Periodic Movie Review

[Mich]

ETA: The trailer for Terminator Salvation played before the movie; I am very much looking forward to it.

Man, I wasn't expecting it, but I am, too. Maybe it's just the movie-seeing atmosphere, though, getting me all excited for movie franchises I don't care anything about.

[locke]

I also like that trailer.

enjoyed your thoughts on Watchmen, Alea, I can see or share many of those criticisms and I relatively liked the film and read the book. but I was never a huge fan of the book to begin with, I didn't find it all that mind boggling, except perhaps for the comic within a comic, which, naturally, was cut from the film.

---

L'Argent - 4 of 10

Bresson likes to make tabula rasa films, meaning his actors are all blank and display no emotions or reactiveness ever. This can be effective (as in Pickpocket or Au Hasard Balthazar) and it is to a degree here, and after a certain amount of resistence, fatigue wears you down and you just accept the non-acting style for the film. Bresson often gets fellated by critics for the audacity of not getting performances from his actors. I find it, for the most part, somewhat tiring and relatively dull.

And this is a pretty dull film all in all. It could be more interesting, but the director actively works to try to take away drama from the plot, making it more of a film about the inbetweens. this again, at times works for the film, but mostly it does not. The film is terribly uneven in terms of when I was liking it or not, but it's a consistent piece on the whole. The sound design was quite good.

the film is about money. a kid passes a counterfeit note to a shop keeper, she finds out about it after the fact, but rather than reporting it the shop passes it on to a working class service man who supplies their shop. he tries to by coffee with it and is caught. no one believes him. he loses his job but gets off in court. Things spiral down from there. and the lies of the shop keeper have massive implications. as I said it could be really interesting but it manages to be so very dull, even with all the murders in the last act of the film.

[Young Val]

Finally got around to seeing B. Button (it's what we call the book here; we represent the Fitzgerald Estate).

I never see oscar movies in theatres because in the family I babysit for both parents are in the guild and get dvds for screenings. David and I borrowed B. Button from them this weekend.

Meh. That's really all. It was lush, yes, of course. And parts were laugh-out-loud funny. But, although I felt sad at times, I never cried once. And I'm a HUGE movie crier.

I was annoyed by how drastically different the adaptation was from the original material. I'm a big believer in the whole "movies are a different medium from books and therefore film versions need to differ from book versions to be successful" thing. I really do believe that. But this was an entirely different story.

I didn't mind the framing device with Caroline and Daisy, that was fine. I didn't mind the shift into more modern times. That was fine too. The love story was ENTIRELY INVENTED and that bothered the hell out of me.

What they were really doing was making a movie of THE CONFESSIONS OF MAX TIVIOLI and scooping the names from Fitzgerald's work.

The accents annoyed me, and contrary to other people I thought Cate Blanchett (who usually stuns and dazzles me) was quite bland in this role. The aging, be it makeup or cg also distracted me--though it was very, very good it still just looked fake.

All in all, I loved the score, and it was a visually beautiful movie, but I wasn't moved.

[neo-dragon]

Adrian should have been handled better; I get that he had good intentions and that the ends could mostly justify the means, but he didn't look as torn as I think he should have. Saving the world from itself by giving it a new mutual enemy...eh, okay. That he had to basically sacrifice a peer/friend, also something I can allow. I just feel like both are humongous things that should have been giving him more trouble than he appeared to have. Maybe they were going with subtle, inner troubles; if so, the I'm satisfied there, I guess.

I think that the novel certainly does a better job with this, although I'd say that even there he's not as torn as he should be considering the immensity of what he'd done.

And yes, the Terminator Salvation trailer was pretty awesome. The Terminator franchise keeps surprising me in that I've expected everything after T2 to be absolutely horrible, but T3 was in fact okay (though far from stellar) and "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" isn't bad either. Salvation will probably exceed my originally very low expectations as well.

[Yebra]

On a watchmen note, this is both deeply wrong and sheer genius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

[Craig]

Watchmen -- What's there to say that hasn't already been said? It's visually amazing, the soundtrack is brilliant, the performances are top notch, and it's deeply in love with the source material. I really liked it, I didn't love it, but I really liked it. 8/10

The Wrestler -- Darren Aronofksy is a god and instead of resurrecting himself he resurrected Mickey Rourke. There's always a common theme throughout Aronofsky's work and this movie is no exception. What is amazing, is that he went from The Fountain to this. Whereas The Fountain was too 'on-the-nose' this was almost vague. It's one of those movies that has to be seen more than once to understand and appreciate the story, the direction, and the performances. 9/10

Slumdog Millionaire -- The perfect movie. It's a masterpiece. It has the perfect balance of happyness and sadness, of gut wrenching scenes are heart warming scenes, of horrors and miracles. Danny Boyle just gets better and better with each film. 10/10

He's Just Not That Into You -- Ugh, first bad movie I've seen all year. Too many characters, not enough plot, and like too many ensembles each character is intertwined too much with everyone else. If they removed at least two characters it could have been better, instead each character is nothing more than a stereotype or a caricature.

Salaam

[Gravity Defier]

He's Just Not That Into You -- Ugh, first bad movie I've seen all year.

That just made me want to watch it again. And so I will.

ETA: Finished. Same reaction as the first two times.


For me, this movie is a problem for which I need to seek medical help...

[locke]

you know how the observation of a thing can change a thing, I'm pretty sure that damn movie has fundamentally changed how relationships happen for twentysomethings, at least how they're discussed/perceived.

that's why I'll never see it. (an empty vow I'm sure).

--

Tokyo Sonata - 9 of 10

This film reminded me of a Spanish film called Los Lunes al Sol, it sort of has a similar tone/theme to it, though I like this film more (and that film was terrific). This is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's latest film and it's a fascinating little melodrama with the barest hint of magic realism in the latter half of the film. The film has four protagonists, the father, the mother, the elder son and the younger son.

The father is a salary man and he has just been laid off. he's so ashamed that he's not going to tell his family while he still has severence and is looking for jobs. he's playing a charade

The mother stays at home, cooks for the family and is getting her drivers license. she dreams.

the elder son wasn't the greatest student and his opportunities are limited he's shiftless and needs something to focus on, and he finds it in one of the films odder inventions.

the younger son chafes at the emotional turmoil his family is in. and he longs to learn piano though his father strictly forbids it.

The film is beautiful to experience and it's very entertaining, funny and charming throughout managing to tell a story that develops all four of these protagonists as individuals but also the unseen fifth protagonist, that of their family as a unit, it is this which undergoes the most impressive and complete growth and transformation.

[locke]

Let the Right One In - 8 of 10

so, a swedish film, about a twelve year old vampire and the boy who likes her--set in 1982. I had sort of hoped this would be one of my favorites of the year. It's not quite that good, it's a bit deliberate in the pacing for my tastes, and there's some plot elements where I think, "but... but..." However the performances are tremendous and teh cinematography is utterly stunnning. overall the story of these two kids is very affecting and quite sweet, but I thought the darker elements lacked the dread and punch they perhaps needed to really bring the response to the film to the next level. Beautiful and highly recommended.

[locke]

Yeah.


My Neighbor Totoro is actually more perfect than I remember it being.

you could watch this movie on a loop and it'd take a long time to get tired of it. another year or so and my neice should be just the right age for the movie.

[zeroguy]

To to ro, To toooo ro~

I haven't seen Watchmen, but the music being mentioned a few times makes me wanna link an alternative opinion (note: that person is not always the paragon of sanity).

[LilBee91]

Yeah.


My Neighbor Totoro is actually more perfect than I remember it being.

you could watch this movie on a loop and it'd take a long time to get tired of it. another year or so and my neice should be just the right age for the movie.

I watched Totoro for the first time this week! So awesome. And then we went and built a Totoro-esque snowman at a nearby elementary school.

I also rewatched the Troll in Central Park. Significantly less awesome, and a lot more disturbing.

[locke]

I love me some Totoro. I'm tempted to watch it again this weekend. glad you guys both also like it.

--

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
9 of 10

What a terrific and utterly entertaining documentary. any one who is remotely interested in the game of football should see this, whether you're an NFL fan or a college fan or fans of both, this is just flat out a great piece of work.

in 1968 Harvard and Yale were both undefeated (for the first time since 1909) going into their traditional end of season rivalry game against each other. Yale was ranked 16th and heavily favored to win.

Early in the first half, Yale goes up 22-0 but Harvard manages to capitalize and come back 22 to 13 before the half is out. Then Yale puts up another TD and gets to 29-13 early on and then shuts Harvard down.
Final three minutes, down by sixteen, what, exactly, has to happen to pull off a miracle?

about half the film is watching the game highlights, which are breathtaking, there are some staggeringly great plays made, and you're quickly as wrapped up in this game as you are in any regular saturday game you watch live on TV. interspersed with this are interviews with players from both teams, now in their sixties that are hilarious, insightful, galling and sometimes outright lies. it's brilliant. Tommy Lee Jones, who played Guard for Harvard, is especially entertaining, particularly when he tells a story about how Al Gore was funny back in college (and one of the Yale players was roommates with GWB, but no stories, except the well known post Princeton arrest). But the focus is on the game, what it meant, how it happened, decisions they made. where they got it right, where things went wrong (for both teams). It comes down to being one the best doc on football I've ever seen (otoh, I don't recall seeing any other docs on football), and one of the best sports docs I've seen in general. A must see.

[Wil]

I quite liked Watchmen. Going in to it with no expectations and knowing nothing about the graphic novel, I found myself quite enthralled throughout the entire movie. I was, however, constantly on the edge of my seat waiting for this explicit sex scene I've heard so much about. Once I figured out that what I was watching WAS the sex scene, I was actually quite disappointed. I was going in to this expecting some serious nasty... but.. all I got was essentially a repeat of the 300 sex scene. If that made anyone squeamish, they need to be on the internet more. I thought it was quite tastefully done, really, all things considered. Pointless? Sure. But, one could say that about any number of details in a movie. Pointless only if it bothers you, I suppose. As for the violence, well that's just fake violence. Big deal. >.>

I give it a thumbs up on my quite archaic but works-for-me rating scale of "good" and "bad".

[locke]

glad you liked Watchmen, Wil.

Sunshine Cleaning - 9 of 10

I think this is Amy Adams' best performance. The film is charming, funny and surprisingly emotional, very beautifully handled by the directors of Little Miss Sunshine.

The film is about a single mom, Rose (Adams), who works for a cleaning company in order to get by. she's carrying on an affair with a married police officer and dreams of getting a real estate license. Her younger sister, Norah, is shiftless, despondant and can't hold a job. Her father is a long time salesman/schemer who always has a plan. Nothing goes her way.

Until her officer tells her that she ought to start a business cleaning up after dead people and crime scenes. she's appalled at the thought, but when she has to take her son out of school because the school thinks he's defective she has to d0 something, and that something is Sunshine Cleaning.

The film is definitely not gross, though it's got some, hilarious 'ewww' moments. It uses comedy as a vehicle to reveal these characters to us so we can participate in the joys and sorrows of their story--it's a wonderful experience.

[locke]

ya know what would be awesome? saying, "hey, you know what would be fun? I haven't watched any Woody Allen in a while, let's watch one of his movies a night til we've seen them all!" to a person that would also find such an activity enjoyable. But then, I'm goofy like that, and don't know anyone in meat space like that.

[locke]

Coraline (in 3D!) 9 of 10

This was outstanding. the animation is terrific, and the voice performances are outstanding. I was a bit skeptical at Dakota Fanning voicing this, but she freaking nailed it, putting a huge amount into the character, that combined with the animation made her seem lifelike. I loved the somewhat strained family interactions with the True Mother and Father, and the inversion to the Other Mother and Father (and how creepy a 'perfect' life would be for kids. I wasn't crazy about the addition of Wybee, but the dogs/batdogs were awesome. The performance of the old ladies was perhaps my favorite highlight. I sort of wish it was just a hair creepier, but I think the film struck a fine tone as it was. Very entertaining and one I'd see again. The 3D added great depth and life to the film, though it wasn't used obtrusively. The effect when Coraline found an eye was freaking brilliant though.

Overall another highlight of the year for me.

[locke]

Seven Samurai is still perfection. I watched it last night on film for the second time (actually the first time I'd watched it since seeing it last on film about four years ago). I'd forgotten more about the film than I remembered, I was particularly struck this time around by Shino's situation and her, for lack of a better word, horniness around Katsushiro. I was also reveling in all the character parallels this time around, Kambei and Kyuzo, Kikuchiyo and Katsushiro, Kikuchiyo and Heihachi, Gorobei and Shichiroji. as well as how the two youngest samurai, Kikuchyo and Katsushiro relate to the village and villages. How Rikichi is so similar to Kikuchiyo for example.

Just a spectacular film from start to finish, one that is thoroughly mesmerizing and pretty much flawless from start to finish, and even better on a fifth or sixth viewing than it is on a first. Perfection. 10 of 10

--
Jan Troell's new film, Everlasting Moments is a masterpiece. The performances are unbelievably good, the story is powerful and truthful without ever being crass or begging for a sentimental reaction. Rather it evokes genuine emotion because of the clarity and artistry with which it sees this turn of the century family. The cinematography reminded me repeatedly of the Godfather, and I think it's one of the best shot films I've seen in a long time. Just absolutely gorgeous in a classic and elegant manner.

Maria Larsson is married to Sergei, it's the turn of the century. Her husband is a big strapping swede and she is a plain Finnish women, they already have four children. He works the docks while she does some sewing and cleaning to help make ends meet. Their marraige is not the happiest or most ideal, but her father tells her it cannot be put asunder when she begs for his support. After her father dies she acquires a camera and attempts to sell it to a camerashop. the photographer there convinces her to try it out first and gives her some chemicals and paper to develop a picture. She takes one photo of her children and is hooked. Her camera becomes an outlet for her, and when her husband gets jailed it becomes a means other than slavery to support her family. I don't want to say much about the plot, and the film takes its time looking at this family over the years, their ups and downs and the complexities and intricacies of family life. It's brilliant, breathtaking and beautiful, an absolute must see and my favorite film of the year so far.

[elfprince13]

I just saw Остров/Ostrov/The Island (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851577/). Not sure how to describe it, but the imdb summary doesn't do it justice. It's alternately hilarious, though provoking, and more than a little bit touching.

[locke]

I first intended to watch The Hidden Fortress in 2001 or so. I'd heard about this film from which George Lucas had lifted the plot of Star Wars but I'd never gotten around to it. Until tonight, when i got to see it in 35mm which is always a treat.

the feel of the film has nothing to do with star wars, it has more of a comic, treasure sort of obsession you find in Indiana Jones, actually. But the characters are quite similar, but more similar, I think, to The Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, than to what Star Wars evolved into post first draft.

The basic plot is thus. Two peasant oafs (3PO and R2) find themselves wandering through a wilderness. they were late showing up for the war and got captured by the winning side and pressed into grave digging services burying the dead. They quarrel over whether or not to rob a corpse and split up. The one who doesn't rob the corpse is almost immediately captured, the one who does is captured a few days later after he's heard about the missing princess and the reward for her capture or information about her whereabouts. Once reunited in slavery, the men are set to digging in the princess' abandoned castle looking for the horde of gold that 'must' have been left there. The winning side has torn the castle apart. The oafs escape during a slave revolt and make their way through the wilderness again. Stopping at a stream they argue, one of them throws a stick and it bounces and bring with a decidedly metal clank. the gold was hidden in sticks. Soon they're caught up in a gold fever and are off on a journey and adventure to find the princess and get the gold.

the film is very uneven, the oafs are not very good main characters, the best character is the general, played by Toshiro Mifune, who is amazing and mesmerizing in every scene. The princess herself oozes sexiness (but only when she's not done up with the traditional makeup crap, when she's being incognito and plain she's a freaking knockout), and very distracting because of that, to me at least. :-p There are some very good action scenes, but much of the film feels quite repetitive. The oafs are stupid and greedy about gold, rinse and repeat in slightly various settings for most of the film. They also give broad, comic japanese performances in these roles, which just came off as grating to me (as I imagine some people find anime grating).

Overall good, but not great, I imagine I would like it a whole lot better on a second viewing when I won't be crippled by the expectation that I'm supposed to care about these characters. You're not, there's no one for an audience to really get invested into, it's just a road adventure story with a sort of western genre panache to it.

6 of 10

[locke]

Chungking Express - 10 of 10

Sometimes films really live up to their reputation and utterly blow you away. This film is one of those. Incredibly beautiful cinematography, stunning, wonderful editing and two fascinating stories. The second story arc of cop 336 and the girl who falls in love with him is hands down my favorite. it's whimsical ala Gondry, but a bit sad, a bit disturbing and a bit wonderful all at once and the finale to this story, which is also the end of the film is one of the all time great endings in film, up there with nobody's perfect or Shut up and Deal. Magnificent.

Ohayo - 6 of 10

in the fifties, Ozu remade a couple of the silent films he'd done in the thirties. Of course, there are those who would say that all his films were remakes of all the earlier ones, but we'll helpfully ignore such idiocy. This is a remake of his silent peak, I Was Born But, however the film is more of an echo than a remake, it drifts between the generations more, akin to his forties films, There Was a Father, and Record of a Tenement Gentleman, rather than sticking with the younger generation (as did his thirties films) or mostly with the older generation (with his fifties films) so that makes it somewhat unique. It also makes it kind of uneven, and lacking in the sort of focus that makes some of Ozu's films my favorites. That said, it's quite funny, with all the fart jokes, misunderstandings and openly mocking of Japan's tiers of formality and deference. This is, in fact, why the film is called Ohayo (Good Morning), because the children use the example of all the tiers of greetings as 'adults talking too much' when they're upset at their parents for punishing them for being too noisy. Perhaps it's a film that would get better on a second viewing, and writing about it, I like the film more, but overall I was not as impressed as I have been with most Ozu films. possibly his weakest film, or at least one of the ones I like least.

--

Don't Look Now - 10 of 10

Yowzers!!! this film is like a domestic melodrama that lulls you into forgetting it's also a supernatural suspense thriller, until it suddenly jumps out and 'scares' you again. I was jumpy walking to my car tonight after work, and I was even jumpy in my bay after seeing the dreadful final killing. yikes. I hate that spooky feeling of someone's standing right behind you, and that is exactly the atmosphere this film imbues throughout your psyche, it really makes you sense dread all around you, which is an impressive tribute to Nicholas Roeg's incredible filmmaking.

As an added bonus to how edge of the seat tense the film is, it also includes what I think is probably the sexiest, most erotic love/sex scene in film. The way this is put together is breathtaking and surprisingly intimate and intense. most impressive. In fact, all the editing of this film is fan-f******-tastic, one of the best cut films, even if it's showy cutting, that I've ever seen. an absolutely outstanding discovery for me, I'm ecstatic.

And who wouldn't be happy at finding two films in one day that could possibly make their way onto my top 100 all time list?

Adam

[locke]

Japanese Girls at the Harbor - 7 of 10

a film I could easily see improve upon repeat viewings. This is also my first non-Ozu japanese silent film, and I very much like the aesthetic of this director, Hiroshi Shimizu. He has an outlook on life I find very compelling. and I think were my mind not in such a distracted state or were I not watching this in my room, I would like the film more as well. Very strong.

The film is about four women and a man. The women are all attached to Henry in some way or another (and yeah, I'm pretty sure Henry is supposed to be american/european, his name is in katakana in the intertitles) and as their love for him vies in different times and to different degrees it results in life changing decisions that lead some to fall and some to get their hearts desire and some perhaps not making it. Quite good, and again, I want to rewatch it and think I would like it more a second time.

[locke]

A double feature at the Aero theatre tonight, two favorites of mine. The Apartment is one of my all time favorite films and One Two Three is one of the first films that got me into films, as I was flipping channels one day stopped on the insanity going on in the final twenty five minutes and watched mesmerized at the live action looney toon in front of me, I went out and rented it to watch the rest of it.

The Apartment changed, for me, this time, because I've seen it again after a few more relationships under my belt. This time when I saw Fran Kubelik I saw one girl in particular. the nuances of Shirley McLaine's performance really stood out to me this time, because it seemed to echo the broken/fragility/resiliency of that woman. For the first time I realized that for all that CC Baxter ("Buddy-Boy!") is something of an everyman, Fran Kubeliks is the same thing for women. and I'd never really got that impression before. So I took more out of this film than usual, in fact I didn't notice Jack Lemmon as much as I usually do, perhaps because his performance is so familiar to me since I've studied selected scenes from it before. Still impressive, but this time I got more, I love that this is one of those movies, like a really good book, that improves each time you revisit it.

As always I'm struck by the intricate and perfectly harmonious structure of the film. Every little thing fits together flawlessly, We begin in the office, move almost immediately to the apartment, get a quick version of how it goes most nights, then get an even quicker version of when it goes wrong and then we meet Fran Kubelik, the executive washroom key is mentioned and all the 'players' are introduced as CC winds through his schedule to make a rearrangement bringing us into the final two characters, sheldrake and his secretary, which leads to CC making a big and bold play for Kubelik. It's breathtakingly effective storytelling and Wilder and Diamond do so much with relatively little screentime. Most movies take 70 or 80 minutes to get that much across, they do it here in twenty or so. and it's brilliant as all get out, very entertaining, but with all sorts of additional texture and nuance to each scene, performance and development. Man I love it.

And I think that Shirley Maclaine's LBD at Christmas is pretty much the sexiest dress ever. maybe it was just the big screen, but yowzers, I really wanted to be able to hold her, touch her, need her in person when she was walking (back to camera) to the bed. And also later when she was wearing just a bathrobe to the spaghetti dinner, that was equally made of awesome. mmmm.

---
One Two Three is a rapid fire screwball comedy about James Cagney upending the Soviet Union to get Coca Cola in and get a socialist out (and transform him into an ever-lovin' capitalist in less than a day. It's brilliant, breathless, funny and way over the top. I also think it's a hair miscast. I think you needed Marilyn Monroe playing the secretary, you needed Liz Taylor playing Scarlett from Atlanta Georgia, you needed James Dean, Sal Mineo, Marlon Brando or Warren Beatty playing Otto, and you needed Myrna Loy playing Cagney's wife. Because what's apparent on screen is that Cagney just outclasses everyone on screen and no one has a chance of keeping up with him. just one of those alternate castings would be enough to put this film into the level of perfect, but because it's just a bit lopsided it feels someone uneven. the harmony in The Apartment isn't quite there in this film, it clanks along a bit more often. Still, as a series of individual scenes the film is nonstop genius, just somewhere in the execution (and I think it's mainly in the casting) it didn't quite mesh together as smoothly and seamlessly as Wilder's best work.

[locke]

I never saw Ice Age when it originally came out, or in the years since, so I finally got around to watching it when if finally worked its way to the top of my netflix queue. It's a well made CG film for its era, but it's somewhat clunky by today's standards. What struck me most about the film is that it works brilliantly when it stays firmly in Chuck Jones mode (oddly, the environment they're in reminded me nonstop of Chuck Jones' Road Runner environment, especially the squirrel) particularly it works very well in the sequences that don't have any dialogue, that are just kinetic energy, these are the highlights of the film. And then you get into the dialogue elements and unfortunately the film becomes painfully awkward, obvious and quite embarassing at times. On top of that, the film is castrated throughout in order to make it safe and bland. The filmmakers shied away completely from making the choices of Bambi or Land Before Time or Lion King throughout the film, opting for an 'it's always all okay' throughout. I dunno, I was hoping for more, but mostly it was just bland--it definitely makes you appreciate the skill of disney, Dreamworks and Pixar.

[steph]

Adam, Tyler prefers Ice Age II: The Meltdown. Brian and I also think it's much funnier and quote it quite often.

[locke]

double feature tonight of Pasolini

The Decameron - 9 of 10 - irreverent, lustful, joyous expression of life. It reminded me of the Orlando Furioso or Ovid's Metamorphosis, or Monty Python. Very funny a bit long, but quite entertaining/enjoyable.

Salo - 2 of 10 - Harrowing, chilling, stomach churning. An endurance test most people should never have to go through to sit through this film. Pasolini makes some incredible points, both political and about human nature, that are forcibly hammered home by the degree to which the film is unsettling, but that doesn't make it any less unpleasant of a film.

[BonitoDeMadrid]

Just got back from seeing Marley & Me. Very touching, funny and sad- though no catharsis, which is not good.
Highly recommended, especially if you like crying, and even more especially if you like dogs/have a dog.

[Gravity Defier]

Highly recommended, especially if you like to be touched

[locke]

Teen Witch just shipped to me from netflix, I'll be seeing Alea's favorite movie soon.

[locke]

Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales is also a lot of fun, it's not as great as the Decameron, but its still a vibrant take on Chaucer that captures the humor and life in his writings. Like Decameron, it was very influential on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, quite funny and vulgar throughout. some of my favorite parts was the hot poker in the ass and of course the Miller's Tale. it made me want to go back and read all the tales, rather than about 1/3 of them, which is what we did in high school when we read them.

I see all the sex and the attitudes towards sex (casual, ribald and humorous) in these tales (as they are in the original) and think it's really ironic that OSC named his oldest son after Geoffrey Chaucer yet claims constantly (every week it seems like) that such attitudes did not exist before the hideous era of mankind known as 1960s America.

The Pardoner's Tale and the Cook's Tale are both quite brilliant as well.
8 of 10
--
The bluray of the Robe is quite lovely, the movie is not very good. It's just too much, too over-the-top without the thunder and catharsis of Ben-Hur to justify the level of intensity they're going for. The redeeming quality here is the sets and costumes, which are fifties brilliant (though it looks like the roman armor is pretty accurate), and Richard Burton. Burton manages to keep the film interesting and compelling the way a truly first rate movie star can alway do. unfortunately, even he can't save the film when it gets to the 'I'm cursed by the robe of jesus!" subplot in the middle of the film, which is by far the worst element of the story and acting. I found Caligula too over the top sneering to be effective. He's loud and dangerous but not to any depth of feeling, more petulant than ruler with deadly power at his disposal. The ending is haphazard, the speeches to Caligula are all stirring and effective, then it switches to a walk out to their executions to tunes of 'hallelujah' and the bakground fading to the sky as they 'walk' into heaven.

The film has solid elements, it doesn't portray miracles on screen, (miracles look no different from a special effect on screen, so your focus is not on the spiritual side of the miracle but on the effect) the romans think of Jesus as just a Palestinian radical and most don't even think he's worth thinking about at all, the lack of a 'mental' anachronism in the roman attitudes here is refreshing. otoh, the film does the thing Ben Hur and countless other films did in hiding Jesus' face, so we only ever see bits of his body, but never his actual countenance, we only get the stunned, reverent deer-in-headlights-face from the actors who look about someone that apparently shone with illumination while he walked the earth. eh. never a fan of that approach.

Overall pretty weak because the story is not all that interesting or strong. It almost becomes worthwhile, mostly it's just 'eh'. 4 of 10

[locke]

Monsters vs Aliens is kinda stupid, goofy fun. Seth Rogen and Hugh Laurie and Kiefer Sutherland are all good, Stephen Colbert as the president is brilliant (and there's not enough of him, but just the right amount, you know what I mean). The 3D is really good and the animation is quite inventive, but you know, my favorite character was definitely insectosaurus. So very awesome. Susan, the 50ft woman, was kind of bland, she had such a blatent arc it was hammy and didn't work so much. I mean to say, when we get to all the scenes about her 'character development' they roll in with a 'clunk clunk clunk here comes the character moments' shouted subtlety. She worked on the spaceship, showing down with Galactar, but overall, watching her arc was sort of like if Spiderman woke up and said huh, I got these powers, did some stuff by accident, then in the next scene had total mastery of what he could do with no transition to understanding himself at all. So that's probably the biggest problem. It is a fun, harmless movie, and enjoyable in IMAX, much better than Beowulf (the last movie I saw in IMAX), and the blow s*** up action set pieces are entertaining. overall I'll be generous and give it a 7 of 10 though it's really more of a 6

Fast and Furious is better than I anticipated, but then I've not seen any of the other three movies. The plot was coherent, the characters were interesting, and while the story may not be the freshest, it was told sincerely. And most important of all, the action was brilliantly put together. Extremely fun, all sorts of loud and just a very grunty, sweaty movie. A very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon. I do think Vin Diesel is underrated for how well he can command a screen, and I think he has more acting chops in him than anyone has yet mined. I also sort of think that his scene talking to (and seducing, but not really seducing) the one girl, about "20% angel, not afraid to get grease under her fingernails" probably made a hell of a lot of girls go, "urrrrggggh, mmmmm, yeah..." a 7 of 10 cause I was really entertained and had fun with it and who really cares how generic it is.

[BonitoDeMadrid]

Highly recommended, especially if you like to be touched

Didn't realize that.

[locke]

Z is a masterpiece on pretty much every level. A mesmerizing and perfect film that is astonishing and relentless. my question has always been, "Why's it called Z?" and I still didn't understand until the final line of the film, which explains the title. (wikipedia can fill in the spoiler for you, I'm sure, but I'm not going to say).

Greece, the early sixties, an opposition party group has scheduled an intellectual to give a speech in a hall. since it is an indoor speech, they don't need a permit. pressure has been put on the hall owner though, and he kicks them out, they can't find another hall that will take them, nor can they get a permit. They get into a small room near a square and rig some loudspeakers to broadcast the speech to those outside (so the speech isn't being given outside, people just happen to be listening to loudspeakers that just happen to be there). Thugs are hired to attack the people handing out flyers explaining the change of venue. There's a large police presence at the site of the actual speech. The police watch blandly as thugs attack the opposition folks who are merely crossing the square from one building to another. The opposition has heard that there is to be a murder attempt on their intellectual, so they are on guard, but the police laugh off the threat as a prank (deliberately) and the intellectual himself is so used to death threats that it doesn't phase him in the slightest.

The extremely unpleasant subject which has all the right wingers up in arms? it's basically, Nuclear Weapons are Bad, War is bad, Peace is good. This enrages many people, and indeed after the speech, the police let through a small vehicle that swings by the intellectual while he is walking and someone in the back of the vehicle clubs him viciously in the head. He drops to his knees and eventually collapses. cut to the hospital. The army and police are there too, talking about what a shame it was that the drunkard somehow got through all their barricades and happened to swerve into the intellectual and knock him down. They talk about what a tragic accident it was. Meantime the doctors are operating, but like Lincoln, the intellectual will not live. A special prosecuter/judge is brought in to clear up things quickly, but he finds curious discrepancies and he begins to unwind the case discovering a conspiracy to murder this man to teach the opposition a lesson. A conspiracy that infects the police and military forces.

Brilliant film, amazing in every respect. I was especially taken with the editing, which is brilliant. One I'd own in a heartbeat.

Oh, and as the film prefaces:

Any resemblance to real events, to persons living or dead, is not accidental. It is DELIBERATE.

[locke]

forgot to review Teen Witch, which I watched monday night.

Teen Witch is very much an eighties movie. Despite that, it feels eerily similar to nineties Nickelodeon and Disney Channel fare. I sort of feel that a lot of people involved in this wound up producing The Secret World of Alex Mack, Clarissa Explains it all, Saved by the Bell, the adventures of Pete and Pete or more recently stuff like Even Stevens or Lizzie Maguire. It just has that same sort of sweet sincere goofy exuberance to it. And to a degree you got to love that. And then the movie also hilariously bad. From a romance with a guy who is not only QB he's also an actor and needing an english tutor (omg, our hero is so good at english, that's so perfect!) and very, very gay. Seriously, when the film gives him a scene that's a blatent rip off of the sexy shirtless dancing scene in Dirty Dancing he looks more gay than what's his face that played Superman in Superman returns. heh. Anyway, the Edwardian object of lust for our young nymphette is naturally out of reach for her. Despite being (quite easily) the best looking girl in her school she is somehow an outcast and unpopular.

digression, did popularity work in ANYONE'S high school the way it works in eighties movies? at my school we were pretty much carefully segregated by college prep or other various tracts with mostly the same the students, the high school population at large didn't mix much at school nor did it have any perceivable defined pecking order.

anyway, there are random and terrifying yet hilarious musical numbers throughout the film. There's a scene where our heroine gets to act out a love scene from the play they're both auditioning for but she doesn't get to kiss him. there's a scene when her diary love letter to him is read out loud to class. there's a school dance. and on and on. basically name a high school movie cliche and it is somewhere in this film, which is impressive.

Impressive because, on top of all of that, the film also has a sideplot about her being a witch. Which is how she facilitates becoming popular of course (unlike say, She's all That, wherein the girl just needs contact lenses and a LBD to get popular). anyway, the magic scenes are pretty fun, goofy, and totally in the low budget, sound effects and squinty eyes manner of television magic (what she couldn't twitch her nose?). And the crazy dwarf psychic lady from Poltergeist shows up too! and she's charming and funny and the best thing about the film. heh.

Yeah, this movie is a mess and all over the place, but it's sincere, dumb and very funny. worth watching for entertainment value alone for which it is probably a 7, on an objective scale it's more like a 4, but eh, bad movies can be quite good if that's what you want.

[locke]

Arigatosan is a truly terrific japanese film, a great 'rediscovery' in the west of a forgotten (here) masterpiece. marvelous wonderful movie that feels very miyazaki to me. Loved it.

--
The Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Franco Zefferelli version of Taming of the Shrew is one of the worst adaptations of shakespeare I've ever seen. Avoid at all costs. 10 Things I Hate ABout You has a hell of a lot more of the play in it than this travesty of an adaptation did. Awful.