Movies Seen:
Her
Jungle Book
The Last Time I Saw Paris
Fahrenheit 9/11
Call of the Wild
Of Human Bondage
Rumble in the Bronx
To Be or Not to Be
Nacho Libre
History of the World Part 1
Her (2013):
Fantastic movie. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
I could leave it at that but I guess I should expound a
little on what I think. The depths of emotion portrayed in this movie are
magnificent. I said in a previous review that in order to reach an audience
with a relationship story, the characters must seem real and the relationship
must have familiarity to it. The way Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johanssen
develop romantically is absolutely touching and instantly familiar. I can only
imagine the amount of takes each of their scenes must have taken because each
bit of dialogue leaves the actor’s mouths sounding completely authentic. It’s a cool
movie on top of the gooey deliciousness of the characters, somehow being
completely futuristic and unalienating at the same time. This movie touched me
emotionally the same way that Blue is the Warmest Color did without any over
the top scenes. It contained the joy and sorrow of a Charlie Kaufman script and
I could not ask for more. I should say Charlie Kaufman was not involved in the
script to my knowledge, it was all Spike Jones, but it had definite hints of
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Jungle Book (1942):
Part of the January film project, this is another feature in
my Great Cinema collection (I previously called it the great film collection. I
was mistaken and too lazy to walk the 3 feet to the actual DVD case to verify
the name). Practically a children’s movie compared to some of the other films I
have watched in the collection, this movie was like a breath of fresh air for
me. The rich Technicolor scenes were absolutely enchanting, and you could tell
the tried very hard to keep the color meter set to 10 in every set piece.
Jungles filled with wild animals, villages full of working people all wearing
different colored turbans for some reason, treasure vaults glittering so
enticingly that I reached toward the screen, opening myself to a vicious claw
attack from our kitten Pascal. The story was simple and extremely familiar, not
because of the animated Disney film but because of a movie I remember seeing a
few times starring Jason Scott Lee as Mowgli (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110213/?ref_=nv_sr_2).
I really enjoyed seeing all the different animals onscreen including many funny
animal reaction shots. The studio had no problem putting actors next to live
tigers and bears, but all of the reptiles were animatronic for some reason
(animatronic is being generous, there was someone off screen pressing a button
so a tongue would shoot out of the snake’s mouth).
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954):
From the Great Cinema collection we have The Last Time I Saw
Paris starring Elizabeth Taylor, Val Johnson, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor, and Roger
Moore! That gets you fired up to watch this movie right? Well unfortunately,
the whole thing was quite a slog to get through. I believe this is one of the
“films” that was made to air on television, so they had to make sure there were
at least 2 hours of story there. Val Johnson plays a failed writer/journalist
with a goofy haircut that falls for Donna Reed. No wait, he falls for Elizabeth
Taylor. But Donna Reed likes him. But Taylor decides she’d rather be with him.
This sets up a weird non-conflict that occasionally bears its ugly head in the
form of Donna Reed being extremely cold toward Johnson. I mean, they both get
married, they both have long lives, but for reasons that are entirely Elizabeth
Taylor’s fault (Reed and Taylor are sisters, and when Johnson attempts to woo
Reed, Taylor fails to deliver a phone message and YOU KNOW WHAT ITS ALL A MESS)
Reed can’t help but give our hero the stink eye every time she is forced to
interact with him. See, relationship movies work when people can relate to the
relationship presented on screen, and I cannot relate to old Hollywood dialogue
and repartee presented here. It’s giving me a headache trying to go through the
movie’s crazy dumb plot again just for the review. Too long, not very
interesting.
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004):
This DVD belongs to Sarah, so it became part of the January
project. I have avoided watching it because frankly I don’t like Michael Moore.
I like what he does to a certain extent, I like how he is not afraid to state
his opinion, but sometimes his methods are too in your face rude for me. I can’t
say I very much enjoyed Fahrenheit 9/11, although it has once and for all
taught me how to spell Fahrenheit, which is nice. The first half of the movie
is devoted to showing how the second term of Bush’s presidency was filled with
a lot of WTF moments, followed by the attacks on September 11th.
Then we see some WTF moments in the aftermath, all of which seem very odd but
make perfect sense from a money-making standpoint and are pretty much what I
expect now days from the rich. Once the 2nd half of the film moves
on to the Iraq war, which everyone at this point knows was a bunch of terrible
bullshit (right?), the movie gets slightly interesting. Scenes of tragedy and
ignorance are presented in a shocking fashion at first, but after the 3rd
or 4th shocking moment the film lost its impact for me. I think the
key to this documentary’s success was the freshness of its content at the time,
but at this point it’s all old news.
Call of the Wild (1972):
You know how you get my attention? Use a theremin in your
soundtrack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin).
I didn’t know what that instrument was until a little while ago when Sarah blew
my world apart by telling me it was not in fact a saw, but this thing called a
theremin that uses an electronic wand to change the note’s frequency. And yes,
that was the most impressive thing about the movie. I like me some Charlton
Heston, especially when he is chewing the scenery, but it was a mistake to have
him in this movie because everyone else was absolute shite by comparison. They
picked up a bunch of “actors” at Home Depot, drove them to Canada and said, now
it’s the gold rush! Go hog wild! I will note that the main dog Buck was also
quite good, but I hear he got heavy into drugs with the money he got from
appearing in the film. I enjoyed Buck’s soliloquy on the follies of man. Or
perhaps that was a fever dream I was having. I’m pretty sure this was another
movie made for TV, so it gets a pass for that because those things used to put
me to sleep back in the day, and this lived up to that standard.
Of Human Bondage (1934): Pretty big spoiler at the end of
this review, but the movie is from 1934 so sue me. You can watch it right now
on Netflix Instant or YouTube for free.
Initial impression: this movie is sexist and despicable.
That is one of my notes about this movie, written in the
first 10 minutes wherein we see several males talk about how they’d like to
“get to know” some women and we see a waitress being sexually harassed and
enjoying it. Hell of an introduction for Bette Davis. Her character is a ditzy,
manipulative woman who is made into the villain because she is herself,
manipulated by men. BUT NO, she is the bad guy here folks. She uses our hero
who is a tragically handicapped young man with a bright future ahead of him!
His handicap by the way is a club foot, which is a thing I guess? And his
future only becomes bright after he fails as an artist! It’s not sexy Mildred’s
(Bette Davis) fault that our goofus hero is a sucker. He’s a sucker surrounded
by morons and other suckers and he keeps slipping in and out of a fantasy life where
Mildred is exactly the woman he wants and he is exactly the man he wants to be.
BUT HE IS OF NO FAULT. Oh, but don’t worry, she dies in the end so all is well.
I will say this for the movie, I’ve been watching a bunch of pretty boring
stuff recently and Of Human Bondage was never boring, just infuriatingly
sexist.
Rumble in the Bronx (1995):
You know that dream of the 90’s? The one assumed to be alive
in Portland? Well it’s also right here in my DVD copy of Rumble in the Bronx! Where
else can you go to get fabulous fashion, multicultural gangs, poppy music, and
guys with ponytails and mullets? This movie was pretty fun for 2 reasons. 1:
It’s a Jackie Chan movie and any movie with Jackie Chan usually has him
bouncing around and beating up dudes so you can’t help but love him. 2: Every
other part of this movie is so bad it’s good. Not just the 90isms, but the
overdubbed dialogue and convoluted plot make this movie amusing throughout its
runtime. Just thinking back to any part
without Jackie Chan is making me cringe and smile simultaneously.
To Be or Not to Be (1983):
Wow. I was not expecting to love this movie, but there it
is. In fact, I had no idea what to expect. I got this movie as a Christmas gift
one year in the Mel Brooks collection. Among the parody movies were 2 other
films I hadn’t heard of before. The Twelve Chairs was not very funny and not
very memorable in my opinion. This movie is practically a masterpiece. It’s a
dramedy (heavy on the comedy) movie about two stage performers and their
company working in Poland in 1939. The combination of Jewish humor and the
invasion of the Nazis made an amazingly touching and delightful tale. Yes, I
can’t believe I just wrote that but it’s true. Mel Brooks and his late great
wife Anne Bancroft take what should have been an extremely awkward premise and
make a fantastic movie. When I’m really excited about a movie like this, I have
a hard time reviewing it. All I can say is if you haven’t seen this movie,
please give it a watch.
Nacho Libre (2006):
Nacho Libre is a Jack Black movie,
therefore I was not excited to see it. I don’t mind Jack Black’s antics in
general, but I cannot help but cringe when a comedian sings. This goes for any
comedian with the exception of Flight of the Conchords, who I think of as
musicians anyway. I ended up very much enjoying Nacho Libre and I think that
might come down to Jared Hess’ directing more than anything. I like Napoleon
Dynamite a lot and this proved to be more of the same. Some of the cinematography
is pretty fantastic, not just in the wrestling matches but during the town
scenes. They went a long way toward
making a back lot somewhere feel like a little Mexican village. The comedy
comes down to fart jokes and animal sound effects, which unfortunately is right
in my wheel house. One of my wheel houses that is, I seem to have many. I
thought the story was well paced with just the right amount of wrestling thrown
in.
History of the World Part 1
(1981):
Uh oh. I really wanted to love
this movie. And I tried to love it, I did. Perhaps I am too mature for Mel
Brooks straight comedies now. It makes me afraid to go back and watch Spaceballs
or Blazing Saddles. Don’t get me wrong, the movie did make me laugh on
occasion. The rest of the time it was only slightly amusing. I like watching
Mel Brooks and his pals ham it up but it doesn’t seem to be as funny as it used
to be. Sigh, I hate that. Ok, favorite parts:
-The cave man marriage part
-Most of the Gregory Hines bits,
except the giant blunt part
-The part where Moses parted the
river at the Universal studios back lot while being help up
-The 3rd time Brooks
said “It’s good to be the king”
-Some of the Spanish Inquisition
bit
Yeah,
that about covers it. Compared to To Be or Not to Be this just wasn’t very goodAm I trying to break open my mind by filling it full of movies all in an expedited manner? No, I am just playing catch up for the first 25 years of my life. I have decided on what my February project will be, which can be found here if you're interested: http://letterboxd.com/jdtmovies/list/february-2014-project-hulu-criterion-alphabet/
Give it a perusal and hey! Watch along why don't you? Thanks for reading doods.
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