I LUV VIDEO - An Austin Original Since 1984 - ILV DESERT ISLAND MOVIES

ILV DESERT ISLAND MOVIES - September 15, 2008

DESERT

ISLAND

MOVIES

THIS WEEK:

First Round ILV Movie Bingo Winner, ANGELA DOETSCH, Alamo Drafthouse Terror Thursday Mutantate, ZACK CARLSON, ILV Guadalupe Store Manager, BEN WHITE & Primitivist Rock God, JAD FAIR...

JAD FAIR

Jad Fair is the singer & guitarist for the greatest rock outsiders ever, Half Japanese & he's spent over 30 years steering the music back to the mysterious caves from whence it came. He's also recorded a wealth of solo albums & collaborated brilliantly with kindred enigmas Daniel Johnston (1989's truly ghostly It's Spooky), Eugene Chadbourne, Richard Hell, Thurston Moore, Moe Tucker, Yo La Tengo & John Zorn. As a personal aside, Jad Fair is also a co-composer of three of my favorite songs of all time, "Roman Candles" (from 1988's Charmed Life), "Red Sun" (from 2001's Hello) & "Some Things Last a Long Time" (an extra on the 1993 re-issue of The Band That Would Be King & chillingly performed on Daniel Johnston's 1990). Jad Fair currently lives & performs in Austin.

Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are in fine form as mass murdering mixed up kids looking for adventure, at any cost. Steve Erle and Bruce Springsteen have both written songs based on the 1950s Starkweather-Fugate murders this film is adapted from. The music soundtrack for this film is great. It fits it perfectly.

King Of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982)

Martin Scorsese is my favorite film maker and this is one of his best.
Robert De Niro is hilarious in the role of aspiring talk show host Rupert Pupkin.
Jerry Lewis plays it straight this time and puts in a solid performance.

Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)

Robert De Niro is great in the role of boxer Jake LaMotta. The transformation he goes through from the start of the film to the end amazing. Joe Pesci plays the role of Jake's brother. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)

I'd be hard pressed to think of a funnier film. I've seen it several times and still laugh whenever I see it. What strikes me funny is that so much of what happens in the film comes close to things I've seen bands do.

It's A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

This is Frank Capra's masterpiece. I'm a huge fan of James Stewart. I wanted to have one of his film in my top 5 list. You've probably seen this a hundred times. Why not make it one hundred and one?

ZACK CARLSON

Self-loathing caucasian Zack Carlson has spent his entire life trying
to forget the fact that he was conceived at a Renaissance Fair. He
spent his youth in the war-torn streets of Los Angeles before retiring
at age 20 to the Pacific Northwest. He then moved to Austin to work as
lowbrow horror film curator (among other duties) for the Alamo
Drafthouse in Austin, TX. The food's way better in Texas anyway. He's
currently pursuing a career as a failed screenwriter and unpublished
author of several works, including the five-years-in-the-making '80s
trash video guide "DESTROY ALL MOVIES!!!" (Zack's Self-Assessment)

5) Tourist Trap (David Schmoeller, 1979)

This is - without a doubt - the most criminally neglected horror film on the shelves, all the more tragic because it's readily available in all formats. The VHS was in print continuously, and the DVD lurks in two-dollar bins across our great nation. For whatever reason, it's just a simple matter of no one giving this innovative cinematic powerbeast the goddamn time of day. Rectangle-jawed screen ham Chuck "The Rifleman" Connors plays mysterious Mr. Slausen, a dubious yokel who leads a life of quiet isolation in the woods, tending to his old-timey museum of singing mannequins. When a carload of teens (including Tanya Roberts) trespass on his self-made nightmare world, 75 minutes of unhinged insanity breaks loose, filling the screen with so many unexplained phenomena that it's as if the script was written under the blankets by a paranoid 10-year-old with a 105 degree fever. Connors is flat-out perfect in his role, a performance which honestly makes me wonder why he isn't placed in the Misshapen Lowbrow God pantheon alongside Jack Palance and Henry Silva. Essential!

4) Rolling Thunder (John Flynn,1977)

Rolling Thunder is lauded as the Paul Schrader-penned masterpiece of hypermasculine hook-handed vigilante vengeance, but there's a hell of a lot more to it than that. Yeah, the script (co-written by extremely talented man-in-the-shadows Heywood Gould) is an H-bomb of unrelenting fury, but Flynn's direction and the performances from EVERYONE on screen fall into place so perfectly that the film almost hurts to watch. This may be partly due to the fact that every character has been absolutely railroaded and demolished by their own lives...but instead of sinking into the self-loathing depression that characterizes so much '70s cinema, they're all baring their teeth in a mad dog hunger for what little they can tear back from the world that's mortally wronged them. William Devane is untouchable at the helm as war-tortured amputee Major Charles Rane, alternating between nigh-catatonic repose and heat-seeking bloodlust. The ending makes the climax of Taxi Driver look like an episode of Family Feud, and features the best line ever delivered in an action film, courtesy of a young and impossibly handsome Tommy Lee Jones. Vicious, desperate and 100% hopeless, Rolling Thunder is a beautifully man-soaked love letter/hatefuck to our beloved Texas.

3) The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (George Pal, 1964)

Real life film wizard George Pal created actual movie magic; the kind that doesn't exist anymore because computers came along and neutered the dreams of all future generations. At his apex, Pal was responsible for the most mind-expanding family-friendly features Hollywood ever produced, from the excellent Time Machine to The War of the Worlds. But for my meager money, this arguably racist fantasy dartboard is his ultimate triumph. The normally unbearable Tony Randall plays eight (!) roles, most notably a 7321-year-old Chinese man who brings his Circus of Wonders to the dusty, dead Western town of Abalone. The locals are skeptical at first, but after encountering the many delights on display, including Medusa, Greek deity Pan and The Abominable Snowman (all played by Randall, natch), their world slips into a nigh-psychedelic haze of real life gods and monsters. Barbara Eden co-stars, and established herself as my first agonizing crush when I was only seven.

2) Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)

The late Phil Hartman only wrote one movie, and as far as I'm concerned, it turned out to be the best comedy ever made. I really don't need to say anything here, unless you haven't seen this film, in which case I do need to say that I'm on my way over to mercilessly beat your fun-free ass.

1) [The original] Suburbia (Penelope Spheeris, 1984)

Eric Bogosian/Parker Posey fans: leave the room. We're not talking about that Suburbia, no no no. After completing her early LA punk scene chronicle The Decline of Western Civilization, Spheeris decided to dramatize the lives of some of the film's subjects in an effort to better convey their story. She scoured record stores and hardcore shows to assemble a cast of actual homeless punk outcasts and brought the project to New World Pictures. Some theorize that studio honcho Roger Corman saw a glimmer of the old biker movie "misfit appeal" in this new phase of the counterculture and gave her the thumbs up. The result was a likely disappointment from an exploitationeer's standpoint, but is really an unexpectedly sincere (and severe) exploration of a bygone age where gutterpunks and fashion warriors paid a steep price for their individuality. Like the more highly regarded Repo Man, this movie is destined to be quoted by mohawked trashers for eternity, but for all the best reasons. The acting is stunted, the plot is almost nonexistent and the tone careens from low comedy to heart-wrenching catastrophe, but it stands forever as my favorite movie of all time.

BEN WHITE

Ben White has been working for ILV for six years, two of that as manager of the Guadalupe store. When he's not peddling videos to the shaggy denizens of the campus strip, Ben draws the kick-ass comic series Snakepit, available from
microcosmpublishing.com .

1. Cast Away (Robert Zemeckis, 2000)

That part where Tom Hanks realizes his wife got remarried, it makes me
tear up a little every time I watch it.

2. Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman, 1968)

I Love that this got remade into the sci-fi classic Enemy Mine.

3. Lord of the Flies (Harry Hook, 1990)

So much better than the 1963 version, the story was updated to modern
times. "I wonder if Alf is on tv right now?"

4. Swiss Family Robinson (1960, D: Ken Annakin)

Honestly, I don't really remember if I've actually seen this movie or
not, but I definitely remember the ride at Disney World being awesome!

5. Lost, Season One Box Set (Created by JJ Abrams, 2004)

I know it's kinda cheating to pick a TV show, but we'll have a dvd player on this
desert island, right? Say, that reminds me, where do we get the
electricity for this dvd player? You know what, instead of 5 DVDs, I
think I'll just bring a CB radio, so we can call for help.

ANGELA DOETSCH, I LUV VIDEO FIRST ROUND BINGO WINNER

Angela is a 29-year-old Native Austinite. In fact, she's never lived outside the Austin city limits.

Her Likes:

"Anything horror, especially anything cheezy (the cheezier the better), tattoos, Asian hopping vampires.. I am addicted (Okay, obsessed might be the better word) to taking pictures with my digital camera...seriously I will take pictures of anything. I like working on those crazy 48hr film contests when I get the chance (if you ever saw the "Milkshake" video from the Alamo Drafthouse's 48hr Beats Per Minute contest (1st year) that was me and mine (I was the milkmaid, and yes that was a bathtub full of real milk *shudders*). Movies are my passion and I love to frequent horror conventions to party with stars and fans alike (boy do I have some stories!!!). I am a vegetarian (but I tried "land oysters" this year just to say I ate balls). I love to wear crazy socks (the crazier the better!). I would love to visit Japan some day, I like to play video games, and my liquid intake usually consists of Topo Chico, NERD energy drink, DRANK, and Lone Star."

Her Dislikes:

"Although I am a horror fan, I HATE the site of real blood, especially my own, seriously I get faint... but I can wear buckets o' the fake stuff all day long!"

Furthermore:

"If I were to be any crayon color it would have to be cerulean."

1. A Chinese Ghost Story (Siu-Tung Ching, 1987)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE everything about this film…the wirework, the martial arts, the forbidden love between ghost and man, the demons, the music, the characters, and most of all the bad English translations. This film started my love and passion (OK…and sometimes obsession) with cheesy Asian cinema. This film has it all from drama, to comedy, to horror, to action. As Swordsman Yen would say “Mighty-Mighty-Ho!” watch this film.

2. Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter, 1986)

One of my all-time favorite films as a youngster and as an adult, Big Trouble in Little China has stood the test of time for me. Two of the overwhelming factors that make this one of my personal favorites would have to be 1) John Carpenter and 2) Kurt Russell. This film is a near perfect blend of comedy, action, kung fu, horror, and Chinese mysticism. This film is non-stop start to finish filled with gun-toting, sword-wielding opposing Chinese factions, the mystical three storms in those absurd hats, and an all too clever script. It is just plain fun to watch, and I find myself quoting Kurt Russell’s no-nonsense character Jack “It’s all in the reflexes” Burton throughout the entirety of the film. This one holds up to hours upon hours of repeat side-splitting laughter and sheer enjoyment.

3. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)

Plain and simple, ARGENTO is god. The direction and cinematography in this film is utterly gorgeous. Argento has a talent for making people die in the most disturbing yet beautiful ways. Sure some say his filmmaking is overrated and sometimes that may be true, but Suspiria definitely falls into my idea of a classic horror film. The story, and the acting are strong. Plus, you just can’t go wrong with the amazing score performed by GOBLIN. You wouldn’t even have to always watch this film. You could just sit back, close your eyes and listen. This film is just plain beautiful.

4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Tobe Hooper, 1986)

OK…I have surpassed the classic choice of A Texas Chain Saw Massacre and, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the original, but I just love the sequel so much more. This film is one of my all time favorite dark comedy horror films ever. I love how this film makes you so uncomfortable at times that you don’t know whether you should laugh or not. The #1 strongpoint of this film is the character development; from the completely psychotic plate-headed 'Nam-vet and loyal bro to Leatherface, Choptop, to the equally insane but more subdued cook Drayton “the Saw is Family” Sawyer, to the spittin’, dancin’, singin’ completely loveable L.G., you just fall in love with ALL these characters. Also accompanied by a TOTALLY awesome soundtrack that includes tracks from The Cramps to Oingo Boingo. This film stays close to my heart.

5. Versus (Ryuhei Kitamura, 2000)

This film has Style, Style, Style and more Style. In fact it is just plain AWESOME. Helmed by Ryuhei Kitamura (I also recommend another venture of his - Azumi) and starring Tak Sakaguchi, this film pushes the bounds of reality fueled with over-the-top action, gore effects by Susumu Nakatani that I think would make Peter Jackson smile, gun-wielding sword-toting Yakuza, zombies, and Yakuza-Zombies. Need I say more? The action sequences blow you away with everything from swordplay, to gunfights, to the more classic martial arts. This film is a classic tale of good vs. evil and lets face it…just plain fun.