Miscellaneous Movie Musings - Page 141

Stan4dSteph · 12-21-2006, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katiesue

I watched Little Miss Sunshine last night, really loved it.

There's an old thread on that you could probably dredge up.

Eliza Hodgkins 1812 · 12-21-2006, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

American Splendor, finally! Incredible movie. Giamatti has balls of steel to portray someone who we see on the screen ourselves. He totally pulls it off, too. The phone book bit is my favorite part. I'm also glad the Revenge of the Nerds quotes that have been featured on Jonesy's Jukebox many times have been explained.

Oh, I think this is one of the greatest movies ever made. Loved, loved, LOVED it.

tracilicious · 12-21-2006, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

2) Natalie Portman was so-so in Garden State, but was so amazing in both Closer and her Cold Mountain cameo that it's clear to me she can still act.

This is true. She really was good in Closer. I love Zach Braff. (Just thought I'd throw that in there.)

Saw The Prize Winner (of something something something) a few nights ago. I don't love Julianne Moore, but this was a fun movie to watch. A good fluff movie.

Alex · 12-25-2006, 10:01 PM

It was a good weekend for watching movies.

Dark Command (1940) - Definitely one of John Wayne's best pictures during his Republic years (I admire Stagecoach for what it did but that is much more of an academic admiration). Touches on an interesting side conflict during the Civil War and doesn't yet wallow into the Southern pride that would be more prevelant in the westerns of the later 1940s and early 1950s (where the Southern military was an institution almost completely divorced from slavery).

The Curse of the Golden Flower - Visually, I love the work of Yimou Zhang. Hero and House of Flying Daggers were both wonderful to look at. Unfortunately, the latter was painfully dull and the former would have been but at least had some good fighting in it to pass the time. This one has the same attention to visual gorgeousness but has something of a more coherent story. Not necessarily a compelling story but more coherent. I found it more satisfactory than the other two but if you really liked the other two and the visual satisfaction was enough then you'll probably find this one a lesser effort.

Rocky Balboa - I created a thread for it. Don't you dare mention it hear or iSm will lose his Christmas afterglow on your ass.

Donzoko - Akira Kurosawa's 1957 filming of Gorky's play The Lower Depths. Dreadfully dull (I finished it on Sunday but actually started watching it more than a week earlier). This is mostly because it is essentially a filmed play (there is one interior set and one exterior set) and it relies on visual cues to indicate the class, background, and archetype of the characters. Visual cues that went over my head.

The Jerk - Picked it up really cheap at the last days of the Tower Records clearance sale. Haven't seen it since I was a kid and still enjoyed it, though Steve Martin doesn't hold the same charm he did when I was 12.

Les Bas-fonds - Jean Renoir's 1936 filming of Gorky's play The Lower Depths. This version is much livelier than the Kurosawa version and coming in 30 minutes shorter keeps the energy flowing. The stable of side characters is much diminished as two of the relationships are given a much more central role. The darkness of the Kurosawa version is preferable to this one, particularly in the final conclusion, but this one is a movie rather than a play.

Dreamgirls - In one five minute song performance Jennifer Hudson won herself the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award (though she really is the lead) and she'll deserve every last bit of it. Even though the song isn't eligible for a nomination and therefore wouldn't really fit with the Oscar broadcast's template, if the director is smart he'll get her up there to sing. Wonderful performances all around and while it could have used a bit of trimming at the end (maybe 10 minutes or so) and suffered from having the emotional showstopper in the middle with it downhill from there I strongly recommend this one.

innerSpaceman · 12-26-2006, 08:03 AM

Well, I hated Curse of the Golden Flower, while I loved Hero and was so-so about Flying Daggars. The production design on this one was gorgeous, but the story was just operatically uninteresting and nothing much other than machinations were going on until one big army battle at the end. Bleh.

I had a chance to watch Rocky Balboa on DVD in the comfort and convenience of my own home ... and it still doesn't interest me.

Alex · 12-26-2006, 08:10 AM

Still doesn't interest you in the sense that you watched and still don't care or that you could easily watch it and don't care enough to actually do so?

What I found with Hero and House of Flying Daggers is that people seem to prefer whichever they saw first and then begin to grow weary of the slow beauty. Unfortunatly, I grew weary of it halfway through the first one (Hero) and had no tolerance for it in House of Flying Daggers. I liked that Curse of the Golden Flower kept the same style but focused the actual story down to a family of five people without losing the wu xia excesses.

Though he's still struggling to reach the balance of grace and story that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had (and allowed it to reach such crossover success with American audiences not inclined towards the wu xia style).

innerSpaceman · 12-26-2006, 08:18 AM

RB - didn't even care to watch it though it couldn't have been more convenient and free.

Maybe Alex is right about liking better which was seen first. I saw Daggers after Hero. But the similarish Crouching Tiger came first, and that's not my favorite of the wire-work bunch.

I find the whole "magical martial arts" to have worked better in the context of an obvious "story" being told by a character within Hero (rather than presented as actually happening). But I also found the plot of Hero more interesting, and the film far more beautiful than any of the others of its ilk.

.

Alex · 12-27-2006, 12:31 PM

Watched Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House on my commute yesterday.

What a chore that was to sit through. It's like a live-action Goofy movie. You know the type where Goofy listens to some how-to LP and completely screws up the instructions to comedic effect. Well, this movie was like that complete with stupid narration (provided by Melvyn Douglas, the only moderately interesting person to grace the screen).

Have any two actors supposedly in love ever had less on screen chemistry than Cary Grant and Myrna Loy? I know Grant is capable of it (he does ok with Deborah Kerr) and I know Loy is as well (see The Thin Man). But together they are like dead fish. And it wasn't a fluke, they are similarly flat in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

I was eager to see what would have been a very young Jason Robards when I saw his name in the opening credits, but he passed unrecognized (and now, looking at IMDb, I see it wasn't the Jason Robards I know but his father that was in the movie).

innerSpaceman · 12-27-2006, 09:10 PM

Whadaya know? Over the Hedge really is better than its trailers and the current state of animal-laden computer-animated glut films led one to believe.

The Fountain was a fairly interesting film, but I'm wondering which fringe religious group produced it, and how they got Hugh Jackman to star. A neat take on the Fountain of Youth mythos, but kinda slow-mo ... and I'm not surprised it tanked theatrically.

Alex · 12-27-2006, 09:29 PM

Today I watched the 1999 version of That Championship Season. It is actually a remake of the 1982 version which starred Robert Mitchum, Stacy Keach, Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen, and Paul Sorvino.

In this version, Paul Sorvino got promoted into the Mitchum role and then he is joined by Vincent D'Onofrio, Gary Sinise, Tony Shalhoub, and Terry Kinney.

That Championship Season is one of the rare play adaptations that I enjoy even though very little was done expand it cinematically from a one set theatrical experience. I don't know why that is, it just touches on themes that work for me.

Considering it was made for TV it looks pretty good (though maybe it was made for HBO or Showtime, I didn't notice anything that screamed "commercial break").

Sorvino was the weakest link in the first version and is again in this version. If you overlook Sinise and Shalhoub being offered up as Polish brothers everybody else is quite the actor and comports themself well.

So, this is one remake where I think you can watch either version safely (though the former is interesting for a "old man" Robert Mitchum performance). But according to IMDb neither version is very well regarded so I may be alone in enjoying them.

12-25-2006, 10:01 PM	#1404
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	It was a good weekend for watching movies. Dark Command (1940) - Definitely one of John Wayne's best pictures during his Republic years (I admire Stagecoach for what it did but that is much more of an academic admiration). Touches on an interesting side conflict during the Civil War and doesn't yet wallow into the Southern pride that would be more prevelant in the westerns of the later 1940s and early 1950s (where the Southern military was an institution almost completely divorced from slavery). The Curse of the Golden Flower - Visually, I love the work of Yimou Zhang. Hero and House of Flying Daggers were both wonderful to look at. Unfortunately, the latter was painfully dull and the former would have been but at least had some good fighting in it to pass the time. This one has the same attention to visual gorgeousness but has something of a more coherent story. Not necessarily a compelling story but more coherent. I found it more satisfactory than the other two but if you really liked the other two and the visual satisfaction was enough then you'll probably find this one a lesser effort. Rocky Balboa - I created a thread for it. Don't you dare mention it hear or iSm will lose his Christmas afterglow on your ass. Donzoko - Akira Kurosawa's 1957 filming of Gorky's play The Lower Depths. Dreadfully dull (I finished it on Sunday but actually started watching it more than a week earlier). This is mostly because it is essentially a filmed play (there is one interior set and one exterior set) and it relies on visual cues to indicate the class, background, and archetype of the characters. Visual cues that went over my head. The Jerk - Picked it up really cheap at the last days of the Tower Records clearance sale. Haven't seen it since I was a kid and still enjoyed it, though Steve Martin doesn't hold the same charm he did when I was 12. Les Bas-fonds - Jean Renoir's 1936 filming of Gorky's play The Lower Depths. This version is much livelier than the Kurosawa version and coming in 30 minutes shorter keeps the energy flowing. The stable of side characters is much diminished as two of the relationships are given a much more central role. The darkness of the Kurosawa version is preferable to this one, particularly in the final conclusion, but this one is a movie rather than a play. Dreamgirls - In one five minute song performance Jennifer Hudson won herself the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award (though she really is the lead) and she'll deserve every last bit of it. Even though the song isn't eligible for a nomination and therefore wouldn't really fit with the Oscar broadcast's template, if the director is smart he'll get her up there to sing. Wonderful performances all around and while it could have used a bit of trimming at the end (maybe 10 minutes or so) and suffered from having the emotional showstopper in the middle with it downhill from there I strongly recommend this one.
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12-26-2006, 08:03 AM	#1405
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Well, I hated Curse of the Golden Flower, while I loved Hero and was so-so about Flying Daggars. The production design on this one was gorgeous, but the story was just operatically uninteresting and nothing much other than machinations were going on until one big army battle at the end. Bleh. I had a chance to watch Rocky Balboa on DVD in the comfort and convenience of my own home ... and it still doesn't interest me.
	Submit to Quotes

12-26-2006, 08:10 AM	#1406
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	Still doesn't interest you in the sense that you watched and still don't care or that you could easily watch it and don't care enough to actually do so? What I found with Hero and House of Flying Daggers is that people seem to prefer whichever they saw first and then begin to grow weary of the slow beauty. Unfortunatly, I grew weary of it halfway through the first one (Hero) and had no tolerance for it in House of Flying Daggers. I liked that Curse of the Golden Flower kept the same style but focused the actual story down to a family of five people without losing the wu xia excesses. Though he's still struggling to reach the balance of grace and story that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had (and allowed it to reach such crossover success with American audiences not inclined towards the wu xia style).
	Submit to Quotes

12-26-2006, 08:18 AM	#1407
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	RB - didn't even care to watch it though it couldn't have been more convenient and free. Maybe Alex is right about liking better which was seen first. I saw Daggers after Hero. But the similarish Crouching Tiger came first, and that's not my favorite of the wire-work bunch. I find the whole "magical martial arts" to have worked better in the context of an obvious "story" being told by a character within Hero (rather than presented as actually happening). But I also found the plot of Hero more interesting, and the film far more beautiful than any of the others of its ilk. . Last edited by innerSpaceman : 12-26-2006 at 08:37 AM. Reason: Confusion about movies from the land of Confusious.
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12-27-2006, 12:31 PM	#1408
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	Watched Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House on my commute yesterday. What a chore that was to sit through. It's like a live-action Goofy movie. You know the type where Goofy listens to some how-to LP and completely screws up the instructions to comedic effect. Well, this movie was like that complete with stupid narration (provided by Melvyn Douglas, the only moderately interesting person to grace the screen). Have any two actors supposedly in love ever had less on screen chemistry than Cary Grant and Myrna Loy? I know Grant is capable of it (he does ok with Deborah Kerr) and I know Loy is as well (see The Thin Man). But together they are like dead fish. And it wasn't a fluke, they are similarly flat in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. I was eager to see what would have been a very young Jason Robards when I saw his name in the opening credits, but he passed unrecognized (and now, looking at IMDb, I see it wasn't the Jason Robards I know but his father that was in the movie).
	Submit to Quotes

12-27-2006, 09:10 PM	#1409
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Whadaya know? Over the Hedge really is better than its trailers and the current state of animal-laden computer-animated glut films led one to believe. The Fountain was a fairly interesting film, but I'm wondering which fringe religious group produced it, and how they got Hugh Jackman to star. A neat take on the Fountain of Youth mythos, but kinda slow-mo ... and I'm not surprised it tanked theatrically.
	Submit to Quotes

12-27-2006, 09:29 PM	#1410
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	Today I watched the 1999 version of That Championship Season. It is actually a remake of the 1982 version which starred Robert Mitchum, Stacy Keach, Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen, and Paul Sorvino. In this version, Paul Sorvino got promoted into the Mitchum role and then he is joined by Vincent D'Onofrio, Gary Sinise, Tony Shalhoub, and Terry Kinney. That Championship Season is one of the rare play adaptations that I enjoy even though very little was done expand it cinematically from a one set theatrical experience. I don't know why that is, it just touches on themes that work for me. Considering it was made for TV it looks pretty good (though maybe it was made for HBO or Showtime, I didn't notice anything that screamed "commercial break"). Sorvino was the weakest link in the first version and is again in this version. If you overlook Sinise and Shalhoub being offered up as Polish brothers everybody else is quite the actor and comports themself well. So, this is one remake where I think you can watch either version safely (though the former is interesting for a "old man" Robert Mitchum performance). But according to IMDb neither version is very well regarded so I may be alone in enjoying them.
	Submit to Quotes