good. although it was kind of odd watching alain delon in such a saintly role.

Zodiac.


Surprisingly enthralling.

Zodiac was very good. AT least 3 1/2 stars. But what else would ya expect from Fincher?

"Four Brothers" was a bit disappointing. Worth a rental at the most. Geez, how long has it been since John Singleton knocked one out of the park?

Great use of heavy snow in Detroit, though. And the car chase in the snowstorm was about the best of its kind to be put on film. Rotten casting was one of the big spoilers, for sure.

Amsterdam. But I think they aren't going to make it. The trailer shows them getting kicked off the plane.

Julianne Moore was the better Clarice Starling.

Suck it, rest of the world.

how 'bout it? it was painful to watch andre attempt acting. i bet ben affleck is happy.

I thought the punk who was the guitar player, "jack" or whatever-- was about the biggest waste of space I'd seen in a while.

I was glad when he died.

Oh yeah - I saw Clueless once. You're right - it IS underrated.

I hated Jodi Foster in that role. Too bad they fucked up the end of Hannibal, though.

I watched Silence Last Night on TV, Rest of world is right.

Moore and Hopkins had the chemistry of two dorky teenagers in Hannibal, awful book.

Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque (2004)

For those who don't know of him. Henri was starting to archive film before anyone knew what archiving was. He was one of the founders of the La Cinematheque Francoise in Paris. He was responsible for saving more films from being lost than maybe any other person.

This doc is more of an homage really with lots of talking heads for the most part but if you're at all obsessed with the cinema. You won't be disappponted in his story.

I actually saw his grave at the Montparnasse Cemetary when I was in Paris a few years ago. He's just down the aisle from Serge Gainsbourg.

More than anything else I wanted to go to the Cinematheque myself but they had a fire earlier on and they hadn't reopened at the new site yet.

Curious what the outcome would have been if Moore and Foster had reversed each others' movies. Would the interplay in the jailroom sessions of SotL have been better, worse, or equal?

I only saw it once as a rental, but I really enjoyed it. Yeah it was a bit cheesey (especially the flashback scenes with the mother), but its was really directed as an homage to 70's blaxsploitation flicks, which are always a bit cheesey in and of themselves. Singleton did a very good job of capturing the vibe of those films, and the music score was pretty excellent too. It's no masterpiece like Boyz N The Hood, but it's definitley worth a rental.

Superbad - Good flick. The more interesting plot is McLovin and the cops. I really appreciated that they stayed true and didn't make villians out of the cops. And as great as Jonah Hill is at heightening a scene, he was kind of starting to grate on me half way through as he seemed to get louder and louder. Michael Cera went from unlikeable to ok in my book. Would have been cool to see better female characters but that's my usual complaint out of comedies not directed by David Wain.

the box office recap from imdb today:




Man, Bourne's made a lot of money.

I'm going to see Bourne tonight for 3 bucks, pretty excited.

Bourne isn't bad but it's totally overrated.

It's getting a lot of love, but dude, seriously, name a better action flick this year.

Name a 2007 non-comedy that's taken over $50mill that's even half as good?

http://www.the-numbers.com/market/movies2007.php

Not as much fun as others of its ilk ("His Girl Friday", "It Happened One Night"), but since the topic of divorce is its main theme, what would you expect?

I know I'm in the minority on this one...probably to a flaw...or maybe I was just really tired when I saw it...but I preferred the bombast of 300 and Spiderman 3 to the dizzying rapid camera style in Bourne. Hell, I even preferred the new Die Hard.

Definitely agreed that Bourne strayed into Dogme territory way too much with the shaky-cam thing. Haven't seen Spiderman 3 yet.

Don't you mean "Dogville"?!? I didn't mind the hand held in Breaking the Waves as much as in the Bourne movies, even though I recall stories of people puking during Waves.

What'd you think of 300?

If you pay more than a buck, you'll be outraged.

Spider-Man 3 has some really good moments and some awful cringe worthy stuff
it was painfully obvious that Rami dosen't get Venom and was probably forced to put him in the movie.

[spoiler]The dance fight sequence alone was dreadful[/spoiler], and should be made illegal on a worldwide basis.

I can't watch "Crimes & Misdemeanors" for basically the same reason (or was that "Husbands & Wives"?)

H&W... in that case I'd also stay clear of the Pasolini filmography too.

Catching up with the 3 Amigos past (they produced this one), and I was pleasantly surprised.
It's well paced, well shot, and sticks the landing with an unconventional ending.

Crónicas

Despite post-1985 feelings about Daniel Day Lewis, I loved this.



Last night I was all "no homework" and I sort of have no homework, so I watched My Beautiful Laundrette. British movies in the 1980s are what America had in the 1970s, I think. That same sort of honesty in presenting a completely disillusioned, socially depleted culture. It's about a gay Pakistani man living in South London with his ruined-Bombay journalist-turned-alcoholic father, played by Roshan Seth, who is easily (still) the most beautiful and elegant man in the world.

British films were like that in every other decade too!!

(Why did I write that out in the voice I use for Deej's posts?)

Okay but they don't have Roshan Seth until the 80s.

for your additional english pleasure I recommend viewing some other items written by Hanif Kureishi

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987)
London Kills Me (1991) (also directed by Kureishi. Seth also appears in this one)
The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) (also stars Seth)
My Son the Fanatic (1997)

somewhere in time. i have to watch this once a year.

Bo-ring. I tried to find some deep meaning in the plot, [spoiler]but the needless sex scenes, and romantic involvement between Leguizamo and the reporter totally killed the movie.[/spoiler]

i just can't finish this movie anymore. it's just so unrealistic..everytime i'd see allen with hemingway all i could think was "jesus fucking christ she's too old for you woody".

Just watched some of the first films in a while that weren't festival related.





They were both just OK.

the Dark Crystal - 25th Anniversary Edition

Jim Henson + Brian Froud really were effin' brilliant as a creative team. 'S really too bad the slow pacing and lack of chemistry towards any of the characters choke the film's impact somewhat. But as a technical achievement, it's still pretty damn impressive.

The new bonus material really highlights the staggering amount of work involved in every shot, and helps ya look past many imperfections. Even after 5 years of production, there are very few "special effects" in this finished product. 90% of everything you see is in fact the real deal, shot in real-time with some mild optical layering. I mean, holy shit: the very idea of creating an entire world with no human actors is pretty ambitious - especially for 1982, y'know?

Note #1: If you ever see a museum showing a Jim Henson showcase, check it out. The original puppets for this movie are so surreal they're considered art pieces in some circles. Imaginative design + fascinating construction all around.

Note #2: Yeah, they're actually working on the sequel, which actually looks kinda cool...

Very effective little horror movie. Abandoned amusement park in the middle of nowhere + eerie organ score + this guy:


= Creepy fun.

the Dark Crystal was the first movie we ever saw on our VCR. i don't think I've seen it since...I'll have to watch that again soon.

recently:

perhaps this will be the last M. Night movie i watch, unless word of mouth proves something new to really be an achievement


visually amazing. the best shots are in the beginning of neon neo-tokyo, before the plot gets too big for itself. really failed to capture my attention once it got going, i had to watch it in 3 parts


that about covers this one

FUX YEAH.

Before Kathleen Turner was withered, broken and used up.
I caught part of this on cable not too long ago - the scene where Mickey Rourke was singing to Bob Seger at the auto shop just killed me. Pure unintentional comic genius.

Yeah, ha, I loved the movie, but I have to say that the unquestionable highlight came during the closing credits, when the ONLY SONG LISTED was "Feel Like a Number" by Bob Seger. Awesome.

Fucked-up, quintessential Cronenberg

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Better than any of The Spaghetti Western Trilogy,

2nd place behind Tuco.

I like big fat men like you. When they fall they make more noise