The Summer Of Love, Murder, and Dysfunction




Tue, Aug 25: TAKING WOODSTOCK
Fri, Aug 28: HALLOWEEN 2
Sat, Aug 29: THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989)




Hello, week 25 survivors (heh), and welcome to another round of 'How Well Do You Know James?', the only contest where obsessively mining information from one person has entertaining (and legal!) merits. This week we have a comedy drama from the thoroughly unpredictable Ang Lee concerning one man's contributions to Woodstock, a sequel to a remake of a 70's horror classic (...), and a black comedy in which alimony is just getting off easy! Unlike last week, there are no freebies (although a more astute reader might assume a few of the ratings with little incident), so get your thinking helmets on, set your James-o-meters to 'High' (Lord knows some of you have mastered it uncannily), and get ready to vote lose!



P.S. - Get ready for a competition poll in the next few weeks. More details after this week's contest.

TAKING WOODSTOCK - ***
HALLOWEEN 2 - *
THE WAR OF THE ROSES - ***1/2

Taking Woodstock: 3 stars

Halloween 2: 1.5 stars

War of the Roses: 3.5 stars

TAKING WOODSTOCK - 3.0
HALLOWEEN 2 - 2.0
THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989) - 3.0

Tougher week. Taking Woodstock doesn't look all that great, but James seems to be an Ang Lee fan. Halloween 2 is supposedly going to be an original film, so perhaps it'll be better than Zombie's first foray. I'm tempted to go 2.5, but I'll keep the same rating as Halloween. Search for 'The War of the Roses' on Reelviews and you'll find more than 10 hits. I checked out about three of those. I gather JB thinks it is one of the better black comedies, so I figure 3.0 or 3.5 is the magic number.

TAKING WOODSTOCK ** 1/2 - James disliking this film seems unlikely, but I don't see him gravitating towards three stars, which could probably be the ceiling if anything.

HALLOWEEN 2 ** - This film poses an interesting question: Even if a remake does not live up to the original, can it build to a much more consistent, and maybe even one day notable, series than it's predecessor? I'm not sure how much weight to put into that theory, but it's intriguing to me. This could, even with a negative review, be preferential to the original sequel.

THE WAR OF THE ROSES *** 1/2 - James constantly refers to this film as an exemplary black comedy, maybe even a standard of the sub-genre. I think this is close to being a lock.

Taking Woodstock- **1/2
Halloween 2- **1/2
War Of The Roses- ***1/2

Taking Woodstock - **1/2
Halloween 2 - **
War of the Roses - ***1/2

TAKING WOODSTOCK - 3.0
HALLOWEEN 2 - 1.5
THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989) - 3.5

Taking Woodstock - ***1/2
Halloween 2 - *1/2
The War of the Roses - ***1/2

Taking Woodstock: ** 1/2
Halloween 2: **
War of the Roses: *** 1/2

Taking Woodstock: ***
Halloween 2: * 1/2
War of the Roses: *** 1/2

Taking Woodstock - *** It's Ang Lee people!
Halloween 2 - ** I don't expect James to feel any differently about this than he did about the original remake
War Of The Roses - ***1/2 James has cited this time and time again as an excellent example of dark comedy (I actually tend to agree)

Taking Woodstock - 3 stars
Halloween 2 - 2 stars
War of the Roses - 3.5 stars

Taking Woodstock: **1/2
Halloween 2: *
War of the Roses: ***

I'm taking a pessimistic viewpoint this week. Frankly, I hope I'm wrong about Taking Woodstock; I'm a huge fan of both Ang Lee and Demetri Martin.

Taking Woodstock - 2.5
Halloween 2 - 1.5
War of the Roses - 3.5

Taking Woodstock - ***
Halloween II - **
War of the Roses - ****

Taking Woodstock - 2.5 stars
Halloween 2 - 2 stars
War of the Roses - 3.5 stars

Taking Woodstock - 3 stars
Halloween 2 - 2 stars
War of the Roses - 3.5 stars

Taking Woodstock - 2.5
Halloween - 2.0
The War of the Roses - 3.5

I'm curious as to why JB isn't reviewing the new FD flick when the last one he ALMOST gave a favorable review and seemed to think the movies were actually getting better with each new one?


Taking Woodstock - ***
Halloween 2 - * 1/2
War of the Roses - *** 1/2


Halloween 2 looks awful. Actually, I will say it actually looks pretty funny. It might work as an unintended comedy.