Damn, I only have time to watch movies on weekends part 11: AJDaGreat's part-of-2006 movie guide. A New York Times Bestseller. "Indispensable." - Houston Chronicle. "Mediocre." - USA Today. (Can't win 'em all.)
Submitted by AJDaGreat on Sun, 04/23/2006 - 06:53
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- 1. Bhaji on the Beach (1993) - Q: If you take a very formulaic, mainstream story idea with lame humor and bad directing, but have most of the cast be played by minorities, does that make it important? A: No. Though it is mildly entertaining.
- 2. The Hire (episodes Ambush, Chosen, Hostage, Beat the Devil, Ticker so far) (2001-2002) - Must buy BMWs... must buy BMWs... must buy BMWs...
- Sorry. These short films were produced as a marketing strategy for BMW. I wish all advertising was this awesome. The films are supposed to be about BMWs doing awesome things, but each one is a fun, spiffily-directed by famous directors, adrenaline-pumping short film in its own right. Of the ones I've watched so far, I will say Hostage (dir: John Woo) and Ticker (dir: Joe Carnahan) are the best. Ambush (dir: John Frankenheimer) is cool but lacks an interesting hook. Chosen (dir: Ang Lee) makes me think that Lee was the wrong choice for someone to direct one of these films. Beat the Devil (Tony Scott) is good but really frickin' weird. Overall, an entertaining DVD so far. I'll keep you posted on the last three films when I see them.
- 3. Grease (1978) - Grease, the musical, is an ensemble show with some good music and a lot of corny fun. Grease, the movie, is all about John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, and Stockard Channing. I don't know why someone decided the movie couldn't handle supporting characters, but the result really drags. The three leads aren't interesting enough to carry the film dramatically, and with the comedic characters marginalized, the movie isn't nearly as funny as it should be. The songs that they added for the movie are really shitty, and the ones they cut out (or had playing in the background) would have been entertaining, but alas. The theater version of Grease is hardly high art, but it's cheesy fun; the movie version couldn't even get that right.
- 4. Inside Man (2006) - You know those films that are so mysterious and awesome all the way through, that you just know the ending can't live up to the build-up? Yeah, this is one of them, though things could have been a lot worse. The ending is disappointing because in some ways, it hammers every plot point into your head as it spells everything out for you, and in other ways, not enough is explained; Spoiler: Highlight to viewwhat I still don't get is why Clive Owen wrote that "follow the ring" note in the safe deposit box. If he was only in it for the money, what does he care if Christopher Plummer is caught?
- But hey, let's not dote on the ending, because the movie is so great for so long. Clive Owen creates the perfect sense of mystery for his character, Denzel Washington is great as always, and the thrilling script strings the audience along scene after scene. In addition, the little details in the script create a wonderful touch of humanity and humor to the atmosphere. The supporting cast is terrific, with the possible exception of Jodie Foster, who needs a better agent. It's easy to get wrapped up in this film, and it's easy to be disappointed when the ending, while not terrible, just can't live up to what has come before.
- 5. In This World (2002) - Shot in a gritty documentary style, this film recounts the tale of two Afghan refugees heading for Britain. It's the kind of film critics will love, because what it does is unique, it has political import, and the images are often interesting. If you've guessed that the film's languid pace and dearth of dialogue also make it pretty tedious to watch, you're also correct. At least it's only 88 minutes, though, and when all's said and done, I would recommend watching this film.
- 6. Bread and Roses (2000) - For a while, this film really drags. A few early action scenes are compellingly directed here, but other than that the characters and dialogue are written in a very boring way. It's a discussion about unions put into the mouths of thinly drawn characters. Anti-union opinions are heard, but that doesn't make this any less of pro-union soapboxing, especially because the anti-union boss Perez is a one-dimensional, profane jackass.
- Somewhere along the line everything changes. The last half-hour of the film is quite excellent. We start to see the characters really take form, and the film transcends its preachiness and actually gets us involved in what's going on. Too little too late? Perhaps, but there's one scene between Rosa and Maya that's almost worth watching the whole film for.
- 7. V for Vendetta (2005) - I have been trying to start this review for a long time, but I have not been completely successful. I am trying to come up with a brilliant point to justify thinking this movie is amazing despite how radically pro-terrorism it seems to be. I could say that that's not the movie's perspective, it's all about how the characters feel, but you've heard that one before. Besides, is that even true? Maybe no person involved with the making this movie is actually this radical, but the movie is. The movie depicts certain atrocities as, well, simply glorious. I couldn't imagine watching this film if I were British; I think I'd be appalled. But like The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover earlier this year, which also made some people feel very uncomfortable, I found the visuals just stunning. To what extent can you enjoy the visceral components of a film while distancing yourself from its message? Well, I can't promise I won't criticize a movie in the future because I disagree with what it has to say, but at least here the argument is extremely compelling and elegant. It won't convince me to join any terrorist organizations, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
- 8. Seinfeld: The Complete 6th Season (1994-1995) - You guys must get really bored of hearing me rave about my favorite shows season after season. I talk about important things that happened in the season, like saying that the 6th season included George getting a toupee as well as Jon Voight's car, Elaine working for Mr. Pitt, Jerry accepting an Armani suit from Kenny Bania, and of course the discovery of Kramer's first name. Plenty of hilarious episodes here, and no real clunkers, though the clip show is boring (but hey, what else is new).
- Here's one for ya:
- (George and Jerry are pretending they haven't seen each other since high school, for the sake of two onlookers. George is pretending to be a millionaire architect.)
- Lois: Have you designed any buildings in New York?
- George: Have you seen the new addition to the Guggenheim?
- Lois: You did that?
- George: Yep. And it didn't take very long, either.
- Jerry: Well. You've really built yourself up into something.
- George: Well, I had a dream, Jerry.
- Jerry: One cannot help but wonder what brings you into a crummy little coffee shop like this.
- George: Well, I like to stay in touch with the people.
- Jerry: Ah. You know, you have a hole in your sneaker there. What is that, canvas?
- George: You know my driver's waiting, I really should get running. Good to see you guys again.
- 9. Talk to Her (2002) (watched again) - Still as wonderful and compelling as I remembered.
- 10. Thank You For Smoking (2005) - Watching this movie, I was in the (honestly, fairly rare for me) position of having read the book previously. The book is an excellent satirical book that, while not laugh-out-loud funny, derives dark humor from situations rather than punchlines. The movie follows in that vein quite nicely, and it wisely gets rid of some convoluted plot elements of the book in order to tell a simpler story. There's certainly no way the film could have maintained its 92-minute running time otherwise. The ending, however, makes the movie seem more amoral than the book, which would be okay if not for Aaron Eckhart's narration where he talks about his decision to be responsible and do the right thing. But, whatever. The cast is pitch-perfect, and Jason Reitman's direction hits all the right notes to create a very solid film.Spoiler: Highlight to viewHe takes a job representing cell phone companies, so what, the moral is, represent something that's probably not as dangerous as cigarettes? Again, it's a more realistic ending that the book's (where Naylor ends up as an anti-tobacco spokesman), but don't gimme that crap about responsibility.
- 11. Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - I've heard that this was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite movie that he directed. I really need to stop reading information about directors' personal favorites of their own work, because I never agree with them. Don't get me wrong, I really did like the movie, but I felt it was lacking something - perhaps a "money shot." I mean, I've seen plenty of Hitchcock films, many only one time, and there are still vivid images of each film that stick out in my memory. There aren't any really memorable shots like that in Shadow of a Doubt, in my opinion, and I guess I was expecting a bit more in terms of the suspense as well. Alas...
- 12. The Wedding Crashers (2005) (watched again) - My stupid friends wanted to watch this DVD, so I sat through it all over again. Watching it again, I laughed a few times, and it was almost all at Vince Vaughn's nuttiness. He's a very good comic actor, he has good chemistry with Owen Wilson, and ya know what, I bet he improvised a good deal of his lines, which means I give this script even less credit. I also thought some of Randolph the butler's moments were kinda funny (some of which were only in the unrated version).
- On the other hand, maybe this feeling was amplified by the fact that I was sitting through a movie I really didn't like the first time, but man does this movie drag. The unrated version is two hours and eight minutes, which is way too long for a comedy with so few funny aspects, and there's so much boring drama in the middle there. Overall, though, this movie is not completely abysmal, and I might have enjoyed it if it had focused entirely on the four leads. It's just too hard to ignore Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour, Bradley Cooper, Will Ferrell, the foul-mouthed grandma, the gay artistic son, and the other preppy douchebags.
- 13. NewsRadio: The Complete Third Season (1996-1997) - I can't say much about this show, because those who haven't seen it will just have to see for themselves to realize it's so much more clever, well-written, and well-acted than almost every other sitcom on TV. The third season keeps up the screwball hilarity while also delving a bit deeper into the characters and coming up with interesting revelations all around. Led Zeppelin Boxed Set is a fascinating study of Matthew and Bill's work relationship, whereas Awards Show (while not quite as funny as some other episodes) contains some excellent drama regarding Dave. There are lots and lots of hilarious episodes here, though my favorites would have to be Arcade, Movie Star, Led Zeppelin Boxed Set, Complaint Box, Rose Bowl, and Twins. You may have noticed, though, that none of my favorites came from Disc 3. The last five episodes of this season (not including The Injury, which for some reason was on this DVD set despite being included on the first one) tend to find NewsRadio experimenting with a weirder, darker sense of humor, to mixed success. The last five episodes involve, respectively: Bill in an insane asylum, Jimmy in a coma, Matthew in a sexual plotline (ugh), Dave publicly insulting the competence of every other character, and six characters dying in the year 2228. Most of these dark situations are dealt with pretty awkwardly. I hope this isn't an indication of what is to come for the fourth season.
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- 14. 24: The Complete Fourth Season (2005) - Here are some nitpicks to distract you from the fact that the fourth season of 24 rocked my world.
- More than previous seasons, the little random scenes in each episode began to annoy me in the fourth season. I actually can't remember - does 24 always spend so much time repeating the current status of the operation to the higher-ups on camera? It got on my nerves whenever someone told Audrey or Bill some exposition that the viewers already knew about. Other lame detail scenes bothered me too, like the endless fights between Chloe and Edgar, and every time argued withSpoiler: Highlight to viewTonyand one inevitably just ended up apologizing, and God did I hate James Heller at CTU, since he basically only existed to get pissed off at whatever recent decision was made. My guess is that these scenes were more necessary in this season than in seasons past because there were no real subplots to speak of. I mean, there were different characters' perspectives, but everyone was pretty much working on the same thing. There was no presidential scandal, just a boring white guy without character traits (Spoiler: Highlight to viewMichelle); there was no Kim running into a mountain lion or whatever the hell that thing was; there was no mysterious baby in CTU... hmm, okay, maybe staying away from subplots is a good thing sometimes. My preference, of course, would be well-written subplots (as David Palmer's tended to be) or well-written time-filling scenes. [Nota bene:Spoiler: Highlight to viewI was happy when Logan took over. Another boring white guy, sure, but at least he had a personality.]Spoiler: Highlight to viewYes, I know the stuff with Erin Driscoll's daughter was kind of a subplot, but I'm not counting it because it really only existed to get Driscoll out of there and bring Michelle back. Not to mention it was completely unbelievable that a schizophrenic patient would have had access to razor blades and been able to slit her wrists bad enough to bleed to death in a well-staffed medical area. Edgar even expressed disbelief when he first heard about this, which made me think Maya's death would be more explored, but no, it was left as unbelievable as it was. I guess some of Behrooz's stuff was kind of a subplot, but even he and Dina just ended up at CTU. His scenes with Debbie were great, though.
- Another nitpick I have is that Jack Bauer should really learn to slash people's tires. Spoiler: Highlight to viewYeah, holding up a gas station is a pretty funny way to deal with the situation of a fleeing suspect, but Jack could've just bought himself time by popping or shooting the tires and letting the terrorist deal with that. Even better, when Jack approached that warehouse thing where Jason and Kelly Girard took the football, he could have popped Marwan's tires to prevent Marwan's future escape. But I guess the hindsight to shoot tires is 20-20, eh?
- If you want to hear me blah blah about how frickin' awesome 24 is, you can read any of the other season reviews I've posted. What I've posted this time should let you know that I am well aware of the show's minor flaws, but the action, drama, and suspense are all so astonishingly well done that they completely overwhelm all the show's faults. I watched this whole season in less than a week.
- As a side note, for anyone who caught the season on TV, the DVDs contain a deleted scene that actually tells us what happens to Behrooz: Spoiler: Highlight to viewThe terrorists are about to kill the kid, but Curtis saves him. Behrooz is still mad about how Curtis didn't tell him about his mother's death, but I think we're supposed to believe that Behrooz will end up okay in the Witness Protection Program. As for why the scene was deleted, my guess is that the writers knew the terrorists would have to try to kill Behrooz, but they felt Curtis's miraculous rescue of Behrooz was too hard to believe, and they weren't willing to actually show his death, so they just left out his fate entirely.
- As a final side note, Blockbuster sucks. It cost me 27 dollars to rent all these DVDs from the store. I might as well have just bought the set.
- 15. The Lost Weekend (1945) - "I just made pictures I would've liked to see." - Billy Wilder
- "The Wilder message is don't bore people." - Billy Wilder
- Billy Wilder tackles some weighty material and maintains the integrity of the drama while still adding some of his trademark wit. This could have been really dry, tedious melodrama, but it's actually really enjoyable as well as dramatic, and you can see why from the quotes above. Billy Wilder is rarely considered among the all-time greatest directors because his style isn't distinctive or showy enough, but every film he made is so damn easy to love. He also knows when to make the film's other assets speak for themselves, and here the film is blessed with an excellent script and a really gripping centerpiece performance by Ray Milland. The supporting cast is great too. Some of the Best Picture winners from this era are very dated today, but I think this one has stood the test of time quite well. It's still an excellent film.
- 16. Jackie Brown (1997) - Tarantino directs an Elmore Leonard adaptation. It's not a masterpiece like Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs; it's not an exhilarating thrillfest like Kill Bill Vol. 1, but, uh, at least it's better than Kill Bill Vol. 2. No, just kidding, this is a great film, it's just that Tarantino shouldn't be spending his time on such a conventional project. For what it is, it's extremely solid, of course. I often like Elmore Leonard adaptations, and Tarantino is overqualified to direct it. It's a great script with interesting characters and a fun plot. It's just that Tarantino can often blow my mind, and during this movie my mind definitely remained un-blown.
- 17. Day of Wrath (1943) - I went into this movie with preconceived notions about witchcraft, what with the connotations that the term "witch hunt" has today. I was really not expecting a movie in which real witches seriously existed, and I think the drama is all the more compelling for that reason. It's a great film, but I've heard such superlative things about the film's atmosphere, and to be honest, it didn't blow me away. Perhaps I was expecting a bit much, but I found The Passion of Joan of Arc to be much more haunting. I think the film could have used some more music to help with the atmosphere; oftentimes I thought the movie was awkwardly silent. Still, though, a great film by Dreyer.
- 18. Salesman (1969) - An excellent documentary that captures the hidden desperation behind subjects who need to be experts at keeping up appearances and fronts. Ordinarily I'd stall for time here, but I think I'll just admit that I have nothing else to say.
- 19. Alias: The Complete 4th Season (2005) - Apparently Alias was switched to Wednesdays for this season, and the producers wanted to use this opportunity to attract more viewers. To do this, they decided to start the season off with a string of self-contained episodes. Hence, for an Alias fan, the season gets off to a frustrating start, abandoning the twists and turns and character revelations of the overall story and sticking to individual missions for a while. Some of the early episodes are great, while some are just mediocre. The first episode of the season is a pretty big offender. It wraps up the 3rd season cliffhanger with an explanation that contradicts everything in the last episode of the 3rd season, it throws together all the major characters in a groan-worthy set-up, and the plot twist is extremely implausible... Spoiler: Highlight to viewyeah, the guy they just so happen to be chasing in this episode is the exact guy who was hired to kill Sydney. Right.
- In a way, the set-up stopped mattering as the season progressed. At least Alias is being honest with us. They're admitting that these characters are the only people we really care about, and we're going to force them to work together no matter how unbelievable it is. Hey, this isn't 24, we're just trying to have some fun, alright? And keeping that attitude in mind, this season is tons of fun. It's not too long before we get back to the ongoing storyline, and by then, I was completely hooked. I had to slog through the first 8 episodes or so (some of which were quite excellent, they just didn't have me gripped from one episode to the next), but I watched the last 14 episodes in an extremely short timespan, and by the end, I had forgotten all about the stupid 3rd season cliffhanger. Partially because the 4th season cliffhanger is even cooler.
- 20. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - When I told my dad I was seeing this movie, he commented, "I didn't know you were an X-Men fan." Watching the movie, I realized: Damn, I am an X-Men fan. Even in this series entry that everyone can't stop criticizing, I loved all the elements that makes X-Men different from so many other superhero movies. The X-Men movies are about an entire school of mutants, their place in society, and the political issues that surround them. In what other superhero movie can you see a mutant politician in the president's cabinet, and then later see that mutant kick ass and take names? In what other superhero movie is the arch-villain so easy to sympathize with? ("Magneto, I don't agree with your methods of death and destruction, but you're totally right about how mutant cures are offensive.") I actually felt bad for Magneto at the end of the movie. Furthermore, in an era when you can watch CGI-infused movies about boring robots shooting boring bullets at each other and creating boring explosions, this is a movie whose special effects were extremely creative. The special effects dazzled me, and if you've heard me bitch about overuse of special effects before, you must realize how difficult that is.
- One part of the ending goes astray, in my opinion: Spoiler: Highlight to viewhow Wolverine deals with Jean Grey. I mean, she's shattering people left and right, including Professor Xavier who is presumably a very powerful mutant. How is Wolverine the "only one who can stop her" and able to just walk right up to her? One of my friends proposed that he could do that because he heals instantly, but I don't think Wolverine's healing works for being shattered. And then why does he have to kill her, anyway? Why not just cure her? Why not save one of the cure needles that they stab into Magneto instead of wasting four on him? I don't get it.
- Anyone who tells you that the movie never really goes in-depth for its serious issues is probably right. But anyone who tells you the movie isn't tremendously entertaining is lying.
- 21. High School Musical (2006) - After my friends watched X3, we checked out this Disney Channel movie purely for the prospect of mocking it. I haven't seen a movie this truly horrendous in a long time. Ya know, it's one thing to adhere to clichés, but it's quite another to be bad in ways I had never dreamed of. This movie does both.
- Let's see, where to start. Every musical number feels jarringly unnatural because the song sounds like they produced the hell out of it and the kids are poor lip-synchers. But that's okay, because the songs are just awful. One song called "Stick to the Status Quo" is about three people who have secret passions outside of their cliques, including a girl in the smart person clique who loves hip-hop and apparently would be ostracized by her friends if this fact became known. The respective cliques of the leads, Troy and Gabriella, join forces to drive them apart and convince them not to try out for the musical, and then it takes about ten seconds of Troy and Gabriella looking sad before the cliques relent. The public school looks like it has multimillion-dollar funding. At one point a girl manages to use a laptop to send a virus to a scoreboard. Then she uses it to send a virus to a Bunsen burner. The movie contains the line "Evaporate, tall person!" Not to be outdone, the movie later has someone referring to pianist Kelsi as "short person." The movie was directed by a choreographer, and it shows; they went all-out with the dancing, and while that aspect of the film actually displays competence, it also produced tons of unintentional laughter. The movie doesn't understand how to construct decent dialogue, how to create humor (besides unintentionally), what high school is like, how high schoolers think or feel, or how to create one character who seems like a real person instead of a tired stereotype. All of my friends agreed that it was Godawful. One friend said she was going to go home and kill herself after the movie. We watched the making-of documentary hoping for more laughs, and at one point someone commented that Kenny (the director/choreographer) was the heart and soul of the film, and one of my friends shouted out, "THEN I HATE KENNY!" That pretty much sums it up.
- 22. Pierrot le Fou (1965) - This Godard-directed movie at some times plays like an absurd parody of his film Breathless. Godard once said that all you need to make a movie is a gun and a girl. Breathless reflected that sort of minimalism, but Pierrot le Fou has a bit more color in more than one sense of the word. It also contains a moment in which Pierrot delivers a line directly at the camera and when Marianna asks him who he's talking to, he says, "The audience, of course." You won't see anything like that in Breathless. I love the absurd style of this movie and the way it takes crime-drama-type genre picture conventions and spins them all around. The result is strangely satisfying for a film that is both artistically interesting and personally enjoyable.
- 23. Tremors (1989) - I am often bored by horror movies, but this one had a fierce energy that was tons of fun to get involved in. The movie has a good sense of humor but takes its eminent danger very seriously. It's easy to believe how frightened the characters are. I have not much else to say, and I'm not sure that's my fault.
- 24. Brick (2005) - If you've heard about this film, you've probably heard Film-Noir + Teen Movie. Indeed, I was impressed with how effectively the script translated noir-style dialogue and plot devices into a modern-day high school while still maintaining a plot and style that are interesting on their own merits. Rian Johnson is primarily a mimic here, however, and because he seems like a very talented filmmaker, I would love to see what he does when he is trying out a style all his own. As a side note, my dad found the style of this movie really hard to get into. The dialogue is obviously more suited for hardboiled detectives than high school students, but I enjoyed the juxtaposition. You may find it annoying, though.
- 25. Mission: Impossible III (2006) - This is the film directorial debut of J.J. Abrams, creator of Felicity, Alias, and Lost. The script was written by J.J. and two other Alias writers. The movie had been going on for alarmingly little time before I started feeling like I was watching a two-hour Alias episode with different characters. If J.J. was trying to avoid audiences getting that conception, he screws up big time early on by dropping three big hints: (1) The first scene starts in the middle of things and then cuts to the real beginning of the story a few days earlier. (2) Greg Grunberg shows up at a party. (3) They use some code sentences of the sort that Alias was obsessed with in the fourth season. The film then proceeds to take us to cool locations all over the world and give us subtitles to tell us where we are. It contains an intentional-distraction scene in which two characters pretend to be fighting while speaking fluent Italian that feels straight out of Alias. It contains a character who is basically the British version of Marshall Flinkman. And of course, it contains characters dying when they're not really dead.
- Is this a problem for the movie? I found it a little distracting (partially exacerbated by the fact that this particular theater had digital projection, so I felt more like I was watching a big plasma screen TV than a film), but I still enjoyed the movie, just like I enjoy Alias. If this movie didn't see J.J. really experimenting or trying new things, to his credit, not many directors can say they established a style I associate with them before they ever made a movie. And for someone who loves playing dress-up with Jennifer Garner, J.J. probably loved having those silly masks at his disposal. Now I'd just like to see some 24 directors make summer blockbusters. That's be pretty sweet.
- Oh, I must mention the cast. All very strong, but I especially enjoyed the hell out of villainous Philip Seymour Hoffman kicking ass. And after the Matrix trilogy, it's nice to see Laurence Fishburne acting in an action movie. Or at least acting like he's alive.
- 26. An Inconvenient Truth (2006) - In high school I had an acquaintance named Rusty who was starting an environmental club. He was organizing a trip to go and pick up litter at a park on a Saturday morning. He asked me if I'd like to go along.
- "No thanks," I said.
- "Come on, man," he said. "Don't you care about the environment?"
- "Sure I care about the environment. I just don't care about it enough to wake up early on a Saturday morning to pick up other people's trash."
- "If you care about the environment but don't care enough to do anything about it, what's the point of caring at all?" he asked me.
- "Are you saying I should stop caring about the environment?" I said. "Okay, Rusty, if it'll make you feel better, I'll stop caring about the environment."
- I was kidding then, but my laziness in doing anything about the environment has remained constant throughout my life. You can tell me to think globally and act locally all you want, but it's hard for me to get motivated to act locally when so many other people are remaining locally inactive. What can one man do?
- I'm sure many people have this impression in their heads, which is why we need someone to go out and motivate us and ensure that we act locally. Get environmentalism in the public eye and get people to actually give a shit about it. Then I'll start helping. And the only people who can do that are the people in power. As Al Gore says in this movie, when there's an issue that's not really on the tips of the constituents' tongues, it's easy for politicians to ignore that issue. Which is why I think the most important message of this movie is just to care. The credits list plenty of ways you can start acting locally, but what we need is for the people in power to start correcting this problem, and I'm not too cynical to think that politicians will just continuously ignore matters that their constituents actually care about (that is, as long as we don't have a president and vice president whom the oil companies have by the balls). So what should you do? Give a shit. Actually care about environmentalism. The most powerful and shocking part of this movie is a sequence that shows what will happen if enough ice from Antarctica and/or Greenland melts. Scientists can predict very precisely how the worldwide sea level will rise. So I'm sure we'll start caring about global warming eventually. I just hope it happens before Manhattan is partially submerged in water.
- An Inconvenient Truth is a fascinating and disturbing film. Not quite the thrill ride that the trailer promises, but Al Gore is actually a pretty engaging and often witty speaker in this lecture. Some parts got tedious (okay, we get it, ice is melting in lots and lots of places), and some of the segments about Gore's personal life seemed a little unnecessary to the movie's point, but overall it's an interesting movie about a very important issue.
- 27. Meat Love (1989) - I recently watched five Jan Svankmajer shorts. In this one-minute film, two pieces of meat are cut off from the hunk, after which they proceed to waltz, have sex, and get cooked. When I first saw it, I thought the message was nihilistic - do whatever you want, we'll all just get cooked and eaten in the end. The IMDB comment on it proposed the slightly less depressing theme: that it's about "how people treat each other like meat." Either way, it's an entertaining absurdity.
- 28. Flora (1989) - Even shorter than Meat Love, it's not quite as interesting IMHO (although it looked more difficult to make).
- 29. The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (1990) - A history of communism in Czechoslovakia told in hyperspeed. Not knowing very much about Czechoslovakian communism, I'm sure some of it went over my head. Even so, I found a lot of the symbolism quite fascinating, but I won't spoil any of the images. Check it out.
- 30. The Pit, the Pendulum, and the Hope (1983) - Boring, except for the cool ending.
- 31. Dimensions of Dialogue (1982) - The best Svankmajer short I've seen, rich in bizarre visual imagery and surely saying something as well. I had already seen the first part, which is the most complex, but the second and third parts certainly did not disappoint (part three was hilarious). A brilliant short film that really must be seen.
- 32. Cars (2006) - One thing that has always amazed me about Pixar's films is the voice actor casting. Here is a film whose four leads are (1) Owen Wilson, a comedic actor enjoying big popularity right now, (2) Paul Newman, a legend and one of the greatest actors of all-time, (3) Larry the Cable Guy, a third-rate comedian on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, and (4) Bonnie Hunt, who is, um, Bonnie Hunt. I never thought I'd see a movie that starred Paul Newman and Larry the Cable Guy in approximately equal-size roles, and I'm sure I'm not alone. But ya know what? It just works. They just know the perfect voice for every part, and they always have - remember, in Pixar's first feature-length film, the stars were one of the most acclaimed actors of the modern era and the star of Home Improvement and The Santa Clause. And it just worked.
- Some people are calling this a lesser effort by Pixar - heck, Roger Ebert gave it three stars, which for him is like a turd sandwich - but I don't think it tarnishes their incredible track record. In fact, I think it might be a better movie than The Incredibles, as it has more to say about life and stuff. Moments in Cars are really touching, in ways that you might not think a movie about cars could be. But of course... this is Pixar.
- I shouldn't have to tell you, but stay for the credits. Some extra scenes followed by some really hilarious inside jokes.
- 33. United 93 (2006) - If you've been reading my previous reviews, you might recall that I don't tend to like this sort of unbiased documentary-style movie where there aren't really developed characters. This is in that style, but it really worked for me, probably because of the recency of 9/11 and the emotional baggage that day carries with it. Yes, I doubt the film will work quite as well twenty years from now, especially for non-Americans, but my subjective experience right now is that this is a masterfully made film.
- 34. Napoleon (1927) - I hate to keep referring to my old reviews, but you may have seen me complaining about biopics of late. Most modern-day biopics don't care about telling a decent story, they merely take a well-known figure and string together a handful of scenes from his/her life that pack an emotional punch, then make some shit up too and call it a movie. The worst part is I can rarely bring myself to bash a biopic because the emotional scenes are usually very good. It just seems like such a half-assed way to make a movie.
- I could be wrong, but Napoleon may well have invented this formula. That alone would make it an extremely important film, but this film also does wonderful things with its camera, including what may be the first use of widescreen. Of course Abel Gance does it in a rather unconventional way by showing the film on three screens right next to each other, but the idea is the same. The innovative style and (sigh) the emotional punches make this an extremely enjoyable film. It's held up surprisingly well, and I'm impressed at how much I got into this four-hour French silent biopic. In fact, like most films that invent clichés, the conventions are so well done here that I barely even thought of it as a biopic while watching it.
- 35. The Proposition (2005) - This has been a bit overrated by critics, methinks, but it's still a good movie. The story has a good deal of dead time, but when things are actually happening, they are so good that it's easy to forgive the slow parts. The great performances and direction help.
- 36. Over the Hedge (2006) - A fairly entertaining animated summer blockbuster, but there are two sequences in the film that are sheer brilliance: (1) when RJ the raccoon explains to his forest buddies how humans are positively obsessed with food, and (2) . For #1, it was just so hilarious to see what a non-human observer would think of how Americans live, and it made me think that if the movie contained even more of this animal commentary on American human life, it could've been better. It's still good, though.Spoiler: Highlight to viewwhen the hyperactive squirrel Hammy is given caffeine and then moves so fast that the world literally stops
- As a final note on this movie, the voice acting in here should emphasize even further what I said about Pixar in my Cars review. Over the Hedge features a few characters that aren't particularly interesting but which probably exist just to feature one more big name in the credits. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, for example, are fine in their roles but their talents aren't really needed here. Pixar just doesn't pull that kinda crap.
- 37. A Prairie Home Companion (2006) - I'd say this is Robert Altman's best film since Short Cuts, except I've only really seen one Altman film since Short Cuts. And this is indeed better than Gosford Park. It's a strange movie though. Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, and Garrison Keillor himself cover the country music program very well, but on the fringe of the film stand Guy Noir (Kevin Kline), a private-detective-cum-security-guard who has slapstick comic moments that somehow aren't played for laughs, if that makes any sense, and a Dangerous Woman (Virginia Madsen) who is used in some fascinating visuals even though Altman usually tends to focus on creating style through dialogue more so than visual imagery. All this really worked for me, as did Lindsay Lohan, surprisingly enough, who proves that while she may party with Tara Reid and Paris Hilton, she can act circles around them. (Okay, that's hardly a compliment. Lohan is really good. Seriously.) Tommy Lee Jones is a bit wasted here, honestly, but whatever. This is an excellent film, and it also contains what is probably the best scene about duct tape in the history of films.
- 38. District B13 (2004) - At one point I was planning to blab on about how many aspects of our society are indirectly unfair to the disadvantaged, probably talk about crack vs. cocaine, schizophrenia vs. bipolar disorder, corporate crime vs. petty crimes, et al. But you probably already knew that, and so this movie's message is not incredibly original. It is important, though, and told extremely effectively in this thrilling story about a cop who wants to fairly uphold the law and the criminal who has to help him. If you don't like movies where the action plays fast and loose with the laws of physics for the sake of really frickin' cool stunts, you may want to avoid this one. But as for me, I thought it was fantastic.
- 39. Arrested Development: Season 1 (2003-2004) - Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. For a while I had been hearing about how great this show was. I wish I had listened sooner. For those of you who haven't seen it, picture the plot conventions of a sitcom in the style of a documentary, with top-notch characters, brilliant dialogue, and Ron Howard narrating. Might sound strange on paper, but damn, I guess I can't begin to describe it. Simply hilarious.
- Ah, here ya go.
- Barry Zuckerkorn: (in his car, to a hooker) You're not one of those silly men dressed like a woman, are you?
- Hooker: No, baby.
- (Barry drives away.)
- 40. The African Queen (1951) - Perhaps the most legendary actor and the most legendary actress of the "golden age" of Hollywood, united in an adventure/romance directed by John Huston, with few other characters to get in the way of these two stars. This is a great movie, but it must have sounded even better when it was pitched. It's not without flaws; some of the scenes end abruptly without going anywhere, and it disappoints me that Bogart's only Best Actor Oscar was for this weak-willed, obsequious character rather than his usual badass demeanor. But overally it's just a great story with plenty of wonderful touches. Bogart and Hepburn may have never been in another movie together, but here they make a wonderful team with plenty of chemistry.
- 41. Sleeper (1973) (watched again) - As a kid this was my favorite Woody Allen movie, and it's easy to see why, due to the good number of great slapstick sequences. Woody has a knack for intelligent, hilarious dialogue, and that's not really on display here. Still, an entertaining film.
- 42. Ten 'til Noon (2006) - I found this film at a place called the Fine Arts Theatre in L.A. It doesn't have a distributor yet (perhaps because it's rather risqué, and may have to be edited to get an R rating), hence only 54 votes on the IMDB. The average of those 54 votes is an 8.9, though, and it has the sort of creative narrative structure that I love watching so much. The majority of the movie takes place between 11:50 am and 12 noon. We see these ten minutes from six different characters' perspectives, and then there are some scenes afterwards to wrap everything up. It may never find a distributor, so if you notice it as a part of a festival circuit, jump at the chance to see it, because this is a terrific film. Occasionally the acting borders on histrionic, but that's the biggest criticism I can make here. Tight, edge-of-your-seat plotting, great characters and dialogue, I laughed, I cried, etc. etc. Probably my favorite movie of 2006 so far.
- 43. Superman Returns (2006) - Before I start this review, I should point out that I have not seen Superman 1-4, have not read any Superman comic books, have not watched any Superman TV show spinoffs, have not listened to the old-time Superman radio show, and have not had any exposure to Superman before seeing this movie. That having been said...
- At my job I heard people talking about this movie (before it came out) as if it were the next Citizen Kane, if not the next Messiah. "People are saying," they told me, "that it's better than just a great movie. It's gonna be a new classic."
- I tried to maintain realistic expectations for the film, and even I was disappointed. I'll give it one thing, Bryan Singer has invested plenty of time and money in the style and effects of the film. If the look had completely blown me away, that might have been enough, but it didn't; in fact, there were a few times where the CG looked pretty fake. I mean, X2 gave us a superhero movie that had examinations of complex characters, political struggles with relevance to today's issues, and a gripping storyline. Superman Returns gives us Lex Luthor with a scheme that doesn't make any sense and is resolved in a very confusing way, a plot twist that hinges on a henchman getting distracted in the laziest way I have ever seen, and parallels with Jesus Christ that are so obvious and undeveloped that they should have been left out entirely. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of things I liked about the movie, especially Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey, who made hilarious villains. Plenty of the early scenes work. But the film is way too long and too slow for it's own good, especially when the villain's scheme is as stupid as this one. If you want my honest opinion... Spoiler: Highlight to viewI preferred X3.
- 44. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) - Back when I had aspirations of being a screenwriter, I read a book called The Screenwriter's Bible that talked about Hollywood scripts as having a protagonist who WANTS something and who NEEDS something. I remember the book used Kramer vs. Kramer as an example, which is about a man who WANTS custody of his son but who NEEDS to learn to do what's best for his son's welfare.
- Jump forward a few years, when I'm no longer dead-set on screenwriting as a career. I am, however, taking an online screenwriting course through UCLA. Our first real assignment is to write a page of screenplay notes on the characterizations and structure of a script. This would require watching the movie, and yep, you guessed it, the movie was Kramer vs. Kramer.
- It's easy to see why this film is so conducive to instruction about writing Hollywood screenplays. There's nothing too ambitious about it, but it features a director who tells a good story without getting in the way, has very strong performances, and just represents solid conventional filmmaking. Of course, if you're going to make a mainstream, Academy-Award-snatching film, it doesn't hurt to have Dustin Hoffman in every scene; Meryl Streep helps too, though she's not in the movie enough; and JoBeth Williams proves what filmmakers could get away with in a PG-rated film in 1979. Yeesh!
- 45. The Clonus Horror (1979) - I'm taking a class this summer with one of the producers of this movie. He's suing the makers of The Island, the 2005 Michael Bay movie, because apparently the two movies are very similar. Watching the movie, I was reminded of the Friends episode where Ross submits a joke to Playboy that is apparently about a monkey doctor, and Chandler gets mad because he claims to have made up the joke himself. They get Monica to judge which of them was more likely to have made up the joke. After each presents his case, Monica says, "Alright, I've heard enough, I've made my decision - you are both idiots! The joke is not funny. And it's offensive to women. And doctors. And monkeys. You shouldn't be arguing over who gets credit, you should be arguing over who gets blamed for inflicting this horrible joke upon the world. Now let it go! The joke sucks!"
- My professor informed us that this is a cult classic. You can count me out of this cult. Alright, it's not as abysmal as it could've been, and considering this is a low-budget horror movie (and I'm generally not a fan of horror movies to begin with), I guess I liked this as much as I possibly could have. Which isn't much.
- 46. L'Enfant (2005) - A story about a young criminal that is extremely thoughtful and compelling, and not as simple as it seems. To me this was about Bruno's journey towards learning how to feel. He starts out very immature and just doesn't understand Sonia's emotional reaction after he . When he tries to make amends, there is still no real compassion behind what he is doing; he still says,Spoiler: Highlight to viewsells the childI think when the camerawork is in this style (handheld, and with cinematography that isn't much to look at), that places more burden on the narrative and characters to make a solid movie. Luckily, this story is up to the challenge. It's a movie that just keeps getting better the more I think about it.Spoiler: Highlight to view"I thought we could have another." But over the course of the film his life falls apart and he becomes a sort of father figure to young Steve, leading to the brilliant ending when he and Sonia just break down in sobs.
- 47. Arrested Development: Season 2 (2004-2005) - My obsession with this show continues, and don't be surprised if I've picked up season 3 (comes out in August) and finished it, and therefore the whole series, within a few summer months. Hilarious developments continue for the Bluth family, and again, I cannot recommend this show enough. There are many things that are original about this show and many ways in which it does the same old stuff, but better. The quality of writing and acting is just superb... all, that is, except for the episode Ready, Aim, Marry Me, a mediocre showing with Martin Short guest-starring as a tremendously unfunny paraplegic. Still, one misfire out of the 40 episodes I've now seen is a damn good average.
- And furthermore...
- Lindsay: You haven't really allowed yourself to grieve much at all, Michael.
- Michael: My relationship with Dad was much more, uh, much more complicated than yours. It was predicated on a lot of secrets and lies. There wasn't a whole lot of trust there, ya know?
- Lindsay: Mmm-hmm.
- Tobias: (about Michael) Here he comes. Here comes John Wayne. (walking like a cowboy) I'm not going to cry about my Pa. I'm going to build an airport, put my name on it. Why, Michael? So you can fly away from your feelings? You can keep them bottled up, but they will come out, Michael. Sometimes in the most unexpected (opens the fridge) - hey, WHERE THE (bleep) ARE MY HARD-BOILED EGGS?
- (Tobias walks away grieving.)
- P.S. I originally picked a different quote, but decided you might think I'm obsessed with Barry Zuckerkorn. However, I am, and hence I couldn't resist. Here's the other one:
- Michael: We need to speak to you about getting a divorce for Gob.
- Barry: Well hey, I got Michael out of his marriage, didn't I? (holds up hand for a high-five)
- Michael: Actually... she died.
- Barry: You're kidding me. I've been taking credit for that for years!
- 48. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - One of the questions in my Academy Awards Trivia Game was "Who is the lowest billed male actor to ever win a Best Actor award?" Russa03 correctly answered this question with Maximilian Schell in this very movie. This fifth-billed actor deserved his award for a lead performance. He is the heart and soul of this film, an ordinary German citizen with the task of defending former Nazi war criminals, who represents the future of Germany, not denying the Nazi's atrocities but simply desiring a fair shake for the Germany he knows. The film's script conveys so much moral complexity for this devastating historical event, and the actors play their characters with such humanity that one can't help getting really involved in the trial. Plus, I'm a sucker for a courtroom drama, even one as long as this one. If you watch this film, though, you'll probably be annoyed with how much Burt Lancaster's character talks. Dude just doesn't shut up, never stops blabbing. Yeesh.
- As a side note, it is a shame that Spencer Tracy died before the creation of the R rating. I kept thinking how this movie would have been even more amazing if it were spiced up with some extremely inappropriate profanity. I really wanted to see Spencer Tracy bang the gavel and say, "Order in the court, bitches!" or "Court is adjourned, motherfuckers."
- 49. Deliverance (1972) - A good adventure story with some genuinely disturbing moments, okay acting, and fine direction. It drags in parts and the ending feels a bit lacking. It's a good movie, but if it's attained classic status, I guess I didn't see what was so special about it.
- 50. Amores Perros (2000) - I think of all the movies with narrative structures strongly influenced by Pulp Fiction, this one might be the best one I've seen. Like 21 Grams, this one takes elements of melodrama but elevates them to new heights with fantastic atmosphere and storytelling. The characters are all complex, interesting people, and unlike 21 Grams, here the narrative structure helps the overall experience rather than hurting it. Unfortunately it seems like Inarritu may never top this film, but ah well.
- 51. The Devil Wears Prada (2006) - Take Wall Street, replace money with fashion and men with women, and what do you get? A whole new movie. It really is a miracle that I got any enjoyment out of this film whatsoever. Throughout the movie I found myself siding with Nate (played by that guy from Entourage) more and more. "I liked the old clothes," he says. Damn straight. I honestly preferred Anne Hathaway pre-obligatory-makeover too. She starts off dressed cute and looking really skinny, she ends up dressed trendy (shudder) and looking so freakishly skinny that you think she's going to fall into the sewer grating. She looks like one of those long, thin crunchy breadsticks that come with the real bread in a fancy restaurant. Some of the things said about fashion in the middle of the film just made me feel so repulsed just to be watching this movie. Still, Meryl Streep does a great job playing Cruella de Vil, Stanley Tucci is awesome as usual, and Anne Hathaway holds her own. I liked the beginning and end much better than the middle.
- 52. Umberto D. (1952) - It's been a week and a half since my last review. (I just reread that first line and felt like I was joining Reviews Anonymous. Anyway.) Sometimes my reviews get held up because I'm genuinely busy, but sometimes I just don't feel like writing the review. This is one of the latter times. It's a wonderful film for both hearts and minds, so I feel bad coming before you with little to say about it. Its message is obvious and unoriginal but important and effective, and it's part of the Italian neo-realist tradition, whose films have narratives that say, "Don't think of this as a film," so how can I review it like one? Bah. Just see the damn movie. Vittorio De Sica once again proves he can master the artful display of human misery and joy in 90 minutes flat.
- 53. Murder One: Season One (1995-1996) - Due to this show's title and comparisons to 24, knowing nothing about the content, I was actually expecting a cop drama before I started watching, but I was even more excited to discover it was a courtroom drama, and a brilliant one at that. I'm certainly not knocking 24 or Alias, but I found it interesting that Murder One feels less of a need to rely on plot twists, depending more so on the compelling drama to keep me watching from one episode to the next. It worked; I was totally hooked all the way through the end of the season. And by the way, I kinda love Ted Hoffman. A brilliant lawyer as well as a real badass, a total professional with a sharp wit, and yet even with his unflinching, unemotional self-assurance in everything his job entails, it always comes across as genuine when he has an emotional family scene.
- Another little thing I enjoyed about this show was all the Los Angeles location namedropping, which I could actually appreciate since I'm spending the summer in L.A. I was like, "Ooh, they said Cedars-Sinai, I know where that is! Hey, they said Beverly Glen, I've driven on that road! Cool, they said Spago, I've been there!" (This is also a side effect when I watch Entourage, a show that actually shot a scene inside Spago.)
- Oh, and while the narrative structure is certainly similar to 24's in the sense that the season tells a larger story, no 24 episode has made me laugh as hard as Chapter Fourteen, when two jurors start bickering in the middle of the proceedings over the fact that one of the two is having an extramarital affair with a woman on the jury. I don't why that cracked me up so much - something about the petty argument of formerly undeveloped characters that disrupts a formerly orderly courtroom just makes me laugh whenever I see it.
- Anyway, I'm rambling. Here's a small sample of my love for Ted Hoffman:
- Miriam Grasso: Congratulations, Teddy. I suppose now we’ll see a parade of reluctant witnesses all squirming to deny they ever knew Jessica Costello.
- Ted Hoffman: Could be, Miriam. But personally, I love a parade.
- 54. A Star Is Born (1954) - I must first offer a disclaimer: If there's any genre I am unfit to review, it's three-hour melodrama. Not only that, but here I was expecting an exciting, fun musical. However, it's not an exciting, fun musical. It's a three-hour melodrama with some songs. And in my opinion, it's a pretty boring one at that. Judy Garland goes through the traditional anonymity-to-fame storyline that we've seen oh so many times before. James Mason's character could have been interesting, except he's supposed to be a washed-up alcoholic old actor, and for the first two hours of the movie, he seems nothing less than sober, kind, and charming except for his first scene, where he's a disorderly but ultimately fun and likable drunk. I thought perhaps these scenes could be James Mason seen through Judy Garland's perspective, but I think instead it's just lazy filmmaking. They decided they couldn't make us like James Mason if they showed a darker side of him in the first two hours, so they just let him be a good, light-hearted guy. I feel the same way about the "snapshot" sequences where instead of showing us a scene, they just show us a black-and-white still from the scene. Creativity, or just plain lazy filmmaking? A good film would not make me ask that question. And I wasn't exactly expecting Usual-Suspects-esque plot twists here, but just what is the point of watching a movie that does exactly what you expect it to do in every single scene?
- I think this really says something: about midway through the film, we see Judy Garland do a big musical sequence in a movie-within-a-movie. I really wished I was watching the movie within the movie instead of the actual movie. That is a bad sign, and perhaps the reason why movies-within-movies and plays-within-plays are usually bad.
- 55. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) - It's funny, I was just wondering where all the faux-indie films were this year. Where are the Napoleon Dynamites, the Station Agents, the Mementos, the Before Sunsets, the Me and You and Everyone We Knows, the American Splendors, the Garden States, the You Can Count On Mes? Where are the movies that are too offbeat to be called mainstream but too polished to be called truly indie? Where are the movies with just enough money to have solid production values and possibly a few name actors but not enough money to be called blockbusters? Where is that weird sense of humor? Where are those touching characterizations? Where is that Fox Searchlight logo?
- At last I have found it, and like many faux-indie movies before it, I liked Little Miss Sunshine a hell of a lot. I think this is the sort of movie that features the most creative ideas in modern American filmmaking. Well-defined characters, excellent observations on life, plenty of hilarity, just a really well-done film. If you don't think you'll like this movie, then don't see it because it's probably more or less what you expect. But I anticipated enjoying it, and I did.
- I will have to ponder whether to put it in my top tier or second tier, though. Give me a little while.
- 56. Eraserhead (1977) - Original review: "What the fuck?"
- Actual review: It amuses me that I am about to proceed with this review just after lbangs and lukeprog had a discussion over here about reviewing a film you don't understand. To be fair, though, David Lynch has said that he knows the one definitive meaning of the film and claims that no one has ever come close to the interpretation he has in mind. So apparently no one who reviewed this movie has ever understood it. Either that or David Lynch is just being a dick.
- You see? It's not that hard to review a movie you don't understand. Just ramble on about this and that and try some attempts at self-referential humor.
- What did I actually think of this film, you ask? I loved it. I may not have gotten all of it but there are some themes in the film about maturity, parenting, and accepting one's fate that aren't too hard to glean. The bizarre, disturbing images in this overindustrial dreamlike atmosphere really assulted my senses, and even if, as David Lynch claims, no one has any clue what the film means, I actually enjoyed the hell out of it.
The moment you've all been waiting for... is in the next list.
Author Comments:
Comments are always welcome, always have been, and always will be.
Hey, those last four aren't reviews!
Ba-doom-chic.
I feel like I don't know you any more.
Although I've never seen it, Bhaji on the Beach has become an inside joke with my friends and I. The preview is attached to the start of the videotape for Amateur, and it contains some pretty iffy advice with the infamous, "You can't please everyone, so you might as well please yourself." Hitler and Ken Lay nodded in agreement.
So that phrase gets entirely too much mileage around my parts... :)
I've manage to avoid having to re-watch the film Grease for some time now. I am very proud of myself.
I certainly await the V review. I seem to be one of the only fans...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Grease was not a rewatch, it was actually the first time I saw it.
You're one of the only fans of such a great film? Tragic. I must admit, though, I couldn't fathom watching (or at least liking) that movie if I were living in Britain.
Well, I'm anxious to see the Grease review also, then, even if you disagree with me! :)
I'm not sure why there is such a lack of love for V round these here parts, but seeing some of the films that are gathering Listology acclaim about themselves, I'm not really feeling too bad about it.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
namely...?
You'd better damned keep your promise. Especially for Thank You For Smoking.
Re: "Inside Man"... I'm assuming that even though Clive was only in it for the money, the elderly rabbi who was one of his cohorts (as seen in the back of the truck at film's end) was not.
Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. You think Clive Owen had planned to just steal the diamonds, but the Jewish guy talked him into getting revenge on Christopher Plummer as well?
I think it was kind of a package deal... the idea being to divest Plummer of both his wealth and his social stature. Revenging oneself through a fall from grace can be satisfying, but if the opportunity to line one's pockets at the same time is there, why not take it?
Re: NewsRadio: The Complete Third Season (1996-1997)
I'm all bitchcakes that you're watching NewsRadio. Best sitcom ever... with the horrible exception of Season 5.
I still remember Bill's frantic effort to rescue his sandwiches. "But I just don't have enough change!" You're absolutely right that it was "so much more clever, well-written, and well-acted than almost every other" show. I love the fact that there are so few lapses in the comedy/action. Most shows move from set up to punchline and pause to deliver exposition to advance the plot. In NewsRadio there is almost always something going on at every moment. What a great collection of physical comedians. All of them unique talents. I don't think any of them will ever do anything as good (or half as good... I'm looking at you, Joe Rogan) ever again.
...and Maura Tierney is one of our greatest actresses.
Did you get to watch both versions of "Our Fiftieth Episode"? Can you believe that NewsRadio was always on the verge of getting cancelled? (A lot of their humour springs out of this... like disappearing office furniture.)
I still remember where I was when I first saw "Super Karate Monkey Death Car." I was on the floor. You have much to look forward to... but not Season 5. Avoid watching it if you can.
Now I know that if you were awake you'd probably say something like, "Well, son, why milk the cow when you got a fridge full of steaks?" And I would probably say, "That makes absolutely no sense, sir. And them I'm sure you would say, "Oh well it sure sounded like it made sense when that guy Chuck Connors said it in that movie Chinatown." Then I would say, "Well, sir,Chuck Connors wasn't in the movie Chinatown. And I'm sure that you would come back with, "Well, Dave, if I'd wanted to have this conversation I'd have hired that guy Siskel Ebert to do your job. And I would say, "Sir, Siskel and Ebert are two guys." And I'm sure that you would then come back with, "Just because the man is fat is no reason to make fun of him."
Interesting that you bring up (well, imply) Fear Factor, Joe Rogan's very successful reality show. When you see the kind of show that does well on television, does it really surprise you that a show with NewsRadio's intelligence was always on the verge of cancellation? I didn't think so.
What's the other version of Our Fiftieth Episode?
"When you see the kind of show that does well on television, does it really surprise you?" When you put it that way... I feel like an idiot. When I watch NewsRadio I feel everyone else is an idiot... especially the schedulers at NBC.
There was an April Fool's rebroadcast of "Our Fiftieth Episode" done VH-1 "Pop-Up Video"-style. It was more than doubly hilarious. (I don't know if you know the "Pop-Up Video"-style but...) Little info-bubbles popping up throughout the show added yet another level to the comedy.
I'm assuming that only the original episode was included (which borders on tragic.)
According to my dimming memory there were such things as "This cup contains no coffee," "Hartman and Lovitz performed together in The Groundlings" and "None of the cast members is a smoker." I'm fairly sure that the last one is a (very) funny joke on the pop-up people and/or the audience. I think that virtually everyone in the cast was a smoker.
"The Injury" was filmed for/during Season 2 but aired in Season 3. I think they had to edit/reshoot/censor a lot of it due to the shocking use of the word "penis." Aah... those were the days.
Well, 0dysseus, freedom of speech is one thing. The word "penis" is another.
I rewatched The Injury and it's identical to the one on the first DVD set. Even if it was filmed earlier and aired later, I'm not sure why they would put the same episode on both sets.
Maybe the pop-up bubbles are in some special feature I didn't notice. I'm going to check now.
No luck with the pop-up bubbles, though I listened to the commentary and they said that since the pop-up episode aired with the next season, maybe they'll include it on the next set.
Look at what just popped up.
Your last name is Garelli?
Wow, awesome! I'm so glad I finally got to see this! And you're right, it is hilarious. Loved the "$559" popping up for every extra that spoke.
What is even more amazing (for me) is watching it in the context of the Pop-Up Video spasm. I'm delighted that you got to see the original and then the popped-up version. I remember saying to myself, "This was a great episode. Why are they ruining it with the Pop-Up gimmick."
And a short while later I thought to myself, "Oh. That's why."
Watching it again I'm reminded of how NBC totally bleep!ed them over by moving their time slot all the time. A half-dozen moves by the time their 50th episode was aired. For those of you doing the math at home: that works out to a different time slot every eight episodes or so.
And then there were all of the attempts to meddle with the writing. Although it did lead to the amazing "Rat Funeral"... and the problematic relationship with NBC and all of the schedule changes... Oh.
crap.
Do you like Frasier, AJ? For my money, the most sharply-scripted and well-acted sitcom on the box, especially the first seven and last seasons.
Well, I've never really given it a fair shot, but I've seen about a third of an episode that didn't really impress me. Its reputation of dry, upper-class humor precedes it and never really compelled me to start watching. Is there any particular episode or season that you think would really win me over? I'll try to track it down.
Season 4 is the best for my money, but season 1 is as good a place as any to start. It really isn't too upper-class, in the sense that you have to be an intellectual to get the jokes; it just relies heavily on wit and wordplay. If you don't like dry humour in general, it may not turn out to be your favourite, I will admit, but there's plenty of farce and slapstick too mind - all manner of comedy stylings are catered for. Sure, Frasier and his brother, Niles, are pretentious snobs, but that adds to the humour rather than detracts, and a lot of the jokes are indeed aimed at the fact that they are overly pretentious. The scripts are as tight as I've ever seen (as yep, I've seen Newsradio!) and the actors are beyond outstanding. In my opinion, it's the best TV show of all-time (excepting The Simpsons).
Yup, exactly the reaction I had to Pierrot Le Fou. And I should probably end all my reviews the way you ended your Salesman review.
Ah summertime, when the livin' is easy and AJDaGreat plays catch-up on the movie viewing. I love it. I would comment more, but I've only seen eight (Grease, Talk to Her, Shadow of a Doubt, The Wedding Crashers, The Lost Weekend, Jackie Brown, Tremors, and The African Queen) of the 40 movies on here!
And if I weren't watching so many TV shows on DVD, I'd probably be watching even more movies!
Don't worry about the movies. But would you please hurry up... I need to know if NewsRadio: Season Five has the pop-up version of "Our Fiftieth Episode."
...and if you spotted the product placement in The African Queen.
the message of an inconvenient truth was an important one, definitely, but i have seen good documentaries and this was not one. as you said, the clips about his life were kind of random, and in most cases i felt they were almost completely disconnected from the rest of the movie. and, i mean, i understand that his slide show was, for a long time, the only way he could talk about an issue that's really important to him, but c'mon. couldn't they have jazzed it up a little bit for the big screen? i really felt like the mediocrity of the movie distracted me from the overall message.
I didn't mind the filmed slideshow aspect, perhaps because that's what I was expecting going into it given what I had heard about the movie. And if those random clips about Al Gore's life was the movie's way of jazzing up the slideshow, I'm glad they didn't do any more of that.
"Couldn't they have jazzed it up a little bit for the big screen?" My guess is: No.
I think the impact of An Inconvenient Truth lies in its matter-of-fact recitation of... well, facts. Gore himself has been quoted as saying, "When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler." In trying to change hearts and minds Gore doesn't argue the law and he certainly doesn't holler. If he did either then he would invite opponents to respond in kind.
From what I've observed, the oil companies and their ilk have been forced to try attacking Gore's motives: "He's just running for President." Gore has wisely taken that issue off of the table. Unfortunately much of the media heat surrounding the movie evaporated as soon as the Presidential horse race question was settled. That is the price of letting the movie stand or fall on its own merits.
Never let it be said that the MSM is simply afraid to take on important and complicated issues. They are also incapable of doing so. [Gore's critics have also resorted to ridiculous and/or despicable hollering.]
Aside from depriving the carbon-based industries of ammunition Gore is trying to make an argument that will persuade an audience. I think this has a lot to do with the structure of the movie and its personal content. A funny, personable, sympathetic Al Gore is a much more convincing messenger than a professorial, wooden former Vice-President. I think that this is one of the reasons that the audience is there. The warm reception to Gore and his presentation by the audience in the movie helps audiences to connect with Gore himself and his argument.
Every documentary has a point of view but I think it's unfortunate that An Inconvenient Truth has to carry the label "documentary." Producer Laurie David has said that she wanted to find a way to have everyone see Al Gore's slide show. The movie is a glorified slide show designed to inform and persuade.The Day After Tomorrow was much a more exciting movie... and infinitely less convincing.
I do agree that if An Inconvenient Truth makes you say that "the mediocrity of the movie distracted me from the overall message" then the movie suffers on its own terms.
So if you don't have the facts or the law on your side, just ad hominem?
Hijacking AJ's fun review and your fine comment, I'd like to say that I am sick of brilliant leaders relying primarily on emotional/ideological appeals in favor of what I see as more sensible arguments.
A recent sermon at my home church comes to mind. A very experienced teacher I admire spoke about Thinking Like a Disciple, saying that Christians should train themselves to think sensibly about the world and use logical arguments to support their faith. In that same sermon, he argued against Darwinian evolution by saying that, "If someone were truly an evolutionist, they wouldn't build a road; they'd wait for it to form." He then bodily imitated a poor, foolish evolutionist sitting around, waiting for a road to form, checking his watch every 5 seconds.
This is ridiculous and unfair. Evolutionists do not claim that the best or most efficient way to do something is through evolution; they merely claim that it can explain how we reached our present biological diversity. Clearly, building a road is more immediate, precise, and localized than waiting eons for one to form by accident, and so evolutionists build roads.
Unfortunately, there was a greater audience reaction to this silly argument than to the more factual arguments in the sermon, and that probably explains why leaders of all kinds continue to use ideological and emotional arguments in favor of logical ones.
Anyway, carry on. I just wanted to complain.
"Just ad hominem?" Have you not noticed that "Swift Boating" is now a gerund?
"...more sensible arguments." Have you forgotten your Cialdini-Fu? When you can't make a reasoned, logical case for your position what can a poor boy do? (Except sing for a rock and roll band?) You Lee-Atwater your opponent, that's what you do.
You make it impossible for them to make their own case. You "define your opponent." You attack their character and motives (Liking.) You ridicule and marginalize them (Authority.) You pretend that their position is out of the mainstream (Social Proof.) I think that Al Gore did a great job in An Inconvenient Truth by using the three (maybe four... out of six) "weapons of influence" available to him and by making it as difficult as possible for others to attack him. [Although anyone can yell "Nazi!" in a crowded theater... a very crowded theater.]
One of the reasons that "brilliant leaders" are leaders is that they are brilliant... in framing issues so as to eliminate both sensible and argument. One might ask why a Creationist would see any need for a road if an intelligent designer hadn't seen fit to make one in the first place. I enjoy and empathize with your complaining... and AJ's kvetching.
"Relying primarily on emotional/ideological appeals." Have you not noticed that "truthiness" is now a word?
And liberals certainly aren't above this either. Fahrenheit 9/11, after all, was certainly a more emotional appeal than a rational one.
Though actually what first popped into my head when I read your message was the Simpsons episode where Homer runs for sanitation commissioner against Ray Patterson and wins the audience over in the debate by making fun of his opponent rather than presenting decent arguments. Unfortunately I couldn't find a quote of this (the SNPP capsule is very truncated in this scene), but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
I second your views on Superman Returns--any Singer movie will have a certain level of quality and polish, but I also prefer the movie you referred to in the spoiler. X2 took what the superhero movie could be to another level, so it's discouraging to see Singer take a step back.
And why have the reviews been so good? Did critics inhale something on the press junkets?
Johnny Waco
I don't know, man. Maybe it was just a knee-jerk response to Singer directing a superhero movie? Maybe critics were just really impressed with the look of the film? Or maybe they all just actually loved the movie somehow?
That was an excellent avoidance of passing judgement on the merits of the suit over The Island. And I can't wait to see L'Enfant. I refuse to read the spoilers.
Well, I haven't seen The Island, so I couldn't really comment. But The Island was pretty poorly received as well, proving you can throw 120 million dollars at a lame horror movie and you'll still just have a lame horror movie.
I didn't know how much anyone knew about the plot of L'Enfant, so I might've been a bit too cautious with the spoilers. But that's neither here nor there. I think you'll like L'Enfant, it's a fantastic film.
By "unlike 21 Grams, [Amorres Perros's] narrative structure helps the overall experience rather than hurting it," I assume you mean: "Amorres Perros's narrative structure elevates the Pulp Fiction-esque experience we're used to, whereas 21 Grams invents a whole new experience." Right?
Um. Well, I wouldn't call it a whole new experience - after all, Christopher Nolan's Following featured a similar narrative structure as 21 Grams. But yes, 21 Grams's structure is less frequently used than Amores Perros's. That having been said, while I did love many aspects of 21 Grams, I thought the haphazardly assembled storyline detracted from the overall film. Just because something is [moderately] unique does not make it effective.
Yup, I understand. But 21 Grams deeply affected me.
Re: Murder One: Season One (1995-1996)
I'm delighted that you've watched Murder One. The second season was better plot and pacing-wise but there were two or three (maybe four?) self-contained story arcs. The broad, operatic sweep was taken away which was unfortunate in the extremis. As was the cast change. Still, the show had one of the best casts ever... I can't think of one that's close. It was the first time I ever saw Stanley Tucci and the first time anyone ever saw Mary McCormack.
Isn't Daniel Benzali beyond fantastic? He was Steven Bochco's muse for the creation of Murder One. I can't believe that he isn't hired for every single cold-blooded snake of a lawyer role. The way he somehow moves from menace and threat to warmth and endouragement with such small changes in his voice. It's worth watching the first two or three (maybe four?) episodes of NYPD Blue which provided the character template for Ted Hoffman, mob lawyer James Sinclair Esq. (Years later Benzali would reprise the role a couple of times.)
I can just imagine having to watch episode after episode in succession. It was so brilliant at constantly cliffhanging. If I'm remembering correctly Bochco et. al. plotted it so that they could wrap it up in a half-dozen or so episodes. They weren't sure if people's attention spans were long enough. They planned for cancellation within two months. Thank goodness audiences are always smarter than network executives... except for the guy who green-lit Cop Rock.
Thank you for reminding me of all this... except for Cop Rock.
Benzali is sublime. I don't know why he can't seem to get decent work outside of Steven Bochco TV shows. (Maybe because he looks strangely elfin, but should be no deterrent given his fantastic acting skill.)
I also loved Stanley Tucci, 'tis true. Big spoilers: His performance made me like Richard Cross, and I was glad to see Cross redeemed in the end. I always thought Graham Lester was a dick, but I really hoped Cross wasn't the real murderer all throughout the season. I guess that would've been too obvious, anyway...
I had heard the second season was a tad disappointing. But do you think it's worth checking out, even without Benzali? (I do like D.B. Woodside from 24, though.)
By the way, I just looked up Cop Rock on IMDB and wow, does that sound hilarious.
"Sublime," that's the word I was looking for.
In looking up Benzali I discovered that he may be spending his time as a fine musical theatre actor... wow. I don't think I'd spend much money on Season Two but (if memory serves) Benzali hangs around long enough to make an exit. I definitely think it's worth watching (ie. much better than most television.) The short(er) story arcs would make it easier to hit the eject button after several episodes.
It's amazing how many actors, writers, directors, producers, creators, etc have been given their start (or a boost) by Steven Bochco. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised about such a long career in television. Still, there are muses Dennis Franz and Jimmy Smits, David Kelley, David Milch, Anthony Yerkovitch, Ken Olin, Betty Thomas, Charles Haid, David Caruso, Jeffrey Tambor and even Sharon Stone. Who could forget Tim Robbins and Michael Biehn paired as rookie patrolmen Swan and Buttman on an episode of Hill Street Blues... in 1984. Nobody, that's who. And who wouldn't want to forget Bochco's wife? Nobody, that's who.
I guess Cop Rock would be hilarious. It evidently has some modern-day fans and may have contributed to the creation of Ally McBeal. One man's hilarious is another man's mind-boggling.
I finally caught up reading this and loved it.
And hey, you caught two of my favorite, underrated shows (Newsradio, not Seinfeld, is the best American sitcom of the 90s, and the first season of Murder One is terrific. Can you believe they kicked off Teddy for the second season? Network fools!).
The trailer for Bhaji on the Beach is on the videotape for my favorite film. I've seen that trailer maybe a hundred times. I have it memorized, and god, I hope I never have to watch the movie... :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
:) You actually mentioned that bit about Bhaji here as well. That is really funny though. I imagine you probably got much more enjoyment out of watching the trailer than I got out of watching the movie. It was part of my Contemporary British Cinema course, which had a very hit-or-miss line-up of films. All of them had something culturally interesting about them, but the quality of some of them left something to be desired. It did introduce me to Dirty Pretty Things and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, though, two films I loved.
Newsradio is fantastic, and luckily I was able to spread the gospel to my Penn friends, many of whom found it hilarious as well. You and 0dysseus have really gotten me in the mood to rewatch some of those episodes. Maybe soon...
Murder One was really awesome. What a gripping show. I imagine it would lose a lot without Daniel Benzali. It's too bad that sometimes the shows that tell some of the most involving stories make it difficult for episodes to attract viewers who haven't been there all along, resulting in low ratings.
Ah, well. Thanks for posting!
Did I ever mention they stuck the trailer for Bhaji on the videotape for... What was I saying again?
Whoops!
You know, Murder One was sunk not by its story, but by its network. They heard so much positive critical buzz, they decided to debut and to air the show opposite of ER back when that show was at its peak (and the number one show in the ratings). A few episodes in, they realized nobody saw the show because everybody was watching the other station; this lead to one of the more odd advertising campaigns I've ever seen, proclaiming that the network knew you were going to watch ER, but really, you should consider videotaping Murder One.
The show never had a chance.
Even stranger, after the first season, they decided the show failed because of its best two assets, the season-long story and Daniel Benzali! They did away with both elements, and the show eventually disappeared.
No, it couldn't be because it aired against the most popular television program on the planet, could it?
Stupid network...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
The commercials actually admitted no one was watching it and encouraged you to tape it? That is extremely silly. I still can't imagine the (excellent) season-long arc made it friendly to newcomers, but what you've said does explain a whole lot.
I'm not sure about the on-air commercials, but the print ads certainly did. Bizarro!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs