Round-up time...

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - 5/10
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax - 4/10
Ordinary People - 8/10
The Swell Season - 7/10
Fireworks (1997) - 5/10
M (1931) - 9/10
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - 9/10
8 1/2 - 7/10
The Cabin in the Woods - 8/10
Vampire Circus - 5/10
Undefeated (2011) - 7/10
The Three Stooges (2012) - 5/10
Easy Rider - 7/10
New York, I Love You - 5/10
The Raid: Redemption - 6/10
X (2011) - 5/10
Kind Hearts and Coronets - 6/10
You Don't Know Jack - 8/10
The Joneses - 7/10
Dance with Me, Henry - 7/10
The Battle of Algiers - 10/10
The Innkeepers - 7/10

To Be or Not To Be

Well, I've gotten to the part of the top 1000 films where I have no expectations going into viewings. Before To Be or Not To Be, I hadn't seen anything by Lubitsch. I didn't even know it was a comedy until it started making me laugh.

This is the epitome of comedy and satire in film. It starts with a plot that would be interesting without the jokes and it builds into something great. I kept thinking about how ahead of its time it is. I also can't understand how they were allowed to release a satire about Nazis in 1942.

3.5/4

Captain America - The First Avenger (2011)

Obligatory origin story about Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), the 98 pound weakling who is denied military service during WWII due to a myriad of illnesses and frailties but who has the noble spirit seen by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) that gains him entry into a top secret "super soldier" program run by the US army. On the Nazi side of things, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), who was also once in a similar program of Erskine's in Germany, has amassed a small army within the third reich dedicated to his own abominable scientific and cultish pursuits.

The transformation of Rogers into the titular Captain America is pretty impressive, but alas the story was a little underwhelming. There was also a little bit too much reliance on CGI (just how many miles long was Red Skull's underground runway???); for a story that takes place in the 40's I would have preferred a little more old school stuntwork, sets and locations.

The motivations behind Rogers' heroism is fine enough; it will be interesting to see how he interacts with his fellow Avengers next month. 2.5 / 4.0


Everything Must Go (2011)

Another foray into the dramatic from Will Farrell as he portrays alcoholic Nick Halsey who loses his job, his wife and access to his house all on the same day. He arrives home and finds all of his possessions deposited on his front lawn. With no money, car or job, Frank plops down into his comfy leather recliner on the lawn and starts pounding Pabst Blue Ribbons.

Frank Garcia (Michael Pena), a local police detective and Nick's AA sponsor, tries to help Frank get his life back in order, finding a loophole in the local law that says Nick can stage a yard sale for 5 days before he has to move himself and his stuff off of the lawn and find someplace else to go.

Nick also forges new relationships with Kenny, a local kid whose working mom leaves him to his own devices for days on end and spends his time riding his bike through the neighborhood, and Samantha (Rebecca Hall), a woman who has moved in across the street and is wating for her husband to join her.

Overall Everything Must Go was a decent enough character study of a man who is forced to evaluate his life and come to grips with the mistakes and missed opportunities he has left behind. Will Farrell was effective enough in the part, though, while I felt his resignation, I didn't really get enough despair from Farrell's interpretation. At just over 90 minutes, the movie itself moves along well enough and ends on just about the right note. 3.0 / 4.0

I also was fairly underwhelmed by this. Actually I actively disliked it. And I hated how they turned the one emotionally satisfying moment of the film into a punchline ("I had a date!")

Hell yes! I can't tell you how much I love this movie. It's utterly brilliant! And it has balls the size of grapefruits. It's a true work of genius.

Dirty Mary Crazy Larry

A driver, a mechanic, and the driver's bubble-headed blonde girlfriend go on the lam after robbing a grocery store, which leads to lots of great car chases and some snappy dialogue. Released around the same time as carsploitation contemporaries Vanishing Point and Two-Lane Blacktop, Dirty Mary may be lesser than those films, but it's still fun. And Vic Morrow is great, chewing scenery as a demented sheriff trying to catch the thieves.

Tintin: The Legend of the Unicorn

You know, you may not hear me say this very often, but I felt like this movie had too much talent behind the uh... well, it can't be said to have been behind the camera, but I guess, you could say talent behind the manipulation of the pixels in the computer programs that put this together.

While the CGI characters are of the sort who are a little too realistic, but not quite realistic enough so that they look real, instead of creepy, that was not the biggest problem I had with the movie. As it was, I frequently felt like Spielberg was more interested in going "look at what I can do with a computer!" than in choosing the shots that were best suited for telling the story and developing the characters. Look at the cool reflections! Look at the cool ways I can smoothly manoeuvre the camera in ways that would be impossible in real life! Look at the impressive landscapes! and so on. The visual chichenery is all rather nice and eye pleasing but I also found it too distracting in the end. So who and what was this movie about again?

Last but not least, whose with me in saying that this might have been better as a traditional animated film rather than cgi?

Clash of the Doldrums

If Tintin's problem was that it had too much talent, Clash of the Titans has too little. This is basically the sort of movie which is so relentless in it's desire to achieve mediocrity, that it actually becomes somewhat depressing. The battle speeches are half assed, the action is occassionaly exciting but too chaotic to be remotly memorable, and most characters are introduced and then given little or nothing of interest to do (and not just the minor ones either).

Movies can frequently survive bland, woodenly acted protagonists. Movies can even survive with very little originality to fuel their plots and develop their characters. (See the first Star Wars for an example) I am not a proponent of "films must be original to be good". However, unoriginal movies need *something* to keep them from faling into the abyss of boredom. Clash of the Titans has nothing.

Characters just aren't underdeveloped, they're pretty much not developed at all beyond the demands of the plot. I spent most of the movie wondering what distinguished the two other leaders of the gang that accompanied Perseus, to the point that I couldn't help but go, "okay whose bright idea was it to have two nearly identical characters who are both given lines but don't appear in any way different from each other?"

In fact why couldn't Perseus just set out on his own with just that chick who looks and acts like Arwen? Outside of getting to fight occasionally, none of the members of the gang are given any real purpose. The hunter characters appear to be introduced (I thought) for the purpose of comic relief but then aren't given anything of note to do, be it comic relief or worse (given the priorities of the movie) to advance the plot. Even the jinn who show up after the scorpion battle are pretty much there merely to heal the main plot device, aka Perseus.

I think the first lesson in filmmaking school should be "Okay listen, up. In order to tell a good story, you must do something beyond doing the bare minimum to move your characters and plot from point A to point B."

As for the acting, Worthington is merely bland and worse, makes the mistake of always wearing a shirt. If there had been a little beefcake, I might been a little bit more forgiving as it was though... As for Liam Neesen, he is given pretty much nothing to do besides stand around and deliver the occasional line or two. Then there is Fiennes, who gives the audience nothing less than his best Voldermort impression.

Than there's the issue of what the central conflict supposed to be. There's a lot of talk about how man must take a stand against the cruel gods, and Persues's "but I can't become like them" but the plot itself is more interested in setting up Hades against Zeus and the ending itself appears to support that this was in fact the main conflict (of the plot).


Like so many other elements, these two (different) conflicts are so underdeveloped they become slightly confusing, not to mention, boring.

Just watched Billy Wilder's Ace In the Hole. Holy ass and balls, this movie is harsh.

It's all about how journalists, the willing public, and politicians come together to influence the course of events that get reported on, in a way that encourages tragedy and leaves nobody's hands clean. I suppose it makes sense that people rejected it when it originally came out: it took so long for people to admit the uncomfortable accuracy of scenarios like this one.

I wish I could talk about the marvelous construction of every aspect of this movie, but you know it's doing its job when you feel it in your gut instead of in your head. There is not a wasted edit nor an ineffective shot to be found. Just pure storytelling.

Oh yeah. This movie is bleak and cynical even by today's standards; I can't imagine what it was like for audiences in the 1950s. Needless to say, it's one of my favorite films.

Amarcord

This is the fourth Fellini film I have seen, the first being 8 1/2, La Strada, and La Dolce Vita. There are a few major differences between Amarcord and Fellini's earlier works. During the 1960s, his film style was at the forefront of Italian neo-realism (and later post neo-realism). His films are overwhelmingly cynical at times. They draw you in with lighthearted, fleeting, superficial character interactions and then rip your heart out. While the cynicism remains in Amarcord, this is by far lighter fare. This film is also in color, where his previous works had been black and white (at least the ones I have mentioned). If you're looking for a starting place with Fellini, I suggest you start here.

Amarcord is loosely based on the town that Fellini grew up in (Rimini) during the 1930s with Fascism at its height. "Amarcord" itself translates to "I remember". While this is more of an ensemble film, there is a core group of characters that makes up Fellini's family. We are introduced to the town and its characters by a narrator who is himself a town inhabitant and who regularly breaks the fourth wall. We see the town cycle through the seasons. We see young love, marriage, and death.

Fellini's presentation of the material is what makes the film work as a whole. We get the sense that because it is based on his life, we are being given the privilege to see what his childhood was like. He doesn't try to show us a specific event. Amarcord is about recreating the atmosphere of memory. As such, the historical accuracy is not really considered. I didn't even realize that it was supposed to be the 1930s until the rally for fascism.

Rarely do we see the use of a closeup. The emphasis is always placed on groups of people interacting fluidly. It is as if we are in this town, watching events unfold before us. The camera is always at eye level. Fellini uses it to capture the raw emotion of situations. You get to feel what dinner at his house was like, what going to school was like, what dealing with priests was like, and so on.

Thematically, Amarcord only differs from Fellini's other works in its youthfulness. Otherwise, the themes he usually uses are all here. His distrust of the church and his treatment of the Italian attitude are both here. But we get the sense that they are not the focus, as was true in his earlier films. In La Dolce Vita, for instance, if you didn't understand the themes and the meaning behind his scenes, then nothing would make sense.

Overall, it was nice to find a Fellini film that I could get into and just enjoy. It doesn't ask much from you. Amarcord is Fellini telling us, "This is why." I would recommend revisiting some of his earlier works after seeing this.

3.5/4

Well, it is a remake, or sort of one, anyway. Sounds like they took a lot more liberties with the myth. (Perseus has a gang? There's a Djin? Is there at least a Medusa?) Were the other two leaders named Castor and Pollux?

Great review! I have only seen a handful of Fellini films (actually, the same ones that you've seen), and this is the one I enjoyed the most. It has a lightness and warmness to it that I haven't felt in his other works, almost Tati-esque in some places. Still, even though there are some terrific moments of comedy, both broad and subtle, there are also some melancholic moments that I found surprisingly moving. The sense of nostalgia for the time and place in the film is perfect, and I found I had grown to care about the characters in the community. I need to watch it again.

This right here is where I need help darthy. Quite a while back I saw La Dolce Vita and well, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. My thoughts below, from the Great Movies thread if anyone cares.

http://reelviews.net/reelviewsforum/viewtopic.php?p=67020#p67020

Maybe I need to watch more Fellini, as this is the only one of his I've seen. And speaking of La Dolce Vita...Kunz...you finally get to watching it?

Actually, I think this may have been closer to the original greek myths than the first one, but I won't know until I watch it tonight. The opening pretty much recounts (briefly) the overthrowing of the titans by the gods, which, by highlighting the fact that there are no titans to be found, only begs the question of why is the film titled "Clash of the Titans".
-Jeremy

Well, I'm not exactly an expert on Fellini, and I haven't seen La Dolce Vita in a while, but I'll tell you what I can. I would say that overall the film is about the moral state of Italy in the 1960s, and in a broader sense, finding one's way in a world without values. I don't think it makes any sense without the context of post-war Italy. Throughout the film we are presented with religious symbols juxtaposed with traditionally selfish and immoral acts as seen through the eyes of indecisiveness and ambivalence.

I don't like the 7 deadly sins interpretation. While I can't deny that there is some connection due to the presence of Christianity, I think it segments the film too much. Fellini is about big picture. La Dolce Vita, like Amarcord, is about creating a feeling, I think. Fellini wants to show what it's like to live with the "intellectual elite" and how they are just as shallow as anyone else. Ram, after reading your comments from the other thread, it seems to me like the problem you're having is that you are looking for an answer. I think Fellini is telling us that there is no answer. He shows that people are shitty and they lie no matter how many symbols of virtue surround them. He also shows that everyone is looking for an answer, but everyone ends up acting shallow anyways.

Sorry for getting existential. That got a lot deeper than I expected.

Clash of the Titans (original)

I actually liked this a little bit better than the remake, which I felt was basically a great example of big budget blandness. Yes it's flawed but I'd rather watch something that's cheesy than bland.
-Jeremy

Hahahah not yet. I've got two months until I head to Italy. I promise I will watch it before then

These two things right here, darthy, help me clear up a lot on that damn movie. I get the feeling that's what that damn beast out of the ocean represents. I always do that with these type of movies...search for an answer or a direction the creative force is going for. This film did that especially. Usually a film builds up to something in my mind, some sort of, well like I said, direction. This film seemed to go everywhere for me...which messed me up.

Fuckin Fellini. He's gonna do that again to me...isn't he?

We better get some sort of picture in/on/by some sort of fountain Kunz.

And I better hear specifics about food. Fuck me I've always wanted to go to Italy.

Seriously, that guy is crazy. Although the themes from La Dolce Vita really remind me of L'Avventura, which as I recall, left the majority of the forum dumbfounded. Perhaps its worth another viewing.