"Revelation of the Daleks" and the recent "Daleks in Manhattan" / "Evolution of the Daleks" aren't very good.

The post 2005- seasons are only 13 episodes. There are only 41 new Who episodes and nearly 700 older ones.

OK, so three of the Fantastic Four (I'm sure you can guess which ones) are stiffs. The other one is highly entertaining.

Dr. Doom is a wuss. Seriously. If they're not going to do the character properly, they shouldn't do it at all.

The Surfer looked good, but I missed Ben Grimm knocking the Surfer into the next county with the Surfer's own board. And the Surfer's voice was out of sync.

They wimped out on Galactus and the Watcher as well.

Having said that, I still enjoyed it. It was miles better than Pirates III or Spidey III.

just imagining aftershock sitting through Nashville cursing and throwing shit before giving up after 20 minutes makes me kinda giggle.

Half Nelson
Impressive performances in the biggest feel-good movie since SherryBaby.

Ah - I see you've met me before!

Speaking of:

Oh, I love ya MB, but Short Cuts is actually the film that made me realize how much I dislike Altman. After nearly 3 hours of watching characters revolve around each other without any sort of development or resolution, both my wife + I were thoroughly pissed off. I mean, I understand that yes, there are people who never really have the oomph to improve their lives, but I sure don't need to see a movie showcasing their lack of ambition. Rather than create an empathy for these types, movies like Short Cuts (and, to similar effect, shows like Curb Your Enthusiam) make me want to organize a cull and get these pathetic, helpless shells out of the spotlight.

The Player was decent for about 40 minutes (gotta love the opening scene), then kinda went the usual Altman route for me: nowhere. M*A*S*H was allright about 2/3 of the time as well... then... football? Whut?

That's about the best you'll get out of me for ol' Altman.

Alright, I give up, shock. I can certainly understand your problems with Short Cuts - I have a few myself. I thought that there were enough interesting characters/storylines to make for a pretty engaging film.

Maybe Altman's just not your style.

Gosford Park?

:::hurling myself out a window:::

Race you to the bottom, Shocky...

If you're trying to sell Altman to an Altman-hater you're going in the wrong direction. I'd go "Cookie's Fortune" which is about as close to a popcorn movie that Altman would ever go. Plus it actually gives a decent role to Charles Dutton, and Ned Beatty is pretty great too.

Oh yeah? What about:



Unforgivable. Great casting, big budget, classic characters, Harry Nilsson - so WTF happened?

I stand corrected...that's the definitive Altman popcorn flick. On the other hand, Popeye kind of sucks and Cookie's Fortune is a pretty good movie.

I was joking, thus the emoticon.

Really... you liked Cookie's Fortune? It was passable, but definitely not one Altman's best. I guess I can see the popcorn movie angle though.

The absolute low points in Altman's career were Dr. T. and the Women and Kansas City.
Popeye gets a lot of flack, but it's better than several of his movies.

I've seen 3 movies in the last week and a half (a lot for me). Here's my ranking of them:

Once >>> Ratatouille >>> Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

had a hard time staying awake during Harry Potter. Once was outstanding. Enjoyed Ratatouille, although I kinda want to see it again, because I didn't love it quite as much as I feel I should have.

Popeye is so strange that it can't be considered bad. You can't take your eyes off it. And it's clearly an Altman film all the way. Hsi themes, his staging. If we're talking about a prestigious director losing himself in a commercial behemoth how about this 1982 John Huston classic...

nacho libre is a 2 star movie for this very reason.

Touche!

The Last King of Scotland

Ole droopy eye does a great job as Amin. I don't think I've ever seen him in a role he didn't do a great job in.
Hella good movie, rent it!

The biggest mistake I think was making it a musical. Except for Olive Oyl's highlight, "He Needs Me", none of the songs are hummable or performed with the pizazz that a movie musical requires. The soundtrack album features a song that was so crappy they cut it out of the movie. Altman was out of his element for a musical (just as Huston was for "Annie", cited above)

...or Francis Ford Coppola

That's a seriously great song, yeah.

Oh my god, yes. I am still mystified not only by why FFC was even considered, but why he agreed, and why he turned in such bland product.

It's like the Syd Barrett story, but with a happier ending (somewhat). The American Bandstand footage is stunning - what an incredible band.

Gosford Park is an excellent film.

I just recently signed up for Blockbuster Online. Its wonderful.

Been checkin' out some Korean flicks this week. Starting with:


Yesterday
Not quite the sci-fi movie it's advertised as being, rather it's an action movie with a sci-fi tint. I was a bit tired when I watched this, and I must therefore admit to kinda phasing in + out of the last 20 minutes (soooooo I had to watch that part again the next morning, but hey...). The acting, photography, and choreography are all first-rate. The story is a good thinker as well, altho it tends to follow this pattern: action sequence > plot point > plot resolution > more action sequences simply because the bad guy's gotta get his, j00 kn0w?

And always, always, always watch in the original language track, with subtitles. I effin' hate overdubs - they totally kill the rhythm of the film.

I just picked up a ton at the library, I need you people to tell me what I should see most, in case I don't get to everything in the next week.

Just tell me which of these are must-sees:

Babel
Flags of Our Fathers
Little Children
Children of Men
This Film is Not Yet Rated
Withnail and I
The Usual Suspects
Memento
Fargo
Punch-Drunk Love
Mulholland Drive

Ranked:

Usual Suspects
Fargo
Children Of Men
Memento
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Babel
Flags of our Fathers
---doesn't matter----

(I haven't seen Withnail and I)

The first 4 are pretty much equally great, but in different ways.

Out of the few that I've seen, I'd suggest:

Joshua: Awesome.

Most reviews I've read have called it a horror, to which I say whaaa? It's much more a deeply creepy black comedy about parenting. It asks some questions that, as a non-parent, I've always wondered: What if you had a kid you couldn't relate to... and didn't particularly like? Must you love your family members simply because they're family?

Vera Farmiga is, surprisingly, a bit over-the-top with her post-partum blues -- but that may have been the script and not the performance. Really, it's Sam Rockwell's movie all the way. Love love love him. Watching him unravel is such a trip, especially as he ramps up the battle of wits with his son. My favorite performance of the year so far.

watched these 2 lesser known/talked about Fellini's films:


Roma
it was all right. similar to "Amarcord". Fellini's memories of his first days in Rome + images of then new Rome and its people.


Intervista
didn't like this all that much. it's basically a film about Fellini making a film. you get to see all famous people he worked with and places he shoot at, but other than that it was rather boring.

Korean sci-fi/action movie investigation continues with:


Natural City

Damn. this was pretty good. Photography, choreography, script, effects, set design - pretty damn tight. Some of the music during the 3rd act is wildly inappropriate, but for the most part Natural City has some terrific ideas scattered throughout.

Most depressing movie I've seen in years.

Dirty Mary Crazy Larry

Not as good as a remembered from my childhood.
Susan George could never get a job in movies today, her teeth are a mess. But she did look damn good in the denim halter top.

At least Vic Morrow had the good sense to do the helicopter scenes from inside the helicopter in this movie.

worth watching if you stumble across it on cable


Bridge To Terabithia

Not at all what I expected and much better than I thought it would be. Better than average "family" film from Disney.

Rent it.

More films should be this film.

I definitely need to watch more of Wim Wenders stuff.

Damn. Cold, but funny.

Jesus Camp
Bit of a pointless documentary.
If you're pro-Christian Warrior, then the work that these folks are doing is right and good.
If you're indifferent politically, then this film most likely will not cause any anger, no matter if you go to church or not.
If you're a liberal, or an indepenant thinker, then this will make you really pissed off.

However, since no problems are highlighted or solutions are posited, there's not much point. But then again, this focuses on 9-13 year old kids. So, in five years look for Jesus Camp II.


The Prestige
I enjoyed this. I liked the story, the ideas were interesting, nice to see Bowie with the Tessla role. Christian Bale is turning out to be one of my favorite actors these days, despite his dodgy accent (c'mon, you've got Michael Caine three feet from you, listen to him).

A source book for everything 'modern' about cinema.

Thanks for sharing. Saw Roma (it's more of a pictorial essay than a movie), and was considering Intervista.

This is always what I look for in a Korean scifi/action movie.
Sounds very intriguing.

I just watched this over the weekend too. Pretty entertaining, very nicely filmed, nice lighting.

Great movie. This really deserves a decent DVD release - Criterion should put something together.

'Roma' is not too differnet from 'Clowns' in that they're both pretty much documenting and not exactly adding much that different. (well, at least it's keeps with Fellini's flair for the dramatic anyways) Intervista follows in the footsteps of 'Ginger and Fred' where he's clearly revisiting the heydays with those who were still around. Neither of these are nearly as enticing as the earlier works.

i love this film!




haven't watched "Clowns". and seems like by your comments I shouldn't bother with it.

personally, I loved "Ginger & Fred". the atmosphere of that film, especially in the first half of it, before the TV show shooting stars is amazing. acting is of course amazing. one of Fellini's late films that I'd definitely recommend to anyone interested in him. not so much with "Intervista" though. that movie was very dry, until the part where Mastroiani appears. that part where he and Anita are watching "La Dolce Vita" is so simple yet so amazing.

since I first saw this movie, I've never looked at lemons the same way

Hands over the City by Francesco Rosi

great film. it's basically a political film, about city council and how it deals with its programs, mainly the reconstruction of the city. you'd think it's a boring plot, but it's actually a very interesting film to watch. very interesting characters. social realism in film making can be quite good sometimes, which was rather surprising for me.


The Tin Drum by Volker Schlondorf

very odd film. it's about a boy who refused to grow up and he's got a tin drum that he never leaves anywhere and a voice that breaks glass and stuff. and the story takes place around the time of the WWII.

Yeah, this film deserves all it's praise.

criterion is releasing it sometime in fall, i believe. i was hoping they'd do "my life to live" though.

Anyone for eel?
(based on the novel by Gunter Grass, Artem)

Aguirre, The Wrath of God--1972

or "National Lampoon's Peruvian Vacation."

Seriously, this concerns a troop of Spanish conquistadors in South America (under Pizarro) seeking the fabled city of gold El Dorado, and coming up very short due to the nature of the jungle, bad luck, ill-will towards each other and the machinations of 2nd-in-command Aguirre (the creepy Klaus Kinski, pictured above). Has a lot of underlying themes of political fascism and so-called "civilized man"'s idiocies.

should I read the book? i mean, i was pretty weirded and impressed by the film, considering that German cinema leaves me unimpressed most of the time.



i think my library has this film. i'll rent it soon. although Kinski is serious overwhelming to watch on screen.