Movie Tab II

Well thank you.

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Warning From Space (1956)

Eek factor:

Destroy All Planets (1968)

I guess they ran out of ideas for Gamera becuase this one was totally rehashful of his first 2 or 3 movies.

Eek factor:

Monster From A Prehistoric Planet (1967)

Pretty terrible in a mostly good way.
Eek factor:

The House by the Cemetery (1981) Or, Quella villa accanto al cimitero

Not bad, Kind of a Poltergeist and Amityville Horror type flick.

Eek factor:

I Eat Your Skin (1964)

Zombies man, gotta love 'em even bad ones.

Eek factor:

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Beautiful and heartbreaking.


Disturbing.


Perfection.

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http://www.last.fm/user/diezelpower/

American Gangster

Maybe I've seen too many movies in the genre to appreciate this fully. It was fine for what it was, but I felt like I'd seen the characters before, heard the story before, and it wasn't delivered in a new or innovative way.

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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Johann von Goethe

Into the Wild (Sean Penn, 2007)



The tragic true-life story of Chris McCandless is brought to the screen by writer/producer/director Sean Penn in a meticulous production which not only honors the young man, but enables Penn to fly like the birds with all the flair of the high altitude jets' contrails. I'll try to explain that soon enough, but first off, this film presents, at least to me, Sean Penn's most heartfelt, poetic and personal depiction of his prowess as a filmmaker thus far. Penn basically takes a straightforward, yet heartbreaking story, and impressionistically makes it as complex as he possibly can. But, I believe that the result is so inclusive that most people won't even notice all the gymnastics he actually brought to the powerful story.

In the Spring of 1992, McCandless (who renamed himself Alexander Supertramp) made his way to the wilderness north of Fairbanks, Alaska. This was the culmination of a two-year journey where he rejected all the things which his rich, but unhappy family believed in. This journey is told in parallel lines which are made even more complex by Sean Penn's technique. Basically, one thread of the film follows Chris' story in Alaska, from the time he found the remote "Magic Bus" up through his fate. The other thread shows him graduating from college two years earlier and traveling across the country on his own personal odyssey to find the truth without ever resorting to communicate with his parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) or his loving younger sister (Jena Malone).




Another way in which the film is told in multiple ways is that McCandless' diary sometimes tells the story, while at other times, his sister narrates their story, which not only includes the loss their parents feel after he disappears, but includes earlier episodes of family tension involving adultery and earlier expressions of disharmony amongst the family before Chris went "into the wild". On his journey, Chris comes across many interesting people who are also living an alternate lifestyle, and he also becomes a true adventurer. Some of the most spectacular scenes in the film, besides those in Alaska, involve his kayaking through the Grand Canyon without a permit or a helmet and his subsequent kayaking trip to the Sea of Cortez.



The contradiction which I find in the character is that he obviously rejects his parents' way of life, but he never honestly seems to reject people in general because he comes across far too many giving individuals who want to help him. He seems to have his sights set on a way to "punish" his parents, but his naivete leads him to shortsidedly neglect certain provisions to get himself out of a "no-win" situation. As the film gets closer to the end, Chris' "fellow travelers" reach out to him more and more, none more than the 80-ish Ron (Hal Holbrook), who is a kindred spirit and a truly worthy grandfather for the young man. Looking at things in hindsight, the saddest part of the movie is when Chris leaves Ron.



Basically, Penn uses every technique he can think of to tell this story. Besides using Eddie Vedder's personal songs, he includes plot-pertinent oldies such as "Going Up the Country" and "King of the Road". He also includes fake home movies, split screens, freeze frames, poetic shots of birds and high altitude jets, and they are all meant to show a young man's quest for freedom. Most of us yearn for and dream of getting away from it all, but Chris McCandless actually got literally away from it all, and this film is his memorial. I know that some people dislike Sean Penn because of his politics, but his artistry is evident all over this mostly-unassuming film which is chockful of individuality.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky - 1983)

Ratatouille (Brad Bird - 2007)

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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".

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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.

Hellraiser(Clive Barker 1987)-

The Mist(Frank Darbont 2007)-

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I'm in movie heaven

Great review mark, I don't know a thing about Penn's politics and honestly I couldn't care less. I think he's a fantastic film maker and I wish he would make more. I know I'm showing how ignorant I am here but this film is not about the same person that is portrayed in the Grizzly Man film correct? But they did both die right?

Grizzly man was about Timothy Treadwell, Into the wild was about Christopher McCandless. One died of starvation, the other was mauled by a bear 11 years later.

First Wives Club - love this movie, Robert Harling really knows how to write womens speech, feels so real

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

The Darjeeling Limited

I really liked this movie. The dialogue was spare, but true. I could connect to the characters and the journey they were on. The cinematography was well done, the colors brilliant, and the soundtrack was great. I loved the end scene where they're ditching their baggage literally and metaphorically. Well done.

Last Days (Gus Van Sant - 2005)

Nah....

Raising Arizona (Les Coens - 1987)

Yeah!

It was my first time and I loved the wacky almost cartoonish style... I can't believe Cage was only 23 when he did this one.

First time seeing it.

"Hold it there, Kitty Cat!"


You'd never seen Chinatown?!?

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"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

Indeed, there are quite a few classic films I haven't managed to see yet (my lists are quite disgraceful). But with the help of internet theft, I'm hoping to remedy this situation...in the next decade or so...

Steal Come and See (1985 - Elem Klimov) when you're at it (original title: Idi i smotri).

I already have...

Dont tell mom the babysitters dead - possibly my favourite movie from my childhood, totally awesome. When their mom goes away for 2 months and the babysitter dies, Sue Ellen and her siblings have to fend for themselves. Sue Ellen ends up faking her way into a top job at a fashion agency.

I watched Transformers again and I'm sorry but that movie is just fun to watch.