Happy Gilmore

There's somethign to be said for a good comedy. Sure this isn't exactly highbrow comedy, but it
is a great party movie with lots of quoteable lines. It's also a pretty good story. The characters are likeable/hateable as needed. Happy makes enough of a personality change that we can forgive the wild, irresponsible, angry person we see at the begining of the movie. Plus it has Happy beating up, and getting beat up by, Bob Barker. Easily one of the best scenes in modern physical comedy. I've also noticed that this movie is rife with so much product placement that I'd be surprised if Subway and Pepsi didn't pay teh studio to have the film made.

Total: 118

The Truman Show

I love this movie for so many reasons. The flavor, the texture, the acting, the story, the characters... pretty much everything. My favorite scene is probably when he's in the square, starting to realize that somethign is very not right with his life. The music that plays as he very deliberately moves around with these broad sweeping motions that almost say "I am gaining knowledge. I am empowering myself." It's wonderful. Then, the power of the final lines:

""Say something! You're on television! Live in front of the whole world!"

"If I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night."

Total: 117

Full Metal Jacket

I'm not entirely sure what to say about this movie that hasn't already been covered in many better ways by just about everyone else. In my opinion this is Gomer Pyle's story. His arc sets the prescident for the rest of the movie, as the second half of the movie mimicks the first, with Joker shooting the Viet girl in parallel of Pyle shooting the drill seargent. both represent a spiritual death, a giving in to the most carnal and destructive elements of humanity. the difference is that Pyle then turns teh gun on himself, where Joker goes on to live. He's alive, but for what? M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E.

Total: 116

Troy

I have a small confession to make. Brad Pitt is my hero. Okay, maybe not my hero, and I say things like that often enough that it's not really a confession. I've loved his work ever since 12 Monkeys (which I havn't seen in a while, note for pay day...) and have taken the good and the bad in stride. The thing that threw me off for a long time (I didn't see 12 Monkeys until it was well past new) was that he was a pin up face in the girls lockers at the same time as that kid from Home Improvement, and I hated him. As a general rule through my life I've considered the phrases "teen idol" and "mediocre hack" to be somewhat sysnonymous, at least in the "all widgets are wikkits, but not all wikkits are widgets" way. I mean, let's break this down:

The Spice Girls - can't really sing, but they're willing to gyrate on stage for million of horny boys and tell all the little girls that this is "Girl Power" winning the favor of the girls because "they're famous and successful women."

The Backstreet Boys - can harmonize okay, but aren't stretching anythign vocally, stylistically, or intellectually. Not inept dancers, but they're certainly not channeling Tina Turner.

Jonothan Taylor Thomas - can't act very well, can't sing, can't dance. Can pose for a poster with his shirt off and his boxers hanging out very well.

Hillary Duff - how do I put this in a way that can scathe as many people as possible in as little space? Spears and Aguilera got out of control, so Disney let them go and built Duff to replace them, implanting chips into her brain rendering her into a total slave to their wims, ensuring she won't go renegade like the two previous versions.

He didn't have things stacked in his favor. I suppose I'm sacrificing my point in order to slam the pop culture I hate. I'll stop and get ot the movie. Brad Pitt can normally act.

Troy feels like the majority of the cuts included were the 87th takes: the actors were tired of pouring their emotions into it and were just doing it to get it done. tehre are moments where things shine through, the story isn't THAT BAD, but generally it just feels detatched and uninvolving. Plus Orlando Bloom's character is a total whiner. I hate whiners.

Total: 115

Willow

Once upon a time there was a man named George. George liked making movies. He made a bunch of really good movies. Among these was a movie named "Star Wars." Up until the day that George died, he was never able to escape this movie. He tried, though. He tried really hard. He made movies about other fantasy worlds. He made a whole new series of movies about a wisecracking paleontologist. He told authors to take his work and rape it through any orifice they chose, but even with this he couldn't convince himself to let it be. This is not Star Wars. This is one of the diversion attempts.

This movie is fairly typical of George Lucas' fantasy works. The main characters are either inherently good in every instance, or are much better people by the end of the story. The action relies a lot on the main characters having script immunity and an acceptance that everyone who does not have script immunity is a pawn under the most opressive hand destiny has ever turned, eliminating reason, logic, and talent. Think Stormtroopers. Still, enjoyable muchly.

Total: 114

Kontroll

This is easily among the best movies I've seen this year. I have a mandate (assignment) from my film teacher to watch one or more films at the Calgary International Film Festival and write a thorough analysis of one. I intend on seeing several more films (would regardless) but I'm fairly decided that this will be the topic of my essay. What follows is not my essay, but a hashing out of ideas.

Kontroll is from Hungary, is in Hungarian with English subtitles, and stars a number of people whos names I can't pronounce.

The film opens with a disclaimer from the Budapest Metro Authorities declairing that the characters involved do not represent the actual Ticket Inspectors employed by the authorities. In an interesting turn, this disclaimer is used to introduce the central theme of the film and establish some of the "ground rules" of the film. The man from Budapest Metro explains that the characters are broad representations of the struggle between good and evil and the events depicted are symbols of this spiritual battle. We then proceed into a world that exists only underground, the land above being, to the main character, as unreal and distant as heaven. In this world below heaven people come and go, some drifting in and out without so much of a thought as to their surroundings while others lock in a battle for control with those in power. Our main characters are a posse of Ticket Checkers, the most hated men in Budapest. They struggle to maintain control in this world: maintain order, maintain control of their own lives, and maintain their personal authority. The tone vascillates widely between moments of spirited fun and dark humor as the posse attempts to catch a career vandal/fare dodger and moments of claustophobic intensity and insanity as a co-worker goes over the edge of reason.

There is more, much more, as the entire film is largely symbolic. I could go on about the metamorphosis of the love interest, the presence of a serial "pusher" in the system, the struggles between separate enforcer teams, and the bizzar sport of "railing" but I'm going to save that for my essay.

If you have the chance to see this movie, go. You will not be disappointed.

Total: 113

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Here I sit, after years of waiting, with the DVD firmly in my sweaty palms. Much ado has been made which in the ultimate course of all history and futurity, amounts to very little. However, within the realm of those who understand the power of the dark-side, those of us who are Jedis like our fathers before us, those of us who are no good, stuck up, scruffy looking Nerf herders, all us scoundrels, and, yes, even those of us who are simply as clumsy as we are stupid, this means a lot to us. We've looked forward to this day, perhaps even had a wet dream or two about it, and now it's here. The only thing that remains: was it worth the wait? A delicate question that is.

I'm going to break that into two separate things: one it is good to finally have the DVDs. My wide-screen VHS copies of the original edit are wearing thin. The soundtrack fades in and out of existence at the beginning and end of each movie. I needed a replacement. So, part on is wether or not the DVDs in and of themselves are worth it, yes they are. The print quality is superb, the sound quality is excellent (I'll get to sound editing later, if ever) and the bonuses are okay. But the wait? Is there something here to justify the fact that we weren't looking at this box four years ago? Well, all too much of that is going to depend on Episode III and wether or not the Special Editions should have ever existed. With that, as I only watched Episode IV last night, I'm going to only talk about Episode IV.

Seven, almost eight years ago the Special Edition was released I left the theatre unsure of what to think. I never really saw Star Wars for the first time. I'd seen it so many times as a kid that I have trouble remembering a time when I couldn't recall some image from these movies, it along with Princess Bride have just perpetually existed in my life. This was different though. I had seen the original footage of Han talking to Jabba on the cassette "Star Wars to Jedi" that came with our Wide-screen boxed set, pre SE era, and I also remembered that footage in the context of George Saying "we wanted to do this, but we didn't have the means, or even really an idea of what Jabba was like." they then go on to discuss the several different conceptual renditions of Jabba produced for Return of the Jedi. So, when I saw the footage with the CG Jabba my thoughts traced a line somewhere along the lines of "Jabba doesn't look real" and "this doesn't look like the actions of the Jabba we see later." The reason why Jabba sent Greedo in the first place also comes to mind. the scene is redundant and included largely to show off, in my mind. I'm not really going anywhere in particular with this, so I hope you don't feel like I have a point. Greedo. Why can't Han just ice the bastard? Han being so self centered later in the movie with his "I'm in this for the money" speech is more believable when we know he's willing to shoot first. At least in the current incarnation their shots are all but simultaneous. It makes Han's actions seem more premeditated (well, he does sit there and loosen his blaster) as if he's still planning on shooting Greedo regardless, but also anticipating Greedo's actions. In all honesty, those are the only two things from the Special Edition of this film that upset me. The final assault on the Death Star was disorienting that first time in the theatre, but mostly because I was expecting to see what I'd seen dozens of times before. This edit retains it's ultimate purpose, builds up to the same end, and in many ways makes more sense, especially in relation to Luke's interactions with Edge and Biggs. I remember for years before the SE I wondered why he made the comment "It'll be just like Beggar's Canyon back home." This always struck me as odd because in my mind no one else there would know what Beggar's Canyon was. It's a weak comfort to tell people "don't worry, at least I'll be able to pull out."

Okay, I think this has been more than aimless enough for the time being. I'll leave it with this: I'm very glad to have them on DVD as now I can watch them, really, wherever I want, and the changes to this version definetly show (along with the disapearance of Metachlorian references after Episode I) the George is willing to make concessions to the fans, but he's still a curmudgeonly old man when it comes down to what he wants.

Total: 112

Election

this is essentiall an essay about how we ruin our own lives. It's quite funny, but still very unsettling, watching the characters fall victim to their mistakes. the only character to avoid this fate is Paul, who doesn't actually make the mistakes. He's just sort of there, with the world swirling around him. He realizes that his life is, in the scheme of things, pretty good and takes things as they come. Mainly, though, this is about Jim and how in spite of watching his friend ruin his life through an affair with Tracy, goes on to make the same mistake with (the irony) his friend's wife and uses the same excuses. He loves his job, has a pretty good life, but hasn't learned how to communicate with the people around him. When he's confronted with a challenge he reacts rashly, usually trying to find an immediate solution without thinking of the consiquences. Tracy's life is a sort of parody of Jim's. Where Jim's good intentions earn him failure after failure and ultimately a total meltdown of his life, Tracy's self-serving and megalomaniacle intentions earn her success and prestige. Still, at the end of the affair, neither have much of their dignity in tact, only Jim realizes it and Tracy doesn't.

Total: 111

Ghostbusters

A classic from childhood days, I used ot have Slimer and Stay Puft Marshmellow Man toys. They were awesome. Some of the special affects are horribly dated, but alot still stand up pretty well, surprisingly. It's nice to see how they did things before the days when EVERYTHING is CG. That's really more a knock at movies like Congo, Troy, and Resident Evil, rather than Sky Captain. Which actually brings out somethign I'd like to mention about 28 Days Later I recently read in an article, I believe in Wired magazine, where the interviewee was talking about digital technology bringing power to the little guy in filmaking. Then he clarified "I'm not talking about everyone making Jurassic Park or Troy or Lord of the Rings. I want to see the little studios being able to have that one effects shot of 1930's New York skyline out the window. That one shot that makes the movie possible." 28 Days Later has four or five such shots that stand out because you know they can't be real, but visually look convincing. It's the way this technology should be used. In the "old days" they used painted mattes, like here in Ghostbusters. Mattes are used to add the appartment building to the skyline, and there's one shot of a gargoyle as Sigourney's car is first pulling up that's actually a matte painting. Nice.

Total: 110

28 Days Later

A zombie movie that's not fully a zombie movie. Why? The people aren't dead yet.
I really, really enjoyed this movie. It's rich with texture, symbolism, meaning, character, emotion, and heart. It is also genuinly creepy. The roots I found most obvious would be in John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids, as others have thankfully pointed out (I'm glad I'm not alone.) The scenes of Jim walking around deserted London bring back feelings of when I first saw Quiet Earth. My favorite scene of the movie would have to be when the initial trio is walking to Jim's house as an a capella version of the old English hymn "Abide With Me!" is played.
I had a lot more that I wanted to say about the character development, Jim's empowerment transformation at the end, and such, but I can't seem to find words right now.

Total: 109

Casablanca

The world needs more movies with this kind of style and heart. Men are gentlemen and women are ladies. People wear suits and are cordial, even in attempting arrest. People have class and a sort of dignity that has long disappeared from our culture. Perhaps it's thesee movies that have inspired me to start wearing neck ties everywhere, collared shirts, slacks and nice shoes.

Total: 108

North By Northwest

A quick note of something that Brenda pointed out a couple days ago is that earlier this week Sony bought M-G-M. I remembered that when the M-G-M lion came up on the screen as the movie started.

This is the first movie I've watched as a requirement for the university film class I'm taking. We were instructed to keep in mind the aspects of "story" while watching. I'm not entirely sure what my professor meant when she said that, if she wants up to be able to deconstruct the plot structure in to themes and symbols, identify wether it is Realist or formalist, or just be able to rehearse plot and character.

One of the great things about studying Hitchcock is that he is very methodical and deliberate, he doesn't throw in vast ammounts of unneeded detail. Characters that are unimportant are marginalized and only those who have some value to the progression of the story are given serious consideration in the frame of the camera. I think that this piece in particular is an excellent example of good storytelling becausee it progresses at an even pace, even going to the extent of putting each of it's three acts in a different physical location: New York, Chicago, and Grand Rapids, the cropduster being part of Chicago as Thornhill returns to Chicago after the attack. One of the things that I'd find interesting to consider a little bit more in depth would be the aspects of character development through a film. In the case of this film the characters are believable people. Even when double identities are revealed, they fit in suit with the character we know in a very instantly acceptable way. Which I suppose, as I think about it, is the only way to do things properly. In cases I can think of where the revelation is, perhaps, a little more jarring it is still believable, or at least acceptable, though it may take some conscious thought, ie. Fight Club or The Spanish Prisoner. But this isn't supposed to be a breakdown of character, but a breakdown of story. I guess I'm going to have to go home and review the reading for this week, as I read it two weeks ago. Ah well, I'm so hard done by.

Total: 107

Ghost World

It's going to take more than just one viewing to be able to pull all of this movie together. But that's a pretty general sort of situation. Most movies with several themes and layers need to be viewed more than once, because, if propperly assembled, the ultimate impact of the themes and symbols isn't known until the end of the movie. Even in cases like American Beauty where the ending is revealed at the very beginning, the scope of the director's intent isn't in focus until the end. such ios the case with Ghost World. The plot is almost hidden, along with the themes and symbols, behind the happenings. What you see is a series of sequential scenes that don't start forming a big picture until the end. The majority of attention, I found, is spent absorbing the story and actual happenings on the first pass. Gathering the details that are needed to piece together an image of the "message."

Total: 106

School of Rock

“There used to be a way to stick it to the man. It was called Rock and Roll. But the man ruined that too with a little thing called MTV!”
I’m not exactly sure how many times I’ve seen this movie now, or at least been present when it’s been playing. I must give it that it is a pretty funny movie. It’s not the kind of movie that you can watch over and over again, but it’s a great party movie. Jack Black’s antics can get pretty out of hand at times, but when a director is able to keep him reigned in it manages to walk a line of being over-the-top without being embarrassing. A lot of times in these kinds of comedies, where the buffoon is set up as the fall guy, it often dissolves to a point where it’s almost unbearable to watch. There are a few moments in here that do fall in that realm, but it otherwise manages to avoid the awkwardness. As an added bonus, the music really is great, as far as the actual soundtrack goes. The songs the band plays are fine the first time, but rapidly hit their tolerance threshold after repeated viewings.

Total: 105

King Arthur

So, a bunch of guys are sitting around thinking "Hey Braveheart and Gladiator were really great movies. I wanna make a movie like that." Then the other guy says "Yah, but about what?" After some head scratching, someone says "I've always wanted to do a movie about King Arthur, like First Knight."
Throw all that into a cauldron and chant some fell incantations and the result will probably resemble this movie. It's not the worst movie I've seen this year, but if I had seen it in the first run theaters for $11 I would probably be walking out of the theatre feeling really ripped off right now. It straddles a line between it's different personalities, without ever really connecting with any of them whole-heartedly. There is the running theme of Braveheart's freedom, but they don't manage to capture it on the same level because of, I feel, the social standing of the characters/ William Wallace was hanging from the bottom rung of the ladder, and managed to cause a major stir in the machinations of the day. Arthur and his band are indentured, yes, but still quite far from the bottom rung. They have privilege, money, weapons, horses, armor, and authority. It doesn't have the same punch, since they don't even really "fight the system." Rome is perfectly willing to let them go once they're done dancing. It would have been a better story if the emotional focus, in a case like this, were more on the "I've been doing this so long, it's all I know" feeling that comes from the lifestyle, they're indentured to duty out of a bond of brotherhood more than loyalty to crown. they do touch on that at the very end, but it could have stood as a stronger theme. But all that brings in the next bit of observation: historical accuracy. To be honest, the Arthur legend does resemble Wallace in several ways, as a key point of it is that Arthur managed to unite the native factions of Britain. So, if we're looking at this from a historical perspective, if Arthur is a half-Brit half-Roman raised in roman society and even, as they direct several times, in Rome, where would he get his ideas about equality and freedom from? Arthur happens to idolize a Roman philosopher who opposed the Roman policy of slavery as barbaric and un-Christian. He was killed for his ideas. I'm glad that they recognize how anachronistic it is in a lot of these medieval stories to have people talking about equality, especially gender equality. Information was monopolized, hence the entire need for a revolution. There were a lot of ideas that people, common people especially, didn't have. Characters who talk about philosophy without some plausible source of their information interrupt the flow, they look and feel out of place.
There is some of that that they can't quite escape, and that revolves around the character Guinevere. The introduction of her character really represents a visible change in the plausibility of the movie. We've often remarked about "historical accuracy" as we look at Guinevere's costume on the movie poster, and it is the place where the film makers were caught up against a brick wall. To be historically accurate, she must be marginalized. To have a good story you have to bend the accuracy a fair bit. Either way you betray something of what you're trying to accomplish. So they went with a Hollywood Guinevere who outwits the boys, is a marksman like no body's business, talks of freedom and equality like she just came out of university, is handy with a sword, and feels comfortable wearing two tight straps of leather for a bra. It's the quintessential post-feminist heroine: anything you can do I can do better. It stands out a little too much, especially since Keira Knightley isn't the strongest actress out there. Several times I thought to myself "she looks like she just forgot her line." and a lot of her blocking is done in much the same manner, like she just remembered she was supposed to move. I think she got the job because her last name looks great on the movie poster, and she'd just come off the set of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Total: 105

The Nightmare Before Christmas

I've certainly enjoyed that this beloved artifact from my childhood is enjoying a sort of resurgence as a cult favorite. From my 14 year old sister's friends sitting around drawing Jack and Sally on their binders to Blink 182's reference in the song "Miss You" (The unsuspecting victim/ of darkness in the valley/ we can live like Jack and Sally if we want/ where you can always find me/ and we'll have halloween on Christmas.) It's not really set up to appeal to the age group that it is marketed to in our culture. Not only is the subject matter somewhat above the exposure of most middle children, but the stylized artwork is almost too abstract, and the song composition too complex for children raised entirely on post-Walt (Eisner, Bird) Disney which has not only managed to steadily grind the intellectual quality of animated features into the ground, but has also managed to alienate Pixar, the upstart CG studio that still understood how to make a real movie.
that said, I love animation for the raw technical prowess it requires, the mental ability to break something down into all the usual aspects of cinema, and the added concept of that being presented a frame at a time. Claymation has an even dearer place for me because of the lighting. Lighting is is one of my favorite aspects of this world, the way that light effects things, the way that objects cast shadows, and claymation, because of the true physical aspect of the world and characters, allows for a more complex system of light and shadow than conventional drawings.
"Kidnap the sandy claws/ beat him with a stick/ lock him up for 90 years/ see what makes him tick."
Lock, Shock, and Barrel's song about kidnapping Sandy Claws is, perhaps, the most disturbing song ever peddled as children's fare, ever.
One of the things that particularly intrigues me about the present fascination with this movie, or at least its characters, among 13-16 year old girls is the fast that they were between 2 and 5 when the movie came out originally. I suppose the simplest answer would be that they acquired it off their older siblings, those of us who were 9-13 when the movie first came out.

Total: 104

The Big Lebowski

There's actually a whole class at my university dedicated to the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, but it was cancelled a week ago. I'm sure the people who were enrolled are very upset about that. I would be. I love these guys' work.
"Smokey, this is bowling, not 'Nam: there are rules here."
I'm not sure if I can quite pinpoint what it is right now about their films that gives them their draw. Is it the characters? The directing? The script? Logically, the answer is a combination between all of the above. Films are built of all these different building blocks, and those in themselves come together through a collaborative effort. The Coen Brothers just happen to keep a lot more of the formal collaboration within themselves, as is apparent from the "written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen." With that there's, I suppose, a sort of cohesiveness that has opportunity to blossom that wouldn't otherwise. In other words, all those little things that go into a movie agree a lot more than normal. The director never has to sit there and wonder "I wonder why the writer decided to write it in this order" because he was the one who wrote it. At least, that's what I see in my mind. In reality they still need to go through the process of finding a producer, and communicating their ideas to the producer, crew, and cast.

Total: 103

Goldeneye

Well, I got talking about GoldenEye and Bond in my discussion of The Bourne Identity, so I pulled out GoldenEye and started watching it. I stand that this is not just one of the best Bond movies, but is also just one great movie all together. Really, for me, what does it is the whole 006 thing. Not only is Sean Bean hot, he's also an amazing actor. The tension between the two super-spies, once friends, now enemies, goes beyond the usual "monster of the week" Bond villain making the whole affair a little more engaging. They tried to replicate this "more on the line" feel in "The World is not Enough" with the kidnapping of M, but that didn't have the same weight.
GoldenEye also brings a change in the relationship between Bond and Moneypenny, largely because their relationship before could have stood as the congressional definition of sexual harassment. In GoldenEye Moneypenny is equipped with her own arsenal of witty retorts to parry Bond's advances.

Total: 102

The Bourne Identity

Among the things that I enjoy most about this movie are that Matt Damon has a face that's ordinary enough it becomes easy to believe this is a man who's job is to drift in and out of different places, leaving as little a mark as possible. As well, the lack of CG wizardry and the presence of some old-fashioned stunts (which remain within the laws of known physics) is a refreshing, I want to say 'spin' but that would be inaccurate as it's the way thing used to be all the time, treat. A lot of people seem to want to compare Bourne and Bond, but I'd wager to say that such a comparison is unfair. Not simply for the fact that it is fully possible to like both without violating brand rules, since Bond is owned by MGM and Bourne by Universal, which happen to be sister companies, or at least sleep in the same room a lot. In my mind it boils down like this: Bond is pure fantasy, reveling in gadgets, fireballs, and women, where Bourne is concerned with logistics. Bond appeals to the side of us that wants to sit safe knowing that nothing is ever really going to go wrong. Things will take a turn for the worse, but something will save the day, something we wish would happen a little more frequently in our lives. The Bourne stories take the same creative energy and instead focuses on a more sympathetic emotion, we all know how it feels too watch everything in our life go wrong. It's not that Bourne escapes the "going wrong" it's that he manages to adapt rapidly to the situation, something a lot of us wish we were better able to do.
As an additional note, it is wonderful to see a hero who is not so much concerned with revenge or personal betterment. He's not even resigned to the life he lives, or used to live. He wants out. The sooner he can stop killing people, the better. This was a side of Bond seen briefly in Goldeneye when 006 makes the comment about Bond's alcoholism "I might as well ask you if all the vodka martinis ever silence the screams of all the men you've killed" but is otherwise ignored in that series because the reality of the fact that Bond kills human beings for a living is rather unsavory.
To correct a misconception that I previously held, "The Bourne Conspiracy" appears to be the British title of this movie, and is not the title third story in the series, which is actually called "The Bourne Ultimatum." Frankly, I think Bourne Conspiracy sounds better, especially since it fits rhythmically with the other two titles.

Total: 101

Serpico

I had written a somewhat lengthy discourse about the staying power of movies and inter movie references while I was watching this. Then when I was done the movie I went and did some research in a tab. The site I wound up on opened so many different pop-ups that I decided it would be easier to just close all of Safari instead of closing each individual window. In doing so I entirely forgot about my discourse and lost it all.
So, I'll talk about something different.
I love the force of character displayed here. Not just Serpico's integrity, but Al Pacino's ability to convey the "I just want to do my job" attitude at the heart of it. The central point of this characteristic, I see, comes out from the line "if they took all that energy and directed it into real police work, this city would be clean; there would be no more crime."

Total: 100