Ikiru: 5/5 -I think everybody should see this at least once. I can't believe I waited so long to finally watch it. Flawless in every sense of the word.
Casino Jack: 3/5 -Kinda disappointing considering the cast involved, but the cast involved still did the best they could. Without a Clue: 3/5 -Another small disappointment that was still not altogether terrible. I think I expected something brilliant from this kind of story and this kind of cast.
1. The Fighter: B- 2. Batman(90's saga): A-,B-,C-,D 3. Star Wars OT-Special Edition: B+, A, B Yes this is the Greedo shoots first, CGI enhanced Tatooine scenes and city scapes with cheering citizens at the end of Jedi. I had sold my VHS copies some 10 years ago and Amazon had this set for $23 over the Holidays. I hadn't honestly seen the OT in some time. I'm a Star Trek fan first, sci fi film second so I've never been one to have the SW saga on my list of frequently rewatched films. I thought the transfers looked great. The colors were bold, the sound was terrific and it really is a sci fi classic. I'd dare say I found a new appreciation for the saga. I know that later this year they come out on Blu Ray and I honestly don't know at this point if I care to upgrade. Personally I was quite pleased with these in standard DVD. I've just got one more saga to go through from my Black Friday purchases but my next film should be from Netflix. I've enjoyed revisiting films I haven't seen in 10-20years though.
1. In the Heat of the Night (A+) 2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (B) 3. The Passion of the Christ (A) 4. Mamma Mia! (B) 5. All About Eve (A-) I vacillated on the grade for this one, between A- and A+, and eventually I settled on A-; I may revise that later. I recall seeing part of this on TV once before, but I hadn't watched the whole thing before now. There was one of those random DVD collections on sale for $23, and I figured that was a good price for five Best Picture winners (this, Gentleman's Agreement, How Green Was My Valley, The Sound of Music, The French Connection; no, those really don't have much in common, really; two of them have Celeste Holm, but that's about it). James Berardinelli, among others, has said that this film has one of the best screenplays ever written, and in terms of dialogue, I'd say there's a good chance that's true. Everybody's consistently witty. Addison DeWitt, in particular, is quite a marvelous creation, and it's fitting that both the writer and the actor won Oscars for him (George Sanders' voice is, of course, familiar to fans of The Jungle Book). This is Bette Davis' iconic role as well, and she's likewise extremely watchable. The aforementioned Celeste Holm (still alive today, in fact) provides probably the most emotionally unpretentious of the major characters. The guys are good, but, apart from DeWitt, much less memorable. My main reservation at rating the film higher is that, frankly, I don't buy Eve herself at all. Anne Baxter plays her extremely well, and every individual scene works just fine, but I didn't think what her character does in the course of the film was at all plausible. Too many coincidences and too many things that couldn't possibly have been controlled or anticipated (and if she's that talented, why does she even need to?). There's also the Birdie character (Thelma Ritter, playing basically the same character she did in Rear Window), who abruptly vanishes without explanation (did Eve fit her for a pair of cement shoes between acts?). A very good movie, nonetheless.
1. From Russia with Love (C) 2. Delicatessen (A) 3. Goldfinger (B) 4. Coraline (A) 5. Toy Story 3 (A+) 6. Over the Hedge (B) Coraline I've been on a huge Neil Gaiman kick for months having read Neverwhere and American Gods last year and currently reading Fragile Things. I've been meaning to watch Coraline since it came out but I never got the chance until now. The film is a beautiful and imaginative story which in part reminded me of Gaiman's MirrorMask (female protagonist has mommy issues and flees into an amazing alternate world that eventually turns ugly when she's forced to deal with said issues), which is fine because I loved that film, too. Coraline is certainly different enough and has it's own take on the scenario with castful of typically Gaiman bizarre characters. Oddly, I think Coraline's father is my favorite because of how quiet and subtle his love for Coraline and just weird he is. On top of all Gaiman's character idiosyncrasies, Henry Selick excels once again with his stop-motion animation. In fact, I didn't know he was the director going into the film, but a few minutes into the film, I thought "This has to be Henry Selick." Toy Story 3 After watching Coraline, which I consider one of the best non-Pixar animated films, I began to think about Pixar's best and decided that I needed to watch Toy Story 3 again for the first time since it was in theaters. It's rare for a sequel to be better than the original and it's even more rare for a second sequel to be better than both, but Toy Story 3 manages to do just that. The film doesn't pull any punches in the swan song where Andy's toys finally face the moment they've feared: Andy has grown up, so what does that mean for them? Several options lay before them: the attic, the dumpster, daycare, and for Woody, going to college with Andy. The toys all fret about their future and I'll admit the first time I watched this film, I actually believed all of the toys were going to be incinerated at the town dump. How about that for pulling on the old heartstrings? I thought that would be the emotional high, but of course I was wrong. Seeing Andy playing with his old toys one last time with their new caretaker, Bonnie, was the pitch perfect ending for an incredible trilogy and gave the toys an option that had not foreseen: a whole new owner who will love and cherish them just as much as Andy did. Over the Hedge I don't have much to say about this one. I only bothered checking it out because I've found myself enjoying the comic strip, although mostly for Hammy's crazy antics and weird babbling. Which, of course, was my main motivation for watching the movie. Steve Carell played a wonderful spastic character with just a bit of emotional depth although his voice wasn't quite the one I had in my head and I've already reverted back to "my voice" for Hammy when reading the strip.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief - HBO Tron Legacy 3D - theater Clash of the Titans (2010) - HBO on Demand Take Me Home Tonight - free screenin' Went up to D/FW today, with a plan to see the new Topher Grace comedy, which he also co-wrote & executive produced. And he was at the theater to introduce the movie. I almost got his autograph, too! Dammit! So close!!! Anyway, it was way funnier than it should have been and rides on the '80s nostalgia, especially with the wardrobe & soundtrack. So, keep an eye out for it when it opens in March. Also cool - Topher & the studio rep were sittin' right behind me & my friend durin' the movie.
I watched The Social Network and Wall Street this week and both were fine films. Plan to watch Wall Street 2, Easy-A and The Karate Kid remake over the next week.
I've just added Inception to my list of films for next week, though working next week so I might need 2 weeks to watch em all...still going through 30 Rock.
1. In the Heat of the Night (A+) 2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (B) 3. The Passion of the Christ (A) 4. Mamma Mia! (B) 5. All About Eve (A) 6. Looking for Anne (B-) I decide to boost All About Eve up to A, on reflection. This is a Japanese-Canadian coproduction, primarily for Japanese audiences, that is being shown in Canada now (primarily, I suspect, on PEI). The story is about a Japanese girl who travels to PEI to try and locate a soldier who was her grandmother's first love in 1946; various meditations on Japan's love affair with Anne of Green Gables ensue. It's low-key, and like a lot of indie cinema, there's not a tremendous amount actually happening. But it's cute and poignant at times, if a little on the nose in places. The actors, who are mostly limited in experience, all sell their parts well enough. PEI isn't used as a film location much (the last time was The Ballad of Jack and Rose, where we were pretending to be part of New England), so there's a lot of novelty in recognizing various locations (at least some of the shots are within a mile of my parents' cottage).
My strategy was to go to solid letter grading, which lasted all of two seconds. A straight C was just too high for STAR TREK V... 1. Walk Hard (A) 2. Adam’s Rib (B) 3. There’s Always Tomorrow (B) 4. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (C-) Walk Hard: This might be the best film Judd Apatow has been associated with (here he is producer and co-writer), so it’s a shame it did so poorly upon release. Not only does it so deftly eviscerate the conventions and clichés of the musician bio-pic, but it has a terrific soundtrack, too. Most of the songs (with a few hilarious exceptions, like “Let’s Duet”) would be perfectly at home in a straight bio-pic. And that’s what makes the film work so well, I think. It’s just a tinge off from being serious, which makes it that much more funny, and crap like Country Strong so much harder to take seriously. Adam’s Rib: Hepburn is on fire in every scene, and Tracey is acceptable, though I must admit I had a hard time not wondering how much more fun a Cary Grant type would have been in the role. Still, it’s quite a funny courtroom comedy, and a having a male character who is clearly gay in a prominent supporting role seems pretty bold for the period. The ending is a little darker than I would have liked. I never really buy that things could go so wrong for the couple—this is a comedy after all—so spending so much time after the case is decided with the two arguing rings a little false. Still, at times, it is absolutely hilarious. There’s Always Tomorrow: If ever there was a film and a director (here, Douglas Sirk) where you could make a case of visual style elevating the written material, it would be here. The story isn’t anything special for a melodrama (a husband caught in a loveless marriage sees romantic possibility when an old flame comes back into town), but it’s filmed so brilliantly that it rises above itself. I didn’t know what to make of a Sirk film in black and white (his color melodramas, like Written on the Wind, are more famous), but the director does well for himself, trapping his characters in a frame full of harsh vertical and horizontal lines, as well as clutter that fills the entire three-dimensional space. It’s a shame this isn’t available on DVD in the U.S. the proper aspect ration (at least, the last time I checked). Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: In some cases, better than I remembered; in others, far worse. Still, it never suffers the problem of Star Trek: The Motion Picture—it may be dumb and sometimes poorly acted (Shatner can’t direct himself, and some of the supporting cast deliver performances that are rather weak, like the Romulan Ambassador), but it manages to hold onto a sense of fun. The script is a huge mess, of course, but that’s to be expected from a half-baked story idea that was rushed into filming due to an impending writer’s strike. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t live up to Jerry Goldsmith’s score, which is truly exceptional.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief - HBO Tron Legacy 3D - theater Clash of the Titans (2010) - HBO on Demand Take Me Home Tonight - free screenin' Sanctum - free screenin' Two free movies, two nights in a row, same theater in Plano. I didn't watch the trailer for Sanctum after my friend Jenn invited me to come with her to the screenin'. If I had, I wouldn't have gone, 'cause I have a very real fear of drownin'. And this movie is about cave divers who get caught underground while the caves they are still tryin' to map are flooded by a typhoon. Fuck. That. And it was also in IMAX 3D, so lots of creepy floaty body goodness to watch. Some folks in line were sayin' that James Cameron helped produce the movie as an experiment, to see if the underwater sequences could work for the Avatar sequel. If so, I'd say bring it...much rather watch CGI drown then people. May be seein' The Green Hornet tomorrow night, if I get into the theater.
I felt much the same way the first time I watched it........until the ending, anyway. One of the best "twist" endings I had seen for awhile (at the time)
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief - HBO Tron Legacy 3D - theater Clash of the Titans (2010) - HBO on Demand Take Me Home Tonight - free screenin' Sanctum - free screenin' The Green Hornet - free screenin' I was first in line for tonight's screenin' of The Green Hornet! First! adm_hawthorne was second. I enjoyed the movie - cool car, a neat gadget of a gas gun, and lots of laughs while bein' a superhero in modern Los Angeles. And it was in 3D. My biggest thing was wonderin' how a newspaper publisher has a mansion. The next big issue I had was why didn't Edward James Olmos have a bigger role? Maybe in the sequel... Got freebies, too!
1. In the Heat of the Night (A+) 2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (B) 3. The Passion of the Christ (A) 4. Mamma Mia! (B) 5. All About Eve (A) 6. Looking for Anne (B-) 7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (B+) There was a special one-night showing of this at the local independent cinema, so I went, since I hadn't seen it before and this seemed like the obvious opportunity. Completely sold out, which isn't bad for a 43-year-old film. I had a hard time rating this one. It has to go down as one of the more artistically ambitious films ever made, and it's influence on science fiction is almost incalculable. There's some interesting thematics going on, which makes the various sequences a bit more connected than they might initially appear; it's intellectually appealing. And yet, it's ponderous (I imagine that the special effects would have been much more impressive to someone watching in the late 1960s than today, though they're still quite impressive), and, when you get down to it, very sterile; it's hard to summon much real love/enthusiasm for it. It's interesting to note that compared to many of his successor evil computers, HAL really doesn't seem to have many weapons at his disposal. After Dave discovers that HAL is evil, it's actually pretty easy to shut him down; HAL has no defences of any kind, and the only danger is because Dave was stupid enough to forget his helmet before going into the pod.
1. Walk Hard (A) 2. Adam’s Rib (B) 3. There’s Always Tomorrow (B) 4. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (C-) 5. Lady in the Dark (C+) 6. Moon (A) Lady in the Dark: This is a completely weird musical starring Ginger Rogers about psychoanalysis. It's not hard to believe that it's an obscure title that's never been made available on video as a result. The film's idea of psychoanalysis, by the way, is hilarious. Rogers' shrink spends most of the sessions yelling at his patient, telling her exactly what her dreams mean (and there isn't a tinge of ambiguity in them). And don't get me started on the romantic element. At first, Rogers is involved with a man whose wife won't give him a divorce. Then, she gives him a divorce, so she immediately decides not to marry him. Then, she's involved with a movie star and is engaged to him. And then in the final scene, she kisses the office jackass who has treated her with nothing but contempt (right after she promotes him to her position). It's even odder in context. All that said, the complete surreality of the musical sequences (the characters only sing when Rogers is dreaming, which probably makes this an early musical to justify the singing, no?) make the movie worth seeing, especially in the form I saw it--a rare nitrate print. Moon: Re-watching this film again with friends, I still think it's one of the best films of 2009. It's certainly become one of my favorite SF films. Here's hoping that Duncan Jones can get the side-quel, Mute, off the ground soon.
1. Alice is Wonderland (2010) - C- 2. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) - A 3. Black Swan - A+ This is one of the most engrossing and intense movies I've seen in quite some time. It is haunting, chilling, disturbing, and a bit unnerving, but it kept me in the whole time. Natalie Portman was awesome in this role, showing her range as both the innocent young ballet dancer and her evil twin, and the rest of the cast is great as well, especially Mila Kunis, who plays off Portman's character really well. From the first moment of the film to the last, there is this slow progression and evolution that makes the haunting scenes even more disturbing (Such as the scene in the club or some of the scenes at the end) and I honestly had to look away at some moments. Still, these scenes were so impacting and so emotionally disturbing that it just added to the overall scope of the movie that makes it probably my favorite film of 2010.
Let the Right One In - A. Really enjoyed it. The last couple of scenes elevated it from a B to an A. A lot more fun and not nearly as melodramatic as I expected.