Paris Je'taime

I loved this collection of shorts. There were a very gifted and diverse group of 18 directors that each contributed about 10 minutes. They're 18 different takes on love stories in Paris. Some are comic, some are tragic. Some surround romantic lovers, some are about parents and children. Some are better than others, but overall it was very enjoyable.

catch up

Once again I've neglected this blog in excess of a month. This will catch me up to speed.

Caddyshack
I've always gotten reactions off shocked horror when telling people that I'd never seen this movie. Now that I've seen it, I don't really see what all the fuss is about. It was okay. There were a few funny parts, but not the laugh riot everyone has lead me to believe.

Glengarry Glen Ross
This was an excellent story told completely with Dialogue. It was adapted from a play, which seems to make sense with the minimal place settings. Even with no real action, I was riveted the whole time.

Ghostbusters
It's good to finally see the first one, but I think it relied a lot on special effects, which have since expired.

Gallipoli
Interesting telling of a factual battle, but so much of it was told with an Australian smile as you grit your teeth attitude, that it was difficult to see where the danger was. Nobody seemed all to worried about the battle, and then just went ahead and gave their lives in a horribly misinformed suicide.

The Flight of the Phoenix
I saw the remake a few years ago. It was interesting to see both. With a few exceptions, I think the original was better, although I think the remake was fairly faithful.

Four Weddings and a Funeral
Although I can certainly relate to constant attendance of weddings, I don't really understand the irresponsible fear of commitment that movies like this suggest is so prominent among men.

The First Deadly Sin
It was fine, although I can't say I believed the killer could be real.

The Fisher King
Not actually as wild as Brazil, or any of Terry Gilliam's other work, but I can definitely see his fingerprint. I think that Robin Williams was given a little too much freedom to run wild. He steals a few scenes and just runs around with them for no apparent reason. I like Jeff Bridges part though.

The Fifth Element
The creatures, and much of the acting in this movie were terrible. I can sort of appreciate what they we're going for, but still.

Fellini's Roma
I finally think that I understand Fellini. He's not really as big on story as caricature. I'd always been searching for meaning in the overall story, but his value is in the characters and humorous positions they put themselves in, and the constant complaints that they make.

Falling in Love
I certainly don't approve of adultery, but this would have been a nice story if it had been first love, or broken down divorced love.

The Fabulous Baker Boys
I really enjoyed the dynamic between Jeff Bridges and his actual brother. They played such different but harmonizing characters.

Equus
I don't think I can stand behind this movie. Some of it seemed interesting, but most of it seemed to be stretching just a little too far.

Farewell My Concumbine
This was a very interesting way of telling the story of the Chinese cultural revolution. These were the characters most effected. They fought so hard to climb their way off the streets. They gave every part of themselves to become stars, and as soon as they do, the rug is swept out from under them as the centuries old society that had survived so many regimes changed completely

The English Patient
Long and convoluted. In the end I don't think anything paid off at all.

Evita
I don't particularly care for musicals so it was a little difficult to sit through this.

L'Eclisse
When I came home from work I had a dreading feeling that this was one of those drawn-out french movies where a woman stares listlessly out of a window as her frustrated lover looks on from the other side of the room. My feeling was correct.

The Electric Horseman
This was an interesting story of a broken down cowboy celebrity who had sunk to the level of Las Vegas trade show appearances promoting breakfast cereal. Robert Redford played him well.

Saraband
I don't think this is officially considered a sequel to Scenes From a Marriage, but it might as well be. It's a pretty heavy subject matter, divorce, adultery, and general assholery, but very well made.

Elephant Walk
This was a very interesting story about a woman brought into a man's domain in the African Congo. And the man's domain was built up in the middle of nature's domain. Although some things may seem seem difficult to change, it can be even more difficult to keep them the same.

Eat Drink Man Woman
I really enjoyed this story about an aging Chinese chef coming to grips with his changing life, and the lives of his daughters.

Drugstore Cowboy
Most of this was interesting, however the ending seemed a little tacked on.

Dominick and Eugene
This is the story of two brothers. One in Medical school, and the other retarded. I've seen much better played retarded men, but overall, most of it wasn't too bad.

Diary of a Country Priest
Interesting, although I think it was a little bit deeper than I was able to grasp. I'll have to watch it again at a later time.

La Dolce Vita
This Fellini film had more of a story structure than most of his films, but for the most part relied on interesting situations.

Earthquake
Charleton Heston always cracks me up. I hope that if an earthquake of this magnitude actually does hit LA, that I'm not there for it.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
I can't believe I hadn't already seen this. And when a friend at work asked me if I'd seen it, my knee-jerk reaction was to say that, 'yes,' of course I had. Then when I thought about it I realized that I hadn't. This guy's life is fascinating. Also insane.

Death in Venice
This was a somewhat interesting story, however creepy at times. It's about a retired intellectual who vacations in Venice. He reminisces about his unfulfilling life, and falls in love with the youth through a teenage boy also staying in his hotel. He never makes actual contact. There is no actual molestation or anything of the sort. But it seems like it could be.

The Dirty Dozen
Some of it seemed a little convoluted.

Diabolique
This was a very interesting murder mystery, where the conspirists find themselves in trouble when the body their hoping to hide disappears.

Death Wish
It was good to finally see this. It's that deep of a film, but it's kind of fun to watch.

Dance With a Stranger
I think this was based on a true story, of one of the last women in England to ever be condemmed to death. Although that part barely enters into the story. The trailer puts it well as a story of 'cold-blooded passion.'

Dangerous Liaiaons
John Malkovich plays a great creep. This is a very interesting story of a bourgeoisie french couple who make sport of ruining other people reputations and lives. Very dark, but very interesting.

Claire's Knee
Kind of an interesting storyline, although I had a little bit of difficulty caring about the things some of these characters were so passionate about, namely passion.

Cries and Whispers
Very heavy like all of Bergman's work.

The Crying Game
I honestly have to say that I knew that she was a dud from the start. It's kind of an interesting story, but I can't say that I really believed that he loved 'her' at all. Even at the end it seemed that he was tolerating her out of guilt.

The Conversation

Gene Hackman plays a private surveillance investigator on the top of his game. He pulls a high-paying job, but becomes suspicious that his client is planning to murder the subjects he's spying on. That puts him into an interesting moral situation, questioning whether he should intervene, or just do his job.

Color Me Kubrick

This was a fascinating situation based mostly on actual events where a broken down failed artist in London started telling random people in artsy bars that he was Stanley Kubrick. And since the real Kubrick was such a recluse, there were enough people that didn't know what he actually looked like, so a lot of people bought it. He used it to get free drinks and dinners and entry to posh events. This ending wraps up a little too fast and eneventully for my taste, but it is interesting nonetheless.

Clean and Sober

This was a very interesting situation, but like Coming home, I think the ending wrapped itself up too quickly. I liked the story arch in the beginning. Whereas most stories begin with the lead character in a comfortable status quo until the inciting incident begins their journey. Michael Keaton starts out just about as low as he can get, an alcoholic coke addict with a dead overdosed girl in his bed, who had recently embezzled and lost $90,000 from his brokerage firm. It sets up a very interesting situation. But then as the movie nears the 115 minute point the story seems to take a quick look at it's watch and decide to go ahead and wrap things up.

Coming Home

In this story an officer is sent off to battle in the Vietnam war. His wife stays home and volunteers at the VA hospital. Over the time that he's gone, she ends up falling into an affair with a paraplegic veteran partially out of pity. It sets up an interesting situation. When the husband returns he quickly finds out about it, and understandably freaks out. But then they explain the situation, apologize, and tell him to calm down. And he does.

I was annoyed at how easily he calmed down. The movie spends an hour and a half building up this situation, which then crumbles to pieces and falls into a nice orderly pile almost immediately.

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.