Date viewed: 2/14/11
Venue: Home (NWI)
A funny little documentary filled with people (both the parking lot attendees and their customers) I would probably dislike if I met them in person. The guy in the hat above — yeah, he’s one of the “good” guys.
Rating: 6.5
Date viewed: 2/13/11
Venue: Home (Blu-Ray)
Despite having some of the coolest actors of the last 50 years, ABTF left me a little cold. Maybe it’s the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN effect, but I found ABTF clunky and downright confusing. There are too many characters, too many different military operations going on. I suppose I prefer my “epics” to concentrate on one character. The scope of some of the action is pretty damned remarkable though.
Rating: 6.5
Date viewed: 2/3/11
Venue: Home (NWI)
Evidently, it was quite the novelty to shoot a movie on location in the 1940s. The first five minutes of NAKED CITY are spent showing rather mundane (but pretty) shots of NYC with the producer narrating about what a big deal it is that the movie wasn’t shot on a sound stage. Obviously, this is commonplace in modern-day filmmaking, and attempting to retroactively appreciate the grandeur of actors talking on a sidewalk is a losing battle, but NAKED CITY still has its successes. Namely the performance of Barry Fitzgerald and the finale foot chase.
I’m sure books could be (already have been?) written about how Jules Dassin’s writing and directing were affected by his blacklisting and exile, but it’s hard to believe NAKED CITY and RIFIFI are directed by the same person. Dassin is clearly well on his way to developing his Mannish eye for action in NAKED CITY (though the jump he makes two years later, with NIGHT AND THE CITY, is remarkable), but otherwise you would never guess these movies were directed by the same person. NAKED CITY is stilted, talky, traditional, even wholesome. RIFIFI is one of the coldest and meanest movies I’ve seen.
I can’t wait to check out the rest of Dassin’s filmography.
Rating: 6.5
Date viewed: 1/24/11
Venue: Home (Blu-Ray)
Although I haven’t read it, I’m certain most of David Mamet’s original play (“Sexual Perversity in Chicago”) has been neutered in it’s form as ABOUT AS NIGHT… Still, it’s an enjoyable movie, and it may hold the record for most musical montages in the history of cinema.
Demi Moore is actually really good here, and she spends a surprising amount of time without clothes. It was actually refreshing (and um…not entirely unenjoyable) to see an actress not use a body double and look like a real naked person.
Rating: 6.5
Date viewed: 1/16/11
Venue: Home (DVD)
Being a big John Carpenter fan, I suppose it was purely the subject matter that kept me from watching THE FOG for so many years. The prospect of a killer fog is pretty cool, but I learned long ago about the true nature of the killing force at work here, and it seemed rather cheesy. Actually, it is cheesy — and not scary — but it’s also fun (that word comes up for me when discussing ’80s horror movie more than any other time…perhaps it’s a reflection of taking it easy on the genre). I’m glad I finally saw it, but it’s certainly not a top-shelf Carpenter movie.
Rating: 6.5
Date viewed: 1/16/11
Venue: Home (DVD)
This one is tricky. SID AND NANCY is clearly a very good movie, and it contains a couple incredible performances, by Oldman and Chloe Webb, but man, what an unpleasant experience.
Sid and Nancy are probably my least favorite people in the entire universe — there’s not a single redeeming quality between the two. So spending a couple hours with them (almost exclusively) was a bit of a chore. I’ll never watch it again, but it’s an impressive movie nonetheless.
Rating: 6.5
Date viewed: 1/12/11
Venue: Home (NWI)
Great concept, good story, well executed suspense, but terrible characters. There are about 45 minutes in FROZEN that are really good; the rest is both boring and annoying. I would watch again, but not without skipping a few chapters.
Rating: 6.5
