Agreed with most counts.

I was actually excited about this release until I discovered that a good portion of added material was initially for test purposes, so the quality of both performances + footage is rather hit-and-miss. On the whole, it's definitely worth seeing, but still fails to answer the big question of what the movie would have been like if Donner had been able to complete it as originally planned way back in tha day. Believe it or not, it actually made me appreciate the Richard Lester version a bit more, because now you can see his motivation for changes. Did Lester save or ruin Superman II? The debate continues....

'Little Children' -- hated it. And was super-disturbed by the scene with the pederast and his date.

It was supposed to be disturbing. What did you hate? It was very well done.

Superman 2 was so much better than the original it's hard to see how he did anything but make the best superhero film of all time. He managed to take existing footage and add just enough of his own to make the film not only great entertainment but fully in touch with Lester's themes.

It felt like fake suburban ennui to me, complete with all of the usual caricatures (wooden brand-management husband, ice-queen wife, tut-tutting 'moms' occupying a park bench, damaged ex-cop) and exposition (madame bouvarie as manifesto, book club as setting).

And 'disturbing' I can handle. But the scene with the date felt like more button-pushing (audience: this is the character you should revile).

The handling of that character was critizied as too sympathetic by some conservative pundits. The film extended sympathy to all of its characters. Yeah it could be called watered down updike but compared to the usual deadpan suburban satire we get 'Rocket Science' it's pretty artful and subtle. The voice over narration treats all the characters as anthropology experiments including Winslet who think's she's above it all.

I respectfully disagree, but we already knew that...

it just didn't work for me.

I agree. I really didn't like his speaking style for that character. It irritated the shit outta me from start to finish. Having said that...



I will also agree to that. I thought Def pulled off a surprisingly cool interpretation of the Ford Prefect character. I'll even go a step further and say they should have focused a little more of the story on his character, and not so much on the obviously contrived [spoiler]Arthur-Trillian love story[/spoiler] or the thoroughly annoyingly camp manner in which Sam Rockwell (one of my favorite actors, mind you) portrayed Zaphod Beeblebrox.

WOMEN IN LOVE

Classic.

Which is precisely why I warned people not to be turned off by the cover.
C'mon broaden your horizons there, Montana.

Actually I didn't. What do you like about the 1978 film of Superman? I've never met anyone who liked the first one more. It's a bland, corporate film with no personality whatsoever. The 'plot' with the missles severing the West Coast is dull, the 'Can You Read My Mind' is insufferable and the turning back time shit at the end if inexcusable.

In terms of cinema they used to be quite broad. Now they are as wide as a crack whore's ass. Don't know why.

Cosigned. I also liked that Cuaron dismissed some of the books' affectations (like the constant wearing of robes at school) and made the Hogwarts grounds a real place instead of its previous manifestation as a pristine, magical theme park.

Meanwhile, I finally got around to watching (most of) this:



It was much more interesting than I had expected and oh boy, that one scene of Brando's...stunning. I need to see this again from the very beginning.

This, too, was surprisingly good. Except that I hated the Jodie Foster character's smug permagrin:



If I do a mid-year list, this will be on it.

fake edit: funny how Clive Owen seems to do a lot of expository narration in almost every movie he's in...please tell me that's not also the case in City of Men...

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

This movie has not aged well. I believe this is the case with most comedies of a certain age that aren't considered classics. Great cast with good performances: Kevin Kline awarded an Oscar for his role!

NOT CUTE

Agreed. Capra was awesome.

The first half of the 1978 Superman film is just about perfect. The whole thing goes south the minute Ned Beaty shows up on screen.

Superman II, either version, is a superior movie (I do have a few small beefs with it{talking in outer space...})
Giving Superman villians to fight that were just as powerful as him was a good move.

I'm happy to report that that is not the case in Children Of Men.

(City Of Men is something else altogether )

What hasn't aged well? There's nothing 80s about it except the awful musical score. The spirit is pure Ealing.

I had forgotten how amazing this scene is.
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Loved it. It's not the best Howard Hawks western, but it's so much fun that I didn't really care about the story.

Chasing Amy

This is the first time I've seen this film since it was in the theatres. Unlike many Kevin Smith fans, I was never really blown away by the story here. And the things that annoyed me back then still annoy me today - like [spoiler]the big "let's all sleep together" scene at the end; the complete lack of chemistry between Affleck + Adams; the character flip-flops throughout the film; and as cool as it was for Silent Bob to talk, did he have to talk quite so much about, well, nothing?[/spoiler].

However, I must admit that as far as deep dialogue goes, Smith definitely outdoes himself in many ways. In fact, I don't think he's ever written so many personal lines + sharp side character observations in any of his other works (gotta love the gay black supremacist bartender / author - his scene in the record store is damn sharp). Also, Affleck does some of his best work here (and that's not easy for me to say - I'm not a big fan of Ben's style - or lack thereof), although Joey Lauren Adams steals the show with every scene [spoiler](but that kiss in the gay bar does look more than a bit forced)[/spoiler]. Certainly a better film than I recall, and I look forward to checkin' out the commentary.

I don't know if they used really bad film preservation on the master tapes or just piss poor cameras but man has it aged poorly.

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i have always felt that this movie is also thee movie kevin smith based his entire dialogue career on.

Actually, it wasn't the best quality film stock in the original film. I recall seeing it on the big screen, and it was a bit grainy back then.

It's still one of the best comedies ever, tho. Hilarious on so many levels.
Do yourself a favor and avoid Fierce Creatures. Even tho the bulk of the cast is back together, it fails spectacularly where Fish Called Wanda scored magnificently.

Interesting dialogue here but the plot/story wasn't really cutting it for me.



Finally finished the entire series after getting it for Christmas last year. Love this show and I wish it was still on the air.



Was expecting more from this... still decent I suppose.

Bad points: Kevin Costner is totally out of synch. Even tho we know how history actually played out, I kept wishing for Frank Nitti to smoke Ness's ass.

Good points: everything else. I especially like the music.

I've done 8 movies in 5 days, I'm exhausted.

First of all, two indie filmfest cable movies when I couldn't sleep at 4 AM the other night:

Familia (about not passing on bad traits to future generations)

and Alexandra's Project (wife sets up crazy affair-revealing videotape)

both way too tense and grating for 4 am, not sure I would've ever liked them anyway though, next to no real purpose or creative style in either.

Ocean's Thirteen last Thursday was fantastic, the catchy rollout of the first meets the humor of the second, best of the series.

Simpsons Movie was underwhelming, until I thought about it the next day, and realized there was a bunch of funny stuff in the first half that I'd already forgotten. (should be noted, I just started the first season on DVD last week, so I've seen like 4-5 episodes of the series ever)

Evan Almighty stinks. Not surprised.

Time Bandits turned out to be great, as did Spaceballs, both of which started slow and picked up the greatness pretty fast.

Half Nelson is brilliant, probably the best of the whole lot. Watch it if you haven't already, I'm sure I'm late to this fact.

Great film. The war scenes might be nothing you haven't seen before, but put in this type of context it's mind fuck-lite.

Time Bandits rules.

The whole plot behind the caper is primitive and not very compelling compared to today's shows like Law&Order: SVU/ Criminal Intent.
Sometimes I feel like I'm trudging through the plot points to get to the funny parts.

I bust out laughing when he called the little girl a bitch

Tony Shahloub and Matthew Lillard--together at last!

Basically a bunch of screaming and sliding glass doors. Kind of like Cube without the brain teaser element or any sense of suspense.

How dare you forget to mention Shannon Elizabeth?

Yeah, comedy filmwriters just don't seem to make interesting crime stories.

It's not officially a Shannon Elizabeth sighting if she keeps her clothes on.

Nobody watches A Fish Called Wanda for the compelling caper plot. The robbery happens almost immediately and the for the rest of the film the caper itself is irrelevant.

It's like a Mike Leigh film with a plot. I can see why it's acclaimed, but I think they telegraphed the ending way too early.

Has anyone on the board been to the Cinematheque Theatre? There's a few shows I'd like to catch, but I don't know if I should bother spending my moneys heading all the way up North.

Finally saw this, really liked it. The only drag about watching a beautifully shot film like this is watching the subtitles the whole time.

Yep. It was better in the theater--the subtitles were yellow/easier to read and everything bigger to look at.

Yeah, there's a good five minute period where you kind of get the inkling that you know what's going to happen. The whole film is like having a shot of vodka for breakfast and the last half hour left me feeling like I'd not eaten all day.

Orchestra rehearsal by Federico Fellini

interesting idea for the film: the whole orchestra being interviewed during one of its practices. i rather liked the whole interaction between the camera and the interviewed people, and them telling stories about their instruments, but other than that the film wasn't that great.


Claire's knee by Eric Rohmer

my first Rohmer film. "lolita" like story.
from what i gather he's making the dialogue the center of his films, right?


Les Liaisons Dangereuse by Roger Vadim

sort of similar to "jules et jim". a story about french decadent "high class" and about their moral downfall. or something like that. not that great.

Are you talking about facets?

It's a nice little place. I'll probably be there a fair amount next weekend. the director is a friend of a friend.

You might also remember the more recent versions of the same story as Dangerous Liaisons, Valmont...or Cruel Intentions. (all reccomendable)

And wiki adds two that I haven't seen: In 2003, Lee Je Yong directed a Korean adaptation, Untold Scandal (스캔들 - 조선남녀상열지사). This version stars Mi-suk Lee, Do-yeon Jeon, and Yong-jun Bae, and transposes the novel to eighteenth-century Korea.In 2005, Lucas Entertainment released a gay pornographic remake of the film entitled Michael Lucas' Dangerous Liaisons.

Yep, facets. What is it exactly? A movie store and theatre?

Tonight is the MUSICIAN screening at the SFC with a brief set by Ken Vandermark himself. I'm not sure I'm up to it, but thought some sombies might be interested.

Silly!