Movies You Might Have Missed that Fred Recommends
(and a STINKER from Alan)


The movie "Fishing with John" is profoundly funny. Here are a few reviews of the movie . Grab this on DVD for the voice-over by singer, songwriter, actor, musician John Lurie (the alternate soundtrack). There's a video of "Big Heart" performed by the Lounge Lizards as a bonus on the DVD. I liked it. This was recommended by the local video store. Remember when there were local video stores? I'd recommend buying the DVD for the extra commentary and the bonus video of "Big Heart".

Habit is a vampire tale for the 90's. I had no idea that it had received so much critical acclaim--this movie was recommended to me by one of the ladies at the local video store (independent, natch). Isn't that one of the great things about local stores (as opposed to BLOCKBUSTER)? You get to talk to people who really love their jobs, not to the cookie-cutter pimply teen at the national chain. Here's a review of Habit that I agree with. Grab this on DVD because the "director's commentary" soundtrack is very interesting.

Schizopolis is a great example of a brilliant director (Soderberg--think "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", or, "Kafka") turned loose to make his "indie flick". The link above used to be to an interview with Soderberg on the eve of the release of his movie. That link is gone, and I've replaced it with a link to a totally fictitious interview. Actually, the second link stopped working in 2002 and I replaced it with this link to the world socialist web site. Without getting too political, the fact that the world socialists take this movie seriously is ABSURD.

As far as the movie goes, though, it works for me. I really connected with this movie, which is a little frightening. My first impression was that it was a sort of "Waiting for Godot". Of course, it is nothing like "Waiting for Godot", except for the fact that the narrator, our hero, does a lot of waiting. I mean this in a "this is not a pipe" sense. The mocking of scientology (and/or EST and other mind-control cults) is thinly disguised and riotously funny (especially for anyone who's ever had to deal with one of the "robots" those cults produce). Soderberg opines that if they wrote a book about eventualism, they could sell it. Certainly! With the dumbass in the whitehouse and the congress reciting allegiance to a flag and to a fictional being there's no doubt in my mind that eventualism has its audience.

Check out The Minus Man . A slow-paced movie about a drifter who poisons folks. I don't know why, but the movie works. One thing that's said in the review I've linked to is that the director doesn't give you enough insight into the Minus Man's reasons for killing. I disagree. What's so frightening about the movie is that HE DOESN'T NEED A REASON. It's just the way he is. Some people dress up with cheeseheads and go to the coliseum. . . others poison folks. IMNSHO, the cheeseheads are harder to understand. I don't know how accurate the review's comments on the DVD quality are. All I know is it looked GREAT.

Zero Effect is Fred's fav private eye tale from the 90's. I even have a favorite line--when Zero and his attorney are sitting in the airport, talking on payphones (even though they're only ten feet from each other). Here's the IMDB URL since I couldn't find anything else quickly. This is another one I recommend that you watch on DVD because there is a "director's commentary" alternate soundtrack that I absolutely LOVED.

This review of WAX or, the Discovery of Television Among the Bees is so interesting that I'm going to have to watch it again! This is one of those "waking dream" sorts of movies. Do you know what I mean? It's the sort of movie where the lead character narrates a descent into a strange and wonderful alternate universe while you, the viewer, are passively pulled into the madness. In Fred's opinion, WAX largely succeeds where the vast majority of movies in the genre fail.

Now we're at the bitter part of Fred's movie reviews--hours of my life spent watching movies when I should have been doing something else. Dr. Nick Riviera has arrogated the title of "movie pundit" so he had undue influence on me when I thought creds meant jack shit. Here are a few real STINKERS from Alan:

Tetsuo: THE IRON MAN is the worst movie I've ever been tortured with. You actually cannot believe how bad this movie is. Take the worst movie made by your "artistic" friend, couple it with a soundtrack made by the headbangers down the street and you have "the iron man". Alan really laid an egg recommending this one.

Recently, QAZ came to Alan's rescue, pointing out that of the many many films seen during the missing years, we still mention "Iron Man". I guess he has a point. As a catalyst for a bonding experience based on hatred, this movie has a role.


INDEX to a few of Fred's pages