Movie Tab II

Agreed.

__________________
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Tetsuo, the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989) -

Utterly crazy and impressionistic technological fable about an ordinary guy who slowly but surely mutates into some bizarre metal freak. It's short and blunt but the utter craziness of the visuals does pummel the senses and by halfway through I was just waiting for it to end. An interesting visual experiment, sure, but hardly anything worth going through again.



Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010) -

I'm not in the habit of rating new films higher than , though I think this comes mighty close. It may retread some of the ground covered in the last film, but most of all it stays interesting, amusing, captivating, heartwarming and above all right up to Pixar standards. Brilliant.



Predators (Nimrod Antal, 2010) -

This was about what I expected - not quite on the same level as the original, but nonetheless a reasonably entertaining way to kill a couple of hours.



Gettin' Square (Jonathon Teplitzsky, 2003) -

Don't know if you remember this other Australian crime movie I saw a while back called Two Hands, but this is something in the same vein. Didn't like this for many of the same reasons (lame acting, weak comedy, unremarkable filmmaking, bad music, etc.) with the odd spot of half-decent writing. But yeah, right now I'm trying to figure out if this was better or worse than Two Hands, but that's like deciding whether cat crap tastes better or worse than dog crap.

A Handful of Dust



Directed by Charles Sturridge and produced by Derek Granger, the same people behind the seminal 1981 adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, this is a tackling of one of Waugh's other novels.

It starts off nice and Bridesheady. There's a big house with a rich couple (James Wilby, who looks like he should be in a Waugh novel, and Kristen Scott Thomas) and a little son. The wife, Brenda, decides to have a little fun and get a flat in London, also bagging mummy's boy man-candy John Beaver (played by Rupert Graves). However after a tragic accident, she decides to divorce her husband and set up house with Beaver.

What her husband Tony decides to do is incredibly bizarre. The film veers from Brideshead to Kafka, and the change is both sinister and irritating. This film has a top cast- Rupert Graves and Judi Dench, playing his mother, are both very underused- and I would have liked to see more satirical swipes at the upper classes. Sometimes you think you're watching a tragic drama, sometimes a light satire, and at the end, a very black comedy. The ending may have worked in the context of the novel but in the film, it comes off as frustrating. The threads seem a little loose; the novel has more time for exploration. This could have worked as a TV series and on second viewing, the blackly comic ending (which I'm sure most people would find sinister and random than blackly comic) may be better but expecting one thing and being given another is frustrating to say the least.

TIP: Listen to the score- occasionally there are tribal sounding pan pipes. That's a clue.

__________________
You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never. (The Red Shoes, 1948)

Invaders from Mars (Menzies, 1953)



After running across Holden's old thread on body snatcher flicks, I made a point to try to watch all the original flicks he had listed, and Invaders from Mars was next in this this weekend. I had fun watching it, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but this film isn't on the same level of quality that say, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers resides on. Invaders from Mars is a rather small film with relatively few set pieces, an engaging and fun cast, and a paranoia theme that I am sure was quite chilling during the time the film was made. However, the third act is almost laughable, as martians in green suits run back and forth across the screen over and over. I'm glad I watched it, just to get it under my belt, but it certainly won't get my vote in Holden's poll thread!


Body Snatchers (Ferrara, 1993)



Although this version is not on par with either of the previous versions, I still liked this version quite a bit. I enjoyed the military setting, the cinematography, and Meg Tilly was pretty damn creepy as the step mom. Also, Holden had mentioned how creepy one of the pod scenes was, and he was right. This flick has some pretty effective stuff in it, but ultimately fails to execute on all the levels the previous versions did. Worth a watch, but make sure to see the original and the '78 remake first.


They Live (Carpenter, 1989) or is it ?



Ah, what a classic! Rowdy Roddy Piper is an esteemed and dynamic actor, using subtle facial expression and tiny movements to express a wide range of emo...oh wait - this guy is the worst actor to ever get in front of a camera! That doesn't matter though, because this film is all about the camp. It also contains a most excellent fist fight! Don't forget your sunglasses!

__________________

No popcorn rating for They Live?

__________________

It's rated - It's either 1 or 5 boxes, depending on the angle. Personally, I love the flick.

Here we go. The two film adaptations of Lolita put head to head:



Lolita (1962)



Vladimir Nabokov's notorious novel of a middle-aged man's desire for a barely pubescent girl is a tough beast to tackle. Is it a love story? Is it a tragedy? A lesson in morality? Or is it a black comedy? It's a very hard novel to pin down- Kubrick opts for the latter, which gives him an excuse to tone things down.

The best thing about this film is Sue Lyon, who plays the title character. She is charming and sassy, if a little vulgar for Humbert's taste, and her performance is iconic. Shelley Williams is also good as Lolita's trashy single mother who Humbert marries in order to get close to the daughter.

Humbert Humbert, the ardent pervert, is played by James Mason. He's sort of part Swiss, part English, born in France...European, as he calls himself in the novel. Of course, he's a lunatic so who knows what to believe- anyway, the contrast between Mason's erudite Britishness and the trashiness of the world he encounters create a great deal of humour. Humbert/Nabokov's skills at character and behaviour observation are brilliant and Kubrick makes similarly good observations about a culture and generation clash.

However I found Peter Sellers, who plays Quilty, annoying. I'm sure those who find him terribly funny will love him in this. I didn't find him terribly funny- he just seemed to be trying to do a star turn.

Sure, the paedophilia was played down but the novel is about much more than paedophilia. The film is not flawless but it is an enjoyable black comedy and worth watching for Sue Lyon's performance alone.



Lolita (1997)





This newer version is directed by Adrian Lyne, he of Flashdance fame. Lyne goes for the opposite of Kubrick, choosing to interpret the novel as a tragic love story.

Dominique Swain looks more like the Lolita of the book and she captures Lolita's childishness, although it's treated in a creepily fetishistic way. Humbert is actually the only person that calls Lolita in the book (not the case in Kubrick's film) and this film stays true to the book in that respect- Lolita's actual name is Dolores Haze. There are even some 'love scenes' in this film although using a body double negates the purpose.

Now onto Humbert, played by Jeremy Irons. Mason's Humbert is an erudite voyeur/pathetically infatuated man. Irons' Humbert is a poor unlucky man who falls in love with a fourteen year old girl (just like Kubrick's film, they bump up the age) and pays the price. His narrative parts are beautifully done, seductive yet wistful and regretful- Irons just has a wonderfully expressive voice. However he is notably awkward throughout the film which makes the whole experience even more uncomfortable than it is by default.

Finally, Quilty- a tough character to play. Apparantly the filmmakers had originally thought of having Irons play both paedophiles, which would have been quite nifty. Instead they get Frank Langella, who is shady as Quilty but entirely unattrative. Why Lolita would want to shack up with him is beyond me. There is also a repulsive scene where Quilty's running from Humbert, wearing a dressing gown open to reveal..um, everything. Why anybody thought that was a good idea is beyond me.

The setting of the film is beautiful- it looks like fourties' Americana. Humbert's observation of his environment is expressed well here. Poetically trashy indeed. However like Flashdance, it's unnecessarily pervy. Jeremy Irons was at least 10 years too old to play Humbert (Humbert's about 37 at the start) and although it follows the book faithfully and the actors aren't too bad, there's somethign very exploitative about it.

I don't see how there's any way I can write these up in any detail right now. I can't really sit in this dumb chair long enough and I've gotten backlogged.

A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)

Tour-de-force performance by Colin Firth combined with some interesting directorial touches which include framing the central characters in tighter and tighter frames-within-the-frame make this well worth watching. The ironic ending may surprise you. It's set in Los Angeles in 1961 so there are plenty of historical and pop cuture references too.

Prophecy (John Frankenheimer, 1979)

+

This is basically trash, but the cast and professionalism on display makes it either bearly-watchable or a humongous waste of a good idea. It's about how pollution creates monsters out of both animal and human babies when left unchecked. The main monster looks like a giant grizzly bear turned inside-out.

The Human Condition II (Masaki Kobayashi, 1959)

; Art House Rating:

This second three-hour section of the epic film seems a little more powerful than the first part. It does get to you, but I wish the characters didn't yell at each other so much. I realize that they're in an untenable position, but if I were in a war zone, I'd be much quieter so that people would have less of a chance of shooting me based on where my voice comes from.

The Sheepman (George Marshall, 1958)

+

Highly-enjoyable comic western adventure with Glenn Ford being his likeable self and easily wooing pretty Shirley MacLaine from baddie Leslie Nielsen. Mickey O'Shaughnessy and Edgar Buchanan lend expert support to this age-old cattlemen vs. sheepmen tale.

Lonely are the Brave (David Miller, 1962)

Quietly-powerful tale about how there really is no place for a simple cowboy in the modern world. Kirk Douglas is terrific, especially in his scenes with Gena Rowlands as his best friend's wife. Kirk is also excellent interracting with his other love, his horse Whiskey. Walter Matthau is solid as the sheriff tracking down Douglas after he breaks out of jail, and Carroll O'Connor as a truck driver with an unusual cargo provides the ultimate exclamation point to this significant film.

Carny (Robert Kaylor, 1980)

Unusual flick about modern-day carnivals showcases Gary Busey and Robbie Robertson as buddies who work the crowds for all they can get. Jodie Foster shows up to complicate the relationship, and then the whole thing turns into something resembling a mini-version of The Sting. Whatever you think of it, it does have striking atmosphere and photography as well as a great latter-day musical score by Alex North.

Sommersby (Jon Amiel, 1993)

-

Americanization of the French film The Return of Martin Guerre transplants the tale of a man's identity to the Post-Civil War South. Richard Gere actually gives one of his better performances as a man almost everyone agrees is the man who's been missing for almost seven years. His wife (Jodie Foster) seems happy to see him although their relationship wasn't particularly happy before he went to war. Later on, a murder trial is turned into a decision on whether this Sommersby is actually the real one or an imposter.

A Lobster Tale (Adam Massey, 2006)

-

This is a likeable but incredibly low-key fable about how a New England lobster fisherman (Colm Meaney) finds something akin to magic seaweed which can heal most illnesses. He and his family have to decide what to do with it, if anything. You'd think this would set up some confrontations and soul-searching, but the film seems more interested in quirky atmosphere than plot machinations.

Box of Moon Light (Tom Di Cillo, 1997)

Enjoyable character study with offbeat flourishes which gets by mostly due to terrific performances by John Turturro as an uptight workaholic who runs into his exact opposite in the "off-the-grid" Sam Rockwell. Their "adventures" and bonding are nothing extraordinary but certainly life-affirming. If you enjoyed DeCillo's Living in Oblivion or any of his later films, you should like this one.

Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010)

Ben Stiller is good as walking psychological nightmare Roger Greenberg who gets lucky when he meets his brother's assistant (Greta Gerwig) who's willing to take a chance on him no matter how abusive he becomes. In fact, that may be the problem with Greenberg since the character may be quite off-putting to many viewers. I think it's worth watching but I didn't like it as much as The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding.

Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)

Entertaining suspense-mystery suffers from being both overlong and too-talky. The huge cast does well, and Scorsese and crew pile on the F/X at almost every moment even if you don't notice it. Thus, it should probably appeal to most people, even if you're one of the many who figures it out in advance. I wish the great Max von Sydow would either be given larger roles or be up to tackling them because he effortlessly brings gravitas and humor to both this and the director's cut of The Wolfman.

Racing with the Moon (Richard Benjamin, 1984)

Wonderful coming-of-age story set in a Northern California coastal town during WWII where two buddies (Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage) are about to enter the Marines. They work at the bowling alley and know most people in town, and then the Penn character meets and falls for a girl (Elizabeth McGovern) he sees at a movie theatre. Cage also has a girlfriend, and things turn much-more dramatic when she gets pregnant. Overall, this is a solid comedy-drama, especially for those who want to see the male stars in earlier performances.

The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009)

; Art House Rating:

Surprisingly-inert tale about what happens in a small German village just before the outbreak of WWI. The black-and-while photography is somewhat stimulating, but most of the puzzle pieces in the film seem obvious in retrospect and not nearly as clever or thought-provoking as the apparent intention is. It's still a mystery open to interpretation but based on what's actually shown in the film, I tend to find one plausible explanation and I don't find it a deep enough examination of the causes of the Great War to warrant going through the whole thing. Even so, the movie moves along rather quickly, even if it "seems" like nothing much is happening.

Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

+

I wrote a little about this in the Inception thread, so I'm not going to rehash that here. I think this is another film which is overlong and overly-talky (especially the first part), but I found it entertaining and certainly easy to follow. Sarah and I spent at least two hours talking about the flick afterwards so it's far more thought-provoking to me than The White Ribbon. I still think that Sarah's interpretation of the ending is the best I've heard, and she posted that over in the Inception thread too.

The Gauntlet (Clint Eastwood, 1977)

Completely-unpretentious action-comedy with millions of bullets and some filthy dialogue which almost makes Clint Eastwood look like he's going to throw up. Clint plays a Phoenix cop who's too dumb to understand he's on a suicide mission to escort a hooker (Sondra Locke) from Las Vegas back to testify at a Mob trial. Locke probably gives her best performance this side of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and Billy McKinney is a riot playing another pervert. This film has no computer F/X but it has plenty of real stunts to make up for (or is that top?) them.

My Name is Nobody (Tonino Valerii, 1973)

Great spaghetti western with the "team" of old man Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) who just wants to quietly retire and sail to Europe and a young Nobody (Terence Hill) who looks up to him and wants him to become a hero worthy of the history books so others will have someone to positively influence them. The cinematography is beautiful and Ennio Morricone's score has many memorable themes as well as weird la-la backing vocals and a synthesized take on "Ride of the Valkyries" as well as a lift from what sounds like "My Way". The plot isn't especially important but the set-pieces are terrific. It does have ample comedy but I don't really think it's a spoof of the genre. It works itself up a few times to things resembling a Biblical saga and to a real feeling of warmth between the two lead characters.

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

Going to "find" this film and check it out. I'm also reading Leone directed a few scenes for this film. Thanks, Mark.

Safe (Haynes, 1995)

I actually saw this a couple of months ago and forgot to post it. It begins similarly to Dressed to Kill, with a woman in her nice suburban home having unsatisfying sex with her husband. But even though Angie Dickinson in DtK was unhappy and largely invisible to her douchey husband, she knows she's unhappy and convincingly portrays a pretty resilient woman who yearns for some fun and intimacy.

Julianne Moore's character in Safe is completely cut off from herself. When she gets sick she joins a holistic new-age cult and moves into a clean, white, futuristic bubble. The real strength of this movie is how ambiguous it is about Moore's character and whether her illness is "real" or something she's doing to herself. Ultimately modern medicine and her self-awareness focus-group both seem insufficient in living up to their promises, but even that felt ambiguous at the end. People looking for a satisfying conflict-resolution plot will likely be disappointed, but I wasn't.

.



Scary Movie (Wayans, 2000)

Re-watched the second one recently and so I had to go back to this one too. 2 is probably my favorite but both of these are pretty good. "If this were a scary movie we'd all be played by actors in their late 20s, early 30s..." The fart and sex jokes don't hurt it any either.

+



The Gospel According to Mathew (Pasolini, 1964)

The Bible and the story of Jesus is so ubiquitous and the subject of such a singular level of scrutiny that I any film adaptation may automatically be seen as interpretive even if - as in this movie - the human and divine natures of these characters lies entirely in their implacable faces. There are some very beautiful tableaux here which make good use of minimal camera movement but I didn't find a very strong or affecting story/commentary to get engaged with.





Allegro non Troppo (Bozzetto, 1977)

Interesting tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately reverent take on Disney's Fantasia, which in turn seems to have influenced Neo-Tokyo and Robot Carnival. Has some really nice animation.

+



Casualties of War (De Palma, 1989)

This is a really dark, scary movie about moral decay and people who think they can get away with something because "hey, this is war" and "this is how things are." Even if they don't get away with it this remains a very pessimistic story because it shows just how hard it actually is to stop rape and murder, how easy it is to pull off.

On top of that you should see this for some amazing set-pieces and photography. The scenes themselves have lives and personalities of their own far more than any individual characters. This is so richly cinematic a movie that the bookends which are there to remind you that it's just a bad dream actually might help to ground you back in reality while you're watching it.

+rep for Casualties of War. One of my favorite movies.

Broken Flowers










I had high hopes, and I feel like I did enjoy this overall. Bill Murray was good, and it's a nice little adventure but I think Jarmusch lays on the self-awareness a little too thick at times, especially with the tongue-in-cheek stuff like "Don Johnston" and "Lolita". I will also admit that I rather enjoyed the ending, no matter how widely open ended it was.

2.5/5

__________________
If I had a dollar for every existential crisis I've ever had, does money really even matter?

Shenandoah (1965)

This is one of best movies about family I've seen. There's a lot to love about this poignant western. James Stewart was perfect for the role of the patriarch of a lovable big family. The parts of his children were flawlessly cast as well. The script has a lot of funny moments even though toward the end the movie turns quite sad and dark. This one tugged at my heartstrings for certain.

+




In the Electric Mist (2008)

Tommy Lee Jones cooled the action and stepped up the mystery here, which I found to a be a refreshing change. The role was probably written with Jones in mind, but that's no problem. The rest of the cast, including a suspicious John Goodman and an easy to miss Ned Beatty, have fantastic chemistry. The direction I must say nailed the atmosphere as well. The script isn't very memorable, and things don't add up too cleanly but decently. I did really like in the story the addition of the Confederate General. Not bad at all for under 2 hours.

+




Dirty Harry (1971)

I must say that Dirty Harry exceeded my expectations a little. I knew that it was a very high-ranked movie among most, but I guess I wasn't looking for much here. A hero is only as good as his villian and I think Harry Callahan and the Scorpio killer are the absolute best example for that statement. I have to admit I was ready to shoot Scorpio myself (If only I had a gun and something to magically transfer me into the movie!) Robinson deserves recognition for that performance. Clint's Harry is likable in his rotten luck and determined way. Good script and good direction make for a darn good movie.

White Lightning (1973)

The typical Reynolds southern car-racing and revenge flick, but probably one of the best. Gator is an interesting character if not for the way he was written than the performance by Burt. He does well even without his mustache. The rest of the cast is solid although not very memorable. It has lots of great action elements: prison breaking, lake loving, whiskey running, and of course car chases. The script is good for a laugh or two and few quotes that may stick with you. You'll know before you start it if it's your type of movie.

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1991)

I've anxiously waited for two years to able to see this one of my favorites again and now I've seen it three times in the last week. I can already tell it's one I can watch over and over again. The characters and their experiences are the best part of this movie. I find them easy to relate to and enjoyable to watch. It's a great father-son movie, love story, and story about understanding yourself. I have to note the character of Jolie (Kate Capshaw) that I absolutely adore. I was particularly drawn to her the first time, but now understanding what it's like to miss someone who returns so much, I feel even more compelled to the performance. The story and script are very well-written although not forever impressing. Stuart Rosenberg directs, and even though the ending is predictable, it's a terrific drama. That may not suit everyone but fits me like a broken in cowboy hat.

+

__________________

I enjoyed the film, even if it was 2 hours of Bill Murray acting like a deer caught in headlights.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Jarmusch is the King of self-awareness. Maybe even more so than von Trier and Lynch. Some people buy into all of them, others buy into some of them, and there are some people who take each of their films the way they find them. I say Good for you because maybe even Spielberg or Scorsese is more aware but they work on a different level so they have their own crosses to bear.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

For reasons I can't even explain, this movie sat unwatched in my collection for years (I'd say at least 6 or 7 years, no joke). This is almost tragic because this is one incredibly engaging, moving and entertaining film. Each performance is top notch and the movie masterfully strips away each character's facade to reveal the real person - and the good or evil that goes with it.

The Burrowers (2008) – +
Even after reading some abysmal criticism regarding this, its horror-western tag appealed too much for me to give it a pass. Still, my expectations weren’t set on the type of film I received. I discovered a beautifully set, well acted, genuinely ambitious piece of work. Unfortunately, it’s a case where its entertainment value is trumped by almost all of its other qualities.

Its mellow score, artistically shot setting and idle pacing rule most of the film. So, you can bet that when the snarling, CGI-ridden monsters pop up, they seem entirely out of place. The creatures are, as anyone should expect from my description, the film’s biggest inhibition. The film may fall flat as a monster movie, but fortunately, a heavy portion of its grandeur lies in effective atmosphere.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) –
Other filmmakers better take note of the style used here, because it’s nearly perfected. As well as being an engrossing murder-mystery, it’s a consummate character study, and remains engaging throughout its 2 ½ hour runtime.

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) –
The plot: A recently released mental patient moves into an old house set near a questionable old town, where she befriends an even more questionable woman. As the plot thickens, recurring visions and voices begin to drive the woman into a paranoid state.

It should contain enough paranoia, equivocal characters and repressed mental instability to remind anyone of something Polanski would’ve specialized in during the heyday of his career. It’s nowhere near as good as Polanski’s early features that detail a similar brand of fear, paranoia and isolationism, but it is a good, slow-burning exercise in psychological horror with an original sort of “what is reality” aspiration.

Split Second (1992) – Camp rating: -
It’s clearly inspired by Blade Runner and classic creature features, but with such diverse inspirations, it creates something original. Like the traditional monster movie, it builds up its creature with brief glimpses until the end (you can fault the film’s advertising campaign for clearly showing the monster on the poster).

Also, congratulations to the lighting guy for providing the film with such a unique visual quality. If you need a cheap strobe light, just drape a thin sheet over your television with this film playing underneath.

What Lies Beneath (1999) – -
Plenty of modern films mold their style in the form of Hitchcock, but What Lies Beneath takes it a step further. Its style is almost replicated from numerous Hitchcock films, and perhaps that’s one minor reason why it doesn’t work well enough as a standalone picture. It’s pretty good, but its own clichéd predictability stands in the way of it being great. Its biggest problem is its recurring tendency to underestimate the viewer.

One scene in particular left me irritated. It occurs when Claire is spying on the neighbor she suspects of murder. While she’s playing the voyeur with her binoculars, the neighbor looks directly at her though the window. We then see a quick camera movement and the neighbor’s door is swinging open. Another quick camera movement and there are dirty footprints leading to her house. She panics only to find that the footprints belonged to her husband that somehow pops up behind her without making a sound. It makes me wonder (A) what the heck was wrong with the neighbor that spotted her and stormed out of his house (and shows up later in the film acting as if nothing happened), and (B) how they keep their front walkway so tidy with all of those dirty footprints that they must track coming in from the driveway.

The rest of the film is packed with cheap surprises similar to this, and once you’ve seen enough, they feel forced and (worse) planned. Fortunately, it has a few effective chills here and there that help redeem it. I know this is a movie-goer’s cliché, but if you can just turn your mind off and enjoy the movie, it can be sufficiently entertaining.

On a more positive note, I liked the look and setting of the film. By the time the credits rolled, I think the foggy lake was the picture’s biggest scene stealer.

__________________

Saragossa Manuscript (Has, 1965)

Someone miraculously finds a book during a war between Spain and France. The book is about and written by his grandfather, a French-Spanish soldier named Alphonse van Worden. In particular it's a chronicle of his time spent in the haunted mountains of spain, where van Worden chances into the company of strangers who each tell him stories which often contain other stories which were told to them, and so on.

Most of the stories are entertaining on their own. It may be a matter of taste, but the weakest part of this adaptation is that in spite of being 3 hours long and selecting only a few stories from the book, most of these vignettes feel cramped.

It's worth seeing though. Partway through the movie van Worden stumbles upon the manuscript of the story he's wandered into, which another character accidentally left out. They take it away because "if he read any further, everything that follows won't make any sense." (presumably because then his story would include his reading the story of his reading the story of his reading the story....?) Maybe he did read too much, because I'm not convinced that anything that follows that point in the movie does make much sense, including the part where he watches his own mirror image eloping with his sexy twin lovers.





My Winnipeg (Maddin, 2007)

This is a ridiculous phony homage to "Yug" Maddin's hometown, "Hapyland", aka Winnipeg. He's trying to homage in order to "escape" it, but the problem is the place just tends to put everyone to sleep, perchance to dream of hockey and naughty schoolgirls and staged Nazi invasions.

+



Forbidden Games (Clement, 1952)

Very disturbing wartime portrayal of the monstrous brutality of adults towards children. It's more than that though as it portrays the childrens' inner war as a game where you have to kill in order to make a beautiful graveyard. There's a joke in there about putting the cart before the horse as a euphemism for pre-marital sex. The movie is pretty slow for a while but by the end I was won over.





Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman, 1978)

Haven't seen the original but I really enjoyed this one. I don't know if I missed something or if they just didn't fully explain the ins-and-outs of transformation but it's all right. There are some imaginative scares and at least one weirdly depressing plot twist. Worth seeing.

Halloween 2



Let me start off by saying I liked Zombie's version of the first one, and that is where the compliments end. This in my opinion, ranks among some of the worst remakes ever made. I felt this was not only a departure from the franchise, but even from Zombie's version of the first. Michael just didn't feel like Michael to me at all. I thought this movie dragged and was longer than it needed to be. I also felt that it was brutal for the sake of being brutal and I don't think anything Zombie changed in his version of the story, added anything to it at all. The performances were over the top, anyone who has seen Zombie's films know what I'm referring to. The writing was just brutal and many of the scenes were hard to see, I often found myself squinting trying to figure out what I was looking at. In conclusion, I just wish I had back the time I took to watch this movie, and I don't say that about a lot of movies. Not that you need me to tell you what to do, but if I were you, I would just avoid this one altogether.

__________________
"I know, honey. Look at the map. We go your way, that's about four inches. We go my way, it's an inch and a half. You wanna pay for the extra gas?"

The Road



I am a fan of Cormac McCarthy, so let me get that bias out of the way first. I did like this movie a lot, it is dark and depressing, but I also loved the hope it showed amongst the characters. Viggo Mortensen was amazing!! His performance made me feel as if he was really going through it. I don't mean to call out just Viggo, as I felt the performances by the entire cast were incredible. I only wish Duval was in it longer for selfish reasons as I enjoy pretty much everything he does! I would certainly recommend this movie for the performances alone, as I know that McCarthy's work doesn't appeal to everyone (at least from my experience of talking to people I know about him).