds (1953 and 1988 versions). Technically, we don't see these in space, but they're alien and they fly, so why pick hairs. Graceful and deadly monsters, these.
06. Spacing Guild Heighliner
From Dune. Not much to look at, but if Norma Cenva designed it, then you better believe it has some awesomeness to lay down. It doesn't travel through space- space travels around it.
05. Voyager 6/V GER/Vejur
From Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
04. The TARDIS
From Doctor Who. Timelords know how to travel in style.
03. USS Cygnus
From The Black Hole. Simply awe-inspiring. Truly a ship to go mad in, with its majestic corridors, transport systems, and comfortingly sinister design. Truly unique.
02. USS Grissom
From Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Still the most elegantly-designed (if horribly impractical) Federation ship in all of Star Trek history.
01. USCSS Nostromo
From Alien. A monster in space. Practically a city, except that most of what we see is a portably refinery, traveling for decades across space while processing ore to keep earth running. The most influential internal ship design in the past thirty years.
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