Movie Details
| Title: | Dangerous Men | |
| Director: | John S. Rad | |
| Year: | 2005 | |
| Genre: | Cult | |
| Times Seen: | 3 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.29.15 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.29.15 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2015 So... both secret screenings kind of got out pretty early. Knowing that Crimson Peak was playing allowed some people to see other films since they didn't care to see Guillermo present it. On the other hand, when I caught wind that Drafthouse had finally gotten the rights and would be showing Dangerous Men as the second secret screening, it became my most anticipated time slot of the whole festival. I'll have to go back and read my earlier notes but I didn't think I'd ever get to see this again. This is one of those movies that you shouldn't even get to own. It belongs in the realm of boastful tales and treasured memories. However it's probably selfish to keep the rest of the world from knowing about this movie so I'm glad that Drafthouse Films will put it out there because it's really the perfect Alamo film. In preparation for the screening, I dug up the promotional rap that John Rad made ten years ago and sent the mp3 to my friends. We were quoting from it all week leading up to this. As we left the screening, they handed out cassette singles with the main theme on one side and the rap on the B side. Unbelievable. If I remember correctly, neither of the screenings I attended ten years ago were well attended. This screening filled the two biggest auditoriums at South Lamar. That's like 400 people seeing this movie at once. Probably 390 of them had never seen it. Anyway, the movie's still great. I really wish I was in the main theater and not the simulcast because I feel like we had a more muted reaction. It still got laughs and applause but not nearly as much as what I heard theater 5 got. I'd often catch myself laughing early because the beginning of a scene would trigger my memory of what was coming up. Black Pepper. What exactly did he do wrong? It was impressive how compassionate Zack's intro was to this movie. He has an incredible gift of describing what to most is an awful mess in terms that are loving and positive and technically not untrue. I kind of worry that that outlook (which is very much the Alamo way of looking at things), doesn't carry outside this town. Like, the Miami Connection screening here was a lot of loving fun, but in other cities do people gather just to make fun of it like The Room? I don't know. The Alamo's rejection of "so-bad-it's-good" works well here when Zack or Lars can explain it before the show, but I worry that Drafthouse Films ends up profiting in a somehow meta-exploitative way. I dunno, I guess the intent in which someone buys something is out of the distributor's hands, but still I wonder if other audiences are so kind-hearted as Austin's. Anyway, this was incredible. I loved getting the chance to see it in a theater again, and it will be an automatic buy when it hits blu. |
| 02.25.06 | Alamo Village | Tim & Lars held this over for one more weekend and Micah came down from Dallas to see it so it was a good excuse to see it again. Although there were only 8 people in the theater, a good time was still had by all. A few choice moments which I think are my favorite: -The sequence where the girl is sitting on the beach looking at a seashell and the words to the song that's playing are written in cursive on the beach... until a wave comes in and washes half of them away, blurring out to a flashback where the girl is giving her now-dead fiance this weird-ass thing that may be a combination centerpiece/ashtray made out of shells and googily eyes and the guy says "...it's beautiful" and we come back to the beach to see her throw the shell down and arbitrarily run away down the beach. -the sequence where the dead guy's cop brother talks to the bartender at the most civilised biker bar in the world, paying 200 bucks for 2 beers and asking the bartender how often the bikers come in. After a moment of thoughtful contemplation, the bartender answers "oh... about every day." As the cop walks out, the bartender asks his name. "Clem (I forget his last name)," he says, to which the bartender answers "I'll just call you Clem Cuckoo." Meanwhile, the girl who has been suggestively throwing darts (poorly) walks outside after rejecting a large bald biker with temporary tattoos on his arms and head ("she's hot, i'm gonna bang that") to immediately strip down to a skimpy bikini and run and frolick in the surf. She's acting happy, she's acting fun, then she totally falls on her ass and gets totalled by an incoming wave. Now she's up and running for her life back to the beach before the next wave gets her... clearly no acting there. There's so much that's great about this, from the weird connections that start poppin gup, like how an inordinate amount of lovemaking attention is paid to the knees and bellybutton in more than one scene, or how one of the worst line readings actually happens twice by different actresses ("are you sure? (pause) you want to do this?"), to the sheer audacity of Black Pepper's stringy ultra-blonde hair, We joked around afterward that you could probably get a Master's Thesis out of it, maybe even a full course. David, who was seeing it for the third time tonight, gave an introduction in leiu of Tim or Lars. In it, he noted that if we wrote any reviews for this to be kind because we really don't want to spoil John S. Rad's sense of accomplishment. I wonder what the S stands for... Super? In any case, this is a perfect movie to see at the Alamo. afterward a small group of us stood around for a time reegaling each other with our favorite moment. After a second viewing, I'd say Dangerous Men the movie is more than fine, it's PURRR-FECT! |
| 02.17.06 | Alamo Village | Dangerous Men came out of the blue, very much different, it's so true. Turned out to be the talk of the town, whoever saw it told another one. They passed the word everywhere, Everyone wants to see it here and there. That's why it turned the talk of the town! Yeah! Dangerous Men the movie's FINE! John S. Rad directed it... he's my Man! So quick, he made lots of fans! His name all over with respect! Whoever saw the film said it's PURFECT! Don't lose the fun time, go and see it! It's unforgettable! Do not miss it! With movies like Casablanca and The Big Lebowski out there I can't in good conscious say that this is the best movie I've ever seen... BUT i have no goddamn problem telling everyone I know that this is hands down the absolute best cinemax/showtime movie that's ever been made or ever will be made ever until the end of time or film, whichever comes first. So many great things about this movie... I can't even remember them all. It's just like... imagine every little thing that you've ever seen in movies that take you out of the story. Every bad line reading, every visible wire holding up the flying monster, every line of dialogue that's slightly out of sync with the lip movements, every gun that doesn't fire correctly, just everything like that. Ok, now take all of the things that are along those lines but so over the top ridiculous that you've never actually seen them in a movie except for maybe parody movies that are deliberate in their usage. Now take all of those things and throw them in a box and throw that box off a cliff. The bloody garbled mess that splashes out when that box collides against the craggy rocks at the bottom of the cliff? that horrible mess IS Dangerous Men. and what makes it work instead of being boring and painful is my firm believe that John S. Rad is not in on the joke at all. It's like the R. Kelly factor as Kier-La says... the Trapped in the Closet series would not be nearly as funny as it is if R. Kelly was in on the joke, but he's not. He's taking it completely seriously and believes that it's serious work. he must be friends with John S. Rad, man... because this movie is such a mess but it never ever winks at you once. This is the real deal, and it is unbelievably great. So the story is John S. Rad was an architect in Iran until the Shahs took over or whatever so he came here in 78 a millionaire and decided to make a movie. It then takes him about a decade to shoot this thing... then another decade to release it. Every single element of this movie can be made fun of. Not one single thing is ok or bad in a boring way... it's really an amazing achievement. I'm really thinking I'm going to go see it tomorrow night as well. That's how much fun I had with this movie. I can't believe that I'm lucky enough to be around when something like this pops up. I really think it's going to be one of those movies that bonds people... like I will be able to make a joke about it to Lars a year from now and those of us who were there tonight and tomorrow night will laugh. Dangerous Men the movie is indeed FINE! |
