What Are You Watching Right Now? Episode 3 - Turtles in Time

[Ron Burgundy]

Last night I watched Amores Perros, and its about time I finally did. Great Mexican drama/mild action-thriller which is linked in 3 different parts by the common theme of dogs. The 3 main characters are also entwined in one particular scene which has a major effect on each though they don't actually interact. It didn't end how I wanted it to, but the film flowed so well that I didn't even notice the 2+ hour runtime, especially the first act. Highly recommended for any Tarantino fans.
7.5/10

[Ron Burgundy]

Been watching a few over the last week or so.

Red Rock West
7/10
Good, soild mystery with Nic Cage and Dennis Hopper. Cage being a floater posing as a Hitman, which is actaully Hopper. The end up meeting each other and many twists and turns unfold regularly. J.T Walsh and Lara Flynn Boyle co-star.

One False Move
5.5/10
Co-Written by Billy Bob Thornton, and Co starring, 3 criminals go on the run over a theft and murder involving drugs. Bill Paxton stars the sheriff of a small town where the crims are headed. Entertaining but not gripping and slightly predictable. Maybe im being harsh but i just didnt like it that much.

Cats Eye
7/10
A Stephen King movie, with 3 different stories. James Woods stars in the first act, where he attempts to quit smoking with an agency, who dont go by normal means. A young Drew Barrymore stars in the last act where a tiny puppet monster tries to do bad stuff, very King-esc. Enjoyable stuff.

Trespass
6/10
Bill Paxton and William Sadler go up against a bunch of gangsters in a foreign urban territory. Sadler and pax is after a hoard of forgotten gold. Walter Hill does well with the limited material and Ice Cube and Ice T are credible as gangsters. Still a little bit B Grade.

Pumping Iron
6.5/10
Arnie in full arrogant 'Winner' mode, going up against Lou Ferringo in a real life doco about the sort of new (in 76) Mr Olympia. Not a bad doco, considering how old it is and Arnie is cool despite being fairly obnoxious. worth a look.

Epic
6/10
It was ok, then slightly boring, then bad, the good, the ok, then meh. I dont know what to say here, most computer animations i can watch and just switch off my brain. Epic had its moments. Aziz Anziri had the best laughs of any anime character all year, while Colin Farrell seems grosly miscast. It was just average.

The Dictator
7.5/10
Cant believe it took me until tonight to watch this, it has some genuinely funny bits. Sacha Baren Cohen has finally brang back his A game (since Borat). Comparable to You dont mess with the Zohan, good laughs.

No Strings Attached
6.5/10
was expecting a bland rom com. But its got something to it. Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman are really good together. And some credit must be given to Ivan Reitman who pulled this off. No wonder it made some good BO a little while back.

[JohnErle]

I LOVE One False Move. Especially the relationship between Bill Paxton and the big city cops. And Red Rock West is a ton of fun.

[Ron Burgundy]

Yeah One False Move had a few really good parts, the end being the best. Billy Bob really looks young and a bit tubby, totally different to him in say The Man Who Wasnt There. Shows he's a fine actor. And yeah I forgot to add that i saw A Simple Plan, 7/10 which was comparable to Red Rock West and One False Move, which also stars both BBT and Paxton. That was probably the best of the three though, such a meandering story done really well by Sam Riami.

[Chienfantome]

A Simple Plan is a very good film indeed.

[Ron Burgundy]

Watched a few last few days, including:

Cyrus
Quirky indie comedy, which was surprisingly good. Didnt really know what to expect, but there are some really great scenes here. John C Reilly and Jonah Hill basically go head to head as new boyfriend Vs needy son. Marisa Tomei is the lady in their lives. Its funny, its got heart and its fresh and original.
7.5/10

Fat City
An unheralded forgotten boxing movie from 1972, starring Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges, and directed by John Huston. A heartfelt drama that looks at the very opposite lives of two men in 'Fat City' and we follow them and their daily lives ever since they meet at a local YMCA, both have troubles; girls, money, alcohol and boxing itself. With a fitting ending, its a fairly gritty look at how these guys struggle.
6.5/10

K-Pax
Kevin Spacey stars as a man who thinks he's from Outer Space and Jeff Bridges as the psychiatrist looking after him. I watched this years ago but forgot most if not all. Its all very mysterious and fairly interesting until the last quarter where things just get a bit vague, ambiguous and messy. But the rest of the film begs the question, is this guy actually an alien? The sidestory between Bridges and his family is badly forced and bland. Jesse from Breaking bad has a cameo.
5.5/10

[numbersix]

The Silence: 7/10
It's a shame this didn't receive the attendance it deserved, even though the reviews were quite strong. This is another missing child cop drama, but very well told with some distinct and quirky characters. When a teenager goes missing and her bike is found at the same spot in a German town where a child was murdered over 20 years ago, we follow various characters with different relations to both events, from an accomplice, to the original cops, the new ones, and the families of the victims. The closest to a protagonist is a cop whose wife just died of cancer, making him prone to bouts of extreme emotional release. But it makes him vulnerable. It's an engaging, well-directed piece that may leave an audience frustrated, but that very frustration is part of the theme. For anyone who enjoyed Prisoners.

V/H/S: 5/10
A fairly watchable anthology of found-footage shorts strung together by a framing narrative. Within the 5 or 6 stores there are one or two that were strong, particularly one where a couple communicate over Skype which turns out to be an interesting story of deception and abuse. Perhaps the low budget justifies some of the poor effects and bad performances. Pity the framing device doesn't work, while one or two of the short films don't feel worth my time, and the more supernatural ones lacked authenticity.

[Chienfantome]

The silence is a surprisingly good film. I remember I saw it in theaters a couple of years ago, in France it was released under the title "Once upon a time a murder".
More than anything it reminded me of Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder", in the intrigue, in the style. Very strong film.

[Buscemi]

I just watched Mickey's Christmas Carol earlier and I didn't realize all of the cameos from earlier Disney works. For example, Mr. Toad plays Scrooge's old boss, Jiminy Cricket, the giant from Fun and Fancy Free and Pete play the ghosts and the weasels from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Also, you might be dead inside if you aren't moved by the relationship between Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim in this version.

And last, I can't be the only person who noticed that one of the tombstones says, "R.I.P. Warren Oates". I'm wondering if someone at Disney was a fan of his work.

Meanwhile, I had no problem with how the Blu-ray looks. People have complained about the DNR but you still have the movie there and it still resembles Mickey's Christmas Carol so it's something I can live with.

[Chienfantome]

Those past two days I've seized the opportunity to go see two classics in beautifully restored versions on the big screen. The first I had never seen, the second was a rewatch.
The first is Jean Cocteau's take on the classic tale Beauty and the Beast starring Jean Marais as the beast. It's a 1946 film which, if you are French and claim to be cinephile, you must have seen, and I never had, so it was about time. It's a beautifully shot film, with a real magical tone and atmosphere. It's not a film I got out of thinking it's a masterpiece because there is something in this old classical French cinema that I don't always fully embrace, but it's got undeniable narrative and visual qualities. 7/10

The second film is Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, which I hadn't seen in a decade or so, maybe more, and felt happy to go see on a big screen in such wonderful shape. And it's even better than what I remembered. It's the kind of film you might think has such a powerful impact the first time you see it, the next vision will be lessened, but it's not. Maybe it's because this was in a film theater, but the film knocked me out again. It manages to be so clear and powerful narratively and at the same time so dense, so rich. Never has a filmmaker so boldly tackled the before/present/after of war on a human scale, to watch the preparation, the immediacy and the aftermaths. It is rageful, it is peaceful, it is... It is cinema at its best. 10/10

[numbersix]

The Thin Blue Line: 8/10
I know, I know, I should have seen this years ago. But docs aren't something I actively seek out to see. But I'm glad I finally invested in Errol Morris' iconic film. Not only is its legacy (it ultimately lead to a reversal in the case) important, but it's also incredibly well-made. Within seconds I was hooked by the pace of editing and the smart recreations (which change according to the various, contradicting testimonies). Not giving names on screen was a bold move that made me slightly confused, but you catch up pretty quick and at least you know who the key players. To have the kind of access that Morris got seems less likely these days because of fear of internet exposure. The only negatives are Morris dogged persistence in his opinion of what really happened, but considering it's most likely true I'll give him a pass. This is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen.

[Chienfantome]

I know, I know, I should have seen this years ago.

Well... I probably should have seen it too... and you certainly make me regret I haven't yet.

[Chienfantome]

The Last Picture Show
I had never seen Peter Bogdanovich's film, so I was happy to finally see it this week in theater. Shot in the early 70's with youngsters named Timothy Bottoms Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges, plus Ben Johnson, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan and Cloris Leachman, it is set in a 1951 small-town Texas. The protagonists are a group of high-schoolers wandering in this on-the-verge-of-dying town. It's shot in black and white and beautifully depicts the doubts of an era, the young ones who don't have a clue at their potential future and the adults emprisoned in this small life and a lost youth they still crave for. It's a dry and strong film. 7.5/10

[Ron Burgundy]

The Thin Blue line is also one of my favorite docos ever, i tried watching the fog of war soon after but it wasnt as good.

And 10/10 for The Deer Hunter is a just if a tad high rating, i saw it earlier this year, twice. The early part of the movie isnt as strong and for me that why i couldnt give it 10, but the second 2/3's are pretty much amazing. I would love to see it cinemas.

Ive mowed a few down lately:

The Accidental Tourist
Ho-hum romantic drama with William Hurt is one of the most boring underwhelming movies ive seen this year. Hurt plays a travelling novelist who gets dumped by wife Kathleen Turner, and then starts dating odd single mum (thats how we spell mom down here) Geena Davis. Months later the three collide in Paris. ZZzzzz
3.5/10

In Time
Enjoyable sci-fi with Justin Timberlake. The theme of using time as a currency seems interesting but has minor flaws. I was in the right mood for this though and im almost startled that it didnt make more at the Box Office, though it made $136M foreign, thats 78.4% of its take, because its entertaining and fairly accessible. Andrew Niccol makes good if not blockbuster sci-fi's, he deserves a hit. Oh and Cillian Murphy steals the show, again.
6.5/10

Breaking Away
Little gem from 1979 featuring young Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Jackie Earle Haley and Daniel Stern. About a a bunch of misfits a year after finishing school and their struggles against fitting in to a society where college kids rule; chicks, bars, the local swimming hole and the sports events, which in this case is cycling. Dennis Christopher is the young lad who devotes his entire spare time to training, to ultimately almost give up. This was a particularly rewarding movie that really inspires.
7.5/10

The Call
I missed this earlier in the year but glad a saw it the other day, because its not that bad. Ok there were a couple of plot holes which make you think why did you do that! And at one point i thought just stop screaming! (theres lots of screaming). Decent thriller, but only a snicker above average.
5.5/10

Cobb
Tommy Lee Jones stars as Ty Cobb, baseball legend. Its basically about the late days of Cobb, and depicts him as a rude, obnoxious, crazy, egotistical douchebag, and Jones absolutely pulls it off. You know he actually murdered a guy? But it was covered up. Not bad, but its the performance from Jones for the reason to watch it.
6/10

Croupier
Whoa, how come i had never heard of this? Slick crime drama with Clive Owen directed by Mike Hodges who did the original Get Carter and Flash Gordon. Owen plays an ultra cool croupier at a small casino and becomes involved in the seedy part of it all, going all in (playing with his life not money). I really enjoyed this, the narration by Owen and his pokerface throughout along with well paced editing rocks this along, Owen was perfectly cast here.
7/10

Chocolate
Slightly ashamed to have watched this, it was on TV. Boring almost all round. Only Alfred Molina as the towns deeply catholic half evil Pastor made this worthwile (especially the final scene).
4.5/10

The Fall
Visually stunning fantasy adventure from Tarsem Singh was good, not great. But some scenes are breathtaking, how did this not do more at the Box Office? And what was the budget?
6.5/10

Devil in a Blue Dress
Rewatch but couldnt remember much. Denzel Washington in the 40s or 50s gets entangled in the murder of a lady who had some big connections. I remembered it being better.
6/10

Then rewatched a couple

Shallow Hal, 7/10
Mickey Blue Eyes 6/10

[Buscemi]

In Time failed to take off in the US because it simply wasn't very good (it also didn't help that it was a blatant attempt to do an American version of a Luc Besson film without the excitement that makes those films enjoyable). Also, people don't respond to Justin Timberlake the actor as well as they do Justin Timberlake the singer (I myself like neither but that's just me).