Nosferatu - Phantom of the Night (Werner Herzog, 1979) 3/10
--Indeed, doing remakes of classic movies is not a recent idea. Why would someone like Herzog feel that it was a good idea to do a remake of Murnau's timeless masterpiece?
Mamma Mia! (Phyllida Lloyd, 2008) 2/10
--The actors can barely sing...
The Sea Is Watching (Kei Kumai, 2002) 3/10
--A decent screenplay ruined by an overly cyrupy direction
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Yves Simoneau, 2007) 7/10
The Blue Kite (Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1993) 8/10
First Name: Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard, 1983) 7.5/10
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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Precious Doll
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3 Day Weekend (2008) Rob Williams 2/10
My Friends, My Lovers (2008) Lorraine Levy 2/10
The Hot Box (1972) Joe Viola 4/10
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) David Butler 5/10
Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937) Alfred E Green 6/10
The Unconquered, Helen Keller in Her Story (1955) Nancy Hamilton 8/10
My Life in Ruins (2009) Donald Petrie 2/10
Departures (2008) Yojiro Takita 5/10
My Friends, My Lovers (2008) Lorraine Levy 2/10
The Hot Box (1972) Joe Viola 4/10
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) David Butler 5/10
Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937) Alfred E Green 6/10
The Unconquered, Helen Keller in Her Story (1955) Nancy Hamilton 8/10
My Life in Ruins (2009) Donald Petrie 2/10
Departures (2008) Yojiro Takita 5/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Ah, the power of quotes.Sabin wrote:Son-in-Law the best film of Pauly Shore's career. It's physically impossible to watch ... without convulsing into a seizure. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. The Academy Awards actually have a strong history of awarding the film with truly strong ... distaste.
"It's the least most of us can do, but less of us will do more."
Transformers was the rare summer blockbuster that launched a franchise, whereas Pirates 3 drew one to a disappointing close and The Golden Compass failed to get off the ground. It seemed like Transformers had it in the bag, considering that it even drew some of the best reviews of Bay's career (which admittedly is like calling Son-in-Law the best film of Pauly Shore's career).
What did it was the fact that it's physically impossible to watch the FX of Transformers without convulsing into a seizure. The robots are moving around so much it's incoherent. I wouldn't even nominate the film in this category. The Golden Compass features polar bears duking it out and they look amazing. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. The Academy Awards actually have a strong history of awarding the film with truly strong Visual Effects: The Two Towers, Spider-Man 2, King Kong, Dead Man's Chest, Benjamin Button...aside from some distaste some might have for Gladiator, there isn't really a terribly questionable win this decade. My biggest beef would be awarding The Fellowship of the Ring over A.I. but both films look pretty great.
What did it was the fact that it's physically impossible to watch the FX of Transformers without convulsing into a seizure. The robots are moving around so much it's incoherent. I wouldn't even nominate the film in this category. The Golden Compass features polar bears duking it out and they look amazing. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. The Academy Awards actually have a strong history of awarding the film with truly strong Visual Effects: The Two Towers, Spider-Man 2, King Kong, Dead Man's Chest, Benjamin Button...aside from some distaste some might have for Gladiator, there isn't really a terribly questionable win this decade. My biggest beef would be awarding The Fellowship of the Ring over A.I. but both films look pretty great.
"How's the despair?"
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Mister Tee
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rain Bard wrote:I always thought it was one of those cases where a critical mass of Academy members picked the film that they felt was least likely to cheapen the reputation of the award if referred to as an "Oscar-winning film". Like when Topsy-Turvy won the Best Makeup category in 1999 despite the fact that its competition was almost inarguably more impressive and elaborate.
I think maybe you and Sabin are both correct. I have no doubt there were voters who loathed the idea of Transformers winning Oscars (I among them; I let out a stunned cheer when Golden Compass won). But you can also feel that the effects in Golden Compass are, if not glorious, at least less mind-numbing, clanky and even ugly than the relentless ones in Bay's films.
On Get Out Your Handkerchiefs -- I guess it's one of those subjects on which my Kael-ite side emerges. I thought the film was hilarious. (Though I had TRULY despised Blier's earlier Going Places, a film about which Kael had similarly raved)
Edited By Mister Tee on 1248116055
The Burning Bed (1984, dir. Robert Greenwald) 7/10
The Burning Bed is primarily known as the TV movie that made people first take notice of Farrah Fawcett as a serious actress as well as the first in a string of similar "victim overcoming victimizer" roles for her. It tells the true story of Francine Hughes, a Lansing, Michigan woman who in 1977 incinerated her husband while he slept after suffering over 13 years of domestic violence. Hughes was subsequently found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
Fawcett's beautiful looks and thin, whispery voice are used to great effect here to play up her role as victim. The terror in her voice and her gorgeous, yet battered face somehow makes this woman's plight that much more horrible. Francine falls into a typical, yet familiar, pattern of the "battered woman's syndrome", constantly taking her abuser back in the hope that he's finally cleaned up his act. Yet as she finds her voice and the will to survive takes a hold of her, there is a transformation in the character and the way that Fawcett plays her that is mesmerizing. The last twenty minutes are brutal, terrifying yet, ultimately triumphant.
The Francine Hughes case is credited with putting a spotlight on the devastation of domestic abuse. It helped bring about the national awareness which inspired legislation and policy to help victims of domestic violence find the desperate help they need in order to escape the cycle of violence.
Paul Le Mat, an actor I'd only seen as the hapless Melvin Dummar in Melvin and Howard (1980), is frightening in as the "average joe" abuser Mickey Hughes, Francine's ex-husband. Various Hughes family members are portrayed by such great character actors as Grace Zabriskie ("Big Love", "Twin Peaks", Fried Green Tomatoes), however they will infuriate you with the way they handle their son and Francine's horrific circumstances.
Fawcett lost the Emmy that year to Joanne Woodward for her performance as an Alzhemier's sufferer in "Do You Remember Love?"
Edited By flipp525 on 1248131926
The Burning Bed is primarily known as the TV movie that made people first take notice of Farrah Fawcett as a serious actress as well as the first in a string of similar "victim overcoming victimizer" roles for her. It tells the true story of Francine Hughes, a Lansing, Michigan woman who in 1977 incinerated her husband while he slept after suffering over 13 years of domestic violence. Hughes was subsequently found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
Fawcett's beautiful looks and thin, whispery voice are used to great effect here to play up her role as victim. The terror in her voice and her gorgeous, yet battered face somehow makes this woman's plight that much more horrible. Francine falls into a typical, yet familiar, pattern of the "battered woman's syndrome", constantly taking her abuser back in the hope that he's finally cleaned up his act. Yet as she finds her voice and the will to survive takes a hold of her, there is a transformation in the character and the way that Fawcett plays her that is mesmerizing. The last twenty minutes are brutal, terrifying yet, ultimately triumphant.
The Francine Hughes case is credited with putting a spotlight on the devastation of domestic abuse. It helped bring about the national awareness which inspired legislation and policy to help victims of domestic violence find the desperate help they need in order to escape the cycle of violence.
Paul Le Mat, an actor I'd only seen as the hapless Melvin Dummar in Melvin and Howard (1980), is frightening in as the "average joe" abuser Mickey Hughes, Francine's ex-husband. Various Hughes family members are portrayed by such great character actors as Grace Zabriskie ("Big Love", "Twin Peaks", Fried Green Tomatoes), however they will infuriate you with the way they handle their son and Francine's horrific circumstances.
Fawcett lost the Emmy that year to Joanne Woodward for her performance as an Alzhemier's sufferer in "Do You Remember Love?"
Edited By flipp525 on 1248131926
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Saw this film in 1978 with my gang, and God how we hated it. It seemed to be the embodiment of the puerility of movies at the time, and it was all the more perfect that its chief advocate was Pauline Kael.Penelope wrote:Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978; Bertrand Blier) 9/10
Gloriously absurdist--and very, very racy--comedy about (straight) mens' fascination with women (or one in particular); Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere are hilarious; hard to believe this naughty but joyous/heartbreaking film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar...but, then, that was the 70s....
A hideous thing.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978; Bertrand Blier) 9/10
Gloriously absurdist--and very, very racy--comedy about (straight) mens' fascination with women (or one in particular); Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere are hilarious; hard to believe this naughty but joyous/heartbreaking film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar...but, then, that was the 70s....
Gloriously absurdist--and very, very racy--comedy about (straight) mens' fascination with women (or one in particular); Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere are hilarious; hard to believe this naughty but joyous/heartbreaking film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar...but, then, that was the 70s....
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
I always thought it was one of those cases where a critical mass of Academy members picked the film that they felt was least likely to cheapen the reputation of the award if referred to as an "Oscar-winning film". Like when Topsy-Turvy won the Best Makeup category in 1999 despite the fact that its competition was almost inarguably more impressive and elaborate.
Transformers (2007): 2nd view... I enjoyed it more. I was less cynical and simply enjoyed it. Guess it's still hard for me to understand how come did it lose the visual effects award...
Because you can barely see them. The Golden Compass features beautiful special effects that you can see the edges of. In Transformers, you never know entirely what you're looking at. They're always flipping and changing. I think that's why The Golden Compass one. There's something very confusing about the FX in Transformers.
"How's the despair?"
What Doesn't Kill You (Brian Goodman 2008)
This unheralded movie was released for a week in L.A. and New York for Oscar consideration and was trampled by the Big year-end releases and pretty much ignored. That's a shame, as it is a terrific, small South Boston crime film (I guess that is now an official sub-genre) that's ultimately a deeply affecting tale of redemption. Goodman -- who based the film on his own real-life experiences -- has created a great sense of milieu and while his visual style is direct and modest, it is also assured and well-conceived
There's beautiful work from Mark Ruffalo, who's memorably haunted performance is his best work yet. Ethan Hawke, plays a cocky violent self-deluded punk -- a character unlike any he's done before -- and he perfectly imbues the part with an edginess that conveys his yearning for the Good Life and his impatience with obtaining it through anything other than violent means, as well as with a self-confidence that explains the sway he has over his weaker lifelong pal, Ruffalo.
The character, with his swagger, is the direct opposite of his role in Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, a film to which some critics have compared this because it involves hapless criminals and a robbery at a shopping center. But to compare the Lumet with this film is akin to putting up a child’s stick figure up against a good solid painter like Winslow Homer. Quite moving.
6/10
This unheralded movie was released for a week in L.A. and New York for Oscar consideration and was trampled by the Big year-end releases and pretty much ignored. That's a shame, as it is a terrific, small South Boston crime film (I guess that is now an official sub-genre) that's ultimately a deeply affecting tale of redemption. Goodman -- who based the film on his own real-life experiences -- has created a great sense of milieu and while his visual style is direct and modest, it is also assured and well-conceived
There's beautiful work from Mark Ruffalo, who's memorably haunted performance is his best work yet. Ethan Hawke, plays a cocky violent self-deluded punk -- a character unlike any he's done before -- and he perfectly imbues the part with an edginess that conveys his yearning for the Good Life and his impatience with obtaining it through anything other than violent means, as well as with a self-confidence that explains the sway he has over his weaker lifelong pal, Ruffalo.
The character, with his swagger, is the direct opposite of his role in Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, a film to which some critics have compared this because it involves hapless criminals and a robbery at a shopping center. But to compare the Lumet with this film is akin to putting up a child’s stick figure up against a good solid painter like Winslow Homer. Quite moving.
6/10
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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HarryGoldfarb
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Transformers (2007): 2nd view... I enjoyed it more. I was less cynical and simply enjoyed it. Guess it's still hard for me to understand how come did it lose the visual effects award...
Up (2009): Too much expectations can kill anything. Nice but underwhelming. Everyone around me enjoyed it greatly though... there must be something wrong with me. Wall-E's still the Pixar film to beat in my mind...
Up (2009): Too much expectations can kill anything. Nice but underwhelming. Everyone around me enjoyed it greatly though... there must be something wrong with me. Wall-E's still the Pixar film to beat in my mind...
"If you place an object in a museum, does that make this object a piece of art?" - The Square (2017)
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Precious Doll
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A l'aventure (2009) Jean-Claude Brisseau 6/10
Ruby Blue (2008) Jan Dunn 5/10
The Girls Apartment (1964) Michel Deville 4/10
Who's Camus Anyway? (2006) Mitsuo Yanagimachi 4/10
Ruby Blue (2008) Jan Dunn 5/10
The Girls Apartment (1964) Michel Deville 4/10
Who's Camus Anyway? (2006) Mitsuo Yanagimachi 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)