#61 Lady Vengeance

Okay, well if you're going to have a violent antihero protagonist, at least do it right.

I'm sorry but the Kill Bill comparison is unavoidable. I want a signed release form saying each director was unaware of each other's movie so both can remain untainted in my mind. Not that I'm not aware of Tarantino's borrowings, but dammit, at least he picks good sources.

The set design in this movie is just stunning. Her bedroom when she leaves prison

So yes, like The Bride (or maybe the Bride is like Lady Vengeance. I refuse to consider any timelines), Lee Geum-ja is out for revenge. She has been framed for murder by a man who has taken her child away from her and sent to prison for 13 years for a crime he committed. And he will pay.

But instead of relying on assassin and martial arts skills, she gets to him with careful planning, a network of friends that she made on the inside, and an ornate antique pistol that she will not hesitate to use.

Along the way there's the usual noir touches, as the bright beginning slowly gets all the color bleached out of it until the end is faded colors and black and white. Cigarettes in bed, a naive young and loyal lover for the ex-con, decaying abandoned buildings, a disenchanted homicide cop that knows there's more to the case, an innocent child representing the life that the heroine could have had, and a villain that's so black-hearted that you don't doubt for a second that he has ruined her life and couldn't care less about it.

The villain's my only complaint actually. I'm still not sure what I think about plot twist at the end, but let's just say it complicates the idea of him getting a hot load of lead vengeance blown out the back of his head even less. Is it now even to the point that it's cliche to humanize the villain a little? Make the wronged hero a little bit in the gray area? Is it now avante garde for him to be even worse than you thought, and have no mitigating circumstances behind his crime against the hero but that he's dyed in the wool evil? I don't know but at least they do some interesting things with it after that.

I'm seriously going to have to watch a lot of Korean movies. Between this, The Host, The Good, The Bad the Weird, A Bittersweet Life...and the good things I've heard about all those directors' other films, there are a lot of beautiful visuals and fantastic storytelling coming out of that country's film industry.

#60 Son of Rambow

Spe-heaking of glorified violence in movies, here's a sweet British tale about a child from a strict religious family whose first exposure to pop culture comes from watching a bully's bootleg tape of Rambo: First Blood. Of course his reaction is to start wearing his tie around his head and volunteer to be the stunt double in the boy's action movie.

It's the director of Hitchhiker's Guide, and you can see some of the same imagination in this one as the two children, the sheltered Will and the neglected and abrasive Lee start making their action movie with a home video recorder. It's cute as hell, and it did feel true to the period it was homaging, the 80s, in the attitude towards these children's misbehaviors. I miss 80s movies, though I know it's just nostalgia. I like how these kids played like William Tell with a crossbow, and no one batted an eye, you could never do that in a kids' movie now!

Though, I think this is more meant for children of the 80s than for today's children to learn about the 80s. It gets a little heavy-handed towards the end. But hey, it's still darn cute.

#59 Armored

I'm not claiming it's art or anything. I watched it for two reasons. I wanted to get some screen grabs for my comic of an armored car. And I was bored.

But as B Movies go, at least this one's trying to be Assault on Precinct 13 era Carpenter instead of Michael Bay or Uwe Boll or something. I'd heard of it in any case because the director is this Hungarian guy who has also done the Predators remake, but I knew him from when my roommate rented Kontrol, this really great Hungarian movie about being a subway fare cop, and thus loathed by most of society. It's kind of like Clerks in Hungarian, but you know, with some great visual sense and some really graphic and chilling scenes of people getting run over by subway trains that still make me look over my shoulder and stand away from the platform edge sometimes.

But anyway, I saw one of his American offerings - Armored.

I just keep going back to the 70s in it. In the best of ways, it does feel like it could have been filmed back then. Stock characters saying cliche class warfare type junk, but over some very well-plotted suspense.

Even the fact that getting signals on the cell phone is drama makes it almost feel like it could have been a forgotten script that someone found in Don Siegel's closet, and someone just threw the cellphone reference in there to update it to modern times, but still keep the hapless would-be criminals out of communication with the outside world while they attempt their misdeeds.

It has a really equilibrium when it comes to the violent actions taken by the crew when they realize that the heist they're attempting has gone way off the rails. The violence isn't glorified. No slo-mo, no minor keys score, no attempts to pretend it has solved anything, but has only created more problems. Nor is it casual and thoughtless. It happens all too easily, but still keeps its weight.

And halfway decent cast: Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich, that guy with the bangs from Heroes, Fred Ward, Jean Reno. All that for roles that mostly consist of a dimension and half, a motivation and a reaction shot? In fact, the ostensible lead is a guy I didn't even recognize, and you surround him with those guys. Interesting call.

Anyway, good for what it was. And sadly, that does mean something these days of Gerard Butler being an action star. Yech.

#58 Poltergeist

Oh my god, I forgot I'd watched this on Watch Instantly. One of those classic 80s horror bits I'd never gotten around to.

Seriously? This was PG? Man, I missed out not being a kid in the 80s. It's ridiculously scary, and just imagining watching this as a kid, when the whole movie is based around putting the children in danger and the parents just feeling terror about it, it just hits you on this primal level.

Plus, the parents smoking pot and getting giggly, but before and after that just being part of the picture of an all-American family until Satan shows up? Can you imagine that in a PG movie now, when the whole rest of the movie is all about family values doing battle with underworld threats? That shoulda made Reagan's head spin around and explode or something.

And the effects? I gotta say, and it pains me to do so, I hope the Ghostbusters team threw some props these guys' way, because when the Poltergeist starts showing his face, it's scary as hell.

Great movie, and darn scary.

#57 Flying Dog Garde Dog

Ah fuck, I knew I should have read the label more closely. It's a wheat beer, or hefeweisen or something fruity and dry like that. Oh wait, label says French Farmhouse Ale. Guess I have a new genre of beer to say good bye to.

Oh well, at least it's cold.

#56 A Film with Me In It

I'm not the only one to make the comparison but sort of like Withnail and I...if it had some gruesome plot twists.

The Withnail stand-in being Dylan Moran in his typical charming drunk character. Seriously, I can no longer remember a time when I thought of him as that uptight guy from Shaun of the Dead.

The And I stand-in being the guy who wrote the movie, Mark Doherty, playing a failed actor, but talented clarinetist.

They're neighbors in a Dublin flat, have a sketchy and unpleasant landlord, and varying degrees of problems with their apartments. It all seems to be heading towards a flick about wannabe artists with Peter Pan syndrome living on the edges of society and then well, it takes a sharp left into surreally improbable gory accident territory.

Worth seeing, if you're an Anglophile with a morbid sense of humor...or whatever the equivalent is for the Irish...Eirophile? I dunno.

Way better than his cohort Pegg's attempt at the crime-gone-wrong movie I went on about earlier. Yech.

#55 Terribly Happy

Danish crime movie. It kept on popping up in reccommended for me, and then the Science...sort of guys had reviewed the trailer and said that it looked Coen-Bros esque, so I thought I'd give it a try.

It's not really Coen-bros esque, but it does have some interesting plot twists throughout, and it's tense as hell. Plus, who doesn't love a story that starts off with the good ol' "Once upon a time, an outside lawman came to a small town that seemed quiet. Too quiet."

Because there's always some dirty secrets under there, and a couple of bad decisions and naive falls to temptation later, and the outside lawman winds up pretty dirty himself. And that's all she wrote. Even if it's in Danish.

Plus, talking cats and inappropriate drinking contests when you least expect them. It's a pleasant use of an afternoon

#54 Party Down

Ah, from uplifting to depressing. Last weekend watched a marathon of this because I had an afternoon after that was treating me pretty darn raw, and though it is definitely funny, it might not be the right kind, considering the overall mood of it is rather depressing.

Trust Rob Thomas, when his once intelligent, original and whip-sharp detective series (if you look past the sins of Season Three: aka The Shrewing of Veronica and the Neutering of Logan) fails to come back with a meticulously observed comedy about taking demeaning jobs when the Hollywood Dream fails you.

It's more in the Arrested Development vein. The comedy of awkward, off-the wall characters interacting with normal, and somewhat miserable folk, stand-ins for the audience. Also no laugh track.

But there's smartness in the mix. For some reason, I just marvel at how accurate Roman is. I've definitely met a few of those in my time. Perpetually angry, withdrawn, their lack of success not a symptom of anything wrong with them, but because everyone else is stupid. Nevermind they don't take criticism, or even show their work to anyone for feedback. I love the episode where the Goot, Steve Guttenburg has them do a reading of their stuff, and once it improves after feedback, he's just sitting there stunned. "Rewriting? How come I've never thought of that.

And you got your bruised and sympathetic everyman, had talent, but did that one commercial and now he can't get work because he's THAT GUY, so he has to fall back on catering. And of course, the sarcastic, sassy, intelligent and emotionally unavailable lady he falls for.

Plus Vinnie Van Lowe and Dick Casablancas, and a healthy smorgasboard of guest stars? Hell yeah.

#53 Daytrippers

Graphic novel...I think, I could be wrong, it could be a collection of issues, but it was clearly meant to be read all at once.

But it's about a man, and each issue tells a different story of a way he died. Whether it be childhood accident, a brush with random violence, or another ten or so things, you get a window into Bras de Olivia Domingos's life, what he thinks of his own and of life in general, and then it's over, and what he has done and who he has touched, is summed up in a few paragraphs of obituary, the common thread being that Bras for most of the stories, is a writer of obituaries.

At first I just thought, okay, cool gimmick, but the more I read of it, and the more I think of it afterwards, it really was a very affecting work. The point being, is that maybe you don't need to do anything grand to be remembered, for most people, it's just enough to be remembered well by the people that mattered to you.

Because in the end, though you spend your whole life writing your own story (and how easy it is to forget that for the most part, it is you behind the wheel), it's in other people's stories of you, that you continue once you can no longer write your own.

Good though, glad it got recommended to me at the comic shop because this is the type of thing that I'd never think to pick up on my own.

#52 St. Peter's Old Style Porter

Umm, I was feelin' down so a big ol' bottle of expensive beer seemed in order. I was not disappointed. Rich. Delicious. Yum.

#51 Monk

Thrift store in Williamsburg. Never stepped foot inside. Great selection. Sane prices. PLUS, unlike "we're assuming you're vegan and anorexic" Beacon's Closet, they put their sizes on the hangers. Serious? That must be so difficult.

Must go back.

#50 Big Nothing

It has Simon Pegg in it. It's a dark comedy. With crime even! And Local H at the start! How can this lose?

Oh it does, utterly.

How much of a miscast is this? The protagonist, who you're supposed to like and feel bad for, and identify with? David Schwimmer. Seriously.

The skeezy con-man whose kind of pathetic, and oh yes, AMERICAN? Simon Pegg.

Wrong.Wrong.Wrong.

Man, I love aimlessly fatal yet funny bleak crime-gone-wrong movies more than the next girl but this one just kind of kept on throwing more characters, gags, and "surprises" that one would think that the odds would mean that at least ONE would have to be good.

No dice.

Blech. Glad it was Watch Instantly.

#49 Brouwerij Lane

How have I not gone here before? It's right on beer o'clock corner. I guess probably because it closes at 10.

Half-servings for three, full half-liters for $5 or $6 of anything your heart desires from about two dozen different kinds of beer. On draft. Fresh. With a couple of coolers of to-go bottles and cans of more micro or international brews.

Yum. Unfortunately I don't remember the names of the two beers I had or the one I had the week after. Those are going uncredited, but they were delicious.

#48 Cutting off all my hair.

It was terrifying. The shortest I've ever gone is shoulder length. This is a good inch or two above that.

Haircut like this. Everyone notices. Everyone comments. And while I was still getting used to it, I was terrified they were all just being nice because it's too obvious not to comment, and if you comment, of course it has to be a compliment unless you're trying to be a total asshole.

But now? I'm used to it. It's downright liberating. No styling. No feeling like I'm wasting this hair that I've been growing for years by either wearing it down and praying it doesn't tangle, or just putting it away in a shabby ponytail.

Also, it's so thick and fluffy.

I could see keeping this up. Not a bad idea, even though I did feel pressured into it at the time. Guess it was a good call.

Scary that I can't hide behind my hair anymore though, but that's getting to feel freeing.

#47 Justified

And if we're keepin on keepin on with Old West, might as well move forward a bit, and watch more Timothy Olyphant, still in a cowboy hat, but this time in modern-day Kentucky.

I'd been itchin' to watch this on account of its association with Elmore Leonard, but figured they'd just slapped his name on this and then taken some liberties. Not so!

I'm a huge fan of the guy in part because of his dialogue, and that translates so fully to this TV series. Seems only natural that the guy that started out Westerns then moved to crime could be used as source material for a series that combines the two.

Only three episodes in and I hear it just gets better.

#46 Deadwood

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

#45 Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

Really not sure what took me so long? Maybe the certainty that I'd like it. And the shame that comes with it. I know, I know, I'm late to the party by darn near 20 years.

But god I love Bruce Campbell's sincere B-list cheesiness. And this show suits him perfectly. Nobody is more equally hilarious when thrown out a window, or when hitting on a woman, than Bruce.

It's got an almost Back to the Future, old-fashioned rollicking adventure, with an undercurrent of optimism. But with these strange, winking touches that remind me of the Tick.

Second disc was less enthralling than the first, so I'll be giving it a break for a bit, but the next time I really need something dumb and fun, I'll move it up in the queue.

#44 Peak Organic Simcoe Spring Ale

Refreshing, but with hoppy smoky taste to it.

Little early for it though UN-Fortunately.

#43 Harpoon Celtic Ale

Dry. Spicy. Rather like it.

#42 Brooklyn Blast

8%

A real strong, almost fruity tasting light ale.

Yum.

#41 Hop Devil

Shit, it's a slap in the face with hops. It burns but good. Still haven't found that Pale ale that'll turn my fancy from stouts and porters though

#40 Touchez pas au grisbi

Meh. I was expecting Rififi and this ain't it. Still pretty entertaining. Touches on all the proper noir crimes and consequences. But not in the league of the best noir I've seen.

#39 Luna Park

Lyrical...sad. The art is great too, just my cup of tea, and it's combining the tragic vengeful betraying grandeur that is Russian history with sad-faced dirty clown that is Coney Island. Sign me right up. Get it.

#38 Anchor Bock

Well, after all, Anchor has yet to steer me wrong, and their porter just became my new go-to if I don't want to eff around and just want a porter I KNOW will be awesome.

Their bock doesn't disappoint. Malty, sweet, kinda nutty almost, with chocolate hints.

Is it actually a sign of distinction that I like stouts and porters, or does it mean I'm a sucker for sweet things. Like I want the milkshake equivalent or sugary equivalent of beer. Am I having a frappucino instead of black coffee? But with beer.

I'd like to think not.

#37 Naburo Brown Ale

Can't believe it's an ale and not a porter.

Port her? I hardly know her.

#36 Hud

So they tried to make Paul Newman an asshole. A valiant effort. But the bastard's still likeable, and I guess that's sort of the point. Sometimes a rotten way of living looks plenty good from the outside.

Also Patricia Neal was excellent in it. I feel like I've seen her in something else, but it's not coming to me. Roald Dahl's wife according to wikipedia, damnnnn really? Neat.

#35 Mezcal

See the aforementioned three beers. Then I moved to Mezcal when there was a large gathering at my house. Had about two and a half shots of that. Jumped around in the snow. And the next day, not a whiff of a hangover.

I think it's magic. And magic tastes good.

#34 Anchor Porter

Ladies and gentleman, I've found another go-to. Shit that's damn near anything I could want in a beer. Creamy smooth, and a higher than normal alcohol content.

#33 Hop Back Amber

Hoo! That hop ain't referring to no bunny. It's smooth to be certain, then those hops kick in at the back of your throat, give you a little prickle.

#32 Flying Dog Pale Ale

Smoky, Tangy, Strong. Still haven't gotten on my hands on the Gonzo Imperial, but the Steadman/Thompson affiliated brewery hasn't let me down yet.

Glad I got the one, it's not much on the drinkability. I couldn't down these, but they've gone with well with Spaced, some Reese's and true to the name, they've provided some much needed hair of the dog.

#31 Vincent Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka.

"You never tried it? I'm buying you a shot."

I have trained my associates well.

One sufficed. Though I think it may have been a double. See friendly bartender at #30.

This...well it sure ain't Kahlua, though it would be aces in a White Russian. It made me even more ashamed of the plastic bottle of coffee liqueur that me and my roommate had on top of our fridge in Allston, because this stuff was quality, it had real coffee flavor and was actual vodka underneath.

Yurm.

#30 Brandy's Piano Bar

If I'm on the Upper East Side, this is more my speed. Quiet except for conversation, and the promise of piano that never quite delivered while we were still there, but I bet it was a doozy. You know that fifteen years ago, it was full of cigarette smoke. Now it's an expensive but cute place for a cocktail or two. I encourage my friend to become a regular there. Friendly bartender. Which brings me to #31

#29 Maz Mezcal

Personally, I like my Mexican food cheap or plentiful. This place was neither. But hey, I was on the Upper East Side. Don't know what I was expecting. Fortunately, the drinks weren't bad.