Movie Tab II

Oh my god UF hasn't seen our movie.

No I haven't, but I've read good things about it. Adapted from Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, and co scripted by Trueman Capote no less. It's supposed to have some excellent photography by Freddie Francis too. I do plan on seeing it, but the dvd is expensive over here, and the library doesn't have it. I also have a few other films I want to buy, so The Innocents wont be something I purchase in the near future unless it's going for silly money.

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

What Doesn't Kill You

I looked for it in HMV today, £20.

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The internets has it for free....

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

I'm watching Empire Strikes Back right now

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) -

as a remake

as a stand-alone visual effects extravaganza

I don't know what to say. It had some great moments (the 'lie detector' scene... wow), some really terrible moments, and overall it was what I expected. A very bad remake, but okay by itself. I will say two things: I liked Keanu as an alien, but not as Klaatu, and Gort was awesome in this. However, Jaden Smith can't act at all. He was terrible. I thought Jennifer Connelly was okay, but I didn't like her acting in the beginning.

No KBN line either, dag nabit.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan-2008)

I'm in the middle of watching this for the third time in the last few days and I just gotta say it. This flick really needs to be nominated for Best Picture. I can live with it not winning but it really should be nominated. Heath Ledger is so good. I am really kind of pissed he's dead. I wish people would stop taking drugs. Now I'm depressed.

Anyway, I hope this flick gets nominated and I know there are probably going to be at least a few movies that are of a stronger "Best Picture" type, but man... Wouldn't it be cool if it did win?

Lethal Weapon 4 (Richard Donner-1998)

I think maybe the coolest thing about all of these flicks is the fact that Richard Donner directed them all. After the first one you can really tell they were having a lot of fun making these flicks. And obviously were very comfortable with each other. This is the first flick I saw Jet Li in, and man... I thought he was so bad ass 10 years ago. I come to find out he's got all kinds of flicks and I am slowly tracking some of those down. I really like him in some of his native language films or whatever you want to call them.

Elf (Jon Favreau-2003)

I don't really like to rate movies that I watch every year. For one thing I can't remember what I rated it (if I even did) last time and sometimes, depending on my mood I love it more a particular year than say the last year I watched it. Anyway, that doesn't really mean anything I guess. I'm just letting you into my weird little world a bit.

So yeah, I really like Elf. There I said it.

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

Saving Private Ryan -

This is my first rewatch, and I enjoyed it more than my last, initial viewing. It's a great film, and some of the scene are mind-blowing. Especially the whole last battle around the bridge (that's my favorite part of the film). Even though Full Metal Jacket is my favorite war movie, I can accept that this is a better film in almost every direction (although Full Metal Jacket does have more style and 'tude). Anyways, Spielberg's patriotism can oftentimes be over-sentimental and overbearing, especially in this film. But I still like it.

Oh, and Tom Hanks. Can't go wrong with f*cking Tom Hanks.



The Glass Menagerie (1987) -

I watched it because I read the play in high school and remember liking it, but mostly because it has both Karen Allen and John Malkovich in it, who are two of my favorite actors. I liked this movie a lot, but probably mostly due to how much I could relate to one of the characters. I was nearly uncanny, with some differences (a few obvious differences). I think that made me like the film so much more, because other than that the film seems pretty mediocre. But I liked it. This is probably my favorite John Malkovich performance, he was awesome in it. Amanda (the mom) was obnoxious and annoying, but that's what her character was supposed to be. I can consider it a favorite right now, but I need to buy it and watch it again. Hopefully it will have good rewatchibility (and actually, it seems to for me). Booyah.

You liked it even better than Teddy KGB? Say it ain't so!

Sorry, let me rephrase myself;

This is probably my favorite John Malkovich performance that I've seen.

Haha.

Well to be fair, you're probably right. Seeing John Malkovich play a Russian gangster/Texas hold'em card shark; while enjoyable, doesn't really mean it was a good performance. Funny as hell though.

"Mr. Son of a bitch, let's play some cards!"

hahaha my favourite line

Best Malkovich performance is Empire of the Sun and it's not even close.

"Hey, kid, you want a Hershey's bar?"

The Incredible Hulk - okay, I'm not sure what I wanna grade this or if there's even really much need for me to. It's your avg. blockbuster movie, superhero movie, romance, kickin' butts, Tim Roth's got a nice mug, it's a mug that brightens any movie at least a tiny bit, so overall pr-t avg. movie goes for the win with a pretty avg. grade:


By the way I just pulled these out my kick-butt:
Hulk (Ang Lee's)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Ironic Man
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
Speed Racer
Indiana Jones 4
Transformers
Fantastic 4
Ghost Rider

I dunno, seems kinda arbitrary saying Fant.4 and Incredible Hulk are worth watching but Ghost Rider isn't, It's not like the prior two are any more novel or nothin', but welcome to my world, it is capricious and dimly lit (sometimes).

Also saw
Dirty Ho (d. Chia-Liang Liu, 1979)
last night with my bro. Okay, first thing, the dramatic shape of this movie makes no sense and don't expect a real conclusion.

On the other hand. It has such a great intro, with the two heroes of the movie Ho and Wang doing highly stylized battle against a huge gang. It's a cool way to introduce the two main characters and kind of a compressed, plotless version of the film as a whole - an awesome pantomime of what the film is really about: kung-fu. watch the first couple minutes:



As for the movie proper, it's pretty wacky, has some surprisingly nice complicated camera set-ups and really, really great choreography that is more acrobatic and theatrical than the blinding-monsoon of fists you'd see in such 80s HK fare as Wheels on Meals and My Daddy Kicked Your Daddy's Ass (Liu, 1983).

The main premise is pretty funny too. Wang shows up in Canton one day pretending to be a jewelry merchant, Ho, who is a jewel thief pretending to be a jewel merchant gets into an argument with Wang over some sexy gold-diggers. Things get hot, Ho attacks Wang, Wang plays the coward and seems to evade all Ho's attacks too-perfectly by accident. This sets the stage for the rest of the film, which consists Wang (actually a prince) who is actually (gasp!) an excellent martial artist but - see - only feels he should yous his kung-poo in self-defense so for some not fully-explicated reason fights everyone - Ho (who he fools and blackmails into being his disciple), a series of mysterious would-be assassins) - in a ridiculously nonchalant way while totally pretending he's not fighting at all. Sometimes this is funny, sometimes it's weird (and really, really funny), for example when he's fighting off assassins disguised as wine-merchants, while pretending to taste their wine (as the merchants are pretending to be pouring him wine, but at the same time having a ridiculously-over-the-top grappling-fight with him). I dunno, I've seen stuff like this elsewhere, the guys-pretending to be chickens and somehow "accidentally" kicking the asses of other dudes is definitely well-precidented routine (I believe I also saw it recently in the early Jackie Chan vehicle, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow), but I've never seen it as the primary device of 2/3s of the film and fits perfectly with the film's themes of decorum and social grace with and hidden motives and plotting always under the veil, albeit going very blatantly for laughs. It works. I haven't seen too many early chop-sockies and only a couple other Shaw Bros. films, but this is the best. Great acrobatics, 2/3s of a pretty good story, some weird parts that I don't really understand but were pretty entertaining, overall above avg. production value for what I've seen from 1970s HK, and overall it holds together pretty well as something greater than the sum of its parts.

Couple weeks ago I rewatched Amar, Akbar, Anthony w/ my family and my goil, and well, I'm dropping it from a to a more sober but no less-respectful . Has some dead weight but overall still an awesome movie.

While I'm going on about great intro's some kind soul has gone and posted the first half of what has quickly become my very favorite film-intro-sequence, Three Resurrected Drunkards (the second part, in which mysterious subterranean hands rise out of the sand to replace the protagonists' clothing with Korean uniforms while they're in the water is missing, sadly):



Okay, it's a pretty weird intro, simultaneously allusive (very grim allusion) and nonsensical (very comical/cute/funny nonsense), two of my favorite adjectives when talking about films. The idea is that the boys, who will soon be mistaken for Illegal Korean Aliens fleeing from their duties in the Vietnam war (due to having their clothing replaced) are on a fun outing to the seashore. They are reenacting this famous photo of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a VC prisoner in the head (the image comes up again later in the film a very different context, actually several different contexts):

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause -

It wasn't very good; it doesn't even deserve a picture posted with my rating, here.

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"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
John Milton, Paradise Lost

My Movie Review Thread | My Top 100

Slacker (Linklater, 1991) -

The visitor - Thomas McCarthy (2007)

A nauseatingly instructive film about a quiet, middle aged, white professor recently turned widower who's going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. He's miraculously brought back to life when he one day visits his New York apartment and finds a pair of illegal immigrants living there. He decides to let them stay, they strike up a friendship, he gets emotionally attached to them and then the injustice of the immigration system combined with post 9/11 racial profiling leads to some very sad moments used to show middle class America that immigrants are just people too. They're also very polite and don't make any trouble and just want a chance for a better life. It was painfully mediocre and cliched. I had trouble finishing it...I wish I hadn't because the last scene made me throw up in my mouth a little.



Porte aperte - Gianni Amelio (1990)
An interesting exploration of the judicial system in fascist Sicily and the motivations and conflictions of a murderer seen through the eyes of a zealous judge who refuses to play it the way the public and the government want it. Amelio's films are usually quiet and medidative affairs which take a while to drive the point home, but they all do eventually. It wasn't quite as good as Colpire al cuore but still a very good film.



A man for all seasons - Fred Zinnemann (1966)
I don't know how I came to this film but I'm very grateful to anyone who may have mentioned it. It was a fantastic experience. Another film whose brilliance is due largely to fantastic dialog delivered by one of the best casts I've ever seen (Paul Scofield who won an Oscar for it, Orson Welles, the very young John Hurt etc.). I'm not surprised this took the Oscar instead of Virginia Woolf, for me it's clearly a superior film. The Tower scene literally made my eyes water and that doesn't happen every day folks. I think Yoda might like this, if he hasn't seen it already.

La Belle et la Bête - Jean Cocteau (1946)
Don't have much to say about this one except that it didn't do much for me. Maybe I was too familiar with the story (it's The beauty and the beast for those not in the know), but even when watching the documentary about the making of I failed to be impressed by any aspect of it. I do recognize it as a classic of sorts so I'll give it my standard grade for such cases

Ordet - Carl Theodor Dreyer (1955)
Fairly interesting rumination on the nature of faith and the ridiculous divides between various nominations claiming the sole right to salvation. A good introduction to the filmography of one of the most interesting European filmmakers. I'm looking forward to his other films.

I certainly agree that A Man For All Seasons is definitely very watchable, well worth , and I recommend it to everyone, along with Becket and The Lion in Winter. I personally find it a bit stodgy compared to Virginia Woolf and Alfie, but it's still great and I won't complain about it winning 6 Oscars, including Best Picture.

Cannonball! (Paul Bartel, 1976)



This flick, co-written by Don Simpson (yep, Jerry Bruckheimer's late production partner), came out well before the similar-themed Burt Reynolds' flick, The Cannonball Run. Director Paul Bartel is a master at absudist black comedy, but he isn't exactly an action specialist, so although there are some decent car scenes and some wicked humor, much of the film is a mess. What makes the film watchable for action B-movie enthusiasts is the cool cast. You've got David and Robert Carradine, Billy McKinney, Veronica Hamel, Gerrit Graham, Dick Miller, Belinda Balaski, Carl Gottlieb, Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel himself. Just be a bit forewarned, even if it Cannonball! is passable, it really isn't any better than The Cannonball Run, and it's far less cool than the original Death Race 2000, which also starred David Carradine and was directed by Paul Bartel. So, I recommend watching D R 2000 first because Bartel got a lot nastier in that one.

Flipper's New Adventure (Leon Benson, 1964)



Growing up, I watched the "Flipper" TV series every Saturday night from the age of eight to 10. However, there had already been two Flipper theatrical movies before the show started, and this is the sequel to the original, Flipper. Both movies and the series starred Lule Halpin who seemed like somebody I wanted to be. I enjoyed swimming and I loved dolphins, and this kid got to basically obsess over both all the time! Then, in this film, he gets to hang out with and start a romance with one of the cutest adolescent girls his age, Pamela Franklin! I'm telling you: Trifecta! The actual details of the plot are on the hokey side, but the relationship between the two children is honest and inspiring, if overall, it's just a simple family film not up to Disney standards. An interesting footnote is that Francesca Annis, who played Lady Macbeth in Polanski's Shakespearean adaptation, plays Franklin's older sister here.

The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley, 1942)



I honestly believe that anyone who loves Arsenic and Old Lace and/or Harvey will love this film. It's a tale about world-famous, egotistical critic/commentator Sheridan ("Sherrie") Whiteside (the awesome Monty Woolley), who, against his will, comes to dinner with a Midwestern couple, but slips on their frosty front porch and breaks his leg. He proceeds to turn the life of the couple and their young adult children upside down by taking over their home, as well as trying to torpedo the blossoming romance of his secretary (the wonderful Bette Davis) with the local newspaper editor (Richard Travis). Other major characters include a vain movie actress (Ann Sheridan, the "Oomph Girl" and the female version of Sherrie) whom Sherrie uses to try to steal Bette's beau, an actor/playwright/Renaissance Man (patterned after Noel Coward) played hilariously by Reginald Gardiner, the effervescent, sex-crazed Banjo (Jimmy Durante) [think: Harpo Marx with a voice], and the young nurse (Mary Wickes) who Sherrie constantly bombards, physically and verbally, at will.

Sample line of Sherrie speaking to his nurse: "My great aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy every day of her life. She lived to be 102, and when she'd been dead three days, she looked better than you do now!"

The nurse has to wait about an hour further into the flick to retort, but it's a doozy: "I am not only walking out on this case, Mr. Whiteside, I am leaving the nursing profession. I became a nurse because all my life, ever since I was a little girl, I was filled with the idea of serving a suffering humanity. After one month with you, Mr. Whiteside, I am going to work in a munitions factory. From now on, anything I can do to help exterminate the human race will fill me with the greatest of pleasure. If Florence Nightingale had ever nursed YOU, Mr. Whiteside, she would have married Jack the Ripper instead of founding the Red Cross!"

I'm about ready to discuss two Werner Herzog films, Even Dwarfs Started Small and Encounters at the End of the World, but duty calls!

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

The Virgin Suicides


This film was paired with American Beauty in those little double feature things at Walmart so I was like ok, this better be good or I'm just gonna be offended. Even with my high expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. I never found myself bored, the balance of strong performances, intriguing storyline, and stimulating visual aspects combined for a very entertaining and unique movie. There was something hypnotic about the whole viewing experience that I can't exactly describe, but that I love. The symbolism hidden within the film offered a more intellectually satisfying element to it and makes me feel like there are new things to discover with each viewing.
I should probably let it ferment a little longer as I just finished it, but as of right now, I think I'd give it...

OK, let's try this.

Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog, 1971)



Here is what I posted at linespalsy's thread, but I'll add more now:

First off, I think we should all acknowledge lines as MoFo's true anarchist. I realize that he may not want this adulation, but tough, you got it, Mister. I just watched Even Dwarfs Started Small, and I only now find that lines hasn't posted about it in here! I did read the two posts you commented about it. Now, I don't feel like I'm actually capable of commenting on Herzog's Even Dwarfs Started Small, but how can someone watch that film and not have to comment on something?



I'll try to go into more in-depth, but a few first impressions:

The film begins at a police station. Although we never see the police, they all seem to be dwarfs too, based on their voices. By the way, although the film starts with a flashback, we never actually get past the opening scene, so what was the point, Mr. Anarchist Herzog?

The setting is whack. Apparently, Herzog shot it in the Canary Isands, a place he considered comparable to the lunar landscape, but the music used in the film almost implies that it's elsewhere. The opening song begins as if it's Greek and then sung by an Arab, but apparently, it's sung by a young girl from the Canary Islands who Herzog approached to sing something haunting in a cave. The other main song is obviously a West African anthem, but once again, its use is probably political.

This Herzog film is almost impossible to describe. Herzog claims that it's "incredibly dark", but I've always found him to be a bit lacking in a sense of humor, since I think it's an absurdist comedy masquerading as something serious. Come on now, how can anybody consider the Monkey Passion Play as serious? Most of the film is serious. The leading character, Helmut Döring, cackles maniacally as if Mike Judge paid him to do the laughter for Beavis and Butthead. Then there's that awesome entomological scene where the beetle has a Top Hat.

This film is basically about anarchy; it's not about how cute "dwarfs" can be; it's about the end of the world. My interpretation is that everyone in the movie is a dwarf. Watching Even Dwarfs Started Small, you also get the idea that Herzog is an auteur, but, hey, I don't think that he buys it.

As far as Even Dwarfs Start Small goes, I find it to be an absurdist comedy. As far as I can tell, the world of this movie is completely comprised of dwarfs. True, there are dead animals, and I find it strange that there are NOT more dead people/creatures at this time. I'm getting tired.

Thank You.

Alright now, as far as my rating goes, this is one of the few films I've ever seen where I can accept ANY rating from 0-10 which anyone wants to contribute. I find the film, alternately, fascinating, offputting, hilarious, depressing, spectacular, boring, deep, superficial, visually-impressive, drab, well-acted-and-directed, amateurish, honest, exploitative, the list goes on and on... Herzog apparently felt very strong kinship with his cast, and it mostly shows. One thing I find amusing is that one of the female cast members is a dead ringer for Klaus Kinski!! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to share this with my younger brother. I believe he'd flip for it, but I might not see him again before Christmas, and I'm not sure I could subject the family to this as "The Christmas Movie". I'm going to watch it a few more times because it's very haunting, and I'll adjust my rating if I feel it's appropriate. If anyone is fascinated by Tod Browning's Freaks, they should watch this film. If you listen to the commentary, you will learn that Herzog is a bit naive about the history of the distribution of Freaks. Herzog says that he didn't see Freaks (another flick which I recommend but only give ) until after he finished Even Dwarfs Started Small, but Herzog felt that Browning never understood how great his film was because he started it with an apology. Since Herzog couldn't even legitimately release this film in his home country of Germany, he should know that the apology at the beginning of Freaks has nothing to do with Browning, but rather was required by Universal's founder, Carl Laemmle's, son "Junior", who was in charge of the studio during its Monster Heyday.

Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog, 2008)



This documentary film begins with spiritiual choirs on the soundtrack while the viewer is privileged to see things which almost no one on Earth has ever seen. The opening scenes, shot in the water under Antarctica, caused my wife to exclaim that "That's got to be really cold!" While I agreed with her, I remarked that it must be "warmer" than the frozen ground above since there was at least some water, so the temperature had to be ABOVE freezing. Herzog does a good job of trying to explain what's going on in Antarctica (he doesn't like how it seems like the underarm of the U.S.), but he does seem to be attracted to all the offbeat characters who seem to have been shook down to the end (bottom) of the earth. It's amazing; there are numerous linguists (Antarctica has no native language), computer experts, "travelers", quite a few "ex-Soviets", "alternative" scientists (meaning scientists who believe that the neutrino could actually be evidence of a God!!)



Herzog also goes into the history of man's attempt to reach the South Pole a century ago, and he's not terribly happy with the jingoistic approach of the entire thing. Herzog seems to be a humanist who dislikes academia (remember my recent quote?), but doesn't mind using an academic scientist to pitch the idea that you can actually find God even in the most remote part of the world, or perhaps, Herzog's point is that it's easier to find God out in the middle of nowhere, or, if it's not actually God, it's easier to consider that Mankind really knows far less than he believes he does, and there's a good chance, he never will grasp "basic truths".