"A guy's guide to being a man's man". A manual how to be an egotistical chauvenistic pig. You haven't lived until you know the proper way to snip the end off of a cigar.

Yeah, that was the one, Beth.

What a jerk.

Three Kings is excellent. I haven't seem him in many films, but everyone I've seen him he's impressed me. Which films of his have you seen that weren't good?

Yeah, but our grammar would go to shit.

I watched my 38th and 39th Hitchcock films last night; his worst, which is Juno and the Paycock, and Lifeboat, a moderately brilliant effort.

Two more Bunuel films, too: The Milky Way and Tristana. The former has a fantastic ending: Jesus cures two blind people, and then one says, "I saw a bird! I recognised it by the sound of its ears!" Then Jesus gets upset because the guy interrupted Him saying how He's on Earth not to bring peace, but to cause family members to fight one another, because nobody is allowed to love anybody more than they love Him. The final shot suggests those two "cured" blind people haven't been cured at all.

HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birds **
This movie builds up suspense and continues that way till the end. I find the ending somewhat unsatisfactory, though that is probably the most appropriate way to end it, because of the way the plot was constructed. The special effects are great for its time (in fact even in today's time), but look a little silly overall. Not one of Hitchcock's greatest, but entertaining nevertheless.

FACTORY GIRL 1/2
(First Viewing)

A beautiful, wealthy young party girl drops out of Radcliffe in 1965 and heads to New York to become Holly Golightly. When she meets a hungry young artist named Andy Warhol, he promises to make her the star she always wanted to be. And like a super nova she explodes on the New York scene only to find herself slowly lose grip on reality.

It's about time Guy Pearce made a movie worth watching (although I haven't seen THE PROPOSITION yet but hear it's OK). He and Sienna Miller were fantastic as both Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick. I'm not familiar with either person so this entire film was news to me. I'm very glad to see Sienna get a career of her own now that her business is done with Jude Law. She's a very talented young lady and hopefully can blossom even more into a fine actress. I'm sure for the fans of his music, viewers will be pissed that Hayden Christensen is playing Billy Quinn (aka BOB DYLAN). However, from where I stood, I thought he did a pretty decent job as him.

The Proposition is excellent, Irish. Check-a it-out!

I may just have to do that the next time I'm in Blockbuster I also hope to watch the NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN film either tonight or tomorrow

Blockbuster hasn't been the same since Irish left.

Hostel **

Clever premise and a well ececuted plot. What starts off as an overdose of topless girls, slowly descends into gore. That is what makes it interesting. The violence is pretty graphic though.

Right because you went into my store soooooooooooooo much

I thought the second was easily as good. What I enjoyed about it most is it when further into how the business is actually run and not so concerned with cutting up the victims (although that's still going on).

Only two things in Texas, boy.

Good thing I'm in New York

Are you back for good?

Until November. Then I'll fly back to Texas and attempt to graduate in December. After that, NO IDEA!

Cockbuster just always sucked as a store...and their recent financial troubles are no surprise.

Review of the Exhibit: MOVIES ON THE MIND: PSYCHOLOGY AND FILM SINCE SIGMUND FREUD

"Organized by the Deutsche Kinemathek and making its only American stop here, this exhibit at the Academy in Los Angeles was designed to celebrate Sigmund Freud's 150th birthday in 2006 and to draw attention to the fact that both moving pictures and Freudian theory date back to the late 1890s."

http://www.tcm.com/movienews/index/?cid=177511&rss=press

UGETSU
(First Viewing)

In the civil wars of 16th century Japan, two ambitious peasants want to make their fortunes. The potter Genjuro intends to sell his wares for vast profits in the local city, while his brother-in-law Tobei wishes to become a samurai. Their village is sacked by the marauding armies, but Genjuro's kiln miraculously survives, and they and their wives head for the city. However, Genjuro soon sends his wife Miyagi back home, promising to return to her soon, and Tobei, in his keenness to follow the samurai, abandons his wife Ohama. Meanwhile, a wealthy noblewoman, the Lady Wakasa, shows an interest in Genjuro's pots, and invites him to her mansion.

An interesting look at how ambition, war and greed can tear 2 seperate families apart. Both men leave their wives, one so he can be a samurai and the other so he can sell his pottery to bring his family above poverty status. An interesting character study with the character trying to sell his pots who had a wife and child.

The Da Vinci Code ***

In the Little Italy neighborhood here on Friday nights in July and August one of the restaurants uses it's parking lot and surround streets as an outdoor theatre. They have a projection screen on the side of the wall it uses to screen the movies. It's free, and they give free pop corn and you can bring your own food and beverages. Last night was The Da Vinci code.

I guess to give it a true review I would say in it's self it was probably an ok to good movie. The content of it is just not my cup of tea. I don't believe in the theory of Jesus and Mary Madgelane being married and having a child. The movie was at times confusing and hard to follow. Just like GF3 you flip flopped thinking who was good and evil. If the albino man was the good character after all that then that's just sad..haha. Was Sophie the holy grail, or the tomb Tom Hanks "discovers" at the end? It was also quit long. Just when you thought it was over another twist pops up. It was an enjoyable night in that we were veiwing outside in a nice setting. Sitting in a movie theatre and paying $10.00 to see it might have been different.

That was quite annoying for me. It stretched too long after everything was over.

My problem with THE DA VINCI CODE, among other things, was:

(1) Ron Howard coasting. He knew he could shoot with the flair of a polaroid camera and still make hundreds of millions of bucks. Power to him I guess, loss of power to us.

(2) I never liked the whole concept of the Catholic Church or Opus Dei or whoever the fuck it was, that tried to kill Hanks and the girl.

Beth, tell me this girl. If some guy with a bad mullet told you that Jesus was married and had a kid, and that descendent IS the Holy Grail.....what would you do?

You wouldn't believe it. In fact, I can tell you right now, that the vast majority of the Catholic faithful wouldn't believe it either. With their power in their faith, they would tell Hanks to bugger off.

In other words, why would the Church be worried? They can call Hanks and the woman a pair of lunatics...and the faithful would follow.

This is what I wrote when I saw The Da Vinci Code back in 2005 on the big screen:
Structurally, with its fragmented opening, complex, double-crossing plot and a hero in over his head, this vaguely resembles Marathon Man, the kind of intelligent thriller not made these days. That is not to say, however, that Howard's adaptation of a bestselling novel rejuvenates the mystery or thriller genre; it is fairer to say that it is, perhaps disappointingly, though certainly expectedly, a novel translated to moving images.

Anyway, meanwhile...

On Hitchcock's Juno and the Paycock:
Interestingly dull film, an exemplary embodiment of "filmed theatre", with only hints of cinematic uniqueness in the form of tracking shots into the action onto the family's son, to infer an obvious psychological distress (regarding violence on the streets). Moments of comic levity won't make the ending any less sombre (it's a real downbeat affair), and Hitchcock brings into question his Catholicism in the form of a family forced to question their own faith when things go from bad to worse and then plummet even further. A forgettable oddity but for the director's credit.

On Hitchcock's Lifeboat:
A fine, tautly-handled piece in similar vein to (though not as powerful as) 12 Angry Men, in its single setting, dialogue-heavy characterisation, and the way in which its characters discuss their differences of opinion regarding the Nazi. It is the Nazi, too, who lends the film its complexity; leading the boat away from the safety of Bermuda in one moment but saving the crew in the next, he remains an enigma to us as much as he does to the characters - and all the better for that, because the climax and the twist in all of their narrative arcs makes for strong irony. The murder, two thirds through, is shot in such matter-of-fact fashion that, in its harrowing brutality, puts it up there with the oven scene in Torn Curtain.

On Buñuel's The Milky Way:
An ambiguous, complex and often very funny film, very abstract in tone and one of his most visually rich works too, exploring Catholic doctrine and the heresies which oppose or reject it. The director's fascination with Catholicism (and his sophisticated knowledge of it) recalls Godard's obsession with Marxism, though whereas Godard hammered political points home by lifting directly from various literary sources, Buñuel's ultimate ambivalence towards his subject lends a powerfully open tone to proceedings, lifting straight from the Bible and invoking quotes into conversations not to reject anything, really, but to draw up all kinds of hypocrisies and contradictions. Funniest part: when Jesus goes to shave, and His mother tells Him He suits a beard, and therefore keeps His facial hair, along with His would-be iconic visual representation. Most revealing part: the final scene, in which Jesus cures two blind men, only for them to continue (it is suggested) to use their sticks and ears as if sightless.

On Buñuel's Tristana:
Buñuel was capable of the most subtle of storytelling methods, narrating time, as he did in The Milky Way, in an elusively dream-like fashion (characters have dreams, but the dreams are actually happening as realities elsewhere) and with a casual disregard for convention - Tristana leaves her guardian/lover in one scene, and we cut immediately to two years later with her back on the scene, an otherwise risky technique (for means of credibility) but a rewarding one in this case. Deneuve and Rey are excellent. Emotionally complex (who do we side on and when and why?), and very rewarding; whether it requires more patience than the likes of the more surreal Discreet Charm is down to personal taste. But even this, one of his most accessible films, is not for everyone.

On Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel:
The reasons why the guests are unable or unwilling to leave - and indeed why outsiders are unable or unwilling to enter - are never given, and the entire narrative comprises these suit-clad guests becoming increasingly distraut, thirsty, ill and sexually frustrated, restricted to one room in an entire mansion, in the empty halls of which three sheep and one bear also lurk. Buñuel hated psychoanalytical readings of films and professed at the time of this that it didn't mean anything in particular, but even so, the inclusion of a similar escapade at a church in the final moments brings a knowing smile to familar fans' faces. Shot in harsh black and white, it is an absurd inviting allegory on the fall of Man if nothing else.

YOUTH OF THE BEAST
(First Viewing)

Joe Shishido plays a tough guy with a secret agenda. His violent behavior comes to the attention of a yakuza boss who immediately recruits him. He soon tries to make a deal with a rival gang a starts a gang war. His real motivations are gradually revealed as we find out how this all ties in with the murder of a policeman shown at the beginning of the film.

I was really hoping to enjoy this picture with it being a gangster film, but typical Seijun Suzuki. I don't understand why the man gets so much play from Criterion? Other than Kurosawa, Ozu or Suzuki are probably the 2 most popular Japanese directors on Criterions list. I think this may be the last film of his I have to watch. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the man or his work, but everything has seemed so bland to me (it never impressed me).

From here to eternity. *****

Excellent movie. I'm glad I finally got around to seeing it. That Mary really is quite a ho...I mean Lorene.

Montgomery Clift...Yowyza! 'Nuff said there. Too bad he was gay.

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY 1/2
(First Viewing)

Two straight, single Brooklyn firefighters (Sandler, James) pretend to be a gay couple in order to receive domestic partner benefits.

Glad to see Adam Sandler back in one of his better comedies in recent years. It's probably his best work since 2003's ANGER MANAGEMENT. Adam and Kevin James worked really well together. I'm not sure of their relationship offscreen but on, they genuinely seemed like best friends, which was needed for this film to be successful. I've said it time and time again, I love how Sandler uses his same cast of friends: Steve Buscemi, Allen Covert, Peter Dante, etc.

Yeah, that's actually the only reason I plan to go see it. My friend is a big fan, he's been hounding me to go see it with him for that very cameo.

I'm a huge fan of his too but I had to do a doubletake because I didn't know he was going to be in it

I just watched this fuckin weird movie called Holy Smoke.

It has Kate Winslet and Harvey Kietal(sp)

Its actually set in the outback of Australia.

Kate winslet is seduced by Kietal and she becomes his sought of sex slave.

It's a weird film with pissing on her self scenes, weird sex scenes and Kietal running around the outback in a fucking dress at one point.

Weird.

Le Samourai **
A french movie about a contract killer and his ethics. An interesting and tense drama that has shades of Hitchcock, Coppola's Conversation and French Connection. That is just a lazy way to describe it, as it obviously does not draw inspiration from the latter mentioned movies. Nice music and use of colors. However, its attempts to draw a parallel with a Samurai's ethics is very weak and ultimately the low point of the movie.