response 1 of 177:

Sep 24 12:18 UTC 1997

Rented RIDICULE (C-) the other day.  It takes place in pre-
revolutionary France "Where Louis-whoever ruled, but wit was king."
The French have a long, long way to go in the wit department, if
this movie is the best they can come up with.  Their idea of
"wit" is peeing on an elderly stroke victim who once insulted
you, and such exchanges as:

Courtier A: You're not as stupid as you look.

Courtier B: That's the main difference between you and me.

In the next scene, Courtier B is congratulated on his cleverness.
Too bad Courtier A didn't come back with, "Are you suggesting
that I *am* as stupid as you look?"  Then they'd've congratulated
*him* instead.

response 3 of 177:

Sep 24 18:40 UTC 1997

Re: #1  The French *love* Jerry Lewis.  I rest your case.

response 5 of 177:

Sep 26 00:33 UTC 1997

so it's sort of a "family" film.  that's funny.  i really enjoyed it. (the
film)

response 7 of 177:

Sep 26 04:38 UTC 1997

Saw the Untouchables for the first time in a few years.  Liked it, though some
of the motifs were inconsistent.  I thought Connery was great as a
not-quite-perfect but generally upright cop.

Public Enemy, with James Cagney, was.. interesting.  Not great, but not bad
by any means.  It seemed slightly shallow and pointless, but I pass that off
as the necessity of the times.  Some of the dialogue was sickly amusing.

I should point out that I'm in a film class, so I'll be watching a lot of
movies that I can review on here.  It's a nice class. (We're watching King
Kong at the moment)

response 9 of 177:

Sep 26 18:27 UTC 1997

Finished King Kong today.  Very hokey movie, with a lot of hilarious dialogue.
Considering the time, the effects weren't awful, you could understand what
was going on.  Pacing wasn't very even.

response 11 of 177:

Sep 28 02:42 UTC 1997

Last night I purchased and watched the new THX widescreen video of Hitchcock's
"Psycho" Fantastic!  I think it just came out this past week, I didn't know
until I saw it in Best Buy.  This was a movie that just begged for a new
transfer, especially in letterbox. THX always does a great job on all the
video transfers they produce. "Vertigo" looks gorgeous, "My Fair Lady" also.
I'm curious, is this sort of thing important to anyone else?  Personally, 
I'm a widescreen addict!  Also, sound quality.  Did anyone else know that
until the recent THX remasterings, the Star Wars movies were not produced in
Dolby Surround Sound?  Boy, I think it makes all the difference.  I'd like
to know what others think....

response 13 of 177:

Sep 28 12:47 UTC 1997

Re #11: Yes, those things are important to me also. I'll have
to check out "Psycho".

response 15 of 177:

Sep 28 19:40 UTC 1997

Agora item 19 <-> Cinema item 14

response 17 of 177:

Sep 28 20:01 UTC 1997

"ULEE'S GOLD"--  This was a really moving movie about dysfunctional people
and families, and the importance of family,  starring Peter Fonda as a
shy, widowed, bee-keeper in Florida, who is raising his two
grand-daughters alone because his son is in jail and his daughter in law
is a junkie who ran off and abandoned her kids.  Fonda ends up
reluctantly, at his son's begging, going to rescue his daughter-in-law
from some drug dealers and brings her home to dry-out.  Fonda has some
hard feelings about his daughter-in-law and is worried about bringing her
back into his and his grand-daughters lives.  But family is family and
family takes care of family.  Fonda and his daughter-in-law have to come
to terms with each other, and with the past.

The analogy in the film is that Fonda's character is a bee-keeper by
profession, and is also the bee-keeper of his family, the one who
maintains the hive so the bees can make their honey.  He is the sane
person in a complex and dysfunctional family, and even though he is
extremely shy and bad at relating with people, he is the one who has to
keep things together.

This is a really well made and well written film.  Peter Fonda is great
playing the bee-keeper and is almost certainly get an academy award
nomination.  Go see "Ulee's Gold"  **** (four stars)

    

response 19 of 177:

Sep 28 20:06 UTC 1997

When I read _A Thousand Acres_, by Jane Smiley, I felt it
was an exquisite piece of writing.  I almost didn't want
to see the movie for fear it would have been Hollywoodized.
But I took the chance (optimist that I am ;-) ) and found
the book has been made into a wonderful film that is very
true to Smiley's story. Jessica Lange could be looking
at another Oscar nomination for her performance.
y

response 21 of 177:

Sep 28 22:43 UTC 1997

  Saturday night, for lack of any better offers, I went with one friend
  to see "Ulee's Gold" and another to see "Chasing Amy", both at the 
  Fox Village.  While I enjoyed "Chasing Amy" (mostl..  it qualifies for
  at least a B-) I thought "Ulee's Gold" never really went anywhere..
  Instead of Peter Fonda marching around being grumpy for a few hours
  I would have really liked some more character development.  It wasn't
  a bad movie, it just was unexceptional in nearly every way (except for
  the novelty of not being a mainstream Hollywood flick but there're 
  enough independent films around these days that films don't score big
  points for that alone.

response 23 of 177:

Sep 29 03:26 UTC 1997

        I found the parody of Star Wars, Hardware Wars Special Edition,
at Borders for under $10.00.  It may have been to much for this 18 minute
movie, but its a cult classic.