10-26-2005
807) Duck You Sucker. Where to begin? As much as I want to appreciate Leone, I think he's terribly overrated. Don't get me wrong, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More deserve every ounce of praise they ever receive. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is also a good western, but it started Leone down the path of telling 30 minute stories in over 2 hours and brought us Once Upon a Time in the West, which would be a much better movie if it weren't so insufferably long. And then he just gets weird. This and My Name is Nobody are both ridiculously long and have storylines that are so over the top with metaphor that they stop making sense at times. And let's not forget Once Upon a Time in America, the epitome of a bloated vanity project. So yeah, as much as it pains me to do so, I'm giving him the thumbs down. Sorry.
808) Bewitched. Steve Carell's cameo as Uncle Arthur was pretty funny and Nicole Kidman was so adorably spazzy that the only thing that could make me love her more is a hula dance or if she sang Brass in Pocket it to me like Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation. Other than that, blech.
808 down, 192 to go.
808) Bewitched. Steve Carell's cameo as Uncle Arthur was pretty funny and Nicole Kidman was so adorably spazzy that the only thing that could make me love her more is a hula dance or if she sang Brass in Pocket it to me like Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation. Other than that, blech.
808 down, 192 to go.
posted by Todd Jones at 9:32 PM
3 Comments:
Here's my list of 11 that are worth watching that you might not have seen (in no particular order):
1. The Believer: You will NEVER forget this movie. One of the best debut performances I've ever seen. Based on the true story of a Jewish guy that was literally a neo-nazi skinhead by day and a practicing Jew at night.
2. Vertical Ray of the Sun: One of the most beautifully shot films I've ever seen. Set in Vietnam. Absolutely gorgeous. Great soundtrack too.
3. No Man’s Land: Balkans war drama about a Bosnian and a Serb trapped in a trench with a third solidier lying on a spring loaded mine. Great dialogue.
4. 8 Women Comedy/murder mystery/musical featuring a who’s who of French actresses: Emmanuelle Beart, Catherine Deneuve, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier.
5. Zatoichi: Japanese legend about a blind swordsman featuring Takeshi Kitano. Weird, but fun. There's about a zillion Zatoichi movies (he's kind of a Billy the Kid type of character) so make sure you get the newere one with "Beat" Takeshi Kitano.
6. Andrei Rublev: At 205 minutes, it might not fit the bill of your project at this point, but it’s awesome. Requires some patience though as it is slow paced.
7. The Mouse That Roared: Funny Peter Sellers movie from the late 50s about the smallest country in the world, The Grand Duchy of Fenwick declaring war on the United States.
8. Kikujiru: Odd Japanese road movie. Has one of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie, but it still good.
9. Ararat: Film within a film about the Armenian genocide.
10. Broken Wings: An Israeli mother is widowed and must fend for herself and her four kids. Pretty heavy duty.
11. Fireworks: Another Takeshi Kitano film, but he plays a cop in this one. It is brutal and violent. I saw this one in a class called "Violent Film."
Unfortunately Netflix was down when I was going to compile a list (I was going to look at my history), so I pulled these 11 from my head. I will offer up more in the future....
Holy cow. I forgot the "Qatsi" Trilogy
Koyaanisqatsi
Powwaqatsi
Naqoyqatsi
Directed by Godfrey Reggio (a former monk) with music by Philip Glass. They explore the themes of life being out of balance, third world explotation and "warfare lifestyle."
Three extremely cool, tripped out movies. I prefer the first & third myself, but they're all good.
looks like the old netflix queue just swelled a little more.
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