I'll check it out, thanks Ronnie.

Yeah, pretty soon Sandler will be doing horror movies with Jim Carrey.

Novecento (1900) (1976)

Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Burt Lancaster, Donald Sutherland, Sterling Hayden

All-Star cast did well, but at 5 hrs 15 mins (uncut version) it felt quite interminable to me (and I love epic films). I'm too tired and weak to go any further right now... lol

Excellent movie Geoff ! Bertolucci is often criticized for being a communist sympathizer because of the way they're depicted in the movie, but I thought it was great.

Donald Sutherland was a great bad guy, almost cartoonish, but great nonetheless.

An excellent look into the class sytem.

Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield
(First Viewing)

A poor excuse at an Ed Gein movie. Horrible directing, bad script and too many character holes. We're never told how or why Ed is Ed. And the whole movie isn't even based on him. A great deal of the movie is spent on the town's deputy, his mother and his girlfriend. For a better version of the life of Ed Gein, check out In the Light of the Moon.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan *** 1/2
(Second Viewing)

Kazakhstani TV personality Borat is dispatched to the United States to report on the "greatest country in the world." With a documentary crew in tow, Borat becomes more interested in locating and marrying Pamela Anderson than on his assignment.

Truly more enjoyable with a second viewing. Sacha Baron Cohen is such a talented actor and Ken Davitian who played Borat's sidekick Azamat, was very enjoyable as well. I love US and A and I like you. NICE!

Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny **
(First Viewing)

In Venice Beach, naive Midwesterner JB bonds with local slacker KG and they form the rock band Tenacious D. Setting out to become the world's greatest band is no easy feat, so they set out to steal what could be the answer to their prayers -- a magical guitar pick housed in a rock-and-roll museum some 300 miles away.

Jack Black is one of my favorite comedians but this movie wasn't what it's all cracked up to be. I've never listened to a Tenacious D album, and this movie doesn't really want me to either. Just another stoner movie with a better soundtrack than most.

SHUT UP.

(Thief)

Our Man Flint **
(First Viewing)

When the intelligence agencies of the world find that their agents are being murdered at an alarming rate their leaders all write out the qualities an agent will need to succede against the terrible crisis they are facing. Derick Flint is the only agent with all the qualities, but his old boss refuses to work with him until ordered to by the president. Flint is the worlds greatest secret agent, worlds greatest lover, an expert on electronics and Dolphin speech and goes to Moscow for Ballet (To Teach!) When attempts on his life are made, Flint begins to search out the mad scientists who want to remake the world after taking over with the aid of their earthquake machine.

Better than the sequel but ultimately, the Flint movies aren't in the same class as the James Bond and Ausin Powers franchise.

I admit, their music for THIEF rocked.

But still, their music for LEGEND sucked sucked sucked sucked sucked sucked sucked sucked sucked!

I saw Doctor Zhivago for the first time last night. I had low expectations (I thought it would be boring), but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. I even liked it more than the other Lean movies I've seen (LoA, BotRK).

Tangerine Dream is a HELL of a band. I haven't checked out any of their stuff from the 80s, and I'm hesistant, because 90% of all music seemed to halt in the 80s and decide to suck. But, their shit from the 70s is mind-blowing. Phaedra is an excellent album. I don't know, I just don't think music would be what it is without them. They were really some of the first full-fledged techno (even though, for some reason, everyone on the internet seems to insist Pink Floyd's "Meddle" was the first techno/ambient album)... Without Tangerine dreams, alot of great artists wouldn't exist as we know them today, amongst them DJ Shadow, Radiohead and Aphex Twin... All damned good musicians.

Off topic, but oh well. Deal with it. Tangerine Dream pwns.

A bit off t

Ahh, but you said it best yourself. "In the 1970s..."

I'll give another dash of evidence to help the Dream faithful.

Their score for Friedkin's SORCERER was pretty good too.

And in that respect you said "In the 1980s..." You could say the same about virtually any recording artist in the 1980s. Over-produced and sloppy.

LLC, you got me there.

I still wished I was born in the 1970s. Seriously, the mediocrity of the 80's severly damaged me...

Imagine what this decade is doing to me.

I would've been glad to settle for the 70s or 90s. I mean, I would have like to have been old enough to enjoy the music and cinema of the 90s at the time it was being produced, rather than five or ten years later.

Be careful LLC, since there is alot of great fare that is out in the current state.

Shit, look at the great ones we got for 2006. CHILDREN OF MEN, UNITED 93, THE FOUNTAIN, THE DEPARTED, CASINO ROYALE....

There are some decent films. I still really need to see Children of Men... Thank god for DVD, the theaters around here wouldn't touch it. I suppose living in upstate New York doesn't help. It's pretty ill-cultured once you get a few miles north of Albany.

Music... Few and far between. There are some great acts, but for every good band there are five shitty ones flooding the mainstream radio.

Casino Royale ***
(Second Viewing)

Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to '00' status. Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Uganda where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios and his girlfriend, Solange. He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre, banker to the world's terrorist organizations. Secret Service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization. 'M' places Bond under the watchful eye of the beguiling Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond's interest in her deepens as they brave danger together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. In Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis MI6's local field agent, and Felix Leiter who is representing the interests of the CIA. The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax.

A great way to reintroduce James Bond since his last 3 films: Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day (which I consider to be the second best Brosnan Bond) were rather lackluster. Eva Green and Mads Mikkelsen were fantastic as Vesper Lynd and Le Chiffre respectfully. I really enjoyed Daniel Craig as Bond and still don't understand why everyone was on the man's case before the movie even came out? The movie was more enjoyable and made more sense with a second viewing, but as I stated the first time around, it's NOT the best Bond ever made. That title goes to either Goldfinger or GoldenEye.

Did someone hear something? Me neither.

HOFFA (1992) - **

There is good material to be made for a movie based on the infamous Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, but despite Jack Nicholson, this isn't the one.

I blame David Mamet's script and Danny Devito(?)'s direction for why we as an audience never get a satisfying hook to bite into this story, and dammit, when its Hoffa's story, its just wrong. You have mafia, Labor politics, fighting against a corrupt system, a legendary disapearance, you name it...and DeVito can't direct compelling cinema out of it?

Pathetic.

I thought they had burned every VHS and DVD of that movie, and just kept a single "back up" copy to air on AMC every other day.

I agree with you... Pretty mediocre... A few goodies here and there. As a death scene on its own, their "idea" behind Hoffa's dissappearance was entertaining, I must say.

Is this meant to say that the story was not an accurate one Ronnie?


Don Cardi

Accuracy is always a plus, but its not essential. Shit, look at Oliver Stone's great but incredibly incorrect JFK.

I'm just commenting that Jimmy Hoffa is one of those incredible "small" stories in American history in the 20th century, but when a History Channel, 1-hour documentary is more compelling and enchanting than a 140 minute expensive movie with Nicholson and David Mamet scripting.....

Let's just say that the movie has problems.

Just because YOU don't see it, doesn't mean it's not there

*Tumbleweed flies across Desert*

Right.

Point taken.



Don Cardi

Where did you hear it was incorrect? B/c Peter Jennings (Rip) can kiss my arse!

EDIT-(MAYBE...Jim Garrett was a carpet bagger. But come on...he was the first to question the obvious technicalities of ..."Back and .....to the left...." Plus, the movie opened up many a mind to the possibilities of an OBVIOUS conspiracy who otherwise would have been in the dark.)


-Here's my boy Bill Hicks on JFK. Plz listen!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQBus_RKZ9E

I watch Hoffa every time it is on. However, it lacks something. Nicholson's portrayal of Hoffa is amazing, right on the money. But either Hoffa wasn't that interesting of a guy or the production was lacking in some way.

That link didn't work for me. Does anyone else have this problem or no?

Hoffa the person is really a symbol in retrospect.

Before being sent to jail(and subsequently pardoned by Nixon), he was the last Labor Union leader that was one of the most important political figures in America. Better yet, he was when unions had a vast landslide majority of labor workers in the country. But after Hoffa's "disapearance," and with "Open Shop" legislation, Labor Unions steadily lost their influence. Shit, they're not as vitally important for the Democratic Presidential nomination as they once were.

Anyway Olivant, I blame Danny DeVito the director. His other movies like DEATH TO SMOOCHY for example, can't credit Devito for whatever good quality one finds in them.

Which is sad, because in some sequences in HOFFA, DeVito at times was trying to echo the misery and disapointment of old age that was in the masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. Let me say that again, he was "trying"...he still fails, but its not out of effort.