yeah, that's a little annoying.
I usually try to come up with a sentence or two about the movie. It isn't hard to do.

The Skeleton Key (2005) directed by Ian Softley, the guy who brought us 'Backbeat'
& 'Wings of a Dove'

To be completely honest my first thoughts of this were less than ecstatic. The Hoodoo stuff made it somewhat compelling although it doesn't really go very far to explain it. In all it certainly looked the part of a b grade thriller.

Terrence Malick's "The New World"


I really enjoyed this. I remember when the early reviews came out for this film, and it seemed very much a "love it or hate it" type of film. I loved it. The cinematography was positively stunning, the acting was convincing, and the story was compelling. A really beautiful film.

beautifully shot but overall just an okay movie. it helps when anytime one of the characters would look at the other one awkwardly my friends and i would shout out 'GAYYYYYY' at the top of our lungs. Pretty okay though.

Much more interesting as an exploration of what beng "a man" means, rather than the love story itself.

Classy Criterion DVDs recently viewed:

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Dreyer's The Passion of Joan Arc. Intense film from 1929, especially from lead Maria Falconetti. Does what The Passion of the Christ set out to do, with no sound and no whippings.

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Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible (1947/1959). I saw the first part many months ago, then finished the conclusion last night. Worth it. The acting and dialogue may seem stilted by today's standards, and if you don't know your Russian history, it's confusing as hell. But watch it for its set designs and cinematic angles (especially look at the frescoes on the walls), and an incredible color sequence that sets the climax. (Eisenstein intended a trilogy to tell the full story, but it could not be completed).

Fellini's Casanova (1976)

This one has been a bit of a holy grail for me. (Top 10 hardest to find for sure!)
It's never been released on video. Nor DVD here in the states (yet). It used to get screened once in a blue moon at U of C or the Italian Consulate (although their print didn't have subtitles)

However, the Sundance channel started playing it back in December and has slowly kept it in rotation. To be honest I haven't had the time to dig deeper into looking for those rarities that pop up on cable/satillite every once in a while but I'm pretty damn psyched to finally have this in my possession. I realize it's also been noted that this isn't really all that good either but it seems having seen all of his other works. I had to see this too.

Interesting, never heard of it. Looks like a less gay Satyricon.

Robert Michum completely and utterly dominates this film. I've never seen a portrait of evil like this.

The story was uneven at the end, though. Did the studio muck with it? I've never read the book.

Early anniversary present from my sweetie:

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Did every disc need Whoopi Goldberg's disclaimer about non-PC material on it ?

Tales from my recent inadvertent Mediocrity Film Fest '06:





Firewall: It was well-made, reasonably well-acted, marginally well-written, but the whole thing felt like it needed more: more desperation, more sinister activity, more conviction from the villains, and more (or at least one or two) twists. It felt like it was about all the action Harrison Ford could handle at this stage of his career. Which wasn't much. I can't figure out what Bettany's career will be. He's got big chops and presence, but is he going to be a full-on star? He's good in everything, even when the material sucks. (A Beautiful Mind, Wimbledon, etc.) 2.5 (stars? do we need our own rating currency?)

Underworld: Evolution: Look, folks, can we all just get over the one-color palettes and blowing the fucking whites out of everything? The whole thing seemed blue-muddy and monotonous, which was a shame, since it was the one of these three I looked forward to the most. When the best thing you can say about a movie is that it's slightly better than Van Helsing, you're in trouble. I slept through the third quarter of this. (When they paused in that underground monastery for that one dude to spend twenty minutes explaining the plot.) When I woke up, they were in the middle of the inevitable showdown. Also, if you're going to have Kate get naked, can we get Speedman off her for five seconds or so? 2.0 (One for each one of Beckinsale's proverbials.)

Slackmo: It sounds like you need more practice picking out films.

slight spoiler ahead, but only slight:


Running Scared: Look, I'm a sucker for kinetic filmmaking. It's so easy to tell which of these three films was a joy to make. It's surface-level fun, to be sure, but anytime you get Vera Farmiga and Cameron Bright some much-needed attention, I'm in. It's funny--even though the box warns of Kill-Bill level violence, I never felt like it was too brutal. (Until that one mafia guy loses half his head in the hockey shootout. Blech.) Walker manages to keep from torpedoing the whole thing, for which the director should win an oscar. It's funny with this movie, though--when it got sidetracked with the next door neighbor, or his wife, or Walker's wife (and her foray into the Scariest Apartment In The World), it actually got more interesting. Most films can't say that during their tangential moments. 3.0, maybe 3.5--I'll have to see it again to be sure.

Maybe. But it's probably the seen-too-much factor, as it leads to renting whatever's come out in the last few weeks. And, to be honest, I thought that at least one of them had to be good. And exactly one of them was.

MAKES KILL BILL LOOK LIKE SESAME STREET.

yeah, that was the unfortunate phrase they used. that's some serious hyperbole.

You didn't do bad with Running Scared, I actually liked that.

If you're looking for only new releases, check out the "staff favorites" at my store:

February:

Walk The Line
Reel Paradise
See This Movie
Ice Harvest
Waterborne

March
King Kong
Good Night & Good Luck
Six Feet Under: Season Five
Capote
Jarhead
History Of Violence
How’s Moving Castle
Harry Potter 4

April:
Match Point
Traveler (not in stores)
Brokeback Mountain
Squid & The Whale
Chronicles Of Narnia
Cigarette Burns
Broken (not in stores)
Final Fantasy 7

That's not just MY favorites, but the whole staff's favorites, mixed together.
I should have May up in the next day or two, I'm sure it's going to be: Munich, The New World, Popaganda....don't know what else.

Being a film person of sorts, all I can say is; Jesus, you know you're having an off year when you've only seen one of those.

The New World was the worst movie I have seen in YEARS. Unbearable. Unwatchable. Unforgiveable. How many more chances does Colin Farrell get?He's made one good movie, Minority Report. The rest is garbage. Phone Booth. The Recruit. SWAT. Alexander. Hart's War.

You couldn't pay me to see Miami Vice this summer.

There's a LOT more going for the New World than a swarthy Irishman. I think there's definitely people that like Malick's work, or don't. I do.

I liked Phone Booth, but that had more to do with the plot than the actor.

All the others are shit, and there's no way I'm seeing Miami Vice.

I saw Munich a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't bad, but considering the controversy surrounding it, it was a letdown. About 2 of its 2.5 hours was dedicated to a decent 'political thriller' - that is, a thriller where politics is a back-drop, not much more. This is the man we want, find the man, track the man, kill the man, rinse, repeat, grow paranoid as unknown people come after you. The rest, touching on the ethical issues, etc. it was pretty shallow, nothing that brought new light on the issues. It didn't have much to say, at least nothing that hadn't been said numerous times before.

Then there's issues of what really happened; I was told days later that in addition to moments fabricated for the movie, the stuff allegedly based on fact (i.e. from the book it was derived from) may have been fiction as well. Regardless of what happened and what didn't, I'm more interested in what Spielberg had to say, and it wasn't much.

Agreed. It's over-long and confused, spending most of its time being a political thriller then deciding at the end it wants to be deeper than that. The one scene that I really enjoyed was when the Palestinians and Israelis were discussing the conflict on the stairwell, without realizing they were the opposing sides. Nice hypothetical set-up, although even there, the discussion was pretty shallow.

Mann doing a feature of Miami Vice could be fascinating. This isn't some hack action filmmaker but one of the best in the business.

I'd have seen this if Jim Carey was in it, as originally rumored before production.

Will Smith was attached at one point, as was Nicholas Cage. I'd love to know how far down the list they got before they got to Colin Farrell.

Got to agree about Dee Dee. However, what really struck me about this and "Raw" was what a control freak Johnny was.


I saw this, the 40-Year-Old Virgin, Closer, and Broken Flowers in rapid succession. It was like a study in male pathology.

No comment. I just wanted to relive a few childhood memories. Actually, some of these episodes - not many, but a few - are actually pretty good.

Yeah, I have to admit that I was curious about this too. I used to love that show.
I'm just afraid that it may not live up to the way I remember it.

A strangely entertaining little film from Steven Soderbergh.
I had more or less given up on him, but he surprised me with this. He cast a bunch of unknown/nonprofessional actors, shot on location in a working class Midwestern town, and shot entirely using DV cameras. It's like he's an independent director or something! (except his next feature will probably star Julia Roberts of George Clooney!) Worth a rental.

Definitely the best-looking computer-animated movie ever. There are another 2 or 3 others coming out later this summer (Monster House, The Barnyard, Flushed Away) and they all look like complete shit compared to this. I haven't seen Cars yet, but having to see either the trailer or that commercial for AT&T DSL every time I turn on the TV, I can safely say that Cars is shit too. I mean, just look at it! And talking cars with huge eyes and mouths? Who came up with such an awful idea? Anyway, there doesn't seem to be a lot of quality control in the industry right now, and studios are pumping these out as fast as they can, regardless of quality. So it's good to see something that actually tries raise the bar again.

But anyway, this movie was fun, and even though it had flatulance humor, tons of celebrity voices, and all that other stuff I'm supposed to hate, I still really enjoyed it. Not as adult-oriented as stuff like Shrek is, but the kids will love it and you'll have a good time too. I laughed a bit, not a lot. But there was one scene near the end... I don't really know how to describe it, but it was at once one of the funniest and wierdest things I've ever seen in a children's movie. The filmmakers could have sat back and played the scene out on autopilot and gotten a few cheap laughs, but they took a really unexpected approach and the comic surrealism that unfolded was awe-inspiring, if only for just a minute.

The animation is very, very good. Why don't I say great? Well, maybe because it never tries to go too far or to attract attention to itself, not in the way that most Pixar movies desperately do. But that's a good thing! And don't tell me this doesn't look wonderful.

This is one that I actually hope they make a sequel to.

I've been home sick


I hated this the first time I saw it. Loved it this time though. I think I had a hangup about Dreyfuss abandoning his family


This still holds up. Hilarious

Wasn't really my idea to see Over the Hedge, but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was gonna suck, but it wasn't bad. Not as good as Pixar's better movies, but it didn't get too cloying (well, most of the time), some of the jokes were pretty amusing, the voice-overs were actually pretty good, and it wasn't as derivative as most cartoons - that is, every joke wasn't a movie parody, an old cartoon cliche, or something ripped off from another movie.

'Etre et Avoir' aka To Be and To Have.
A documentary about a smalltown school teacher in rural france.
C'etait tres bien!

I wanted to see that, but my friend kept making fun of me and saying it would be corny.

I just saw Rocco ei suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers) (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1960). One scene reminded me of a Naked Gun joke:

Ed Hocken: You sure know your boxing.
Lt. Frank Drebin: All I know is never bet on the white guy.

Actually that was from the second picture. My favorite joke from the first one:

http://www.moviewavs.com/php/sounds/?id=bs...le=nordburg.mp3

Drebin: "Nordburg... it's me, Frank. Now who did this to you?"
Nordburg: "(groaning) I...Love You...."
Drebin: "I love you too, Nordburg. Who were they?"
Nordburg: "Ship... boat..."
Drebin: "That's right, Nordburg, a boat. Now, when you're better we'll go sailing together, on a boat. We'll take a cruise just like last year."
Nordburg: "drugs...."
Drebin: "Hey Nurse! Give this man some drugs, quick.. can't you see he's in pain? Give him a shot, quickly!"
Nordburg: "no... heroin...heroin, Frank..."
Drebin: "Nordburg... that's a pretty tall order. You're gonna have to give me a couple a days on that one."

This was pretty freaking outstanding. Recklessly inventive, eminently quotable...good call, ghost town.

I saw that and was a bit bored by the film, but still engaged by the story behind the film. Some of the actors were just guys off the street. The crime investigator in the film was an actual police officer from the town over. And By the way, the new David Lynch film is being shot with DV cameras, too. Should be interesting.

My parents gave me the restored version for my birthday. Yes!






Right on. I could do without the repetitious voiceovers, and the lovestory at times was tedious to me, but all was forgiven because the imagery was fantastic.

Was Jean Seberg ever hot in 1959. Love this movie.

It seems like are learning from Pixar's past successes. For first time. Given the overall criticisms that "Cars" has been getting, Pixar had better get their asses in gear. They have some real competition now.

The teacher attempted to sue the filmmakers saying that the film stole his teaching style. I don't think anything ever came of it. I thought this was a tad bit of a let down. I think it was because I was led to believe there was more going on here than there was. Still, a truly enjoyable film about teaching kids of varying ages in a one room school.

Mothman Prophecies - Somehow I missed this dog but then I never previously made an effort to watch anything with Richard Gere in it. Chilling moments but god awful audio levels. Can't tell if this was intentional or not and the set up is really hokey. Eh. It was cable. Timewaster.


I know what you did to that gerbil...




DD. again




You wonder why it bombed. Look at this ridiculous poster. I still have issues with this one but it has many brilliant points thru out. I just wish it added up to something more meaningful. I kind of wonder if Kelly had the stones to tell Barrymore that she was 'not' an asset by starring in the film? ah well.

Wasn't she co-producer?

Finally watched all of The Beach last night. Boy, this film had a lot of potential but the second half is just complete crap.

Just like the book.

yup.

Another spectacular film that doesn't shy away from asking the audience to think. (Instead of telling them how to think, a la Crash.) Real live entertainment for grownups.

And with that, we essentially close the books on 2005. Time to revisit the year-end results.

Seconded. Great film.

So funny, I want to pee on a dead corpse.



I've got it in my Q...will do the updated poll next week. I'd like to see Best of Youth in time, but it's so frikin long.

Slack what did you really think of KKBB? Couldn't decipher your cryptic comment. It was good stuff. Shane Black heaping spoonfuls of contempt on the sort of shlock thrillers his screenplays pioneered in the late 80s.