78 new of 229 responses total.
New DVD recommendation-- "CITY LIGHTS"-- this is the new digitally remastered dvd version of Charlie Chaplin's 1931 masterpiece. A print taken from the best negative known to exsist-- with a new stereo recording of the original Chaplin score. Looks and sounds just wonderful. This is one of my alltime favorite movies, the story of the Little Tramp's relationship with a beautiful blind flower girl, who mistakenly thinks he's a millionaire. This is a movie thats both heartbreakingly sad and hillariously funny at the same time. And has one of the most famous final scenes of alltime, where the flower girl has regained her sight and encounters the Tramp (a homeless vagrant) who made her sight possible, and doesnt recognize him. Then holds his hand and suddenly does. They are are staring at each other and you are left wondering what they are thinking. Priceless!
That is one of three Charlie Chaplin films to come out on DVD, just earlier this week.
I also enjoyed "The Big Lebowski."
"City Lights" used to strick me as one of the sadest films I'd ever seen.
We took the kids to "The Tigger Movie" yesterday. It was John's first movie in the theater. He's 3 1/2. It kept his attention for the entire movie, which I didn't think was possible. That definitely says something about the movie. I'm not going to say a lot about the movie. It has the entire Winnie the Pooh cast, and is a cute story. That's all you need to know before you go. John loved it; he wanted to go again today. David (age 8 1/2) also enjoyed it. Andrea and I liked it, but that's irrelevant; we didn't go for us.
The City Lights DVD also has as an extra Chaplin's meticulously detailed notes he wrote down prior to filming and during filming, showing just how precisely detailed he was about each scene and each movement. It took three years to do city lights, including a stretch of over a year where he stopped production entirely because he couldnt figure out the key scene where the blind flower girl mistakes the tramp for a millionaire. You'd never see any director suspend filming over a year over one scene these days!
I really enjoyed "Cider House Rules". It's true to the book both in story and style - a gentle and quiet character study. The ensemble cast does a brillant job of keeping it simple. Jane Alexander has a smallish part. I really like her and will see anything she graces.
Roger Vadim, French movie director (And God Created Woman, Barbarella) died recently at the age of 70. He is known to have done it with Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda and Catherine Deneuve when they were young hotties, so as much as I would like to say he's gone to his reward, I think he's already used that up.
yeah.
The only ones he missed were Kate Jackson and Dani Delany
Let's hear it for the Sundance Channel. They repeated "The Big Liebowski" so I could record it. It gets funnier with each viewing.
Ann Arbor cable gets the Sundance Channel? Didn't know that.
They do on Digital Next TV from MedioNone. About the same price, but more channels. We just went over to Digi and it's pretty cool. The only downer is that I lost my scheduler.
dvd recommendation-- LONESOME DOVE-- you can have all eight hours of this epic western miniseries on one disc! Based on the pulitzer prize winning Larry McMurtry novel about a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. The best thing about this is the wonderful performances, particularly the chemistry between the leads, Robert DuVall and Tommy Lee Jones. Some say this is the best performance of DuVall's career. well worth having! Also, the DVD of universal's 1931 horror classic, Dracula (the original starring Bela Lugosi) This comes complete with a wonderful new soundtrack written by Philip Glass and recorded by the Kronos quartet! Its great fund to play this and just listen to the music. Also you get as a bonus the alternate Spanish version of the movie, which was shot on the same sets at the same time (spanish version filmed at night, english version during the day) The spanish version is regarded by some as even better. Plus a documentary on the history of Dracula and the Dracula films and lots of other stuff.
"Pitch Black" was much better than I expected. The eclipse sequence was stunning. It worked a little too hard to up-end racial and gender stereotypes, but it was fiction, after all. "Wonder Boys" has one clever script. I'd say it was "Easy Rider" 30 years and an education later. Recommended. No cars blow-up but a hood gets dented.
Snow Falling on Cedars -- (D)
If this movie had been a Fox special it might easily have been titled
"When Bad Directors Attack". Based on David Guterson's popular novel
about a murder trial involving a Japanese-American fisherman just after
WWII, "Snow Falling On Cedars" should've been a fairly safe bet --
adaptation of a bestselling novel, decent cast turning in decent
performances, attractive scenery and interesting setting (a small town
in an island off the coast of Washington State (one of the San Juans?))
Unfortunately, director Scott Hicks apparently decided to take all of
these elements of what should have been a modest success and throw them
into a blender. The resulting morass of flashbacks, cut-aways, and
poorly-edited montages is neither artistic nor appealing, just annoying.
*Extremely* annoying.
--
The World is Not Enough -- (D+)
I caught two movies at the bargain theater this weekend and this was the
second. After "Snow Falling on Cedars" I wasn't looking for anything
ambitious or involved, so a mindless dose of vehicle chases and explosions,
taken withouth any great expectations, seemed like a good idea. Nope!
The two thousandth feature-length James Bond film, TWinE managed to slide
in well under even my extremely low expectations for a Bond action film.
It's hard to criticise a Bond film..
Of course the plot was idiotic and full of holes.
Of course the characters were ludicrously one-dimensional.
And of course the physics of the action sequences were simply insulting
to any moderately thoughtful viewer.
These aren't flaws to be forgiven in a Bond film, they're apparently actual
necessary elements of the genre. You expect them. You might, in fact,
be scandalized if they weren't there.
In that sense, in fact, "The World is Not Enough" might actually be the
quintessential Bond film. The plot is *extra* idiotic, the characters
are especially one-dimensional, and a whole lotta things get 'blowed up
reeeal good,' often by scantily clad women.
Unfortunately, though many other Bond films have been enjoyable despite
these properties, "The World is Not Enough" is just too much.
Yeah, I didn't feel like working up a detailed criticism of it, but I really did not like "The World Is Not Enough" very much. I felt like it was a non-stop assault on my ears. There just wasn't much of a sense of fun to it; in that respect it reminded me of Timothy Dalton's second Bond film, "License to Kill," probably the only Bond film I'm seen just once. The one part of the film I liked was more screen time for Judi Densch, who is the new 'M'. Definitely a disappointment after the success of the previous film, "Tomorrow Never Dies," with Hong Kong martial arts star Michelle Yeoh.
(Aside: I was in the movie store the other day and noticed "Grey Owl", featuring Pierce Brosnan playing a white frontiersman, complete with coonskin cap and fringed buckskin, who gets adopted into an Indian tribe. I very nearly rented it, just to laugh myself silly at seeing P.B. in buckskin. :)
It might've been worth it just to see how the movie would explain how he kept himself supplied with styling mousse on the edge of the frontier..
<smirks> Nice one...
I still think the James Bond character is way overdue for shriveling up due to old age. My god! He's been at it for almost 40 years!
Trivia puzzle: Name all the actors who have played Bond in the movies.
hmmm...george lazenby, sean connery, roger moore, timothy dalton, pierce brosnan, and some american whose name i forget but who starred as james "jimmy" bond in a 1959-ish made-for-tv serious production of "casino royale." is that all of them?
RE #175 I believe that "Jimmy" Bond was played by Woody Allen in "Casino Royale." But I could be wrong on that.
"Casino Royale" is a trick refernce, though, since one of the plot lines was that (to sow confusion) *all* agents would be named James Bond. So you'd have to list a lot of actors and even a dog.
I'm not familiar with a made-for-tv "Casino Royale". The 1967 film version had at least Peter Sellers, David Niven, and Woody Allen as Bond.
void is correct about the made-for-tv version. Author Ian Fleming sold the dramatic rights to "Casino Royale," his first Bond novel, back in the 1950s. The makers of the 1967 film spoof bought those rights and thus had a legal claim to use the "James Bond" name.
right, krj. i'm not talking about the spoof version of "casino royale" with peter sellers, david niven, et cetera. there was a serious, as in non-comedic, black-and-white production of "casino royale" made for american tv in about 1959 or so. most, if not all, the actors were americans and the characters all referred to bond as "jimmy." i'll see if i can find a reference to it somewhere, since krj and i seem to be the only people who have heard of this version.
hmmm. this is why i love google: Casino Royale (1954) The screen debut of James Bond, broadcast live on CBS-TV in the U.S. on October 21, 1954 as part of the "Climax Mystery Theater." Running time 50 minutes. Starring Barry Nelson as Jimmy Bond, Linda Christian as the Bond girl, Peter Lorre as the villain, Le Chiffre, with Michael Pate as Clarence Leiter. In a nationality twist, "Jimmy Bond" is a CIA agent, and "Clarence Leiter" is Bond's British ally. (from http://www.mcs.net/~klast/www/cr54.html)
Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. . . . Interesting. I've not seen the movie, but I can't see Mr. Lorre in the book's role.
Oh my. Now that void has entered the details, I can recall seeing that TV production. I believe it was the premiere production of "Climax Mystery Theater".
From http://www.eonline.com/ "Leni Riefenstahl, 97, once famed as Hitler's favorite filmmaker, survived a plane crash in the Sudan with only broken ribs, a German source said Wednesday." I had no idea she was still alive.
leni reifenstahl, not only still alive at 97, but coming out with her autobiography soon, should be good as she's had some life-- also movie of her life with her played by Jodie Foster
I had no idea she was still alive either. Must be in pretty good health if she's flying around in planes in the Sudan.
Recent rentals: EYES WIDE SHUT (C) - A beautifully detailed production but as shallow as a pizza pan. It can be helpful with a movie by a Kubrick to imagine that it was directed by someone else -- say, James Cameron -- and then ask yourself what your opinion of it would be. Eyes Wide Shut flunks the Cameron test dismally. Even the sumptuous visuals got on my nerves after a while. In mean, how many curtains of white Christmas lights do I have to be shown before I shout, "I get the idea!"? And how many times does Nicole Kidman have to dissolve in naughty-schoolgirl giggles before you want to put duct tape over her mouth?
If James Cameron had made "Eyes Wide Shut," I'd have said that he'd made a major breakthrough in his development as a director and that I didn't know he had it in him.
"Eyes Wide Shut" might prove to be the breakthrough film for Leelee Sobiewski, who I really enjoyed in the "Joan of Arc" TV mini-series.
as steven spielberg said, he used to hate Kubrick's films-- he particularly disliked The Shining. But a funny thing happened, he periodically watched them again, and with each viewing saw different things and different details. Kubrick made his films with such detail that you simply cant "get it" watching it once. Spielberg now says The Shining, which he once hated, is now one of his absolute favorite movies of all, and that he came to be in awe of Kubrick's talent. He says that in time, people will come to realize "Eyes Wide Shut" for the masterpiece that it is.
Any "masterpiece" that must be studied over and over again to be appreciated is unlikely to ever gain widespread recognition as a "masterpiece," no matter how adored it may be by those who take the time to study it.
Perhaps. On the other hand, there are a great many "masterpieces" that never achieve widespread recognition except among specialists.
Any that the typical person cares about? ;)
drift: does anyone else find it disturbing that the census commercial showing various school rooms and the numbers of students they were built to hold/currently hold uses the same beethoven recording which was used in "a clockwork orange" when alex was undergoing the ludovico treatment and being shown films?
disturbing? i didn't notice, but now that you mention it, i find it very amusing, actually.
I'm a fan of many of Kubricks' films, and I really didn't think that
there was all that much to Eyes Wide Shut, either. Perhaps someone who did
like it might explain what they liked about it, so that I might benefit from
a deeper appreciation?
Re resp:190 et seq: Don't neglect the effect of advocacy. Not *everybody* has to study a work over and over again. If a few do, and those few publish their opinions, this can over time change public perceptions. Various Hitchcock films have been elevated to "masterpiece" status in this way, for example.
Some things I liked about EWS: The exploitation of various societal strata. Dr Harford and his wife are first presented as a couple of rich and wordly New Yorkers, invited to the best parties, collectors of art, all-around BPs. Then, as they are exposed to people from other social and economic levels, we see a prostitute more beautiful -- inside and out -- than either of them; and, in the end, we get Ziegler's comment to Harford that Harford was immediately identified as an outsider at the orgy because, "you arrived in a cab, and everyone else came in a limo." The first and least effective example of this is the oily Hungarian who tries to hit on Alice at Ziegler's big party. We're meant to think of him as an aristocratic European taking advantage of the silly naive American girl we'd been taking for an upper-class sophisticate just two minutes ago. Unfortunately, not only does Kubrick ruin it by making Kidman too drunk for her coy giggles to mean anything, but also the Hungarian himself is first cousin to Zoltan Carpathy, that figure of fun who "oozes charm from every pore as he oils his way around the floor" trying and failing to unmask Eliza Doolittle at the Embassy Ball in "My Fair Lady." It's practically the same guy. But a director like Kubrick can't possibly have done something like this by accident, so maybe the message is: *even* a Zoltan Carpathy can knock over a ditz like Alice. The last scene between the Harfords has been justly criticized, even by the movie's admirers, for some really dreadful writing. But the very last word of the movie is right on the money. The way couples trying to be faithful to each other can deal with the kinds of temptations the Harfords have been agonizing pointlessly over is -- to be faithful to each other. When Nicole Kidman says the word "fuck," you feel like saying, "THANK you!" For more than two hours, it looked like they'd ever figure it out. The fact that Kubrick presented it as if it were some great final illumination is symptomatic of the over-all puerility of the movie, however. I like the general idea, if not its execution in EWS, of the director making ironic little comments, visible only to the audience. The NY Post headline "LUCKY TO BE ALIVE" is one obvious (too obvious) example. The various references to Kubrick, his family, and his other movies scattered throughout EWS is another. There is an undeniably so-what quality to all of this, but it helped pass the time, at least for me.
I'd thought the "LUCKY TO BE ALIVE" headline was a bit corny in that
context; in a movie that was less realistically shot, it might've worked
quite well.
It also occured to me that whomever was writing the film had some
seriously confused ideas about the ritual magic and bondage communities, and
sex clubs.
Sweet and Lowdown 2.5 stars out of 4 Sean Penn is really great in this movie, but about every ten minutes or so the movie is interrupted by Woody Allen and some other folks supposedly knowledgeable about Emmet Ray to tell stories. These interruptions really prevented you from really getting into the movie, imho. And sometimes when Woody was on it was almost as if he couldn't bear to make a movie in which he didn't appear.
I have a fond place in my heart for Sweet and Lowdown, not because I enjoyed the movie so much (though I did rather like it), but because after walking out, I had such an urge to go listen to some jazz music that I went to the Bird of Paradise for the first time. I'm rather quickly becoming a regular there. :)
Remember, Citizen Kane was panned when it first came out-- Orson Welles didnt even get nominated for best director, best actor, or best picture. Like fine wine, good films age well with time-- maybe it didnt win any academy awards, or even get nominated, but Welles' film is now widely considered the greatest american film ever made. People just had to watch it a few times ya know....same thing with Kubrick
When Citizen Kane first came out, Borges predicted that it would be recognized as a masterpiece, but that not many people would want to actually sit through it again. A nice disinction. Maybe EWS will turn out that way, too.
Back to resp:172 for just a sec... In several real-life agencies, designators and working names are passed on as people quit, transfer, die, retire. So, agent 007 is always called James Bond, no matter who happens to be doing that job at any given time. In at least one American agency, teams of people who work together all have the same working first name; you have Mike team, Bill team, Tim team, etc. Honest.
Hm, Borges blew it. I've seen "Citizen Kane" a few times, anyway. Would like to see EWS again too...
We saw "The Tigger Movie" again at the #2/ticket Clinton theater. It kept my wife and I awake, and greatly entertained the kids. It also sold out the Clinton theater on Friday night (216 seats). By obervation, I'd say they had good crowds for the Saturday and Sunday night showings as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Wonder Boys" last night. Am wondering, tho, why Robert Downey, Jr was allowed to leave prison to make it.
Because of its strong anti-substance-abuse message? saw "The Beach" at The Harbor, the cheapie theater in Muskegon, on Friday. it was, ummm, interesting.. Not totally unredeemable, but it Had Serious Problems. I'd give it a C+ After "Trainspotting" I was expecting more from director Danny Boyle..
"Mission to Mars" is a Tom Hanks movie without Tom Hanks. Take the kids.
That we will. We went and saw THE CIDER HOUSE RULES (B) in an effort to catch up on our Oscar nominees. It's a very nice movie. John Irving tends to let his plots and characters lead him where they will, which can make for a pleasingly random ride. The movie was shot, I'm told, largely in western Massachusetts where I grew up. Michael Cain is excellent.
I saw FANTASIA 2000 on Saturday. It's a great movie that I highly recommend. The mix of art and classical music was superb. In particular, I loved the animation with the whales (unfortunately, I can't remember the music that accompanied it), Rhapsody in Blue, and The Firebird. The latter in particulr was beautiful. Watching "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" showed the vast difference between 61-year-old 35mm film and new IMAX 15/70mm film. The old film looked grainy in comparison to the rest of the film. Despite that, I still loved watchin it on a big screen. If you see it at the IMAX theater at Greenfield Village, be sure to stick around for the tour of the projection booth after the show. It's a neat behind the scenes look.
robert downey is a great actor, if he can get day leave from his prison home to do films, why not? *shrug*
The question wasn't "why would RD jr leave prison to do a film?" but "why would he be *allowed* to leave to do a film?" Although I like his work, it still pisses me off to see the justice system bend over backwards to accomodate the rich and famous. If he were a bricklayer or an office worker who was in prison as a repeat drug offender would he recieve the same treatment? I doubt it, even if his family's livelihood depended on it..
Re #210: van Gogh looks grainy too.
Saw "Stuart Little" last night with the family at Plymouth's Penn Theatre. Nice little family flick, everything comes out OK in the end (oops, was that a spoiler? ;-) and no animals were harmed in the making of the film (unless you consider cats falling into the river and dragging themselves out bedraggled to be punishment instead of fit punishment! :-)
It was "The Pines of Rome" by Rhespiegi (sp)
"FREE ENTERPRISE"-- found this movie on the video store shelf-- it may have been straight to video because I'd never heard of it before. Its about two Trekkies (star trek fans) who live star trek obssessed lives. Their hero is William Shatner (captain kirk) and he appears to them in apparitions giving them advice. Then one day they actually *meet* Shatner in real life (Shatner playing himself), and are disillusioned to find out Shatner is really a shallow egomaniacal actor. Shatner is recovering from a recent divorce and drowning himself in alchoholism. And instead of doing Trek projects and Trek conventions, Shatner is trying to do a one-man, musical (!) version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in which he plays all the parts. Naturally, the two Trekkies are completely disgusted, but come to realize Shatner is just an actor and that they cant lead their lives based on a tv series done 30 years ago. The ending to this is really bizarre as it shows Shatner actually doing his musical Julius Caesar (this scene defies description) All in all a funny movie, and Shatner is to be commended for portraying himself so accurately
Oh, what a mental image! :)
Re #210: The only thing that bugged me about the whales is that the CG whales and the hand-drawn eyes made a really spooky and wrong-looking combination.
Friend in Florida's review of Mission to Mars: Long and boring. Tried to be 2001 without the aid of Krubrick or Clarke.
My sister, my brother, and I went to see "The Cider House Rules" tonight. Basically, I liked it but think that it's a pretty sad year for movies when this is a strong contender for a "best picture" Oscar.. It was a decent movie and no doubt a better-than-average novel adaptation, but a year and a half from now I suspect I'll barely remember it..
Anney and I watched _Detroit Rock City_ tonight. We laughed and laughed. I'm not a huge Kiss fan, but it had some *great* classic songs all the way through it. Hell, even "Convoy" made it. =) There were some priceless scenes and some fairly good humor. B+
_Mission To Mars_ - Nice special effects except for the martian. Poor science. 1) a martian rover 'bot roaming over sun baked mud is a nice scene, but there hasn't been rain on mars for awhile. 2) If you have three humans on one end of a rope with another human on the other end that is spooling out some speed and apply tension on it you will accomplish two things, you will reduce the speed of the one human on the other end, and you will bring the three humans at the other closer to the one human. Its called 'inertia'. 3) If you are going to film a weightless dance sequence, consider there are three dimensions. All in all, a nice flick, but one better seen at the cheaper matinee price I think. Also, quite a sendup to Kubrick's 2001 but not as well done. Other minor quibbles (warning: potential spoilers): 1)If you are going to have depressurization of a 'shirtsleeve' environment, everybody gets pressurized first thing, even if you have to get a spare helmet. 2) an orbital insertion 'burn' means the main engines point towards the current direction of flight, not aft. You don't speed up to enter an orbit if you are at risk of skipping past (because you are going too fast). 3) A 'temporary' structure at mars surface suitable for human 'shirtsleeve' environment is going to be rather rigid, not a tent billowing in wind gusts. 4) You are not going to recognize 'human' DNA -vs- a pig -vs- an e-coli bacterium -vs- an 'alien' on an atomic level (MM's) as audio even broadcast over FM on a laptop screen. 5) Presumably an advanced enough science to ensure the function of a device for millenia would be able to prevent it being burried by dust. 6) A holigraphic image that holds hands - gimme a break. 1a) Quite a few continuity gaffs. 2a) Major star appears only in flashback or 'video' - one has to wonder what the original screenplay or even film was like. Enough said. About on par with the best of original TV Star Trek and current spin offs, but hardly that great for a full length feature. See it on the cheap showings or wait for the video.
Oh, now, Richard. Shatner doesn't drown *himself*. You know that.
Re #222:
I've been saying your minor quibble #2 about space movies and TV shows
for years.
What he didn't say about "FREE ENTERPRISE" is that Shatner is attempting to rap Shakespeares julius Ceasar... They showed part of it on the Tonight show last night while interviewing Shatner. They also discussed his TV commercials where he sings the oldies for Priceline.com...
After seeing Shatner on the Tonight show, I really want to see FREE ENTERPRISE. SHakespeare set to rap was just hilarious.
Ya oughta hear him read _Lucy in the Sky_...
I can attest that having once heard William Shatner sing Luciy in the Sky with Diamonds, you will never forget it.
Oh, no no no. This is not singing. It is a dramatic reading of the lyrics. I first heard it in 1973; don't know how old it was then. It's from an album he did consisting entirely of dramatic readings of popular song lyrics. I seem to remember that it also contains "Hey, Mister Tambourine Man". <<shudder>>
You have several choices: