response 331 of 342:

Mar 13 01:20 UTC 2006

NETWORK-- Just got the new deluxe dvd of this classic Paddy Chayefsky 
movie from the mid 70's, about a network news anchor who has a mental 
breakdown and loses it on tv, and how his evening news show is turned 
into yes...a reality show.  "I want you get up...I want you to get up 
out of your seat...I want you to get up out of your seat and go over 
to your window, and I want you to open it, and I want you to yell 
out "I'M AS MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!"  This 
movie was way ahead of its time, predicting the reality tv era well 
before it started.  Everything that Chayevsky predicted would happen 
in his script has happened (i.e. news turning into entertainment 
vehicles, lines being blurred between reality and non-reality)  You 
have the hardened battle weary news director, played by William 
Holden, who is all heart and passion and defends the integrity of the 
news, pitted against the tv producer who takes over his news show, 
played by Faye Dunaway, who has no soul or heart and cares only about 
profit and ratings, not about integrity.  One represents the past, the 
other the future.  Their affair is about the present.  Which affair 
ends up with him walking out, and her getting her way with the show.

A great movie with great performances.  The extras disc is filled with 
documentaries and interviews with Dunaway and the other cast members 
who are still living.  Highly recommended.  In fact this is going to 
be George Clooney's next film, he is doing a remake of "Network", 
which couldn't be more appropriate, as the movie is more relevant 
today than ever. 
  

response 333 of 342:

Mar 20 17:01 UTC 2006

Hubby and I saw V for Vendetta over the weekend. Wow, I really enjoyed
it. There wasn't quite as much action as I was expecting, then again, I
didn't really know what to expect. However, the lower amount of action
didn't harm my appreciation at all. 

Some of my favorite bits could be construed as spoilers, so I will
refrain from mentioning them. That said- Hugo Weaving does a wonderful
job. His monologues are a joy to just listen to.

I think my favorite line was "A people should not be afraid of the
Government. The Government should be afraid of its people."


In other movie news... last night we watched Transporter 2- Frank Martin
(aka Jason Statham) is on duty driving the young son of a rich couple to
and from school. Not his usual gig, but something he's doing as a
favor(?) anyhow, plot of bad guys involves the kid and Frank must save
the day. Not original, no. Fun- oh yeah! The things they did with cars.
The main car is Frank's Audi, a W12, and it's so cool. The stunts- both
with the cars and fighting- were so much fun to watch. At one point
there was a *very* obvious bit of wirework, but other than that the
fights were well choreographed. Perhaps it's just me, but I do
appreciate the look of annoyance on Frank's face when have to dispatch
minions.

If you like car chases and interesting action sequences- this is fun. If
you like plots- well, you may not like this so much. ;)

response 335 of 342:

Mar 20 17:32 UTC 2006

resp:334 Topless kinda- at least enough wherein the hubby commented that
"he's been working out." Motor oil- not so much. There's paint at one
point though. ;)

response 337 of 342:

Mar 20 18:00 UTC 2006

Rented "Grizzly Man". Quite a bit of food for thought about what 
constitutes rational and irrational behavior. Absolutely astonishing 
footage of grizzly bears in their natural habitat at "work" and play. No 
one else to my knowledge had lived for a couple of months for a dozen 
consecutive years in the midst of grizzly bear habitat and "played" with 
the bears. I would charactarize Timothy Treadwell as an manic romantic 
with an irrational lack of fear for his own safety. As you all probably 
know he and a companion were killed and eaten at the end of his 13th 
expedition among the bears, but by a bear that he did not know and did not 
know him. He also made what might have been the fatal mistake, which was 
to have with him a companion that did not have his apparently intuitive if 
weird sense of how the bears reacted to the presence of humans.

The photography is astonishing. The quality is amazing on the big screen 
from using a hand-size video camera (make not identified). He would have 
had to bring enough batteries with him for a dozen or more hours of 
filming on each expedition - he left over 100 hours of video recordings - 
but these technical aspects are not explained.

The movie was assembled from Treadwell's recordings and later interviews 
with Treadwell's friends and relatives by Werner Herzog. Herzog is a 
reknown director, producer, actor and editor - and in this case also 
narrator and interviewer - of over fifty fiction and documentary movies.

The DVD has has a brief documentary on the creation and recording of the 
musical accompaniment. Performance music turns out to not be one of 
Herzog's talents, but his role in the creation of the music was still as 
an astute and critical director.

response 339 of 342:

Mar 20 20:53 UTC 2006

My son bought "The Incredibles" yesterday and I watched it with him.  I 
still think it was a clever movie concept, but it's not a movie I enjoy 
watching again and again.

response 341 of 342:

Mar 20 23:51 UTC 2006

MIDNIGHT COWBOY-- Just got the newly released two disc deluxe edition 
of this, one of my favorite movies.  This is the only X-rated movie to 
win the Oscar for Best Picture.  Jon Voigt is the title character, a 
drifter from Texas named Joe Buck who comes to NYC to be the "midnight 
cowboy", a cowboy gigolo.  He fails miserably in his attempts at this 
new career and is nearly swallowed up by a city in which he has no clue 
how to survive, until he meets streetwise Ratso Rizzo (Dustin 
Hoffman).  The two form a relationship, with each providing the other 
what he lacks.  The movie got rated X at the time because of its frank 
depictions of homosexuality and prostitution.  It was re-rated R some 
years later when it was re-released and appeared tame compared to 
movies that came out since.  "Midnight Cowboy" is a highly influential 
movie that has been copied or emulated many times since.  There's the 
famous scene where Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman) attempts to cross a street and 
nearly gets hit by a cab and he screams "hey, I'm walkin here! I'm 
walkin' here!"  But at its essence its a movie about two loners who 
find a companionship in each other that they never found with anyone 
else.  The scene at the end of the movie, where they are on the bus to 
Florida, and the sick Ratso Rizzo dies, and Joe Buck (Voigt) puts his 
arm around his dead friend hugging him tightly as the bus rolls on down 
the highway, is heartbreaking.  The extras on this new dvd are 
excellent, particularly a documentary featuring hoffman and voigt 
talking about the characters and what the movie meant to 
them.  "Midnight Cowboy" is a great movie and this new dvd is an 
excellent addition to anyone's movie collection.