Recently Watched Films

I remember seeing the shorts for this ^^^ when I was a kid but have never seen it.

Not as good as Divergent, but then the books get progressively weaker as well. Still not a bad movie though.

I've passed many a happy hour listening to Wax Trax! Records, and this was a happy hour and a half getting to know the story behind this record store and label.

Excellent rock opera reimagining of Phantom of the Opera. Music and bad guy care of Paul Williams. My choir mistress mentioned this movie the other day, saying how Daft Punk had taken a lot of inspiration for their costumes from the movie. I can definitely see it. Good fun and good music.

Surprisingly frank documentary about Chris Holmes. While W.A.S.P. might still be having delusions of grandeur, Holmes knows exactly where he fits in the world, and is quite happy to keep playing small venues to small but appreciative audiences. This doesn't shy away from anything, including Holmes' alcoholism and brief marriage to Lita Ford. There's a bit of live footage, and he still has the chops, even in his 60s. And unlike W.A.S.P., Holmes still plays "Fuck Like A Beast" live. I know which one of the two I'd prefer to see these days...

A good cast but this biographical crime movie just failed to resonate with me. 

The movie equivalent of a photocopied fanzine exploring a movement that wasn't really a movement, but more a place where the misfits could fit.

While this does feel like it should have had some 20 to 30 minutes shaved from the running time, it's a pretty underrated J-Horror otherwise. Often has a genuinely creepy atmosphere, though it certainly owes something to 1998's Ringu as well. 

Second watch of this excellent atmospheric vampire movie (it could do without the hip-hop music being totally at odds with that though), which treats vampirism like a drug addiction.