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May 27, 2005

The Five Obstructions

The Five Obstructions (2003), Lars Von Trier:
Again, Lars Von Trier plays the asshole, but here like everywhere else, it's just another character in a movie geared toward making whatever point at whatever cost. I suppose it's a little mean to be a jerk to such a nice guy as Jørgen Leth seems, but he's there voluntarily.

The DVD contains the original The Perfect Human upon which Leth and Von Trier build their variations, and it's a really nice piece. Building off of them with a series of outlandish requirements seems like mad fun, but the "obstructions" never quite live up to the expectations of such an ambitious artistic experiment. What's worse is that by the end, Von Trier's intention is made so perfectly clear that you might be fooled into thinking he's succeeded in his goal, but that's just not so.
7/15

Posted by bing at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2005

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

I've tried not to include any spoilers in this, but I do talk about the movie's structure some, so there's your fair warning.

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), George Lucas:
Yeah, so despite my better instincts, I was really excited over this. All the geek rumblings indicated that this was by far the best of the new trilogy (plausible) and if AO Scott can be believed (which he generally can), perhaps as good as The Empire Strikes Back (implausible).

It doesn't hold a candle to any of the original series but at times comes tantalizingly close (unsurprisingly most powerful when it starts the segue into Star Wars). The first half or so shows almost no improvment over Episodes I and II; the second half is markedly better, but at times still seems undeniably stupid.

I know everyone keeps saying the acting in the original trilogy wasn't great either, but Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen are absolutely terrible here. Even barely competent would've been ok. (Also, Keisha Castle-Hughes? What's she doing here?)

My other huge issue with this trilogy is still with Lucas's obsession with CG. It's ok if you make a lava planet, but a computer-generated coffee table is not (speaking of lava planets though, it kept reminding me of this). Instead of marveling at the grandiose sets, I was staring at the actors' feet; everyone seemed to be almost imperceptibly floating off the ground. Maybe it's more noticeable for our generation which grew up with CG, but Mr. Lucas over these last three movies has consistently been on the wrong side of technical prowess versus technical ingenuity.
8/15

Posted by bing at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2005

Unleashed

Unleashed (2005), Louis Leterrier:
Let's hope this is the return of the American Kung Fu movie. Jet Li was the victim of a half-baked Hollywood movement in the late 90's along with Chow Yung Fat, saved only by melding with Black cinema; Romeo Must Die and the precursor Rush Hour.

Of all the people to save the kung fu movie in America, who'd've thunk it would be the French? Luc Besson has a great sense for action and Mr. Leterrier keeps it coming. There's not much else here, as always (except for the guessing game of exactly how much older Kerry Condon is than her character [the answer is not much]). Hopefully this, along with Yimou Zhang/Crouching Tiger/Stephen Chow, is enough to keep this movement coming.
13/15

Posted by bing at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

The Sword of Doom

The Sword of Doom (1966), Kihachi Okamoto:
A darker take on the samurai genre, it's all vaguely familiar from the endless iterations in modern anime. I was a little distracted while watching, but it still was pretty decent.
8/15

Posted by bing at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

Master and Commander

Master and Commander (2003), Peter Weir:
This, Badlands and Rushmore comprise my Movies to Watch During Finals. It's lost a little of its luster since the first viewing, but the surround sound makes it all worth while.
14/15

Posted by bing at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2005

Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers (2001):
So one of the things I absolutely detest about Ron Howard is that he's an excellent director but it often seems he sacrifices too much to achieve his goals. Apollo 13 is by far his best film and uncoincidentally is his most grounded. Something like A Beautiful Mind looks great when you're watching, but all you feel is a nagging feeling wondering what the real story is. Everything's just a little too focused on being a means to an end.

Say what you will about post-Jurassic Park Spielberg, but he at least has a palpable respect for history. Especially with all I've heard about the production of Brothers, I fully trust him in his efforts to make both a compelling miniseries and a historical document of a sort.

Not being a historian, I can't really say much about the latter goal, but it is truly compelling. I do feel like WWII was one of the truly great moments in American history and this feels certainly worthy of that sentiment.
15/15

Posted by bing at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

For Me and My Girl

For Me and My Gal (1942), Busby Berkeley:
A perfect product of its time: a mix of light-hearted Busby Berkeley song-and-dance and healthy wartime values and not much else. Of course, when it's Judy Garland and Gene Kelly and Berkeley, you don't really need much else.
12/15

Posted by bing at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)

Ride the High Country

Ride the High Country (1962), Sam Peckinpah:
I know it's Peckinpah, but the Westerns of the mid-50's to the early 60's always seemed to me an awkward mix of wacky camp and the emerging realism of the latter entries of the genre. Maybe I don't share the love of the Western's TV roots.
5/15

Posted by bing at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2005

Bad Day at Black Rock

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), John Sturges:
Spencer Tracy as a one-armed proxy for the Western hero, making a guilty town face up for its WWII crimes. A lot of people I know really liked this, but nothing really jumped out at me. It's a little preachy, a little flat, and Walter Brennan's transformation from his standard useless drunk to useful drunk pretty much encapsulates my feelings for the movie: a familiar experience that pushed in ways seem like they should fit, but just feels off.
5/15

Posted by bing at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter (1945), David Lean:
Having only seen his sprawing epics, it's a little jarring to see such a spare romance, dealing not with the profound depths and heights of human emotion but just the basicness of love between two people. Likewise, the setting is a normal English town, a train station and a living room, but the mundanity is really what makes it shine.
14/15
(There. I did it without using "lean")

Posted by bing at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2005

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Beauty and the Beast (1946), Jean Cocteau:
My first Cocteau (and just in time, as there was a Jeopardy! question about him tonight), and I fell completely in love with it. The epigraph says to let your inner child take over, and if ever there were magic onscreen, this is it. The effects aren't about fooling the eyes as much as creating a universe that you can revel in. Beautifully shot and surprisingly complex if you choose to look for it.
15/15

Posted by bing at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead (2004), Edgar Wright:
I was pretty sure I wouldn't love this, but I was hoping that just maybe I would. I don't know; it was a halfway good movie for a whole bunch of things, but didn't really excel in any area. I suppose if you really love all of those things and wanted to see a movie that incorporates them into a tidy two hours, then you'd love this, but not for me.
7/15

Posted by bing at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)

Before Sunset

Before Sunset (2004), Richard Linklater:
I didn't expect it to be this subtle. I didn't get that in to it, despite the always compelling chance to see characters age in real-time (which, I admit, even helped American Wedding). Maybe I need to let it sit for a while and rewatch it later, or maybe I just wasn't as much into the original.
9/15

Posted by bing at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2005

Don't Say a Word

Don't Say a Word (2001), Gary Fleder:
It was on TV and I thought it might have at least a few redeeming qualities, seeing how it marked Brittany Murphy's return to the mainstream (at least that I noticed.)

Cringeworthily terrible, full of plot holes and the Hollywood code of law enforcement protocol. I think once the dust settled, the only thing worth watching was the Fairway shout-out.
1/15

Posted by bing at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

Supervolcano

Supervolcano (2005), the Discovery Channel:
Emily was way too exicted about this, and would've never forgiven me for not taping it had we not arrived home just in time for the eruption. It's a tv disaster movie through and through, but there's just something about apocalyptic events and the human reaction that's fascinating, however bad the production.
6/15

Posted by bing at 11:31 AM | Comments (2)

Russian Ark

Russian Ark (2002), Aleksandr Sokurov:
A 96-minute movie travelling through the Russian Hermitage Museum and grandiosely scenes recreated from the high and low times of Russian history, containted entirely in one shot. It's a technical achievement and utterly gorgeous (though the digitial video is a little grainy, it somehow makes the experience more vivid). It's also a little dull and without an intimate knowledge of Russian history or an immediate sense of importance there's not much else to focus on but the filmmaking, which doesn't take 96 minutes really to comprehend.
7/15

Posted by bing at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

Heaven

Heaven (2002), Tom Tykwer:
I was disappointed when I learned of this, which is probably why I didn't see it much earlier, despite having Cate Blanchett. People have always been saying how Tykwer was the successor to Kieslowski, manipulators of fate and coincidence, but though I enjoyed Run Lola Run, his films are filled pressures of modernity, feeling fast and cold and cheap.

I guess Tykwer must've felt that way, too, because Heaven is much, much more subdued than I had expected, perhaps more than even Kieslowski would've done. It radiates his warmth and at times beautifully so, but some of the cosmic humor is lacking, like Tykwer was too afraid of screwing it up; I don't know. I guess I'd rather it err on straightlaced than bad.
12/15

Posted by bing at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps (1935), Alfred Hitchcock:
I keep expecting Hitchcock to blow me away, and save Spellbound, Notorious and Rebecca, I always feel like I'm just missing something. I can see why the 39 Steps is great, but I don't really feel it.
9/15

Posted by bing at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Finals are over, so any late entries are due solely to laziness

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), some guy named Garth:
I wasn't expecting much, of course. Its tortuous history through the Hollywood system as well as the very nature of Adams' work suggested this would be anything but good (not to mention the first-time director shunted from music videos, however well established they were). Also, the trailer didn't do much to calm the countenance.

Luckily, I didn't get to see it opening weekend, so I got word of mouth from people who loved the books saying that it was actually very good. It's always nice being able to walk into a movie like this and know that you won't be disappointed, or at least to the full potential of a movie like this (Star Wars III, however, I'm still expecting sublime awesomeness and bracing myself for the fall).

The movie's excellent. It's not perfect, but if you excise the added material, it comes pretty close. (Apparently the extra stuff came directly from Douglas Adams' now dead brain, but it still doesn't feel quite as balanced as everything else.) The director(s) did good by keeping it utterly British, and the tone feels transplanted directly from the page. The cast is perfect. Martin Freeman and Mos Def in particular are almost exactly as I pictured them.
14/15

Posted by bing at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2005

Secret Honor

Secret Honor (1984), Robert Altman:
It's a great premise. Philip Baker Hall in a one-man performance of Nixon in full freak-out mode, with Altman behind the camera. I got exactly that, but felt unfulfilled. I feel Nixon just doesn't have the cultural presence he had, even in the late eighties. Philip Baker Hall is excellent, so if you love Nixon, you should check it out.
7/15

Posted by bing at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)

The Killing

The Killing (1956), Stanley Kubrick:
Trying to close out the major Kubrick canon (of which I'm actually not that fond), but I really enjoyed this. Kubrick knows exactly what to do with Sterling Hayden's statuesque performance, as well as crafting a smart, engaging heist movie.
15/15

Posted by bing at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)

The Interpreter

Sorry for the lack of updates. The monster known as finals reared its ugly head. So, both of you, I'll post more now.

The Interpreter (2005), Sydney Pollack:
It's a little strange to see Sydney Pollack get the Stephen King treatment and be billed as "The Director of Three Days of the Condor", but I suppose Pollack's directing resume hasn't been that strong lately and it's mostly on the strength of Condor.

I've long been bemoaning the disappearance of the political thriller. I guess it's really a creature of the seventies, fueled by the Cold War and Watergate. I even enjoyed Spy Game, for however mediocre it was. The same applies here. It's a finely crafted thriller full of turns without getting gimmicky, but it has its share of stupid moments. Pollack is best when blending convention with the changed values, injecting a wry sense of irony with faux-African politics and the looming cloud of terrorism.

Surprisingly, the trailer did not spoil the movie, so you don't have to worry about that.
12/15

Posted by bing at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)