Monday, August 1, 2011

OLD FLUD REVIEWS PART FIVE: I'M STILL HERE, BEST WORST MOVIE, WINNEBAGO MAN & HUMAN CENTIPEDE

Hopefully you guys have been checking out my reviews for the flud watches website in addition to this blog. The content from the old flud website is gone, but thankfully i saved everything. Here's the 5th installment of older reviews that aren't up anymore. And make sure to check out the new flud site if you haven't already...http://www.fludwatches.com/


I'M STILL HERE
Lemme start off by saying that I’m still amazed people think this movie is real. No one can honestly think this movie is serious. There’s too many people close to Joaquin Phoenix to let him follow in the same footsteps as his late brother. This movie is nothing but an elaborate prank, similar to something Andy Kaufman would pull. I’m Still Here, a mockumentary about Joaquin’s Phoenix’s (so called) retirement from acting to pursue a rap career, is obviously not the first to do what it did. John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich), Bruce Willis (What Just Happened), Paul Giamatti (Cold Souls), Werner Herzog (Incident At Lochness) and many more have all poked fun at themselves in fictional films, but as far as I'm concerned, Phoenix has surpassed them all with his performance in I’m Still Here. The film, directed by Casey Affleck, follows a bearded, paranoid, drug addicted Joaquin Phoenix just after finishing whats supposed to be his final film (Two Lovers). Out of nowhere, he decides he tired of acting and wants to be a rapper, and have P Diddy produce his album (his first two choices; rick rubin & dr dre were booked). The first half of the movie shows Phoenix, Affleck and the rest of their entourage trying to track down Diddy in a quest that takes them from L.A. to NYC to Miami and back to L.A., where the two finally meet in one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, where Phoenix plays Diddy his “demo”. Puffy’s facial expressions while listening to Phoenix’s tracks are priceless. Its obvious that some of the celebrities who make appearances in the film weren’t in on it. But other actors like; Ben Stiller, Edward James Olmos and Diddy are all obviously acting. Like I said earlier this movie is an elaborate prank. Its just Juaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck poking fun at the film industry, the music industry and the media in general. Nothing new. I know. However, what sets this film apart from others is Phoenix’s acting (that's right ACTING. Please didn't forget this is not real). When you see I'm Still Here, put this performance up against all Phoenix’s other roles, and you’ll realize (like I did) what kind of range he has an an actor. Bottom line, I’m Still Here has everything. Drugs, hookers, fights and someone even gets shit on. Literally. And although the ending does drag on a bit (In fact the movie could have been 20 mintutes shorter). This is the most entertaining movie Ive seen so far this year next to Inception and Machete.

BEST WORST MOVIE
If you had HBO in the early 90’s there’s a good chance that you caught a movie on at either 11am or 3am on any given weekday called; Troll 2. That’s how I discovered it. I remember the first time I saw Troll 2, and even at the age of 9, I knew there was something a little “off ” about this movie. Over the last 3 years or so, Troll 2 has slowly become the most popular new cult movie of this era, and has kept the tradition of the “midnight movie” going, that was made popular in the 70’s thanks to movies like; Eraserhead, Night of The Living Dead, El Topo and The Harder They Come. It’s been dubbed everything from “the worst movie ever” (according to IMDB) to “the rocky horror picture show for the myspace generation”. Almost 2 decades after the release of the movie, Child “Actor” and star of Troll 2, Michael Stephenson, made this well crafted documentary that only cements Troll 2’s cult status even more. In Best Worst Movie, Stephenson chronicles the new found popularity of Troll 2 and catches up with his former cast members from the movie. The documentary mainly focuses on “actor”/dentist George Hardy (who played the father in the movie), and his new found cult celebrity status. The documentary, which was shot over a few years takes them to midnight movie screenings and conventions all over the world. I hate to use such a cliché line, but this documentary really does have everything. It’s obviously funny, and there are a lot of hilarious and memorable scenes. I found the funniest part to be when Stephenson finally finds the “director” of Troll 2, who just can’t seem to understand the craze behind this horrible little movie he made many years ago. But there are also a few parts I found that were kinda sad, like when Stephenson catches up with actors Margo Prey and Robert Ormsby, who played the mother and grandfather in Troll 2. These parts of the film really even out all the comedy in Best Worst Movie and make it a well rounded film. Michael Stephenson may have been a horrible actor as a kid, but I think he’s really found his calling as a documentary filmmaker.

WINNEBAGO MAN
Along with Best Worst Movie, this is the best documentary I’ve seen so far this year. Winnebago Man follows former Winnebago salesman; Jack Rebney, and documents how “the worlds most angriest man” deals with his new found popularity as a “youtube celebrity” after an old embarrassing video of him surfaces on youtube and becomes a big hit. The video, for those of you who haven’t seen it, are hilarious outtakes of Jack Rebney, cursing and swearing between messed up takes of a commercial he’s trying to make for the Winnebago company. What sets the Winnebago man video apart from others like; Tay Zonday or The Star Wars Kid is that not only is it one of the earliest videos to become famous on youtube, but it was also a pretty famous video on the underground vhs tape trading circuit along with other stuff like faces of death, which was around long before youtube. Early on in the film, we see that the same guy from those Winnebago bloopers is just as angry today. Jack Rebney is easily one of the most unique and interesting people I’ve seen explored in a documentary. EVERYTHING agitates him, any little thing sets him off, every other word he speaks is either; fuck or shit and he hates almost everything about modern-day society ranging from; politics, Dick Cheney, technology and pretty human beings in general. At times his behavior almost seems like a mild case of tourettes syndrome. Now, I mentioned Best Worst Movie earlier, because these 2 documentaries really go hand-in-hand in with one another. Both films document “ordinary” people dealing with a (sometimes unwanted) cult status, but eventually coming to terms with it. Both films also follow their subjects around to festivals and screenings dedicated to them, as well as document the interaction they have with their fans. The only difference between Jack Rebney and the subjects of Best Worst Movie is that Rebney is much more difficult to deal with than the easy going cast members of Troll 2. My one and only issue with this documentary is that for a character study that this film is, we don’t really get much info about Rebney’s past, mainly due to the fact that he absolutely refused to discuss any of that. But what the film lacks in information about Rebney’s past, it makes up with just about everything else. There’s hardly a boring moment, and as corny as it sounds, it may even make you wanna reflect on your own life or someone you know like Jack Rebney.

HUMAN CENTIPEDE
If the goal of Human Centipede was to be a dark comedy, then it kinda succeeded. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to take this movie seriously, which is impossible. Human Centipede is a disturbing twist on a classic horror plot. Two vulnerable, female American tourists get a flat tire in the middle of the woods and are taken in out of the rain by the nearest resident who happens to be a retired medical doctor that specialized in removing Siamese twins. Next thing the girls know, they’re drugged and eventually awaken to find themselves strapped to a bed along with one other person who’s also been kidnapped. It turns out the doctor is fucking insane, and has been experimenting on animals by stitching them together in an effort to make a “centipede” out of them. After his last successful experiment of stitching 3 dogs together, he decides to take it to the next level and try it out on 3 humans, thus creating a “human centipede”. This movie holds nothing back as far as blood and violence go. There is some pretty good cinematography, and the leader actor who plays the crazy doctor is entertaining, but the plot is so fucking stupid none of that other shit matters. The acting from the 2 female leads is just awful. The last half of the movie is just them squealing and screaming for 40 minutes. And the ending is depressing as shit. This movie got a lot of obvious attention because of the crazy plot. I’m sure most of you who decide to check this out will be asking yourself; “why am I watching this”, halfway through the movie.

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