General Movie Thread

[Bryan]

Spellbound is so-so, as Hitchcock goes. The other two are really awesome. Good picks! The Battle of Algiers was the one that everyone was talking about at the start of the Iraq war, for reasons that will be obvious when you watch it.

[Chris L]

Spellbound is so-so, as Hitchcock goes. The other two are really awesome. Good picks! The Battle of Algiers was the one that everyone was talking about at the start of the Iraq war, for reasons that will be obvious when you watch it.

The Pentagon even had an official private screening of Algiers during the run-up to the war, although typically it looks like nobody paid attention.  Agreed you're in for a kickass weekend with that and Wages of Fear. 

[Sarah]

The Battle of Algiers is wonderful.  A lot of the actors in it were actual participants in said battle, performing under assumed names.  One of the greatest things I ever got to do was edit the selected writings of a guy who was involved in the production.  Unfortunately, he was already dead, but I got to work with people who knew him and with his widow.  It was during that project that I learned that Noam Chomsky is a pill to those who dare to edit him (he wrote the foreword and considered even his commas to be at least semisacred).

[Matt]

Renting movies at the libary is awesome. Thanks to them, I don't think I've bought a DVD in about six months.

I checked these out a few days ago:

SAFE
101 REYKJAVIK
THE BIG KNIFE
THE BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA
BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ

I've rented BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ before, but I had to stop watching after about five episodes to preserve my sanity when I started having dreams of being Franz Biberkopf. That was a rough week.

[Martin]

Safe is pretty good, Julianne Moore is great in it. I'm so-so on 101 Reykjavik, but at least it's harmless. The Big Knife (if it's the Aldrich one) could've been much better than it actually is, in my opinion. Aldrich should've gone all-out camp - it feels too restrained now (considering the juicy source material). Palance is not well cast.

The Battle of Algiers is fantastic.

[Martin]

Watched Paranoid Park today, finally. Liked it.

[Martin]

If you're like me (and why wouldn't you be), you need lists in your life, especially movie lists. I often use the MCN Scoreboard to keep track of the best rated films of any given year (RottenTomatoes is also good for this, but MCN is more to my liking), and try to see all the top rated ones. The MCN Scoreboard is not very printer-friendly, so I cut & pasted the 2008 list into a Word document, for easy reference. Here it is.

Now print it out and get to work. You're welcome.

[Pidgeon]

God help me, I think I'm going to rent Q: The Winged Serpent.

[Martin]

God help me, I think I'm going to rent Q: The Winged Serpent.

Do it! Classic Larry Cohen.

[buffcoat]

It was during that project that I learned that Noam Chomsky is a pill to those who dare to edit him (he wrote the foreword and considered even his commas to be at least semisacred).

Now my image of Chomsky is totally blown.

[Sarah]

Oh, now I've upset you.  I'd better not start talking about Santa Claus, I guess.

[buffcoat]

Oh, now I've upset you.  I'd better not start talking about Santa Claus, I guess.

Oh, Sarah, I was quietly hoping to revisit the 20-post Chomsky sucks-Chomsky rules debacle.  That was so enjoyable for everybody that I wanted to bring it back into their lives.

[Bryan]

Oh, now I've upset you.  I'd better not start talking about Santa Claus, I guess.

Oh, Sarah, I was quietly hoping to revisit the 20-post Chomsky sucks-Chomsky rules debacle.  That was so enjoyable for everybody that I wanted to bring it back into their lives.

I feel certain that whether you think Chomsky sucks OR rules, we can all agree that it's simply shocking that a dude like him would be uptight about the editing of his writing.

[JonFromMaplewood]

Oh, now I've upset you.  I'd better not start talking about Santa Claus, I guess.

Oh, Sarah, I was quietly hoping to revisit the 20-post Chomsky sucks-Chomsky rules debacle.  That was so enjoyable for everybody that I wanted to bring it back into their lives.

I feel certain that whether you think Chomsky sucks OR rules, we can all agree that it's simply shocking that a dude like him would be uptight about the editing of his writing.

It's definitely not shocking, but it is annoying, considering he is such a strong opponent of prescriptive linguistics.

[jbissell]

Safe is pretty good, Julianne Moore is great in it.
The Battle of Algiers is fantastic.

Agree with all the Algiers praise; I was totally blown away.

Safe, especially Moore, bugged the shit out of me.  Can't for the life of me figure out why so many like it.