hardtack

Well, let me know what you are "into" and I will be more than happy to add to your woes by giving you a list of what I think are worth watching.

Both the matrix and Dark City, in my opinion at least, borrowed heavily from the concept in Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld" series. I preferred Dark City purely because it was a bit darker almost in a film noir kind of a way. You mention "Fisher King"... now that reminded me of a great sci-fi (ish) film "Brazil"... love it. For something a bit out there, I recommend "Repo Man"... but I'm a bit of a sucker for anything that has Harry Dean Stanton in a leading role.

No, you are right about Leslie Nielsen (in a straight role) and it was Robbie the robot. I have it on DVD and on Blu Ray. It's the film about a settlement on a planet where the inhabitants are being killed off by an invisible monster known as the "Id". Brilliant movie that had special effects way ahead of its time and is filmed in really glorious technicolour. It has lost none of its appeal over time.

Not really historically related, but there is a very old sci-fi film from 1967 called "Quatermass & the Pit" (aka 5 Million Years to Earth) has a great storyline that links satanism to aliens. Loved it and have a copy of DVD. Others that have interesting links (historical or otherwise) are: - "Forbidden Planet" from 1956, which I rate as one of the all time greatest sci-fi movies made, is a reinterpretation of Shakespeare's "Tempest" - The 1979 film "Time After Time" is an interesting take that has HG Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time (in his Time Machine of course) and into the 20th century... surprisingly well done. - "Slaughterhouse 5" which is the film from Kurt Vonnegut Jnrs novel of the same name where the main character Billie Pilgrim is "unstuck in time", concurrently living in the present day in the New York state, in the past in Dresden during the bombings of WW2 and in the future on the planet Tralfamadore; it is actually a very good interpretation of the book (unlike the attempt at another Vonnegut novel "Breakfast of Champions" that starred Bruce Willis).

My favourite was The Empire Strikes Back (Ep 2)... Ep 3 was when the Ewoks were introduced and for me, that was when Lucas lost the plot and went all Disneyfied. For Sci Fi I'm a big fan of the 50's and 60's films (Earth Vs the Flying Saucers, Forbidden Planet, Quatermass films etc) and of the later films, loved Bladerunner, Fifth Element, Dark City, Eraserhead etc.

Not really jazz as such, but it's so hauntingly beautiful that I thought I would throw it in anyway: Daiqing Tana "Ongmanibamai": Japanese weird jazz band Electrocution 250 "Fletcher the Mouse" **Warning: This WILL polarise you!"

Ok, it's been a long while since I jumped in here, so here are a couple you may or may not be familiar with (I try to be a little obscure): Bas Lexter Ensample "HongKongLingLing" Kanazawa, Akiko - famed Japanese minyou singer - "Yellow Submarine"

Would that film be "Tomorrow When the War Began"? It's not too bad, but can't say it really grabbed me. A couple of other Australian films I just remembered that are worth watching (older pieces... as most good local cinema unfortunately seems to be): "Newsfront", "The Getting of Wisdom" and a film that many might think not Australian (and technically may not be due to funding etc), is Alex Poyas' "Dark City"...while being a little similar, this predates The Matrix and, in my opinion, is a far better film. I can't remember what it was showing with (maybe Deliverance), but in 1972 at a Friday "supper" show (late night) at the Trak Cinema, I saw a short film (mockumentary) made by a young George Miller called "Violence in the Cinema Part 1" - brilliant and it still sits clearly in my mind all those years later. As for the Mad Max DVD set... I still have the set I bought in Japan a few years ago and always get a laugh out of that fact that where they list the audio languages, it has Japanese soundtrack, Original soundtrack and Australian English soundtrack. They seemed to be of the impression that this was an American production :-)

I just picked up the triple bluray set of Mad Max 1, 2 & 3 from Amazon UK. - MM3 is a dud, but 1 and 2 make the set worthwhile. Other Australian movies not yet mentioned that I like are: The Last Wave, Cars that Ate Paris, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ten Canoes, Romper Stomper, Bad Boy Bubby, and Ghosts of the Civil Dead.

Have you by any chance seen Woody Allen's "Shadows and Fog"? Definitely worth a look.

Definitely... Big Lebowski, O Brother, Raising Arizona and Blood Simple... also impressed with their take on True Grit and one of their "less" lauded films, Burn After Reading.

No, don't work in the industry (I'm a technical writer), but have always been a bit of a film nut and am an obsessive collector and watcher of film on DVD and Blu Ray.

"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" is superb! How can you possibly go wrong with a Russ Meyer film that features the Strawberry Alarm Clock (band)? I'm a fan of John Waters (the American director, not Australian actor) and have just about all of his films on DVD. Other directors I favour are: Stanley Kubrick, Jim Jarmusch, Tim Burton, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Quentin Tarantino, Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Juzoh Itami, Takashi Miike, Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Feng Xiaogang, Katsuhito Ishii and the Cohen Brothers. If you want to learn about John Waters, get hold of his biography "Shock Value" (1981)... a great read. Love the Shaw Brothers films and enjoyed the reference to them used by Tarantino at the start of Kill Bill 2. I actually once met someone here in Sydney who worked with "Run Run" Shaw in Hong Kong... she explained that he got his name as a young guy running canisters of film between the editing rooms and the studios which is how he got his start in the business.

Caught the American version of the film Shall We Dance the other night on Foxtel (starring Richard Gere), so I decided to drag out my old DVD of the original Japanese version last night just to see how closely the remake managed to follow the original. While Hollyweird actually made a decent fist of this film, the Japanese original is still streets ahead. I really love the way the Japanese produce lovely feel good movies that manage to have a degree of quirkiness about them... Shall We Dance, Tampopo, Family Game and so on.

Watched Samsara the other day on Blu Ray... stunning to say the least! Now to sit down with the "Qatsi" trilogy with the same director of photography and music composed by Philip Glass.

I believe Stevie Wonder is the third ump this test.

I would tend to think you may be the simpleton if you expect me to believe that rather clumsy bit of backtracking mjt.

Yes, and the ACL did not affect his game... the broken arm did and yet he still managed reasonable stats considering. You asked the question of Stuie about what kind of season LeCras had... I decided it was worth pointing out. And considering you were rubbishing Stuie's understanding of AFL as he was suggesting he would rather LeCras over Betts, you might like to know that Betts 2013 stats are considerably worse than LeCras'... averaging 10 possessions, 2.5 marks and kicking 17 goals at an average of 1.5.

Maybe, but Howe hasn't had the broken arm to contend with.

Considering he broke his arm early on and has played much of the season with it in a protective casing, while averaging 16 possessions, 5.1 marks (career best) and kicking 25 goals (just under 2 goals a game), I would say not too bad at all.

This is not a thread, it is a pressure valve.

Thought I would post a couple of my favourite "minimalist" film clips - feel free to post more on this theme. The first one, Elvis Costello's "I Wanna be Loved" was actually filmed as one continuous shot in a photo booth at Flinders Street Station by a local production company Rich Kids. The second was, I think, produced by Godley and Creme themselves... superb:

And lastly, a little bit of relatively intelligent J-Pop from Utada Hikaru who composes all of her own material (unusual in the world of J-Pop) - note that the film clip was directed by her ex-husband who was responsible for directing the films Casshern and Goemon (if anyone is familiar with them).

A couple of random selections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__obh4w6tD8

I've been building a pile of blu ray discs to watch starting Sunday... a few on that pile I now have, in no particular order: Wreck it Ralph (3D) Life of Pi (3D) Storm Surfers (3D) Man With the Iron Fists Seven Psychopaths Samsara Intouchable Quatermass and the Pit Earth Vs Flying Saucers Marley Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (3D) Beasts of the Southern Wild The Qatsi Trilogy Cabin in the Woods The Who Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 Busy times ahead!