Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[tracilicious]

Speaking of Cage, we just saw The Weatherman. We loved it. Hilariously dry, with just a touch of slapstick. Michael Caine was brilliant in it.

I also loved Cage in The Family Man. Hated him in Face Off.

[innerSpaceman]

Eh, I take historical dramas case-by-case. In another dramatic disaster re-telling, I totally bought Kate Winslet as a Titanic passenger, but Leo DiCaprio kept bringing me right back to the present.

I'll have to see what Nick Cage does to me, playing an actual person (albeit one who is not famously recognizable). I'm not sure, in fact, if the "stunt" casting in United 93 of having the actual people play themselves wasn't too far in the other direction, and distracting in its own way.

I usually don't have trouble with people playing Abraham Lincoln or Queen Elizabeth. Perhaps someone who lived in media times might be more difficult to convincingly portray, but I don't know either of these Port Authority cops in World Trade Center from Adam, so I really don't see how I can't buy an actor, even a very famous actor, in the role.

I'll let you know in a couple of days, though. From what I'm hearing, the presense of Nicholas Cage is hardly the big problem with this movie.

[Alex]

Watched two movies yesterday: Lost in America and The Falcon and the Snowman.

I must admit to a small filmmaking fetish. No matter how bad a movie otherwise is, if it does one small thing right I'll always have a soft spot for it. And that thing is perfectly capturing the way married people (or a couple that has been together for a long time) fight. The way something starts with "could you please close the dryer door when you empty it?" a few minutes later has turned into an all out verbal brawl that slowly subsides and flares up again and what is said is never what it is about.

Lots of films try to capture this and, in my opinion, most of them fail. The cadence is off. But every once in a while I'm watching a movie and halfway through such a scene I realize that the screenwriter and the director nailed it perfectly. As an example, consider The Real Blonde, a small indie film starring Matt Modine and Catherine Keener from back in the mid-90s. I have zero recall as to what this movie was about, what its story was. Anything at all except that halfway through Modine and Keener have a "couple's fight" that was perhaps the best I've ever seen.

This was the first time I've seen Lost in America since high school. I found it funny then and have always been a huge Albert Brooks fan. Well, let me just say that from my current perspective it is all the more brilliant. The argument between Brooks and Julie Hagerty at Hoover Dam is near perfection. It plays more comedically but it has the cadence perfectly as well as the ebb and flow.

Glad I watched it again.

I was "meh" on The Falcon and the Snowman the story of a kid who ends up working with classified information at a sattelite communications company in 1974 and decides to start selling the information to the Russians. It was ok but nothing particularly interesting and it proved that Sean Penn was just as annoying 20 years ago as he is today.

Looking up the real story after watching it I was disappointed (but not surprised) that the movie whitewashed much of the guy's motivations and cleaned up his capture to make him look much more noble. Also, once I did that I realized I knew someone who had connections to the company in question at the time in question. So I was able to have an interesting conversation with someone on the fringe of the incident.

[katiesue]

Flash Gordon (1980)

Love this movie. I know it's total crap but still love it. Queen soundtrack, bad special effects, questionable plot, ahh the costumes. Brings back memories of 8th grade. I thought Sam J. Jones was just the hottest ever.

In watching last night I decided I need one of Ming's orgasm ring thingies. This didn't really occur to me in 8th grade.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by katiesue

I thought Sam J. Jones was just the hottest ever.

So, did I.
"Why do I like this movie so much?" Young GC asked himself at age 9.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Saw Midnight Cowboy for the first time last night. Great 60's stuff, Hoffman is amazing, fun with dream sequences and jump cuts.

When the bus pulls into Florida and Joe buys the fresh, light, easy-wear clothing, and everything is sunshine and suburbs, I am again resolved to never live anywhere that's anything like New York City. <shudder> I think being a bum in NYC has got to be a high-ranking hellish life. It's bad enough enduring the weather when you've got a warm home to go to.

[Prudence]

I finally watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding last night. I realize I was the only female on the planet who had never seen it.

Yeah, I liked it. I mean, it's not an amazing bit of cinematography, and I spent way too long wondering which boy band that cousin belonged to, but I'd watch it again.

It was nice. Totally insubstantial, but exactly what I want in a romantic comedy. Just easy to watch. Enough cliche that I could relate to the main character, not so much that I felt like I'd seen that exact movie a gazillion times.

[Not Afraid]

We watched DOA the other night. We recently bought a film noir collection - mainly because it included Detour - but we started with DOA. This was a fine little film with an interesting premis:

I want to report a murder
Who was murdered?
Me.

There are other noir films that that enjoyed more, but this was certainly a good one.

[Matterhorn Fan]

Originally Posted by Prudence

I finally watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding last night. I realize I was the only female on the planet who had never seen it.

You were not. I haven't seen that, and never had any desire to.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Prudence

It was nice. Totally insubstantial, but exactly what I want in a romantic comedy. Just easy to watch. Enough cliche that I could relate to the main character, not so much that I felt like I'd seen that exact movie a gazillion times.

Curious, not knowing your background, but were you raised in any sort of "ethnic" environment (yeah, I know, it's an il-defined question...but I think y'all get my meaning)? In general, that movie gets a lot more laughs from people who grew up in America in some sort of non-Protestant, lived here for generations family. Or at least grew up with good friends who did. The specifics may be different, but there is so much common ground, whether you're Greek, Jewish, Italian, etc. I know that so much of it had me rolling, simply because I recognized so much of my Jewish family in it.