Weekend Picks for Geeks: Sucker Punch and Planet Comicon / Plus, IFC's 50 Greatest Sex Scenes

Remember when you heard that Zack Snyder was adapting 300, and you geeked out, and then the movie came along, and it was sort of worth geeking out about, and then you heard Snyder was adapting Watchmen, and all the trailers called him a "visionary," and then you geeked out like you'd never geeked out before (except for maybe the Star Wars prequels), and then Watchmen came along and it pretty much blew (but not as much as the Star Wars prequels), and then you heard Snyder was doing an original "vision" for the first time called Sucker Punch, and that it would be about sexy women in prison (and also dragons), and you geeked out again, but then the trailers were just increasingly awful, and today the movie has arrived, and you really don't feel like geeking out about it all, and in fact may even skip it.

Slant magazine writes of several of its action scenes: "All bloodless, weightless, inconsequential sound and fury, these dynamically composed but masturbatory centerpieces are cast as the reveries Baby Doll experiences while she performs dance numbers that mesmerize Blue and his gentlemen clientele."

Chip: "Hmmm. I probably DO want to masturbate to them, but I may wait for DVD."

Probably a good idea, Chip. Maybe you should just head over to KC's Planet Comicon instead and meet the real-life Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner, and the dude who played Boba Fett. Details here:

http://www.planetcomicon.com/

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One never knows what one will encounter on Twitter. This morning, for instance, an unusual number of people seemed to be discussing the legendary Donald Sutherland/Julie Christie sex scene from Don't Look Now. We soon discovered why this discussion was occurring: a new book is out in which author Peter Bart claims he can verify the long-standing rumors that Sutherland and Christie are actually having sex in that scene:

"It was clear to me they were no longer simply acting: they were fucking on camera."

As we engaged with this discussion and its links, we also stumbled upon IFC's list of the 50 Greatest Sex Scenes, which ranks the Sutherland/Christie fuck as THE greatest in film history:

"Christie and Sutherland start out in the bathroom -- she's in the bath, teasing him about encroaching love handles as he dawdles around in the buff. Later, lounging on the bed, they exchange kisses that lead to poignant, unplanned lovemaking, the scene intercut with shots of the two dressing for dinner afterward."

Chip: "As I don't watch 'films,' I admittedly haven't seen this scene, but the description barely even gives me a boner."

Richard: "I'm confident you'd get a boner, if you can sort of tune out the Sutherland portion of it, but I'm more fond of IFC's 3rd choice: the lesbian scene in Lynch's Mulholland Drive. IFC writes: 'Definitely hot, but points lost for the digital blurring out of Harring's genitals.'' I'm also hoping the list will soon be revised to include a new Sapphic classic: Portman and Kunis in Black Swan."

Minor criticisms aside, IFC has compiled an important list that will make you want to discover or revisit films such as 1985's French drama Betty Blue (clocking in at #6):

"Beatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade spend most of this movie nude (in Dalle's case, nude and/or going berserk), and the opening scene, depicting a good minute of Dalle's shrieking, shoulder-gnawing orgasm beneath Zorg, is a fitting intro."

Chip: "Maybe I SHOULD watch more 'films.'"

Peruse the full list here, adjust your Netflix queues, and enjoy:

http://www.ifc.com/news/2007/07/the-50-greatest-sex-scenes-in.php