The Last Ten Movies We've Seen: Some Fairly Effed Up Films Here.....

Greetings to our blog readers in Croatia, Israel and India.......

"I Saw the Devil," a Korean revenge thriller shock horror is quite jolting at every level. It leads off the last ten films we've seen list here (Hot Stuff is used as the image for the film). We also saw Wes Anderson's brilliant 1998 film "Rushmore" with Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray for the first time since we saw it in a small movie theatre in Woodstock, Va., in early 1999. 

"World War Z" is pretty good for a big-budget summer zombies movie, "Miss Bala" is an unsettling drama about the drug war and its effect on Mexico (bottom image), and "All Fall Down," an early Warren Beatty drama with Eva Marie Saint.

Here is our last ten:

1. I Saw the Devil. South Korea. Jee-woom Kim. 2010.

2. Rushmore. Wes Anderson. 1998.

3. World War Z. Marc Foster. 2013. w/ Brad Pitt

4. The Professionals. Richard Brooks. 1965 w/ Lee Marvin

5. Miss Bala. Mexico. Gerardo Naranjo. 2011

6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Matt Reeves. 2014

7. All Fall Down. John Frankenheimer. 1962.

8. We Have a Pope. Italy. Nana Moretti. 2011.

9. Taxi Driver.  Martin Scorsese. 1976 w/ Robert DeNiro

10. The Andromeda Strain. Robert Wise. 1971

http://www.filmcomment.com

The Last Ten Flms We've Seen: A Film with a Talking Fish

"The Incredible Mister Lippet" is a rare Warner Brothers full-length animation film which resembles a movie. It stars the late Don Knotts, whom would later get stereo-typed for his long-running stint on "The Andy Griffith Show" as inept deputy Barney Fife, and it is about a man who turns into a fish and then helps America win sea battles with Nazi Germany!

The odd film actually has great animation for its time, and Billy Bob Thorton once told Terry Gross in a "Fresh Air" interview that 'Mister Lippet' was one of his favorite films as a child in Arkansas. The film also has Knotts playing a man with a Brooklyn accent!"

We are using a St. Louis Blues key-chain for one image as it resembles a New York Islanders key chain we once had.

Here are the last ten films we've seen; Internet Movie Database scores are on the right:

1. "The Incredible Mister Lippet" w/Don Knotts (top image) (1964. dir. Arthur Lubin) 6.4

2. "Alps" (Greece. 2011. dir. Giorgis Lonthios) 6.3

3. "Tomorrow" w/Robert Duvall (1972. dir. Joseph Anthony) 7.8

4. *"Morgan!: A Case for Treatment" " (UK. 1966. dir. Karel Reisz) 7.1

5. "The Valet" (center image) (France. 2006. dir. Francis Veber)

6. "Malena" (Italy. 2000. dir. Giuseppe Tornatore)

7. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014. dir. Wes Anderson)

8. "*American Hustle" (2013. dir. David O. Russell)

9.* "Punch-Drunk Love" w/Adam Sandler (bottom image) (2002. dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

10. "To Rome with Love" (2012. dir. Woody Allen)


http://www.imdb.com

Quote of the Day_ Sigmund Freud

We sense that we will not be getting blog hits from Spain or Portugal today, as those two countries are playing each other in the Euro Cup 2012 semi-finals in Ukraine. And, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), whom we will be quoting today, is not likely to be trending. In fact, according to Bing today, the following topics are trending: Syrian TV raid, Rainbow Oreos, Waldo Canyon fire (near Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Science girl ad.

But, we are quoting Freud because he is one of the figures who has a plush toy doll made in his honor from the American novelty company The Unemployed Philosophers Guild. We also saw a promotion for Freudian Slippers in a "Mental Floss" magazine catalog. We contemplated getting them for my sister Aysegul Denizli (that is not her real name, and our apologies to at least one person with that name in Turkey) in Salt Lake City, Utah (not where my sister lives), but we don't always have the same sense of humor. Although we both love Wes Anderson movies, alas his latest film "Moonrise Kingdom" has yet to open in my market as of today.

Here is Freud's quote:

"A certain amount of neurosis is of inestimable values as a drive, especially to a psychologist."

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.philosophersguild.com

http://www.freudfile.org

UPDATE: The answer to our Olympic Cities Distance Quiz from a few days back is B.

50 Beers From Around the World- Patricia (Uruguay)

There was a great line in the 1996 Wes Anderson film "Bottle Rocket," which I finally saw last night even though its Criterion edition is alas apparently out of print (my friend Moviezzz would know for certain, but I don't wish to pester him now because there may be another trivial matter I need to ask him later).

It was when Luke Wilson meet a very attractive Hispanic maid at the motel he was staying at:

"Which part of Mexico are you from?"

"Paraguay."

Paraguay and Uruguay frequently get mixed up, but Patricia Beer hails from Uruguay where the capital is Montevideo and there is actually a coastline (Paraguay is landlocked). Neither countries are a part of Mexico.

Alas, we couldn't find out much about Patricia Beer on the web at all, but we love the name!

SIDEBAR: Late, late, late notice, but we just found from the current issue of the Greensboro alt weekly "Yes Weekly" that the Great North Carolina Beer Festival is happening today in Clemmons, NC, right outside Winston-Salem.

The local brews that were to be sampled there included Foothills (Winston-Salem) and Natty Greene's (Greensboro). Other North Carolina brands featured at this year's festival were Craggie-Battery Hill and Highland Brewery (Asheville) and Olde Hickory (Hickory).