Posts tagged with Film Commentary

Balls Out: Great Naked Manfights of Cinematic History


posted by stokes on June 4th, 2008

Posted in: movies
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Male nudity is one of the last great taboos in movieland. Oh sure, female nudity still raises eyebrows, but people think of The Piano as A) a surreal anti-patriarchal love story, and B) “that film where you see Harvey Keitel naked - like, NAKED naked,” never mind about Holly Hunter. Yes, there’s something about the on-screen penis (the onscreenis, if you will), that our culture can’t process. It’s not an event that happens in a movie, it’s an event in its own right.

And that’s even more true when the nudity is combined with violence. Read on for a survey of cinema’s greatest Naked Manfights.

Warning: Spoilers ahead, natch.

Warning 2: While I haven’t included any images that you couldn’t broadcast on NYPD Blue, it miiiight be best to read this one on your home computer.

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Posted in movies | 5 Comments »

A Farewell to Horror: Lair of the White Worm


posted by stokes on May 25th, 2008

Posted in: magazine, movies
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Devout followers of this blog will have noticed that I have had horror on the brain over the past few months. (To those of you who scare easily, I apologize.) I’ve been taking a class on horror movies, so I was watching a bunch of them, and hey: you’ve got to write about something. Well, the class is over now. I’m not saying you’ll never see another horror post from me, but they’ll probably be few and far between. Before I bid farewell to the genre, though, I want to share one more movie with you all. Ken Russell’s Lair of the White Worm.

As with everything I write about movies, there are spoilers ahead. And if you have even the slightest intention of ever watching this movie - which you TOTALLY SHOULD - please stop reading right now. Lair of the White Worm is so weird, so gleefully bonkers, that a full %70 of my enjoyment of the film came from the surprise factor; from the “Oh my god did that just really HAPPEN?! Am I WATCHING this?” aspect of the experience. And I wouldn’t want to ruin that for you. But if you are never going to watch it anyway - and I’ve got to imagine that applies to most of you - then by all means read on. Note: some images below the jump could be classified as NSFW. Not in the way we usually think about these things, but still… it’s a hard R, you know?

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Posted in magazine, movies | 6 Comments »

I bear the weapon Excalibur!


posted by stokes on January 30th, 2008

Posted in: movies, music
Tags: , , ,

I just got through watching John Boorman’s 1981 film Excalibur (thank you Netflix). What a weird-ass movie. Not least because you get to see young Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart (already bald), Gabriel Byrne, and Ciaran Hinds, most of whom were cast, according to IMDB, because Boorman wanted relative unknowns, so that people would focus on the movie instead of the actors. It probably worked well at the time, but it’s pretty hard for me to think anything other than “That’s academy-award-winner Helen Mirren wearing a sheet-metal bra! Patrick Stewart TOTALLY just hit that guy with an ax!” and so on. Video after the jump… more »

Posted in movies, music | 2 Comments »

There Will Be Overthinking It


posted by stokes on January 22nd, 2008

Posted in: movies
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Just saw There Will Be Blood yesterday, and it’s all that I’m going to be thinking about for a while, so here goes. Warning: this is commentary, not a review. Reviews are supposed to help you decide whether to see a movie, and have an obligation to avoid spoilers. If you’re looking for a review, here it is: go see the damn movie as soon as you possibly can. Then come back and read the spoileriffic ramblings after the jump. more »

Posted in movies | 4 Comments »