Steve D
Favorite scene: Patrick and Bob are cornered by the hired assassin, Dennis, who is about to murderize them. Patrick steps up to Dennis and proclaims bravely [paraphrase], "I'm tired of running. It's time to face up to evil..." and before he can finish his speech, Dennis socks poor Patrick into the air (water?). Patrick shouts, "Run!" My description misses the subtleties of the Sponge Bob humor. You'll have to see it for yourself to appreciate it. You won't be disappointed.

This is one amazingly funny flick. Only complaint: It was too short. But the laughs galore made up for the length.

***SPOILERS***

I finally finished it today at lunch. I was very happy with it. It is either my favorite or second (behind the Gunslinger) in the series. I admit that I was somewhat disappointed in the quick death of Marten/Flagg. But that was mainly based on his presence in books other than the seven Dark Tower books. I was somewhat underwhelmed by Eddie's death, but overwhelmed with emotion at Jake's death, and to a slightly smaller extent Oy's.

The ending was perfect in my opinion. It combined Roland's persistence and single-mindedness into both a strength and weakness. It showed that fate (ka) plays a role but at the same time a person can learn and change his fate (Roland picks up the Horn of Gilead).

Immediately upon finishing the book I was filled with all kinds of opposite emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, calm, etc. But these emotions weren't conflicting with each other inside me; they were complementing each other. The only analogy I could think of was yin and yang.


To address some of the criticisms mentioned in previous posts:

There is no resolution.
I think the point of the story is that there is often no resolution. Life is a journey, a quest. The joy and wonderment is in the journey not in reaching the destination.

Marten and The Crimson King and Mordred were killed too easily.
This is symbolic of the fact that the evils and obstacles of this world that we face are often not as significant as we perceive them to be. We spend so much time chasing or being chased by some things that when we finally catch them or are caught by them they are often a let-down.

The motivations of the evil characters were stupid and shallow.
I think this is basically a statement about evil in general. It is so minor and insignificant relative to the force of GOOD (whatever you want to call it). It is ultimately self-defeating.

Important characters were left out.
First of all, I think it would be nearly impossible to work all the characters into the main story. That is why there are sub-plots to begin with. Characters such as Jack Sawyer were important to their own sub-plots but not directly to Roland's quest. More on that below.

Stephen King writes himself into his books due to ego.
I honestly don't believe this to be true. I believe him when he says that he just writes down the story as it comes (is presented) to him. I think he felt that his inclusion in the story was both necessary and unavoidable.

I want to specifically address Mailedbypostman and ALowerDeep on a couple of issues, respectively:

1) Why do you think that reading the Dark Tower "obliterates any reason to read other Stephen King books"? I find it to be exactly the opposite. I feel the desire to go back and read much of his early work to re-examine how it all fits into the recently-completed puzzle, especially Insomnia (which I didn't honestly care much for the first time), Eyes of the Dragon (same), and 'Salem's Lot (the Father Callahan arc mainly).

2) You state that Jack Sawyer saves "the most powerful breaker ever in Black House" and that "he most certainly saved the tower single handedly." I would posit that Jack is unknowingly doing a bad thing, just as Dinky Earnshaw was in Everything's Eventual. The Breakers are trying to destroy the beams and, therefore, saving Tyler was actually a bad thing; it helped to advance the purpose of the Crimson King.


Finally, I am intriqued by cyber-jack's idea of breaking the cycle, of Roland relenting and turning away from his quest.

Someone (fondly) mentioned this film a while back. I remembered seeing it but not being too fond of it. But what the hell, I put it on my Netflix cue. It arrived over the weekend. Watched it last night.

This 1957 b&w turkey is up there with Plan 9 in the howlingly bad category.

It starts off with a new airborne radar system that’s going to help us keep an eye on the Russians. It runs on atomic power that’s beamed up to a plane (a B-52 which magically changes to a B-47 and back again). But even though they ramp up the reactor to dangerous levels (think of Scotty saying, “Captain, she canna take no more!”) they can’t get enough power to the plane – something keeps sucking it off.

Hey, it’s 1957 and THEY’VE GOT BROADCAST POWER!

But never mind that: People are being attacked by invisible creatures who suck out their brains and spinal cords through 2 small holes in the back of the skull. One wonders anxiously where do these things come from and what can they possibly look like?

Well, in a steal from Forbidden Planet’s id creature, a scientist wired up his head and created them. He didn’t intend for them to be evil, but they are. They gain strength from the energy from the reactor and feed on human central nervous systems.

Somehow the creatures rev the reactor into overload level and destroy the rods that will cool it down. This extra energy allows them to become visible. Know what they look like?

THE BRAINS AND SPINAL CORDS OF THEIR VICTIMS!

Except that the brains have two antennae and the spinal cords are segmented.

SPINAL CORDS ARE NOT SEGMENTED – THE VERTEBRAE AROUND THEM ARE!

They use their (SEGMENTED) spinal cords to propel them like inch worms, with help from peripheral nerve trunks that act like spindly legs.

The stop-motion animation is bad while they’re on the ground or hanging from trees, but then they jump.

THEY JUMP!

Eventually the principals – army types and the designated female – are trapped in a house surrounded by the fiends. They shoot them with their .45s – revealing that the creatures are filled with strawberry preserves – but there are too many of them. The hero says the only way to stop them is to blow up the reactor.

YES, BLOW UP THE REACTOR!!!

How’s he going to do this? By stopping for explosives at the dynamite shack between town and the army base.

THE DYNAMITE SHACK???

Ever live in a town with a DYNAMITE SHACK?

But he reaches it, breaks in, makes off with four (FOUR !) sticks of dynamite and BLOWS UP THE REACTOR!!! (with 4 sticks of dynamite)

This causes all the fiends to dissolve into custard.

Whew. The protagonists and the town have been saved by BLOWING UP THE REACTOR!!

74 minutes of (depending on your mood) hilarity or pure crap.

APhew Wrote:A friend of mine just pointed me to this article:

http://www.filmthreat.com/Features.asp?Id=1247

I thought it was pretty funny. It's especially relevant now that the DVD and CD Commentary are coming out. Someone should write the author of this article to let him know about the CD Commentary (I would, but I can't from the office).

I'm one of those idiots who went out and rented "The Keep" after reading so much about it on this board. I did see it when it first came out, but I was young and stupid and incredibly stoned at the time (thankfully I am none of those things anymore - *grin*).

I couldn't agree more with the author's assessment of "The Keep."

What was Mann thinking???? :confused:

The scene I always remember is with the dancer in the club where Ry Cooder is playing - I think she was the body double for Jennifer Beale in FLASHDANCE, can't remember her name.

A couple of odd ones I like:

STRAIGHT TO HELL: amazing soundtrack (The Pogues, Joe Strummer, Pray for Rain), interesting cast (The Pogues, Joe Strummer, Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones, Courtney Love), incredibly bad unwatchable movie from Alex (REPO MAN) Cox. Great album though, sort of an Irish punk-rock spaghetti western soundtrack. One of the tracks even provided the inspiration for the Garth Ennis character "The Saint of Killers" in PREACHER.

PERFORMANCE: one of the best eclectic scores - Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Merry Clayton, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mick Jagger, seminal rap group (in the 1960s!) The Last Poets; arranged and produced by Jack Nitzsche, subject of one of fpw's great throw-away punchlines in a Repairman Jack book. Some genuinely creepy music in here - a great soundtrack for reading.

MANHUNTER: great tracks by Shriekback and others. You have to own a copy of Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida, why not make it this album?

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE soundtrack by David Shire. Great heist movie and soundtrack. Good music to listen to while reading a caper novel.

THE OMEGA MAN - Thank God they finally released this. Fantastic brassy score by Ron Grainer, who also composed the Dr. Who theme and the music to THE PRISONER. I listen to this more than I should.

NED KELLY - If there is a guilty pleasure soundtrack, this is it. Everyone who reviewed the film (the Mick Jagger version, not the current one) seems to hate the score. The movie itself wasn't so hot, but for reasons that remain obscure even to me, I love it. Vocals by Waylon Jennings, Mick Jagger, and Kris Kristofferson. Lyrics by the late Shel Silverstein, known now primarily for his poetry collections but also the author of Johnny Cash's classic "A Boy Named Sue" and most of the early work of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, such as "On the Cover of the Rolling Stone" and "Freaking at the Freaker's Ball." Strange pseudo-Australian country/folk with depressing, brooding lyrics.

What can I say, I finally got around to watching this movie last night. Really wanted to catch it at theatres. Well, I must say this movie was captivating. I'm a moderate Tom Hanks fan, and I must say he did a great job in this film. This movie is pretty much a Drama in my opinion, but has a mixture of Romace/Comedy. If you are in the mood for a movie with depth then pick this one. Definitly was well worth the rent, even went so far as to buy a copy for a friend for Christmas. WOW!! 2 thumbs up for me!!

I've just finished Black Wind! WOW! Words just can't do it justice! It consummed all my spare time and made me lose sleep trying to finish it, I even was kicked out of bed one night because I wouldn't turn out the light! Was worth every minute, but now I feel a let down because I'm done, I guess I'll just have to start right up with Sims! It should be a good read! Thanks FPW!


KRW

If you heard about this, you must be surprise. Actually, I was big surprised.

When "The Keep" was first released in Japanese theatre, it was a double-featured show.

This is poster. I didn't know that! "The Keep" and "Friday the 13th-The Final Chapter" were double-featured show!

A blurb about "Friday the 13th" is funny!

この夏、心臓瞬間停止！
This summer, your heart will moment stop!

＜恐怖と怪奇＞
＜Terror and mystery＞

２大作特別ロードショー！
Two big movies special release!


The Keep is small.......

Next summer, Spielberg + Cruise coming again!

But! but but but.....actually, I'm a little nervous about this. H.G. Wells is one of my favorite authors, and I really like "War of the worlds". Original movie is classic now, but it's still good to me. When I saw remake version of Time Machine, I got shock! Opening sequences were terrible.

I hope Spielberg and Cruise version would be successful.


http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/waroftheworlds/