SHOOTER
(First Viewing)

A marksman (Wahlberg) living in exile is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president. Ultimately double-crossed and framed for the attempt, he goes on the run to track the real killer and find out who exactly set him up, and why.

A modern day JFK assassination with Mark Wahlberg getting the proverbial Lee Harvey Oswald treatment. What I did love about this movie, and not many movies that I see show this too often in a serious manner, is the precision these sharpshooters need in order to kill a target a mile or 2 away. Many people who I've talked to about SAVING PRIVATE RYAN said their favorite character was the sniper Pvt. Daniel Jackson played by Barry Pepper. This is basically that characters own film, which again is just amazing how great these guys are at their job. However, most of this film is Mark Wahlberg on the run trying to clear his name so there's not as much sniper action on his part but some to make the film enjoyable. Finally, Kate Mara did a great job with her accent and her character.

Onibaba ***

Riveting and an absolute aural/visual treat. I watched it based on Irish's review and I am glad I watched it. I found the expressions and dialogue delivery very dramatic and not natural. I found something similar to this in Rashomon, where the characters laugh in a very weird dramatic way. It looks like a japanese thing. This was made in 1964 and is a BW film. The extent of nudity is somewhat surprsing. I had no idea that japan was such an open society in 1964!

I'm so glad you enjoyed it svsg (and based on my review) Have you seen any of the other movies on my Top 10 Japanese list?

1) RASHOMON
2) JIGOKU
3) HARAKIRI
4) ONIBABA
5) LADY SNOWBLOOD
6) The LONE WOLF AND CUB series
7) THRONE OF BLOOD
8) YOJIMBO
9) SANJURO
10) SWORD OF DOOM

Also, what does your list look like?

Irish, sadly(or funnily) my list looks like this:
1)Rashomon
2)Onibaba

I am yet to watch any other japanese movies I'll watch Jigoku and Harakiri next.

Great choices! You're going to download them, right?

By july 15, the svsg family will be completely legitimate
Seriously, till I move to my new apt next month, most of the movies I watch will be downloaded. Hopefully I'll get blockbuster subscription then.

THE LOWER DEPTHS 1/2
(First Viewing)

In a slum flophouse, a collection of beggars and thieves bewail their lot in life, and Osugi, the landlady, fights with her sister, Okayo, over the man they both desire, the thief Sutekichi.

2 things really stood out to me in this Kurosawa film. The first was the opening scene, the bang of the drum, Kurosawa panning around the top of this hill while the shack where the residents live is in basically a pit. The first characters of the film come by and throw leaves into it with no regard for the people down there. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the film. Secondly, watching this movie reminded me of Hitchcock's ROPE. Both ROPE and THE LOWER DEPTHS were able to accomplish difficult feats because most of their movies took place in 1 room. Actors would come in and out but most of the action was taking place in the same room, which is difficult to pull off without other sets/scenary but both men were wizards with a camera and it's not surprising for me to see that both gentlemen pulled it off beautifully.

No troubles man. I need to start downloading movies since there are so many that I can't find. Do you know how much room it takes to download onto your computer? Again, that's what I'm afraid of doing, adding huge movie files onto my desktop.

Download them, and burn them to disc as data files, then wipe them off the computer.

That's a good idea Capo!

TOKYO STORY
(Second Viewing)

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingratitude and selfishness. When the parents are packed off to a resort by their impatient children, the film deepens into an unbearably moving meditation on mortality.

Probably the most depressing film from the "Noriko Trilogy" (LATE SPRING, EARLY SUMMER and TOKYO STORY). What I love about these three films is the way the cast is able to stay intact over a 4 year span. The story works well as a study of the country life vs. the city life or the older generation vs. the younger generation (it works as both).

Most movies are ripped from DVDs and compressed. They fall in two categories. Many are in 650-700 MB range which means that they will exactly fit into a CD. But quite a few of them are in the range of 1GB-1.4GB which will not only require two CDS, but also a software that will split video files well. I don't burn them into CDs. I have it stored in my laptop and when it occupies too much space, I transfer them to my external hard-disk. I have a 320 GB external hard-disk that can hold a lot of movies.

Runaway Jury *

Entertaining, but predictable. The script follows the usual hollywood formulas with clever twists and turns, punchlines, patriotism, good vs evil etc etc. All the big-name actors act well in their respective roles, but ultimately waste their talent for an average movie.

The one thing that bug the hell out of me about RUNAWAY JURY is how the anti-gun lobby are goodie-two shoes and the pro-gun lobby are the most evil scumbags.

If I had scripted that book (which wasn't much in the first place) then I would have made it that both ideological special interest lobbies do everything off the book in trying to get the verdict that they desire, fuck the law.

Its just the people that decide the outcome do it against the losers out of simple revenge.

Still, its sad when for a generic movie, its the one time that former roommates Gene Hackman and Dusty Hoffman get to act together in a Hollywood flick.

LATE SPRING 1/2
(First Viewing)

Noriko is 27 years old and is still living with her father Somiya, a widower. Noriko just recovered from an illness she developed in the war, and now the important question pops up: when will Noriko start thinking about marriage? Everybody who is important in her life tries to talk her into it: her father, her aunt, a girlfriend. But Noriko doesn't want to get married, she seems extremely happy with her life. She wants to stay with her father to take care of him. After all, she knows best of his manners and peculiarities. But Noriko's aunt doesn't want to give up. She arranges a partner for her and thinks of a plan that will convince Noriko her father can be left alone.

Even though this film was made first, I feel it's a combination of EARLY SUMMER and TOKYO STORY. Again, Setsuko Hara did a nice job as the main character Noriko, and another great story from Yasujiro Ozu.

Greenaway's Vertical Features Remake is self-reflexive to the point of seeming, to unknowing eyes, a convincing - and, no doubt to some, a rather dull - documentary on having to remake a film all about natural and man-made vertical objects which contradict otherwise serene and banal landscapes. Interested in notions of the grid, or the parallelogram which we have decided constitutes the film frame, Greenaway shoots various footage and reassembles it all to differently timed sequences, each becoming more and more complex and musically-bound as it goes on. A mockery of the rampant structuralism at the time, it also happens to be as haunting as it is intellectual, with Brian Eno's entrance music going into each remake, and the images themselves have a loneliness about them, much like the empty, "dead" frames in Dear Phone.

The Falls (again, Greenaway): on the one hand it might be best to view this in one sitting, so that all the interrelated fictions are appreciated best in all their intertextual density, but on the other, one would be forgiven for dividing it up, perhaps into hourly sittings, in order to take some sort of break - or indeed retreat - from the absolute absurd mass of information overload. Narrated mostly in voice-over, with translations of fictional languages spoken over footage of interviews, landscapes, and footage of people naming as many birds as possible. It's a fascinating and rich experience exploring lists in the form of dictionaries and directories, knowledge in the form of catalogues and encyclopaediae, ornithology, languages, and the form of the medium itself - it's constantly witty in its verbal rhetoric, and editing must have been an unimaginably difficult process in which Greenaway no doubt found great excitement.

I watched last night Hitchcock's Secret Agent and The Skin Game.

Secret Agent: As good as anything Hitchcock made before hitting Hollywood, an overlooked masterpiece with a lively romance in the form of a ménage à trois, a killer wit and memorable characterisation (helped by good performances), and possibly the best sound design in any of his films: in the church, in which a corpse plays an intense organ drone, a murder scene at the top of a mountain, with the distant, almost non-diegetic wailing of a dog (it's edited over from a different strand in the narrative), and the industrial, overwhelming chugs of a chocolate factory; not to mention another climax on a train, with all the momentum and thrill of Hitchcock's best works.

The Skin Game:
Hitchcock turns away from murder suspense and into family drama stroke rather strange landowning hokum; it lacks both the experimental tendencies of previous films (it's two years after Blackmail) and the astonishing form he hit mid-thirties, but there are notable marks of interest even so, mostly in the wip-pans during otherwise theatrically-filmed conversation scenes, and the one standout sequence, the auction scene, the dialogue in which hardly flows, but the camera cranks up some sort of thrilling "who's going to get it" game of cat-and-mouse. Subject matter seems dull and almost laughable regarding the usual requirements of a dramatic feature-length narrative, but it shifts into a fascinating and ironic tragedy towards the end when the villain of the piece (brilliant performance from Edmund Gwenn) and his family are turned upon, and our sympathies move from wishing for his downfall to feeling some sort of deep sorrow for him.

Watched Kingpin again last night!
Hilarious

Hot Fuzz (no stars)

IMDB is seriously becoming crap. This was ranked #122 with a rating of 8.3. I got fooled big time. It seems like all the new movies getting released are entering into top 250 casually. Anyway, coming to the point, this spoof/dark comedy is quite mediocre. Thank god, I have a "Dollar Theater" near my house for experimenting with suspicious movies. An honest policeman is posted to a village because he is doing too good in London. He uncovers a major conspiracy there. Take my word, skip this one.

John Grisham novels just don't adapt well. I did kind of like THE FIRM, but only because Gene Hackman stole the movie from scientology boy.

svsg, how did you feel about Shaun of the Dead?

Saw Live Free or Die Hard last night. This is why I hate movie studios, they had to make this film PG-13! No blood, no cursing, no nothing! It is far from being a Die Hard film. How many snotty pre-teens know who John McClane is? I doubt many do. Even the franchise's catch phrase, "Yippy kay yay motherfucker" is cut down.

Some of the action scenes are neat, but are way over the top. I always say to my self, "Never see a PG-13 film." and I did it again. FOX should be ashamed of themselves, this is an R rated franchise. If you plan on seeing this, just rent the first three instead.

Verdict: C-

Is HOT FUZZ what LLC is calling his pubes nowadays?

I've always referred to my pubes as "The Amazon".

Bogey, I haven't watched it yet. Is it good? I remember RRA reviewing it once.

and I absolutely agree.

Its decent, but nothing worth a damn. Its not a DIE HARD movie in spirit or even the same John McClane personality we saw in DIE HARD and DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE: That is, a charming asshole that you might like for awhile, but you wouldn't want to do anything with afterwards. The sort that runs his attitude off and gets him stuck at a crappy level.

Plus, McClane has a dirty mouth. At least DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE had the good sense to keep that.

Bduff, can you briefly explain your ratings.

And it had Sam Jackson.

Motherfucker.

Dude, why you still listening to IMDB?

Its a fucking retard zoo. If I have a problem with a certian board member, imagine a thousand of him and his mentalities at IMDB...with the stupidest shit they post seriously.

As for HOT FUZZ, let me guess...not as funny as HOLLYWOODLAND, right? ;D

Oh and SHAUN OF THE DEAD rocked, especially for Romero fans.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) - ****
HOT FUZZ (2007) - ****

He thought it was mediocre...and I don't blame him.

Oh yeah. I mean hell, that great scene in Harlem wouldn't fly in PG-13 land, but thats the point. Its like the utter hell for a white Irishman drunk in his middle-age 40s having to wear a sign that probably ensures a bullet to the skull.