Saw Drive about week or so ago. I thought it was a pretty entertaining mix of pulp fiction, stylish noir, and some Tarantino-esque blasts of ultra-violence (had an older couple walk out after the elevator scene).

Still, now a week later, and I've pretty much forgotten about it. The looks of it and the soundtrack helped to forget some of the suspensions of disbelief you have to take.

All in all, I thought it was suspensful and a good waste of a couple hours but far from "best movie evar!" praise I've been seeing.

Yeah, I really liked it...but now in hindsight I'm not sure if I liked the actual movie or the thought of the movie. By that I mean the stylishness in which it was created. The atmosphere. The music. The throwback to a weird Michael Mann vibe.

A little slow getting started, I think. But once Kermit came into the picture, it exploded.
You can tell that it was a film made by people who really loved the original Muppet Show and movies.

I finally saw it the other day, and I LOVED it. Definitely heavy on vibe/atmosphere, but Albert Brooks was AWESOME in this! Perlman was solid, as always. Great role for Cranston, playing against type, as well. Probably my favorite movie of the past few years.

Also, the opening scene (and the resolution to it) were simply phenomenal!

Donald Sterling was just happy to know that Ryan Gosling & the two goons he drove were white.

TV related: I've seen the HBO promos for Luck and I don't think they included the fact that Michael Mann was part of the series until recently. Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte and horse racing wasn't enough to get me interested, but I've liked Mann's stuff in the past. Deadwood creator David Milch is also involved. Mann directed the pilot.

http://www.hbo.com/luck/index.html

clippers LOL

This past week I saw so many promos for Luck that I feel like I've already watched a season. I'll probably check it out at some point via dvd.

Speaking of Mann, The Last of the Mohicans director's cut is out now on BR. Hoping that finds its way into my hands 'round Christmas. A film I think is highly under-appreciated. The thing is, Mann has a tendency to hack and slash at films as long as a studio will allow him. Seeing the release of Mohicans made me think I wanted to buy Heat on BR. He cut 2 mins of footage out. Haven't been able to find out what though. Mann is definitely a revisionist.

Saw Meloncholia over the weekend, the new Lars Von Trier movie. Pretty good if uneven I thought. The opening segment was beautiful as expected from one of his movies and the second half of the actual movie was really good as well. The wedding party scenes were not as well done for me, but I at least had a good spirited argument about them after so they did provide fodder for that. If you're a fan, you're unlikely to be disappointed. As always, beautifully shot and for me just having an end-of-the-world movie that was not about efforts to save the planet and instead focused on something more intimate was a refreshing change of pace.

speaking of michael mann, i finally watched Thief over the weekend after hearing about it from everybody. i really enjoyed it. i thought caan's performance was quite good. the actual heist scenes were well done. plus, i wouldn't've even needed credits to know it was one of mann's films. how many directors can you actually say that for? the guy just has a way with style and music.

A Tale of Two Cities. i wasn't about to turn down watching something involving both david o selznick and ronald colman. i've never read the novel, but had a good idea about its story. so i was pretty pleased with this. colman's one of my favorite male actors from the 30s. i almost didn't recognize him without the moustache at first. i'm also pretty ignorant of the french revolution. i'm sure there was a lot of exaggeration with the trial scenes, but i thought they were effective in explaining why what happened had to happen.

i also watched the first half-hour of East of Eden. i really do not care for james dean. i just do not understand the characters he plays.

Watched it a second time a few weeks ago... still LOVE it. Maybe not "best movie evar!" , but still my favorite this year. Still need to see "The Descendants" & "The Muppets" from this past week of new releases.

I have to ask. Have you seen Giant?

it's on my dvr. i've gotten like 20 minutes into it a few times. a coworker keeps saying, "just stick with it."

James Dean FACT: the actress who portrayed Jerry Seinfeld's mother on Seinfeld dated James Dean.

thought Hugo was fantastic.

Really want to see that. Came close to going to a late showing over the holiday.

I agree. I really love it.

I have the James Dean boxset, because my wife loves East of Eden and I love Giant. Rebel is just there.

I watched Pucnching the Clown the other night. I really liked it - if you appreciate Louie CK smart, self-depreciating humor, you'll probably enjoy.

This was interesting, but could've been 30 mins shorter. The biggest downfall is, it didn't have an "ah ha!" moment. The documentary filmmaker shot an interview with then 4 year old Sean in Haight-Ashbury in 1969. Then the filmmaker decides to go and see whatever became of his upstairs child friend and his family. The original short interview won all types of awards back when it was released, and is probably the only thing making this one possible.



Half and half on this. Part of it was a bore and part was hilarious. I can't (not alone) make up my mind whether this was real or not. There certainly are elements that seem too crazy and too convenient to even be real. But then the whole thing is kind of wacky like that. Chris Wiatt sets out to interview all his ex's because he's been habitually dumped over the course of his life. His goal is to find out why he is not dateable.

I saw The Descendants today. It's another very good film by Alexander Payne. I'm a big fan of most of his work (Citizen Ruth, Election, Sideways. About Schmidt not as much). This one ranks up there with his best. This one is probably the most layered of his works--it reminded me of a John Sayles film in many ways. I haven't read the novel this is based on so it may be significantly credited to the author but if so, Payne and Clooney do a great job of adapting it to the screen. The supporting cast is stellar as well. If you're a fan of Payne's other films you'll probably enjoy this too.

I'll be checking out The Descendants soon.

saw it on Friday. thought it was solid.

"dated"

But not really in the same way that, say, Sal Mineo DATED James Dean.

It's more an illustration of how James Dean might have looked, c. 1990s, in contrast to his eternal youth from those classic '55 images that adorn dorm-rooms from coast to coast.

Picture Morty Seinfeld, & you are seeing James Dean.

(For further consideration of this notion, I would wager Jim Morrison might well have grown to Aretha-like proportions, had he survived. Making the Lizard King the original Axl?)