Category Archives: Film

Film, Rants

MPAA and NATO: Cowards

2 Comments

In response to criticism (such as the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated) the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theater Owners are working to make their process more transparent. That’s good. They’re also going to offer a new warning to parents that some R-rated movies are unsuitable for children, even when accompanied by an adult. That’s utterly worthless, and the coward’s way out. See, the parents that bring children to movies loaded with violent and pornographic content aren’t clueless about the movie they’re about to see.

They’re just horrible parents.

I’m not talking about the parent that brings his 15 year old to The Last Kiss to find out there’s several sex scenes that the trailer didn’t even hint at. I’m talking about the mother who brings her 5 year olds to see The Cell. The parents who bring their pre-teens to Blade II. And the parents who complain because the theatre won’t let their 3 year old in for free to see The Exorcist! By the way, these are all real examples I’ve witnessed firsthand here in southern California. It happens all the time.

Roger Ebert has said about two films, “If this movie doesn’t get an NC-17 for violence, no movie ever will.” The films where Hannibal and The Passion of the Christ, and after seeing both I heartily agree. And yet they initially gave an NC-17 to Clerks for language! The MPAA just wants to soothe their aching conscience. These people live in the area of the country that I do, so they can’t be blind to their contributions to the delinquency of minors. I’m not for eschewing parental responsibility. But if we can do something, even a small gesture, to lessen the psychological damage these selfish parents will inflict on their children, shouldn’t we?

Share/Bookmark
Film

Have You Seen This Film?

7 Comments

I’m preparing to make my annual top 10 film list, and there are a number I still haven’t seen yet. I am choosing from the Academy’s list of eligible films. From that list, I’ve selected a number of films that I haven’t seen, but have a shot at my personal top 10. Maybe. If you’ve seen any of these, please leave a helpful comment like, “dude, I can’t believe you haven’t seen this you must be retarded or something but seriously, it is awesome and totally hardcore!!!”. Or “d00d this is sux0rs and if you like it you are totally of the ghey and retarded”. I anxiously await your insight!

All The King’s Men
Apocalypto
Babel
Blood Diamond
Bobby
Breaking and Entering
Curse of the Golden Flower
Deja Vu
Dreamgirls
Factory Girl
For Your Consideration
The Fountain
The Good German
The History Boys
The Holiday
Idiocracy
The Illusionist
Lady in the Water
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Children
Marie Antoinette
Monster House
Night at the Museum
Notes on a Scandal
Pursuit of Happyness
The Queen
Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Tristan + Isolde
United 93
World Trade Center

Share/Bookmark
Film

2006: A Year for Crappy Movies

1 Comment

2006 hasn’t been a great year for movies. About halfway through I was asked about some standouts, and could only name a couple. And I’m having some trouble putting together a solid top 10. But moreover, there have been some horrible movies put out this year, as judged by the fine folks at the IMDb. In fact, in their Bottom 100, no less than 11 films are from 2006, and they compose half of the bottom 10! I haven’t seen any of these, but I’m still glad to see Turistas and Little Man made the list.

Here they are, from worst to worse (yes, they technically get “better” as you continue):

1. Crossover
2. Araf
6. Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj
8. Unaccompanied Minors
10. Zoom
16. Phat Girlz
18. Material Girls
48. Doogal
51. Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
66. Turistas
84. Little Man

Share/Bookmark
Film

It’s Obvious, Episode 4: The Fountain

1 Comment

This movie will most likely become a classic, in the league of 2001:A Space Odyssey. Not as effective as that cinematic milestone, but just as ambitious. It is also just as confusing: this is a good thing. Aronofsky has given us another tour-de-force, just as intense as “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream” but centered around a love story.

I am going to discuss a few obvious religious symbols in the movie, and will leave it at that. You should go see it and decide what it all means to you.

Spoilers follow……….

Continue reading It’s Obvious, Episode 4: The Fountain →

Share/Bookmark
Film

Movie News

1 Comment

Some interesting bits from Variety. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry…

New Line’s option to make The Hobbit is close to expiring, so they’re getting ready to make it… without Peter Jackson. This is because he currently has a lawsuit against them for questionable accounting practices regarding the profits from LOTR. Pretty much everyone, including distributor MGM, is completely freaking out about this. As they should be.

We are getting a Get Smart movie, starring Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart, and Anne Hathaway as a totally hot babe also in the film. Carell also stars in Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty.

Brilliant director Robert Altman passed away. Go watch MASH and The Player in tribute. Actually, I think we’re due for a Classic Movie Night featuring McCabe and Mrs. Miller – Ebert’s described it as Altman’s only perfect film, and I must confess I’ve never seen it.

The Weinstein Company, which is basically the new Miramax, even though Miramax still exists, has entered into an exclusive – and hence very stupid – deal with Blockbuster. In other words, if you’re a Netflix subscriber (as well you should be), you won’t be able to watch School for Scoundrels until Blockbuster goes bankrupt. Fortunately, at the rate they’re going, this will happen sometime next Tuesday. Of course, no worries for the Kevin Smith stuff, because you’re just going to buy that, anyway.

Speaking of Kevin Smith, there’s some way cool Clerks 2 swag at JayAndSilentBob.com.

Letters From Iwo Jima, the companion piece to the previously reviewed Flags of Our Fathers, has had its release date pushed up to 12/20, to make it eligible for awards season. I’m wondering if it’s the obviously better film, or having two good films will make it tough for Clint to get enough votes for either one.

Personal hero Judd Apatow is producing The Pineapple Express, an action-comedy starring Freaks and Geeks alumni Seth Rogen (The 40 Year Old Virgin) and James Franco (Spiderman series).

We’re getting Ocean’s Thirteen next year, even though nobody asked for it.

Did you know you can get a listing of most (over 1600) movies based on comic books at the IMDB? It defaults to sort by rating, but you can switch to date. Of course, many listed are still in development (i.e., the screenplay hasn’t even been written), but you can get a feel for what’s coming up.

Share/Bookmark
Film

Stay Out of Prison

I made a wrong left turn on the way to Stranger Than Fiction, and wound up in Let’s Go to Prison (trust me, I wasn’t navigating). You might be tempted to see this because the trailer looked funny, or Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show) directs and acts in it, or Will Arnett (Arrested Development) stars. All are good reasons, but the movie is just nominally funny, and that only in parts. It seriously drags, and by drags, I’m saying don’t even bother with the DVD. Skip it altogether, there are tons of better comedies out there.

In fact, go watch an all-time classic comedy, like Dr. Strangelove. Or The Heartbreak Kid. In the latter, you can see see Charles Grodin act with a brilliant sense of timing and deliver great lines by Neil Simon, and a 22 year old, half-naked Cybill Shepherd looking astonishingly cute. No, seriously, look!

Cybill Shepherd

Share/Bookmark
Film

Casino Royale review (yep, spoiler free)

6 Comments

Maybe not 100% spoiler free like agent Bladerunner’s post, but I did the best I could. If you REALLY want to play it safe, just skip my inane babbling, like most rational folks do anyways.

It is to Bond what Batman Begins was to that pointless crapfest series of movies. Both movies dealt with the beginnings of their characters, not worrying so much about continuity with what had been done before/after them. This works for me. The latest set of Star Wars movies are a good example of why you don’t want to try to stick within the framework you already set up too much. Yeah, prequels are hard, but this one got it right in many ways. Is it a must see in the theater, I don’t know? If you have a nice home system you won’t loose too much, so if your schedule is full there may be other movies out this season that I would put before this, but definitely catch it on Netflix, as it really was quite enjoyable.

Problem is, I can’t exactly figure out what to say about it that is good. I have a few complaints I can start with, but I will try to come back to what is good. First, there seemed to be 4 different directors and writers, or maybe they broke up the movie between different production groups for style reasons, I am not sure Interesting, but I don’t know if it really works. The continuity between the different parts was just not there for me, and I didn’t feel like it was my fault because I am not sophisticated, but rather, I felt like someone was trying to demonstrate skills that they clearly had, but maybe they should have saved for another film. Maybe some of you smarter folks will appreciate that aspect of it more than I did.

Second, as many of you already know, for me casting is one of the most critical parts of movie making. In my opinion, this casting was brilliant…. mostly. Daniel Craig was amazing. He was nothing like any of the previous bonds, and that is fine by me. I enjoyed many of those films, but they really were becoming caricatures of themselves. The one liners and catch phrases were becoming more of what defined the movies than the story and action. This one dropped all of that (including sadly, some of my favorite stuff, but discussing that may be a spoiler to some of you purists, so I will talk about that at a later date). The few one liners where delivered with a completely different style and approach, that they actually worked. The bad guys were SOOOOO bad and the rest were all great, perfectly cast for their roles, with a few that really stole the show for a few minutes (Jeffrey Wright and the guy that played the banker both stood out to me). Judi Dench as M was superb. If she gets any better I might start developing a thing for much older women, which is good, because I seem to be aging myself for some reason. Which leads me to the leading woman, my biggest complaint. Ok, in a bond movie there are usually a few women, and there are here as well, don’t worry, but the main chick just didn’t do it for me. She was hot, sure, and seemed to be quite a talented actress, but I didn’t buy her in her role, and I didn’t feel any chemistry between her and Bond, though that may have been on purpose for story reasons that I am not smart enough to follow. Maybe she nailed her part, but if so, maybe that part needed a bit more refinement, but then again, they don’t let me make many big budget movies, so I may be missing something here.

So, what did I like about it? Well, it was just a great film. Despite its incongruous nature to us lowbrow types, it was enjoyable as hell to watch, even if you have to check your ticket to make sure you are in the correct theater. The intro was the best ever for a bond flick, in its own way. With a single exception (in my opinion) the casting was superb. The parts I missed about the old ones, I got over, and the new parts that would not have worked at all in the old Bond movies where a nice change of perspective to the series. I am truly looking forward to the next one. I wouldn’t suggest it for kids (nothing there for them) and I wouldn’t suggest it to my Dad, who is a big bond fan, but for the rest of you I would give it some witty affirmation of a positive nature.

Share/Bookmark
Film

007 musings

2 Comments

I just went to see the new Bond flick, “Casino Royale.” I won’t be talking about the movie at this time since it is really awkward to write while keeping the ‘no spoilers’ rule. Too complicated. However, as a new actor takes over the James Bond role, it is a good time to ponder what has come before. In honor of the new movie, I have gathered a few choice moments from the 007 pantheon and included them below. If you have better alternative film moments (and given my faulty memory, it is inevitable), please send them to me and I’ll include them in the main piece below. With due attribution of course.

Most cruel moment: James Bond was written with a streak of cruelty in his personality. Or perhaps Sean Connery was just working out his kinks onscreen. For whatever reason, 007 was given a really ultra-cool, nasty disposition early on.

Connery: In “Dr. No” Bond breaks away from his game of solitaire just long enough to kill the good doctor that’s just pumped 6 bullets into an unfortunate pillow standing in for our hero in bed. Bond dryly remarks “you’ve had your 6” and then shoots the doctor with his Walther PPK.

Moore: Roger Moore was such a nice guy that it is hard to believe he would fit this category. But check out the “For Your Eyes Only” moment in which he kicks the villain’s car off a cliff. He really meant it that time: there was no funny quip following this action.

Brosnan: I don’t have an entry here. Any help??

Dalton: The entire “License Renewed” showed 007 in a mad rage to get personal revenge. I am sure there is a pivotal moment in this movie that showed his cruelty. I just can’t think of one.

Continue reading 007 musings →

Share/Bookmark
Film

Flags of Our Fathers

4 Comments

This was a story that had to be told. I’m not sure what you’ve heard, but it’s about that famous photograph of the soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima, its impact on the war, and the men behind it. It goes back and forth between their time overseas (much of it in combat) and their time in the states after the photo. There is an upcoming companion piece called Letters from Iwo Jima, which tells the Japanese side of the story. This explains why they are largely faceless (and voiceless) in this film.

I’ve heard comparisons to Saving Private Ryan, but I had a very different emotional responses to those movies. After Saving Private Ryan, I walked around shell shocked, for two days, thinking about how we should avoid war at all costs. And while the combat sequences in Flags were violent, they didn’t bother me nearly as much. Instead of walking out numb and fearful, I felt shame for the way my country treated (used, discarded) those men. I also felt a newfound respect and appreciation for the soldiers fighting for us today.

When the credits came up, I witnessed something in the audience I’d never seen before. People had started to leave, some almost at the the exits, when photos were displayed along with the credits. They were vintage photos from the war, including some photos of the men portrayed in the film. Everyone stopped and watched the photos. Not one person left before the credits finished. It was a nice communal moment.

If you like this film (and I’m sure you will, it’s a great film), I can recommend two others. The first is Tora! Tora! Tora!, a classic movie about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It shows both the American and Japanese points of view, shot with separate American and Japanese casts and crews. It’s well edited to preserve the timeline, for which it received an Oscar nomination (as well as for sound and f/x). The other is The Best Years of Our Lives, a 1946 film about 3 men who return from the war. It does a remarkable job of illustrating the differences between your rank in the Army during wartime, and your rank in society when you return. This just swept at the Oscars, taking home seven, including Best Picture (which it also won at the Golden Globes and BAFTA).

Share/Bookmark