If TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT day hadn't been a modern, Sci-Fi Masterpiece and TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES hadn't been such a whiz-bang barrel of fun, the original film may have been a great movie. But the original is totally outdone, in every way, by its successors (even TERMINATOR: SLAVATION). I enjoyed Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, but the whole film doesn't have the 80s charm...it has the 80s cheesiness. Arnold perfected the robot personna in the second movie...here....he just comes across as an Austrian with a mouth full of marbles. Action is ok, story is ok, but things get so much better later on...and not just technically.
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The films of David Lynch are infuriating. If you took 10 film experts and asked them to summarize any of his films, you'd most likely get 10 different expplanations. MULHOLLAND DRIVE was an odd bad dream...ERASERHEAD is a surrealistic nightmare. What do you say about a movie where a man carves miniature chickens that dance on the plate and bleed and the same man fathers a premature child that looks like a calf fetus and lives on top of a dresser and squeals all the time. After all this is done, he daydreams about a plaster-cheeked woman who tapdances atop wormlike creatures inside his radiator. THEN things start to get weird. If David Lynch is ever anywhere near me...I will run away screaming.
I thought I was in for a naive, 2 hour long, milquetoast love story to Democracy when I sat down to watch this film. It has been parodied all over the place and I never actually thought I could take it seriously...but his film is anything but naive. There is an acceptance of corruption inherent in the story, but Frank Capra's and Jimmy Stewart's enthusiasm with the material, and swelling, patriotic script, is inspiring to say the least. I couldn't believe how excited I was for the filibuster finale, but I was actually on the edge of my seat. It certainly isn't a love story to Democracy...it is a an exhibition of passionate, democratic idealsand a plea for how to preserve them and allow them to prevail. Wonderful!!!
On par with Bela Lugosi's DRACULA, and infinitely better than Boris Karloff's FRANKENSTEIN, Lon Chaney's Phantom is a truly frightening character. This silent film never fails to entertain, and the locations of the Paris opera house and the dungeons beneath, are superb. I was astonished during the masquerade ball when everything turned to technicolor...I thought it was unheard of back when this movie was made. We all know the story, and it is almost impossible to watch without expecting to hear some Andrew Lloyd Weber music...but this is a classic monster movie.
I love British drama, and I think it has to do with the British culture where no matter how damaged or depressed a person is, they are always trying to be pleasant and make others feel comfortable...and that is very pitiful for broken people. This movie left me emotionally drained, and it is absolutely brilliant, with perfect performances all around. Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn shine as a brother and sister whose lives are just in turmoil...and the appearance of an illegitamate black daughter makes it get even more chaotic. I was mesmerized by the acting in this film...and even though it is very high concept with so many characters with such emotional baggage, it felt 100% realistic. Simply "bloody" wonderful.
This film can perfectly be decribed as a combination of Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD. That may seem like a ridiculously odd comparison, but this is a ridiculously odd film. It is imaginative and fun, for sure, but just as I felt with Raimi's film...the charm of its amateurish feel is simultaneously a huge drawback. The music is beautiful, and the direction is quite masterful in order to keep things looking otherworldy, without special effects...but the whole thing is just so weird. hahaha. I did enjoy it though.
My second Fellini film is much more surreal and strange than the first, but it is also oddly compelling as well. The film is about a filmmaker who just doesn't know how to make his 9th film, and as he juggles his workers, his actors, and the women in his life, he often has to retreat to fantasy and dreams to keep his sanity. Often times, I found it hard pressed to know whether or not what I was seeing was real. Charlie Kaufman must have loved Federico Fellini, because when a director doesn't know what to make his movie about (Fellini) decides to make a movie about a director not knowing what to make his next movie about (8 1/2)...it is mind-bending. Fun, and I had to sleep on it to really appreciate it...but Fellini was quite a unique filmmaker.
This movie was just all over the place. Not only does it just seem to be an exhibition of Ava Gardner, but the director does not seem to have the handle on Technicolor cinema yet. There are many continuity errors with the lighting and hues and it makes it seem really makeshift. The story is all sorts of random, with Pandora having no less than 4 different men after her. One kills himself. One kills someone else. One destroys his life's work. One is the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman. There is n attempt to break the land speed record and elaborate bullfighting...all in the same movie. hahahaha
It is amazing to me that with such a lifelong love for baseball, I have never seen THE NATURAL. I recognize the theme, I knew the name "Wonderboy"...I just never got around to seeing it. This is truly a love letter to the sport, and if you are a huge baseball fan, it plays like a wonderful, heroic tale...even if it all that is achieved is that a middle-aged rookie plants his flag in baseball history. Great acting all around, by Redford, Close, Basinger, Brimley, and Farnsworth. I really want to go break out my mitt and bat right about now. Is there anything more glorious in sports film history than that last home run and the fireworks that ensue?
The world depicted in STRICTLY BALLROOM is incredibly ridiculous. Ballroom dancing is everything. It is life. Nothing else...and I mean NOTHING else matters. With Baz Luhrmann at the helm, the film is infectiously fun...filled with comedy, absurdity, and of course, wonderful dancing. Just as the characters in MOULIN ROUGE are larger than life...everything in this film is over the top. It is as if winning a seemingly local dancing comeptition defines the universe. I have to say though, as you are invited to witness the dancing microcosm of this film, you can't help but be thrilled. Such a fun, unique experience...and I laughed a lot in spite of myself.
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These are Kevin's viewings out of the above Steven Jay Schneider tome Archives
May 2012
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