Arman

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John Thomas

Jason Seaver

Busy weekend.

Alias Betty, which hit Boston for a weekend just in time for its video release. A good combination of thriller and character study, although the last act ties everything up too neatly.

I enjoyed Far From Heaven despite not having seen the Sirk films of which this movie is widely described as being a pastiche. It's a very good pastiche, but at times its formalism seems somewhat forced. Still, three pretty darn good performances and lots of bright colors.

::sigh:: I guess I really have to find some time to watch Chicago this week, don't I?

And, speaking of seeing Oscar contenders, I also saw (and added) several contenders in the shorts categories: All five animation nominees (I'd give the award to "Das Rad", but we all know "Mike's New Car" will take it), three live-action nominees (all cute but mostly slight; how could these be nominated while "The Remembering Movies" and "Ocha Cups For Christmas" aren't?), and "Mighty Times: The Legacy Of Rosa Parks". Reviews have been posted in the alterna-thread.

Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.
Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.
Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.


"What? Since when was this an energy ball movie?" - Overheard during a screening of Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive
"What the hell religion are you people?" - Overheard during the Captain Marvel serial at SF/29
"If I feel even one bullet hit me, I will rip your lungs out through your nostrils!" - Ron Silver as himself, "Heat Vision And Jack"

Jason Seaver

...And further updated with Chicago. I learned an important lesson here: A movie being up for a metric thwack of awards is not a good reason to see it, especially if every trailer has left you completely cold. Because, you've not only wasted two hours of your time and the cost of a ticket, all the recognition means you get to spend time wondering "what the hell are these people thinking?" even though the movie doesn't outright suck.

Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.
Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.
Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.


"What? Since when was this an energy ball movie?" - Overheard during a screening of Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive
"What the hell religion are you people?" - Overheard during the Captain Marvel serial at SF/29
"If I feel even one bullet hit me, I will rip your lungs out through your nostrils!" - Ron Silver as himself, "Heat Vision And Jack"

Seth Paxton

Jason, can't say I agree with you on Chicago.

Also, it sounds like Chubb-Chubbs might actually beat out Mike's New Car, despite neither being of the "best" quality to me. I'll see the other 3 on Friday to help me judge, and I expect at least one of those to be better than those 2 shorts.



Anyway, I've added 2 films

The Emperor's New Clothes
6 of 10
While their is nothing inherently wrong with the film, and indeed the idea of Napoleon escaping from banishment is a fascinating idea, the choices made in how to have this character live out this fantasy just don't work for me. It doesn't feel like Napoleon in the end as the film takes a turn for a feel-good romance. That just undersells and undervalues the premise the film had at hand and turns it into paint-by-numbers pop that you forget 10 minutes out of the theater.

The Salton Sea
7 of 10
Normally I'm a Val Kilmar fan, but I just found him miscast in this film. The script confounded me because at times I thought the dialog was outstanding, but often the story itself is rather sloppy and unbelievable, especially as the full story is unveiled. It also is a mix of previous done ideals, without focusing well on any of them. You get early moments that feel like Trainspotting knock-offs, other moments that be seen as 2nd rate Way of the Gun or Rush. It even slips into Real Genius sarcasm humor by Kilmer, which is totally out of place within this film.

One item worth noting from this film was the outstanding performance by Vincent D'Onofrio as Pooh-Bear. Dangerous and pyschotic done with the edges softened to believability. He felt like the kind of bad guy you could really meet, rather than cartoonishly bad as he could have been done based on the character design.

Angelo.M

Rob Willey

Updated my list with Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone, an interesting morality play marred by some jarring anachronisms.

Movies like this always have a problem when the German speaking character claims not to be able to understand the character speaking Hungarian, but to the audience they're both speaking English. Takes you right out of the movie which is a big problem in a movie shot in an intentionally claustrophobic way.

Great (and important) story, awkward delivery. No change to the top ten.

Rob

"That suits me down to the ground."

Brook K

Seth, how does your rating system work? Time after time you give so-so or even on the bad side reviews, and then score them a 7 or 8, which to me equates to a good, even very good film.

I liked Salton Sea quite a bit, I thought the tonal shifts were what was interesting about it, it wasn't just a run of the mill drugs/crime/revenge flick (like Way of the Gun for instance ) . Particularly the montages, which were funny and interesting. And far from miscast, I thought it was the best Kilmer had been in years.

When I get back from Cali I've got The Good Girl, Moonlight Mile, and Last Orders waiting for me. And hoping to be able to see something here on Friday. Found a theater that still had Quiet American though I'd rather finally see Adaptation.

Yes, Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze. The day needs my saving expertise! - Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool

2002 Sight & Sound Challenge: 314 Last Watched: An Autumn Afternoon

Last 10 Films Watched:
Mon Oncle Antoine - B / Late Autumn - A-
Paranoid Park - B / An Autumn Afternoon - A
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - B / Run, Fatboy, Run - B
Get Smart - C- / Rendition - B-
Springtime in a Small Town - B+ / Evan Almighty - C

DVD BEAVER My Collection

Jason Whyte

Oh great, you just opened the can of worms all over again.

Jason

Buy National Treasure on DVD today...\"The best movie I saw on Saturday night from 7pm to 9:30. The DTS track is freakin\' awesome!\" --Multiplex Drone

Arman

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Seth Paxton

Brook, if a film does not work in a negative fashion more than a positive one, then it can stay above 5. Unlike Dana's list which has nothing but 65+ scores (maybe even 70+), my list does actually have many films at 5 or below. All my bottom 10 are well below the 5 range. xXx is in the 5 area, as an example.

I would consider my comments on Salton Sea to be a rather mixed review. I would consider a 7 to not be a very good score for an ambitious film, or in other words a film that is really trying to be creative and have an interesting voice rather than just be a paint by number crowd pleaser.

I will give crowd pleasers like Spidey a high rating, but I have to think the total product is tight. There is less slack for slop with the lower degree of difficulty.

So my 7 says that Salton Sea is worth a look because of an interesting idea, but don't expect it to really grab you like a great artistic film would (IMO of course). If I give a film a 5 or lower it's probably worth skipping and I would consider anything below a 4 to be something you shouldn't even be renting. 1-4 is a range of bad films, 6.5-10 is a range of good films.

Salton, to me, did have moments where it shined, which is much better than just being passable. Had it not had the flaws I listed I would have put it into the 9 range which would mark it as one of the best of the year. Had it not had D'Onofrio or some interesting scenes (such as the early meth junkie explanation) it would have fallen below 5 and into the "waste of time" region.

My list does feature many more "good" films than bad, but that's because I'm not a pro and I don't see films for free (except on a rare occassion). It runs at a 70-30 split in favor of the "above 5.5 scores".

I guess the problem might be that I often explain the review from a "why not a 10?" perspective, thus the negatives. Of course, when I look at the Salton review I do see things like "outstanding dialog", and to be honest I think many films (even top films) are often lacking that really great dialog. Salton had it at times, and that did impress me.


I should also say that some time ago I did rebalance some of my scoring because it had leaned too high in comparison to scoring for similar quality films from the last 2 years.


Finally, my understanding is that City of God is a 2003 Academy qualifying film based on how Miramax presented it. IIRC Miramax tried to play both ways with City of God, going for foreign fi