26th Hall of Fame

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The trick is not minding
Angel-A

Luc Besson hasn’t ever been a subtle director, especially when you take into account that he emerged during the Cinema Du Look movement of the 80’s. *
So it’s no surprise that Angel-A lacks any subtlety, either.

Taking elements from both Its a Wonderful Life and The Bishop’s Wife, an Angel arrives to help a down on his luck scoundrel who has a heart of gold. Her job is to make him see his self worth, and offer guidance, while looking sexy and fashionable in high heels and a short black dress.

It’s not a bad film, but Besson goes cheap with the screenplay and avoids going for anything new or different, which is fine sometimes but then he muddies it further with the ending.

Near miss, for me, although Angela is good in the role, and there are some nice moments. They just don’t add up to anything for myself.



Let the night air cool you off
I've seen both Angel-A and Not Quite Hollywood, but I'll probably wait to say anything to about them until I finish up the Christie miniseries and Tower.





Not Quite Hollywood (2008)

In professional wrestling, wrestlers tend to have 5-10-15-20 year careers. Often times they wrestle the same matches, stay at the same spot on the card and end up with the same problems(drugs, women, money). You might be asking yourself what does this have to do with this film. Well when a wrestlers career comes to an end and they can't wrestle anymore they then go a tour of things called "shoots" where they talk to an interviewer and gossip about what happened during their 5-20 year career. It's the shoots that can turn an ordinary dull forgettable wrestler into a legend.

Not Quite Hollywood is basically a wrestling shoot that covers low budget cheap films from Australia. What makes this a great documentary is not the movies but the characters. Watching a collective of 50-70 year men who do not care one lick about their reputations was fantastic.

The film really captures the Aussie sense of humor perfectly. You have a bunch of guys who will quickly turn a phrase for a laugh but then on the screen you see this explosion of excess. Daisies could learn quite a bit about layering humor from the Aussies, and creating a dichotomy not just building to the most obvious joke.

If the film has a flaw it's that they really needed to either tighten up the pacing or just really elongate it. Because I could listen to these talking about bad movies for 10 hours or just a short little conversation. Also um "fun fact" but this week David Gulpilil who was in the Dennis Hopper part of the film died this week...I loved his little bit about having to do a walkabout because of Hopper.



The trick is not minding
^ Just out of curiosity, are reviews allowed to be that short, or do they need to be longer?
They really should be a little more in depth. They should talk about the film at the very least, and what they liked or didn’t like about it.




Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)

More like Cinema Paradeez nuts!
Nah, here's the actual thing:

Ok, so I was procrastinating on this one. Not because I was dreading it or anything, I just had a feeling it was going to be just a good, watchable movie with nothing that was going to really excite me. My prediction was pretty spot on, which is obviously not a bad thing at all, it is good and watchable, that's just not enough to make me eager to see something you know?

I wasn't intending to watch the near 3 hour director's cut but I forgot to check which version I downloaded until like an hour into the film lol. This cut is certainly too long but not so much that you'd cut a whole hour out like a lot of versions I came across (though I'm seeing google list it at 2h35 which would probably be close to ideal). The first two chapters are paced perfectly well, would absolutely not touch those but you just don't need a full hour after Toto comes home. All the scenes in this section are good in their own right but a lot of it isn't necessary imo.

I guess I should actually talk about the film itself to some extent (I'm clearly padding this lol). Yeah, again its basically dead on what I expected: A cute, watchable film with no real standout elements but a good enough time nonetheless. It's tough to write about it when almost every element of the filmmaking I would only describe as "fine" but y'know, fine is fine. Actually I guess the music is probably the strongest element. It's quite lovely and juuust shy of being too much and there are a handful of good, heartwarming scenes. Overall its a hair more enjoyable than I expected. I like it.

Ok all done now List being submitted shortly!



You all have three days left to finish this HoF. Here's where everyone stands as of now:

@BooBooKittyFock (5/12)
@edarsenal (10/12)
@jiraffejustin (8/12)
@rauldc14 (11/12)
@seanc (10/12) (he already sent his ballot as he's already seen Cinema Paradiso and The Passion of Joan of Arc, but does he still have to write the remaining two reviews or is he good?)
@Siddon (9/12)
@Wyldesyde19 (8/12)

Also, do you guys think we should add a week for BooBoo to give them extra time to finish?



The trick is not minding
Extra time please. I’m hitting Wizard of Oz and Cinema Paradiso to day, and tower is next, but The mini series might have to wait until the end of this week since it’s 3 hours iirc.



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
The Wizard of Oz



Obviously not only one of my favorite films but one of my most watched films too. Just love how it's such a stepping stone and paved the way for what good cinema was supposed to be. The story is excellent, it's a super imaginative film. The music is great, particularly has some of the greatest songs in any musical in my opinion. The performances fit really well and each and every character feels quite memorable. The color is truly impressive. When I think of a film with no flaw this is definitely one of the few that I am able to think of.




The trick is not minding
Cinema Paradiso


Movie are an escape for many of us. They offer a brief respite from our daily lives. At any time, we can experience anything we wish, depending on what we want to watch.

Tornatore shows us post war Italy during a time where movies were indeed an escape from the reality of a uncertain time.

Told through the eyes of a young boy who grows before us, he uses movies as an escape, much like we do. But there’s a passion there as well. One he learns to appreciate from his father figure, Alfredo, who was a projectionist who taught him much about movies, and life, and often used movies as a teaching tool.

The problem is, Tornatore doesn’t allow us to really identify with anyone, or even allows us to settle into the movie. He glides from scene to scene without letting us appreciate the moment. For example, in one scene the cinema burns down. Alfredo is injured. That alone should have been given some screen time to allow us to understand the impact of the tragedy. Instead, it is rebuilt in the very next scene. And we see Alfredo, although still clearly injured, having already adapted to his situation.

Since we aren’t given ample time to properly appreciate the scenes, I found myself unable to appreciate the film itself. It kept itself too distant by moving through the scenes too fast, not allowing us to properly process them.

That’s not to say there aren’t any good scenes. At times, I was moved. But those were fleeting, as Tornatore moves on to the next scene.

I wonder if the directors cut fixes this problem?

Anyways, it’s a miss, and I much prefer Malena from 2000, as it seemed more focused.



The trick is not minding
Watching Tower tonight, but just wanted to say going through all of the reviews….Daisies was fun and great and full of more energy than I expected. It’s a shame it didn’t connect with most, but it was exactly the type of film I sign up for when I participate in these.