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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Thank you. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:31 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Damn it, Rod, how did you track down Savage Messiah? I've never gotten a hold of it, in any format. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:57 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| TCM showed it here once. I've been waiting since for them to show it again. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:36 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I finished watching Lady Vengeance (aka Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and a couple of other titles). It didn't quite make my top three for the Blanches, but it was definitely the coolest film I saw from 2006. I love the opening credits with the vines tracing their way across her skin to the music of, I believe, Vivaldi. I had some trouble with the flashback structure, and at one point had to start over when I realized that what I thought was a flashback was the current timeline. This was only about 15 minutes into the film. There's at least one point in the film where you have a flashback within a flashback. The structure works, but I have to really pay attention. It's a stylish, often funny, clever, often beautful film and has a very violent climax. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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This last week's DVD viewings were a bit opposite of each other, as far as movie genres go.
First up was Beer League, starring Artie Lange as a loser kind of guy that is wasted most of the time, but manages to pull himself together for a local ball club's final game.
Obviously, hearing Artie on the Howard Stern show for the last few years got my interest up in this movie, which is a loose tale on some of the events in Artie's real life.
This movie barely lasted a month in a few east coast theaters (mostly in Philly and NY) and was quickly dumped to DVD. The film was fun to watch, but was nothing stellar. Artie was tons better in Dirty Work and even better in his small role in the The Bachelor.
If you like the idea of watching a bunch of drunks and partiers playing baseball, then you might enjoy this movie. But it's no Bad News Bears or Major League. At least the 89 mins wasn't too long. Any longer and I might have just settled for the stories Artie tells on the radio each morning.
The other DVD I watched was This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which was one of the films I tried to catch at Sundance 2006. Kirby Dick directed this documentary about the MPAA's secret processes of rating movies and what deems an R and what deems an NC-17 (which is the rating this movie got during it's short theatrical run).
Done very well with all sorts of interesting info on the raters, directors and lawyers that work at the MPAA. I knew the system was pretty skewed, but Kirby's work in bringing a lot more of the details to light was entertaining to me and I enjoyed learning what I pretty much assumed was true. His interactions with the MPAA on getting this movie rated and going through the appeals process was top notch and the irony that ensued was all too clever for the aptly titled movie. Highly recommended and one I wished I would have watched before the Blanche voting began. It would have made my list of nominations. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:26 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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Joe Vitus wrote: Billy,
I hope you do rent Scoop, I'd like to know what you think. Like I said, it reminded me a lot of Manhattan Murder Mystery, which I lot of people didn't like, but I enjoyed. That also means it's a movie which doesn't try to examine life or comment on it in any way. Strictly for entertainment. I have no problem with that.
What got me to rent it, by the way, was Earl's response.
I liked Manhattan Murder Mystery a lot, also.
Did you and I discuss Scoop sometime, or are you referring to what I wrote here? One of the most enjoyable things about it was the notion that the journalist whose wake opens the movie is still so consumed with getting the big story, the "scoop" of the movie's title, that he cheats death to return to this mortal coil and help a young journalist bring it to press. His investigative instincts cause him to ignore the much bigger "scoop" that, yes indeed, there is an afterlife, and focus instead on nailing an aristocrat for murder.
Re The Devil Wears Prada: I had a similar problem with the opening, but ended up enjoying it overall. Hathaway's character was presented to us as a Journalism major from (I think) Columbia and Editor-in-Chief of that university's newspaper. It simply was not credible that she would walk into the corporate headquarters of a magazine to apply for a job and not know who the major players at that publication are. She would've done her homework first. After that initial stumble, however, I felt the story found its footing. Streep was wonderful and I liked Emily Blunt enough to nominate her for a Blanche in Best Supporting. |
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"I have a suspicion that you are all mad," said Dr. Renard, smiling sociably; "but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship." |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:46 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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| THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and MARIE-ANTOINETTE gave me my dose of costume eye candy for 2006. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:47 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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billyweeds wrote: Joe--You and I are really on the same page tonight. I feel exactly--but exactly--the same way you do about Scarlett Johannson. And though I liked her in Ghost World like you did, I still can't understand why she and not Thora Birch was the breakout star from that movie.
Haven't seen Scoop--was actively avoiding it, in fact, because of Johannson and Woody in funny-old-man mode. But now I guess I'll give it a shot.
I think Scarlett stood out more, because Scarlett stood out more. If you get my meaning.
SJ has strange posture, and in Scoop seemingly combined that with myopia as she acts infatuated. Kind of odd.
I thought Scoop was somewhat weak and fairly forgettable.
Bweeds, Little Children was my favorite film of 2006, and will definitely be getting one and probably two Blanche noms from me. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:49 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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gromit -
LITTLE CHILDREN and DEATH OF A PRESIDENT ranked right up there with my favorite film of 2006. They didn't make it into my top 3 but came very close. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:16 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I've been making an ongoing ranking of all the films I've seen in 2006, but somehow I've forgotten to list Death of a President. A well done and disturbing film. Though it hasn't stuck in my brain so much.
Maybe I should wait post-Blanching, but here are three smaller films that haven't gotten so much attention that I want to champion.
The Road to Guantanamo; Shortbus; and Brick.
Guantanamo especially has been (un)fairly neglected here.
Good to see someone gave Brick a nomination for Best Picture. It didn't rate that highly with me, but I enjoyed it a good deal and hope to see it again. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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mo_flixx wrote: Does anyone have a link to this? BTW (according to wikipedia) Hefner has always been a huge Bettie fan and has helped her out in the past.
Here ya go, mo. A single PDF file that I made this morning. Right click on it to save it locally or click on it to open it up in a web browser (not sure if Mac OS9 supports this)
http://www.chillywilly.org/images/bettiepage-20q.pdf |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| I have a friend whose favorite movie of the year is The Devil Wears Prada. He's seen it 3 times. Last year his favorite was Sideways. He would never go to a film like The Departed. (I'm wondering if it's too violent even for renting.) |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:29 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I would say Apocalypto is right out then. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| I think the violence in Pan's Labyrinth was as discomfitting as any I've seen this year. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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gromit wrote: I've been making an ongoing ranking of all the films I've seen in 2006, but somehow I've forgotten to list Death of a President. A well done and disturbing film. Though it hasn't stuck in my brain so much.
Maybe I should wait post-Blanching, but here are three smaller films that haven't gotten so much attention that I want to champion.
The Road to Guantanamo; Shortbus; and Brick.
Guantanamo especially has been (un)fairly neglected here.
Good to see someone gave Brick a nomination for Best Picture. It didn't rate that highly with me, but I enjoyed it a good deal and hope to see it again.
I didn't care a bit for Brick, BUT, I remember championing Michael Winterbottom's TRtG right after I saw it. I'm still short on the Shortbus, unfortunately, and apparently, there are a few of my friends in it! |
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It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
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