Puppy For Non-Religious Anti-Propaganda

Fact: I am pro-choice.

Now…

I’ve seen a sign twice, maybe it was the same deluded (or wanna-be-deluDING) woman both times, at rallies concerning abortion rights.

The sign says “Women For Religious Freedom”.

Which is a load of propagandic sh1t.

Plenty of Theists are pro-choice.

Plenty of Atheists are pro-life.

Those are facts.

To insinuate, quite blatantly, that atheism = pro-choice is absurd and misleading at best, an outright propagandic agenda at worst.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

100 Bloody Acres (2012)

It’s like One Brother Pizza, only with human compost.

It’s macabre and dark from the start, which goes quickly from cutesy song enjoyment to rather damaging corpse retrieval.

Stays pretty much “dark humor” until about 25 minutes in. BUT – and this is the point – it doesn’t throw that away when it gets gruesome (and it does get gruesome).

It’s got the usual “two psychos” problem: one of them just isn’t as psycho as the other.

Actually gets really clever/funny at one point where the poor sweetheart psycho gets offended by the horrible kidnapped vixen.

And there’s a touching conversation between tied-up girl and her tied-up-upside-down gagged boyfriend that explores some serious issues and has some really positive revelations.

Rather unique tug-of-war with an adorable doggie near the end; but then it pretty much runs out of steam/ideas.

Overall this is a pretty good watch for fans of ‘Tucker & Dale’ and the like.

Inspirational Quote: “All you want…is sex, and drugs, and a good time – it’s not right!”

Grade: C+

7/14/18: The Great Grade Update. Grade: B-

Phase 7 (2010)

Starts out fairly well with an oblivious couple as people panic around them, sort of ‘Shaun Of The Dead’-ish. The acting seems pretty decent, too…and for some reason I buy them as a couple pretty quickly.

At first the infection is just annoying to them, but things get slowly more tense, in a way that seems believable.

Then the couple’s neighbor, who happens to be a major survivalist and weirdo, takes an interest in the man for some reason and tries to “mentor” him.

The first really bad thing to happen comes as a BIT of a surprise.

It gets pretty dull after that…and stays at dull until near the end when the writer, apparently unable to think of a decent ending, inserts really dumb lines into the script that take the characters OUT OF character and introduce an ending conflict that makes no sense.

On Netflix Streaming until 7/2/14.

Grade: D-

7/14/18: The Great Grade Update. Grade: D

Raging Bull (1980)

Well…it’s better than ‘Taxi Driver’.

DeNiro’s performance is pretty good, especially as the later LaMotta in the intro and near the end.

Joe Pesci is pretty good as brother Joey, too. I like the walking scene with Pesci talking nicely with Batts – hahaha…funny. You know, just funny, it’s a funny scene…

The problem is the characters themselves and the script are, for most of the movie, either really fcken annoying or really boring.

Lotsa yelling and swearing in the beginning, not much else IMPO.

Then some really dull courting-the-blonde scenes:

LaMotta’s approach: “Hey. Hey. Ya like the car. Wanna go for a ride? Yeah. Hey. My house. Living room. Bedroom. Yeah. Hey, a kiss.”

Really…interesting.

Then there’s more yelling, swearing, bickering…with brief dull interludes.

Hey, what a surprise…Pesci’s character goes psycho and the Batts relationship doesn’t last. You can see that 15 years later (and a lot better) in ‘Goodfellas’.

The politics aspect is somewhat interesting but it takes a long time to get to that, and the last LaMotta/Robinson fight is interesting for the filming as well as for LaMotta’s refusal to go down.

I take back that Scorsese/DeNiro comment I made a long time ago. I prefer Burton/Depp.

On Netflix Streaming until 7/2/14.

Grade: D+

Same-Day Edit: No, it’s not better.  I guess the intimidation factor got to me…I mean, it’s supposed to be a CLASSIC.  But I think it’s pretty d@mn mediocre.  At best.  Grade: D

Gattaca (1997)

In a dystopian future where Randian elitists have apparently gained socially accepted control of the system, a person’s genetics are engineered/controlled before their birth to decide with virtual certainty how successful/respected/valued each person will be.

Of course it’s “voluntary” (unlike ‘Brave New World’) and not a guarantee…but it’s still fairly repugnant to me.

The main character is obsessed with joining the space program, and the story centers around his attempts to evade the system’s “safeguards” in order to do so. The part is acted well and his personal story is interesting.

His interactions with his “partner” are interesting as well.

Just when I think it’s getting stale, about to go downhill – it takes a great, moving, emotional upturn. I’m reminded vaguely of ‘The Truman Show”s ending; a monument to dedication, successful or not.

I’m also reminded (vaguely) of ‘Requiem For A Dream’ – only unlike ‘Requiem’, this collection of moments is positive…with a scene near the end that features Nightswimming that is beautiful, a starry night sky, and fade.

I actually smiled as the voiceover ended the movie.

I couldn’t help it.

Perhaps…PROBABLY…a very low B+. But I needed something both uplifting and real, and this is the first such surprise I’ve had in a long time.

On Netflix Streaming until 7/1/14.

Inspirational Quote: “This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back.”

Grade: B+

7/14/18: The Great Grade Update. F you, ‘Pulp Fiction’. How many movies has Quentin Tarantino caused to be infected by Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, or (as in this case) Uma freakin’ Thurman? Too many. What a drag. But it’s still moving/beautiful at times. Grade: B

Spaceballs (1987)

Dumb intro and a lot of really bad jokes.

Even worse than I remembered it, and I first saw it when I was 12 or 13. Even then I could tell it was sophomoric.

There’s a few…or a couple…good jokes, but mostly it’s tedious and stupid.

On Netflix Streaming until 7/1/14.

Inspirational Quote: “Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal!”

Grade: D-

The End. Part Two.

Hmmm.  My previous blog still seems to be hanging around.

I’d like to point out that I’m not posting anything new there, and that everything there is also here.  Plus new stuff.

But in the interest of accuracy, an update on the stagnant blog’s hits:

You have 1003061 Total Visits (As of 6/25/14)

Your blog gets 375.43 average post views per day (As of 6/25/14)

Also:

Final Post Count: 2245 Posts

And: (of 212,483 words).

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The original “Doomsday Machine”…Kubrick edging out Trek by a few years!

I don’t think this is great as either humor or drama.

Pretty good (and brave) satire, though, especially given the date of release.

It’s another one of those movies that I’d LOVE to love.

I do find it interesting and fairly clever. And I chuckled a few times as well. I even laughed once, actually.

One of the chuckles: Emergency-Issue ‘Holy Bible & Russian Phrases’.

My main draw is Sellers’ gradual meltdown as Dr. Strangelove.

Inspirational Quote: “The whole point of the doomsday machine…is LOST if you keep it a SECRET!”

On Netflix Streaming until 7/1/14.

Grade: C+

7/14/18: The Great Grade Update. Grade: B-

Taxi Driver (1976)

Wow. What a disappointment.

Here’s the good part: DeNiro and Foster act well.

Aside from that, it’s FCKEN ANNOYING horns and buildup for an hour and a half, then some fcked up sh1t happens, then a boring ending.

When DeNiro first appears with a mohawk, I dont find it scary, it find it…weird and a little silly.

Vastly overrated.

On Netflix Streaming Until 7/1/14 for the people that care.

Grade: D

More Brains! A Return To The Living Dead (2011)

Documentary about RotLD.

And ONLY RotLD. In a fairly normal, straightforward fact after fact/interview excerpt after interview excerpt manner.

So if you want all the info you could ever want about the movie, this is for you.

Otherwise it’s a boring waste of time.

I’ll watch the movie again. I’ll never watch this again.

Grade: D

Holdout (YouTube short zombie film, 2012)

Cool intro.

The budget problems are obvious, as are the acting limitations.

But there’s some interesting – and amusing – ideas, and the script isn’t all that bad considering it’s a $100 student film.

It’s got a bit of ‘Shaun Of The Dead’ to it, especially in a mirroring-the-thrown-records scene.

Of course it’s really rough and there are plenty of mistakes, obvious and subtle; but it’s an interesting watch for fans of the genre.

Grade: C+

Cargo (Zombie Short Film, 2013)

Available to watch on YouTube, here are the vitals:

Tropfest Australia 2013 Finalist, Directed by Ben Howling & Yolanda Ramke, Length: 00:07:03.

Now, the story…

Husband wakes up from a car crash to find his wife a zombie but his baby still alive and alright.

The film is basically the father’s quest to keep his child not only alive, but happy and well.

He does his best, and it’s fairly touching and also fairly sad…with a twist and ending that’s rather unique.

Not to diminish it, but it’s a lot easier to make an emotional moment/statement when you only have to sustain it for a few minutes as opposed to an hour and a half.

But that being said, this does that. Recommended to people that like zombie films with characters and character.

Grade: B-

Doc Of The Dead (2014)

This is three things:
1) A humorous, off-color look at zombies, zombie films, and zombie history.
2) A pretentious examination of same.
3) An informative/surprising presentation of interesting ideas and little bits and pieces I had never seen/read/heard before.

Best when it’s 1 or 3, obviously.  But 2 keeps raising its ugly head throughout, interrupting the amusement/entertainment and occasional thought-provocation with ridiculous nonsensical garbage.

Features a lot of major faces in the history of zombie movies.

There are probably first-sees for almost everyone in this; even rabid zombie fans.  And definitely lots of seen-it-many-times.

So overall it’s a mixed bag, but I’d say it’s worth a watch if you like zombie films of any kind (“serious”, parody, new angle, etc.)

Cool ending, too.

Fav musical bit: Barbra’s song

Inspirational Titles: “When There Are No More Ideas On Earth…The Dead Will Be In EVERYTHING…”

Inspirational Quote: “This is something that’s REAL to them…you know, WRESTLING is real to them.”

Grade: C+

7/14/18: The Great Grade Update. Grade: B-

Requiem For A Dream (2000)

Some of the attraction/interest is in the direction, which features a lot of quick cuts, alternate shots, and metaphors.

But that would mean next to nothing if the movie itself stunk – if the characters were unbelievable and/or the script was stupid.

Fortunately, neither of those is the case.

The story is basically about loss and (mostly) addiction, and how four different people deal with these things. There’s the mother, her son, his girlfriend, and his best friend. The addictions are mostly drug-based, but one (and the most interesting one, to me, because of the character) is not. There are more than a few scenes that show this clearly as being portrayed as the equivalent of drug addiction, and while they’re not brilliant metaphors, neither are they weak hit-you-over-the-head cliches.

For me, the story of the mother is by far the most compelling. With the son, the girlfriend, and the best friend, you don’t know EXACTLY what’s coming, but you’ve seen this road before (‘Drugstore Cowboy’ for one, parts of ‘Traffic’, etc…). It’s an especially bleak and well-portrayed road in this movie, but to me it lacks the force of the mother’s story.

The mother’s story is also so compelling to me because Ellen Burstyn delivers the best performance of any of the actors, and her character is the only one of the four who truly doesn’t REALLY know that she’s getting into a dangerous spiral until it’s too late…all the others are in touch enough to realize the risks they’re taking, the danger they’re putting themselves in…at least to a certain extent.

In summation, the mother’s story – told as it is visually, acted as it is believably and emotionally – is the draw here. The three others aren’t bad, but none of them can match the power…the disturbing and moving sadness…of hers.

Good (and appropriate) music, too.

Near the end the cuts speed up and take over, and the entire movie takes on a completely hopeless air – musically, visually, and emotionally.

I found myself a bit drained by this, and disturbed…so if you don’t want either of those I wouldn’t recommend watching it. But to me, it was worth it for the very real emotional impact.

Grade: B-

8/29/16: Never never never…throw chips at a driver. Grade: B

7/14/18: The Great Grade Update. Good, already updated. Grade: B

Almost Forgotten

Bri said: 3/14/2012 12:59:02 AM (GMT)

Awesome site! I love the puppy and LOLcat pictures! Your reviews are very useful! Just wanted to say hi!

stacy said: 9/12/2011 11:05:37 PM (GMT)

nice work, lets do this! 🙂 Stacy

Puppy said: 1/15/2011 2:12:35 AM (GMT)

If Puppy’s favorite Pixies song = “Rock Music”, and Puppy = Great, then “Rock Music” = Great. Yay! 🙂

Bunny said: 11/11/2010 5:42:14 AM (GMT)

You Rock!

God said: 10/17/2010 3:29:05 AM (GMT)

You sir, are going to Hell.

Pupdate – 6/23/14 – The Shortening Of The Long-Enduring Blog Name

Yeah, it’s a post. 

(From DaPuppy.com)

If you come here and then click on “Puppy’s Blog”, please continue to do so.

If you just type in the blog name, it is changing

FROM:  puppyness.dapuppy.com

TO: puppy.dapuppy.com

ON: 6/25/14

See you there. (here.)

-Puppy >.< Yip!

In Stereo! – Last Post Before 6/25/14

Blog Change – What It Means To You

 

Nothing.

Basically, just come to dapuppy.com as per usual, click on the blog link, and:

Now until 6/25/14: It will take you here.

6/25/14 on: It will take you to the new blog format, which will contain all the posts here and all continuing posts from then on.  And it looks really spiffy, too!

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Same-Day Edit: No new posts will be made until the 25th, to avoid confusion and to allow a small buildup of material.  This will serve as my last post here…on the 25th, feel free to check my blog, when it will direct you to the new format, and I will begin posting again in Frank.  Thank you.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

The Poor Reasons

Ok, so there’s this movie ‘Jersey Boys’, about a pretty good pop group from the 60’s.

Why?

I mean, it must be for the uniqueness.  Only about 10,000 other groups have ever made it to the big stage after people didn’t think they would.

And they weren’t even all THAT popular.  I mean…The Beatles, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Led Zep…I could understand all of those.  But The Four Seasons???  Wow…talk about lowering the bar.

My favorite part of the gripping ad for it is Chris Walken telling the singer “wait til people hear your voice”…or something similar.  They’re not important enough to verify the quote.

I’d rather have him with sunglasses on telling them they had, what seems to him to be, a DYNAMITE sound.  Cuz coming from him, that would mean a lot.

In 30-40 years, will we see Chris (if he’s still alive) riding in a limo with an actor playing Peter Steele?  “I tell ya, Peter – you’re gonna wanna keep that VAMPIRE voice, in the songs…”

So relatively inconsequential to contemporaries it’s laughable; my example, and this movie.

And don’t give me the “hugely popular” and “one of the highest-selling…” cr@p reasons.  They weren’t as popular, nor did they sell as many records, as ABBA.  And I don’t think we need a movie about A B B and A.  Please…don’t.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

Goodbye Everyone

Pending some unforeseen actual help from GD in transferring my blog without getting carpal tunnel syndrome, this blog will disappear on 6/25/14.

Oh, I’ll have all the posts…but they won’t be here.

Doesn’t help you much, does it?

Basically on the 25th this blog will vanish and I will cancel all GD products.

Have fun!  And F GD.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

6/19/14: Pupdate – I will risk carpal tunnel syndrome.  Oh, the Humanity.

Four Years Of Blog Posts On GoDaddy – Set To Be Deleted On 6/25/14

My website, dapuppy.com, has over 2200 posts made over almost a four year period.  I just discovered that GoDaddy plans on cancelling my current blog format.  I was told by a phone rep that the best I could do, even switching to the new blog format, was to “start from scratch”.  I honestly don’t know how to express how I feel about this.  Everything I worked on for four years is going to be just wiped out, and there’s nothing I can do about it?  Could I get some sort of reasonable explanation for this?  Is anyone else outraged by this?

6/19/14: Explanation received, as well as solution.  I’m still a bit upset that I didn’t receive a notice that I was told was sent out several months ago, but oh well.  Life goes on…here to stay.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents – Episode 78 (The Dangerous People)

“…two men on the same train succumb…and finger each other…”

I like my version better than NF Streaming’s.

As for the episode, it’s pretty good…lots of extreme paranoia, cause and effect.  And lots of voiceovers.

Nice ironic ending, too.  Worthy of a spot as a relatively “normal” quality TZ episode, even.

Escape (2012)

An action/drama set in Medieval Times, with the emphasis on characters over action.  That is to say, on actionS and dialogue about/between characters instead of “action scenes”.

I had no idea it was going to be set in Medieval Norway, I thought it was going to be modern.  My hopes sank a bit when I realized my mistake, as I feared it would be some overwrought Medieval-esque cr@p or some horribly acted ‘Deathstalker’ fluff-and-cheeze.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, when it turned out to be a decent film.

Basically a bunch of bandits kill a girl’s family and take her hostage,
with the leader (and mother of a littler girl) intending to have
her men rape her to conceive a “little sister” for her daughter.  Her daughter is meant to learn how to be “strong”, but in fact is a naturally decent person (the only one of the group, excepting the
kidnapped) and learns from her mother what NOT to be.

Positives: The relationship between the two young heroines is convincing and sweet, the obviously well-intentioned nature of the film, a decent character the girls run into who tells a story that somewhat explains the mother’s cold nature, mostly interesting and occasionally compelling overall, pretty scenery, and being reminded of ‘Braveheart’ for some reason.

Negatives: A few obvious lapses in the quality of the dialogue and the acting, absurdly horrid bandit watch duty, and breaking my suspension of disbelief near the end when things go beyond “extremely lucky” to “No way in Hell pure fiction – even for a fiction”.

Grade: C

7/14/18: The Great Grade Update. Grade: C+

Jug Face (2013)

A bunch of backwoods lunatics worship a big hole in the ground.

Interesting intro…I like the riff, even if it’s borrowed.  And I like the tone in the beginning – it seems “real” enough, it’s buyable.

But it slowly moves from the initial creepy vibe to a mostly obvious-and-silly vibe.  It becomes a chore to watch before all that long, and not even an angry pit can stave off the tedium.  Sure it’s gross…but it’s dull, tedious, pointless gross.

The pit (or something in it) really has powers, too, made vaguely clear by close camera zooms and fake blood and guts.

The effects are mediocre, and the limited interaction with them is below mediocre…it’s cheezy.

Two closing points, which are both more interesting than the movie and the rest of this review:

1) One of the main hick lunatics sorta looks like a really grungy, hairy Will Ferrell.

2) Executive Producer Lucky McKee, apparently not content to simply make his own bad-to-mediocre horror flicks, here nurtures another mediocre horror filmmaker.

Grade: D-

French And Saunders – A Ponderance

Until I actually went ahead and REVIEWED F+S, I thought the show was pretty funny.  Because that’s how I remembered it.

But I think, given the some hits/many misses nature of the show, that my memory of F+S was in fact a composite of my memory of ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ (which was quite good at times – Saunders), ‘Murder Most Horrid’ (ditto – French), and the F+S theme song (which is a catchy little ditty).

Also, ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’ is so pleasantly inoffensive and cute – if not very funny – that it makes it difficult to have a really “negative” view of ANYTHING French.

Dawn French, that is; who is by nature adorable.  Plus ROWR…but that’s beside the point.

-Puppy >.< Yip!

World War Z: Unrated Version (2013)

The difference is 6 minutes between this and the rated one, so I figured I’d watch the longer one since there was no way in Hell I was watching both.

The fairly quick introduction of the chaos after a brief, life-is-good opening is pretty disturbing and believable; it builds quickly layer after more unusual layer while Pitt and family are stuck in a traffic jam.

The intro of the infected (they’re ’28 Days Later’ types; the only thing “zombie” about them is how they’re mentioned) is believable, capturing with major help from a big budget the actual chaos of a city suddenly struck by infection/panic, as opposed to just the aftermath.  So it’s got that going for “new” genre ideas, and it’s pretty scary to see how enraged these things are…

The acting is pretty good, i think…teamed up with the budget it makes for a pretty d@mn scary start…20 minutes or so of mostly believable mass chaos; not a dollar wasted if you’re up for that sort of thing.

The tenacity of the infected is terrifying and amazing – watch them do their best lemmings impression as they try to catch a helicopter if you don’t believe me.  They believe they can FLY…they believe they can…so on, so on.

After the shock of the initial huge-scale portrayal, it does sort of calm down a bit…briefly.  And it’s in the calm moments (few though they are) that the movie is weakest: this is best watched as a thriller and a horror flick.  As a drama, it leaves a bit to be desired.

Infected effects are impressive, and the makeup is quite convincing.

The mass massive-wall-climb (and what follows) is impressive, too…probably the signature image of the film.

On a negative note, the infected plane scenario seems UNBELIEVABLY implausible, considering the VERY well established behavior pattern of infected up to that point (you’ll know when you see it, I think).

There are a few interesting defense/offense ideas vs. zombies/infected presented, and a somewhat-original possible solution proposed and attempted near the end.

The ending is a bit disappointing and generic, unfortunately, but if you like thrillers this movie generally delivers.

Recommended strongly to zombie/infected fans, not because it’s GREAT but because it’s better than most of the sh1t you’re used to. How do I know that?  I’ve seen most of the sh1t you’re used to.

Grade: B