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| yambu |
 Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:54 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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I started the 9 1/2 hours of Shoah last night. Hadn't seen it since its first TV screening in '84. I'll just let IMDb take it from here:
"Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive and well in many people that still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere." |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:07 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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I think the last Van Sant movie I liked was Good Will Hunting.
In fact, looking at the list of movies he's done, it was the last one he did that I've seen. Passed on the Psycho remake as well as Finding Forrester, which I heard was ok, but never intrigued me enough to even rent it.
LAST DAYS in on my list to see. But for some reason, another movie gets rented. ehle and billy's positive comments on the movie will have me eventually picking it up. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Finding Forrester, which I heard was ok.
You heard wrong. It sucked b.v.c. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:17 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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Joe Vitus wrote: tirebiter wrote: Tarzan and His Mate is sexy.
I agree, but I think Tarzan the Ape Man is sexier, when Tarzan is first alone with Jane in the cave. Weissmuller was never sexier than in this scene. The screen scortches.
Er...in my opinion. (Have I said too much? There's nothing more I can think of to say to you.)
I do think Weissmuller is a lot more appealing in the first couple of Tarzans, before his character became all stodgy and started living in a treehouse (with an elevator, yet!) |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:35 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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I mistakenly took the dvd of CINDERELLA MAN home tonight.
I thought I had grabbed the Jerry Lewis boxing flick CINDERFELLA MAN.
Got home. Put it in the player. No Jerry Lewis. Some guy named Russell Crowe.
But seriously folks....
As one would expect of a Ron Howard film, CINDERELLA MAN is professionally done mainstream entertainment. Crowe is great and I found the movie very entertaining. Unfortunately, Renee Zellweger is in full blown kewpie doll mode and I find her almost unbearable. She always looks like she's got to take a big shit. The end of the film is exciting. But, overall the flick is predictable. Another biopic like WALK THE LINE that breaks no new ground. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:36 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Paul Giamatti is very very good in CINDERELLA MAN. But, what else is new. |
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| shannon |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:52 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 1628
Location: NC
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Quote: As one would expect of a Ron Howard film, CINDERELLA MAN is professionally done mainstream entertainment. Crowe is great and I found the movie very entertaining. Unfortunately, Renee Zellweger is in full blown kewpie doll mode and I find her almost unbearable. She always looks like she's got to take a big shit. The end of the film is exciting.
I wholeheartedly agree. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:20 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Nancy wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: tirebiter wrote: Tarzan and His Mate is sexy.
I agree, but I think Tarzan the Ape Man is sexier, when Tarzan is first alone with Jane in the cave. Weissmuller was never sexier than in this scene. The screen scortches.
Er...in my opinion. (Have I said too much? There's nothing more I can think of to say to you.)
I do think Weissmuller is a lot more appealing in the first couple of Tarzans, before his character became all stodgy and started living in a treehouse (with an elevator, yet!)
Not to mention that spare tire he developed. There's a reason Myra Breckinridge, speaking of Weismuller in the decade between 1935 and 1945, refers to him as the "zaftig Tarzan." And it ain't good. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:25 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| Just watched Zellweger in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. She looks better with a few pound on, although for some reason the film's cinematographer is brutal to her and also Colin Firth and Hugh Grant's faces. Considering how bad the sequel was supposed to be, I found it mildly enjoyable, although they started characterizing Bridget as not just hapless but bordering on a daffy mental patient by the end. |
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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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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:34 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason , was that the title here in the states? IMDB says yes, but that doesn't sound right. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:11 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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It's right according to Salon, too.
I just watched King Arthur, after Bridget Jones. I really wanted to give this movie a fair view; I've been reading both Gibbon's "Fall of the Roman Empire" and also Churchill's "History of the English-Speaking Peoples" lately, and the germs of this film's historical ideas are present in both. And I can say I have seen other films where many good actors, great cinematography, squads of money, and some good ideas, were put at the service of lead-footed direction, silly plotting, and numbing dialogue, but you still never get used to it. It has an epic set-up an development, but actually takes the structure of a zippy chase film, and inflates it to 2-hours plus, claiming historical authenticity but reducing all narrative to chase, slash and shout, ending in one of this dullest grand slaughters I've ever seen. Our heroes are indeed immortal; they swan about in the midst of snow-storms without shivering and sleep all night in them without freezing solid. Clive Owen is reduced to glowering earnestly; Ioan Gruffudd's Hornblower dash is present behind the pre-hairbrush mane but his wit is all washed out; Keira Knightley has fun as a savage warrior Guinevere, whose wild moves and Anime pluck stumble in from a different movie; Stellan Skarsgard appears to have played his part drunk, which is understandable. I'd like to entirely blame Jerry Bruckheimer, but it's also official that Antoine Fuqua is a shit director. Ray Winstone does yeoman service, however, as always. |
Last edited by Rod on Sun Oct 01, 2006 8:06 pm; edited 2 times in total
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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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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:47 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Yeah, King Arthur was bloated and messy. Here and there it hit the right mood or had the right look. Seemed like there was a good movie in there somewhere, struggling to get out. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:15 pm |
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| I haven't seen it Rod, but I sure liked your review. And it was well under 10,000 words. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:53 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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| Funny thing, I had ordered Lady Sings the Blues from Netflix™ a couple of weeks ago, it has finally been given a stellar new DVD print, but have never had the urge to watch it. So, Richard Pryor dies and I thought, how appropriate. Now's the time. It's been years since I saw the film and I don't think I've ever seen the widescreen version, only the crappy Pan & Scan one. It's not really that great a movie, but it's definitely entertaining. Diana Ross is fantastic and makes it a point with the songs not to imitate Lady Day, but to try and bring herself and the character she's playing to the tunes. What great songs. Also, what can you say, the woman got her Mackie on and looked FABulous! On to Pryor, his character of Piano Man (supposedly an amalgam of people in Billie's musical past, Lester Young, especially) is sort of the little brother Billie never had. Definitely there for some comic relief, but Pryor was above just being that. He leant a lot of real weight to the character and did an outstanding job. Billy Dee Williams' Louis McKay is there to be the almost angelic patriarch that Billie never had. In real life, he was her third husband and supposedly beat her. Very nice eye candy and I guess again another amalgam. However, Berry Gordy has been quoted as saying he didn't want to do a documentary but he did want to present one view of this beautiful woman's life. So, all in all, a flawed film, but an incredibly entertaining one that was nice to revisit. |
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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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| Mr. Brownstone |
| Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:32 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2450
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Acknowledging my failures at attempting to study for a huge exam I have to take at the end of January, I watched Ocean's Twelve last night.
The movie was utterly panned when it came out, though I'm not sure why. It's plot is silly fun that is often intractable, but it can boast of its cool feel, adept direction, snappy writing and several really good performances (as in the previous film, my favorite moments all involve Scott Caan and Casey Affleck's bickering).
The film's reception seems to have suffered from the perception that Clooney and the gang were simply hanging out in opulent Europe, having a blast drinking $500 bottles of vodka, and in between cruises on the sea and brunches on the piazza were shooting a movie that would make them all rich. It seemed too easy, and maybe it was, but what do I care if Brad Pitt and Matt Damon can pick up chicks and a tan while picking up a check for $10 million? It's still a fun movie. |
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"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge |
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