Posts by silentridge12

This is all I've got in my collection so far:

Santana 1969 - 10/10, an absolute masterpiece
Abraxas - 9/10, really solid
Santana III - 10+/10, perfection
Caravanserai 1972 - 10/10, great stuff
Welcome 1973 - 10/10, a total masterpiece
Supernatural 1999 - 2/10, just boring

Does anyone have any other interesting Santana albums they’d recommend?

The combination of Ry Cooder plus's score and that stunning cinematography feels like pure cinematic magic.

Does anyone else think this might be the best film from the director Wenders? I'd love to hear what other favorites of his you all swear by.

For me, his performance in Bad Lieutenant is easily his strongest work.

Right now, these are my favorite films of his:

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1970)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065436...=nm_flmg_dr_66
Total dwarf madness.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068182...=nm_flmg_dr_62
Solid choice.

Stroszek (1977)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075276...=nm_flmg_dr_56
Pure depression. That scene with the loose chicken is just bleak—sad, infectious, and incredibly heavy.

Nosferatu (1979)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079641...=nm_flmg_dr_54
That crowd scene toward the end is a masterpiece; it really captures a sense of collective insanity.

Fitzcarraldo (1982)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083946...=nm_flmg_dr_50
The Amazon, opera, and a massive ship—it’s the kind of film only an American version of The German could pull off.

Grizzly Man (2005)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312...=nm_flmg_dr_23
A truly unique documentary.

Rescue Dawn (2006)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462504...=nm_flmg_dr_21
Really great.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1095217...=nm_flmg_dr_19
I watched the good one with Christopher Walken back in the nineties once, but I've seen this one three times now—it's excellent.
It's the perfect role for Nicolas Cage: a detective stumbling through New Orleans after a hurricane, high on every drug imaginable, much like
some legendary rock bands from the last century.

hiddenorca6 said:Honestly, this is probably Smith's finest work in the last 15 years, and I doubt he’ll ever top it. His real prime was definitely back in the '90s...

I actually thought Red State (2011) was pretty solid too.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0873886/

starring Michael Parks and John Goodman.

This could have easily been a tight, watchable 80 minutes. I spent two whole days trying to power through it, just waiting for it to wrap up.
Instead of a decent, high-octane trashy flick, we got this pretentious "art" slog.
Sure, there are a few sharp lines of dialogue scattered throughout, but that’s not enough to save a two-hour runtime. If you want actual satisfaction, stick to the first five Hellraiser movies.

Trying to mimic the styles of Kubrick, Noe, Argent, or Lynch is just a pathetic attempt at being deep—it's total garbage, as someone else already pointed out.
2/10, and honestly, the only reason it isn't lower is because of N. Cage.

Absolute madness!
9,1/10
It’s this wild cocktail of Taxi Driver, Defendor, and something bloody yet somehow hilarious, packed with some really standout
moments—like that scene where he has a vision of God's fingerprint on his brain? Phenomenal.
It hits you with waves of humor, then sadness, then leaves you gasping for air from laughing so hard, before pivoting into a tense and
intriguing finale. That's it.
The movie is pretty disturbed and violent, but at the same time, it's strangely endearing and funny.

Solid.
It hit all the right notes—plenty of laughs, action, and those little moments of wisdom you expect. My wife and I had a great time, and the kids were totally hooked.
Bottom line: it’s a perfect family movie night.

The Incredibles 9.5/10
Incredibles 2 9.5/10

He actually pulled it off. Props to him.
I'm personally looking forward to catching that and seeing Deadpool & Wolverine on the big screen this year.
It’s already shaping up to be a much better year for movies than the last one.

I can't believe they dropped $50 million on this kind of trash. It was watchable, though, mostly because
everything is so spectacularly bad that if the budget had been a fifth of that, it would have actually been more fun and felt less constrained.
That scene where Nicolas Cage is hooking up with the waitress is pure insanity.
He’s just being cool,
even cooler—his wife asks why he doesn't take his clothes off, and he basically tells her it's because he never strips before the afterlife. He's just staying cool while
dozens of armed cultists burst in, and he keeps going at it while taking them out like some sort of Desperado.
The woman is in total shock, but he just keeps being cool, killing them while mid-act, spinning her around him like a ballet dancer and picking them off without getting a single scratch.
...and she's just standing there talking to the cops....
Then, the villain from hell convinces two of the most mediocre, bottom-of-the-barrel cops to take out Nicolas Cage, whom he ends up saving anyway.
And get this: the cop who has never fired a gun in his life manages to wound Cage the second he sees him (right after Cage had just swatted mercenaries like mosquitoes while making love).
It is phenomenal trash.
The vibe reminds me of things like Crank, shoot Em up, Machete, Planet Terror, Ghost Rider, Hobo with a Shotgun, and stuff like that.
It's a movie where Nicolas Cage fights both wars and loves, where nothing makes sense, and where everything is so broken that it somehow works.
When the girl riding with him gets beaten up, she encourages him to go for the waitress, dropping this line:
"No one on their deathbed ever complained about having too much sex in their lifetime..."
Between Nicolas Cage's hair and those shots reminiscent of Terminator (the rearview mirror, the bullet in the eye, the blood, putting on the sunglasses, then crawling under
some cultist who's beating him, while his daughter—who was trying to escape the cult—is right there).
The ending has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the plot, which honestly just adds to the whole trash appeal.

I used to be one of those people who believed money couldn't buy happiness, but honestly, I’ve changed my mind. Let’s not pretend to be holier-than-thou here—who wouldn't be absolutely thrilled to suddenly have an extra $10,000 falling into their lap?

Maybe it just comes down to knowing how to work together—for instance, when a director actually understands an actor's specific temperament and workflow, they can really pull a career-defining performance out of them.
Respect, the atmosphere was actually quite pleasant.
Solid gatherings.
Great spirit.

I split this 207-minute movie into three parts over three days.

Day 1:
Grass tea, pizza, pudding, and three joints.
I was so relaxed that I just
fell in love with every single frame of this black-and-white Japanese masterpiece.
For instance, when the samurai told the young girl
that dreams and desires don't actually come true—you just grow old, turn gray, and
life passes you by—I barely had time to wipe away my tears thinking about how
beautiful it is to respect our elders, our grandparents, and all those people who
endured absolute hell and hardship just so we could sit here today and adjust the volume
on a remote control. I lit up another joint to keep enjoying the hunt for
the samurai and his ultimate plan.
Impressions: excellent. Honestly, I wanted the movie to be at least four and a half hours long instead of just three and a half.

Day 2:
Just two joints and some coffee.
I continued my journey through medieval Japan, following the most interesting
characters and watching the interplay of their temperaments, instincts, knowledge, and general bullshit.
It made me feel grateful for every scrap of food I have, realizing that
people are just people; there’s no point in hating them. They do what they know how to do, and nothing matters
if knowledge isn't used for good. You don't even need religion to keep someone in line;
fear is enough. There were such fascinating philosophical discussions—like how a conversation can resolve an issue before violence does.
My only frustration was that I almost watched the whole thing in one sitting, but I forced myself to stay disciplined.

Day 3:
Four joints. Turns out four is a symbol of death for the Japanese, which makes sense since that's exactly how many samurai died.
Some local sausage, cheese, 200g of chocolate, walnuts, and honey.
Die like a man, the samurai way. Pure bliss—it was practically an orgasm, maybe because of the walnuts and honey, but
when the peasants turned out to be invincible and the fact that the land feeds us and rewards those who protect it hit home...
Native Americans are the exception, obviously, but samurai serve the people. Everything clicked. After the strategy and
the fighting, I walked away satisfied, acknowledging the truth that we are simply what we are. What's the point
if we don't know how to be happy?