Film Snobs VIII: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Alien vs. Predator vs. Film Snobs

Just saw Michael Moore's Sicko Sure angered up my blood. Seeing socialized health care in action made me feel, a blessed citizen of the United States, like I was seeing some sort of "Culture" thing dreamt up by Iain Banks The interview material with Socialist Tony Benn was also really cool. Wish we had more old people like him instead of the Tea Party yahoos.

Sicko is...predictably biased, but it's biased on the right side, in my opinion. That is to say, I'd rather we tip a little too far in the "socialized medicine" direction than the "medicine is subject to the exact same market forces as fast food" direction (I immediately despise anyone who thoughtlessly tries to apply traditional economic principles to markets like health care and food. It's a problem).

In other news, Holy Rollers was pretty good. I like Jesse Eisenberg a lot, and it was good to see him taking on a role that I couldn't imagine Michael Cera playing (and not only because he isn't Jewish).

There are no poor libertarians. There are at least a few rich socialists.

I liked Capitalism: A Love Story as well. I like Michael Moore's films even though they are polemics and emotionally manipulative. It works on me.

This morning I watched (again) "For All Mankind", a documentary on the moon missions.

I think this is the best of the batch (what do you say, Ian?)--sublime footage accompanied by the voices of the actual astronauts, reflecting on their visit to Luna, how they felt as they stood on the surface of another world. Wonderful film.

2: I agree that Sicko was predictably biased. Not a bad thing, considering the epic genocidal failure of the US for-profit health care system. It's so hard to find a reasonable voice on the "socialist" side in the US, especially with Ayn Rand's jackbooted psychopaths still controlling the political discourse and liberals acting like spineless jellyfish, unafraid to anger anyone or to protest anything with significance.

I did like how Michael Moore leavened the bias with ample dollops of sarcasm. No wonder no one at FOX News understood it. Then again, FOX News is run by Rupert Murdoch, that vegemite-sucking, kangaroo-raping Aussie immigrant trash. There really should be a law limiting the entry of dangerous immigrants like Murdoch and other evil libertarian minions from US shores. Deport that madman!

ksw, just given the tone of your posts I bet if you made similar documentaries they'd be even more "biased" than Michael Moore's.

I am using scare quotes because the idea of a documentary *not* being biased is actually ludicrous. Everyone who has enough commitment to make a film about an issue cares about the issue one way or another. Objectivity is not achievable.

7: Agreed. Unless the documentary is by FilmBot3000, there will be some bias in there. It's what separates us from the animals ... and hardcore Ayn Rand fans ;) And with the polemical nature of the subject -- health care, etc. -- lack of bias would seem a liability rather than an asset. Bias usually creeps in from the financing sources, hence the laughable "credentials" of global warming deniers and Intelligent Design flacks. Yes, film is manipulative and Moore definitely knows how to preach to the choir, but considering the stories, it would be hard to be unmoved, unless of course, you read Ayn Rand and quaff brewskis from the skulls of dead uninsured orphans.

Oh wait, I think agreed with everything you said. Sorry, just venting. Better here than unleashing a chain gun at the home office of Blue Cross Blue Shield.

***

On an entirely different note, a crazy 7-hr art-house flick:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/satantango,41563/

7, 8:

I'm not so sure I agree. I saw a documentary a while ago that I thought was pretty much lacking in bias. This was one of its main strengths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAyHIOg5aHk

The movie is basically a long monologue by this guy who's obsessed with Peak Oil and various government conspiracies, but its real subject is the man, and he's more or less allowed to present himself however he wants. It ends up being kind of sad. He's led a rough life because of his principles.

The best way to lower medical costs in this country is to outlaw the concept of insurance. If no one had insurance medical costs would plummet like a stone. The idea of insurance is the culprit. From a cost factor it was a bad idea. Yes, I've had the idea of spreading risk explained to me many times, but what it does mostly, is drive up costs.

10:
It makes sense to me that getting rid of insurance would drive medical costs way down, but I suspect it would also substantially lower the quality of medical care.

11. "Suspect"? That's the ironic thing about medical care in the US, since capitalist pro-profit bloodsucking genocidal health care actually makes people use it less, while socialist Stalinist scare quotes health care actually lets people get preventative health.

Your suspicions are wrong, but it's expected, since we've been told since birth that anything that isn't capitalist or done for-profit is evil, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. But I think change will come ... people are sick of dying, while insurance execs get bonuses for denying people care based on stupid reasons. That or we could just line the execs up against a wall and shoot 'em. Then again, "the people" are easily manipulated and gullible for whatever easy buzzword soundbite idiocy the politicians and corporate scumbags feed them.

12:
I don't think non-capitalist things are "evil." And anyway, getting rid of insurance companies isn't anti-capitalist.

All I'm saying is that the medical system as it exists right now grew up in a system that included insurance companies that charged high prices to American consumers. Medical care is expensive (for the providers too, I mean) and I'm just not convinced, a priori, that that's just because of artificially inflated insurance costs. Take that insurance money out of the pool, and it seems plausible that it would cause a lot of problems for other parts of the system.

For one thing, American consumers have been subsidizing prices for pharmaceuticals in other countries for years. Those medicines cost less in poorer countries because we pay more for them here.

#5 It probably is. "In the Shadow of the Moon" is good, but the director used the best footage and it doesn't always match what the voice-over is talking about. But Reinert picked out interesting footage for his film, even if it wasn't very well framed or shot.

#11 We have free healthcare in the UK, the NHS, and its quality is as good as anything the US can offer. We also have private healthcare, for those that want it.

Fees are starting to creep, more and more, into Canadian health care. One of our sons had his warts given the ol' liquid nitrogen treatment last week and when Sherron went to the desk, she was startled when the nurse told her there would be a $15 charge. The nurse was apologetic but that's the way it is...

hahahahahaa, a nurse apologising for charging a copay! Canada is such a foreign land.

The public health system is definitely seeing an erosion, more fees, profit starting rear its ugly head. (Shudder)

I'm biased toward Film Snobs, but of the other choices, Predator isn't as laughable as the others. Now if we can add Alien(s) ....

My lads love the "Alien" movies (except David Fincher's #3, which I refuse to have in the house)--considering the first two are going on 30 years old, I think they've held their age pretty darn well.

"Predator" is fun--not great, just hammy fun...

15:
Yeah, well nationalized healthcare is a little different than just doing away with insurance.

Sick care insurance should be made non-profit, that would solve half the problems. I remember about 25-30 years ago you didn't need insurance to go visit the doctor, you'd just pay cash. After the sick-care insurance companies stormed the market they forced the prices to go up so everyone will have to buy their products.
Some of you will say "that was 30 years ago old man", but all that happened in a very short amount of time (a few years).

Or do I remember it wrong (I was early teens).

The sick care companies know that their time is limited, that is why they are gouging the consumers, getting as much as they can before all hell will break loose and the will be either forced out of business or strong armed to change their business model.

Sicko missed a crucial element, the "free market" argument doesn't hold water because if there is one thing which hurts each and every company in the US is the cost of insurance. All the "free market" ideologues should be fighting tooth and nail to get socialized sick care because that would mean greater profitability to almost all the companies in the country - sick care companies excluded.

Oh, yeah - Predator.... hands down.

What's the difference between Predator and a health insurance bureaucrat? Predator kills less people.

Snare drum pop.

My review of Day of the Locust:

http://driftlessareareview.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/miss-lonelyhearts-the-day-of...

And "Miss Lonelyhearts." If you like apocalyptic satire set in California, check it out. After reading the stories, I can see how it effected Pynchon.

And to think this guy croaked before he was 40. Imagine what he would have accomplished had he lived...

I know. Reminds me of John Kennedy Toole, who only wrote 2 books. But wow! What a pair of books! Granted, I've only read Confederacy of Dunces, but his other novel, The Neon Bible, has me curious.

But the spirit of Nathanael West lives on in such writers like Thomas Pynchon and Alexander Theroux But I agree, I wish West could have lived and he would produced a couple more, maybe even a magnum opus or a Snopes Trilogy, but set it in Hollywood and cover California history from the Gold Rush to "water rights." It would be like combining There Will Be Blood with Chinatown, the very thought of which gives me a mindboner.

"Mindboner?!!!"

Hee hee...

28: Not my term, but my friend's. Then again, he called his film review blog "Worse than Hitler."

So ... there's that.

Watched Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend"--pretty harrowing, for 1945. Ray Milland gives a solid performance and other than a too upbeat ending, the film stands up well.

Dear God:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/michael-bay-to-produce-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtl...

A piece on Terence Mallick's mysterious new project:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/126160-the-calm-before-the-tree-of-life

Finally got around to seeing "The Girl w/ the Dragon Tattoo" which I liked a lot. Given that the book is long, the movie retained most of the (many) subplots. Even though some of the subtitles were dubiously worded and sometimes hard to read against the background, in general they worked well. I VERY much appreciated that none of the cast were "glamorous" but seemed to match the characters from the book. The woman who played Lisabeth was exceptionally well cast, tics, quirks, projecting a sense of unease at all times. Umm the missing girl around whom the plot turns IS gorgeous - but she shows up only in brief flashbacks and as an iconic photograph.

33: I saw a review of that that made me feel like it would be kind of triggering. In fact it made me feel that I didn't even want to read the book. You don't sound like you found it overly shocking or graphic though. Maybe the reviewer was just overly sensitive?

Several scenes in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo made me wince, but none was gratuitous -- they were all in direct service of the story-telling. I think a bowdlerized version would have much less dramatic impact. Nevertheless a squeamish person could be legitimately reluctant to watch a few of the scenes as I am reluctant to read about or see harm done to cats.

Robert

Both the book and movie have a couple of very intense and graphically described/portrayed scenes. In movies i take advantage of extreme nearsightedness and glasses; when a scene becomes too horrific i kind of just look over the top of my lens. My wife defn. didn't want to go. I went with a couple with whom we often catch movies. Clare had read and liked the book a lot, but didn't want to see the movie and saw a film about corruption past and present in Argentina; Richard, her husband, hadn't read the book but liked the flic. Their daughter, 23, had read the book - and found it v. intense - i was w/ her parents when she called her mom for a mid book "comfort" break - found the movie easier to deal with than the book - though she liked both. Her bfriend liked the movie but was pretty taciturn as i think it was the 2nd time he'd met the parents and first time he'd met me.

If you saw Syriana, i'd compare the two most harrowing scenes in "Girl" as kind of on the same level as the interrogation/torture scene in Syriana. As Robert says - there's nothing gratuitous but there are some scenes that are v. hard to watch. I think it helps to have read the book first - the movie scenes are somewhat less shocking when you know they're coming.

Good piece on Michael Haneke:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/michael-haneke,41766/

That Gord fella again...

Saw American Splendor -- a great film about the life and times of an ordinary shlub by the name of Harvey Pekar. It was a fun deconstruction of the biopic.

Our whole family enjoyed that one. Terrific performance from Paul Giamatti as Pekar.

I finished reading Solaris by Stanislaw Lem last night. I am not sure I got anything out of it, but I am beginning to think that seeing the vignette of an alternate reality may be an important experience.

Anyway, this afternoon I watched the movie of the book produced apparently by James Cameron and Steven Soderbergh. This evening I watched the movie of the book directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Both of them come by their mysticism much more cheaply than the book does, but the American one has a kinda feelgood, mushy, the-universe-loves-a-lover ending that cheapens it even more. The hardware in each is impressive -- there's the slick technological futurism in the American movies and the exercise of the imagination in the Russian one. Neither movie explores the planet to any depth whatsoever. The book dove into it and in diving showed the human reaction to it; the movies narrowed the human interest to the interiors of the on site station plus a little Earthly set up.

Both movies take some effort of attention. My complaints notwithstanding if one is up to the effort the effort made could prove worthwhile.

Robert

Got to (re)watch Hitchcock's 1935 The Thirty-Nine Steps the other night. Missed bits (took a while to wrangle the kids back into bed, repeatedly), but was still charmed overall. Much preferred it to the recent BBC remake with Rupert Penny-Jones.

Must scrounge up a copy for a re-read.

Despised the Soderbergh/Clooney version but Tarkovsky's original has a definite otherworldly feel to it. Terribly depressing and lovely little touches like the crew hanging torn paper around vents on the space station to give the illusion of the sound of wind moving through leaves...

In the middle of Kevin Branagh's epic Hamlet Everything about it is huge.

New Stan Brakhage anthology from Criterion:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/by-brakhage-an-anthology-volumes-one-and-two,4193...

I bought the Brakhage--can't wait until it arrives.

Haven't seen Branagh's "Hamlet" (he's WAY too old for the part)--the great supporting cast entices. Plus I loved his version of "Henry V"...

45: I agree, Cliff, Kenneth does seem a bit old to be a student at Wittenberg. Of all the various Hamlet film adaptations, two interest me:

*Ethan Hawke's modernized corporate version. (Not really an Ethan Hawke fan, but turning "something rotten in Denmark" to the corrupt corporate boardrooms of the US seems prescient and bold).

*David Tennant as the Dane in a BBC version. (Mainly because I'm a Dr. Who fan. I enjoyed Tennant's manic energy as the Doctor.)

Very disturbing short film, assembled from movie clips and--well, you just have to see it:

http://vimeo.com/9532613

Saw "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" again (after 30 years), and I like it better now. The Leonard Cohen songs really took me back in time.

The A-Team and The Karate Kid open in my area today. The review of the former in my local paper is far more favorable than the review of the latter, but I expect that I will go to both. I liked the trailer for The Karate Kid perhaps because I was bullied; I'll see whether somebody has turned that into art.

Left over from last week are Get Him to the Greek, The Secret in Their Eyes, and Penguins in the Sky. The latter two I have to cross town to see but may get started on today if I can get moving.

I missed Spring Fever but don't feel especially saddened by that.

Robert

I like "McCabe" too, more than most Altman offerings (talk about a hit and miss director). Beatty gives a good performance and a solid supporting cast of Altman regulars.

An amusing review of the new piss-awful Karate Kid remake:

http://www.edrants.com/review-the-karate-kid-2010/

I just won't plunk a dime down to watch these re-makes, re-inventions, re-cycling efforts. There's a dearth of originality about these days and I refuse to encourage it with my hard-earned shekels. That Joe Carnahan, the director behind the brilliant flick "Narc", would reduce himself to shit like "The A Team" is just horrible.

I will not lower myself to see films directed toward a demographic of brain dead, illiterate arseholes with a few bucks to spare. Sorry, Robert, but I am a confessed snob after all...

The man, the myth, the Joe Bob:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffCMws_AThI

I saw this new movie Winter's Bone today. I'm touchstoning it, since it was based on the novel. First of all, I'm definitely reading this book. The atmosphere of the movie (which, by all accounts, was very faithful to the source material) was so reminiscent of early, Appalachian McCarthy (I mean, it's set in the Ozarks, but the settings are similar in a lot of ways) that I found myself longing for more of that Child of God/Outer Dark/Suttree stuff from the old dude. I'm hoping Woodrell's stuff can suffice. A brief skim of the first chapter of Winter's Bone looks pretty promising, I have to say.

As for the film itself, it includes a really exciting performance by a young woman named Jennifer Lawrence, who has apparently been in some other stuff, but I got the impression it was maybe tween-oriented or something? Well forget that stuff, this girl really hits it out of the park. And the role she plays is one of the most unselfconsciously great roles for a female that I've seen in a long time. It's sort of feminist in the best possible sense (I'm inviting controversy here, I know). She's brave, and resourceful, and principled, and all in a way that seems not so much to reject all that gender baggage, but to be somehow outside it.

The film also features a really, really great performance by John Hawkes as the protagonist's uncle, nicknamed Teardrop (I take it this nickname stems from a small "x" tattooed under one eye, which generally signifies a murder performed in prison). Anyway, it likely won't be playing in wide release any time soon, if at all, but it's filmed in super-rural Southern Missouri, and the whole movie is just suffused with this sense of dread. I'm hoping it eventually draws Oscar nominations so that it'll get some more screentime.

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ8kqytI_oA

Looks good. I'll bet the soundtrack's terrific too...

I watched "His Girl Friday" last night, but it didn't grab me as much as I'd expected. Good - with some excellent one-liners - but it all turned a bit bedroom-farcical about halfway through.

55:
You're right. Actually the director was at the screening I went to, and she had brought one of the locals who helped them select and arrange old folk songs from the region. They both had some interesting things to say about the film and the reality of the place itself, which is apparently not too far off from what goes on in the movie.

It's time to take a skimmer to the gene pool:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100614/entertainment/entertainment_us_film_boxoff...

But it’s worth considering Rathbone’s Baker Street genius in the context of his dastardly characters: what draws them together? An answer might be sought in the actor’s experiences in the Great War. Fresh out of Repton School, Rathbone joined the British Army (where he served alongside another future master of moral ambiguity, Claude Rains); as an intelligence officer, he became an expert in camouflage and disguise, scouting enemy positions in the midst of incredible violence. The details of Rathbone’s war service are beyond the scope of this brief consideration. But we can say that his memorable characters, whether in the right or the wrong, were acquainted with the shadows.

http://hilobrow.com/2010/06/13/basil-rathbone/

Loved those Rathbone/Bruce Holmes adaptations when I was a kid--now, of course, they look silly compared to Jeremy Brett's stunning and (to me) definitive take on Holmes.

I saw a lot of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies too, many years ago now. Rather embarrassing when I realise now as a grown up that he shouldn't have been fighting Hitler, but hey...

Cliff, I agree, Jeremy Brett is *the* Holmes. (Although I also have a sneaking fondness for Tom Baker who did a rather over-the-top Holmes in a BBC adaptation of Hounds of the Baskervilles.)

Will be avoiding the remake of the Karate Kid. I'm not a fan of remakes anyhow, but I do have to say that having Jackie Chan in it did make me slightly interested. (Yes, he's well past his prime and was never a great actor, but you know, it's *Jackie Chan*.)

My husband took himself off to see "The A-Team" movie. And enjoyed himself *mightily*. It's still not something I want to see, but I'm glad he had fun. (And hopefully it's gotten his need to see things explode out of his system, so when we next get out to the movies I get to choose something a bit less dumb.)

Finally got around to watching "Magnificent Desolation" last night. Cheers, Cliff. It felt in parts a bit like a science channel special, and the decision to re-enact Apollo 15 but with made-up astronauts was odd. As was having actors play the parts of real-life Apollo astronauts (and it was a pretty impressive list of actors). Admittedly, a few of the astronauts were no longer alive when the film was made but... However, the sfx version of Apollo 15 did get across the scale of the Sea of Rains, Mount Hadley and Rima Hadley. Which proved especially useful to me as I'm working on a story set there.

All the same, it was about the Apollo Moon landings, so it's pretty damn good.

Yeah, it had a really nice feel of "you are there", didn't it? I thought it would be of assistance/inspiration with your alternative space history story cycle. Glad you liked it, lad...

Despite critical reception to the contrary, I like "Domino" and Spook Country. Here's another opinionated tirade directed at Fanboys, Ayn Rand fans, and Hollywood remakes.

http://driftlessareareview.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/critic%E2%80%99s-notebook-un...

Outlaw Oshima:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/oshimas-outlaw-sixties,42158/

Another good one from Gord. Make note of a few of these flicks, they sound fun:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/118182-the-top-10-films-of-2009-that-you-never...

Watched Lost Highway by David Lynch Still pretty awesome after all these years. And the outdated technology -- giant cell phones to start -- just adds another level of mental displacement in an already disorienting novel. (One of the characters is associated with making pornos, but the pornos resemble Betty Page stuff from the 1950s, except when Marilyn Manson shows up.)

***

I contend that Domino is a good movie ... sort of.

http://driftlessareareview.wordpress.com/2010/06/19/critic%E2%80%99s-notebook-un...

Just stuck a review of "Magnificent Desolation" (ta, Cliff) up on my Space Books blog - see here.

Well put. I concur with your review, to the letter. By the way, I think space nuts are just as bad a book nuts--a different type of madness but the allure is just as irresistible.

Saw Mrs. Brown with the omnipresent Judi Dench and the wonderfully Scottish Billy Connolly Kept the accent authentic without lapsing into Groundskeeper Willie territory.

The original "The Italian Job" was on TV on the weekend. My husband was horrified I'd never seen it, so we watched it over a couple of nights (no willpower to stay up late enough to see a whole movie any more). It was good fun, from a time when characters did not need a whole helping of back story to flesh them out, but just got on with the job.

Loved the minis.

I finally got around to seeing The A Team today. The review I had read of it said that its aim was to entertain and that in that it had been successful. I agree with that. A couple of the cuts were more trailer like than feature like and sometimes the shoot 'em ups were a little too much ammunition, but I was entertained. Liam Neeson gets better and better. I think I first saw him in Darkman, but I am not sure.

Robert

The sad thing is the director of "A Team", Joe Carnahan, actually has talent. See his film "Narc"...and then wonder why he's doing shoot 'em up Hollywood crap instead of REAL cinema...

Re: Winter's Bone; Daniel Woodrell is great. He has that contemporary Southern Gothic, grit lit thing down to a T.

74:
Yeah, that's the impression I got from the movie. I bought the book and I'm planning to start it in a few days. It's always nice to discover an author who's right up your alley. Particularly one who's written a bunch of books.

>70 kswolff: - Connolly's accent was actually wrong: someone from Aberdeenshire wouldn't have an accent like that, Connolly's is from Glasgow.

I finally made it across town yesterday to see The Secret In Their Eyes, the Argentinian 2010 Academy Award winner for best foreign film. It was billed as a cold case murder investigation. It was really a movie about passion hung on a frame of a cold case murder investigation. As a movie about passion it was very good. As a movie about a cold case murder investigation (a slight misstatement which I started to explain but realized would be a spoiler although the issue was early in the movie) it has some doubtful elements including the conceit of the title.

At the end I shed tears for the romance. As an elderly bachelor with nobody to impress I'm allowed to do that.

Robert

"At the end I shed tears for the romance. As an elderly bachelor with nobody to impress I'm allowed to do that."

Ah, Robert. Us old married guys get pretty soppy-eyed too.

Yeah, but your wife thinks less of you for it, although she may not say anything.

Robert

Rob-ert!

I just watched "District 9" and it was crap.

And, see, I've been holding back because despite all my hopes, I had a hunch it would disappoint. I don't cheat on my high standards, even when it comes to a beloved genre like SF. Kubrick's "2001" is the high water mark, NOT "Star Wars". Saying "it's better than the usual junk the genre spews out" is not exactly a huge endorsement to me. My wife liked the movie but didn't LOVE it; she said the final 1/3 was too shoot-em-up for her tastes. It fell back on being just another action movie after an exciting and intriguing beginning. Or something like that...

My teen-aged sons loved it. And they're pretty smart dudes. If I spot it at the library, I'll grab it for nothin'. Otherwise won't be going out of my way to see it. However, I did manage to secure my own personal copy of "Moon" on eBay. Not a perfect movie but pretty darn good. Regardless of the genre. And Sam Rockwell is bloody fine it it.

I'm hopeful that there will be a 'District 10' and that it will be at least as good as 'District 9.' I don't think 9 is perfect.

Robert

I rather liked District 9.

2 thumbs up on District 9.

different poisons. I thought 2001 was incredibly pretentious when i saw it first as an undergrad (with and w/out acid) and then when i saw it again decades later on vcr. But I liked District 9 a great deal. But then i thought (and still think) that Nashville was one of the most condescending and patronizing movies of all time. My rule of thumb used to be if Pauline Kael liked a movie I almost surely wouldn't. But i can't use the current NewYorker reviewers as an anti-guide quite as assuredly as Ms Kael.

Moon was pretty fine, esp. considering the minimal budget ~ $7.99 in constant 1969 dollars. This has not been a good year, yet, for movies though i did like "the girl w/ the dragoon tattoo" a good deal. I mean just to get to a theater we're liable to see the karate kid II this weekend.

Just got finished watched Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket". One of those films it will take awhile to absorb; plus it encourages multiple viewings and interpretations. Very humane and moving; no big story arc or dramatic payoff. Subtle, much conveyed in a glance. Bresson, a master of understatement.

I have this intense desire to watch Knight and Day on TBS or something in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday. I want it so bad.

But I have no desire to pay $10+ to see it in the theatre.

It's a strange feeling.

87: I saw Bresson's "Pickpocket" in film school at Madison. It's an awesome film. The horse race scene is echoed in Soderbergh's "Oceans 11" when Brad Pitt and Carl Reiner are at the dog track. I love how Soderbergh made the dog race secondary to the scene's action. Then again, Soderbergh is a stylistic magpie. He can take, mimic, and exploit a specific cinematic style in a way that's like Joyce or Pynchon. He's scary talented that way.

Took the kids out to see "Toy Story 3" last night (in 3D, we were planning on 2D, but there was no suitable session we could all make, such is the social whirl of 5 and 7 year olds in this day and age). We all liked it, the two adults in attendance shed a tear or two (*coff*buckets*coff*) at the end, and apart from some somewhat scary scenes for the sensitive 5 year old, it was heartily and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

We did have to reassure them afterwards that NO WAY IN HELL would we ever give away Hymie Bear or Monkey Bear, beloved plush animals that have been firm favourites almost since birth for both children. (I think buckets of tears would be shed again by the adults of the family if such a thing were to happen.)

Yay for Pixar! Beautiful animation, great stories, wonderful characters, and pretty much a complete non-reliance on fart jokes (just because I can't remember any, doesn't mean they're not there). Unfortunately there was a trailer for "Marmaduke", and school holidays are coming up... *sigh*

I've seen discussions of Marmaduke that indicate whatever it is, it ain't no movie. I've also seen it described as the worst movie ever made. I even went to a website that had Forty 2010 Summer Blockbusters That Are Better than Marmaduke.

Good luck if the young'uns are successful in getting you to take them.

well damn...Karate Kid II was pretty OK for summer family/kids movie. Certainly an ad for Chinese tourism*, and implausible, but a i was surprised that i enjoyed it as much as i did. As did the 3 other old farts who saw it with me. No surprises, but Jackie Chan is excellent and Jaden Smith (will smith's son) does fine as the student.

*But the same could be said, say, for "Vicky Christina Barcelona" as being a terrific travel ad for Spain.

#91> I think that link to the "Forty 2010 Summer Blockbusters that Are Better Than Marmaduke" was posted here, somewhere. I do remember reading it, and I'm getting most of my movie info from this group at the moment.

Got out last night (shock! two movies in one week!) and saw "Animal Kingdom", an Australian movie that apparently did well at Sundance. And it was *excellent*. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way, not knowing which way characters were going to go, and considering most of them were scary violent unstable men waving guns around, I was terrified. (There were two scenes where I knew what was going to happen, though, and they were even scarier, with the tension building. I can't seem to win...)

My parents & my sister & her husband all saw it over the last week or so and described it as "bleak". It certainly isn't happy (in the 80s all our movies were golden tinged nostalgia, in the 90s we went for quirky, now we seem to be stuck in bleakville), but my overwhelming impression was terror, not bleakness.

Currently reading Peter Carey's 30 Days in Sydney and grumping that his friends are all famous architects and powerful business men and artists (etc; and why aren't any of my friends big wigs?? how did I miss out on that??), but after seeing this movie, I'm just glad I don't know any people who are like the characters in that. (Did I mention they were unstable and violent?)

If it comes your way, and you can cope with some fairly strong Australian accents (and the fact that no one ever calls anyone by their real name; Darryl is Daz or Dazza, Barry is Baz or Bazza, etc), do go and see it.

Edited because I can't spel.

My partner is recuperating from a heart attack and a week in the hospital, so we are hanging out at home a lot :)

Last weekend we rented a Kurasawa movie. I had not seen any of them before. It was very interesting. I forget the name, it started with a K and it was about a guy who was playing the part of a ruler because the ruler died and they needed to keep up the fiction that he was alive.

We also rented The Third Man because I had heard from my sister that it's a must see and because I like the zither. Wow, it was so fun to watch. I just love the score. And Orson Welles was amazing though he was not in it much. I'm glad i've finally seen it.

Was the Kurasawa flick "Kagamusha" (The Shadow Warrior)? I recall that's a good one, later period 1975-80.

Here's wishing a speedy recovery to your partner; lots of green tea and, yup, great movies.

96: That's it! Thanks. Obviously you, like Chris, are a fan. Green tea - good idea!

I have lauded "The Third Man" to the skies. I think, without a doubt, it is one of the top five movies ever made. Excellent storyline, excellent script, excellent characters, excellent cinematography, very noirish, excellent acting, excellent direction, and possibly, next to High Noon, the best musical score and most effective use of music in any movie I've ever seen. They just don't make them that way any more. Poor Holly Martens.

Now, if I could just get some buzz going for another of my top five great movies, Seance on a Wet Afternoon.

They've released the trailer for the American remake of "Let the Right One In." It's been retitled as "Let Me In": http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-trailer-for-let-me-in-vampires-were-not-total...

I've added "Seance" to my wish list, Gene.

Trent Reznor to score Facebook movie:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/dark-trent-reznor-to-darkly-create-dark-score-for...

Is anyone being forced to go see The Last Airbender? My friends invited me to see it, but I told them that funny little vampire movie was getting better reviews. Naturally, on facebook this morning, they proclaimed how awful it was (although, to their benefit, I think they get some sort of sick pleasure out of seeing awful movies).

Rewatched The Thin Red Line the other night. Pretty awesome. The first few times I thought it dragged in places (since it isn't a traditionally structured "action/war" movie in the Saving Private Ryan mold). I'd call TRL a highbrow war movie, while SPR is a middlebrow war movie. I'm just trying to pinpoint what makes one highbrow while the other is middlebrow, since both are expertly directed, well-acted, and well written. Even the assertion that middlebrow softens the edges and makes things palatable for a mass audience falls flat in the opening Omaha Beach sequence, which is long and visceral and merciless in its depiction of war's brutality. TRL seems to have a larger scope, since it examines the moral chaos of all war, while SPR has the underlying theme of "USA! USA! USA!" and the awesomeness of the Greatest Generation. Plus different theaters of war have different conventions: the man vs. nature of Pacific island hopping and Western Civ's self-destruction in the European Theater. Spielberg wants to be a Movieland Ken Burns, rapturously repeating the myths of the Master Narrative, while Terrance Malick recalls Conrad and Kipling and Homer, asking the awkward question: "What was this all about anyway?"

Here ya go, Ian, a chance to support one of your faves:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2010/07/06/restore-hitchcock-bfi.html

Pony up the cash, buster. Hitchcockians everywhere are watching you.

#103 I think you nailed it. Nice job.

Watching those teen vampire movies can be fatal:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/man-dies-during-screening-of-eclipse,42822/

#102> Oh dear, I did rather like the original animated series that the movie "The Last Airbender" was based on. I didn't catch the whole series, admittedly, and maybe it stank to high heaven after a while too.

>107 wookiebender: Actually, I've heard marvelous thing about the original series. The movie, apparently, is like the Wikipedia-ed version with bad acting and a bad transfer to 3D.

A neat doc on the Kuchar Brothers:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/it-came-from-kuchar,42842/

Love that Clouzot fella. In terms of sheer suspense, he da man.

Posted a review of "Moon" on my blog here. And I'm currently writing a review of "Cargo" for The Zone. "Cargo" is a Swiss sf film, sort of "Alien" meets "The Matrix", and probably the best sf film I've seen of the last couple of years.

I think that a balanced view of "Moon", laddie. It's not a perfect film (it has some real credibility problems) but it's miles beyond the pap that has been SF cinema for the past X amount of years.

I've never heard of "Cargo"--look forward to reading your review.

Anybody know anything about this film? I read a piece on it recently and it seemed...odd:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jul/03/went-day-well-patterson

Everyone knows that SyFy has the best movies;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK2bBfuepKk

Watched "Oceans Thirteen" a couple night ago. A nice little indulgence on a hot and humid night. I enjoyed it, although, like "Oceans Twelve", some people really, really hated it.

Terry Gilliam's "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" and Werner Herzog's "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans".

Both, obviously, very odd flicks--I'd seen "Fear and Loathing" before and it has grown on me, though I still think Depp and Del Toro are miscast. The most faithful literary adaptation I can remember.

"Bad Lieutenant" was better than I expected, black humour and Nic Cage's bizarro performance. Worth a look...

Via: Online PhD

I went across town yesterday and happened to get to the mall just in time for I am Love. The opening credits showed music by John Adams. When I heard the music I thought that I'd have a hard time distinguishing it from the John Adams music I have heard elsewhere. In the closing credits I found out that the theme music was all music I have heard; it wasn't written specially for the movie. Tilda Swinton rode a motorcycle in Orlando but not in this one; young men rode motorcycles in this one. This is another paean to wifely adultery.

I saw the trailer to The Girl Who Played With Fire. It was uninspiring; it looked mostly to remind us of the first movie which we all, of course, loved. Still I am hopeful that the trailer and the poster in the lobby are signs that it will play here.

Robert

Watched "Mad Love" (aka "Hands of Orlac") on YouTube last night. They have the movie in its entirety (in 9-minute clips). I've wanted to see this flick for ages, so settled in front of my computer with a blended scotch and fired 'er up.

Directed by Karl Freund and Gregg Toland is one of the cinematographers. Peter Lorre is magnificently creepy and the flick, though somewhat creaky at times, is very effective and chilling.

My review of "Cargo" is up here.

Yup, that one definitely gets added to my list. Thanks, mon, and a good, insightful review--no spoilers, just enough info to sink the hook...

We love Gilliam's "fear and loathing" down here in P'boro. Once you get past Depp not looking the least bit like HS Thompson I think the casting works well. Esp. on the 3rd or 4th viewings.

"Fear and Loathing" (the movie) is astonishingly faithful to the book, I'll give it that. And it did improve on its (now) third viewing.

My excuse to cross town yesterday was to watch Solitary Man. Michael Douglas plays a man only slightly younger than me with some of the same appetites in hugely different circumstances. I was fascinated by it. I sat through the end, but will still like somebody to tell me how it ends.

There were three trailers, and I thought I remembered them all. Right now one is not coming back. The opening of the trailer for Cyrus was appealing, but it quickly turned to confirm the adverse reviews I have read of it. I couldn't form a judgment based on the trailer for Get Low, but I thought that if it actually comes out I will pay attention to the reviews.

Now I remember the third. The local paper said it was going to open here, but the schedules never showed it. Now the theater has a trailer for it. It is Micmacs which looked like it could be literally fantastic, but I couldn't get a real fix on it. If it played and if there were no reviews I would probably go on speculation.

Robert

Going to see Inception tomorrow and am actually quite excited.

Rented The Fall. Visually, it was incredible, even if the story was a little garbled in places.

"Micmacs" is the new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film--don't miss that one, Robert.

Okay. I do hope it plays here. As I said, there's been confusion about it. I didn't notice a poster as I walked through the lobby.

Robert

Sadly Micmacs is not listed in today's paper. The Girl Who Played with Fire is; the review is adverse, but I will likely see it sooner rather than later.

Yesterday I saw Inception in Titan XC mode. It was my first time with Titan XC which I like, from the one viewing, at least as much as I like IMAX (a whole lot), but it is too loud. Inception does not require the massive screen and thunderous sound of either special mode, but it is just fine there. This is a thrilling, multi-genre film that turns out to be a good way to spend a summer afternoon. The plot declares depth rather than exhibits it; that is okay.

Leading into Inception there was an unusually large number of trailers, all for the summer blockbusters. They all look exciting, but the first reviews will determine whether they will be seen. Salt was one of them. It starts here today. There was lots of hardbody girl action that can be appealing but probably not sufficient to hold up the film; I'll see this one later rather than sooner if at all.

Robert

Another of Greathouse's laws of inverse proportions, not only is the quality of a movie inversely proportional to the amount of hype, it is also inversely proportional to the number, and time spent on screen, of hardbodies.

My wife and teenage sons saw "Inception"--they thought it a cut above the usual summer fare. Trippy, complicated but, as with most Nolan films these days, overlong. Cut 20 minutes to half an hour was the resounding verdict. Otherwise, a good time-waster.

I likely won't see it, unless I stumble across it for free--I detest DeCrapio.

Given the awfulness of the plot and Jolie's terrible acting, I'd thought "Salt" was a film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged? Did the movie have lots of trains and lofty speechifying?

I liked Inception, but I don't share your antipathy to Leonardo DiCaprio, Cliff, and I don't think it is good enough to see if you do have some distaste for the star. Meanwhile there is a movie to see regardless that he is in it, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?.

Yesterday I saw The Girl Who Played With Fire. I was content with it, but it was for people who are already into the story. It was not complete unto itself as the first movie was. Furthermore it is a huge simplification, probably necessary, of the printed work. I don't think a person could take in this movie in isolation and get anything out of it. Some people might also be disappointed that thrilling or deeper elements of the story are just missing in order to keep the movie tale moving and the movie itself to a little over two hours.

Robert

"Titanic II" has been made.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/titanic-ii-is-real-and-theres-a-trailer,43587/

'Inception' was awesome. 'Winter's Bone' was incredible.

I hadn't heard of Winter's Bone. It looks like one to cross town for if it is screened here.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Robert

Saw Youth in Revolt, starring Michael Cera, Ray Liotta, and M. Emmet Walsh (he's still alive!). A fun little movie with some great animation sequences. For those who liked the Royal Tannenbaums and arson.

The nearby Art Museum just posted on Facebook: Three New York Times Critics' Picks screening next month! 'The Secret of Kells' from Ireland, 'Mid-August Lunch' from Italy, and "Here and There" from US and Serbia.

Does anybody here know enough about any of them to make a recommendation?

Robert

I want to see Winter's Bone, but I'm a big fan of Daniel Woodrell. I worry that the movie will mess with my appreciation of the novel.

"Sullivan's Travels" by Preston Sturges was great. I can see the Sturges influence in the Coen Brothers Plus it had Veronica Lake in costumes by Edith Head She reminds me of a Della Robbia Madonna.

"Sullivan's Travels" was the cinematic equivalent of The Grapes of Wrath. It changed peoples minds about the hobo's.

But the Grapes of Wrath didn't have Veronica Lake slinking around in a bathrobe.

Just finished watching Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street". Enjoyed it immensely; good performances and solid, robust direction. Wunnerful, wunnerful.

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue02/infocus/pickup.htm

(Warning: the above article contains spoilers)

Roger Ebert liked Dinner for Schmucks so I went to see it today. I thought it would be a nice quiet weekday afternoon at the movie theater, but the place was full of people who had to stand in the front, wear flashing communications devices in their ears, guffaw, and explain the movie to each other; I could have gone on a Saturday.

Anyway, predictable and simple though it was, it was warm and funny. The female love interest had an absolutely gorgeous face. The dioramas were clever and touching.

Robert

I heard Jemaine Clement was in it playing the same character he plays on "Flight of the Conchords".

BTW, does anyone know if Flight is coming back anytime soon?

Jemain Clement is also in the crap "Gentlemen Broncos", playing a similar character to the one he plays in "Flight of the Conchords".

He plays Kieran, an over the top artist who is infinitely self absorbed and warm hearted at the same time. He has a central role. He has the power of the people using the schmucks, and he is as bizarre as any of the schmucks.

I don't know the other movies, so I can't compare his roles in them.

Robert

Got out to the movies last night and caught "Inception". (I tried to get to see it last week, but the session sold out while I was in the queue to buy tickets, and then this week I managed to snaffle the *last* ticket!) Very crowded theatre (naturally), and while my phone tickled me, I didn't wave it around. (I should turn it off, but I always panic that the kids will need me, so keep it on silent. And then totally ignore it. Go figure. Turns out it was the guys delivering the new fridge anyhow, and they got hold of my husband at home.)

I did enjoy it, although I think I shouldn't try to make sense of it all because it might just all fall apart if I do, much like time travel stories do. Overheard one person grumbling on the way out that it was "too action-y". (Did they not see the trailer?) I'll have to see it again, with husband in tow, so it'll be fun working out the beginning knowing what it's all about. At the time, I just went with the flow and trusted Christopher Nolan.

The worst comment I've heard about it was that it was too much like "Shutter Island". Yes, there are similarities, but that then meant I kept on over-thinking the plot, and that wasn't really the big similarity for me. Another reason to rewatch it.

Myrna Loy: film actress and political activist:

http://hilobrow.com/2010/08/02/myrna-loy/

Wookie, I saw an article (but did not read it) that said "Inception" is being/has been released with an alternate ending that explains things a little better.

I think the ending of Inception is supposed to be coy. A sort of woo-woo for the younger set and a plot twist for us older folk.

Otherwise it is about, and this is not a spoiler, dreams within dreams and the reality of the dream from which one is dreaming.

Robert

Sort of like The Last Wave, then, right? I don't know why this is listed as Black Rain. It was The Last Wave when I saw it. It's about a guy whose dreams are stolen, ultimately he can't tell the difference between dreaming and waking right up to the moment when a two hundred foot tall wave crushes him. A Peter Weir nightmare.

Sounds like, conceptually anyhow, "Inception" is a been there, done that.

Wow, Gene, I haven't seen "The Last Wave" in ages--think I still have VHS copy in the basement. Neat little thriller, as I remember, 1977 or thereabouts. Richard Chamberlain and much weirdness...

More on "The Last Wave":

http://www.peterweircave.com/articles/articlei.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_7BYTf95Vc

Loved "The Last Wave", particularly the old aborigine shaman and the big wave at the end.

I didn't think the ending of "Inception" was confusing, but it definitely wasn't falling on one side or the other in what was happening, it was letting us make up our own minds. I just don't think I should pay very close attention to the "kick", because that's where I think it might unravel. Or may, on rewatching, I should pay closer attention because I probably missed something on first watching. :)

Haven't seen "The Last Wave". ABC2 is having a festival of Australian movies on Saturday night, hopefully they have the rights to that one. This week they're showing "Roadgames" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083000/) with those fine Australian actors Stacey Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. Ah, back to the good old days when we used to ship in American actors to star in "Australian" movies. Now, we seem to be sending our actors to Hollywood all the time! (Note, this could be a perfectly good little thriller. I was just never a fan of importing actors, unless there was a good reason for it.)

Finally saw Benjamin Button A real tear jerker.

Has anyone seen "The Kids Are All Right," and can recommend it?

Watched "The Immortal Story" last night. Which means I have now seen all of Orson Welles' major films.

This one was shot for French television in 1968, on the cheap by the look of it. An adaptation of an Isak Dinesen short story; quite stage-y and word-y and Welles' makeup is terrible. Still, there are flashes of genius and I'm glad I managed to lay my hands on a copy (it's nearly impossible to find)...

Micmacs finally opened here on Friday, so yesterday I set out to cross town to see it. More than half way there my car broke down; this movie may be too dangerous for me.

I have ordered Le diner de cons, the French original from which Dinner for Schmucks was derived from BN.COM. It was on sale; they have delayed my shipment.

Robert

A 1982 review of "Blade Runner"--proves that not EVERYBODY missed the boat on this one:

http://peacelovesmusings.blogspot.com/2010/08/joel-e-siegels-1982-blade-runner-r...

Saw "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" -- the one with the Bee Gees and George Burns. Wonderfully ridiculous.

I am a film snob of this sort: I like a whole lot of movies that the nose in the air snobs don't like along with the films that run deep with substance.

Meanwhile, anything within walking distance of my house is beyond walking distance coming home, so I don't do it very often. My car broke down last Saturday, and my mechanic was just getting to it today. I was getting cabin fever. I went to the movies. When I got to the mall I didn't want to eat right away. Of four or five movies that I thought I might like to see, Cats and Dogs in Technicolor 3D was most imminent; so I bought my senior ticket with four dollar surcharge and went in.

Cats and Dogs was a pretty dreadfully dull movie. I would rather have played with the animals in a park for an hour and a half.

Robert

http://www.avclub.com/articles/eat-pray-love,44114/

I hope everyone was given a vomit bag at the screening.

I know there's a sequel but how about completing the trilogy with the book: DESPAIR, WEEP & SHOOT MYSELF.

Elizabeth Gilbert and her "message" are revolting.

You're not alone, Cliff.

http://www.thehighdefinite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/eatbrainslove_small.jp...

That's a hoot. Thanks, Karl.

The Dinner Game was in today's mail, and I watched it right away. It is a very brightly lighted film. Also it is warm and funny like the American remake. It is a small film that doesn't claim any more than it is. Everybody spoke French however.

Robert

Finally saw Avatar All I can say is: Meh. Groundbreaking special effects, cool alien design, and awful pedestrian plot that shoe-horns a racist interpretation of Native Americans into a ham-handed critique of the Iraq War. In summary, "Avatar" = Atlas Shrugged

Going to see The Kids are Alright tomorrow. The Galaxy is ALSO showing Inception which we'd like to see as well as the restored "Metropolis" - has anyone here sat through it yet? I imagine we'll go soon. We haven't seen anything, either in the theatre or netflix for a while now.

I also want to see Scott Pilgrim, but it looks like i'll be going to that one by myself as none of my usual movie going cohort wants to see it.

Saw "Metropolis" on the big screen last year. it was...WONDROUS. Don't miss the chance to see it.

Just finished Samuel Fuller's "Shock Corridor"--a B movie with a lot of guts and grit. Surprisingly tough and uncompromising.

And here's a neat article on "Shock Corridor" and its odd auteur:

http://www.culturecourt.com/Ajo/film/ShockC.htm

Bob, I hope you'll report on The Kids Are All Right. It is across town, a drive I am less and less willing to make unless well motivated.

Meanwhile, Gallic quips continue. On my way into a buffet restaurant to eat all the fish I could eat I stopped to call my mechanic. He said my car was ready so I hopped a bus instead into town and got my car. There I was almost across town, so I went to see Micmacs which I had been on my way to see the day my car broke down.

It could have been better. Still it was pleasant and often clever. Also it is in French. One armament manufacturer CEO shelled his shrimp and ate them with a fork. The other just broke their tails off and popped them in his mouth one at a time.

Robert

Patty was sick, so we missed "the kids are alright" last weekend. If it's still @ the Galaxy i'm sure we'll try again. Fortunately the nicest theater is also the one of the two closest - and the Galaxy is certainly the nicest place to catch indie (or Bollywood) films. They tend to keep movies for long runs so i imagine it'll be there

I hope she gets well promptly. I may see The Kids Are All Right on Saturday if it is still playing, nothing supersedes it, I go in that direction...

I saw The Expendables yesterday in Titan XC. It was loud. There was plenty of shooting, punching, kicking, and stabbing by old guys we used to see in action movies. Sylvester Stallone flies airplanes funny always moving the yolk and adjusting the throttles. This movie was light but didn't have the joie de vivre that The A Team had. It looks like the big swashbuckler coming, though, is Machete.

A couple of foreign movies are playing in my neighborhood that I'd like to get to, but board secretary duties for my AOAO and functions at church may keep me from them.

Robert

Saw Scott Pilgrim—quite enjoyable and very fun.

The International Film Festival just ended where I am, I managed to catch 4 goodies.

- Babies (France): Documentary on the first year of life 4 babies, with the babies coming from 4 very different cultures- very nicely shot and the lack of commentary refreshing

- Lourdes (Austria/France/Germany): feature film about a disabled group travelling to Lourdes in the hope of a miraculous recovery, sparse and real and very good

- Once Upon a Time in the West (Italy/USA): that old western classic with one very saucy female love interest

- Please Give (USA): feature film with a few actors I admire, Catherine Keener and Rebecca Hall.

>164 kswolff: vomit bag- HA HA HA, Eat Pray Love comes across as very cheesy

Australia goes to the polls this Saturday, and a friend of mine is hosting her usual election party. But it's going to be close according to all opinion polls (at least, last time I looked), and if the Wrong Party gets in, it's all going to be too depressing for words.

I'm thinking I might prefer to go and see Scott Pilgrim instead and just ignore all the election brouhaha.

The Expendables is getting poor reviews here, but it wasn't a movie I was particularly interested in anyway. :) Salt is getting some good reviews, but the director is Australian, and we are nothing if not parochial. Still, could be good fun.

The Expendables deserved the adverse reviews that I saw. It was mere big screen excitement. I can get in the mood for that, but I take away nothing that I didn't come with.

Robert

My kids liked "Scott Pilgrim" (the movie). None of us have read the original comic--er, graphic novel. Did anybody else?

The Expendables at the New York Stock Exchange from Huffington Post.

Robert

Five art films that the Huffington Post thinks we should see. I've seen the trailers for Mao's Last Dancer and thought it might bear watching. It is playing now across town. I expect to see a movie in that multiplex today, but it will more likely be The Kids are All Right. Time will tell.

Robert

i've read 4 of the scott pilgrim comix, they're very silly and sweet. Patty hates them, Adam loves them. i imagine i'll be seeing the movie by myself.
Inception today at the Galaxy,
Kids are alright next weekend.
Our netflix Roku "direct to TV" stream stopped working last night..but so did every one else's. sigh.

The Kids are All Right is entertaining enough for a couple of hours. It is politically correct in the glorification of the lesbian couple and the denigration of the man. In fact (that is the facts of the fiction of the movie) the couple's nuclear family sucks the man into their world then carves out his heart, but that's okay among the politically correct.

Robert

Both Patty and i thought Inception was kindof tedious; there was an germ of an idea that could have been worked with that got Macguffined into ... a shtick. So instead we got lots of fairly meaningless "action." And as much as Patty, in particular, wanted to see the movie, she said that everytime Leo tried to be sensitive and emote she just wanted to slap his face and tell him to be mensch. And did Juno's parents know she was trying to build virtual worlds inside the minds of tycoons? I do like Ellen Page..but she looked like she was a 13 yr jr high school kid.

Oh well. The preview for Peepli Live looked very intriguing (an Indian movie but not a Bollywood movie). An impoverished rural farmer decides to commit suicide so his family will receive a modest renumeration; but his attempt to salvage his family's meager landholding turns into a media circus.

Good SF (or good movies) don't need huge budgets or special effects. Pi, Primer, Moon, or on a somewhat more expensive - but hardly huge budgets, Gattaca and District 9, 12 Monkeys are far more satisfying than shoot 'em ups draped in genre clothing like Inception or dsyfunctional families in space (Star wars). Big budgets can work - Alien, Blade Runner were fairly expensive in their day irrc? Maybe for genre pictures - and SF in particular - having a limited budget tends to force a movie to fall back on an idea or two?

Good points, Bob, re: SF films. All the big buck budgets in the world can't disguise a derivative turkey.

David Thomson, ten lost cinema classics:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/19/cinema-lost-unknown-classics

(Cheers, Gord)

I went and saw "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" on Saturday night, and I enjoyed myself. It's nothing brilliant, but it was charming and funny and fit the bill exactly.

And then got home to find out that no particular party got a majority in the election. It's Monday now, it'll be a while before something is worked out.

We saw a trailer for "R.E.D" or something. Fairly unmemorable, apart from Dame Helen Mirren wielding a semi-automatic weapon of some sort. That made us laugh. (And a trailer for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". Seven whole months between part 1 and part 2 coming out - Nov 2010 and July 2011. I've always liked the books better than the movies - especially the first two which were awful movies - but I still always go and see them, and I'm not at all happy with a seven month gap between installments. Still, there were 12 months between installments of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I coped with that.)

My family and I watched "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"--very cute, amusing. Nothing earth-shattering but lotsa giggles.

My 14 year old son and his friend are budding film-makers and they have become huge Wes Anderson fans.

Watched "All that Heaven Allows" again over the weekend. Definitely a favourite. Also watched a Spanish film, "Herrio", which proved to be quite good - an unsettling psychological thriller which actually made sense.

we rewatched Mr Fox on dvd the other day; I really love the final scene with the terrific remastering of Bobby Fuller's "let her dance" (more well known for "I fought the law"

Dennis Hopper blows himself up:

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/dennis_hopper_and_his/

Christ, the guy was a nutbar.

(Courtesy, Gord)

A few years ago an older person in our church threw himself a hundredth birthday party, because he wasn't entirely sure he'd live long enough for the real thing, combined with a memorial service, so that he could hear what people had to say about him. Parenthetically, we just threw him his real hundredth birthday party a few weeks after his hundredth birthday.

In Get Low Felix Bush, played by Robert Duvall, throws himself his own funeral, ostensibly to hear the stories people have to tell about him. The circumstances are entirely different from my church mate's circumstances. This is a very moving story beautifully played and photographed.

Now I have to get back across town to the same multiplex to see Mao's Last Dancer, which, to my surprise, was playing in the biggest room at the multiplex.

Robert

Watched "The Outlaw Josey Wales" again last night (first time in about 15 years)--one of the best westerns ever made. Some stock characters and weak moments but, for the most part, it's a delight.

...and Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" tonight. Completely contrived and we guessed the villain not far into the film. Definitely poor quality material from a guy who can do much, much better. Give this one a C or C+ at the most. Really not worth your time.

off to see Peepli Live this afternoon. Patty heard an interesting interview with the director - a famous Bollywood actor - who emphasized that Peepli is a satire, and that satire is a mode of discourse that's virtually unknown in Indian movie making so he was very unsure of its reception @ home.

I Netflixed Le diner de cons you mentioned a while back, Robert, the French original that Dinner for Schmucks no doubt Americanizes. I thought I'd seen it before, actually, but it turned out to be entirely different, which was a treat.

I just watched "Pandorum" as it was completely stupid. Not as stupid as "Star Trek XI", but not far off. Which is why sf films like "Cargo" should be treasured.

I'm with you on "Pandorum", chum. A complete mess. Stupid as a conservative think tank.

Again, this tendency to mix SF with horror: why? What's wrong with a straight, speculative film about the future, positing the changes to human culture, our gradual evolution as we reach out for the stars? An intelligent and thoughtful--

Oh, wait, that's "2001"...

This documentary looks like it might have promise:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2010/08/26/the-tillman-story-review.html

Watch all of Tarkovsky's major films on-line...FREE:

http://www.openculture.com/2010/07/tarkovksy.html

This is a treat for true fans of cinema. Tarkovsky was one of the Masters...

After trying to lay my hands on a copy for ages, I finally managed to see "The Wannsee Conference" tonight.

Gripping, horrifying, revolting and mesmerizing...talk about mixed reactions, eh? The film immensely well-executed and I really think it captured a sense of the bureaucratic nature of the Reich, the different principalities (of Hell) vying for position and influence, various demons clamoring for their share of glory.

If you're lucky enough to run across this one, don't miss it.

202: I remember us discussing this before. There are two of these movies, right, and this is an earlier one than the one with Kenneth Branaugh playing Heydrich? I saw that one and would love to see the other one as well.

Right, this is a German film, German cast, directed by Heinz Schirk.

http://grunes.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/the-wannsee-conference-heinz-schirk-1984/

The actors playing Heydrich and Eichmann are particularly fine. This one seems so authentic, it's creepy.

The Schirk film was made in 1984 for German television. The one you saw with Branagh, "Conspiracy", was made in 2001 and was nominated for a couple of Emmies.

Peepli Live was pretty terrific. A mix of broad, kindof raunchy humor effectively setting off a very serious set of themes (rural poverty, media whorishness, political corruption. A dirt poor farming family is about to lose their land to the bank. Supposedly a program exists wherein the state govt. gives the farmer's family ~ $2,000 if he commits suicide. The protagonist's kindof sleazy older brother convinces him that this is the "right" thing to do - though Natha is rather dubious about the scheme..Sometimes after enough weed it seems..plausible. The whole schmear starts spinning out of control and absurd chaos ensues as the Indian media gets wind of the story and descends locust like upon the villagers.

While half the movie is takes on/off Indian media/politics ala "Network" - the other half - and in many ways the better half - deals with the family's so called life. The decrepit but domineering mother in law and the bitchy...but undeniably provoked and long suffering...wife are constantly at each other's throat..which when everyone lives in each other's lap ratchets up the tension constantly. "Whitchy slut" is one of the mother in law from hell's gentler references to her daughter in law who is fully capable of holding her own.

One of the benefits of seeing it in the theater, as opposed to later on dvd, was getting to appreciate the soundtrack which is certainly going to be my next musical purchase. Very effective melding of traditional Indian music with heavy Europop influences. All 4 of us enjoyed the flic a great deal and as the last movie we'd seen was the brain dead Inception, we were ready for something good.

"The American"--a decent thriller for a change?

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2010/09/01/the-american-review.html

I was surprised to note the movie is based on a book by Martin Booth (A VERY PRIVATE GENTLEMAN), who was a terrific writer, and it's directed by Anton Corbijn, who did such a brilliant job with the Joy Division biopic "Control".

"The American" might be one to watch out for.

>203 anna_in_pdx:, 204. I didn't know about the German film, only the later one, which I saw. Thanks for the info.

As I indicated, finding a North American copy of the Schirk film was damn near impossible. Took me AGES. Which is a shame, because it's a fine movie and historically significant.

With a replay of my car failure, causing me this time to miss, so far, Mao's Last Dancer, I went out afoot to day to the multiplex theater that is just beyond walking distance from my home.

The American starring George Clooney can't possible have been worth the walk but I can't figure out how else to put it. It is a plus for movies to have the full frontal nudity and breasts that this movie has, but the movie stands on its drama, and the sexuality is part of the character development. The story is dark, focused, quiet, and moody, but it is also beautifully photographed. Omega watches and Nikon cameras get product placement.

Robert

PS I neglected to say that the movie prompted a question about firearms that I can't ask without risking a serious spoiler. If someone else sees the film and can answer my question would you please contact me.

R

Watched Michael Moore's "Capitalism" last night, with my wife and two sons. Fascinating. Talk about corporate kleptocracy. The looting of American by Goldmann Sachs and Co. Revolting.

And then I watch some interviews with the folks who attended Glen Beck's rally, the rage directed toward the present administration. I'm no fan of Obama's (pretty much useless as a president and Goldmann Sachs was his largest corporate donor) but Americans got screwed by the previous eejit, poor Oback left on cleanup detail with a broom and busted dust pan.

"Capitalism" is fun and rather brilliantly edited and put together. Advocacy journalism of the best kind. One from the heart.

210: Is that really Frank Sinatra singing the Internationale at the end? My partner and I did a double take. I loved the movie as well.

209: My son told me there was a new Clooney and you make it sound worth watching. Full frontal female nudity not so much a selling point for me but assume GC was moderately unclothed as well?

From good ol' Wikipedia:

"Michael Moore's 2009 documentary Capitalism: A Love Story has New Jersey lounge singer Tony Babino performing an English language version of 'L'Internationale' over the end credits."

211: George Clooney's butt may have a role in The American, but I can't remember for sure. I do remember that his exposed upper body with tattoos played to a couple of kinds of revelation about him.

Robert

At the end of the downhill long walk the most imminent motion picture was The Other Guys. It was really stupid. I got a huge kick out of it.

It turned out when I got out of that I just had time to get into Machete. Lots of action, blood, villainy, and stout hearted heroes.

Both movies bear watching, but Machete is the one to go out for.

Robert

I also want to see Machete, just to piss off those racist nutters who passed that ridiculous law in Arizona ... Michelle Rodriguez with a bare midriff, an eye-patch, and guns ablazin' also helps. (Hell, she was the only decent character in the insufferable Avatar.)

http://coffeeforclosers.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/we-didnt-cross-the-border-the-b...

Watched "Westworld" tonight for the first time in, what, 30 years.

It was still fun and darker than I remembered.

Really, it's the same story as "Jurassic Park", only it's humanoid robots running amok, rather than giant reptiles. Ol' Mikey Crichton knew how to milk a concept, didn't he?

Enjoyed Jacques Tourneur's "Nightfall" as my late, late show.

Excellent noir, though Aldo Ray is his usual monotonic self. But Brian Keith, who plays one of the gunsels, is terrific, nice combination of menace and good old boy charm.

i want to see Scott Pilgrim..but no one i know whom i go to see movies with also wants to see it. hmmm. Also want to see "The American" and the new one about King George's speech problems/therapy w/ Colin Firth (sp). And the "girl who played with fire."

That's funny; I mean funny in the sense of curious but less portentous. I go to the movies alone and don't think anymore that I would enjoy having a companion other than a snuggle bunny. I get there early except when I don't. I pick the row I want to be in. I have an empty seat beside me to aid in sprawling. I can sit all the way through the credits. I'm pretty sure that I don't want to compromise any of those things except for a snuggle bunny, and the likelihood of her existence is very, very low.

Robert

I tend to go to the movies by myself usually too. My husband has done shift-work his entire life, so before the kids I'd often take myself off to a movie on the way home because he'd be at work. And now it's cheaper if I leave him at home to babysit while I go and see something he doesn't want to see (and he goes to see movies I don't want to see while the kids are in school & I'm at work).

The crunch comes if it's something we *both* want to see!

I did enjoy "Scott Pilgrim" (have not read the books, although am moderately tempted), try and make it if you have time. I'm thinking it might be one of those rare movies I buy on DVD when it comes out, it was good solid fun. I'm becoming quite the Edgar Wright fan - own all of "Spaced" on DVD, loved "Shaun of the Dead" and quite enjoyed "Hot Fuzz" (apparently I need to watch more action movies to completely enjoy it).

I went to see "Inception" last weekend with my snuggle bunny (this is my new favorite term, thanks Robert!) and his kids (so not a lot of actual snuggling).

(SPOILERS)

It was complicated, yet very upbeat, in that there are no actual villains, and the resolution is very pre-modern in its neatness. I actually loved that. I get tired of cynical modern movies and their unlikeable characters who come to tragic pointless ends.

I saw Avatar for the fourth time yesterday. There was something like eight minutes of extra footage (I recognized some of it), and this time I saw it in Titan XC rather than IMAX (it was about the same, only louder). Each time I have seen it I have increasingly recognized what an exquisite piece of cinema it is. Just comparing Cameron's use of 3D to other directors' use of it leads me to think that there is an artist at work here. The integrity of the realization is of such a piece that a few mistakes I saw can't even begin to pry it apart.

I hope to see it at least once more before the end of this go around -- probably in IMAX next time.

Robert

I went to see the IMAX and NASA collaboration Hubble 3D today. There is a Costco next to the IMAX theater, and I ran out of something today that I needed to get, so I worked the movie into my schedule. It is about an hour long and not worth a special trip to see it (so I was upset when Costco didn't have what I was after). The narration, well spoken, is so superficial, in some cases technically wrong, that it grates; you know more from reading the science pages of whatever periodical you read. The pictures, however, are compelling, and the movie is worth seeing if it fits in with something else.

Robert

Our son urged us to read the Scott Pilgrim comics a while ago. And they really grated on Patty whereas i kindof enjoyed them. But it defn. put her off seeing the movie.

There's a new documentary about the life of Glenn Gould that i very much want to see, though i'll likely have to wait for the DVD unless the Galaxy shows it. 32 Short portraits (sic) was great; this one is a bit more biographical and also sounds fascinating. "Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould"
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/movies/10genius.html?ref=movies

Rented a coupled older movies yesterday...Watched American Psycho last night and quite enjoyed it. Even though it was primarily aimed at the yuppies of the 80s, it's still relevant to the emptiness our Culture of Want today.

Tonight, I've got Laurence Olivier's version of Hamlet in the queue.

The review on the IMDB page for Catfish says that the trailer is misleading, so I suggest that you not watch the trailer (which I have never seen); I suggest you watch the movie. I have never seen a movie like it. It is about life's approaching art, and it is about that on at least two levels.

Robert

I just realized I posted 226 on the wrong thread. I'll copy it over to the new one.

Robert