39 new of 292 responses total.
OK,OK. Rented _Mask of Zorro_. Fun in a comic book sort of way, and Bandaras <sp> didn't stink it up too much. Rented _Very Bad Things_. A skewed little story told very well. You don't realize who the story is actually about until the last scene. Recommended.
Cinerama Holiday ---------------- Last Saturday (May 29th) Carol and I drove to the only Cinerama theater in America - the New Neon Movie Theater in Dayton, Ohio. Cinerama was a movie format created in the early 1950s, and is usually described these days as a precursor to Imax. A Cinerama camera contained 3 rolls of film, one pointed straight ahead, one to the left, and one to the right. Together they could see 146 degrees of a scene. The sound system had 6 channels. To display a Cinerama movie, therefore, a theater needs three projectors which are somehow linked together so they stay in sync, a curved screen, and at least 6 speakers. There are apparently only two such theaters in the world - one in England and one in Dayton. Only a few movies were filmed in Cinerama. The first was called "This is Cinerama", which began with a view from a roller coaster, and consisted of a lot of disjointed scenes designed to show off the medium. I think the most famous Cinerama movie was "How the West Was Won" with Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, and Jimmy Stewart. The screen manages to just about fill up your peripheral vision, which means the movie does a remarkably good job of making you feel like you're really there. That was the idea - the creator of Cinerama had previously designed a simulator for gunners in the air force during the war, using (I think) 6 projectors to make them feel like they were really in battle. Cinerama also has one huge advantage over Imax. Last I heard, Imax cameras were still so loud that it was impossible to record sound and film at the same time, so all Imax movies have the sound dubbed in afterward. Not so with Cinerama, which makes it possible to film dance numbers and all manner of musical shows which you couldn't possibly dub. After "This is Cinerama", the producers of Cinerama polled viewers to find out what kinds of things they'd like to see filmed in Cinerama. A large number of people said they'd like to see film of real and interesting places they could travel to vicariously. Thus the second Cinerama movie, "Cinerama Holiday", made in 1954. The print being shown at the New Neon is the *only* print of "Cinerama Holiday" left, and it is much deteriorated. Almost all its blues and yellows are gone; what's left is "vibrant pink-and-white." However, it is still sharp and clear, and the sound quality is excellent. "Cinerama Holiday" opens with a young couple from Switzerland (Beatrice and Fred Troller) arriving in St. Louis, Missouri, where they meet a hometown couple (John and Betty Marsh). The couples are real people, not actors. The filmmakers interviewed a lot of people before selecting them. They are young, good-looking, fun-loving types. John and Betty take the same plane back to Zurich (they are impressed that it only takes 18 hours to get there). Beatrice and Fred then travel through the U.S. while the Marshes visit Switzerland and France. Beatrice and Fred have definite ideas about what they want to see in America, and they want to see as much as possible. Fred's motor-scooter is lifted out of the plane and they head for the Wild West. First they stop off in Las Vegas for some gambling, floor shows, and lots of glittering lights. They are intrigued, because they say there is nothing like the one-armed bandit in Switzerland. Their trip across the West takes them zipping over rocky, deserty terrain on the motor-scooter, where they meet some "real Red Indians" -- full-blood Apaches who are also prosperous ranchers with names like Gus and Clarence. They finish their Western trip in comfort, watching the scenery go by from the Vista-Dome of the California Zephyr. In San Francisco the Trollers visit a folk club called The Tin Angel. On stage are Odetta, who went on to a career as a famous folk singer, and a lanky 23-year old from Michigan named Larry Mohr. The next year Larry would marry Jean Latimer (who can be seen in the front row in the scene at the club) and in December, 1955 (while Larry was in the army, stationed in France) they would have a daughter named Carol. Later he would go on to very successful career as a Political Science professor at the University of Michigan. Music is also the main event of their stay in New Orleans. Ardent jazz fans, they want to see the place where jazz was born. They visit an African American church service, and observe a funeral procession in which mourners and musicians walk solemnly from the cemetary through the streets. When the Saints Go Marching In takes on a stately, sad quality not usually associated with that tune. The New Orleans visit winds up with some hot jazz in a small club. In stunning contrast to the more exotic locations they traveled to, the Trollers go next to New England and a small-town harvest fair in Deerfield, New Hampshire, complete with livestock, hayride, and a Ferris wheel. (It seems a Cinerama camera is pretty portable, because the audience is treated to the view from a Ferris wheel seat--up and over we go!) You can almost smell the cider and the crushed autumn leaves underfoot. And they get a taste of American collegiate life at Dartmouth College, listening to the Men of Dartmouth singing traditional glee club choruses. The choices the filmmakers made are intriguing, I think. The movie really is an interesting look at some of the things that were going on in America in the early 1950s. For all its extraordinary aspects, it also gives a real taste of what ordinary life was like at that time--the clothes, the cars, the ways of speaking, the look of the cities. Because of the way the medium was hyped, I was expecting more glamor and more showing off. I'm glad they didn't just go for cheap thrills. Meanwhile in Switzerland, the Marshes have chosen to sit back and let Cinerama plan their vacation. It begins in St. Moritz, where John tries out the bobsled run. This is almost the only gratuitous Cinerama "thrill" scene in the whole film, and worth every penny, as the sled whizzes down the long course at hair- raising speed, down steep hills and around tight, high banked turns. For a tamer form of entertainment, the Marshes enjoy an outdoor performance of Holiday on Ice. (Figure skating sure has come a long way since the 1950s--no fast spins or overhead lifts, and very few jumps.) Then there's a lot of skiing, which (apparently) wouldn't have been complete without shots of ski-jumpers flying over the camera. This is followed by apres-ski featuring traditional Swiss fondue dinner and singalong. (The recipe for the fondue is in the program.) After that it's on to Paris. The experience of riding in a taxicab was never filmed quite like this, I think - it rivals the bobsled scene for excitement. Art Buchwald, then a correspondent for the Paris Herald-Tribune, makes a cameo appearance, long enough to tell the Marshes that if they don't enjoy Paris it's their own fault. They visit the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Louvre, a private fashion show by a famous coutourier (not named) in a private home, and a show at L'Opera de Paris. Betty, after a long day, wants to go to bed, whereupon John leaves her (she's a bit huffy) to spend the night carousing with his old Navy buddies who are stationed in Paris. They see a spectacular Can-Can show. There are some lower-key scenes in Paris, too. The Marshes visit the graves of Napoleon and General Foch, and watch a very entertaining puppet show of Little Red Riding Hood. You can see and hear the audience of children as they are watching the show, and that makes it a lot of fun. They also get to visit a French home, and talk about the changes the war has made in France. It really is like being taken on a tour by interesting hosts. At the end the two couples meet back in New York (John and Betty take the Queen Mary, which is a sight to behold in Cinerama). Then they watch Cinerama film of planes landing on an aircraft carrier. This is a bit gratuitous, but the Trollers had asked about it at the beginning of a trip. We're told that the pilot whose jet we're in is making his first ever landing on a carrier, and that makes the experience a little scarier. The experience of watching the movie was enhanced a lot by the fact that the operators of the theater in Dayton really take themselves seriously as torchbearers for Cinerama. The owner and camera operator came out and talked to the audience a couple of times before the show, and showed a video of an interview with Fred Troller, made a few years ago, where he recalled the making of the movie. (He remembered Larry and Odetta, too.) We also saw a short film (without sound) made recently in Cinerama by some Australians - it was the first time anyone in America had seen it (John the owner wasn't even sure if he'd threaded the film in upside down or not until it appeared correctly on the screen). The newsletter of the Cinerama Appreciation Society is also available in the lobby. The current issue includes pictures of John & Betty Marsh and Leonard Maltin at a special gala showing in Dayton in 1997. The center projector is not enclosed in a booth - instead you can stand in the lobby and see the whole thing. It's huge, and so are the rolls of film. All in all the whole experience was a lot of fun. I encourage anyone who's interested to make the trip to Dayton (it's about 3.5 hours from Ann Arbor) to see a show. Info on upcoming attractions can be found at: http://http://www.neonmovies.com/cinerama.html
Mark, there is one minor nit. Well, two. There is a third theatre, Located in Los Angeles called The Cinerama Dome or some such. And there is one more movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World which was also filmed in Cinerama. I agree Cinerama should make a comeback.
My understanding from the CPS newsletter is that the Los Angeles theater, while built for Cinerama, doesn't currently have Cinerama projectors installed, though they're working on it and hope to be able to show Cinerama movies by summer of 2000. There's also a theater in Seattle, bought and restored by Paul Allen, which hopes to get Cinerama equipment next year.
The IMDB lists 10 movies filmed in Cinerama and one in Super-Cinerama: Best of Cinerama (1962) Cinerama Holiday (1955) How the West Was Won (1962) Lafayette (1961) Padrone delle ferriere, Il (1959) Scent of Mystery (1960) (Super-Cinerama) Search for Paradise (1957) Seven Wonders of the World (1956) South Seas Adventure (1958) This Is Cinerama (1952) Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The (1962) (see http://us.imdb.com/SearchTechnical?Cinerama) "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" is listed as being filmed in "Ultra Panavision 70 (anamorphic)", though one of the "printed film formats" is "70 mm (Super-Cinerama)". Maybe that means prints of the film existed which could be shown with 3 Cinerama projectors? I don't know. I don't even know if Super-Cinerama used the same 3-projector format as Cinerama. There are 14 other movies tagged as having Super-Cinerama prints; here's the list: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Battle of the Bulge (1965) Circus World (1964) Custer of the West (1967) Golden Head, The (1965) Grand Prix (1966) Greatest Story Ever Told, The (1965) Hallelujah Trail, The (1965) Ice Station Zebra (1968) It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) Khartoum (1966) Krakatoa, East of Java (1969) Last Valley, The (1970) Song of Norway (1970) It sure would be spectacular to see some of those in Cinerama...
NOTTING HILL (A-) -- An old-fashioned romantic comedy. Julia Roberts is very touching, despite some corny lines she has to recite. I've heard her say that she just stood there and made herself do it as best she could. It worked. Hugh Grant I can take or leave, but he's well-cast in this movie. The Welsh actor who plays Grant's "flatmate" is hilarious. Gina McKee, who plays the part of Grant's wheelchair-bound best friend, has one of those faces that looks maddeningly familiar. I don't think I've seen her in anything else -- it must be she reminds me of someone. She's a cross between Joely Fisher and Marisa Tomei, if you can imagine that. Mostly Joely Fisher.
I thought Notting Hill was hillarious, and also really liked it because a few of the locations it was shot in are places I know fairly well, and like a lot. Hampstead Heath, where Hugh Grant showed up to see Julia Roberts acting in a movie, and where I think some of the final park scenes ma also have been shot, is a few blocks from a house where I spent a month several years ago and is fairly close to where my parents live now. I haven't been to Notting Hill, but it looks similar enough to some other parts of London where I have been, and my parents were commenting that a friend of theirs who lives near Notting Hill kept seeing scenes from the movie being filmed while walking to the Underground.
Re the Cinerama discussion: Super-Cinerama was a projection format that used a single projector and a curved screen (not as deeply curved as the original 3-strip Cinerama screen, however). Unlike 3-strip Cinerama, it was not a photographic process per se. The films exhibited in Super-Cinerama were actually made in some other wide screen process -- such as Super Panavision or Ultra Panavision -- and reformatted to fit the Super-Cinerama screen shape. I'm glad to hear that the Neon Theater in Dayton is still showing Cinerama. Had hoped to make it down there a couple of years ago when they opened and showed "How the West Was Won", but never got around to it.
Thanks for that Info, John, I thought that might be the case, since none of those Super-Cinerama movies were mentioned in the newsletter.
Notting Hill was rather weak in dialogue, but Bella (the hauntingly familiar one) is amazingly beautiful.. it was cute, and mostly forgettable..decent costumes at times
Bella! I couldn't take my eyes off her when she was on screen, even when Julia was in the shot. She has a future, that one.
Yet one more Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace review: Like most everyone else it seems, I would have to rate this movie as "Good." The plot was thin, but I understand why. The characters were under-developed, which I don't understand why. And the effects were good, but not revolusionary. And as for Jar Jar...I haven't made up my mind about him yet. He's definitely annoying at times, but has a lovable quality about him. Things I noticed: It's been mentioned how Jar Jar's voice has a Jamacan accent to it, which I noticed. Did you also notice that the voices of the Trade Federation reps had oriental influences, both in voice and costume, at least I thought so. And Watto's sounded rather Russian. I'm just wondering why Lucus did this. Now about the Battle droids: Were these the most pathetic pieces of scrap metal you've ever seen? Take away their guns and they're useless. It's a good thing there were so many of them cuz they were getting sliced and diced like some tossed salad. The rolling ball droids were much more effective in a combat situation. While I wouldn't want to pay full price to see it again, I'll definitely catch it when it comes to the dollar theaters. And with the apparent sharp drop-off in attendees, that might be before Summer's out.
I saw it again last night, in one of the larger theaters at Showcase, and it wasn't sold out, but it was still pretty full. I'm not sure there's that much of a drop off in attendees, compared to other blockbuster movies I've seen this long after their release.
re #265- Someone else pointed out somewhere that there are limitations to the type of accent possible. <shrugs> also, yeah the droids were getting sliced and diced- but they were facing two Jedi. ;) (Even in the seen with the Gungans - however that's spelled - they weren't doing all that badly initially...)
Besides, they're the bad guy footsoldiers. Bad guy footsoldiers tend
to die left and right.
that's to make the one or two good guys look even more amazing and like, powerful and stuff. <grins>
All the Gungans had the same type of accent. Only Jar Jar was presented as being rather incompentent, and even he managed to be a successful diplomat. Yes, the slimy Trade Federation people were Japanese, taking orders from a greedy and slimy Englishman. I suppose you could argue that they were being anti-Jewish on the planet with slavery, but other than that, I can poke holes in most of the racism theories, although having watched it again I can see where the theories were coming from.
ACtually, I thought that the Trade Federation people were Chinese.
Rumors are flying that George Lucas is interested in Leonardo DiCaprio to play Kind Of Still Young Anakin Skywalker in the next Star Wars. Wow. Star Wars with Nardo in it? It's like they're trying to scientifically engineer a flick with the specific intent of keeping me away. All they got to do now is throw in Rosie O'Donnell in a bikini singing a Garth Brooks song and it will be compl
I liked Leo in "Titanic" and all... but as Anikan? ewwwwww.....
Did onyone catch "Touch of Evil" on cable the other nite? I found it to be an excellent film. Welles and Dietrich were amazing as was Heston. It is being shown on Encore this month. I highly advise you to tape it.
Had I known DiCaprio was going to die in Titanic, I would have gone to see it sooner, at the movies.
#272....actually Ive heard Anakin is going tobe played in the next two movies by Rick Schroeder (of NYPD Blue)...not that DiCaprio would be bad.
both of those old rumors have been succeeded in the past weeks.
I saw "Austin Powers - The Spy who Shagged Me" tonight. I haven't laughed so hard in quite a while. (except when listening to the Capitol Steps, but that's another story) Some of the old jokes from the first Austin Powers movie are back, but they're still funny, such as the bad guy who has a bad accident but lives through it. There was also some new stuff added, such as the "relationship" that led to Dr. Evil's son Scott. Dr. Evil's Mini-Me was also good. The fight scene was HILARIOUS, and there was one other really funny scene that had to do with the shape of Dr. Evil's rocketship. Overall I give this movie an A-
We finally saw "The Phantom Menace" last night. It's great to be the last one to see a hot new movie for the first time, because with little effort you can know every line of dialogue and every nuance of the entire movie. I am gifted, though. I ignored almost all of it, and so got to see the movie without reams of instructions as to how to interpret it. I didn't know who "Jar Jar" was. I didn't know about "Darth Mal". Such was "The Phantom Menace", that I still don't know much of what happens in the movie. It was just not very well put together. The story was bad, the characters were weak, and the connection to the rest of the Star Wars movies, as viewed by a casual movie watcher, was pretty feeble. My 8 year old, who has Star Wars Lego sets, and reads about Star Wars in kid's magazines, and heard all about the movie from his friends over the last 4 weeks, was able to fill me in on some of the details which were not present (or clear in some cases) from the movie. I don't see how anyone could avoid going to see this movie. I couldn't avoid it, not permanently. You've almost certainly seen it; the odds are about equal that you've seen it more than 5 times, versus having not seen it at all. And if you haven't seen it, you're more likely to avoid paying taxes this year than avoiding the movie. I do hope you enjoy it more than I did. I am now pinning my hopes of enjoying a new movie this summer on "Wild, Wild West". Which I will also see after everyone else has seen it, I am sure.
I expect I'll go see it someday. I've seen all the others.
Short Attention Span Review of "Austin Powers 2": They didn't try to cover new ground, but once they set their sights, they opened the valves full blast. If I'd directed it I would have trimmed about 7-10 minutes out. "Coffee Scene" = no ah ah. But before the opening credits were over, I'd laughed harder than I had all week, and it just kept on.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with drewmike; I enjoyed it a lot and could have lived without the "coffee scene".
Ah, but the coffee scene was the funniest part (IMHO).
The coffee scene was OK, could have been better. The "other" coffee tie in (the location of Dr. Evil's secret headquarters) was much better.
Re resp:274 - Didn't see "Touch of Evil" on cable, but I did catch it when the "director's cut" played at the Michigan Theater last year. I assume that Encore is showing the same version, which is a distinct improvement over the film as originally cut and released by the studio. In either version, it's a great film.
Fortunatly, it will get several repeats. Encore does things like this, and it was the director's cut. Lenny Maltin even introduced it.
Human Traffic- Don't know if it will be released in the states.. It's brilliant. It's about a group of friends and the club scene in Cardiff. Doesn't require *too* much thought, but generally takes you through the weekend. One of Alasdair's friends was an extra and appeared centre screen for a bit, and I managed to recognise a few places from when I visited in January. Highly reccomended
A Touch of Evil is a cool film, but so dated in so many ways. It is wild, seeing the use of the "high tech" portable recorder, given the changes in technology since 1958.
If you think that's archaic, you should see the telephone answering machine that Mike Hammer has in "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955).
For some reason, I have a spool or two of recording wire around here.
Tarzan - B+ -- By far, Disney's best integration of computer animation with
hand-drawn art. The story... oh, slightly more faithful to
the original than "Hunchback." The music? Are you a Phil
Collins fan? Don't expect any "best song" Oscars for this one.
(it's out already? I really need to relocate from this rock I've been hiding under.)
You have several choices: