Sunday, July 29, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
First Glimpse: The Darjeeling Limited
How awesome is this one sheet?
The two films that I've been excited about for the longest time that are still coming out this year have been P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood and Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited.
In the latter case, I've been just a little hesitant - I think mostly because I have to listen to people who criticize The Life Aquatic in spite of the fact that I love the little oddball film. But this one sheet came along and reinstilled my faith. Who's psyched?
Also, I'm gonna get back to posting more topics, even if they're just teaser topics like this. I was gonna post one relating to the worthiness or non-worthiness of one Adam Sandler, but then I saw this poster and that got kicked to the curb for now. Oh, and I'm watching A Very Long Engagement tonight, so thoughts and a post coming this weekend...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
OMFBAGROFLCOPTERBFF4EVRBRB HOLY SHIT!
PLEASE.
PLEASE.
PLEASE.
We've all seen the trailer and want to watch it twenty thousand more times. I've never been more excited for a movie in my life, I may just have to slam my balls in a car door just to shock myself back into clarity.
Please, I implore you:
Help me figure out what this movie is about. Or I will die.
Die.
Dead.
Please.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
In the Screening Room - Oliver Stone's
The Doors
Session 002 - The DoorsWho saw it and what are your thoughts on it?
Friday, July 6, 2007
In the Screening Room - Martin Scorsese's
The Age of Innocence
Session 001 - The Age of Innocence Who saw it and what are your thoughts on it?
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Recent Watches: July 2007
Kelly and I are still 2 episodes away from completing the "Freaks & Geeks" series, so again movie-watching has been scarce. Tonight will be the first in the "Film Script Watching Schedule (I really need to rename this)" though, as I sit down to watch The Age of Innocence. Still don't have a set schedule for the films though. Should I just list them for the rest of July as I see fit based on most glaring misses until we come up with a better system?
For now though, I will chime in with a couple recent watches...
Ratatouille. Pixar's latest great film and very reassuring after Cars signified a low point for their releases. Probably still ranks a notch or two below Finding Nemo and the first Toy Story but it's up there. Loved it absolutely. Maybe they go to the ghost of the dead chef one too many times for my taste, but other than that I can't think of anything that could have been done better. Pixar just proves time and time again, they ARE animation and everyone else is just faking it. The details, the story, the humor, the look, it's all great. I only hope Pixar can maintain this level after they really come under the influence of Disney (up to this point all these Pixar movies had been preplanned before the Disney buyout).
Live Free or Die Hard. I liked it okay, but I'd also be okay with never seeing it again... so that obviously shows it wasn't anything special. It did make me realize something about sequels and franchises though, you need to have character development. Seems like a pretty obvious point, but with a film like this is John McClane any different at the beginning of this film than he is at the end? I'd be hardpressed to point out one difference besides a bullet hole or two. On top of that, this is based on a short story that has absolutely nothing to do with the Die Hard series (Ocean's Twelve made the same mistake, trying to adapt material that wasn't intended for the characters). If it's not intended for John McClane, then obviously the stuff involving him is an afterthought... it's thrown in. The plotline about his troubles with his daughter seemed obvious, standard-issue stuff. And I got the feeling all they did was hire Willis, call him McClane and have him throw in a Yippie-Ki-Yay and suddenly this was supposed to be Die Hard. The reason that I felt Rocky Balboa succeeds where Live Free fails is the character, stupid. Rocky is a much different man at the end of his series than the beginning. He's beaten down by life. He's loved and lost. He's been hurt. Sure he has his moments, but the downs make the ups all that more enjoyable. He earns it and the crowd feels the euphoria of a victory. John McClane doesn't get down. His whole life is down. The one real interesting moment in Live Free was when McClane tries to explain to Justin Long's character that he doesn't want the life of a hero. It was the one moment of reflection in the whole movie. Other than that, it was McClane being McClane since Die Hard 2. He gets pissed off and kills a lotta people. At one point in the film, my girlfriend leaned over and whispered that if McClane teamed up with Jack Bauer, the U.S. would never have to worry about terrorists again. And she's right, because they both routinely slaughter about 30 guys in the course of a season/film. It's gotten ridiculous. The thing is though, I liked the movie okay. It was entertaining and kept my interest from beginning to end. I think Timothy Olyphant underplayed his part, but it was pretty good. But the whole concept of a "Fire Sale" attack on the U.S. in interesting on its own. This didn't have to be a Die Hard film (and might even have suffered because it was one). Plus, it needed a director who was gonna do more than point the camera at the action and it didn't get that. I would have liked to see John Woo do this film (where's he been anyway?). Len Wiseman relied on close-up shots of people firing guns wayyyy too often... and honestly it's just not that interesting. He found a couple ways of blowing people up that were new, but I felt he didn't hold his own or offer anything that any other director couldn't have done. I dunno. I know Chachi's got strong feelings on this and I can't wait to hear them, so let 'er rip.
And lastly, After Hours. After a huge paragraph of picking apart my faults with Die Hard, you'd expect a Scorsese film to be able to pull me out of it... but I think After Hours may be my least favorite Scorsese film to date, so no such luck. I just wasn't pulled in to this world. I could see interesting things happening, but for the most part I was thinking why would Scorsese waste his time depicting this takeoff of The Wizard of Oz in New York? What was the point? If someone knows, fill me in, but that this guy basically has a horrible night where everything goes wrong and he can't get home again isn't enough to keep me intrigued. Especially since it wasn't especially funny, it wasn't especially dark, and it wasn't especially good. And with Scorsese, I expect especially.
I dunno. 'Yay' for Ratatouille. 'Eh, they're okay' for the others. Nothing bad in the bunch, but a couple I expected more from.
So anyways, whose seen Transformers?
For now though, I will chime in with a couple recent watches...
Ratatouille. Pixar's latest great film and very reassuring after Cars signified a low point for their releases. Probably still ranks a notch or two below Finding Nemo and the first Toy Story but it's up there. Loved it absolutely. Maybe they go to the ghost of the dead chef one too many times for my taste, but other than that I can't think of anything that could have been done better. Pixar just proves time and time again, they ARE animation and everyone else is just faking it. The details, the story, the humor, the look, it's all great. I only hope Pixar can maintain this level after they really come under the influence of Disney (up to this point all these Pixar movies had been preplanned before the Disney buyout).
Live Free or Die Hard. I liked it okay, but I'd also be okay with never seeing it again... so that obviously shows it wasn't anything special. It did make me realize something about sequels and franchises though, you need to have character development. Seems like a pretty obvious point, but with a film like this is John McClane any different at the beginning of this film than he is at the end? I'd be hardpressed to point out one difference besides a bullet hole or two. On top of that, this is based on a short story that has absolutely nothing to do with the Die Hard series (Ocean's Twelve made the same mistake, trying to adapt material that wasn't intended for the characters). If it's not intended for John McClane, then obviously the stuff involving him is an afterthought... it's thrown in. The plotline about his troubles with his daughter seemed obvious, standard-issue stuff. And I got the feeling all they did was hire Willis, call him McClane and have him throw in a Yippie-Ki-Yay and suddenly this was supposed to be Die Hard. The reason that I felt Rocky Balboa succeeds where Live Free fails is the character, stupid. Rocky is a much different man at the end of his series than the beginning. He's beaten down by life. He's loved and lost. He's been hurt. Sure he has his moments, but the downs make the ups all that more enjoyable. He earns it and the crowd feels the euphoria of a victory. John McClane doesn't get down. His whole life is down. The one real interesting moment in Live Free was when McClane tries to explain to Justin Long's character that he doesn't want the life of a hero. It was the one moment of reflection in the whole movie. Other than that, it was McClane being McClane since Die Hard 2. He gets pissed off and kills a lotta people. At one point in the film, my girlfriend leaned over and whispered that if McClane teamed up with Jack Bauer, the U.S. would never have to worry about terrorists again. And she's right, because they both routinely slaughter about 30 guys in the course of a season/film. It's gotten ridiculous. The thing is though, I liked the movie okay. It was entertaining and kept my interest from beginning to end. I think Timothy Olyphant underplayed his part, but it was pretty good. But the whole concept of a "Fire Sale" attack on the U.S. in interesting on its own. This didn't have to be a Die Hard film (and might even have suffered because it was one). Plus, it needed a director who was gonna do more than point the camera at the action and it didn't get that. I would have liked to see John Woo do this film (where's he been anyway?). Len Wiseman relied on close-up shots of people firing guns wayyyy too often... and honestly it's just not that interesting. He found a couple ways of blowing people up that were new, but I felt he didn't hold his own or offer anything that any other director couldn't have done. I dunno. I know Chachi's got strong feelings on this and I can't wait to hear them, so let 'er rip.
And lastly, After Hours. After a huge paragraph of picking apart my faults with Die Hard, you'd expect a Scorsese film to be able to pull me out of it... but I think After Hours may be my least favorite Scorsese film to date, so no such luck. I just wasn't pulled in to this world. I could see interesting things happening, but for the most part I was thinking why would Scorsese waste his time depicting this takeoff of The Wizard of Oz in New York? What was the point? If someone knows, fill me in, but that this guy basically has a horrible night where everything goes wrong and he can't get home again isn't enough to keep me intrigued. Especially since it wasn't especially funny, it wasn't especially dark, and it wasn't especially good. And with Scorsese, I expect especially.
I dunno. 'Yay' for Ratatouille. 'Eh, they're okay' for the others. Nothing bad in the bunch, but a couple I expected more from.
So anyways, whose seen Transformers?
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Month of Movies: July 2007
Considering it's the middle of the summer, I'm a bit perplexed at this list of films coming out that I'm looking forward to. Few, if any, big budgets. One franchise. And a load of independently financed or indepentedly minded films.
It isn't the July I was expecting either way.
I suppose the studios are banking on films like Transformers but even the 10-year-old inside of me can't get excited for a Michael Bay film. I'm sorry. It hurts to say, but at 24, I may be too old for the Transformers nostalgia and too smart to get hoodwinked into seeing a Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer production. Pass.
License to Wed looks like the latest in a series of disastrous Robin Williams films. At this point, I'm beyond defending him. I would rather he stop making films entirely. The good will days of Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Awakenings and, well, Good Will Hunting are gone. Now are the days of RV, License to Wed and Man of the Year. Hell I even saw The Big White out of Williams-loyalty... but screw that. Every new film he makes is a slap in the face and License to Wed is where it ends. I'm done with you Robin Williams, you're dead to me. I'm sorry.
Then there are the somewhat more interesting Hairspray but directed by Adam Shankman? Uh, no thanks. And I Now Pronouce You Chuck and Larry at some point had Alexander Payne's imprint on it? But now it's starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James? Ugh. Might see these on DVD, but in theaters? It's looking like I'll be saving a lot of money on theater tickets in July.
The first film I can even point an interest in is #5 in the Harry Potter series? Since Chris Columbus bailed on the franchise, the series has improved dramatically, gaining a darker edge in the process. As long as David Yates rides the wave of Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell, he should be okay and the franchise should stay in solid hands. God forbid a return to Chris Columbus' hands down the road though.
And The Simpsons Movie. The movie at least 8 years overdue. I'm interested, but not nearly with the enthusiasm I would have had a decade ago. It's been done. There are now complete seasons of the Simpsons that I haven't seen, so if I want to see the new adventures of Bart & Lisa, I could go there. The only thing different about the movie is the ratio and the running time. We'll see. This is one I'll definitely see, but again, not rushing to see it.
As for me, the three most intriguing films of the season might be the overlooked kind. The counterprogramming. Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale, Talk to Me with Don Cheadle and Milos Forman's Goya's Ghosts. Three films with interesting performers, interesting subjects and interesting directors - but modest budgets. You could make all three for less than the price of any one of the big blockbusters of the season.
Either Hollywood math is all out of whack or to quote a former summer-standby in Lethal Weapon, "I'm just too old for this shit."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
