Thoughts: Movies

the funniest movie trailer I've seen in a while

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:02:09 GMT

This is from the guy who made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and it looks really funny. Check it out.

if i were looking for a church to join...

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:09:05 GMT

...this is the one I'd go for!

chocolat vs chocolat

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:37:21 GMT

Some time ago, I added to our Blockbuster on-line queue the film Chocolat, a 1988 film exposing the unfairness of the social order in French colonial Africa. Last week the film arrived in our mailbox with the correct sleeve, we slipped it in, and what came on? The 2000 Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Fine, my wife had never seen this one before, we enjoyed it and reported to Blockbuster that they had sent us the wrong DVD.

Blockbuster then sent us another sleeve for the 1988 Chocolat, but once again with the Juliette Binoche film inside. I think it might be a corporate conspiracy to cover up the colonial legacy. But it won't work.

[This time I sent a detailed email to Blockbuster and they said they'd look fix it and gave me an extra free rental coupon. Free rental! Colonial legacy? What? I'd like to see a change somehow but I'm a little busy right now...]

big screen adaptation of Perfect Strangers!

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 04:25:22 GMT

With all the recent adaptations of TV shows into movies, I was psyched to see that they've released the big-screen version of Perfect Strangers! In case you don't remember, Perfect Strangers was that 1986-1993 sitcom in which the good-natured but naive Balki Bartokomous comes from the island of Mypos to live with his uptight cousin Larry Appleton. Hilarity ensued!

When I saw the movie poster, I wasn't sure whether Halle Berry was going to be Balki or Larry. But then it was clear that Bruce Willis could really only play Larry: look at that grumpy face. It looks like they took some artistic license with the premise, but at least it's out.

Now I just need to hold out for the big-screen adapation of The A-Team, Punky Brewster, and - this will be a special day - Small Wonder, about the little girl robot.

the trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:08:20 GMT

There are links to several different quality versions of the trailer for the final Pirates movie over at Movie-List. Looks like more of the same, for better or for worse. (I enjoyed both movies, like the first better but wasn't bowled over by either.)

ray charles and the cosby show

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:00:26 GMT

My wife and I finished watching Ray last night (the biopic of Ray Charles starring Jamie Foxx): we both thought it was excellent (despite having all the common celebrity biopic elements: genius, drugs, adultery). Afterward, we watched this clip from a 1985 Cosby Show episode in which the Cosbys perform a lip sync to a Ray Charles song. I remember seeing this episode, many years ago: very good times. Remember it? A classic!

If you can't see the video here for some reason, feel free to watch it on youtube.

a funny video

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:01:23 GMT

A friend of mine is competing to be on On the Lot, which is going to be like The Apprentice for film directors, judged by Steven Spielberg. He made a funny short film (just a few minutes long; reminiscent of The Office in tone) that you are likely to enjoy.

Here it is.

review of a cool Mexican film: Macario

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:00:30 GMT

On Thanksgiving Eve, we watched a Mexican film from 1960 entitled Macario. I had listened to a podcast about the personification of death in film which specifically examined The Seventh Seal and Macario (they somehow left out Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey). I thoroughly enjoyed the film and decided to review it on Amazon. (Unfortunately, you can't get it on Netflix - it's listed, but not available...maybe if lots of people put it in their queue, Netflix will get a few copies - nor on Blockbuster.com. We're lucky to have an independent dvd rental store near us.)

Excellent, thoughtful film about death and power

In this 1960 black-and-white film, a poor Mexican woodcutter named Macario - tired of being hungry every day - swears to his wife that he won't eat again until he can eat an entire turkey by himself. His wife obtains a turkey through exceptional effort, Macario travels to the wilderness to eat it, and is then met by a devil, an angel, and death himself. The rest of the film hinges on the results of those encounters. The plot of the movie is entirely captivating. The portrayals of extreme inequality, with indications of beliefs about how those translate into the afterlife, are intriguing, as well as the image of death and how his power is governed. After watching, my wife and I discussed at length the implications of Macario's choices, the foil between him and his wife, and the uses of power.

This film was Mexican film to be nominated for the Academy Award of Best Film in a Foreign Language (it lost to Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring). Next year, on the Day of the Dead (which is when the film takes place), I hope to hold a viewing of Macario.

The DVD is basic but fine. The audiotrack is in the original Spanish, and it has subtitles in English and Spanish. It also has a page with mini bios of the major actors in the film.

The movie is based on a book of the same name by B. Traven.

Steven Seagal is Out of Something

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 20:08:54 GMT

The other night night I was in front of the O titles in the Action section of my local video store, and I saw three in a row, all starring Steven Seagal: Out for Justice, Out for a Kill, and Out of Reach. Although I opted for the tamer but equally inspiring Nacho Libre in the end, I wondered what other Out movies Steven Seagal might headline in the future.

Out of Africa 2: when poachers threaten the quiet life on the Serengeti plain, maverick ranger Seagal implements a no-prisoners policy with poachers and animals alike!

Out of Sight 2: a career bank robber falls in love with a U.S. Marshall he has kidnapped until they are both blown away by no-nonsense security officer Seagal.

Out of Time 2: the dashing Denzel, a local police chief, is investigating a crime before he falls under suspicion himself. He seeks to clear his name...until being blown away without mercy by vigilante Seagal.

These are the remakes we need to see.

(In case you need more on Steven, read my earlier post on Steven Seagal's relationship with the Dalai Lama.)

The Lake House and the REAL Lake House

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:54:04 GMT

Earlier this year, The Lake House opened in U.S. theaters, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. What some people aren't aware of is that The Lake House is a remake of a Korean film that came out in 2000, marketed in Western markets as Il Mare (the sea, in Italian). The romanization of the actual Korean title is Siworae or Si Wall Ae (which, I believe, means "Love Across Time"). Because my wife has spent many years living in Korea, we decided to watch both and draw comparisons.

The basic plot of both movies is that two characters (one of whom currently lives in a house on a lake, hence the name) become pen pals and learn that they are writing from two different times, one person living two years later than the other (i.e., in the Lake House Sandra is in 2006 and Keanu is in 2004).

So we ordered Siworae from blockbuster.com and watched it. (Strangely, the only version available from Blockbuster or Netflix is dubbed into Chinese; you can choose Mandarin or Cantonese, but not the original Korean.) And then we watched The Lake House.

The winner? Definitely The Lake House. In the American version, the filmmaker does a better job showing the interactions across time, introduces the time conflict better, and - most importantly - ends better. The American ending seems much more credible (whatever "credible" means in this context). The Korean film is also much slower paced than the American one and is occasionally more confusing (although even The Lake House has a confusing moment or two). Of course, the American version has its problems: Keanu still hasn't learned to show any emotion, for example.

We enjoyed both, but I'd say the American version is - in this case - new and improved.

These pictures are from rottentomatoes.com and boxofficemojo.com.

how ___ should have ended

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:23:13 GMT

Google video features several cartoon videos that propose alternative endings to popular films. The Superman, Lord of the Rings, and The Matrix videos are particularly hilarious. Star Wars IV and this montage suggesting alternatives to several sci-fi films aren't bad either. Enjoy.

Thanks to SocialEconBlog for the link.

Netflix vs. Blockbuster

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 19:45:22 GMT

Tony V just posted that Netflix has sued Blockbuster for patent infringement. That reminded me that, having switched from Netflix to Blockbuster a few months ago, I wanted to compare the two in case anyone is considering them.

The two services are essentially the same. They send you DVDs which you keep as long as you want, you send them back and get new ones. The services are priced the same: two DVDs at a time at Netflix costs the same as two DVDs at Blockbuster, and likewise with higher numbers.

We have found two key differences. First, Blockbuster gives you - in addition to whatever your rental plan is - coupons for free rentals in their stores. We are on the one-at-a-time DVD plan, and Blockbuster gives us two coupons a month for free in-store rentals. We live about two blocks from a Blockbuster, so these make the net price-per-DVD significantly cheaper.

Second, Blockbuster has lower inventories of non-blockbuster (with a little "b") hits. So the first disc of the miniseries A Year in Provence has been backed up for some time now, and for a long time we couldn't get the original Korean film (Siworae) that the new Sandra Bullock - Keanu Reeves The Lake House was based on. On Netflix, we never experienced a wait for anything. I should clarify that on Blockbuster, you don't wait for a movie per se: they send whatever movie that is highest on your list and currently available. So you may not get a particular movie for a while, but that doesn't slow them from sending another movie on your list.

Finally, Netflix has fun features like Netflix Friends, in which you can let your friends see what DVDs you have at home and you can see what they have. Netflix also makes better recommendations based on how you've rated past movies; Blockbuster likes to recommend movies that you've already seen, which seems silly.

Because we're usually not in a major hurry to see a particular film and we don't rely on the recommendations, the lower net price of Blockbuster (and the convenience of the in-store rentals) makes it more worthwhile for us. Of course, they both offer free trials, so you can always try both, watch a few free movies, and then go back to your cable.

shall we take the lead in a strictly mad hot ballroom?

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 23:29:05 GMT

On a recent flight, I saw Antonio Banderas inspire inner-city youth through ballroom dance in Take the Lead. The movie was completely unconvincing in its transformation of the stereotypical troubled youth, and much of the dialogue seemed cliched. I will grant it a couple of sweet ballroom dance scenes toward the end, but that is all.

Seeing it reminded me of the slew of ballroom dance movies that I've encountered in the last fifteen years, just like the growing collection of spelling bee movies in recent times. (Okay, it's not a slew.) Here are the ones that I know of and have seen, from best to worst:

Strictly Ballroom (1993): a hilarious, inspiring classic.
Mad Hot Ballroom (2005): awesome documentary about grade-school kids in New York public schools learning to ballroom dance. (Like Take the Lead, except convincing because it really happened.
Shall We Dance? (1997; the original Japanese film): I didn't love this, but I liked it and lots of other people loved it. Quite funny but also some family drama.
Shall We Dance? (2004; the American re-make): This was clearly far inferior to the Japanese original and not a great movie, but the connection between the husband and wife at the end still really spoke to me. (And it has a great montage: who doesn't love a montage?) I also saw it on an airplane, and for some reason I'm always emotionally susceptible to movies on airplanes. I even got weepy during What a Girl Wants on a plane.

Take the Lead was definitely the worst of the group, so if you've missed any of these others, definitely rent them over that.

helena bonham carter in harry potter 5

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 21:20:04 GMT

Sky.com just reported that Helena Bonham Carter will be playing Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I've never seen her play a baddie, but I've enjoyed her work in other films (A Room with a View and Big Fish, for example).

a list of movies with surprises after the end credits

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:55:06 GMT

When my family went to a movie as I was growing up, my parents always compelled us to stay until the very end of the credits.*

Occasionally a movie has a surprise at the end of the closing credits. Sometimes the surprise is just funny (as in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and sometimes it actually reveals something relevant to the film's plot (as in X-Men: The Last Stand).

I just heard that the new Pirates movie has such a surprise, and I thought, I wonder if there is a way to find out whether a movie has something after the end credits before going. Sure enough, IMDB.com has an alphabetical list of movies with surprises after the credits. (Don't worry: it doesn't say what the surprise is.)

The list includes a few movies that I've seen for which I must not have watched until the end of the credits: the second Harry Potter movie, Holes, Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Ghost World. But now I can just check before I hit the movies: thanks, IMDB!

* I believe the rationale was "to get our money's worth," which may make sense in terms of minimizing the cost per minutes-in-the-movie-theater but not so much in terms of dollars per some unit of enjoyment, unless you really like end-credit music.

and a note on controlling time

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:59:53 GMT

Last week my father and I went to see Adam Sandler's newest film, Click. The principal reason I wanted to see this goes back to a Twilight Zone episode that I saw many, many years ago, called A Kind of a Stopwatch, in which an unpopular guys happens upon a stopwatch that stops time itself. Ever since I saw that, I've thought how wonderful it would be to be able to stop time and get all kinds of things done (studying for exams, writing papers), and then start time again. Talk about high productivity!

In Click, Adam Sandler gains a similar power over time. Unfortunately, he starts fast-forwarding through all the hard times in his life, and then he learns a moral lesson. If he had watched that Twlight Zone episode, maybe he would have realized that he could have gotten all of his work done and spent time with his family with a simple use of a pause button. Alas.

The movie wasn't very good, but if you ever saw Little Nicky (I did, at the second-run theater in Arlington, Massachusetts), it makes this feel like Shakespeare. And I enjoyed seeing a couple of favorite actors (Henry Winkler and Jennifer Coolidge ... and okay, David Hasselhoff, in a special kind of way). But be warned that the first half of the movie, though sometimes funny, is very crass, and the second half of the movie is boring.

I think the reason I love seeing Henry Winkler is because he always looks so happy to be working (thanks C for helping me figure this out); his good spirits just spill over onto me. Answers.com lists a number of other movies, books, and TV shows that have drawn on this time-stopping or controlling premise.

X3: a comment [DON'T WORRY; NO SPOILERS!]

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 06:35:53 GMT

If you go to see the new X-Men movie, make sure you stay until the end of the credits! I promise it's worth it.

We saw it on Memorial Day: I felt like the action was great but much of the non-action fell a bit flat. I still enjoyed because at this point I feel somewhat invested in the characters.

a note on the Alias series finale (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Fri, 26 May 2006 22:46:49 GMT

We don't get any tv stations at home, but my wife and I watch a few shows on DVD. We watched the first four seasons of Alias that way, and while the show had its ups (Seasons 1 and 2) and downs (Season 3), the finale for season four was Great! It delivered closure, it rekindled faith in people's ability to change: Sloane ended up being a good guy, as did Sydney's mom Irena. It really tied up the show. Then in the last ten seconds of the show, the writers introduced a completely non-sequitor cliffhanger ("What? We get to write another season? Just let me add a little something here!")

I haven't seen Season 5 (as it's not yet out on DVD). But thanks to abc's new streaming tv shows, I was able to give into my compulsive instincts and watch the series finale which aired last week. Apparently, the writers felt the need to reverse everything: Sloane and Irena both end up being bad, Sydney indirectly ends up killing her mom and leaving her dad to die.

Couldn't we have just left it happy?

(Of course, I feel exactly the opposite with regard to the Alien movies, in which the ending of the third is sad, but it gives meaningful closure. The fourth movie is both preposterous and terrible but unsuccessfully tries to redeem itself with a happy-ish ending.)

Three Bees

Wed, 03 May 2006 05:53:07 GMT

Last Saturday, I saw the film Akeelah and the Bee, a surprisingly (to me) inspiring and enjoyable movie about a young girl struggling to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. My brother pointed out that this means I've seen the Bee Trilogy: Spellbound, Bee Season, and Akeelah.

In case you don't know, Spellbound is a brilliant documentary of eight young people competing in the National Spelling Bee. Bee Season, which I blogged about previously, was a so-so adaptation of an enthralling book about Jewish mysticism intersecting with the National Spelling Bee. And Akeelah is a wonderful story about the Bee as a symbol for overcoming odds (with a surprising ending that you'll never guess; I'm serious).

So thumbs up on Spellbound and on Akeelah. Thumbs down on Bee Season. And those are the three bees.

Better than the movie

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:30:10 GMT

We just saw Bee Season, with Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. The film was okay, but it doesn't compare with the gripping, almost addictive novel it's based on, by Myla Goldberg. Both tell the story of a spelling prodigy and her troubled family, intermixed with an exploration of Jewish mysticism. Sounds kind of odd? Yes, but the story is totally enthralling. So much of the novel relies on what's going on in people's heads that it's difficult to translate to the big screen (or in the case of our apartment, the small screen). I'd stick to the book: it was great (if disturbing) storytelling and - to a total novice - a fascinating introduction into Jewish mysticism.

Note: the movie is PG-13 for brief strong language and a scene of sexuality. The book also has some intimate scenes.

Another great movie: New York Doll

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 16:36:59 GMT

Last night we saw another great movie: New York Doll. It's a documentary about Arthur "Killer" Kane, the bass guitarist for early-70s rock band The New York Dolls. The band didn't last long but had extensive influence. While some of the other band members had later success, Arthur didn't but eventually joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The documentary chronicles his current life and then an amazing reunion performance with his band in London. The movie was the perfect length and fascinating. There are some pretty funny juxtapositions of interviews with Kane's LDS colleagues and interviews with rock legends.

Lest you think I recommend every movie I see, I recommend that you avoid The Legend of Zorro (the sequel to The Mask of Zorro) at any price.

Saint Ralph

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:10:33 GMT

We saw a great little movie last week, Saint Ralph, about a 14-year-old boy whose mother is in a coma. Someone mentions that it would take a miracle for her to wake up, so Ralph gets it in his head to win the Boston Marathon as his miracle. That may sound cheesy, but the movie is wacky and creative enough to pull it off. The movie was very funny and wonderfully inspiring: I didn't expect it to be all that, but it was! I'd give it an 8 or 9 out of 10 (which, for me, is an excellent rating).

Note for viewers concerned about content: the movie is rates PG-13 because of some language (not a lot) and some humor surrounding adolescent masturbation. It's not done in a gross, sex-comedy way, just making light of the fact that it's a common boyhood practice. But still, just so you know.

Radical activism and propaganda

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 06:55:34 GMT

Last week (on Valentines' Day), D and I watched The Spook Who Sat By the Door, a 1973 black power film in which Dan Freeman becomes the first black man to work for the CIA, gains excellent skills but is treated poorly, then quits to organize an armed rebellion against white oppression across the United States. The film really seems intended to inspire unrest. At several points, Dan speaks to other characters but may as well be speaking into the camera, inciting the viewer, "Never stop fighting! Never!"

This movie inspires two thoughts in me: the first is that although I don't support armed rebellions (with a few exceptions, the American revolution being one of them), the intensity of dedication to a cause does inspire me. This is the same reason I loved Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang despite not supporting environmental extremism (if you can call it that): I admire the unconquerable spirit. "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

The second is that I'm not used to seeing such obvious propaganda masquerdaing as drama in films today. The filmmaker really wants to get a clear message across, and - as I said - it really feels like Dan could be speaking to the camera. I'm reminded of the 1995 Dominican film Nueba Yol (which is Dominican Spanish for New York), in which Balbuena migrates from the Dominican Republic to New York (as many of his compatriots already have) and sees that his old friend has become a drug dealer and his cousin's family has fallen apart (due to the U.S.'s poor family values). At the end of the film, he returns home and delivers a monologue to the grave of his deceased wife (again, he may as well have been speaking to the Dominican cinema audience) that it's okay to come home even without having made a fortune. Films are probably better for being a little more subtle today, but I occasionally enjoy the hard sell (as long as I'm sitting in my living room, holding the remote.)

AfterMovie

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 05:05:14 GMT

Tonight I went to see Just Like Heaven, a movie with Mark Ruffalo, Reese Witherspoon, and a small role for Jon Heder (aka Napoleon Dynamite). The movie was fine: it had its moments but wasn't worth much.

Yet afterwards, as people streamed out and the closing credits music played, I felt a sort of peace. And I remember feeling that peace in other movies. I remember going to see American Beauty and feeling the same way.

What is it about film that makes me feel thoughtful afterward? Maybe a film takes you away from yourself, so that when you come back, you can look at yourself in a different light. That's why tv doesn't work; it never really succeeds at getting you off your couch, out of your living room. But the big screen and the surround sound have a power all their own. or at least, a power follows them, so that as the screen darkens and the sound lingers, then fades, something is left. Magic.