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24.58.23.89
Honestly I can't even recall. Since I started this thread, I suppose I should have a movie in mind :-) I guess I would say the last good one I saw was Crash, and I think that was last spring? While certainly not a great film, Crash stands out in my mind as significantly better than most of the other dribble I've seen in 2005. The most recent flick I've seen in the theaters is Wedding Crashers. Again, not a cinematic masterpiece, but it was (surprisingly) quite funny.
Follow Ups:
"Murderball" and "Mad, Hot Ballroom".
I did see "Revenge of the Sith" and "Wedding Crashers" but for the most part my wife and I have stayed away from the theatres. The summer season's offerings have been very slim for adult tastes.
Even the DVD player is getting dusty.
'Me You and Everyone Else'.Then we saw 'Searching For The Wrong Eyed Jesus'.
Before that Wedding Crashers, Sin City, WOTW, Batman. Varying degrees of perfection, but enjoyable nonetheless.
I even enjoyed Skeleton Key....just not as much as Angel Heart. :)
Later
D
Last weekend I saw War of the Worlds. Not a perfect film. It suffers from the cliches that characterize Spielberg's work, (the re-use of stock situations from his earlier movies, self consciously theatrical or cutesy lines, self consciously precoscious little kids, self consciously cutesy camera and editing cheats, etc.).Yet the film is also dense, in the best sense of the word- more so than any film I've seen this year, anyway. Images are sometimes layered in multiple meaning, as Spielberg composes with the logic and structure of poetry and nightmare. References to other films abound, but are never clumsey or out of place. Never just "thrown in", they are organic to the film, and often transcend themselves to enrich the whole.
And this is to say nothing of the obviously first rate craft on display. Impeccable and inventive production design, cinematography, sound, special effects, and often brilliant stageing and editing, with solid performances from virtually all on board.
Ultimately the film feels as though something's missing from the last act- as if a scene or two were shot and then cut. But apart from this and the Spielbergisms I mentioned earlier, it ranks as one of the most formidable movies of at least the last few years. Why this film has been overlooked by so many is puzzling. Its far smarter, far richer, than the failed summer popcorn fodder its being taken for.
jbmcb, I understand why things like that can be seen as objectionable. I see that most people are annoyed by other seemingly improbable points. For example, "what do these dopey martians want- first they insinerate people then they harvest them for food?- and why bury these machines underground for a million years instead of attacking before mankind could conceivably put up some kind of resistance. Or how is it with all our sewers and subways that no one had ever found any of the dormant tripods before?" Those kind of critiques are for more prosaic films with less interesting concerns. ID4 for example. Or rather, these kinds of critiques are the right questions, but the real answers are unwelcome.I am no huge fan of Spielberg's movies in general, but when I look at War of the Worlds I know without any doubut that I'm watching the work of a major and important master of cinema, and frankly its exciting. When he made this one he was breathing film like a fish breaths water.
I think if you come at this film expecting science fiction, i.e. a completely plausible and logical story about a technology's impact on society or some particular characters- a story grounded in a world of 1 + 1 = 2, then you will be frustrated. This is not Gatica or Jurrassic Park or Aliens. Take it on its own terms and you'll be amazed at what you find there. As I said, this film is a poem, a nightmare. Its logic is the quintessentially cinematic logic of dreams. That's not meant as some high brow blanket apologey for simple plot holes. War of the Worlds comes from the same place as Night of the Living Dead. In short, for those who like to categorize, despite the aliens and machines and death rays, War of the Worlds is a horror film, not a science fiction movie. And a surprisingly disciplined and small scale and intimate horror film at that, given its nominal subject matter.
The answers to your objections, like the answers to the examples I just outlined above, are clues to what the real business of this film is. In otherwords, yes, what's up with a hard ass emt guy who looses it, (or doesn't), in a cellar? Despite the unfortunate Jurassic Park raptor retread action, that sequence, with its talk about eyes, seeing, its business with mirrors and blindfolds and shut doors, is the awful quiet eye of a movie who's overall story structure mimmics the storms that begin the film. And when you look at that family at the end, and ask why they're presented the way they are, listen also to the what the music is doing underneath the image. Like I said, this film is dense!
Towards the end I thought the characters started behaving unrealistically. The old horror film thematic crutch of "people running around like chickens with their heads cut off then getting into trouble" motif. I also thought it a lame plot device that an EMT guy would loose his head like that, those guys are pretty tough when it comes to stressful situations.
I also didn't like how Boston seemed relativly untouched compared to NYC. The family they meet up with look like they just got out of a spa.
/*Music is subjective. Sound is not.*/
Whoops, I wrote a reply to your post jbmcb, but it went under my first post by mistake.
It's only a film...you know, Hollywood.
If you want characters to act realistically, see March of the Penguins.
The effects were pretty good but War of the Worlds as a film is only average Hollywood fodder, IMHO, right down to the hug in the street at the end?
Yawn.
d
Billy Murray in his Lost In Translation mode, i.e., well to do, alone, melancholy, cold and empty. He does this well, but IMHO, it may soon become tiresome.A story of a journey of discovery and not necessarily self discovery, with very interesting vignettes along the way. However, this is a story about the journey, not the end. If one can be happy on that level, it may rise above "just" good. Great performances by Jessica Lange and Sharon Stone. Several other strong female turns as well but they definitely stood out. The actor playing Murray's neighbor, an arab who's a wanna be detective, simply steals every scene he's in.
Recommended, but not on the level of Lost In Translation. Saw it at our Angelika, packed, late Sunday afternoon.
As good as a docu can get. And, unusually, a star emerges: Mark Zupan.Plus lots of great father-son stuff, done very unsentimentally. And hot action!
Henceforth I shall be watching the Special Olympics, far more interesting than the "real thing".
Has any movie ever changed *your* televiewing?...
clark
Clark, don't you mean "Paralympics," not "Special Olympics"?
"I went from being a man at the wedding, to a f#%kin' retard." I believe was Scott Hogsett's line in the movie when someone told him they were glad he was going to the Special Olympics.Followed shortly by... "We're not going for pat on the back. We're going for a f#%king gold medal."
"Where are we going? And what am I doing in this hand basket?"
1. Star Wars Revenge of the Sith
2. Batman Begins
3. Sin City
Rob CThe world was made for people not cursed with self-awareness
Not sure I would put SW at the top of that list ....but Wedding Crashers should be on the list imo.
I haven't seen WC yet but I plan to soon.
I have no reservation with regards to Star Wars. Since the beginning of the year no other movie has moved me as much as Revenge of the Sith did. I can't help being a die-hard fan. After watching all 6 movies in consecutive episodic(sp?) order, I think I like the prequels more that the original trilogy now. I consider the prequels somewhat more sophisticated and personal and a bit more subtle in their overtones. I still enjoy the original trilogy especially now with the backstory firmly in place. The original trilogy just seems to lose something to the prequels which I can't quite put my finger on. At the same time I found myself more moved by Return of the Jedi at the end with Luke, Vader, and Palpatine. And there was a sort of poetry to the Ewok battle which I hadn't felt before. I'm not saying they're all perfect, but like a loved one I tend to look past the flaws. Now I enjoy the series for the deeper mythology.
Star Wars I-VI are my favorite movies of all time. Not for the things that make other movies exceptional, but for the things that make Star Wars exceptional.
Rob CThe world was made for people not cursed with self-awareness
Grizzly Man as posted below, and thoughts are still circulating from that. The Aristocrats, not nearly as thought provoking, but more than a few big laughs. Me You and Everyone We Know was completely unpredictable, quirky and entertaining. Caterina in the Big City, Oldboy, Batman Begins, Sin City are just a few of the memorable movies of this year for me. And Wedding Crashers, although I went with extremely low expectations, was pleasantly funny and even a little bit warm. And another documentary from the spring that I still think about is Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.
I've been thinking that too. I was trying to put together the best movies this year so far and I can't. I liked Batman Begins and Sin City but those were fun movies and not the great movies that I long for. I didn't like Crash at all and felt it was a bad rehash of Magnolia which was bad in itself. Maybe some others can remember something good this year. I can't.
The Life Aquatic with Steve ZissouThe last movie I have seen where I honstely had no idea what was going to happen next.
Then again, almost all the movies I've seen this year I knew *exactly* what was going to happen (Star Wars, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, War of the Worlds)
/*Music is subjective. Sound is not.*/
About a month ago. Happy endings. But this has been a very dry summer.
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