Clean and Sober

Definitely a downer, but interesting.

Hot Fuzz

Hilarious. In the middle of the movie a character makes a reference to the Muppets. One critic I listened to used this to compare the logic of this movie to the logic in Muppet movies. This was a criticism. I understand what he means, but I must say I enjoy it.

Camp Nowhere

This is a fairly cliché kid's movie from the nineties all about how parents just don't understand their kids. These kids are then able to fool their parent's (who all plan to send them to various types of boring camps) to this fake camp where they'll be able to do anything they want. The clichés fly as rampant as Christopher Loyd's ridiculous costumes.

I don't know why this movie was on my list.

You may notice that most of the movies I've reviewed this month follow alphabetic order. I've started a long list (around 250 titles) taken from the appendix of the book Story by Robert McKee. This is a great book about screenwriting. These are all movies mentioned one way or another. I read the book about four years ago, and plan to read it again after finishing this list.

Choose Me

This is a pretty boring story about a host of a call-in love advice radio show host, who has never been in love herself. I fell asleep watching it last night. I tried to finish it this afternoon, and fell asleep again.

Casino

Another Scorsese film with De Niro as a lead character. This one, however was masterful. I need to go back and re-watch Goodfellas now. It was three hours long, and very few films can actually hold up for that long, but it's a very fast three hours.

This one also lead to a lucid dream. I was being taken slowly deeper and deeper into the dessert knowing full well that I was to be killed when we arrived. Instead of Joe Pesci and his crew, I was being taken by three or my co-workers. The entire time, I was trying to make jokes, and convince them not to do it. But they weren't falling for it. I woke up before we reached the destination.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This is a silent film made in 1919. I believe it was originally produced in Germany, and the titles had been translated into english. Unfortunately the video transfer wasn't very good. And the company that performed the translation decided to give the text cards a ridiculous torn paper design and typeface. With that aside, the actual story and set design was interesting. The sets looked like illustrations from a children's book brought to life. Instead of right angled windows, doors, and walls. Everything was jagged and angular. This was very much ahead of it's time.

Cape Fear

I was a little surprised that this movie was directed by Martin Scorsese. It was heavily stylized, but not a style I would usually attribute to him. It was closer in style, and almost a caricature or older Hitchcock era films. The camera played a very active role especially in the beginning. It would zoom in and out of close-ups, to the point of distraction. I suppose the cinematographer might be held responsible for that.

It was successful in that it lead to a nightmare though. I'm sure it was inspired by Robert De Niro's character quoting scripture while he attacked the family. It took place in the middle ages. I think that he and I were Monks. He was preaching bad theology, and I was trying to stop him, and that lead to a vicious chase and combat.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

This was a really great movie. The characters were fun to be with. In the long run it is basically a comedy, but not with the sit-comish humor that just survives from joke to joke like so many movies officially classified as comedies end up becoming. The ending is phenomenal.

I could have done without the extended 'Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head,' sequence. That kind of took me out of the story.

Bullets Over Broadway

I have to admit I was a little skeptical going into this. I really knew nothing about it, but I don't tend to enjoy movies about broadway theater. I should have done the slightest bit of research to know that it's directed by Woody Allen. It was fantastic. A very intelligent comedy. I love the fact that the gangster body guard ends up being the genius playwrite. I guess that's kind of a spoiler, but what are you going to do about it?

Brief Encounter

This movie also centered on a chance adulterous affair. This one exists in London in the mid-40's. It was fascinating that such a racy subject could be made into a film in that era, even though it was very dry and and without any on-screen passion. Some people argue that placing any action on-screen glorifies it to the public, but I think it's very important to explore these moral issues before encountering them in life.

Bull Durham

I don't much care for baseball, and I don't find Susan Sarandon in the least bit attractive. But, I can appreciate the story. It is well written.

Breaking the Waves

This was a very interesting, and well acted story about a somewhat unstable irish girl and her new husband. It was shot in a documentary style. Very raw hand-held camera work. She becomes very dependent on him in a very short time, and when he is injured at work her life takes a sharp downward spiral.

The Bridges of Madison County

This was a good story. I had a hard time buying Meryl Streep as Italian, but that's a very petty complaint. I can't say that I support adultery in any way, but it makes for an interesting story and good study of moral situations.

Breathless

This was one of Jean-Luc Godard's first movies. According to the Netflix paragraph it incited a revolution in French new-wave cinema. It was interesting, although not as good (for obvious reasons) as another movie of his (Band of Outsiders) which was made a few years later. It was certainly interesting, however not seeing it in context of the other more common films of that day, it's difficult for me to recognize why this was so revolutionary.

Breakfast Club

I never saw this movie growing up, and admittedly it was a little bit before my time. Overall I thought it was good. Mostly good dialogue, good characters (representative, although verging on cliche), touching, and humorous. My biggest complaint is that everyone falls in love in the end, seemingly out of nowhere. And there's almost no motivation for it at all. And it all happens within five minutes of the credits. It seems director is thinking to himself, 'Oh crap, this thing's almost over and I still need a happy ending. Okay you, jocky guy, start making out with the artsy wierdo just because the prom queen put a little bit of make-up on her face and pulled up her hair...and you, prom-queen, start making out with the tough hoodlum kid for no reason at all.'

Fracture

I love Anthony Hopkins as a criminal genius. Here he plays a man who shoots his wife for cheating on him, and is able to plan every detail so that the courts cannot prosecute him. There were a few things that played into his hands by coincidence, but that doesn't really bother me. Sometimes life is like that.

The only thing that bothered me was the point where the prosecutor attends thanksgiving with his new girlfriend's family and then they end up quarreling like an old married couple. How did they come to this point already, when they've only known each other for a week? And it really doesn't even serve the story in any way.

Otherwise I loved it.

Inside Man

I had nothing new from Netflix tonight so I had to re-watch something from my limited collection. Also, I'm in love with this movie.

Catch up

So I haven't posted in the last two months. I'm ashamed of myself. Once I miss a few days, it becomes harder and harder to pick it back up. I feel that I owe each movie a thoughtful at the very least. This post will attempt to make up for lost time, but will not give these movies their due. I should talk about plot and structure, but there's really not time for that.


Body Heat
William Hurt's mustache was out of control, but it fit the character and the period.

The Bonfire of the Vanities
The author of this script must have no concept of the workings of a courtroom. Much of the story was ridiculous, but when Tom Hank's character played a taped conversation to drown out a witness' testimony, and the judge accepted the evidence as admissible, they went much too far. Then the judge immediately declares a verdict of not-guilty. Perhaps this was written by an eight-year old.

Jonestown:The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Fascinating documentary.

Bob Roberts
Boring mockumentary.

Billy Budd
I didn't realize ahead of time that this was an opera. It's a retelling of Moby Dick. It was actually very poorly shot, and very annoying. As a rule I generally watch a movie to it's completion no matter what. I couldn't get past the first twenty minutes without hitting the eject button.

Blow Up
This is about a high-fashion, high-paced Brittish photographer. I get the feeling that some of Austin Power's character was taken from this movie. He was apparently so extremely busy that when two young would-be models asked for a few minutes of his time he replied, 'I don't have a few minutes to have my appendix taken out.' He must have been terrible at time management, because he seemed to sit around doing very little at all for most of the movie. I fell asleep toward the end and I don't regret it.

Blind Date
It was kind of interesting to see Bruce Willis in a very early role. Otherwise this movie was pretty ridiculous and annoying.

Grindhouse
Fantastic. These two movies were a terrific combination. I could talk for a long time about them both, but I'm not going to. Tarantino really impressed me with this one. I've like his past work. But clever disguising of important story points into dialogue blew me away.

Black Widow
Not that great.

Betty Blue
Long and drawn out. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't plan on watching it again.

The Big Sleep
I'm ashamed to say that I've seen very little of Bogart other than Casablanca. He is a very decent actor.

Being There
Peter Sellers amazes me. I knew nothing about it going in. This is an extremely subtle comedy. You would rarely, if ever, laugh out loud. Instead you would think to yourself, 'My, that's clever.'

Ben Hur
I can't believe I hadn't ever seen this classic.

The Battle of Algiers
It's kind of amazing how relevant this is today. It deals intently with relations between the occupying French and the Muslim inhabitants of Algiers.

Battleship Potemkin
This was made as Communist Propaganda in 1925. It's very interesting and moving. It could just as easily have been a condemning criticism of communism. It's amazing the degree to which the resulting Communist government came to resemble the previous ruling tyranny. Orwell really got it right in Animal Farm.

Bad Day at Black Rock
This was great. It's about a gimp-armed war veteran who visits a small town named Black Rock to deliver a medal of valor to the father of his fallen buddy. Some very powerful men in the town want to keep him from making his delivery.

Bad Timing
Some of the motives in the movie were interesting, but I just don't like Art Garfunkle as an actor.

300
Somewhat interesting story. Tremendous special effects. I enjoyed it, but it didn't move me to get excited about democracy. It think that's what it was intending to do.

The Bad and the Beautiful
Worth Seeing.

Basic Instinct
Some of this movie seemed a little far-fetched. I think I kind of liked it. But that last shot kind of ruined it.

Apocalypse Now
I tried to watch the extended redux version of this a few years ago and couldn't get through it. After watching the theatrical release, I love it. I can understand why a dedicated fan might want to see an extra hour, but you really do have the entire movie there in the original release. 4 hours is far too long for a movie.

Babette's Feast
Interesting.

Baby Boom
Stories should show characters pushed to extremes. This movie takes that to an extreme. We open on a ridiculously successful female executive in New York. Through an unexpected series of events she inherits custody of a baby. Through some ridiculous events she is forced to quit and move to the country, where she then builds herself back up again, but ultimately decides to keep the simple country life. These extreme changes happen much too fast. Although I must admit I didn't wish to sit through a longer movie.

Arachnophobia
The overall story was interesting and almost plausible, but I found much of the acting to be annoying.

Animal Farm 19990
Actually pretty good for a Babe-like take on the story.

Animal Farm 1954
This animation was amazing. The story was good, and I think it stayed faithfully enough to the book. I must admit I am a little annoyed at the invented happyish ending. But, what can you do?

Jesus Camp
Very interesting. I am a christian, and very disgusted at the group of people that call themselves 'Evangelical.' I grew up in a somewhat similar church, although not quite as extreme. The most disgusting thing is the intermingling of political activism with biblical teaching. These people are little more than republican soldiers.

...And Justice for All
This was a great criticism of the criminal justice system. This is the source of the famous quote, "I'm out of order? You're out of order. This whole courtroom is out of order."

Angel Heart
The story line was kind of alright, but I really can't stand Mickey Rourke. The most annoying part was that the special features kept referring to him as one of the greatest living actors on par with Pacino and the like. I think the dude's a douche.

All That Jazz
I didn't like it at first. I thought it was going to be another Chorus Line (which I was forced to watch repeatedly in high school drama class). But by the end I was really interesting. An interesting redefinition of success.

Amarcord
This is Felini's story of a year in the life of a small Italian town. Very interesting characters.

After Hours
This was a very interesting story about a night's events that start out fairly innocently with a guy calling up a girl he met in a New York dinner. And ends with the guy being chased through the streets by a murderous mob. Kind of convoluted, but I really liked it.


Alive
This is the fascinating story of the rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes and they were forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive. It's amazing that they did survive. And even more amazing that two men were able to hike through the mountain chain with little to no supplies or gear and find civilization.

The Accidental Tourist
This is very slow-paced, but I liked it a lot. The characters are all very boring middle-americans.

Aliens
I liked it.

Addicted to Love
I didn't like it.

Adam's Rib
This was good.

Zodiac
I've been waiting a long time for someone to make this into a movie. I love how ingenious this killer was. He used publicity and interdepartmental politics to cloud the clues that might have otherwise convicted him.

Clockers
Spike Lee is a genius.

Idiocracy
A hilariously depressing view of the future that is probably much more accurate than I want it to be.

A Scanner Darkly
A somewhat interesting story. As an animator, I can appreciate the amount of work that went into this motion capture effect. In a few ways I can see how it contributed to the story, however I think overall I think it was distracting.

Amazing Grace
This was really a great story. I'm not much for political activism, but I think this was a tremendous man, who almost single handedly began the domino effect that would outlaw slavery around the world. I can't think of a modern cause that begin to compare.

Giant
I was surprised to see James Dean in a completely different role than usual. Overall interesting.

The Right Stuff
Long-ass, Boring-ass movie.

The Hours
I don't think I really understood this movie when I saw it a few years ago. But I really enjoyed it this time around.

Harold and Maude
What a bizarre film. And then just when you think it's not actually going to go where you don't want it to, it does.