Hollywoodland (2006)


One of the worst ever. No character development, and Ben Affleck's bad impersonation of George Reeves ruins the film. Unlike the movie "Quiz Show" which took an isolated incident from the 1950's and made us care, this piece of crap goes on for two hours or so making us care we'll be late for dinner. Ordinarily I would say wait for the DVD, but in this case don't waste the money.

I always enjoy watching this film,great story line and kathy bates role is so convincing,7/10

The illusionist ***
Cast: Edward norton, Jessica Biel. This is a romantic story involving a magician and a soon-to-be princess. Ed Norton doesn't have lengthy dialogues to speak, but he steals the show every minute of his screen presence. The movie itself was very interesting contrary to my apprehensions about the period setting. Do watch it, you will like it.

The Illusionist
(2006/Burger)
I'm pretty sure this is the only film I've ever seen twice in the theater. Enjoyed it more this time around, further appreciated the cinematography, and Phillip Glass' fantastic score. Norton's performance is top notch, and I'll reiterate that Rufus Sewell is the standout here. An especially rewarding viewing considering I knew the twist. Go see this if you haven't.

Sixteen Candles
(1984/Hughes)
Really enjoying Hughes mid 80's films. While this is clearly the one going for the cheapest laughs, and Hughes displays little of his more mature storytelling abilities, both director and star Molly Ringwald have some standout moments. Anthony Michael Hall outdoes himself as well. One thing I don't get is how this film is rated PG. Nudity, language, alcohol. Beats me. Very enjoyable overall.

Night Mail
(1936/Watt & Wright)
A well-made early documentary telling the story of a special mail-delivery train that operates in England and Scotland. We watched this film in class mainly to explore the idea of using narration to make up for the lack of quality sound work. Watt & Wright use the "Voice of God" style narration; an authoritative, unopinionated booming voice that spouts the many modern technological facets of the special train. The most entertaining part though was the seemingly-random inclusion of a performance of a train rhyme by the stern-voiced narrator, almost sung, almost rapped.

Land Without Bread
(1932/Buñuel)
Narration plays a much more vital role here, with virtually no dialogue, and it's interesting that here, the narrator sometimes refers to things that "we" saw, inferring he was part of a travelling group visiting this country. This documentary focuses on the people of a remote Spanish town living in abject poverty, plagued with disease and famine, many of whom are stricken with deformities. Buñuel chooses to have running triumphant trumpet music playing in the background throughout, an interesting choice, but one that sharply contradicts with the images of graphic animal deaths, along with the matter-of-fact treatment of human suffering, elements that make the film particularly disturbing. Even worse was the fact I read afterwards, revealing that Buñuel himself dictated the torture and murder of several animals to get the shots he wanted.

She's All That
(1999/Iscove)
One of the best of the flood of high school comedies released in the late 90's boy band era, although also one of the cheesiest at times (read: synchronized dance sequence). All the principal players are spot on though, Iscove's direction is manageable, and everybody loves a little Kevin Pollak every once and a while.

Ying xiong - (Yimou Zhang;2002;Hong Kong/China)

DV, if you don't mind, can you write your views on the movie. i haven't seen chinese movies except for the martial arts ones. i am curious...

That's actually Hero, which I'm pretty sure is a martial arts movie.

I'd recommend In the Mood For Love. I don't know if that's chinese specifically.

Ying xiong functions almost like a Chinese Spaghetti western. It's not about the fights that fill the film, but the importance of peace, even at the expense of a ruthless leader trying to achieve it. The music sounds very Morriconeesque, in a good way. The visuals are excellent, and the surreal fights are great to watch, even if there are several corny moments of floating (like the yellow forest scene). The lake scene was beautiful, with Nameless and Broken Sword fighting on the surface of a lake.

Solaris
(2002/Soderbergh)
Very much a potential four star film. Soderbergh's work here nearly fully encompasses a directorial style that I would hope one day to posses. Very reminiscent of 2001, but with a much more humanistic, relatable edge. Thought-provoking and overall totally engrossing. I'm somewhat interested in seeing Tarkovsky's original.

Building No. 7
(2006/Soderbergh)
An interesting, hypnotic, visually complex short, supposedly shot in homage to Godard's Alphaville. Can't wait to see my first film from him. Soderbergh is massively talented. He breathes life into the no-budget short film, which is really inspiring to someone still stuck at this stage of filmmaking.

Maybe you should wait outside a while.

Black Dahlia ***
Very interesting murder mystery directed by Brian De Palma. The music is good and the acting from everyone is great. There are a lot of similarities with LA Confidential. So in terms of freshness in theme, it doesn't offer a lot. Still I liked it.

PCU ** 1/2
(Nth Viewing)

Got to see it on the big screen tonight. Not a great comedy but definitely worth the midnight screening on a Friday night

Enter the Dragon ***
(Second Viewing)

To me, this felt like an Asian/marial arts version of James Bond

Casino ***
The downfall of something that starts off very good seems to be a recurring theme of scorcese movies. Casino is similar to Goodfellas and Raging bull in that context. As usual, Deniro and Pesci act top class. The way scorcese presents the story, you don't feel sorry for any of the characters, though it is ultimately a tragedy.

Stay Alive **
(First Viewing)

"If you die in the game, you die for real." Enough said. The video game version of The Ring. It's one of those, it's so bad it's good movies

King Creole
(1958/Curtiz)
My first Elvis film, my first Curtiz film, and overall a very enjoyable musical. I really liked the fact that there wasn't random instances of song, no mass-synchronized dance sequences, no spur-of-the-moment rhyming lyrics. It was more realistic than any other musical I've seen. Curtiz brings a great artistic touch, using shadows and silhouettes with great effectiveness. I'm interested in seeing more Curtiz, not quite ready for Casablanca though.

Weird Science
(1985/Hughes)
Decently funny, although its 4th quarter descent into complete absurdity and schmaltz was somewhat dissappointing. If anything, worth it for Anthony Michael Hall's performance alone. The least impressive of Hughes' mid 80's films but still fun to watch.

Thank You For Smoking *** 1/2
(Second Viewing)

Probably the funniest movie I've seen since The Wedding Crashers. Pick this sucker up on October 3rd. "The great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese"

The Notorious Bettie Page **
(Second Viewing)

Didn't really do it for me the 2nd time around either

Three Times ** 1/2
(First Viewing)

Click **
(Second Viewing)

Back To School ***
(Nth Viewing)

YES! I got to see another personal favorite movie of mine on the big screen

ALL THE KING'S MEN (2006) - **1/2

FYI - My honest rating for this film is **, but I have the 1/2 because despite the film's problems, Penn at least delivers the bacon.

What went wrong?

The Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece of American literature is a compelling and thoughtful account of a Huey Long-esque figure's rise from noble political crusader to a beast of the machine, to his bloody downfall. It documents the 1930s South in such a fashion that few books have ever pulled off.

Yet, the film from Steve Zillian is simply neither compelling nor thoughtful. If this film was a sentient being, he would be like the co-worker who doesn't clean up or courteous at work. As in, if this film was a person, it wouldn't give a shit...but unlike the OTHER film I saw today, it just doesn't care about what its doing.

Sean Penn kicks ass, in the best Oscar-hunting performance that the Academy usually digs. Even if I question him as being authentic or really organic as a demagogue "man of the people" politician from the Deep South of the Great Depression(since as a person from the South, film actors either get the accent right or wrong. No middle ground. Luckily, Penn doesn't fuck up like say Nicole Kidman did with COLD MOUNTAIN).

However, and I can't fucking believe I'm saying this, but Hopkins, Winslet, Law....OScar-nominated, respected English actors....really coast like mother fuckers. Maybe they did the best that they could with what Zailian wrote for them, or they simply saw this movie as a nice Oscarbait opportunity.

Sadly, despite the nice budget, the pretty cinematography, and even the nice-sounding cast, I should have suspected something when SONY pulled this movie from the Oscar season of last year, into September of this year.

Zailian was the scriptwriter of course for Spielberg's SCHINDLER' LIST, a cerebral, emotional tale of a dark time in history, with a central player trying overtly and not to deal with such inhumanity. ALL THE KING'S MEN is simply artificial Oscar-bait that in any other year, with the Weinstein Brothers Oscar-machine, might have been up for several Oscars.

Hollywoodland ***
This is set in 50's and is about the murder of Superman. The director creates a nice atmosphere and the music is excellent. This is somewhat like Black Dahlia in terms of mood and pace. I liked it a lot.

21 Grams ****

****/4

Glad you liked 21 Grams Ryan. I thought it was an awesome movie myself. I haven't seen it in a while but I'd give it *** or *** 1/2

The Descent **
An above average horror movie - it has a few nice ideas and the scenes are shot well, mostly inside a cave. Worth watching once.