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From a storytelling point of view, I don't mind them both being sociopaths. But I still argue that if the kiss is meant to show that aspect of the story, it comes way too soon.

It also really doesn't make sense that they'd be tipping their hands to each other this soon. If I am a sociopath and I know I am going to betray you, how do I kiss you? Coldly and hesitantly? Or passionately in order to maintain the illusion?

I think that some combination of the actors' hesitations and maybe even the filmmaker being willing to put a gay kiss on screen but not a sexual gay kiss on screen undercut that specific moment and also lead to a degree of sterility in their interactions that overall turns the film into a more mechanical and less human story. As a result, I was neither very surprised by nor very invested in what happened. (I also think that this "cold" vibe can frequently be the result when stage plays are adapted into films--something about the rhythms of the two different mediums not quite fusing right).

Anastasia, 1997

An evil Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) sells his soul for the powers to allow him to destroy the Romanov family. But unbeknownst to him, Anastasia (Kirsten Dunst, then Meg Ryan) escapes the massacre and grows up as an orphan with little memory of her childhood. She eventually crosses paths with Dmitri (John Cusack), a con artist who actually knew the Romanovs. They set out to pass Anastasia as the lost princess, not realizing she's actually the real deal.

Now this was a pleasant surprise.

Coming off of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this one really stood out for its willingness to ditch many of the most obnoxious Disney trappings. Is there a degree of slapstick? Yes, mainly courtesy of Rasputin's decaying body. Is there the obligatory sidekick? Yes, in the form of Rasputin's pet bat, Bartok (Hank Azaria). But the goofy stuff is largely incidental, and the film maintains an admirable focus on its central story.

The real star of the film is the animation. It's gorgeous. It recalls the best of other Disney movies, with the sweeping ballroom scenes evoking some of the magic of Beauty and the Beast, but also showcasing thrilling action scenes such as an epic train crash. This is a movie that looks good on both the large and small scale.

The story itself is also straightforward but strong. Anastasia and Dmitri fall for each other, but the fact that he's using her for financial gain is inevitably going to drive a wedge between them. Meanwhile, Anastasia's grandmother is in a protracted state of hope and mourning, wanting to believe that her long-lost granddaughter is still alive somewhere. The musical numbers are all good. No instant favorites, but I liked them all.

The only pall over the film isn't really its fault. After the film's release, research and new evidence showed that Anastasia Romanov actually had been executed along with the rest of her family. With that hope and uncertainty put to rest, this film seems like a sad "What if?". Anastasia never made it past 8 years old, and it adds some sadness to the film.

Really shallow horror movie not something i expected from the director but i havnt watched his earlier stuff. The characters were just props and the enemy wasnt scary. Someone whos more into horror films would probably give it more sympathy but i will say the pacing was good, there was alot of action "pun maybe" right away and consistently thru-out to keep you entertained, i just wanted more Has cronenbergs themes of sex , body horror, violence.. but was very immature.


4/10

Re-Animator - 1985

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962

A man named Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) gets caught up in a violent stagecoach robbery attempting to defend a widow. Badly beaten by an outlaw named Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), Stoddard is shocked to learn when he gets to town that Valance is basically allowed free range of behavior outside the town limits. As Stoddard, a lawyer, tries to come up with legal ways to justify trying Valance for his crimes, he attracts the attention of local woman Hallie (Vera Miles). His blossoming relationship with Hallie brings him into conflict with Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), a local man.

This was a delightfully complex, interesting film.

I really enjoy stories that examine what it means to be a good and honorable person in different situations. I think that Westerns are often a great medium to explore this question, as the "wild west" existed for a while in a liminal state between untamed and unregulated communities and the encroachment of more traditional "civilization".

In the case of this film, you have Ransom and Tom existing on two different sides of the "good man" coin. Ransom is a lawyer by trade. He believes in law and order, but he also believes in the ideals if his country. When he learns that Hallie cannot read, he offers to teach her, which turns into teaching a whole crew of locals to read and write. Not insignificantly, in addition to some local men, his students include women, immigrants, and a free Black man. Reading, writing, the law, and rights are not just for a select group. And despite his bookish status, Ransom is no coward. Despite not having the skills or athleticism of a fighter, he repeatedly stands up to Liberty, even at gunpoint.

Tom, on the other hand, is much more of a traditional "man's man." He's quick with a gun. He's building a home for himself and Hallie. He also believes in doing what's right. For example, when Liberty comes after Ransom at a local restaurant, Tom inserts himself between Liberty and Ransom to avoid bloodshed.

What I maybe found most interesting about this film was the way that it doesn't really take sides between the two men. Each have their strengths and their shortcomings. Really, it's the combination of their skills and inclinations that are what is needed to help the town survive and flourish. For Tom, his shortcoming is maybe being a little too old fashioned. For example, he has decided that he's going to marry Hallie---without a tremendous amount of care as to whether that's what she actually wants. For Ransom, his shortcoming is the fact that he has to trade on someone else's accomplishments to make a name for himself. In the end, I don't think it's really a strike against either man. They are complimentary of each other.

Stewart and Wayne are pretty perfect in their roles. Stewart has such a gift for portraying men who are idealists and willing to put their lives on the line for them. He seems incredibly genuine about wanting to improve the lives of the community members. He shows a respect for Hallie. Wayne, in contrast, carries himself with the quiet confidence of someone who knows his own abilities. Despite his conflict with Ransom over Hallie, he is willing to teach Ransom to shoot and gives him good advice about dealing with Liberty.

If I had one tiny criticism, it would maybe be that I'd have liked a little more explicit thoughts from Hallie. Especially in the last third of the film, I really wanted to know what she was thinking.

Overall, one of those films that more than earns its reputation as a classic.

Open Range, 2003

Cattlemen Charley (Kevin Costner) and his boss (Robert Duvall) are free grazing their cattle along with two younger cowhands when they come into the territory of a land baron (Michael Gambon) who doesn't approve of free grazing. When neither side is willing to back down, the conflict quickly turns to bloodshed. Complicating things further are the feelings Charley begins to develop for a local nurse (Annette Bening).

Another solid western, this one with a pretty straight-forward plot with some interesting little embellishments.

Costner (who also directed) is solid as a man living with some sort of traumatic past, reluctantly returning to violence. Once things kick off, though, he sometimes has trouble walking away. Duvall is a nice counterpoint as the mostly-sanguine boss, though it's interesting to note that his pride--not wanting to take the baron's threats seriously and move their cattle out--is what leads to the escalating confrontation.

The scenery looks really amazing, and the sequences where the men are herding the cattle through wide open landscapes are really breathtaking and must have looked fantastic on the big screen.

I don't have too much to say about this one, aside from the fact that I really enjoyed it.

I love this film. Just a quick aside, it isn’t Boss Spearmints pride that leads to the escalation, but the understanding that, as he puts it when Button suggest they push on, “Wouldn’t do any good Button, I’ve seen men like Baxter before. He aims to take this herd, or scatter it the winds.” And “He wants us all in one place, so he can take care of us all at once.” There is no other alternative in his eyes. *

The herd is his property, and later on he states that a man has a right to protect his property, which in the times of the west, often ended up in a gunfight.

He does state, later on, that he aims to kill Baxter, for what they did to Mose, but this is well after he understood Baxter’s intentions.

He literally saw it as having no choice. Which is how it’s presented in the movie.

Angela's Ashes (1999)

By Employee(s) of Warner Bros. - http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20S...John%20Doe.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=18512811

Meet John Doe - (1941)

A fired newspaper reporter, Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck), fires off a fake letter from a 'John Doe' - in which he says he's about to commit suicide because of how lousy he thinks general attitudes are. The story gathers momentum, and as such the paper finds it necessary to drag in some random bums to make them into the John Doe from the letter. Things get out of control when a whole new political party is formed on the back of Doe's fake musings - leading to intrigue from dark, wealthy interests. Not bad, but could have done with another 15 minutes or so cut from it - at over 2 hours, the film feels slow and loses momentum by the halfway mark. Gary Cooper is fine as always. Lofty, serious and ambitious.

6/10


By MGM - Impawards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12073057

The Delta Force - (1986)

What a strange creature this is. When you talk about Chuck Norris and 1980s action the last person that will come to mind is Shelley Winters, but this is the kind of movie that has slight reminders of pre-1980s disaster-type action fare. Winters is part of a cast of unfortunate characters involved with the hijacking of a plane by Middle Eastern terrorists. The passengers include George Kennedy as a Father O'Malley and Joey Bishop as one of a slew of unfortunate Jewish people on the flight. The main terrorist is played by Robert Forster - which is in keeping with a film that has such an unusual cast. Lee Marvin shows up in his last ever role as the commander of 'The Delta Force' - which is sent in to kill the terrorists and rescue the hostages. Marvin was in his 60s at the time, but looks like he's in his 80s.

The plot pretty much mirrors true events of the day - in particular the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985. I think it was meant to be more than just an action film - it's running time of 130 minutes suggests something grander and it has the cast and gravity that recalls such films as The Poseidon Adventure or The Dirty Dozen. Unfortunately, this is a Golan-Globus production (Menahem Golan himself directed) - so you know it's not going to be particularly intelligent and you know it's budget will be stretched thin. There are no great ideas - just stereotypes with guns and grenades as the movie gets more and more predictable and we're forced to watch on with a godawful electronic score repeating over and over in the background. Filmed in Israel and obviously with some personal feeling. A shame it all goes awry - it showed a little promise at the start.

4/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13592269

Magical Mystery Tour - (1967)

I needed something that ran around 1 hour and didn't need my full concentration - so I watched this. I couldn't quite believe what I'd seen so I watched it again anyway. John Lennon once derided this as "the most expensive home movie ever made" and I agree with him. None of the ad-libbing or ideas worked out - and without the great music this would be unwatchable.

1/10 as an experimental film if you discount the music
6/10 if you take into account the awesome, awesome songs

Anastasia is one of my favorite animated movies. I think Bartok is adorable.

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It's an interesting point but a subtle one now. I will actually have to re-watch the movie to be able to carry this forward given the subtleties you're talking about like the timing of the kiss and whether or not it was sufficiently passionate to fool anyone.
I guess what I'm looking at is that neither of these two characters are world-class sociopaths, they're both basically amateurs which is why they both think what they're selling is fooling the other because each of them takes the other for a fool, played out evidently in the movie. So, how convincing the kiss was, I just don't know that a really convincing kiss does anything other than make them seem like either better sociopaths or undermine the important fact of the movie, that they actually don't even like or respect each other.
I prefer to focus on Christopher Reeve's performance, honestly.

Oh man, you have wounded me. I'm a pretty big fan of this film.

Oh this is great, I think it's a real pleasure when you read someone's response to a film and it's pretty much exactly what you felt. I finally saw this movie about 8 years ago and it struck me in every way you've said.

same here one of my fav Disney animated movies

Joe is the boss of a small crew of lumbers in the southern part of America. Their job is to poison trees so the lumberjacks can cut it legally. The way they relate and talk to each other had a realness to it, almost like Cassavetes's A Woman Under the Influence, obviously, the latter is a masterpiece. A young boy shows up asking for a job and Joe, in the same harsh manners, hires the kid. The rest of the film is Joe taking this kid under his wing, while a abusive father does his thing.

Cage said this was the character more in tune with him in real life, so I had to see it. So much of what I see in this characters I can relate deeply. The cinematography is great, the script is simple and genuine. How they carried the story and the character study is all that mattered. The most important thing about the film is understanding each character, not one character, but every single character in the film.

No, I did definitely understand that from their point it was an "us or them" moment. I still think that they had the opportunity to cut and run. I'm not saying at all it was the wrong choice. It would have meant giving up all of their livelihood. I think that the movie is more interesting and impactful if there is a degree of choice. They choose to stand their ground at a great risk and at a great price.

Anyone who's into American politics knows JFK was loved and LBJ was kinda... hated. Woody was the man for the job, a difficult job that he managed to do successfully, it's very easy the empathize with a guy like Woody, he's a very fun guy to watch, there's at least two scenes that made me laugh extensively, the one about badly manufactured trousers that needed more space between the balls all the way to the as-hole and the one about the wakened after three days drunk Lincoln, saying: freeing the wha...?

The film went all the way to the Civil Rights Act and his magnificent speech, we could all see LBJ trough a new bright lenses, but obviously, it didn't talked about the Vietnam War or the deal would be messed up. A movie just about LBJ wouldn't be a movie, lets face it, it had to be a documentary, and had to be talking about the whole thing, thing which this movie didn't do. Leaving all that aside, a very entertaining and fun film to watch, like all Woody's films.

I think that (aside from the literal historical inaccuracy) it has aged really well, mostly due to keeping the "cute comedy" to a minimum. It really was interesting watching this back-to-back with Hunchback of Notre Dame where the "cutting the cheese" type jokes gave it a dated vibe. I think that the humor from Bartok really works because he is adorable and the jokes are all relevant to the plot itself.

Since it's literally sitting on my shelf, I might pop it in the DVD player this weekend.

Not to rehash our absurd "masculinity in Jaws" debate (please no), but I really like films that explore the idea that there's not one right way to be a ______ (man, woman, parent, leader, fill-in-the-blank). Knowing and understanding the law and using that to empower people is really cool. Being able to wrangle horses and fire a gun accurately from a distance in the dark is also really cool.

I'm also still trying to figure out how to write up a review of The Ox-Bow Incident because that movie was amazing but also incredibly upsetting.

I really was surprised at how much the film got right.