The Freshman and College. i'd love to know why keaton made the latter just two years after lloyd did the former. there are more than a handful of similarities between them, most notably in athletic stardom contributing mightily to popularity.

maybe i don't get lloyd or the glasses character because i just thought the movie was all right until the suit scene. "oh, look, a naive nerd goes to college." that didn't really offer much, but the suit scene's really funny. keaton's brand of physical comedy simply lends itself much more to the athletic theme. dude takes so many hilarious falls and always comes up with that dry expression. it's not my favorite keaton movie, but still really funny.

This looks good.

http://www.prodigalsonsfilm.com/drupal/home

Just watched "Walkabout" and "Picnic at Hanging Rock" based on recommendation. Both Australian films. "Walkabout" was quirky, interesting, slightly disturbing, but provocative in a 70s sort of way (Nicolas Roeg directed). "Picnic at Hanging Rock" seemed slightly dated and hokey, but an interesting premise nonetheless. I'd originally mistaken this for being based on a factual event, but it is fiction according to wikipedia. It's one of Peter Weir's first films.

shares birthplace with me, unmistakable whiteness

Holy shit. Words can not describe the new levels of terrible that GI Joe reached. That was 117 minutes of my life lost forever. Wow...just wow.

An Education. this is one of those movies that's just all right on a bunch of different levels, but one actor is like, "fuck it; i'm turning in a masterpiece." and that's carey mulligan here. i'd obviously heard a lot of talk over her role here, but kinda shrugged it off because i had no idea who she was. she was great, though. otherwise, i found this to be a bit predictable even if it did keep my attention.

The lovely bones was so bad that I was to see gi Joe now and determine a winner.

re: the g.i. joe movie.

we didn't have a thread to discuss the intricacies of this film? i'm the biggest fan of the franchise here, no doubt. i thought the look of the film was decent. other than CC in general and Ripcord being black, the characters and the vehicles had fairly accurate design. i thought the plot was fitting - the stuff destro was trying to do in the film was just as he did in the comics, although in the movie he was a little more merciless.

what the film totally screwed up was the back story of every single character. it was annoying because they COULD have done it correctly, but for whatever reason didn't. it's like they half-read a Joe wiki-page to "get the idea" and filled in the blanks with nonsense.

as for the action and so forth it was fine. typical summer blockbuster blow-em-ups...which i like.

the worst movie of 2009 was easily Transformers 2. maybe one of the worst i've ever seen. i regret even d/ling it.

avatar was good.

Really enjoyed this. I'm so-so on Oswalt, so I wasn't sure how I'd like it. Its written by the same guy who wrote The Wrestler, and who edited The Onion for a decade, Robert Siegel. Oswalt is actually reeled in a little here, though there are definite dark comedy elements at work. Watching the extras there is a Q & A with Oswalt, Siegel and Capone from Ain't It Cool News after a screening. They discussed the amount of improv allowed on set. Patton spoke up and said this guy is not the brightest, so his vocabulary isn't extensive. He said there was one filmed scene where he went off on a tangent and they had to cut it because the character would never be able to verbalize thoughts like that. Interesting bits like that made me appreciate the writing on the film. Siegel captures perfectly the sometimes obtuse and cliched world of sports talk radio perfectly.

Words of sanity. I really didn't give a shit about the back stories, but the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow thing was pretty painful. Plus my wife said they were actually speaking Korean, not Japanese.

Did you ever read that one really funny "review" that called Transformers 2 an "art film"?

Last couple of things I watched:

The Hurt Locker. I thought this was great. Such a simple idea that made for such a naturally thrilling movie. I felt like it struck the perfect balance between gritty realism and flashy Hollywood action flick. It had some action movie cliches - mainly the main character and his whole reckless, bulletproof persona - but they played out in such a starkly realistic setting that they seemed really fresh and exciting. The way his actions affected the other members of his unit and their attitude toward him added a great dimension to it, too.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I had never seen this before, but I'd been meaning to watch it for a really long time. After all that, though, I don't know if it really met my expectations. It was good, definitely. Maybe it suffered a little from the lack of any truly sympathetic characters. (I suppose I could say the same for Amadeus.) But then I don't know if it really "suffered" from anything. Maybe I've seen so many derivations of this that it sort of dulled its impact. I can't really think of a better movie set in a mental institution, and the acting was, of course, excellent. I'll have to watch it again sometime.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Gilliam. Freaky. Maybe a little overlong, but it kept my interest, for the most part, throughout the entire flick. Tom Waits as the devil was great... maybe better than expected. His presence is always pretty similar, be he actually gave a little bit of pathos to his character in this case. More than just a leering, malevolent presence. I actually kinda liked the guy here, and not just because he was Tom Waits and amused me. Yeah, the movie was a bit of a jumbled mess. but in a good way. I had fun with this one.

I can agree with this. I, too, appreciate it but disagree when I hear/read people say this is Jack's finest performance.

I disagree though with your assessment of Amadeus. I think both Mozart and Salieri both are suffering characters. They might not be likable on a level, but they both suffer from things that the viewer can relate to. We've all had that experience where we were doing well, and proficient at something and someone new comes and pulls the rug out from underneath us. The feelings that bubble up, F. Murray Abraham played perfectly.

That's true, and I actually think I enjoyed Amadeus a great deal, in retrospect. The two main actors were definitely great. The overall concept behind the movie is very powerful and resonant, and it doesn't really matter if the viewer can't wholly identify with Mozart or Salieri. You can identify with both in turn enough to be drawn into the story.

I've never watched Cuckoo's Nest all the way through. The book is such that you can portray the plot pretty well, but the descriptions of the institution in the writing, and the Kesey story etc are so wrapped up in my enjoyment of the book that I don't think I could be anything but disappointed in the movie.

And Nicholson's finest performance is in A Few Good Men, right?? (I'm being half serious, but man does he chew the scenes up)

Really enjoyed this.

Good question. I'd say he's definitely better in Cuckoo's Nest than in AFGM, though.

And better in Five Easy Pieces than either of the others.

My favorite is probably The Shining, but it would be followed pretty closely by The Last Detail. Unfortunately, '74 happened to be a blockbuster year for strong performances.

the only thing good about this movie were all the cleavage shots, which I felt actually hurt it.

The back stories were definitely the weak area...Rip Cord and Duke being the only 2 that survive the opening scene attack, go on to become Joes in a matter of hours/ days, and then they are the 2 best ones that get sent on the main mission...Destro surviving the air strike...and then becoming evil because the planes came early...The Joe and Baroness love story? wtf? Rip Cord flying crop dusters but then he can fly some new Cobra ship faster than rockets fly... The ending scene battle scene made me laugh out loud with absurdity. How come nobody noticed the dead secrete service guys at the end when Zartan emerged as the president?

Now I never read the comic books...but geezuz...I watched the cartoons and it was hardly even close. They would have been better off starting the movie in the middle of the storyline instead of trying to get people up to speed (I'm thinking sort of like Star Wars).

I think I agree with you Todd.

Broken Embraces. (B-) My first view of an Almodovar movie. A wee bit precious but good god didn't it look glorious? I have Volver & Talk To Her ready to check out over the next week.

2046. (A-) A fucking joy to watch. Hypnotic, intriguing, stunning.

Up In The Air. (D) Didn't do much for me i'm afraid. Just really bland, and i must of slept through the dark humour. Go Hertz, go American Airline, etc, etc.

Two Lovers. (B+) Odd, awkward at times and pretty slow paced but i thought Phoneix was fucking superb. I dunno, i just found it endearing.

Welcome to the board Captain Fish-Fuck. Great name, although I don't think the hyphen in necessary.

Welcome to the board.
Nice first (second?) post; excellent way to begin here.

Thanks Todd, thanks Todd, thanks Todd. Wait did i just say that already. Thanks Todd.

Just what we need. An old member with a new account.