Spoiler: Rest of List 1. Holy Rollers (B-) 2. The Kids Are All Right (B) 3. History of the World, Part 1 (C-) 4. Blazing Saddles (A+) 5. Scarface [1932] (B-) This is the second time I've seen this film for a class, and my impression is about the same. It's certainly an okay entry into the gangster film canon (and one of the few from this period that wasn't made by Warner Bros.), but it displays too much of the awkwardness of earlier sound film to be as good as a film like The Roaring Twenties. Most of the actors seem to think it necessary to take a pregnant pause before delivering their lines, and it provides the film with an odd pace. There are plenty of great camera set-ups (the opening long take is still impressive), though, showing a much greater influence of German filmmakers than would manifest itself in later films directed by Howard Hawks. On the plus side, Paul Muni is wonderfully repulsive as the lead -- there's nothing redeeming or honorable about his gangster character at all, at any point in the movie. On the downside, George Raft is as lifeless as ever, and this is somehow the performance that got his acting career started! Luckily, he doesn't speak much, which is a big help. Theatres: 0 Home Video: 4 (+1) Computer: 1
I watched Sherlock Holmes 2 recently, the movie had many things to enjoy and also it had some outstanding comedy too.
I have only watched SWAT: Firefight & Fright Night (2011) this year. SWAT: Firefight was awful, but I expected that. I only watched it in the background while I did some work on the house. (D-) Fright Night was very funny, and very inventive. Colin Farrel & David Tennant were both really good. It retained the light hearted nature of the original, with a whopping update on the FX which were excellent. (B+)
Spoiler: the rest of my list. 1. Daddy Day Care (✩✩✩½) 2. Wild Child: (✩✩) Natasha Richarson's last movie starring Emma Roberts. It's about a wild child, played by Roberts, who gets sent to a boarding school in Britain. There, she meets a boy and has to contend with a mean girl and her entourage who are out to get her. In the end, she wins the day. Not very substantial, but it was nice seeing Emma. 3. Fling: (✩✩✩½) This movie is about the effects of an open relationship on a couple. It was enjoyable, but some of the anger and reactions were a bit much. Courtney Ford plays the woman in the relationship and her real life husband Brandon Routh plays the guy she has on the side. 4. Arthur 2: On the Rocks: (✩✩✩✩) I saw Arthur a few months ago and decided to check this one out. Good story with some funny and clever moments from Dudley Moore's lovable drunk, Arthur. 5. Havoc: (✩✩✩✩) Anne Hathaway plays well off girl in L.A. who's gone "gangsta" with her friends because they're bored. Eventually, she and a friend get in with a drug dealer and although they never get into any life-threatening danger, they do go a little far and end up shaken by their lifestyle choices. Anne Hathaway appears topless and Freddy Rodriguez did a fantastic job as a gang banger/drug dealer. I thought I recognized him, but couldn't place him because I'm so used to his clean cut image from Six Feet Under. 6. Contagion: (✩✩✩✩½) This was reviewed up-thread. I enjoyed its more realistic take on a viral outbreak. 7. The Blind Side: (✩✩✩½) True story of a well off white family that takes in and eventually adopts a black kid with no prospects. I enjoyed Sandra Bullock's performance as the tough-as-nails matriarch of the family. 8. Batman: Under the Red Hood: (✩✩✩✩½) Jason Todd is killed and 5 years later, Batman has to contend with a mysterious new villain in Gotham. The identity of this new villain is pretty obvious from the get go, but the "hows" and "whys" behind his return and behavior provided for a gripping story. Good Batman movie with a poignant ending. 9. The Andromeda Strain: (✩✩✩½) Slow start and lacks the noise and excitement of modern movies, but it was good and got more engaging as it progressed. I'm glad I finally saw this. 10. The Last Man on Earth: (✩✩✩✩) Very campy by today's standards, but it was really fun seeing an early version of I Am Legend. The similarities were pretty amazing. At the Theatre: 0 On DVD/Blu-Ray: 3 On Demand: 1 On TV: 6 Off the Internet: 0
Kicking off my 2012 list: 1. Edge of Darkness: A This Mel Gibson action thriller is actually quite good. This came out during, just after the whole fiasco of I think choking his girlfriend and threatning to kill her I think. It was for sure during Mels rough patch(it might still be going on). Anyway I really enjoyed the movie. It has a similar theme going for it that Taken with Liam Neeson has. It came out a year later so coincidence, maybe. They aren't identical but similar. Gibson's daughter shows up to see her dad, a Boston cop, after several years not seeing each other. Strained relationship. A tragedy happens that causes him to seek out who would do this to his daughter. What was she trying to tell him before the tragic event. The movie then begins a race to uncover the mystery and avenge her...before they shut him up.
1. War Horse (B-) 2. The Woman in the Window (A-) 3. The Last Exorcism (B) A decent low-budget horror flick. Surprisingly well-directed and well-acted for a B-movie, but might have been better if it hadn't been so obviously assembled out of pieces of other movies: Marjoe, The Exorcist, Blair Witch, etc. Recommended for fans of the genre. Theatres: 1 Home Video: 2 (+1) Computer: 0
Spoiler: Rest of List 1. Holy Rollers (B-) 2. The Kids Are All Right (B) 3. History of the World, Part 1 (C-) 4. Blazing Saddles (A+) 5. Scarface [1932] (B-) 6. The Purple Rose of Cairo (A) One of Woody Allen's best films, and an excellent work of fantasy, this is the second time I've seen this film and I still found that it quite enjoyable. In the film, a fictional character emerges from the screen to enter into a romance with a woman in the audience, and the humor derives from rather logically extrapolating from this premise. The character (played by a young Jeff Daniels), for example, expects things to fade to black after a little kissing and knows all about his parents but has never met them (they died before the movie he comes from started). It's quite a movie, obviously showing the influence of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr., and well worth it -- even if you aren't a fan of Allen (who doesn't act here). Theatres: 0 Home Video: 5 (+1) Computer: 1
Spoiler: the rest of my list. 1. Daddy Day Care (✩✩✩½) 2. Wild Child (✩✩) 3. Fling (✩✩✩½) 4. Arthur 2: On the Rocks (✩✩✩✩) 5. Havoc (✩✩✩✩) 6. Contagion (✩✩✩✩½) 7. The Blind Side (✩✩✩½) 8. Batman: Under the Red Hood (✩✩✩✩½) 9. The Andromeda Strain (✩✩✩½) 10. The Last Man on Earth (✩✩✩✩) 11. Network: (✩✩½) Boring movie, but I absolutely loved Faye Dunaway. The Academy Award and Golden Globe she got for her role were well deserved. At the Theatre: 0 On DVD/Blu-Ray: 3 On Demand: 1 On TV: 7 Off the Internet: 0
^ I was afraid of a reaction like that, but I have to stick to my opinions even if they aren't popular. A lot of factors were at play anyway. I had it on while I was doing something else, it wasn't quite as gripping overall as I was expecting, and I'm not too fond of Robert Duvall. Loved Faye Dunaway though. That's something.
The Artist I laughed, I cried, I thought a lot about F.W. Munrau's Sunrise for some reason I am sure lurks in the back of my subconscious mind. Silent film pastiches are not exactly the most popular film style (Guy Maddin and Esteban Sapir are the only directors of such to come immediately to mind) but it's really not hard to see why this has enjoyed a somewhat broader range of success. It's just damn infectiously fun, like the best of Hollywood's 1920s fare. I'm still basking in the after-film glow. I think I'll have a stupid grin for a few hours now, thank you very much.
Didn't Mel Brooks make a silent film pastiche called, creatively enough, Silent Movie? (Not to appear flippant; I honestly haven't seen it.)
It might work even better if you've seen Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr.. Allen's film is a long, unapologetic homage to that movie in many ways. The ending is easily the best thing about the movie, though. The first time I saw the film, it caught me completely off guard (I admit, like the Mia Farrow character, I had totally been suckered into the idea of a happy ending), but it's really the only logical conclusion in retrospect.
1. Marie Antoinette (2006) - 2.5/5 2. Sherlock Holmes - A Game Of Shadows (2011) - 4/5 Was loads of fun. Loved the comedy between Downey Jr and Law.
1. The Kids Are Alright (B-) 2. Priest (B-) 3. An Invisible Sign (B) 4. The Good Girl (B+) This movie is kinda old, but I'd never seen it before. It was on HBO tonight though, so I thought what the heck. Bottom line - I hadn't given Jennifer Aniston nearly enough credit as an actress. She was really good in this movie about a sales clerk in a dead end job and in an in-a-rut marriage who has an affair with a co-worker, played by the super-cute Jake Gyllenhaal.
1. Marie Antoinette (2006) - 2.5/5 2. Sherlock Holmes - A Game Of Shadows (2011) - 4/5 3. The Muppets (2011) - 4.5/5 This movie was fantastic. Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin have a made a film that honours the original series, but still feels fresh.
Spoiler: Rest of List 1. Holy Rollers (B-) 2. The Kids Are All Right (B) 3. History of the World, Part 1 (C-) 4. Blazing Saddles (A+) 5. Scarface [1932] (B-) 6. The Purple Rose of Cairo (A) 7. Rampart (B+) Rampart: Woody Harrelson is the reason to see this movie. He plays Officer Dave Brown, of the LAPD, and he goes from being tender to explosive and back again multiple times. Is his character a racist, a misogynist, and a misanthrope? Does he hate, as the character snidely suggests, "everybody equally?" Is he simply going insane, paranoid of everyone who crosses his path, as the result of a crumbling personal life or perhaps military service in Vietnam thirty years prior? The film doesn't have a tidy answer to any of these questions, which is what makes Harrelson so watchable. Praise must also go to director Oren Moverman and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski. The film's innovative use of jump cuts, vivid color, and blinding light puts you right in the head of Brown, and go above and beyond what must have been on the page. Though, to be fair, the screenplay was co-written by novelist James Ellroy and Moverman, so it's not too shabby, either. What this film isn't is a docudrama about the Rampart scandal that rocked the Los Angeles Police Department in 1999. Though it plays out in the background, there's actually very little information about those events that even end up in the movie. The conclusion feels a little fragmented, though. This fits with the fragmented nature of the rest of the movie, but it left me a little cold. It seems reaching for ambiguity when there is none -- Brown is almost certainly going to jail, and we've already seen that he doesn't have the will to commit suicide. Theatres: 1 (+1) Home Video: 5 Computer: 1