And Pan's Labyrinth about 10 days ago. Cramming for the year end, watching ATHFCMFFT tonight.

Let me know if I should see The TV Set.

3rd time I've watched it & loses none of its power. A weird, brilliant mind fuck of a film.

The TV Set was just alright. It's mildly entertaining, but you can guess pretty much all of it before it even starts. Guy writes pilot, tries to cast pilot, tries to shoot pilot, tries to get show on the air all while dealing with people with bad taste and executives blindly interfering for ratings purposes. The cast does a good job of making it light, entertaining and occasionally mildly funny, but it's still kind of stuck with it's predictability and simplicity.

the outrage

if there was ever any doubt that james wong howe was one of the most masterful cinematographers that ever walked the earth. this is proof. the 'western' remake of 'Rashomon' holds up. Even with William Shatner, Edward G Robinson... and Paul Newman playing a mexican.

I'd been waiting to see this for a long time and I finally made time for it.

so its still powerful on tv? i remember people saying they thought it wouldnt work as well off the movie screen, because of some of the scenes. mind you that i've never seen it but want to

I think a lot of the attitude that it wouldn't work on TV came about b/c Lynch was ranting & raving during the time of its release that no movie should ever been seen outside a theater. That all movies loose their power on a TV set. He's right to an extent I suppose. And some of these scenes don't come off as well in my living room as they did in the theater. Either way, it is still a stunning piece of work.

might have to pick this up then.

The Bicycle Thief

Haven't watched this since college (bout 4 years ago) and even then I think I fell asleep. This was great though.



Breakfast At Tiffany's

The character of Holly really bugged me. Possibly because I've known girls like her? I don't know but that didn't ruin the movie for me, I really enjoyed it. But maybe that's how good of a movie and book it is, her character was so real and believable I kept drawing parallels to real life and she was frustrating me. How 'bout those clothes? I need to wear more skinny ties.

Mickey Rooney attempting to play Chinese didn't ruin it, either, huh?

I was happily surprised by this. Not as corny as it would seem from the image and with good acting, engaging plot.

Yah - I felt the same way. See if you can find the original novel with the illustrations with Charles Vess. You'll love it.

She bugged me too...she recalled Estella Havisham. Would Paul have fallen for her had her name been Bertha Phlegm?

Amazing, amazing stuff

Charles Vess drawing anything will pretty much rock the world. He's between Will Eisner (composition) and Windsor McKay (technique).

Transamerica

Well-acted by Felicity Huffman. Pretty decent film - freaked me out a bit.

missouri breaks

another western I'd wanted to catch up on. bit too much on the nicholson romance but the assassinations are pretty downright cold. I don't recall another scene where you see a man is shot dead while having sex.
good cast but a tad long and very very odd per brando.

here's some of the 'trivia' about the flick from imdb

...

This film is on the American Humane Association's list of "unacceptable" films. Animal action was not monitored by the AHA. One horse drowned, another was crippled by tripwires, and several others were injured in a stampede sequence.

Marlon Brando's performance was mostly improvised. Arthur Penn eventually gave up on him and decided to just let him act whatever way he wanted.

Marlon Brando agreed to accept $1 million for five weeks work plus 11.3% of gross receipts in excess of $10 million. Jack Nicholson agreed $1.25 million for ten weeks work, plus 10% of the gross receipts in excess of $12.5 million.

During the entire production Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando were only on the set on the same day just one time, despite their multiple scenes together.

Jack Nicholson didn't like the fact that Marlon Brando used cue cards while filming. In their scenes together, Nicholson broke his concentration every time Brando shifted his gaze to the cue card behind the cameraman.

I agree. I thought it was the only great movie I saw last year. Mortensen was excellent, but so was the man who played the Russian patriarch (his name is escaping me at the moment).

I really like David Cronenberg's new incarnation.

Armin Mueller-Stahl, a veteran German/Russian actor since the '50s. He'syour go-to guy for "Eastern European patriarch" roles. I didn't recognize him without his beard, and I never heard of him until "Night On Earth."

Here's a selection of his imdb resume (post-German titled movies I never heard of...)

Actor:
Buddenbrooks, Die (2008) (filming) .... Johann 'Jean' Buddenbrook
... aka Buddenbrooks - Ein Geschäft von einiger Größe, Die (Germany: promotional title)
The International (2008) (post-production)


Leningrad (2007) .... Von Leeb
Eastern Promises (2007) .... Semyon
... aka Promesses de l'ombre (Canada: French title)
Ich bin die Andere (2006) .... Karl Winter
... aka I Am the Other Woman (USA: festival title)
Local Color (2006) .... Nicoli Seroff
"The Power of Knowledge" (2005) TV series .... Host
Bustin' Bonaparte (2005) (V) .... Otto
"The West Wing" .... Israeli Prime Minister Efraim 'Eli' Zahavy (4 episodes, 2004)
- Third Day Story (2004) TV episode .... Israeli Prime Minister Efraim 'Eli' Zahavy
- The Birnam Wood (2004) TV episode .... Israeli Prime Minister Efraim 'Eli' Zahavy
- N.S.F. Thurmont (2004) TV episode .... Israeli Prime Minister Efraim 'Eli' Zahavy
- The Warfare of Genghis Khan (2004) TV episode .... Israeli Prime Minister Efraim 'Eli' Zahavy
The Dust Factory (2004) .... Grandpa Randolph
The Story of an African Farm (2004) .... Otto
"Manns - Ein Jahrhundertroman, Die" (2001) (mini) TV mini-series .... Thomas Mann
"Crociati" (2001) (mini) TV mini-series .... Alessio
... aka Crusaders (Europe: English title)
... aka Kreuzritter, Die (Germany)
Pilgrim (2000) .... Mac
... aka Inferno (USA: DVD title)
... aka Pilgrim (USA: cable TV title)
Mission to Mars (2000) (uncredited) .... Ramier Beck
... aka M2M (USA: promotional abbreviation)
The Long Run (2000) .... Bertold 'Barry' Bohmer


Jesus (1999) (TV) .... Joseph
... aka Bibbia: Jesus, La (Italy)
... aka Bibel - Jesus, Die (Germany)
Jakob the Liar (1999) .... Kirschbaum
... aka Jakob le menteur (France)
The Third Miracle (1999) .... Werner
The Thirteenth Floor (1999) .... Hannon Fuller/Grierson
... aka Abwärts in die Zukunft (Germany: TV title)
The X Files (1998) .... Conrad Strughold
... aka Aux frontières du réel (Canada: French title)
... aka The X-Files (USA: closing credits title)
The Commissioner (1998) .... Hans Koenig
... aka Commissioner - Im Zentrum der Macht, Der (Germany)
The Peacemaker (1997) .... Dimitri Vertikoff
The Game (1997) .... Anson Baer
The Assistant (1997) .... Mr. Morris Bober
12 Angry Men (1997) (TV) .... Juror #4
In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1997) (TV) .... Rabbi Adam Heller
Unhold, Der (1996) .... Count von Kaltenborn
... aka Roi des aulnes, Le (France)
... aka The Ogre
Conversation with the Beast (1996) .... Adolf Hitler
... aka Gespräch mit dem Biest (Germany)
... aka Gespräch mit der Bestie (Germany: TV title)
Shine (1996) .... Peter
Theodore Rex (1995) (V) .... Elizar Kane
... aka T. Rex
A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995) .... Mr. Linzer
Holy Matrimony (1994) .... Wilhelm
The Last Good Time (1994) .... Joseph Kopple
Taxandria (1994) .... Karel/Virgilus
The House of the Spirits (1993) .... Severo del Valle
... aka Åndernes hus (Denmark)
... aka A Casa dos Espíritos (Portugal)
... aka Geisterhaus, Das (Germany)
Kinoerzähler, Der (1993) .... Kinoerzähler (Movie Teller)
... aka The Film Narrator
... aka The Movie Teller
Red Hot (1993) .... Dimitri
Far from Berlin (1992) .... Otto Linder
... aka Loin de Berlin (France)
The Power of One (1992) .... Doc
... aka Puissance de l'ange, La (France)
Utz (1992) .... Baron Kaspar Joachim von Utz
Bronsteins Kinder (1991) .... Aaron
... aka Bronstein's Children
Kafka (1991) .... Grubach
... aka Kafka (France)
Night on Earth (1991) .... Helmut Grokenberger
... aka Une nuit sur terre (France)
Avalon (1990) .... Sam Krichinsky
"Gorille, Le" .... Keibel (1 episode, 1990)
... aka Gorilla, Il (Italy)
- Le Gorille se mange froid (1990) TV episode .... Keibel


Music Box (1989) .... Mike Laszlo
A Hecc (1989) .... Marnó, kabinos, Tamás barátja
Schweinegeld (1989) .... Maxwell
... aka C*A*S*H: A Political Fairy Tale (UK)
... aka Schweinegeld - Ein Märchen der Gebrüder Nimm
Spinnennetz, Das (1989) .... Baron von Rastchuk
... aka Spider's Web
Killing Blue (1988) .... Inspector

I like to revisit the classics every so often.

I love this movie.

STATION!

Yeah, if The Host wasn't a Korean-made film, the collective cineaste community would not have gushed over it like they have. It certainly drags in the middle, and the film's final scene left us totally confused, but that monster is the creepiest one made since Giger's Alien.

I totally possessed my dad!

I can't agree with you here. If The Host were made exactly the same, but set in the US, people would gush over it. I really think its ethnicity has nothing to do with it, considering the similarly-themed Cloverfield seems to be getting some pretty rave reviews.


I've heard this criticism a few times, but I can't say I really agree. I like the middle portion with the build-up off all the characters for the climactic final showdown.

Really? Besides the opening salvo, this is, by far my favourite scene. It's so serene and peaceful, with an undercurrent of menace and sadness.
[spoiler]The little kid that the main guy's daughter saved from the creature talked non-stop about all the kind of foods he was going to eat when they got out, and, at the end, he's getting to live that dream, living in the shop where all the food is. The main guy is happy to have a replacement child, but is ever-vigilant now to make sure what happened before never happens again. It also seems to serve as a cautionary tale: until there is a tighter control on pollution, there exists the possibility of another monster[/spoiler]


Yeah, I was really expecting the monster to look shitty when he was finally shown, but it was neat.

[spoiler]There is a sequel being filmed[/spoiler]

Revisiting an oldie:



Predator - 2-disc collector's edition

Decided to watch the bonus material 1st, which makes the movie seem like a grand ol' epic. Yet when we watched the actual film it hasn't aged as well as you'd think. Or maybe it was never that great to begin with. Either way it was still somewhat entertaining, but it's rapid-fire pacing is starting to seem rather slow compared to the way cinema editing has evolved since its initial release. Same thing happened when I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark a few months ago - funny how that happens.

It's not the ethnicity of it, just that some of that Korea-centric aspects thrown onto an American enterprise of a "big 'ol monster movie" were kind of jarring. Would it have had the same affect if, maybe, David Arquette had the lead as the dad, with Dakota Fanning as the daughter...some reliable veteran actor like Danny Aiello as the family head? Maybe also the fact it was dubbed so crappily by American voice actors made me feel this way.



[spoiler]But what happened to the aunt and the father? Poisoned by Agent Yellow[/spoiler]?

LOL at the director's featurette where he apologizes to everyone for making the movie.

Finally saw


(so far it's in my top five for the year; this thread was helpful in putting a few pieces together for me)

and


(My expectations were low and were exceeded.)

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters: Very funny, but also very well-made. Billy Mitchell is such an egomaniac (Sample quote, as everyone watches a video of his Donkey Kong high score: There must be more eyes on me now than Helen of Troy) that the film doesn't have to work very hard at making him an easy-to-root-against villain. Yet, as funny and ridiculous as it gets - at one point, one of Mitchell's disciples starts to chat up Steve Wiebe, the new challenger, while he plays to try and throw him off his game - there is something rather poignant in Wiebe's mastery of Donkey Kong as a way of controlling some aspect of his spiralling out of control life, and beautiful in his pursuit of the high score as a means of atonement for past failures in his life. It's a pretty great film, all-told.

Crazy Love: Decent weirdo documentary about your standard boy meets girl, boy becomes increasingly creepy, girl leaves boy, boy hires people to throw acid in girl's face story. Insane, sometimes funny.

There Will Be Blood: It was all right. Daniel Day-Lewis is phenomenal, should be Best Actor but, I don't know, it doesn't quite come together like I was hoping. There were some terrific scenes: the one in the church, the exploding oil well, and the ending. Actually, to be frank and I know I'm in the minority here, I'd put it as the least of the 5 BP nominees.

I went to rent this last night, but Blockbuster was all out, now I am even more mad that it wasn't there.

I'm actually toying with putting in my Top 5, 3, maybe even for #1.

Revisiting another old classic 'cuz it's late, and I feel like a bit o' scifi...



Cocoon

Yes, it still holds up. Ron Howard did a good job on this one.

"Sigh... it wouldn't be fun if we had permission!"

Lost in La Mancha

I never got a chance to see this when it was released. The recent death of Heath Ledger during production of yet another Gilliam disaster, prompted me to check this out.

sure we know all of this bill but thank you for dedicating an entire 60 minutes to republicans. i hope george was watching this with his daughter when he heard the words [spoiler]"thinking outside of the box is for smart people. we don't want you to think outside of the box...the box is for you".[/spoiler]

Wow. Liz Taylor was an amazing actress before she became a punchline.

eh. spent way too much time mocking narnia and not much else.

did i like this? i don't know.

used to be my favorite movie. doesn't weather well, especially the remix.

sweet

Confessions of a Superhero

I found this to be kind of interesting, entertaining, and a little bit repulsive.
The deleted scene where superman and bonnie are talking about how they first met was the funniest part.
I liked it.

I watched the last 20 or so minutes of Aeon Flux and was terribly underwhelmed.

High School Musical 2: My brother and sister have been trying to get me to watch this since it came out and I finally caved. It was fun. My favourite things to do were watch the ways they manage to gay-up Vance (Fedora with a pink brim, pink piano, when his sister shouts out "Come on, girls" and it's meant to include him) or filthy double-entendres that somehow slipped through (When Troy yells at Gabriella "You're gonna get so wetttttttt!"). I can see why kids dig this, though, it's bright, it's energetic and it's, genuinely, just a lot of fun. I'm so tempted to slip this onto the bottom of my SOMB Best of 2007 list.

Saw this on TV Sat. night. I'm so glad I didn't spend any money on this turd. It's as bad as Minority Report.

Am I alone in my love of Minority Report? One of my favorites of the decade definitely.

So what'd ya think?

Personally, I liked this movie - it made me want to see the finished film.
Gilliam was pretty smart for showing the world just why it can be so difficult for him to complete a project.

Naw, my ex-wife really loved it. I'm guessing Tony's a fan. Dunno about anyone else.

I'd rather watch Minority Report again than WotW. But I would take Vanilla Sky over both...and Eyes Wide Shut over any of them.

Cos yer a freak, Grimmy.

(And VS isn't Spielberg-- it's Cameron Crowe)

I really thought it was fascinating. I've been a pretty big fan of Gilliam for a long time and never heard him speak at length. (What a great maniacal laugh.) Some of those shots were amazing - made me want to see it completed too. I didn't have time to watch the extras before returning it - it's possible that there was more finished footage on the bonus disc.

MR was OK. I loved WOTW. It's one of Spielberg's half dozen best features and a throwback to something like Duel. I'd take it over Saving Private Ryan any day.