What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #23
Kubrick, Bronson, Reitman, Iron Man, Swinton, Roeg and more...
Well, the lack of screenings last week allowed me to take in a lot more films at home, on top of being able to show my family some they had yet to see over the holiday weekend. So, without further delay let's dig in as I have nine films to talk about this week and I have spread them out over two pages.
| Julia (2009) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: There have been a few folks around the Internet cheering for Tilda Swinton's performance in Julia as the best lead female performance of 2009. After finally seeing the film I am willing to concede it is definitely a good performance, but I can't quite understand where the over-the-top adulation from some corners is all about. The film itself is also quite entertaining, especially considering it is too long. However, I realize now the best way to fill your film with TONS of cliches is to use a desperate alcoholic as your lead character, because when they do stupid shit you don't throw up your arms in disgust. Instead you sit back and think, yeah, that seems about right. Nevertheless, this film takes things to the extreme as Tilda Swinton plays a character who up and decides to kidnap a child and run the gamut between bone-headed decisions and clever negotiating tactics. How it all ends up I would suggest you see for yourself. This one is definitely worth a watch. | |
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| The Mechanic (1972) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: Jason Statham is reportedly set to star in a remake of this 1972 Charles Bronson thriller, but I wholeheartedly recommend you give this original flick a watch. If you have Netflix Instant Play it is available right now and it's only 99 minutes so time can't be used as an excuse. In the film Bronson plays a hitman for hire and when he decides to uncharacteristically begin training the son of one of his victims as an "associate" things go a bit awry. It's fast paced and the ending just makes me wonder what it must have been like back when all the credits were before the film and high impact endings sent the audience out of the theater without any rolling credits or animated sequences. I have included the ending directly below AND IT SPOILS THE WHOLE MOVIE FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT HAVEN'T SEEN IT, but if you have seen it I can't imagine you not hitting play to revisit its glory. | |
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| Barry Lyndon (1975) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: This was my first time seeing this Stanley Kubrick film and after seeing it there is now only one, post-1956 film of his I have not yet seen (Lolita). Personally I'm a little confused as to why Warner didn't include this film and Lolita in their Blu-ray set remembering Kubrick's films, while I haven't seen Lolita, this one definitely belongs in the collection and I would pick it up in an instance should they decide to give it the high-def treatment. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars when he reviewed it theatrically and added it to his list of "Great Movies" just this September. I love his thoughts on Ryan O'Neal whom I thought fit the role perfectly and enjoyed very much. Ebert writes:
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| Mulholland Dr. (2001) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: Anyone have any theories they'd like to pose as to just how exactly one piece of Mulholland Dr. fits in with another? The best part about this film is that there is very little disagreement in terms of what actually happens as much as people are disagreeing over what's real and what's fantasy, or dream. Most frustrating for me is that just when I think I have it worked out in my head I hit a snag and have to start all over again. A Blu-ray release of this one would certainly be nice considering the DVD I rented from Netflix has no chapter listing, which meant a push of the fast-forward button sent me to the very end, not exactly convenient and the lack of any special features is appalling. | |
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Avatar – A -
Pan's Labyrinth (rewatch) – A
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (rewatch) – B +
The Wackness (rewatch) – B -
The Royal Tenenbaums (rewatch) – B +
Food, inc. – B +
The Princess and the Frog – loved it except for a couple of plot points that left me scratching my head. Still, the atmosphere, the soundtrack and the characters were all fantastic.
The White Ribbon – a serious disappointment. Some may have seen a masterpiece in this, but all I saw was pointless and overlong mess with virtually no ending, flat characters (except maybe for the school teacher) and excellent cinematography, which was the film's only redeeming aspect for me.
A Prophet – this film, on the other hand, was great, and it's highly likely that after a couple more viewings I'll be willing to call it a masterpiece. Never boring, gritty in a great way, with very strong characters, dialogue and soundtrack. One of my Top 5 films of 2009 (#4, to be exact).
Hunger – Fassbender did a fantastic job, especially in the whole second half of the film, and the 23-minute dialogue with the priest was a goddamn masterpiece by itself, but I have to say I was quite underwhelmed with the first half. Felt it was filled with much unnecessary stuff that could easily have been cut.
Sin Nombre – a crime drama, thriller, coming-of-age story and love story all at once and at 90 minutes, all those elements somehow managed to fit perfectly in one another, and I was positively surprised. The cinematography was gorgeous, the story gripping and the characters easily made me sympathize with them. Excellent movie.
It's A Wonderful Life – 8/10
A Christmas Carol 3D – 6/10
The Hurricane – 7/10
District 13: Ultimatum – 6/10
Rewatches -
Home Alone – 9/10
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York – 8/10
The Fugitive – 9/10
Blades Of Glory – 7/10
Angels with dirty faces(1938)
Indiana Jones(the first two parts…second viewing and loved it more than the first time i saw it..)
Invictus(A good Oscar contender for 2010)…Morgan Freeman just carries the whole movie in his shoulder with Clint Eastwood,Matt Damon and the Anthony Peckham Script and not to forget the music gives him proper supply…
I too watched Barry Lyndon and Mulholland Dr. last week. Some coincidence. I finally finished watching all of the IMDb top 250 movies. And since friday, I have watched these:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) – B+
Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs) (2002) – B-
Frankenstein (1931) – B
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror) (1922) – B+
The Hurt Locker (2008) – A
The French Connection (1971) – B
Umberto D. (1952) – A+
Rain Man (1988) – B+
Coraline (2009) – B+
Cinderella man 10/10
The jerk 7/10
Men in black 8/10
Chinatown 10/10
It's a wonderful life 10/10
Dirty Harry 10/10
Cool Hand Luke ~ It is now, by far, my favorite Paul Newman movie. 5/5
Catch Me If You Can ~ Very good Spielberg movie with great performances from DiCaprio, Hanks and Walken. 4.5/5
Sherlock Holmes ~ It's DEFINITELY a Guy Ritchie movie. 4/5
Brad
David Lynch doesn't do chapters on his DVD releases because he believes "films are meant to be viewed beginning to end." I side with you; it's kind of annoying.
Also, if anyone says they can totally piece Mulholland Dr. together, they're lying.
Avatar – A
Invictus – B+
Rewatched:
Slumdog Millionaire – A+
Iron Man – B
The Hangover – A
Inglorious Basterds – A+
The Wedding Singer – C+
Star Trek – A-
U.S. Marshals – C
The Fugitive – A
The Road: B+. Just like the book: strong in its father-son relationship, strong in its post-apocalyptic depiction, but spread a bit thin. Very memorable, however. Props to Hillcoat. I now have "The Proposition" on my must see list.
Half of Mamma Mia! (rewatch): C+. It was fun to watch, especially the first half before it sinks even deeper into genre conventions. I am disappointed, though, by musicals that can't think up their own songs (I'm looking at you, too, "Across the Universe," however visually interesting you were). But Meryl Streep is always worth watching (she's my cougar crush). And I wanted to see how it was on Blu-ray.
Wizard of Oz (rewatch): A+. I was floored by how nice it looked on Blu-ray. Also, every time I watch it, it seems more and more like it was inspired by hard drug abuse. Which is a compliment.
Crank (rewatch): A-. Plain fun all the fucking way. And tons of imagination from Neveldine/Taylor.
Crank 2: A-. Like the original, only twice as much of everything. Twice as much violence, twice as much graphic sex/nudity, twice as much gleeful racial stereotyping, twice as much crazy fucked-up shit.
Just watched An Education, an excellent film in almost every aspect. "Almost" – cause it was too rushed in my opinion, but other than that, no gripes.
A Christmas Story – A++++ (only on christmas)
Elf – A
Iron Man – A
Inglorious Basterds – A+
(all rewatches)
Invictus- B+ All actors nailed it, good story, only "Colorblind" and the slo-mo final kick prevented it from A
Star Trek A- One of the most fun movies of the year, the whole cast was excellent
Barbershop- B Greatly exceeded my expectations. Good performances and it managed to have a message and not stereotype everyone, a la Soul Plane, Who's Your Caddy
Ocean's Thirteen- A- I love these movies. The cast, the dialogue, everything is great. Much better than 12, but falls short of 11.
The Departed – Scorsese's best film of the aughts.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – felt a bit dry; characters did not grab me like other Anderson films
Rushmore – sweet, funny, and memorable. a personal favorite.
Strange Days – Kathryn Bigelow's sci-fi flick from 1995. Underrated, thought-provoking. Action sequences are superb.
Wathced quite a few this past week:
Brothers – B- -excellently acted but storyline let it down. I thought it had more potential than it showed.
Fantastic Mr Fox – B+ – did not expect much from this, but it was very entertaining far exceeding any expectations.
Invictus – B+ – superby acted, I would have liked to have seen more of a backstory to Mandela including more scenes with him in prison.
Men Who Stare At Goats – C – for a movie with such a terrific cast i was expecting more, I thought it started well enough, but it just dragged as it went along.
The White Ribbon – C+ – superb cinematography, but not much really happened in it. Weak characters and was a big letdown.
A Ma Soeur – B- – very strange movie, but worth a watch as well made and thought provoking.
The Notebook (rewatch) – A – this movie just never gets old.
Avatar – A – the storyline was noone near as bad as the critics say it is, unbelievable visuals.
I'm so happy about all these Criterions they've added to netflix instant. It's awesome.
Oh, and definitely check out Lolita. It's one of my favorite Kubrick films.
I didn't do this last week, so here's what I watched from 12/13-12/26:
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans – B-
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire – B+
The Cove – A
Paper Heart – F
Avatar – A
The Road – B
Life – B-
Mammoth – C+
Nine – C+
The White Ribbon – B+
Inglourious Basterds (rewatch) – A+
Remember the Titans (rewatch) – A
Given that Mulholland Drive began life as a pilot for an ABC tv series, and was eventually finished as a theatrical feature — I don't think is should surprise anyone that the story makes absolutely no F'ing sense whatsover.
Heckler
I enjoyed Malibu’s Most Wanted, so when I read the description on DirectTV for this film: a documentary about Hecklers by Jamie Kennedy I thought I’d enjoy it. I was wrong. There were some good parts in there, but whenever Jamie Kennedy came on screen it was him literally whining about hecklers and bad reviews he’s gotten for his films. If he was just complaining about his critics I probably could have tolerated it, but the tone of his voice was literally a whine. Another person who I lost respect for after watching this was Leonard Maltin. I occasionally watch his program on Reelz channel about “hidden gems” and I appreciate that he is trying to bring smaller indie films to a wider audience. However, after he said something in the vein of “why would I read a review from a website named chud” implying that he dismisses most online reviewers, I lost respect for him. Who is he to determine who a reviewer should be and shouldn’t be. If anyone should stay away from a certain medium it should be him from television, as he has one of the worst screen presence I have ever seen. And as I said before I appreciate that he is trying to shine a light on smaller “unknown” films, but he has no right to dismiss a certain medium just because of how out of touch and irrelevant he is. I guess after writing this I sound as bad as Jamie Kennedy did in this film.
Into the Wild
I really enjoyed it and had no idea that it was based of a true story until the picture in the end, which was really a nice touch. Emile Hirsch was excellent. The supporting actors all felt real and it was shot nicely. I think I enjoyed it so much because I connected with Hirsch’s character’s need for escape. I’ve never felt the need to do something as drastic as he did, but I’ve been in a place where you sometimes need to be alone to appreciate the relationships that you have.
(500) Days of Summer
I had really high expectations for this because everyone hyped it up so much, which I guess is why I was disappointed a little. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but I had heard from people that it was the best “romance” films in years, and it certainly was not. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel were both very good, and it was well directed, but I think a lot of people got really excited because it was something different with it’s story structure, and (spoiler ahead) the fact that they don’t get together in the end. When the film was over I was mostly satisfied, but it didn’t stick with me for the next few days as truly great films do.
Fired Up
It was on DirectTV so I figured I’d check it out, and it wasn’t horrible. It was essentially a PG-13 version of The Wedding Crashers, and for a PG-13 teen sex comedy it was pretty funny. If the Nick character would have turned out to be a homosexual, it would have been a nice touch, but I think that’s asking to much from this film and this genre. All in all, I laughed a good amount of times, and it was a nice one time watch.
The Pope of Greenwich Village
Terrific, terrific acting. I’ve read a lot of negative reviews of Eric Roberts’s performance saying that he was over acting, but I felt that it fit perfectly for the character. He was suppose to be the annoying screw up and he was, and the fact that I still felt for him because he was really just trying to do what he thought was best, is a credit to Roberts’s good performance. Mickey Rourke was excellent as well. It’s amazing to see how different (physically and as an actor) he was then and now. Back then you could tell he had a certain spirit in him that he no longer has. Don’t get me wrong, he was excellent in The Wrestler and Killshot, he is just much different now than he use to be.
Leatherheads
I watched this last night and actually completely forgot that I had watched it until now. I feel like this film did not really know what it wanted to be. Was it a sports film? A period piece? A romance film? There is nothing wrong with blending genres, but it has to be done right and Clooney did not do a great job doing it. I didn’t care about the football game at the end, nor did I care about what happened to the relationship between Clooney’s character and Zellweger’s character. And while Krasinski showed some hints of good acting, he needs to learn that not all of his characters can have the same mannerisms. For a lot of the time I felt like I was watching his character from The Office only in the 1920s.
Rewatched a few other films including Inglorious Basterds (which gets better and better every time I watch it, and I believe it’s Tarantino’s best), The Mighty Ducks (a childhood favorite of mine) and a few others.
The Bounty (A-)
Taken (B+)
The Messenger (A)
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (C)
Sherlock Holmes (A-)
Jungle Fever (A-)
I like Ebert's explanation of Mulholland Drive.
I'm a little late… oh well.
A Single Man: 9/10
Crazy Heart: 7/10
Sherlock Holmes: 8/10
It's Complicated: 8/10
Up in the Air: 7/10
The Pope of Greenwich Village: 8/10
Quiz Show: 9/10
Nothing but the Truth: 8/10
The Insider (re-watch): 9/10