Movie Tab II

Nice. I'm a reprobate because I prefer early Tarkovsky before he found his personal voice. I still watch and study his later, more personal films, but I find most of them maddeningly-frustrating. This is actually my fave Takovsky film. Did you watch it for a class?

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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Iron Man -

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Speed 2 - Cruise Control -


I watched this on E4 with my mum, i thought she wouldn't enjoy it but she did and so did i

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Last Film seen at the cinema-Meet The Spartans
Last DVD watched-Scary Movie 3
Last DVD Bought-Scary Movie 3

No, Tarkovsky was recommended to me after I mentioned that I love pretty movies. This was the first of his I've seen, but I've got the rest on my Netflix queue.

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

Johann von Goethe

Easy Living (1937)
I had seen this in bits and pieces before, but it was nice to finally see the whole thing. Fun screw-ball comedy of misunderstandings. Loved Jean Arthur.

Yup, one of Preston Sturges' best scripts before he became a director as well. I bought it on DVD this week, replacing my fading VHS copy.

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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

A good bud of mine (Look Up!) sent me three classic short films, so I'm going to try to do some mini mini-reviews.

Paddle to the Sea (Bill Mason, 1966)



This is one of my wife's fave stories, not only when she was growing up, but right now, since she still uses it to help some of her weaker English readers to learn the language. What I was impressed by was the obvious love and care put into every part of the film. Paddle to the Sea is one helluva miniature wooden canoe with lead in its hull. The brave who pilots the craft is obviously very accomplished and proud. The little boy who crafted him must have turned into my generation's Frank Lloyd Wright. Something else which I loved were some of the P.O.V. shots in the water. This film really was a labor of love and obviously took a lot of effort to create some fleeting moments which ultimately mean so much. I particularly love the snake and the frog.

White Mane (Albert Lamorisse, 1953)



In many ways, this beautiful film is reminiscent of The Black Stallion. It's quite primitive and fueled completely by its elemental visuals and emotions. The narration seems to be almost redundant. I wouldn't be surprised if director Carroll Ballard screened this film several times before and while filming his version of the Walter Farley classic, and I'm sure he was peeking at it again in the editing room. The relationship between the boy and the wild horse is wonderful, and many of the "chase" scenes are exhilarating to behold in the rugged French countryside. This is one of the more exquisite B&W shorts I've watched, and the implication that adult men want to destroy what children want to protect still hits home to me.

The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse, 1956)



Well, this flick turns me into a blubbering idiot every time I watch it, and I saw it for the first time about 45 years ago at grammar school. If they give me a DNA test, they'll probably find a Red Balloon gene in me because not only is this the first film I can remember watching INTENTLY, but it may well have been the first film to make me cry. Even now, I'm having a tough time trying to compose any rational thoughts or seeing through my blurry eyes (they need their own windshield wipers) to tell if I'm making any sense. It's a very simple film, and some cynics may shout "humbug!", but I hope that at least once in everyone's life they can be moved by sound and visuals over something so honestly simple. Apparently, most of the children in the U.S. who attended public school during the age of the projector have seen this film.

Note: If anybody thinks I'm over (or under) compensating, add a to each film, but I'm just trying to communicate reality. That's why I believe ratings are less important than feelings.

After having watched these short wonders, which I will watch every year as long as I'm allowed to stay alive, I have one thought to add. When will somebody release the wonderful The Golden Fish?

Curse of the Golden Flower

Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat are emperor and empress in the Tang Dynasty. Gorgeous color in this film. Not heavy on the martial arts, for which I'm thankful, and the story was gripping and told well. I liked it.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007)



Harrowing, beguiling, ultimately uplifting true-life story of French Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) who suffers a catastrophic stroke and retains the sharpness of his mind while being unable to communicate his thoughts to others because all he can physically do is blink one eye. Eventually, his caregivers find a way to communicate with him, and he writes a book about his experiences from a place which no other human has ever been able to describe before. While watching this one-of-a-kind film, you'll probably experience emotions which you may have groped to express before but couldn't quite find the way, but this film should truly get your attention and make you realize how much the average person just takes for granted.



Some of my favorite parts of the film are when you hear "Jean Do" thinking, fully aware of his situation and plainly pissed at it, but all the onlookers only hear the silence coming from him. He is equally exasperated when he begins to try to use the method which has been developed for him to talk with this "normal" world since it is so painstakingly boring and time-consuming. The fact that the man could overcome everything and write such a poetic, life-affirming homage to his family and friends is truly awe-inspiring. This, combined with the fact that he loved women so much and is basically surrounded by attractive women at his hospital and can do nothing about it, only adds to the power of the film's brutal honesty. The techniques developed by Schnabel, scripter Ronald Harwood and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski to tell this story almost seem to be as significant as those of Jean Do since the film was shot on the actual locations he lived in France after his stroke and the entire film is also all done in French. Don't let any of that dissuade anyone from watching this amazing film. I'm not a fan of Schnabel's earlier Basqiat and Before Night Falls, but this film completely disarmed me and pretty much blew me away.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -

Zodiac (Fincher, 2006)

Finally got around to seeing this one. Good, but not great. I found the case interesting, and most of the performances were well done. I also liked how Fincher nailed the period in a lot of ways, including how the film itself reminded me, tonally, of 70s crime films. It was just missing that little something...

Southland Tales (Kelly, 2006)

I had heard many bad things about this, but a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a while stopped in and happened to have a copy on him, so we watched it. I must say, I really dug this film. It is absurd, to be sure, but I tend to like rather absurd things from time to time, and I thought this flick was damn interesting. As in his freshman effort, Donnie Darko, director Richard Kelly just misses the masterpiece mark, but still manages to make an engaging piece of art. I just wish Kelly would ease up a little on his reliance in blatant exposition, and stop using as many post production tricks with his images. The man has important things to say, I just wish he would lose the gimmicks. And yes, I know "The Rock" is in this movie, but I still liked it. I had more fun watching this than Zodiac.

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The Passenger


This is the second time I've seen this movie. I assume that I'll enjoy it more and more every time.

If you like the movie listen to Jack Nicholson's audio commentary too.

Blue Velvet


I'm not sure if I like this movie. Half way through it felt like the story lost it's, "umph."

Something that I thought was interesting was the way the visuals and environment were iconic rather than unique. From the beginning your introduced to a community that looks completely generic which helps to emphasize the weird subject matter. I thought that was successful.

A River Runs Through It


Brad Pitt's dual character was great and the ending worked really well.

EDIT:
Thanks to mark f for reminding me.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly


How they managed to keep me interested in a movie that's basically shot as a POV from a man who's "locked in" is a mystery.

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Heavenly Creatures

Okay, I missed what everyone thinks is so great about this movie. Two teens form a strange fantasy world, and when their parents get disturbed by their intimacy and try to separate them, bad things happen. The screenplay by Peter Jackson was okay, but it felt long, and the acting by Winslet seemed manic. I didn't care for it.

Gangs of new york - epic, brilliant.
Clash of the titans - my boyfriend just got it for me on dvd, so awesome

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

Iron Man - Might be the best superhero flick ever. Funny, full of action, and really great acting.

Speed Racer - I loved it, I don't see why it's getting such crap reviews. It's a fun, trippy film with lots of racecars, explosions, and a monkey! Plus Christina Ricci was born to play a big eyed anime girl.

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"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

The Road Warrior aka Mad Max 2 (George Miller, 1981)



The second Mad Max film qualifies as the best to me. The interesting thing about the trilogy is that the three films are all entirely self-contained. It's true that in the prologue of this film, there are scenes which show why Max (Mel Gibson) went mad, based on what happened in the first film, but they basically have nothing to do with what happens in this film. We are still in a post-apocalyptic world. There are remnants of civilization who are refining oil and turning it into gasoline. And then, there are the violent crazies who need the gas to perpetuate their concept of a dog-eat-dog world.



One of the reasons I like this movie the best is that it definitely has the greatest collection of oddball characters. I mean, the "good guys" even have such wackos as the Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence) and the Feral Kid (Emil Minty), and the bigtime bad guys have the Lord Humongous (Kjell Nilsson) and his truly insane, subhuman lieutenant Wez (Vernon Wells) who goes bonkers when his boyfriend bites it. This film also has the best car chases and stunts, and they're well-paced throughout the film. This is also probably the funniest Mad Max film.



Of course, the unifying factor which brings the entire film together is Max, and Gibson plays him as both world-weary and looking for a way to survive and thrive in a wasteland. Max fits comfortably between the "Good" and "Bad" sides because he knows that he has both of those characteristics within him. I'm not trying to say that people enjoy the Mad Max flix because they are deep, but, along with being a cool, entertaining popcorn flick, this one also has an intelligence about it which makes it clear that if you're looking for some meaning here, then you will probably find it.

I'm sorry that you didn't like it, but there's no law which says you have to. I find it one of the most creative and original low-budget flix around, and it certainly was Jackson's calling card as a visionary director. He had already made a name for himself before this, but it was resigned to splatter and X-rated-type films, but here, he created a world no one had ever seen (short of the two girls), found a way to present it to the audience, cast some worthy newcomers, and yet still stay true to his own Muse and most of the facts of the actual case. I will say that I don't really find it a Mother's Day flick, but around here, I'd probably give it .

People Will Talk (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1951)



This being Mother's Day, Brenda picked out a film to watch and put it on even before she told me what she was doing. Her picking this film certainly doesn't surprise me. This movie is appropriate viewing anytime, but especially on Mother's Day. This film IS IN my Top 100, but aside from posting a photo, I basically said nothing, so I can understand how that might either piss people off or lead them to be pissed at me. I never intended that to happen (if it did). I was just trying to see if anybody would get interested enough to check out this completely original film all on their own. I mean, this flick is 57 years old, but it's still more current and unique than 96.99% of the films made since. I'm just sorry that more "People Don't Talk" about it.



The film follows who appears to be the greatest doctor in the history of the world, Noah Praetorius (Cary Grant). He doesn't seem to follow any medical formula except that he has an overwhelming desire to treat each patient as an individual and he completely listens to everything they say. Right there, you already know that you're dealing with one of the greatest humans who has ever lived. Dr. Praetorius teaches at a prestigious medical school, but a fellow doctor/"little man" (Hume Cronyn) is conducting a witch hunt to try to have Dr. Praetorius thrown out of the school. Much of this Scrooge-like doctor's evidence involves Doc Praetorius' trusted friend and co-worker Shunderson (the mind-bogglingly awesome Finlay Currie). Well, this is only the beginning of a full-blooded film which follows almost every one of it trails to paydirt.



People Will Talk is easily one of the most romantic films ever made. The fact that it involves a doctor and one of his patients named Deborah (the gorgeous Jeanne Crain), who just happens to be unmarried AND pregnant, and that they easily fall in love with each other (even amidst some white lies involving the pregnancy), shouldn't stop anyone from seeing how romantic, mature and totally believable this film is. It was WAY ahead of its time when it was filmed, and it's far more mature in discussing the subject than almost any other similar film made to this very day, Juno included. (Go ahead and offer one that can compare, please.)



This film contains a cavalcade of wonderful performances. Besides the people I've already mentioned, Margaret Hamilton is a riot in the opening scene as somebody who knows too much about Doc Praetorius and Shunderson, Walter Slezak is positively endearing as the Good Doctor's best friend, a teacher/bassist who has a lot to learn about his instrument but little to learn about being a friend, and Sidney Blackmer brings layers of depth as Deborah's father who feels he very well is an underachieving bum, but has some personal gifts to offer in the long run.



All in all, People Will Talk is a masterpiece to me. Yes, Mankiewicz won four Academy Awards in the two years preceeding this one. He won Best Director and Best Screenplay for both A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950). I love those films and give them both

, but if I could only have one to keep between the three, it's a no-brainer for me. People Will Talk is just TOO special.

People Will Talk sounds really good mark, thanks!

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

I watched this movie because of the lists and it is based on a real person. Most times that equals a good to great film. Don't get me wrong, the story of how Paul Rusesabagina saves over 1200 people from being slaughtered is quite moving and the atrocities that took place there are very sad. Its just so hard to stomach or say how much I loved a movie like this you know? It had an effect, I'll leave it at that.




The Astronaut Farmer (2006)

I wanted to get this simply because of Billy Bob's line about WMD's it turned out that this was actually a pretty decent feel good movie that we both really enjoyed. I tend to give so-so movies a pass when the husband and wife actually go against the norm of today and stay together so that's why I'll be rating this one higher than it may deserve but I don't care, this rating system doesn't really mean anything anyway. I also loved the little cameo by a pretty decent actor, and from what I've read he virtually got paid in peanuts so good for him.

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

My mom and I love this movie because it's so human. There is humor to temper the seriousness of the topic, but overall, it's a wonderful lesson on not letting our own prejudices cloud how we see people. This is a solid film about decency and respect.