Sunday involved a lot of riding around the Northern Virginia area, seeing some parts I hadn’t seen before, and moving a bigass TV. When I dragged my sorry butt back home, I sat down and finished Annihilation, which was really good.
Dinner at Eight: “You’re young and fresh. And I’m burned out.” An all-star cast digs in to a comedy-drama about various people trying to keep it together or get it together in the post collapse world of New York City’s wealthy elite. It’s funny and sad, in much the same way Grand Hotel was. John Barrymore is typically charming. It’s not as good as Grand Hotel, but it’s pretty good.
The Immigrant: A beautiful film, with a fantastic performance from Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant is ultimately sunk by the male leads. Be it performances or script (or a mix of the two), Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner are frustratingly uninteresting. Phoenix is particularly bad, too. It's like he's channeling Marlon Brando from On the Waterfront, where he's acting in one movie, while everyone else is acting in a totally different film. I loved the world that was created, and even most of the bit parts and supporting players were quite good. This all makes the failures of the film more pronounced. There was a great film in this mix, but it’s lost the shuffle of love triangles and murder, and obscured by weird acting choices. While worth watching for fans of the period, the movie is ultimately a disappointment. It’s also part of that ‘all men are monsters; all women their victims’ subgenre that has become so tiresome. That too could have been avoided by removing the two male angles of the love triangle.
A Fistful of Dollars: “That’s not gonna break my heart.” Clint Eastwood is just so darned likeably charming as the wandering gunslinger out to make a buck off two warring families. This remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (itself an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest) finds the story transported to the Mexican/American West…by which I mean Spain. Plenty of colorful characters, awkward dubbing, double crosses, and tough guy dialog. And a lot of wacky killing. The Western would never be the same.
On Thursday night, Brad and I went back to The Alamo (we'd gone there to see A Fistful of Dollars the previous night). This time dressed like idiots, draped inappropriately in the Flag, to see one of the most 80s films ever. Walking up to the counter, our outfits tipped off a fellow to which movie we were going to see. Perhaps it was a bit obvious. And then, while we were getting ready to go into the theater, a rep from a beer company spotted us, asked to take our picture, and bought us beers (Rye of the Tiger). Awesome.
Rocky IV: “Whatever he hits, he destroys!” The only Rocky film I’ve ever seen, and the only one I ever will, Rocky IV has been a weird absence in my life, now filled. Such a wonderfully stupid, wonderfully 80s film. Four montages? Four?! Fantastic. It’s poorly shot, poorly written, and even the montages are clumsy (did I mention there are four?). The jingoistic idiocy is palpable. Dolph Lundgren and Brigitte Nielsen are about as Russian as Jack Kennedy. And seriously. What’s up with Paulie and the robot? What’s up with Paulie and the robot?! Excellent. So dumb. So awesome.
La Bete Humaine (The Human Beast): This Jean Renoir film helps presage the Film Noir genre that would rise a few years later. There’s even a proto-Femme Fatale. But it’s also full of Renoir’s love of people, reveling in the everyday life of the working class. If you’re a train person, this is some serious porn. The train footage alone is worth the price of admission.
Witchville: Another straight to video movie that seems like someone wrote the script based on an old D&D game. The acting is all over the place…if that place is where bad acting lives. The CG is typical TV level. The costumes aren’t bad. The action isn’t good. Sadly, the film is just silly and goes over territory that lacks freshness. I see so many of these movies made on very limited budgets, with limited resources, that manage to do some impressive things. But they’re sunk in the scripting. All the low-budget pluck and can-do spirit amounts to little if there aren’t some solid, interesting ideas at their heart. All those great third string science fiction movies from the 80s are remembered because they combined can-do attitude with creativity. With movies being easier than ever to get made (not saying it’s easy), creativity is too often skipped.
The Magic of Melies: A good, informative discussion of Georges Melies and his wonderful films. There are interviews and some recreations, as well as plenty of clips of Melies’s films, other films of the era, and photographs. His story is a fascinating one, and very important to our understanding of film as an art form. Movie buffs should see this, for sure.
My Fail Lady: Rex Harrison is charmingly cruel as the language expert who decides to make a proper lady out of a low-class flower seller. Audrey Hepburn…Well, she’s not so great as the flower seller. The movie is fun and lavish, if a bit overlong (OK, maybe more than a bit overlong). Several of the songs are quite good. But I can’t get over Hepburn. I know the movie is supposed to be somewhat broad, somewhat exaggerated, but her accent is absolutely awful, to the point of being distracting. And they never really make her look like anything other than cute little Audrey wearing a funny costume. Though I didn’t love the movie, Rex Harrison is enough fun that I still recommend checking it out.
In between watching these movies, I’ve been watching more Space 1999. Cool show. I like how often episodes have a somewhat horror story vibe. There’s certainly a lot of mystery and weirdness. Other than that, I’ve just been trying to read Preacher again (limited success) and I started Authority, the sequel to Annihilation.
Wizard World has a brief little article detailing the opening of the Mondo Gallery, but more importantly they have a bunch of shots of the art being unveiled tonight. Still working out what piece matches with what artist, but there is some pretty (typically) beautiful stuff here. Not only do we get to see the varient of the Tyler Stout Wrath of Khan print, but also some cool Fly & Body Snatchers portraits from Rich Kelly. Love it. And yeah, that Ming...it rules.
I watched only one movie during the first week of 2012. After the massive amounts of cinematic cramming that I was doing at the end of the year, I think I just needed some downtime from the movies. But I did watch some TV. And I had one fun Dork excursion.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK!
Hugo: A second viewing for me. Matt had managed to miss this film last year and I thought that his Top Ten just wouldn't be legit until he consumed the delights of Martin Scorsese's first family film, as well as first 3D film. I was also curious to see if the film still held as much power over me as it did the first go 'round. I'm pleased to say that it most certainly did and I am quite happy with it's placement as my Favorite Film of 2011. I paid particular attention this time around to Scorsese's use of the 3D format and there is at least one particular "Hitchcock shot" near the climax that just melted my heart on the second viewing. There seems to be some serious backlash towards this film in the last few weeks, but dammit! Hugo genuinely speaks to my joy of cinema and the young version of Michael Stuhlbarg's Rene Tabard is ME! And the old version of Michael Stuhlbarg is the ME! I want to BE! A minor character to latch onto for sure, but what ya gonna do.
The Magic Of Milies: Got this 3 Hour + documentary in from Netflix and I'm watching it now as I type this. It's more than a little dry and all I really want to do is watch the films of Milies rather than all this talking head business. But it's interesting to learn how close the events of Hugo mirror the reality of the filmmaker. And if you really want to check out the actual films of Milies all you have to do is turn to youtube...
TV SHOWS OF THE WEEK!
Star Trek The Next Generation Season 3-4: Started back up with Next Gen. A year ago I bought all seven seasons of the show during one of those Barnes & Noble Buy Two Get One Free sales and after stalling out on the Shockingly Crappy to Somewhat Mediocre episodes of Seasons 1 & 2, I've whipped through the third season and started the fourth. It's only just started to get consistently decent with the Best of Both Worlds climax of season 3. It's funny how characters like Geordi and Data, who were favorites of my youth, have becomes some of the least compelling characters for me. And a guy like Shatner-wanabe Riker keeps me coming back for more. Lisa caught a few episodes with me and now she's started the show from the beginning with season one. That pleases me to no end. First I turned her onto Kirk & Co and now she's eating up Picard's bunch. Long Live Trek.
Mildred Pierce: I read the original James M Cain novel nearly twenty years ago and as I was watching the first two/three hours of this HBO mini-series I kept asking myself, "Where's the murder?" Well Todd Haynes took it out of the story and presents us with an excellent melodrama of a Depression era divorcee who works her way up from nothing to great wealth and a miserable home life. Sound like fun? If not, turn away. But I found this event to be absolutely captivating and it's five hour run time flew by. Kate Winslet definitely gives the year's best performance as Mildred and her battles with her villainous daughter brought loud shouts of aggression from this viewer. Also, it's a gorgeous looking picture with some of the most beautiful costume setting I've seen. Felt like I could walk right into that world.
Justified Season 2 Episodes 1-7: This week, whenever my wife and I were in the apartment we were watching Justified Season 2. Maybe not as good as Deadwood, but Justified fills that void. Obviously, Timothy Olyphant has that cowboy swagger down pat but the stories just have everything I want out of a cop show. It's sure footed with proud, over-confident Elmore Leonard characters. I love the surprising turn of events between Olyphant's Raylan and Walton Goggins' Boyd; the way those characters have come together--my favorite tv couple since William Shatner & James Spader in Boston Legal. And having read an Advance Readers Copy of the new Raylan novel I can now report that a lot of that book stems right out of this season. Really looking forward to seeing how this all plays out and I'm definitely going to have to download the new season as it airs.
DORK EXCURSION OF THE WEEK!
The Nerdist at 930 Club: I enjoy the Nerdist podcast, but my wife LOVES it. On Friday night, we ventured out into DC to the 930 Club for a live recording of the podcast. I was amazed at the crowd. The line wrapped well around the block and I was in awe of the number of nerds/dorks/dweebs dressed as The Doctor (I saw mostly 11s, a couple 10s, and a 4) and Firefly Jaynes. How did we become so prevalent in the mainstream? In some ways it makes me quite uncomfortable. I liked being on the fringe, a weirdo. But the internet has made us all weirdos. And the Nerd explosion has allowed for such cinematic miracles as the upcoming Avengers movies. So, I just gotta get used to the fact that Nerds Rule now.
As I type this I'm watching The Magic of Melies documentary where I just saw the below 38 seconds of Thomas Edision's Boxing Cats film circa 1894. I'm stunned by the amounts of kitty videos I see on the internet (via friend's facebook pages and the like--I would never! search for one personally...you believe me, right?) and I guess this struck me as the first of its kind. Oh, what a cruel world Edison created!
Man, oh man. I really packed it in this week. Work has been eating up a lot of time...or at least traveling back and forth from work has been taking up a lot of time. But it's allowed me to crank out some iPhone digital viewing and I've been sneaking into the nearby movie theater at every opportunity. The big shocker this week was Martin Scorsese's Hugo. Saw that with the wife on Date Night and I came out of theater with a serious movie high. I'm still tinkering with my year's best list, but it looks like Hugo has shot right to the top. That's kinda amazing considering I wasn't even that interested in seeing the movie in the first place. Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet than you should do yourself a favor and get your butt in the theater. The 3D was fantastic but I don't know if it was necessary.
After the film, I went straight to the bookstore and bought Brian Selznick's novel as well as his film companion. And the film also lead me to watching the short silent film of pioneer George Milies. A lot of them are readily available on YouTube. Check 'em out.
I also finally broke into the Alien Saga Egg set my wife bought me last Christmas. I don't know why it took me so long to check out these blus, but I can say with full confidence that it was totally worth the wait. Especially, Ridley Scott's original--that movie is GORGEOUS! Parts 1 & 2 lead right into David Fincher's underrated third film and now I've decided to follow The Auteur Cast's latest Fincher series watching the movies along with Rudie Obias and West Anthony. So far it's been a lot of fun. Really looking forward to the Zodiac episode.
And, finally, since last week's The Muppets my wife has gone Jim Henson crazy. I came home from work one day and she had purchased every available season of The Muppet Show as well as The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, Muppets Take Manhattan, The Muppet Treasure Island, and The Muppet Christmas Carol. That's a whole lotta Muppets. I never really grew up with the show but I've enjoyed the half dozen episodes we've watched of it so far. The humor is definitely dated and I don't always "get it."
MOVIES OF THE WEEK!
The Descendants: If you've seen an Alexander Payne film (Sideways, About Schmidt, Election) than you know what you're gonna get with The Descendents, a heartfelt--sometimes heartbreaking melodrama with small bursts of odd situational humor. George Clooney delivers an extremely effective sympathetic performance as the cuckold husband dealing with his wife's coma as well as his two young & wild daughters and I'm ready to toss him an Oscar. And, it's great to see Robert Forester knock out such a strong, complicated character in just a few short scenes--he provides the film's strongest laugh as well as the most tortured image.
Rock 'N' Roll High School: "People say your music is loud and destructive and lethal to mice, but I think you're the Beethovens of our time." A completely batshit surrealist micro-musical in which The Ramones' #1 Fan, PJ Soles channels her insane fandom and unleashes her joy upon Vince Lombardi High School much to the horror of despot principle Mary Woronov. One of my favorite Roger Corman productions, the film is littered with your favorite Cormonites like Woronov, Paul Bartel, Dick Miller, Don Steele, and Clint Howard. And, yeah, some seriously great music. But the film lives cuz of PJ Soles and her uncontainable glee for her favorite boy band.
The Muppet Movie: The origin of The Muppets revealed! See how your favorite variety show came together packed to the gills with meta jokes and celebrity cameos. Kermit the Frog leaves his swamp after a chance encounter with Dom DeLuise to chase his dream of entertaining millions; along the way he gathers Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Miss Piggy, etc into his fold. Jim Henson wizardry in full effect, the jokes hit best depending on your level of Muppet obsession.
The Great Muppet Caper: It's wonderful how this film treats The Muppets as actors in a London set Caper film. Kermit, Fozzie, & Gonzo are not-so-crack reporters who stumble into dashing Charles Grodin's diabolical diamond heist scheme. Typically peppered with celebrity cameos (of the British variety this time out), the film succeeds in some serious chuckles but fails to grasp that extra bar of genius on display in either the original film or this year's stellar outing.
In Time: Fun, but forgettable. Ask me next year what this film was about and I'll probably only be able to give you the slightest of plot synopsis. The time as currency sci-fi concept could have been incredibly interesting, but the movie uses it as a runofthemill Bonnie & Clyde romancer/actioner. Timberlake is so-so and Seyfried is so-so even more if that's possible. Cillian Murphy as the Time Keeper cop is the most interesting, but his arc is eventually wasted...in fact, most of the characters are wasted. Matthew Bomer, Olivia Wilde, Vincent Kartheiser--there are so many places this film could have gone but it's just cheap non-consequential gunplay. Bummer.
Alien: I'm guessing I've seen Ridley Scott's Alien 50...60 times. I was ten years old the first time I saw it. I don't remember much about that first viewing other than complete and utter awe for the world created around the chest birthed alien slasher creature. At 32, that's still what I'm obsessed with. HR. Giger's beastie is impressive as all hell, but what really makes Alien work is the crew and it's ship, The Nostromo. The sets constructed for this film are outstanding! From the hospital white walls of the dining room to the wet industrial bowels of the ship. Similar to John Carpenter's The Thing, the crew of Space Truckers feels like a genuine collection of a working family. Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Koto, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, and Sigourney Weaver. These guys know each other. Love each other. Hate each other. I love how Weaver slowly transforms into the lead of the picture. And let's not forget the true villain of the picture, Mother & The Company! Alien is a blue collar, sci-fi slasher conspiracy classic!
Forbidden World: A cheapie Roger Corman Alien knockoff that might not have the name cast or even a particularly interesting "character actor" cast, but it's loaded up with gore, slime, random/pointless nudity, and gooey obnoxious creature designs. Fox Harris as the cancerous mad scientist Dr. Cal steals the show whenever he hacks his way onscreen in that blood splattered smock. Drags in the middle for sure, but it goes for it in a way that New World Productions only can and you gotta love how it tries to out-do its A-Picture predecessors with guttertrash thinking.
Race With The Devil: Dirt Bike salesmen Warren Oates and Peter Fonda probably regret dragging their wives along on this nightmarish Winnebago road trip when a cult of virgin sacrificing satanists set their slightly ominous smocked hoards upon them. Similar to a lot of these 70s era Satan movies, Race With The Devil doesn't really succeed on its plot or villain. The enjoyment comes from the angry performances from the two leads and the crackerjack car crashes that litter the country roads. Director Jack Starrett (The Losers! Slaughter!) knows how to stage action--shotguns, explosions, low bridges.
Starcrash: Christopher Plummer Screaming: "Imperial Battleship! Halt The Flow Of Time!" Super Cheesy, but Super FUN! Italian Star Wars ripoff by way of Roger Corman's B Movie Madhouse New World Pictures. With the help of a redneck robot, a princely David Hasselhoff, and Marjoe Gortner's lightsabering white fro acrobat the preternaturally busty Caroline Munro battles her way through amazons on horseback, chintzy stop-motion robots, mutant troglodytes, and the maniac Joe Spinell. Best watched with a group of MST3K-like minded friends, StarCrash is ridiculous amounts of bad movie fun well worth Shout Factory's blu ray price tag.
Aliens: So if I've seen Alien 50 or 60 times than I've seen Aliens at least 100 times. I remember being a kid and watching this film two, sometimes three times in a row. Play. Rewind. Play. Rewind. Play. I've watched it so many times now that it's actually hard to even understand how this film affected me on those first dozen viewings or so. As it is now, I recognize that Aliens is a seriously kickass action movie reinvention of Ridley Scott's Old Dark House original, and the cast of Space Marine Supreme Badasses is as nearly perfect as the original film's Space Truckers. And this was the film that really transformed Sigourney Weaver into the butch, flamethrower-power loader super heroine of the franchise. And it's cool. But it's not as good as the original. It's great. It's maybe even flawless, but it doesn't reach those primordial parts of my primitive brain like that first film. And I've seen it too damn much. But Bishop will always be my man...er synthetic.
Hugo: Are you ready for this? Hugo is Martin Scorsese's best film in the last 20 years. Bam. Done. Wrapped up in this kid's adventure film is a beautiful love letter to cinema and I want to grab all my family members, friends, and coworkers to see it so that they'll have a proper understanding of why I love movies as much as I do. Orphan Hugo Cabret lives in the walls of the Paris Train Station, stealing from the local shops he grabs the attention of Ben Kingsley's toymaker and Sasha Baron Cohen's railroad inspector. Here Hugo will discover the clockwork secret to his father's automaton and his purpose within the machine of man. Great performances from all involved, but the true star of the film is Scorsese's Love Affair with Film and his mastery over it. I was emotionally rocked by Hugo, and in a way that I'm not even sure I've experienced in a movie theater. Highest recommendation.
30 Minutes or Less: A mildly amusing comedy caper that's also a mildly disappointing Zombieland followup for director Ruben Fleischer. For whatever reason, I find Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride endlessly humorous and Micahel Pena's pimp assassin is a scene stealer, but the laughs are barely chuckles and as the credits rolled I knew I will have no recollection of this flick come next year. Fun, but not enough.
Bellflower: It's not a bad movie. But I hated it. Or, I hated all the character involved to the point where I hated the movie. A bunch of young assholes being assholes to each other. Hurry up and kill yourselves already. That's a pretty harsh review of the film. Again, I'm impressed by Evan Glodell's direction, his craftsmanship, and even his acting. But at the end of the day that don't matter cuz I hated the characters. Sure, it's fun to reference Road Warrior all day long but meh.
Alien 3: Aliens was always going to be a hard act to follow. And Damn, opening the third film up with offscreen deaths for some of your favorite characters...that's just gonna infuriate. But time has been kind to Alien 3. What we are left with is a bleak, claustrophobic, and horrific sendoff (sadly, one more film would follow) to Ellen Ripley and her demon nightmare. The dog born Alien is a fantastic puppet and I dig the yellow & windy look of the film; a damn fine freshman effort from David Fincher. And the cast is a top notch collection of British heavies. Plus Charles S Dutton. The man reeducates with the best of them.
Seven: Seven still has power. "What's in the box?!?!?" But the film is more than just its shocker ending. I love Morgan Freeman's seen-it-all-hate-it-all detective and I love how you know everything about Brad Pitt's eager beaver cop the second you see him jaunting up the stairs in his cheap suits. As a pair it's all very buddy cop movie except the film is soaked with director David Fincher's melancholy and dread. Actors like R. Lee Ermey, Kevin Spacey, and Leland Orser give quintessential performances. Two films into his cinematic career, Fincher hadn't quite shaken the music video vibe, but he sure made one helluva brilliant serial killer flick and the promise of the even more brilliant Zodiac was placed here first.
