Have you seen a gone to see a good movie lately?  or bought a movie on 
DVD or rented a movie?  Review it here.  Let people know your opinions 
on the films of the day.

225 responses total.

This fall is starting positively, with a terrific new movie just out 
that I saw last weekend--

LOST IN TRANSLATION--  Bill Murray stars as basically himself, a middle 
aged movie star on the backside of his career who finds himself having 
to go to Japan and do a liquor commercial to pay his bills.  Murray is 
tired and depressed, and trying to hide out in the bar of his downtown 
Tokyo hotel and drink away the time, when he meets a much younger girl 
who is dissatisfied with her life and unsure what her goals are in 
life.  The girl is played by Scarlet Johannson, a promising young 
actress who you might remember as one of the girls in the great 
movie 'Ghost World'  Murray and this girl, with very little in common 
except the time and place they are in, start to hang out together and 
connect in a very moving, tender way.  This movie is about two people 
who feel lost and alone in the world, who connect with each other 
emotionally for a short time.

This is IMO a wonderful movie, the best so far this year.  "Lost in 
Translation" was written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford 
Coppola's daughter, who is developing into a first rate director 
herself (her first directorial effort was the terrific, "Virgin 
Suicides")  Bill Murray is great in this movie, playing a character who 
is tired and beaten. and lost and confused by life but has a good 
heart.  You can tell, as Coppola has said, that she wrote the part 
specifically for him.  Johannson, who was wonderful in Ghost World, 
plays well opposite Murray and shows a lot of depth.

This movie is also a good film to see if you've never been to Tokyo, 
and wonder what its like.  I've been there a couple of times, and this 
movie, filmed entirely on location there, really captures the feel of 
the place.  A funny and moving movie.  Highly recommended!

AMERICAN SPENDOR-- this is a live action version of Harvey Pekar's
American Splendor comic books, in which if you've never read them, Pekar
writes about him, his wife and his friends and their neuroses and fears.
The movie is as funny as the comic books.  Pekar appears as himself, along
with a cartoon version of Pekar, and an actor playing Pekar in the
flashbacks.  The movie shows how Pekar, a real life file clerk in
Cleveland who writes this comic book in his spare time who is a
dysfunctional grouch, meets his wife who is another dysfunctional grouch, 
and through his battle with cancer and other things, manages to come to
terms with his feelings about life. Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis are
wonderful as Pekar and his wife Joyce, who is also a recurring character
in the comic book and who also appears as herself in the movie.  "American
Splendor" is a wonderful, funny, touching movie and co-directors Shari
Stringer Berman and Robert Pulcini do a great job of mixing present time
frame interviews with the real life characters, with flashbacks featuring
actors playing the characters, and images of the characters in comic book
form.  

"American Splendor" is highly recommended, one of the best movies of the
year

"Lost in Translation" is a little gem.  The movies is about two people,
both a bit lost and confused, who during a few days together find
something valuable, in each other.  It's subtle, and kind, and real.  I
guess the director, Sofia Coppola, stalked Bill Murray and wouldn't make
the movie unless he played the lead character.  She knew. 

I love this movie.

It's one of Murray's best performances.  Scarlett Johansson proves
herself to be star material.  Nothing is overstated or cliched in this
film, and just about everything works.  Highly recommend "Lost in
Translation".

I'll second Richard's endorsement of "American Splendor".  I'm an
old Robert Crumb/underground comix fan, but my attention had waned
by the time the Pekar era came along, so I never read any of the
comic books.  "American Splendor" nicely filled a gap in my cultural
background as well as being a very entertaining movie.

        I had to treat myself to the DVD issue of Disney's Sleeping 
Beauty.  The audio commentary is highly produced and provides a
wonderul insight to the movie.  That audio track also introduces
and plays the lyric version of songs heard in the movie, as opposed
to doing so on another feature on the DVD.
        I also get to send in for the $5 refund for owning the
video tape.

I rented "Dude, Where's My Car?" tonight.  It was fun.

Saw the first half of "The Good Thief" last night, then stopped watching.
Plot was standard, and atmosphere quite good, but acting horrible.

I'm geeked to see "Kill Bill", mainly because Sonny Chiba is in it.

I'm of two minds regarding seeing "Kill Bill".  Liked Tarentino's
previous work, but on the other hand looked at a couple of reviews.

The Post (in both the Style and Weekend sections - we have two reviews) gave
it a thumbs up.

Julie wants to see "Kill Bill".  The trailer's been out on the movie 
screen for a while now.

with a director llike tarentino and a name like 'kill bill' i would
expect over-saturated blood-n-gore.
  
city drains overflowing, etc.

MYSTIC RIVER-- This is the terrific new film by Clint Eastwood.  The 
story is about three boyhood friends in, who are forever linked by a 
tragic event in their childhood, and who reach middle age and find 
themselves again linked by another tragic event.  The events are linked 
like bookends to a part of their lives.  The three friends are played 
by Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon.  Penn's character has grown 
up to be a mob connected ex-con, Bacon's character has grown up to be a 
cop, and Robbins' character has grown up to be a regular working class 
guy.  

I won't give away what happens, but suffice to say this is a movie 
about friendship and loyalties, not just among the friends but among 
their wives and the people around them.  The questions become how well 
do they really know each other, and has what happened in the past ever 
really gone away?

This is a wonderfully directed movie by Eastwood, both suspensful and 
moving, and has some great acting.  Sean Penn and Tim Robbins do IMO 
the best work of their careers and deserve oscar nominations, as does 
Marcia Gay Harden (who plays Robbins wife and who was also great in the 
movie "Pollack"), and Eastwood for directing.  This is like a suspense 
thriller but it is really less a "whodunit" then a psychological drama, 
exploring the minds and motivations of people who were once close 
friends and think they know each other, but come to realize maybe they 
don't, and end up wondering if they really can escape the past.  This 
is one of Eastwood's best movies.

_Out of Time_  A derivative work of a remake of a '40s film (something
about a clock comes to mind) done in the style of an E. Leonard novel it
is both wonderful eye candy as well as damn fine acting.  Denzel plays a
somewhat gelded maybe bad cop - a step up from _Training Days_.  Some
mexican chica plays a mexican chica con grande huevos - if we haven't
seen her before I predict we will see more in the future.  Denzel
exhibits his strange proclivity (by hollywood standards) once again of
performing love scenes either entirely off camera or at least fully
clothed (compared to another person of color by the last name something
like the frito bandito).  An excellent do especially if you can view it
in a theatre full of people of color - screen talkers.

We went to see "Lost in Translation" last night.  It was certainly well done
and interesting.  It's about two people who are lost, certainly.  Who don't
know what to do.  I think maybe the point is, everyone wants to know what to
do, but the signals we get from the outside world amount to something we
only vaguely understand.  Sometimes we try to imitate other people, because
that's the easiest thing to do.  But most of the time we don't have a clue.

Dunno.  I'm still thinking about it.  What did other people think?

Lost in Translation - I really liked it. I thought it was very well 
filmed in that every scene was visually stunning. Yeah, the main 
characters were lost and that was a little sad but, in a way, they 
seemed to find themselves. The person I went with wondered if maybe the 
daughter of a famous Hollywood directer got left for a week in a Tokyo 
hotel and the story came out of that. 

I liked it a lot.  Bill Murray was surprisingly good.  It also makes 
Tokyo look really pretty.

Tokyo is very visually stunning, in different ways in different areas.

Rentals this weekend:

"Formula 51"  I rented it because I love Robert Carlyle.  Now I wish Robert
Carlyle would make better movies.  Seeing Samuel L. Jackson in a kilt is
rather cool, as is the scene where he beats the shit out of some English punks
with a driver.

"Bullitproof Monk"  Loved it!  But then, I'm a sucker for Seann William Scott
and Chow Yun Fat.  Loved the fight scenes, am totally into the hong kong wire
effect, laughed a lot.

"The Italian Job"  This just reinforces the fact that in a perfect world, I
would have unlimited access to Jason Statham in whatever capacity I wished.
Fun fun movie, nice to see Edward NOrton as a bad guy, laughed over Mos Def
and Seth Green and drooled over Jason Statham.  And the urge to buy a Mini
Cooper and have the engine enhanced and the frame work reinforced is very
strong.

Watched Murder by Numbers yesterday. It wasn't spectacular, but it did keep
our attention. And unlike Mulholland Drive, it explained everything. Just the
way I like a suspense movie.

What about Donnie Darko?

  I gave up on "Murder by Numbers" after about 30 minutes.  It had little
  or nothing in common with the way *I* like a suspense movie.

DVD recommendation..."The Adventures of Indiana Jones"-- got this over the
weekend, it is a box set containing the three Indiana Jones movies (Raiders
of the Ark, Temple of Doom, the Last Crusade), and a fourth disk with like
three hours of extras.  The movies have been digitally re-mastered with
surround sound, and look and sound great, with the added documentary and
commentary by steven spielberg, george lucas and harrison ford.  These movies
took their sweet time coming out on DVD.  When I first got a DVD player, 
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" was one of the movies I most wanted to have on
DVD.  These are always going to be fun movies to have on hand on a rainy
day.  

Well, you do know who committed the murder and why. Most of the movie 
was about how the detective unravels the truth.

Now for good murder mysteries, any Agatha Christie, but especially the 
ones featuring Hercule Poirot, is unbeatable

Hm.  "Murder by Numbers" (haven't seen) sounds like a typical "Columbo"
episode.

You should do it.  _Murder by Numbers_ is a Sondra Bullock flick and she
doesn't do trash.

re#22: Why did you give up on it?  I'm really curious?
re#24: Ditto on the Hercule Piorot.  The modern version of _Murder on
the Orient Express_ is exceptional.  The scene with the scotsman and the
customs official is priceless.  That bit is actually the genesis of a
little known A2 funny story.  The scotsman's name was used and published
as the name of the marketing director of an A2 software firm (I am the
culprit behind that of course).  And the firm used to take great delight
in directing such obvious sales or marketing calls to various employees
including female. There was a board with the nominated marketing
director for each day of the week near the coffee machine.  Anyways, the
calls for that person suddenly stopped although it took a while for us
to realise it.  Years later I happened to meet a person from A2 with the
same unusual last name and mentioned the story only to find out that
such a person not only actually existed in A2 but that my story probably
explained the huge number of elaborate floral arraingements that showed
up at his funeral from companies that the family had no idea who or what
they were or what the relationship was.

Hm.  The few Sandra Bullock movies I've seen struck me as a bit trashy.

Went to see Bubba Ho-tep this weekend.  Pretty funny, quirky, strange, 
and what we've come to expect from Bruce Campbell.  He actually came 
out after the movie for a Q & A which was pretty cool.

I want to see that movie.  I think it's only playing in Royal Oak locally,
though.

Saw the Italian Job last night. Predictable, but enjoyable

If Bubba Ho-Tep is playing anywhere near Ann Arbor, I'm there!
Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley, Ossie Davis as a nutcase who thinks
he's John F. Kennedy, an ancient Egyptian demon on the loose, all
from the director of "Phantasm".  I've been eagerly awaiting this
one for quite a while.

A Grexpedition might be in order....

I'd be up for that!

Yes!

This response has been erased.

I'd be game for a Bubba Ho-Tep Grexpedition as well.

This response has been erased.

By the way, "Phantasm" is a good DVD rental at your friendly neighborhood
video store.  Classic 1970s grade B horror/scifi movie.  Shows what you
can do with almost no budget whatsoever if you've got an enthusiastic
cast and a crew with a little imagination.  An early film from the
director of "Bubba Ho-Tep".  The DVD release is digitally remastered,
looks and sounds great, and has some interesting deleted scenes and
a nice "making-of" documentary.

I saw "School of Rock" this weekend - fun fun movie - I laughed a lot and the
soundtrack was bitching.  It was fun seeing Jack Black being the typical Jack
Black, but not swearing - and somehow managing to be sensitive without losing
his edge.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss