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385,074 | 391,152 | 348,121 | 9 | Underrated | Hardly perfect , but this really did not deserve to be dismissed as thoroughly as it was . It's one of the most outstandingly awesome animated films ever made . The visuals are simply eye-popping , and the action and adventure are top notch . This film imagines an alternate route for science where steam is harnessed to its fullest extent , producing unimaginable energy . A small sphere works as some sort of super-engine , and several different groups are after it . A young boy in Manchester , England , Ray Steam , whose father and grandfather invented the sphere , must try to keep it out of the wrong hands . Unfortunately , he has no clue which hands are the wrong ones . Even his relatives might be using the power for the wrong reasons . The story isn't deep , but it's exciting . The main reason to watch is the animation , which mixes traditional and computer animation in fascinating ways . Katsuhiro Otomo , who directed the animé masterpiece Akira so many years ago , has had a small output over the years . He directed a live action film in 1991 known as World Apartment Horror . The only other animated work under his direction is the third part of the portmanteau film Memories , one of the most remarkable animated shorts ever , entitled Canon Fodder . He also wrote the screenplay and worked on the storyboards of Rintaro's Metropolis , of which Steamboy reminds me most . I think Metropolis is one of the best films of the 2000s so far , and Steamboy is only a step behind it . |
385,013 | 391,152 | 460,791 | 9 | Great | Reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz , The Princess Bride and Pan's Labyrinth . It's the story of two people convalescing in a hospital in 1910s Los Angeles . One is a foreign girl around 4 ( Catinca Untaru ) , who fell from a ladder while picking oranges and broke her arm and collarbone , the other is a Hollywood stuntman ( Lee Pace ) , who paralyzed himself during a stunt where he was to jump from elevated train tracks onto the back of a horse . He agreed to do this mainly so he could impress his ex-girlfriend , a movie starlet who has recently moved onto her co-star . Crippled and alone , he meets up with Untaru , and begins to weave a fantastic tale of bandits , a princess and an evil prince . The fantasy sequences are perhaps what this film will always be known for . Director Tarsem , a famous and popular director of music videos and television commercials , filmed these sequences all over the world when he was on location doing his other work . If you've studied architecture or archeology or art history , you'll recognize many of the locales he used . Basically , he used his own money to finance these expeditions , filming at some of the most beautiful places on the Earth . The fantasy world that is created in the film is pretty thin , and definitely just an excuse to create some beautiful images , but that works well narratively . After all , Pace is creating this story out of thin air , and the only person he's trying to impress is a four year-old girl . Plus , he's incorporating a lot of her ideas into the story . It is , after all , pretty much a bedtime story . The breathtaking images of the fantasy world may make the film memorable , but it is the emotional grip of the Los Angeles portion of the film that makes it a great movie . The Fall does have its flaws , mostly when Tarsem reverts to more commercial - and MTV-like sequences , as in one sequence with native dancers and a completely unnecessary dream sequence , but , in general , I was involved in the main story and in awe of the images I was seeing . |
385,714 | 391,152 | 332,452 | 9 | Don't listen : It's great ! PART 1 | All film buffs spend a good deal of time imagining what movies they would make if they only had a chance . For years , I've been thinking up various cinematic adaptations of The Iliad , which is probably my single favorite work of literature . I would not have come up with the same film Wolfgang Petersen has , but I am satisfied with it . In fact , regarding its reception by critics , both amateur and professional , I would say that my expectations were wildly exceeded . I quite loved the film . Yes , it is far from perfect , but it succeeds beautifully . I was especially pleased and impressed with the impeccable casting . I think I'm the only one who feels this way , but there is not a single character , not one , who is miscast . Yes , that includes Achilles , played by Brad Pitt . Pitt has received all kinds of flak , but he is as good an Achilles as I could imagine . I don't even like Pitt as an actor generally ; the only other performance of his I like is in Twelve Monkeys . That , although it served its purpose well , was a performance of twitches . This performance shows more maturity than the actor has ever demonstrated before , and perhaps suggests that he might someday be a truly formidable actor , instead of the pretty boy star he is always dismissed as . You can just feel the violence oozing off of Achilles ' body as he charges into battle after deadly battle . Pitt has the presence to make Achilles the lion that he says he is . But it's not only the presence that Pitt has . He also successfully demonstrates Achilles ' existential dilemma throughout the picture . I really do think Pitt gives an Oscar-worthy performance . Eric Bana plays the film's second lead , Hector , and the film works just as well under his performance . Bana is definitely an actor who will figure prominently in the years to come . He was fine in last year's Hulk , but here he doesn't have to compete with a CGI version of himself for dominance . Orlando Bloom , who is also suffering a lot under the critics , is Paris , and , in my opinion , is perfect . His fight scene with Menelaus ( Brendan Gleeson , one of my favorite current character actors ) is the film's greatest moment . Brian Cox , who never disappoints , is Agamemnon . Peter O'Toole is fine as Priam , and , although I didn't think he was given quite enough to do , his confrontation with Achilles near the end of the film is as powerful as the scene in the Iliad . Rose Byrne plays Briseis , a character who figures more prominently in this film than in the original poem . This works well , and Byrne's scenes with Pitt are excellent . Sean Bean ( Boromir from The Lord of the Rings ) gave my favorite performance of the film as Odysseus . Perhaps the only real disappointment is Diane Kruger's Helen . A German , she makes the classic acting blunder of fluctuating in her accent . She seems like an American at first , but then her German accent starts slipping in from time to time . Kruger may have fared better if the screenwriter , David Benioff , had handled Helen's character better . As far as the characters go , Helen is the only one who isn't handled very well in the script . It's easy to see how Helen could get lost in the proceedings ; after all , she's a difficult character to figure . Even the Greek authors after Homer had a difficult time dealing with her . They never really understood her role in the story , nor her intentions . Of course , that's not true when you're actually dealing with Homer's two epics ; I think Helen comes off as a very strong character in both The Iliad and The Odyssey , and her character is consistent between the two . continued below ( further comments were destroyed by jackass IMDb editors ) |
385,052 | 391,152 | 460,792 | 9 | A far better film than people have given it credit for being | Richard Linklater examines the cogs in the giant machine called the fast food industry . The film is much like its much more successful competitor , Babel , in that if follows several story threads . Much like Babel , it doesn't quite make any real points by the end . Unlike Babel , I don't think Linklater especially wanted to make anything like Iñarritu's grandiose statements , except a very broad one about how the industry does some sort of harm to everyone involved , from CEO to customer . I thought Babel was successful in its view of the everyday lives of its characters , but Fast Food Nation is even more successful in that way . It doesn't live on big moments . For the most part , Linklater's talent shines in the individual vignettes . His characters feel like they had lives before the film began , and like they'll have lives afterward . We learn surprisingly little about most of them , but the few moments we spend with them are enough to get a good sense of the characters . I thought the most successful storyline centered around actress Ashley Johnson , a bright teenager who works in one of the fast food chain's restaurants in Cody , Colorado ( her not-so-bright co-workers , including actor Paul Dano , work in the back ) . The other major threads follow Greg Kinnear as an exec who has come to inspect the possibly poorly run mega-factory where the meat patties are produced , and a group of illegal immigrants ( including Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno and surprisingly good TV comedian Wilmer Valderrama ) who work at the mega-factory in dangerous conditions . The film certainly has its faults ( the film ends on the most groan-inducing note since the final scene of John Sayles ' last film ) , but most every scene is so beautifully observed that I'm more than willing to overlook its faults . 2006 may not have been a great year for Richard Linklater financially , but he was firing on all of his artistic cylinders with both this and the even better A Scanner Darkly . One of the most underrated films of last year . |
384,595 | 391,152 | 51,196 | 9 | Hilarious and intelligent | A fantastic satire of the modern world of business . Tony Randall stars as Rockwell Hunter , a writer for television advertisements . He's not really making it at his job , and is about to go under . By a couple of coincidences , he finds out where Hollywood starlette , Rita Marlowe ( Jayne Mansfield ) , is hiding out in New York and thinks he can convince her to endorse a certain kind of lipstick . When Hunter arrives at Marlowe's apartment , she uses him to make her boyfriend , the star of a television Tarzan show , jealous . The boyfriend reveals Marlowe's secret love affair to the tabloids , and , in an instant , Rock has been reborn as " Loverboy " ( no , not the ' 70s rock group ) , and the girls go wild over him . He's famous , and thus begins his meteoric rise to his company's presidency . But the further up he goes , the more he realizes that this was never what he wanted , despite what he once thought . The moral of the story is a bit pedestrian , but it's one that ought to be reinforced at times . It's also delivered in quite an original way . The film is full of the kind of innovations that the undervalued Frank Tashlin was so good at . Particularly memorable is the mid-movie dig at television . Television is a constant target in the film - it was presumably making the lives of many in Hollywood a bit miserable . At the halfway point of Rock Hunter , Tony Randall pops out from behind a curtain to address those in the audience who are more the type to watch television than go to the movies . " I wanted to interrupt the film you are watching so the T . V . people can feel at home . " The acting in the film is universally superb . I would never have imagined that Tony Randall could carry a movie , especially playing an everyman ( I always think of him as a prissy , refined gentleman ) , but he does a great job . I saw Frank Tashlin's The Girl Can't Help It just last week . It also stars Jayne Mansfield , and I thought she was pretty bad . They tried to make her too sweet in that film . Here , she's more wicked , and thus a hundred times sexier . Mansfield is hilarious at times , especially with that little high-pitched squeal she does . It should get old , but it's very cute and always funny . When I was exiting the theater , there were a handful of women trying to duplicate the sound , unsuccessfully . The supporting cast is also wonderful , especially Henry Jones as Hunter's immediate boss . The film does have a couple of problems . The script seems to forget about characters every once in a while . Although she seems important in the beginning , Rock's niece , April , basically drops off for most of the film . Likewise his fiancée ( the one before Rita Marlowe appears , that is ) , Jenny . She comes back near the end , but her role is minimized quite a bit in the middle . Even Mansfield drops out near the end . The subplot which strictly involves her is resolved rather poorly , with a cameo appearance that should have carried more weight and really should have been funnier . All in all , though , Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter ? is a great success . . |
385,871 | 391,152 | 289,879 | 9 | The critics really dropped the ball and turned a cold shoulder on a fine film here | ( note : this is a review of the director's cut of the film , which has a completely different ending than the theatrical release ) The Butterfly Effect was either ignored or ridiculed by most major critics . Most minor ones , too . In reality , while it has its flaws , and some rather big ones , too , it is one of the best films to be released so far in 2004 . It is already being rediscovered by audiences , and I think it will find a home amongst the lovers of gimmick films such as Memento and Donnie Darko . I am a fan of all three of these films , and it's not because they're based on clever gimmicks . Plenty of films have clever gimmicks and completely fail . I like these three particular films because they're intelligent and have strong stories that move them beyond their central gimmicks . The Butterfly Effect is about a young man ( Ashton Kutcher ) who experienced severe blackouts during traumatic moments when he was a child . As an adult , he discovers that he can travel back to these forgotten events and change their outcome . Unfortunately , every time he changes things for what should be the better , some individual always gets the shaft . Besides himself , the major players in the story are his mother ( Melora Walters ) , his girlfriend , Kayleigh , her brother , Tommy , and their friend , Lenny . The story is gripping . It's hard not to imagine situations in your own life that you'd want to change , so the appeal is universal . As Kutcher changes time and time again , he starts to lose grip of reality . His desperation grows deeper each time he changes the past . The movie does lose its footing as it nears the finish . One can imagine how hard it must be to end a story like this . It looked as if they were going to go with the ' It's all just a dream ' ending , which really ped me off . Then they cheated their gimmick a little , which , as annoying as that was , it wasn't as annoying as the previous option . Then came kind of an ugly ending which really angered me , and which upsets a lot of what happened in the film in the first place . After a bit of time thinking it over , though , it didn't seem quite as bad as it first did . There are still some major holes this way around , but it made sense thematically . As for the technical feats , The Butterfly Effect is very well done . The writers / directors , Bress and Gruber , may not get everything right , but they have delivered an ambitious and thoughtful film . Better yet , they delivered it right to a multiplex audience who doubtless went in expecting escapism . What they'll get is something ten times more challenging than anything else they'll see this year . The look of it is good , it's well edited , and there's really good use of music and sound . The final question has to be this : so , can Ashton Kutcher deliver a dramatic performance ? The answer is yes , but not an unqualified yes . Truthfully , the protagonist of the story could have been improved . He's more of cypher than anything , and a lot of the emotional value comes from the side characters whose lives he effects . Kutcher isn't asked to do too much . Still , he holds his own in plenty of scenes . He was quite good , for instance , in the sequence where he goes to prison . I wonder if all the pans this film received came because it was a drama starring that goofball from Dude , Where's My Car ? I think , in the long run , if Kutcher wants to become a dramatic actor , he could pull it off . He's a handsome guy with a lot of charm . . |
384,596 | 391,152 | 124,857 | 9 | Remarkable rope tricks ! | SPOILERS SPOILERS Will Rogers was apparently one of the most important figures of the first half of the 20th Century , but I have heard almost nothing about him myself , except that he is credited with the quotation : " I never met a man I didn't like . " Last week I picked up a tape from the library entitled The Saga of Will Rogers , which contained two shorts and a feature starring this familiar name but unfamiliar face . The first short on the video was The Ropin ' Fool . Rogers was an expert with the lariat , and this film showcases this amazing ability . The rope is painted white so it stands out from the background ( it also makes it seem like an animated addition to the film , even though in most shots it's clearly real ) . We watch Rogers lasso just about everything , from a goose to a man's hat to a mouse . The film uses slow motion so we can see just how remarkable these tricks are . There is a good ten minute sequence where Rogers lassos a horse and its rider in a variety of ways . Perhaps most impressively , he catches the rider by his waist throwing the rope [ i ] under [ / i ] the horse and then pulling it up to the man's torso . He also uses two ropes simultaneously to catch both the rider and the horse . In another scene , Rogers ties a knot just by pulling the rope with the right force . Strangely enough , the film also has a plot , a very minimal one . At the film's end , some townsfolk find a man who has been dragged to death by a rope . They figure that only the ropin ' fool would have enough skill to kill a man like that . These townsfolk drag Rogers out to a tree branch and , as they are about to hang him , we find out that the director of the film we are watching set him up so he could get a better end to his film . That was quite clever , I thought . . |
384,549 | 391,152 | 154,421 | 9 | Great | While not quite at the same level as _ Breaking the Waves _ , the only other Lars von Trier I have seen ( his films are quite hard to come by in Midwestern American video stores , you understand ) , _ The Idiots _ is still a great film , and , in some ways , is just as important . I have to comment on a lot of the reviews I've seen for this movie . A lot of viewers judge the film by the theories and views about the group's existence ( particularly the view spoken by the most outspoken of the Idiots , Stoffer ) . This is surely not the way von Trier meant his audience to take the film . If you paid any attention to the film , you'll notice that the Idiots ' lifestyle is never glamorized . Everyone's experience in the group ends in embarrassment and despair . You should also note that none of the Idiots has the same opinion of why they like to act the idiot . Stoffer might say that they do it to upset the bourgeosie ( I don't pretend to know how to spell that word ) , but the next person might be doing it just to play around . The artist ( whose name escapes me at the moment ) is doing it to become a better artist , and the doctor is doing it almost for experiment . There is never a reason for the groups ' existence that the entire group agrees upon . This is extremely important for understanding this film . The way _ The Idiots _ particularly hit me was in the characterizations . The actors are so great in this film that they hit the level of : " Is this really acting , or is it just being ? " von Trier hit the same level in _ Breaking the Waves _ . These actors were so good , their characters just jumped out of the script . There are many characters , and only a few of them are characterized in the script extensively . Stoffer , although not the main character , is the most prominent character in the script . Many of the characters don't have all that many lines or screen time , but I felt I knew them all well . I also appreciated that it actually entertained me . I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much . It is often very , very funny ( if offensive ) . It also gripped me emotionally . I did not particularly comprehend the ending's meaning , but it left me with a powerful emotion . I did have tears in my eyes when I left the theater , and a lot of thoughts in my head . When a man outside the theater stopped me to ask me how I liked it , my lips and my brain were too dry to actually answer anything but , " I liked it . I liked it a lot . " |
384,643 | 391,152 | 276,919 | 9 | Brilliant filmmaking , but von Trier misses his mark a bit | A brilliant film , no doubt , although I think I prefer almost all of the other films I've seen by Lars von Trier . His work is always problematic , but he has such a mad genius that even something as questionable as Idiots ( or , indeed , Dogville ) succeeds even as it kind of fails . This is the story of a small town of little means in a remote area of the United States called Dogville . One day a young woman , Grace ( Nicole Kidman ) , wanders in while being persued by gangsters . The townspeople are afraid of what might happen if they harbor her , but they like her and they decide to do so . But the thing is that they have something on her , and they own her . She depends on them , and they quickly begin taking advantage of her , and ruthlessly . She even tries to escape , but the town refuses to let go of its toy . It's a pessimistic and entirely misanthropic viewpoint , the cruelest situation that Lars von Trier has ever depicted ( and that's saying something ! ) , and I suspect that many will be sickened by it . To add injury to insult , the theme to which the director has been continually returning , the theme that upsets many , that of the suffering woman , is on full display here . Kidman is raped and later used as a sexual object , and the narrator of the film informs us that the men use her like a hillbilly uses a cow . After she tries to escape , she is fitted with a cowbell and tethered to a heavy wagon wheel . The purported anti-Americanism in the film is strange , to say the least . It reminds me a lot of the way Zhang's Hero ended . That film veers towards nationalism very near the end , and it really doesn't follow , like the director had to do it but had no real interest in doing it . I'm sure Lars von Trier did have interest , however misguided , in making Dogville into an anti-American statement , but it just doesn't work . The credits play over numerous pictures of poor and homeless Americans , with David Bowie's ' Young American ' playing . What has this at all to do with Dogville ? The story is set in the USA , but the same observations about human nature could be made about any people in any part of the world . I suspect that only a few elements would need to be changed to set the film in Denmark and it would not ring any more or less true , depending on whether or not you buy the moral of the story . But it is most certainly anti-American , as was Lars von Trier's previous film , Dancer in the Dark . But like Dancer in the Dark , Lars von Trier's observations about America ring false . There are plenty of gripes to be had with the US , and it would be very easy to make much more potent works of art that explore its faults , but neither Dancer nor Dogville make very effective statements about America . I've yet to see a European film that said anything substantive about the country that I live in . Well , whether or not Lars von Trier has skewed his target , I would never suggest that he hasn't produced something original and interesting , and he has definitely produced a film that will inspire discussion for years to come , and that's always worthwhile . Dogville will be a big candidate for repeated viewings , as I probably didn't take it all in on one viewing . |
384,823 | 391,152 | 27,652 | 9 | Lang's first American film is a visceral experience | An idealist sets out to visit his girlfriend , whom he hasn't seen for a year , but he is picked up by the cops for no real reason and thrown into a cell because a flimsy piece of evidence hints that he might be the kidnapper of a young woman . A rumor flares in the small town and soon most of the populace is standing outside the police office demanding retribution . I won't outline the plot any further , because there are many twists and turns to come . Fury is basically a study in justice , guilt , revenge , and mindless fury . Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney star and are exceptional . The supporting cast is excellent also . Lang's direction is often amazing . It is always stylistic , expressionistic and it challenges you every step of the way . Watch for one scene near the center of the film where Lang cuts together a series of close-ups . His timing is incredible here . The script is imperfect . In fact , there are a lot of instances of unbelievability and silliness in the film . It is a testament to the rest of the script ( and the other aspects of the film , too ) that Fury ends up being such a great film . I like it nearly as much as M . It may not be quite as good , but it moves at a brisker pace and is thus often more exciting and suspenseful . . |
385,156 | 391,152 | 56,905 | 9 | amazing . | What can you say ? It's Godard . If you appreciate Godard , his early stuff , particularly , Les Carabiniers fits in perfectly with films such as Breathless , My Life to Live , Une femme est une femme , Band of Outsiders , and Pierrot le fou . It is utterly complicated , and seems to be saying dozens of things at once , none of them becoming clear enough to formulate a satisfactory thesis . The film starts off with two brothers and their wives living in a shack in the middle of nowhere . Two carabiniers ( riflemen ) arrive , basically assaulting the four of them . They come with a proposition , though : join the army , be one of them . You get to travel everywhere , and you can do anything you want . What a proposition ! The two men join , leaving their wives ( tellingly named Cleopatra and Venus ) at the shack . What follows is a fantastical account of war . The characters speak French , but they don't seem to be meant to be any specific nationality . Their supreme commander is " The King . " They travel around the world , including Egypt and the USA , killing whoever gets in their way . They play sickening games with their victims . Why ? Because they can . They have guns , their victims don't . Between the scenes where our heroes reak havoc , Godard inserts stock footage of real wars . Over the fictional footage , Godard inserts the sound of explosions and gunfire . This lack of realism creates a stunning surrealism . At first , I was thinking the film was about the fact that your average soldier is an ignoramous with a deadly weapon . Transferred , this speaks illy of the government who willingly supplies its young morons with deadly weapons . One particularly hilarious scene ( yes , it has elements of comedy , too ) which shows these folks to be country bumpkins occurs when one , Michelangelo , attends a movie , his first ever . It begins with a train arriving at a station , a la L'Arrivée d'un train à la Ciotat , a Lumiere film made in 1895 , often regarded as the first film ever made ( though it wasn't , not even by the Lumieres ) . Michelangelo covers his face as it moves forwards on screen , as everyone has heard the first movie patrons ever did ( which isn't true , either ) . The film he watches moves on to a scene where a woman undresses and takes a bath . Michelangelo is so impressed , he jumps up and tries to jump into the action , a la Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr . The results are hilarious . I don't think this theme holds up through the whole film , but , c'est le Godard ! Further on , it seems to take more of a Marxist viewpoint ( I believe Godard was a Marxist at this point in his career ) . Two communists ambush the carabiniers at one point , claiming that , though they may be allied with the carabiners ' country , they are obliged ideologically to murder capitalists . Here I realized that a large number of aggressive nations during this time were capitalist . Later , near the end , a very long scene serves to criticize capitalism : the boys return home , saying that they have gathered everything in the world for their girlfriends . Yet they carry nothing but one suitcase . Here commences the longest single scene in the film , where the men reveal the contents of their suitcase . They have not collected everything on Earth , per se , but rather photographs of them . For one thing , this depicts Godard's main objective in life : to make us realize that we are watching a film , not involved in any sort of reality . With just photos , the lack of the real objects is even more ironic . Also , most of these objects photographed are objects that can never be owned : natural wonders , man-made wonders , and tons and tons of women , including ones long since dead . This petty ownership of photos ( they also call them deeds ) is a reductio ad absurdum for capitalism : the most important things in the world are unownable , and thus to own pictures of them is truly absurd . |
384,749 | 391,152 | 33,563 | 9 | A wonderful film from Disney's classic era | As a kid , I would watch over and over several Disney features : Pinnochio , Peter Pan , Bambi , Alice in Wonderland , Lady and the Tramp , and Dumbo . When I come back to those films now , I recognize that they are all marvelous films and gave Walt Disney much deserved success . It's truly sad how far Disney has fallen . All kids ' flicks now are awful . I revisited Dumbo , by the way , on the same night that I first watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , destined to be one of the most successful films of all time . It is execrable , and it is simply pathetic how bad films like it are nowadays . I say , bring your kids back to Dumbo , Pinnochio , Bambi , and the like . They may not be as harmless as the kind of movie Disney and others shove out today . You shouldn't be afraid of your children showing emotion . I can remember more than anything being profoundly affected by the " Baby Mine " number from Dumbo , where he visits his imprisoned mother . Films like these will mould your children's emotional stability instead of keeping them at a safe distance and selling them toys . |
384,977 | 391,152 | 109,504 | 9 | A wonderful , sentimental , and bittersweet film | If you're wondering which Spike Lee film to watch first , if you're a little worried that you won't like his work , Crooklyn is a good one to start with . I certainly don't want to express disdain for his more polemic works , which represent some of the best work the cinema has to offer , but it might intimidate some people . Crooklyn , written by Lee , his sister , and his brother , seems to be a representation of their childhood in Brooklyn , mostly told from the sister's point of view , named Troy in this film . It's mostly a great film about childhood , among the best ever made . It's a marvelous experience . However , Lee trips a lot in the scenes which take place when Troy is living with her aunt in the South . First off , the scenes are filmed with a wider aspect ratio than the rest of the film and then are pulled to fit the original aspect ratio . The result is that everything is pulled out of proportion . I'm assuming that Lee did this to represent a distorion , a world out of whack or something of the sort . Well , it doesn't work . Every minute of those scenes are annoying for that reason . To boot , the characters in the South are underdeveloped , as well as the situation in general , and everything is treated like with smarmy humor , the religious aunt and the little dog and so forth . Luckily those scenes are short . It feels almost as if Lee aborted this section of the film . The rest of the film is simply wonderful . . |
385,478 | 391,152 | 74,312 | 9 | A strange and amazing film | Like most Fassbinder films , it's seemingly simple , but there's a lot too it when you walk a bit closer . This one sets up a great tragicomic situation : a disabled teenager manipulates her parents each to bring their lover to their summer mansion for the weekend . When the father arrives with his lover ( Anna Karina , in a very quiet role ) , he finds his wife pinned to the floor by her boy toy . A bit later the daughter arrives with her caretaker ( and possibly her lover ? ) who is deaf and mute . Mrs . Kast and her blonde son , Gabriel , take care of the mansion , cook , and so forth . Kast is played by Brigitte Mira , who was so wonderful two years earlier in Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul . She's a lot more cruel in this one . With the situation as it is , their true characters quickly rise to the surface . The parents get the most time ; father is loving in his way , but his love is probably only a result of the guilty feelings he has towards his daughter . Mother , on the other hand , is quite the psycho . At one point , as she sees her daughter lumbering along on her crutches from a second story window , she picks up a pistol and aims it at her daughter's back . She uses no euphemisms : her daughter , she believes , has ruined her life . Fassbinder's direction is exquisite . His framing is so complex , but it's invented to look simple . The simple set might be called stagey by those who are not paying enough attention . When the four lovers meet , Fassbinder circles the camera around them as they pace around each other , creating a dizzying dance . Peer Raben's gorgeous and unique music also should be pointed out . Not everything works out perfectly . The titular game is an interesting idea to do on film . The eight characters split into two groups , the first picks a person in the house and the second has to guess after they've asked a certain number of questions . I think Fassbinder has a difficult time making the questions and answers meaningful for the film as a whole . These exchanges get a little ponderous as a result , and the only thing that keeps the sequence alive is Raben's score . Like I said , it was quite a daring thing to do , so the fact that it doesn't work out perfectly doesn't harm the film too much . . |
385,382 | 391,152 | 87,469 | 9 | I love everything about this installment , except for Willie Scott | It was definitely Indiana Jones week in my home , as I watched the original three films , several episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles , and on Thursday ( I really couldn't wait ) the new Indy film . I was actually not an Indy fanatic before this week . I like all the movies , but have only seen Raiders in recent years , a few times . Temple of Doom I haven't seen all the way through for over a decade , I'd guess . The same probably goes for The Last Crusade . After reacquainting myself with the series , I have to put myself in the company of the fanboys . I loved the original series to death . Yes , even Temple of Doom . This was certainly my favorite of the trilogy when I was a kid , probably because it aired a lot on HBO and I saw it the most often . And I have to say , I almost agree with that still . Temple of Doom is probably the least perfect of the trilogy , but Spielberg is at his absolute best in his direction . I think the film has many of the most memorable moments of the series . Everything that happens in the titular temple is fantastic , the Thuggee ceremony , the fight on the conveyor belt and the mine cart chase . And the climactic battle on the rope bridge ( which I never knew before was not a special effect ) . And the booby trap with the spikes in the ceiling and the floor , which contains my favorite Indiana Jones moment ( Harrison Ford's facial expression when he tells Willie Scott that " We are going to die ! " ) , and the infamous dinner with the eyeball soup , live baby snakes and , for dessert , chilled monkey brains . I understand the criticisms of racism in the film , but I think the complaints are exaggerated . Maybe Spielberg and George Lucas didn't need to be so nostalgic about Kipling and Gunga Din . It certainly isn't very politically correct , even in 1984 . But I don't think the depictions of the Chinese and Indian characters , most of whom are villains , do much to demean entire races . I mean , I was a kid when I first saw this , so , if anyone was going to be aversely influenced by the supposed racism it would have been me . I knew these people were fictional characters , and that even if people like them existed , this didn't represent everyone who looks like them , and even the few it might represent were long since lost in time . These movies are so pulpy , it's hard to take them at all seriously . And as bug-eyed and crazy as the Eastern characters are , the three Western characters are all wildly exaggerated as well . You don't hear many British people bitching that Captain Blumburtt made all British people look stuffy and colonialist . And in all honesty , I would rather spend an evening with Mola Ram than I would with Willie Scott ! Oh , I totally agree with anybody who would say that Kate Capshaw is absolutely intolerable throughout the picture , shrieking and whining endlessly . The movie needs a woman , for sure ? I think the " five minutes " sequence is one of the best parts of the movie , and Willie eating the apple in Indy's hand is one of a hundred images from the film seared in my mind . But they needed to tone her down , and a lot . On the other hand , I'm a big fan of Short Round , as well as Ke Huy Quan's other famous performance from The Goonies . Come on , everyone when I was a kid wanted to be Short Round ( and I distinctly remember wanting to go as Data from The Goonies one Halloween ) . He was a kid who got to tag along with Indiana Jones ! He even saves Indy's life not once , but twice , and , watching it this time , I was sincerely moved by the scene where Short Round brings Indy back to his senses and the two embrace . I really want to know what Indy did with him in the other movies ( as Temple of Doom is chronologically Indy's first adventure , at least as far as the movies go ) . |
385,507 | 391,152 | 67,778 | 9 | a beautiful coming of age story | There have been a million coming of age stories in the history of the world , most of them probably in the film medium . What a pathetic thing to have to endure something as trite as the American film American Pie when something like The 400 Blows exists . Murmur of the Heart will remind most of that classic , and , akin to French films such as Zero for Conduct , The 400 Blows , and Malle's own Au Revoir Les Enfantes , it is excellently acted , both by the adults in the film and the children ( here , though , they're teens ) , and it is infinitely more truthful than most American films of the same genre . Murmur of the Heart falls just short of The 400 Blows , but it is a worthy successor to it . Beware , though . This film's main theme is sexuality , and there are some very disturbing scenes , even thought the mood of the film is quite light-hearted . |
385,072 | 391,152 | 399,201 | 9 | Wow ! It turns out Michael Bay can actually make a good movie . Even a great one ! | Maybe I was just feeling easy , but Bay's The Island strikes me as the most satisfying film I've seen all summer ? very possibly the best film I've seen so far from 2005 . Is it brilliant ? Perhaps not , but it's a gripping sci-fi thriller that works on almost all levels . As sci-fi , it reminds me of stuff from the 70s like Logan's Run . I'm a big fan of Utopian / Dystopian sci-fi , and it pleased me enormously on that level . As an action film , it has a lot of stunning set pieces and chases . The action sequences are a lot clearer than is usual for Bay . Unlike two other actioners I've recently seen , Mr . & Mrs . Smith and The Devil's Rejects , I was never at all confused at what was happening . There aren't too many action bits that made me think , " Yeah right , " and at least one of those over-the-top moments had a punchline that was so funny that it was very well worth it ( it was probably the only one liner from an action movie that ever made me laugh out loud ) . The actors are all just models here ( Scarlet Johanssen is some very good eye candy ) , but I did like a few of the supporting character actors , notably Ethan Phillips , Brian Stepanek , and the always reliable Steve Buscemi . Michael Clark Duncan is also good , though his part is too small . Sure , the film's political agenda skews to the right , but the story follows a common science fiction motif which questions a scientific moral issue to a ridiculous extreme . Frankenstein is pretty conservative , as well . I think that the politics in The Island are historically interesting , but not something that could effect anyone's opinion . The production design is outstanding , as are the cinematography and score . I couldn't have believed that Michael Bay could actually produce something not only watchable , but damn good . I think if it hadn't been him who directed it , the movie would be getting a lot more praise . |
385,897 | 391,152 | 45,070 | 9 | Great pulp Western by the great Fritz Lang | Rancho Notorious is a gorgeous film , with beautiful Technicolor cinematography . It almost reaches the poetry of a John Ford film , or a great film noir , but falls just a little short . Arthur Kennedy plays Vern , a rancher whose fiancee is brutally raped and murdered . He goes out for revenge , following the clues . He ends up at Rancho Notorious , a hideout for outlaws run by Alder Keane , played wonderfully by Marlene Dietrich in one of her most memorable roles . She's fully in her philosophical mode here , like she was in Touch of Evil a few years later . She's so sad , so beautiful . She also has a great musical number . Mel Ferrer is also quite good as Frenchie Fairmont , a lethal cowboy who loves Alder . There are also a lot of great supporting actors playing colorful villains , especially George Reeves ( T . V . ' s Superman ) . The story is quite great . There are a couple of problems with characterizations , especially Vern . He's mostly great . He's mostly a noir hero , flawed in his own right but always believing that he's on an entirely moral quest . The film goes wrong when he becomes the romantic hero . He's too creepy . Dietrich simply dominates him . Mel Ferrer fairs much better in that way . The climactic sequence also disappoints . The other major flaw is that damn theme song . Rancho Notorious is pulp , it's very over-the-top , but that goofy song would make anybody laugh . Also , the name Chuck-a-Luck inspired a lot of laughs in the audience ( I was lucky enough to see it at a theater ) . Overall , though , Rancho Notorious is a great film , quite haunting in its own right . It's one of Lang's best , by my reckoning , up there with Fury and M . . |
385,983 | 391,152 | 39,677 | 9 | There are a couple of themes that don't seem entirely worked out , but it's an exceptional film | A startling and powerful film by the man who would direct The Third Man two years later , and a big spit in the face of anyone who has ever said he only made one great film . It's not quite as good as The Third Man , but it definitely nears its greatness . The visual style for The Third Man was being developed in this film , and perhaps earlier ( I'm very interested in seeing other films by Reed in the future , and have had The Fallen Idol , the film he made between Odd Man Out and The Third Man , on tape for a while now ) . There is a scene in this film which is close to identical to the scene in The Third Man where we see Harry Lime's gigantic shadow running across a wall . We don't quite have the quirky angles , but there are some odd shots that look like they are moving in that direction . Odd Man Out is the story of an IRA leader , Johnny McQueen ( James Mason ) who kills a man during a robbery , is injured shot by that man , and is then separated from his partners as they flee the scene . The story follows him through that night as he stumbles home , bloodied and dying . Various characters help or hinder , going through moral dilemmas as they make their decisions . It's generally very fascinating , and always very tense and entertaining . The one thing that causes me a major problem is the IRA connection . The organization's name is never mentioned ; in fact , it is referred to as ' The Organization ' . I suspect my problem is due solely to my own ignorance , but , from the little I know of the IRA , it's difficult for me to think positively of that organization . We know that Johnny wants to go about the organization's business nonviolently , or at least he has worries about violence or the possibility of violence . The whole movie seemed to skirt the whole issue of the IRA in a way , so it was difficult for me to completely care too much what happens to Johnny . My sympathies started moving towards the more colorful supporting cast . And the finale seemed to me little more than a romantic , semi-dodge of the issues of the film . The way Johnny is created in the screenplay also creates this problem . While he is coherent and thoughtful at the beginning of the film , he becomes weak and delirious immediately after he is shot . I am confused by the massive praise I've found for Mason concerning Odd Man Out ? he spends the majority of the film stumbling about , not saying anything . Yes , he has a soulful look on his mug , but this didn't impress me all that much and two minutes of Mason's Captain Nemo far outweighs this performance . He delivers a speech from the Bible late in the film , in what I would call the film's least successful scene , but its meaning in the film seemed obscure to me . The other actors , though , deserve nothing but my highest praise . Kathleen Ryan plays Johnny's girlfriend , Kathleen Sullivan , and she is a real soulful performer , much more impressive than Mason's sweaty , hangdog look ( he begins to look more and more like Edward G . Robinson as the film progresses ) . Her sadness and love are deeply felt . The supporting cast is so good , it would almost be a waste of space to write of all of them . Perhaps Peter Judge ( aka F . J . McCormick ) deserves special praise as Shell , a destitute man trying to make a little money out of Johnny's wretched situation , as well as Robert Newton , who has the most flamboyant role as a starving artist who wants to paint Mason as he is nearing death , because he feels that his soul is as expressive as any ever was in this state . . |
385,518 | 391,152 | 27,752 | 9 | Another enormously touching Ozu film | Incredibly gentle and touching Ozu picture about a single mother who works her butt off to send her only son off to school . Many years later , we follow her journey to visit that son in Tokyo . He hasn't kept in contact very well . His mother doesn't even know about his wife and infant son , nor that he is a grade school teacher , a rather low ( and low-paid ) position . Simply put , he's embarrassed at the little he has accomplished and he thinks his mother will be gravely disappointed that she went to so much trouble to educate him . The whole situation really hit home , and I was deeply moved by it . The film also features incredible cinematography and editing . |
385,607 | 391,152 | 39,651 | 9 | Very nice | A beautiful little film by Ozu , only 72 minutes long , about a young boy who was apparently abandoned by his father . He shacks up with Tané ( exquisitely played by Choko Iida ) for the first night , but when she can't find his father , he becomes a permanent fixture in her household . At first , she's bitter and mean about it . A middle-age widow , she believes , shouldn't have to deal with snotty-nosed bedwetters . But eventually her resolve weakens and she finds that she has missed a lot by never having had a child . The plotline is predictable and a little cliche ( it's the kind of movie that Vittorio de Sica would be criticized relentlessly by trendy critics if he had directed it ) , but the breezy style of Ozu makes everything wonderful . It's really funny at times , and always very touching . I think it's the most enjoyable Ozu film , with the possible exception of I Was Born But . . . , that I've ever seen . . |
385,164 | 391,152 | 32,080 | 9 | Excellent epic by DeMille , probably my favorite of his films | It doesn't suffer from any of his usual flaws . The pacing is perfect , the acting is not at all stilted , and the technical aspects don't dominate the story or the characters . The story centers around the building of the titular railroad . A banker hires a motley group of gamblers and whoremongers ( led by Brian Donlevy ) to slow down production and then invests in the Central Pacific . Joel McCrea plays a railroad cop , basically , who sees that Donlevy is trouble . He can't outright kick him out , because his army buddy and best friend ( Robert Preston ) is Donlevy's partner . To further complicate the relationship between McCrea and Preston , there is a girl caught between them ( Barbara Stanwyck ) . It's a great story supported by fine performances all around . While the film runs for 2 hours and 19 minutes , it never seemed boring at all . There are several exciting setpieces , most notably an Indian attack . There are also a couple of great suspense sequences . I loved the scene where McCrea corners Preston and Stanwyck after the payroll has been stolen . It goes on for a long time but the suspense never breaks . Generally I don't think DeMille has skill enough to pull something like that off . My only real problem is that sometimes the good guys are as bad as the villains . McCrea has two sidekicks , played by Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman , who can't help but be referred to as henchmen . I mean , even the characters ' names are sinister , Fiesta and Leach . Donlevy has a couple of henchmen as well ( Anthony Quinn in an early role and Robert Barrat ) , and they aren't any scarier . |
385,965 | 391,152 | 33,606 | 9 | Surprisingly excellent | René Clair lost some of his charm when he went to Hollywood , but chances were good that he couldn't lose it all . I quite love his 1942 film I Married a Witch , starring Veronica Lake . I think I like this Marlene Dietrich vehicle even better . Oh , this is a charmer , all right . The plot is too complicated to describe here , but the story is very clever and very entertaining . The film is sweet , romantic and quite funny . The cast is exceptional . Bruce Cabot is surprisingly great as the leading man . You might remember him as the block of wood who won out over the monkey in King Kong . He must have gained some talent as he aged ; he's much more handsome at this point , and has an effortless charm , reminiscent of Clark Gable . Roland Young plays his rival . One thing I'll always love about Golden Age Hollywood is the bevy of character actors , something we have entirely lost in the present . Here we have Mischa Auer , Anne Revere , Andy Devine , Theresa Harris and Franklin Pangborn . I had thought for sure Morocco was the best reason to own Universal's Marlene Dietrich set , but , so far , this is the best . |
385,980 | 391,152 | 51,065 | 9 | This should be better known | A remarkable film that , had it been made in Italy around the same time , would today be called an important and seminal film . It's worth mentioning right next to any of Antonioni's films , which it sort of resembles . There are only two Greek directors who are well known outside of their country , and I was hoping that this film was made by someone else , but alas , it's the lesser of the two , Cacoyannis . Well , at least now I have a different perspective of his work . I know him from Zorba the Greek , of course , but also fragments of a few of his Greek tragedy adaptations , most notably Iphigeneia , of which I've seen the vast majority of . Zorba is an excellent film , although far from perfect , and Iphigeneia was very , very weak . A Matter of Dignity is easily the best of the three ; I would call it a near-masterpiece . ' Near ' because there are too many flaws to ignore . And , though the flaws are interesting , for the most part , they are too nagging . But still , this is an exceptional film . The daughter of an affluent family , Chloe ( Ellie Lambeti ) , discovers that her family's affluence is pretty much a put-on . They are going broke , and going fast . They have pushed themselves into the bourgeosie of Athens , which has run them out of money . But it's difficult to give up such a lifestyle . Chloe is currently being courted by a rather boring millionaire , but when she finds out her family's secret , she decides to give in to his advances . Meanwhile , another man , poorer and more attractive , begins to court her , too . This is the film's biggest flaw , the love triangle . It's cliché , for sure , but the worst thing about it is the second man , who is supposed to be the audience's favorite , you'd figure , seems more of a playboy seducer than the millionaire . This guy's kind of a jerk , it seemed like to me . Besides , he is barely in the film . On the other hand , the millionaire seems like a nice guy , kind of pudgy and naïve . At one point he desperately wants to show Chloe his Fabergé collection , which he eventually does , ever so coyly offering them to her . Luckily , the script doesn't follow the path I was sure it would . That's kind of a gift in itself , but I still think it would have been better to drop that second possible lover completely . The moral situations of the film are too complex for such a clichéd element . The other major narrative thread of the film , the most interesting , is that of the family's maid , Katerina . She hasn't been paid for a while , but she trusts that her family will come through . At one point , though , her own child gets into an accident , and when she needs Chloe and her parents to help her , they entirely forget her because of their own selfish lives . When she does finally get back to Athens , she confronts them . The juxtaposition between the problems of the classes are ingenious here . But I also like the way Cacoyannis allows us into the point of view of the bourgeosie ( mostly Chloe ) without judgind too harshly . Some might not like the way we are supposed to sympathize with Chloe when she must endure the hardships of a bus ride with people of the lower classes , but , then again , those who may disapprove of the way this scene is done probably have never travelled on a Greyhound bus . Just kidding . This fear and disgust that Chloe initially feels is resolved later on ; that scene has tremendous payoff , anyhow . As for the elements that make up the film , they are all excellent . As I said , this far outranks Zorba ; Cacoyannis directs wonderfully . The most praiseworthy element , however , is Ellie Lambeti's lead performance . She is truly a revelation , and , had this film been more widely seen upon its release , I would guess that we would know her name as well as we know Monica Vitti's , Anna Karina's , Liv Ullmann's , and all the other great foreign actresses . IMDb commenter David Stafford comes up with one of the most perfect descriptions , and I certainly couldn't beat it : ' She's Audrey Hepburn's tragic Greek shadow . ' The other great performance in the film comes from the actress who play's Chloe's mother , Athena Michaelidou . . |
385,250 | 391,152 | 51,055 | 9 | Powerful | Let's get this straight right off the bat : I have read William Faulkner's novel Pylon , and Douglas Sirk's cinematic adaptaion of it , Tarnished Angels , lives in the original's shadow . Pylon , which for some reason is the only Faulkner novel currently out of print , is one of that glorious author's best works . Still , the film is an excellent achievement . The story's power may be a bit lessened , but Sirk's direction as well as the performances of Rock Hudson , Dorothy Malone , Robert Stack , and Jack Carson make up for it . And while the plot suffers from reductions , the dialogue , much of which , I'm pretty sure , was not in the novel , is very good . The best scene in the film is Rock Hudson's drunken and passionate speech in the news room near the end of the film . In the novel , the equivalent of that speech is found in a garbage can . The final image of the novel is of the newspaper editor reading Burke Devlin's impassioned , prosaic description of the final pylon race . It's a perfect ending for a novel , but the screenwriter here was right in putting those words , or at least the idea of those words , back into Devlin's mouth . Tarnished Angels is equal in artistic accomplishment to the other great Sirk film I've seen , Written on the Wind . Both star Rock Hudson , Robert Stack , and Dorothy Malone , but there is a big difference between the two . Written on the Wind is a florid melodrama , the kind that Sirk was famous for . The colors are almost psychedelic , and the level of melodrama makes it feel like the world is about to end . Tarnished Angles is filmed in black and white , and , while it is melodramatic , it never feels like it's going over the edge . Sirk plays it at a level where you can feel the desperation of the characters ( the novel , which isn't as prudish ( the film , of course , was made under the Hayes Code ) , depicts a level of loss and desperation that is simply murder ; the ending of the film , which I wouldn't exactly call happy , is a hundred times less depressing than that of the novel ) . But , unlike in Written on the Wind , it never seems like Sirk is laughing at or making fun of the characters in Tarnished Angels . It seems like he meant this film to be an honest adaptation of a great novel . He succeeded quite well . . PS : The Criterion Company recently released Written on the Wind and All That Heaven Allows on DVD . I beg them to release this one next . The version on VHS is cropped from its widescreen glory , and you can tell . It feels very cluttered and claustrophobic , and often the panning and scanning seem choppy . The opening credits keep the widescreen , and it looks like it might be an even more visually spectacular film than I noticed . I really wish that they wouldn't get my hopes up by holding the original aspect ratio through the opening credits . What I want to see one day is the word " CINEMASCOPE " cropped to " EMASC " at the beginning of a film in a 1 . 33 : 1 aspect ratio . |
385,808 | 391,152 | 62,480 | 9 | Quite a brilliant piece of Godardian cinematic anarchy | Easily one of Godard's best films , although I'd hesitate to call it the best as many have in the past , Weekend is without a doubt his biggest film . Whatever its worth in Godard's canon , it is undoubtedly the summation of his early career and it is , indeed , a great film . See it if you like Godard . If you don't like Godard , don't see it . This is certainly not going to convert you . . |
385,431 | 391,152 | 111,252 | 9 | Very Effective DRAMA . This film is not a comedy | Spanking the Monkey was clearly not meant to be a comedy , but I found it in the comedy section , it had a quotation from Peter Travers that said : " Shockingly Funny , " and most of the other reviews on the imdb and from professionals have called it a dark comedy . I think if it had not been advertised as a comedy , it would have been accepted as a drama . This film deserves to be taken more seriously than it is . First off , the film's title is completely misleading and inappropriate . Maybe this film should have been called Flirting with Disaster . That would have been much closer to the situation . In fact , the title is so inappropriate , that I have doubts that that is what its original title was . Anyway , I was completely surprised by it . I was expecting a run-of-the-mill Indie romantic comedy ( notice that on the back of the box , the only romance mentioned is that between Ray and Toni . It says something to the effect : " Will Ray be able to win over the shy girl next door ? " ) . I usually avoid Indie films like the plague , because , truth be told , they're usually much more infantile than even Hollywood films . People who believe that Reservoir Dogs was the pinnacle of filmmaking this century have much more in common to those who think the same thing about The Phantom Menace than they would like to think . And the worst type of independent film is the independent romantic comedy . I rented Spanking the Monkey because I very much liked David O . Russel's Three Kings . So if you are looking for a comedy , stay the heck away from this film . This is a very complex drama with very taut situations and rather highly developed characters . Therefore , if you are looking for a good drama , do please rent Spanking the Monkey . |
384,952 | 391,152 | 477,348 | 9 | Almost a horror movie at times , this is one fantastic thriller and one of the Coens ' best | I'm not sure one viewing can do this film justice . It leaves a lot to think about , and I spent a good portion of my Sunday reading other people's views to see if I can come to some sort of conclusion about it . But I can't yet . Well , I can come to the conclusion , in any case , that this is a fantastic movie . There's no doubt about that . The Coens go back to their darker , noir-inspired sides , making the barren Texas landscape feel as cold as the Minnesota winter . The central story has a Vietnam veteran , played by Josh Brolin , finding a bundle of cash on the scene of a drug deal gone wrong . Meanwhile , a methodical killer by the name of Anton Chigurh ( Javier Bardem ) hunts him down . On the sidelines is an aging sheriff ( Tommy Lee Jones ) who works something like a Greek chorus , commenting on the main action but never able to have any effect on it . Looked at as a simple piece of film-making , No Country is brilliant . The Coens create a couple of the best setpieces they've ever done . They crank the tension up so high that I ? along with the entire audience ? was holding my breath . This is the closest thing the Coens have ever made to a horror movie , too . At times , it reminded me of a slasher , where we're waiting to see Chigurh dispose of his next victim in a gruesome way . But unlike your common director of a slasher movie , the Coens know how to make movies . It's not enjoyable when someone gets killed here . It feels all too realm and frankly it was scaring the hell out of me at times . Bardem plays the most memorable movie monster of the current decade . The character even sees himself as a monster , of sorts , as a hand of fate . In that way , Chigurh reminds me of another movie character , Ryunosuke Tsukue , Tatsuya Nakadai's character in Kihachi Okamoto's Sword of Doom . The two films share some similarities ( surely unintentionally ) , for example the almost Brechtian dodge of a conventional climax that forces us to reconsider what ? and who ? the films are actually about . I think one big question that I've come up with is whether the film sees Chigurh as a force of nature , or whether it is just Chigurh seeing himself that way , and that he is as much subject to the forces of nature and fate as anyone else in the story . No Country started to lose me a little when it went after some big themes at the end . I feel like I didn't absorb everything there was , and maybe I just didn't " get " what the authors ( the Coens and Cormac McCarthy , with whose work I'm entirely unfamiliar outside of this film ) were going for . But I also have a sneaking suspicion that the big themes get a little lost , that the Coens don't accomplish everything they set out to do . But I am eager to see this again ? and again ? to see if I can work it all out . |
385,891 | 391,152 | 22,286 | 9 | Cagney is amazing ! So is Wellman's direction ! | Public Enemy is a rather flawed film . Several scenes drag on . A lot is left unresolved ( most notably Jean Harlow's role ) . The plot is a bit plodding . And a lot of the performances are not very good . That seems like a lot , and it is . However , the rest of the film is so shocking , so brilliant , that most of it is forgivable . James Cagney was made famous by this film , and it's easy to see why . God , I don't think I could ever gain the courage to look at James Cagney . I'd be afraid that he'd kill me on the spot . Or , at the very least , shove a half a grapefruit into my open eyeball . William A . Wellman's direction is haunting and often startlingly beautiful . I especially like the scene where Cagney raids his enemies in the rain . And the final sequence , oh man , how jaw dropping can you get ? I give The Public Enemy a solid ! |
385,483 | 391,152 | 78,754 | 9 | Self-congratulatory , but , without a doubt , brilliant | A brilliant movie from a brilliant artist , and you'll be reminded of that constantly as you sit through All That Jazz , both in positive and negative ways . This , Fosse's fourth and also penultimate film , is his version of 8 ½ . But the great success of Fellini's semi-autobiographical masterpiece , easily one of the five or ten best films ever made , is that its author depicts himself with the greatest humility . And not only great humility but , most importantly , honest humility ( or at least believable humility ) . Fellini's constant self-deprecation felt like honest self-criticism , and it felt as if he was truly exposing his inner self to his audience . In All That Jazz , Fosse tries to do the same , but the self-deprecation comes off almost as back-patting . Fosse presents his alter ego , Joe Gideon ( well played by Roy Scheider ) , as a lovable cad . Oh , he might bang every chick in sight , but it's very much applauded . I can complain about these more arrogant aspects of All That Jazz , but what is undeniable is how great a filmmaker Fosse really is . It may be extremely self-congratulatory , but , judging from this film itself and its three predecessors , it can be argued that Fosse deserved the adulation that he supplies himself . As a fan , I loved the way he incorporates semi-fictionalized versions of his previous films into this one . 1974's Lenny plays a major part , as Gideon is going through the process of editing his new film The Stand-Up throughout the film . He brings his daughter to its premier , and , it being her first R-rated movie , she thanks her dad and then asks him why that guy wanted to sleep with two women at the same time . The reference to Cabaret is less pronounced but clear , when , stemming off from the daughter's question about threesomes , Gideon flashes back briefly to himself recreating the " Two Ladies " number . This number , of course , was famously created for the film version of Cabaret by Fosse . I'm not 100 % sure if there is a reference to Sweet Charity ( which would make sense , since it bombed horribly and almost ruined Fosse's filmmaking career ) , but the musical number with Gideon's girlfriend and daughter begins sort of like the " If They Could See Me Now " number , with Shirley MacLaine in Ricardo Montelbahn's bedroom . The musical numbers are something to behold . I think this is a given in a Bob Fosse film , but every single one is breathtaking . The sexy rehearsal number , which leads into the even sexier " Airplane " number , would be pilfered by singer / choreographer Paula Abdul in her video " Cold Hearted Snake . " More silly trivia , John Lithgow was so goofy looking in his relative youth , that guy who was the captain of the Love Boat and also the dad in ALF has an important part , and Wallace Shawn , of Manhattan , My Dinner with André and The Princess Bride fame appears in the most poorly calculated scene in the movie ( Fosse wasn't scrutinizing his film enough if he left it in ) , has one line , and it is the worst line in the entire film . Damn , I wish I could remember it ! . |
385,213 | 391,152 | 57,007 | 9 | A beautiful film | A flawed film , certainly , but also an enormously beautiful one . It seems like simple , frivolous fun at first , but I also found it quite moving . I love the setting , above all else . The film is set on a small island in the Pacific where elements from a handful of cultures have been mixing for many years already . There are the Polynesians who originally inhabited the island , the Japanese who took it over during WWII , the French who established a mission there , the Americans who washed up there after their ship was sunk during WWII , the Australians who occasionally dock there , and the various Asians who have established themselves there . Perhaps the most beautiful scene takes place on Christmas Eve , where all the people of the island celebrate in a joyously syncretic festival . " Silent Night " is sung first in the Polynesian and then in English . During a Nativity play , the three wisemen are the ancient Polynesian king of the island , then the emperor of China , and then the king of America . After the king of America delivers his gift ( a broken phonograph ) , a cloud bursts into torrential rains that easily penetrate through the roof . The audience unfurls a gorgeous rainbow of umbrellas . This sequence brought me to tears . The film's problem is its plot . It seems to just want to exist in its state of sheer beauty , but is worried that its audience will walk out if they aren't spoonfed a conventional romantic plot . A young , would-be heiress from Boston , Ameilia ( Elizabeth Allen ) , goes to this tropical paradise to find the father whom she has never met . She was born near the beginning of WWII , and her father , although he had survived , had decided against coming home . Now he stands to inherit millions of dollars unless she can prove that he is morally undeserving of the inheritance . When she arrives , she finds not her father but his friend , " Guns " Donovan , who owns a local saloon , Donovan's Reef . Donovan is afraid that an uptight Boston woman would immediately reject her father , who has since had three children by a Polynesian princess . The most cliched part of the plot has to do with the burgeoning relationship between Donovan and Ameilia . It's basically adopted straight from The Quiet Man , which is , despite its fame , one of my least favorite of Ford's films . Not too much time is wasted on this part of the plot , and what is there isn't too bad . Lee Marvin and Cesar Romero have really nice supporting roles , as well . In fact , Lee Marvin is so funny in his role that I almost wish he had more scenes . . |
385,556 | 391,152 | 119,823 | 9 | A true gem , all the way | Just like when Jed Clampett was out shootin ' for some food , I thought that I'd watch this movie because I was hungry to see every single version of William Faulkner's fiction put to film . I expected possum stew , but , lo and behold , this was quite the bubblin ' crude . I mean , who would expect such a high quality movie to be made for television , a Hallmark Hall of Fame production , at that ? Well , the script was written by Horton Foote , most famous , I imagine , for his script for To Kill a Mockingbird . The original story is half of Faulkner's masterpiece If I Forget Thee , Jerusalem , which brilliantly alternates between the stories Old Man and The Wild Palms ( a name by which the novel has also been known ) . The Wild Palms is the better half of the novel , I think most people would agree . It's a tragedy about a woman who leaves her husband for a young man studying to become a doctor . The resulting scandal forces them to wander around the country , and the story ends with the gravest tragedy . Old Man , on the other hand , is a comedy . Where The Wild Palms presents a sickly and pained relationship , Old Man presents a parody of a marriage . A convict ( Arliss Howard ) is enlisted to help save people who are caught in the flood of 1927 , perhaps the largest the United States has ever seen ( it completely covered most of the South for miles on both sides of the Mississippi , and probably most other rivers , as well ) . He is specifically sent to rescue a young woman in a tree and a man stuck on top of the roof of a cotton house . Well , although he doesn't know how to control the boat , he does find the woman ( Jeanne Tripplehorn ) . He never finds the man on the cotton house roof , but he does find the woman in the tree , and she's eight and a half months pregnant . They get lost on the giant lake which was the South . Though the opportunity for escape , for a whole new life presents itself almost constantly , Howard refuses to take it . He's stubborn ; he only has nine more years to serve ( for a silly , attempted train robbery that barely got off the ground ) , and , dammit , he's gonna serve them no matter what . The movie consists of little more than muted conversations between the chattering woman and the convict of few words . A kind of love arises between them . This doesn't happen the same way in the original story . In fact , my sense was that the convict , who had been in jail since the tender age of 19 , had had no experience with women whatsoever and was downright afraid of both the woman and her baby , who is born in the first couple of days afloat . The comedy of this half of the novel is lessened and the work is made more dramatic . Without the tragedy of The Wild Palms , this actually works very well . The two lead performances are great . I would never expected this amount of depth from Tripplehorn , whose career has been middling at best . This proves her to be a viable actress . Arliss Howard , though I've seen him in a hundred movies , several of which are personal favorites , I do not recognize whatsoever . His performance in this film is nothing short of masterful , just magnificent . |
385,876 | 391,152 | 360,009 | 9 | Mamet's ugly staccato dialogue harms what is otherwise a perfect film | Okay , so I hate David Mamet's dialogue style . Whatever critics came along in his early days and convinced him he was a genius for writing like this deserves torture . However , Spartan succeeds despite the dialogue , and perhaps because , by the film's nature , dialogue is sparse anyway . In fact , Spartan is one of the best films so far of 2004 , one of the most stunning and gripping thrillers I've ever seen . If Mamet had the ability to write better dialogue , the film would have been a full-blown masterpiece . I rented the movie because I missed Val Kilmer , an actor who is admittedly far from great . He's likeable , though , and I generally enjoy his work . Here he plays a Marine who is on a mission to save the President's kidnapped daughter . As more facts are uncovered , the situation becomes more murky and frightening . The only other Mamet film I've seen is The Spanish Prisoner , and few films have seemed as weak to me . The dialogue was painful to listen to , and the directorial style was unremarkable . The latter statement certainly cannot be made about Spartan , which has some of the best visual direction in the last few years . I have to say ' visual ' because Mamet's awful dialogue stilts almost all of the actors . Kilmer walks away relatively unscathed , as does Derek Luke , who co-starred in one of my favorite 2003 films , Pieces of April . Tia Texada and Ed O'Neill are pretty good . I think O'Neill has always been a fine actor who was pigeonholed by his famous character Al Bundy ; here he plays a Rumsfield type and comes off very well , especially in the film's final scene . Newcomer Kristen Bell is the most successful of the cast . I hope to see more of her in the future . William H . Macy can be particularly embarrassed at his performance here . . |
385,191 | 391,152 | 297,721 | 9 | Just excellent | A strange and difficult film , but also an amazing one born from the world of dreams . I think it can best be described as a mood piece . The film runs two and a half hours , and not much really happens plot-wise . But a lot does happen emotionally . The film is about a teenage boy in Japanese junior high school ( early to mid teen years ) who is caught up in some rather nasty circumstances that occur within his peer group , including robbery , rape and prostitution ( the same set of circumstances that brought about a movie like Battle Royale , and you'll recognize some of the character types that the two films share ) . To escape from the horrors of everyday life , the boy , named Yuichi , listens to the ethereal music of Lily Chou-Chou , and chats about her on the internet . As dark as the subject matter of the film is , its point of view is stuck in the dreaminess of Lily Chou-Chou's music . The hazy digital photography , with its glowing aura , communicates this beautifully ? let no one say that digital doesn't have a place in the world of cinema . The film is not cohesive , but it would probably be a mistake if it were . It would lose that haunting tone that makes it so special . It's outstanding . |
385,220 | 391,152 | 206,634 | 9 | Has some minor flaws and not the strongest storyline , but is so astoundingly created it's hard to care too much | Impressive as all Hell , at least from the standpoint of direction . There are a couple of long takes that are just about the greatest sequences I've ever seen . Cuarón is a master of putting the audience in the middle of the action . I've never felt more like I was in a war zone before . The collapse of society has never been more vividly depicted . However ( and I hate to say " however " when there's so much to be amazed at ) , I didn't absolutely love the movie . It creates a frightening world , but the story that goes along with it is not equal to the creation . It's decent , but nothing fantastic . And the characters weren't especially great , either . Only Clive Owen gives a notable performance , and he was even better in Inside Man . I also thought that exposition in the film was handled clumsily . How many left to right tracking shots do we need of photographs and newspaper headlines ? Every time Cuarón wants to tell us something about a new character , or explicate something that has happened in the past , that's how he does it . Okay , despite some complaints , which I guess are major but I was too impressed to care too much , this is still one of the best of the year . |
384,979 | 391,152 | 24,183 | 9 | One of the funniest comedies of the 30s | International House is an entirely insane and hilarious romp . A bunch of wacky characters travel to Wu Hu , China in order to bid for the rights to manufacture the new invention of television . W . C . Fields is the standout here , giving perhaps the funniest performance of his early career , rivaling such other classics as The Old-Fashioned Way , You're Telling Me , and It's a Gift . But there are others in this film who are just as good . Franklin Pangborn is as easily upset as ever . Bela Lugosi turns in a wonderfully hammy performance as a Russian General . George Burns and Gracie Allen deliver one corny joke after another ( most people will find them annoying in any of their films , but I find that they begin to grow on you ; those jokes , I contend , are supposed to be groaners ) . Perhaps the only character to get lost in the proceedings is Tommy Nash ( Stuart Erwin ) , a representative of an American company who is the front runner in the race to win television . The movie tries to make him the main character at the beginning , but , with all the other zaniness , Erwin , a straight man , is understandably left out of most of the picture . Also in this film are some amazing musical numbers , including a song entitled " Reefer Man , " sung by a black jazz group . Because of the marijuana references , this segment was long thought lost . Whenever they show this film on TCM , they include that scene . Marvelous stuff , all of it . |
385,705 | 391,152 | 330,229 | 9 | Takeshi Kitano is evolving as a filmmaker | Strange and far from perfect , but an amazing cinematic experience . Takeshi Kitano is best known for his yakuza films , but , with Dolls and Zatoichi , I think he's moved beyond and become a more well-rounded artist . Dolls is a highly aestheticized film that intertwines three stories about undying , insanity-causing love . The structure is very strange , and it doesn't work perfectly . One story , the most effective one in my mind , about a man who tethers himself to his brain-damaged ex-fiancée , takes up the most screen time . However , most of that screen time is devoted just to watching the two stumble solemnly through the seasons of the year . It becomes quite poetic , and a good excuse for creating gorgeous visual compositions . The other two stories take up relatively little screen time , and feel more prosaic ( though with a definite tinge of myths ) . One involves a yakuza boss who , nearing death , visits a park bench where he used to meet his sweetheart when he was a young man ? and finds her still waiting for him . The third tale involves a man who is obsessed with a pop star . When she is injured in a car accident , he is not allowed to see her disfigured face . So he removes his own eyes in order to spend time with her . The secondary stories are far less satisfying than the tale of bound beggars , but the three stories do meld into a very satisfying whole . The film also seems to hint at more , and a second viewing might tie everything together much for satisfactorily . It's visual beauty is only surpassed by its highly advanced editing rhythms , and perhaps also its exquisite score , by Jo Hisaishi , frequent collaborator of Hayao Miyazaki . |
385,204 | 391,152 | 26,017 | 9 | One of Fields ' Best | Well , what did W . C . Fields ever do that was bad ? Even in lesser works , he's still at least interesting to watch . You're Telling Me is his second or third best of all those I've seen . The opening sequence , the suicide sequence , and the ostrich sequence are its highlights . The golf sequence might be counted , too , but , if you've seen the short film The Golf Specialist , the one in You're Telling Me is less perfect . For one thing , Fields plays one of his nicer characters in this one . He's rather good on the dramatic side , actually . I liked the scene where he tries to convince the princess not to kill herself very much . Fields showed some true range there . Anyway , as most Fields fans know , the Great Man had two basic characters : the hen-pecked husband and the flim-flam man . In The Golf Specialist , Fields is a flim-flam man , and he needs to be quite mean-spirited to play that role . The nice character from You're Telling Me seems out of place being cruel to the caddy , no matter if the caddy deserves it or not . Also , the caddy and the woman watching Fields were much funnier in the short film than in here . I suppose if I hadn't have seen The Golf Specialist just recently , the golf sequence in You're Telling Me would have seemed a lot better . Still , the film is certainly worth a . See it if you get the chance . |
384,906 | 391,152 | 39,871 | 9 | A little-known Kurosawa that's well worth rediscovering | I had said two weeks ago , in a review of Scandal , that Eclipse's new Kurosawa box set could just as easily be called Lesser Kurosawa . That's not fair . I know there are those who champion The Idiot and No Regrets for Our Youth , and even the one film I had previously seen from the set , I Live in Fear , is quite good ( though it's hard to argue with it being a lesser film is such an outstanding oeuvre ) . The truth was , I was hoping very much to find some lesser-known Kurosawa classics . Which brings us to One Wonderful Sunday . Judging solely by IMDb's votes , it's Kurosawa's third least seen movie . And it ranks # when listed by ratings . Well , I'll be happy to act like I was the first who discovered this hidden gem in Kurosawa's catalogue . This really is a wonderful little film . Influenced very much by Vittorio de Sica , one of Kurosawa's favorite directors , One Wonderful Sunday follows two young lovers , Yuzo and Masako ( Isao Numasaki and Chieko Nakakita ) , spending the titular day together with nothing but ¥35 between them . The two experience sadness and hardship as they go about their date . The structure is episodic , as the lovers experience odd vignettes , meeting various post-war types , like bums and orphans and ticket scalpers . The two try to be happy with each other's company , but Yuzo's poverty makes him feel like less of a man . In one of the strongest sequences in Kurosawa's career , Yuzo decides to act like a cad to drive Masako away . Kurosawa was hardly ever the subtle type , and he is not known for long periods of silence or long takes . This sequence demonstrates a different side of the director . The climax of the film involves an odd breaking of the fourth wall resembling the device in J . M . Barrie's Peter Pan . As far as I know , this is the only time Kurosawa ever attempted such a thing . That wouldn't be too surprising , though , as film audiences rarely interact with characters on screen . It's just too out there for the medium . But God bless Kurosawa for trying it . It's kind of schmaltzy , but I loved the characters so much that at least I thought about clapping for them . A forgotten near-masterpiece . |
384,627 | 391,152 | 18,379 | 9 | Would-be masterpiece slightly knocked down by a weak ending | A beautiful melodrama , which , at its best , nears Sunrise . Janet Gaynor starred in both of them , and one the first Best Actress Oscar for her work in those two films . She plays a destitute Parisian girl kicked out of her home by her father . When a police officer attempts to arrest her , a sewer worker who has just been promoted to a street cleaner ( Charles Farrell ) selflessly claims that she is his wife . The two have to uphold this charade for a few days , but , by the end , they are in love . By the time they realize this and get married , though , WWI has begun and the men are off to war . The first half , maybe more , is the romantic part , and it is wonderful . Some of the best filmmaking around , and a couple of scenes that are just gorgeous . I will never forget sweet Janet Gaynor putting Farrell's coat on the back of a chair and then , sitting in that chair , she puts the coat's arms around her body . The second half , the war half , is very good , but it pulls down the magical romance into reality . Which isn't necessarily a bad thing , I suppose , no matter how much I was enjoying that first half . It's a good war film , at least the equal of Wings . The battle sequences are well produced and harrowing . Meanwhile , Gaynor faces the no-longer harmless flirtations of a Colonel . The direction is always fantastic . The visual and narrative motif of altitude is very well done , with Farrell beginning in the sewers and , a bit later , he ascends to the stars in his tall apartment building . Seventh Heaven might have been a masterpiece , but it completely crumbles by the end . The end should have written itself . The end of the war should have been the sign that Farrell had not abandoned Gaynor . Unfortunately , we have to deal with an entirely tacked-on ending . It can't ruin the film , of course . . |
384,774 | 391,152 | 829,482 | 9 | One I think that people will be watching over and over again | Hilarious and smart teen comedy , without a doubt one of the funniest of the year . Michael Cera and Jonah Hill play two high school seniors who are best friends . When invited to a cool chick's party , they try to get their über-geeky friend , played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse , to use his fake ID ( on which he is now infamously renamed " McLovin " ) to get them some alcohol . From there , everything goes awry . It's really a laugh-a-minute movie . The previews and commercials ruined a few of the best jokes , but there is no shortage of laughs anywhere in the movie . It also manages to be fairly touching , without devolving into schmaltz ( a problem that the film's producer Judd Apatow has yet to solve in his own films ) . The awkward dialogue is wonderfully convincing , and completely recalled high school for me . Very enjoyable , and one that I hope to enjoy very often in the future . |
385,538 | 391,152 | 57,091 | 9 | Sumptuous , but difficult to follow | That's probably because the version I saw was cut somehow . The video box swore it wasn't , but the copy I rented was only a bit over three hours long . That's quite a bit more than the version that was originally released in the U . S . the first time around , but there's obviously something missing , somewhere around 20 minutes . As it was , I found it difficult to follow . Especially near the beginning : I had no clue what was going on or who the characters were . They refrain from telling us When and Where for a long time . If you come here before you see it , it's Sicily circa 1860 . Burt Lancaster plays Prince Salina , a man of distinguished family who can trace his line back to Emperor Titus ( why not Vespasian , Titus ' father ? ) . The film seems to be mainly about the end of an aristocracy . Salina's nephew , played by Alain Delon , very sexy with his mustache , fights in a rebellion on the mainland . I don't know . I don't want to speculate on The Leopard too much . It's a beautiful film , obviously . It's much better than the other Visconti costume drama that I've seen , Senso , even if it didn't make too much sense . My favorite , by far , is Rocco and His Brothers , made three years before The Leopard . Still , The Leopard is more than noteworthy . May it get a proper , 205-minute DVD release sometime soon , hopefully with a commentary track that helps with the obscure history . for now , which perhaps will rise in the future . |
385,294 | 391,152 | 45,361 | 9 | The green monster rears its ugly head | SLIGHT SPOILERSEl is similar in style to other productions made by Bunuel in Mexico . It reminded me of both Los Olvidados and Nazarin . Unlike in the early or late films , the style is more realistic and more akin to melodrama . In fact , all three of these films each contain a single surrealist scene . Los Olvidados has the dream , Nazarin has the fantasy where the wife bites off her husband's lower lip , and El has , well , El's surrealist moment comes near the end and is too good to give away . If you've seen the film , I'm sure you know to what I refer . El can be divided up into three easily identifiable sections , each about a half-hour each . The first is told from the point of view of an aristocrat who catches sight of a beautiful woman in church . It's love at first sight , but he soon finds out that she is the wife of a friend of his . At this point , I was fully expecting a cheapy adulterous romance picture , a soap opera . That was the genre that was dominating Mexican cinemas at the time . Luckily , the film doesn't follow a predictable route . There is at this point an elipsis of time , as that first man runs into the woman . He innocently offers her a ride home . Grudgingly , she accepts . On the ride home , she tells him of how her husband's jealously is destroying her . He's an extremely paranoid man , and he has actually threatened to murder her on two separate occasions . She finds opposition everywhere as she is looking for help . The third section of the film is told from the point of view of the husband . His jealousy is starting to lead him off a cliff . The title of the film actually refers to him . " El " is the masculine , singular , definite article in Spanish . Bunuel had a gift for endings . El's is as good as that of Nazarin or Viridiana . By the way , a bit of trivia about that final image : the actor in the cloak at the end of the film , walking down the path , is not the same one who played Francisco in the rest of the film . It's Bunuel . . |
385,506 | 391,152 | 212,720 | 9 | Worst ending to a great movie ever ; SPOILERS | For a majority of its running time , A . I . promises to be the best movie this year , and possibly one of the best films ever . There is hardly a wrong step in the script , acting , direction , scoring , set design , special effects , or cinematography for the longest time . Then , the film comes to a dead end : David , the robot child ( mecha ) played by Haley Joel Osment , is trapped underwater at the end of a long journey . His programming becomes caught on an endless loop , and the camera begins to zoom out . It would have worked as the end of the film . A depressing end , but one which the film lead to the entire time . Instead , Spielberg delivers the most outrageous deus ex machina I've ever seen in a film , or even a Greek tragedy . A narrator , a tool which is very out of date , begins to speak : " David stayed that way for two thousand years . " In those two thousand years , another ice age arises , and with it the extinction of mankind . We see the frozen landscape that used to be NY City underwater , and through it flies an alien spacecraft . The aliens have uncovered David , and they revive him in order to learn all they can about the extinct human race . They bring David to a research center , designed after his former home , a la 2001 : A Space Odyssey . The aliens , who have apparently learned English from studying Osment's program , choose to revive his mother , because that is what he wants more than anything . What results is meant to be touching , but it is the least truthful and most cloying ending you could ever imagine . This is a worse cheat than the bookends of Saving Private Ryan or the modern day grave sequence in Schindler's List , a scene that more or less diminished that otherwise great film significantly . The mood of the rest of the movie was one of mourning and cynicism . Human beings are shown to be liars and users , uncaring murderers . David's original owners abandon him because of their impatience , and treat him as if he is a toy , not a human being . And the most ironic thing about that ending is that , although all the cues tell us that we're supposed to be sentimental about this whole meeting , we know as an audience ( or at least I knew ; many people were , in fact , crying ) that this mother is entirely fabricated . After she dies , which will happen when she falls asleep after the first night , David will be the subject of study for the aliens , as much as Dave Bowman of 2001 was in that film . If Spielberg would have held that irony at the surface , instead of burying it under craploads of false sentimentality , it had potential to be profound . I still could have done without the ridiculous looking aliens , but I also could have accepted it . The film ends on such a blatantly false moment that most of the audience , any who are intelligent enough to be able to identify and follow the themes of the rest of the film , will stumble out dumbfounded at the way Spielberg shoots himself in the foot . Others will coo like the dumb pigeons that they are . |
384,634 | 391,152 | 40,980 | 9 | Forceful and powerful | Startling , forceful tale of women descending into a life of prostitution in post-war Osaka . Kinuyo Tanaka , who would play the lost mother of the protagonists in Sansho the Bailiff , stars as a woman who lost both her husband and son to illness long after the war has ended . When her younger sister , Sanae Takasugi , steals the man she's having an affair with , she joins the streetwalkers . Mizoguchi was heavily influenced by Italian Neorealism here , and most of it was filmed in the ruined streets of Osaka . It's blunt as Hell , and arguably exploitative . Mizoguchi disowned it later in his career . The two best sequences in the film , one where a group of prostitutes denudes a young rape victim , and the final one where Tanaka comes to the rescue of the same girl when another group of prostitutes is attacking her , are the seeds that would spawn Seijun Suzuki's Gate of Flesh . That's definitely a compliment , in my book . That final sequence in particular , despite more than a little heavy-handedness ( it takes place in a burnt-out church ) , is one of the most emotionally draining in the director's career . |
385,976 | 391,152 | 24,115 | 9 | Powerful , painful Depression-era tale | Found on the same disc as my favorite Wellman film , Wild Boys of the Road . Anyone interested in Depression-era movies should throw that disc up on your Netflix queue immediately ! That's got to be one of the all-time great double features ( which lasts only just over two hours ) . Heroes for Sale is an episodic , sometimes sloppily constructed story , but it's very involving . Richard Barthelmess stars , and the plot follows him from a soldier in WWI to the present , in the middle of the Great Depression . He experiences much hardship and betrayal through his life . Some hugely positive experiences , too , but when you have something good in your life , there's always the possibility of losing it . This is one of the most cynical , heartbreaking movies of all time . It certainly wouldn't be the film you saw to forget about the horror of modern life . The Fred and Ginger movie's playing down the hall . The film has been frequently accused of having socialist or communist leanings . This is partly true . It's certainly not very trustful of capitalism . But it's just as distrustful of communism . One of its main characters , played by Robert Barrat , begins the film as a communist in a flophouse . He later becomes successful and ends up screwing over his friends and scorning the poor . The film also stars Loretta Young , Aline MacMahon , Charlie Grapewin and Gordon Westcott , and all are very strong . A gut-wrencher which , like Wild Boys of the Road , ends with a faint glimmer of hope . Very faint , with the Depression going strong . |
385,978 | 391,152 | 50,839 | 9 | Beautiful accomplishment | Exceptional , affecting melodrama about small-town life in America . The story is at times a bit tawdry , but it is always intelligent , complex and it is populated with many memorable and realistic characters . They're people to care about . Better yet , the actors portraying them are mostly brilliant . I had some problems with Arthur Kennedy's performance ; it's too over-the-top , and not up to the same level of maturity as many of the others . I also thought Lee Philips was weak in a key role . But Lana Turner , Diane Varsi , Russ Tamblyn , Terry Moore , Barry Coe , Mildred Dunnock , Lloyd Nolan , Leon Ames , and Hope Lange give enormously sensitive performances that will live with me for a long time . Especially Ms . Lange , who is just heartbreaking as a young woman who is sexually abused by her alcoholic stepfather ( Arthur Kennedy ) . The story is frank ( 1950s frank ) and intelligent about sex and the way that small towns treat it . I would surely credit director Robson with keeping this film , which could easily have been a disaster , flowing like a gentle stream . It's a rarity that a Hollywood film like this could be so insightful about small-town life . It does have one big narrative problem , and that is that its climax is a trial . It's not often that a climactic trial works well , and there is no exception for Peyton Place . It seems fake , and the lawyers and defendants don't present evidence in an at all believable fashion . And then there's this cringe-inducing third-act speech . It belongs in a lesser film . . |
385,003 | 391,152 | 371,246 | 9 | Far from perfect , but somehow perfectly satisfying | The story involves a Mexican woman ( Paz Vega ) becoming the maid for a dysfunctional , wealthy white family . Other characters include the white family's son and daughter , the grandma , and the maid's own daughter . The plot is very loose , and is more an excuse for well developed characters to interact in complex situations . The film balances its comedy and drama pretty much perfectly . The biggest complaint is that Téa Leoni's character , the wife and mother , is far too psychologically messed up , and maybe even that Leoni overplays it ( by a country mile ) . But I did like the character , at least the intentions that Brooks had for her . It's interesting that you have a kind of distaste for her , but can also sympathize . Adam Sandler plays her husband and gives his finest performance yet . Like Paul Thomas Anderson before him , Brooks really knows how to find a perfect character for Sandler to play . Paz Vega is great . She has previously starred in films by Almodóvar and Medem . I am a bit disappointed to discover that she's Spanish and not Hispanic . The film is intentionally aimed at a segment of the white population that hasn't quite gotten used to the fact that America's Hispanic population is not going away , and it would have been nice to have an actual Mexican to play the part . Shelbie Bruce is excellent as Vega's daughter . She's far better than the two white children . Speaking of the white children , they're another of the disappointing aspects of the film , as they are given stories and characters but then forgotten amidst the other characters ' problems . I can probably pick out a dozen more flaws , some of them major , but the strong characters and excellent dialogue work so well that I enjoyed it completely . |
385,397 | 391,152 | 906,665 | 9 | Weird and wild | Miike's best film since Gozu . It's an eye-popping , furious , hilarious pastiche of spaghetti Westerns . Of course , the spaghetti Western was invented by stealing from Akira Kurosawa , but then of course Yojimbo was invented from stealing from American sources , too . It goes back and forth and cuts across cultures . I'd definitely categorize this as a substance over style exercise , but , man , is the style a lot of fun here ! The story is pretty much the same as Yojimbo / A Fistfull of Dollars , with a mysterious warrior entering a town divided into two fighting factions . I think the biggest flaw in Sukiyaki Western Django is that the mystery man is not an especially interesting character . My attention was mostly on the wacky characters of the two factions . Doesn't matter too much , because , as I say , it's all style here . I enjoyed the crazy character design and spectacular cinematography . The action sequences are brilliantly directed and edited by Miike , and are some of the best gunfight sequences ever . My favorite bit has the leader of the white team ( yes , the two sides are divided by colors , red and white , to distinguish them visually ) shooting at the leader of the red team from a great distance . He has to aim his pistol high up in the air and at an angle to adjust for the wind and gravity . Quentin Tarantino has a small role . Don't let that scare you away . You're not going to be watching for the acting , either , as Miike has all of the Japanese actors speaking English phonetically , which just adds to the weirdness . Sukiyaki Western Django is a lot of fun , if you're game . |
385,274 | 391,152 | 338,751 | 9 | Great work by Scorsese and his cast | Well directed biopic of Howard Hughes that's probably too ambitious and original to be called a biopic . This is simply the story of Hughes ' early , gigantic life where he imagined giant movies , glamorous women , and futuristic airplanes , but was crippled by an obsessive-compulsive disorder . Sure , this isn't Scorsese's most personal film , but I never quite thought of him as a straight auteur . A lot of his films do share common themes , but there's always Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , The Age of Innocence , and After Hours . I think of Scorsese first and foremost as a master of the medium , an especially skilled director , and I think The Aviator is one of his greatest directorial triumphs . He is a master of developing the mood of the picture and controlling its pace . It flows beautifully . The film boasts some of the very best acting of the year , too . Leonardo DiCaprio is just coming into his mature period as an actor , and this is his best performance to date . It's definitely Oscar worthy . Cate Blanchett is a marvel playing Katharine Hepburn . At first I wasn't sure if she was just doing a crass imitation , but her character really develops nicely . Cate disappears and we then have Kate . Just try to keep her from carrying home the statuette ! Another Kate , Kate Beckinsale , is also very good as Ava Gardener . She's not a great actress , but she holds her own here . Add to them fine supporting performances from John C . Reilly , Alec Baldwin , Alan Alda , and Ian Holm . Also Jude Law , in his fiftieth film appearance of 2004 , plays Errol Flynn and is so good that I wanted a lot more . I love films about Golden Age Hollywood , and I like trying to spot the references . One of the best and most entertaining movies of 2004 thus far . . |
384,892 | 391,152 | 43,081 | 9 | A gem | When people ask the question " Why don't they make musicals anymore ? " I find that it is quite easily answered : " Well , the genre was perfected in classical Hollywood . " We can never get to that point again , and can only hope for re-invention , which we kind of got this past year with Moulin Rouge . However , that film cannot compare with the musicals of the 30s and 50s , nor can any other musical ( at least from what I've seen ) of the past 20 years . I had never heard of Two Weeks with Love , and only began to watch it because there was nothing else on when I sat down to eat my lunch . I missed the first 15 minutes or so , but the plot was simple enough to reconstruct : a family goes on vacation in the Catskills around the turn of the Twentieth Century , and the middle of three daughters ( Jane Powell ) , Patty , 17 in age , feels that she is becoming an adult . Her parents treat her like a child , though , and won't allow her to where a corset , the symbol of young womanhood . Another guest in their hotel is Demy , a Cuban gentleman played by none other than Ricardo Montalban ( how old is this guy ? this film was made in 1950 ! ) . He's a bit older than Patty , but she is extraordinarily attracted to him . Her older sister , Valerie , tries to trick her into screwing up when she's in front of him ( she wants him , too ) , and her younger sister , Melba , thinks Patty's a nut . Debbie Reynolds , cute as ever , plays Melba , two years before Singin ' in the Rain . This film has a lot of great musical numbers , but it can go a long time at some points without one . However , it's so entertaining even without the music that I was never impatiently waiting for the next one to occur . The humor is marvelous . The dialogue is very clever , and there are actually a lot of sexual innuendoes . Some of them may not have been meant . For instance , one scene has Patty explaining to Demy how she would cling to him if she fell into a lake . She wraps her arms tightly around this pole that looks far too much like a penis to suggest anything else . I hope someday that I'll be able to see the first 15 minutes that I missed . Perhaps then I'll give it a 10 , but for now I'll give it a . |
385,432 | 391,152 | 47,478 | 9 | Great Film , but I think Kurosawa did better | Watching this film for over 3 hours , I felt excited every step of the way . I thought the situation was interesting , the characters were interesting , the acting was spectacular , and the action to be very intelligently crafted . But I felt there were some small problems , as well . The characters ' names were rarely spoken , so it became easier to mix some of the characters up as the film progressed . Especially , I thought two of the samurai looked very like each other ( and the person with whom I was watching this film had the same problem , so it's not just me ) . Also , I don't think this film belongs within the top ten of anyone's list . It is very well directed and executed , but it has no profundity . After I was done watching it , I put it away , went to my room , and thought very little about it . A great film leads to pondering . I think Kurosawa's _ Rashomon _ and , even moreso , _ Ran _ contained a lot more depth . Also , Japan has produced many , many very thoughtful and powerful animated films such as _ Princess Mononoke _ and _ Grave of the Fireflies _ . _ The Seven Samurai _ is a great film , but I would hesitate to call it a masterpiece . |
385,600 | 391,152 | 29,751 | 9 | I have to admit that I liked it a lot ! | Surprisingly great John Ford film starring Shirley Temple . I was unsure if I could stand her cuteness for an hour and forty minutes , but I was never as annoyed as I expected to be . She's actually quite - good ( I'll probably never live that down , will I ? ) . Once in a while , she got a bit cloying , but for the most part I enjoyed her performance . Believe me , though , John Ford and his screenwriter were careful to balance her with the rest of the film , which is indeed quite masterful . All of the other performers are pitch perfect , including C . Aubrey Smith , Cesar Romero , Michael Whalen , Constance Collier , June Lang , and especially Ford regular Victor McLaglen . He's amazing , as always . The story , based on a Rudyard Kipling book , is very good . Lang plays Temple's mother . Her husband has apparently died , and she accepts the gracious invitation of her father-in-law ( Smith ) , a colonel in India , whom she has never met . While there , Temple becomes a sort of a mascot of the soldiers , with Sgt . MacDuff ( McLaglen ) taking care of her and teaching her how to be a soldier . Another soldier ( Whalen ) courts Temple's mother . Cesar Romero plays Khoda Khan , a bandit prince who is being held prisoner in the fort . Ford's direction is as exciting as ever , and the cinematography is halfway between the expressionism of The Informer and the naturalism of Stagecoach . The musical score is also quite good . One might object to the colonialist viewpoint of the film , but , to be fair , Wee Willie Winkie is a lot more palatable in that respect than George Stevens ' much more famous Gunga Din is . . |
384,761 | 391,152 | 47,437 | 9 | A wonderful romantic comedy from Wilder | Humphrey Bogart and William Holden star as rich brothers , the former an ever-busy CEO the latter a lazy , womanizing playboy . Audrey Hepburn plays their chauffer's daughter , Sabrina , who is in love with Holden . He doesn't even know she exists . Hepburn's father sends her to Paris to forget , but she comes back with the sophistication necessary to conquer Holden , and does so effortlessly . Unfortunately , she's threatening a major corporate deal with Holden's new fiancée's father . Bogart steps in and tries to seduce Hepburn away from his brother , for reasons of business only . Who would guess that he falls for her as well ? Well , anyone who's ever seen a romantic comedy , I suppose , but the film's lack of surprises is no major fault . Hepburn could carry the movie by herself without a problem . Bogart and Holden are good , but I for one never looked at them , except to be slightly disgusted at Bogart's romantic leanings towards a 20-something gal ( what happened , did Bacall get too old for the guy ? ) . Hell , Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear were as good in the 1990s remake ( which I saw when it first came out ) . Sabrina also benefits from some truly skillful direction from Wilder . I am not a Wilder fan , in particular . I do recognize his talents , but , as far as I've always thought , he was a talented mortal working amongst the classic Hollywood deities , the directors and stars of that era . Sabrina increases my opinion of him , both as a director and as a writer . The film has some unusually extended sequences . For example , the first time Bogart tries to get Sabrina from his brother's charismatic grasp , when he meets her on the indoor tennis court . The audience understands exactly what's happening plotwise within ten seconds . But the scene is protracted beyond our expectations . When Bogie kisses Hepburn , we sit there watching her slow reaction . This is quite the good film . . |
384,808 | 391,152 | 276,501 | 9 | Excellent film ; could possibly be a critical hit in the U . S . | When you read a synopsis of Beijing Bicycle , it may remind you of Vittorio de Sica's 1948 masterpiece The Bicycle Thieves . A poor man , having recently come to the city from the country , wins a job at a bicycle courier business , and , on a delivery , gets his bike stolen . He then proceeds to search the city of Beijing to retrieve it . Luckily , it quickly veers away from being a simple update of that classic story . He finds the alleged thief , a high school kid , and steals it back . For the first hour or more , the bike moves back and forth between them . The two characters are compared and contrasted , and it works as an effective class study . The direction and editing are particularly great in the film . The climax involves two intersecting chases , and it is one of the best stages sequences I've ever seen . There are a couple of problems , small ones for me , but perhaps big ones for critics and audiences . The high school kid is extraordinarily unlikable . A person behind me declared loudly , " What a brat ! " And he is . I personally don't mind if a character is unsympathetic ( although we are asked to sympathize with him , I believe ) . My own biggest problem is that the ending is slightly unsatisfactory . There's not much closure . Still , Beijing Bicycle is an excellent film . . |
385,604 | 391,152 | 64,897 | 9 | Must-see for any Bergman fan | Made for television during what is probably Bergman's most innovative period , around the same time as Persona , Shame , A Passion , and Cries and Whispers . Three actors , played by Bergman regulars Gunnar Bjornstrand , Anders Ek , and Ingrid Thulin , are brought up on an obscenities charge in an unnamed European country . A judge ( Erik Hell ) interviews them over a period of several days , first all together , and then each one separately . We also see scenes of the actors outside of these interviews interacting in pairs ( never all three together ) . There is also a scene in which the judge visits a priest , in a re-enactment of a certain scene from The Seventh Seal , the one where Antonius Block confesses his chess strategy to death . Here , Bergman himself plays the priest / death ( in the interview book Bergman on Bergman , he jokingly brags that he got paid extra for having a speaking part in the film ) . The film as a whole is difficult , as are the other films around this period . But it is an amazing film when taken scene for scene . It's a showcase for these amazing actors . Thulin , Bjornstrand , and Ek are amazing as these absolutely deranged characters . Ek plays the most arrogant person in the world , and he has a little problem with pyromania . Thulin , who is married to Bjornstrand but sleeps exclusively with Ek , has some serious mental problems ( and a wig that makes her look like Anna Karina from Vivre sa vie ) . Her neuroses make Woody Allen seem relatively calm . Bjornstrand is a desperate character who wants to get away from his wife and her lover ( also his best friend ) , but he's not sure if he can live without her . The Rite is actually quite graphic . There are a few very erotic scenes , and Thulin was never more desirable . In one scene , Ek asks Bjornstrand how he can bring Thulin to orgasm , and the description made me blush , of all people . The film would probably have been rated X in the United States . Needless to say , it would never appear on television ! When it was originally broadcast , Bergman had a disclaimer placed before it telling everyone that they might want to read or go to the movies instead of watch The Rite ! . |
385,293 | 391,152 | 43,117 | 9 | Marvelous John Ford | Watching The Wagonmaster is not likely to result in deep thoughts , unlike many other great Ford films , like The Searchers , My Darling Clementine , The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , and The Grapes of Wrath among others , but it is likely to produce a feeling of awe and deep satisfaction . The story is very simple : two cowboys decide to help a wagon train of Mormons get to California . Along the way , they run into a medicine man whose mules ran away , a group of bank robbers , and some Navajos . There's a lot of adventure and excitement on the trail , and the film is imbued with fun and beauty . The music is absolutely beautiful . The scenery , again from Monument Valley , is as beautiful as it ever was . Plus , how can you go wrong with James Arness ? The Wagonmaster might not be one of John Ford's better known films , but it is nonetheless a must-see if you get the chance . . |
385,016 | 391,152 | 845,046 | 9 | A charmer | It's the kind of movie that reminds me that the words " cute , " " sweet " and " quirky " ought not to be criticisms in and of themselves . The film is about two pre-teens , a troublemaker ( Will Poulter ) and a sheltered kid from a strict religious sect ( Bill Milner ) , who decide to make a sequel to First Blood . Poulter fancies himself a filmmaker , and hopes to win a BBC contest with the movie . First Blood is Milner's first movie ever ( the movie begins with him and his family holding a vigil over the lost souls who are in a theater watching it ) , and it fires up his already vivid imagination . The plot is generally predictable , but the themes of friendship and the love of creating art are well done and very touching . Most surprising is the frequently exciting direction by Garth Jennings , whose first film was the mediocre-at-best adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . I would never have expected him to produce an original screenplay of such wit , pacing and attention to detail . It's an absolutely satisfying film , and one of the few I've seen so far in 2008 that I genuinely loved . |
385,371 | 391,152 | 47,445 | 9 | A great film | I don't have too much to say about the film itself . I think anyone can agree that it is a great film . Kenji Mizoguchi is a great humanist here ( this is my first film of his ) . It is a very polished film , too . The acting is marvelous , the direction and cinematography are great , and the script is the highlight of the whole project . It's enormously touching . I wouldn't , however , place this amongst the best films I've ever seen . It's definitely close , but I don't think I will remember it forever . I would gladly watch it again , but not for a long while . And I don't think I'm going to be telling everyone I know how great it is , unless someone were to specifically inquire about it . I have to admit , the reason I'm saying this is because there is always a bitter resentment against Akira Kurosawa from Mizoguchi ( and Ozu ) fans . I have seen one Mizoguchi , this film , and one Ozu , Early Summer ( Bakushu ) which is horrendously boring , but I know that that film is not exemplary of Ozu's canon . I have seen 14 or maybe even more Kurosawa films . His are generally more available , not to mention that he made more , I believe , than both Mizoguchi and Ozu put together . Averaging my ratings for the film , he has an average of 8 . 79 . 8 . 79 ! That's enormous , possibly , very probably , the highest average of any major director as far as my ratings go . I would bet he is rated as highly on most other film buffs ' lists . My point is that it really bothers me when Mizoguchi and Ozu fanatics try to knock down Kurosawa . Even Andre Bazin , of all people , does so ! ( see Truffaut's preface to the second book of Bazin's collected essays ) . People also try argue that Kurosawa's direction falls far below Mizoguchi , and Mizoguchi's is also much more unique and original . From seeing this , which , from my research , is his most famous and popular film , I really have to disagree . I think Kurosawa could have even made this . I think that the level of intellect and emotion in the screenplay and the direction of Sansho the Bailiff is on the exact same level as The Seven Samurai , a film generally considered one of the ten best films ever made . I myself prefer several Kurosawa films to it , and give it a . This is what Sansho the Bailiff gets , too . It is a great film , but it failed to bowl me over . I may have had some tears in my eye , but right now , only ten or so minutes after turning it off , I'm only thinking about it in an intellectual capacity , not an emotional capacity . In fact , as this review testifies , I'm really not thinking about it in an intellectual capacity very much , either . I'm actually talking about something only vaguely connected ! |
385,689 | 391,152 | 50,782 | 9 | Probably my favorite film of Visconti's | He's not a director I'm overly enthusiastic about , but he's good . This is a simple love story , based on Dostoyevsky . Marcello Mastroianni plays a man who meets a beautiful young girl ( Maria Schell ) . He falls for her instantly , but finds she is awaiting an older man ( Jean Marais ) with whom she fell in love the previous year . He is supposed to be coming back for her . Mastroianni attempts to prevent the reunion . This reminds me more of Fellini than Visconti . There's a dance sequence in a night club that almost escapes from the movie . It's like a centerpiece , and like a small masterpiece existing within an otherwise excellent film . |
384,944 | 391,152 | 47,443 | 9 | Wildly inspirational | Salt of the Earth is simply one of the greatest achievements in American cinema , not because it is exemplary in those aspects which usually make a film great , but because it excels in its ideals where so many others during the period were failing . The plot is deceptively simple . Mexican American men , along with a few whites ( " Anglos " in the Mexicans ' parlance ) , decide that their job in the mine is too dangerous and that they are treated unfairly compared to Anglo workers . They strike , putting their families through terrible hardships . While this film certainly has an agenda , it thankfully becomes more complex than just a Labor vs Management dispute . Perhaps an even more important theme is the relationship between the men and their women , wives , mothers , sisters . At one point , the Taft-Hartley Act is enacted ( of course I mention the name because of recent events ) , and the miners can no longer picket legally . Their wives , who are asked , according to the local mores , to be silent , dare to pick up the duties of the strike . Not only is Salt of the Earth a brave champion of the worker and minorities , it has the audacity ( in 1954 ! ) to back women's rights . No wonder this was the only American film to be blacklisted . |
385,089 | 391,152 | 41,090 | 9 | Battle of the sexes : Spencer Tracy vs . Katharine Hepburn | The comedy and romance in this film are so well scripted , directed , and acted that it seems absolutely effortless . It's grace , pure grace . Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play two lawyers married to each other . Tracy is assigned to prosecute a wife who took a couple of pot shots at her cheating husband and his lover . She pulled the trigger with her eyes closed , and ended up just wounding her husband . Hepburn chooses to defend her because , as she believes , if a husband had done the same he would get off scot-free . A woman , on account of the prejudices of the jury , would be certainly convicted to the full extent of the law . So by day Tracy and Hepburn battle it out in court , and at night in the bedroom . The humor is wonderfully elegant . They're not always belly-laughs , but they're quite satisfying . The best moments come as the husband and wife testify . Judy Holliday , who plays the woman , is perfect . Jean Hagan , who , of course , would go on to play Lena Lamont in Singin ' in the Rain three yearts later , is great as the paramour . It's unfortunate that she doesn't have more scenes . And , as I said above , the romance between the Tracy and Hepburn is delightful . It's a great film . . |
385,248 | 391,152 | 215,545 | 9 | A fireball of a movie | I am absolutely embarrassed right now that I have never watched a Spike Lee film before . I have always wanted to see Do the Right Thing , which is generally considered his best film , and I even rented it once , but never got around to watching it . When Bamboozled opened last year , it sounded very interesting , but after the critics dismissed it as a failed attempt at satire , I decided to catch it later on , perhaps after I saw Do the Right Thing . Then I saw it was going to be played on television , so I found the time and sat down to watch . What I saw was something absolutely amazing . And that's not to say that Bamboozled doesn't have its flaws . I would personally deem it a flawed masterpiece , a very flawed masterpiece . The critics were right : Lee's satire is misplaced . He's far too hotheaded an artist to have realized this immediately , but he should have when the New York Times refused to run the movie's add , which depicted a sambo character eating a watermelon , because they feared protests . Bamboozled asks us to suspend our disbelief - a disbelief which Spike Lee may not have had himself - and accept that a TV network would produce the New Millennium Minstrel Show and that the public , a la Mel Brooks ' The Producers , would eat it up . Lee's argument in the press is that this was already happening . His targets were rap videos and a show on the WB network that only produced something like 6 episodes ( the show was about Abe Lincoln's black servant who single-handedly ran the country ; Lincoln was the buffoon ) . The reason that the New York Times didn't run Lee's add is the exact same reason Lee wrote the film in the first place : African American political activists , including Lee , often have very knee-jerk reactions to such things . The show about Lincoln , which Lee argued was set during the " holocaust " of his people , actually showed the white people to be the buffoons and the blacks to be their manipulators . He missed the point ( which could very well have been due to the fact that the show sucked anyhow ) . Add to this the fact that , besides clips of Good Times and The Jeffersons , both of which , I ought to add ( in my own opinion ) , Lee is taking out of context ( he would have been much better off to feature Diff'rent Strokes , which is somewhat offensive ) , all of the clips he uses to demonstrate the abuse of his race must have been downright difficult to dig out of film archives . None of these cartoons or movies that are shown , nor most of the sambo toys , have been seen for some thirty years or more , most probably not since before Spike Lee was born . We all know they exist , and , as Sloan ( Jada Pinkett Smith ) says in the film , we oughtn't to forget whether we're black or white , but it doesn't work as satire to show these things . They aren't at all harmful now , not until you drag them up again . Then they're only offensive when knees start jerking . None of this matters , in fact . Not to me , anyway . In my opinion , film today has become far too complacent . Bamboozled is an enormous jolt to our current , apathetic world . The fight may be misdirected and wholly fabricated by a paranoid man , but Spike Lee is indeed a masterful director . In fact , I would very favorably compare this film to Jean-Luc Godard's Le Week-End , which was also somewhat misdirected in its satire . Both of these films are excellent . Bamboozled moves with a speed and passion almost completely foreign to the world of filmmaking today . It's angry , it's brazen , and it makes your heart pound with fear , sadness , and intensity . It also raises more difficult issues than any film I've seen in a very long time . It manages to do this while remaining funny , too , although I was always wondering whether Spike Lee would slap me for laughing at this stuff . I especially loved the Tommi Hilnigger Jeans commercial . But even the New Millennium Minstrel Show is presented in a humorous way . A lesser artist , I believe , would have made it more clearly offensive . As it stands , it's difficult not to laugh at Mantan and Sleep-N-Eat ( probably the most jaw-droppingly funny and ballsy name I've ever heard ) as they perform . Tommy Davidson and Crispin Glover put enough energy in these stage performances to electrocute you . Their performances are awesome - often the dialogue they do have is cliched , but in many small moments their faces clearly express , and subtly , too , how their lives are crumbling . I would also like to compliment Jada Pinkett Smith , who turns in the film's finest performance . I have a feeling she's just going to get better and better , if someone would give her another decent role . Michael Rapaport , although perhaps a little too cartoony , is still very funny . Damon Wayans has the most difficult part . I'll bet money that he and Lee KNEW that the critics would immediately jump on Wayans ' fake white accent . I can't imagine they thought it was all that funny or believable . However , I'm not sure why they did it . It does detract a little from the film , though not as much as many critics claimed it does . Personally , I would have either had that accent fade as the film went on . It sounds especially bad when it comes back at the end , after all those powerful ( if pointless ) scenes of African Americans in the cinema . Although , as that very phony voice is brought back , we recall the way the film began . . . Other aspects of the filmmaking are excellent as well . I have already praised Lee's direction . It is quickly paced and he really knows how to move his camera . The editing is fantastic . A powerful rhythm is established right away and never abandoned . In fact , the film pulls a daring change from satire to melodrama about halfway through , another aspect of the film that people complained on end about . It is all done with gusto , especially in the editing . The cinematography - wow ! This and Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark show how worthwhile digital video is . Lee and his DP use it to an amazing degree ! When characters are moving fast , which happens most often when Mantan is tap-dancing , a blur is left on the screen for a split second . Late in the film , when Mantan is trying to free himself from the show , Lee causes these blurs to remain onscreen for a prolonged period of time . The effect is simply powerful . One major complaint I have is the score . It's often manipulative . I think it would have been better to have had a minimalist score , which would have made the film seem even more immediate . Like I said , there are many major and legitimate complaints against Bamboozled , but critics and audiences forgot what's going for it : it is EXCELLENT CINEMA . . |
385,278 | 391,152 | 80,397 | 9 | Underrated Bergman | Bergman made this film in Germany , while in exile from Sweden for tax-related reasons . It's a dark and disturbing psychological portrait of a man , Peter , who murders a prostitute in the opening scene . The film moves back and forth in time , using title cards to establish the setting in time , trying to explain Peter's troubles . It's reminiscent of Scenes from a Marriage , as Peter has problems relating to his wife , Katarina . A few weeks before the murder , he started having fantasies and dreams about murdering her . The prologue , depicting the murder ( or , more precisely , the moments before the murder ) and the epilogue ( Peter in prison ) are filmed in color , but everything else is in black and white . The composition is generally not showy , but there is an amazingly filmed dream sequence , the film's centerpiece . The script is generally brilliant , very observant . The only thing I felt was a little underdeveloped was the homosexual character , Tim , and Peter's supposed latent homosexuality , which the psychoanalyst character describes near the end . I wasn't quite sure what to make of that material . . |
385,738 | 391,152 | 78,480 | 9 | Would have been my favorite film if I had seen it when I was a kid | If I had had this video when I was 8 or 9 , I think I would have watched it as much as or more than I watched any other video that I had at the time . It's quite an extraordinary film . I'm 21 now , and I found it very exciting and involving throughout . The only problem is that it always seems like the episodes in the film happen a bit too quick , making it pretty obvious that it was adapted from a much longer novel . Episodes that seem very important only last for three minutes or so . And they never did free the rabbits in the pen at the farmhouse . Still , it's a great movie . While not for the very young children ( there is a bit of violence and gore ) , I think any kid 8 or above would really love this film . Learn that you don't have to just buy videos of recent films for children . Some of the older films are much better . . |
385,645 | 391,152 | 57,261 | 9 | You really couldn't hope for a better film version of the novel | And saying that , I also should clarify that I've never seen more than a few minutes of the 1990 remake . I have read the novel , though . It is good , but its none-too-subtle parable make it sort of a weak read to an adult . I was 15 when I read it , and I thought it was obvious then . As far as the prose goes , it could have been written by an intelligent teenager . Peter Brooks , when adapting the novel into this film , decided to go with a cinema-verite style , obviously influenced by early French New Wave films like Breathless and The 400 Blows . What results is amazing : an immediate and believable telling of events . The amateur actors are excellent , and cast to perfection . The cinematography and editing make the film much more frightening than the novel was . All in all , the only real problem is the often inappropriate scoring , especially at the film's end . I give it a . |
384,886 | 391,152 | 66,026 | 9 | Great , but takes a stupid turn near the end that harms the overall product | I loved nearly every moment of MASH . It balanced its drama and comedy quite perfectly . The acting was great and the characters were well developed . This is also one of the few episodic movies which works well . Episodic films usually become tedious . Every episode in MASH is entertaining and works towards developing its characters and its mood . My only complaint , which was originally going to be a small one , but as it went on and on and on , it became a big enough problem to knock the film down a notch in my opinion : the football sequence . This sequence goes on for nearly twenty minutes , and occupies most of the last moments of the film . Before this , the film kept getting better and better as it went on . Then , with the football game , it hit an insurmountable wall . The one thing this film did not need was a sports finale . Everything seems to depend on the game , even though absolutely nothing does depend on it . I was interested in the characters , and during the game , I couldn't even tell which one was which . Therefore , I could have cared less about what was happening here . I became terribly bored , almost to the point of fast forwarding through this sequence . To boot , Hot Lips becomes insufferably annoying and uncharacteristically bimbonic as she dresses up as a cheerleader . We were told in a previous scene that Hot Lips rebuked the others for playing football , so it seemed unlikely to me that she would turn into a cheerleader . I was praying that the film would not end at the end of the game , and luckily , it didn't . It does have a rather classy ending , as I would expect from Altman . The credit sequence is very unique , kind of like the end of Welles ' Magnificent Ambersons or Altman's own opening credits for his greatest masterpiece , Nashville . I still give MASH a , but it should have been a , because it was going that way the entire picture . |
384,901 | 391,152 | 22,074 | 9 | Jazz up your lingerie ! | Among some movie buffs , there is a line of thought about Gene Kelly that he comes off as an unlikeable and smug jerk . Those people have never seen a film starring Maurice Chevalier . Kelly might stalk you until you fall for him , and a little more creepily than Fred Astaire would , but at least you know he'd probably stick around afterward . Chevalier , not so much . Behind that gigantic smile lies a snake . His thick French accent may have been sexy back in the day , but hearing it now just ups his jerk percentage higher and higher . Honestly , though , I love the guy . He's such a goofy character . He may be a cad , but he's an entertaining one . I shake my head at how naughty he is , but always with a grin on my lips . Chevalier is at his most delightfully awful in The Smiling Lieutenant , playing a philandering Viennese officer currently courting violinist Claudette Colbert . During a ceremony honoring royalty visiting from postage stamp-sized Flausenthurm , Chevalier smiles , laughs and winks at Colbert . The princess of Flausenthurm ( Miriam Hopkins ) catches it , thinks its for her , and demands that something be done about it . Queue the shotgun wedding , and Maurice is in hot water , now wedded to a wet blanket and in love with a hot tomato . The movie is pretty raunchy by 1931 standards . Unsurprisingly , the film was considered lost for many years . I'm sure the Hayes Code enforcers would have been quite happy with burning every print . There's a ton of sex being had by the characters , and there's a whole song dedicated to women's underwear . Seriously . Claudette Colbert teaches Miriam Hopkins about modern fashions in " Jazz Up Your Lingerie " , easily the best number in the film and , in my mind , one of the weirdest and most entertaining in cinema history . I'd have to do some extensive looking into all the musicals I've ever seen , but I'd estimate that this is top five material . Hopkins completely steals the movie . The liner notes in the Eclipse Lubitsch Musicals set claims that it is her first film , but IMDb lists at least one earlier feature . The plot is very silly ; one wouldn't imagine that it could contain any real emotion . But I actually did feel for Hopkins after Chevalier refused to sleep with her on their wedding night . This is where you can't help but hate Maurice . I also liked George Barbier , who plays Hopkins ' father . And one of my favorite character actors , Charles Ruggles , appears very briefly at the beginning . |
384,663 | 391,152 | 14,341 | 9 | Better than the more famous " The General " | I thought this film set up a masterful comic situation . The train jokes in this film were much funnier than the ones in The General . Also , there are a lot of great close ups to Keaton's hilarious deadpan expression . He probably has the funniest face of any actor who ever lived . |
385,814 | 391,152 | 142,032 | 9 | The most ambitious miniseries in a very long while | I despise David Lynch's Dune . In my not so very humble opinion , it is the worst film I have ever seen . It is utterly nonsensical and impossible to follow , the actors are almost all miscast ( except for Sting , Dean Stockwell , and Patrick Stewart , who all mainly work as novelty ) , and the visuals are hideous . I also tried reading the novel once , but got bored after the first chapter . So when a friend asked me whether I wanted to watch the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries of Dune , I wasn't too enthusiastic about the whole thing . By the end of the first episode of three I was impressed at the technical side of the film . Vittorio Storaro , the same cinematographer who photographed Apocalypse Now and Reds , did an amazing job on this film , even if the visuals do go overboard sometimes . The gimmicks that the filmmakers employed most often worked well , especially the bizarre primary color lighting schemes . By the second episode , I felt I new the plot . By the end of the series , I felt that I knew the characters . While the narrative is still choppy and sometimes hard to follow ( the biggest problem is that there are far too many characters in it ) , it ultimately works well . I felt that I had finally seen what Dune fanatics were raving about . This series is great . See it and forget that David Lynch ever dirtied his hands with his version . |
385,704 | 391,152 | 22,835 | 9 | Excellent | I haven't read Stevenson's famous novel , but this film is adapted from a play which is supposedly a lot different anyway . The story is really not especially great . A scientist makes a potion that turns him into a total spazz . The spazz version ruins Dr . Jekyll's romance with Rose Hobart and tortures a loose woman , played by Miriam Hopkins . The film turns out to be completely amazing , however , thanks to the lead performance , by Fredric March , and the elegant direction by Rouben Mamoulian . Every time I see March in a film , I become more impressed by his range . Of course , this is a perfect vehicle to demonstrate one's range , and he excels as both Jekyll and Hyde , though his Hyde is what most will remember . Looking at his filmography , Mamoulian directed relatively few films for a director of his era ( not to mention talent ) . I need to see more , most notably Love Me Tonight , but he will always be a genius in my book for Queen Christina . His direction of Dr . Jekyll and Mr . Hyde is beautiful and nearly flawless . A lot of the film is made from the direct point-of-view of Jekyll , and he uses a first-person technique that works brilliantly . Between March and Mamoulian , the general silliness of the story is completely made up for . March's female co-stars , Hopkins and Hobart , are quite good , as well . |
384,995 | 391,152 | 269,746 | 9 | Brilliant , for the most part | Tsai's unique style gives rise to another film about isolation in urbanization . Hsiao-kang's father has just died , and he and his mother must hold together . He doesn't have much problem doing that , but his mother is going insane with loneliness , so much so that she entirely imbues herself in her religious beliefs . Around this time , Hsaio-kang sells his personal watch to a girl about to fly to Paris . Soon after this , Hsiao-kang becomes obsessed with her ( or is it the watch ? ) and decides to set all his watches ( he sells them on the street ) to Paris time , and then all the clocks in his house , and then all the clocks he can find . The girl gets stranded in Paris , having lost her plane ticket . The film moves slow and it has little dialogue , as is Tsai's style , but it is incredibly beautiful in its composition , editing , everything . The story is quite great , too . Tsai is a wonderful humanist . The film builds up to a silent crescendo , where the three main characters each endure cold acts of love and failed attempts at communication . When the film closes , all three are asleep , two in Taipei and one in Paris , all three alone . Okay , I should have ended it there , but I do have two problems with the film , go figure . First , Hsiao-kang's clock setting is highly amusing at first , but it does get very old after a while . The sequence that ends in the movie theater bathroom is gold , perfect , so Tsai should have just stopped there with that motif . The scene where he sneaks into a clock store and the scene where he resets the clock tower are superfluous . We got the point , and it should have been moving forward . Secondly , I think it's about time Tsai moved on . I love the three films of his I've seen , including The Hole and Vive L'Amour , but the style is the same in all three , as is the theme . Michelangelo Antonioni , who is obviously Tsai's main inspiration ( though this particular film has a lot of references to the Truffaut film The 400 Blows , including a very funny cameo by Jean-Pierre Leaud ) , had a problem moving on from this material , as well , with everything from L'Avventura to Red Desert being very similar ( although his style evolved more than Tsai's has ) , and even after that his films had comparable themes . As much as I like Tsai ( and Antonioni ) , if his next film is just like this , I'm sure it will hurt my presently high opinion of him . . |
384,593 | 391,152 | 25,335 | 9 | Excellent Ford / Will Rogers film ! | This film is pure Ford , so , if you're a fan , definitely seek it out . Will Rogers plays the title character , a relaxed judge in a small , Southern town at the end of the 19th Century . He's a kind man with a homespun sense of justice . Others in the legal profession around him disdain him for his casualness , and Judge Priest dislikes their rigid sense of formality . The film opens with the dour Berton Churchill ( best known for playing the wicked banker in Stagecoach ) prosecuting an ignorant black man , Jeff , for stealing chickens . Jeff claims that he was out fishing for catfish at the time he is supposed to have nabbed the poultry . This activity excites Judge Priest so much that he lets Jeff go and they both go off fishing for catfish . Jeff afterwards becomes his servant . The plot of this film , which was the kernel for the plot of Ford's later ( and lesser ) Young Mr . Lincoln , involves a stabbing in self-defense . Judge Priest's young nephew , Jerome , back from law school , takes it up as his first case . The courtroom scenes are good for courtroom scenes , but that was never what interested me . The sense of Southern nostalgia , which I love so much from William Faulkner , is enveloping in this film . Will Rogers ' kind judge is such a good character . He apparently improvised most of his dialogue , which was his style . He speaks slowly , but with conviction . It's a very good performance . People will certainly object to the treatment and characterization of black characters in the film . This is more just a product of the times , and it doesn't worry me much . Besides , I really found Judge Priest's interactions with Jeff and his maid , Dilsey ( played by Gone with the Wind's Hattie McDaniel ) , touching . Aunt Dilsey , as she is called , is also the name of one of Faulkner's more memorable characters , the black maid in The Sound and the Fury . She and Will Rogers actually have quite a fantastic duet at one point . Rogers also sings with McDaniel and a few other black women , as well . . |
384,861 | 391,152 | 383,574 | 9 | Surprisingly great given what I had heard | It boggles my mind how down the critics were on this . It's at the same level as the first one , which everyone seemed to love . Yes , there are some things to complain about , mostly that there's just way too much going on . Characters from the first one that , if you last saw it when it was in the theaters ( as I did ) , you won't remember pop up at regular intervals . There are several separate plot lines going on at the same time , and once in a while one character will be away on his or her own adventure for a long time and then come back to the main plot line without explaining where they've been or what they've been doing , and requiring no explanation for what has happened with all the other characters . But , really , so what ? There's more than enough exposition elsewhere , and as long as the audience understands what's going on , it doesn't matter too much . The story may be overcomplicated , but it's generally very good . The bottom line is that the movie is a hell of a lot of fun . Of all the movies this summer , this is the one that doesn't disappoint at all . It's a thousand times better than Superman , that's for sure . Where Superman was slow and dull and ponderous , Pirates ' action never stops ( which I'm sure will annoy some ) and it doesn't aspire to be anything more than a really fun ride . There're a lot of cool monsters , too . If you liked the first one , definitely don't miss this while it's still on the big screen . |
385,050 | 391,152 | 410,764 | 9 | My third favorite Gilliam film , after 12 Monkeys and Brazil | If you're a fan of Terry Gilliam's films , I think you'll like Tideland . Gilliam has always been a champion of style over substance , so I wasn't particularly expecting a masterpiece of ideas here . Tideland , on the other hand , is a visionary fantasy / horror film seen from the point of view of a young girl , Jeliza-Rose ( played remarkably by Jodelle Ferland ) . The setup definitely reminds me of one of the better liked films of 2006 , Pan's Labyrinth , but I liked this one infinitely better . It doesn't have Guillermo Del Toro's pretensions . Gilliam sets out to give us something weird and wonderful , and he succeeds with flying colors . After Jeliza-Rose's mother dies , she and her father ( Jeff Bridges ) flee to her grandmother's rural home , a house that is reminiscent of the Bates Motel . Soon after , her father dies ( a fact which Jeliza-Rose , who lives pretty much every moment in her mind , ignores ) , she meets her two quirky neighbors . The movie is fun and genuinely unsettling . I mostly loved it , except for one part : I don't like how Gilliam tries to build suspense over whether the retarded neighbor ( played by Brendan Fletcher ) will take advantage of Jeliza-Rose . It makes plenty of sense that Jeliza-Rose would develop sexual feelings toward him ( she's a pre-teen with natural curiosity toward sex , and he's mentally even with her , or possibly even below her ) , but that threat that Gilliam leaves hanging over the latter third of the film made me a tad queasy . Otherwise , I think I might have been gung-ho for it . As it is , I still loved it . |
385,054 | 391,152 | 84,509 | 9 | Depressing , but impressive | A forgotten animated film directed by the man who made Watership Down in 1978 , and also adapted from a novel by the same author who wrote it , Richard Adams . Watership Down is famously not for small kids , although it's smart and good for older children . The Plague Dogs , on the other hand , is so relentlessly bleak that it makes Watership Down look like The Rescuers Down Under . You might call it All Dogs Go to Heaven , but Only After They've Been Through Hell . That's not to disparage it , but just to paint the mood . The story follows two dogs who escape from a government lab where they've been cruelly experimented upon . The film opens with one of the two protagonists , Rowf , struggling to stay afloat in a giant tank of water as two researchers take notes . We watch the poor lab sink to the bottom of the tank , drowned . The scientists pull him out and revive him . The second protagonist , Snitter , has had experimental brain surgery performed on him , and he has trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality . After the two escape , they forage the rather bare countryside for food . Finding little , they end up going after sheep . This puts the local farmers on the defensive , and they begin to hunt the two down like , well , dogs . When the laboratory releases information that the dogs may also be carrying bubonic plague , the military is called in to get rid of them . It's an extremely difficult movie to watch , especially if you love animals . A lot of people will be turned off because there is just no hope to be had . We know there is no real escape for the two . There's also constant talk about death between them , and how it might be better . It's dark as hell , and you should only show it to children if you want to give them nightmares or screw them up . Personally , I was deeply moved by the film and highly recommend it . Too bad Rosen didn't produce anything other animated films besides this and Watership Down . Both are beautifully animated ( well , the animation is a little bit choppy in The Plague Dogs , but the drawings themselves are gorgeous ) , and he tells stories well . Supposedly this movie is a lot more solid than the original novel . |
384,793 | 391,152 | 362,269 | 9 | A great film ! | Probably the most well liked movie of 2004 that I missed . I'm glad I finally decided to sit down and watch it , because it really is one of the best films of that year . There was a glut of biopics at the time , but I think this one is the best . It's just a truly fascinating movie about an important individual . It argues well for his case in history , and builds a three-dimensional portrait of him . It explores his successes and his failures , his strengths and his shortcomings . I didn't necessarily avoid the film when it came out , but , since I didn't have much affection for Condon's other biopic , Gods and Monsters , I didn't feel it was a must-see . But Condon really excels here as both a writer and a director . And the cast is simply fantastic . Liam Neeson stars . I'm not a big Neeson fan , but he has given a few great performances and this is probably his second best effort after Schindler's List . Laura Linney , the sole Oscar nominee from the film , gives a wonderful , subtle performance as his wife ( I think Catherine Keener in Capote fills the same space among the 2005 Supporting Actress nominees ; these two performances are excellent but easily overlooked ) . Peter Sarsgaard , one of the best actors among the current crop , gives the best supporting performance among the many good ones here . I also loved Carter Burwell's wonderful score . It's a great film . |
385,005 | 391,152 | 352,465 | 9 | Takashi Miike is my hero ! | Miike makes another yakuza picture . It's not especially groundbreaking , and it's certainly not one of Miike's deeper films , but it is extremely entertaining . That's mostly because of the main character , Kunisada ( Miike regular Riki Takeuchi ) , who is the most psychopathic character in Japanese movies since Tatsuya Nakadai's evil samurai in Sword of Doom . Kunisada's mob boss , his surrogate father , is ambushed and murdered ( though not before nearly strangling his assailant to death ; the hit-man only lives because he cuts the dead man's hands off as they clench around his windpipe ) . Simultaneously , Kunisada , almost as if through a psychic bond , breaks out of jail and starts to go against the rival gang . The only problem is that the boss's death isn't necessarily a bad thing from his own gang's perspective . They and their rival gang try desperately to make a truce . Unfortunately for everyone , except for a small handful of loyal comrades , Kunisada won't stop until everyone around him is dead . The film suffers from Miike's major flaw as a filmmaker : a lack of coherency . There seem to be dozens of named characters , and it becomes very difficult to sort out who everyone is . I had to watch key scenes a second time to piece it all together ( though I had most of it straight by the end of the film ) . But , even if you never quite figure it out , Miike's patented break-neck action sequences are so outrageously done that the film is more than worth watching . Watch out when Kunisada finds a rocket launcher ! |
384,968 | 391,152 | 73,650 | 9 | For what it's worth , it fully lives up to its reputation | If you're curious about Salo , and can stand anything , no matter how depraved , then go for it . I think it wins the award for the most profane and pornographic film ever made , beating the hell out of its closest competitors like The Night Porter or In the Realm of the Senses . However , I think Salo is a better film than those two . Pasolini actually has some sense of artistry , and , if you can stand it , Salo is actually a very well made film . It's agenda is nothing but a front - yes , we already know that fascism is bad . No , this film reveals much more about its own creator than anything else . It's a playground for his fantasies . But I believe he must have known that . The plot proceeds very logically and the suspense and horror grow exponentially . Pasolini knew that he who had free reign would end up going too far . The final act is as brilliant as it is stomach-churning , and it's no coincidence that the President and many of his top-ranking men only watch it indoors with binoculars . I think this wins the contest for the best movie that you can hardly bring yourself to watch . . |
385,423 | 391,152 | 45,009 | 9 | An excellent film about rival New York City newspapers in the 1880s | Its main draw is Sam Fuller's direction ? he is , without a doubt , one of the most skillful American directors to have ever lived . You have to see some of the brilliant long takes in Park Row to believe them . The flowing shots make the rather brilliant moves in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope look trite ( which is no dump on Hitch , mind you ; Park Row is just that impressive ) . Unfortunately , Fuller's screenwriting ability is quite a bit below his directorial prowess . You've got to admire any director who was working in Hollywood at the time and was also able to write his own scripts . There is only the smallest handful of writer / directors at the time . But , man , can Sam Fuller be overbearing at times . Fortunately , the sillier pieces of the script , as well as bad bits of dialogue , fuel the madness of it all in Park Row . I found myself utterly entertained by the larger than life situations and the hamfisted attempts at symbolism . I laughed quite hard at a scene where Phineas Mitchell , the film's protagonist , attacks a hired thug from the rival newspaper and pounds him repeatedly against the statue of Ben Franklin . I also loved the overwrought symbolism of the scene where Phineas hangs the final issue of his paper on a hook labeled ' Deaths . ' Or how about the ridiculously over-the-top editorial that Davenport writes near the end ? And you've just got to love the final scene , with the word ' THIRTY ' boldly replacing ' THE END ' . You'll understand what that means if you see the picture . The only piece of the film that should really have been subtracted is the horribly clunky romance ; it seems like an afterthought developed to capture a greater number of female moviegoers and it doesn't work a lick . . |
385,794 | 391,152 | 44,837 | 9 | Chaplin's Best Talkie . | Charlie Chaplin is one of the undisputed masters of the cinema . He was one of the funniest actors of the cinema , and he was also one of the greatest directors . Of course , the films that he is most famous for are his silent comedies , especially The Gold Rush , City Lights , and Modern Times . The latter two were the product of Chaplin's stubborn clinging to the format and conventions of the silent cinema , though everyone else had gone to sound . This stubbornness was certainly sound . His contemporaries such as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd lost popularity when they moved to sound . Chaplin's last two silent films were popular and made a lot of money . Audiences may have craved sound , but they craved Chaplin , too , and did not disdain his silence . He was one of the silent artists who thought that they were just achieving the peak of their medium when sound came in . He proved himself right , since City Lights ( 1931 ) and Modern Times ( 1936 ) are probably his two best films , and both are two of the best films ever made . Finally , in 1940 , Chaplin directed and starred in his first talkie , The Great Dictator . Three more followed , Monsieur Verdoux , then Limelight , then King of New York , which happens to be the only one of these four I have not seen . The Great Dictator and Monsieur Verdoux were both good films in their own way , but perhaps Chaplin's in depth political commentary in these films detracted from them . The type of comedy that you find in his silent films did not mix well with this social commentary . The simple juxtapositions of the worlds of the poor and the rich in City Lights and Modern Times were far more powerful than what his first two talkies had to offer . Then came Limelight , one of the most bittersweet films ever made . It is not perfect , but it achieves a grand melodramatic beauty that few films have ever even approached . The story is simple : a washed-up , old vaudvillian rescues a young ballet dancer from suicide . He takes care of her until she is healthy again , and even restores her confidence . The story may be simple , but the character dynamics are very complex . As the dancer , Theresa , is recovering , Calvero is not only rebuilding her confidence , but also his own . Theresa , because of his kindness towards her , finally believes she has fallen in love with him , even going so far as proposing marriage to him . Whether she actually loves him or not , and Calvero strongly asserts that she shouldn't and doesn't , these two characters have a constantly evolving relationship that does not end until the credits role . It is utterly fascinating , captivating , and dramatic . There are a couple of problems , and though they're small , they deserve attention . Perhaps the biggest problem is that Claire Bloom is quite guilty of overacting . Her line delivery is bizarre and overdramatic . This isn't a big deal , since you ought to be keenly aware that the film takes place in the world of melodrama , and is thus exaggerated . Another thing that irked me is Buster Keaton's role . It is little more than a cameo . In fact , his character doesn't even have a name in the credits . This is truly disappointing , seeing that he , although Chaplin may have had the most heart , was the all-around funniest silent comedian . |
384,770 | 391,152 | 443,706 | 9 | Great flick . Can't wait for the special edition DVD ! | Although I've pretty much despised every film David Fincher has made up to this point , I'd always readily admit that he was a pretty good director . If only he had decent material . Zodiac is a super-detailed account of the Zodiac murders that occurred in California in the late ' 60s through the mid ' 70s , one of the most famous unsolved cases in American history . One would expect , given the director's previous Se7en , that the film would be horrifyingly gory and unrelentingly nasty . The big surprise is that it isn't at all . We do witness several of the murders , but Fincher doesn't attempt to gross the audience out as he did in Se7en . This is all done in a matter-of-fact way , in the manner of a procedural . It's amazing the way that Fincher and screenwriter James Vanderbilt , as well as Robert Graysmith , who wrote a book on the subject and is one of the key participants in the story ( played by Jake Gyllenhaal ) , construct the screenplay . They feed us just tons of details , but it doesn't at all feel like a dull list . The story also skips ahead in time constantly . Every few minutes , there's a new subtitle , telling us that this is " 4 months later " or whatever . It's easy to lose the mood with such a fragmented structure , but Zodiac works perfectly . What's really amazing is how the details build . They're absorbed by the audience . There's so much there that , by the end of the film , everyone looks like they could be the Zodiac . It's a great film , one of the best procedural films ever done , and one of the best , so far , of 2007 . btw , rent , don't buy , the first , bare bones edition of the DVD . The studio was desperate to release it , but Fincher has been working on a director's cut and tons of extras . The better DVD should be along sometime early in 2008 . |
385,193 | 391,152 | 414,993 | 9 | I may not have been entirely won over , but I certainly was wowed ! | May be a ways down from perfection , but with such an ambitious project , that's more than understandable , as well as forgivable . It's a poetic , impressionistic mood piece on the desperation of man to escape death , told over three intermingled , interrelated stories , one of a Spanish conquistador , one of a modern experimental doctor and the final of a man in the distant future , hurdling through space . I don't quite like what Aronofsky's solution is , that death is a new version of life . As an atheist , I have a more existential dilemma when it comes to death , and Aronofsky's new-age-y thoughts on the subject are no more helpful than Christianity's . I may disagree with the film's thesis in part , but what I cannot disagree with is how outstanding a film it is . I would take it over almost any other film released this year , certainly most of the best reviewed ones ? it honestly kicks The Queen's ass . It looks and feels , and even sounds like almost no other film I've seen . The visuals are absolutely astounding ( and done without an ounce of CGI , so they have a uniqueness to them ) . Even the non-sci-fi or historical parts have extremely beautiful visuals . The musical score , by Clint Mansell , is easily the best work of the year . The film really does engulf you in its remarkable aura , like the bubble in which Hugh Jackson travels through space . And the theme of trying to reverse a loved one's mortality is always a powerful one , and something that will stand the test of time . My prediction is , although this seems to be a colossal financial failure on first release , that The Fountain will become a favorite of a lot of people as time moves on . |
385,880 | 391,152 | 18,578 | 9 | Much deserving of the first Best Picture Academy Award ( even if Sunrise is a better film ) | As the answer to one of the most commonly known trivia questions in history , Wings is a rather overlooked film . It's often thought of as extremely dated , but that seems a silly notion after you've seen it . Wings actually stands as one of the best films made about WWI - the amount of detail that went into the production is astounding . And we see a certain liquid that we wouldn't see again until the 1960s : blood . Not to glorify violence ( which the film can probably be accused of doing without any argument coming from this sector ) , but the level of realism is greatly improved by characters who actually bleed when they get shot . The film is very graphic in the details of the violence of war . Wings may have the highest body count of any film until Die Hard 2 . The dogfights depicted in the film are remarkable and exciting . At first , the human story seems a little trite . Two men , David and Jack , are in love with the same woman ( played by frequent Harold Lloyd co-star Jobyna Ralston ) . She , however , only loves David , unbeknownst to Jack . Meanwhile , Mary Preston ( played by " It " girl Clara Bow ) is deeply in love with Jack . David and Jack struggle with the love triangle while they go to war , but are forced into a loving friendship through constant companionship in the air . Mary eventually goes to France to help the soldiers , working as a driver . You can't know how gorgeous Bow is when she's dressed in her uniform . As the film progresses , these characters become fully fleshed and their story is downright powerful by the time Wings ends . Wellman , always one of America's most underrated directors , constantly shines . There are several scenes that should be remembered as well as any of the silent cinema's other famous moments . Early in the film , David and Jobyna Ralston are on a swing together . The camera actually follows them swinging through an ingenious and absolutely seemless use back projection . When Jack goes on leave in Paris , there is a great shot in a night club where the camera moves forward on tracks and goes between several couples ( and through their tables ) on its way to a very drunk Jack . There are also a ton of much subtler cinematic miracles happening throughout the film . Do catch this one someday . It's well worth your time . . |
385,006 | 391,152 | 49,419 | 9 | A fine , forgotten film | Cacoyannis , best know for directing the film Zorba the Greek ( aka Alexis Zorbas ) in 1964 , explored some of its themes in this 1956 film , which stars Ellie Lambeti . She plays a young woman who is constantly harassed by the young bachelors who live on the island of Hydra because she refuses to marry any of them . When a worldly Athenian comes by and rents a room in her home , the rumors begin to fly . In The Girl in Black and A Matter of Dignity ( and even Zorba the Greek ) , Cacoyannis demonstrates a perfect and natural ability to explore moral issues within the culture , as well as create believable and moving tragedy . The earlier films came straight from his imagination ( Zorba was adapted from a novel ) , and they are the works of a great screenwriter , one of the best of the era . Cacoyannis ' direction in these two films is also flawless . He did really well in Zorba , too . One wonders why his abilities aren't more highly considered . I would guess it is because these early films are fairly obscure nowadays . I guess he's an artist who deserves to be rediscovered . |
384,929 | 391,152 | 486,655 | 9 | Provides more fun than all of the summer blockbusters put together | The 14 year-old in me is immensely happy that they're now able to make really good looking fantasy movies , and that they're all the rage , what with Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia making loads of cash at the box office . This year will see ( and already has seen ) several more , most notably The Golden Compass , which has the most exciting trailer I've seen this year . Stardust , based on a novel by Neil Gaiman , showed up in theaters this week with little more than a peep . I saw no previews for it , only a couple of commercials . The critical reaction is kind of blah . I wouldn't even have seen it if not for the fact that I have to wait on a friend to see The Bourne Ultimatum , and that nothing else interesting opened this weekend . Well , if you'll forgive the horrible pun , the stars must have been rightly aligned , because I went to see Stardust , and I loved it . It's not a huge movie like Lord of the Rings . The plot line is your very basic fantasy quest ( the hero sets out to look for a fallen star ) filled with obstacles . But within that basic outline , the story is lively and imaginative . It's simply aiming to be a lot of fun , and a charming little romance . And it succeeds wonderfully . There were a lot of big films this summer , but none of them were nearly as fun as this one . There's a lot going on , but the story is told well and is almost entirely coherent . It isn't a masterpiece , but it definitely can occupy the same kind of ground that something like The Princess Bride has ( though I don't like it quite as much as the earlier film ) . A lot of fun to be had here if you're a fan of the genre . |
385,434 | 391,152 | 55,471 | 9 | Seems Run-of-the-Mill at first , but soon blossoms into something very beautiful | Three of the greatest talents in filmmaking history , Elia Kazan , Warren Beatty , and especially Natalie Wood , make this film great . I've seen three of Kazan's films , and I would say that this one may not be quite as good as On the Waterfront , but I think it is better than A Streetcar Named Desire . It doesn't get the same respect , but it should . As this movie progresses , I thought I knew where it was going . It was just a regular romance . Oh , was I wrong ! I was expecting something really conservative because of Kazan's relationship with HUAAC . Instead , it is a criticism of the facile beliefs of Christian morality . It becomes extremely emotionally complex . See it if you get the chance . |
385,183 | 391,152 | 53,298 | 9 | Surprisingly excellent ! | A surprisingly excellent adaptation of my very favorite novel , William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury . A lot of things are changed - and I mean A LOT - but I would much rather see something new than a slavish adaptation of a great novel . Besides , Faulkner's novel would probably be impossible to adapt as written . The book shifts back and forth in time without warning . It can do that . Literature exists in the mind , while a film exists before the eye . Like Ritt's other Faulkner adaptation , 1958's wonderful The Long Hot Summer , based on The Hamlet , the mood is changed from dusty , Southern tragedy to hot-blooded melodrama . I would have been upset to hear that said about The Sound and the Fury , but it works out nearly perfectly . The narrative is made linear , and many of the distant past events in the novel are either removed or adapted into the latest time period of the book . The girl Quentin Compson ( Joanne Woodward ) is a wild teenager , and her uncle Jason Compson ( Yul Brenner ) , who is taking care of her because her mother , Caddy , ran away after she gave birth , is cruelly taking care of her . Jason is a little different in the film . Instead of being one of the Compson children , he is a stepson . Caroline Compson was the second wife of the other Compson children's father . She and Jason are now Cajun , which is kind of weird , but it works . The male Quentin is more or less cut out , except for a brief mention . In this version , true to its melodrama , Quentin shot himself instead of jumping into a river . His was always my favorite section of the novel , and I'm actually glad they set it aside . It's not very cinematic . Benji is still here , but his section of the novel is completely cut out . First person narratives are difficult to do in films , so I don't blame the screenwriter . Benji quietly watches his family fall apart and he seethes in silence as he watches his niece follow in her mother's tragic footsteps . There's also a new Compson child , Howard . He is probably the biggest mistake that was made in this adaptation . He's kind of a compilation of Uncle Murray and the first Quentin . He has become an alcoholic because of his obsession with his sister's sexuality . The problem is that he is only barely incorporated into the film . I was always wondering who the heck he was until they explained him more completely later on in the movie . I guess he doesn't harm the overall product that much . SPOILERSOne big change in character in the film is the second Quentin . She wasn't very sympathetic in the novel . Sure , we could feel sorry for her , but she's a rebel and she's heading for disaster , or , more correctly , non-existence . She vanishes at the end of the novel and is never heard from again . Here , though , Quentin is a more important character . She's the center of the film , and while she's bad in some ways , she's got potential . Jason is very mean to her , but it's not the jealousy and revenge that it was in the novel . He does care for his adoptive daughter , but he really doesn't know how to behave around women or children . His purpose is to prop up the decaying Compson family . There's also an edge of sexual attraction in the film . Caddy , in the film , comes back home to live . She reveals that when Jason first arrived in the Compson household , he had a crush on her . This crush has also fallen on Quentin . Did this exist in the novel ? I never thought it did , but the film has made me reconsider some things about the book . We know the first Quentin is sexually obsessed with his sister . Benji is also obsessed , although I never thought it was a sexual thing . Is Jason also obsessed in the novel ? I don't know , but I'll be looking for it the next time I pick it up . The ending has some problems . So did The Long Hot Summer . Both endings are happy , or at least partly so . I had said that Quentin originally ran away . In the film , she almost does , but Jason convinces her not to , that she has potential . It works well . However , the night before Quentin runs away in the film , Benji strangles her when he catches her being bad . For this , he is sent to the insane asylum . This doesn't happen in the novel . He does attack a high school girl when she walks past the gate because he thinks she's Caddy . For this he is neutered . And Jason does send him to the asylum , but not in The Sound and the Fury . Its just that the sadness of Benji's commitment still hangs over the film when it ends , but you wouldn't quite know it if you just saw the ending . |
384,972 | 391,152 | 73,540 | 9 | An incredibly beautiful mood piece | There's not too much to say about Picnic at Hanging Rock . It's one of the most beautiful films ever made . Technically , it's perfect . The cinematography is godly , and the musical score , much of which is performed by Zamfir , master of the pan flute , is exquisite . It's also wonderfully directed by Peter Weir - he shows a talent far beyond what I saw in The Truman Show , which is unfortunately the only other film by him I have seen . Hopefully , that will be remedied soon . What I didn't get was the actual point to the film . A film doesn't necessarily need a point , but this one seemed to be trying to say something , but it was never clear what . As near as I can tell , the metaphorical and allegorical content had to do with the state of repression these women were suffering . The camera even lands on a photograph ( or portrait ) of Queen Victoria at one point near the end of the film . However , if this is the case , it seems kind of pointless to criticize those values . I don't know when the original novel was written , but the film was made three quarters of a century after the events had taken place . Oh , and , by the way , is this based on a true story , I wonder ? If there was another point or metaphor being developed , the writers failed to express it . But who cares ? Picnic at Hanging Rock is an amazing piece of filmmaking . That's what's important , and that's where it succeeds . . |
384,629 | 391,152 | 34,297 | 9 | The Beverly Hillbillies as directed by America's greatest poet | The back side of the same coin whose front is The Grapes of Wrath . It's a Depression piece about a family of Georgia dirt farmers who are about to be driven from their home . Here John Ford stays much in his comedy mode , so most of his detractors will certainly want to stay clear of it . And even I admit that at times it can be obnoxious . Dude Lester , the youngest of the 16 ( or 17 ) children Jeeter and Ada Lester had , and one of only two who still live on the farm , is particularly hard to bear . One wonders whether Jeeter and Ada had the same parents . Dude runs around screeching and imitating his car's horn . He can be funny , but he's certainly the most grating element of the movie . Luckily , he gets his comeuppance , which makes it well worth putting up with him . The other child , a 23 year old girl , Ellie May ( Gene Tierney , in a very early appearance and gorgeous as the earthy farmer's daughter ? Ford really fetishizes her , to tell you the truth ) , is in love with her brother-in-law , Lov ( Ward Bond , whom I didn't even recognize ) . He chose Ellie May's younger sister because he wanted a young wife ? 23 is too old and he feared he'd be the laughing stock of Tobacco Road . Most of the movie focuses on Jeeter ( Charley Grapewin ) , who is trying to remain on his land . It's quite amazing . These characters are so stereotypical , and they can certainly be construed as highly offensive . The Beverly Hillbillies probably contains less offensive material about hicks . With any other artist at the helm , it would be completely reprehensible . Yet , in Ford's hands , Jeeter Lester exhibits as much humanity as Tom Joad . We laugh at his ridiculousness , but we care for him very much . His wife ( played by Marjorie Rambeau ) doesn't get a lot of screen time , but when she does , she reminds me much of Jane Darwell's heartbreaking role as Ma Joad . After Dude tears into his parents about being at death's door , the two have a solemn conversation about their numerous , departed children . ' I thought at least one of them would write , ' Ada sighs . The film also boasts the greatest number of occurrences of Ford's favorite hymn , ' Shall We Gather at the River ' . It even serves as the base of the film's score . If the wackiness doesn't put the detractors off , that song very well might ! I love it myself . As funny as Tobacco Road is , and it is quite funny almost all of the time , it contains dozens of moments of the greatest American poetry . . |
384,702 | 391,152 | 107,943 | 9 | Powerful , powerful movie | I almost skipped this one , given my distaste for British period pieces in general and the other Merchant / Ivory film I had seen in particular . I'm damn glad I didn't . This is a very subtle and quietly devastating picture about a butler whose major character flaw is that he's just too good a butler . Anthony Hopkins plays Mr . Stevens , a man who has given his entire being to his master and who allows himself no thoughts or emotions outside of his duties . The story has two major drives . First , his master ( played by James Fox ) is a Nazi sympathizer ( this is in the mid-30s ) and is a major force in the eventual appeasement policies that Britain took up before the war hit home . Second , the lead house keeper ( Emma Thompson ) becomes emotionally attached to Mr . Stevens , but , given his nature , it's absolutely impossible for him to return the affection , as much as he might feel it inside . I liked most everything about it , but I have to say the story itself was my main point of interest . I just thought it was brilliantly written , and I was deeply moved by it . In fact , as time goes on , my appreciation grows . |
385,633 | 391,152 | 44,811 | 9 | Gorgeous | A very beautiful film by master Ingmar Bergman . Four women , all sisters-in-law , await their husbands in a house on an island . They converse , and soon begin to tell each other the big stories of their lives . The first tells how she had an affair with her teenage sweetheart and how her husband reacts . The second tells of how she was seduced and became pregnant . And the third tells about how she once got her husband to admit his philandering when they were stuck in an elevator . Meanwhile , in the framing episode , a younger sister of one of the women has fallen in love with the fourth brother . The first and third stories are a little cliched , especially the elevator sequence , but they're still quite great . Being trapped in an elevator is a nice , easy , and overused way for two characters to solve problems , but the dialogue between Gunnar Bjornstrand and Eva Dahlbeck is so excellent that it works out wondefully . The heart of the film is in the second story . It's so simple and well-done , so utterly beautiful in its conception and execution . It is , of course , a flashback , like the other two stories , but the story itself is also told in flashbacks . It works far better than I would have ever guessed . Secrets of Women is an underrated Bergman film , a must-see for any fan . . |
384,652 | 391,152 | 48,673 | 9 | A great film | Katharine Hepburn plays an aging woman . She is alone on a vacation in Venice - she was alone before she left , and she has , for the most part , always been alone . To be on vacation alone is a sort of tragedy . Hepburn walks around the beautiful city with her movie camera and captures the spectacle of it all . Unfortunately , she can hardly keep the images of happy couples away from her lens . She even captures a pick up . She meets people around the city , but they are all paired off , leaving her alone with her camera . The enormous romance of Venice does little but remind her of what she probably will never have . But two days in a row she has chance meetings with an attractive Italian man , a shopkeeper named Renato ( Rossano Brazzi ) . He goes for her quickly , and though she's nervous , she falls for him as quickly . But the next day , he completely avoids her . What is this guy up to ? I could never fully trust him . And , for a while , that hurt the film for me . But I soon understood that Summertime was not the fantasy romance that many people seem to think it is . It has another layer . At one point , Renato , who has already lied to Hepburn a couple of times on important matters , tells her that she'll never have another chance at this . And it clicks with her : she won't . At this point , Hepburn just goes along with it and surrenders to her romantic fantasy . Renato is something of a scumbag , only really wanting to sleep with her , but she knows that their relationship is something that will last scant days . The dream of the situation is more powerful than its reality . I love the ending most of all , how Hepburn is still constructing this fantasy . She wills Renato to chase her train , a romantic cliche . As Renato brazenly holds up the flower , the one she was denied in her youth , her melodrama is complete . When she arrives home , she'll be able to tell people about her wonderful trip to Venice . It didn't really happen the way she will tell it , but who's to know ? |
385,049 | 391,152 | 445,934 | 9 | Forgive the cliché , but I laughed until I cried | If you're looking for great film-making or thoughtful satire , definitely turn around . On the other hand , if you're looking for a funny comedy , you're in the right place . Will Ferrell plays a character that would stand perfectly well next to all of his SNL characters , which , I know , is kind of a backhanded complement . But he's funny , God bless him , and the writers ( Jeff and Craig Cox , as well as several others ) give us plenty to laugh at besides him . John Heder was starting to suggest that he had nothing in him besides Napoleon Dynamite , but he's pretty funny here . Amy Poehler and Will Arnet are great as the villains , and Nick Swardson , a Minneapolitan whose stand-up act I'm going to see in June , has a great role as Heder's stalker ( stick around for the end credits to see a hilarious bit with him ) . There are so many great comedy moments , but the climactic chase sequence between Ferrell and Arnet , which starts out funny enough on ice skates but gets about ten times funnier when they reach dry land , has to be one of the funniest sequences of all time . This is the rare movie that I was sad to see end , because I just enjoyed it so much . |
384,660 | 391,152 | 333,764 | 9 | I wrote this way back when I saw it in February of 2002 | A fantastic film about adolescence Unfortunately , I doubt many in the U . S . will ever see it . I'm also unsure as to whether U . S . audiences would like it much anyway . I myself loved it - it's very beautiful , one of the best films on that age group I've ever seen . The story revolves around three teens in a Taipei high school , two girls and a boy . The girls like to think of themselves as BFFs ( " best friends forever ! " ) and , like any two best friends , they talk to each other about boys . The third character is the boy one of them likes . The two girls look for him one night and the girl who doesn't like him approaches him to tell him that her girlfriend has a crush on him . The second girl , however , is too nervous and flees the scene . The boy then thinks that the girl who approached him actually likes him but won't say it straight out . I won't go on with the plot . If I am wrong and it does get a U . S . release , I don't want to be the one who ruins the surprises ( I'll let the professional critics do that ) . Suffice it to say that , unlike American films about high school , Blue Gate Crossing remains simple and honest all the way through . There are no subplots or melodramatic developments . No one gets knocked up or dies in a tragic drag racing accident . We are just left to witness the sweet and beautiful events in the lives of these three characters . The reason that I believe it will never be officially released in the United States is this : it'll seem far too innocent . These kids are meant to be between 16 and 18 years old . For a U . S . audience , their actions and attitudes will seem like those of sixth graders . Perhaps even in Taiwan it will be seen as quaint . One of the film's producers , Peggy Chiao , was present at the screening I attended and she said that the director himself ( Yi Chih-yen ) was afraid that the film was too sweet . It's really up to 1 ) distributors and 2 ) film critics . Let's face it , the first obstacle for U . S . distribution will be nearly impossible to overcome . As for critics , people love to flaunt that critics in this modern day and age are meaningless . That may be true for the latest teen sex comedy , but for foreign films they are of the utmost importance . I am afraid that they will see little but an after school special in Blue Gate Crossing . Let's all hope I'm wrong and that this'll be the biggest foreign hit since Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon . . |
385,774 | 391,152 | 42,994 | 9 | Excellent ! One of Hitchcock's most underrated . | SPOILERS : Like any good film enthusiast , I consider Hitchcock one of the best directors who ever lived , right along with the likes of Fellini , Bergman , and Welles . Hitch consistently made films that were not only as entertaining as a film can possibly get , but also films that were extraordinarily intellectual and human . Films such as Lifeboat , Rear Window , and Vertigo work as art as much as any other films ever made , studying the human condition and utilizing the tools of cinema to the utmost . Hitch was also the most prolific film artist of all time . He made over 50 films . He made more masterpieces than any other filmmaker , too . Several , such as Vertigo , Psycho , and Rear Window , are bona fide masterpieces . No one in their right mind would disagree with their status as some of the best films ever made . But everyone has that one Hitchcock film that they feel that they understand better than anyone else , and always claim that it deserves to belong in the same status as the more accepted masterpieces . I seem to have discovered several . In fact , every time I see one of his less popular films , I think that it has gotten a bum rap . Rope is my favorite underrated Hitchcock film , but I think that it is starting to be accepted by the masses more . Two other great ones that are less popular are Lifeboat and I Confess ; Lifeboat is well respected by Hitchcock fanatics , but I Confess is usually dismissed . This sort of dismissal happens because of financial failure upon first release . Hitch certainly was an artist , but , if you've read the Truffaut interview book , you realize that he took a film's financial success or failure very personally . Now we come to Stage Fright . I don't think that it was an enormous failure , but it was also not an enormous success . Truffaut says something like : " this film neither added to nor took away from your reputation . " The main complaint is that the opening flashback is a lie , and that audiences could never accept that . I think that that technique works better now than it may have in 1950 . It was sort of daring , but it failed at the time . Although most people still don't want to ever think that the characters in a film are lying , you still see it , especially in neo-noir ( think Chinatown , Body Heat , etc , although those aren't flashbacks , per se ) . Truffaut also derides it for being a whodunit , which Hitch did not like . I don't think that Stage Fright is at all a whodunit . We assume through the entire film that Marlene Dietrich is unquestionably guilty in the crime . There are just a few very minor problems in the film , most of them stemming from the trick ending : trick endings are in style right now , but they hardly ever work . This one does , mostly , but as soon as we realize we've been tricked , just as happens at the end of The Sixth Sense , a very good film otherwise , we begin to go over the earlier events to see if there was any cheating . There is in Stage Fright , and it loses a tiny bit of credibility from this . The other main problem is just how the police deal with the criminals at the end . It's hardly believable , and they kill the main criminal in a very gruesome way that I would think would get them reprimanded by their superiors ( although it was cool ) . Anyway , it's nowhere near as bad as the way the police act at the end of Hitch's next film , Strangers on a Train , where a cop shoots randomly at a crowd ( with the criminal in it ) and accidentally kills an innocent man ! The gold of this film comes in the complex situations and characters . One reason why Hitch's films stand so far beyond the run-of-the-mill thriller is that his characters are so well developed . The actors in Stage Fright are also superb . Jane Wyman , the main character , has an extraordinarily complicated role , where she has to act at several different levels ( she plays an actress who believes that her skills can help her learn more about a murder ) ; she pretends that she's someone else , and as she meets more people , the more difficult it becomes to handle the situation . She also " switches horses in midstream , " where she begins to doubt her relationship with the man whom she is helping and to fall for a detective on the murder case simultaneously . Richard Todd plays a man framed for murder . One excellent twist in the script is that his character is not intelligent . We're so used to characters being as astute as Sherlock Holmes in mystery films , but he's an illogical hothead who takes very stupid risks . Marlene Dietrich has a lot of fun here playing a demon-goddess . She's just hilarious , trying really hard to act depressed over her husband's death ( and she's one of the most terrible singers you'll ever hear ! ) . I love how she controls everyone in the film , even those who are trying to be her enemies . You just can't refuse Marlene ! Possibly the most memorable and amusing performance in the film is that of Alastair Sim , most famous for playing Ebenezer Scrooge a year later . He's hilarious as Wyman's father . Micheal Wilding , playing the detective who is falling for Wyman , is also great , especially when he finds that she is betraying him and may have only been using him . There are a few very memorable cameos , too , including the " bibulous gent , " a turtle-like man who offers Wyman comfort , and the shooting gallery matron ( the whole shooting gallery scene is great ) . Stage Fright has been trampled by the more outstanding Hitchcock pictures . It is a small gem , not boring in any way . It deserves to be rediscovered by more people . |
385,832 | 391,152 | 131,325 | 9 | 7 . 1 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? | Okay , in a year where you put American Beauty on a pedestal like it's some kind of divinity you also crucify possibly the funniest film of the 1990s ? It figures . I've hardly ever laughed this hard at a movie . I liked every piece of it , and think it should be up for a lot of Oscars this winter , though it won't , because it's a film that America forgot . |
384,760 | 391,152 | 46,808 | 9 | Exceptional ; a must-see for Tracy fans | A remarkable film , a Western based on Shakespeare's King Lear . It's nearly as good as Kurosawa's samurai Lear , Ran . Spencer Tracy plays the Lear character , Matt Devereaux . He made a fortune as a cattle ranger . He has four sons , three by a deceased wife and one , Joe ( Robert Wagner ) , the son of his second wife , an Indian woman ( Katy Jurado ) . Joe meets a lot of prejudice from white people , and his brothers as well . Those three brothers don't much like the way their father treats them . The oldest ( played very well by Richard Widmark ) seems obedient at first , but is quick to reveal his dark , sadistic side . The screenplay has a great flashback structure , and there is really a lot of emotion that is built throughout the story . Spencer Tracy is responsible for most of the film's success ( well , after Shakespeare , I guess ) . Every line and movement carries an enormous amount of weight , and the man's fall brings with it a lot of pathos . When the film opens , he has already died , but his enormous portraits seem to haunt the world . One technical aspect particularly worth noting is the fantastic score , by Leigh Harline . It's perfect when it's there - sometimes sweeping sometimes subtle - but what's even more amazing is how often the score is absent . There are many scenes that you would expect to be drowned out by the score in any other film from the time period , but instead we hear only the diagetic soundtrack . I hope someday I'll be able to see a nice widescreen version of the film . I hate when I put in a film with a big " Produced by Cinemascope " banner , only to find it castrated after the opening credits . The one big disappointment , although I can definitely live with it , is Katy Jurado . She's been praised endlessly for her role in High Noon , and she was even Oscar nominated for this film ( the only actor to receive that honor from this great , great film ) , but you haven't even seen her act until you see Luis Bunuel's El Bruto . She's not even the same actress , she's so fantastic there . Still , I loved the heck out of this film . . |
385,289 | 391,152 | 23,037 | 9 | Actually , one of Luis Bunuel's most interesting films | After Un Chien Andalou and L'Age d'Or had caused such earthquakes , Bunuel picked for his next project a documentary on the Hurdanos . These people live in mid-western Spain , near the border of Portugal , under the most horendous conditions possible . They are a primitive , almost neolithic people , who only barely understand the principles of farming and are otherwise so superstitious as to starve themselves rather than eat any animals besides disease-carrying pigs . Now , it is difficult to know how to take this film . Following Un Chien Andalou and L'Age d'Or , I personally expected a comedy , and took it as that when I was watching it . If you read down , you will notice the first person who commented on the film takes it this way . My reasoning went thus : Bunuel saw the Hurdanos in his peculiar surrealist light . Here was a people degraded to the point of utter absurdity . For instance , there is a scene where the farmers are working in a place where adders are plentiful . The adders frequently bite them , but these bites are not fatal . They would eventually heal , but these people don't know that . Instead , they use a kind of ointment to cover the wound , and this treatment actually leads to infection , which eventually mangles or even kills them . In another scene , we are told that the children only know bread from the bits that the local church gives them . They are not allowed to take these bits of bread home because their parents don't trust bread , and will confiscate it and toss it out ( this is what I read in an essay about the film ; the version I watched had an English voiceover , whose explanation for the parents ' actions was to steal the bread for themselves . I believe that the version in the essay is the more correct one ) . The surrealist aspects of the scenes I mentioned are there . But , reading that aforementioned essay ( and a second ) , I realize that I was wrong about the humor . Surrealism , you should note , does not = comedy . This is a more serious surrealism . In fact , Bunuel made the documentary as a political statement , showing how the Spanish government treated its people ( in fact , he was wrong on this point ; Franco idolized the area and had great sympathy for the people , believing them to represent the primitive aspects of Spain ; in later decades , he would pour a lot of money into the region ) . It caused an upset , though not as much as the previous two films . I imagine that people then didn't know how to take it either , since many critics were up in arms over this apparently massive change in Bunuel's style . Nowadays , Las Hurdes seems better than ever before . It is an amazing documentary , and the people represented in it deserve our sympathy . I wonder if their lives have now changed . . |
385,925 | 391,152 | 280,707 | 9 | Vintage Altman | Gosford Park is indeed one of Robert Altman's best films . Third best of all that I've seen , following Nashville and 3 Women . Still , I am a tiny bit disappointed with it . I was hoping it would be next to Nashville and 3 Women . I'm not sure if it will even remain in the third spot in my mind for too long . It's not as memorable as many of his other films that may not be quite as good . In fact , at this point I feel more of an affinity for his last film , the unfairly despised Dr . T and the Women . Still , one can't at all watch Gosford Park without being amazed at it . It ranks along with the many great European films in this tradition . It is undoubtedly most influenced by Rules of the Game , directed by Jean Renoir in 1939 . That film generally ranks at # 2 out of every film ever made on the Sight and Sound polls , taken every decade ( they're to be taken this year , 2002 , for the seventh time since the poll's founding ) . I don't agree with its high status ( refer to my own reviews , three of them , one individual and then two parts of a 1000 + word one , on imdb ) . I find it wonderful for the most part , but then it utterly falls apart by the end . Other films in the tradition include Ingmar Bergman's Smiles on a Summer Night , Luis Bunuel's Diary of a Chambermaid ( incidentally a remake from an American film directed by Jean Renoir , which I have not seen ) , and , most recently , Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration , aka Dogme 1 . These films all play with the relations between the master and servant class in varying degrees . Godford Park is perhaps the most complex in that respect : it gives equal time to both sides , allowing for a lot of character identification . It also contains an enormous cast , as you might expect from Altman , and all of the characters are perfectly developed , also as you might expect . The acting is brilliant . Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith were singled out by Oscar voters , both receiving a Best Supporting Actress nomination , but I don't know how they chose between the two dozen actors and actresses in order to arrive at those two . Everyone is equal to them , and I imagine a lot of the actors who didn't make it were suggested by the Academy members . The direction , of course , is beautiful . It's on par with the rest of Altman - I don't think he's ever directed poorly , even in his " bad " films . The score is beautiful . Stephen Altman's production design is miraculous - it was nominated for an Oscar , but defeated by Moulin Rouge ! . Moulin Rouge ! is merely showy . The production design here is subtle as hell . I do find some fault in the script . Most of it is brilliant . It won the Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen . I would have chosen Memento myself , but Gosford Park is nearly as deserving . The dialogue is always spot on , and the plot is fantastic - that is , until the murder . I'm not going to spoil anything , unless you didn't know that there was a murder ( sorry if you didn't , but it was in all the ads ! ) . It's just that the murder feels forced - a lot like the murder in Rules of the Game . It just never seems necessary , and what results from it is not as interesting as I would have hoped for . There's also a ton of setup for the murder in the plot , with tons of bottles of poison being shown and the victim nearly getting shot and so forth . And not enough results from it . The mystery is also not interesting . It was much more interesting - and in line with the theme - when the two groups were simply interacting . The explanation doesn't say anything that wasn't already implied , and some of the unforeseen relationships between the characters don't add as much weight to the drama as they are meant to . That's all a rather minor criticism , to tell the truth . It still works , it's just not as strong as I think it could have ( or should have ) been . Of course , Gosford Park does qualify as one of the best films of the year and a very worthy addition to Robert Altman's stunning cinema . I've seen around a dozen of his films , and , while I really haven't ranked many a ( only Nashville , very nearly my favorite film , and 3 Women ) , Altman has the rare distinction of producing a body of work that is actually greater than the sum of its parts . I give Gosford Park a . |
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