Prick Tunes: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "Red Right Hand"

This song was my gateway into the dark twisted world of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was featured on the Songs in the Key of X compilation--an anthology of songs tied to The X-Files either in theme or actually having been featured on the show. Chris Carter actually stated that "Red Right Hand" had been the inspiration for putting the collection together in the liner notes for the collection. While not a huge single at the time of Let Love In's release in 1994, even in Australia or the UK, its mark has been much more significant than its charting would imply, as it's been featured in all of the first three Scream movies (in one way, shape, or form), Dumb and Dumber, and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. That last credit makes it only the second weirdest gateway to the modern youth demographic with that dance in the tent scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, taking the cake for most unexpected place to find Nick Cave.

The phrase "red right hand" is from John Milton's Paradise Lost and is a reference to the vengeful hand of god, according to Wikipedia.

Man on Film: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

There's a ton of catching up that needs to be done here, so some of the coming posts might be half-assed.

This is one of the half-assed entries.

I've seen all of these movies. I do not really give a shit about any of them. They're OK for what they are I guess, but I have a hard time caring about the series.

I do feel bad for Daniel Radcliffe because it seems like he is on the fast-track to becoming the next Elijah Wood. Maybe this means he'll get his Wilfred someday. Maybe it will mean stunt casting on Law & Order: UK in ten years.

Oh, I'm supposed to talk about the movie here aren't I? Sorry. So it was all right I guess. People who have read the book recently seemed upset about the movie not doing the book justice. This couldn't matter any less to me.

What does matter to me is how ridiculous the "19 Years Later" sequence was. Ho. Ly. Shit. I guess this was bound to happen if they were dead-set on using the extremely young-looking actors to play themselves as almost-40-year-olds. If ever there were a case to be made for hiring other actors to play characters as adults rather than trying to age them through the magic of the cinema, this would be the closing argument. Fuck me these kids can't be made up to look like 40-year-olds.

The rest of the movie is fine, I suppose. Perhaps eight films worth of build-up isn't capitalized upon in the climactic face-off. There is certainly a sour taste left after that and the "19 years later" nonsense.

Whatever.

Here's the trailer.

Man on Film: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

As I briefly mentioned ages ago, one could hardly call me a fan of these movies.  The first two were utter failures--Chris Columbus's direction was awful.  Maybe kids enjoyed them, but there was nothing in them for adults, and I was of legal drinking age when TSLF dragged me to the first one.  Once Alfonso Cuarón took the reins in The Prisoner of Azkaban, the series was rebranded.  Cuarón's successors, Mike Newell and especially David Yates, have continued on following his example, and the results have been mostly good.  Yes, the series is still a bit hokey at times, but it has gotten slightly more adult as the characters have aged. 

Now, as I mentioned in the aforelinked article, TSLF had some concerns upon finding out that the final installment of the series was being split into two parts.  The primary concern lied with the fact that nothing happens in the first half of the last book*.  If the final book were to be split in to, it would stand to reason that it would be split roughly in the middle.  What does that mean for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1?

*For the record, I have not nor do I intend to read any of the books.  I have bigger fish to fry. 

Longest.

Camping movie.

Ever.

So for 153 minutes of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and now 146 minutes of The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 essentially nothing has happened.  Think of it like a really long Empire Strikes Back.  Now as we all know, that doesn't equate to it being bad necessarily.  In the case of Empire, much of its worth is tied directly to the fact that George Lucas's involvement in the film did not include either a screenwriting or directing credit, but that doesn't mean that it isn't similar in spirit to this film.  Both are penultimate build-ups to what should be a huge ending.  Fortunately, there will be no goddamn Ewoks in Part 2.  Unfortunately, no gold bikini, unless I'm reading this series entirely incorrectly.

As for the cast, well, we all know what they're bringing to the table.  Daniel Radcliffe brings this...  


Emma Watson is cute and pulls off bookish well.  The kid (or dude, now, I guess) who plays Ron* does that thing that he does.

*His name--and yes, I had to check the credits for this--is Rupert Grint.

And it's all fine and good. 

It's just nothing really happens.  If you go to movies as much as I do, this probably won't bother you too much.  In an eight-film series, 299 minutes isn't really that much time in which nothing happens.  Hell, nothing really happened in the entire second season of Lost.

Now, if the ultimate installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 blows ass, then you'll be dealing with a camper almost as unhappy as Peter Johansen after the finale of BSG, but until then I'm willing to allow for this to have been the longest camping movie ever.

For me to not be irritated at the fact that not much happened meant that Yates & Co. pulled off what they aimed for.  Some of the best movies ever (Rear Window comes to mind) have virtually nothing happen and succeed because of the masterful building tension.  Deathly Hallows One is no Rear Window, but for the most part it works in spite of the fact that very little happens.  In that regard, kudos, David Yates.  Kudos.
Weird Side Note:  I was totally weirded out by the fact that the only song on the soundtrack was "O Children" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.  I bet he never thought that a bunch of nerdy kids who love magic were going to discover his music via the Harry Potter franchise.

Yes, this Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:

Man On Film: Ketchup

I know, it's been a while. I've been busy.

That doesn't mean I've not been going to movies.

Rather, I've been unable to write about them.

What is to follow could be a bit lengthy. Sure, I could split these up, but this backlog has been piling up. Some of these may receive more time than others for varying reasons but not always related to my like/dislike of the film. Given the ground I'll be trying to cover here, these individual write-ups will surely be lacking, especially in relation to, say, what I did when I wrote about The Dark Knight in two tomes last year.

Here goes:

Brüno

Pretty damn funny. Unlike Borat, it didn't feel like 85% of the movie was recycled bits from "Da Ali G Show". The urethral "Brüno" shout in his pilot was truly shocking.

I am curious as to what Sacha Baron Cohen is going to do now that his three characters have been given the full-length feature treatment.

Funny People

I had a film professor who specialized in screenwriting. He had written F/X but did not end up being the credited screenwriter. In the sci-fi class I took from him, his analysis was limited to breaking down this film into its three-act structure while giving a cursory look at other narrative elements. His hard-on for the three-act structure ruled his life.

While that seemed a little ridiculous during the class, Judd Apatow's latest seems like it could have more closely adhered to the pacing inherent in that Aristotelian construct.

Now I should say that I didn't have any major issues with the film. Of Apatow's three directorial efforts, Funny People is probably his most complete film. It is certainly his most adult. That doesn't mean it is the most enjoyable. It probably has the least re-watch value of the three. Sandler gives his best performance since Punch-Drunk Love. Jonah Hill manages to avoid being irritating, an issue I had upon repeat viewings of Superbad. Rogen is fine as well. The problem when it comes to re-watching is that the two male lead characters are largely unlikeable.

Oh, and there's the fact that despite being entirely watchable, the pacing leaves a bit to be desired.

But, again, the film is good. The stand-up is really damn funny. The interplay between the roommates is great. Schwartzmann is his best in ages (although it all looks to be topped by "Bored to Death"). The horribleness of the show-within-the-movie is hilarious as well. Aside from the pacing issues, the film doesn't have a lot of weaknesses.

(500) Days of Summer

I actually thought I had written about this one and was surprised to find out that I hadn't.

I tend to like the film work of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Zooey Deschanel wasn't exactly stretching her wings and flying to new territory in terms of playing a new role. That being said, she does it fairly well. The music talk in the film was a little grating, but at the same time the characters in the film were supposed to be my peers, and that is sadly most of what we talk about. The one point I will make is that it seems like a leap to state that someone has good taste in music based on the one song you overhear them listening to. For all she knew in the elevator, he listened to Nickleback, Mariah Carey, and Liberace and that was the one song by The Smiths on his iPod (We are assuming that he wasn't listening to a CD, right? Does anyone (other than me)?).

I did like this movie, though. It was funny, sad, and not necessarily typical of the rom-com genre. Its soundtrack, while littered with tracks by indie darlings like Feist, Regina Spektor, Wolfmother, and Spoon, is entirely appropriate for the demographic that the film is about.

Thirst

The newest Chan-Wook Park movie was pretty solid. It didn't approach the meteoric heights that Oldboy reached, but it was good. It was, however, cursed by what seemed like a ending about 45 minutes before the actual ending.

Harry Potter and the (Whatever Thing is in the Title)

The sixth movie in the series had virtually nothing happen. It's not like it sucked (but holy shit did the first two in the series), but from what the special lady friend says the next movie cannot really have much of anything happen, so that means we're getting like six hours of nothing leading up to what might be a cool conclusion.

I cannot believe that this series has even gotten this good after those abysmal first two movies. We all have Alfonso Cuaron to thank for that. His direction steered this enterprise in the right direction.

The Hurt Locker

So I fell asleep for about 20 minutes at the beginning of this film. As the second-to-last trailer was concluding, I thought to myself, "Fuck. I am tired."

That being said, what I saw was great. Jeremy Renner, who was the star of the underwhelming Dahmer, was phenomenal. The tension was great throughout. I wanted to say more and intended to see it again before doing so. I have not had the chance. This will have to do.

As I'm sure Weibel is glad to hear, The Hurt Locker put me in the hurt locker.