241 new of 290 responses total.
Or for those who have never seen it, such as myself, until last night. I concur with iggy, it was a wonderful movie. I personally loved the costuming, but I'm a costume freak. I would have loved to be able to wear what the 'belle's' did back then, so beatiful.(If uncomfortable..)
The "non-PC" parts? Such as what?
Oh you know, things like when Scarlett slaps Prissy (a black slave), when Scarlett's dad uses the word "darkies", that sorta thing. What I found most disturbing is near the end, when Rhett is drunk and torments Scarlett about her love for Ashley Wilkes. He threatens her with bodily harm, then grabs her and carries her up the stairway to teach her a lesson... in other words, now that he's threatened her, he's turned on and wants assert his power by doing her, the fact that she is less than willing notwithstanding (she struggles to get away, but in a weak-fisted manner, and then submits after all of 15 seconds). The next morning she wakes up all happy and content after being disciplined. And the worst part? Most everyone in the theater cheered.
not to mention the 'political meetings' were klan activities.
being too PC can ruin anything. Please lighten up. After all, it's just a movie.
Agreed. If you want to see a PC movie, go see almost anything Disney. Who, I note, has yet to (re-)release "Song of the South" because the're afraid they might offend somebody. Anyone see that joke commercial for Disney's "Titey" on SNL?
Disney is PC? You totally sure about that? ;)
I saw "Song of the South" as a child, and I even grew up with the Joel Chandler Harris stories, and gee, I'm still a well balanced person. My views are such that I think everyone has a right to a piece of the pie, no matter where they come from beit Africa, or anywhere else. I learned some of my most basic life lessons from listening to Harris's Brer Rabbit, especially "Brer rabbit and the Tar Baby" which has always been one of my favorites. That one taught me that things sometimes *look* simple when viewed on the surface, but are most always more complicated once you get into them, and soon there is a point where you wish you had never saw it. I think disney lacks backbone, and courage. Because of PCism, we will lose most if not all of our culture because someone somewhere might be offended. Where does the book burning line form?
in my review,i said it was a great movie, but the non-pc parts made me uncomfortable. so... now i'm being labeled as uptight and a book burner because i'm uncomfortable with klan activities? sheese!
Why does Disney (studios) need backbone or courage when they are raking in so much money? Most backbone and courage appears from among those that give less high regard to money.
Sometimes it's just real subtle. Like in _Beauty and the Beast_, in the beginning there is a song about Belle, the main character. I don't remember the exact lyrics, but it talks about how she is weird because she likes to read books and is smart. Who's the main group to watch this film? Yep, young girls. Hmph.
Nobody says you have to like or approve one person slapping another. But seeing it in a movie makes you uncomfortable? Puh-leeze. Label the character violent or something, but deal with it. And hearing 19th-century characters using the term - gasp! - DARKIES - again, deal with it: They did a lot worse things in the 19th century. But it's stupid to try and whitewash history by making movies that PC-ize what really happened.
Disney just re-released Peter Pan on video, I believe. I wonder if they managed to change that so it's PC or are leaving it "Why is the Red Man Red?" and "Why does the Red Man say 'Ugh'"?
Re #61: Saying that seeing something in a movie makes you "uncomfortable" isn't the same thing as saying that you think such things shouldn't be in films, or that you can't "deal with it". Reminders of the less savory historical aspects of our interracial and intergender make me "uncomfortable" too, I suppose. But I think we need those reminders. It's interesting to read these defensive over-reactions to what was a pretty innocuous statement on iggy's part.
Hey, doncha know that it's PC to be anti-PC?! ;-)
I saw _Ghost In The Shell_ last night; great amime flick! I'd read the graphic novel before seeing the movie, which helped immensely in follwoing the somewhat confusing storyline. There were some good parts that got left out of the movie, but there was some beatufiul eyecandy scenes in the movie that the novel would've been hard-pressed to recreate.
It's a GOOD sign if things like racism in movies make you "uncomfortable". If you're perfectly comfortable with such things, worry. :)
Why should we be uncomfortable with depictions of racism, sexism, brutality, or other -isms, if they are being depicted as part of life in an era in which they were part of life? Should we go back through all our historical fiction and update it to eliminate all such references which might offend someone? Please! If you are uncomfortable with it, that's your own issue. It doesn't mean you're a racist if you are comfortable with such depictions.
I never said we should take things out of movies. I think it's important to see all that bad stuff, within its historical context. What I'm saying is, it's good to be uncomfortable with the -isms themselves.
Campus film groups live! #1:
U. Mich's Center for Japanese Studies is hosting a Toshiro Mifune
film festival. Films will run Friday at 7 pm, Lorch Hall, beginning
Friday July 17 and continuing for six weeks. Of particular
interest to me is:
RASHOMON: July 24: 1951 Academy Award, Best Foreign Film
-- one of those classics which I have never gotten around to seeing
THE SEVEN SAMURAI: July 31: 1954 Academy Award, Best Foreign Film
-- an old favorite, one I want to drag my wife to see, though
she'll probably complain about how violent and macho it is.
It's as long as "Titanic," so I hope Lorch Hall is air conditioned.
The Mifune film series is free.
Subtitled? Dubbed?
I saw the movie "Anaconda" on video over the weekend. It featured flat, indistinguishable characters, a plot with little direction and less interest, and expensive looking but unrealistic graphics. I don't watch a lot of movies -- this may have been the worst I've ever seen. My 7 year old said after the movie that anacondas are constrictors, not pit vipers, and that the mouth of the snake looked more like that of a pit viper. He mistakes cynicism for sophistication at times, but I have no reason to doubt his analysis. He and I saw "Godzilla" again at the local $2 theater. I still liked it. Especially compared to "Anaconda". I explained to my kid that the female lead deserved to be allowed to outgrow her past, but after leaving the guy without talking to him, then stealing his top-secret tape and exploiting her relationship to advance her career, she did not deserve any affection or respect from him. As I told him "I wouldn't have her on toast". He just liked the giant lizard. He said it walked like a komodo dragon while it was underground. My wife and I watched "Volcano" on Sunday evening on video tape. I thought this could have been a lot more spectacular of a movie. Not a lot happened that I find myself now, 2 days later, caring about or remembering very much. It was much too tense for a 7 year old, with a few pretty ugly scenes of burned-up people, so I'm glad we watched it before the kids did.
(Disaster movies seem to be in fashion at the Perry household... ;-)
Monster movies. 7 year olds like monster movies. We've had a couple of older Godzilla movies, and King Kong is at the house right now, too. Last night we started watching "Gremlins" -- I haven't seen it, so I don't know if it qualifies. "Volcano" was a departure from the summer theme.
back to Gone With the Wind...after reading the book (twice I think), I"m going to have to be uncharacteristic and say that the power struggle was what Scarlett liked about Rhett...she always wanted what she couldn't have..<shrug> some people like that sort of thing..
Volcano- Saw it on HBO a while back. Not impressed. One star. The Mouse that Roared- If you havn't seen it, see it. It should be on Bravo for the next couple of weeks. Absolutly a classic.
I kinda liked Volcano when I saw it in the theater, but I don't think that I would want to see it again. I really thought that Mousehunt was a very cute movie. :) Although, Catzilla looked a little too much like my kitten would look (if Sasha were mangy and a little bigger)
ARMAGEDDON (B+) -- Better than Deep Impact, and a lot better than some of the reviews made it sound. The two bad guys from FARGO (A) are in it. Steve Buscemi plays a raunchy genius, and the other guy plays a short-tempered Russian, and they get all the good lines. "Time to embrace the horror, fellas." "American components, Russian components -- all made in Taiwan."
Predator: Interesting story, not too shabbily executed. It's helped immensely by the lack of dialogue, particularly late in the film. 2 1/2 stars.
back in resp:70 , coyote asked if the Toshiro Mifune series at Lorch Hall would be subtitled or dubbed. I am assuming subtitled, just because I have never heard of these films being presented dubbed. As the sponsor of the series is the Center for Japanese Studies, I would guess they would want the original Japanese dialogue. But this is only a guess. TITANIC opens today at the Fox Village, according to the A2 News, so perhaps I will finally get a chance to see it this week.
cool!
Tonight, quarter to midnight, Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted is at the Michigan. It features "The Spirit of Christmas", on the big screen! And I have one thing to say to anyone who spent way too much time watching the RealVideo version and now feels compelled to recite the lines along with the film: "YOU DIE! YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE!"
uh, if you're referring to the oft-mentioned quote on South Park, it's: "No! You go to hell! You go to hell and you die!"
<ivy looks incredibly confused, having *no* idea who SPike and Mike are or what other is talking about....> <ivy decides to never see Titanic, given that it'll be gone by the time she's near>
I was reacting to the announcement that titanic is playing at the $1.50 theatre.
(I meant the spike and mike show....<smirk>) I'm annoyed that Titanic took forever to get to Fox and now it's there while I'm not. grrrrr.
Really? I'm seeing it tomorrow.
Gooing to see Mark of Zorro tomorrow. Chick flick -- mostly girls in the group.
Mask of Zorro was tolerable, but had a lot of foolish points. The fencing choreography was occasionally entertaining and occasionally just derivitive, as were many of the plot points (felt like watching the star wars trilogy in 1840's california). Antonia Banderas did a good job, particularly as his mild mannered rich guy alter ego. I found him sort of wanting as Zorro, but that's because he isn't Cary Elwes.
<remmers notes that the Star Wars trilogy was derivative>
Re #79:
Ok, thanks. Just wanted to make sure there was *some* form of English
available there. :) I'll try to make it to at least one of those. Do you
know what the other films are for the rest of the series, or where I could
find a list? (The Observer, maybe?)
The July "Current" has a one-page feature on the entire Toshiro Mifune series; the individual films, all on Fridays, should be listed in the Observer. I know that "Yojimbo" is somewhere in the schedule for August.
Ah, ok, thanks!
Not nearly this derivative, John. And a lot better. Besides, George practically rewrote most of the old archetypes with the thing.
Let us know how the qulaity of the film print of Titanic is. I trust even less very used movie stock at the dollar fifty movies.
<my words through the credits of Zorro> 'A zipper?!?! what are they thinking? a zipper!' it was *very* funny, we had a peanut gallery/wit's circle going..yay
GATTACA: Nicely done. The production design paid wonderful attention
to details. The overall sense of starkness and the classic feel given by the
amber filter really set the mood nicely. A futuristic story in which genetic
engineering and analysis are the means by which a new class culture is
developed. The lower caste, the laborers, are those people whose births were
not arranged and engineered to produce maximum development of specified
talents and functions. The story revolves around a child born of love, not
engineering, who has a dream, and the will to pursue it against not only odds,
but the strictures of society. It's an identity switch formula story, with
a topical interpretation. Concept: B Originality: D Execution: A-
BLACK SUNDAY: A terrorist organization called Black September,
fighting in the name of the Palestinian people, plans an ingenious, if
tremendously farfetched, attack on a stadium full of people--including the
President of the US--at the Super Bowl in Miami. The Steelers vs. the
Cowboys. Made in 1977, the film has a distinctly dated feel, but left me with
the impression that if redone using modern technology, it would make an
incredibly good thriller (assuming competent execution). An Israeli agent
is pitted against the woman he didn't kill when he had the chance as she
masterminds this operation. Be prepared for slower pacing than modern films,
and some seemingly obscure shots that seem to do nothing for the film but take
up time. Concept: A Originality: A Execution: B-
(ack! Gattaca was nap time...)
We went to see Titanic yesterday, and the print quality seemed fine. I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't **that** good.
I have yet to see it, but am I wrong in guessing Gattaca's allure was mainly due to one Uma Thurman?
I agree Gattaca was pretty bad. Black Sunday was okay, though. Bruce Dern set the standard for movie psychotics in that one.
Now, I liked Mark of Zorro. Derivative, maybe, but who cares when it's the best flick I've seen this summer after Mulan? I liked them putting in the actual history of Murieta and Three-fingered Jack and Captain Love (Joaquim Murieta and his crony Three-fingered Jack were killed in much the same way as in the movie and Captain Love did indeed keep the head and hand in jars, in fact, they were exhibited all over California. Ick!), even though most of the people I went with didn't remember the story. And of course I adored Anthony Hopkins. Banderas was nice, but Hopkins had fire.
Heh. Sitting in front of maeve during Zorro was terribly amusing.
<blush>
Every time I see the posters for "The Avengers", I feel like copping Dave Letterman at the Oscars. Uma? Emma. Emma? Uma.
actually, i did comment in earnest at one point during gattaca that uma thurman's face looked like a picasso. she did not look her best in this film.
Re #93: Ever seen any of the old Flash Gordon movie serials?
Re #102: Must've been stadium-style seating, or maeve wouldn't have been able to see a thing.
Well, I did see Titanic, finally, once the price was dropped by the move to Fox. Film quality was fine, sound was good (and not too loud, either). The movie? Wonderful production, but pity about the script.
As a matter of fact, it was.
Heard second hand that some reviewer rated Mark of Zorro as the best "Batman" movie yet. I gotta check it out.
Mask of Zorro, actually. I saw it again with some different friends. They give it two thumbs up. It was fun.
Deep Impact was definitely worth $2. Maybe not much more, but... ;-)
Mask of Zorro was great. The Batman thing is because of the Zorro cave under the original Zorro's mansion, but I don't care.
Saw a "biography" of Zorro on A&E the other day, the creator of Batman was actually inspired by seeing a Zorro movie with Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
Zorro has his key differences, which took me slightly off guard since I was in a Batman mode of thinking. Like, he smiled at the people he was saving and seemed actually happy. And he was no detective. Things like that.
I agree "Deep Impact" blew.
And who would you be agreeing with, bees?
Whoever it was up a few responses ago who said it pretty much sucked. No, that was just the voices in my head telling me that. Sorry.
(hhsrat is feeling deprived right now, being that the last movie I saw in the theater was Air Force One) I actually liked that movie. The action scenes were good, and unlike one of my personal favorites (Airplane) you didn't know until the last few moments if they would survive or not. I think they could have made the ending cheesier (but not necessarily better) by playing the Star Spangled Banner when the plane changed call signs. One really interesting part (from the true Wolverine sports fan) was seeing Notre Dame lose to Michigan :) You wanna know what movies I really hate? The Mighty Ducks series. Yeah, the first one was OK, but all the sequels are so predictable. Also, Disney does not know how to cover a hockey game. (just watch a tape of CBC Molson Hockey Night in Canada then watch D2 or D3 (or flip back and forth))
I grudgingly went to Small Soldiers the other day, and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The plot is about what you would expect, but there is sufficient humor in the script and in the visuals to make the movie quite enjoyable.
I saw Henry Fool....it was..bleh..but it wasn't Danny's fault
Wow. I saw Saving Private Ryan on opening night. That was incredible. Not for the faint of heart, mind you, but it was a mindblowing movie experience. On occasion I'll be watching D-Day films or somesuch and try to think of what it would be like. It doesn't come close. This has been dubbed the greatest war movie every made, and I have little reason to doubt it. The message is anti-war, but even pro-war people should see this. I'll tell you what, this makes me thankful for my collapsed arches, which I believe would prevent me from getting soldier duty. The whole movie told me that I don't want another war to occur. And I'd hate to be caught in it. It's incredibly realistic. Worth every penny. 10 out of 10, five stars, two thumbs up, etc
Here's what kind of damaged cynic I am. Whenever I hear or see the term "Saving Private Ryan", I immediately mentally change it to the title of a gay porno which I'm sure someone will someday make.
Remmers' list of movies that he hasn't seen yet but intends to:
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Small Soldiers" is marginally on my list of things to see, despite
the unenthusiastic reviews, because I like Joe Dante, the director
("Matinee", "Gremlins"). Its first-run engagements seem to be winding
down, though. I'll probably wait until it shows up at a budget theater.
"Henry Fool", which was a Cannes Film Festival prize-winner, is
polarizing the critics -- they either love it (New York Times' Janet
Maslin) or hate it (Siskel & Ebert, Chris Potter). Regardless, it's on
my must-see list because Hal Hartley wrote and directed it. He's made
three films that I like a whole lot ("The Unbelieveable Truth", "Trust",
"Simple Men") but also a couple that left me cold.
I guess I'll have to see "Saving Private Ryan" because everybody is
saying it's so great. Maybe it is. The fact that Chris Potter raves
about it, and says that Spielberg may be the greatest director in the
world, raises a red flag though. (When "Dune" came out, he said it
might be the greatest movie ever made...)
The greatest director may be Martin Scorsese. It's not Speilberg.
Christopher Potter? Isnt't that the Ann Arbor News guy who hates everything? I've never seen him give something a good review.
He gets one or two reviews right a year. This would seem to be it. Every review I've seen raves about it. You sure it's not Spielberg? Not only is he capable of brillant films, but he's incredibly variable. He's not just a blockbuster filmmaker. He accomplishes practically everything he sets out to do. Martin Scorsese is brilliant, but he hasn't impressed me as much. I've always thought Alphred Hitchcock.
Actually the AFI voted Spielberg the greatest American director of the century. Spielberg said he didnt deserve it, that Martin Scorcese is the greatest. I'd agree. I watch Scorcese's films over and over and see different things in them every time.
"SAVING PRIVATE RYAN"-- This is a movie that I have to see again, because
the battle scenes are so detailed that one cant possibly appreciate them in
just one viewing. The opening sequence, showing the D-day invasion, is just
staggering. Spielberg has said noone under the age of 15 should see this, and
certianly it is NOT for anyone who is squeamish. It is as brutal and explicit
a portrayal of war that I think is possible to put on film. The battle scene
at the end where Tom Hanks and crew fight the Germans over a bridge is if
anything just as explicit as the opening.
The movie basically portrays D-Day as the last good battle, the end of
innocence. One moment Hanks and co. are fighting the Germans on the beach, and
the next day they are detailed to risk their lives on a public relations
mission to go into Germany and locate Private Ryan, whose three brothers have
been killed and get him home. One day war is for the grand purpose, and the
next war is to make politicians and pentagon brass look good. The reality of
this mission makes cynics out of Hanks entire outfit.
The movie opens and closes in the present, with Private Ryan standing in
the D-Day military cemetary in France, now an old man who has spent much
of his life tormented over the sacrifices Hanks and his men made for him.
This is a movie that clearly spells out the uselessness of war and the fact
that although many died in WW II for what were not the best reasons, mostly
they died with honor.
D-Day was the pivotal moment of this century. Had it not happened when
it happened, or if anything went wrong, Hitler could have had the time to
divert more troops to Normandy and might have defeated the Allied forces.
Hitler may well have ended up in control of Europe and no doubt would have
eventually taken the war over to our shores. "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN" is
a movie that needed to be made, because so many people dont understand
the history behind this event, the sacrifices that were made, and the intense
brutality of what went on.
A great movie. I rank it right up there with "All Quiet on the Western
Front", and
"Platoon" as the greatest war movies I've ever seen. ***** (five stars)
henry fool was very good, at being very bad..we'll put it this way..I got out of the theater and had to run around the block to get all my annoyed energy out.. (it's not danny's fault)
Christopher Potter's biggest flaw is that he confuses summarizing a movie with "reviewing" a movie. His second biggest flaw is that he generally has bad taste.
Re: #129 You've very little knowledge of how Overlord played out if you think that nothing went wrong. Hitler didn't need more time to sent troops to Normandy (he'd done that in May '44, moving the 21st Panzer division, 91st Infantry, and loads of smaller units into near-perfect positions to oppose the invasion), he needed a transportation network that the Allied air forces weren't bombing into rubble. And what he could have diverted of the 59 divisions in the West on 6/4/44 after a victory in Normandy would not have changed the 163 divisions being vanquished in Italy and the East into winners. The horrible carnage of D-Day (on the Allied side) was mostly due to General Omar Bradley & Co.'s refusal to learn from the horrible carnage of the Dieppe raid. The British weren't that stupid (well, it was *their* guys who got butchered at Dieppe), and went ashore prepared in Normandy - enjoying an easy victory and minimal losses as a result.
For anyone who likes comedies will absolutely LOVE the movie "Mafia" It was *very* funny
Scorsese will always be my favorite, that is, next to my all time favorite, Barry Levinson. Spielberg did a great job on Always.
I'd disagree with some of the interpretations richard took out of Private Ryan, but that's a personal issue anyway. The ending review was on target.
Mr Potter seems to think that every movie has to be socially redeeming. I usually disagree with him and have met very few people who agree with his point of view on any film. How does that guy keep his job?
Hi everyone........ I'm new to this conf. I work at a local movie theatre, doing pretty much everything. So if anyone has any questions about how things work "behind the scenes" or maybe if a movie that is coming out is anygood (I usually watch the new releases in special screenings for employee's days before it comes out) leave a message for me here or e-mail me at movieguy@fyber.fsn.net -Neil aka. Fyber219 aka. movieguy
Welcome, fyber219
I thought that Potter wasn't that far off the mark in his review of "Ponette". He's given me a couple of decent reviews, so I'm afraid I qualify, at best, as a part-time Potter-basher. But it's not for nothing that his annual awards are referred to as "The Potties".
"Henry Fool" A+ To hell with what some of the critics say. This is a wonderful film. Funny, moving, satirical, complex, risk-taking, thought- provoking epic about friendship, influence, responsibility, and several other things. Brilliantly written, photographed, and acted. I loved almost every minute of it, including a few distinctly uncomfortable ones. It firmly establishes Hal Hartley as one of today's great filmmakers. The blurb in the Michigan Theater schedule asserts that the film was inspired by Harold Bloom's _The Anxiety of Influence_. I shall have to have a look at that book. "Henry Fool" still has a couple more showings at the Michigan Theater - Tuesday July 28 at 7:00 and Thursday July 30 at 9:00.
"Disturbing Behavior" has to be one of the worst movies I"ve seen in a long time. The idea was kinda cool, but something went drastically wrong when they tried to do something with it. first half hour: too slow, too stupid next 15 minutes: kinda cool rest: too fast, too little
The idea was kind of cool... when it was still called "The Stepford Wives".
Quick question: What is the film that Jim Jarmusch made with soundtrack
based on Screaming Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You"?
(I just watched "Down by Law" again; watched the mesmerizing intro over
and over, set to a perfect Tom Waits song...and now I want to see that
earlier film, but I forget the name of it.)
("Mystery Train" is very good, too.)
If it's earlier than "Down by Law", which was Jarmusch's second feature, then it must be "Stranger than Paradise", his first.
ugh, I hated Henry Fool..granted it was well-made, but it was a well-made bad-movie
Well, as was said more than once in the movie itself, "You can't argue about taste."
oh..and why did all teh clothes, hairstyles etc stay exactly the same 10 or so years later in the 'end' of teh film? that bothered me..
I don't think Hartley was after naturalistic realism. If that bothered you, how about this: Did you notice all the beer in the film? People drinking from cans and carrying around six-packs. Did you notice that it was always exactly the same brand?
did you notice no one ever ate anythign except beer, the one bite of lasagna, and some curdled milk?
*Sounds* incredibly stupid, but I'll have to go see for myself. Bloom's book is about "intentional misreading." Fairly controversial at the time, pretty bland now. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (B) -- Tom Hanks is excellent in this movie, but despite its celebrated "realism" the movie is filled with cliches. It even has an example of the "It Was Written" rule, which appeared notably in Lawrence of Arabia: Lawrence risks his life to save a man everyone else says is doomed, just to prove that "nothing is written" (i.e., in the Book of Fate), and then ends up having to shoot the man himself later in the movie. The John Williams score, complete with piously noble chorus vocalising wordlessly, gives the game away. High-grade kitsch, if you like that sort of thing. But Tom Hanks is fantastic, despite everything. Recent rental: ZERO EFFECT (B-) -- The casting was awful, but it's an interesting idea. A postmodern Sherlock Holmes and his disaffected Watson.
I *really* liked _City Of Angels_ and the soundtrack rocks too.
"Stranger than Paradise", yes, that's it. Saw it years ago. One of the characters listens to Screaming Jay Hawkins constantly on her walkman. I guess because of that, Jarmusch got to know Screaming Jay, and he appeared as an actor in another movie, "Mystery Train". He played a hotel clerk, and did a good job, and was an interesting character. Soundtrack for that movie was Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, etc. And in "Down by Law", Tom Waits did music and acted a major part, and did brilliantly in both. These are all great movies.
THE NEGOTIATOR (B) -- Tries hard to be a thinking person's action movie. Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey are both excellent. The story is even farther fetched than you expect such a movie to be, but I still enjoyed it.
Rented "Daibolique" with Chazz Palminteri (woof!) and Sharon Stone. It's about a man who is murdered by his wife and mistress, but turns up later, very much alive. Whatever. Thing is, I could swear it's a remake of a movie I saw about 10 years ago, almost shot for shot. Can someone here help me out with the title of the earlier one?
"Diabolique" the recent (94? 95?) film was a remake of the French classic starring Simone Signoret..
"Seven Samurai", the Kurasawa classic (at Lorch Hall, free!). Great movie, 3.5 hours long but I even was able to stay the full length.
ref #155: Then maybe the one I'm looking for is an earlier remake, circa 1985-88. <shrug> How old is the French one?
The original French "Diabolique" dates from 1955. There was a made-for-TV remake in 1974 called "Reflections of Murder" that starred Tuesday Weld. Perhaps that's the one you saw?
Hmmm. Thanks, I'll check into that. The title "Dead of Winter" comes to mind, too.
"Dead of Winter" was a 1987 thriller starring Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowall. It was about a woman being held prisoner in an eerie old mansion. Not really the same story as "Diabolique", but somewhat similar ambience perhaps.
The Best movie of the entire summer is SAVING PRIVATE RYAN The movie is just flat out great!Spielberg once again shows why hes the best...The acting was tremendous and the movie didnt get boring for even a minuite ...(exept for maybe the last 1 min or so...Youls see what I mean(ie the future)..The movie is an A++...!!!
Evita 3 stars.
I didn't see the stage play, but it was very well staged, and acted by
both Antonio Bandares, and Madonna, who was suprisingly good as Eva. In many
respects it was typical Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice in style. It reminded
me a lot of Jesus Christ, Superstar. The songs by Madonna were excellent, and
Banderes is a good singer as well. I didn't know that about him.
I highly suggest that if you have the chance to see it, see it.
I saw "Halloween: H20" One word.... Wow
"Yojimbo", a Japanese film from 1961 directed by Akira Kurasawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. If you ever wondered where John Belushi got his samurai character from, you must see this film. Very funny!
A freind of mine said Evita reminded him of Joseph & his Amazing Techinicolr Dreamcoat. Musically.
Oh, the other important thing about Yojimbo: It was remade as a western starring Clint Eastwood, as "A Fistfull of Dollars", and appears to be the inspiration for the classic Clint "man with no name" character that appeared in a number of films.
Another interesting thing about Yojimbo: the sequi "Sanjuro" is playing on Friday Aug 14 at the UM Center for Japanese STudies at 7 pm.
Location is actually Lorch Hall for "Sanjuro"
Right, Center for Japanese Studies is the sponsor of the films, not the location. I'm glad someone is getting to see these.
I think Evita was written just after Jesus Christ, Superstar. I remember buying the sountrack and libretto in 1981. I really fell in love with it, and I was pissed when some jerk stole it along with all my other tapes.
I just got back from watching "Ever After"... yet another grrreat Drew Barrymore film :)
I saw Ever After last night. It was pretty nice.
I saw SAVING PRIVATE RYAN last Saturday. That's a film I have no problem recommending. The best word to describe it is "relentless" - the killing and the mayhem just never seems to end. It was a good up close and personal look at some real dying and death during a war. A+, go see it, yadda yadda yadda.
We rented The Full Monty over the weekend. I thought it was tedious and boring, with very little to recommend it. We also rented Men in Black. While I enjoyed this one (as I knew, I've seen it before) I found myself wondering, as I have with other Tommy Lee Jones movies: if they replaced Tommy Lee Jones with a cardboard cutout, would anyone notice the difference? He seems like an "insert generic actor here" kind of guy.
Somehow I find the critiques of Saving Private Ryan, including mine, to be amusing--"relentless, nonstop gore. Excellent movie, A+." Is that just me, or is this really a unique issue? :)
on August 8th, scg, Dave Warner, and I saw "Snake Eyes". We thought it was, um, interesting.
Re 174:
Really? I though The Full Monty was a really funny, cute movie.
I liked the Full Monty, but then I was biased..a lot...
you have a think for chubby nekkid guys?
LOLITA (A) -- Somebody read the novel on which this movie is based and then crafted an amazingly detailed visual representation of it. Not much of Nabokov's language brilliance remains, but the scenes are so beautifully detailed that many of them came close to matching the mental images I've always had of the book's people and places. An awful lot of stuff has been left out that Kubrick managed to include in his version 35 years ago, such as John and Jean Farlow, Frederick Beale, etc. These were wonderful Nabokovian comic characters, whose absence is more than made up for, imho, by the loving, almost obsessive, detail paid to other things, such as the various motels, Beardsley school, and the Kasbeam barber. Above all, the movie captures the rich, inescapable horror of Nabokov's novel. Hubert's sexual paradise had skies the color of hell-flames, he said, and it's all there. The screenwriter added a couple of years to Dolores's age (making her 14 instead of 12) and also to Humbert's age (40ish instead of mid-thirties), but the shame and horror are still there. Now if we can talk Adrian Lyne into doing Pale Fire .. .
LETHAL WEAPON 4 (D) -- I was hoping that Chris Rock might inject some new life into this tired old franchise. No such luck. SPHERE (C) -- One of those movies you hate because of all the cool things it could have done and didn't. The three main actors, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson and Sharon Stone, are three of my all-time favorites, though, so just seeing them trying to keep straight faces was worth the price of the rental. JACKIE BROWN (B) -- Not bad at all. Extremely well-cast, especially Samuel L. Jackson as a not-very-bright but very vicious villian. (Jackson is turing into the male version of Anne Heche -- he seems to be in every other movie I see.)
close :) the accents are the third on my list of favourites...and there are some amazingly funny visual puns(?) (I'm not sure how to explain visual puns ot people..it's kind of a dancer thing..)
re180 did the movie show chafemarks from her retainer?
Hmm. Something About Mary was quite amusing and rather good. Not for the faint of heart, though.
Re #183, no, Dolores Haze always takes her retainer out first in this movie. She didn't wear a retainer at all in the novel, though, so that's one of the screenwriters' added details. Btw, I didn't like Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze. Shelly Winters was much better in the Kubrick version. Neither Peter Sellers nor Frank Langella is very close to the Clare Quilty of the novel. I would have casted someone like Jason Alexander or Wallace Shawn, or even Harvey Feirstein if I could get him to calm down. The gruesome and nightmarish murder scene at the end of the new movie is lightyears better than the Kubrick version. It follows the novel almost step by step. But Quilty needs to be more prissy and theatrical about the whole thing. Imagine a man being shot to death, and with each bullet he twitches and smirks and actually seems to be having fun with it, saying things like, "Ah! Very painful. Very painful, indeed. God! Hah! That hurts atrociously, my good fellow. I pray you desist."
Well, he was more prissy than most people would be under the circumstances. I largely agree with you about "Lolita", both the new version and the Kubrick rendition. Melanie Griffith was miscast -- she's much too attractive for those things that Humbert wrote about her to be convincing. I thought Jeremy Irons and Dominique Swain were excellent as Humbert and Lolita respectively. Gone from the new version were most of the novels's comic and satirical touches that showed up in Kubrick's treatment. I think that resulted in a significant shift of focus. Maybe it's worth remembering that Nabokov himself wrote the screenplay for the Kubrick version.
I need to see the Hell segment from Deconstructing Harry again.
Re #186, Kubrick credited Nabokov with the screenplay, but he ignored most of it. Nabokov's screenplay has been published, if you want to compare it with Kubrick's movie. If Kubrick had gone along with everything, the movie would've been about four hours long, and Vladimir Nabokov himself would've had a cameo.
Hm... I would like to see that movie.
saw Pi, it was...interesting...it was well-shot and well-scored..but the film itself was a bit annoying
love all that flashing light and shaky camerawork.
I saw The Avengers yesterday...it was wonderful..much along hte lines of James Bond with more Saville Row and some odd Mary Quant things on Uma Thurman..ohit was quite wonderful..
RE #192 Also, in _The Avengers_, the evil Sir August was played by Sean Connery, the original James Bond.
There's Something about Mary C- Juvenile. This two hour movie seemed *much* longer than it was. I paid matinee prices and did not get full entertainment value. Still, it had a few laughs (very few).
replacement killers is the best damn movie every made along with halfbaked soo put away the crap and rent these 2 great movies!
Never heard of those two. Want to tell us a little bit about them?
The Commitments is an adorable movie...good accents, colm meany, and..soul
I had the good fortune to catch Grand Canyon on cable. It was made back in 1991, but I think it has deeper meaning to me now that I know a little more about film it means a little more to me. It's hard to put into words, but the meaning wasn't lost on me. It is about a group of people each from a different strata of class, interacting and influencing each other's lives. It shows how even the littlest of things can have a huge impact on someone else. Good script by Larry Kasdan, and performances by Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Mary Louise-Parker among others. One of the must see movies. 4 stars.
re #196: "the Replacement Killers" is Hong Kong action-hero Chow Yun Fat's big Hollywood debut, along with Mira Sorvino.. (?) (!) "Half Baked" looks like a lowbrow comedy of some sort.. saw "the Avengers" tonight and thought it was a bit odd.. lots of strange humor, a weirdly-disjointed plot (if one can even call it a plot, more like a connected sequence of scenes..) and lots of great sets and costumes.. I can't remember if the television series was similarly bizarre but this was a pretty odd movie..
I very much enjoyed "Something About Mary."
Sets? Have to see that movie.
see it steve..you must..
Well, sure, there is a lot to like about "Something about Mary." Good production values, sound, ok lighting, actors that can say their lines and smooth editing. The concept of the story is sweet, but the writers kept it buried under crude situation jokes that had all the cleverness of a Saturday Night Live skit. I like SNL skits, but I don't want to pay a movie admission for jokes of that caliber. I can enjoy a good joke about drugged pets and ejaculate hair dressing, but they don't really seem to work here--except to make me squirm in my seat.
Ohhh so THAT is what makes her hair stand up? Yeep! (Haven't seen the movie, just bits on TV)
<moderate spoiler> I still don't understand how it is that his looper ended up where it did. That would take some kind of contortionist.
Just saw Evita on one of the cable stations - very impressive. A tragic story of ambition on the personal level and class struggle on the national level. Madonna's voice was strong and up to the role. Antonio Banderas was excellent as the Cynic. Andrew Lloyd Weber's music is haunting. Well worth seeing again.
I think it had to do with what he was doing with his "action hand" after he, um, finished plumbing, but I haven't gone back to check.
Re: Evita.... I have not seen it but heard it was good. Madonna always irriated me with her lack of acting ability, but supposedly she pulls it off in this one.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's music "haunting"? That's a charitable way of phrasing it. I'd be more apt to characterize it as "moribund".
I thought Something About Mary was hillarious.
As I said in an earlier response, Evita was boffo, I loved it.
I was really impressed when I saw "Evita" as well. :) I think Madonna did a great job as Eva Peron.
There's talk that Final Cut will be shown at the State Theater, likely September 17. I did graphics and titles for it, and I even have a brief scene with the slasher--come see me in all my 16mm glory! Just this morning, I got a still from the film. It doesn't reveal a lot about the film, but you can have a first glimpse at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~asmithee/fcut.jpg
hey! i was in a film this summer with several crew who worked on the final cut. neat!
Hey, who! Was it Gordon Eick's Starcatcher film, or whatever it's called? I get the impression I'm going to be called into service to work on the chromakey effects for that one.
Sometimes you just don't know the effects on the ecosystem from a film festival.
EVEREST (B) -- This IMAX movie is showing at the Detroit Science Center. It's only about 45 minutes long and the story it tells, of the great mountian and the people who died in a storm on it in 1996, has been told better elsewhere. But the IMAX technology was made for something like this. Spell-binding scenery and some vertiginous effects. My favorites were the avalanche they somehow got to thunder straight down into the camera, and the scene where a climber hangs suspended over a mountain abyss from a slowly twirling line and the camera twirls with her, looking down. I'm told some of the climbing closeups were shot in the Rockies, and some of the severe weather scenes were shot on Mt Washington in New Hampshire.
Clockwatchers: cute, a little odd, characature enough to be funny, but not enough not to be real people at the same time..worth seeing..
"Austin Powers International Man of Mystery". Rented, after having had it come up in conversation at Grexstock (I'd seen it in the theater when it came out). I'm starting to develop a little different mental filter for Mike Myers films; with that in place "Austin Powers" is very funny.
i finally got around to renting "pink flamingoes" he heh holy crap! not for the faint of heart. lots of full frontal nudity (mostly male). very bizzare..somewhat shocking.. and a bit gross. the version i rented had a bunch of scenes that were originally cut from the movie by john waters.. it is rated 'nc-17'... i cant grade it.. it was just too bizarre. well.. ok. iggy gives it 4 involuntary open mouth gasps with a hand slapped across the mouth for good measure. (it s true.. really. my mouth was sore)
Did the video-store rental version come with the Odorama* card? (* or whatever it was called..)
i believe you are thinking of 'polyester'. i used to have one of those cards, but after 15 years, it came up missing. not that i ever keptclose track of it in the first place.
I highly reccommend his _Hairspray_ film, with the then-pudgy Ricki Lake. I love it when Penny's parents give her shock therapy for liking black boys :)
I agree. Hairspray was fun, especially the music. Divine plays a dual role, as the station owner, and Ricki Lake's mom. I loved the whole thing. However.... the other night I went and saw Wag the Dog. Every time I think about it I burst out laughing. DeNiro was exactly on target as the fixer. I don't know what it is about him, but he is one of the greatest actors of all time. Hoffman was priceless, and was perfectly cast in the role of the hollywood guy. I was a little put off about the fact that there are people who could actually do this, and that worried me, but then I got over it, and remembered that it was a movie and that kind of thing really doesn't happen in the real world, or does it? Being it was a Barry Levinson thing, it was good to play "Spot Ralph". There is an actor named Ralph Taboken. He is a little old, and he is a kindly type man, and Barry Levinson gives him a small walk role in every one of his movies. In Avalon, Ralph was the school principal. In Tin Men he played a deadbeat who gets a supposed free siding job, and in Good Morning Vietnam he played the chaplian. He also has a recurring role in Homicide as Dr. Schiener, and usually has something witty to say to the cops. It's like trying to spot Clint Howard in Ron Howard's films. Wag the Dog was fun, and I enjoyed it. That's the bottom line. I'll probably go and buy a used copy from the rental place. I give it 4 stars. It was refreshing to see a movie of this quality, shot in 20 days, and with a small budget. <please omit the word "walk", it doesn't belong there.>
I myself was a teenager in the very early 1960's, the era in which "Hairspray" is set; I can relate personally to some of the things that it satirizes. Great music, too. An exceptionally likeable film.
I liked Waters as the shrink. Perfect casting.
Definitely! I love how Ricki is supposed to be unattractive... she's big, with even bigger hair, and gets the Elvis look-alike, the guy all the girls are crazy for. Gotta love the Hefty Hideaway plugs. I laugh every time I think of Deborah Harry's hairdo that concealed the bomb. And Sonny Bono could still be married to Cher for all I care now, he has my undying devotion for being in that film. ::Pause for moment of silence::
hah ha! i named my border collie for the owner of Hefty Hideaway! Mister Pinky.
An earlier cinematic version of the sinking of the Titanic, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER from 1958, is being broadcast on the cable channel American Movie Classics at 0200 Eastern Friday night/Saturday morning. There may be other broadcasts. I'm watching an early broadcast now; it's an interesting comparison to the James Cameron film.
My fave line from Hairspray, via Divine as the mother: "Wilbur... it's the times. They're a-changin'. Somethin's blowin' in the wind... Fetch me my diet pill, would you hon?"
The Governess was rather good, pretty, interesting, and left us with some research inteh costume area to do..
9 am on AMC-- Sullivan's Travels. DON'T MISS IT!! This film must be seen by all who are serious about movies and film. Seeing will change you for the better. It is so good, that Larry Kasdan wove a reference into Grand Canyon, not that GC was anything to write to Mom about. ;)
"The Hanging Garden" is a disturbing film with an unusual story line - what would happen if someone hadn't committed suicide? I'm still thinking about it but I already know the choice to die wasn't necessarily wrong. It's a Canadian film now showing at The Michigan.
RE #233 Wasn't that similar to Jimmy Stewart's character in _It's A Wonderful Life_ wishing he never was born?
Sounds like this one supports the opposite point of view?
It's not as easy as opposite points of view.
"The Fifth Element" -- A Wish I'd seen this earlier. Very funny sci-fi, made by a French director (but it's all in English, Bruce Willis, etc). The non-typical visual look and costumes are incredible, esp. the way details are revealed. In one part, we see the "bad guy thugs" wearing typical sci-fi bad guy thugs type costumes, basically another adaption of the black jacket look. Later on, we see them walking away from the camera, revealing that the uniforms include black rubber shorts with hairy legs! Very funny, and this sort of thing happens a number of times. I'd rate this up there with Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" or the Syvester Stallone movie "Demolition Man". (Demolition Man *was* a typical Stallone action film... except that it was also a very funny sci-fi film at the same time, with lots of creative detail)
the costumes were Jean-Paul Gautier having *way* too much fun..it was cute
SHALL WE DANCE? (A) -- The focus on body-movement in this movie eventually sensitizes you to the movements of the characters to the degree that you start to think they're *all* dancing, all the time. Then it hits you that they *are* all dancing, all the time, from the positioning and repositioning of a group of workers in an office to something as simple as two people meeting on a staircase and doing the "After you. No, after *you*" dance. The device transforms what is essentially a sentimental made- for-TV movie, suitable for Hallmark specials, into a brilliantly inventive piece of work. Quite amazing. Above all, the main character's transformation from inhibited businessman to daring ballroom dancer is made completely believable by the actor who plays him. The thought of coordinating the dancee steps with the emotions is straight out of 1950s Hollywood.
(Studio) 54 -- Oh, so that was Mike Meyers in there? I was pleased that the film did not end up like a Saturday Night Rerun skit that goes on for 90 minutes. In fact, the Mike Meyers persona disappeared and his character prevailed.
I rate Shall We Dance B+. The pace could have been picked up slightly, but I thought the casting was really something. I wish and wish that directors would give more time to the feet of dancers. The theme of marital infidelity was handled so differently from the recent portrayal of adulterous relationships as signifiers of something passionate and desireable.
Grosse Pointe Blank- 2 1/2 stars.
Caught this one on cable tonight, and I must say that the first part of
the movie was quirky and funny, but then it denegrated into nothingness. I
was disappointed in the sets, and locations, (remember, I AM from the east
side of Detroit, and this particular area was home to me for a lot of years.)
Cusak was good, and so was Driver. I did like the last part, though and
I guess I would recommend seeing it, but for God's sake, see it for a
buck or on cable.
Saw Good Morning Vietnam for the first time yesterday. Quite entertaining, and it actually made me think about the conflict as well. Some good points.
Good Morning, Vietnam is one of my all time favorite movies. It's even better if you're a fan of Barry Levinson.
It's a superb example of the brilliance of Robin Williams. In one movie he's both hilarious comedic one-liner actor and a dramatic artist at the same time.
I agree. Williams has spectacular range.
Some recent rentals: TITANIC (still a solid A) -- I remember thinking when I saw it in the theater what a sumptuously visual movie this is, and that there are images in it I'll never forget: the ship upending and breaking in two and the stern falling hugely back into the sea; the shelves of never-used plates tilting and sending their contents to the hard floor; Kate Winslet on her back on a drifting headboard, pale and frozen, looking up at the stars and singing a little song at them. There is one image that tops them all, though: seen from below, the dead body of a young woman hangs suspended in the submerged ballroom, which is still lit from above by the ship's lights, her limbs sprawling gracefully, her voluminous and complex nightgown floating around her. Where have I seen that before? A Victorian Ophelia? A Renaissance angel? Anyway, it's a movie made by someone with an artist's eye for such things. To think of throwing such an image into the film -- the sheer heedless extravagance. Cameron loves details. [When I was a kid, my favorite cartoonist was a man named Wallace Wood, and what I loved most about his drawings was the fantastic amount of detail he filled them with, all more or less functional. You could spend fifteen minutes on each frame. That sort of thing.] SENSELESS (C) -- It starts off with a potentially hilarious premise, and it does run with it for a while, but then it kind of falls apart. The tacked-on ending, wherein the main character, who accomplishes all kinds of miracles due to a sense-enhancing drug, is required to spend a year earning the job of his dreams the hard and normal way, is, paradoxically, as phony as can be. DREAM FOR AN INSOMNIAC (B+) -- So self-consciously aimed at the 20-30 generation that I almost felt as if I were eavesdropping. Jennifer Aniston is stuck playing a version of Rachel again, as she seems to be stuck in all her movies. (There's even a Central Perk-y coffee shop where everyone works or meets.) The movie does grab your attention, though, and eventually you actually start to care about the characters. I guess I should admit the ending is "contrived" or "too pat." Didn't bother me. Plus, Ione Skye is adorable. (For you above-it-all cineastes, Rachel is the character Jennifer Aniston plays on the NBC Thursday night sitcom "Friends," and Central Perk is the name of the coffee house she used to work at. It used to be one of my favorite TV shows, but it's become an institution and lost its edge. It still has its moments, though.)
The one good thing about "Senseless": It's most assuredly the last time David Spade will play a snobby college kid.
SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS (C) -- Cute is places, but it left me with a "So what?" impression when it was over. Marisa Tomei was qiute good. Maybe there's life after Vinnie after all.
[Re resp:247 - omigosh, you're a Wally Wood fan? Me too. Loved his stuff in Mad Magazine, Weird Science/Fantasy, and other E.C. comics.]
[He was amazing. My favorite Mad 'toonists were Wood, Kurtzman, Elder and Davis, in that order. I bet James Cameron's a Wallace Wood fan, too.] THE BORROWERS (B-) -- It kinda put me to sleep. I loved the way it inhabited its own weird little world. It reminded me a bit of Altman's POPEYE (A) in that one respect. Re SLUMS again: Whenever I see Alan Arkin in a movie like this, I think, "What a waste." But then I start trying to think of anything he ever did that wasn't a waste and I come up with WAIT UNTIL DARK (A). Why do I think he's so good, when he's obviously so bad? Are there some choice movies he's done that I'm forgetting?
Michael, are you forgetting such classic Arkin films as Big Trouble, and The In-Laws? Arkin's big thing is being Joe Normal, who is just waiting for some outside influence to muck it up.
I liked him in "Popi." What was the name of the one he was in with Sally Kellerman?
THE PEACEMAKER: Essentially an average James Bond movie, minus the humor. George Clooney was fun to watch. I was glad that Clooney and Nicole Kidman were too busy saving the world from stolen nuclear weapons to have time to leap into bed. A little on the slow side, but worth a rental if you are into the nuclear-weapons-thriller thing.
Current rental: ZERO EFFECT: Quirky mystery comedy with Bill Pullman as a modern-day eccentric, reclusive private investigator (with traits borrowed from Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, etc), Ben Stiller as his perpetually exasperated front man, Ryan O'Neal as the rich client, and Kim Dickens as an object first of investigation, then affection. Cleverly written and directed by Jake Kasdan (son of director Lawrence Kasdan of "The Big Chill", "Accidental Tourist", "Grand Canyon", etc) with likeable performances all around. I enjoyed this a lot. Recommended.
I rented that too earlier last week, because I'd heard the reviews.
It was intellectually interesting, and I found myself pulled along by the
desire to see how the story turned out, but I found the movie itself
emotionally uninvolving.
Pullman and Stiller seemed miscast to me. The movie suffered from the "Ben Stiller Curse," which seems to have lifted recently in Something About Mary. For a while there, Stiller was the thinking man's Corey Feldman. The Arkin / Kellerman movie was Last of the Red Hot Lovers. Arkin was in GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (A), although he might not be the name that springs to mind when you think of that movie.
I first noticed (and enjoyed) Arkin's quirky style in Catch 22. He was perfectly cast.
THE APOSTLE (A) -- Robert Duvall is just amazing in this movie. Granted, the Oscars are more for entertainment than anything else, but still, I'll never understand why he didn't win for this role.
Re resp:256 - "Zero Effect" is definitely on the cerebral side. But I found myself interested in the characters and their motivations.
Re #259: The Oscars go mainly to films that make a LOT of money. Whether this is b/c the best performances bring in lots of paying customers, or b/c the Accademy is honoring "what works", or b/c they "hop on the bandwagon", I have no idea.
THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (B-), starring boychild Leonardo DiCaprio, and freaky Gerard Depardieu. The movie holds your attention. Humor is frequent but is quite bawdy and crass in some places. DiCaprio does not do it for me, sorry. He looks like he is 17. Some excellent cinematography. I liked it ok, but it didn't change my life or anything.
This item is from the Zentertainment webzine: Legendary director Akira Kurosawa died in Tokyo Sunday, at age 77, from a stroke. Kurosawa leaves behind such classics as THE SEVEN SAMURAI, RASHOMON, RAN, IKIRU, YOJIMBO (Sergio Leone's inspiration for FISTFULL OF DOLLARS), and THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, (George Lucas' inspiration for STAR WARS).
Yep, Kurosawa's death is a great loss to world cinema. His historical Samurai epics are his best-known works, but I am fond also of some of Kurosawa's "small" films with a contemporary setting: "Stray Dog", "High and Low", and "Rhapsody in August".
RASHOMON is, I believe, considered his masterpiece. It shows the same events through multiple points of view, and is considered the quintessential piece of that style. Any art that has a vaguely similar MO has the word "RASHOMON-like" in 100% of its reviews. Reviewers ignoring this rule are banished from journalism. :-)
Ever After: better than expected, if you don't expect much..good peasant costumes, german puff and slash!) but a lot of period mixing with everyone else...all in all...amusing, and with a very silly trip to meijers afterwards with friends I haven'tseen in a while, worth the ticket price
For those of you who might be interested: Movie director Peter Bogdanovich premiers the Toledo/Lucas County Public Library's 1998-1999 Authors! Authors! season on Tuesday, September 22, 1998 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theatre on Heatherdowns Boulevard. He is not only the recipient of film critic awards and Oscar nominations, but is also the author of "Who the Devil Made It," an intimate look at filmmaking through a collection of interviews with sixteen legendary film directors. He has also written nine other books,including "This is Orson Welles" and "John Ford." His own role as a movie director has included "The Last Picture Show," "What^Rs Up, Doc," "Paper Moon" and "Mask." His presentation includes clips from his own films and those of the directors in his book, as well as his dead-on impersonations of everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Cary Grant. Tickets for Authors! Authors! programs cost $8. The doors of the Great Hall open at 6:15 p.m. For more information, call the Library at (419)259-5207.
i saw 'rhapsody in august' and really liked it, despite rechard gere.
What's the name of the movie that's coming out about a man searching for his wife after he himself has died? I think it stars Robin Williams. I think that the background for that movie kicked ass when I saw the preview before Ever After started.
We saw "Kiki's Delivery Service" last night -- three thumbs up. The Prices loved it.
I saw 'The Captain's paradise' with Alec Guinness, it was very..old, but it was mildly amusing for it to be better than packing..
Re 269: "What Dreams May Come." It was supposed to be out in August, now apparently it will open Oct 2. I bought the book (same author as "Some- where In Time) and on the cover it says ~THE BOOK MADE INTO THE HIT MOVIE" even thought there`s no way they could yet call it a hit yet. Ah, marketing.
Cool. Thanks for the info. Yeah, marketers are dumb.
Well guys you alll are saying of bullshit movies.I think thats because you havent seen "There is something about Mary" or "The mask of Zorro".I hope whoever has seen it liked it very mich.I am great fan of Salma Hayek.Can someone please send me some photo from Salma 's Gallery
Haven't had time for movies lately. Two on my "must see" list though are "Rounders" and "Touch of Evil".
re 273: Hey.
Silvia and I just saw "The Avengers." It really is as bad as they say.
I rented and watched Dragonheart - and I really liked it.
Rented HUSH (C) -- I think Jessica Lange might be too subtle an actor for this role. It was kind of painful watching her trying to file the edges off her talent. I wish she'd make more good movies, but I guess even she has to pay her bills. Something else that occurred to me while I was watching it was that Gwyneth Paltrow is really beautiful and has some good moves, so how come I don't remember ever noticing it before? When we tried to think of a single movie we'd ever seen her in, we came up with EMMA (B). But that's impossible, no? She's a famous celebrity, you see her everywhere. But a quick check of our 1,000-page little fat paperback listing of movies and actors found no mention of Paltrow. To try and shake off this weird unreal feeling I was having that Paltrow was one of those "famous for being famous" people, I checked IMDB and came up with 21 movies, most of which I'd never heard of. Even in the familiar ones, she had bit parts -- "Young Wendy" in HOOK (C), for example -- which explains her absence from the 1,000-page book. Weird.
Gwyneth Paltrow was in the recent film "A Perfect Murder". Again, she was pretty enough to look at but the apartment's decor stole most scenes. When I look at her I think of her mother, Blythe Danner, one of my favorite all-time actors who I wish had more screen time (along with Sissy Spacek and Jane Alexander).
Recent theater viewings: Saving Private Ryan (WOW!), The Truman Show (Very cool). Rentals: Mary SHelley's Frankenstein (fast forward to see how it ends), Beavis and Butthead Do America (pretty good)
Re #280: Yep, Gwyneth does get her looks from her mom, who is still gorgeous, imho. I liked Beavis and Butthead Do America, too, which I realize disqualifies me from having any of my opinions in this item taken seriously. Sigh.
Oh, wasn't Paltrow is the recent "Great Expectations"? Not a bad rental.
Paltrow had a starring role in "Hard Eight", an excellent but largely overlooked crime drama from a year or so ago.
I've seen a few movies lately that have really wow'd me, Saving Private Ryan, Primary Colors, and Jerry McGwire.
Recent rentals: WILD THINGS (B+) -- One of those twisty-turny plots where your list of suspects is supposed to include just about all the major characters before it's over. After a while, when two characters who haven't seemed to have any connection up to this point find themselve alone together, you expect them to start trading hastily whispered comments, and half the time, they do. One really nice thing about this movie is, the other half of the time, they don't. This gets *so* complex that they have to include a series of explanatory flashbacks during the closing credits. INCOGNITO (B-) -- The set up was fascinating, but the ensuing chase scenes, trial scenes and resolution scenes weren't as good. Nice location shots, however. The main character is an art forger, played by Jason Patric, who is a very understated Duchovnian or Cloonian actor. His father is played by Rod Steiger, who chews up all the scenery. Could happen, I guess.
We went to see Knock-Off this weekend because aandrea likes Jean-Claude Van Damme a lot. There were 4 other attendees at this movie, so I guess I can say there are some people with taste in Ann Arbor. We were the only ones in the theater at the end. The plot was such that, to enjoy it, it would have been better if we'd known the person who wrote it, in hopes they could give us an explanation. Neither of us could follow what was going on. Usually she can explain things for me, the way any normal person explains things for their retarded friends with whom they attend movies. Maybe we're both retarded. There were some weird special effects, which helped to confuse the plot even more, but had no other impact on the movie. This movie gave me a lot of respect for the craft of using special effects to contribute to the movie -- a thing which was done in Titanic, but not, unfortunately, in Knock-Off. I would say this movie didn't have any redeeming features. Andrea enjoyed seeing Van Damme in his bikini briefs.
While channel surfing late last week, I came across a B&W movie, featuring Anthony Quinn, drinking wine, abusing a young woman, speaking Italian. When they finally went to a commercial, they said La Strada will be right back. Much too late to watch the rest, what I did see was wonderful, and have added it to my list of 'would like to sees'. While visiting with my in-laws over the weekend, I caught the last hour of House of Cards on the Bravo channel. The ending was pretty good, and the camouflage scen was great! I wonder how it begins, tho?
"La Strada" is one of Federico Fellini's most admired films. It stars Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, and Giuiletta Masina (Fellini's wife). Widely available in video rental stores.
Thanks, I'll check it out!
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