FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: buffcoat on September 14, 2008, 09:40:02 PM
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Zodiac on DVR and Vicky Cristina Barcelona in the theater.
Both good for different reasons.
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Agreed on Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Great cast, liked the characters and thought it rated pretty average among Woody Allen's movies, which is to say pretty well overall.
Undeterred by mediocre to poor reviews of Burn After Reading, saw it today and thought it was pretty good as well. Not among the Coen Bros.' best films, but well worthwhile.
I was thinking of that Best Show episode several years ago where Tom and guests ranked the Coen Brothers movies from best to worst, and I was thinking I'd put this one somewhere in the middle. Again, meaning it's pretty good fare. Curious to see what others think (maybe there's another thread somewhere about this already).
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My Sunday good movie bi-fecta (last week) was Hamlet 2 and The Wrestler at the Toronto Film Fest. Both terrific. I'm so glad to see Mickey Rourke in fightin' shape again.
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I'm very excited about The Wrestler. Just got word that it's being distributed in Sweden, so hooray etc.
My Sunday movie bi-fecta was Elegy and the documentary Bigger Faster Stronger. I'm Never Not Eclectic. Repulsive, compulsive, tedious, baffling, fascinating, lacking - that goes for both of them!
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Agreed on Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Great cast, liked the characters and thought it rated pretty average among Woody Allen's movies, which is to say pretty well overall.
Undeterred by mediocre to poor reviews of Burn After Reading, saw it today and thought it was pretty good as well. Not among the Coen Bros.' best films, but well worthwhile.
I was thinking of that Best Show episode several years ago where Tom and guests ranked the Coen Brothers movies from best to worst, and I was thinking I'd put this one somewhere in the middle. Again, meaning it's pretty good fare. Curious to see what others think (maybe there's another thread somewhere about this already).
I found Burn After Reading surprisingly engaging, completely dispelling those negative reviews. Their use of that ridiculous Vantage Point/mystery-technological-espionage-thriller formula as a means to crafting a slick commentary on conspicuous consumerism and the Great American Perspective was great, and I found myself laughing more in my head than out loud. I won't ruin anything, but that final scene with J. K. Simmons made me laffffffff.
Almost made me forgive him for Juno.
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My Sunday movie bi-fecta:
Burn After Reading in the theater.
The Passion of Joan of Arc at home.
And then the lights went out.
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I won't ruin anything, but that final scene with J. K. Simmons made me laffffffff.
Yeah, that was definitely one of his finest moments.
My weekend bifecta was Burn After Reading on Friday night and Frozen River on Saturday afternoon. I thought Burn After Reading was OK - not Raising Arizona-caliber Coen comedy, but nowhere near as bad as Intolerable Cruelty or The Ladykillers. Frozen River, on the other hand, was amazing.
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I'm very excited about The Wrestler. Just got word that it's being distributed in Sweden, so hooray etc.
My Sunday movie bi-fecta was Elegy and the documentary Bigger Faster Stronger. I'm Never Not Eclectic. Repulsive, compulsive, tedious, baffling, fascinating, lacking - that goes for both of them!
I saw Bigger, Stronger, Faster last month and really liked it. I was surprised how many big name people that they interviewed for it.
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Go see Burn After Reading.
I'll go out on a limb and say it had one Hitchcock moment of brilliance that turned the whole thing around for me. It started OK, but then turned into a great movie. Laugh after viewing.
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I did this again: this time it was the happy Sunday movies, Sophie's Choice and Taxi Driver.
I see what all the Meryl Streep hype from the early 80s was about - the woman can fucking do accents.
I liked Taxi Driver, which is good because I hated Raging Bull with a passion and Scorsese is a director I like more often than not.
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Re-watched A History of Violence last night and watched Sexy Beast today. Kind of a reluctant gangster-movie bifecta kinda sorta?
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I finally caught Burn After Reading today, and though it might not rank with the Coens' best movies, I believe it was seriously underrated by the critics. Like Phantom Hugger wrote, it suddenly shifted from okay to brilliant and gets even funnier as you're discussing it afterwards at dinner.
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I watched The Rocker, and it was pretty bad. Rainn Wilson = not a star.
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Go see Burn After Reading.
I'll go out on a limb and say it had one Hitchcock moment of brilliance that turned the whole thing around for me. It started OK, but then turned into a great movie. Laugh after viewing.
Just curious about the Hitchcock moment of brilliance you're thinking of? The incident with Brad Pitt hiding in the closet?
I liked that movie too, but had read your comment before seeing it, and was watching for the "Hitchcock moment" all the way through.
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i had plans to watch Science of Sleep but i feel like i know what's going to happen already.
there's always next weekend.
PS i did get a text about st. anna...anybody seen this yet?
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Taxi to the Dark Side and the first hour of On The Waterfront (the DVD froze up). A uni and a half-fecta?
Taxi to the Dark Side did a good job shifting back and forth between the individual case and the larger issue of torture. I'll try to get a better copy of On The Waterfront - I think season 2 of The Wire biased me towards stories about dockworkers.
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My Sunday movie single-fecta was "The Cell." I liked it. Some suit must have been a little crazy to say "Hey, I liked that 'Losing My Religion' video so much I want to see a whole movie of it."
J. Lo and Vince Vaughn aren't Oscar worthy, but they aren't cringe-worthy, either.
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Have you seen 'the fall', buffers?
same director, more colourful, supposedly.
i'm yet to catch it.
and yes, everyone is allowed one (1) mark e. smith joke.
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Have you seen 'the fall', buffers?
same director, more colourful, supposedly.
i'm yet to catch it.
and yes, everyone is allowed one (1) mark e. smith joke.
No, I haven't seen that one. I'll try to catch it. Is "The Gull" next, or perhaps "The Pill?"
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My Sunday movie single-fecta was "The Cell." I liked it. Some suit must have been a little crazy to say "Hey, I liked that 'Losing My Religion' video so much I want to see a whole movie of it."
J. Lo and Vince Vaughn aren't Oscar worthy, but they aren't cringe-worthy, either.
I like that movie too.
I watched I Know Who Killed Me and The Aviator last night.
Aviator gets a thumbs up, minus the stupid celebrity cameos (Rufus Wainwright was relatively low key and sounded nice at least, but Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow was incredibly annoying and unbelievable). I was fine with most of the acting. Cate Blanchett always makes me cringe when she tries to play famous people (as Katherine Hepburn in this movie, and as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There) but I warmed up to her by the end. Leonardo DiCaprio was really good. It's gotten to a point where I'll see any movie he's in these days.
I Know Who Killed Me was a surprisingly tolerable cheese-fest with a dumb ending. It was heavily stylized, though, which at least gave me something to look at. It kind of emulated lots of the 70's bad-but-pretty horror flicks that Dario Argento made--which I have always enjoyed shamelessly. I'd watch it again. I was especially entertained by the part where Lindsay Lohan's character gets beat down with her own fake leg.
Also, the DVD special features contain an "Extended Strip Dance" I didn't watch that, but I did check out the awkward blooper reel.
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Have you seen 'the fall', buffers?
same director, more colourful, supposedly.
i'm yet to catch it.
and yes, everyone is allowed one (1) mark e. smith joke.
I didn't think Tarsem would ever be worth paying attention to, since I don't like that R.E.M. video and heard he was essentially a rip-off artist, but I really liked The Fall. I can't see why it didn't get at least get the acclaim/hype Pan's Labyrinth did, since I think it's a better and more imaginative film, and almost as "dark." Plenty of amazing location shots, at least, and there's a surprisingly effective tribute to early cinema toward the end.
Sorry, I couldn't think of a good Mark E. Smith joke. Maybe it'll come later.
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I remember hating The Cell.
I watched not two, not three, not four, but five movies yesterday (a what-fecta?). It was one of those perfect movie-watching days: pouring rain, Sunday, no plans. Still, I wasn't in the mood for heavy-duty filmmaking so I watched a bunch of mainstream fluff:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Pineapple Express
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Kung Fu Panda
Definitely Maybe
I thought Spiderwick had some charm to it (get it?), but I was pretty lukewarm on the rest of them.
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I Know Who Killed Me was a surprisingly tolerable cheese-fest with a dumb ending. It was heavily stylized, though, which at least gave me something to look at. It kind of emulated lots of the 70's bad-but-pretty horror flicks that Dario Argento made--which I have always enjoyed shamelessly. I'd watch it again. I was especially entertained by the part where Lindsay Lohan's character gets beat down with her own fake leg.
That one's in the, like, top 5 of my "Unintentionally funny" list! I saw that with a friend last year and we were laughing out loud at it as much as, if not more than if it had been an actual comedy. Thumbs up!
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I watched not two, not three, not four, but five movies yesterday (a what-fecta?).
Pentafecta?
Had you not seen Kung Fu Panda yet? I remember you mentioning it awhile back, maybe that was just because you were writing about it.
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Leonardo DiCaprio was really good. It's gotten to a point where I'll see any movie he's in these days.
Yeah, me too. It kind of snuck up on me. Matt Damon, too. Weird, huh?
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I watched not two, not three, not four, but five movies yesterday (a what-fecta?).
Pentafecta?
Had you not seen Kung Fu Panda yet? I remember you mentioning it awhile back, maybe that was just because you were writing about it.
Yeah I was just writing about the genre, never got around to watching the actual film.
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i watched Eagle V Shark, Made of Honor, and Kindergarden Cop.
i enjoyed an insanely fun Friday-Saturday evening. it was a Sunday for rest.
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i watched Eagle V Shark, Made of Honor, and Kindergarden Cop.
i enjoyed an insanely fun Friday-Saturday evening. it was a Sunday for rest.
I saw Eagle v. Shark and thought it was a bag of shit (http://areyougenehackman.blogspot.com/2007/12/hey-jarrod-you-look-like-wolverine.html).
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i watched Eagle V Shark, Made of Honor, and Kindergarden Cop.
i enjoyed an insanely fun Friday-Saturday evening. it was a Sunday for rest.
I saw Eagle v. Shark and thought it was a bag of shit (http://areyougenehackman.blogspot.com/2007/12/hey-jarrod-you-look-like-wolverine.html).
i vaguely remember reading this (yes, i do read your blog) and it was pretty empty. unfortunately.
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I think "bag of shit" gives it too much importance, aside from being too harsh. It was more a bag of stale muffins that weren't very good to begin with.
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(yes, i do read your blog)
you are terrific.
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I try to read Samir's blog, but his feeds are all fucked up so I can't subscribe in Google Reader. (There, I said it.)
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Martin, try pasting this (http://areyougenehackman.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) into GReader?
Today I watched MAN ON WIRE and HECKLER.
I'm not going to be the lone voice criticizing the former, it was rather good, and had a lot of mystery and just a sense of fun. And the last act is emotional and breathtaking.
The latter is made by Jamie Kennedy, and features FOT like Patton, Cross, Mirman, and a swearing Mr. Tompkins. It was pretty funny, it takes a shift from heckling to criticism and so I'm almost fearful to write about it. But the best part is right at the end when they play a song by my favourite band of all time, which took me completely by a joyful surprise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DatCwh3BODc
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last night:
muppets from space (for family night with the fam) - f. murray abraham as noah was incredible.
followed by:
the five film dirty harry marathon on AMC. didn't get through all 5 though. a man's gotta know his limitations...
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Dead Ringers followed by Network.
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Martin, try pasting this (http://areyougenehackman.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default) into GReader?
Doesn't work. Last post that shows up is from July 21.
Really want to see Man on Wire. On the fence with Heckler. Is it worth downloading a rental?
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Heckler aggravated me.
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Sunday I saw Outsourced and The Visitor. I liked them both. The visitor is a very slow set-up, but for me paid off in the last 20 minutes.
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i watched The Strangers and Madagascar 2.
i originally saw the former in the theatre by myself; it continues to stress me out when i watch it. Madagascar 2 was a family outing with friends who have kids- and not that bad.
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I barely got through The Strangers the first time! It was a big disappointment for me.
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I have broken ribs so I spent all day at home watching DVDs, trying not to move. Today I sat through Rocket Science (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477078/) which is like Juno/Napoleon Dynamite/Lil Miss Sunshine all crammed together and inserted in the viewer as a painful suppository. Then I watched Sicko. I wish Michael Moore would just get to the point and start titling all his movies, "Nyah nyah nyah!". Then I watched The Last King of Scotland which was pretty good until the end where it got really Hollywood and gratuitous.
Yesterday was better: Keep the River on Your Right (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206187/) and Jandek on Corwood.
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Last night I watched The Cottage, which was pretty bad, followed by The Fog (remake) which was at least pretty, if not great.
Then I gave up and threw in Altered States.
I want to get back into the new wave of horror flicks, but it's hard. Which are the good ones??
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Wes Craven's doing a remake of Shocker?!?!
Eww boy.
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Was Rocket Science good? I've been meaning to watch that.
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Dead Ringers followed by Network.
The first one made me nauseous. The second one made me goosebumpy with joy (Ned Beatty's soliloquy is perfect to this day).
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... But the best part is right at the end when they play a song by my favourite band of all time, which took me completely by a joyful surprise.
Can't believe I'd never heard the Delgados before (especially since my quick wiki-search tells me they're associated with the mighty Dave Fridmann). That song is great!
I didn't see any movies yesterday.
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Dead Ringers followed by Network.
The first one made me nauseous. The second one made me goosebumpy with joy (Ned Beatty's soliloquy is perfect to this day).
Yeah, Dead Ringers was rough going. Kinda like a Hubert Selby Jr. novel come to life but without the redemptive parts. Network's a strange one - I'm not sure yet what I think. The dense, almost expository monologues (Beatty's monologue, Holden's breakup speech to Dunaway) seem to jump out of nowhere, but I found myself enjoying them anyway. The scene with the communists and radicals trying to negotiate with the network execs about overhead costs was a favorite.
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On Saturday, I saw The Exiles (http://www.exilesfilm.com/) and Frozen River. The Exiles was gorgeously heartbreaking and was full of some of the most beautiful shots of late 50s Los Angeles. It's not as plot-y as the trailer below would indicate. I couldn't get into Frozen River.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VepP9Eyfp0
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Can't believe I'd never heard the Delgados before (especially since my quick wiki-search tells me they're associated with the mighty Dave Fridmann). That song is great!
your life begins today, crumbum ol' chum.
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The Exiles (http://www.exilesfilm.com/)
Thanks! I had never heard of this film but will check it out when it screens here this month.
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Can't believe I'd never heard the Delgados before (especially since my quick wiki-search tells me they're associated with the mighty Dave Fridmann). That song is great!
your life begins today, crumbum ol' chum.
looks like they have about half a dozen albums. where should I start?
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looks like they have about half a dozen albums. where should I start?
There's a 2-Disc BBC Sessions compilation, that spans the entire career.
But for the real albums:
1. The Great Eastern (2000): Start here. It's one of my top five of all time.
2. Peleton (1998) / Hate (2002): Both are really great too.
4. Universal Audio (2005): The final album, they ditched the big string/orchestral sound for this one, and I wish they hadn't. Does feature a song called 'Girls of Valour' though, which is a fun title.
5. Domestiques (1996): Debut, scrappy, showing more of an American-indie influence.
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looks like they have about half a dozen albums. where should I start?
There's a 2-Disc BBC Sessions compilation, that spans the entire career.
But for the real albums:
1. The Great Eastern (2000): Start here. It's one of my top five of all time.
2. Peleton (1998) / Hate (2002): Both are really great too.
4. Universal Audio (2005): The final album, they ditched the big string/orchestral sound for this one, and I wish they hadn't. Does feature a song called 'Girls of Valour' though, which is a fun title.
5. Domestiques (1996): Debut, scrappy, showing more of an American-indie influence.
Thanks Samir!
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Was Rocket Science good? I've been meaning to watch that.
I liked it so much I watched it a second time, but I am from a red state, and my tastes are seen by many as gauche.
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I'll go with Hate as the best Delgados album.
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I'll go with Hate as the best Delgados album.
On the 'Hate' tour, I went to see them in Atlanta, got roped into manning the merch table for an hour, later they dedicated 'No Danger' to me and I ended up drinking with them on their bus and in local dives until 5am.
Among the greatest nights of my life.
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Three Sundays ago I watched The Pope of Greenwich Village for the first time.
And then today I watched Cat O' Nine Tails.
I enjoyed both.
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Today:
For my 5-year-old, "The Clone Wars." Thumbs down.
For my 8-year-old, the first half of "The Great Debaters." We finish it tomorrow night. So far, Hallmark card greatness.
For my wife and I later tonight, Season 5, Episode 3 of "The Wire." I know that Season 5 is supposed to be the weakest, but my expectations were so low, that I am gobbling it up.
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hellboy 2 and nerdcore rising. some combination.
also, i drove by newportrichey today!
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I am home sick with a cold/flu, so I had to watch what I was stuck in the house with.....Scary Movie and Get Smart. Wow.
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Watched all the "Mind of the Married Man" DVDs today. Somewhere in the back of my mind I'd heard it was funny so I added it to the Netflix queue. Still waiting for the Funny to kick in.
Didn't Tom have some derogatory things to say about Mike Binder at one point?
I am home sick with a cold/flu, so I had to watch what I was stuck in the house with.....Scary Movie and Get Smart. Wow.
:( all around.
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Rent these two together like I did a few weeks ago and you'll have a pretty sweet weekend (movie-wise).
(http://criterion.com/content/images/full_boxshot/447_box_348x490.jpg)(http://criterion.com/content/images/full_boxshot/448_box_348x490.jpg)
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Rent these two together like I did a few weeks ago and you'll have a pretty sweet weekend (movie-wise).
(http://criterion.com/content/images/full_boxshot/447_box_348x490.jpg)(http://criterion.com/content/images/full_boxshot/448_box_348x490.jpg)
Melville is awesome. I should probably watch these.
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Last Sunday morning (it may have actually been Saturday morning, I can't really remember; if anyone knows for sure, please feel free to have this post deleted for being off topic), I was scanning through the cable TV guide and saw a listing for Leave 'Em Laughing which described the film like this: "Mickey Rooney plays a circus clown who raises homeless children."
Naturally, I had to watch.
My hope was that he was an evil circus clown, and he was raising an army of homeless children as his personal Circus of Crime. I don't know about you, but the idea of Mickey Rooney as an clownfaced cult leader traveling from town to town, recruiting orphans into his reign of criminal terror is something I've been waiting to see for years without even knowing it.
I don't want to spoil anything, but it turns out Mickey is not an evil circus clown. It was still worth watching for a scene near the end where Mickey Rooney forces a bedridden dying man into a wheelchair and takes him up to a roof against his will, where Mickey forces the dying man to watch as he climbs up onto the edge of the roof to commit suicide. So, kind of a push, really.
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See Babe: Pig in the City for Rooney as evil clown.
And I totally read that as Mickey Rourke at first, which got me really excited.
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Wes's story got me thinking about how great Nightmare Alley would've been with Rooney in the Tyrone Power role.
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(http://www.criterion.com/content/images/full_boxshot/380_box_348x490.jpg)
and Role Models.
To my great surprise, I liked Role Models better! To be fair though, Naked City had better cinematography.
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saw MANHATTAN and BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER* last night.
only one of them starred the veep elect joe vitamin.
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saw MANHATTAN and BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER* last night.
only one of them starred the veep elect joe vitamin.
get out of my brain, you creep. i watched both of these movies last nite as well.
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Are we the same person?
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you tell me.
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Me tell me?
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alright now,
we're i'm getting crazy.
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Will you 2 be staring in the Mr. Brooks sequel?
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Das Boot today.
Very good. Very long (director's cut).
SPOILER: It wasn't about a boot.
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yesterday I saw Wendy and Lucy, it was really good but super sad and a documentary called Scott Walker: 30th century man, it was interesting but super hard to listen to.
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Watched Baraka in full HD. Good lordy. But tone down the wailing newage bullshit next time, will you, Fricke?
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I watched Malcolm X by Spike Lee yesterday. It was an adaptation from the autobiography of the same name. The book was amazing, I couldn't put it down. The movie was good...not as powerful as the book. The story of Malcolm X should have been made into a mini series or something along those lines. The account of his life is too difficult to squeeze into three hours.
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I saw New Jersey Drive - which is worth adding to the list of good movies set in Jersey.
I also rented Inside Deep Throat from Netflix, thinking it was about Watergate. It was not. But, it was historically interesting nevertheless.
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i watched Summer of Sam and Fellini: I'm A Born Liar.
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I watched Malcolm X by Spike Lee yesterday. It was an adaptation from the autobiography of the same name. The book was amazing, I couldn't put it down. The movie was good...not as powerful as the book. The story of Malcolm X should have been made into a mini series or something along those lines. The account of his life is too difficult to squeeze into three hours.
that's one of my all-time favorite movies.
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I had a nice bifecta between peeking in at football games; Walter Matthau, beautifully understated in the noir-y Charlie Varrick, followed by Stanwyk and Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve.
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I had a nice bifecta between peeking in at football games; Walter Matthau, beautifully understated in the noir-y Charlie Varrick.
I watched another movie on Sunday where Matthau is one step ahead of everybody the whole time: Ronald Neame's Hopscotch, where he plays a CIA agent who goes on the run and starts mailing out chapters of his tell-all memoir one at a time to get back at his boss (Ned Beatty). It's pretty much as breezy a comedy-thriller as you'll find and probably one of Criterion's most minor releases, but it's worth a look.
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Is The Lady Eve the one where she says "on account of because" all the time? Or the one on the boat?
EDIT: I see it's the one on the boat. The other is Ball of Fire, which I've always liked.
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My (Saturday) bi-fecta involved Frost/Nixon which I mentioned elsewhere, and Religulous, which my parents wanted to see, and we all agreed afterwards was a bag of shit.
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Today so far I have watched The Golden Compass (2007) and The Brain Eaters (1958). I impressed myself by recognizing Ian McShane's voice (as the bear king) inthe former and correctly identifying the star of the latter, Ed Nelson, as the actor who played Dr. Rossi on Peyton Place. I did not, however, recognize Leonard Nimoy (as Nemoy) in The Brain Eaters, though I noticed the name in the opening credits and meant to look out for him. In my defense, I did fall asleep repeatedly during the movie's running time of an hour and a quarter (with commercials).
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I watched The Killing Fields yesterday. Good movie - back when a strongly anti-war movie could still be restrained and tolerable and didn't feel the need to be so smugly self-righteous. Sad coda learning about the fate of Hang S. Ngor.
Is it just me or are there no good, thoughtful movies aimed at a large audience anymore? All of them have to dig into the bag of hack tricks - it started to come on in the late 90s maybe and is now entirely omnipresent.
For just two examples, see Crash and Babel. Valueless as executed.
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I watched The Killing Fields yesterday. Good movie - back when a strongly anti-war movie could still be restrained and tolerable and didn't feel the need to be so smugly self-righteous. Sad coda learning about the fate of Hang S. Ngor.
Is it just me or are there no good, thoughtful movies aimed at a large audience anymore? All of them have to dig into the bag of hack tricks - it started to come on in the late 90s maybe and is now entirely omnipresent.
For just two examples, see Crash and Babel. Valueless as executed.
You're absolutely right. Well put.
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So I watched Babel today. What a heavy-handed, manipulative, contrived, pointless, portentous piece of crap--and, yes, very reminiscent of Crash. I mean, last week I saw The Darjeeling Limited, and, while it didn't particularly impress me, I think it dealt more meaningfully with alienation, cultural difference, grief, and stupidity.
On a brighter (?) note, I also watched The Proposition today. It was good. And very handsomely photographed. Must say the rape scene reminded me a lot of Clockwork Orange. Although it was way more funny, of course.
Tomorrow, I tackle Ghosts . . . of the Civil Dead. And perhaps This Is Britain.
I'm starting the new year off jolly.
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I watched Back to the Future. Again.
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So I watched Babel today. What a heavy-handed, manipulative, contrived, pointless, portentous piece of crap--and, yes, very reminiscent of Crash.
Exactly! I saw Babel in a theater late 2007 and I walked out just shy of half way through. I don't walk out of movies very often, this one I have almost completely blocked out of my mind. Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett sitting in some third world country commiserating about their first world problems. Enough already. Darjeeling Limited, I really enjoyed that film...I have no perspective regarding Wes Anderson films. I love all of them.
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Oh, don't get me wrong--I enjoyed it. I just didn't like it as much as others. It seemed to be trying too hard to be fey. So, so brittle. My point was merely that it displayed more insight and sensitivity than that other pretentious pile of twaddle (or pile of pretentious twaddle).
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I understood your point and agree completely, just shamelessly expressing my fandom for Wes Anderson. I think that is what I like about movies in general, the attempt to not directly reflect reality while telling a story. Wes Anderson seems to do that, with varying degrees of success. Still, I look forward to his next effort.
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This morning, unwilling to start the day with the desolation of Ghosts . . . of the Civil Dead, I decided to prime the pump with Michael Clayton. It was pretty okay, though I did wonder which came first: it or the TV show Damages. I was especially taken with Tilda Swinton's twitchy portrayal of a small-time amoralist.
Onward to hell!
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Though yesterday wasn't Sunday, I watched what I thought would be a good movie bi-fecta but didn't turn out to be so. First up was Man on Wire, which I loved. I followed it up with Straw Dogs, which I'd heard so many raves about that I just assumed it would be good, but I thought it stunk.
Good movie bi-fecta denied.
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New Year's Eve
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit: awesome.
Tropic Thunder: mediocre.
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I look forward to his next effort.
As do I.
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So I watched Babel today. What a heavy-handed, manipulative, contrived, pointless, portentous piece of crap--and, yes, very reminiscent of Crash.
I thought no one would see this movie ever again after I jumped off the top rope on it. Slam!
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Just finished Ghosts . . . of the Civil Dead. As expected. Well worth watching. Although I now feel fairly desolate and slightly sick. Maybe I'll watch Salo next.
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I decided to watch Eastern Promises instead. Not bad at all. But I can't help wondering whether we'll ever see the David Cronenberg of yore again. I mean, I liked this one and A History of Violence, but I'd hate to think old D.C. had turned his back entirely on the squelchy horror that caused me to love him in the first place.
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I'm just going to keep talking to myself about movies here.
Last night, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. I recognize that it was well done, that the acting was good, that blah blah blah. But it left me cold. When it was done, all I could think was, "What was the point?" Now, why this movie would seem less pointful than the others I've watched recently, I don't know, but it did. Maybe it was that it tried so hard to be unrelenting and dismal. Maybe it was--unfairly--because I was a bit tired of movies stuffed full with time switches and changing POVs. Maybe it was because we never find out what Hank's comeuppance is--or does he simply flail off into the distance with his duffel bag full of drugs and money (I know he left some cash for the sister, but he didn't give her all of it), and, if so, why doesn't he merit retribution? Who knows. Maybe I just watched too many movies yesterday.
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I was especially taken with Tilda Swinton's twitchy portrayal of a small-time amoralist.
I'm entirely smitten by Tilda Swinton. Am I destined for hell?
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I can see how she could be an object of fascination.
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I just saw Tilda Swinton in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. She is breathtaking, not convinced she is entirely human. Her role in Michael Clayton was excellent.
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Friday night I cozied up to Hated — the gg allin documentary. Really hilarious at some points and quite sad at others. Even watched some of the bonus footage!
Saturday was The French Connection. Classic. I had seen it before, but lately Ive been on the kick of rewatching favorites rather than digging for gems I haven't seen.
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Just finished Salò. Interesting movie. The allegory is unsubtle, which is just as well, I suppose, since the imagery might otherwise have overwhelmed the message. Most disturbing to me is that today's viewers are probably so jaded that what they see and hear in the movie, and hence the underlying meaning, might pass them by entirely. I could imagine people laughing through this nowadays--thus proving Pasolini right, I suppose.
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I've been enjoying these capsule reports, Sarah.
I've decided to go on a movie binge for as long as I have this horrible cold, or for as long as my conscience allows me. Today was a good one: four movies seen.
Started off with the proudly boneheaded Eagle Eye, which had aspirations of stuff like The Conversation but ended up being a really dumb movie in the same vein of stupid as The Game and other films with similar mindbending premises. Though I did watch it in HD, which was pleasant.
My impressions of Freeway had up until today been "it's a Kiefer Sutherland b-movie featuring a post-action star of the 80's, but pre-24, Keifer". How wrong I was. It wasn't until a friend of mine made a copy of it and sent it to me that I started to realize it's something else entirely. It's essentially the Little Red Riding Hood story set against a trashy, pulpy 90's exploitation backdrop without any traces of QT (thankgod). Shocked to see a very young Reese Witherspoon in full-on trashy southern juvenile delinquent mode, with a toilet mouth that wouldn't stop. "Don't Fear the" Kiefer plays a murderous creep who gets what's coming to him (more than once). Very amoral, funny, violent but gratuitous in the way 50-60's exploitation was, not like most crime movies of the 00's. And packed with cameos, colorful characters, and ridiculous scenes. I dare to say that this is Witherspoon's best performance alongside Election. (And now I must seek out the sort-of sequel Confessions of a Trickbaby, which promises to be even sicker - Natasha Lyonne? Vincent Gallo as a Mexican nun? I'm there!)
American Teen was fairly entertaining but increasingly depressing as it went along, and it irked me that the filmmakers apparently bought into the strict high school hierarchy/clicque system they supposedly criticize; even at the start of the film it was obvious they were engaging their subjects from the perspective of what cultural-social group they "belonged" to. Reinforced lots of cliches about the American High School, and made me hate nearly all the parents.
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was very well made, overlong and ultimately didn't say too much new stuff about Thompson, especially after seeing every other documentary about him. My opinion stands: I love to read and hear about him, I enjoy reading his stuff, but I'm positive I would hate him if I ever spent time with him.
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I feel very self-indulgent making all these movie posts, Martin, so it's good to know someone's not minding them. The thing is, those in my small circle can take only so much of my movie talk, and while I'm on this binge, I risk overloading them. Posting here is better: everyone who wants to ignore me can.
That said, I think you'll get a kick out of Confessions of a Trickbaby when you get to it. It's muy silly but fun if you're in the right mood.
SJK, what did you think of Button? I keep asking people to report on it, and so far no one has complied. Does Ben marry his wife when he's in effect 50 and she's 20 and then tire of her when she's 40 and he looks 30? Is he sent home weeping when he tries to report for duty as a a veteran general when he looks about 14? Does he end in a milky haze, as in the story?
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SJK, what did you think of Button? I keep asking people to report on it, and so far no one has complied. Does Ben marry his wife when he's in effect 50 and she's 20 and then tire of her when she's 40 and he looks 30? Is he sent home weeping when he tries to report for duty as a a veteran general when he looks about 14? Does he end in a milky haze, as in the story?
***Spoiler Alert***
I am looking forward to reading the short story that you provided the link for. I'll have to remember where you did that, could have been earlier in the thread, will look for it shortly. I must admit my motivation for seeing this film was not entirely for the story, I had never heard of it before I saw the trailer. Shame on me. I work in film post production and was blown away by the look and the feel of the images presented in the quicktime trailer. That being said, I found the story very interesting although slightly jarring regarding its presentation. There was a lot of bouncing back and forth between present day and the time that Ben's story takes place. The story is told, present day, through his autobiography read by his daughter to her dying mother in a hospital, during hurricane Katrina. Did you catch that? Each time she begins to read the story to her mother we slip back into Ben's time and watch as the tales unfold.
So directly answering your questions, Ben does not get married to his wife...he basically abandons her and their new born daughter based on the idea that his condition would become too much of a burden, he wouldn't be able to be a proper father. He never actually serves officially in the army, only participates in the sinking of a german u-boat using a tugboat which he worked on that was helping out in the war effort on the Pacific. He dies as a baby in the arms of the woman he loved, at the retirement home where he was abandoned at the beginning of the film. I can see from your questions the adaptation for film must be out in left field.
Not having read the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I am left feeling slightly cheated. I wonder if the devices the film makers used to tell the story were necessary. The performances were solid throughout, indeed there were very poignant moments. It seemed disjointed due to the time jumps, used to push the story along. Honestly, the film was getting tedious for me at the end. Perhaps I was tired, not in the right frame of mind. Not to mention the technical perfection I was hoping for, did not materialize in the print being screened. The colour fidelity was lost, which I blame entirely on the projection in the cinema where I watched the film. The quicktime trailers are outstanding.
Apologies if this leaves you with more questions then it answers. I would like to watch the film again in a better cinema, hopefully after I have read the short story. For some reason I really want to like this film.
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I'm scared of Benjamin Buttons. All the Forrest Gump comparisons (yeah, I know, same writer) have me spooked.
I watched Tarkovsky's Solaris today. Only one movie, but long enough to count for two. I loved it even though I'm not sure I fully understood it.
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(And now I must seek out the sort-of sequel Confessions of a Trickbaby, which promises to be even sicker - Natasha Lyonne? Vincent Gallo as a Mexican nun? I'm there!)
It's nuts, but the original Freeway is far superior. Have you seen Bright's Tiptoes? Gary Oldman plays a dwarf.
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I've seen Tiptoes! I wonder how Peter Dinklage felt about Gary Oldman's performance.
SJK, here's (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/Fitzgerald/jazz/benjamin/benjamin1.htm) that link again. From your description, the movie sounds like a travesty--exactly as saccharinated as the ad made me expect. If you want to like the movie more, don't read the story first; you'll just find out how many liberties were taken with it.
Yesterday, after Salò, I decided I needed something light and silly, so I watched Possessed, an inadvertently funny exorcism film starring Timothy Dalton, who struggles with his accent with less success than his character fights his PTSD. The best laugh for me came during the big exorcism finale, when Dalton's priest actually says, "Fasten your seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy ride."
Forget to mention that before Salò I watched True Love, which was unobjectionable but a bit dull.
Hey, today is Sunday! I can actually honor the title of this thread if I choose. I'm thinking, though, that after I dutifully slog through Mr. Brooks, I might go on an Oz fest. My DVR is filling up with the backlog.
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Haven't seen Tiptoes, but will look for it.
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My goodness Mr. Brooks is bad! [Note: spoilers galore ahead.] I did take a certain amount of pleasure in seeing Dane Cook brutally murdered, and I do have to congratulate him for portraying so successfully an impotent, blustering weasel (a performance that didn't require much in the way of acting from him, I suppose), but that's not enough to compensate for the rest.
Here, in Top Chef list style, are a few moments and/or details that stood out for me as particularly bad:
* Kevin Costner's self-conscious Casper Milquetoast schtick
* All the knowing laughs Costner and Hurt share
* The figure no one could ever mistake for Demi Moore slamming onto the roof of a car after flying out of the moving van
* The strained coincidence of the escaped criminal who's after Det. Atwood pulling into the parking lost where Mr. B. and Mr. S. are staking out the first potential victim's car
* Hurt's delivery of the line "The next victim could be [far too long pause] you"
* The painfully transparent code of circling relevant words in the newspaper in red felt-tip
* Hurt's delivery of the line in the farewell note: ". . . instead of subjecting you to my deterioration"
* The complete absence of grounds for a warrant to search Mr. Smith's apartment (at least the warrant is denied, but that Det. Atwood even instructs her sidekick to request one is too silly)
* The fact that, if the explanation for Mr. Smith's DNA being at the scene where the detective's husband and his lawyer were killed is that Mr. Brooks forced him to come along, then there's no way Mr. Brook's identity as the Thumbprint Killer was going to be concealed from his family, yet that was the basis for his considering allowing Mr. S. to kill him
I can't wait to hear Tom's performance.
P.S. I suspect that the writers of Dexter stole the NA bit from this movie, which makes me think even less of that show.
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last nite was not nearly as entertaining as the past few days have been for the rest of you and your cinematic exploits, but i toggled back and forth between Waiting... and Jurassic Park III. i preferred JP3.
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I celebrated my last day of vacation with 3 movies yesterday. Milk had a lot of great performances and was probably the first time I haven't really hated Penn. Didn't quite manage to escape all the biopic conventions but still worth watching. Slumdog Millionaire was alright, I can see why some people like it a lot but the emotional connection just wasn't there for me. Mister Lonely had a lot of really great moments but overall was a hot mess. Definitely the most I've ever enjoyed anything Harmony Korine related.
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I watched "Dog Day Afternoon" today, and despite having no dogs in it and thus being false advertising, I give it very high marks. It is a very good film, and proof that Al Pacino was once an excellent actor.
Plus Jon Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Lance Henrikson, Uncle Junior, and much of the guest stars of the early years of Law & Order.
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There's something that feels right about watching shitty movies on TNT at like three in the morning. Tonight I'll be watching The Peacemaker.
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I watched "Dog Day Afternoon" today, and despite having no dogs in it and thus being false advertising, I give it very high marks. It is a very good film, and proof that Al Pacino was once an excellent actor.
Plus Jon Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Lance Henrikson, Uncle Junior, and much of the guest stars of the early years of Law & Order.
Dog Day Afternoon is my favorite movie so I am glad to hear that you enjoyed it. It's one of those films that I will probably never get tired of watching. The script is fantastic and the acting is uniformly great. I just really can't say enough good things about it.
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I should've known better than to think a 21st century Woody Allen movie might be halfway decent, but Vicky Cristina Barcelona was more loathsome than I expected. Woody's "insights" into the female psyche have never been more patronizing, and seeing the women in this film melt for Javier Bardem's cartoon lothario is beyond ludicrous (get a load of the trip to his dear papa's house). Bardem and Penelope Cruz heroically salvage their dignity, but Rebecca Hall is saddled with too much awkward psychobabble, and the clock continues to run down on Scarlett Johansson's credibility. Also irritating is the superfluous narrator who sounds like he was recording credit card commercials between takes.
The three (!) other films I saw this weekend were much better: Wendy & Lucy was as good as I hoped (Michelle Williams is indeed heartbreaking in the final scene); Surfwise was a compelling dysfunctional family doc; and Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature Ivan's Childhood proved more accessible than his later work but no less poetic, and features some of the most beautiful and best-restored b&w cinematography you'll find on dvd, thanks to a boutique label whose name escapes me.
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Sunday was a driving day, so Saturday was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Station Agent. This was my first time seeing Butch Cassidy, and maybe it was the heightened expectations from the years of rave reviews, but I was underwhelmed. Newman and Redford both gave fine performances and there were some good set pieces, but on the whole I was let down. And the less said about the bicycle scene with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," the better.
I enjoyed The Station Agent a lot. The three principals were all really good but I was a particular fan of Bobby Cannavale as the excitable, child-like hot dog vendor. I thought it did a nice job of examining interpersonal relationships, particularly between parents and children, without really drawing attention to it.
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Weird, adjusted for time zones, I was watching Bobby Cannavale in a play at the moment you typed this. I thought he was great in The Station Agent but I was not a fan of the play.
EDIT: I should learn to read. I was not watching a play at 6:30am on a Monday. I was at 6:30pm on Sunday, though.
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And the less said about the bicycle scene with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," the better.
I remember thinking, "will this scene never end?"
On the whole that movie was disappointing. Not terrible, but unlike other 70s movies I could name (ahem... "Dog Day Afternoon") I just completely didn't get the point.
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I should've known better than to think a 21st century Woody Allen movie might be halfway decent, but Vicky Cristina Barcelona was more loathsome than I expected. Woody's "insights" into the female psyche have never been more patronizing, and seeing the women in this film melt for Javier Bardem's cartoon lothario is beyond ludicrous (get a load of the trip to his dear papa's house). Bardem and Penelope Cruz heroically salvage their dignity, but Rebecca Hall is saddled with too much awkward psychobabble, and the clock continues to run down on Scarlett Johansson's credibility. Also irritating is the superfluous narrator who sounds like he was recording credit card commercials between takes.
The three (!) other films I saw this weekend were much better: Wendy & Lucy was as good as I hoped (Michelle Williams is indeed heartbreaking in the final scene); Surfwise was a compelling dysfunctional family doc; and Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature Ivan's Childhood proved more accessible than his later work but no less poetic, and features some of the most beautiful and best-restored b&w cinematography you'll find on dvd, thanks to a boutique label whose name escapes me.
I don't think Javier Bardem is all that.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg_ndcQqR3o[/youtube]
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Anyone seen the Zodiac director's cut? Any good?
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I should've known better than to think a 21st century Woody Allen movie might be halfway decent, but Vicky Cristina Barcelona was more loathsome than I expected. Woody's "insights" into the female psyche have never been more patronizing, and seeing the women in this film melt for Javier Bardem's cartoon lothario is beyond ludicrous (get a load of the trip to his dear papa's house). Bardem and Penelope Cruz heroically salvage their dignity, but Rebecca Hall is saddled with too much awkward psychobabble, and the clock continues to run down on Scarlett Johansson's credibility. Also irritating is the superfluous narrator who sounds like he was recording credit card commercials between takes.
I don't think Javier Bardem is all that.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg_ndcQqR3o[/youtube]
[/quote]
i wasn't really a fan of the voice-over, but i liked Vicky Christian Barcelona a lot. I actually identified with it & thought it was kind of accurate, in terms of modern love. i had pretty low expectations for it b/c im not a huge woody allen fan (of his recent stuff at least), and then i was surprised by how much i enjoyed it. I thought the acting in the beginning and some of the premise was a bit inauthentic, but i think it really picked up. even though it was typical hollywood (everyone's beautiful and every thing's perfect), I still think about it, and i think penelope cruz' character was pretty hilarious. so, i give it 2 thumbs up (i'm a big fan of romance movies though).
anyway, saw this documentary yesterday & thought it was really good and it's free and you can even watch it right now:
http://wideeyecinema.com/?p=105
--it's called The World According to Monsanto
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Watched Ernst Lubitsch's TO BE OR NOT TO BE today and have to admit I was surprised just how tense it is, and how deftly it blends suspense and comedy (I know, "the Lubitsch touch" is no joke). The gags and one-liners hold up too (ok, maybe not the one about Rudolf Hess). Most of you who haven't already seen it would enjoy this.
Also watched Michelangelo Antonioni's L'ECLISSE. I've had mixed reactions to his work that I've seen; I really liked L'avventura but was mostly bored withThe Passenger and even more bored with Blow-Up (the Yardbirds excepted). This is some achievement though. Practically every still constitutes a gorgeous photograph, and that's how you clear a narrative out of the way (the airport sequence may have been my fave). Can't say I shared Antonioni's fascination with the Italian stock market though... and *oof,* that one scene with Vitti in blackface. Still, I've come around to him more now. As an additional heads-up, Zabriskie Point is out on dvd this week.
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I had a Jacques Demy double feature yesterday, my first time with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls Of Rochefort. Both were really fantastic. Instant Netflix is definitely not the best way to view Umbrellas, hope I can catch it on the big screen sometime.
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Today was a trifecta due to Netflix backstock. I watched Ghost Dog, The Iron Giant, and Spellbound. I really liked all three, but I was probably most surprised by my reaction to Ghost Dog. Jarmusch is more miss than hit for me, especially as I get older (the ones I liked as a younger man haven't held up very well upon repeat viewings), but I was very entertained throughout.
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Drag Me To Hell and The Hangover. The Hangover was pretty good, but Drag Me To Hell seemed like an instant classic. It's like an old fairy tale, in a good way. Scary and funny.
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I saw four movies this weekend; two were brand new, two were oldies I'd never seen before. My thoughts:
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE - Had some interesting ideas bubbling below the surface, but I wound up not caring since it was the most boring movie I've seen since THE BLACK DAHLIA. The only entertaining part in this movie was the first fifteen minutes, when the phrase "The economy's really bad right now" was said at least twice every thirty seconds. It would be a great drinking game for when the DVD comes out. Between that and some fat john telling the hooker to "Vote for McCain," this is maybe the most time-stamped movie I've ever seen. It's like RED STATE for snobs. And as for the Glenn Kenny cameo everyone's raving about, they shouldn't be. It seemed like a performance a non-actor would give. Sure it was "scene-stealing," but who was acting opposite him in the scene? Sacha Grey! The couch could've out-acted her in that thing. Anyway, this movie is a major snooze; it further lowered my already low opinion of Soderbergh.
THE HANGOVER - Underwhelming. Not as funny as everyone makes it out to be, but still: A mainstream comedy with Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Matt Walsh? I'll take it. Zach is responsible for pretty much every laugh in the movie, by the way. The best thing that could happen with this is that Zach breaks out in a huge way and VISIONEERS gets wide release.
ROSEMARY'S BABY - Not very scary, but it was fun to watch and I appreciated the slow-burn approach. The final scene was pretty funny. I especially liked when the lady who was rocking the Antichrist too hard stuck her tongue out at Mia Farrow. Moral of film: Satanists can be just as petty as regulars.
THE HUDSUCKER PROXY - Why had I not seen this until this weekend? It was a delight! Jennifer Jason Leigh gives one of the best comedic performances I've ever seen in a movie. I was about to write "female comedic performances," but I didn't want to appear sexist, you see. Tim Robbins was a great boob. How has he never done another Coen Bros. movie?
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Spellbound.
Spelling bee or Hitchcock?
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I saw four movies this weekend; two were brand new, two were oldies I'd never seen before. My thoughts:
THE HANGOVER - Underwhelming. Not as funny as everyone makes it out to be, but still: A mainstream comedy with Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Matt Walsh? I'll take it. Zach is responsible for pretty much every laugh in the movie, by the way. The best thing that could happen with this is that Zach breaks out in a huge way and VISIONEERS gets wide release.
I, of course, enjoyed Zach, but Ed Helms emerged as the victor in this one.
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The only entertaining part in this movie was the first fifteen minutes, when the phrase "The economy's really bad right now" was said at least twice every thirty seconds.
Oh geez, it's bad enough I have to hear that in every article of every magazine/newspaper and every commercial/program on TV.
"Times are tough! buy a better mattress to help you sleep at night, because you wouldn't be able to otherwise!"
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Two documentaries, both awesome.
Anvil: The Story of Anvil
A Player to Be Named Later
(about minor league baseball players)
Oh, and this is seriously Anvil's URL:
http://my.tbaytel.net/~tgallo@tbaytel.net/anvil/
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Red Beard by Kurosawa.
Very good. I think he's my favorite director, up there with Billy Wilder.
Kagemusha is next on my Kurosawa list (that is, next on the movies that TCM has shown that I haven't seen).
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I tried watching The King of Marvin Gardens. Turned it off after about 40 minutes when it became clear that either:
a) The film was going nowhere
or
b) It was going somewhere but doing it so slowly that no payoff could make the slow trudge to get there worthwhile
I have no problem with slow movies but this was torturous. On the plus side, I thought Nicholson was really good. It was interesting to see quiet, understated Jack.
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Is that a Monopoly version of King of Kong?
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Kagemusha is next on my Kurosawa list (that is, next on the movies that TCM has shown that I haven't seen).
Criterion is releasing this on blu-ray soon, as sort of a consolation for their having lost the rights to RAN.
I tried watching The King of Marvin Gardens. Turned it off after about 40 minutes when it became clear that either:
a) The film was going nowhere
or
b) It was going somewhere but doing it so slowly that no payoff could make the slow trudge to get there worthwhile
I have no problem with slow movies but this was torturous. On the plus side, I thought Nicholson was really good. It was interesting to see quiet, understated Jack.
KING O' MARV G is pretty pretentious (and not in the overused sense, it's actually pretentious) but I liked it. Jack is rather sullen in it. Definitely a product of "New Hollywood" that's practically from another dimension today.
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I dig King of MG, don't remember it as all that slow. And it's only like 100 mins or so I think. But then I'm a sucker for most early-70s Nicholson movies. (Including his little-seen and very of-the-times directorial debut Drive, He Said.)
Haven't seen a single movie for at least two weeks. Sucks.
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This is for reals, now, because this week I am Nielsen family.
Between Sunday and today I watched two: The Three Faces of Eve and The Barefoot Contessa.
Eve was good. It's a bit weird to see how stilted the attitude toward mental illness looks, but it had to be a very forward-looking movie at the time. Joanne Woodward is great and deserved her Oscar. She's a real Georgian, and her accent is very good (and variable across the three personalities). She's playing three very different women but she gives them some similarities. A true breakout performance, even retrospectively.
She's also beautiful, which doesn't hurt.
The Barefoot Contessa is great, too. I'll watch anything with Bogie in it except his early two-minutes-onscreen heavy roles, um, and Knock on Any Door.
Going out on a limb here, but Bogart is my favorite actor. He plays type again here, but it's fantastic. I'd have liked to see what he would have done in his 70s.
Ava Gardner is very good, as well (and, of course, drop-dead gorgeous also). Smithfield, NC's own.
I recommend both.
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This is for reals, now, because this week I am Nielsen family.
Between Sunday and today I watched two: The Three Faces of Eve and The Barefoot Contessa.
Eve was good. It's a bit weird to see how stilted the attitude toward mental illness looks, but it had to be a very forward-looking movie at the time. Joanne Woodward is great and deserved her Oscar. She's a real Georgian, and her accent is very good (and variable across the three personalities). She's playing three very different women but she gives them some similarities. A true breakout performance, even retrospectively.
She's also beautiful, which doesn't hurt.
The Barefoot Contessa is great, too. I'll watch anything with Bogie in it except his early two-minutes-onscreen heavy roles, um, and Knock on Any Door.
Going out on a limb here, but Bogart is my favorite actor. He plays type again here, but it's fantastic. I'd have liked to see what he would have done in his 70s.
Ava Gardner is very good, as well (and, of course, drop-dead gorgeous also). Smithfield, NC's own.
I recommend both.
Speaking of Bogie, not too long ago I watched Key Largo. That was pretty fantastic.
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I dig King of MG, don't remember it as all that slow. And it's only like 100 mins or so I think. But then I'm a sucker for most early-70s Nicholson movies. (Including his little-seen and very of-the-times directorial debut Drive, He Said.)
Haven't seen a single movie for at least two weeks. Sucks.
My favorite early 70's Nicholson film has to be The Last Detail. What a great film. Unfortunately, the DVD isn't worth buying. So I just kept my old VHS copy.
On the dais for this weekend is Clifford, Fitzcarraldo, The Burden of Dreams, and Rear Window, all of which I have checked out from the library.
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Key Largo is appreciated, but not nearly enough. Same with To Have and Have Not.
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Years ago, when I did historical film assessment similar to what I am doing with current actors on my blog, Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart were 1 and 2 among all screen actors, although I honestly can't remember which was which. I should maybe repeat that. Somebody go to my blog and request it, if you're interested.
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I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.
They don't make movies like this anymore. For one thing, the whole cast is sweating. And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.
Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.
And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.
Overall good though. I'd recommend.
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I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.
They don't make movies like this anymore. For one thing, the whole cast is sweating. And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.
Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.
And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.
Overall good though. I'd recommend.
I like this one too. Remember when Mel Gibson was actually interesting & not batshit crazy?
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I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.
They don't make movies like this anymore. For one thing, the whole cast is sweating. And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.
Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.
And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.
Overall good though. I'd recommend.
I like this one too. Remember when Mel Gibson was actually interesting & not batshit crazy?
I almost do.
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I watched The Year of Living Gangrenously Dangerously last night.
They don't make movies like this anymore. For one thing, the whole cast is sweating. And a lot of times the noise of a fan or the traffic makes the dialogue hard to hear.
Nowadays, Mel Gibson (and for God's sake Sigourney Weaver as the female lead) would make it through the whole of Indonesia fresh as a daisy.
And it was weird to see The Shadout Mapes playing a half-Chinese dude.
Overall good though. I'd recommend.
Whenever I hear about this movie, I immediately think about Johnny Dangerously and then I just want to see Johnny Dangerously.
"My father hung me on a hook once. Once."
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Whenever I hear about this movie, I immediately think about Johnny Dangerously and then I just want to see Johnny Dangerously.
"My father hung me on a hook once. Once."
I find Johnny Dangerously shockingly underrated for a pretty bad movie. That is, it's bad, but nowhere near as bad as people think it is. And it has many memorably funny lines. Johnny's mother alone comes in for half a dozen.
"I go both ways."
Somehow Airplane! soaks up all the credit for zany-one-liner movies from the 80s.
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I find Johnny Dangerously shockingly underrated for a pretty bad movie. That is, it's bad, but nowhere near as bad as people think it is. And it has many memorably funny lines. Johnny's mother alone comes in for half a dozen.
Yeah, it really stinks, and yet I could watch it again. One of those movies that was in heavy rotation on cable in the '80s.
"Johnny's mother"? the awesome Maureen Stapleton. Also great as Emma Goldman in Reds.
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I liked her in "Interiors."
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I liked her in "Interiors."
I liked that movie. I know it's like Woody Allen tore the title page off of an unproduced Bergman script and filmed that, but still.
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I liked her in "Interiors."
I liked that movie. I know it's like Woody Allen tore the title page off of an unproduced Bergman script and filmed that, but still.
i've always enjoyed Interiors. of course, i usually enjoy Woody Allen.
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I've been on a two-part Shakespeare's king plays made into movies kick lately, watched Branagh's "Henry V" - I didn't get the NC17 rating for gore. Maybe it just seems quaint 20 years later.
Anyway, it's a fantastic movie.
I also watched "Richard III" with Olivier. Man that dude could act. The sets seem a bit comical, but the acting is so powerful it blows it all away. People (including Olivier) didn't like Ralph Richardson as Buckingham, but I think they missed what he was trying to do.
Now I'm watching "Howard's End." I'm a sucker for lush English period pieces, but this is my first Merchant-Ivory movie. Good stuff so far, although it's kind of ruined by the description that Time Warner provides, which only *starts* to occur ONE DAMN HOUR into a two and half hour movie.
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I don't know a lot of Merchant-Ivory stuff, but The Remains of the Day is really good.
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Yeah, I did see that one in the theaters.
As an American with no manners and no sense of the importance of self-denial or keeping one's place, I was so damn pissed off at that British dude at the end of that movie.
I guess I should check the list of their movies. Maybe I've seen all of them.
Nope, too lazy.
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Watched 8 1/2 for the first time. Is it too much of a cliche for Marcello Mastroianni to be my favorite actor AND Akira Kurosawa to be my favorite director? That would have been a really hip pairing of faves in about 1970 - now, it probably seems a bit on the nose.
Nevertheless.
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Dear BuffcoaT,
With words like these you capture my heart:American with no manners and no sense of the importance of self-denial or keeping one's place,
Your Secret Admirer
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Watched 8 1/2 for the first time. Is it too much of a cliche for Marcello Mastroianni to be my favorite actor AND Akira Kurosawa to be my favorite director? That would have been a really hip pairing of faves in about 1970 - now, it probably seems a bit on the nose.
Nevertheless.
Mastroianni is one of my faves of all time too. He is the perfect cad. If you haven't seen it already check out Divorce Italian Style also starring Loren ... wasn't available for the longest time until Criterion did a gawjus 2 disk package a few years back. He's absolutely hysterical in it.
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Today, Fletch Lives!
The exclamation point is part of the title.
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Fletch Lives!
I really like the original Fletch. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I can still quote almost the whole movie from memory. I like that side of Chevy Chase. So sue me.
Fletch Lives! has Chevy sometimes being almost as good as the first one, but not nearly enough of the time. What it really suffers from is "my God this is so bad" editing. Like they set the schedule and actually forgot to include editing - "Shit! This movie is due tomorrow and all we have is the unconnected scenes!" type editing.
I wonder if Julianne Phillips would have been really, really hot if she hadn't had to cope with the fact that she came onto the scene at the ugliest fashion and hair time in the 20th Century? I think so. The 70s get a bad rap - as someone who came of age in the 80s, our styles were so, so much more brutal than mustaches and leisure suits.
Plus, the movie has a plot that really, really doesn't hold together. Which is funny, because the first one more or less did.
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Death Wish
Death Wish II
Death Wish is okay.
Death Wish II, however, has absolutely no redeeming qualities. 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back.
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I tried re-watching 8 1/2 last night but fell asleep. I love the movie (I own the DVD), but I was sleepy.
Just saw His Girl Friday at The Brooklyn Academy of Music. Great movie but Cary Grant is a total sociopath in it.
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3:10 to Yuma, original version. Good, a lot like High Noon, which is maybe better. But Glen Ford as a bad guy was awesome.
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The Narrow Margin: I can't believe I haven't gotten around to this movie until now. Lean and mean - only 72 minutes long. I really, really like that in a movie.
To Be or Not To Be: Another one that I've been meaning to watch for a decade or so. Genuinely funny and daring. And what's more, it seems as though it was one of the chief influences for Inglourious Basterds! The whole movie theater/visiting Nazi dignitaries plot is basically lifted from this one.
Sometimes I feel like I've watched all the great classic Hollywood films, so to see two amazing ones in the same weekend makes me very happy.
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To Be or Not To Be: Another one that I've been meaning to watch for a decade or so. Genuinely funny and daring. And what's more, it seems as though it was one of the chief influences for Inglourious Basterds! The whole movie theater/visiting Nazi dignitaries plot is basically lifted from this one.
To Be or Not to Be is one of my favorite films of the 40s. Not only is it still funny but it might be the most suspenseful comedy I've ever seen.
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I watched "To Be or Not to Be" recently also--I think there's going to be a resurgence based on its being on Netflix streaming.
This weekend I watched actual physical DVDs--how quaint--of A Serious Man and Philadelphia Story. Both great.
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I also watched The Philadelphia Story this weekend! What are the odds.
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I also watched The Philadelphia Story this weekend! What are the odds.
It was playing when I turned on TCM on Sunday.
Mods (?), please change thread title to "Weekend Philadelphia Story tri-fecta."
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The Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby were two delightful surprises in the AFI Top 100 list, as 2001 and Raging Bull were major disappointments.
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This was a Friday night/Saturday night bi-fecta, but you know.
I watched *Burden of Dreams* last night. That was really good. I have to imagine it was significantly better than Fitzcarraldo. I still want Werner Herzog to narrate my life as I go about my daily schedule:
"Ze man zey call buffcoat lazsilly pedals his bicykle arount zees streetss. He appearss to haf novere to go and nothink vaiting for him. It iss a ssad commentt on hees ssad reality."
You couldn't make a movie the way he did nowadays. That goes without saying. I want to watch "My Best Fiend" for even more crazy Klaus Kinski.
Tonight I finished *McCabe and Mrs. Miller,* which I'd watched half an hour of in October (my life has gotten complicated, not in a bad way).
A great movie, and definitely my favorite Robert Altman movie so far. Although *The Long Goodbye* was also very good. This one was super sad and super realistic. The Tribune Rating Service gave it three out of four stars and those people are idiots.