How much do I hate myself for missing this? So much.

Did you catch In The Valley of Elah today? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

the knock-down, drag-out fist-fest between Keith David and Rowdy Roddy Piper in John Carpenter's "They Live!"

That's the movie South Park parodied, right?

"They Live" is indeed the film parodied in South Park. It is one hell of a movie.

Here's a point-by-point retrospective of David Cronenberg in advance of Eastern Promises - I forgot how many great films he's made

http://buzzfeed.com/buzz/Eastern_Promises

I can't help feeling a bit let down. No matter how good the film is, the fact remains that David Cronenberg is known for making some of the most stunningly original surreal dramas ever. Who could forget they insects and mugwumps of Naked Lunch? Or the literalizing of McLuhan's theories about technology affecting our evolution in Videodrome? Or the irreversible transformation from man into human fly in The Fly? Films that take place in a feasible reality are all right, but I crave that element of bold experimentalism! Really, I think if you put a man coming to terms with his violent past on one hand and a man being transformed by his television on the other, one of the two seems to have a greater inherent fascination; just go with your first instinct on this one. Which one is more unlike the general scope of what's out there? Go ahead and argue the point, but I'm sticking with the surreal science fiction piece. And Cronenberg was a master at it! If he stops making films in this vein, who will fill the void? I don't think there are many people who can. By the same token, if he abandons this new vein of stories taking place in a feasible reality, who will fill that void? I think that's a much easier void to fill.

Say what you like about it. I want my experimental cinema.

Nav: I almost went to "Valley of Elah" today because I heard from a friend that he considered it morally despicable (which is kind of how I feel about "Crash"), and I felt like seeing something to get my dander up. I've been seeing such an incredible run of good movies that I almost want to see something I can actively hate, just for a change. And if I'm likely to hate something, a movie directed and written by Paul Haggis would probably be at the top of the list.

Very very true, Raymond. Cronenberg is an excellent filmmaker, whatever he turns his hand to (you'd be hard-pressed to find two films more different than Videodrome and A History of Violence, but both are brilliant in their way)...
But his greatest strength, for me at least, is that when you watch one of his surrealist films, you really have no idea where it is going to go.
I'm slowly making my way through his movies, and unlike most films, I make it a point to know as little as possible going in. I am always rewarded.
I, too, am concerned for the genres in question. Good filmmakers are not, perhaps, a dime a dozen, but filmmakers with such strange and powerful imaginations as Cronenberg's are precious, precious hen's teeth. It would be a shame if his career tends in this current direction permanently.

Can't wait till this hits Europe. If the time stamp on this review is any guide, Jim has a time machine that I can borrow - can I? 8)

Saw Eastern Promises this weekend. I'm a huge Cronenberg fan and have been really looking forward to the new release (and new nothing about it going in, other than who the stars were). I enjoyed the film, but can't say I loved it. I have to admit that the story seemed so straight forward (for Cronenberg) that I've spent the last few days mulling it over and over again, trying to determine if there was a more metaphoric reading of the film that just wasn't soaking in. Especially after A History of Violence. That film seemed amazing straight forward as I left the theatre but a few days later I found myself defending it a friend who wasn't so into it. When I was describing my experience with the film I came to find that I was still discovering new layers that weren't even in my mind when I'd begun my defense of it just 60 second prior. I don't think there's a single Cronenberg film that didn't reward me more and more with successive viewings so I can't wait to give it another viewing when it arrives on DVD. I'm also hoping Jim will follow through on his promise to give us some more of his insights now that its in wide release. :)

I was a little let down by "Easter Promises", not because the fight scene wasn't amazing, because it was, and not that it wasn't brilliantly directed and acted. My problem was in the fact that the story was pretty surface deep. It wasn't until about half way through that I felt affected by anything that was going on, and by that point as a flinch reaction I had predicted everything that was going to happen in the second half, and beat for beat, it happened. To call a movie a thriller based on one scene is sincerely ridiculous, because aside from that, there was very little to make it thrilling.

Mortenson is one of the few actors that can say more with his body language than other actors can with dialogue. He's pretty amazing.