What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #9
Michael Moore, Tina Fey, Jimi Hendrix and an Iron Monkey
So, this week on top of seeing Jennifer's Body, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which I already reviewed right here, I didn't exactly watch an overwhelming amount of movies at home. As a matter of fact, it boils down to the following three movies and one TV show.
As always, remember you can keep tabs on my personal Netflix queue right here. Now, here's the recap of my week in movies…
| Iron Monkey (1993) |
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QUICK THOUGHTS: In my weekly DVD and Blu-ray column I mentioned I was going to try and take in all four of the martial arts films in Buena Vista's "The Ultimate Force Four" Blu-ray pack, but I only ended up watching all of Iron Monkey and then the first half of Jackie Chan's The Legend of Drunken Master before I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. However, I was happy to have watched Iron Monkey because it was a hell of a lot of fun and Quentin Tarantino has a great interview segment on the Blu-ray talking about how Americans are looking for their films to be too sophisticated. Here's the quote:
To a degree, I agree with him, especially after watching this film and his argument. What do you think? | |
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| Monterey Pop (1968) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: I don't want to say too much about this one because I will be reviewing the upcoming Criterion Blu-ray release on Tuesday, but it was the Complete Monterey Pop Festival I watched here and considering this isn't exactly the first kind of film I would think to watch I was quite taken aback by how great it is. The short 79-minute run-time includes performances by The Mamas & The Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix. While I have more to say about those, right now I will present my favorite song featured in the film, "Paint It Black" by Eric Burdon & The Animals, the opening is just fantastic. | |
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| 30 Rock |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: I am going to be reviewing the third season DVD, which hits stores this coming Tuesday, September 22. I'm not sure if I will have it ready for Tuesday, but suffice to say, I love this show. I was thinking back on my favorite sitcoms and this is definitely one of them along with the likes of Seinfeld, Arrested Development and the BBC's The Office. There are others, but these four top my list. | |
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| Roger and Me (2003) |
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| QUICK THOUGHTS: Like I said, I went and saw Michael Moore's Capitalism last week and the night before I watched the final Moore documentary I had not seen and for those of you interested in his new film and curious about the angle he takes on the subject I can tell you this is a throw-back to Roger and Me and Bowling for Columbine. It's a very simple film with extraordinarily upsetting subjects. To give a very short definition, I would call it Roger and Me 2: Still Can't Get to the 14th Floor. Here's the trailer. | |
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There you have it. Now share your weekly recaps and weigh in with any thoughts you may have on the films I saw. And remember to connect with my Netflix queue by clicking here, I have already added several titles from those that have already linked up.
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hmm…interesting watch Brad…I saw a set of Classic Gangsters…
Scarface(1932)
White Heat
The Public Enemy
Angels with Dirty faces
Roaring Twenties..
Cagney and Bogart roxx…man the classic gangsters are just too good….
I only saw Roger and Me which was great, but not as good as Bowling or SiCKO. I'm really looking forward to Moore's new doc. film. I realize now that movies aren't as interesting to me as tv shows. Esp. ones on HBO. This week, I saw:
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" Season 1 & 2 (A-). This is a really good show. I love the awkwardness in every situation Larry David steps into. I wish I was like him where I would question the absurdity of every polite gesture, which people do just for the sake of being polite and not because it's better.
I'm halfway through reading Dan Brown's new novel (C+), "The Lost Symbol". It's interesting but so far it's the same 'ol methods drawing the reader in, like the cliffhanging chapters (of which are numerous), and all the characters speaking in ambiguous language until a secret is revealed, which I bet will just bore me more. I hope Ron Howard casts this movie well because I look forward to a strong finish in this trilogy.
"Battle for Terra" (7/10). This movie was a surprise because I thought it would suck. It actually turned out decent with a nice voice cast and a decent story line. Things seemed to predictable though and I can't believe this was rated PG. It definitely deserves a PG-13. That's the power of studios staying in bed w/ the MPAA.
That's all folks. In the next few weeks I look forward to the release of the new animated "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies" movie. Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_OvtI_qMig and featurette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRW3Y-c8GsA
Cheers!
This past week I watched:
- My Sister's Keeper: I knew it was going to be a weeper, but I had hopes it'd be a good one, à la The Notebook. But Nick Cassavetes wants you so bad to cry that I grew cynical. Not that I didn't cry in some moments – especially when the amazing, wonderful Joan Cusack is on. But the movie is somehow "meh". The soundtrack, apart from Regina Spektor and Jimmy Scott, is cringe-worthy.
- The Girl Next Door (re-watch): the romance that blossoms between the beauty and the geek just rings so true. The first half of the movie is almost magical to me. The moments between them, the glances, the songs. Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert are perfect together. But I still love the movie as a whole – Emile on E is so damn funny. This is criminally underrated, and oh so poorly advertised.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (re-watch): the Indiana Jones movies now have some sort of innocence – the action sequences, how they're not overblown as today's adventure movies – that I quite like. And, of course, all the childhood memories that they bring back… (And gotta love the moment when a male student drops an apple on Professor Indy's table!)
- Welcome: french movie about a boy from Iraq who wants to cross the English Channel to see the girl he loves. The french xenophobia scared me (is it exaggerated? I dunno), it's almost nazi-like. Plus, it's a movie about swimming, one of the things I love the most. This is a winner.
- Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (re-watch): it was always my favourite from the trilogy. Never got the criticism – it's the only one who isn't on IMDb's Top 250! It is darker than I remembered, but also much funnier. Some people may get annoyed at Kate Capshaw, but I think she's a blast.
- Die Welle: german movie with the same story that inspired the american "The Wave". The story is great, but the students are so stereotyped (from scene one), it nearly ruined it for me. I already know how each one of them would behave. The climax is embarrassing.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (re-watch): I first watched this at the cinema when I was 9. It reminds me of my father. Impossible not to like, right? Even though it's not as awesome as the second one…
- Gigante: little movie from Uruguay about a security guard from a supermarket who becomes obsessed with a cleaning lady who works there too. It's nice that a movie like this, so humble, won the Silver Bear at Berlin Festival. It didn't mesmerize me, but the ending manages to be surprising (for a story like this) and simple.
- One Hour Photo (re-watch): love this one. Maybe Robin Williams' best performance. One of the best movies about the loneliness of a man. I love how Mark Romanek's trademark colors from his videos – lots of white and blue, plus some red and orange here and there – are everywhere. Some shots are so clean, it's almost science fiction. Pretty excited about "Never Let Me Go" (amazing book, by the way). And the photos at the end leave me devastated.
- Antichrist: what can I say? So many things to think. First, I don't think Lars Von trier should be taken *too* seriously here. The prologue, for instance, is almost a joke (a beautifully shot one). I know the director's main purpose is to disturb and provoke. Yeah, the violence is completely in-your-face and shocking. The sex is explicit (and also violent). But there are also interesting discussions about nature, and the evil in nature. And the evil in sex. And… the evil in women. The Cannes jury was right, this is an extremely misogynistic movie. But it's also bold, hold-no-barrels, and deep. I can't recommend this to anyone. But anyone who says, "This is a bad movie" is being way too simplistic. Lars Von Trier is still one of the most interesting directors alive.
This week saw "A Solitary Man", which was rather good, I thought. Michael Douglas stars as a 60 year-old 'playa', who doesn't realize how pathetic that is. Luckily, the movie never shoots him in a way that makes him seem pathetic, only the other characters and our own conclusions add up to that end. One critic aptly claimed that the movie 'never took the easy way out'. I thought that the script was excellent, and made up for the bland direction. Michael Douglas was excellent, and it is always a joy to see Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, and Jenna Fisher in the mix.
Also saw 'The Road'. I had been really looking forward to it, and was a bit disappointed. It was still really good, but not all I dreamed of and more. Viggo Mortensen and KodiSmit-McPhee introduced the movie saying that it wasn't a movie about the apocalypse, it was about the father-son relationship. Which is fine with me. But I felt that the dialogue just could have been better , if that was what it was about. And the godlessness theme was a little in-your-face, when it was present at all.
Rocknrolla – enojoyable but personally i feel the Guy Ritchie and gangsters is less effective now than it was with Snatch. It felt derivative of his earlier films i guess but i felt much improved over Revolver.
The Good German – again like Rocknrolla i thought that this film was a bit derivative of b/w classics but still enjoyable. Cinematography was gorgeous and the score by Thomas Newman was very nice. I think it was a bit too convoluted but perhaps that was my problem, i forgot peoples names and when their name came up i struggled slightly to figure out what importance they had to the story. Its a shame it made very little at the box office.
Romeo and Juliet – never watched it before and i don't particulary have a great ear for shakespeare despite studying quite a few of his plays and i enjoyed this, maybe it was the gaudy clothes and the exaggerated tone that i liked but it worked for me.
Midnight Run – enjoyed this as well, still not sure if Robert De Niro is suited to comedy though
@K-Money which version of Rome and Juliet did u watch?
Minority Report (rewatch) A-, A noir murder mystery on heroin and probably the most underrated of Spielberg's works. The futuristic chase thriller is one of the few pieces of sci-fi, at least those depicted on film, that works both cerebrally and emotionally with fantastical visual effects that send the viewer into a very frightenning future. Darkly intense and suspensful with great performances, particuarly from Cruise who sacrifices some of his trademark charisma with great affect to portray the films flawed anti-hero, and Samantha Morton who is as extroardinarilly intense as the films tone as a psychic imprisoned by her own gift. A superb film that admire much more now that I did when i first saw it.
Point Break (rewatch) B, Not as bad of a film as it's reputation would have it seem to be. Reeves is surprisingly believable as the buttoned down G-man who thinks he knows everything about the world, while an unkempt Swayze counters him nicley as the free-spirted zen like villian. The chemistry of the two leads is topped off by the adrenaline rush action sequences that don't know when to quit, which at times becomes a major flaw, as the film feels like a never endning chase that could've easilly ended tweny-minutes early
Yupp that was all I had time to watch this week.
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989) – for those who don't know, this is the shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of The Lost Ark that was being made for 7 years by several boys who started the project when they were 11. What can I say about this movie? It's simply incredible, considering the $5k budget, home video camera and the absolute lack of experience of any of those boys. The acting is pretty decent and in no way cringe-worthy, the action sequences are re-shot in all their glory (seriously, the jungle chase and the bar fight are fantastic achievements), and while it's obviously far from Spielberg's masterpiece, I think if you watch this movie and don't admire these guys' love and passion for what they do, you are a cold-hearted cynical hater. The movie actually had its first big premiere more than 10 years after it was completed, Harry Knowles wrote one hell of a big article about it, but it can be found only on torrent theckers like MiniNova (where I found and downloaded it) and is unfortunately unavailable on DVD, which is a goddamn shame. Great experience that had me smiling, laughing and crying, and I'm almost ashamed to call myself a fan of Indy now – I mean look at me, who simply enjoys the films very much, and look at these guys, who were remaking the film for 7 f@cking years. It's unbelievable.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (re-watch). An absolute classic and the second best western of all time, right behind Leone's own Once Upon a Time in the West. Fantastic film with one of the best finales in the history of cinema. The music, the cinematography, the direction and Eli Wallach's awesome turn is Tuco – it's all wonderful. But there are some minutes when it does drag a little, otherwise it would have been an absolute perfection of a film, at least to me.
Goodfellas (re-watch). My favourite Scorsese film, one of my favourite films of all-time and one of the best directing jobs ever. It's stylish, very energetic, with a fantastic soundtrack and brilliant acting all-around (Joe Pesci totally steals the show, and I will never be able to understand how the hell did Ray Liotta not get ANY recognition for his performance). A great ride and as perfect as any movie can get – there are maybe five films in the world that I like more than Goodfellas. Oh, and screw the damn Oscars, who in hell cares about Dances with Wolves now. Scorsese is the best.
The Color of Money. Now, I watched it for the foirst time last night and it didn't really do it for me. Paul Newman is great, Tom Cruise is fine and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is wonderful, but other than the acting, I didn't find much that satisfied me. I wasn't disappointed, but when I was done watching, I just thought that one of the best filmmakers ever for whatever reason did the movie that could have been as good in the hands of any above-average director. It's entertaining, interesting and has a good acting, but there's just not much for a genius like Scorsese to do here. That's it. And I don't have any intention to watch it again, and that comes from a guy who can watch Taxi Driver, Goodfellas or The Departed once a month and have a blast every time.
Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut (2005): A
Sunshine Cleaning (2009): B+
Shane (1953): B+
Scream (1996): B+
The Informant! (2009): B
Rosemary's Baby (1968): B+
Pulp Fiction (1994) (re-watch): A+
I didn't have a lot of time to watch much this week, but I managed to get through "Harper's Island." I was actually really pleased with it – lots of twists and turns; many surprises. It was a lot of fun. Well worth the time.
A little busy this week but I did manage to see:
Love Happens – Really boring and forgettable. I am not afraid to say how bad of an actress Jennifer Aniston is and always has been. She brings movies down with her.
Rudo y Cursi – It was no Y tu mama tambien, but then again, nothing will ever be. Both Luna and Bernal were strong but the film as a whole was a bit messy.
9/13-9/19:
On Her Majesty's Secret Service – B
Revanche – C+
The Color Purple – B+
Excalibur – C+
The Big Lebowski (rewatch) – A+
Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut (rewatch) – A+
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (rewatch) – A
@Colin: It was the Baz lurhman one with Leo Di Caprio
i was only able to watch three films this week: Watchmen, Pulp Fiction, and X men origins: Wolverine
Watchmen was a rewatch that i have seen 4 or 5 times by now. everytime i watch this it continues to get better for me. it has great rewatachability. it is such a true adaptation from the graphic novel. it does as good as possible to adapt as great a comic as Watchmen is.
Believe it or not Pulp Fiction was the first time i have ever watched it. after seeing it im still not sure what to think about it. i have seen inglourious basterds 3 times already and think it is pure genious. its hard going right into another tarantino movie after being so blown away by basterds. pulp fiction has classic tarantino dialogue and great scenes. i think it is a movie i definately need to watch again to fully appreciate.
X men origins: wolverine was a rewatch. i saw it in theaters opening night and thought that everyone was too hard on it. after getting to watch it again im more inclined to agree with the concensus that its not very good. the story is all over the place, the characters are rushed and not developed very well, and the cgi is poorly done for being such a big budget movie.
Finally Saw Inglorious Basterds! 10/10
The Chumscrubber 8/10
In Bruges 10/10
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 1 10/10
I was sick for most of the week. I only watched two films.
Pulp Fiction – Words cannot describe how great this movie is. 9.5/10
Paris Is Burning – A documentary about the ball scene in NYC in the late eighties. 8.5/10