Track the Films You Watch (2007) - Page 11

george kaplan · 02-01-2007, 11:44 PM

The Great Moment

To watch the trailer of this, you'd think you have another Preston Sturges comedy, but it's anything but. It's a biopic about one of the pioneer's of surgical anesthesia, though even in the film it's unclear who did what exactly. Not bad for what it is, but stick with what Sturges does best - comedy.

American Madness

Interesting early Capra film mostly due to the fact that it focuses almost entirely on two key aspects that would later show up in It's a Wonderful Life, though they play smaller roles in that film, which is much more fleshed out. Namely a run on a bank, and grateful customers coming to the rescue. Not a biography, but apparently largely based on the founder of Bank of America.

A Fish Called Wanda

A wonderful comedy classic rewatched with many a smile and laugh.

Brook K · 02-02-2007, 01:41 AM

You were paying attention whenever William Demarest was onscreen right George? The Great Moment has a good deal of comedy. There's even a signature Preston Sturges Pratfall or two and Joel McCrea has a number of comic scenes.

Bob, Go, Go 2nd Time Virgin is not for the faint of heart. His Ecstacy of the Angels is a little more rewarding. Plays like a hyper J-Pop version of Godard's Le Petit Soldat

Yes, I enjoyed C.R.A.Z.Y. quite a bit. Killer soundtrack that I understand the director had to take a pay cut because the music rights took up so much of the budget.

As for the Paradise docs, the 1st leaves some important information out that keeps me from giving it a higher rating, while the 2nd doesn't have enough substance and gives too much screen time to allowing the father to play to the camera. I don't get a creepy vibe from them, perhaps because I grew up in a similar small town community where we went driving around on weekends looking for "Satanic Churches" for fun and I once sat in a church meeting where the chief of police came out and talked about the existence of satanic churches in the county. But the first is certainly moving and thought-provoking.

Bill, only 3-5 for Rules of the Game? and one of my favorite Westerns, The Big Country?

Looking forward to 13 Tzameti. Hope I get a chance to see the new Von Trier and Sokurov films.

george kaplan · 02-02-2007, 06:24 AM

You were paying attention whenever William Demarest was onscreen right George? The Great Moment has a good deal of comedy. There's even a signature Preston Sturges Pratfall or two and Joel McCrea has a number of comic scenes.

Nope, I dozed off every time Demarest was on screen.

Of course I was paying attention. Have you seen the trailer? All of the supposedly funny scenes in the film are in the trailer, hence leading one to believe it's a comedy. But, in the context of the film, I didn't find any of those funny at all. It's a semi-decent dramatic biopic with admittedly a few attempts at humor, but there are more actual laughs in Cries & Whispers than in this film.

Martin Teller · 02-02-2007, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Elliott

[re: Clerks 2] I personally thought this was one of the best film's of the year. Are you a fan of Smith's or do you dislike most of his films? It certainly wasn't as good as CHASING AMY but I doubt Smith ever tops that film. CLERKS 2 certainly went over the top in some of the humor but it also had a very big heart about people who are preceived as losers.

I guess I can answer this by simply pasting my review:

I hated the first movie, but for some reason I let the internet fanboys get my hopes up for this. What a fucking abomination of a movie. Brian O'Halloran is a horrible, HORRIBLE actor. And, big surprise, he's done almost nothing with his career except work with Kevin Smith. And all the other actors (with the exception of Rosario Dawson) in here are dreadful, too. Smith casting his own talentless, butt ugly wife as a supposedly desirable woman is a joke. If it was just bad acting, though, this movie might get a pass. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. The dialogue is obviously written to be natural and conversational, but sounds almost nothing like real human beings talking. There ARE a few funny bits, I'll give him that much. The porch monkey bit, the "pillowpants" bit, a couple of Randal's lines... okay, I laughed. But it was not worth sitting through the rest of the terrible dialogue just for a few chuckles. Most of the humor was retarded. Honestly, the best part is Jay's "Silence of the Lambs" routine, and you can get most of that from the trailer.

So what else? The plotting is entirely predictable. The hopeless Jesus freak virgin character was far too broad. The cheesy dance scene that's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek instead feels like a desperate plea for affection. My stomach clenched when I was subjected to one of the most awful movie clichés: the "fixin' it up" montage. As for the soundtrack, even though I like most of the songs, I didn't think they were very interesting choices. And last but not least, the movie's "lessons" are enlightening only to someone completely stunted in his emotional development. A truly painful experience. Rating: 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Elliott

[re: Gojira]After hearing fans talk about how "serious" this film was, I watched it and found it just as stupid as any of the other's in the series. It was certainly better made than follow up films but it still looked silly to me. I can enjoy bad "B" movies and I enjoyed this one on that level but I have to agree with Roger Ebert's review about pretty much everything else.

I'm not a work of genius or anything. It's pretty ham-fisted. But the action is entertaining and the anti-war/anti-nuke message hits some very solemn notes. I also think the acting isn't bad at all for a monster movie (it's got Takashi Shimura!) and the effects hold up well, IMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Elliott

[re: Children of Men]I'm almost tempted to go see this at the theater due to all the good reviews but I'm very cautious when it comes to great reviews and sci-fi. I see the thing is almost done at the box office so I'll probably end up waiting for DVD.

Here's my review of it:

The internet is going ga-ga for this movie, I think primarily because of its "gritty" feel and the fact that a lot of it plays out like a videogame. Whatever. What Cuaron does perfectly here is bring the dystopian near-future to life. You could probably study certain scenes for hours and continue to pick out revealing tidbits. This painstaking attention to detail is what elevated Azkaban over the other Harry Potter movies as well. There's also some elaborate camerawork, decent enough acting, and some genuine surprises.

Overall I liked it, but I wasn't all THAT impressed. The story was neither as moving nor thought-provoking as it could have been. Too much of it was action scenes and chase scenes. Also the whole "HOMELAND SECURITY" thing (among other not-so-subtle political messages) made me roll my eyes, and this is coming from a staunch Bush-hater. Rating: 8

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Elliott

[re: Sweet Smell of Success]I've never understood why this film seems to get overlooked so much. I'm not sure if people would call this a noir or not but I thought Lancaster was perfect playing the villain and Curtis is Curtis as usual (but entertaining).

No, I wouldn't call it noir. I'm not sure why it hasn't been elevated to the status of, say, Casablanca or Double Indemnity. Maybe there's just only so much room at the top.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Elliott

[re: Night and the City]I saw the DeNiro remake when it was released in theaters but I've yet to catch up with the original even though I own the DVD. I've got so many unwatched noirs around here that I plan on just making a noir month and going through all of them.

I've been plowing through a lot of noir in the past few months, thanks mostly to the flood of DVD releases. I was really pleased to see Francis Sullivan in this one, I love him.

Malcolm R · 02-02-2007, 12:38 PM

I just find it amazing that some people manage to watch 3, 4, 5 films a day. Even on weekends, I find it hard to fit in more than 3 max. Two in one evening during the work week is pretty rare, too.

Saw III

The third in the Saw franchise continues to find interesting "games" for Jigsaw to play, though this time the plot focuses on just four characters with some ancillary "fodder" after Saw II which had a huge cast. The counter guy at blockbuster said he couldn't make it all the way through Saw III. I think he's a wuss.

The film's edited so fast that you seldom see much anyway. After the ending, I'm very interested where they're going to take this series with Saw IV.

Open Season

I think the Blockbuster guy nearly did a spit take when I walked up to the counter with the double feature of "Saw III" and "Open Season."

Decent animated feature from Sony Animation that was in a similar vein as "Over the Hedge" but not quite as amusing or inventive as that film. Highlights were Billy Connolly as McSquizzy the squirrel and the running jokes with the rabbits.

Michael Elliott · 02-02-2007, 02:47 PM

Quote:

I hated the first movie, but for some reason I let the internet fanboys get my hopes up for this. What a fucking abomination of a movie. Brian O'Halloran is a horrible, HORRIBLE actor. And, big surprise, he's done almost nothing with his career except work with Kevin Smith. And all the other actors (with the exception of Rosario Dawson) in here are dreadful, too. Smith casting his own talentless, butt ugly wife as a supposedly desirable woman is a joke. If it was just bad acting, though, this movie might get a pass. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. The dialogue is obviously written to be natural and conversational, but sounds almost nothing like real human beings talking. There ARE a few funny bits, I'll give him that much. The porch monkey bit, the "pillowpants" bit, a couple of Randal's lines... okay, I laughed. But it was not worth sitting through the rest of the terrible dialogue just for a few chuckles. Most of the humor was retarded. Honestly, the best part is Jay's "Silence of the Lambs" routine, and you can get most of that from the trailer.

The two parts of your review that I put in bold is probably why you didn't like the film. I don't think ANYONE except for the die-hard fanboys were asking for a sequel and it seems Smith was basically making of movie for them. I can't say I visit his message board but apparently the "jokes" in the movie have been jokes posted their for years. All of these jokes were new to me so I found myself laughing at them.

As for the bad acting, I wouldn't call it "good" acting but I think the actors fill their roles very well. In other words, I think the two films seems like a documentary look at the life of real people so I think that's why the performances work for me. God knows these guys couldn't play Hamlet but I think they fit into the roles in these two films.

Quote:

I just find it amazing that some people manage to watch 3, 4, 5 films a day. Even on weekends, I find it hard to fit in more than 3 max. Two in one evening during the work week is pretty rare, too.

Just do what I do and watch five films from the 1890s, which will only take up about 10-20 seconds.

Joe Karlosi · 02-02-2007, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcolm R

I just find it amazing that some people manage to watch 3, 4, 5 films a day. Even on weekends, I find it hard to fit in more than 3 max. Two in one evening during the work week is pretty rare, too.

Same here. I was home a lot in January with some time off, which is the only reason I was able to watch 30 for the whole month. Most work nights, forget it.

Tarkin The Ewok · 02-02-2007, 11:13 PM

2/2: A View to a Kill (1985)

out of

Sure, the plot is a ripoff of Goldfinger, but when a movie is this much fun, I really don't care. I think it is a fitting swan song for Moore as James Bond, and I enjoy it every time I see it.

Pros:

-Christopher Walken
-A main villain trio that is interesting to watch and has both a cunning plan and an air of menace
-John Barry's score, especially the action cues with the electric guitar interspersed with Bond's theme
-Patrick MacNee's performance as Tibbett
-Christopher Walken
-The stud farm sequence
-The mine sequence
-The battle on and over the Golden Gate Bridge
-Christopher Walken (When you're as good as he is, you get mentioned more)

Cons:

-Stacy Sutton's screaming
-California Girls
-Inept San Francisco law enforcement
-The Paris car chase

PatW · 02-03-2007, 12:16 AM

Desert Rats (1953)

Entertaining drama about a British captain played by Richard Burton put in charge of Aussie soldiers during WW2. James Mason was cast in the part of Rommel and even though he seems an unlikely choice he inhabits the role and manages the accent quite well. I always admired Richard Burton especially pre- Taylor and he does quite well in his part. I'm not really a big lover of war movies but this one I did like.