February 2012
13 posts
5 tags
Movie Review
AUTUMN SONATA
“A mother and a daughter. What a terrible combination of feelings and confusion and destruction.”
So says daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann) during a brutal overnight argument with her mother Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman, in her final film) in this superbly acted 1978 film from Ingmar Bergman. The premise is simple: Eva hears that her mother has lost her companion of many...
3 tags
Movie Review
FAIL-SAFE
The year is 1964, and moviegoers are presented with a black-and-white film about the Cold War. A bomber receives orders to drop its nuclear payload on Russia; this order is a mistake, but procedure has them cease all communication with the outside world. Obviously, a bombing of the USSR, even accidental, has HUGE consequences for the rest of the world. The generals in the war room...
Set Your DVR
Tomorrow (Thursday) morning, on TCM:
10:45am - The classic pre-Code gangster film, The Public Enemy, starring Jimmy Cagney.
DVD Tuesday (Extra)
LADY AND THE TRAMP - Forgot to mention this Disney hi-def frame by frame restoration of one of my favorites. Seriously, it’s great.
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Set Your DVR
I’m gonna do a few of these this month, as Turner Classic Movies does its 31 Days of Oscar line-up. Here’s a few for late tonight/technically tomorrow morning (all times EST):
3:30am: 1932’s Best Picture winner, Grand Hotel.
5:30am: The stunning 1930 Best Picture winner, All Quiet on the Western Front. This is another film that Universal has restored and will be releasing on...
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DVD Tuesday
ANONYMOUS - Director Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day) isn’t exactly the director I’d have in mind for a “thriller” about Shakespeare.
PROJECT NIM - Intriguing doc about the young chimp taught sign language. A recommend.
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January 2012
48 posts
DVD Tuesday
DRIVE -Violent, slick, cool, disturbing, haunting. All in a good way.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD -Universal’s celebrating its 100 year anniversary with some stunning restorations of classics in their library. This one looks impressive.
THE THING -Didn’t see it. Have seen the original. Freaky shit. See the original.
IN TIME - I guess kind of an interesting idea, but the...
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Movie Review
BLITHE SPIRIT
Did you know that before director David Lean made the epics he’s known for - Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago - he cut his teeth on Noel Coward works? His first four films were all Coward plays adapted for the screen; alright, the first one, In Which We Serve, was an original screenplay (all four will soon be released by Criterion in a lovely...
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Movie Review
KUNG FU PANDA 2
Pretty much what you’d expect, in that it’s a sequel to a story in which someone who didn’t think they could do something ended up being the best at it. You may remember that the second and third Matrix films didn’t really work, because Neo was already The One; all the mystery of what’s-going-on/how-does-this-work was taken care of in the first...
7 tags
Movie Review
WINGS
At last, thanks to a stunning restoration by Paramount, I can say I’ve seen the first film to ever win Best Picture, this 1927 silent epic from director William Wellman. (And, I’ve now seen every single Best Picture winner, a quest I began 16 months ago)
The story here follows two fly-boys in WWI. Rivals at first, both in love with the same woman back home (not Clara Bow;...
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Movie Review
LARRY CROWNE
I expected this Tom Hanks-directed comedy to be an uninspired, typical, by-the-books comedy. It seems I gave it too much credit. There’s absolutely nothing redeemable in this insipid little piece of fluff. Seeing as how Tom Hanks last directed, and wrote solo, the charming little comedy That Thing You Do!, my deductive reasoning for this film’s failure is the addition...
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Movie Review
THE DEBT
There are certain devices in scripts that I would consider a cop-out. Voiceover is one. Often voiceover is used to fill in the blanks that a better writer would be able to do without VO. It’s especially obvious when the voiceover happens just once or twice, as opposed to throughout. Another device that often doesn’t work is messing with time. Flashing forward, flashing...
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Movie Review
EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE
Yesterday marked the end of a pretty impressive streak for director Stephen Daldry. Before this, he had directed three films - The Hours, Billy Elliot, and The Reader - and had received a Best Director nomination for every one. 3-for-3. Alas, no nomination for his fourth film (though it did snag a Best Picture nod), based on the stellar novel by Jonathan...
DVD Tuesday
50/50 - Smart story that doesn’t quite fit with Rogan-style humor.
GODZILLA (CRITERION) -Criterion continues to pick iconic, important films to remaster. Here, the 1954 Cold War classic.
WINGS -At last, the one Best Picture winner I haven’t seen - and the first one at that - this 1927 William Wellman silent gets the hi-def transfer it deserves. Can’t wait to see it.
...
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Movie Review
AFTER THE THIN MAN
After the surprise success of 1934’s hit detective comedy The Thin Man, audiences were clamoring for more of Nick and Nora Charles. Powell and Loy made three films together after The Thin Man (including Best Picture winner The Great Ziegfeld), and in 1936 were finally able to fit this sequel in.
Where the first film ends with the couple leaving NYC on a train, this...
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Movie Review
THE TRIP
British actor Steve Coogan might just have made himself a career, making good movies in which he plays himself not making good movies. Director Michael Winterbottom began this with Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. This film, in which Coogan and comedian/buddy Rob Brydon play themselves touring Northern England food destinations, is really an edited-down version of their...
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Movie Review
DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME
I had not heard word one about this Chinese film from director Tsui Hark, but I started seeing it’s unmissable title sprinkled amongst Best of 2011 lists on the web. I’m glad I added it to the queue, because it really is a delight. Dee is based on a beloved Chinese hero, Di Renjie, from the 7th century Tang Dynasty. What we have...
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Movie Review
OF GODS AND MEN
Filmmaker Xavier Beauvois’ film is based on the true story of a small group of monks living in a small, mostly Muslim village in Algeria during their civil war. They offer free care to the local people, grow their own food, pray, teach, read, sing. The simple life you’d expect. Only, as tensions escalate, and local extremists become bolder and more desperate, they...
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Movie Review
THE THIN MAN
MGM didn’t have a lot of hope for this little film. It was based on a silly book about a married couple who solve cases. Leads William Powell and Myrna Loy weren’t considered the best bets for the story. Lucky for them and for us, director Woody Van Dyke won out, and this 1934 gem not only spawned five sequels over the following 13 years, but got a Best Picture...
DVD Tuesday
THE IDES OF MARCH - Clooney’s political drama suffers from a severely over-simplistic script.
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Movie Review
THE HANGOVER PART II
The other day I mentioned what I call Hollywood Sequel-itis. The symptoms are alive and well here. It’s no surprise they made a sequel. The original film was enormously popular. With the sequel, they decide to do a lot of the same stuff. God forbid they take a chance with the characters they created in the successful first film. So instead of a baby dressed up...
WatchJust because, here’s the rough assembly of the 30 Second Series montage. This is just each clip at half a second each, with sound. Makes for some fun little surprises.
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Movie Review
ALBERT NOBBS
What a peculiar little story. Based on a short story, we find a man named Albert Nobbs, working as a waiter in a 19th century Dublin hotel. Witness the expected upstairs/downstairs drama, however this one comes with a little secret. Nobbs is a woman, played to stunning perfection by Glenn Close.
The story of the film tends to follow too worn a path. Nobbs has saved money,...
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Movie Review
COWBOYS & ALIENS
I do love a nice genre mash-up (I’m writing one myself). The title of this film, based on the graphic novel, is maybe a bit too on the nose, but hey, at least I know what I’m walking into. Daniel Craig’s character wakes up in the middle of the West. No idea who he is, how he got there, or what this crazy gadget is that’s attached to his wrist. ...
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My Top Ten of 2011
It took me a while to compile this list, and in doing so, I got the feeling that last year’s slate of films weren’t overall as good as they could have been. My 2010 Top Ten had 23 films in it, plus Honorable Mentions. Not so this year.
Also note, since I’m no professional, there are a few films I hoped to see but have not yet. Can’t see everything, I suppose, and I want...
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Movie Review
A BETTER LIFE
Director Chris Weitz presents a story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He works as a gardener in Los Angeles, trying to support his teenaged son. He takes a chance and buys his former boss’s truck, inheriting all the clients, and thus becomes his own boss. The American Dream! When the truck is stolen, his immigration status prevents him from going to the police, so...
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Movie Review
THE IRON LADY
Listen. Margaret Thatcher has come unstuck in time.
There are several formulaic ways to do a biopic of a major figure. As this “story” of the former Conservative British Prime Minister begins, we find the elderly, present-day Thatcher buying some milk at a local store and walking it home. Then there’s a moment where she looks off, distantly, and cue...
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Movie Review
THE HELP
To be honest, the marketing campaign for this film, based on the popular book, had me worried that it might take a serious subject and treat it with a The Blind Side sugariness. I was pleased to see that, for the most part, writer/director Tate Taylor keeps it from teetering too much into the melodrama arena. The biggest thing it has going for it the performances (a few, at least). ...
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Movie Review
WARRIOR
If I were to write out the plot of writer/director Gavin O’Connor’s movie, the list of contrivances would be fairly long. For one, the story of a down-on-their-luck troubled nobody finding answers/redemption in fighting is extremely familiar. The Fighter did it well last year. Million Dollar Baby, Cinderella Man, all the way back to Rocky. Here, we have two brothers,...
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Netflix and WB
Warner Brothers has announced that Netflix will now have to wait 56 days before they have access to new releases to rent via mail. That’s twice as long as the previous wait period (one that other studios do as well). The reasoning behind it is this: if you have to wait 2 months to rent their latest film on DVD, and meanwhile that film is available for sale those full 2 months, they figure...
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Movie Review
A SEPARATION
Iran’s Foreign Language Film 2011 entry has already won countless awards, including the Golden Bear in Berlin, and it’s absolutely no surprise. Asghar Farhadi’s story takes its time, a seemingly simple family drama, and then escalates to a Hitchcockian mystery filled with lies, pride, and suspicion.
A husband and wife are separated; the wife wants to leave the...
Universal's 100 Years
Like Paramount, 2012 is Universal’s 100 year anniversary. In addition to the new logo (above), even more exciting news is this: they’re doing extensive restoration of some of their classic films for Blu-Ray release. Check out some of these titles:
All Quiet On The Western Front The Birds Dracula Frankenstein Jaws The Sting
Some nice DVD Tuesdays coming up this year.
DVD Tuesday
MONEYBALL - Just one notable release today, but a film I really dug and one I’m planning to pick up right away.
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Movie Review
THE GUARD
The debut film of John Michael McDonagh (brother of the playwright/screenwriter/director Martin, of In Bruges) seems to me a good example of where the success of Pulp Fiction 17 years ago has led film. What little plot there is - some big time drug dealers have come to a tiny hamlet in West Ireland to cause some trouble; only foul-mouthed local policeman Brendan Gleeson,...
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Movie Review
THE FUTURE
I really did not like filmmaker Miranda July’s first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know. It felt overly talky for talky’s sake, pretentious. This second attempt is a step forward to me. I feel slightly snobby saying that, in a way. I can clearly see July’s style, and she’s making the movies she wants to make, Frants be damned. Of course there is merit...
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Movie Review
THE SEARCHERS
I didn’t much care for Westerns as a kid. Born and bred Texan though I was, I sort of rebelled against that whole country music/cowboy hat/boots expectation. Cowboys and Indians didn’t do it for me. Maybe it was the over-simplicity of the two; why were Cowboys always good, Indians always bad? Even gangster movies showed depth and humanity in the bad guys and...
