Movie Board Volume 2.1

[Weeping_Guitar]

I was going to make a new thread after every 100 pages, but I got busy when we switched over so I'm going to rectify that right now. Here's to the next 100!

[Weeping_Guitar]

Time for some recent release mini-reviews:



In Good Company (Paul Weitz)

Much like writer/director Paul Weitz's last film, 2002's About a Boy, the film's charm comes from it's well looked at characters who form real, admirable relationships born out of reluctance. This one takes place in the modern world of corporate takeovers that sees longtime partnerships replaced by corporate sibling cross promotions. The film takes swipes at the environment, but wisely concentrates on the lives outside the office and reminds us, of course, that they're more rewarding than any promotion (but that keeping your job is mighty nice as well).

The film, like it's characters, support themselves on the broad shoulders of Dennis Quaid who brings a weighted, natural performance as Dan Forman, the victim of corporate realignment who finds himself the "wingman" to his new, much younger boss, Carter Duryea (Topher Grace). Carter's new marriage is breaking up just like the brand new Porshe he bought with his promotion. Dan, on the other hand, has it all together at home, despite sending his oldest (always wonderful Scarlett Johannson) off college just as he learns he has a new one on the way. Complications really only arise when Dan learns that Carter has hit it off much better with his daughter than with him. The film plays out the balancing act of the home and business worlds with enough grit to make it interesting, but sentimentally enough to make the situation and characters endearing.

Much like a performance like that of Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys a few years back, Dennis Quaid benefits playing a character of his own age that can use his life experience to build that of the character (actors are real people too). It's probably the one stand out thing in a film that isn't overly ambitious, but plays it's cards right. Maybe it didn't go for enough, but it's a film that is hard to resist. It doesn't resolve itself how one might exactly predict, but as right as it is for it's characters it seems to be missing an ultimate big bite.

***

[Weeping_Guitar]

I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell)

It's hard to think of I ¢¾ Huckabees as a complete success, but it's so ambitious, daring, funny, and strangely touching that it's something that deserves any recognition it can get. Co-writer/director David O. Russell knew what he wanted to do and did it, the man has ambition. I'm sure there are holes to be found in it's theories and it's absurd screwballish plot, and words like pretentious to be used against it's philosophical self. They are no matter to the film. If there is one thing we should understand from the film is that taking anything too seriously and thinking one thing has all the answers will only lead to disaster. It uses it's ideas to make you think about them, not totally buy into them. The film works because it has what it's characters seek: lust for life.

A chain of events (coincidence or not depending on your leanings) is set in motion that will see an intertwined group of people each experience their own identity and meaning crisises that will one can only guarentee will be strange, funny, and uplifting. Even in a film that features "existential detectives" (the wonderfully paired Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) most of this still comes off weird. The strong cast including Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg, and Issabelle Huppert isn't wasted and they all give strong performances that are surprising and for some against type. For all the theories it throws out (interconnection, nihilism, religion among them) it only has one answer: nothing has all the answers. It is quite convincing to understand interconnection, though, when people's eyes, ears, and noses float off and blur together in one of the film's many visual treats. Jon Brion's musical work must be mentioned in bringing even more life to this wonderfully conceived multimedia project within a movie.

***1/2

[Adam]

I think I may have discovered a new favorite, straight from my still huge VHS selection (even after I've gotten rid of most of it). Since I'm broke for the moment, I'm going through the collection to find stuff I haven't watched yet.



Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

I recorded this 3-4 years ago on Turner Classic Movies. For a low-budget film from the 50s, this is one gutsy, nasty piece of work, benefiting from a great script from Mickey Spillane, great camerawork by Laslo Kovacs, tight direction from Robert Aldrich and hard-boiled performances, especially by Ralph Meeker as I-don't-give-a-fuck private dick Mike Hammer. And dammit, what a explosive (literally) ending.

I'm watching this again.

[pattentank24]

by force I have seen the worst flim of 2005 so far
after seeing the best of 2004 to end our radio reviews


I give you

"BE COOL"

This is why sequels are a waste of the actors time and the audience
-NO PLOT(which is funny if your watching "Cannonball Run")
-Harvey Keitel RAPS(I can't watch Dogs the same again)
-Vince Vaughn thinks he's black for 2 hrs,NOT Funny
-The Rock does nothing but raise his eyebrows and does a awful Loretta Lynn Cover
-Cedric The Entertainer needs to quit acting,Nothing he does commercials,movies,stand-up is anywhere funny
-John Travolta looks bored in every scene,he just repeats the same dull dialouge over and over
-They make fun of sequels and make one of the worst you have ever seen
-Andre 3000 although talented gets the "Ice Cube Role"(damn,fool,what,get out the way,etc)
-F Gary Gray made one decent movie(The Negoitaor) now go back to directing Dr. Dre/Snoop/Cube videos
-AEROSMITH,BLACK EYED PEAS,Christain Millan(who is attractive) are your musical talent that wastes a good 15 min of this supposed film.
-Poor Christain she's sitting in for Beyonce or Alica Keys but has none of the talent as flat as if they would have got Brittany, Chilli so impressed by her talent,yet as a audience you'll find yourself yawning
-Elmore Leonard is NOT PART OF THE SCRIPT(HIS Characters)
-GET SHORTY- was OK, It didn't need a sequel

Rating negative *


On a brighther note I would recomend "Shattered Glass" which I caught on IFC the other day
Peter Sarsguard is one of the 10 best actors today and Hayden Christianson shows he can finally act, as the lying but loveable hack Reporter Peter Glass who fabricated nearlly everthing he wrote

Highly Recomend

That and ALI-G Indahouse -Now That's Funny

[RocDoc]

'Shattered Glass' is a pretty darn good movie, but the based-on-fact character that Christiansen played was a self-deluding idiot...

[Mary]

Some random top 10 lists by decade....

The 1940s

1) Double Indemnity
2) The Third Man
3) Casablanca
4) The Maltese Falcon
5) Citizen Kane
6) Mildred Pierce
7) Out of the Past
8) I Walked With a Zombie
9) The Ox-Bow Incident
10) Gilda

The 1950s

1) The Seventh Seal
2) Paths of Glory
3) Rashomon
4) Sunset Boulevard
5) Wild Strawberries
6) The Wages of Fear
7) Rear Window
8) Night of the Hunter
9) The Nights of Cabiria
10) In a Lonely Place

The 1960s

1) La Dolce Vita
2) Midnight Cowboy
3) Rosemary's Baby
4) Persona
5) The Battle of Algiers
6) Dr. Strangelove
7) They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
8) Targets
9) 8 1/2
10) The Birds

The 1970s

1) Chinatown
2) Network
3) Apocalypse Now
4) Taxi Driver
5) The Last Picture Show
6) Mean Streets
7) The Exorcist
8) The Godfather II
9) Aguirre, the Wrath of God
10) The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie

The 1980s

1) Blue Velvet
2) Raging Bull
3) Wings of Desire
4) Blade Runner
5) Brazil
6) Heathers
7) Aliens
8) Do the Right Thing
9) Pretty in Pink
10) The Terminator

OK... so it's obvious that once we hit the 1980s, my nostalgia overtakes my critical capacity waaaaay too many from the 90s to even think about right now, though...

Cheers,
M

[Weeping_Guitar]

Mary said:

Some random top 10 lists by decade....

The 1940s

1) Double Indemnity
2) The Third Man
3) Casablanca
4) The Maltese Falcon
5) Citizen Kane

loave you, i luurve you.

[Weeping_Guitar]

1940s
01. Casablanca (Micheal Curtiz, 1942)
02. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
03. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
04. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
05. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
06. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
07. It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
08. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)
09. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
10. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)

I love the '40s, the golden age of Hollywood mixed with the growth of auteur filmmaking and film noir. Probably my favorite decade.

1950s
01. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
02. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
03. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
04. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
05. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
06. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)
07. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
08. All About Eve (Joseph Mankiewicz, 1950)
09. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
10. Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)

An admitted weak spot for me. I've seen the Wilder and Hitchcock, but have yet to tap some of it's greatest like Kurosawa and Bergman.

1960s
01. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
02. Dr. Strangelove or: ... (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
03. A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
04. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
05. The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
06. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1969)
07. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
08. Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964)
09. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
10. Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)

The great variety makes the '60s such a great period to visit. Old dogs trying new things, talents hitting finding their voice while another one is energized to discoer it's own in the near future. It must have been great to be part of the "film generation".

1970s
01. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
02. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Jones & Gilliam, 1975)
03. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
04. Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974)
05. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
06. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
07. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
08. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
09. Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
10. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

What the end of the previous decade signaled, a new generation growing up on films now making them. Because of that there is plenty of the past spun in ingenious, new ways.

1980s
01. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
02. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
03. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
04. Field of Dreams (Phillip Alden Robinson, 1989)
05. Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983)
06. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989)
07. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
08. The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987)
09. Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
10. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)

Another decae I've yet to really dig into, I retreat to the films of my youth, thankfully I don't have to look back too badly in aged regret.

[rockysigman]

Enough with these lies. Everyone knows that the greatest film of the '80s was The Goonies.

[Adam]

Mary, I admire your ability to narrow each list down to 10. Because when I tried to compose the following lists, I felt like I was chopping off vital parts of my anatomy because so many other titles had to be left out (the 40s - 60s lists were tough as hell). I assume you had the same problem.

So here they are.
*Disclaimer: the selections are numbered, but that only means 10 films for each decade, not their ranking in importance or quality*

The 1920s
1. The Passion of Joan of Arc
2. Sunrise
3. Greed
4. Battleship Potempkin
5. The General
6. The Gold Rush
7. Phantom of the Opera
8. Metropolis
9. Nosferatu
10. Un Chien Andalou

The 1930s
1. City Lights
2. King Kong
3. Duck Soup
4. The Rules of the Game
5. The Adventures of Robin Hood
6. Grand Illusion
7. Bringing Up Baby
8. Gone With The Wind
9. The Wizard of Oz
10. Gunga Din

The 1940s
1. Citizen Kane
2. His Girl Friday
3. Casablanca
4. Double Indemnity
5. Henry V
6. Notorious
7. The Big Sleep
8. Out of the Past
9. Ivan The Terrible
10. The Red Shoes

The 1950s
1. Touch of Evil
2. Singin' In The Rain
3. Bad Day At Black Rock
4. Kiss Me Deadly
5. Seven Samurai
6. The Searchers
7. Vertigo
8. The 400 Blows
9. Sweet Smell of Success
10. Tokyo Story

The 1960s
1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. The Hustler
3. La Dolce Vita
4. Persona
5. Dr. Strangelove
6. Point Blank
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey
8. The Wild Bunch
9. Once Upon A Time In The West
10. Le Samourai

The 1970s
1. The Godfather
2. Cries And Whispers
3. Chinatown
4. The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers
5. Nashville
6. All The President's Men
7. Taxi Driver
8. Star Wars
9. Apocalypse Now
10. Last Tango In Paris

The 1980s
1. Raging Bull
2. Kagemusha
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. The Right Stuff
5. Brazil
6. Blue Velvet
7. The Last Temptation of Christ
8. Do The Right Thing
9. sex, lies & videotape
10. The Empire Strikes Back

The 1990s
1. Goodfellas
2. JFK
3. Malcolm X
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Ed Wood
6. Heat
7. Hamlet (1996)
8. The Thin Red Line
9. Eyes Wide Shut
10. Unforgiven

[Weeping_Guitar]

Adam said:

The 1950s
1. The Rules of the Game

Are you meaning the Renoir film? If so that one is, amazingly, from 1939.

[rockkid]

No heady lists for moi today. I’m going for total suck & I’ll be on my sofa watching the enhanced Bambi & bawling like a baby.
Awwww the childhood flashbacks. Here I come.

[Adam]

I'm fixing it...

[stratman19]

rockkid said:

No heady lists for moi today. I’m going for total suck & I’ll be on my sofa watching the enhanced Bambi & bawling like a baby.
Awwww the childhood flashbacks. Here I come.

Don't suppose you're a big fan of deer season then, eh Rock?

Oh, go have a good cry then!