Bridge on the River Kwai. i wasn't very familiar with this movie before seeing it. at first, i was like, "you've got to be kidding me... i'm in store for a 3-hour movie about POWs building a bridge?" but the commando angle reeled me in. i can't say i loved it, but it was entertaining and i enjoyed the performances from alec guinness and william holden, as usual. at least it was a good way to spend my MLK morning off work.

i enjoyed big fan a lot.

the book of eli was the road with more action and bibles. some scenes looked good but i kinda felt like i'd been to church when i got out of the movie.

up in the air was excellent.

paper heart was kind of cute, maybe a little too much so.

this is either going to be the worst movie of all time...or the best:

http://iamrogue.com/macgruber/

ahem.

Hurt Locker

It was pretty good. Not much of a plot and more of a character study.

Despite the semi-predictable/hokie/drawn out ending, this is one of the best movies ever made. Alec Guinness is a fucking God.

You gotta grasp the British Stiff Upper Lip/sense of pride to really appreciate the whole picture.

this is going to be great.

i have a grasp on that, but i think the root of it may be that my non-star wars knowledge of guinness is pretty limited to the ealing comedies. other than lawrence of arabia i'd never seen him play a straight role. perfectly acceptable film that i'll probably go back to at some point.

Wow man... I don't know. That looks to have at least a 20% chance of being Gentlemen Broncos-like shite. Looks intriguing though.

Wall Street 2 just completed shooting and is supposed to come out in April. Michael Douglas reprises his role as Gordon Gecko, and Charlie Sheen has a cameo as Bud Fox. Oliver Stone directed...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_2

Hot Tub Time Machine Agreed.
I loved the trailer, as corny as it was, and hopefully rhy can pull it of, and the chuckles didn't only appear here...

To Have and Have Not. i'm not even sure why i watched this, other than it was taking up space on my DVR. so, lauren bacall's cinematic debut is all right and bogey is... bogey. i find myself drawn to the minor characters way more than the leads in these movies.

Yeah, that could go either way. It looks like a mixture of ACO, The Warriors and every skate movie I saw in the late 80s/early 90s. Interesting that someone who reviewed it on imdb said its very much like the Prisoner with skateboarding.

Rick McCrank is in it, so at least there's some skate cred there.

This came out on Tuesday in the Criterion Collection. While, I'm a little hesitant on their Soderbergh love other there, I still respect them for putting this out.

Full disclosure--I've only watched pt.1 thus far. There's a few reasons why I was extremely excited to see this. First, the subject matter. Like many late 90s/early 00s college student, I was caught up in the Che idolization. I actually read books on him though, including the monstrous Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson, so I guess that at least puts me a little above those who just hung a pic of him on their dorm walls. Second, this was shot with the new Red camera. If you work in the field, you know how big a deal this is. I followed it while it was being developed, when it was finally released, and then while this film was shot. This was the first major motion picture filmed with it. Red was even on set setting up workflow, and getting all the kinks worked out while this was shot, so it was kinda big deal. Thirdly, this was a pretty polarized film. There were some who wrote how great it was, and others who wanted to deny its existence.

Part 1 was fantastic. It achieved all that I hoped it would without becoming too dry during the revolutionary period. I really liked the back and forth nature to give perspective on Che in the US and him in Cuba. Soderbergh can shoot action sequences, which is why I've never realized why he hasn't been hit up for any hard action pictures. Perhaps he has, but turned them down. In any event, the "final" battle of part 1 is pretty intense. There's points in which you wonder whether its cg or actual things being blown up or derailed. If its cgi, then those animators did a great job.

I also liked the fact that this was filmed in spanish, as opposed to english with a spanish accent.

Del Toro is an amazing facsimile for Che. Not only does he look the part, but his acting is superb. I have no idea why he wasn't nom'd for an Oscar--or really why this film was so overlooked. He won at Canne, and usually a win there at least gets a nod at the Golden Globes. No dice. I wonder if years from now, this film will be rejudged, and looked at as a classic.

Part 2 comes tomorrow. Will edit to give my part 2 and overall thoughts.

I'm catching up on last year:

While I am sure that this is probably an overblown ego project for both director and actor, and I would curse you as weak were we in school together, your write up makes me want to see this even more than I already wanted to. I forgot this actually came out, as we don't get much run for movies like this down here in Bama.

Decieded to watch King of Comedy after hearing an interview about Big Fan and the influence of Scorcese and specifically Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. Both were really good...can't believe I hadn't seen King of Comedy till now...awesome performance by Deniro.

Haha, yeah I experimented with that who "pseudo-anarchist" mentality in school, and look where it got me--soon going to school to become a pastor, so who knows. Plus, I feel like we could've put our arguments aside back then to listen to the Band. I'm half-Bamian by blood. Anyway, I think one of the best scenes is when he meets McCarthy at a party. Interesting, and well-played acting.

Put off part 2 for today, with so much other stuff to do today.

I was more impressed by Steve Olson as the baker. Otherwise it looks kinda lame.

Not a 2010 movie, but last night I saw Watchmen on demand, and was really surprised how much I liked it. Kelly Leak was absolutely awesome.

A Streetcar Named Desire. i really didn't know anything about this before seeing it, other than that, like most tennessee williams film adaptations, it was toned down from the play. the story was fine, performances were very good. the one thing that struck me was how many similarities can be drawn between vivien leigh's character here and gloria swanson's in sunset blvd. i'm sure tomes have been written about that. and i didn't think karl malden was spectacular, yet dude pulled an oscar for this role?

Gilda. everyone and their mother's seen the most famous scene here, usually just if they've seen shawshank redemption. that's all i was going on too. aside from that, i didn't know what to expect here and really liked how glenn ford and rita hayworth played without revealing a whole lot about their past. what was it about all of these films from the 40s and 50s with american expats? humphrey bogart practically made a career from it. some hitchcock relies on it. i can't figure it out. were there really that many expats during these decades?

thought it was hilarious.

Laura - Thought it was an excellent if a little predictable film noir/suspense movie. Gene Tierney was crazy hot, and it's the first time I've seen Vincent Price in a non-horror type role. Standout performance from Mr. Belvedere.

Following Sean - Great documentary following the life of kid a raised on Haight Ashbury at the height of flower power. Really well done and one of the better documentaries I've seen in a long time.

I'm surprised I didnt want to cut my wrists after seeing 'It's Complicated' with the Mrs... It was a bit more than watchable!

Since we're snowed in, my wife and I decided to watch the Matrix trilogy, which to be honest, I probably haven't watched since the last film came out on DVD.

Both of us agreed some of the outfits and music are definitely dated. The biggest laugh we got though were the cellphones, which back then were at the height of high-tech. I remember thinking the phone in the 2nd Matrix film was incredible, now it just looks like a relic like any older, early 00s phone.

Story-wise, films hold up--or rather the first one holds up. I remember thinking when the 2nd and 3rd came out what a let-down they were, and while I've softened my stance slightly on them, they still don't hold a candle to the first film. The first contains a lot of philosophy, religious, and cultural goodies scattered throughout the story (seemingly hidden), while the 2nd and 3rd seem to push it down yr throat. The 1st just implemented it so well within the story. Not to say that there wasn't gems--in the second film when Morpheus's ship is exploded, there is an allusion to book of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams. Maybe we weren't looking for them so actively the 1st go round? I remember going into the 2nd film at the midnight showing, opening day thinking how much they could do with it--only to leave thinking how they had shrunk the world. It seemed like the confines of making follow-ups to probably one of the most influential sci-fi films of late strangled their creativity.

On the effects side, there were so definite upgrades (highway scene), and then some now dated scenes (Burly Brawl). The so-called Burly Brawl that happens after Neo meets the Oracle in the 2nd film, and is gang-rushed by hundreds of Agent Smiths didn't age well. Its easy to look at that scene (which very little was done live) and see what upgrades have been made to CGI.

Overall its been fun. Maybe tomorrow we'll try our hand at the LOTR trilogy. Though, thats gonna be a lot more work.