One of the longest runing threads at another favorite BBS I frequent is this one--it's been going for over 5 years, with multiple new versions to keep threads short enough to reference. I figured, let's give it a shot here--I just dig movies.

Recently I saw 300--a good enough special effects movie, made from a comic book by the same guy who did Sin City, which I also enjoyed to a point. The director is brilliant in terms of visuals, but with both his movies I never feel emotionally engaged or compelled--even Spiderman Two got me more into the characters. Still, thumbs up for a diverting time an cool effects.

I saw Pathfinder (down here in Mexico, it was called Conquistadores), a movie about how really terrible them damned Vikings were, raping and pilliaging everything in sight and the 'legend' of what stopped them from taking over the New World. Better than I thought it would be with a no-name cast. Good, not great.

I've seen Children of Men & Pan's Labyrinth lately & thought both were really good. Tideland was good, too.

Been playing catchup lately:

Mirrormask - cool visuals by Jim Henson's company, not super deep on the plot, but a good story. Based on the book by Neil Gaiman.

Syriana - I didn't care for this at all. Thought it was going to be much better than it was. Two of my least favorite actors, Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin were fairly typical in this (which is to say I didn't care for either's performance). I like George Clooney, but he doesn't really do the weak ineffectual character very well - vulnerable... ok, he was good in Solaris I thought. He's much better suited for for the Cary Grant sort of roles IMO.

The Departed - This to me is a typical Scorsese picture. Some sort of organized crime, lot's of blood and swearing. This time based in Boston, so you get your dose of swearing with strong New England accents. Again, my least favorites Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin are pretty much terrible in this movie. DiCaprio the Titanic kid wasn't much better. Jack Nicholson reprised his role as the writer in The Shining and was pretty much his usual un-hinged self, Mark Wahlberg was under-used IMO, he's a pretty good actor, Martin Sheen was practically invisible. I think I needed to be in the right mood for this film, I get tired of mobster movies pretty quickly and this one wore on my nerves pretty fast. I was trying for Children of Men at the the vid store, but it was gone

Athens, Georgia: Inside/Out - A late 80s documentary on the music and art scene in Athens (circa 1980s obviously). Features The B52s, R.E.M., Pylon, and several fine artists, etc. It was kind of fun to watch, hear a little inside baseball on the scene as it was back then. Pylon was everyone's favorite apparently, yet they simply collapsed after a while. Sad, but typical.

R.E.M. does a kick ass version of Swan Swan H. and a cover of a 50s song (I forget what it is now) in the great room of some old run down civil war-era house.

Other than that, nothing else too interesting... Don't much care for movie theaters, usually wait for the video

-A

Yeah, forgot about Pan's Labrynth! Truly a fantastic movie for me, a dark and intense fairy tale, not for the little ones. I dig that director, Guillermo del Toro--he also did Hellboy.

I also saw Shooter, with Mark Wahlberg. As ludacrous as can be, plot-wise. Truly dumb, but again--diverting at 3 pm on a Thursday afernoon? Yes.

watched the rolling stones 'gimme SHELTER' last night.

i highly recommend it, for anyone lost in flower power land.

LOL

man, talk about grim, grim grim.

Gimme Shelter (documentary)


watched this last night.
i'd seen it before, years ago, but it's still interesting today-
a must see if you're into the history of rock and roll, and what certain things mean, and how they came to pass.

summer of love, yeah.


The film depicts some of the Madison Square Garden concert, later featured on the live album, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, as well as the photography session for the cover, featuring Charlie Watts and a donkey. It also shows the Stones at work in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, recording "Wild Horses". Performances documented in the film include Ike and Tina Turner (who was one of the Rolling Stones' opening acts for the 1969 tour), the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jefferson Airplane.

Much of the film chronicles the behind-the-scenes dealmaking that took place to make the free Altamont concert happen. The action then turns on the concert itself at the Altamont Speedway, the security for which was provided by the Hells Angels. As the day progressed, with drug-taking and drinking by the Angels and members of the audience, the mood turned ugly. Fights broke out during performances by Jefferson Airplane (at one point lead singer Marty Balin was knocked out by a Hells Angel) and the Flying Burrito Brothers. By the time the Stones hit the stage, the crowd was especially restless.

It was during "Under My Thumb" that a gun-toting fan, Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death by a member of the Angels, although "Sympathy for the Devil" is often erroneously associated with the incident.

A young George Lucas was a camera operator for the Altamont concert. However, his camera jammed after shooting about 100 feet of film, and none of his footage was incorporated in the final cut.


a review:
The flip-side to Woodstock: a free concert given by rock group The Rolling Stones in 1969 at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco, which reached a fever pitch with the rowdy crowds and ultimately resulted in tragedy. With The Jefferson Airplane as their opening act, the Stones hit the stage in the midst of uncontrolled frenzy, ugly vibes and the Hell's Angels hired as security (!). Singer Mick Jagger is unsure how to handle the packed, unruly mob, a dirty orgy of terror, and the Stones' music takes on an even more ominous, precarious edge as a result. This documentary scarily captures the underbelly of rock and roll, with contempt and hatred hanging in the air. The cinematographers, brave enough to get their cameras into the most precarious positions, do terrific work, but is the film a relevant signpost for our times or merely a blueprint for the chaos we see today? Certainly it was shocking for such animalistic behavior (and a knifing) to bring down a public event, but the whole sordid mess doesn't seem to have left its impact. Is it history just repeating itself or is society condemned to making the same errors in judgment over and over again? In either case, the film isn't easy to sit through, and its highly-concocted finale (with a somewhat indifferent Mick Jagger sitting and watching the horrific footage pre-release) leaves behind even more ill will.



the look on mick jagger's face, as he finishes watching the edits of the movie in the studio, just about says it all.

Netflix has been great for seeing some films that were not big in the theaters. Here's a few I've seen recently that were interesting;

Lords of Dogtown: Documentary about the origins of skateboarding. What I liked about this movie the most was seeing how a group of people who are talented and passionate about what they do can drive each other to perform at a higher level than anyone thought possible.

Riding Giants: The skating culture was a direct outgrowth of the surfing culture and after seeing Dogtown we rented this film about the evolution of surfing. Similar theme - passionate athletes working together to push the sport farther than one could imagine. The footage of these guys riding 80 foot waves is breathtaking.

The Temptations: Docudrama about one of the biggest acts in the history of popular music. I thought it was well acted and took a fairly even hand at portraying the messy band politics and inflated egos that so many successful acts have to deal with. It was inspirational that through all the rough times the group lasted as long as it did. Also a good insight into the Motown machine.

Let's see...

Finally saw Young Man With A Horn - one that I'd somehow missed all these years. Hilariously bad movie that was a lot of fun.

Sherrybaby - very mediocre film that was elevated to highly watchable by an outstanding performance by Maggie Gyanhall (or however it is you spell her name...). If only the writer and supporting actors had been at her level.

Actually walked out of The Good Shepard - reminding the missus and I why we so rarely see anything in the theater anymore. Another depressing example of how DeNiro has completely lost track of how to act - not to mention how he has now extended his hack incompetency to directing. Don't get me started on the wild miscasting of Matt Damon, who appeared to take the role on some dare that he could do a major motion picture without once changing his facial expression. The great John Turturo added the only moments of interest, but he was sadly wasted in a tiny role. I'd like to have seen him in the lead. And I'd like to see DeNiro put to fucking sleep before he completely erases all reminders of the fact that he was once the most interesting actor of his generation.

-The Departed. Entertaining. Funny. Nicholson hamming it up and having a ball. Leonardo slowly returning to being an actor (remember Basketball Diaries - the kid CAN act when he feels like it) Matt Damon cast as a weasly little prick, which makes far more sense. Completely erased from my mind 10 minutes after seeing it. Totally pleasurable and disposable fun. He won an Oscar for this? Can a man in his 60s with the monumental talent of Scorcese really find nothing more compelling than another story of cops and robbers with which to squander it? Is NO ONE with talent writing scripts about anything other than "bang bang" anymore?

-Rented - for the 4th time - the best movie of last year (along with The Prestige) IMO: Mamet's latest: Edmond. Fucking genius. Didn't make a blip on the media radar - although I can't pretend I don't know why. I'm amazed he was allowed to make it at all.

Chris

Finally got to see Stranger Than Fiction. Genius. Five stars.

Went out to see Music&Lyrics. Cute. Typical Hugh Grant romantic comedy.

An Unreasonable Man...documentary about Ralph Nader. worth seeing. I really didn't know a lot of his history.

From our Netfilx "always wanted to see but somehow missed" queue...the Davinci Code. I thought it was exciting and didn't seem long at all. MsPop was surfing the web half way through--it didn't suck her in at all.

Planned: date tomorrow night to see Reign Over Me. I think Sandler does a great job of picking his flicks. He's funny when he's being a retard...and he's got a great humanity in movies like Spanglish and Click.

I agree, Pop--I enjoyed DaVinci Code. Good entertainment. I didn't think The Departed was fabulous, but entertaining noentheless--I think he actually won the Oscar for for Goodfellas, just a little late.

Interesting to hear such a polarized view of The Good Shepard, which I'm looking forward to. I've heard critics outline why it's one of the better films from last year.

I enjoyed Stranger than Fiction, but I wish Charlie Kaufman had gotten a hold of the screenplay to add something a little deeper like he does. Then again, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are among my all-time favorite movies.

Is this a technical question? : ) Like, in the theater? I saw that Will Smith movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" a couple of months ago. First movie my wife and I had gone together to in the theater in about four years. Really enjoyed it. Before that, I guess the last movie I saw in a theater was with you, Jazz, in San Diego in November of '03. : )

I do catch movies from time to time on HBO. Stuff in the last year or two that stand out are "Garden State" and "Napoleon Dynamite". They've both been added to a list of about ten movies that I'll always watch if I see they're on.

Max and I have been watching Jack Black's "School of Rock" quite a bit. And also "Cheaper by the Dozen 2". We've probably watched them 20 times each, and know all the lines.

Oh, a really cool movie Karen and I watched the other night was a VHS tape she's had for years of "200 Cigarettes". It takes place mostly in the East Village in NYC. It was made in the 90's and the story takes place in the 80's. Was fun to watch all the location shots and see a lot of the places I used to hang out.

Having lived in NYC so so long has made watching movies and reading books that take place in NYC even that more enjoyable for me, because I can always follow along with the locations, and I get a better sense of the "vibe" of different neigborhoods and blocks in the city.

Memento
Thank You for Smoking
The Pursuit of Happiness
Hard Candy
V for Vendetta
Inside Man

I try to watch at least one a day, so I could go long.

I like band documentaries (for obvious reasons ). There was an interesting one on last night (Wednesday is my one TV night - I'm hooked on LOST ) about the band Low. The Starz network has a channel for independent films which is where this was. Their series called Musaic is pretty cool - lot's of indie rock band documentaries - I missed Guided By Voices final concert dammit! they had a set list of 60+ songs I heard!! Incredible.

I really enjoyed the doc on Low touring in Europe though - good music, interesting rationale behind what they play, and they seem like really nice, hardworking (and real) people.

Napoleon Dynamite and Memento are both on my all-time favorites list. My favorite band movie is still One Trick Pony by Paul Simon. As a movie, it's tolerable--but watching that band play live is fantastic!

I have a Napoleon Dynamite talking doll in my office - you touch his hand and he has a bunch of the Napoleon sayings. Pretty funny.

"There's like a buttload of gangs in our school..."

Ah... good times at work

My all time favorite is Fight Club. I haven't seen anything that comes even close.
Next come Freeway & The People vs. Larry Flynt

If you lake Memento you should also check(if you haven't yet):
The Game
Se7en
The Butterfly Effect
Primal Fear
Mulholland Dr

From the new ones Walk the Line about Johny Cash was pretty good too
The Boondock Saints was fun to watch

Yeah, I think Christopher Nolan is the most interesting filmmaker working currently.

Along with Memento, he also did the highly underrated Insomnia, and of course his latest is the Prestige. Also, his first film (before Memento) was a low-budget thing called "Following" which was pretty interesting as well.

I could be forgetting someone but offhand it seems to me that to find another director who has made 4 movies in 8 years with such a consistent level of quality, you'd have to go back to the 70s.

Chris

I've been a big Nolan fan, but I thought Insomnia was a little disappointing, and I genuinely hated the Prestige--not at first, but once the plot developed. I walked out of there pissed!

jusy netflixed "the boondock saints"

and really enjoyed it.....pulpy for sure...

i also recently netflixed "the yards" and REALLY enjoyed it...

last movie i saw in the theater was "the departed"... thumbs up on that one as well.

i enjoyed "the prestige" it especially piqued my interest in nikola tesla....man, that cat was WAAAAY ahead of his time.....i have added some documentaries about him to my queue..

quote:

I do catch movies from time to time on HBO. Stuff in the last year or two that stand out are "Garden State" and "Napoleon Dynamite". They've both been added to a list of about ten movies that I'll always watch if I see they're on.

Don't forget Bill Mrray as Steve Zissou I LOVED that movie!

Just saw Children of Men. Actually watched it twice - the "baby" scene was INCREDIBLE!! Great movie, makes you think. Kinda dark like 12 Monkeys but without the weirdness.

-A