Printable View
Saw ANNIE with the wife and kids. Loved it.
Modern take on an old movie and done very well.
Jamie Fox played a great part but fame did not matter as all parts were owned by the actors/actresses (Cameron Diaz great) despite their tenure or status.
I recommend it.
I made the mistake of seeing "Wild" last night. I'd been warned. One of my backpacking buddies had already seen it, and warned me about it. However, I knew that he just disliked the movie because he couldn't handle the sheer incompetence at his favorite pastime on the part of the heroine. So I figured it might still be a good movie, and parts of it were filmed on sections of the Pacific Coast Trail on which my own boots had trodden (or something like that).
So I went. It's a chick flick -- not horrible, but self-obsessed and self-absorbed. Cheryl Strayed hikes the PCT to change her life, which has spiraled into heroin addiction and random sex (horrors!) after the early death of her mother. It works! She muddles through, failing to COMPLETELY kick the random sex habit on her adventure. I'll even grant that it probably WAS a life-changing experience for her -- nothing like 4 months of strenuous exercise with no access to heroin dealers to help ANY pretty young addict.
What annoyed me is the self-absorption -- her motive is to look within herself and find herself. But (as I wrote in another thread recently) it seems to me that we find ourselves by looking for something else. Of course Strayed does find something else -- a beautiful country, some interesting people -- but she's always looking within, surprisingly, given what's passing by without.
I love mountaineering and adventure literature. Perhaps the greatest polar adventure book is "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Gerrard. It tells the story of the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole. However, the titular "worst journey" takes place in the winter prior to Scott's dash for the pole. Gerrard and one companion trek in search of the roosting grounds of the Emperor Penguin -- never before seen by humans. They journey is "only" 150 miles or so, but the weather is far worse than it is in the summer -- -80F, intense winds, etc. Anyway -- it's a great story.
Gerrard concludes his book with this famous paragraph, In which his attitude compares with Strayed's.
Quote:
“And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.
If you are a brave man you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say, “What is the use?” for we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year.
And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.”
I've completed a review on another thread of "The Rum Diary". Here's a snippet of director Bruce Robinson's 1987 cult classic, "Withnail and I". Both films have much in common:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0DytHBjGTQ
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcm50m82oi4
Hilarious!
Grandma's Boy: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456554/
This came in a rated and unrated version. Since I don't want to miss anything, I always pick the unrated version.
It is about a brilliant but nerdy and dishonest video game creator, a set of video game testers who don't like him, their new age boss and a beautiful female project manager who comes in to make sure the next game release occurs on time. Considering how everyone is behaving this project manager is definitely needed, but being a beautiful female with everyone else being male virgins focused on video games the context for the conflict is set up. Additionally, the lead tester, in his thirties, is living with his grandmother and two other elderly women.
The crucial problem is who will get the girl, the nerdy but dishonest genius or the likable head tester. It is a comedy so you know who wins, but how he actually wins her is what makes this worth a score of 10/10.
Joseph Losey is a director I can take or leave. An escapee from the Un American Activities Committee, he made most of his films in Europe and specifically England. His off-beat approach to directing lead to some very patchy films but The Intimate Stranger isn't one of them.
Staring the reliable Richard Basehart as the lead in the role of an American expat film producer who has married the daughter of the head of a major British studio, he starts receiving letters from a woman claiming a romantic liaison with him although he has never heard of her.
Because he had to leave Hollywood over a sex scandal, he has great difficulty convincing his wife and her father that he isn't lying but the mysterious woman is convincing and knows things about him that only a close confidant could know.
This leads to his wife leaving him and her father taking him off a big production he Is working on.
Although everything looks stacked against him, a stroke of luck reveals that he isn't going mad, as he had begun to think, but is the victim of a plot get him removed from the studio by another executive who wants to step into his shoes.
8/10
The Tale of Princess Kaguya - Isao Takahata
Beautiful animation and story... 8.5/10
We're in season four of "Breaking Bad". It seems there is another scene with Walter White in his underwear. We stopped for the evening with Skylar telling Walter that she gave the money to Ted.
So far, I like Saul and Gus the best. Walter is getting on my nerves. Skylar has been on my nerves for some time. Jesse is starting to show promise. Mike is showing he can get shot and Ted is getting a taste of the real Skylar.
Score: 5/10
Fanny and Alexander - Ingmar Bergman
I didn't realize this thing was nearly five hours long so when I found out I was a little apprehensive as to whether I could actually handle four and a half hours of consecutive Bergman. It was amazing though, eveything about it. I was very surprised by the supernatural elements and enjoyed them very much. The scene in the attic with the ghosts of the bishops two girls puts most horror movies to shame.
10/10
I strongly recommend Through a Glass Darkly, if you haven't seen it already.Quote:
Originally Posted by Clopin
MY FAVORITE MOVIE. Though I watched the film version - sounds like you watched the TV version.Quote:
Originally Posted by Clopin
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pompey Bum
As do I, my favourite Bergman film.
Through A Glass Darkly was my favorite Bergman before I saw Fanny and Alexander. Still love it though, of course. And while we're recommending Bergman films, if you're ready for a couple hours of emotional agony, try Cries and Whispers on for size.
It's funny how people always talk about Bergman movies like spicy food: awesome if you can stand it. It's usually true, though.
Yeh I've seen Through a Glass Darkly, it's great, just behind Wild Strawberries for me. I've been sick this entire week and I watched pretty much every episode of Seinfeld in that time haha, the other movie thread made me remember that I wanted to watch more movies.
Persona - Ingmar Bergman
So many top lists and crtics rank this as one of, if not the best, Bergman film.... I was uh, underwhelmed for sure. The opening collage of imagery seemed to me like a bad cliche of what an 'art house' film looks like, and this same feeling cropped up a few times during the viewing. Overall I liked it, but not overly much.
6.5/10
I'm going to have to watch some Bergman movies. I've seen some decades ago. Maybe today I'll understand them.
We finished season four of Breaking Bad last night. It looks like Walt and Skylar are getting back on the same page. Score: 6/10
To wash down Breaking Bad, I watched "Stretch": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2494280/
This is a movie about fate and finding your true love even though you are in a relationship. Luckily for fate, your girl friend dumps you freeing you for the unknown. After realizing you can't end up like your suicidal imaginary friend you face the reality of your situation that your gambling debts have been called to be paid tonight. If you don't pay, suicide will be the least of your worries. You are hoping the tip from a wealthy outlaw the FBI is chasing will be enough to pay off those debts if you can dodge the rival limo gang you've ticked off earlier by stealing one of their clients who left his gun in the limo. Then you have to get even with your ex-girlfriend, since you ran into her, chase your limo as it is being towed, convince some navigation system to let the engine start.
But it all works out in the end. Fate always wins.
Score: 8/10