has a stageplay ambiance, like dogville, i.e. small cast, very little set variation. fiennes is good as a mumbling schizophrenic, but the other characters are either wooden (the dad) or one dimensional (worrisome mother, promiscuous tart).


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even though i fell asleep 2/3rds of the way through and woke up to a bunch of japanese people singing in unison, i gotta give props to a monster flick that gives way less time to city-smashing and way more time to plot development than i had ever assumed it did.

Spider is maybe my least favorite Cronenberg movie. I was hugely disappointed by it.

yea me too, honestly

i finished watching Batman: Gotham Knight - i'm pretty sure that is the title. 6 animated short stories. most of them were entertaining.

i've got Hellboy 2 waiting for me to watch, but i'm kinda in an Arnold mood, so i might go for the Terminator trilogy.

I saw Milk yesterday afternoon and thought it was great.

I really was impressed at how they captured the 70's throughout the whole thing. Really detailed. Sean Penn was as solid as ever but James Franco was the real surprise for me.

notorious i enjoyed it even though i'm not the biggest fan of biggie. the guy who played tupac wasn't very good though and i really don't remember tupac wearing silk shirts like he was in shai. the girl who plays lil kim gets naked a LOT. the kid who played lil cease was pretty funny as was the almost constant dancing of the dude playing puffy. worth a viewing.

octopussy & moonraker i finally got the last set of james bond box sets so i watched these the other day. octopussy was definitely more enjoyable though there was still some cheesiness to it. moonraker has the hotter bond girl of these two (lois chiles) and has one of the best double entendres i've ever heard.

Sir Frederick Gray, Minister of Defence: My God, what's Bond doing?
Q: I think he's attempting re-entry, sir.

black belly of the tarantula pretty good looking giallo with some big names in it (giancarlo gianinni, barbara bach, claudine auger, barbara bouchet) and ennio morricone did the score. i kept falling asleep during the end but it's no fault of the movie. and i swear to god, i've heard one of the songs here sampled in a hip hop tune though i can't remember who it is for the life of me.

This was pretty impressive visually, but some of the main characters were laughable. It could have been a lot better.

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this was quite good

Across The Universe – Julie Taymor’s Beatles musical. I liked this quite a bit, and was surprised to see it was thrashed by so many critics. Yes, it was gaudy and preposterous at times, but I forgave it. With musicals, I either buy into them or completely hate the time I spend watching them. This one grabbed me from the beginning. Most of you would probably hate it.

Man On Wire – As good as everyone here has already said it is.

District B13 – Great French action flick. Probably the best use of parkour stunts in a movie.

Stand By Me – Hadn’t seen this for a while. The acting from all four (Phoenix, Wheaton, Feldman, O’Connell) is good, even for adult standards. And I forget the insane menace that Keifer Sutherland used to be capable of.

lawrence of arabia. i wasn't blown away by this movie. i get it and thought a lot of scenes were well done, but it took over an hour for me to actually get interested and then took forever to come to a close.

Great movie. Is Sean Penn even nominated for any awards for this?

Old Joy - Meh.

Gran Torino - liked this more than I thought I would. Probably because I identified with the asians. Still, nice performance by Clint.

tried to get through dr. zhivago with much the same impression

I saw "I Am Legend" last night. Boy did that suck.

I know people that don't like this, but that statement is still a shocker. Perhaps one of the finest films ever made.

watched a few days ago:



I had never heard of this, but netflix'd it due to the now deafening acclaim that is coming to the director, Götz Spielmann, next film--"Revanche". I went into this blind other than the fact that this was Austria's entry into the 2004/5 Oscars for best foreign film. Its an idea we've seen before, 3 women, with intertwining stories. Each vignette is about 30 minutes long, and in that time we see how each woman is used or abused in some manner. Sometimes its to their own accord, and sometimes its not.

I've gotta say that the first one had some crazy elicit sex scenes in it. So much so, some of it couldn't have been staged, which just cements the idea that European actors and audiences are way more chill about the whole sex issue.

Overall it was shot well. From a cinematography stand-point, the lighting seemed overly artificial throughout the film. Not sure that it altered perception per se, but it did give it a certain feel. Like I said, its not breaking any new ground, but it was entertaining if you enjoy European pseudo-arthouse flicks.

Tonight I plan on viewing:

Even though it's a couple years old, I just saw This Is England and really loved it. Skinheads in the early 80s. Parallels to American History X.

cocteau's pretty amazing. i'd watch the orphic trilogy again if i were still on netflix

I really want to watch Eden Lake, but it's been sitting in my netfilx queue for weeks now.

I guess netflix was serious when they said "very long wait".

I'm pretty sure this is still available to rent. Maybe not to view instantly, but I have it in my queue.

I sat down and watched this, and while I liked it well enough, it didn't strike me as hard and fast as "La Belle et la bête". I however, am now smitten with Nicole Stephane. I wonder if any of her other films are worthwhile to view. She played demented in such a great way, that you could see where femme fatales following must've gleamed something from her icy stares and movements. I'd actually like to take a crack at the novel. It must be interesting.

Saw this today.

I also like this more than I thought I would. The first half especially was hilarious.

People keep saying this about Gran Torino. I just can't get over the trailer and how cheesy it looks. I might chance it here, though my gut says stay away.

I have loads to watch over the weekend.

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