Thomas Jane (haven't seen the Dolph Lundgren version yet)

The Road Warrior ***
(First Viewing)

Max is travelling in a post apocalypse Australia where Gasoline is the most valuable commodity. He becomes involved in a struggle between bandits and a town that has build defenses around a small refinery. He must cross the no man's land several times to allow them to make a dash for freedom, pursued by the bandits in their vehicles.

This was about 1000 times better than Mad Max. The directing was better for one and the story was a HELL of a lot better as well. Also, Mel Gibson was more of a bada$$ as Max in this film than the previous one.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome *
(First Viewing)

Mad Max is a former cop who finds himself in a post-apocolyptic desert town called Bartertown. He is hired by the leader of the city to fight in a gladiator like arena called Thunderdome, so he can kill Auntie's rival master blaster. He is later banished and finds a group of children that survived a plane crash during the war. They believe he is their former pilot Captain Walker. Some of the children leave to find their fabled tomorrow morrow land. So Mad Max has to save them from the desert and from Auntie's Bartertown.

So in Mad Max, Gibson plays a cop looking for revenge. In The Road Warrior, he plays a bad motherf*cker. And in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, he's a babysitter!? WTF? The worst of the trilogy, thank goodness this torture is FINALLY over!

Do you judge ppl on account of the movies they like?
On what level can u find me? depends. Prince of Persia is a game with 12 levels. I dont start playing from Level 12 because its the most complicated and interesting level. I start with Level 1 which is a piece of cake, and I love this level as well.

Now if I remember correctly, capo, you're quite dandy when it comes to WWE or whatever they call that crap nowadays, and I ask you, do you lower yourself when you watch them "wrestling"?

But I wont say, that a person like you, who can name those wrestlers with eyes closed is in the same level of that bad joke called WWE, because I dont think you are. The fact that you enjoy watching WWE tells me absolutely nothing on the nature of your character. All sorts of ppl can watch it.

Not so much by the films, but the honesty with which they enjoy those films. You're being very honest in your appreciation of True Lies, but I think, by 'admitting' it is of "lower quality", you're adding an unnecessary confusion to the entire notion of film appreciation. It's not a film which is meant to provoke philosophical thought as much as a Tarkovsky film would. If you appreciate it on its own terms, then it's pretty effective at what it does. But save from a setpiece in which a horse chases a car, I find it of little interest. It adds nothing new.

I won't respond to the Prince of Persia metaphor, because its inclusion is a little vague.

I don't watch it anymore; it's become bloated with too much of a good thing. My former appreciation was in regards to my fascination with spectacle, with the idea of a continuing saga, with all kinds of interweaving relationships. Kind of like a soap opera on steroids...

That video game analogy is completely irrelevant to cinema. You beat level 1 to get to level 2. I don't watch shitty Michael Bay movies to rise to great Michael Mann movies.

I don't look for deep meanings or enigmatic riddles in films. Filmmakers make films to express feelings for the most part or do something different. Cassavetes can explore a destroyed marriage in Faces or Scorsese can take a story of several gangsters, and turn it into a wonderfully paced docu-drama like Goodfellas. Most modern filmmakers make films to appeal to a shallow audience. Michael Bay or Ron Howard are to the film industry what Britney Spears or N'Synch would be to the music industry.

Some people try to pass off a horrible piece of work as innovative and deep as well such as Tony Scott with Man on Fire and Domino, the former taking an average story too seriously with nothing to back it up and the latter taking a true story and changing it to appeal to idiots. Both enhance this with the ridiculous wannabe-innovative editing.

I overcame my long period of laziness. I felt like an asshole to just throw out a rating for my favorite filmmaker, so here's my belated mini-review for The Departed.

The Departed - (Martin Scorsese;2006;USA)
Two moles on opposite sides of the law are pitted against each other when mob boss Frank Costello learns of the police mole.
While it looked as if Scorsese wouldn't blow our minds as much as he used to, he belts out his best film since Goodfellas. Nicholson and Dicaprio are on the mark in their roles with strong support from Damon, Wahlberg, and Sheen. The best supporting performance came from Ray Winstone who I wish to see more of after this and The Proposition. The music is also excellent from The Stones' "Shelter" to the wonderful Van Morrison/Waters/The Band version of "Comfortably Numb" with all others in between from Lennon to Nas. Overall Scorsese brings us a trenchant direction that produces a crime film that pulls you into it's story.

Annie Hall - (Woody Allen;1977;USA)
A neurotic stand-up comedian in New York City recounts his relationship with Annie Hall.
One of the absolute greatest comedies ever. Woody Allen's wit is on the spot and everything manages to intrigue me from the minor comments to the subtle gestures characters make. While being a hilarious and critical look at relationships and life it manages to ring true most of the time. Allen's direction retains some old fashioned simplicity with his credit title cards but manages to be very innovative in his editing and narrative. An excellent film.

See Sexy Beast. The only leading role I've seen him in, and a fantastic film as well.

I would also recommend Nil by Mouth, probably his best performance, and directed by Gary Oldman!

You, Me & Dupree **
(Second Viewing)

For newlyweds Carl and Molly Peterson, life can't get any sweeter as they begin anew to settle down into married life. With a nice house and established careers in tow, nothing seems to get in their way. However, Carl is about find out just how much friendship means when Randy Dupree, his best friend has been displaced from his home and fired from his job because of attending their wedding. Taking his friend in, what Carl and Molly are about to experience is that the fine line between a few days and whatever else is after, can be a lot more than they bargained for. Especially when their friend overstays his welcome in far too many ways than he should.

It got funnier with a second viewing and Owen Wilson is a very funny person, but ultimately, most of the funny parts are already in the trailer

What the fuck is going on with these unnecessary exclamation points? Stop screaming at me.

Clerks II *** 1/2
(Second Viewing)

A calamity at Dante and Randall's shops sends them looking for new horizons - but they ultimately settle at Mooby's, a fictional fast-food restaurant. Free from his dead-end job (and lodged in a new one), Dante begins to break free of his rut, planning to move away with his clingy fiancé. Dante is ready to leave the horrors of minimum-wage New Jersey behind, but Randal - always the more hostile of the two - starts to become overwhelmed by his own rancor.

The reason for the high rating was in part due to the fact that Mr. Kevin Smith had to follow up his cult classic Clerks. and did so beautifully. Stepping into the batter's box and hitting a home run, proving the Jay & Silent Bob characters have life in them and were missed during their brief 5 year layoff. Same old Dante and Randall with more movies and people to poke fun of while Smith never ceases to gross us out.

All the kings men ***
Excellent acting from Sean Penn. I think he deserves an oscar for his performance as a very convincing politician. Overall story and plot are ok, with some good performances from a recognizable star cast.

Carlito's Way.

you are competing with Irishman now, and I must say you are winning it

Oh don't worry, I'll catch up

UKM: The Ultimate Killing Machine * 1/2
(First Viewing)

well, to me it can be a good evaluation criterion. The best being people's love for animals. That's one of the first things I try and enquire about people. And in my experience if people don't love animals they surely don't love people either.

Yesterday I watched Béla Tarr's Sátántangó, a seven-and-a-half hour epic.

The ebbs and flows of Tarr's epic film mean the viewer's interest, or attention span, comes and goes; it's probably best to make use not only of the two given intervals, but also of the twelve chapters which divide this laborious film. Because it is so slow, often with lengthy sequences without any kind of character interaction whatsoever, following what little narrative there is is especially difficult. Further evidence of where Van Sant found inspiration for his last three films: not only is there more shots imitated in Gerry, but the non-linear editing obviously influenced Elephant: and here, this coverage of events from different view-points seems to have no purpose other than to make the editing of the narrative compliment the way, in individual scenes, Tarr's camera moves through space. A lot of standout sequences happen to be involving animals of some sort: the opening shot, of cattle leaving a barnyard; a small girl force-feeding a cat rat-poison, with the cat struggling at first and then, when left alone, remaining still; and horses galloping into a town square and circling a statue, with three humans marching off into the distance; the penultimate chapter, in which two men edit a letter on a typewriter, with the camera circling them at a snail's pace; and, regardless of the expected ebbs and flows of such a difficult, ambiguous film, who can deny the power of the final moments, that crescendo of distant bells, and the slow descent into inevitable darkness?
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After that I watched Bergman's Persona.

Fantastic and fascinating, a film which evolves and rewards enormously when revisited. Shot in piercing black and white, its images will haunt and linger. Bergman explores cinematic illusion by means of a character's insanity: a conscious charade of mental illness in one character, the descent into frustration and identity confusion in another. Bold and daring, it has that rare, elusive quality of having been economically efficient - edited to the point of being inch-perfect in length and pace. Aesthetically resounding and psychologically profound.


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Lav, I'm not particularly fond of animals.

from someone who can watch a seven-and-a-half hour movie and a Bergman movie soon after I can expect anything!

Anyway, I already knew you don't like animals. What can I say? Nobody's perfect.

You are, my love; you are.

Come give me a cuddle.

I don't like animals at all and I love people. Your entire way of thinking has just been proven false, Lav.

[I don't even know why I posted this. Sorry to God, my parents, my family, my friends, to myself, to everybody under the Sun.]

Somebody hack into your account Capo?

FUCK YEAH!+ MOTHERUFUCKER!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D::D

That doesn't make it less true to me, dude.

I'm on my way to you, Cucciolo. I'll bring you "The Battleship Potemkin" in its original version and we'll watch it over and over until we get horny like hell.

I watched "The Notebook" for the first time yesterday.

It was overly sappy, it was mushy.

It was excellently acted, written and directed.

It was one of the best "romance" movies I've ever seen.

It was also one of the saddest films I've ever seen.

Anyone who has ever been in love and has had that love get away MUST see this.

Anyone who has ever watched a loved one lose a battle to Alzheimer's MUST see this.

James Garner and Gena Rowlands steal the movie although Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams (mmmmmmm) ably hold their own.

Bah, if you want a film about two people who love each other, though in a crazy way, you should see not Nick Cassavetes' corny The Notebook, but his father John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence..

I had seen it many years ago. A great movie but a tough movie to watch. "The Notebook" was at times just as difficult to sit through, but I liked it better.

I would've loved to have been able to hang with Cassavetes and his little "crew" (Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk). Talk about fun!