Two more weeks to go, and a lot of you crazy cats are wowing me with some impressively high scores. At this rate, the final contest in Game 3 will need to be sadistically hard if a clear-cut winner is to be named. "Another Cast Party Scrapbook" was last Monday's quiz, for which I mentioned the seasons that would no longer change? That would be a reference to the recently deceased Shelley Winters, who blessed us with a wide-ranging career of great films. Here's three she appeared in:

Coleen Gray, John Wayne (a.k.a. Marion Michael Morrisson), Walter Brennan and Joanne Dru round out the cast of Howard Hawks' second western, Red River (1948).

Roman Polanski (notice the director's bullhorn?), Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet and the fetching Isabelle Adjani star in Polanski's hallucinatory thriller, The Tenant (1976).

Boy, did Winters' filmography span some decades! Sir John Gielgud, Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker and John "Malkovich, Malkovich" Malkovich show up for some laughs (okay, not really) in Jane Campion's pro-feminist adaptation of Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady (1996).

Sometimes boys will be girls, at least says their make-up and costumery. The following three screen captures come from films with something major in common besides a little eyeliner. It would be a drag if you couldn't identify these faces:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, January 29th @ 11:59pm EST.) Three of you are going to win a princely new DVD from The Last Picture Game Show, but be careful what you Google to figure out the answers. Good luck!

How could crime-fiction novelist Elmore Leonard and former movie star U.S. prez Ronald Reagan possibly get confused with one another? For the purpose of last week's "Mouths Wide Shut" quiz, it would be their shared nickname of "Dutch." In preconditioned honor of the Showgirls Blog Orgy, all of the open-lipped screen captures were from films directed by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven. Did anyone notice the Total Recall reference within the post? Here's how it looked:

Many of you recognized Rutger Hauer on the far left of the frame, who then pokes a dude's tongue with a toothpick in 1980's coming-of-age tale of motorbikes and sex, Spetters.

Hauer also appears in this film, but pictured in this shot is his Blade Runner costar, the late Brion James. As Karsthans, James' mouth filled with blood after being impaled with spears several times near the end of 1985's medieval marauder Flesh + Blood.

Dina Meyer huddles during a game of "Jumpball" in the pre-extermination sequences of 1997's fascistly funny, sci-fi satire Starship Troopers.

Unless you just died (and so why are you reading my site?), you should remember this game. The following 3 films have something major in common, but all I've provided are photographs of four of the actors from each movie. Just figure out the faces, but don't let their ages or appearances fool you: they may not be taken from the same time period as the films. Hustle up now:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, January 22nd @ 11:59pm EST.) Three of you are going to win a muy excelente DVD from The Last Picture Game Show, and remember today that "human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." Good luck!

There's nothing unhealthy or intrinsically wrong about admitting one's fandom for the high-camp sleaze and tease of Showgirls, that devil-marked boobie spectacle that's ridiculed among the ranks of box-office miscarriages Ishtar, Waterworld and Gigli (all four of which are uneven, but not unpardonable disasters). Unleashed upon U.S. moviegoers in the fall of 1995 and in the Netherlands ten years ago today, Showgirls was the second and final hedonism-stewing alliance between Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and kinky power-scribe Joe Eszterhas. Their earlier, nearly-as-lurid collaboration—the overpraised hit Basic Instinct—was hailed as daringly racy, while the latter flick had the public and critics further exposing its live nude girls as nothing more than a sensationalized, off-putting orgy of miscreant NC-17 excess.

Before addressing that, let's get the easy excoriation out of the way: former TV star Elizabeth Berkley (2nd from left) cannot shoulder the film (or any film) she has been asked to, her flailing overdramatics and herky-jerky grinding as spit-take laughable as the Hercules-meets-Xanadu-meets-The Wild Angels setpieces of the Vegas floorshow her opportunistic diva aspires to conquer. She has the child-like naivete but none of the nuance that Mark Wahlberg brought to his similarly-themed role that was the backbone of Boogie Nights. Disavowing Berkley's career-killing performance, I at least witnessed—in my long overdue re-evalutation of the film—a significant purpose to its gleeful absurdities, which ambitiously attempt to self-parody the Hollywood gluttonies that got it greenlit and the popular culture that allowed that to happen. Given the two creative minds behind this, it's predictably unsubtle and inarticulate in its cartoonish depth, but it's definitely there. (One could argue that Eszterhas' script for the worthless An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn was a second, blunter attempt at pulling off the same joke.)

Slightly more convincing is the peculiar uneroticism in Showgirls' boundless quantity of ice-perked nipples and lesbian tongue-wrasslin', an almost proactive defeat of its proposed titillations, which could be the unholy writer-director team's cheeky yet uncondescending attempt to call out audiences' lusts without actually skimping on the flesh or vulgarity. Just because it was marketed as a seductive movie doesn't mean its rampant sexuality was posed to tantalize, at least not as main course. A congruent studio-enacted error happened with Verhoeven's hilarious ode to antiquated science fiction and propoganda films, Starship Troopers, which was wrongheadedly pitched to consumers as a straightforward interplanetary blow-em-up. Though we'll never know, it would be a curious experiment to see if today's mainstream and arthouse crowds would see more or less eye-to-eye if this trashy pop-art extravaganza were released in theaters today, and if the New Puritanism would affect ticket sales.

Ultimately, Showgirls is an irrestistably raunchy and addictively quotable merrymaker that is having way too much fun itself to ask us to judge its immoral antiheroes (as head bitch Gina Gershon suggests, Berkley truly is the younger, deviously manipulative version of herself). The film's only major non-casting misstep is in picking up a pile of tones and genres—from melodrama to screwball, soft-core playfulness to hardcore cautionary tale—then trying to juggle them with all the too-manic coordination of a jittery coke fiend, intentions of whatever kind be damned. It can't possibly be a profound enough success to condone a two-thousand word defense on its misunderstood brilliance (read that link now!), yet it's a respectable enough 2 a.m. pleasure that you needn't feel guilty for loving it. Unless there's clean-up involved, you sick bastard.

ADDENDUM: Besides myself, here are some other bloggers du cinema who had the stones to reassess Showgirls on today's Netherlandian anniversary:

Girish

Flickhead

The Whine Colored Sea

Fagistan

Drifting

Elusive Lucidity

Obsolete Vernacular

Long Pauses

When Canses Were Classeled

Supposed Aura

Hell on Frisco Bay

Nilblogette

Coffee Coffee and More Coffee

Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule

The Self Styled Siren

...and a screen capture gimme from Filmbrain

We're plainly going to have to keep "Cast Party Scrapbook" in the game rotation, as all your positive feedback has indicated. Whose name is like "RACE CAR" in two different ways? These must be films directed by Otto Preminger, since "Otto" sounds like auto and is also a palindrome! Vroom, vroom:

Clockwise from left, the photos showed Keir Dullea, Sir Laurence Olivier (gotta love that Clash of the Titans pic), Carol Lynley, and Noel Coward from 1965's atrociously overlooked Bunny Lake is Missing.

Tricky, tricky... A small few of you saw Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak and thought about your Pal Joey, but that was a George Sidney film! Sinatra, the inimitable Arnold Stang, Eleanor Parker and Novak all star in 1955's junkie-outta-jail gem The Man with the Golden Arm.

Judith Anderson, Vincent Price, Gene Tierney and Clifton Webb all feature in 1944's moodily seductive noir Laura.

Who are these close-up faces, and why can't they close up their pie-holes? The following 3 films have something major in common besides top and bottom lips that don't touch, but perhaps you're savvy enough to identify these flicks by their dental records:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, January 15th @ 11:59pm EST.) Three of you are going to win a muy excelente DVD from The Last Picture Game Show, so stay off the roads to play now before you get in a motorcycle accident you can't totally recall later. Good luck!

The "Who's on Last?" quiz was the most correctly guessed round in several weeks, and honestly, how many movies could there possibly be with the word "last" in the title? Happy new year, and thanks for playing over the holidays:

Methinks this might have been easy because this specific scene was in that IFC adaptation of Peter Biskind's tabloid tell-all Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Foul-mouthed sailors Jack Nicholson and Otis Young escort their underage prisoner (Randy Quaid) to a watering hole in 1973's The Last Detail. Writer-director Hal Ashby was simply unstoppable that decade.

The inspiration for my now-overused phrase "punishing art-wank," Last Days (Gus Van Zant's ode to Saint Kurt Cobain) is most frustrating because of its contrasting 75% slog to 25% sublime. Casting sonic old-timer Kim Gordon in a cameo is neither good nor bad, however. That's just hipster posturing.

Dedicated to my buddy Brian, who does a mean karoake version of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," let's finish this up with Martin Scorsese's 1978 rock-doc, The Last Waltz.

Congrats on wrapping your latest project, stars! To monumentalize the occasion (beyond the typical wine-vat orgies), the following three film productions have prepared a scrapbook, each featuring pictures of its castmembers. The only issue being, the clippings aren't necessarily on-set photos, nor even of the same filmmaking era! Can you match up each quartet of actors and actresses to the movie they all appeared in together? To help you out, all 3 films have something major in common, and maybe the title of this post is a clue? Check it:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, January 8th @ 11:59pm EST.) Three of you are going to win a dynamite DVD from The Last Picture Game Show, so play now or I'll make you watch nothing but Egyptian sex flicks for all of 2006. Although there are worse films you could be watching this year. Good luck!

(Roll your mouse over the images above for a few more words)

Did the jolly bearded one bring you everything you asked for on Xmas Hanukkah Festivus Sunday? This cinephiliac felt quite blessed to have had his stocking cram-stuffed with such goodies as the Hitchcock/Truffaut book, The Scarecrow Video Movie Guide (great for cross-referencing upcoming DVD purchases), and um... a marshmallow gun. (And to think, I turned 28 on Xmas Eve.) Speaking of DVDs, Game 3's prize line-up had to be refitted due to Criterion's Viridiana being delayed until May. How does David Lynch's Dune: The Extended Edition treat you instead? More info on that long overdue cut here.

Round 2's "More Misspelled Marquees" weren't as cake-piece simple as I presumed, since only a handful of you recognized that the images were all James Bond movies. Here's the rest:

Well, if that shearing comb isn't for human hair, then it must be FOR YOUR EWES ONLY, whereas secret dossiers are For Your Eyes Only.

This one should have been the gimme for American players and the toughest for our foreign friends. If the Today Show's jovial TV anchor Al Roker were a lunar astronaut, he'd be MOONROKER, which then becomes Moonraker. You know, the one with Richard "Jaws" Kiel in space?

Dubloons in your tummy? Then you must be THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUT, instead of the 007 classic The Man With the Golden Gun.

So-named because this is officially the last Last Picture Game Show of 2005. Ring in the new year's drunken disorderliness with this triumverate of chocolate-hued DVD screen captures. What trait do they all have in common? Last one to figure it out has to buy me an egg nog. And make it a double, these are pretty easy:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, January 8th @ 11:59pm EST.) Three of you are going to win a dynamite DVD from The Last Picture Game Show, so play now or I'm telling that Renfro kid where you live and that you've got pounds of china white laying around. Good luck!

When we dove into Game 3 with last week's "Frosty the Snowmovie" (listen up, newbies, you aren't too late to score some peachy prizes!), I clued you in to what all three DVD screen captures had in common: The films shared my reaction to the wintry air, which meant their titles all begin with the letters BR, as in a teeth-chattering BRRRR! If the first week stumped ya, at least it was only your warm-up:

Mr. Belmondo! Why are you futzing around at someone else's vanity? If you haven't seen Jean-Luc Godard's too-hip 1959 classic Breathless by now, you're probably in deep trouble for the rest of this game.

A drunken Audrey Hepburn looks for hidden booze above her cupboard while her cat named Cat and George Peppard (that's "Hannibal" to you, Cinetrix and Dobbs) look on cautiously in Blake Edwards' romantic 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote's jet-set dramedy, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Speaking of kitties, Hollywood's premier Brazilian leopard costars as "Baby" in Howard Hawks' perennial 1938 screwballer, Bringing Up Baby.

Uh-oh. Whoever lettered the lightboard last time must have been smoking the King Bong again, because the following three images below represent real movies... if each were disastrously misspelled by one letter. Not that The Family Scone and Walk the Lime don't sound tasty, but the inevitable lawsuits citing false advertising should probably be avoided. At least the three films represented share something major in common, which should help. Make like Bush and spy this:

NAME EACH MOVIE BY ITS REAL TITLE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, December 25th @ 11:59pm EST.) Three of you are going to win a killer DVD from The Last Picture Game Show, so play now and maybe -- just maybe -- the rich rockstar and the richer nerd will dish out some bucks your way. Good luck!

WEEK 8! Welcome to the final battle, cultural gladiators.

If it weren't for the one dude turning in perfect scores every single week (sweet skeelz, Corbett!), I would humbly yield that my film quizzes were too tough to be any fun. "Bride of Double Feature Mash-Ups" was sadistic of me to craft and masochistic of y'all to play, so let me reward you for enduring this animalistic affair with me: When Next Monday's New Game For All New Prizes begins, I promise to go a little easier on everyone ... at least for a few rounds. Here's the recap:

Reprising the role he first played as a teen in Truffaut's The 400 Blows, the shaving-creamy Jean-Pierre Léaud stars as the now thirty-something Antoine Doinel in Love on the Run (1979). So why is he sitting on the couch where Peter Sellers once sat, playing Lionel Mandrake in 1964's Dr. Strangelove? I didn't care what you loved or worried about, as long as you gave me Dr. Strangelove on the Run. (Favorite guess: The Bedford and Board Incident)

Near the beginning of Cassavetes' 1977 Opening Night, fading actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) memorably gestures "yeah, what are you looking at?" in her dressing-room mirror. And though you can't see her, an incarcerated Charlotte Rampling is dancing topless for her Nazi lover/tormentor Dick Bogarde in The Night Porter. Shake it up, pour over ice, and you just got served Opening Night Porter. Could you imagine what a gut-punch that flick would be? (Favorite guess: Women on the Verge of a Nervous BreakDownfall)

In the midst of his awesome week, Filmbrain upbraided me for cheating on this one, but it's because he didn't bother reading my rules about partial-word hinges. (Still, I should apologize for this oh-come-on of a stumper.) That black-and-white pup is the cute and hungry Flike from Vittorio De Sica's 1952 pension-class weepie, Umberto D., a masterful work that marked the end of formal Italian neo-realism (I should warn newcomers: A dog scampering over a bridge will make you lose your shit). Put the innocent little fella in a Vietnamese field with trigger-happy Robert De Niro from The Deer Hunter... heeeeeeeeere's Umberto D.eer Hunter (period not necessary, but aesthetically pleasing to me).

Is the suspense killing you, as it already buried me? All that separates three of you from winning some wicked-awesome DVDs (and I swears I ain't from Boston) could very well be the waveforms oscillating in your ears. The audio clips below come from a trio of films with, oh yes, something major in common. Please RIGHT-CLICK AND SAVE each of the following MP3s and tell me, where have we heard these before? Plug in those headphones, my world wide friends:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, December 11th @ 11:59pm EST.) If you haven't yet entered The Last Picture Game Show, you're pretty much screwed. BUT! Come back next Monday (12/12) when the counters are reset and the freshness seal is broken for the all-new Game 3. Good luck!

1. Why is Morricone's best work heard in second-tier Italian westerns and third-rate giallos?

2. Inspired by my beloved, who refused to attend either night: Would more women be inclined to like this genre if it weren't for the fact that every single spaghetti western features at least one (if not multiple occasions of) rape?

Film quizzers, to your stations! "The Palestinian Version of Stripes Got Flagged at My Video Store" was the name of last week's contest, as well as the major clue. Tied together by the colors in their titles, the three films specifically featured the colors of the stripes in the Palestinian flag:

As easily as he ripped off visuals and music from the aforementioned Death Rides a Horse, Tarantino blatantly stole Kill Bill's eyepatch-wearing death nurse from director John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday (1977). In the scene shown, terrorists Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller celebrate over the success of their doomsday dart-gun test, before they attach it to a blimp and aim for the U.S. President-attended Superbowl. Think that's a gonzo premise? It's based on a novel by Thomas "The Silence of the Lambs" Harris. Also of note, wouldn't yesterday's post-Thanksgiving deadline be considered Black Sunday?

Even if you didn't recognize that metallic orb-and-cone, the clue and researchable DVD cover art should have been enough for you to decipher: it's a model of the titular aircraft in Werner Herzog's second best (non-grizzly) documentary released this year, 2004's The White Diamond. Look, I never claimed I wouldn't make you work for those DVD prizes!

Allow me to cheat and blurb a bit from my own DVD review of 2003's Save the Green Planet!: "Outrageously and often simultaneously smudging the lines between alien-conspiracy eco-horror, sober police procedural and Grand Guignol psycho-slapstick, South Korean auteur Jang Jun-Hwan's amazing freakout of a first feature follows the kidnap and subsequent torture of a chemical-corp CEO, believed to be a malevolent space-monster by a sensitive, beekeeping wacko."

Cheaper by the Dirty Dozen? Deconstructing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? As seen here and here, let's stuff our stuffing-overstuffed faces with a third helping of mashed movies. Please check out one of those two links for instructions on how to play, and remember: ALL THE WORDS FROM BOTH TITLES represented must be included and spelled correctly, not including piddly little prepositions. Rock it:

NAME EACH MOVIE MASH-UP. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, December 4th @ 11:59pm EST.) It's not too late to win luxurious DVDs from The Last Picture Game Show, so enter now, and pray that -- after your eventual demise -- you'll be remembered for something more meritorious than "wax on, wax off." (I kid, because I love.) Good luck!

When was the last time you made like Lebowski and bowled? Monday's film quiz was entitled "Three Strikes and You're In," and while that was nothing more than a gutter ball for many, The Dude could tell you that it was a clue... all of last week's answers feature capital X's within their titles. Here's how it looks:

Poor Catherine Deneuve, she has fallen from her motorcycle, which is now spinning out of control towards her! Featuring an awesome score by the strangely wonderful Scott Walker, it's director Leo Carax's mysterious 1999 dazzler, Pola X.

Boy oh boy, was this a stumper! Those who picked up on the clue this week saw black-hooded Klan members and immediately assumed it was the neo-Nazi bloodlust of American History X. (Were there even KKK represented in that one?) Let's try that other movie about racism, Spike Lee's epic-length 1992 biopic, Malcolm X.

We've already established how much this cinephiliac lurves his Cronenberg, and I'm guessing why this was the most correctly answered of the bunch, the mad Canadian's 1999 virtual-surreality treat, eXistenZ. Was it Jude Law's grey jumpsuit? No, no, no. It was obviously Jennifer Jason Leigh's unforgettably tight and shiny pants, right?

More screen captures from the official Cinephiliac DVD collection. I'll even be so bold as to say that the title is a hint, because these three films have something major in common (and no, it ain't the magic of John Candy):

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, November 27th @ 11:59pm EST.) It's not too late to win luxurious DVDs from The Last Picture Game Show, so enter now, or I'll call the police and tell them you're that serial rapist who has inspired all the noisy helicopters in my neighborhood this week. Good luck, and happy turkey gobblin' and thanks givin,' all!

Damn rainstorms knocked out my Verizon internet and phone for the last four days, but the forced log-off gave me time to nearly and proudly finish my annual holiday card (read: a meticulously produced/designed mix-CD plus DVD), and 'tis only mid-November! Speaking of music, even mash-up auteur DJ Danger Mouse was stumped over last Monday's "Son of Double Feature Mash-Ups" film quiz, since only the crafty quatro of Corbett, Adrian, Alex and Dominic sent me correct answers for this rambunctious trio of Photoshopper's delights:

Why is Woody Allen racing around the corridors of a French prison? If the Woodster of 1979's Manhattan stumbled past François Leterrier's open cell door in A Man Escaped (1956), you could crunch 'em as A Manhattan Escaped. Although points aren't rewarded for sheer creativity, I should mention my favorite wild guess: Days of Wine and Broadway Danny Roses.

Spaghetti shooter Lee Van Cleef hangs in the doorway of 1966's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; overlooking a make-out between Art "Look at my hair" Garfunkel and Theresa "I'll sleep with you anyway" Russell in 1980's Bad Timing. Yep, it's a mouthful: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Timing (or The Good, The Bad Timing, and The Ugly, it's all there).

What's really sad about Andy Griffith's smiling mug on the cover of Life Magazine is that I had no idea that Filmbrain's last quiz answer was simultaneously 1957's A Face in the Crowd. And if you think pink, that is the entranceway to Quality Magazine in the same year's Funny Face. The big squeeze yields A Funny Face in the Crowd.

Although my rational side dictates I shouldn't worry about going without internet for any serious duration, my neurotic side predicts an inevitable disruptance by natural disaster, terrorism, or a clumsy cleaning lady unplugging The Master Plug to permanently dismantle the entire Internet forever. (It's only a matter of time, save yourselves!) My nutty side then envisions an apocalyptic world of darkness and random fires (but just as much bad television), kinda like what you'll see in these DVD screen captures. Oh, and you should know that all three films have something major in common:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, November 20th @ 11:59pm EST.) It's not too late to win luxurious DVDs from The Last Picture Game Show, so enter now, or I'm coming over tonight to pirate your entire music library before it's too late. Good luck!

An observant few of you noticed that last week's "Holy God in Heaven!" contest had little to do with religion, which should have been your clue that the three films had the words Holy, God, and Heaven in their titles. Check it:

Wild packs of marines couldn't drag me to see Sam Mendes' latest empty-souled slab of Oscar bait, yet I do lurve his wife Kate Winslet, who needs a good cult deprogramming in director Jane Campion's Holy Smoke! (1999). A tip of the hat to those who confused Kate's sapphic embrace with that other ecclesiastically titled drama of lesbian inference, Heavenly Creatures.

Herzog! Kinski! Descend into 16th-century madness with the quarrelsome director and actor in 1972's masterful Amazonian mini-epic: Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Please don't ever tell me you haven't seen this, I may toss a monkey at you.

Until very recently, I was under the sophistical impression that Ernst Lubitsch's hell-arious 1943 comedy Heaven Can Wait was the basis for Warren Beatty's 1978 film of the same title. Methinks you'll guess whose directorial debut I had never seen nor read a synopsis for. Similarly misguided were those who filed the correct answer's emotional antithesis, Douglas Sirk's weepie opus All That Heaven Allows.

Remember these? The following 3 images represent a double feature that somebody decided was wise to cram together into the same movie based on a hinged word. Think Chicken Little Big Man, The Fisher King Kong or Knife in the Like Water For Chocolate. Partial-word hinges and switched orders aren't important (The Big Sleepy Hollow and Like Knife in the Water For Chocolate would both be accepted), as long as ALL THE WORDS FROM BOTH TITLES are included and spelled correctly; the only exception being prepositions, who needs 'em? Make sure you peek at the last round of mash-ups if you're still flummoxed, then fire it up:

NAME EACH MOVIE MASH-UP. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, November 13th @ 11:59pm EST.) It's not too late to win luxurious DVDs from The Last Picture Game Show, so enter now, or I'm flying to Paris right now to instigate more riots. Good luck!

Last week's "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice & Me & You & Everyone We Know" couples quiz proffered some fascinating guesses (my faves being Withnail & I and Hilary & Jackie), but 8 of you knew these titular duos:

Warren Beatty and Julie Christie saunter through the brown, brown setpieces of Altman's 1971 alt-western, McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Funny enough, none of the films here take place in the era they were crafted, which wasn't intentional on my part.

One of the best buddy teams in international cinema (not that we don't appreciate Jeanne Moreau making it a rascally love triangle), Oscar Werner and Henri Serre are the Jules et Jim in Truffaut's 1962 masterpiece. (See, takes place from 1900 on!)

The British test card on the TV was a giveaway for some, but others simply recognized the leather jacket and leopard-print undies. Shoot up and rip the system with Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, the ever wasted and forever tragic punk-rock couple of yesteryear, Sid & Nancy.

Not that another DVD capture quiz demands a religious epiphany, la de da. Hug yourself or someone you love if you recognize these 3 films with something major in common. The hint's in place if you really think through these cinematic embraces:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, November 6th @ 11:59pm EST.) It's not too late to win wicked-fresh DVDs from The Last Picture Game Show, so enter now, or may you be smited by the lightning gods of the planet Xena. Good luck!

Okay, that there means I stumbled backwards right into the Cinetrix's example of RSS-fed banality, but it's only so you don't pigeonhole me as the Winston Conrad Martindale* of the flicker-happy bloggosphere. After all, this marks the third in four straight weeks of nuttin' but Monday quizzes. May you be blessed with much candy corn, and here we game again.

* The prestigious "Sons of Wink" fraternity would like you to right-click and save the Tic Tac Dough theme on illustrious MP3.

The first round of Game 2 ("Halloween Approaches") was apparently more difficult than planned, since only 10 of you were well-versed enough to recall A History of David Cronenberg's Cinematic Violence. The Canadian auteur's early explorations into venereal horror and other bodily perversions include these gems:

After having ear-piercing sex with Debbie Harry and hiding a gun inside his stomach, James Woods visits mysterious sunglasses retailer Les Carlson in 1983's Videodrome. According to Cronenberg on Criterion's DVD commentary, Woods was afraid of electrocution and wouldn't wear that virtual-reality helmet, so the director himself stood in as a stunt head for the whole scene.

What, did you expect me to make it this easy? Blow it out your head with the telekinetically cursed Scanners of this 1981 pop-fave, predecessor to the spontaneously combustible Firestarter. Good effort must be recognized for those who guessed The Dead Zone, which is at least another well-done Cronenberger.

Where would you even begin to Google an image that argues for birth control this effectively? In 1979's The Brood, beastly sexless children of the damned spawn from Samantha Eggar's equally beastly reproductive parts. Inspired by a bitter divorce, Cronenberg's domestic psychodrama is worth it just for ham-tastic Oliver Reed as a sinister shrink who specializes in "psychoplasmics."

Nobody likes being the third wheel in a social outing, especially when the duo you're with is utterly famous. The following 3 DVD screen captures depict twosomes so popular, they named the movie after them (ex. Harold and Maude, Tom & Viv). Who are these couples who seem to be afraid to show their faces?

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, October 30th @ 11:59pm EST.) It's not too late to win awesome DVDs from The Last Picture Game Show, so either take your best guess or eat Tex-Mex like I'll be doing. Good luck!

If bandwidth limitations and a high annoyance factor weren't issues, the end of Cinephiliac's first eight-week contest would be marked with a cacophonously ambient soundtrack of hungry seagulls, Week End-like traffic, an a cappella quartet singing Blondie hits, the industrial machinations of a yarn factory, schoolyard children, and maybe some sci-fi door swooshes. Instead, just download this week's free MP3 (up top, in the Editor's Picks) and silently congratulate Peter D., the grand-prize winner of Game 1. Peter will happily receive a couple of sweet Criterion DVDs, a prize smashingly well earned for scoring a perfect 24 out of 24 points (I kid you not, but don't worry, he ain't allowed back for Game 2). Here's how the final week's "Anagrammations" broke down:

Maybe he did look like Lee Van Cleef, but that was bandito famoso Pancho Villa next to an oven mitt in the wanted poster (verified by the cropped tops of the letters in "Pancho"). If you rearrange the letters in PANCHO MITT, you get Woody Allen's soon-to-be-released Match Point.

Who are those crazy British policemen? No, not bobbies but 19th-century PEELERS (named after Robert Peel, and did anyone spot the guy holding the fruit peeler?) -- which is an anagram for Sleeper, this cinephiliac's fave Woody laffer.

I hope Flash animator extraordinaire Robert Karimi gets some more freelance work for this Indy Jones bit alone. I asked, "What just happened?" and unless you've been away on a last crusade, you recognized that INDIANA MENDED MALL. Unscramble that action, get Melinda and Melinda. Wow, these Woodies were wicked hard!

THE RULES OF THE GAME: For each of the next 8 Mondays (starting today), Cinephiliac will host a cinema-based contest with the potential for you to earn 1, 2 or 3 points. Unless otherwise noted, all answers will concern films released in North America (or definitely scheduled to be), and all DVDs utilized will be Region 1 discs from my personal collection. ONLY ONE WEEKLY ENTRY will be accepted via email, and please DO NOT post answers in the site's comments section. In the case of a tie, a run-off game will begin in Week 9.

WHAT CAN PLAYERS WIN? The top 3 high-scorers will win one of the following DVDs, with the grand prize winner getting first choice, and 2nd place getting second dibs. Click for more information on Criterion's Shoot the Piano Player; the recut, extended, unrated 2-disc Sin City; and the anniversary edition of The Muppet Movie, which gives me the fuzzy green felt feelings.

Eegad, these movies look terrifying! If you can manage to peek through your fingers at the following 3 DVD screen captures, you might recognize that the films have something major in common. Personally, I think they'd make a great Hallow's Eve triple feature:

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, October 23th @ 11:59pm EST.) Three of you are going to win something nifty from The Last Picture Game Show, so now is not the time to chicken out... unless your name is Frank Perdue. Good luck!

Let's not pussyfoot around with this NYFF nonsense anymore, as this is The Final Quiz Week and one lucky boy or girl out there in TV Land will be receiving a free Halloween treat: two fresh Criterion DVDs of Le Samourai and The Wages of Fear. Three of you are poised as strong contenders, but the race ain't over 'til the fat lady cooks the tortoise before she leaps -- and methinks you know precisely what I mean. Here's the recap...

Last Monday's "Ink and Paint, Rinse, Repeat" was a fairly looney-toon concoction, and congrats to those who knew these difficult cels:

In a town where I was born... You won't find a hand-drawn Yoko Ono within the frames of the Beatles' 1968 magical mystery toon, Yellow Submarine. That psychedelically helmeted meister was not a character, but set dressing for the "Eleanor Rigby" bit.

From the Japanese master behind Spirited Away and this year's Howl's Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 Kaze no tani no Naushika was released in America as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds. Think of it as Dune for environmentally conscious kids.

Just as underground mainstream illustrator R. Crumb had nothing to do with the X-rated Fritz the Cat, animator/director Ralph Bakshi had nothing to do with 1974's R-rated sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, a diabolically guilty pleasure for this sick little cinephiliac.

I told you there'd be fireworks. As an inverse to last week's game, which featured non-animated puzzles about animated films, this week sees animated puzzles about non-animated films. Here's how it works:

Each of the following 3 Flash animations (brilliantly crafted by New York-based illustrator, designer and animator Robert Karimi of Sike9 Design, who is always on the prowl for exciting new freelance projects!) represents a unique word or phrase, which also happens to be an anagram for the title of a film. As a hint, the 3 films whose titles can potentially be unscrambled have something major in common. Then to further help you out, the letter spaces for each word-or-phrase have been provided for you, although the spaces may not necessarily correspond with the final movie-title answers. Confused yet?

EXAMPLE: If an animation depicted some electrified speakers inside a greasy spoon restaurant, and the letter spaces provided were ***** ****, the image would be showing "DINER AMPS," and the FINAL unscrambled answer to that question would be "SPIDER-MAN." This may be tough, but remember that all three films have a shared connection. Batter up:

NAME THE UNSCRAMBLED MOVIE TITLES. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, October 16th @ 11:59pm EST.) This is the final quiz in the First Round of the Last Picture Game Show, so unless there's a tie-breaker needed, stay tuned for a fresh slate and all new prizes announced next Monday. Good luck!

Mucho thanks to the Film Society of Lincoln Center (especially Graham, Denise, Inés and Genevieve) for all their help, the continental breakfasts, the morning chill-out tunes, and obviously the invite. Then I be throwin' respek knuckles to my stadium-seated posse: Filmbrain, Danny, Chris, Dorian, Dobbs -- and in recurring cameos -- Adrian and Coleman. Keep tuned to this station for reports of a Manderlay roundtable discussion in the nearby future, starring many of these merrily opinionated sprocket-heads.

Cinephiliac's Top 5 NYFF Films
(in alphabetical order):

Bubble
Caché (Hidden)
The President's Last Bang*
The Squid and the Whale
The Sun
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

*I had to bump one to #6... Twasn't easy!

Sensory overload, schmensory schmoverload. Sure, the eyes may naturally cross a bit after reaching that last week of the fest, but the selections are unique and therefore can't possibly be confused with one another, no? As New York is one of the few film showcases that doesn't bother with a silly awards ceremony, it seems appropriate to honor cinematic diversity with...

...intertitled chapters, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" on the soundtrack, and a protagonist with an overtly effeminate voice:
Breakfast on Pluto

...intertitled chapters, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" on the soundtrack, and an Asian girl told she's too skinny:
Three Times

...an Asian girl told she's too skinny, an innocent animal slaughtered, a misunderstood use of Christian imagery that'll divide critics, a premeditated murder gone awry, and a group of people scrubbing blood off the floor:
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

...a group of people scrubbing blood off the floor, and a film within a film:
Who's Camus Anyway?

...a penultimate shot that's memorably framed by an entranceway, and a mistaken identity involving a dead character:
The Passenger

...intertitled chapters, and a mistaken identity involving a dead character:
Through the Forest

...a film within a film, and an uncomfortably forceful sex scene:
Tale of Cinema

...intertitled chapters, an uncomfortably forceful sex scene, and an innocent animal slaughtered (cutting room floor):
Manderlay

...a film within a film, score contributions by Michael Nyman, womb-like constraints, two animals in its title, someone lying about reading classic literature they obviously haven't, and background TV news footage of the War in Iraq:
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

...background TV news footage of the War in Iraq, an innocent animal slaughtered, and a penultimate shot that's memorably framed by an entranceway:
Caché (Hidden)

...a habitually drunken child, icky on-screen vomiting, and score contributions by Michael Nyman:
I Am (Jestem)

...a habitually drunken child, an aural reminder of Risky Business, someone lying about reading classic literature they obviously haven't, two animals in its title, and costarring Jeff Daniels:
The Squid and the Whale

...a celebrity journalist during his '50s heyday, the defeat of a vilified political icon, and costarring Jeff Daniels:
Good Night and Good Luck

...a celebrity journalist during his '50s heyday, and a protagonist with an overtly effeminate voice:
Capote

...a visual reminder of Risky Business, and public urination:
Regular Lovers

...public urination, and a premeditated murder gone awry:
Paradise Now

...a premeditated murder gone awry, and the defeat of a vilified political icon:
The President's Last Bang

...the defeat of a vilified political icon, and surreal floating-fish imagery:
The Sun

...surreal floating-fish imagery, and womb-like constraints:
Haze

...icky on-screen vomiting, and abdominal troubles requiring hospitalization:
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

...abdominal troubles requiring hospitalization, and washing up in a stranger's bathtub:
Something Like Happiness

...washing up in a stranger's bathtub, and a misunderstood use of Christian imagery that'll divide critics:
Bubble

Only two weeks left in Round One, my friends! Originally, I planned a mighty elaborate series of games in which no pair were alike, with a grand finale that would roundhouse kick you in the throat (in a good way, of course). Then the New York Film Festival's fully-blasted air-conditioning came over me like a terrible cold, causing a terrible cold to come over me like middle-of-the-night anxiety: soaked bed sheets, disorientation and all. The good news is, the fireworks are still scheduled for Week 8, and a handful of you are in the running to snag those Criterion DVDs. For now, I'm too busy hacking up a third lung to offer fresh invention, so sorry.

Last week's "Easiest Game Ever" stated that the answers couldn't have been any simpler. I believe one-letter movie titles fit the bill. Here, have some answers:

Wellspring's DVD transfer ain't so hot, but if that cruddy image still seemed like Greek to you, you should have gone with your instincts: Inspired by the real-life assassination of a Greek pacifist leader, it's director Costa-Gravas' politically thrilling classic (and the New York Film Critics' Best Picture of 1969), Z.

A staple of both German Expressionism and film school curricula worldwide, wunderkind Fritz Lang puts the M in masterpiece with his 1931 melodramatic hunt for a child moiderer.

If you don't know the radical and socially conscious B-movie ouevre of New York native Larry Cohen, stop what you're doing now and seek out his films, including 1982's flying-serpent horror Q (aka Q, the Winged Serpent).

My fiancée hates animated films, but I consider them a hugely influential part of my upbringing. Regardless, even she can't deny that in the Age of Pixar, there is plenty of cartoonery buffoonery that appeals to much, much older kids like you and me.

The following 3 screen captures come from feature-length films in Cinephiliac's exponentially growing DVD collection, and you can bet your steamboat willie that even marriage won't see me parting with them. Let's roll:

1.

2.

3.

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, October 9th @ 11:59pm EST.) If you haven't entered the Last Picture Game Show, you're probably going to be cursed with the same phlegm-dripping malady I have, and then they'll have to amputate. Good luck!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Get ready for talking babies with a naughty-boy attitude as Touchstone Pictures and the Christian Coalition present Sympathy for Baby Vengeance, a family-friendly musical comedy adventure about the repercussions of saying "no" to infants when they want their bottles now! Inspired by the sinfully God-less revenge trilogy by South Korean auteur Park Chanwook, director Chris Columbus' S4BV shows parents and kids alike that violent retribution can be good wholesome fun... as long as it's evoked in the name of He Who Speaks Directly To Our President, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Featuring the amazing A-list voice talent of Bruce Willis ("Lil' Pauly"), Kathleen Turner ("Sandy Anne"), Ice Cube ("Da Brat"), Peter O'Toole ("Oldboy Ernie"), Vincent Gallo ("Chloe, the Brown Bunny") and Roman Polanski ("Roman, the Curmudgeonly God-less Rhino"), S4BV follows one troublesome day in the strife-filled existence of four babies, all left home alone by negligent liberal parents who are drug-abusing, God-less criminals. BUT WHEN THE FOLKS ARE AWAY, THERE'LL BE HELL TO PAY as the pint-size heros team up to exact flesh-tearing, skull-piercing, groin-kicking retribution on those God-less hate-mongers who haven't even bothered to feed, bathe or change them. Featuring an electro-pop soundtrack by Celine Dion and Elton John (including their smash hit single, "You're Gonna Die, God-less Mommy"), S4BV is a thrill-packed moral lesson that every man, woman, and baby ought to learn. Unless you're a God-less liberal.

By the way, do check out Filmbrain's review of the actual Sympathy for Lady Vengeance when you have a second. Then over at Premiere, take out my latest New York Film Festival updates for a spin, or just glance over this succinctly self-promotional recap of said recaps:

9/28 NYFF Roundup: Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale: "keeping a seat warm in the top tier of this year's fest" ... Philippe Garrel's Regular Lovers (aka Les Amants Réguliers): "deserves to find a U.S. distributor on the strengths of its exquisitely full-framed, award-winning cinematography alone" ... Bennett Miller's Capote: "mere background dressing to [Philip Seymour] Hoffman's savviest performance to date," ... Dorota Kedzierzawska's I Am (aka Jestem): "evokes such European childhood-anxiety classics as The Tin Drum and My Life as a Dog, and is definitely my favorite undistributed film of the festival thus far."

9/30 NYFF Roundup: Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times: "predictably gorgeous, but hardly matches the director's gold standard" ... "Lars von Trier's Manderlay: "[the Danish auteur's] most streamlined and subversive provocation to date" ... Jean-Paul Civeyrac's Through the Forest: "the lush experience of faces filling frames and rhyming imagery is more of a payoff than the somewhat undemanding [plot] twists."]]> http://cinephiliac.com/2005/10/dont_put_it_pas.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/10/dont_put_it_pas.html Blog Sat, 01 Oct 2005 18:52:10 -0500 Quiz day. Let's keep this as short and sugary as the amazing new Wallace & Gromit movie (which is quick-witted and sneakily sophisticated enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the Marx Brothers or Preston Sturges), but more on that later.

This cat needs some worthwhile shut-eye before a second week of NYFF screenings, so I'm just going to let the uncovered pictures from last week speak for themselves. Now don't feel bad, because that "Down In Front!" quiz was a real toughie. It was so rough, in fact, that I scared most of you away from even entering. For that reason, I must throw some devil-horn "rawk" gestures to Corbett and Peter, who both identified three films with the word "They" in their titles:

ROUND 1, GAME 6: The Easiest Game Ever

Maybe not, but after the lack of turnout last week, I figured I'd throw you all a bone to show you I care. The following three films (DVDs) captured below have something major in common, and this much is true: the answers couldn't be any easier.

1.

2.

3.

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, October 2nd @ 11:59pm EST.) If you haven't entered the Last Picture Game Show, you're missing out on the mintiest fresh taste this side of the French Alps. Good luck!

As of this weekend, it's a dozen NYFF press screenings down, fourteen to go. Of all the things I can say about juggling freelance work with my weekday festival routine (commuting, watching, absorbing, debating, writing, sleeping, waking, writing, repeating) is that it's as exhilarating as it is exhausting, which sometimes makes it easier to recall the more delirious observations of this event. Here's my Friday favorite:

Before The Squid and the Whale was a French short called Be Quiet, about a father and young son crossing the Israeli/Palestinian border. Early on, the boy refuses to get into his dad's car because he's doing the pee-pee dance, unaware of his father's anxiety to drive away from trigger-happy soldiers. The boy goes behind a bush at the side of the road -- and in the row directly behind me -- the throaty non-whisper of bag lady-chic Midnight Cowboy actress Sylvia Miles spits out in a smoker's monotone: "Oh, he's gonna get shot." Thanks for that one, Sylvia.

If you're interested, please check out my preview and ongoing festival coverage over at Premiere. Currently, there are capsule reviews of Good Night, And Good Luck. (where I refused to capitalize the "A," and here come the semi-colons); Steven Soderbergh's must-see Bubble; Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes' overrated L'Enfant (The Child); and Cristi Puiu's magnificent The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. New updates will be available there for the next pairs of Tuesdays and Fridays, then come here in the interim for sundry asides and my weekly contest.

Magnificently, seven of you were able to correctly identify all of last week's "Misspelled Marquees," which all happened to be the names of essential horror film classics:

What did that Rorshach test look like to you? A butterfly? The face of Satan? Although "INK BLOT" fit the spaces provided, simply "THE BLOT" becomes the Steve McQueen oldie The Blob (1958).

I threw in a red blue herring by coloring that pony, because all you needed to know was that it was the "LAST HORSE ON THE LEFT," which becomes director Wes Craven's brutal tale of familial revenge, Last House on the Left (1972).

The most brilliantly disgusting guess came in from my good friend Claire, who was convinced this had something to do with "Minstrel Blood" (I'll leave you with that). It's actually "BLOOD AND BLACK FACE," which then becomes Italian splatter-meister Mario Bava's giallo standard, Blood and Black Lace (1964).

Maybe people would stop talking about box-office slumps if going to theaters weren't such a hassle. Even in multiplexes with stadium seating, I always end up sitting behind the one Don King look-alike in the crowd, and then I can't read subtitles -- or worse -- see who's starring in my movie.

The following three movies have something major in common. The only problem is, each picture has been covered up by some ass-clown who can't seem to slouch in their seat (and probably forgot to shut off their cell phone, and reeks of fast-food B.O., and makes phlegmy throat-clearing grunts). Check it out:

#1

#2

#3

NAME EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, September 25th @ 11:59pm EST.) If you haven't entered the contest yet, you're probably going to grow up to be a middle manager at a company you hate -- and hates you right back -- for the rest of eternity. Good luck!

The funny thing about The Iron Man-Maker's career is that my then-amateurish critique wouldn't be entirely off the mark today. Disturbing, disorienting and often attempting to commingle inorganic clashes (body vs. technology, man vs. metropolis, inner psyche vs. outer beast) into physical relationships, the visually frenetic films of Tsukamoto are sage monstrosities, too linear to be pigeonholed as avant-garde and too experimental to provoke a right or wrong analysis. They don't just make your skin crawl, they make your skin try to burrow under itself to hide, which I can only say with genuine admiration and a satiated taste for surprise. To update my oversimplified take, if early Cronenberg were the perversely brilliant scientist of flesh-transformation horror, then Tsukamoto would be the unchained pit bull devouring said genius. If you're feeling adventurous, I'd highly recommend his mesmerizing blue-tinted study in erotic voyeurism, A Snake of June (2002), a Venice Film Festival prizewinner and perhaps his most user-friendly, for whatever that's worth.

Tsukamoto's first digital project, the 49-minute Haze (2005), will be the single midnight screening at NYFF this year, and while I'm still assimilating its intentions and after-effects into my definitive opinion, my initial gut reaction (the only kind you typically get from his films) is to call this reductivist trial in art-horror a front-loaded success in culling dread from negative space. Condensed into a 25-minute short for an omnibus project commissioned by the Jeonju International Film Festival (along with Korean director Song Il-gon's Magician(s) and another from one of my fave Thai filmmakers, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Worldly Desires), the full-length Haze startles you alert and rigid from its very first frame. Tsukamoto himself stars as a nameless man who has insoluably woken up into a personal hell, a close-quarters cavern of concrete and darkness with no logical escape. Alone, confused and nursing a bleeding belly wound, this poor bastard desperately and uncomfortably contorts himself through blackened mazes of heart-racing ambience (ours and his), frequently passing out from exhaustion. Upon awakening, new tests await:

How do you free yourself when you are trapped teeth-first to dirty piping and cannot move your head backwards? You painfully grind your teeth laterally until you find a gap in the pipe. When you make your way down one end and find only a wall, you grind your way back the other direction. (This caused a couple walkouts.)

How do you evade a spring-loaded hammer you can't see in the dark, repeatedly smashing your head? You painfully squeeze yourself into a tiny tunnel that drops you headfirst down a slide into face-targeted stalagmites. (This caused a few more.)

Occasionally, he hears a woman's apology in his subconscious and witnesses surreal blurs of blinding light and flying fish that could possibly be from his past, or is he merely suffering from sensory depravation? Tsukamoto seems a bit too content with the ambiguity and offers no hints to the what or why of this torment, but the visceral impact of fear in the nothingness is a full-bodied reminder that the most authentic frights come from what you can't see, not what's poked into the camera's eye to make audiences flinch. (Hollywood, take note!) In the film's substantially weaker back half, a second character and pools of bloody man-burger meat are introduced to take the film into latter-day Takashi Miike territory (I'm thinking of the smugly abstracted imagery of Gozu and Izo), but even if you're ultimately scratching your head at the final credits sequence, Haze's strongest moments prove that graphic brutality -- or even discernible lighting -- aren't necessary to conjure terror as raw as sushi.

For fun, here's what the high-school me might have said in 2005: "Imagine Dario Argento and Miike collaborating on a film called Cowards Break the Kneecap, or Gaspar Noe remaking the indie sci-fi gem Cube. That's totally Haze."

Last Monday's "Double Feature Mash-Ups" challenge was fun to invent, and thanks to those who showed appreciation by competing. There were many wrong yet highly creative guesses, but as a whole, you're proving difficult to stump. Let's recap:

(#1) If young Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal) from Paper Moon (1973) were in a car with one-handed baker Ronny Cammareri (Nicolas Cage) from Moonstruck (1987), you could only be watching PAPER MOONSTRUCK.

(#2) Unless you've had your eye shot out, you recognized the tongue-frozen-to-a-pole scene from perennial holiday fave
A Christmas Story (1983), but some of you forgot how indie pessimist Todd Solondz self-censored a sex scene from Storytelling (2001) with a bright red-orange rectangle to avoid an NC-17 rating. Witness A CHRISTMAS STORYTELLING.

(#3) Aspiring pro basketballers William Gates and Arthur Agee were the documentary stars of Hoop Dreams (1994), but only in Japanese master Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990) would you see living dolls haunting a small boy in the peach orchard. Although I'm gladly awarding one point for "Hoop Dreams," I was really looking for AKIRA KUROSAWA'S HOOP DREAMS.

The ol' dusty drive-in at the Last Picture Game Show has been confusing filmgoers this week, as every title on the marquee has been misspelled by one letter. People might even start thinking it's a porno theater if they keep seeing movies called The Constant Hardener or The Brothels Grimm. Maybe some public-relations intern isn't spell-checking the press releases, that jerk.

Ex.

Analogous to that frightening example, the following images represent three movies with something major in common. The problem is, each picture depicts what the movie might look like if just one of the letters in its title were misspelled. Try these on:

#1

#2

#3

NAME EACH MOVIE BY ITS REAL TITLE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, September 18th @ 11:59pm EST.) If you haven't entered the contest yet, you're missing out on the single greatest pleasure since leather vests.

So if last year's Dawn of the Dead resembles the hurricane's aftermath, then Australian auteur Peter Weir's The Last Wave (1977) could be the apocalyptic final days leading up to Mother Nature's wrath. Ostensibly the story of a Westerner finding his predetermined fate amongst tribal aborigines, The Last Wave tells the ominous tale of David Burton (Richard Chamberlain, whose face was described by Weir in 1979 as having a useful "alien quality"), a Sydney corporate tax barrister who finds himself defending five Aborigines on an inexplicable murder rap of one of their own.

Strong courtroom and class-struggle plottings intertwined with tribal-secret conspiracies make for intelligent drama, but after his sublimely haunting Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), one might deduce that Weir was more fascinated in constructing tony atmospheric horror, the single best reason to seek out this didgeridoo- rumbling gem. As David investigates his case with vigorous curiosity, his own consciousness becomes the conduit to nightmarish visions involving demonized waters. Does he have second sight into tsunamis, hurricanes and floods, or is he merely processing a vivid form of anxiety?

What's truly amazing about The Last Wave is Weir's robust dexterity in deconstructing the many textures and demeanors of H2O itself. The setting's freak nighttime storms hold gorgeously menacing compositions, yet the film seems to view all fluidity as multi-faceted. Water can be simultaneously benign and treacherous, and not just in those lingering dream sequences... During a torrential "black rain," a man shields himself with his umbrella while sipping from a water fountain. An aboriginal houseguest asks for a glass of water while a downpour frightens the outside air. Kids frolic through the garden sprinkler under the dangerous clap of thunder. Was Weir drawing out correlations between that which could destroy us, yet makes up a majority percentage of our bodies? How somber must we heed the irony that we're vulnerable to that which we need to live?

This cinephiliac has ulterior motives in not revealing more of the narrative's mechanics -- partially because it would be a shame to ruin some timeless surprises, but more as an open-ended experiment to newcomers: Does blurring context to this lucid liquid landscape heighten its visceral potency when held up to today's headlines? From its hailstorm-in-a- classroom opener to its claustrophobic sewer-tunnel denouement and ambiguously aqua-logged ending, are you more or less intrigued to see The Last Wave based only on a comparative reading against relevant visual horrors? Weeding out the sick-minded gawkers who relish traumatic images, how does reality affect your film-watching habits? Are you all romantic comedies while grappling with world crisis, or are you prone to turn to provocative cinema to find better footholds in your own comprehensive reasoning? At least answer this, am I being too heady about a picture starring adventurer Allan Quatermain?

COINCIDENTALLY: Weir's more recent The Truman Show (1998) -- another film exploring the dark underbelly of reality -- ends with Jim Carrey's unwitting reality-TV star escaping through a secret door in the middle of an ocean. While a friend and I discussed yesterday how the film could have been better (a) without an audience- demander like Carrey, or (b) if the aforementioned conclusion took place halfway through its running time (imagine the possibilites of Truman seeing the REAL world after a lifetime in The Real World: is it utopian? dystopian? can he ever go back?), it's amusing to wonder if Weir took a mental swim in that parallel. Maybe life's remaining answers can be found in a shoreline gaze...]]> http://cinephiliac.com/2005/09/weather_or_not.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/09/weather_or_not.html Blog Thu, 08 Sep 2005 02:18:32 -0500 Even if you're lucky enough to barbecue instead of work this Labor Day, this has obviously been a laborious week for us all, especially the struggling folks and families in the eye of an unfathomably wrecked region. At the risk of using the Hurricane Katrina tragedy as an excuse for slacking on site updates, this cinephiliac has been too emotional and distracted by both bad news (refreshing CNN.com has become a carpal obsession) and good (spirits were lifted this weekend when I won a brand new fiancée) to bask in my celluloid passions. However, short of donating more money to various charities (please just click right now), the show must go on, even if the sting of anger at my federal government's shameless apathy down South is too sobering to get lost in the movies just yet.

Last week's "Sound Bytes" contest went over like gangbusters with many of you, so pat yourself on the back if you were able to identify the audio clips from three costarring Willem Dafoe:

(#1) David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), in which Nicolas "Stab It and Steer" Cage channels Elvis with perverse glee, is an underrated masterwork sprung straight from the dark subconscious.

(#2) Dafoe's quite-German Klaus can be heard in that goofy bit from Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), which polarized the critics and seems to still be a mixed bag for most. Personally, I gobbled it up, warts and all.

(#3) Tobey Maguire wrestles a real freakshow in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002), a Hollywood keeper that proved for the first time since the late '70s -- when a bloated Brando received an equally bloated paycheck -- that superhero flicks could be richer than just live-action cartoons.

ROUND 1, GAME 3: Double Feature Mash-Ups

What if technology allowed the movie industry to meld two films together, so that Jim Jarmusch's neo-western opus were bulked up with hordes of flesh-starved zombies and cheaply re-sold to audiences as Night of the Living Dead Man? What if Spike Lee laid down his jazz with Elwood and Jake, then repackaged the sucker for the multiplexes as Mo' Better Blues Brothers?

Following the example there, the 3 unrelated images below depict this potential marketing disaster, each illustrating two arguably great tastes that don't taste great together. Articles may be omitted (as everyone knows the movie is called THE Blues Brothers), but otherwise, answers must articulate every word from both merged titles. For instance, Aguirre: The Wrath of Khan would NOT be acceptable as it mentions neither "God" nor "Star Trek II" (though both are synonymous with "Shatner," an entirely different game altogether). Check 'em out:

#1

#2

#3

NAME EACH MOVIE MASH-UP. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, September 11th @ 11:59pm EST. -- Read the rules here!) Please note, this is still anybody's contest, so stop wimping out and hand over your best guesses. G'luck!

My Top 10 Films of 2007 (and More):
indieWIRE Critics Poll
Village Voice / LA Weekly critics poll (coming Jan. 2)

My Top 30 Films of 2007:
In alphabetical order, each title linked to my reviews, interviews, podcasts, etc. -- or if I never covered 'em, links you might like:

May you find the time to catch up with all these films in the new year! Until next time, which will likely be about 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days from now...

#1 - The story and wit of director George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story (1940) holds up remarkably well today, and its idea of an invasive reporter getting in the way of high society carries new significance in today's age of celeb-stalking paparazzi. To those who politely berated me for using an establishing shot as a screen grab, I say phhhhhht. That opening mansion matte, seen on more than one occasion, is the same exterior for one of the film's most memorable moments, where Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn are seen in the midst of their break-up feud.

#2 - Marty Scorsese's ambitious but messy musical New York, New York (1977) is a not-so-guilty pleasure of this cinephiliac, and kudos to those who recognized Robert De Niro's wing-tip on a newspaper declaring the end of WWII.

#3 - Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) is easily the German auteur's greatest film shot on American soil (which isn't saying much when compared to, say, that embarrassing misfire co-written by Bono). The grizzled desert wanderer in a red hat and crumpled suit is none other than character actor extraordinaire Harry Dean Stanton.

TO ALL CONTEST NEWCOMERS: It is not too late to get in on the action and win yourself a couple of fantastic DVD releases from The Criterion Collection! Only 8 players earned 2 or 3 points in the last round, and I have no intention of letting any of you earn all 24 points. (Prove me wrong, film fans!) It also wouldn't surprise me if the ultimate winner is someone who joins the fun in the second or third round. Don't be shy or afraid to take your best guesses, even if you're feeling a bit unsure.

GAME 1, ROUND 2: Sound Bytes
The hills are alive with the sound of movies! The following three audio clips come from movies that have something major in common. NAME THE TITLE OF EACH FILM. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, September 4th.) Please note, you don't necessarily need to answer all three correctly to win all the bananas...

Man, I don't know if you cats have seen this ultra-violent gem yet, but the centerpiece sequence where The Evangelist flies down to Venezuela and confronts Chavez has some of the most quotable dialogue (although the pop culture references were obnoxious -- My suspension of disbelief was totally squelched once the coup-leader started making snarky Gilmore Girls references):

"Your spurting arteries won't stain my faith, even as your skewered entrails spiral 'round my holy blade! If you want to live and taste salvation, you'll donate to the Lord right now."
(The wimpering Chavez then hands him a billfold that says 'Christ-like Motherfucker.')

"Prepare for Castro-ation!"

"The revolution will be vivisected, not televised!"

"I'm the only dictator around, and I dictate... Hugo to Hell!"

"Song of Solomon 4, 1 through 7..."
(it's a chilling thing to say before killing someone, trust me.)

The Rules:
For the next 8 weeks (once again, that's every Monday, if you haven't had your coffee yet), Cinephiliac will host a game that tests your memory and knowledge in Prussian foosball players cinema. Each challenge will vary in type and difficulty, and will present an opportunity to score 1, 2, or 3 points. All games will concern only films that have been released in North America and/or available as Region 1 DVDs (from my personal collection). Only one weekly entry per player will be accepted via email here, and PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.

What's At Stake:
In mid-October, after a possible 24 points have been offered (that's 8 times 3, and seriously, drink some coffee or maybe just buy me one), one lucky bastard will win both super-awesome Criterion DVD titles pictured right there: Jean-Pierre Melville's Le samourai (1967) and Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear (1953). In case of a tie, the contest will continue into extra innings weeks until a single victor is found.

GAME 1, ROUND 1: We begin with DVD Screen Captures. The following three movies have something major in common. NAME THE TITLE OF EACH MOVIE. Earn (1) point for every correct answer, and don't forget to include your name when you send your entry to lastpicturegameshow@gmail.com. (Entries must be received by Sunday, August 28th.) Please note, you don't necessarily need to answer all three correctly to win this thing... Best of luck!

August is turning out to be a golden month for much-buzzed South Korean filmmaker Park Chanwook, with Oldboy (2003) -- potentially a top-ten fave of the year for this cinephiliac -- arriving on DVD next week, and the recent exciting news that Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) has made the blood-stained cut at the upcoming 43rd New York Film Festival. That only leaves one film in Park's revenge trilogy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), which finally pommels its way into a limited theatrical release today, yet has already had its ass thoroughly beaten (an unfair assault on a good film whose distribution is heretofore guaranteed to be mismanaged in the blundering hands of Tartan):

"Shrugged off by more than a few U.S. critics as sloppy in its scornful political critique, lacking in context to justify its brutality, and unobjectively labelled a film only a fanboy could love, this misunderstood thriller is hardly as one-dimensionally wanton as those snubs would have it..."

(Read my full review at Premiere.com)

As you'll hopefully read, I think Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is far from perfect and definitely not suitable for those who can't stomach an old-fashioned tendon slashing. Whether its moral and sensory examination works is a professional debate of opinion, but to cheaply bury the film as meaningless exploitation is an unacceptably surface-deep reading from a crew who should know the difference between Park and less humanist pop-stylists like Takashi "I just made three more films while you read this" Miike and Quentin "You can thank me for hearing The 5.6.7.8's every other commercial break" Tarantino.

UNRELATED WEEKEND NEWS: Literally! One of Jean-Luc Godard's all-time greatest, Weekend (1968), sneaks out onto DVD next Tuesday. Be sure to check the "Editor's Picks" above for a free MP3 homage from Berlin's electro-poppy fun time, Stereo Total.]]> http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/sympathy_for_mr.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/sympathy_for_mr.html Blog Fri, 19 Aug 2005 01:45:49 -0500 "I remember my father once said that if you ever wanted to look at someone's soul, you'd have to look at their dreams. And that would allow you to have mercy for those who swim in bigger shit than your own." -- Axel Blackmar, Arizona Dream

The original 142-minute cut of Bosnian auteur Emir Kusturica's Arizona Dream (1993) goes relatively unseen in the U.S. these days, and Warner Bros. can be blamed for butchering this absurdist comedy into a shoddy straight-to-VHS release with reshuffled scenes and clocked under two hours. Winner of a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and dedicated to Kusturica's father, this wild ode to strange love, chasing dreams, and letting one's freak flag fly is a cold scoop of magic realism in the desert that aesthetically melts like a mirage in the mind.

Opening credits for Arizona Dream don't roll over the 48th state but the 49th, as a dogsledding Alaskan fisherman stands-off against a mysterious white wolf, who ultimately saves him from the harsh blizzards by dragging his body onto the sled and running the dogs. The native man recovers and makes love to his wife, then a red balloon floats all the way to New York City and pops on the sleeping head of fish-and-game employee Axel Blackmar (Johnny Depp). Everyone in this movie dreams, but the Innuit man's journey is literally part of Axel's "movie dream" (as someone describes it), a Lynchian or at least early Van Zant-ish vision of an orphaned wanderer who sees his life contemplatively reflected in the eyes of fish. ("Most people think I count fish, but I don't... I look at their souls and read their dreams," Depp narrates.)

Axel's slick-haired chum Paul Leger (Vincent Gallo, channelling Crispin Glover) carries Broadway pipe dreams of becoming the next De Niro, but can't even catch a break at an amateur stage competition with his best Cary Grant from North by Northwest (Gallo re-enacts the whole crop-duster scene as hilariously as Andy Kaufman "sang" the Mighty Mouse theme.) When the two reconnect after a few years, the wanna-be thespian gets Axel passed-out drunk and drives him cross-country to Tucson as summoned by his uncle Leo (Jerry Lewis, channelling Jerry Lewis). Leo Sweetie thinks he has found the American dream as a successful Cadillac salesman, but even marrying a gorgeous young thing (Paulina Porizkova) can't blind him from having achieved only goals of soulless materialism. Leo convinces Axel to hang out in 'Zona for a spell, but auto huckstering won't fit the young fish-lover's peculiar ideals. A true eccentric seeks love and adventure, though Axel probably couldn't articulate either concept.

Axel soon meets wealthy copper miner's widow Elaine Stalker (a fantastically feisty, fleighty Faye Dunaway) and her suicidal step-daughter Grace (Lili Taylor), and a confused leap of curiousity brings him semi-permanently to their nearby ranch home. Hot bang-bang with mother and sexually tense clashes with accordion-playing daughter seems much better to Axel than selling cars, and it allows him to vicariously aspire through Elaine's wishes of building a fully functional, foot-powered flying machine in the yard. Even if he can't dream while he's awake, his ongoing night visions become stranger and more prophetic, which allows Kusturica to go nuts with the hallucinatory imagery... piles of turtles, ambulances flying to the moon, rows of pink Cadillacs on stilts -- and of course -- fish, glorious fish that float around to mingle with reality. But what constitutes the line crossed between real and surreal? Perception can always be frustratingly intangible in the eyes of another, especially under the synth-addled trance of Goran Bregovic's marching turbofolk score.

Arizona Dream thrives on its own lush unpredictability (do you honestly expect Gallo to unzip his fly and pull out a banana? Okay, nevermind), forging unlikely new rules of attraction between unusual characters who comfortably slide their emotions and demeanors from slapstick (the all-pink chateau of Jerry Lewis) to psychodrama (Russian Roulette played during a thunderstorm) without a blink of notice. While Kusturica's more well-known and fully-realized fare -- including Underground (1995) and Black Cat, White Cat (1998) -- stand on steadier structures and act friendlier to festival crowds, Arizona Dream is an endearingly flawed, overstimulated randomizer filled with near-constant surprises behind every dinner-table anecdote of cannibalistic Papua New Guinean rituals (and there's more than one).

BEST CLOSING CREDIT: "Any reference to Cadillac dealerships or dealers is purely fictional. The Cadillac automobile was selected for the film because it has and continues to represent the epitomy [sic] of American automobile design."]]> http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/arizona_dream_k.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/arizona_dream_k.html Blog Wed, 17 Aug 2005 04:52:50 -0500 Terrorist attacks! Government villains! Clairvoyant weapons of mass destruction! Written off largely as preposterous and reactionary in the discontented aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, director Brian De Palma's comfortably hammy, sensationally gory and decadently entertaining The Fury (1978) needn't tweak its agenda much to be construed as radical satire under the Days of Dubya.

Based on a screenplay and the first in a series of horror novels by John Farris, De Palma's next-up after Carrie (1976) went big is a predictable example of what happens to young mavericks who get tossed a bloated studio budget after a modest success. Plunging head-first into a mountain of popcorn, De Palma feverishly mashes together the spy-thriller and paranomal-themed giallo with a hint of familial (and as he's prone, Hitchcockian) melodrama, marauding through memorable setpieces with not a damn concern that its hokey logic warrants a three-ring spit take. But even if it's too emotionally icy to share a mantle with his greatest early work, Sisters (1973), this zippy indulgence deserves to be dusted off on DVD and hailed an occult classic.

The brassy Jaws of John Williams' high-contrast Herrmannian score give some bite to the film's opening beachfront vacation sequence, as devoted father and elite U.S. agent Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas, all dimple and grimace) tussles playfully -- if not a little homoerotically -- with his teenage son Robin (Andrew Stevens, son of Stella), a "special" kid with a bright future and some pretty bitchin' telekinetic powers. Joined by Peter's cucumber-cool buddy and 20-year colleague, Ben Childress (John Cassavetes, one of the film's undeniable pleasures), we're quickly established on the shoreline of Israel, although the non-descript title card reads "Mid East, 1977." SUDDENLY, just after Ben shares some goodbyes over Peter's upcoming retirement, sheiks in speedboats come blasting in with AK-47s! Wearing a pair of short shorts that semi-consciously becomes a recurring wardrobe gag, Peter manages to steal an autorifle and take out some of the cartoonish Arabic extremists. Left for dead, ol' Spartacus overhears that trusted Ben is not just in cahoots with the assassins, but in the middle of kidnapping his psionically endowed son, now a valuable token of high-stakes commercialism and global domination. (I double-dog dare you to remake this, Bruckheimer.)

After you stew for a moment over this random thought: the former Mrs. Spielberg's initials are indeed A.I. -- Amy Irving costars as a second ESP-ecially gifted teen named Gillian, who shares an extrasensory bond (kinda like cerebral wi-fi?) with Robin, whom she's only met in visions. Hoping to physically connect with her mysterious other while they're both being hunted by friendly dad and bureaucratic foe, Gillian picks up clues through the psychic residue of every Dead Zone handshake and Firestarter nosebleed, building to a Scanners denouement that might hint at how this film disappeared in a fog of its superior imitators, a Bermuda Triangle of David Cronenberg, Stephen King and De Palma's own latter-day populist output.

Unraveling more of this ball of plot might accidentally reveal six or seven separate strands that don't neatly tie into one story, but that's amazingly part of The Fury's white-knuckle charm. High-gloss directorial style (what, no splitscreen?) hijacks the convoluted story arcs just before audiences can think to ask how anything could possibly make sense. In today's context, it's at least a bigger hoot than most of this summer's ten-dollar rides, which can't even tie their shoes, let alone get twisted up in knots.

CAMEO FUN FACT: All making their feature-film debuts are nubile Darryl Hannah and E.R. regular Laura Innes as a couple of lunchtime princesses in schoolgirl uniforms, PLUS a blinky over-actor named Dennis Franz, playing a cop who Kirk Douglas carjacks!

]]> http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/de_palma_fury.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/de_palma_fury.html Blog Mon, 15 Aug 2005 22:50:59 -0500 New York City's unspeakable heat index today laid down some hermetic and downright Darwinian demands for hugging air conditioners and keeping perpetually hydrated, so to say that a lot of sweat was spilled over writing and coding this new blog isn't entirely exaggerated.

The moist slog of August just underlines how ready we are to be done with summer, both in temperature and in the aggressively blockbusted programming of our multiplexes. Enough with the expensive sitcom adaptations and clueless remakes, can we please now diversify and try something besides loud and dumb? Fortunately, just as the summer line-up seems to start earlier every year, this month has already sprouted some autumn-friendly gems... If you haven't seen Herzog's Grizzly Man, you owe it to your own personal growth and enrichment as a filmgoer to see a truly transcendent documentary. If Jarmusch's Broken Flowers hasn't hit your town yet, be sure to download the MP3 (in the "Editor's Picks" section above) featuring Holly Golightly's wonderful opening number.

So turn off your cell phone and enjoy the recommendations, free downloadables, and an ongoing conversation about cinema that I hope you'll jump into like Joe and his underrated volcano. Speak your mind, share even your crankiest of opinions, and let me know what I can do to make your stay more fulfilling.

Technical glitches (read: my sketchy JavaScipting) are bound to crash this fort sooner or later in these early days, so do us both a favor and let me know when something looks wonky while you're clickin' away. It would be a crying shame if I had no winners in my upcoming contest giveaways because nobody pointed out where Orson Welles was skewed like a Conehead. Then again, some might say that I'm a bit skewed.

Anyway, more later. Those ice cube trays won't refill themselves.

]]> http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/its_way_too_hot.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/its_way_too_hot.html Blog Sun, 14 Aug 2005 03:18:05 -0500 http://www.firstlookinternational.com/Films/Films.asp?txtQuickSearch_FilmTitle=%7BB6B470F8-4D84-44DC-84A8-742C6A0AECBD%7D http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/cinephiliac_fil.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/cinephiliac_fil.html Film Sat, 06 Aug 2005 22:32:21 -0500 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FQuiet-City-Dance-Party-USA%2Fdp%2FB000XSKDLK%2F&tag=cinephiliac-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/cinephiliac_dvd.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/cinephiliac_dvd.html DVD Sat, 06 Aug 2005 22:31:15 -0500 http://www.cinephiliac.com/mp3/2007/Our%20Life%20is%20Not%20a%20Movie%20or%20Maybe.mp3 http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/cinephiliac_mp3.html http://cinephiliac.com/2005/08/cinephiliac_mp3.html MP3 Sat, 06 Aug 2005 22:29:54 -0500