Oh Corey Feldman... so dreamy. Good movie, the length was perfect and fuckin' Jack Bauer was in it too.


I fall in love with Keira over and over again but this moving was boring for sure. I'll still see the third one.


The animation in this is excellent. I enjoyed how it poked fun at both France and America. I've always thought the French had a good sense of humor.


Visually fantastic. The little girl was a great actress as well. A little too gory I thought, but still one of the best movies of 2006.

Caché

What did you think?
I just watched it recently too.

Zucker's still attached to the possible remake/sequel, supposedly there's also a spec script floating around written by BBC Weatherman Chris Fawkes? A Stage Musical version was put on in OC last year. I think the time's right for a remake.

[EDIT]"Santa Clause Conquers the Martians, the Musical" Returns to the Maverick Theater for Christmas! I'm already planning on going.

I was definitely thinking Will Ferrell, too, but as Kimar instead. Maybe just taking the cast of The Ron Burgundy Story and dropping them into this, or is that too high concept?

Here's the entire thing from Archive.org.

I finally saw this. It was a fun movie, but I have a feeling I would have appriciated it a lot more had I watched it as a kid and before seeing Batman Begins (Not only is Begins a much better movie, it does a better job with the allusions to the Alan Moore and Frank Miller Batman books). Michael Keaton was better than I expected, but Nicholson stole the movie despite how over the top he was, even for the Joker.

i think what we have here is a movie that was good but could have been great had it explored some of the conflicts it presented. example: how do you show and surface dwell an incestual relationship between the father and daughter (with the son obvs. aware of this)? this is something that should have been explored a bit more in my mind. i would also like to see her realllly being pushed back into using. important aspects like that seemed to be presented more than realized through filmmaking. but i do think maggie gyllenhall was pretty great and i was absolutely touched by some of the scenes like the scene towards the end with the daughter in the restroom...yea, probably wasn't as touching to most as the reaction i had to it, but when i was a bug i pissed my pants at a house fire so there was probably a bit of transference going on there. in the end, i just wish certain parts of the story (the conflict between mother and brother's wife) were given as much attention as the mother coming to the conclusion she needed help.

Watching that Half Japanese movie made them my favorite band in the world. That wore off after about 2 days, though.

I don't know why, but when I saw that Batman poster that Paul just posted, the first thing I thought of was the Batman cereal that came out back when the movie was new.

first thing i thought of was kim basinger.

Prince, oddly enough.

Off subject -
Undo, is your avatar from the film Caché?

half nelson

a really great performance in one heck of a film.

I was at blockbuster and really wanted to rent Half Nelson, but alas all the copies were checked out and I ended up with this modern classic instead:



First off, there was literally nothing else in the store, and I enjoyed the Transporter flicks on a popcorn level...so that's how I arrived at this one, which was just horrible. Second, I don't think I've ever seen a film this amoral. It's really not worth getting into the details. Lastly, the film really wasn't even enjoyable on a visual level. The Transporter flicks at least had some fun stunts and chase scenes...this film really had nothing

Although you do get to see Amy Smart get fucked in middle of a public square, in China Town, in broad day light, while a bus load of kids cheer her on (but even then...there's no nudity).

Dude, at least edit out the spoiler. There's a good chance there's a bunch of folks who haven't seen it yet that don't need that ruined.

Your problems began the moment you walked into Blockbuster. Don't blame the movie for allowing yourself to be taken in by the Blockbuster bait and switch.

Just say no to Blockbuster.

Learn to love Netflix.

Netflix doesn't really suit my attention span. I have movie pass at blockbuster, and I like the fact I can just head over there whenever I want a couple movies...and don't have to wait for the mail or other flicks in my queue.

It's rare that I'm forced to rent a movie like Crank (although Ialso recently saw Beerfest for similar reasons....but it's also a slow time of year for movie releases). Anyway, sorry for the Amy Smary spoiler above...but to be honest, I don't think that's really a spoiler...especially since the scene sucks and doesn't show anything.

I got it off of some Russian blog or something. It wasn't even the particular drawing that I was looking for, but since there only seem to be 4 or 5 other stills from the movie found anywhere online at all, I figured it was as close as I was going to come.

No, it was just weird because I watched Caché last night, and I thought that image looked familiar.
Excellent film btw.

Go to Hollywood Video instead, if possible. Better selection of films--mainstream, foreign and indie---with some better deals.

Good luck finding anything, though. I don't know how it is around you, but trying to find a movie at Hollywood around here is like trying to find a CD at Circuit City -- damn near impossible. The complete lack of organization is a killer.

Blockbuster is good for me cause it's only 3 blocks from my house. Nearest Hollywood video I know of is a mile and a half away (the one at Ashland and Belmont...is it even still there?).

I'm not gonna argue that Blockbuster is great, but it's much better than it was 5 or 10 years back. It stocks all of the major indie and foreign releases...and if I'm looking for something pretty obscure (which isn't too often anymore), I'll go to someplace like Hard Boiled or just buy it off the net.

I used to live by Tower (r.i.p.), and that had one of the best rental video selections ever. I sure miss that place.

Over the last week:

Squid and the Whale
Adaptation
Thank You for Smoking
I Heart Huckabees
Sneakers
The Illusionist

Nice week. Did you have a favorite or two?

Favorite has to be Adaptation. Just saw John Malkovich back in November, and watched Eternal Sunshine last Thursday, so the three made an excellent trilogy of sorts. I'd have a horrible time picking which of those three I thought was best.

Huckabees was as great as I thought it would be, wish they'd removed like one and a half scenes so my brother could watch it too, but oh well. Squid and the Whale was just a tad over-the-top with it's artsy daringness for me, luckily the movie is saved by a flawless cast and delivery. Sneakers is fun in a knowingly super-cliche sort of way, and The Illusionist was surprisingly good, somehow I never saw the twist coming. I wish Thank You for Smoking had been just a tad more ruthlessly funny, but I enjoyed it none the less.

So yea, to sum up Adaptation - incredible, Everything else - pretty great.

Sneakers was one of my faves growing up. Haven't seen it in a while but I bet it's still awesome!

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Squid and the Whale.

At the Century Plaza at Howard? Yeah, a bit disorganized...and shoddy upkeep of discs. Still...I like to browse, and the combo deal of $11 for 2 movies, 2 microwave popcorns, a candy and a pop is a steal.

The Squid & The Whale

I'd completely forgotten about Noah Baumbach for quite a while and I hadn't realized he did this.
His debut was called Kicking and Screaming (1995) which will now forever be confused with the Will Ferrell soccer comedy...
It's odd in a way because Jef Daniels is the spitting image of his dad. Although I've never seen a pic of Georgia Brown I can only guess that Laura Linney does her justice.

For a pic with a budget of under 2 mil that was shot on Super 16 I'd say I was impressed.

Kevin Kline's son Owen as the younger alcoholic Frank was pretty damn funny too.




If it's the same one I'm thinking of.. I'd have to agree. It's the only part I can't see as being necessary.

I could have been a contender! I could have been somebody! I've got a full-on robot chubby!

Finally reissued on DVD!

Some good laughs here, particularly when people die. Pretty much a long episode of the show with profanity, boobs, and raunchier humor. If you like the show, it's not disappointing, if you don't like the show, skip it. I liked how all the every other member of the State make short cameos as tatoo parlor workers.

Lady In the Water

ugh
I really wanted to like this movie. M Night has lost the plot. The whole thing was just a little too self important. Killing the film critic, M Night's character is going to change the world, puhleeze

Damn, is Ron Howard's daughter ugly.

avoid this movie

Over the weekend:

Junebug - Excellent, moving, funny, tense, and just really well done
A Mighty Wind - Absolutely hilarious, I'm not a Eugene Levy fan at all, but this is great
A Scanner Darkly - really good, compelling stuff. I expected some more WOW moments on the visual side, and I'm a bit lost at the end, but it's still pretty good.

the departed

Got through this one before the oscars. I can't say it made me believe he deserved it for this one in particular. It's more like the body of work was more deserving. Everything about this film was well done by the standard textbook of a Scorsese picture. The downside to me was the fact that it's essentially a remake which he's done before and for once it coincides with his particular genre of choice. I'm glad he won the Oscar but I have a feeling that this was hardly the best flick this year.

^ yeah. Good movie but not the best this year. Could have been but there are two moments that just really sucked imo, and almost ruined the movie.

only two? which ones?

w/r/t Departed...pretty much in agreement (I have other thoughts posted about it above)....although it might have been one of the best (if not the best) of the year. I still need to see Babel and Children of Men...but 2006 was a pretty unspectacular year for movies...so I don't have too much of a problem with Departed being at the top.

After what I just said, this may seem a bit contradictory, but more and more, I think Departed could have been phenomenal in another director's hands. Scorcese's probably one of the few directors who could have assembled that cast...but it did feel like it was sort of by the numbers. I would have loved to seen John Woo's treatment (and he's in desparate need of a good script). I think the over-the-top ending would have suited his style more, and the ying/yang good/bad themes are familiar territory for him. Probably wouldn't have had the same Oscar cache, but could have been a better film.

Then again, Woo probably wouldn't touch a script based on a Honk Kong flick...seems a bit incestual for some reason.

Completely fascinating.

We finally watched Babel, and I am so glad that Marty won the oscar and all, but I was really surprised that Babel didn't win--I mean it's basically just Traffic/Crash in an international sense, so I'm surprised the academy didn't fall all over it.

IMO, both Babel and Little Miss Sunchine are better than the Departed, and I rank Scorsese as 3rd, next to Kubrick and Hitchcock.

Btw--"Me, you and Everybody I know" is a very good independent film.

And how did everybody miss "A Good Woman" with Helen Hunt and Scarlet? That's one of the best films I've seen in a while, and I believe it was released in 2005.

Terrific performances, great first act, horrible second act, decent third act, and a lot of lame-arse music. Levinson needed to focus more on Williams + less on whats-her-name-the-computer-lady. Maybe they shoulda recast her as well, for she really didn't pull off her character very convincingly.

Saw Breach over the weekend. Chris Cooper was really good in it. Movie could have been better though.

Guncrazy is hilarious.

Sideways


Full Metal Jacket


Jesus Camp

Sideways I had seen bits and pieces of it before. The scene were Paul Giamatti gets the wallet back is fantastic.

Full Metal Jacket I've seen multiple times. The first half of that movie is just so excellent. "You're not even human-fucking-beings".

Jesus Camp... Jesus. This movie really scared me and made me really angry too. I watched it with my Jewish roommate (and I'm Catholic-Christian) and he kept on giving me creeped out looks whenever something crazy happened. I had to keep on insisting to him that Catholics aren't Evangelical Christians. This was better than Inconvenient Truth and prbly should have won the Oscar.

The two parts that really got me are when they through the guy off the roof and he landed right in front of Leo (that blood spurt was ridiculous), and the ending shoot-out thing. Those are the moments where I had to look away from the screen. Horrible.

Jumping on the bandwagon here, with:



Holy crap, dude! Someone needs to, um, stop these people - in the name of Jesus!

Seriously, one of the best films the SOMB has recommended. Scary, scary stuff. Definitely shoulda beat out An Inconvenient Truth for the Oscar. I'm certainly more frightened of these kids than I am of global warming, fer sure.

Precisely that it was so "Crash"-like was, I think, the reason why it didn't win. If there was no "Crash" last year, I'm sure "Babel" would have won.

Better that Scorsese got it for a "real" Scorsese picture, rather than an anomaly like "The Aviator".

Right on. Can't think of better examples of why the film is somewhat overated. Still glad to see Scorcese get some due.