lets watch movies

Let's Watch "The Kite Runner" and "Lions for Lambs"

2008-04-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

On consecutive nights I watched two films about Afghanistan: The Kite Runner which was a story of friendship and loyalty set just before the start of the war with the Russians, and also Lions for Lambs a sorta assessment of the war on terror told from 3 connected storylines.

The Kite Runner is the story of two friends, who live mostly happy lives flying kites in Kabul. The rich friend witnesses a horrible attack on his poor, servant friend but lacks the courage to do or say anything to help him. Unable to live with the fact he is a coward, the rich boy sabotages his servant friend, making his father believe the servant boy is a thief. The servant boy and his father are forced to leave the estate of his friend, and as the Taliban move to control Afghanistan the boys are separated by even more distance as the rich boy and his father flee to America. Years later upon the publishing of his first novel, the rich friend learns that his friend has been murdered by the Taliban and must return to Afghanistan to retrieve the man's son.

I enjoyed this movie because it's just a great human story. There are secrets and lies and imperfections in the characters. It appeals to baser emotions and while offering a setting that you don't often see in Hollywood films, creates a great new take on Friendship movies.

For a film starring Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise(who I actually like as an actor), Lions for Lambs was a huge disappointment. Redford plays a political science professor talking to a cynical student with lots of potential, about these two other students who enlisted in the Army and are now in Afghanistan carrying out this plan devised by a senator(played by Cruise) who is being interviewed by a once respected journalist(played by Streep). That's pretty much all of it in a nut shell. No new bits of information about the war on terror or anything controversial at all. Just an uncompelling story and characters that you could care less about.

Also watched:
Diner - 7 of 10
The Indian Runner - 8 of 10
The Ice Storm - 7 of 10

and re-watched:
The Cider House Rules - 7 of 10
Mystic River - 8 of 10
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - 8 of 10

Charlton Heston

2008-04-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

When I sat down on Saturday afternoon to watch The Omega Man, I had no idea that I would wake up on Sunday to discover that Charlton Heston had died. It is sad to lose such an iconic figure in American movie history. Perhaps better than any other actor, Heston found the perfect balance between serious acting(Playing Moses in The Ten Commandments and winning the Oscar for Best Actor in Ben Hur), and crowd pleasing, camp films. I never sat down and watched his big studios pictures from start to finish, choosing instead to lose myself in the solitary pursuits of Colonel Robert Neville or crazy discovery made by Detective Robert Thorn in Soylent Green. There was also his role as the title character in Sam Peckinpah's little seen film Major Dundee, where Heston plays a Calvary man leading a rag tag group against a band of Apaches. He was a true Bad Ass. The kind of star that they just don't make anymore.

Let's watch WE OWN THE NIGHT!

2008-04-02T09:24:00.001-07:00

Since the writer's strike has ended television shows have begun to pick up steam again and I am seeing myself have less and less time to watch movies. It's upsetting really but it always seems to happen around this time of year anyways. You see, I am one of the people that find myself inexplicably sucked into such shows as American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and American's Next Top Model; all of which seem to air on multiple nights throughout the week. On top of that, I recently downloaded and watched the excellent third season of Weeds. I am however still doing my damnedest to watch as many movies as I possibly can.

While visiting my parents over the weekend I got the chance to watch No Country for Old Men again on their huge Sony Bravia flat panel. It was equally amazing as the first time I saw it. I wasn't as struck with Javier Bardem and his Anton Chigurh character as I was when I saw the film in the theater. However, this time around Tommy Lee Jones' performance resonated even more with me. Giving the film another look, I think he should have received a nomination for best supporting actor for this film. Jones' critics knock him because he always seems to play this sort of grizzled character with a southern drawl, but he added much more to this character. Much like his character from In the Valley of Elah, emotion could be felt in subtle facial expressions and body movement. It was certainly a banner year for Tommy Lee Jones who, as an actor, seems to be aging quite well.

I also managed to squeeze in a viewing of The Robert Duvall, Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix movie We Own the Night. The story basically involves a black sheep brother(Phoenix) whose father and brother are respected cops. When his Dad is killed and his brother is badly injured by his criminal associates, black sheep bro is forced to play for the good guys and become a cop in order to take down the assholes that murdered his Dad. It's a corny story really, and Eva Mendes as Phoenix's love interest is almost unbearably bad. The three male leads pretty much mail in their performances, leading the viewer to believe that they regretted the fact that they were there making this film. If you feel like watching a cop story that has minimal action or you are a huge fan of Phoenix(who gets the most camera time) then its worth it to rent this only marginally good movie.

Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2007

2008-03-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

Better late then never is what I always say. Well I don't really always say that but whatever. My top ten list is finally showing its face so here you go. First though you need to keep in mind that these are my FAVORITE movies of 2007, not necessarily what I consider to be the best films of the year, although several would classify as both. That being said, here we are.....

1. There Will Be Blood

Before this film there was still some question as to whether or not Paul Thomas Anderson was a truly skilled filmmaker, but this movie clearly answers those questions with an emphatic, "You bet your sweet ass I'm a good filmmaker!" The Director/DP combo of PTA and Robert Elswit has proven to be one of the most formidable in Hollywood, their stars shining most brightly in the scenes of the burning oil derrick. And of course there was the performance of Daniel Day Lewis who is acting on an entirely separate plain, far higher, then every other actor in the world. There is a mood creating in the opening sequence that leaves you captivated for the entire film.

2. No Country for Old Men

I am itching to see this film again on a big screen because the cinematography is unreal. Like Robert Elswit(TWBB & Michael Clayton), Roger Deakins had the year of a lifetime showcasing his best work ever in this film but also DPing In the Valley of Elah and The Assassination of Jesse James. The cast was easily the best of any film in 2007 led by Javier Bardem. I think the reason this film won best picture, is because The Coens are slightly better than PTA at crafting a complete film from the actors, to the cinematic elements and the music(or lack there of).

3. Grindhouse

It's no secret that I love Quentin Tarantino. That combined with the overall experience of going to see Grindhouse made this the most pleasurable movie-going experience of the year. Upon repeated viewings, Tarantino's Deathproof holds up much stronger than Robert Rodriguez's initially hilarious Planet Terror. Ideally these movies should be released in the format they were show in theaters but Deathproof's brilliance is worth buying it all by itself.

4. Atonement

It surprised me so much how good this movie turned out to be, especially after learning that director Joe Wright used to be a totally tweaked out artist that created projected images to show during DJ sessions in the 90s when the rave scene was blowing up. The cast was really solid, but this film was ultimately aided by an excellent story and yet again another director/cinematographer combo that just blew the doors off audience expectations. The ending was a bit disappointing but the movie was so damn good I didn't even car.

5. Superbad

Yes, Superbad! Why? Because I laughed more during this film then I did during any other in a long freaking time. I could also relate to the whole, friendship storyline. That, combined with loads of teenage drunk humor and expletives galore!

6. Eastern Promises

This movie is kinda like sex. It blows your mind when you first see it and it continues to be good each time thereafter, but nothing compares to that first time. Viggo is hands down the ultimate badass, and David Cronenberg is the master of posing questions of morality as well as internal conflict. Cronenberg is certainly the most genius filmmakers on this list, and this was an amazing continuation of the themes of the acceptability of violence that were first explored in A History of Violence.

7. Zodiac

Zodiac was the most technically perfect film of the year in my mind. Like PTA, David Fincher has officially crossed into the realm of the undoubtedly great filmmaker. Camera angle, framing, composition were all on point throughout this movie. It also helped that he worked with Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and a Jake Gyllenhaal.

8. Michael Clayton

Originally this movie did not make my list, but the longer I put off writing the list, the more i pondered this movie and the amazing emotion that grips you from the beginning. Tom Wilkinson's awesome opening monologue sets the tone and the film never really stops until it reaches the climax.

9. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

It's fitting that Andrew Dominik crafted this compelling tale of the violent legend from the American West because he did such a good job with his first film about a notorious Australian psychopath whom also became a media sensation. I like Brad Pitt, I don't care what anybody else says, and boy was he intimidating in this film. Sam Rockwell is one of the most underrated actors, Casey Affleck is an awesome actor who seems to be on a nice streak of good movies, and this movie also has my favorite character actor who was also in NCFOM, Garret Dillahunt.

10. Once

This is another one of those movies where I was completely caught of guard by how good it was. The songs were great, but ever more so I am a sucker for love stories, and this one was great. If you aren't sentimental or particularly interested in music then you might have a hard time finding something to like about this movie. Polarizing as Once may be, I loved it.

Honorable Mention( and really these film just missed the top ten): Black Book, In the Valley of Elah, The Lookout, Live Free or Die Hard, The Kingdom and so many more.

The Rundown, No not that movie with the Rock

2008-03-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

The Golden Compass: 3 out of 10
Dance Party, USA: 7 out of 10
Emma: 5 out of 10
Gangs of New York: 8 out of 10
Interview with the Vampire: 7 out of 10
Stardust: 7 out of 10
Into the Wild: 8 out of 10
Joe Versus the Volcano: 4 out of 10
Southland Tales: 7 out of 10

Romance 3 Pack

2008-03-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

Only You:

A romantic comedy in the traditional sense, Only You has at least two things going for it: the always funny Robert Downey Jr. and Marisa Tomei when she was still extremely charming. As a child Tomei's character, Faith, is told via crystal ball and Ouija board that her soul mate is a man named Damon Bradley. As adulthood approaches she has yet to meet her true love Damon and decides to marry her boyfriend. Just before the wedding she gets a call from one of her fiance's friends named what else but, Damon Bradley. Damon can't make the wedding and must head off to Venice, Italy. Faith and her friend head off in search of him to see if he is in fact her Soul mate. The comedy comes when Downey Jr's character, Peter overhears the women talking about Damon, at which point he assumes the identity of Mr. Bradley to score the lovely Faith. Only You isn't the best romantic comedy of all time but it's certainly worth watching if you get in the mood.

Punch Drunk Love:

I felt the desire to sit back down and watch this film after experiencing Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood for the second time. Certainly not a typical romantic comedy, I'd say Punch Drunk Love is more of a dark comedy, but it's definitely romantic. Emily Watson is one of my top five favorite actress's and Adam Sandler is pretty awesome as a maladjusted businessman with serious anger management issues. PTA's talent for framing a shot and overall composition is evident as well as his unique storytelling abilities. People expecting a run of the mill romantic comedy will be bored with the first 45 minutes to an hour of the film, but overall Punch Drunk Love is a must see movie.

Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?:

I am among the small group of people I know that actually enjoy a Tyler Perry movie now and again. Is he a great filmmaker? Is the acting in his films excellent? No and No. Are there too many faith-based musings in his movies? Yes. But the films themes appeal to baser human emotions and if you're a sucker then you enjoy that. Pop Culture extraordinaire, David Walker summed up the media beast that is Tyler Perry far better than I could on MSN this week.

Reviewing the Oscars

2008-02-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

This year I was more interested in the Oscars then ever before. It's probably because I saw more of the nominated movies than usual and because I was caught up in the post writer's strike excitement.

In case you missed it, E! News began their Oscar coverage sometime around 8 am Pacific time; a whopping 9+ hours before the awards show began. I think I watched about 3 or so hours of Debbie Matenopoulos, Guiliana Rancic, Ryan Seacrest and company interviewing various style gurus about the most superficial details known to man. I don't know why I don't get disgusted with myself for watching this shit but at just holds my attention. Maybe it's because of moments like the one where Gary Busey talked shit to Ryan Seacrest, praised Laura Linney for her performance in The Savages, then after failing to recognize the gorgeous-looking and clearly horrified Jennifer Garner proceeded to hug her and kiss her on the neck. Awesome!

By the time the show started I was exhausted but I have to say I enjoyed it. I don't like Jon Stewart at all, but he was really funny. The I-Phone bit was hilarious although David Lynch already talked shit about watching movies on the I-phone.

The most notable thing were the numerous montages employed by the Oscar crew. I don't know how many montages are too many. I do know that you have to have the "In Remembrance" and "Greatest Oscar Moments" montages. We all could have probably done without a different montage before each award. If we want to put a positive spin on all the montages, one could say that maybe the montages will open your eyes to an actor or film that you have never seen. Other than that, it seems that people often criticize the length of the show so cutting out a few montages may help remedy this. Montage. Montage. Montage. I just wanted to see how may times I could use that word in one paragraph.

There weren't really any surprises as far as the awards go, with the possible exception of Tilda Swinton winning best supporting actress(I'm pretty sure everyone expected Cate Blanchett to win, although no one cares that she didn't). I loved seeing the actors/musicians/lovers from the film Once perform their nominated song, "Falling Slowly". After wanting to gouge my eyes out seeing three songs from Disney's Enchanted, the highlight of the night came when Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová were awarded best original song! Check out their performance if you haven't see it yet

When Adrien Brody was given the Oscar for best actor in 2003 over Daniel Day Lewis for Gangs of New York I was so pissed, because at the time I thought his performance as Bill The Butcher was legendary. I've been so pleased at all of the praise he's received throughout the award season; and last night I was just happy to see that Daniel Day Lewis' work in There Will Be Blood(topping his Gangs of New York performance and In my opinion turning in one of the greatest performances of all time) was validated as being the best.

The Oscars are great. You have to expect the superficial, annoying entertainment reporters and excessive montages. You watch because it irritates you so much that you love it. And, of course, you love movies.

Weekend Wrap-up

2008-02-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

Something's Gotta Give: 7 out of 10

Notting Hill: 5 out of 10

Margot at the Wedding: 6 out of 10

Michael Clayton: 8 out of 10

The Oscars

2008-02-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

Every year the Academy pisses me off and I swear that I won't watch the show because they don't know what the hell they are doing, but inevitably I get too excited not to care. After all, I love watching movies, so let's look at this years crop of best picture candidates and I'll do my best to handicap them starting with the least likely to win.

Juno: I liked this movie very much but I get the sense that it's completely out of its league in this category. The director, Jason Reitman is also nominated, which is appalling, since Joe Wright, David Cronenberg and so many other deserve the honor more. There just seems to be a pattern developing every year where at least one heart-warming sentimental comedy in going to be nominated and they just can't stand up to the brilliance of the other films.

Michael Clayton: The remaining four films are all very good. I just watched Michael Clayton last night and I thought it was really great. The pacing was relentless towards an extremely satisfying climax. Surely George Clooney was at his best but I wonder if he has any range as an actor. Tom Wilkinson is amazing as well, but I think this movie will fall short in most all of the categories it's nominated.

Atonement: I was not prepared to like this movie as much as I did. I absolutely loved it. Yes, the ending was a little anticlimactic, but certainly not bad enough to spoil the whole film. None of the cast were brilliant, but they were all very good and the cinematography and directing were the true stand out for me. The curse for this film is that, this year, there are unfortunately 2 films that come far closer to perfection.

No Country for Old Men: It feels like forever since I've seen this. I will also say that I think the Academy will choose this as the years best film although There Will Be Blood is a better picture. The Coen's deserve the Oscars for best directing and best adapted screenplay but ultimately, the overall experience laid out in There Will Be Blood should be recognized.

There Will Be Blood: I know I started this post saying how I would handicap the Oscar's and here I am just choosing my favorite. I can't remember ever liking two films in the same year as much as I like these films. Daniel Day Lewis' acting is transcendental, and watching him feels like I am staring at the most beautiful painting ever created. This along with the brilliant filmmaking, amazing sound, hell, even the silence is beautiful in this movie, make it my favorite of the year. I hope the Academy feels the same way.

Catching Up

2008-02-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick recap of the last few days. I plan on posting a quick Oscar preview before Sunday, likely followed by my much delayed Top Ten List.

Gone Baby Gone(Ben Affleck): 7 out of 10

Cold Comfort Farm(John Schlesinger): 6 out of 10

Breach(Billy Ray): 6 out of 10

Frequency

2008-02-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, the concept of this film is cool and intriguing but I'm not sure they pulled it off here. Dennis Quaid plays Jim Caviezel's dad in the Here's-what-happens-when-you-fuck-with-the-past movie. When Caviezel starts screwing with his now dead dad's ham radio he discovers the dude he's talking to is his dad before he died all the way back in 1969. Mr. Bright idea Caviezel decides to warn his dad about how he dies to prevent it and then gets him to help these murder victims from the future. But we all know if you try to change the past something in the future gets all outta whack and that's exactly what happens. Frequency isn't really a good movie but it's definitely worth watching if it's on cable or you have nothing better to watch.

28 Days

2008-02-11T14:29:00.001-08:00

This was a pretty standard Sandra Bullock movie; kinda dumb, kinda funny. I found it weird that it was a movie about rehab but it sprinkled in comedy. Clearly it's a serious subject and it didn't treat it altogether serious or as a straight ahead comedy. The film could have been much better if the filmmakers decided what genre they were gonna go with. I'd much rather watch a movie like Clean and Sober or Manic or even Anger Management for that matter. I can't recommend this movie.

The Hotel New Hampshire

2008-02-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

I recently read John Irving's charming book and found out that they made it into a movie in the 80s. I wondered how I had never heard of a movie with Beau Bridges, Matthew Modine, Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, Nastassja Kinski, and Wallace "Inconceivable" Shawn. That red flag told me to stay away from the movie, but by the time I finished the book I was determined to see it. It turns out Tony Richardson wrote one of the worst adaptations of a novel in cinema history and the actors each turned in their most horrible, ridiculously bad, and shitty performances of their lives. The book is full of quirky, lovable people and moments that while at first seem odd, you are made to love through Irving's great writing. The film was just a mash-up of all the craziest moments from the book with no character development and no explanation what so ever for the action on screen. It is a monumentally bad film so never never watch it please.

Possession

2008-02-11T13:52:00.000-08:00

I was surprised to find Neil LaBute directed this dull movie, but then I remembered he hasn't made a good movie in ten years and I wasn't upset. Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart fall in love as they are examining the lost letters of these two old English poets that they discover had a secret affair. The film bounces back and forth between centuries, telling each couples story but they don't really parallel each other at all. There's nothing particularly compelling or romantic about the story. I found it boring and utterly pointless. I'd skip it for sure.

P.S. I Love You

2008-02-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

Romantic comedies generally fall into 2 categories. Those that create an unlikely fairytale situation as a basis for it's lovers to come together(i.e. While You Were Sleeping, Return to Me, Just Like Heaven, etc.), and those that are slice-of-life stories that closely resemble any given number of peoples lives(i.e. Woody Allen and Nicole Holofcencer films). This is by no means absolute but that's usually the way it goes. P.S. I Love You just so happens to be one of those movies that creates such an unlikely situation that if you don't buy it then you'll hate the movie.

The film stars Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler as Holly and Gerry Kennedy, two lovers struggling to wait out the early financial hardships of their marriage. When Gerry unexpectedly dies from a brain tumor Holly is left with a seemingly hopeless road ahead trying to cope without her true love. When she mysteriously receives a birthday cake from her dead husband she thinks it's a joke. She finds a tape recorder and discovers that Gerry has some how planned to send her letters over the course of the near future to show her how much he loved her. Holly is left happy yet puzzled as to why her dead husband keeps toying with her emotions, not allowing her to get over him. After much crying, goofiness, adventures with girlfriends, etc Holly finds out that Gerry's plan was to use the letters as a tool to help her mourn. With the realization that she can finally move on Holly sets out to live her life without her extremely sexy and unimaginably romantic husband.

Geez, I'd hate to be the guy to have to follow Gerry. "Here's a rose honey. What's that you say? You're dead husband planned months and months of romantic letters and activities from the grave?!?!" I mean what the hell!? As stupid and unlikely as I though this film was I still liked it. You have to go with the flow. It's lame from the get go if you don't allow yourself to believe that somebody could pull something off that's THAT romantic. Hilary Swank was ok and it was a bit funny. My wife particularly loved all of the hot Irish men in the film and hasn't stopped letting me know just how sexy she thinks they are. See it if you are in the mood for a fairytale romantic comedy. I am off to Gaelic Menswear-R-Us to buy a new wardrobe.

The Namesake

2008-02-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

The dude from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (Kal Penn) has a fucked up name in this film about and Indian family and their lives in America. There is an unexpectedly long back story about Gogol Ganguli's parents and how he came to struggle with having such a weird ass name. The movie also examines the clash of cultures, marriage and relationships, youth, and more. It's a bit long winded, but despite my jokes I actually really liked The Namesake. Rent it for sure.

Rescue Dawn

2008-02-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

Christian Bale stars as a pilot in this fairly average movie. He is flying a mission just before the start of the Vietnam Wat when his plane goes down over Laos. He is quickly captured and put in a POW camp when he begins scheming on a way to get out. Werner Herzog has made way better films(see Stoszek, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, and others). This one is worth a rental if you can't think of anything else you really want to see.

Atonement

2008-02-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

In my continuing effort to see the films receiving the most Oscar buzz, I was able to finally see what all the fuss was about in regards to Joe Wright's Atonement. I can say that I don't have to same problem of expressing my feelings about this movie as I did about There Will Be Blood. One thing the films do have in common is that I loved them both. Joe Wright follows up 2005's Pride and Prejudice with another triumph and is proving now to be one of the most promising directors around.

Adapted from the novel by Ian McEwan, the principle story of Atonement revolves around two rich sisters played by Keira Knightley and Saoirse Ronan. During one especially hot summer at there parents estate a romance develops between the oldest sister(Knightley) and the son of the family's housekeeper played by James McAvoy. A series of events unfold in very different ways when seen from the younger sister's point of view. When a young cousin is raped, Ronan's character falsely accuses her sister's new love of the terrible act ripping the new lovers apart and sending him to the war front in order to escape jail time.

At it's core Atonement is a romance. It's straight forward and relies on the wonderful story and the chemistry between Knightley and McAvoy; who are terrific in this film. The inherent emotion in such a film might have been enough to garner all of the awards and nominations it's received so far, but there is much more to this film than that.

Seamus McGarvey's cinematography is some of the most amazing I've seen in a quite some time. Having seen all of the nominees in this category, with the exception of Janusz Kaminski for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, McGarvey is right at the top of this category with Roger Deakins for No Country For Old Men. The main elements of McGarvey's cinematography that truly stand out are firstly the close-ups. Many of the shots in the film are close-ups that aren't so close that you become uncomfortable but are close enough that you immediately develop an intense feeling for these characters whether it be sorrow, disgust or pity. Secondly, and the thing that is most striking about the cinematography is the camera movement. Throughout the film, scenes will begin with beautiful wide shots that slowly(but not too slowly) dolly into the characters. The brilliance of McGarvey's camera movement comes to a head in a scene where McAvoy's character and two of his soldier buddies stumble upon an Allied rallying point on the beach in France after having been lost for days. I don't really know how long the seen actually lasts but it felt like 10 minutes or so in which camera follows McAvoy and his friends as they walk through this maze of soldiers from different branches and countries. All over there are beached ships, transport vehicles that are blown to shit and even civilians. There are thousands of people and everyone appears to be injured. Not once, in this entire ten or so minute exploration of the havoc that has been wreaked on this beach, does the camera make a cut. Sure there are plenty of long shots in the history of cinema and just because they never make a cut doesn't automatically make it a gorgeous shot. What made this long take special was the emotion of knowing that these soldiers are finally finding help, as well as the fact that the set is amazingly huge and the filmmakers coordinated such an expansive scene to the point where they were able to make it perfect without any cuts.

To me, Atonement feels like an old Hollywood film. It has a great story, skilled filmmakers and they casted just the right actors. There are no frills or gimmicks, just a well made movie. I think these are the reason's why it is so easy to express why I love this film so much. I'm not sure Saoirse Ronan deserves to be nominated for best supporting actress but that is really besides the point because everyone else that worked on the film was recognized correctly by their nominations. There's still time to see Atonement before the Oscars if you are into seeing the nominated films before the awards, but in any case I would definitely see it on the big screen because you'll lose much of the effect watching the DVD. That is unless you have a home theater. Stay tuned for my top ten films of the year list, in which Atonement will certainly be included.

Picture Perfect

2008-02-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

Jennifer Aniston stars in this standard romantic comedy. She plays an ad exec. who pretends to be engaged to a guy she doesn't know so she can move up in her company and also bang this dude, played by Kevin Bacon, who only fucks chicks that are married or have a boyfriend. Panic ensues when the fake boyfriend becomes famous, at which point Aniston's character convinces the guy to put on a show for her friends and coworkers. The fake boyfriend, played by Jay Mohr, ends up falling in love before Aniston realizes what a bitch she truly is and I suppose you can fill in the rest.

Not the best romantic comedy of all time by any means, but I guess it's a pretty good movie if you are in the mood.

The Age of Innocence

2008-02-01T23:05:00.000-08:00

I just decided that from now on I was going to post something for every movie I see whether it be a ranking from 1 to 10 or a short paragraph or a proper review.

In keeping with our recent reminder of just how talented Daniel Day Lewis is, Nicole and I watched Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence last night. This was the third time I had seen it and I think I like it more and more each time.

Scorsese's film, based on the book by Edith Wharton, is very slow and deliberate but in a very lyrical way. While some people might call it boring, I think that it keeps the film steady and allows the characters and story to develop.

Daniel Day Lewis plays a New York aristocrat in the 1800s who is caught between the sensible engagement and subsequent marriage to the fair Mary(played by Winona Ryder) and his lust for her sultry and somewhat scandalous cousin (Michelle Pfeiffer.). Day Lewis's performance is extremely controlled and much more subtle than his characters from My Left Foot and Gangs of New York. His performance, Scorsese's solid but not quite brilliant directing and Elmer Bernstein's beautiful music are what make this movie worth watching.

There Will Be Blood

2008-02-01T22:36:00.001-08:00

I've finally gotten around to writing about There Will Be Blood. I saw it first about a month ago and I wanted to give it some time to sink in before I wrote about it. Yet to write anything, I saw it again a week ago and now I feel I've waited to long. There has been so much praise showered upon this film that I don't feel I can manufacture one original thought about it.

I can say that I was left completely breathless by Daniel Day Lewis' performance in the lead role.
I hindsight too I believe there is better directing and cinematography in the 2007 crop of films, but perhaps I'll talk more about that when I finally get around to making my list of the top ten films of the year. That being said, There Will Be Blood is easily one of the top five films of the years. And to use sort of a cliche, it's definitely a must see.

Holiday Movie Wrap-up

2008-01-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

Over the New Year Holiday, amidst all of the college football and final week of the NFL's regular season I managed to watch a couple of movies. When Nicole and I went to go see I am Legend a few weeks ago it got me thinking about all the post-apocalyptic movies I've seen over the years. When I was a kid i remember watching the TV mini-series of Stephen King's The Stand. I remember it being pretty cool with some nice abandoned city scenes and general end of the world goodness. Nicole hadn't seen it so I tracked it down and gave it another look.

Stephen King also happened to pen the teleplay about a flu that wipes out most of the world's population in a matter of hours mysteriously leaving several thousand people immune. The survivors all discover they are having the same dream involving an old black woman sitting on her porch and playing guitar. Her words become the inspiration to return the world to its previous state. The catch is that the survivors have also been having visions of a devil-type named Randall Flagg who is hell bent on turning the world into the Devil's Playland.

It turns out that this mini-series actually sucks really bad, yet Nicole and I stuck with it for like the entire 6 or so hours it lasted. Despite having some skilled actors (Ossie Davis, Gary Sinise, Ruby Dee, Ed Harris) the acting was absolutely atrocious. I can't forget to mention the horrible Early 90s television effects that just made this an absolute cheese-fest.

We also managed to squeeze in a couple of actual movies, the first of which was True Colors; a classic story of betrayal starring John Cusack and James Spader. This is one of those movies where I was like, "Why haven't I seen this before? Cusack and Spader: You can't go wrong!" Then I actually saw it, and realized why no one ever talks about this film when discussing the acting careers of Spader and Cusack. It's not a good movie. Spader and Cusack are good as law school roommates, one from a wealthy family(Spader) and one from the wrong side of the tracks(Cusack), that take separate career paths that eventually converge in a sort or dual backstab that ends the political career of Cusack's character. The story idea is compelling, but the film is rushed and the narrative and all of its parts are just too underdeveloped for me to recommend True Colors.

Last but not least, I once again and Nicole for the first time watched Michael Mann's L.A. crime masterpiece, Heat. This movie is so damn awesome, I wish I had re-watched it sooner. The gun fights are absolutely amazing and Mann only betters himself in the final shoot-out from Miami Vice.

Al Pacino's boisterous acting style is perfectly suited for the ace detective determined to bust heartless criminal Robert DeNiro before he can leave town. Mann has a natural gift for portraying violence in both a realistic way and a highly stylized manner. His films could make even the most staunch gun control advocate wish they had an AK-47, and Heat is no exception.

Let's Watch I AM LEGEND!

2007-12-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

I wasn't planning on going to the movies this past weekend because, quite frankly, I'm broke as hell. On Friday though, I got a call from a friend inviting my wife and I to go see I Am Legend. Did I really want to see I Am Legend? Yes. Did I want to see Juno more? Yes. Would I ever turn down an invitation to go to the movies? No.

Now that that's out of the way, I have to say I was pretty excited about I Am Legend. I have been a fan of the Charlton Heston film The Omega Man, based on the same story, ever since I saw it at my friend Josh's house around 8 years ago. In fact, it's time for me to go back and rewatch that classic. But on with the new and Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend, with of course, Will Smith in the Robert Neville role.

The films starts with a television interview of some scientist who has found the cure for cancer. The viewer is quickly flashed 3 years ahead where a strange virus has essentially wiped out the entire human race and Army scientist Robert Neville works to find a cure to this unexplainable disease that he is immune to and has turned humans into blood-craving night dwellers. Smith hunts down deer in abandoned New York City with his trusty German Shepard, barricades his window and doors every night, and maintains a strict routine in hopes that he may encounter people that remain uninfected.

I loved the movie. Let me just say that. It's filled with genuinely frightful moments and one or two extremely freaky scenes. My only real critique is that the monsters look terribly fake. The filmmakers do some really incredible CGI work on the New York landscapes but the poor CGI on the monsters is hard to deal with. I was able to get over it though. I mean if you consider the improbability of the story itself then it's hard to fault a film because the monsters didn't look "real" enough.

Around the time of the film's release, there were several blog posts that talked about great scenes from movies that featured abandoned metropolis' and this film has got to move straight to the top. Most people think of 28 Days Later and Vanilla Sky and if you thought the scenes in those were great then you don't wanna miss all of the overgrown weeds in Times Square, gridlocked cars long abandoned, and wild animals roaming Manhattan.

At the end of the film, when I felt like my opinion could go either way, there was a point where I wished the film would end but instead a prologue began and I thought: "Oh shit, they are going to ruin the movie by tying up all the loose ends." I was pleasantly surprised as the movie was wrapped up in a short and sweet fashion. So there is nothing really to complain about. I Am Legend actually turns out to be one of the more entertaining movies I've seen so far this year and more than lived up to my expectations.

I really don't give a fuck who killed you!

2007-12-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

Every so often when I go to the video store I will find a movie I want to see within seconds, but I can never just take that movie and go check out. I always have to see everything they have. Well a few days ago my wife and I found Ratatouille(a movie we had both been wanting to see) almost instantly but I had to continue browsing just in case something better presented itself. Then, a strange thing happened to both of us. An unexplained cosmic force drew us towards the Lindsay Lohan movie I Know Who Killed Me. For the life of me I cannot figure out why the hell we both decided it would be a good idea to rent this movie instead of what turned out to be a perfectly enjoyable movie; Ratatouille.

The film centers around this chick Aubrey Flemming(Lohan) who is a promising young writer living with her parents. It turns out Aubrey gets tortured by some sick bastard and then turns up on the side of the road. When she awakes from a coma Aubrey thinks she is some pole dancing whore named Dakota Moss. Aubrey's parents played by Julia Ormond and Neal McDonough start freaking out, but they decide that they will let Aubrey think she is this Dakota girl and hopefully she'll come to her senses. It turns out Dakota is some character from one of Aubrey's stories. Well, Dakota starts to figure shit out and realizes that the "real Aubrey"(GASP!) is still in danger because that twisted loser that cut her up is out there trying to find her.

This movie ranks up there as the worst I've seen this year and even one of the all time crappiest! When Lohan was out partying and shit one of the things that you would always here from other celebrities was how talented they thought she was and it was a shame that she was fucking it all up. Why did I believe that she was even a little bit talented? I mean she is really horrible in this movie! The fascination with the train wreck that is Lohan is probably why we watched this but I am done with her and Britney Spears or whatever other retarded starlet that thinks they can act.

Let's also mention that this was director Chris Siverston's first studio picture and it shows. How the hell did they decide to pluck this guy from the B movie ranks to direct this lump of dog poo? There are blue and red color scheme's throughout the film that have no relation to the theme's of the film. It's like he went: "OK we are going to have a blue motif repeated throughout the film, so I need blue jellies for all the lights, a blue knife for the killer, paint Aubrey's room blue, give her a blue gag, make her car blue, her shirt blue, her pantie hose blue, her notebook, eye shadow, and everything you see BLUE." I am sure they figured most people watching this film would be stupid but this whole blue nonsense treats the viewer like they are retarded. If this guys got his director's guild card somebody please take it back.

Please, if you find yourself wanting to rent this or already have it sitting on your coffee table, do yourself a favor and DON"T WATCH THIS MOVIE!

Let's Watch "No Country for Old Men", FINALLY!

2007-11-26T20:28:00.000-08:00

I had been waiting to see No Country for Old Men since I first heard word of it over the internet geek-o-sphere months and months ago. Well, I've seen it and I can honestly say it was pretty friggin' good. I wasn't let down in the least. However I was worried about all of the proclamations of greatness made by scores of other writers. Then, of course there were those writers that hated it; and seemed to do so only because everybody else loved it so much. I liked it, and the Coen Brothers have returned to form and do hearken back to the tone and style of Blood Simple.
In No Counrty for Old Men Lewellyn Moss, flawlessly played by Josh Brolin, happens upon a drug deal gone wrong. He decides to keep a satchel of money found at the scene and enters a world of shit when the intended recipient sends pipe-hitting badass, Anton Chigurh(Javier Bardem) to retrieve the cash. The local Sheriff(Tommy Lee Jones) tries to make sense of all the mayhem and sets out to find Moss before Chigurh does.

The Coen Brothers stay surprisingly faithful to the Cormac McCarthy novel. Only minor elements of the plot are tweaked and the rest is just omitted in order to save for time. As a fan of the novel, I was not at all offended by their treatment of it. In fact, they stuck so close to the book that there was not even a score in the film. I actually found it a bit refreshing not having music tell me what emotion to feel. This worked out absolutely brilliantly in a film with such an assembly of awesome actors.

It cannot be said enough how great the acting is in this film. Josh Brolin is officially among the finest actors working in Hollywood. I cannot wait to see where his career goes from here. He and Tommy Lee Jones were also in another of the years best films, In the Valley of Elah. If Jones does not receive some sort of recognition for his work in either of these films then I don't know what's wrong with the world. Bardem, with his fucked up hair, cold, dry wit and brutal weapons plays the psychopath role to a T. It's chilling really. If you don't know how good he is then watch Before Night Falls or Entre Las Piernas or Running Out of Time.

Let's not forget about the great supporting roles from Woody Harrelson who plays the bounty hunter Carson Wells and Kelly MacDonald who was as cute as ever playing Carla Jean Moss. My new favorite character actor, Garret Dillahunt even turns up as Sheriff Bell's deputy. Coincidentally, Dillahunt also plays a bit role in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford which I would also rank with my top films of the year. Fans of the brilliant show Deadwood will recognize Dillahunt as both Jack McCall and Francis Wolcott.

Now that I have officially name dropped a million films within one blog post lets not forget what this films achieves; other then restoring faith in the people that worship at the feet of The Coen Brothers. They give us a truly visceral film. Everybody says this, but it was beautifully shot. Sure the weapons that Chigurh uses are a little much but goddammit who cares, it works and besides they are just sticking to the book. It's a film that relies merely on the skill of the filmmakers to capture amazing images and actors to give believable performances. All films should be like this and I believe all films try to be this, but this is one of the few movies in recent months that actually does it.

Getting caught up!

2007-10-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't keep up on blogging the last month or two for a lot of reasons: laziness, I got married, my bird MOMO died, etc. But I have still been watching movies and I plan to get things going again before the week is over.

The highlight of the last several months for me has been David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. He frames a story that turns out to be something completely different than it seems, but by that point it doesn't matter. Thematically, the film feels like a continuation of A History of Violence in regards to a mans struggle within himself to cope with the brutality(present or former) that surrounds his life.

My favorite part of the film is Viggo Mortensen. It wasn't his acting in terms of dialog that really impressed me. I mean he didn't even have that many lines throughout the film. What really stood out was the physical transformation into this Russian mob driver. Sure, he had these crazy tattoos all over his body but it wasn't even that. It was the mannerisms and the facial characteristics he adopted. The forehead wrinkles and all the numerous facial movements felt very much like a Russian gangster and nothing at all like watching Viggo Mortensen play a role. For me, it was an amazing performance that he should be rewarded for. It should also serve to show people that you don't have to play a retard or a crack head or a musical legend in order turn in a brilliant performance. Acting can be subtle for chrissakes!

I am contemplating working on a blaxploitation screenplay, so over the next several weeks you may be noticing a fair amount of blaxploitation reviews. Just a warning. Chris Rock's I Think I Love My Wife has also been burning a hole in my coffee table so you may see that review coming up. I'll be scattering in my usual mix of random films so just stay tuned and we'll see what happens.

Having noted what I will likely be watching in the near future, I thought it'd be the perfect time to mention a couple of films that I am looking forward to seeing this winter. More than anything I am dying to see The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men. If you've seen any of the trailers I think you'd agree that it looks amazing. I am reading the book right now and it is so great. Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin appear to be on top of there games.

I am mostly anticipating Paul Thomas Anderson's new film There Will Be Blood because of my love for Daniel Day Lewis. He truly is one of finest actors ever. You can see in this trailer that he is likely to give another unforgettable performance in this film, that's already getting a ton of buzz.

Let's watch THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-08-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

For months I said I was going to see The Bourne Ultimatum on opening night and a week ago I finally made plans to do so. Friday afternoon I was freaked out about a possible sell out, so I decided to by my tickets online and thank goodness I did because the evening did not get off to a good start. Because I had the tickets I figured we wouldn't have to leave so early. The only problem was the parking garage at Bridgeport Village was jam packed with people trying to find a spot. As we sat waiting for the idiotic people in front of us to hurry up and move through the parking structure, we got word from our friends that the line waiting to get into the movie had already stretched out the door. Now thoroughly pissed, my objective was to get to the top of the garage where I was sure we would find a spot. My temper continued to boil over when we reached the top only to find every spot taken. I quickly sped to the bottom to exit the garage a find a goddamn parking space. We lucked out fairly soon after leaving the garage finding a spot at the farthest possible distance to the movie theater. Double timing it to the theater, we made it with ten minutes to spare, and plenty of time to settle in front of some guys massive head just before being rocked by Jason Bourne.

On his continued quest to figure out who he is and try to right some of the wrongs he's made, Matt Damon returns as the title character. Joan Allen also returns to help stop Bourne only this time she has to deal with David Strathairn, the head a rival faction of the CIA whose plans for taking down Bourne tend to lean towards more aggressive tactics. Amidst all of the pursuing, Juila Stiles' logistics specialist character is reprised to reveal a history with Bourne before his amnesia. Thanking no romance was played out to a cheesy Hollywood-type love interest angle. In the end Bourne gives everyone the kiss off leaving the door open for a sequel in the off chance Damon decides to change his mind.

The film was a non-stop, tension building thrill. I loved it! Paul Greengrass' handheld camera movements were a bit nausea-inducing but ultimately they worked because there weren't a bunch of cuts; just that shaking camera that more or less gave you a clear idea of what was happening on the screen. The editing in the pursuit scenes in Waterloo and Tangier were absolutely amazing. I think I bloodied all of my fingernails by the end of these two scenes.

Another thing that is great about all of the Bourne movies, is that the music is never overtakes the action on screen. A lot of action scenes in films these days aren't too terribly exciting and they use slick techno or rock songs to create thrills and it's all very cheap. In this trilogy the music is always in the background, perfectly complimenting the action but it's never more important or more exciting then the car chases or awesome sound effects happening on screen.

As I said, the ending was left open a bit but I not sure where else they could take this story. Sure people would go see another one, but how long can one dude continue to go around causing havoc. The main thing is, Bourne found out what he wanted to know and Greengrass does it again with another one of the best action films in recent years.

Let's watch THE SEVENTH SEAL and talk about the death of Ingmar Bergman.

2007-07-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

When I heard the news this morning that legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman died I thought: "Hmm, that sucks! And how weird." Weird, because just last Wednesday I had seen his classic film The Seventh Seal for the first time. I know, I know but I say better late then never.

Moriarty over at AICN wrote that nobody in the chat room he posted the news in had seen any of Bergman's films, and how that saddened but didn't shock him. I can say the same for most of my friends, and would urge them to at least seen a few of his films to familiarize themselves which a director who is considered by many to be one of the greatest of all-time. I myself, up until last week had only ever seen Persona, which, at the time, blew me away! I can't really figure out why I haven't seen more of his films until now

I decided to watch The Seventh Seal because it seems to hold more of a mythical reputation in regards to its greatness in the annals of cinema history. The movie itself did not impress me too terribly much. But what is clear when watching this movie is the skill of the filmmaker. Not only that but Berman was also one hell of a writer. The film's look at confronting the inevitability of death is pretty compelling. Bergman also is extremely skilled at creating a mood and an atmosphere. The 2 films of his that I have seen are filled with unforgettable images whether it be Death in The Seventh Seal or the seemingly thousands of closeups in Persona.

As The Seventh Seal left me wanting more, I explored an extra titled "An Illustrated Filmography" included in the Criterion version of the film. It is a fairly "old-school" DVD special feature but it did include enough info to make me want to see Wild Strawberries (also exploring death and dying) as the next movie in my exploration of this amazing director.

Let's give Bergman his due. I am not here to talk about how brilliant he was. I am just saying, let's see what all the fuss is about and then decide for ourselves whether or not we want to agree will all of those that idolize this director.

"Let's watch VANISHING POINT!"

2007-07-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

I've watched quite a few movies since my last post but rather then bore you with another list I'll give you the highlight of my weekend so far.

Blockbuster finally got around to sending me the classic road/car chase movie Vanishing Point after it had been at the top of my queue for several months. I'd always meant to see this film but decided I would have to watch it after Quentin Tarantino heavily referenced it in Death Proof. A friend forewarned me that the film consist of 120 minutes of a cars racing down the highway and it turns out he was right. I also had second thoughts after I watched another movie referenced in Death Proof, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry and it failed to live up to expectations. The thing is though, I really liked the movie.

Starting from the beginning, the scene for the film's finale is set and the second the lone driver Kowalski hastily sets out for San Francisco to deliver that iconic 1970 Dodge Challenger, I was hooked.

As the lead character fills himself up with Benzedrine and drives with no regard for the car he is supposed to deliver or the police that are attempting to stop this mad man you begin to think: "what the fuck? Why is this dude going nuts?" Then director Richard C. Sarafian
cuts in flashbacks of Kowalski's history as a professional(but reckless) race car and motorcycle driver, a dishonorable discharge from the police force, and the tradegic death of his true love.
And now it's all clear that the K man just doesn't give a fuck. The rest of the film follows him through amazing helicopter shots, encounters with religious wackos, a hippie with a chopper and a butt naked girlfriend all of this while the blind revolutionary radio DJ Super Soul cheers him on.

When deciding whether or not to watch Vanishing Point it's a pretty easy one: if you like road movies, cars, car chase films, are a stunt junkie, or just dig exploitation films in general then you will no doubt enjoy this movie. And if you love Vanishing Point check out Death Proof, Monte Hellman's classic Two Lane Blacktop and http://www.varaces.com/The Movie Car Chase Database.

On a side note: I have not seen the made-for-TV remake from the 90s starring Viggo Mortensen. Let me know if any of you have and think its worth a look.

My Film Studies Schooling

2007-07-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

As some of you may or may not know I received a bachelor's degree in film studies. Now I did not go to "film school". Rather, what I did was study the form and function of film as an art form.

I got the idea from The Sophomore Critic (http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/) to list the films I saw throughout college (Starting a Portland Community College, then The University of Oregon and finally Purdue University.) In order for people to see what I learned. It's not to brag or anything; if you care, then you care. There are too many films listed to discuss but I would hope that this would either give you some insight into me as a person that loves film and film analysis or possibly that you might explore some of these films yourself or through conversations with me.

I have lost the notebooks from PCC so the list for it is by memory. All the others are comprehensive. Also, I have left out a number of short films, while including a few notable long form short films.

PCC: ( I will undoubtedly miss a few)
intro to film:
- Psycho
- North By Northwest - both by Hitchcock
- Badlands
- The Thin Red Line - both by Terrence Malick
- The Apartment - Billy Wilder
- This Boys Life
- What's Eating Gilbert Grape - both by Lasse Hallstrom
- Night of the Hunter- Charles Laughton
- Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood
- High Noon Dead Man - Jim Jarmusch
- Annie Hall - Woodie Allen
- The 400 Blows - Francois Truffaut
- The Butcher Boy - Neil Jordan
- Citizen Kane - Orson Welles
- Casablanca - Michael Curtiz

U of O:
intro to film:
- Persona - Ingmar Bergman
- Some Like it Hot - Billy Wilder
- Los Olvidados - Luis Bunuel
- La Jetee - Chris Marker
- The 400 Blows - again
- Quilombo - Carlos Diegues
- Babakeuieria - Don Featherstone
- Red Sorghum - Zhang Yimou
- Starship Troppers - Paul Veerhoven
- My Own Private Idaho - Gus Van Sant
- Go - Doug Liman
- Scream - Wes Craven
politics in film:
- Metropolis - Fritz Lang
- Dr. Strangelove or How Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Stanley Kubrick
- Do The Right Thing - Spike Lee
- Thelma & Louise - Ridley Scott
- Wall Street - Oliver Stone
- Brazil - Terry Gilliam
- Traffic - Steven Soderbergh
- Pleasantville - Gary Ross

Purdue:
German Cinema:
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Weine
- The Last Man - F.W. Murnau
- Metropolis - again
- M - Frtiz Lang
- The Blue Angel - Josef Von Sternberg
- Truimph of the Will - Leni Riefenstahl
- Stroszek - Werner Herzog
- Kaspar Hauser - Herzog
- Effie Briest - R. W. Fassbinder
- Germany Pale Mother - Helma Sanders-Brahms
- Paris, Texas - Wim Wenders
- Run Lola Run, Tom Tykwer
- Bagdad Cafe - Percy Aldon
Spanish and Latin American Cinema:
- Solas - Benito Zambrano
- Talk to Her - Pedro Almodovar
- Belle de Jour - Luis Bunuel
- El Cielo Abierto - Miguel Albaladejo
- Entre La Piernas - Manuel Gomez Pereira
- Dias Contados - Imanol Uribe
- The Devil's Backbone - Guillermo Del Toro
- Y Tu Mama tambien - Alfonso Cuaron
- Like Water For Chocolate - Alfonso Arau
- The Crime of Padre Amaro - Carlos Carrera
- Camila - Maria Luisa Bemberg
- The Dark Side of the Heart - Eliseo Subiela
- Our Lady of Assassins - Barbet Schroeder
- Pantaleon y las visitadoras - Francisco Lombardi
Russian and Eastern European Cinema:
- The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks - Lev Kuleshov
- Battleship Potemkin
- Alexander Nevsky - both by Sergei Eisenstein
- Volga, Volga - Grigori Alexandrov
- Ballad of a Soldier - Grigori Chukhrai
- Come and See - Elem Klimov
- Fireman's Ball - Milos Foreman
- Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears - Vladimir Menshov
- Window to Paris - Yuri Mamin
- The Theif - Pavel Chukhari
- Barber of Siberia - Nikita Mikhalkov
- Russian Arc - Alexander Sokurov
Italian Cinema:
- Cabiria- Giovanni Pastrone
- 1860 - Alessandro Blasetti
- Rome Open City - Roberto Rossellini
- Bicycle Thieves
- Miracle in Milan - both by Vittorio De Sica
- La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini
- The Battle of Algiers - Gillo Pontecorvo
- 8 1/2 - Federico Fellini
- Satyricon - Fellini again
- The Decamercon - Pier Paolo Pasolini
- The Conformist - Bernardo Bertolucci
- Love and Anarchy - Lina Wertmuller
- Fred & Ginger - Fellini
- Seven Beauties - Lina Wertmuller
- Divorce Italian Style - Pietro Germi
Blacks in Hollywood Film:
- Birth of a Nation - D.W. Griffith
- Gone with the Wind - Victor Fleming
- Cabin in the Sky - Vincente Minnelli
- Carmen Jones - Otto Preminger
- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - Stanley Kramer
- A Raisin in the Sun - Daniel Petrie
- Shaft - Gordon Parks
- Coffy - Jack Hill
- Driving Miss Daisy - Bruce Beresford
- Daughters of the Dust - Julie Dash
- Bamboozled - Spike Lee
French Cinema:
- Fanny - Marcel Pagnol
- The Rules of the Game - Jean Renoir
- La Coquille et le clergyman
- The Smiling Madame Beudet - both by Germaine Dulac
- M. Hulot's Holiday - Jacques Tati
- Les Diaboliques - Henri-Georges Clouzot
- The 400 Blows - god i love this movie
- Hiroshima Mon Amour - Alan Resnais
- Le Samourai - Jean-Pierre Melville
- Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard
- Chocolat - Claire Denis
- City of Lost Children - Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- All the mornings of the world - Alain Corneau
- Diva - Jean-Jacques Beineix
- The Piano Teacher - Michael Haneke

The most important trend here is that Professors love to teach The 400 Blows. Either because it's easy to teach or it is in fact one of the greatest films. Most people who have seen it will agree it is a damn good movie, and after seeing it that first time at PCC when I was fresh out of high school I knew I wanted to get my degree in film studies so I could watch as many movies as possible. Ever since I have wanted to watch movies for a living. So if anyone would like to pay me to do so, I would be grateful. Until, then i gues i'll just keep watching.

Sam Peckinpah's The Osterman Weekend

2007-06-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

Before his death in 1984, legendary director Sam Peckinpah, made the film adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel The Osterman Weekend. By this time Peckinpah's film career had officially fizzled. It wasn't because he was incapable of making great films, but more so that his difficult reputation preceded him. His crippling alcohol addiction still allowed him to show his skills in the later years but the material available to him wasn't the same caliber it used to be.

The Osterman Weekend revolves around an annual get-together of old friends that is used by a spy seeking revenge for his wife's murder to kill three supposed Russian spies and expose the crooked director of the CIA.

Rutger Hauer plays John Tanner, a television expose interviewer who learns his 3 college buddies are all spies. It's John Hurt's job to convince him that they need to be taken down. At some point, Tanner learns that John Hurt's character is only after revenge and could care less about national security.

This film really lags in the beginning. The story just takes forever to develop and then when it did finally develop, I couldn't figure out why Rutger Hauer's character was even necessary. By the end they break out the guns and Meg Foster and her crazy eyes starts wacking dudes with a bow and arrow, so it makes up for the slow start. The revenge-crazy Hurt could have found a much easier way to achieve his plan though. This is just one of those films that when it ends, you think to yourself, "alright, that was o.k. i know what happened, but i am not sure why it happened.

Of Peckinpah's later films, I have yet to see Convoy and The Killer Elite, but what I can take away from these final 4 or 5 films is that along with his deteriorating condition due to alcohol abuse, the major studio systems reluctance to give him free reign and a decent budget must have been extremely depressing to him. Had he survived to make more films he surely would have rebounded and made his way back to the top in Hollywood.

Adam's Top Ten List

2007-05-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

I started keeping a log of every movie I watched back on May 21st 2004, so every year at this time I make my Top Ten Movies of My Film Watching Year. The list may include any film that I have seen for the first time during my movie watching year; so you won't see films like Eyes Wide Shut or Pulp Fiction, etc. etc. Each year I strive to hit 365 movies watched but always fall short due to too much time spent at work or watching TV. All told, my movie watching total is 279 for the year. In addition to all my movies I have managed to watch the first 2 seasons of HBOs Deadwood, which I can say with confidence is perhaps the best dramatic show I have ever watched...I am a really big fan of westerns though so go figure.

I was a little disappointed, looking at my list, that I hadn't seen more films that truly impressed me. Although I feel the quality of films I saw this year went down a little bit, I was pleased with my number one pick having been so amazing. I always have such a hard time putting my favorite films in order so I apologize if my ranking offend anyone.

1.) Inland Empire - David Lynch

With an almost 100% certainty, I would say this is the best movie I've seen perhaps, since Eyes Wide Shut. As I have said before, I believe this is the best film shot on digital video ever. Read my earlier blog on it and wait for it to come out on DVD if you haven't seen it yet.

2.) Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick

There isn't a whole lot more I can say about his film as I have already posted a blog on it. It's a classic, a real masterpiece, a period drama at its absolute finest.

3.) Lawrence of Arabia - David Lean

To talk about this film and pretend like you are saying something original is stupid so all I'll say is, if you haven't seen it; then do it .

4.) Eraserhead - David Lynch

When I finally sat down to watch Lynch's first film I was expecting to have a difficult time getting through it. Instead, I was fixed on the sureness with which it progressed through the strange landscape of the main characters life. All along there was this strange hum guiding you through everything else. For me, next to Inland Empire, it's his best film.

5.) The New World - Terrence Malick

The New World is at once poetry and art on the big screen. I read one critic say that this film achieves what The Thin Red Line did not due to Malick's over-ambitiousness. The New World does play out on a slightly smaller scale but is told in the same style both cinematically and through the storytelling, as The Thin Red Line. It's absolutely beautiful and shows that you don't have to have a language heavy screenplay to make an amazing film.

6.) Happy Together - Wong Kar Wai

Wong Kar Wai is just awesome. Two lovers from Hong Kong go to Argentina for what was to be a holiday and end up trying to grind out an new existence. It's an amazing and painful relationship movie film by a truly great director.

7.) HurlyBurly - Anthony Drazan

This film is basically a story about drugs, sex, and the movie business. It has a brilliant script and awesome performances from pretty much every cast member, especially Sean Penn, Chazz Palminteri, Garry Shandling, and Kevin Spacey.

8.) Cache - Michael Haneke

Cache is about a family that receive these video tapes and cryptic drawings from someone who is watching them. After dangerously investigating, the father believes someone is trying to take revenge from something from his past that he has tried to keep secret. The films long static shots may seem daring, and to idiots, annoying, but I was totally captivated by them...just waiting for something to happen. With this film Haneke creates a tense film that for me, is a must see.

9.) Miami Vice - Michael Mann

Many people forgot about this film or drastically underrated it either because of its box office performance or the cast, but I real loved it. Mann mixes mostly glamorous bits of the lives of undercover Miami detective with moments of extreme reality. For the two hours I watched the film I desperately wanted to be a cop.

10.) Brick - Rian Johnson

Joseph Gordon Levitt is freakin awesome, in case you didn't know. In this contemporary film-noir he plays a teenage Sherlock Holmes type-dude investigating the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. The filmmakers picked a style and concept and went with it for the entire film and it worked perfectly; creating, what I thought was, an original film.

If you have some time on your hands also check out my honorable mentions: Running Scared(2006), All the Real Girls, Pola X, When the Levees Broke, Grindhouse, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

Smokin' Aces SUCKS ASS!

2007-04-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

I hope I didn't give anything away be the title of this blog, but my computer is back up so it's time for some more movie watching. Like most people remotely interested in the movie Smokin' Aces, I desperately hoped this movie was going to be good. It had all the makings of a kick ass action movie: guns, drugs, cool cast, and a bunch of other shit, but it just did not deliver at all. This tale of a shit load of hit men out to collect the bounty on a mob snitch before the FBI can get to him, ultimately falls flat on it's face.

The things I liked included Jason Bateman's drugged-out lawyer character whose part in the film is so short, it's almost not even worth mentioning. The other note-worthy good point was the performance by Chris Pine who played one third of a trio of skin heads out to wax Jeremy Piven's Vegas Performer turned gangster turned stool pigeon. In Pine first hilarious scene he moves the mouth of a dead guy (played by Ben Affleck - i couldn't really figure who his character was. Just another dude trying to kill The Pivs i guess) while apologizing for just having killed him. Towards the end of the film one of Affleck's friends who he thought he killed returns for revenge, minus three of his fingers, in a fairly memorable exchange.

What really sucked though, is that this movie was just full of undeveloped characters. There were just way too many people in here. Then at the end the filmmaker tries to make you feel sorry for Ryan Reynolds after his partner dies....I mean, who really gives a fuck.

This movie also had some of the worst editing I've ever seen. They employ the old character-in-new-scene-finishes-sentence-of-character-from-previous-scene like a million times. Also, the film never progressed with out showing every single characters actions. It would be like me showing you a dude pouring a cup of coffee then cutting to scenes of every single person I know and what they were doing at that exact same moment before finally, 25 minutes later, the dude took his first sip of coffee. You truly have to see it to realize just how bad it was, except I have to strongly urge never to see it, so therefore you never will get to see the full shittiness of this movie, which is just as well.

"I'm gonna get my dick wet."

2007-04-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Seeing a movie as entertaining and exhilarating and Grindhouse, Robert Rodriquez's Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, is like sex: it feels fantastic while it's happening, most other things you do don't compare, and before you know it - it's over. Finally this team of cinematic nerds brought us there homage to classic exploitation films and it truly delivered the goods; much like your hot girlfriend. Now only if you could enjoy her for over 3 and a half hours...

The film opened with Rodriguez's fake trailer for the film Machete, starring Danny Trejo as an a jack-of-all-trades badass who takes revenge after the assholes that hired him for a hit set him up. The trailer is a perfect replica of some of the great blaxploitation trailers complete with plenty of ass-kicking, four letter words and of course, titties.

Planer Terror kicked things off with an absolutely awesome go-go dance under the title credits by Rose McGowan's Cherry Darling. From then on the picture was a non-stop ride of spot-on performances, a brilliant script complete with one witty one-liner after another, and grotesque zombie killings. I can't say enough about the cast! McGowan kept reminding me of an old-school Hollywood leading lady (then to my surprise QT's character tells her she looks like Ava Gardner). Freddy Rodriguez is officially on my list of kick ass actors. Josh Brolin as the thermometer sucking, Doc Block was unexpectedly amazing as was his on-screen wife Marley Shelton. QT and Bruce Willis were brilliant in their cameos. Basically the entire cast no matter how small there role, was on point! Planet Terror perfectly displays just how adept Robert Rodriguez is at making this type of film, in case you weren't already convinced after watching El Mariachi, The Faculty or From Dusk Til Dawn. If there were any real flaws in this film(would have liked less CGI effects), I really didn't care because I was too wrapped up in how much fun I was having to even give a fuck. He just got everything right.

Before the next film started the surprisingly small crowd of maybe twenty people were treated first to a trailer for Werewolf Women of the S.S., directed by Rob Zombie. Not much thought seemed to have gone into this one. Perhaps it was a last minute decision to have Zombie do a trailer? The cameo by Nic Cage was kinda funny though. Next came Don't from Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright. There was even less here, with just shots of people screaming with graphics repeating the word DON'T and no creativity put into it. Finally was Eli Roth's trailer for Thanksgiving. This one got out on to the internet before the film was released but i refrained from watching it. Roth only spend two days shooting and put together a much more entertaining trailer then Wright or Zombie for his fake film about a turkey fucking serial killer. Roth still seems to be in the Tarantino's little brother mode but it should be interesting to see what he can do with his next few films following Hostel II.

After the trailers, QT's Death Proof finally started with a very Tarantino style feel of a woman's feet resting on a dash as some hip song played. Again he used a soundtrack that was not original music but was just obscure enough that each song should bring to mind Death Proof whenever one hears them from now until the end of time. As advertised, the film was in fact, dialogue heavy but only from the first 30 minutes or so. I have to say, I didn't really get it. It was not as QT himself said, some of his best dialogue to date. As a matter of fact, I found myself daydreaming in certain parts of the 1st half of Death Proof. But don't misunderstand this critique as me not liking the film because that just ain't true. I think Tarantino has officially made a star out of Sydney Tamiia Poitier whose performance as Jungle Julia was classic. Like Uma, Pam Grier, Tim Roth and Sam Jackson before her she seemed to perfectly understand how his unique style of writing should be spoken.

As Kurt Russell's Stunt man Mike moved on to his next set of women, Tracie Thomas turned in another priceless performance that was a bit more on the boisterous side. The second half of the film is when it really picked up. I had heard so many great things about the car chase that takes place with stunt woman Zoe Bell on the hood of a Dodge Challenger, but I had no fucking clue it would be so long and so goddamned awesome! Here to the brilliance of the shot composition and editing really begin to shine. And when you have finally been given a break from the heart pounding effect of the car chase the women punctuate the film with a reversal of power to end it all.

There is so much that I would like to talk about in regards to these movies but I don't want to reveal anymore details for people that haven't seen it. Together these films created what was one of the most entertaining movie experiences I've had since I don't know when. Just see it, see them, love them! On a quick side note, I also got a chance to listen to both film's soundtracks and they both kicked ass! Planet Terror with RR's awesome score and Death Proof with QT's collection of obscure pop music ditties. Ok, so in case you couldn't guess already, I gotta say which film I liked better. I absolutely loved them both, but before seeing them again I am going to say that Planet Terror was my favorite. Tarantino's apparent wish to stay true to his typical style seemed to ignore an effort to pay tribute to the classic grindhouse filmmaking conventions regardless of which genre he picked. In true b-movie fashion though, Robert Rodriguez exploited the audiences desire to see all the trashy shit that they hope for in a movie, and in the end made the better half of this double feature.

My past weekend of movies...

2007-04-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

In anticipation for this weekend's release of Grindhouse, I thought I should catch everybody up on what I've seen recently so I don't get too far behind. So I'll just hit you with some quick thoughts and then come back this weekend to see the Grindhouse review.

I finally got around to seeing this movie that many people mention nowadays as one of their favorite zombie flicks, and for about the first 80 minutes it was shaping up to be one of mine too. Even though the film goes totally down hill when the survivors of the zombie plague make it to a military base where they think they will be safe, I still thought 28 Days Later was pretty friggin' cool. Danny Boyle really shows what happens when you put a skilled director behind the lens for a horror flick. The music along with the great long shots of abandoned London streets in the first act truly make the entire movie. No grotesque or brutal killings or loads of stumbling dead people just fear, suspense, and unknown. Check it out.

Any brilliance in this film about a petty thief who sells his newborn son for a wad of cash was totally lost or me. It won best picture at Cannes in 2005 and I can't figure out why. When the dude tells his girlfriend he did it he tries to get the kid back not because he realized he is a complete retard, but because he knew his girlfriend would tell the cops. I get that I was supposed to hate the guy, but i can't get behind a movie where the central character has no redeeming qualities.

The Holiday, about 2 disillusioned women who switch homes for 2 weeks, was a little long but pretty good as far as romantic comedies go. Jude Law and Cameron Diaz were great as the hot and sexy couple and Kate Winslet and Jack Black were totally awkward as the, well...awkward couple. Each actor gave just enough to make this movie entertaining. Even Rufus Sewell(easily one of my top 5 favorite character actors) was great, turning in another excellent role as "the asshole". So if you wanna simply enjoy yourself for a few hours and watch Jack Black try to act like a normal person then give this movie a shot.

Blood Diamond was fun as hell! Leo was really good as an African dude who smuggles gun in exchange for diamonds. He helps Jennifer Connelly's journalist character get a story and Dijmon Hounsou find his family displaced by Rebel fighters, all in hopes of finding a kick ass diamond big enough for him to get out of that godforsaken place. Great action, tons of priceless one-liners, and lots of screaming from Hounsou (say what you want but nobody can scream like this guy - except maybe for Little Richard but he doesn't count)! See it, it's good.

Next time you read something I wrote I will have seen Grindhouse. Go see Grindhouse! That was Grindhouse by the way. G-R-I-N-D-H-O.....

Grindhouse Double Feature!

2007-03-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

No, not that Grindhouse. Last night, Portland's Grindhouse Film Festival hosted a one night only double feature at the Hollywood Theater that was SUPPOSED to include clips from the upcoming Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez movie, but somehow failed to deliver on that promise. And although, we didn't get to see any clips, or win any advance passes, or the Rose McGowan action figure, or the fucking Samurai sword, they still played legendary fight choreographer and director Yuen Woo-Ping's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow(billed as Jackie Chan's breakthrough role) and Italian cult horror icon Lucio Fulci's The Beyond.

In true Grindhouse fashion the first movie began with classic trailers for, Sister Street fighter and Black Samurai, which by the way show you like every single kick ass part of the movie to try to get you to go see it but by then you basically already have. Snake in the Eagle's Shadow began and it was everything one could have hoped for. Jackie Chan played a servant boy at a fight school who learns the dying Snake style of fighting from it's lone surviving master who is hiding out from the Eagle's fist practitioner's who seek to completely wipe out the snake style. Along the way Chan's character learns to merge the snake style with his own cat's claw technique( you'll laugh your fucking ass off) and defend his teacher as well as take a little revenge on those who have treated him unfairly. The speed of some of the fight sequences were a bit slow, but it had unintentional comedy, brilliantly choreographed slapstick scenes, and plenty of hilariously dubbed dialogue. People pretty much know what to expect from most classic Kung Fu movies so I have no doubt that if you are into to them that this film would definitely be nearly as enjoyable on DVD or video. Although, you can't beat the roaring laughter and cheers from a theater full of patrons.

Before the start of The Beyond we were once again treated to more vintage trailers. This time it was Blood Sucking Freaks and Dawn of the Dead. The Beyond can only be summarized as a tale of a New York woman who comes to Louisiana and purchases a hotel that just so happens to contain the 7 gates of hell in where else; the basement. As badly made as many early Kung Fu movies are, The Beyond is far worse. At times there seemed to be no regard for continuity or logic. One second a gun runs out of bullets, a second later it has them again, then they run out, THEN the actor ditches the gun(perhaps if he hung on to the gun a bit longer the magic bullet fairy would reload it again). I also loved the hospital sign that must have been written by some Italian production assistant that learned English 2 weeks before filming began("DO NOT ENTRY" - I know not funny right? Trust me, you just have to see it.).

In addition to laughs, The Beyond is also full of tremendous gore that is fairly good considering the year it was made. However, if I was watching this at home by myself I would probably miss the humor and goriness and just tell you it is the worst movie I have ever seen. So if you get a chance to see this on the big screen, then by all means check it out, but otherwise stay away.

Although, I didn't get to see the Grindhouse clips that I so desperately waited for, nor did I win the samurai sword the evening wasn't a total wash because I had a blast standing out in the rain then sitting in a hot theater with lumpy chairs filled with adoring film fans as we watched two classic grindhouse movies. See you all in two weeks from Friday.

That nympho bitch has got the BLACK SNAKE MOAN

2007-03-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

Holy Shit! It's been a really long time since I have posted anything but I can assure you that I am now back. The past month has been almost a complete wash in regards to movie watching but the most recent movie I saw has got me ready to continue devoting my time to movie watching.

Last weekend, between a girlfriend who "wasn't in the mood to see any film geek movies" and multi-plexs playing absolute shit, we made a compromise on the latest film from Craig Brewer, Black Snake Moan. As I'm sure you know by now the film stars Sam Jackson as farmer who has settled down in a quiet southern town. He's a simple man, apparently too simple for his whoring wife who goes and leaves him for his own brother. With a faith deeply rooted in Jesus and rhythm and blues he struggles to get over his wicked ex-wife . Before he's able to reconcile what happened, he stumbles upon a skinny white girl who appears to be dead. When the battered woman, played by Christina Ricci, comes to, Ole Sam decides to help her. When he finds out that she's a crazy nympho sleeping with whoever she can get her hands on he sets out to "cure her" in a way that he will never be able to cure his once loving wife.

I liked the film. It's definitely the type of movie I need to see right now. It reminded me very much of an exploitation film. Of course, it's a Hollywood picture so it left me wishing it was a little more trashing in some aspects (maybe a few more seduction scenes or more corny one-liners). The good part was it stopped before showing unnecessary or overly graphic acts of violence or sex, a practice that is far too common in today's movies. (All shock and no substance makes America a retarded people.)

Craig Brewer isn't the best director but with Black Snake Moan and Hustle & Flow he's proved he can make a pretty fun movie. You know, never mind-blowing but certainly never disappointing. I have faith that as long as Craig Brewer is writing the script you can count on the fact that his films will always: take place in the south, feature sexually promiscuous female characters, and involve some genre of black music. And that's just fine with me.

Documentary Double Feature

2007-02-17T22:24:00.000-08:00

I still have no friends and I still have not been able to start my screenplay, so this weekend I sat down to watch 2 documentaries produced through HBO, Spike Lee's When the Levess Broke and Gang Wars: Bangin' in Little Rock. I don't typically watch documentaries unless the subject matter particularly interests me or they come highly recommended, but the Lee one I have been wanting to see since I heard about it, and Bangin' is actually a childhood favorite of mine that I recently discovered is available on DVD.

The full title of Spike Lee's film is When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. What a fitting title to a movie filled with sadness, heartache, anger, and an overall lament over the death of New Orleans. Having seen so much about Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath in the news, I wasn't quite sure that the film would be compelling enough to hold my attention for the just over 4 hour runtime, but it was. Lee Puts together a nicely crafted, never boring documentary focusing on the human tragedy, the government's unpreparedness, and how various government agencies seemed to ignore not only a great deal of the victims of the hurricane and ensuing flood but also the unbelievable amount of debris left behind.

Terence Blanchard's score from Inside Man perfectly fit with all of the footage of people wading neck-deep through flood water, corpses bloated to 4 times their normal size, and ruins of peoples homes. The editing team did an amazing job, often cutting together victims stories with the officials responsible for these peoples struggles.

The way the entire ordeal played out was insane. The fact that New Orleans suffered a hurricane of a similar magnitude in 1965 and the levees were never brought up to be able to withstand the force of Katrina after Federal, State and Local governments had 40 years to make improvements. I really don't think you can blame a lot of the chaos and looting and shit like that on the nature of the people because it seemed as though they were simply going crazy from being abandoned. They had to do what they had to do. We all know it took like 5 or 6 days before people began to be evacuated from the Superdome and the Convention Center, and it wasn't until this time as well that a full scale search and rescue operation was launched. For chrissake, fucking Sean Penn was out there in a motorboat saving people before Federal aid was sent.

Among much of the other shit the film focuses on is the lack of support from FEMA, the inability(or unwillingness) of the Army Corps of Engineers to repair the levees in time for the following years hurricane seasons, seemingly heartless insurance agencies, etc. etc. etc. It all made me at once ashamed to be an American, but also afraid that if I should face hardship that is even a fraction of what happened in the Gulf Coast that I too might be offered little to no help by my government. I know it sounds dramatic and maybe cliched but I don't care that's what movies such as this bring out in me.

The second half of my double feature could perhaps be considered lighter fare. Originally aired in 1994 as apart of HBO's series America Undercover, Bangin in Little Rock examines the proliferation of gangs and gang related homicides during the early 90s in the hometown of our former president. Marc Levin, a rather experienced social documentarian directed this movie and most recently and perhaps most famously directed the 9/11 documentary, Protocols of Zion.

I watched this movie probably 4 or 5 times when it aired on HBO in the early 90s. It went hand in hand with the rise of gangsta rap and my brother and I loved it. As I watched it this time around I found it rather disgusting just thinking about the amazing stupidity of gangs and gang members. There is still apart of me though that finds gangs, like drugs, extremely glamorous. Sometimes I think if I were a girl, that I would be the good catholic girl who screws the baddest guy in school and gets knocked up at 16 and everyone wonders how it all happened because my parents are such upstanding citizens. At any rate, the film not only serves to remind you how pointless gangs are, but it struck at such an early time during the gangsta era that it also educates the viewer as to all the lingo, inserting inter-titles with words like "gat", "OG", "Down for mine" with their definitions. Perhaps not as relevant as it once was but entertaining nonetheless.

I wish I could recommend a documentary that involved some sort of heartwarming or non-depressing subject matter, but as of this second I can't. In the meantime, if you're up for it and you have 4 hours or so, check out Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke.

What about BARRY LYNDON?

2007-02-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

When people are having discussions about Stanley Kubrick movies why don't more of them mention Barry Lyndon? Oh course there are many out there that love this film but more often then not Kubrick's other films get mentioned when people discuss their faves. Dr. Strangelove as one of the most brilliant satires, The Shining as a classic thriller/horror(although I hate it when people insist it's a horror movie), 2001 for it's epic scope and amazing music and art direction, A Clockwork Orange for its shocking imagery, and (especially with younger intelligent film fans) Eyes Wide Shut for its...well, because it's a fucking masterpiece. And the reasons go on. I have also noticed that if there is one or several of Kubrick's movies that people haven't seen, one of them is inevitably Barry Lyndon. I am here tonight to tell you, "GODDAMMIT! See this freakin' movie!"

In brief, Barry Lyndon is a mediocre human being who through a single tragedy finds himself experiencing numerous events of good fortune quite luckily and ultimately leading to his marriage to the very rich widow Lady Lyndon. You'll notice I don't mention the story or acting because it just doesn't matter. The movie is that good.

The movie is really Fuckin'-A, number #1 mise-en-scene to the utmost detail. The two most clearly striking elements of the film are its' art direction and costume design. Many period dramas do an excellent job at recreating the place and time which they are portraying but the exquisite detail of the costumes(all the powdered wigs and Lady Lyndon's awesomely huge hair), props, sets, etc. in Barry Lyndon are enough to make you want to puke at the thought of watching another film with CG elements.

Cinematography and lighting of course play a huge role in making this movie totally cool. All in all Barry Lyndon is a dark movie, literally. Very little artificial light is used. Often, most indoor scenes are lit using candle light or shafts of light shine through windows. A special 50mm lens was used while shooting the candle light scenes. I think the darkness of the film is just another piece of the mise-en-scene brilliantly serving to create the mood of the period drama.

Even the outdoor scenes are very dark. I really love all of the transition shots Kubrick used. They where usually long shots of whatever building the characters where occupying in the next scene and it was almost always partly cloudy or overcast. I don't recall any exterior shots, with the exception of the first part of the first act, that were sunny.

So much talk about lighting I forgot to mention the zooms. Throughout the film there were these great zooms in and out. The camera would frame these grand establishing shots, then begin slowly zoom in. They were so slow and perfect that for a second I thought, are these crane shots, but then I realized that there was no way any piece of equipment could reach as far as this camera zoomed. It was truly amazing, and beautiful. And the movie has tons of shots like this.

This is one of the standards for period movies in my opinion. You really have to see it. On a side note: I recently watched Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and I really liked it. The first half was a filled with perfectly balanced shots followed by a bunch of party scenes. It all looked very amazing. A friend of mine once said that she cheated with Lost in Translation because it was easy to make Tokyo look awesome, and the same thing is sort of true with Marie Antoinette. For however good it was it just seemed like anyone could have gotten the same kick ass shots that Coppola did. She of course, does not even begin to approach the level of filmmaking Kubrick has achieved. The level of skill involved in Barry Lyndon is unbelievable. I just watched it going, "Oh my god!" So if you like any of Stanley Kubrick's and you haven't already seen it, make sure to watch Barry Lyndon.

A thought, a personal digression, a rambling, then a short review of Half Nelson and Sherrybaby.

2007-02-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

I probably have too much on my mind right now to successfully write with any sort of a focus but I'm gonna give it a whirl. What I wanted to talk about anyhow, was if or if not movies serve as an adjunct to peer pressure.

Personally as a teen and even in my very early twenties I would say movies absolutely did make drugs seem enticing. Even if a movie didn't necessarily "glamorize" or "glorify" drug use it had me wishing i could get my hands on some weed, coke, speed, or whatever. Movies like Pulp Fiction, Dazed and Confused, The Basketball Diaries , Trainspotting, and a whole shit load of others had me clamoring for a taste of the stuff my parents and everyone else said was so goddamn bad for me.

For the most part my peers weren't "pressuring" me, they wanted it as much as me and 99% of them couldn't score anything. As I hit around 17 or 18 the ease of getting drugs became a joke you know? If I wanted it I could get it and I did try it, with the exception of the real crazy shit like heroine. Oh, and the fear going absolutely insane scared me enough to never try anything psychedelic.

But to get back to my thought...Movies that depicted drug use took me to a world that was far more interesting and cool than mine, no matter how fucked up they were. I mean I made these people my heroes. The characters, the actors that portrayed them, the filmmakers, and the musicians that influenced them. Of course I am not talking about blaming anyone or anything. These same people still are my heroes. I don't know I guess it was just great to me how something so bad could look so fucking awesome. That is want makes any movie good I suppose, that is the ability of the filmmaker to transport you to another place and time. To forget about how lame you are for an hour or two.

Today, it's a completely different story. In case you didn't know, I don't do drugs or drink. It's not for me okay?! I don't know when to say when and when I was doing it I could feel it taking a rapid toll on my body. I just recognized a problem and i nipped it in the butt, of course it did take a while though. Maybe movies only adjunct peer pressure if you are young and impressionable. Probably so. As I watch movies today, a picture that has drug related themes that may have once fascinated me, now scares me off even thinking of using drugs or drinking.

Especially right now, when I am at an all-time social low and thoughts of drinking have entered my mind more than once in the past couple of weeks. Don't kid yourself and don't accuse me of self pity either, but it's a lonely fucking place for the non-drinker. You stop drinking as a young person today and you can pretty much count on at least half of your friends either not calling you or giving you constant shit over it. People don't get it, they're either in denial themselves or they're in complete control of their drinking and drug use. Whether it be films depicting abusive drug users or just the escapism that movies provide me, I am able to stay off alcohol and drugs today.

The two movies I watched recently that brought on this total personal digression are Laurie Collyer's Sherrybaby starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling, the first feature length narrative for both directors. Both movies survive on stunning performances from the lead actors.

In Sherrybaby, Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a young woman just released from prison who struggles to meet the conditions of her parole, re-enter society, and earn the confidence of her brother and show him that she is fit to care for the daughter that she left in his care. MG awesomely portrays a woman who is amazingly immature and who was completely fucked by the penal system, drugs, and her apparently sexually abusive dad. The great thing is that it is all done to subtle effect, not glamorizing drug use, or casting an uglied-up Hollywood It-Girl, just good ole fashion talented acting.

Simply because the lead character was played by a male and therefore easier to relate to, I found Half Nelson and Ryan Gosling's performance even more emotionally powerful. Gosling's character Daniel Dunne is a drug addicted teacher struggling to cope. On top of that, a student discovers his drug use. It explores the inherent contradictions that Dunne faces in using and knowing no good can come from it but also realizing the power of education and trying to steer one of his troubled students in the right direction. Again subtlety reigns in this film as Gosling continues to grow into one of my favorite actors of my generation.

In a scene where Dunne goes to dinner at his parents house the viewer sees tight shots of a stoic Dunne watching as his parents getting progressively drunk. They are speaking but essentially saying nothing and being obnoxious. The scene is uncomfortable and it's clear that he just wants to get the fuck out of there and get high but it's also as if he is looking around at the both of them and at once realizing how he became who he is. In that sense it was a moment i could relate to having had an alcoholic mother, it(the scene) also inspired me to write this blog post. Still he isn't free from drugs. It's then that Dunne's student faces a jarring situation that causes both her and Dunne to make a decision about the directions in which their lives are going. All of this culminating in one half of a double feature that serves to show me how NOW movies have to power to keep me sober and clear headed. And if they can't do that, then at least I don't have to think about anything for 2 hours.

"The Departed" and "Infernal Affairs"

2007-02-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

I just noticed that Martin Scorsese received best director for The Departed from the Directors Guild. Coincidentally just before coming on the internet I finished watching Infernal Affairs which I happened upon yesterday at the library. So then I figured, 'What the hell, why not talk about them together.' I'm not really gonna talk about plot, cop infiltrating the mob, gangster infiltrating the cops, you all probably know it.

I finally went to see The Departed about 2 weeks ago. This was a movie that I was seriously depressed about not having seen when it first came out. So with all of the Oscar buzz I was given a second chance to view it on the big screen. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. I don't know, I guess I was expecting something really special but as it turned out, I was not impressed. Now don't get me wrong, I did like the movie, but I just wasn't as taken with it as I expected to be. Of course the acting was excellent all the way around, I would say the biggest thing was that it was a little too pulpy for me. Sure that's what was intended, but whatever. Anyhow, it beats the hell out of any other crime film full of twists that's come out recently.

As I watched Infernal Affairs(I don't think the DVD copy I had was the one released for American distribution. Anyways there where 2 versions and I chose to watch the Hong Kong theatrical version just so you know), it became clear that William Monahan didn't put much of his own signature on the American adaptation. The films of course have the same story but are also filled with essentially the same scenes and in some cases the same dialogue. There are however some differences that are plain to see. Infernal Affairs is shorter, much more succinct(in a way, too succinct) , if you have A.D.D. I would recommend it over The Departed. Every scene may not be action packed but the story is constantly moving forward, the movie never lags at any point. The only downside is sometimes it jumps so far ahead in such a short amount of time that it takes a second to figure out what the hell is happening, but having seen The Departed first and knowing the story helped out a lot.

If you are a big fan of Martin Scorsese or the mob/crime genre of films then by all means, go see The Departed, otherwise I assure you there is really no rush. Infernal Affairs truly does have the Hong Kong action movie stamp all over it, so unless you can't stand this type of film, it's quick, entertaining and a good movie to rent.

There's no way! No No No no way, you should see Dreamgirls in the theater.

2007-02-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

I've had a browser open ready to write a review but I really don't feel like it. I'm obviously doing it anyway so... I convinced my girlfriend to see Dreamgirls last night instead of Catch and Release the new Jennifer Garner romantic comedy, but now I sort of wish I hadn't. I still don't wanna see Catch and Release in the theater but Dreamgirls was sort of a let down. The music was great of course, but it ran much too long spanning way too many years in the lives of the characters. Eddie Murphy was good but i don't understand what the fuss is about. Jamie Foxx was just as good as Eddie. Beyonce is really a horrible actress. I don't think there is any hope for her. The American Idol chick did, in fact, give a pretty good performance...for a first timer. Music aside, it just doesn't stand up to the other modern day musicals like Moulan Rouge and Chicago, which themselves don't hold a candle to the musicals from Hollywood's golden age. If there is nothing better, check it out when it hits video.

"What would you say if I told you, 'I haven't seen INLAND EMPIRE yet'?"

2007-01-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

Last night, I went to The Hollywood Theater here in Portland to finally see David Lynch's latest film Inland Empire. As I took my seat in the historic theater, my legs began to hurt and i thought to myself, "this is going to be a long and uncomfortable 3 hours." Little did I know that even the most plush Lay-Z-Boy recliner could not save me from the uncomfortable feeling that I was about to endure.

Now I will try to avoid both talking about how confusing this film was and also attempting to explain 'what it was about', because I think that is what most people do after seeing a Lynch film and there were and are no exceptions for Inland Empire. But just for posterity, let's just say that the most apparent narrative of the film involves Laura Dern as the wife of a wealthy man who is cast in a film and has exceeding difficulty discerning her real life from her character's.

Confusion or just, well quite frankly, I'm not even gonna try to describe it but, right from the beginning a beam of light from a projector shines on the title card and if I hadn't known the title of the film there's no way I could have read it. What is clear to me is that Lynch produces perhaps the finest work ever created on digital video. Everything on the screen works brilliantly in the context of the film. If I were to shoot similar scenes and show them to you, you may deem them not even suitable for public access. Lynch often uses these extremely obtrusive close-ups that made me want to dive behind my seat and hide from the screen. Adding to this, was the fact that I was in a small theater and the screen was essentially right on top of me.

Again too, Lynch triumphs in the neighborhood of sound, both in the music and the ambient noise. Prominent where the sort of hum that seems to be present in many of his films, but there was also a shrilling score that was heavily featured in the final third of the movie.

All of the different performances deserve to be mentioned as well. Of course Dern in the starring role, but also notably Harry Dean Stanton, Grace Zabriskie, Julia Ormond, and Nae Yuuki. To point out all of the amazing scenes seems pointless to me and would only serve to recount the entire film, but I would love to talk about them with you so feel free to comment if you like.

Inland Empire marks a new beginning for David Lynch. To take a medium that has come under such scrutiny from film purists and create a truly beautiful movie says a whole lot. And for aspiring filmmakers, he shows them what can be accomplished if you dedicate yourself to your choice of equipment. After eagerly awaiting just how he was going to follow Mulholland Dr. , I am already dying to see what David Lynch has in store for us next.

Getting caught up on what Adam has watched.....

2007-01-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a slow last 3 or 4 days, so I am gonna give some brief thoughts about what I've watched.

Julien Donkey-Boy: You all probably at least have heard of this one by the writer of 'Kids' and director of 'Gummo' Harmony Korine. Directed in a similar sort of style and bizarre subject matter as 'Gummo', in this film Korine adhered to the conventions of the Dogme 95 movement. He shot the movie on a Canon XL-1, which together with the hand-held shooting and sparse lighting create a great look. Korine also got really awesome performances by Werner Herzog and Ewen Bremner. One of the main themes of the film seems to be religion, but Korine's usual style and imagery prevents a coherent 'message' from developing. Overall though, the richness of the filming techniques, the short run-time, and the memorable acting make it worth seeing.

thirteen: Catherine Hardwicke's tale of 13 year old out-of-control sluts pretty much got it's due a few years ago at Sundance. I think Holly Hunter might have even got an Oscar nomination. Again with this one, the hand-held camera gives a sort of realness that makes some of the more outrageous situations seem a little more believable, but I really don't think I need to sat any more about this picture.

Proxy War: Bunta Sugawara resumes his rise to top of Japan's organized crime world in the 3rd installment of Kinji Fukasaku's post-war gangster saga 'Battles without Honor and Humanity'. I really recommend these films! If you are a lover of action movies, Yakuza films, American gangster movies, or whatever these are awesome. Sugawara's character, Shozo Hirono embodies a true badass, while still remaining vulnerable to slip-ups along his way to the top of Hiroshima's most powerful crime family. The hand-held camera (I am starting to see a theme in these 3 films) during fighting sequences places you right in the middle for a frantic look inside the bloody battles. Fukasaku excellently uses a lot of montages to progress the narrative without making the viewers feel like they wished they could have seen more. The bottom line for these films (later titled 'The Yakuza Papers' for the DVD release) is that there is tons of sake and beer, planning and scheming, and of course violence and blood all used to tasteful affect to create a must-watch collection of movies.

Up next for Camacho: I just saw Inland Empire so stay tuned for that......Also the DVDs of Sherrybaby, La Moustache, and The Illusionist.

The Shins and Woody Allen?

2007-01-25T15:19:00.000-08:00

http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,1982985,00.html#article_continue

For those of you who enjoy the films of Woody Allen and the music of The Shins, this article may be of interest.

In case you missed it, Aaron Eckhart was also in "Conversations with Other Women" in 2006.

2007-01-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

I never really understood why filmmakers felt the need to display films in multiple frames, such as the 4 stories unfolding at once in the movie Time Code. Having used the split screen to high hell, Brian De Palma may be responsible for influencing contemporary filmmakers to use this type of technique. I really don't know, but it's besides my point. I get it you know, the separate frame places a barrier between the characters in the film, making them seem as though they are close, but thy actually aren't, or vice versa. For me, it serves more as a distraction. A simple gimmick. Certainly the 4 way frame goes too far.

Director Hans Canosa does a pretty good job in rarely mentioned, "Conversations with Other Women" shot entirely in split screen. In the film, Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter star as wedding attendees whose playful flirtation by the seemingly unacquainted strangers develops to reveal the couple's checkered past. The two actors must have been the bulk of this film's budget shot with an HD cam to a pretty good effect and edited using Final Cut Pro and After Effects.

The thing that probably saved the film for me after hearing it was done in split screen was that the two frames are constantly trying to erase the border that separates. In most scenes, it's as if the actors are being seen without this large physical barrier between them that creates their literal and figurative distance.

Another thing I was worried about was having to basically listen to a 90 minute conversation. As much I like the two actors, I didn't feel confident that the movie would be good at all. I was pleasantly surprised by a really good script that slowly reveals bits about the characters throughout the film and ultimately leaves the viewers hoping for whatever outcome it is that they have envisioned for the pair.

It was nice to go into this movie blind and come out of it with no scars. The actors were excellent, as expected and all in all it restored a teensy bit of my faith when it comes to watching films that involve more than one frame.

The defining moment

2007-01-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

Today or this week or this month or until next time, my question to the movie going world is: Is there such a thing as a defining moment in every film? A shot, a line, an image, a sound, a quick take, a moment like a seed from which the entire rest of the film can grow and blossom; a moment during which all themes converge into one or can all be witnessed; a moment that tells you where you've been, where you are, and where you're going? Or can there not be one defining moment? Must there be several?

For example, would the Jim Carrey telling Kate Winslet that he loves her as the beach house falls apart around them in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind be the film's defining moment?

Would Sarah exploding out of the pool of blood and water and liquid in The Descent be the films defining moment? Or would it be the moment that she drives the pick ax into Juno's leg?

Could any one movie have a defining moment? And if so, couldn't all movies? If that moment defines the entire film, then what is that film really about and why that singular moment?

Anyway, food for thought. Talk amongst yourselves.

A Special Effect in a Labyrinth of Saturation

2007-01-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

If I could describe Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth with any single word, that word would be Saturated. I saw it with my brother, Mike, who is 13 years old, and who typically talks a lot after we see a movie, going over all of the cool scenes or elements, picking out everything he liked about each individual film. It happens immediately, before we even leave the picture house, he starts on his evaluation or observations. With Pan's Labyrinth, it took a while. He's a smart guy, and I feel that I've helped in his development of film appreciation. He's thinking about it this time, what he saw, what the movie meant. I ask him if he liked it, and he says yes. I ask him how he would rate it out of five stars, and he says, "I'd give it four and....three quarters. I want to say four and a half, but I think it was a little better than that." I ask him if he thinks it would have been as good, better, or worse if it was American made, to which he replies that it probably wouldn't have been as good. This makes me proud.

Then we start to get into it. I'm the one who picks out the cool moments, the little things you don't typically get to see in a film, or at least I'm not used to seeing. The image of blood slowly spilling up a person's nose in reverse time. The suturing of a gash that appears so real that you question how, within the composition of the shot, it even it taking place before your eyes. Mike points out the way one character's right eye rolled up after he was shot in the cheek, while the other eye stared forward. These little details that seem so real solidify the connection that this film makes between the fantastic and the real. The viewer has to assume that computers were used, simply for the reason that the images seen could not exist and could not be manufactured by hand. However, unlike Spiderman swinging through the skies of the city or Neo fighting off 100+ Smith's, there is so much detail to Pan's images that my mind has to make the connection to CGI that my eye has been able to make in the past. The images are so saturated with detail that the brain has to convince the senses that they are not real, that their movements are not actually motorized by muscles or joints, but by animation.

Mike and I go home to tell our family how cool all of the effects were, but the idea of the story, the characters lingers. This is one of those films that I find myself thinking about the next day, and at moments the day after, the again the next. Each character's significance is developed without excessive pressure or speed. The pace of the story reflects the films respect of its viewers' intelligence and attention to detail without de-signifying important details to move the film from one minute to the next. Each character seems to be connected to several others, creating a labyrinth of subplots with only one entrance and one exit to the maze. However, in this labyrinth of plot there are no dead ends, each character finds resolution to their purpose to the film. My mind is telling me to find the holes, that there must have been some break in continuity, that there must be a question left unanswered. I cannot find either. I asked Mike if he thought that the young girl was imagining the things she was seeing, and he was not sure. I am convinced now that I know the answer, and that it is right there for anyone to see.

I have deliberately left out detail in this elusively vague review of Pan's Labyrinth, partly because it is an experience that cannot be described on paper, and partly because it should be seen without anything being given away. There are no mind blowing twists to this picture. It is a complete telling of an adult fairy tale. Be prepared for subtitles, those of you who would rather sacrifice your first born than see a film in another language with subtitles. If you are this type of person, I feel sorry for you because you are missing out on a lot of great stuff. And you do not need to sacrifice your first born. Enjoy the film.

My Tapeworm says: "We should watch avant garde movies tonight!"

2007-01-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

This Friday I decided take a look at a couple of 'experimental' films that have been burning a hole in my coffee table, Guy Maddin's "The Saddest Music in the World" and David Lynch's "Eraserhead".

TSMITW, shot amazingly in super 8, 16 mm and 35mm, takes place in Canada during the early 1900s were a bar owner played by Isabella Rossellini puts together a tournament-style contest in search of what else, the saddest music in the world. The winners will enjoy a soak in the beer bath and a grand prize of $25000.

Mark McKinney plays a ruthless hustler who once had a thing for the bar maiden and has now entered the contest as an American. The father of the hustler (David Fox) is a Canadian through and through, out to win back the love of the bar maiden which he lost to his son. The hustler's brother (Ross McMillan) plays 'the good son' who has returned from his adopted home of Serbia with his own dead son's heart preserved in tears, hoping this grief will win him the contest.

Eraserhead follows Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), a print factory worker who impregnates his slightly-off girlfriend Mary. When Mary delivers a mutant baby and cannot stand it's constant crying, she leaves the child with Henry to care for while she retreats to her parents house. Henry escapes the growing insanity that is his life through serenades from the woman in his radiator and sexual fantasies about his whore of a neighbor.

Both films are full of bizarre imagery and themes; TSMITW with the woman who develops a subordinate relationship with her tapeworm (Maria De Medeiros) and the bar maiden's prosthetic glass legs full of beer. In Eraserhead you have the child itself, worm like things that resemble brains attached to spinal columns falling on to the radiator women's stage, and so much more.

The visual styles of both were exceptionally good. Where the different types of films used by Maddin create a nostalgic atmosphere that brought to mind classic German silent films, the DVD copy of Eraserhead I rented presented a sharp and rich contrast of the black and white images. Production and costume design in both films were also beautifully used to help emphasize both the setting and thematic elements.

While I was watching Eraserhead I thought to myself, "Why haven't I watched this sooner!" On top of the visual style, Lynch and Alan Splet worked together to create some of the most amazing sounds I have ever heard in a film. The sound effects are prominent but not too deliberate and there is a sort of industrial hum that can be heard from beginning to end. Rather than irritating me, this sound served to almost hypnotize me as I became transfixed on the screen.

I can say the same for TSMITW, in which Maddin is the true star with his brilliantly created setting and completely original use of camera and lighting (Numerous shots in the film have such stark lighting from above that a sort of halo effect is created around the edge of the frame.). Everything in the film shocks you whether its the outrageous narrative elements or the startling scenes in technicolor.

David Lynch is a genius and that is all you can say about him. His films speak for themselves. This being my first Guy Maddin movie, i would say that he is a filmmaker that must be watched, having created one of the most visually unique films I've seen in a long time. In a world where I am constantly building movies up in my head and time after time they fail to deliver, it was soooo refreshing to see 2 films that offered such a wonderful alternative to mainstream Hollywood and even independent cinema.