112 Altered States

Mark gives Matt enough rope to hang himself when Matt goes on a hippie-hating tangent in the guise of scientific credibility this week when we review the cult classic Altered States. What is consciousness? Does it matter when you're talking about insight into our own inner human experience? Maintaining its high for the first part of the film, AS descends into silly farcical horror the latter half, which is to not necessarily diminish its effect.

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111 Total Recall

Matt and Mark review the Verhoeven 1990 classic Total Recall starring Arnold Swarzenegger. Matt struggles to evoke the sense of sci-fi wonder in Mark when he becomes fixated on the notion of a Hilton hotel room on the planet Mars, complete with cheesy wall art. But despite this, Matt and Mark do thoroughly plumb the Phillip K Dickian notion of "what is real" and Total Recall's deft delivery thereof. Total Recall's true magic is its ability to literally spoil the plot for you 1/4 of the way in, yet keep you riveted until the very end.

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110 Closer

Matt and Mark try to get closer to Closer this week when we review the 2004 adaptation of the titular play. Like Mike Nichols other film The Graduate, this film examines the lives a self-involved privileged and generally unlikable people, daring its audience to take a stake in their relationships' outcomes. Is there a 'theme' here? Hard to say, but memorable well written scenes, this movie has many. So why do you like this movie? Perhaps you're a f*&%ing caveman!!!

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109 Lifeforce

Vampires in space! Oh the high concept! Matt and Mark find the thin blue/green/red/gray line of our mutual tastes with this week's review. While Matt picks at the film's contrived ideas and its poorly thought out feasibility, Mark gives Lifeforce a pass, enjoying the dry wit of the British characters and B-movie silliness. A movie that really should never have been made, Lifeforce, like many megaplex flops, is a film artifact, and for that reason, I/we suppose it is worth a watch.

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108 Predator

A simple twist on the "Most Dangerous Game", Predator extrapolates big game hunting into the interstellar. When compared with the chicken-shit style of hunting ala Dick Cheney's "fish in a barrel" Texas ranch shoot-your-friend-in-the-face or the deservedly maligned Melissa Bachman lets-blow-away-an-endangered-cat-because-I-can nonsense, the Predator plays fair, allowing its prey to shoot back. So when Ahneld asks the question "What da' hell ahr you?" and the Predator mimes back the question, the exchange is more poignant than it may seem.. 

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107 Alien

The Dan O'bannon-othon continues this week with the 1979 classic Star Beast (original title) aka Alien. Matt and Mark discuss at length Mr. O'banon's hand in making this film and his purity of vision compromised for better-or-worse by the deft hand of Ridley Scott (probably for the better). While the alien xenomorph is a beautiful monster designed by H.R. Giger, its ingenious biology was not as much a consequence of stylistic creativity than it was plot necessity, which may have worked even better.

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106 Blue Velvet

David Lynch's proto-Twin Peaks film Blue Velvet lays the groundwork for many of the quirks that define the film maker. A tale of curiosity, sex, trauma, and torture, Blue Velvet deals in darkness, but not in an exploratory way which many have criticized as giving the heavy subject matter short shrift. However, to take anything else out would be to leave the film bereft of its powerful imagery and atmosphere. Crack a Pabst Blue Ribbon you fucking fucks, and enjoy, because this... is... it!

Download:  106 Blue Velvet