The Watercooler: 4/21/08
The Forbidden Kingdom: The suprising pick of the weekend
If it’s Monday, it must be The Watercooler. In the spirit of going to the movies, let’s cover all the trailers first:
Deal. Another movie about Texas Hold ‘Em players. This one is about a Yale graduate bankrolled by a washed up Burt Reynolds. He gets involved with a Las Vegas call girl played by Shannon Elizabeth. Drama ensues. And so do naps. ZZzzZZZzZzZZzZzzz
Righteous Kill. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro together again. Unfortunately it’s probably another crapfest from Jon Avnet (88 Minutes). Two cops skirt the law to track down a serial killer. Co-starring Carla Gugino, 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy and John Leguizamo. Not even the remixed version of Sympathy for the Devil makes it seem very interesting. I grow weary of seeing his trailer.
Blindness. Fernando Meirellies (Constant Gardner, City of God) directs Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo in a story about a mysterious epidemic that causes its victims to go blind and threatens to bring down society. The trailer didn’t do much for me. It seemed kind of cheesy, but I’m sold on Ruffalo and the concept is interesting. Has Jeff Wells complained about the “Milky Whiteness” of the cinematography yet? He will. Mark it down.
Get Smart. I’m kind of against this one on principle, but it might work as a sort of American Pink Panther. Stupid fun or just stupid. We’ll see.
Tropic Thunder. Opening like a serious Vietnam movie complete with helicopters, Buffalo Springfield’s For What it’s Worth and the Trajan font, this high-concept Ben Stiller comedy about a big budget war film gone wrong has got the Internet all excited. Yeah, I don’t know. Robert Downey, Jr. playing a white actor playing a black character is pretty funny, but I’ve had about enough of Stiller. Then again, Steve Coogan is always reliable. Also with Jack Black and Nick Nolte.
Pineapple Express. The Internet is also abuzz over this Judd Apatow produced action comedy directed by David Gordon Green (Snow Angels) starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as two stoners who get entangled with some nasty drug dealers. God help me, I thought the green band trailer was funnier than the restricted trailer. People getting stoned becomes less and less funny the farther I get away from college and we’re talking almost 20 years now.
Wanted. Another one that’s caught the fanboy fancy. Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov brings Mark Millar’s graphic novel to the big screen. James McAvoy is a schlub who turns out to have special powers and he’s recruited into a secret society of assassins. Also with Angelina Jolie. Looks fruity. Yeah, James McAvoy is a schlub like I’m James McAvoy.
Lakeview Terrace. Samuel L. Jackson is a black cop/neighbor who terrorizes a white couple. Looks like the kind of movie that plays into white suburban fear which is so 1985 it’s not even funny. Seriously, who actually makes this kind of shit and what the hell is Sam Jackson doing in it? I hope he made a shitpot of money for it because it looks like complete ass.
My Best Friend’s Girl. Kate Hudson and Dane Cook in a romantic comedy. Do I need to say anything else? I didn’t think so. I’d rather chew broken glass.
Ok, enough with the trailers, here’s our feature presentation:
So, it turns out I was kind of slumming at the cineplex this week. If you’re looking for intelligent discourse about brainy indie films, you should read another blog because this weekend I watched a bunch of low-rent crap.
Pathology. I had no real reason to suspect this one would be any good, but I had time to kill before Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It would’ve been time better spent picking my feet in Poughkeepsie. Read the review below if you must, but this one isn’t worth your time, let alone a DVD rental.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Apparently the collective age of the average American movie reviewer is 12 years old because the funniest thing about Forgetting Sarah Marshall is how many of them are so freaked out by the frequent glimpses of star Jason Segel’s dork. Seriously. Come on. It’s just a penis. We’ve all seen one. Many of us have them. Some of us even use them. Anyway, there’s only one standard by which to judge a comedy: whether or not it makes you laugh. This is subjective of course, but if it works, it works. Well, it took about 25 minutes, but eventually Sarah Marshall kind of won me over. The laughs were only sporadic and never extreme, but I did laugh and I suppose that’s worth something. Too long and not funny enough to ever be considered a classic, but it was at least a passable time filler.
The Forbidden Kingdom. This movie was incredibly stupid, but I have news for you: Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark are pretty stupid too when you think about them. Both take a conglomeration of cheesy, old school forms of entertainment and update them for a modern audience with affection and enthusiasm. Forbidden Kingdom does the same thing, but instead of serial adventures, it’s a mish-mash of Kung Fu movie tropes. You’ve got the bride with white hair, the drunken master, the shaolin monk and the monkey king. More importantly you’ve got Jet Li and Jackie Chan together in a movie for the first time with martial arts choreographed by Woo-ping Yuen. Silly? Yes, but it’s extremely entertaining if you get in the spirit.
That’s my movie weekend. What did you see?
Filed under: Miscellaneous
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I can’t remember a stretch of time when I was so uninspired by the mainstream movie offerings that were out there. I still intend to see Leatherheads, The Ruins, Horton, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but I’ve had very little interest in rushing out to see any of them. Granted, I’ve been poor and then incredibly busy, in that order, but still…what a bunch of gunk.
Anyway, I saw two movies at the New Beverly: Wrong is Right and Horror Express, both worth seeing.
- I thought the Blindness trailer looked intriguing, but I’m a little sick of the apocalyptic epidemic genre at the moment.
- Shannon Elizabeth and Burt Reynolds in the same movie? What we’ve all been waiting for.
Aside from the glowing radioactive problem of being a stalker fantasy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall also never has a scene that turns out as funny as the idea of it might seem to be. The Dracula puppet musical being a case in point. I kept waiting for the moment when it would really ratchet up the laugh quotient, but it never did.
Oh yeah: I can’t imagine Meirelles being able to make an apocalytic blindness movie as good as Day of the Triffids.
*laughs hysterically for minutes on end*
“Some of us even use them.” There’s much I could say. But I shall say nothing - and that will be difficult for me.
In the extreme…
I slummed a bit too this weekend, though mostly at home.
I watched Walk Hard which - aside from the admittedly brilliant Beatles bit - was ok, but never quite inventive enough. I mean, it’s definitely better than those horrid Scary Movie/Date Movie/Epic Movie etc. parodies, but it all seemed a bit predictable.
Also, Craig, I gotta agree. Peni just aren’t inherently funny. Nor shocking, even if, like me, you don’t have one yourself. Admittedly, the appearance of the penis (I believe it’s Apatow’s) in Walk Hard is so random it elicits a chuckle, but only because the rest of the movie was so lacking in randomness.
On Sunday, though, I saw a movie that DID understand the power of randomness, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, which I enjoyed quite a bit, from the tossed off comments about racism to Neil Patrick Harris as “himself”. Unfortunately, there were too many interludes that didn’t work (the raccoon, the guy with the pustular blisters on his face) to make this a film to watch over and over. I’m kind of looking forward to The Pineapple Express though. I guess that still being in college, I still have enough of an appreciation for stoner comedies.
Final movie of the weekend 9 1/2 weeks which was on TV. Somehow, I didn’t find it as sexy as I thought I would/should. Mickey Rourke was quite cute though, despite the unsettling smile. As I mostly know him from later movies like Sin City and Once Upon A Time in Mexico, this came as a surprise. The movie for me was hampered (and dated) by the terrible 80’s soundtrack, and I was a little disappointed, but I’m glad I’ve finally seen it.
My weekend was pretty fun, beginning with the documentary NOTE BY NOTE: THE MAKING OF STEINWAY L1037. As a movie that charts the year-long process it takes to craft a concert piano, you’d think it would be boring, but you’d be wrong. I was fascinated by the procedural aspects of the movie, the way it showed in detail how each process was performed. There’s also some interesting material about how each piano is different, and we see some top-tier pianists visiting a showroom full of Steinways and playing one after another in an attempt to find the one that’s right for them. Highly recommended.
But the big event for me was the Ohio 24 Hour Science Fiction Marathon, from noon Saturday to noon Sunday. As always, it was a blast. The highlight was the appearance by Patricia Neal following a screening of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. She’s 82 now and pretty frail, but she was great with the crowd and charming as hell. Her distinctive voice is even more so now than it was in her younger days, I’d say. And while she had some trouble remembering names (due to both her age and health issues) she was extremely engaging. When asked about the rumored DTESS remake starring Keanu Reeves, she simply said “who?” then smiled. Brought down the house, just like when she said “Klaatu Barada Nikto.”
Quality can be an issue at Marathons, but they did a pretty good job this year keeping it interesting. The premieres were the documentary SPUTNIK MANIA (not bad) and BIG MAN JAPAN (fitfully entertaining but too long).
In the “old schlock” category, the hands-down favorite was the Indonesian knockoff LADY TERMINATOR, which is a total ripoff of TERMINATOR but has all the explosions, awful hair, bad dialogue, worse dubbing, and T&A could ask for from this kind of movie. Somewhat less interesting was JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET, which more or less feels like a Roger Corman version of SOLARIS. But the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA movie was more fun than I’d remembered, and compared to other cheesy STAR WARS ripoffs like STAR CRASH it’s almost good.
As for the more respectable titles, the most surprising was Robert Wise’s THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN. I’d read the book, but hadn’t seen the film before, and I was sort of shocked by how good it was. It’s very much a seventies thriller, with the clean, clinical shooting style that implies, but the lack of BS subplots was definitely appreciated by me. I’d seen the other respectable title, Michael Radford’s 1984, and while I liked it again this time it didn’t really go over well with the crowd, who mostly either snoozed through it or vocally criticized the female lead’s lack of, ahem, feminine grooming.
Anyway, I left the Marathon after 1984, with only PITCH BLACK (meh), STRANGER FROM VENUS (no thanks) and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (seen it too many times) still to come. I’m getting a little too used to the sleep schedule demanded by my job to make it all 24 hours anymore. Still, it was definitely worth the price.
I wound up seeing the Rolling Stones movie a second time, to take in the IMAX experience. Quite a ride!
I have a week off from school due to spring break, so I plan on doing some catch up in the upcoming days.
BLINDNESS is intriguing despite the bad vibes of teh trailer, mainly because the novel it is based on (by Jose Saramego) is considered in literary circles to be one of the greatest written in the past 20 years. The author is a Nobel Prize winner, and when you figure in the distinguished director of CITY OF GOD, you do at least have a reason to be hopeful.
Will have to look for the Blindness trailer online. I love, love love the book. It’s so different from anything else I’ve ever read. And though I loved City of God, I did not at all love The Constant Gardener. I’m convinced this movie will be another well-intentioned mess of an adaptation, not wholly without merit, but missing the mark by far.
It’s not surprising I haven’t seen the trailer yet, since I realized this weekend it’s been seven weeks since I set foot in a cinema. Crazy, isn’t it? Last time was the night of the Texas/Ohio primaries, and it had been two or three weeks at least before that since the previous flick. There hasn’t been much on here to miss, but I think we’ll probably go see Sarah Marshall or Smart People or whatever new is coming out this next week. I’m starting to get jittery for a fix.
We did watch several movies at home, though. This weekend, I caught up with Lust, Caution (lovely, slow-paced, well-acted, and I couldn’t manage some of those positions if I did stretches for an hour before hand), Romance & Cigarettes (a train wreck, but what a fun and interesting train wreck. Could be come a cult classic, if it takes off. I rather liked it despite itself) and the Ingrid Bergman/Charles Boyer version of Gaslight that we recorded off TCM in February (kinda slow and dated in places, but the payoff in the final scenes is fantastic).
I saw “88 Minutes,” which I don’t think is anyones idea of a good movie but it certainly wasn’t the “Battlefield Earth” level disaster that I was expecting. Pacino is watchable in everything he is in.
I also got a look at “Savage Grace,” which was every bit the train wreck I was expecting “88 Minutes” to be. Dear effing god how can so many talented people go so horribly wrong?
The highlight of my moviegoing weekend was without a doubt “Syndromes and a Century.” It’s a lovely dream of a film, and I’m glad I finally was able to see it.
I thought the Blindness trailer looked interesting. I also saw the other version of the Red Belt trailer, which proves once again how massively deceiving trailers can be. Looked like a completely different movie.
I saw The Visitor, which I liked even though I can see the issues Craig pointed out last week. I went into the theater in a bad mood and something like this was exactly what I needed. Like Lars and the Real Girl, if you’re not buying what they’re selling this movie will probably annoy the hell out of you.
I also revisited Rescue Dawn on DVD Friday night, which holds up pretty well to a second viewing. After watching The New World on Thursday night., it was interesting to see another movie where nature plays a character in the story. Once again, let me mention the marvelous acting of Christian Bale and Steve Zahn in this. Both were great.
I caught Syndromes and a Century a few weeks ago, I respected its quiet sustained mood more than I loved it I think. It has a bit of that vibe of “heavy duty important art film” that can sometimes turn me off. I’ll have to see it again to see where I fall on it, though it certainly should be seen.
I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall over the weekend and thought it was basically just another one of those movies, goes down fairly easy, but is slow and uninspired. One can only take so many of these. I think Pineapple Express will be a relief, a cleanse of the glut of faux-sincere, corny Apatow movies that at least admits to what it is (I read the script, and for once one of the romances is admitted to be creepy.)
Paul, I had no bloody idea that Patricia Neal was still alive. (Unfortunately, I can’t keep track of everything…) I remember reading her autobiography when I was just a teenager and some of it genuinely stuck with me. She survived a lot of personal tragedies and she was always such a classy and graceful woman.
Personally, I’m very glad she’s still here. You’re right. She does have a fabulous voice.
joel, ditto to two points that you made. Lars & The Real Girl DID annoy the hell out of me. (Just saw the trailer for The Visitor. Had no idea what it was about. But I’m extremely happy and surprised to see Richard Jenkins playing a LEAD. Something tells me this will have much more traction with me if I do decide to go.)
Also, Steve Zahn was really fantastic in RD. Shame he never got an Oscar nod. He was ROBBED.
I couldn’t manage some of those positions if I did stretches for an hour before hand.
LOL, jennybee. Same here - I’m not double-jointed.
This was a movie-free weekend for me, as I was with family all weekend. Even the kids weren’t allowed to sneak away and watch DVD’s or play videogames.
Craig, thanks for the good words about The Forbidden Kingdom, which does indeed look like a lot of silly fun. I definitely want to see it sometime this week.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is really forgettable. I think I’m already forgetting Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The Apatow cult, which reached its zenith and, in my view, most legitimacy, with Knocked Up, is now going too far, I fear. Critics really are just wanting to appear “hip,” it would seem, judging by many reviews.
I saw The Agony and the Ecstasy, a 1965 Carol Reed historical drama starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel for Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison). It’s not pefect but I rather liked it. Heston conveys all of the temperamental volitility one might expect. Harrison does a good job as the Pope as well. It does feel kind of dated with quite a few superfluous scenes involving a woman in love with Michelangelo in the middle but overall it’s a solid effort.
Also saw My Dinner With Andre again. I doubt I’ll ever see it again now, though. It’s a credit to the two guys and Malle that the discussion over dinner remains engaging (it’s actually the first forty-five minutes that are the least interesting and most difficult to get through). Anyone have strong opinions on this film one way or the other?
I’m on a Kon Ichikawa marathon, one I’ve been planning over the past two months since he died. I saw Fires on the Plain, which is bleak but excellent and I saw The Burmese Harp again, which is as tremendous as I believed it to be. Also saw An Actor’s Revenge, The Key and The Makioki Sisters… Plan on seeing Enjo really soon. Tokyo Olympiad is a lot of fun as well.
I also saw The Flowers of St. Francis by Roberto Rossellini. I prefer his more allegorical religious films like Stromboli and Europa ‘51. Flowers of St. Francis has a lot of good parts but as a whole it’s not particularly satisfying.
jennybee, I’m glad you enjoyed Gaslight with Bergman and Boyer. It does have some dated patches but on the whole it still works quite well. And Bergman’s performance is nothing less than sublime.
Paul C., that sci-fi marathon sounds like a great deal of fun.
Alexander “saw The Agony and the Ecstasy, a 1965 Carol Reed historical drama starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel”
Love the part where Michelangelo agonizes about the ceiling above the altar:
“Damned dirty apse!”
Ahahahahahaha…
I think they play the Bergman/Boyer Gaslight (I didn’t actually know there was another one) at least once a month on TCM. In the good old days when I still got TCM, I must’ve seen it at least 4 times.
It IS kind of stilted in patches…but I kind of love it. Boyer is just so deliciously evil, and Joseph Cotton and a very young (and slutty) Angela Lansbury are great in supporting parts.
Didn’t have much time for movies this weekend. I played Sleuth (1972) in the background while I worked on an essay Sunday afternoon. I don’t think of myself as xenophobic, but the movie was just too “British” for me. The only entertaining part was watching Laurence Olivier transition from just chewing the scenery to tearing apart the scenery, too. I guess I’ve seen Clue one too many times to be impressed by the numerous plot twists piled on at the end (I spotted Michael Caine’s inspector immediately). Who on earth thought this film was worthy to be remade? It’s outdated even by 1970s standards.
p.s. The trailer for Blindness isn’t earthshattering, but I’m eagerly awaiting that film. Meirelles hasn’t let me down yet (Constant Gardener was my favorite from ‘05 and City of God was one of the best from ‘03). Moore is usually good whenever she’s on screen (forgiving The Forgotten), as is Mark Ruffalo.
I’m not sure what Jeff Wells has done to you personally, Craig, but I’m calling time out. If you don’t shake hands and cool down, you’ll both be sitting in the corner wearing dunce’s caps.
No films this weekend, but have enjoyed reading the interesting views presented in the thread. I’ve also been tickled by Craig’s penis (not literally) humor riffing, jennybee’s quip about positions, Alexander’s forgetfulness, and Ryan’s ever dazzlingly funny and smart verbal dexterity.
Nicely freshens up my work morning.
Jeff, you’re right about the seasonal rut the movie industry is in. Joel noted it last week I think and obviously Jennybee has been voting with her ticket purchases or lack thereof. Normally I don’t go to the movies alot this time of year, but the blog keeps me motivated. I could just as easily have spent the last few months catching up on DVDs, but there have been quite a few gems amid all the crap in theaters. It’s been an interesting experience.
Alexander. Let me just say right up front, and I know this is some kind of heresy, but I hated Flowers of St. Francis.
I think I liked FSM better than K, Chuck or Alexander, but I’m already putting it out of my mind and probably won’t even write a full review of it. Not really worth the effort.
I also agree with Chuck that, reservations about stoner comedies aside, Pineapple Express might prove to be a refreshing break from the faux sensitivity of the other Apatow product. Just make me laugh. All I ask.
Sounds like Paul pulls off the most interesting weekend again. I was tempted by the Steinway doc, but it’s playing at one of the worst theaters in town and yeah…it sounds a little dry. Sometimes though, that stuff really grabs you. And that’s great Patricia Neal showed up for the Sci Fi marathon.
Andromeda Strain really is an under-remembered bit of 70s entertainment. I noticed during the pre-movie ‘entertainment’ at the multiplex this weekend that the Scott brothers have produced a TV remake for A&E. It looks a little overdone, but it could be interesting.
Glad you liked The Visitor, Joel. I did too, though I wish the filmmaker had the faith in his audience to be a little more subtle and a little less on message. He had a good human story going there and frankly I could’ve done without the politics. I was happy to interject them myself.
Miranda, if you like Jenkins, you’re definitely going to want to check out The Visitor. He’s terrific.
Matthew, I’m glad you liked Syndromes. Chuck, all I can say is that I think there was enough of a twinkle in the filmmaker’s eye to ameliorate the ‘important art movie’ heaviness, but that’s my opinion.
Alison. Family shmamily.
Sam. So you’ve now seen the Stones in both regular and IMAX versions? How do they compare? Is it worth it for people to go out of their way for IMAX in your opinion?
Hedwig. As a man, penises are amusing because naked men look funny and vulnerable. shocking and horrifying? not at all.
And finally, back to Alexander: I’ve never seen My Dinner with Andre. There. I’ve said it. I suppose I ought to though, huh?
Craig, I’ve never seen My Dinner with Andre either. There are so many movies that I haven’t seen but should. This is why I have nearly 200 movies saved in my Netflix queue.
Ok, when I first started composing the opus I was going to be comment #15,but then I got sidetracked and a bunch of new people showed up.
Ryan. AHAHAHAHHAHAH. Hey, keep the funny and clever stuff on your own damn blog, you’re making me look bad! :)
Sartre. Like Jennybee, you’ve picked a pretty good time of year to ignore movies.
WJ. I think the Britishness of Sleuth is part of its appeal. For me anyway. Dated? Yeah, but that’s ok. I didn’t see the remake.
Miranda~ not only is she still alive but she’s still working. She still does the occasional movie as well as some theatre here and there.
Alexander~ It’s always a blast at the marathon. It was my seventh year going this year, and it’s never let me down, even when the movies themselves sometimes have.
Craig~ as I said in my review of NOTE BY NOTE, I’m really drawn to movies with heavy procedural element. It’s really interesting to me to get a look at seeing how something is done that I wouldn’t be able to see any other way. Also, I played piano for about a dozen years, so the subject matter was inherently interesting to me. Plus concert pianist Hélène Grimaud- a crush of mine during my piano playing days- was one of the talking heads, so that helped as well.
Alison, I’ve been totally slacking on DVDs. My queue is bursting and I still have 4 Daniel Day Lewis movies sitting on my TV unwatched.
I had a boring movie weekend, saw How She Move which sucked and Magorium’s Wonder Emporium which almost sucked. Yeah, there have been better weekends indeed.
Paul, I just looked up Hélène Grimaud. Mmmrowwrrr.
I’ve got a lot of crap going on this week, but I’m going to try and make a point to catch the Steinway doc on your recommendation. It probably won’t be around long.
I’ve been fairly living at the New Beverly this past week. Come on, fuck New Releases when you have Corman, Cody, Quentin, Wright, Dick Miler, John Saxon and Joe Dante in da house! HORROR EXPRESS is a personal fave, the best sci-fi monster movie set on a train ever.
Watched EXPLORERS last night just for background noise, I adore Goldsmith’s soundtrack and the aliens, and would love to know the reel story of how the film was released unfinished. I should ask Dante, but…
Craig~ Back when I first became familiar with her, she was somewhat more Virginie Ledoyen-ish, but she’s still quite the looker. And the fact that she has sound-to-color synesthesia (meaning her mind interprets musical notes as colors) just makes her even more intriguing to me.
Jeff/Christian. Were there any special guests for Horror Express/Wrong is Right?
Nick. I hope you didn’t let my “How She Move suprisingly didn’t completely suck” comment on your blog sway you into seeing it. I was trying to appreciate it from the perspective of someone who might actually be drawn to that kind of movie…which I’m not. Does that make any sense?
Nick, you ventured to even see Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium? I commend you on your bravery. Based on the commercials I chose to stay clear of that one.
Then again I’m more choosy with what I go to see out of necessity - I’m pretty poor these days and movies are now 12 bucks in NYC.
jeff/craig… you can make fun of me for enjoying zombie strippers. thank you……
there were no strippers in the audince unless they were working a peter parker/spider-man motif…
and you know i asked kid tha works in the theatre friday when i saw ‘blueberry nights’ and he said nope no one fitting the the usual ‘look’ you’d expect froma stipper was there friday. and i asked again on sunday..again the answer was no…
however i was told that group of six eldery females came in together to watch the film (jenna fans ??? )
if zombie strippers plays for than two weeks.jeff may be upset/but it deserves to play for at least 2 and half weeks. ha ha…. :)
so zombie strippers had no one in the audience female or male that looked as if they done any stripping. but there was female in the audience and there was only one seat bewteen us/and yep beside her was her boyfriend/had this sort of everyday black tee meets suicide girl on training wheel vibe….
oh guess that’s counts for something…
and after ‘my blueberry nights’. i’m barely out the building/ crossing the street and see this cuteish/youngish female in a nashville p***y tee.
hmm see seemed in pretty upbeat mood.and was with two guys.maybe when you were a rock band tee like that you need protection..
however maybe the most interesting thing i saw was well this was before i went in to see the z strippers i was pester an angelika employee…and this guy can in….
you seemed like a normal guy. could have passed for painter/or construction guy. well worn blur jeans. tee short.flannelish type short over the tee. all this items for clothing were to well worn /scruffy to have fashionable effect.
he seemed pretty nerveous/ jumpy. when he handed his ticket. he something like ‘the bank job’ the angelika employee tells him which ‘auditorium’ to go…
and than he says… “i really like jason statham ” and than he goes….
his nerveousness/mixed with the way he said it made it seems as if he was apologizing for seeing/being interested in this film. (or for seeing it the angelika)
dude they’re the one showing the film. you may as well save the gas money (note yeah bank job is currently showing in 2 other theatres in ‘my town’. yep i’m laughing because i used the phrase ‘my town’ )
i know this guy id probably one those ‘normal’ people that the angelika is just super arty filem only. well this myth please die…
this guy id the closet i seen to a ‘normal’ guy at the angelika. i can get why we felt a little out of water/especially since this eemed like his first vist……..
oh hope he liked the film….
sorry craig..i’m speechless/but yet there is so much so say…. i didn’t write anything down and last few days are a blur/and memory fades..
i caught young@heart screening on the 17th, weny blueberry on thw 18th and so the strippers strip for me on the 20 th and it maybe vistor time on the 23rd…….
and craig when you saw funny games (remake) did a high perecent of the females in the audiece look like/have a smiliar body type/and and simliar age bracket to naomi watts ??? seriously craig…..especially how see looked non glammed at the start of funny games. i swear one female even had a similiar type of dress as ann (watts )
and the combo of watts/haneke..seem to bring out the sterotypical male/angelika fan out very big time. you guys with a soft body type/abit of a stomack bulge/button down shirts/and going very bald. they were so there.they were so there. (and i loved the fact that one guy keep a baseball cap on during the movie. what ?? *sigh* )
and as you’d expect there was no interaction bewteen this two groups. and this two groups was most of audience. (which guess/unofficialy counted as 18-20 people.)
so you’d have the ‘hot’ female come in. notice she was being noticed/and she’s put her head down a zone in on finding a seat…or just look starigh ahead and zone in on finding a seat……
i know funny games isn’t date movie. but their was only one couple in attendance. (and the female wasn’t a watts clone )
i mean yes maybe it’s not too surprsing the pudgy bald guys were by themselves/but why were the watts clone by themselves ?????? (and agaim i’m telling you it was like five/six females with avery simliar look as watts/ana )
anyway with people hitting the exit in a break the landspeed record at the end of funny games when the zorn/naked city music hit there wasn’t even a ‘hi’ exchanged bewtten these two groups.
so all is safe in the universe…….
if the ‘normal’ guy becomes sort of a regular at the angelika. i won’t be the one that ’sticks’ out the most at every movie i see there……(and no i’m not a ‘normal’ guy…)
Yeah, Craig, The Flowers of St. Francis is especially disappointing since I normally love Rossellini but this film just left me unmoved. It just felt very static.
My Dinner With Andre is not the easiest sit. Both times I’ve seen it, the first half of it almost makes me want to stop the darned thing. Then the conversation slowly becomes more and more interesting. The ending leaves an interestingly ambiguous partial message.
Agreed on FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS. I certainly respect it but it’s almost painfully sincere. I’m waiting for some enterprising, YouTube-savvy film nerd to cut all of the Brother Ginepro scenes together and dub in funny voices to create a sitcom called “The Wacky Adventures of Brother Ginepro.” Because it could totally work.
Just for the record, I’ve never seen My Dinner with Andre either and I don’t feel entirely bad about that. A little bad…
hmm no i didn’t see funny games this weekend but whatever if not really ginna reveiw a movie/or even give my opinion on it. it doesnt matter anyway…..
also most of the audience at the young @heart screening i caught were from a nursing home (sorry not sure how i should phrase/don’t want to say anything offensive )
also when talking to people repping fox after the movie there was three of them. maybe i should lie about my views on the movie/and about some fox stuff. especailly when one of them is a cuteish female with large breast in a too small forgetting sarah marshall tee….
but nah i’ve got to keep it real.and now the cute girl hates me. or thinks i’m such a weirdo. oh the usual.
if fox searchlight only knew i usually go to their free scrrening/but thani don’t care much for the movie.i’d never get a another free pass/email from them again…
John Saxon was there for Friday’s RIGHT IS WRONG screening.
After tonite, there’s only one more film on Tuesday, the infamous 4 hour THE MOVIE ORGY. Free! What better way to celebrate Earth Day?
i’m sorry. but yep but i’m really interested in fake audience psych profiles or any bits that tie in with the ‘experince’ of hitting the theatre. i know everyone gonna do a review of the movie anyway. so whatever..
i’ll try to remember more maybe….or not just statre at the screen. when i sort of feel ‘inspired’ to type about a movie…….uh the actual movie. ha ha…
“It would’ve been time better spent picking my feet in Poughkeepsie”
really craig do you feel that way.maybe you shouldn’t
http://imdb.com/title/tt1010271/
;)
and really carig i’m trying my best to keep the watercooler free of “If you’re looking for intelligent discourse about brainy indie films ”
thank you… takes a bow. ; )
Glim, I love the poetry of your comments. It’s kind of like someone has shaken the letters from regular paragraphs off a page, then gathered and reassembled them without strong regard or interest in spelling and grammatical convention. But the new language, not so different from the accepted but different enough, has its own internal logic and consistency. I’m still learning this tongue. And sometimes I think you’re saying one thing only to eventually confound me. I was going down the wrong alley and I need to double back and take a branching one to regain your thread. But those wrong alley’s kind of overlap with the right ones to produce a rich experience. You love the social anthropology of the cinema. Who cares that this is the subject of your comments. As you say, everyone else spends all their time looking at the screen and talking about the experience afterwards. You give us what others spend less time noticing and in a way that offers up a unique voice.
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE is delightful and truly one of the fathers of the indy film movement. Check it out.
Glim, I’ve missed your crowd reports. That was a classic one.
I know you liked the prison scene best in Young@Heart. Did you like the movie overall? I’m having a hard time convincing people it’s not awful like they think it is.
Paul. “The Wacky Adventures of Brother Ginepro” ahahahhahaha
Christian. Are you going tomorrow? I want to keep up on my resolution of restoring the New Bev as a part of my regular movie diet.
I forgot to say Alexander, it sounds like you have exactly the right attitude about Forbidden Kingdom. I don’t know where you stand on the martial arts genre in general, but for me there was always a high degree of silliness, especially the Shaw Brothers stuff, so the tone is perfectly appropriate.
It feels like it was made by people who grew up loving that stuff.
A lot of true Wushu martial arts movies are pretty silly and campy and god knows, Jackie Chan’s entire career is predicated as much on campy comedy as it is his incredible ability to take a beating and make it look easy. I’m guessing Forbidden Kingdom isn’t intended to be all that high-minded so I’m glad you were able to enjoy it, Craig.
From what I’ve read and heard, a lot mainland Chinese wushu fans were put off by Crouching Tiger. I think it speaks to the general difference of opinion between Western filmgoers versus Eastern, but then again Jackie Chan’s reach is fairly universal.
crain young@heart isn’t aweful. not at all. and it was ok/good/but i’m too enthused about it.
but remember i’m not one for docs,nor singing,or more traditioanl up lifting stories. or nmovies that are suppsoed to ‘teach’ you things.
well why was i there i it was free and i wanted to see them sing the s.y. song..and i did like the ‘concept’ of the movie enough to *want* to go… but as the movie progressed the reasons i mentioned for diminshing it’s value to me kick in..and couple more reasons too….
craig, here the reasons why the prison scene hit hard/best for me…and despite…how ‘early’ it comes in the movie was the films emotional/performance apex (for me )
note a spoiler gonna come. if you want to remain pure…don’t read further…..
hey craig, remember the practice sessions whrn the director/task master whatever his name keep saying if whatever doesn’t work get better it was gonna get dropped ??? how many times did he say that more than five or so right ???
so despite all the ‘push’ that the young@heart were preparing themselves for new show/new music for a new show and the eventual trip to europe there was no suspence….
if things got to bad you knew they’d delete the song sel ection. or they’d work around it in way that could work.
or that it didn’t matter. if they blotched the song so.what. they have enough material that they know well to make out for a coupel blotches. do you think the live audience was gonna kill them/boo ar ask for refund if some got 17 seconds of a song wrong. no…..
also as many years as they’ve been doing this. you’d figure they pull it off some despite all the trama/hear breaks/advisory they went through.
you know the big show/theatre date was gonna happen. so the suspense level was even less than a big sports movie…where they have to pretend the team may not make the big game ( but we all know they will )
also you know that the end the movie gig will be in front of an audience that open to them/and will be rooting them on/hoping for the best and has a genuine interest the group. huh they’re buying tickets tight ??? yep…
contrast this to the performance at the the prision. yep kids at a prison the group had to sing out doors (talk about bad accoustics ???) on a ’stage’ the size of postage stamp…well if performing on hill at a bad angle counts as a stage…
and they did they did it in the heat…after boarding the bus to go the show they were told a member/friend had died… but yet the show must go on….
there was gadzillions of pounds of tension/suspense/and potential for surprise in the air. especially when you realized there was no barrier bewteen the group and the audience.
especially when you see when the group was heading out to perform….. you see the last member of the group….and camera slows down as he shuffles/dances as he about to be escorted by the officers to stage.
(the surprise cam slow down and they wany it lingeried on that last member.combines with a voice over (was there still a voice over at the point ???) made me think something tragic was gonna happen…and specifically to the last guy who we say. who seems like had almost had to be grabbed by security to get on stage/finally leave the building….
but the group/sang and sang. they won over group of criminals that likley knew nothing of them.they sang and got heads bobbing..and smiles..from the prisoners….and when it was over…over…
they went into the audience show no fear and hugged/handshaked the prisoners. and you could tell the love/like the prisoners was real/not faked for the camera/or for to impress someone at the jail/or just to be polite….they’re enthusiam was as real as my tears.
and i was really sniffling/and wiping away the tears during thsi scene. i think a stream was flowing..and i’m having a flashback now. :)
(the closing scene/performance in the theate or whatever even if it had more animated response from the audience (you know people getting out their seat/waving hands in air etc )
just didn’t have (for me ) 20% of the impact.they were playing for the ‘home’ crowd and were treated as champions from note one (hell probably before the first note/when they just wanted on stage )
but when they won over the prisoners.this is the real heart of the movie.and it’s the scene that makes me wish i was mentaly/emotionally strong enough to be young@heart !!!!!! :)
the final performance is just and after dinner mint in comparsion. the prison scene/surely their toughest audience to date/and after getting the crippling bad news before the performance………
for me that’s the emotional impact/scene of the year to beat…….
and that and very funny ‘talking heads’/micro interviews/pearls of wisdom from the members. made the movie…..
not enough that i’m gonna out and out ‘endorse it’ (but hey i’m the guy that liked zombie strippers) but unlike some things i could mention if this movie pops on best of the year list and spreads to the mainstrream. i won’t be upset ! :)
hmm thank you satre.
i’m gonna copy/paste your words….
“i tried to tell you something/i didn’t even know myself” :)
anyway i’m very in very intersted in the ‘experience’ whe going to movies. that everything from the time i get on the bus to when i get home matters and make it trip unique……
hmm why does this interest me ??? hmm i don’t know guess cause i’m a hermit….
if possible. but so hard for me to actually leave home. i love to get to the theatre or auditoriun has the angelika put it to try to absorb. thinks and get a vibe on this. (the joke being i’m not as good as this as i’d like.maybe being ahermit hurts in this sense… )
why does it matter to me that when i saw ‘blueberry’ there was only one person that looked vaguely ‘asian’ or that before i went into zombie strippers i saw a boyfriend/girlfriend go to seperate ‘auditoriums’ but they were all smiles/and love vibes as they went they’re seperate ways. and why do i remember what movies showing at the angelika he’s said he’s already seen….. ????
whay does it matter to me that each film/showing seens to a different audience/audience type wavelength ???
whay do i remeber that the free screening of let’s say in bruges was very different than the people at the free screening of juno ??? (really just based on photos alone/if i had them/you’s easy tell them apart/this screening had entirely different atmosheres too…. )
i’m interested as to why the parnoaid park audience/wouldn’t mesh to well with the audince i saw blueberry nights with. it’s always some difference it in the air…..
satre… i like sitting in the last row of the theatre to in can absorb/watch everything. i can tell you if people are bored of the movie and are hitting cellphones. (often) from the back i can see how many people leave the movie and dont return (two peole left ‘bluebery’ before first 45 minutes… )
i can see how things break down with audience members based on how i’m perecieving style of dress. ‘hotness’/'nornal ness’ age/race…. is it a traditional couple. is a couple together but seems like just friends ?? and what about groups of three’s and up’s.
which movies seems to bring out the ‘hipsters’. ???
and what about those ‘hipsters’ that think they’tr hip but they’re really not…. ???
and is it cool to be in the audince and think…you know there has to be a bit of sugar daay thing going on here.if that guy didn’t have money….
or zeroing in a couple and thinking/it’s just a sex think between them……
or why do females go to the theatre in groups/pairs more than guys (really seems this way at the angelika/don’t see as many females alone )
translation..i don’t know i’m looking for anything/everything real or imagined…any quirky tidbit in the lobby/anything that happens in the line to get a ticket.anything that happens on the way to the thetre/the bus ride home….
hey satre this happend when i walking around had some time before yep funny games. so i walking..past a bar and it’s st.patricks weekend.anyway….
so i get to the cornor.and it’s like 8-11 whatever number of females wearing whatever green tees/jeans mid 20- late 30’s whatever.
they we’re trying to get a taxi. hmm no taxi insight but this streched limo gets in sight. so one the females says something similair to ‘let’s try to get it’ so the some of the females start whistling.waving their arms making sure they’re breast are really noticeable. and the limo driver looks toward the back of limo……
anyway…he slows the limo to like two miles and hour. points towards the back and shruggs his shoulders.and says something like it’s not me or whatever……
so i found this pretty funny this barrage of uh easy on the eyes femalesseemed not to have a problem getting into a stranglers limo…and the driver *really* wanted…to… let them in. but he couldn’t. talk about priceless looks and looks of despair. ha ha…..
so as the limo is driving away. and the light goes green.i’m about to starting crosiing the street. and i say…. “that only works after six pm” (sorry i write my own material/and that was the best i could do )
and they just look at me. (i don’t see how they could be offeneded.or really even faked offended.. what did i just see. there you go.. )
oh well at lkeast i had cough drops for my sore throats..and little did i know i’d soon be a darkened room with naomi watts clones…or that on the way home after funny games i’d see a guy sh*tting at a bus stop. yeah i was a bus and no one was at the bus stop that guy was using…
and di i tell you about a guy hitting on me while i walking after paranoid park….. ??? i didn’t well it’s true…
anyway satre i often have this little tidbits (and alot more ) i like to throw into a osrt of real reveiw of a movie. but what happens is after a movie/when i get home i’m pretty wiped out.and if i don’t get things down quickly/soon after the movie i’m less inclined to do it. so i just sit at the screen.until the memory fades. or i go to sleep whatever…..
especially now that i’ve seen three films in such a short time span. more a blur than ever. ha ha…
but don’t worry satre..”You love the social anthropology of the cinema’ uh that’s gonna live on…and i guess it’ will hit this page or hmm some of it anyway. ha ha….
but thanks for reading.just wish i could say whatever it is i’m trying to say… ‘better’ ha ha……
and if it seems confusing.sorry that just onr of my ‘normal’ brain states. viva la geek… *gulp* ;)
Thanks Glim, really enjoyed reading those descriptions. And they were fairly easy to follow in comparison to some of your more free wheeling stuff. You know, your way of looking at things and what you remember makes me think about a bunch of cool artists - Raymond Carver, Herbert Selby Jr., Charles Bukowski, and Harvey Pekar.
You seem to really savor the whole texture of the film outing experience, making an unfolding narrative out of it in your own inimitable way.
Last one in today, but not much to report anyway. Missed a bevy of films that were playing here, but left Vegas in the black, which is rare.
Looks like I was the only one who saw Where Osama, which is probably how it should stay.
thanks sartre!!!! i’m familiar with carver and pekar/of course i don’t think i’m anywhere near that level but your thoughts are rather appreciated….. :)
daniel…. you saw the osama movie ???? hmm…. you should give it one more viewing….. ;)
Last night I watched Night and the City, which I mention only because I fully intended to watch it during the weekend. Excellent movie (my first viewing).
Widmark’s Harry Fabian is a brilliantly unsympathetic character and I found it interesting that even in his one and only unselfish act, he’s still trying to bluff against the odds for the big payout. I was reminded heavily of Carol Reed’s The Third Man, which is also shot on location in a post-war European city and also deftly utilizes excellent camera work and editing to create tense action scenes and chase sequences (although otherwise, they’re very different films). I also really liked that the two villains of the film, Phillip and Kristo, are both far more sympathetic than Harry is even though they are the “villains.” And it was curious that Gene Tierney’s Mary is used primarily as a plot and character device and only appears when we need to illuminate some new element of Harry’s awfulness.
I also liked how the script so ruthlessly reinforces that there is no honor among thieves. The rogue’s gallery of Brit underworld lowlifes is awesome.
I’m waiting and waiting for Rififi to ship but I’m excited to revisit that one.
I didn’t have major problems with Osama, glimmer, but I also think Spurlock missed a chance at making a film that can really affect change. Understanding our standing in the Middle East is vitally important, but I feel like he was too scattered to make any bold statements on what we can do. No problem with the guy, though, and comparisons to Michael Moore are, I think, unfair.
Joel, I’m really glad you enjoyed Night and the City. It and Rififi are Dassin’s twin masterpieces, and Widmark’s performance in Night and the City is nothing less than brilliant and iconic. You make some very good points about the “villains” being more soundly sympathetic characters than the protagonist.
I believe Night and the City’s closing moments were in The Savages? I’m a little foggy on that. Anyway, it’s one of my favorite endings to any film.
Scorsese wrote that Widmark desperately running through the city at night is the quintessential sequence of all noir. It’s at least one of them, to be sure.
A quintessential noir…set in London. Ironic, no?
Yes, those scenes are glimpsed in Savages. I like that Widmark’s character is truly a jerk with really no redeeming qualities, yet he’s the hero of the picture and even when he’s burning everyone around him to get ahead, you still want to see him succeed.
I’m getting mixed signals on the Spurlock doc, Daniel. Sunday night it boiled down to a choice between that and Forbidden Kingdom. I caved in and went with the goofy martial arts movie. I don’t regret it.
A timely screening of Night and the City, Joel. I’ve been meaning to revisit that one myself the last couple of weeks, but I’ve been slacking on the DVD front.
I did watch Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood for Love over the weekend however. That one just keeps getting better every time I see it.
I’d have to kinda agree with Daniel that whatever negatives people (myself included) have with Michael Moore as he stands today, it might be hard to apply those to Spurlock. I didn’t see Super Size Me (I felt like I had after all the hype over it for months on end) but I did watch some episodes of his TV series 30 Days and that was pretty good. He definitely was trying to bring serious yet over-looked issues to the forefront of American consciousness and I respect that.
That said, the Osama doc doesn’t look very good. The marketing has a Larry the Cable Guy quality to it that really turns me off.
Funny you should mention Spurlock’s show Joel because I liked Michael Moore better when he was on TV. Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken was classic.
It’s unfair of me to put Spurlock in the same category of ego driven, stunt filled documentaries as Moore because I never saw Super Size Me either.
Super Size Me is accidentally stunt filled, but it’s not ego driven. I would go ahead and recommend it over Fast Food Nation, which while made quite differently still boils down to the same message. You’re totally right about the issues he raises, Joel, and while I didn’t see many of the 30 Days episodes, I feel kind of guilty for forcing Spurlock to get sensational with Osama. It’s not too Larryish, but it has some really cheap humor that didn’t land as well as he planned. I came down on the negative side, Craig, but it was mostly becuse of the production of it, not the inspiration behind it.
The biggest difference between Spurlock and Moore is that Spurlock isn’t condescending. He actually listens to the people he interviews and doesn’t try to corner them into some ridiculous position. Not that I have a huge problem with Moore - I didn’t like Sicko, but his earlier work did well enough by me, and without him there would be no Spurlock.
Spurlock might not be as condescending as Moore (who I don’t think is as bad as people think anyway) but I do think Super Size Me was pretty ego-driven. It really looked, to me, like his thought process was “How can I make a movie starring myself with a built-in hook that’ll get people to see it? With a crazy, health-endangering stunt that I can pretend is related to public welfare!”
I’ll concede that - it’s hard to argue that Super Size Me wasn’t about him in a lot of ways, but I still don’t think his head was quite as big back then. Thinking about Osama, however, I realize that he didn’t need to be in it nearly as much as he actually was. And in terms of ego…well the whole idea is that he’s going to save the world from Osama bin Laden, so…
I don’t know if you guys saw that there’s a new satire hitting theaters soon called Super High Me.
http://www.superhighmemovie.com/
I suppose one could say that at the very least, the satire is mocking that more ego-driven aspect of Super Size Me.
I tend to think that both levels of motivation can comfortable exist in people – ego and more selfless desire to promote public good. The recklessness with his health as a means of underscoring a serious issue in the first film was so dumb as to suggest sincerity. But at the same time the choices he made, as Jeffmcm outlined, to put himself front and center and to so heavily dramatize his message also tells us something about what drives him.
Tonite! Dante’s Inferno at the New Bev! Final night! THE MOVIE ORGY!
I expect all LA LIC readers! It’s FREE!
Super HIgh Me sounds brilliant.
I was there, and it was probably the most consistently entertaining 4 1/2 hour movie I’ve ever seen.
People will also be interested to hear that the New Beverly’s next Celebrity Programmer, presumably in June, will be Diablo Cody.