Klute, starring my two favorite people from the seventies:

To take in the rest of the trilogy you should also watch 'Parallax View' & 'All The Presidents Men'

Watched Parallax View last week, and All the President's Men years ago. Only recently learned it was a trilogy. How neat. I think this one might be my favorite, with President's Men close behind. Warren Beatty freaks me out.

I liked this more than "To Catch a Thief." Just really funny, fast paced, and smart. Recommended.

SOMB's 10th favourite pre-1950 film and deservedly so.

What did I treat you like? A waterbuffalo?

The superfluous (mainly) water- makes that line so much funnier.

A classic. Can't believe people are still "discovering" it.

Saw "American Gangster" at the show. ***

Very good. Denzel's low-key performance, couple with Crowe's low-key performance, made the movie much more about story and character than plot. It was a looooooooong film, but I enjoyed every minute. Really appreciated how Ridley let everybody have a moment in the sun. Ruby Dee has this really great scene where her character steps out of the usual formula.

ANd a very nice cameo from "Stringer Bell".

First hour or so I thought "Wow! This is just about the most fun I've had watching a movie in ages!" after that I kept thinking "I can't believe Bay dropped the ball AGAIN".

I think you can pinpoint where the film goes wrong right when the John Turturro character enters the film. So unbelievably hammy. At times it feels as if he's channeling a bad Al Pacino impersonation. And then the film really goes overboard when the robots start talking all the time.

Strange that a Michael Bay movie would have me thinking he handled the human actors far better than he does the technology.

It was on mark to be his most mature, skilled film since The Rock. Instead, it's just The Island all over again. Great first half. Shitty second half.

Why, yes, yes I can: At about 15 minutes in, when the story shifts from fascinating soldier-boys to uninteresting dorky kid. Pfft. Bollocks to Bay. Big props to the effects department, tho - pity the final battle is both too long and anticlimactic. I mean, you know walking into the theater just who's gonna win already, right? After a while, my wife & I were simply enduring the film, wondering when the Bay would finish wanking all over the screen.

Yesh.

Catholicism is nothing if it is not scary.

Looks like Feisty's in a Donald Sutherland mood.

Always!

I actually liked Shia Lebeouf a lot in the film. The first hour was totally a Spielberg thing, the rest of it was totally Bay.

and, while I liked the soldiers, there really wasn't much of them in any part of the film to latch onto. I think perhaps a healthy balance between them and Shia would have been smarter and more interesting. There were a lot of things brought up and abandoned throughout the film and a lot more focus and script streamlining would have done wonders for it.

I just watched Joe Strummer. Totally excellent & highly recommended. I know it is in theaters right now but also available On Demand.

The Prestige

better than I expected

I loved the Prestige, unexpectedly, as well. Perhaps because there are two things I love in cinema: outlandish inventions and David Bowie cameos AND IT HAS BOTH.

I'm going to write until 2 or 3 am and then either go to bed or wake up to Tanner '88

Tina Tina Tina!

I'm diggin' the entertainment directions of Feisty. Is that wrong?

Awesome. Gritty as fuck and not absurdly silly like its numerous predecessors. Craig may not fit the look, but why bother even acknowledging the old films? It's Batman Begins for Bond.

And yes, I realize that I'm way behind on seeing this. Took Netflix about six months to procure me a Blu-ray copy, and another month for me to actually bother watching it.

Casino Royale is one of the worst movies of the decade. It's also the most boring Bond I've ever seen. Other than the opening chase sequence, there is absolutely nothing worth spending time on in that movie.

You're still way off that assessment, as you were at the time.

Just incredible. Very moving film and almost flawless in every way. I don't know if viciousness has seen a better representation than the Captain in the film. The two major acts of violence he commits are brutal and stunning (even for someone jaded like me). I would have liked more of the fantastical elements, however. I feel as if the ads and talk of the film mentioned every fantasy element beforehand and left me wanting a surprise in the area. Oh well. Still a great film.






No pun intended, but this was simply a "good" film. I loved the attention to making it seem as if it was made 50+ years ago, which was damn near spotless in its execution. I liked the pulpiness of the plot. I liked the performances a lot. But after awhile it never quite lifted off or had enough "oomph" to it to love. A fine effort, but perhaps not passionate enough? I dunno.






me and my son watched this. both of us loved the first one and were floored that this was every bit as good as it. just a visceral thrill and one that takes itself completely seriously. no sly jokes, no titillating gore (the fetishistic type of the Saw films), just pure horror and terror. Stunning that a sequel can still be made to match an original. Robert Carlyle's character's cowardice is about the most haunting thing you'll see in a film all year.





There were moments where tears welled up in my eyes watching this. I thought it to be a really bold experience at times and others wished they had gone just a tad further. Some more history on what was going on in the other countries would have worked for me and after awhile the constant running became somewhat arbitrary, but Cuaron makes some powerful statements here and the actors, particularly Owen, Caine and Moore are quite good. I could have done without the popping up of the dread locked white guy so much and the dread locked midwife (really, what is the deal with white people and dreads in this film?), but overall, a powerful film.





The little things in the beginning are great: the fact that most of the inhabitants already acted like zombies and the mindless routines of everyone involved. And there were some funny/fun moments, but in the end I found this one to be just "Okay". Not bad, not great, just an hour and a half of not irritating time spent watching it. Hopefully "Hot Fuzz" and "Run Fatboy Run" are better.

5 frickin' movies in a 14-hour span. Dishes in the sink, garbage piling up. Pizza for dinner. This is what happens when a grown man and his teenage son are left alone for a day. LoL.

Today (hopefully):

the second disc of:

Last night we watched this. We're watching the whole series, one a week. It was much better than the first. The movie begins with a ten minute dream montage, playing the ending of the first film over again (lol what a waste). Lots of gratuitous nudity. Decent atmosphere, but the killings were pretty weak. Jason has a bag over his head in this one, not a hockey mask. Anyway, it's actually the first one where Jason really makes an appearance in it, the first one was just a perverse spin on Psycho. I'm enjoying these a bit more than the Nightmare On Elm Streets we revisited.


Watched this the other day, great film

Dug it. C'mon it's not even the worst Bond movie of the decade!

Much more tolerable than I expected. Capote's voice can be pretty grating, but I got used to it and thought the story was very engaging.

As part of my film-going resurgence, I went to this see this yesterday:


Margot At the Wedding

"What a fucking nutjob."

And so she is.

I liked it, but considering the euphoric buzz from some quarters, I wanted to like it more. It's a better as character study than as a story. There's some darker and subtle humor, and a lot of seat-squirming induced by the title character's she-didn't-just-say-that-did-she? dialogue. Very well acted. It would have been easy for the cast to overplay their roles, given the neuroses of their characters, but everybody, especially Nicole Kidman, is spot on.

I loved The Squid and the Whale so much, but was just left really disappointed by this. I'll agree that it was well acted, and rarely are such realistically narcissistic characters presented on screen, but at the end of the day, I just felt the movie was far too mean. I'm not going to be one of those critics that just think Baumbach should go to therapy rather than work out his demons on the screen, but I missed the little bit of heart that has been in his previous work.

Yo Bhickman - great to see yer reviews. Haven't heard about yer viewing habits in a while, and you certainly picked some great flicks to watch.

As for myself, I am spending the post-holydaze chillin' with some truly terrible (yet completely engrossing) low-budget wonders, starting with:



Death Race 2000

My remote landed on Animal Planet during the beginning of a doc called Jessica the Hippo. What a touching portrait of a couple's love for their unusual pet, you guessed it, hippopotamus. During the past six years they've been raising Jessica in their own unique way after finding it orphaned when a rainstorm separated it from its mother. They feed Jessica sweet potatoes and diluted coffee, and she sleeps on the porch with the dogs. The show was so good that I didn't mind watching it again with my family on Thanksgiving. It even gets hipster credit for its John Waters narration.

Awful. Rarely funny, supremely hokey, and contains every stereotypical movie shot you can think of.

I seriously got chills when they showed the thrown ring spinning in mid-air by itself for several seconds. Just... so bad.

or "Waiting For Happy Feet In Dogtown". The clever, mostly improv dialogue amongst beautiful location settings and quirky "camera work" make this mockumentary a lot of fun.


Some chills that gets too maudlin and muddled in the last half-hour. Sorry there is no: "There's motherfuckin' ghosts in my motherfuckin' hotel room!"

Brad Bird is the god of animated cinema. A true genius in every conceivable way. I liked "The Incredibles" more, but "Ratatouille" is really something amazing. Brilliant in almost every possible way.




Was expecting it to be even more intense, but the perfect performance by Michael Shannon and the lovely nudity by Ashley Judd made up for it.

How about that last 30 minutes. Any more intense and the actors would have spontaneously combusted or there heads exploded.... like the Macon, Georgia attendees to the Oprah show when they found out they had tickets to Oprah's Favorite Things show.

I thought Ashley wasn't quite as convincing ... like she was a bit over her head/out of her element. But Shannon was stunning. Just a revelation.

How about the Dr.? I wasn't sure what was going on when he hit that pipe.

a scanner darkly

so let's see. I was not really blown away by the head games of linklater's last run at animation and this one didn't really blow me over either. Rotoscope is a piss poor form and second only to 'Clutch Cargo' (stills with moving lips for those who don't know this show) this is some of the laziest work ever. At least I'd add that when the head has more detail than the body it looks really odd. It was that or putting a human face on a cartoon body which in itself is just bad looking.

As a concept it's certainly an interesting plot. Portraying the undercover narc who not only doesn't identify his role anymore but quickly begins to lose his mind to the drugs.

The whole morphing identity suit was probably the best sequence used with this animation. Using the technique to deliver that particular effect was far more interesting than the other remaining traces that were done for all the frames in this.

I wish I could speak more positively of this flick but I was resoundingly disappointed by it.




family plot

don't worry about me mr anderson.... I promise... I won't tell a soul.

hitchcock might have had a few duds in his time and his later work was never celebrated as much as his golden era at universal studios. however, I've been kinda pushing this one off for a long time for two reasons. Being his swan song and being made for tv which it would seem is an unfair bias. Considering the amount of successful directors who've been able to produce some good work for tv and not lose any of their style or integrity.

for whatever its worth. this particular one I found to be worth checking out. Even for it's very dated look and bad green screen sequences. It is very much a classic hitchcock film in every sense of the word.

I could see that take on Judd...I've always disliked her due to the roles she's taken but was blown away here. And where did Shannon come from? I'd never heard of him before.

gotta say that was the classiest thing she's done lately.

btw. the uber-clutter house deal was brilliant.. I have a certain curiosity for the whole organizing thing..
and yes sure enough I've watched more Oprah than I care to admit but she's not all bad obv.

I'm speechless.

yes the all and powerful wizard isn't so tall afterall.

Indeed.
Coincidentally, we must have watched parts of the Wizard of Oz at least a dozen times the last few weeks because Lyric loves it. I hadn't seen it in at least 10 years so I never noticed this before...but one of the primary messages the Wiz gives our heroes at the end is one that is psychologically unhealthy. He says something like "remember, it is not how you've loved others that's important, it's how many people love you." Way to pronounce that focus in life should be on things that are essentially largely out of our control. A statement like this is at the very crux of so many anxiety disorders, not to mention depression.

well I don't recall the spirit of the tales of oz being very pc to begin with much less making a psychologically favorable statement. still a classic film all around.

Agree...still, one of my all-time faves showed some bruises I must have never cared to look at.

So many disturbing moments like that in that movie. Among the biggest head-scratchers:

1) The idea that anyone would shut that shelter door with Dorothy still on the wrong side of it.

2) The full-size human progeny of the Munchkins.

3) The fact that there was a freaking fork in the yellow brick road.

4) The insanely disturbing thought of runaway Dorothy alone in the trailer of a traveling salesman/carny.

and my all-time fave:

"Only bad witches are ugly."

!!!!!!!I know!

Back where I come from there are men who do nothing all day but
good deeds. They are called
phil....er.....phil...er...er....good-deed-doers and their hearts are no
bigger than yours, but they have one thing
you haven't got! A testimonial!
Therefore, in consideration of your kindness, I take pleasure at this
time in presenting you with a
small token of our esteem and affection. And remember, my sentimental
friend, that a heart is not judged
by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.

You could take that 2 ways, like all of the Wizard's little lectures to the group. Pretty damned sophisticated writing at the tail-end of that flick.

And if he was all set on leaving Oz in the balloon, why did the Wizard bother with Dorothy's issues with the slippers and the broomstick anyway?

I don't see any other way to take that last part...it's just all kinds of wrong.

There's a scene at the end of Marvin's Room where Diane Keaton's character is dying and tells her self-absorbed sister something like- when you're dying you realize that what matters is not how people have loved you in your life but how incredible it has been to have loved others. That's some good psychology right there!!!

Dorothy stole the shoes that rightfully belonged to the Witch, fuck that bitch and her little dog too!

Actually, that space cadet Glinda popped them on Dorothy's feet...not that she had asked to be the Official Oz Ruby Slipper Mole or anything...

Heh - I can't believe we're debating the morals of Wizard of Oz. Personally, I enjoy the film for nostalgia's sake & the technical achievement that it was (check out the 3-disc version's documentary on the technicolor restoration process: it's fascinating). However, the storybooks are much more engaging and many elements are straight-up sinister on many levels (Return to Oz was a more accurate representation of the tone found in the books, altho there's no way anyone will ever be able to utilize the original subject matter since the 1939 film has become such an icon - a safe & polished Hollywood-esque icon, but an icon nonetheless).