JayDee's Movie Musings

Don't say that!!! I don't need the extra pressure of you expecting better on my back!

But seriously thanks. And thanks to all the people who repped V for Vendetta. Was a very nice surprise a few days ago to come on and see that overnight the rep had jumped from 4 up to 10. Even if there's some pity rep in there I don't care!


Oh and I just updated my reviews index on the first page so may as well post it here as well. Let people see if they've missed anything

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One that you could do for me is John Carter



I watched it for the 4th time yesterday I have decided it could become a cult B grade movie in the future I like a bit of cheese a huge fan of Flash



Now I have read your list forget it Because you are................

BURNT OUT

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Well I tell you what Nebbit, seeing as it's you I will get around to watching and reviewing it at some point. But just because it's you you understand!

I actually did kind of fancy watching it, and I do enjoy a good dollop of cheese!

Wow, I think that means that about 12% of all John Carter's viewings are as a result of you!

I am sure I am drawn to it as my Brothers Name is John Carter

I liked V For Vendetta a lot when I was a kid, Hugo Weaving is great in it, and so is Natalie Portman, which should be recommendation enough.

Seriously, a bit belated, but add me to the group of those saddened about your break from reviews. Disillusionment and self-depracating are two of my most constant feelings when writing my reviews, so I have something of an understanding to how you feel about your whole situation.

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"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

Thanks you very much. I'm touched by how many fans I see to have. I will be returning to them at some point I promise. And it's nice to have a kindred spirit in terms of questioning and undermining one's self.


Way to make me feel really old at just 25! You should not be able to talk about being a kid with a film that only came out in 2006!!! How dare you!

Good to see you back mate!

Have been wondering about whether to go see Looper or not... thanks for the review!

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Thanks mate. Not sure when I'll try and return full time, but for the moment every now and then I'll pop up with one. Either because I try and write something short and it just spirals like V for Vendetta, or because I see something which just sparks a lot of points in my mind I'd like to make such as Looper.

I just love to see that Save the Green Planet! is the highest rated movie in this thread. I also recommend that you do a review for Memories of Murder, one of Tarantino's favourite movies (and one of mine as well).

Glad you liked Rain Man... I remember saying you hadn't seen it.

You made a better review of it than I did though!

Well not quite the highest; Avengers got a 5, Warriors a 4.5++ and a couple more tied with 4.5+ (Lars and the Real Girl and In the Line of Fire) but damn close!

I did blind buy Memories of Murder a while back so may very well look it out sometime soon

Well of course I did! As I told you before, you may write more reviews than me but it's all about quality over quantity!

To be fair however, even if my review were 'better' it was your review and rating that encouraged me to finally watch it; surely that's the highest mark that a review can attain - to make someone go and watch a film.

Last weekend Rain Man was on PBS so I saw it again for probably around the tenth time. I think I appreciate it more everytime I see it. I agree with you about the humor; It's a really, really funny movie without ever coming close to anything offensive.

Good to see you really liked Rain Man. It's one of my all-time favourites, and along with Magnolia, it's probably the best I've seen Tom Cruise act.

Good review, as always, JD. I'll be interested to see what you think after you've seen Rain Man a few more times. In my experience, the more someone watches it, the more they think of Cruise's performance. Personally, I think the film dies without his performance. That's not to belittle Hoffman's performance, however, as you mentioned, it's Charlie Babbitt's personal journey that's at the centre of the film. Due to his condition, Raymond isn't able to change in any meaningful or significant way, meaning the whole thing rests on Cruise's shoulders.

One minor quibble. Valeriea Gorino plays Charlie's girlfriend, not Raymond's.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Is this the ultimate love letter in the history of cinema? Tim Burton's ode to Edward Wood, aka the worst director of all time, is a beautiful and touching bit of hero worship. It's been a favourite of mine for a long time now. On my top 100 list I posted here I placed it at exactly #100 but at the time I hadn't seen it for a few years. Revisiting it now confirms that it should be a lot higher.

The film's greatest achievement is in turning Ed Wood from the laughing stock and worst director of all time that he was, into someone to root for and admire. Yes his ambitions may have far outweighed his talent. And yes his films perhaps weren't that good; awful even! But how can you not admire a man with such a love for film, and such a desire to create magic up on the screen. A man who poured all his heart into his films. How much more preferential is that to the numerous directors since then and who are still around today that produce one soulless film after another, seemingly designed purely to make as much profit at the box office as possible. Michael Bay – I'm looking at you!

This is a film that could very easily have been played up to its rather sad potential. After all it's a story about a series of ridiculous characters who despite their best intentions ultimately failed when it came to movie making. Burton however finds great hope and aspiration in their efforts. These people and the films they made have been ridiculed and pilloried for decades, but Burton shows these people, and Wood in particular, to be rather inspirational figures. Individuals who fight and scrap with everything they've got to fulfil their dreams and get their ideas up on the screen. These are people who just love cinema and want to be a part of the magic. Burton shows them great respect and gives them back a sense of dignity. No doubt Burton sees Wood as something of a kindred spirit. A director with bizarre ideas who could easily be described as 'kooky' it's easy to imagine Burton sympathising with Wood's efforts to get his creations on screen. After all, studios can't exactly have been falling over themselves to get their hands on some of Burton's outlandish and quirky concepts.

Film trivia – While the film may be successful at capturing the spirit of Ed Wood and his films they are worlds apart in terms of their production values. Ed Wood cost more to produce than every single one of Ed Wood's films combined. And it's estimated that the opening titles and credit sequence for Ed Wood cost more than the entire budget of any one of Wood's real films.

Johnny Depp is delightful in the title role, perfectly capturing the wide-eyed wonder of a child for film and the infectious energy he attacked each project with. He's just so easy to root for. So much so that you hope the film is leading up to Ed's triumphant Oscar win for Best Director, but sadly that's not the path his career took. And Depp looks excellent in monochrome, in fact after this I think he should have demanded that every film he made be filmed in black and white! However as good as he is even he can't grab the limelight from the wonderful Martin Landau who gives an absolutely fantastic showing as the legendary Bela Lugosi. He provides glimpses of the iconic character actor that Lugosi once was, but shows the pathetic and pitiful individual that he sadly descended to in his later years. A washed up drug addict unable to get any work, he tries to retain a sense of pride and dignity. His performance is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Landau's line delivery is just fantastic, especially when it comes to cursing! My personal favourite moments are when he furiously cracks up over Boris Karloff, and his reaction to the rubber octopus.

Ed Wood surrounded himself with an eccentric group of oddballs, and they are terrifically brought to life and realised by the quirky cast that Burton assembled. Jeffrey Jones is terrific as TV psychic Criswell, and former professional wrestler George “The Animal” Steele just has so much characters in his face alone. And then there's Bill Murray. While it's a fairly minor role that he has Murray makes every second of it count, delivering laughs with pretty much every single line he has. It may sound strange to say (it even sounds strange to me! ) when you consider some of his leading roles in films like Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, but this is damn near close to my favourite Bill Murray performance/character.


The film is fairly minimal when it comes to plot, meandering through Wood's resume of films one after the other; culminating with Wood's opus, Plan 9 from Outer Space. What breaks this up and greatly adds to the film's heart are the three relationships that Wood found himself in at this time. There's his strained and ultimately failed romance with his actress muse Dolores Fuller, portrayed by Parker. It's Wood's revelation of his penchant for cross dressing that seems to put the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. And then there's his romance with Patricia Arquette's Kathy O'Hara, a relationship that seems to be his saving grace. However without a doubt the film's most satisfying and touching relationship is the friendship that develops between Wood and legendary horror star, Bela Lugosi. As a man he grew up idolising Wood is clearly heartbroken to see the predicament that Lugosi now finds himself in. As a result he does all he can to resurrect both his career and his life in general.

So all in all a wonderful piece of film making. Although I do have one note of caution. This is a touching tribute to the man considered the worst director of his, and perhaps, all time! So does that mean in about 30 years time some visionary director is going to create a film of appreciation to the new worst director ever, Uwe Boll? *shudder* Now there's a scary thought!!!

Conclusion – I love this film. While I probably wouldn't call it my favourite Tim Burton film (I believe Edward Scissorhands may still hold that accolade) I do believe it's his personal masterpiece, a lovingly crafted film. A film for anyone who has ever had a dream that they just can't quite attain. Indeed if I wasn't so reticent at handing out perfect ratings this would be a prime contender for a five star rating as it's just about perfect in what it sets out to accomplish. It's so good that not even the involvement of Sarah Jessica Parker can ruin it!

I think Ed Wood may be one of the most perfect films I've ever seen.

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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

Always good to see such love for an HK 100 entrant. That said, you rated it too low.

Thanks man. Really wouldn't be surprised if it was able to become a real favourite on repeat viewings. Was it close to your top 100 by any chance?

Oh and thanks for that. Will go back and edit just now

You're probably right. I should stop pretending I'm a serious film critic who holds the 5 star rating in such high esteem that I only gave it to select films. It's the same with negative films. I recently gave The Birds a 3- score based mostly on Hitchcock's skill when it came to direction but also the fact that I felt I couldn't greatly criticise one of his films given the high esteem he's held in. If I was giving it a score purely on my enjoyment it would have been lucky to get beyond a 2/5 at best.


Oh and as yourself and Deadite are such big fans of Ed Wood I hope you both enjoyed my review. I was actually quite happy with it myself, and given my self-doubt and insecurity I've shown of late that's saying something!