The Be-Safe-Gervais-We're-Thinking-Of-You WATCHING Thread!

[Gobear]

Salesman. Wow, talk about "leading lives of quiet desperation"! I've always been an admirer of the Maysles brother's "no narration and just let the subjects speaks for themselves" documentary style, and this film about a quartet of Bible salesmen eking out a living by peddling their wares door-to-door to working-class housewives is brilliant, albeit deeply depressing. The film is a fascinating glimpse into a world that no longer exists.

[BenSaylor]

Je t'aime John Wayne. A really funny short about a twenty-ish Londoner who wishes he was Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless. Seek it out.

Sounds interesting. Where can I find it?

[J.M. Vargas]

Salesman. Wow, talk about "leading lives of quiet desperation"! I've always been an admirer of the Maysles brother's "no narration and just let the subjects speaks for themselves" documentary style, and this film about a quartet of Bible salesmen eking out a living by peddling their wares door-to-door to working-class housewives is brilliant, albeit deeply depressing. The film is a fascinating glimpse into a world that no longer exists.

I went to a theatrical screening of "Salesman" in NYC a few years ago with Albert Maysles introducing the film. Other than the fact he relentlessly plugged his Criterion DVD's he was a fine man, and the documentary remains an unnerving time capsule. Sad to think that telemarketers and political mud throwers are the closest we have left of this once-cutthroat door-to-door retail business.

[hoytereden]

i just couldn't get past Giamatti. I hate that guy.

A little love for him in Cinderella Man?, maybe?

I haven't seen him in much beyond that film but he's terrific in it!

[J.M. Vargas]

Well, my boss told me recently that if I didn't take a week off for vacation I would lose it. So starting today I'm off from work for nine days with very little money in the bank (after paying all my bills and debts) for either travel or major expenses (like pigging out on theatrical movies). It's just me, my packed-to-the-gill-with-movies DVR, hundreds of DVD's (dozens of them HD-DVD's/Blu-ray's) and a 47" 1080p HDTV. Such a hard life!

Started things off with The Usual Suspects (1995) on DVD with the John Ottman commentary track on. Good times!

[Andrew Forbes]

Je t'aime John Wayne. A really funny short about a twenty-ish Londoner who wishes he was Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless. Seek it out.

Sounds interesting. Where can I find it?

Cinema 16: European Short Films. I think it might be on their British short film collection as well.

[BenShultz]

Burn After Reading: The Coen brothers' latest is a comedy that easily stacks up with the likes of The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona and O Brother, Where Art Thou. But then, it also has all the bitter contempt of No Country for Old Men, and the ending recalls Fargo while standing alone as possibly their best conclusion yet. The whole cast is absolutely fantastic, and the screenplay is really just flat-out brilliant. I can't say anything specific, because really, the less you know the better.

Ignore those who say this is just a lark. I'm pretty sure this will be a Big Lebowski-sized cult hit in a few years. And I think it might be my favorite movie of the year so far.

[Future Man]

Cinerama Adventure from the Blu-ray How the West Was Won (may be included in the other new SD editions too, I didn't check). This was a highly informative and moving 90 minute documentary on the revolutionary phenomenon that among other things paved the way for widescreen formats. Makes the set quite a bargain.

[J.M. Vargas]

Vacation scorecard (which would have been much higher if watching cable news coverage of Hurricane Ike hadn't caught my fancy):

Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) on IFC for the first time. Odd Australian low-budget flick that could almost be considered the pre-pre-prequel (in spirit) to George Miller's "Mad Max" movies if it weren't set in then-present day Australia. The off-the-beaten-path Outback Town of Paris is deliberately wrecking cars to sustain it's economy and provide work/experiment subjects to Dr. Midland (Kevin Miles) at the local hospital. Paris' mayor (an impressive John Meillon) is using this scheme as a social glue of sorts to keep the town's citizens united against the growing menace of youths driving muscle cars with personalities (particularly a spiked VW Beetle). Most of the movie deals with the boring-as-hell plight of Arthur (Terry Camilleri), a crash survivor, being adopted by the Mayor's family (including his flirting wife) and being forced to adapt to Paris' lifestyle. The hospital experiments angle is barely explored even though there's potential there for an even more colorful/disturbed portrayal of Dr. Midland. It's not until the last 20 minutes, when an unreal costume ball party (complete with wheelchair-bound mental patients) degenerates into a citizens vs. cars battle royale, that the movie lives up to it's namesake. "Picnic at Hanging Rock" this ain't but Weir fans will surely appreciate the quirkiness.

François Truffaut's The Last Metro (1980) on IFC for the first time. Like last week's "Fahrenheit 541" I'm conflicted about this movie, particularly since I'm not a theater guy and have come to expect nothing less than perfection from Truffaut movies. Showing what it was like for Parisians to experience their love for the theater while under Nazi occupation back during WWII literally took me to two worlds (occupied Paris circa '42 and inside the inner workings of a small theater group) that were both interesting and never bored me during the movie's 131 min. running time. Nestor Almendros' outstanding cinematography, a radiant Catherine Denueve in the lead (of both the movie and the theater play at the center of "The Last Metro") and a large cast of colorful supporting characters are also bonuses. The bookending montages setting-up the movie and explaining what happened to the characters (particularly Jean-Louis Richard's Daxiat) hint at the cinematic creativity Truffaut was known for, which for the most part isn't present in this old-fashioned ensemble movie. I never bought for a moment there were any feelings between Gérard Depardieu's Bernard and Denueve's Marion characters though (before or after the revelation of this attraction). Heinz Bennent's portrayal of suffering theater director Lucas Steiner (think Anne Frank) comes across as whiny and needlessly self-sacrificing (he practically pushes Bernard into Marion's arms). The epilogue infuriated me but I can see how many viewers could see it as the last bow of a great director at the twilight of his career. Not setting any scenes of "The Last Metro" inside an actual train may be Truffaut's biggest creative achievement in this middle-of-the-pack entry in his body of work.

Strange Invaders (1983) on IFC for the first time. Words like 'homage' and 'tribute' are the refuge of last resort used to describe terrible and/or low-budget movies that otherwise wouldn't have a leg to stand on besides nostalgia of those growing up when they first caught these flicks on cable or late night TV. This so-called 'homage' to 50's sci-fi flicks is burdened by a weak leading man (Paul Le Mat, channeling a very annoyed Charles Grodin), very uneven pacing by co-writer/director Michael Laughlin (some scenes are deadly serious, others borderline slapstick), thinly-sketched supporting characters on which some pretty good actors (Michael Lerner, Nancy Allen, Louise Fletcher, etc.) are wasted and a split-personality screenplay (co-written by future Academy Award winning screenwriter Bill Condon) to match it's clueless director. Other than some NYC location shots (some of the locales in 1984's "Ghostbusters") and a handful of creepy SFX shots involving aliens turning people into floating blue balls (ala Cursor from "Automan") "Strange Invaders" is DOA. Tobe Hooper's "Invaders From Mars" remake in '86 pulled the same update to 50's alien movie formula with better results (and it was still underwhelming!).

And, last but not least, Batman Begins (2005) on HD-DVD, followed an hour later by The Dark Knight (2008) at a local theater for the first time. I'm blown away and don't know what to say that hasn't been said already. The Nolans (Christopher directing, Jonathan co-writing) and David S. Goyer have fashioned the ultimate cinematic version of one of the greatest superhero myths ever unleashed on pop culture. Whatever flaws these movies have (and there are many, particularly Bale being told to voice Batman like a 100-year old smoker with lung cancer) are nitpicks because the core of what has made the Batman franchise tick for decades is darkness (both allegorical and realistic) and these filmmakers haven't shied away from going with "The Dark Knight" to that dark place most comic book movies never dare go near (and which was perfectly set-up by the ending of "Batman Begins"). What stands out to me from watching both "Batman" movies back-to-back was the evolution of Gary Oldman's Gordon character into something akin to the civilian equivalent of Robin (a civilian sidekick) to Batman's heroics, which is amazing since before "Begins" I would have thought of Oldman as supervillain material instead. Quick, what other major movie franchise in need of reinvigoration can Liam Neeson be cast into? "Star Wars Episode I" (come on, Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul were the best parts of this reboot-of-sorts) and "Begins" give Liam major bragging rights as mentor-in-chief of guaranteed box office IP's. Heath Ledger achieves cinematic inmortality with his now iconic Joker (not giving this Joker a background or motive was a storytelling masterstroke) not because he looks/acts like a sick nut (which he does) but because his three-steps-ahead schemes are the type of formidable criminal mind worthy of a movie like "The Dark Knight." The allegories to 9/11 and our current political/international affairs hit me like a ton of bricks. Isn't wrong that a major Hollywood blockbuster holds our government more accountable of it's mistakes than mainstream news organizations? May the Nolans' decision to end "The Dark Knight" the way they did (I didn't like it either) pay off by blindsiding us with that yet-to-be-achieved holy grail of superhero movies: a good third entry to the franchise!

[Kevin]

Stand By Me - fabulous movie.

[Gabriel Girard]

Days Of Being Wild - Moody,beautiful, full of longing and quiet despair. Great use of color, some awesome camera moves, nice use of ellipses. ''From now on we're friends for one minute''

Pump Up The Volume - Still fun and relevant after all these years. Nice use of ''Wave Of Mutilation''.

[ccb]

Gettysburg
Hairspray
Sahara
High Sierra
Cloverfield
The Four Feathers
Cry Baby

[J.M. Vargas]

^^^ Which one's sucked? Which one's rocked? And which one's could get you excited enough to write one freaking word about them describing how good/bad/etc. these flicks were?

[Steve T Power]

^^^ Which one's sucked? Which one's rocked? And which one's could get you excited enough to write one freaking word about them describing how good/bad/etc. these flicks were?

Well i know Sahara kicked ass.

[BenSaylor]

Brand Upon the Brain!--Loved it; Maddin has such a high level of energy in his bizarre, well-filmed hijinks that the film's 95 minutes fly by. This could be my favorite of the Maddin films I've seen thus far. I want to get the Criterion DVD to own so I can watch it with the other narrators.

Righteous Kill--"Most people respect the badge. Everybody respects the gun." Nobody should respect this movie. It's better than 88 Minutes, but of course, that's really not saying much. It's not even worth seeing for the novelty of the two of them being onscreen at the same time for a whole movie. Just stay at home and watch Heat instead.

[molly1216]

on a documentary kick ....doncha love netflix instant watch?

Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip (2003) this rules...in 1903 Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson started up his Winton in San Francisco; sixty-three days later, he arrived in New York City - and he took pictures and wrote letters along the way.

Empire of the Air who knew television had so many grandfathers?

The Story of 1 Terry Jones explains where math comes from.

and
Musa the Warrior now THERE's a bloodbath

Hi, Dharma! story of gangsters hiding in a monastery cuteness without the belly laughs.

[hoytereden]

^^^ Which one's sucked? Which one's rocked? And which one's could get you excited enough to write one freaking word about them describing how good/bad/etc. these flicks were?

Well i know Sahara kicked ass.

The Bogart one-Yes!
The Brooke Shields one-No!
The Matthew McConaughey one-Yes! But not as much as the Bogart film.

[J.M. Vargas]

My Monday (while on vacation) viewing load, in chronological order. Would have watched more flicks but the Wall St. people flipping out on CNBC throughout the day as the Lehmann/Merril/AIG meltdowns unfolded was just too compelling to ignore completely:

Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) on HDNet Movies for the first time. Other than Laurence Rosenthal's annoying (but as suitably moody as a New Orleans funeral) soundtrack and some of the actors posing like they know they're in an important movie (particularly Gleason) this is an excellent boxing drama that's like the reverse-mirror dark reflection of "Rocky" (right down to Julie Harris' pretty-ugly shy girl with glasses falling for 'Mountain' Rivera's simplistic charm) with striking B&W cinematography. Anthony Quinn and Mickey Rooney deliver standout performances, Jackie Gleason is solid (a little bit of a showoff) and the rest of the cast disappear into their roles (including Muhammad Ali in an opening first-person boxing sequence). Rod Sterling's screenplay (based on his own teleplay for a live network TV drama from the 50's) is economical put packed with raw, human emotion that is often uncomfortable to watch. It's a shame Hollywood has shied away from doing common man character dramas like this, which dare to end on a note that is far removed from glamour or forced sentimentality (like Kirk Douglas' "Lonely Are The Brave," also released in '62).

Heavens Above! (1963) on TCM for the first time. When the wealthy town of Orbiston Parva gets assigned the wrong clergyman (in a clerical error very similar to Blake Edwards' "The Party") the snobbish/wealthy parishoners have their deeds and motives gently questioned by Rev. Smallwood (Peter Sellers). His devotion to the spirit of the holy scriptures at odds with the 'throw money at the problem and be seen doing it' approach of his flock, Smallwood (like Sellers' character in "Being There") plops along as he gradually gets in over his head, pulling Orbiston Parva along with him. More of a gentle Britsh class farce than an outright comedy (although the bits with the Despard's family cash cow, Tranquilax, were hilarious) it's so odd to see Sellers playing a benevolent straight man and still get some laughs. If this movie were remade today you can bet Robin Williams would star in it. A heavy-handed ending disappoints but overall a nice little find for Peter Sellers fans.

Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) on Sundance Channel for the first time. Think "The Tudors: The Next Generation" and you get an idea of what a delicious dish of royal debauchery (minus gore and sex in sanitized PG-13 fashion) this Academy Award Nominee movie is. The lives, loves, lovers, intrigue, backstabbings and petty bickering (both real and imagined) between England's Queen Elizabeth (a superb Glenda Jackson) and Mary Stuart (Vanessa Redgrave) make for a thoroughly entertaining soap opera. Trevor Howard (as Elizabeth's council Cecil), a young and blonde Timothy Dalton (unrecognizable as Lord Danley), Nigel Davenport (as Mary's true love Bothwell) and a small army of European thespians join in the fun. Director Charles Jarrott just points the camera and films the actors without much of a visual style but John Barry's excellent score steps in and gives the production a dose of personality. When Mary and Elizabeth eventually have their face-to-face duels toward the end of the movie you won't care that it's all made-up and didn't happen in real life because "Mary, Queen of Scots" has earned the right to conclude its sordid tale to it's own tune. An absolute blast that makes me want to watch "The Tudors Season 2" On-Demand with my cable system.

The Jazz Singer (1980) on Showtime HD for the first time. I have a co-worker that's a diehard Neil Diamond fan (which I'm not) that's been bugging me to see this movie since forever. He doesn't even know it's a remake of the Al Jolson 1927 original, the world's first talkie movie. But the movie was on today so, in between CNBC breaking news about the Lehmann/Merril collapses, I watched it with an open mind but eventually got bored with how simplistic its done-to-death rags-to-riches cliches pile up. The "Yentl"-like struggle of Jess Robin (Diamond, who outside the singing scenes looks every bit the non-actor he is) to retain his Jewish identity in the face of resistance from his family to accept his rising star is the only storyline plot remotely interesting. Too bad it's badly shoehorned into Diamond performances that feel like an entirely different flick. Laurence Olivier 'Jewing' up his Cantor Rabinovitch character is both hilarious and sad (the man clearly needed the paycheck), both of which are perfect descriptions for this dull and boring flick.

Oliver Stone's Salvador (1986) on HDNet Movies. Having lived through the armed conflict re-enacted here in a widely compressed timeline Stone got minor details wrong (Archbishop Romero was killed by a sniper and not gunned down in church point blank) but the spirit of anything-goes anarchy that were a way of life in my homeland during the 1980's is perfectly captured. "The Killing Fields" did the 'American international policies wrecking the lives of third world people' preachy storyline better two years prior though. And, like "Schindler's List" and countless Hollywood movies set in foreign lands and/or about foreign non-American people, "Salvador" falls victim to the need to have an American lead's life being changed by the events around him because otherwise American viewers wouldn't identify with foreigners. It's a good thing then that James Woods (with a surprisingly good James Belushi, John Savage, Michael Murphy and lots of local Mexican talents tagging along) brings his 'A' game to the portrayal of Richard Boyle. His cynical a-hole persona eventually giving way to love and caring for others (which leads to grief in the end) is a tour-de-force performance that carries the film because, as a viewer, you feel the weight of injustice sweeping over El Salvador's civilian population at the time changing Boyle to his very cynical core.

Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994) on HDNet Movies. As a diehard fan of gameshows and the golden age of television I cannot think of a better casted movie than "Quiz Show." Every role small or large (including Barry Levinson as Dave freaking Garroway!) is cast so perfectly that you can't help but smile if you know your history of classic TV. With excellent production values and a dense screenplay by Paul Attanasio simplified by Redford into a cinematic sign post of America's loss of innocence (those damn cheering crowds during the closing credits never fail to give me the creeps) "Quiz Show's" simple story can be enjoyed because of the wealth of acting talent on display. Rob Morrow has never been better (it's a shame he's wasting his talents on CBS' "Numb3rs"), Ralph Fiennes makes his Charles Van Doren character more complex than the pretty boy he could have been (his scenes with Morrow and Paul Scofield are dynamite), John Turturro is a dead ringer for Herb Stempel and Hank Azaria/David Paymer are suitably squeamy as the producers of the rigged gameshow "Twenty-One." Wish the producers hadn't made Christopher McDonald's Jack Barry such a one-dimensional character though. Barry's involvement with the rigging of "Twenty-One" and other Barry-Enright gameshows of the time was a lot deeper that the way "Quiz Show" portrays him (as an empty TV gameshow host).

Bravehart (1995) on HBO HD. Watched this right after "Mary, Queen of Scots" for one terrific two-fer of Hollywood-warped Scottish history. Who cares that characters, timelines and history of "Braveheart" are thrown by screenwriter Randall Wallace ("Pearl Harbor," "We Were Soldiers") into the proverbial screenwriting blender? Before he turned into a religious crusader Mel Gibson the director knew how to balance his action pieces (which still hold out on their own, particularly the Battle of Stirling) with heroic deeds and a sense of playful humor. Like a medieval James Bond in kilts and without gadgets (put plenty of smarts and brawn) Randall Wallace is classic movie hero material. Chicks want to be with him, guys want to be him (or hang out with the guy) and history remembers his heroic myth more than the actual facts of his life. Patrick McGoohan is a hoot as tortured King Edwar I and, even though her screen time is small, this is the movie that first gave me a crush for Sophie Marceau.

And, last but not least, Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996) on IFC. I have a short fuse for musicals but I'm a big Woody Allen fan. Seeing the two combined thoroughly entertained me when the movie premiered in '96. Seeing it again after many years the comedy is really hit & miss and the singing/dancing sequences only tolerable. Dick Hyman's songs, Helen Miles singing troupe and a small army of dancers try their darnest to be emotional or catchy but it says something about how memorable they are that the 'Chiquita Banana' commercial jingle (sung during the Halloween sequence) outshines them. Edward Norton's character plays too much of a goodie putz (and can't dance to save his life in the jewerly dancing sequence, which I guess is part of the joke), Drew Barrymore is shrill as his fiance and Alan Alda is stuck in his "Manhattan Murder Mystery" persona. Everyone else (Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, Nathasha Lyonne as youthful narrator DJ, etc.) acquits themselves admirably considering they're forced to sing with their non-professional voices (including Woody in a mercifully short song). Too bad they're all playing stereotypical Woody Allen characters (or idealizations of characters) and not people from which human warmth could have derived bigger/better laughs. It's not until the last 20 minutes when a Parisian revue of French Groucho Mark impersonators/dancers/singers (followed by a romantic and gravity-defying dance between Allen and Hawn's characters) that "Everyone Says I Love You" comes alive with its own voice. Everything else before is just a derivative tribute to screwball comedies/musicals without much rhyme or reason.

[J.M. Vargas]

Wow, am I the only one watching stuff? I know everybody else is working while I'm on vacation but come on, where did everyone go?

The Great Dictator (1940) on TCM. Chaplin's first sound movie in which he talks (and relegates his iconic Tramp character to cameo status) would have been an event in and of itself. But to see/hear the man use his stature and ability to dress down Hitler and Mussolini with poignant hilarity at a time these tyrants were ignored by the American press is the work of a true artist. Jack Oakie's Benzini Napaloni is every bit the buffoon as Chaplin's Adenoid Hynkel, but when Chaplin dances as Hynkel with the globe floating in the air it's both artfully humanizing and profoundly pathetic (thus separating Chaplin's creation from Oakie's stock caricature). A masterpiece, plain and simple.

I Married A Witch (1942) on TCM for the first time. Decent fantasy/screwball comedy that feels like an episode of "Bewitched," complete with decent special effects (for its time) and some big laughs at the expense of Frederic March's many Wooley men constantly stepping on the path of Veronica Lake's amusingly nasty witch. Susan Hayward is OK but Cecil Kellaway almost steals the flick.

Monsieur Verdoux (1947) on TCM for the first time. Like 1923's "A Woman of Paris" (except this time he appears on camera besides writing/directing) Chaplin the artist attempts to expand his range with a dark comedy about a black widow-type con man that is bleak and dreary compared to his previous body of work. Can't say I liked at or laughed much (Martha Raye's hilarious situations notwithstanding) but to see Chaplin deliberately playing against type and disappoint his fans when he could have cranked a cookie cutter (and safe) comedy to pay the bills makes "Monsieur Verdoux" an amusing curiosity.

Limelight (1952) on TCM for the first time. The deeper I delve into Chaplin's post-Tramp body of work the more astounded I am at how ballsy the man was to turn his slapstick persona into a walking pathos machine that makes acute observations on humanity and society issues of their day. "Limelight" is a rather depressing reflection of (and by) Chaplin on his own career as a once-famous movie star that finds in a suicidal ballet dancer (Claire Bloom) a chance at redemption for both of their troubled lives. Within a complex canvas of humanity there are some laughs (Chaplin and Buster Keaton teaming up for their only movie appearance together) but "Limelight," like the aforementioned "Woman of Paris," showcases Chaplin the dramatist at his melodramatic best. A milestone in Chaplin's career (it's his last American movie before his exile) this is heavy but accesible stuff.

A King In New York (1957) on TCM for the first time. Fifty years before hidden camera reality shows, overpaid celebrities hacking anything for money, trailers for movies that sound better than they actually are ("MAN OR WOMAN?" ) and plastic surgery becoming fairly common Chaplin was already satirizing these American cultural phenomenons in this hilarious tale of an exhiled king trying to survive a monetary crunch while living at New York's Ritz Hotel. The scene where a TV personality tries to sneak a live TV commercial while pretending to talk to King Shahdov while hidden cameras roll is classic. Chaplin gets really preachy against McCarthy-type communist witch hunts with the Rupert character (Chaplin's own son Michael) but since it's a little kid spouting the adult rethoric (and Chaplin retains a basic love for humanity that keeps his comedies from being truly biting) the results are hilarious. Great supporting work from Jerry Desmonde as King Shahdov's ambassador/servant and Dawn Addame as the media person the king gradually falls in love with. It's taken a long time for me to see them but I'm almost ready to admit I enjoy Chaplin's latter movies more than his iconic silent movie work. There's so many ways to read them besides being simple comedies from a once-beloved movie icon.

Vampyros Lesbos (1970) on Sundance Channel for the first time. Freaky psycho-sexual soft porn flick about an American girl (Ewa Strömberg) falling in and out of dreams/fantasies of being the sexual object of desire by a Hungarian Countess (Soledad Miranda) which might or might not be able to manipulate her subject's minds. Grindhouse auteur Jesus Franco makes sure plenty of flesh and girl-on-girl action is shown every 15 minutes or so but in the end I had no Earthly idea what the hell was going on even though this is basically "Dracula" set in Turkey and starring hot lesbian chicks. Sundance aired the movie (a Spanish production) in German with English subtitles, so who knows what the hell was (and still is) literally lost in translation. Did the creepy hotel dweller (Franco himself) kill Countess Carody's body or did Linda imagine that? And if the former is true then who the hell is that at the end of the movie laying provocatively dressed in bed? You'll never forget the suitably odd soundtrack covering this movie from beginning to end (or Miranda's great bod) but as Skinemax fodder it's a rather tame flick.

Terms of Endearment (1983) on TCM. This is the first movie I remember seeing in a theater (at age 10) and falling in love with it's musical score as it played. Michael Gore's Oscar nominated soundtrack (it's a crime he didn't win) has been part of my music collection since. I'd forgotten how annoying Debra Winger's nasal laugh is in this flick (which is hilarious now that it's known she was a recovering cocaine addict at the time) but otherwise James L. Brooks' melodramatic comedy about the ups and downs of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship (and the men around them) over several years still clicks. Shirley McLaine gets on my nerves but I guess that's the point of her Aurora character. Nicholson exudes movie star cool in all his scenes and the usually-maniacal trio of DeVito, Lithgow and Daniels turn in effectively restrained performances. Is anyone else annoyed when the movie ends and the 'white font on blue screen' credits scroll, or am I just being too picky?

And, last but not least, the first two episodes of True Blood on HBO On Demand. I bailed on Alan Ball's "Six Feet Under" early on (not my cup of tea) but this one's got me hooked after two episodes even though I don't see any possible way they can keep the quality of the stories being this good for several seasons (assuming it even lasts that long). Setting the vampires as an out-in-the-open minority (which is both feared and craved by regular folks for their blood and sexuality) that can be victims of prejudice/abuse by an ignorant American Southern culture sets "True Blood's" potential for metaphor-driven storylines through the roof. Anna Paquin's character has yet to grow on me (her accent and quirky mannerisms don't help) but her friends are an amusing bunch, particularly Rutina Wesley's Tara. Stephen Moyer is miscast as the enigmatic Bill (IMHO) but there's room for improvement. It's no "Dexter" but compared with HBO's pitiful original offerings as of late (when is "Big Love" coming back?) "True Blood" is an addictive guilty pleasure.

[Dan Mancini]

Finally got around to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected (or heard). It wasn't great. I don't feel the need to ever see it again. But it was pretty to look at and fairly fun.

[BenShultz]

Finally got around to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected (or heard). It wasn't great. I don't feel the need to ever see it again. But it was pretty to look at and fairly fun.

The robots were freaking awesome. It could have used less Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. If it was Angelina Jolie fighting those robots, it would be the greatest movie ever.

I saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona last night. I really want to start liking Woody Allen, so I guess I should stop watching his new stuff and focus on the movies that are supposed to be good. (I'm not saying that I've only seen his new films. Really, the main essentials I think I still need to see are Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters. But there are probably others. I've tried sitting through Stardust Memories, and I find it to be self-indulgent bullshit. And now I really need to get out of these parentheses, so I'll save the rest of my Allen comments for later.) This wasn't bad, exactly, just average with a few moments of greatness. The drop-dead gorgeous cast was a nice bonus, and after seeing No Country for Old Men six times now, it was nice to remember that Javier Bardem really isn't completely terrifying and psychotic.

[J.M. Vargas]

Two Thousand Women (1944) on TCM for the first time. Rather unbelievable (even by the standards of the time) World War II British propaganda movie about Marneville Women's Prison occupants (British women in a French prison?) shielding and helping three male RAF soldiers escape from their Nazi jailers. Looking more like a luxury hotel than a prison (right down to drop dead gorgeous prisoners with an apparently endless supply of clothing) and featuring the most incompetent bunch of Nazis this side of Vic Morrow's "Combat" TV show, "Two Thousand Women" feels like watered-down "Casablanca" (right down to the patritoc singing showdown between Germans and Brits). A handful of recognizable (Flora Robson) or pretty faces (Patricia Roc as the nun) keep this from being a complete bore, but barely.

Ten Seconds To Hell (1959) on TCM for the first time. Predictable but gripping drama about a squadron of German nationals (even though they're played by American actors speaking in perfect English) hired to deactivate unexploded Allied bombs all over Berlin right after Word War II. These men make a pact that whoever is left alive at the end of three months collects the others' salaries, which is put to the test when unknown British 1,000 pounder bombs with a 10-second trigger start popping up. Like a warm-up for director Robert Aldrich's "Dirty Dozen" a few years later (minus the time, resources or script to make us care about the supporting characters) it all boils down to a duel of wills between Jack Palance's prudent Eric Koertner and Jeff Chandler's devil-may-care Karl Wirtz. Watching Palance and Chandler play against type is half the fun of this movie, which sadly becomes predictable early on when it's clear we're headed for a showdown between the two leads. Martine Carol is wasted as a potential love interest for either man.

The Equinox... A Journey Into the Supernatural (1967) on Criterion DVD for the first time. During its first 40-45 minutes this feels like the ultra-low budget home movie it is, albeit one done with far more imagination and production values (from future SFX wizards Muren/McGee/Allen) than much higher-budgeted commercial fare of the time. But the movie's third act (from which Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" stole its ominous 'book of the dead' set-up) lifts up the entire project from demo reel material into a crazy-cool sci-fi geek's delightful romp. Jack Woods' enhanced/extended version is next, but in it's raw original form "The Equinox..." makes a good first impression.

Clay Pigeons (1998) on Sundance Channel for the first time. The Scott Bros. (Tony and Ridley) co-produced this thriller set in Montana about a young mechanic named Clay (Joaquin Phoenix) in over his head. His friend Earl kills himself to frame Clay for his death to get back at him for sleeping with his wife Amanda (Georgina Cates). Then along comes a stranger named Lester Long (Vince Vaughn) and FBI agent Dale Shelby (Janeane Garofalo). Clay's attempts to keep himself out of trouble spiral out of control. Director David Dobkin fills the soundtrack with songs and music that distract rather than complement the movie, which isn't as cool as it thinks it is. Vaughn is having a ball though, and that helps keep "Clay Pigeons" afloat 'till it's far-fetched BS ending.

Armitage: Dual Matrix (2002) on DVD for the first time. The first "Armitage" anime movie, "Poly Matrix" (shown on Sci-Fi Channel back in the 90's), was OK despite being originally a handful of Japanese OAV episodes given a star-studded English VO (Keifer Sutherland, Elizabeth Berkley) and a limited theatrical release. This 2002 sequel doesn't bother with flashbacks and throws you into the world of Third Series robot Naomi (voiced by Juliette Lewis in the English dub) as she travels back to Earth from her Mars hideout to investigate a massacre of robots and humans on the eve of a potential breakthrough for the rights of robots to be as free as humans. Other than now-dated CG backgrounds/foreground objects (which look like streamed PS2 videogames), limiting the enemies to only two Armitage dopplegangers (hence the movie's name) and Naomi's personality being a lot more subdued (she was looser and more emotional in the prequel) "Armitage: Dual Matrix" is serviceable but unremarkable anime fare. "Dual Matrix's" ideas and subject matters flirt with emotional depth and vision. Then you remember the 'robot with a conscience' bit has been done to death in pop culture since forever, and "Armitage" becomes just another shiny beverage coaster. For what it's worth the Japanese dub kills the amaterish-sounding (and unnecessary) English VO.

[Future Man]

Hard-Boiled
I was prepared to thoroughly enjoy it but, sorry, but what an overrated, overblown piece of junk from the more-is-less school of 1980s action flicks only this was from 1992. Ridiculous and unpolished in the extreme.

[J.M. Vargas]

You take that back!

[mavrach]

Watched seasons one of the US version of The Office, which was only 6 episodes. Now the BBC version is one of my favorites, and I'd heard that the US version wasn't as good, so I held off watching it for a long time. I heard enough recommendations to gamble on the first season.

I thought that every scene that remade a scene already in the BBC version fell flat. The timing of the BBC cast was simply so much better. However when the show tried to go in its own direction, I thought it did much better. Just ordered Season 2.

[Andrew Forbes]

La Ronde. An instant favorite. Very funny and gorgeously shot.

[Future Man]

The Virgin Spring
Beautifully shot and emotionally devastating.

[mavrach]

Gave The Crow a whirl for the first time in a long while. This was one of the three DVD's I bought with my first player 5 years ago, and haven't watched it since. It's not the greatest movie and is firmly stuck in the 90's, but it's nostalgic for me since I used to love it so much when it first came out.

I remember my disappointment seeing it for the first time at 13-ish years old, expecing the son of Bruce Lee to make a martial arts flick instead of a gloomy action movie. After the second viewing I liked it much more.

[Kevin]

Silverado - very entertaining movie.

[Future Man]

Tell No One
I'm telling everyone about this excellent French mystery-thriller, an adaptation of an American novel of the same name.

[J.M. Vargas]

Tell No One
I'm telling everyone about this excellent French mystery-thriller, an adaptation of an American novel of the same name.

I'll wait for the American adapatation... of the French movie... based on an American novel... I think!

I've watched so many movies/TV shows over the past few days that I've decided to break them into two groups. First group gets posted tonight (again, in chronological and not viewing order) and the second one tomorrow.

The Ghoul (1933) on TCM for the first time. For a once-missing early British talkie from the 1930's (one of the first sound and horror movies done in England) this is pretty good stuff. Boris Karloff stars as Prof. Morlant, an Anubis (of Egypt and "Stargate" fame) worshipper that on his dying bed leaves precise instructions to his servant Laing (Ernest Thesiger) about what to do with a precious jewel called 'Eternal Light' wrapped tight in the professor's hand. Naturally things don't go as planned (i.e. lots of people want that jewel) so Karloff returns from the dead to try and get his precious stone back, stalking in the process a half-a-dozen disposable characters (relatives, acquaintances, etc.) between him and total return to life. Except for grating-even-by-'33-standards moments of laugh-free, so-called comedic relief whenever Kathleen Harrison is on screen (yuck!) and the anti-climactic resolution of Karloff's return from the dead (overshadowed by the hunt for the 'Eternal Light') "The Ghoul" is serviceable B&W horror entertainment.

I Am The Law (1938) on TCM for the first time. Edward G. Robinson plays a law professor set up by mobbed-up big city bosses to fail as an appointed prosecutor that takes on the mob. Things, naturally, have a way of working in Edward G.'s favor. I've seen enough "Law & Order" episodes to know half the legal arguments used to take the bad guys down in "I Am The Law" are BS, but who cares? When Robinson gets going the mob (and viewers) don't stand a chance against the little big man from Warner, who somehow was moonlighting at Columbia for this flick.

Les Enfants du paradis (1945) on IFC for the first time. Considering it was made in occupied France during World War II (not the ideal circumstances under which to create the French equivalent of "Gone With the Wind," as the American publicity labeled this movie) this tragic epic romance delivers a healthy dose of laughs, tears and every emotion in-between. Marcel Herrand's portrayal of Pierre-François Lacenaire (a villain whose vanity matches his selfishness and intellect) steals the movie. Every time Lacenaire is on camera the movie comes alive. Arletty's Garance (the object of desire by just about every male character in the piece), Jean-Louis Barrault's Baptiste (the gifted mime who's never loved anyone besides Garance) and Pierre Brasseur's Frédérick Lemaître (a womanizing and selfish but also very talented actor) are good, but some supporting performances (Marcel Pérès, Pierre Renoir, etc.) are so over-the-top they distract from the main storyline. The first half of "Les Enfants...", 'The Boulevard of Crime,' is richer in characterization and more fun than the more somber "Man in White" second half. The ending also feels stunted and unfulfilling but appropriate to its genre and period. A winner.

Ghost Town (1956) on TCM for the first time. Lame and generic by-the-numbers western about a group of stagecoach passengers that take refuge in an abandoned town and fend of waves (literally back-and-forth, left-to-right-to-left waves) of indians trying to take an injured Indian chief that's also taken refuge in the abandoned town. The opening credits had me expecting a western-set horror movie (which would have been cool) but instead we get a poor man's "Rio Bravo" remake, right down to the stereotypical stock characters arguing with each other. Kent Taylor and Joel Ashley stand out from the lame cast as a double-crossing gun dealer and Union Army Sargent, respectively.

Rebel In Town (1956) on TCM for the first time. Half the cast of the aforementioned "Ghost Town" moonlights in this slightly-better western about a group of confederate outlaws, all members of the Mason clan, on the run after one of them accidentally kills the young son of a frontier man (John Payne) blinded by revenge. There is manufactured but entertaining tension between the Mason siblings about whether they should all pay the price for the actions of trigger-happy Wesley (John Smith). The town of grief-stricken folks willing and ready to hang any Mason for the young boy's killing is also a highlight in this B western that looks and feels like a missing B&W "Bonanza" episode before the Cartwrights came onboard. Decent but no great shakes.

Attack (1956) on TCM for the first time. The more I watch Robert Aldrich's World War II movies the more clear it becomes to me how his "Dirty Dozen" masterpiece was the exclamation point (rather than the highlight) of a career filled with manly men making tough decisions during times of war. Like an extended episode of TV's "Combat!" set in Europe 1944 (but a good sweeps month episode, not the filler one's in-between) the Nazis are evil, a town needs to be taken/defended and the arguments between American military hierarchy members can often be as deadly as the German panzers. Eddie Albert's Captain Cooney is a little too buffoonish as a son-of-privilege miltary leader in over his head trying to impress his well-connected father back in the States (think 'Dubya'). Albert's portrayal is both pathetic enough to be an effective villain and an object of pity. Lee Marvin excels at what amounts to a villain role (one with plenty of gray shades), Jack Palance is the picture of righteous anger as the lowly Lieutenant calling Cooney on his bulls*** and the supporting performances (Robert Strauss's Pfc. Bernstein, Buddy Ebsen's Sgt. Tolliver, etc.) are decent. Another small gem that time (and DVD release organizers) seems to have forgotten.

A Face In the Crowd (1957) on TCM for the first time. 51 years before the current stereotype of the celebrity-with-political-clout-to-influence-policy star system (think Chuck Norris, Sean Penn, etc.) or the pundit-as-a-star syndrome (Keith Olbermann, Sean Hannity, etc.) became common such personalities were already worthy of biting satire. Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg (director and screenwriter of "On the Waterfront," respectively), with a then fresh-faced Andy Griffith in the lead role, pull no punches in this thinly-veiled portrayal of a star (Arthur Godfrey?) whose behind-the-scenes arrogance about the audience he takes for granted brings about his eventual downfall. Like "Network" this is one of those prophetic movies about celebrity and media that probably seemed wildly unbelievable when initially released, and yet remains watchable today because of solid acting (Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Anthony Franciosa, etc.) and for being a now-dated sign post of things that have come to pass. Keep an eye out for Charles Nelson Reilly ("Lidsville") and Lee Remick ("The Omen") in their motion picture debuts.

Monte Walsh (1970) on TCM for the first time. From a novel by Jack Schaefer (author of "Shane") comes a subdued but excellent western about the last days of the cattle ranch business in the Western frontier driving two old cowboys (Lee Marvin and Jack Palance) to re-examine their code, friendship and lifestyle. Though there are a couple of shootouts and the obligatory saloon brawl director William Fraker (a veteran cinematographer) keeps the attention focused on the daily lives of a dying breed of men to mine most of the movie's best and most dramatic scenes. Marvin and Palance (reunited 14 years after 1956's "Attack") have excellent chemistry together and are backed by a strong ensemble cast (TV veterans like "Hill Street Blues'" Michael Conrad, "The Incredible Hulk's" Jack Colvin, etc.) including Marvin's real-life love interest Jeanne Moreau ("The Lovers") in her fist English-speaking role. All that plus John Barry scores the movie's final showdown like if it were a James Bond adventure. A great flick to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon if someone (MGM?) ever sees fit to release it on DVD.

The Color of Money (1986) on HDNet Movies. This is the third and last time I gave this flick a chance to impress me. Not anymore. Yes, it's cool to see Newman playing his iconic once-youthful movie character 25 years later. Yes, it's cool to watch Scorsese (directing) and Price (screenplay) break storytelling conventions and go all flashy on the sport of billiards. Yes, there is genuine chemistry between Cruise, Newman and Mastrantonio as grifters trying to outsmart and use each other. And yes, ultimately this another Cruise vehicle for his all-American boy to become a man at the hands of a mentor with a lot to prove to himself that we've all grown sick of from formula overkill. Nothing happens in this movie (unless you count whatever you think happens after the credits roll as being related to the flick) except boredom setting in 30 minutes into it and never letting go of the piece.

Rat (2000) on Sundance Channel for the first time. The only reason I even DVR'ed this one was because the online listing mentioned it starred Pete Postlethwaite as a man that becomes a rat and is taken in by his family. What I wasn't expecting was (a) the Kafka-as-a-comedy tone of the piece and (b) how the patriarch's transformation is used as a springing board to explore the family bonds of an Irish household when confronted with such a fantastic adversity. I wasn't bored or entertained by anything or anyone in "Rat" (except for "Vera Drake's" Imelda Staunton as the matriarch) but after watching it I wondered aloud why the hell had I even wanted to see it in the first place. Postlethwaite's role amounts to a glorified cameo.

And, last and certainly least, Snakes on a Plane (2006) on HBO-HD. If we're going to give grief to Pacino and DeNiro for selling out their craft for the sake of a paycheck ("Righteous Kill" anyone?), can we save some of that anger for Sam Jackson? On an almost-empty theater opening night "SOAP" was fun even if the brain-dead script and continuity errors (particularly Jackson's signature 'mother f***ing' close-up not matching every scene before and after) were legion and got in the way of what could have been an amusing B movie. In the comfort of one's home with the movie-watching faculties fully turned on though this is a badly-paced and sophomoric flick that makes the Irwin Allen disaster movies look like "The Last Emperor." "SOAP's" only lasting legacy is as a warning sign for the Democratic party of what happens when hype (like the one on the internet preceding the movie's release) doesn't match or meet expectations. Youth vote showing up in droves at the polls on Election Day? Yep, I'll believe it when I see it.

[BenSaylor]

One Hour With You--Only Maurice Chevalier's considerable charm got me through this one. The paper-thin premise barely sustains the film's scant 78 minute runtime, and the songs are almost uniformly dull. Granted, I haven't seen any other musicals from this time period, but if this is what they're like, count me out.

The Onion Field--I haven't read Joseph Wambaugh's book but I've read a couple others of his, and had heard good things about the movie. Overall, I was disappointed. Wambaugh's script tries so hard to cram all the facts into the screenplay that there's little room for emotional resonance. Still, there is some fine acting to be found in it, especially from a very young James Woods.

Lakeview Terrace--I don't know why I gave Neil LaBute another chance after The Wicker Man, and after watching this, I still don't know why. LT is a tacky, boringly shot thriller with a self-parodic Samuel L. Jackson performance and absurd climax/resolution.

Richard III (1995)--Setting Shakespeare's play in an alternate-history, 1930s fascist England is an inspired idea, and the look of Richard Loncraine's film is pretty impressive, as is Ian McKellen's performance in the title role. That being said, the film is not immune to silliness (McKellen's repeated breaking of the fourth wall gets old fast), and the battle scenes at the end are horribly staged. Also, the R1 DVD of this has no English subtitles, which I would have appreciated so I could catch all of the complicated dialogue.

[Gabriel Girard]

Sky High - Enjoyable live-action Disney kids' movie - some nice gags and action, too bad about the telegraphed plot.

Gardens Of Stone - Contains lots of nice character moments and great acting from the adults. The main character is interesting but D.B. Sweeney doesn't really have the chops to make it work. The movie also overstays its welcome and loses focus in the third act. Starting the movie with the main character's burial was a bad idea. Definitely minor Coppola.

[Andrew Forbes]

Sawdust & Tinsel. My first Bergman and holy crap was it ever worth the wait. I only hope I like the rest of his work this much.

[Boba Fett]

LOST: Season 1: I'm glad I waited until now to start this series, because I'd have gone crazy waiting week to week to see what happens. Still extremely compelling despite the fact I know some big spoilers.
Good Night and Good Luck: Great film. Well paced, well acted, simple and to the point.

[J.M. Vargas]

Caught Ed Harris' Appaloosa (2008) in a NYC theater Monday afternoon. Don't believe the trailers making this out to be a shoot-out prone action western (a few gore trims here and there minus a couple of 'f***' utterances and this could have easily been a PG-13 flick). It's a slow-moving period piece that is a little self-indulgent (the soundtrack is all over the place and a little too contemporary sounding for my taste) but it's never boring or dull. Viggo Mortensen steals the movie. His Everett Hitch character would have been a better Doc Holliday in "Tombstone" than Val Kilmer's, and I liked Kilmer's portrayal of Holliday a lot! Viggo carries in his deadpan facial expressions all the worries and fears that never cross Ed Harris' stoic portrayal of Virgil Cole (think Billy from "Knightriders" but a little more sane and in need of love). Renée Zellweger is miscast as the woman who threatens to get between Everett and Virgil though, and Jeremy Irons literally phones in his heavy role (a shame!). Overall I'd say it's worth a matinee priced viewing. Whatever you do though, please exit the theater before the song where Ed Harris sings some rather nasty lyrics starts midway through the credits!

[Steve T Power]

28 Weeks Later - Picked this up with the first one in a buy one-get one deal just before Christmas last year, finally took the wraps off last night. What an amazing little nugget of pure tension. From the opening scenes to the closing credits the movie just continued to ratchet it up a notch or two until it broke the damn knob off. Not your typical jump scares or standard fare horror devices either - there's some damn imaginative stuff here (though the helicopter lawnmower was a bit much...). It loses a little bit of the "reality" of the first film, and wanders into Hollywood territory, but it's every bit as effective.

[Ptolemy]

Saw Ghost Town last night. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Had me laughing out loud in several spots. Was the acting great? Not really. Was the screenplay great? Not really. Just Gervais, Kinnear, and Leone doing slight variations on their stock characters - but in a comfort movie sort of way I didn't mind at all. I did start to worry towards the end when it looked to me that they were heading for Groundhog Day, but they thankfully pulled back some. Not a bad little comedy.

[Andrew Forbes]

Brand Upon the Brain. Simply awesome. It's easily among my favorite Maddin flicks, perhaps just behind My Winnipeg.

[hoytereden]

Just a few things I recorded off TCM yesterday-It was Anthony Mann night:
Devil's Doorway-Very interesting western other than the usual casting of a white man as an American Indian, In this case Robert Taylor. He plays a man who has lived in both White and Indian societies but cannot be accepted in the White one. I think this one flies under the Mann radar because it came out the same year as Winchester '73.
The Tall Target-Another lesser known Mann that is quite good. Concerns the efforts of Dick Powell trying to thwart a plot to assassinate Lincoln. Ironically, Powell's character is named John Kennedy.
The Man From Laramie-Back to familiar ground with this one. The usual terrific Mann/Stewart teaming.
He Walked By Night-Credit-wise not directed by Mann but much like Christian Nyby's name being on The Thing From Another World we now know different. The blueprint for Jack Webb's Dragnet-he has a mdi-sized part in this one and clearly borrowed heavily. Richard Basehart's ice cold killer is one of the all time scary bad guys on film. Iconic scenes-Basehart's character diving into the sewer openings and that image of him running through the tunnels with the flashlight image getting smaller and smaller...Also the scene of him digging the bullet out of himself is one great sequence-So well acted you almost feel the pain. Great Film!

[BenSaylor]

The Wind and the Lion--Brian Keith makes a solid Theodore Roosevelt, but Sean Connery is laughably miscast as the Raisuli. The movie is admittedly entertaining, but is ultimately just another example of the saber-rattling filmmaking from John Milius.

This Property is Condemned--Director: Sydney Pollack. Co-writer: Francis Ford Coppola, adapting from Tennessee Williams. Stars: Robert Redford, Natalie Wood. D.P.: James Wong Howe. And yet, with all those elements, the movie is a dud. While strikingly photographed (not as good looking as They Shoot Horses, Don't They? but still solid), the film's promising opening act quickly devolves into silly melodrama. The musical score is atrocious as well.

[Future Man]

Strangers on a Train
I kept wondering whether the film would have been better had the two leads reversed roles. The finale is equal parts ludicrous and gripping.

[hoytereden]

Strangers on a Train
I kept wondering whether the film would have been better had the two leads reversed roles. The finale is equal parts ludicrous and gripping.

I don't think so. Walker's performance as Bruno is fantastic. So different from his all-american boy casting of the WWII years. With films like this, Vengence Valley, and his final one My Son John he displayed an entirely different acting persona. Who knows where his career might have gone had personal demons not destroyed him.

Concerning the finale-Just as I cringe at the overuse of Slo-Mo these days, even the great directors weren't immune to speeding up the action back then.

[HGervais]

Risky Business...it's hard to believe this thing is 25 years old. It's still as fresh and funny and sexy as it was when I first saw it but returning to it now it is also obvious that it is pretty dark and has some wicked & subversive things to saw about our culture & American business. The movie still gets the same laughs but with much more of an edge. Brickman's film is both style & substance and it is easily in my top five for movies from that decade.

[J.M. Vargas]

I've watched so many movies/TV shows over the past few days that I've decided to break them into two groups. First group gets posted tonight (again, in chronological and not viewing order) and the second one tomorrow.

Well, that was on Sunday and since then a ton of work came between me and my last batch of watched movies during last week's vacation-induced free-for-all. Here's Part II of last week's watching binge:

Topper (1937) on TCM for the first time. Based on the TCM promo that got me interested in watching this I expected a lot more of Cary Grant than what I got (what with him being one of the two 'ghosts'). Constance Bennett and Roland Young carry most of the film well though, and the screwball antics have a nice pace that builds nicely and pays off when all hell breaks loose at the hotel. With the right cast and a good writer/director that knows comedy this could be a good remake to shop around Hollywood.

Union Station (1950) on TCM for the first time. Wow, talk about an undiscovered gem! The location shoot really maximizes it's single locale (a bustling train station filled with tunnels, trains and passengers) for all the tension it's story (about an abducted victim being held for ransom) could possibly generate. William Holden and Nancy Olson are excellent as the station detective and passenger (respectively) running against the clock to save an innocent blind girl from Lyle Bettger's suave heavy.

Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952) on IFC for the first time. Like a Japanese Willy Loman (right down to the unappreciative grown-up son), Takashi Shimura (an exceptional Kanji Watanabe) feels that his carefully constructed, decades-long dull life as a Japanese government official is crashing down on him when he finds out he has less than six months to live. Unlike Loman though, Shimura gets a purpose in life that drives him from unexceptional to something akin to an anomaly: a productive government employee. As powerful an indictment of governmental bureocracy as I've ever seen captured on film (the scene after Shimura's funeral is both heartbreaking but also sobering in it's believability) what I will remember "Ikiru" for as long as I live are Kanji Watanabe's sad puppy eyes begging for something (the love of life from a young female co-worker, approval from the Deputy Major, etc.) to keep him going just long-enough to savor another day. The next time Criterion has a sale "Ikiru" will be a must buy.

Federico Fellini's I Vitelloni (1953) on IFC for the first time. Like "Amarcord" (which I loved, unlike more memorable Fellini stuff with emphasis on visuals like "8 1/2" that I simply couldn't get into) this is a Fellini semi-autographical movie in which memorable imagery (like the indoor party/carnival) takes a backseat to a very simple story. We observe five thitysomething male friends going about their aimless daily lives in a small Italian town circa 1952 when one of them, Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), is forced to marry the girlfriend (Eleonora Ruffo) he knocked up. Rather than grow up Fausto continues his womanizing ways, which almost threaten to drag his more level-headed friend Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi, who narrates) and family into more chaos. Like "American Graffiti" and many other films about grown-up men refusing to grow up (metaphor to post-WWII Italy?) Moraldo's act of rebellion at the end of "I Vitelloni" is the exclamation point of an acutely observant look at a long-gone time and place in history. Second Fellini film in a row I like!

Sansho the Bailiff (1954) on IFC for the first time. Epic yet intimate Japanese period (set in the Heian period) about the family members of an exiled province governor being sold to slavery and their decades-long struggle to both survive, uphold their father's compassionate teachings and get together again. Director Kenji Mizoguchi doesn't overplay his actors or has them coming off as stooges in this f***ed-up morality tale, which ends with one of the most heartbreaking reunion scenes I've ever seen on film. Even though Yoshiaki Hanayagi's grown-up Zushiô becomes a central figure (the movie's title character is peripheral to the main storyline) Kyôko Kagawa's Anju and Akitake Kôno's Taro characters were my personal favorites. Kinuyo Tanaka is also solid in her very few scenes as the matriarch that sees her family ripped from her hands by the cruelty of fate.

Diabolique (1955) on IFC for the first time. I knew nothing about the plot or the ending going in, and yet after the movie finished it dawned on me how many cheap thrillers (on movies and television) over the past 53 years have ripped off Clouzot's masterpiece. A psychological noir to the bone, the tension builds and builds toward a rather far-fetched but satisfying conclusion that had me slapping my forehead because I didn't see it coming (love the dire text warning at the end to audience members not to spoil the ending for others). Véra Clouzot's Christina earned my sympathy despite her horrible deeds (she looks sooooo innocent and 'purty'). Simone Signoret and Paul Meurisse, combined with Armand Thirard's excellent B&W cinematography (dig them shadows!), make for a terrific genre picture far removed from Clouzot's own "Wages of Fear."

A Town Like Alice (1956) on TCM for the first time. Had I not seen Ken Burn's magnificent "The War" mini-series last year (or more realistic portrayals of war captivity like "The Killing Fields") I probably would have enjoyed this inspired-by-a-true-story British WWII movie a little bit more. A group of British POW women and children are forced by their Japanese captors to wonder Malaysia for years and hundreds of miles on an endless death march. One of these women (Virginia McKenna) falls in love with an Australian POW driver (Peter Finch) that her group keeps running into on their endless back-and-forth walks. He sneaks foods and other stuff, she promises they will one again after the war. Told in flashbacks, "A Town Like Alice" has decent leads and an interesting premise. Tran Van Khe's Captain Sugaya also makes for a great bad guy to hate. Shame that the well-groomed female cast and direction don't convey the feeling these British POW's are suffering as badly as the premise tells us they are. For death march victims the women in "A Town Like Alice" don't look any less than fabulous except when they're pretending to die from exhaustion. Worthy subject matter, mediocre execution.

The Tingler (1959) on TCM for the first time. Why isn't this movie a bigger cult classic, ala "Rocky Horror Picture Show"? Thank you God for giving b-movie entreprenuer William Castle a nutsack gigantic enough (with no shame to boot) for him to appear on camera at the start of "The Tingler" to warn us with a straight face about the horror about to take place (I know, Hitch did it too but at least he backed his on-screen mugging with some pretty damn good flicks). What follows is a silly but thoroughly entertaining scholck feature (the type gently spoofed in Joe Dante's "Matinee") with everything from 'fake' color effects on the B&W print to a memorable monster-on-the-loose scene inside a movie theater playing a silent flick. Vincent Price is omnipresent throughout the film as a pathologist that will stop at nothing to discover 'the tingler,' a bug-like creature hidden in all of us whose only physical manifestation happens when a terrified person can't scream (cue the 'blackouts'). Seeing Vincent trip on acid trying not to scream alone makes the "The Tingler" worth seeing. Everything else, including a surprisingly strong performance by Philip Coolidge as the husband of the germophobic deaf-mute woman (!) Price wants to experiment on, is just gravy.

Here We Go Round the Mulberrry Bush (1968) on TCM for the first time. A dated swingin' 60's British youth movie (the type Mike Myers' first "Austin Powers" movie satirized so perfectly) about a 16-year old lad named Jessie (Barry Evans) trying to score with either one of five girls he keeps running into so he can lose his virginity. Jessie feels like a cross between Ferris Bueller (he talks to himself aloud but never looks directly at the camera or breaks the 4th wall) and Tom Courtenay's Billy 'Liar' Fisher (Jessie imagines himself scoring with the chicks he's around in recreations of classic movie scenes). Not as naughty as it thinks it is (despite some explicit nude/sex scenes) "Mulberry Bush" will be best appreciated by people who lived through the era and/or are classic British movie enthusiasts. Blink and you'll miss "Raiders of the Lost Ark's" Denholm Elliott as one of the parents of a girl Jessie is trying to ask out (nutty!).

Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982) on Sundance Channel for the first time. Bergman goes epic yet remains intimate in this three-hour plus tale (theatrical version, not the 300+ min. Sweedish TV version) of the good times and bad, trials/tribulations and triumphs, bitter realities and fantastic escapes (plus the deaths, lives and births) of various members of the Ekhal clan circa the early 1900's. The first third of the movie dedicated to a family reunion/party on Christmas eve is easily it's best. The time period detail, attention to detail, colorful performances (dozens of characters are introduced) and unspoken-but-ever-present sense of dread Bergman brings to his work is simply masterful. Things pick-up at the midway point when Jan Malmsjö enters the scene. He makes a jeer-worthy bad guy in Bishop Edvard Vergerus, a man so cold and distant his greatest crime is driving his first children and wife to kill themselves (off camera) before the arrival to his esterile monastery of the widow (Ewa Fröling) and children (Pernilla Allwin and Bertil Guve as Fanny and Alexander, respectively) of deceased Ekhal son Oscar (Allan Edwall). The last third of the movie is an uneven mix of fantasy (both real and imagined through the eyes of Alexander), allegory and hope with the character of Isak (Erland Josephson) pulling some rather unbelievable stuff that is matched by the script's tidy resolution to Alexander's family problems. Guess I need the rent the Criterion DVD to put this flick into proper perspective. On first impression this one is an uneven but enjoyable Bergman flick though, the closest he ever came to mainstream-type entertainment.

Oldboy (2003) on Sundance Channel for the first time. Even though I saw the 'twist' coming early on (something I rarely catch on, which surprised even me) this is one helluva convoluted but never dull contemporary revenge 'noir' with that now-distinctive South Korean flavor for cinematic flare that's threatening to become mainstream in the States. The 'hallway hammer fight' sequence is nothing short of magnificent (perfect use of the anamorphic frame composition) and, like Hitchcock with "Psycho," the greatest trick director Chan-wook Park ever pulled in "Oldboy" was fooling his audience into thinking the movie is a lot more violent than it actually is. Not for the easily offended or those that can't look past its most lurid parts for the beautiful message beating at the heart of the story.

And, last and certainly least, watched the last five episodes of NBC's Heroes Season 2 (2007) on Mojo HD along with the Season 3 Two-Hour Premiere (2008) on NBC-HD back-to-back. After the paint-drying bore that were the first six episodes of Season 2 the final five episodes (from the writer's strike-shortened 2007 season) catch-up pretty nicely and deliver some genuine 'WTF!' moments (most of them in the "Four Months Ago" episode) that reminded me of how much fun the first season was. Joyce asked in another thread if this is an "X-Men" homage or a ripoff. Since series creator Tim Kring claims to not know much comic book lore before he created the show (hence he can't be paying homage to something that isn't near and dear to him) it's definitely a ripoff, albeit one done by people with more knowledge of how to do network dramas (like Kring's own "Crossing Jordan").

The newest two episodes though (particularly "The Butterfly Effect") have effectively robbed "Heroes" of any sense of tension or urgency from overreliance on the beaten-to-death time travel space continuum 'deus ex machina' plot device. Some characters are acting 180 degrees of how they were (Mohinder is becoming a clone of "The Fly's" Seth Brundle, right down to that movie's camera shots and Goldblum appearance) while others continue to be/act like idiots (Hiro and Peter) more because of how they're written than portrayed. There also needs to be a massive thinning of the herd of heroes (new and old) for any one of them to get more than a handful of minutes a week to tell their stories. I'm still watching but damn if "Heroes" isn't about to become the "Jerry Springer" of primetime scripted shows: an ongoing slow-motion trainwreck you can't take your eyes off of.

[Gabriel Girard]

Speed Racer Thoroughlly enjoyed it in a non-ironic fashion. My only caveat is the length.

[Steve T Power]

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Was not enjoyable in the least. From the quirky "I want to make a Dracula rock opera with puppets! I'm so quirky!" nature of the main character, to the tired and incredibly unfunny plot progression, this flick was a total waste of time. Mila Kunis was hot, but played the "I be a sassy carefree girl!" cliche to the letter, and the whole shebang was predictable as hell. I laughed out loud twice. The only thing that really worked was the British Rock band boyfriend that the titular character absconds to Hawaii with. He isn't the typical "other male" jackass character, he was the most enjoyable part of the film, and the only time the flick came close to good was when he was on screen.

[J.M. Vargas]

The Hoodlum Priest (1961) on TCM for the first time. Decent but predictable drama from Irvin Kirshner ("The Empire Strikes Back") about a St. Louis Jesuit priest (Don Murray, who also wrote the screenplay) trying to set the life of a young criminal ("2001: A Space Odyssey's" Keir Dullea) back on a straight path after he's released from prison following an unjust incarceration. The message of the movie (criminal life is an unbreakable viscious cycle) is too simplistic to fly in today's complex world, but the actors sell it as good as they can. Cindi Wood is wasted as the potential love interest of Dullea's Billy Lee Jackson character.

[molly1216]

J.M. Vargas set me up with the last Battlestar Galactica Season and Law and Order CI Season
they both kept me glued to my new tv for an entire day.
(I was nursing a sick kitten that died about midnight)

BG never leaves you feeling unfull, though i do get tired of the political and religious side plots, it is still a well rounded universe, with something for everyone. someone please tell me why Baltar is still fracking alive? the cat's got 19 lives.
and WTF is up with Katee? her Starbuck is a tremendous character with lost of range for her to play, but when she is cast in anything else it's always crap? Here's hoping Lost and Found will do her righteously. And I am not happy about Apollo turned politician...no more opportunities to see him sans shirt...or more. Someone should remind Eddie Olmos that you don't get Emmy's for science fiction and that he can skip the histrionics - though the man still brings his A game, ya gotta love that.

Speaking of A games, Guess D'onofrio wanted to go out with a bang? CI kinda changed format completely to accommodate. I am not sure his character would have ever worked outside of the semi ensemble anthology format. I will be curious to see how they clean slate the program...but then with Goldblum on the boards, it will be like the first seasons of CI all over again, you have to tune in just to see what will happen.

[Steve T Power]

Forgot to mention the winner of last night's movie lotto:

The 13th Warrior - Actually one of my very first DVD purchases way back in the summer of 2000, and yet i haven't seen the flick since the VHS days (correct, it's been on my shelf, unwatched, for over 8 years!) I absolutely loved it. It's beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and progresses with just the right mix of action, drama, and suspense. Beautifully effective and fun as hell. This flick got the goddamn shaft! (wasn't it the most expensive Disney financed film ever at one point?). I'll put this right next to Conan the Barbarian when i'm in the mood for some medieval action any day of the week.