My Countdown to 1000

975. I finally closed out the Lynch (feature) filmography with The Elephant Man. I was expecting a non-Lynch, like Straight Story and, to a lesser extent, Dune. I was pleasantly surprised by the Lynchian elements and the story itself. There's some beautiful moments in the movie. It feels a little hollow at times, but I really enjoyed it.

976. I watched this primarily because I heard it was a minor influence on Mystery Science Theater 3,000. A guy in a jumpsuit, alone on a spaceship with a couple robots, I yeah definitely see it.

Wasn't crazy about this one. I did enjoy how insanely '70s it is. I enjoyed the ridiculous Joan Baez songs ironically, because I hate Joan Baez songs. Bruce Dern's character is a little too crazy and the movie wants us to see him as a hero. It didn't really work for me. Great miniature work though.

977. Loved this movie! This is what I look for it a movie. Crazy visuals, beautiful cinematography, madness.

It's a movie that only gets described by comparing it with other movies and directors. Names that get thrown around: Kubrick, Lynch, Jodorowsky, Cronenberg, Tarkovsky, 2001, Clockwork Orange.

It's pretty divisive. There's no plot. Nothing is explained really. It's extremely slow to start. The ending is weak. But I don't care. There needs to be more psychedelic, mindfuck sci-fi movies. The middle sequence is one of the greatest I've ever seen in film.

978. Watched in a class. A classic B-movie. It takes the woman about 3/5ths of the movie to become 50 feet tall and she doesn't attack until the last 10 minutes or so. Terribly paced and written. Nothing is paid off.

The worst part is it's not even that riffable. There's some material there, but overall it's kind of a dud.

979. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one yet. It's a message movie, which is fine, but it should have either been more focused (it's extremely heavy-handed and Walker's character changes on a dime) or more outlandish all the way through.

Still, Ed Harris does nicely, Joe Strummer does the score and there is some nice craziness.

980. The first Hannibal Lecter (or Lecktor, i guess). Folks like to flip their lids about how much better than Red Dragon this one is, so I figured I had to scope it.

You know what? They're both perfectly good movies. I don't think either has the advantage. Both of them do their own things nicely. Manhunter does have an awesome scene where a guy kills a bunch of people while In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida plays...but Red Dragon has a scene where a dude eats a painting.

It's a push!

981. Man, was I disappointed in this one. I borrowed it and three other movies from my sci-fi professor to watch over spring break. I'm glad I just borrowed it because I slightly pushed for us to watch it in class.

It's an anthology movie, which is always risky. There's three stories, all based on Ray Bradbury short stories and they're all pretty weak. I was never engaged in any of them. What did work pretty well was the framing of the movie: a young man is hoboing it to California when he comes across Rod Steiger, all covered in tattoos. Steiger is hammy, but there's moments in the beginning when he's genuinely terrifying as a weird, old man.