Sunday good movie bi-fecta

[masterofsparks]

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.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

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.

[buffcoat]

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.

[hugman]

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]

[citizenlewis]

Anyone seen the Zodiac director's cut?  Any good?

[Emily]

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

[Chris L]

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.  

[jbissell]

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.

[masterofsparks]

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.

[Bryan]

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.

[Matt]

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?

[jbissell]

Spellbound.

Spelling bee or Hitchcock?

[Omar]

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. 

[Pidgeon]

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!"

[yesno]

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/