Movie Tab II

okay, here's a small summary of the movies i watched while i was away from "home".
Exorcist, the Beginning, 2004
Decoys, Canada 2003, not so bad actually, cuz of the nice sisters i guess...
Highwaymen, Canada 2003, even better
My Wife's a Gangster, Korea 2003, real, real funny and good action flick too
Cellular, 2004, good action flick too
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004, this time i saw it in Europe, a big change from Columbus, Ohio, and i won't stop loving that movie and the actors in it
Resident Evil, 2002, there's more than Milla's full frontal there, i reckon
Collateral, 2004, even Cruise i usually cannot stand is supportable in there
Bicheunmu/Bichunmoo, Korea 2000, exaggerated martial arts, well done though
White Oleander, 2002, Alison Lohman, wow! and Renee Zellweger, i love you as always... sad, excellent movie
Million Dollar Baby, 2004, nuffsaid, nuffsad
In Good Company, 2004, just okay, nothing more
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, 2005, real good fun
Sin City, 2004, can't stop watching it!
War Of The Worlds, 2005, well well, i do prefer the old one, by far
The Island, 2005, when you've got Scarlett and the best action since Matrix 1, i guess you're happy for a while
Hide And Seek, 2005, Dakota Fanning rules, and so doesn't De Niro anymore!
Gothica, 2003, well...
Hypnotized, good if slightly confusing and confused Korean flick, but great photography as always
Aviator, 2004,
Madagascar, 2005, excellent cartoon, really made me laugh more than once, and that seldom happens...
A Love Song For Bobby Long, 2005, i like Scarlett, i like Travolta, i like country music and the atmosphere, so, i liked it
Sahara, 2005, i can't stand the Cruz, and some action is not enough to make a good movie
School Of Life, 2005, was too sleepy to remember it...
Saint Ange, F 2003, Virginie Ledoyen mmmmmh, plus a photography that reminds of The Others, what more dya want?
Saekjeuk shigong/Sex Is Zero, Korea 2002, at times much more vulgar than American Pie, does it tell you something?
Matrix, 1999, fot the tenth time or so...............
Brodeuses, F 2004, not so good...
Godsend, 2004, twas okay
La Demoiselle d'honneur, F 2004, it is Chabrol! so you're sure the movie'll be good, or excellent. i really really liked it, more like an atmospheric movie, recommended
Sling Blade, 1995, Billy Bob Thornton (almost) never disappoints me, and he's simply great in there
Sieben Sommersprossen/Seven Freckles, East Germany 1978, those Germans were such hippies, it's kinda touching...

__________________
We're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.

I had never seen this flick, but a friend of mine was always gushing about it, so I decided to check it out. Wasn't expecting much, but I got an amazing film highlighted by Fiennes & Turturro's best performances to date and a compelling screenplay from Paul Attanasio. Just a great movie.

Masjävlar / Dalecarlians (2004 - Maria Blom)

A very nice, funny and moving swedish comedy/drama about a young woman who comes back from the big city to her rural childhood hometown for her dad's 70th birthday. I guess a very few if any of you will get a chance to see this one but if you do I'd advice you to take the chance and see it. At first I thought that it might be "too swedish" for an international audience, but after having thought about it I think the things the film deals with (tensions between city and country, old and young, modern and unmodern, traditions and new) are similar in the entire western society.

__________________
The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

--------

They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

Hide And Seek (2005, John Polson)

1.5/5

One of those unfortunate 'seen everything else in the shop' moments. Dakota Fanning gives a subtle little performance but, given that script, didn't have to exactly extend herself (I can't believe I'm talking like that about an 11 year old, even younger when she filmed this dreck).

DeNiro. What can I say? Is his abysmal choice of films recently to blame for such a one-note, sleepwalking performance? Or has he merely become a one-note, sleepwalking kind of actor who is content to pick up paychecks without having to extend himself?

He's certainly got nothing to prove but, for me, every forgettable thriller like Hide And Seek and Godsend dilutes his authority. I see he's penned in to star (and produce) in Jonathan Glazer's remake of the pretty darn average Nakata film, Chaos.

Oh well...


One day, Bob's hardcore fans invaded the Hide And Seek set and tried to point out where it's all going wrong.

__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Hmmmm, I would get a few of the more traditinal westerns under my belt before going for Unforgiven. I think one needs to be pretty familiar with the "classic" western before they see Eastwood's brilliant deconstruction of the genre. Watch the Leone stuff, and maybe a few Eastwood films like Josey Wales and Pale Rider, then pop in Unforgiven. I think it will have more impact/meaning done that way. At least it did for me...


Meanwhile:

Whale Rider (Caro, 2002)- drifty and spacey, and somewhat enjoyable, even if it got a bit fairy tale-ish near the end. I did enjoy getting a peek into an interesting and very different culture, which is what I enjoyed about the film, as well as the photography, I just have trouble buying the mystical stuff....



Dressed to Kill (DePalma, 1980) - More DePalma Shlock. Growing up in the 70s, I have a special place in my heart for crap like this. Also, the museum scene is quite well done, if not a bit derivative of Hitch....



The Big Lebowski (Coens, 1998) - High art, this one....

__________________

Those Westerns you list as "traditional" are all Revisionist, actually. The "classic" Westerns would be John Ford and John Wayne movies or High Noon, stuff like that.

In any event, one need not be versed in Western lore or at all familiar with the genre in any of its periods to be blown away by Unforgiven.


"...or I'll come back and kill every one of you sonsabitches."

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Sin City (2005) - 4/5
The Wedding Date (2005) - 2 ½/5
The Man Who Cried (2000) - 3 ½/5
Monsoon Wedding (2001) - 3 ½/5

__________________

I think it would blow anyone away on some levels, but the more subtle things Clint is saying with this piece might get missed if they hadn;t seen the revisionist stuff, especially the stuff with Eastwood himself in it. It made Unforgiven just that much better for me, anyway. I like revisiting it after an afternoon of old school westerns, mostly the revisionist stuff, as you know, I haven;t really even seen much of the Ford/Wayne stuff!! Yeah, Yeah, I know, one only has so much time....

Meanwhile I waste time watching old DePalma crap instead... No hope for me, it appears...

Midnight Cowboy - very strong performances draw us into this character-driven piece. John Voight and Dustin Hoffman pair up as a grungy odd couple. The message is ultimately salvation but I felt the balance in this relationship was a hair off. Voight is a little overshadowed by Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo, making what would be a story of redemption and second chances into a somewhat depressing story of a failed dream... with a little redemption thrown in.

I've started to notice a pattern in my perception that I'm not sure I can do anything about, other than keep in mind when rating things: I detested living through the 70's - it was a pretty crappy period of my life - and anything that really captures that fetid, foul decade makes my teeth itch to distraction.

Adjusting for that, I'd give this a 4/5.

__________________
Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Wow. That's too bad.

I can understand though.

__________________
"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

Well, at least I realised it. For awhile there, I just thought you 70's film loving people were insane.

You know what? I've always had this thing about 70's films...I get really, really, burnt out watching them sometimes. It has to do with the type of film and sound editing that was used back then. I don't know how to explain it, actually. I love film from that decade, I really do, but I can't watch too many in one sitting without the aid of a nap.

As far as you recognizing the fact…I’ve been going through that for a while now too; not the same problem, but still…

Nowadays when I watch a film, I find myself paying particular attention to directorial style, editing, the uniqueness of cinematography (if there is any), sound editing/mixing, etc. It’s changed everything. I can’t just accept some movies like I used to be able to. Old favorites of mine have lessened in my eyes because now I can see. What a pain in the ass.

Still…I’d rather be that way than the way I used to be. Sure, there are bunches of films that don’t cut it for me anymore, but there are even more that have become favorites that I just couldn’t see deeply enough before to appreciate them.

Yeah, there is something drowse-inducing about them. I couldn't turn off the subtitles on this disc, and wound up really glad I hadn't - I was totally dependant on them in a couple of scenes (my apartment has some stuff going on right now, is also part of the problem there). There's also a grainiess/yellowish tinge to the film, it always seems. And the moral landscape is just as murky. And nobody bathed. ew.

Yep, I've gone through the same thing. My taste in film has changed radically in the last 3 years, from having been exposed to really great filmmaking and discussion about it on message boards.

I'm still fascinated by the lower-brow appeal though. The book The DaVinci Code is a great example of this. It's got stock characters, run of the mill prose and a far-fetched situation... but it's such a page turner. I read it in 2 days - could not stop reading. I think the films we tend to like when we don't know how to see them objectively are still worth a lot in terms of reaching an audience.

Still...Midnight Cowboy, for me anyway, is in a league of its own. It's also my favorite Hoffman performance, and with him being my favorite actor, it makes it where I can't help but adore the film. I agree with you though, Dustin did outshine Voight in a big way, but not so much for me that I want to 'ding' the film.

I edited in response to your expanded post, above...
I love Hoffman, too, and really liked RR. I just thought it was terribly sad . His character really exists to speed up Voight's character's disenchantment with this icky life, but I ended up caring more about Ratso.

You're preaching to the snot-nosed-from-crying-so-much choir, sistah.

Okay, I didn't cry...but I could have if my dog died while watching it or sumptin'!

I think most of us do.

Damnit! I just read that spoiler and I haven't seen the film. What was I thinking?

__________________
"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."

hee... curiosity... cat... yadda yadda
It's not a suprise ending really though. If you can't see that coming, you've been living far from other humans.

Almost forgot my guilty pleasure viewing this weekend (well it was in the AM Sunday morning after an interesting evening)...

April Fools Day (Walton, 1986) - Terrible Film. But, I have always liked it. One of those I used to watch on tape back in high school on a Friday night....

I have a guilty pleasure confession, as well.
This weekend, I finished watching the first season of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. It got off to a rather slow start, but eps 9 and 10 were pretty good and both 11 and 12 were awesome! Sarah Michelle Gellar kinda blew my doors off, and that's not something I expected I'd EVER say.