707. Once Upon a Time in America (1983)

Running Time: 227 minutes
Directed By: Sergio Leone
Written By: Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone, Ernesto Gastaldi, from the novel The Hoods by Harry Grey
Main Cast: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, James Hayden, William Forsythe
Click here to view the trailer

SERGIO LEONE HAT TRICK: PART THREE OF THREE

From the dusty settings of the old west to the dirty streets of prohibition era Brooklyn, Sergio Leone's hat trick of films comes to a conclusion with "Once Upon a Time in America".

Despite it's epic length, the film's plot is actually fairly simple as we follow a group of Jewish youths on their rise to power in the criminal ranks. Our main character is Noodles (De Niro) and as the film opens we seem him as he nears the end of his criminal run, hiding out in a Chinese theater as detectives interrogate his closest allies. Eventually the cops beat some information out of one of Noodles confidants, Moe, but Noodles gives the detectives the slip and heads for the train station. On the way, Noodles stops to survey three dead bodies and we watch as tags are are fastened to the body bags, reading the names of "Max", "Phillip" and "Patrick". Noodles slips out of the crowd, gathered around the bodies and proceeds to buy a ticket for the first train out of town. He makes a detour into Coney Island and then says "goodbye" to New York City. Suddenly, the film flashes forward and we see a much older Noodles arriving back in the Big Apple, renting a car and going to "Fat Moe's" restaurant, to visit his old friend. Moe offers to put him up and later that night Noodles begins to reminisce over his life.

Well, where do you start with a movie the caliber of "Once Upon a Time in America"? I guess I'll start by saying that I thought it was an absolute masterpiece. There were things about it that I didn't like (which I'll get to), but in the end, these things are easy to overlook when you take into account the entire picture and how ultimately fabulous it all was. "Once Upon a Time in America" is much more than your typical gangster flick. It's about life, but more specifically it's about the loss of youth - at least that's one of the main themes that I took away from it. On top of all that, there's also a very beautiful, sometimes very complicated romance story lying underneath it all. As the icing on the cake, Ennio Morricone returns to accompany Sergio Leone yet again, belting out an absolutely impeccable score. The camerawork, as usual for a Leone picture, is top notch and there are certain scenes and images that I won't soon shake from my mind. The acting is superb, with De Niro proving, once again, why he's the recipient of so many accolades and here he's surrounded by the great performances of James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Larry Rapp, Burt Young and William Forsythe.

SPOILER ALERT!

You know, silly me, but I kept expecting Steven Spielberg like moments to crop up as this film progressed. Let me explain... For example, when Noodles reunites with Deborah, near the end of the film, I kept expecting him to apologize to her, for raping her. And maybe she would resist the apology, kicking him out of her dressing room and sending him off to never be forgiven for the vicious sin that he committed. But those moments never came and in retrospect, I just don't think Leone was that kind of filmmaker, to serve up those moments to his viewers on a silver platter. He just let everything loom in the background. Sure, he wanted us to think that Noodles or Deborah was going to mention the rape - I mean, how could they not? It was the most uncomfortable scene in the whole picture and yet, during their reunion, it's never mentioned. In a way, I wish it had been brought up. As far as I'm concerned, Deborah greets Noodles with to warm of a reception, when she should have been terrified of Noodles for turning out to be someone vicious enough to rape her. And as far as the rape scene itself, I thought it was a great scene. It was one of those scenes that really set this movie apart, as other filmmakers wouldn't go the brutal route and I think it only helps to make us ponder the character of Noodles even more. Uncomfortable, YES, but in my opinion it worked.

Apparently there are a lot of theories going around the net as to why Noodles' smiles at the end of the movie. For starters, NO I don't think that everything after he took opium was a dream. I love (sarcasm) how every time a moviegoer can't understand something, it simply gets chalked up as a dream sequence and then we all feel smart for "cracking that mystery". Anyway, throughout the whole movie, there are several scenes where Noodles' eyes seem to be welling up with tears. You can notice it when he returns to Fat Moe's, at the beginning of the movie and takes a peek through his old peephole. As the camera pans in toward his eyes and right before the film flashes back, he seems to be right on the brink of tears. This happens again at the end of the movie, as he lays down on the bed at the Chinese theater. Noodles seems like he could burst into tears at any moment, as he takes the pipe and smokes the opiates. He finishes his toke and there seems to be one final moment of reflection and possible, emotional breakdown before he forms the big smile to end the movie. In my opinion, Noodles smiled as a way of containing himself and not breaking down in tears. This is a man who was brought up on the streets of Brooklyn and someone who would have had the mindset that crying is a sign of weakness and you just don't do it. When Noodles felt the tears about to come, he simply put a big smile on his face as a way of tricking the tears back into his eyes. That's just my opinion, of course.

As much as I loved this movie, I have to say that the ending was a real letdown. Is it just me or does Leone have a slight problem with ending his pictures? I'm not really talking about the very end of the film as the subtle, smiling Noodles ending was a fine one. However, what I'm talking about is the resurrection of Max and how absolutely stupid it was! For starters, if we MUST bring Max back to life, then the first revelation of this should have come when Noodles enters the room. The camera should have been positioned firmly on the back of Max's head (the audience and Noodles still thinking that it's Secretary Bailey) and then he turns around, revealing to us and to Noodles that it's actually Max. Instead, he peeks out the window as Noodles arrives to the party and for a moment, I was as confused as hell! I just wish that Max's resurrection would have been left out. It just seemed like a cheap thrill to throw in there, a moment maker and for me it didn't work at all.

But, it's really hard to deny this movie the praise that it deserves. I loved it and I won't soon forget it and I'm sure it's one that I'll be tossing around in my head for the next few weeks or even months. It was a visual delight and something that really comes off almost flawlessly. It makes an impression on you (if you allow it to) and it sucks you in.

RATING: 10/10 Going lower than a '10' just wouldn't feel right, so I'll give it the full monty and call it a day. I'd say that after a few days of reflection, that both "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West" were also '10's'. Three absolute MUST SEE pictures.

MOVIES WATCHED: 347
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 654

A WORD ABOUT SERGIO LEONE

Just a quick couple of words about Sergio Leone. In his short career, Leone only managed to direct a handful of films (seven to be exact), but with less than half of his body of work, he's managed to turn me into a much pickier film junkie. As I've made my way through the pages of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", I've seen a lot of fantastic pieces of cinema history and my tastes are becoming more and more refined. With the "Sergio Leone Hat Trick", I've managed to accentuate my tastes even further and I have no doubt that from here on out I'll be much more fussier when it comes to ingesting films. Leone's films felt like films. When you were in the midst of experiencing them, no matter where you were, you felt like you were sitting in the middle row of an empty theater and being personally entertained. I'll also tip my hat to Ennio Morricone, who has, single-handedly made me much more appreciative of film scores.

November 9, 2011 3:33pm

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COMING SOON

November 8, 2011 6:27pm

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479. C'era una volta il West/Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Running Time: 165 minutes
Directed By: Sergio Leone
Written By: Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergio Donati, Mickey Knox, Sergio Leone
Main Cast: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferzetti
Click here to view the trailer

SERGIO LEONE HAT TRICK: PART TWO OF THREE

Continuing on with my three film salute to Sergio Leone, we come to "Once Upon a Time in the West", a beautiful, intense epic that has played a huge role in recharging my zest for this journey through the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" book.

Like "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "Once Upon a Time in the West" focuses on three men, crossing paths and kicking up dust in the old west. Frank (Fonda) is the meanest of the mean and is hired by wealthy railroad tycoon Morton (Ferzetti) to "take care" of anyone who might have reason to stop his railroad from being built. When Brett McBain buys a piece of land that lies right in the path of the railroad track, Frank and his boys pay a visit to Mr. McBain and remove him from the equation. That day Mr. McBain's new wife, Jill (Cardinale), arrives from New Orleans, to meet her new family, but finds them all slaughtered. Wanting to make a go at a new life in Flagstone, she stays put and tries to establish herself. Meanwhile, a man dubbed Harmonica (Bronson) has recently strolled into town and while he keeps his words few, he speaks with his musical mouthpiece and his six-shooter and seems to have a score to settle with the vicious Frank. Also there's Cheyenne (Robards), a mild-mannered guy, who is being framed for the murder of Brett McBain and aims to find out why the McBain family was killed in the first place.

Despite the fact that it's a Western, I honestly believe that if "Once Upon a Time in the West" had been released in 2010, as opposed to 1968, it would still be received very well. It, in my opinion, is a film that was/is way ahead of it's time. The thing I'm already beginning to love about Sergio Leone is that he was a very confident filmmaker. It comes across in the two movies of his that I've watched in the past two days. You can see confidence shining through on the screen. Leone knew for a fact that he had something special with "Once Upon a Time in the West". It oozes through in the music, in the cinematography and in the way Leone treats his characters. The score of Ennio Morricone is an absolute classic and probably one of the best soundtracks that I've ever heard accompany a movie. The camerawork is also absolutely AWESOME, in every sense of the word.

SPOILER ALERT!

To be honest, the plot of "Once Upon a Time in America" leaves something to be desired. I'm big on plot in my movies and maybe as my cinematic tastes mature a little bit more, I'll be able to watch a visually striking, musically enhanced picture, like "Once Upon a Time in the West" and that will be enough to curb my appetite for a good picture. However, I haven't reached that point yet and I'm still someone who likes to have a good storyline accompany all of that other detailed greatness. For a nearly three hour film, not a whole lot is ever really going on and if you take the plot itself, it's one that could have easily been told in half the time that Leone took to tell it. Everything kind of centers around that one important scene where Brett McBain and his family are murdered and from there on, we have these three characters staring holes in one another, until finally we're brought to a major, epic duel at the end of the movie.

And speaking of the end of the movie, what was up with the end of this movie? The ending should have and easily could have been Harmonica and Frank's duel, but instead we carry the film out for another fifteen or so minutes, as Cheyenne and Harmonica ride off into the sunset together, only to discover that apparently Cheyenne has been shot, falling from his horse and dying. It was a very weak ending if you ask me, one that wasn't needed, as they had a perfectly brilliant ending in the Frank/Harmonica duel. That duel, by the way, is one that I rewound three times to rewatch, as it was really a PERFECT scene and one that I won't soon forget.

For all the nitpicking I'm doing, it's really hard to deny that "Once Upon a Time in the West" is really a MUST SEE movie. Even if the plot is a little stale and the ending is all wrong, the film is still absolutely brilliant and sometimes breathtaking. Seeing Henry Fonda play a bad guy is something else that must be seen to be believed. I wondered how they were going to get me to believe that my personal symbol of cinematic justice, Mr. Henry Fonda was an evil outlaw...and then he shoots a young child in the face and I knew he wasn't Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes anymore. Here's another little fun fact: I had never seen a Charles Bronson picture prior to this one. In my mind, he was always kind of lumped into the Steven Segal, Chuck Norris macho club, but I'll be damned if he wasn't a pretty good actor and a suitable successor to Eastwood's "Man with No Name" persona. And yes, Claudia Cardinale is still GORGEOUS!

RATING: 8.5/10 I'm sure this, along with "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" will see a change in their ratings come recap time, but for now an '8.5' seems suitable. Had there been a stronger plot and had they lopped off the Cheyenne dying ending, then it could have been an easy '10' and probably a shoo-in for the #1 spot of my next TOP 20.

MOVIES WATCHED: 346
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 655

November 8, 2011 12:52am

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449. Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Running Time: 177 minutes
Directed By: Sergio Leone
Written By: Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli
Main Cast: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach
Click here to view the trailer

SERGIO LEONE HAT TRICK: PART ONE OF THREE

NOTE: The book cites "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" as a 166 minute feature. However, the version that I took in was the Extended, English dubbed version, which clocked in at 177 minutes. It's the only version that Netflix offers and thus, the only version that I was able to retrieve, so I guess it will have to do. Now then....

I had never seen "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", prior to this morning. Of course, I had always heard about it, heard excerpts from the score used in multiple places and heard tale of "The Man With No Name". I've seen the IMDB Top 250 Movies (as voted on by it's users) and noticed how "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" has held steadfast at around the #5 position for as long as I've known about that list (it's currently #4). However, I had just never had the urge to see it. So, what follows is a first-timers review of "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" or "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".

The films plot, despite it's length, is actually fairly simple. First, we're introduced to three characters: The Good takes the form of Blondie (Eastwood), the Bad is Angel Eyes (Van Cleef) and the Ugly is Tuco (Wallach) - all three existing somewhere in the United States, during the time of the American Civil War. During the film's opening moments, Angel Eyes is told of $200,000 in gold that was stolen from the confederacy by a man named Jackson, later dubbed Bill Carson. Angel Eyes makes it his mission to track down the gold, but first he must track down the thief. Meanwhile, Blondie and Tuco are running a scam, which involves Blondie turning over the wanted Tuco to the authorities in exchange for the bounty. When they're about to hang Tuco, Blondie shoots him down, the two split the bounty and wait for the bounty to rise, so they can do it all over again. After a while, Blondie double crosses the weasel-esque Tuco and leaves him, hands tied, in the desert to fend for himself, while he makes off with the whole sum of a recently acquired bounty payment. Tuco eventually gets back to town, captures Blondie and tries to drag him across the desert, but is eventually halted by a runaway horse carriage. When Tuco stops the carriage, he finds a group of dying confederate soldiers, one of them being Bill Carson. With his dying breath, Carson tells Tuco that the gold has been buried in Sad Hill Cemetary, in a grave. However, when Tuco goes to get Carson some water, Carson tells Blondie the name on the grave and then dies, before Tuco can return. Now, Tuco and Blondie must try to settle their differences, as they each know one half of a $200,000 secret: Tuco knows the name of the cemetery, Blondie knows the name of the grave. And don't forget about Angel Eyes, who also has his eyes on the prize.

I wasn't TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY, I'll tell you that much right now. Now before all of you die hard Leone fans send me death threats, let me also say that I thought the film was very, very good and I'm really glad I finally got the chance to watch it. Prior to even popping the DVD into my player, I was very excited to finally be watching this iconic film and finally being able to say that, "Yes, I've seen The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". I knew, from the opening shot (a close-up of an extreme outlaw's face and a coyote walking across his/our field of view) that this was going to be something special. It only took me about ten minutes to see where Quentin Tarantino got a lot of influence out of Sergio Leone. I'm a big Tarantino fan, so that went a long way in helping me to feel more comfortable with a spaghetti western, a genre that I'm almost completely unfamiliar with. The score was legendary and it's no wonder that it became so memorable and so often imitated/stolen. The camera shots were also quite unforgettable and did a huge part in branding this film into my mind and I doubt that I'll soon forget this one.

As for the actors, a huge, enthusiastic thumbs up to Mr. Eli Wallach, my favorite character from the whole movie. Sure, Eastwood was bad ass, but not quite as bad ass as I always thought he would be as "The Man With No Name", but a bad ass nonetheless. Lee Van Cleef did a decent job too, but as far as I'm concerned, "Ugly" stole the show. Wallach was just so slimy and weasely, yet also portrayed as a bit of a bad ass himself - I just couldn't help but fall in love with his character. I wasn't necessarily rooting for him, I just very much enjoyed the scenes that he was a part of.

As for "not being totally blown away", I think a lot of it was simple hype. You know, when you hear about a film for so many years and then you finally see it, it's hard for a single movie to live up to so many years of praise, from so many different sources. Also, the film did drag in a couple of parts, not many, but a couple. However, I guess I did watch the "extended" version, so maybe that could account for some of the scenes that seemed to go on forever, like the one where Blondie and Tuco meet up with the drunk Union Captain, right before they blow the bridge. That scene was just slow and dull. I know I seem to say this A LOT, but this is yet another film that could easily transform into a '10' with a little bit of retrospective thinking on it and maybe another viewing. I won't continue blathering on and on, I think I've made my points.

RATING: 8.5/10 Not a '10' yet, but maybe someday. I'm REALLY excited to see "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "Once Upon a Time in America" though. Those will both be reviewed, probably by mid-week.

MOVIES WATCHED: 345
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 656

November 6, 2011 3:18pm

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478. Gaav/The Cow (1968)

Running Time: 100 minutes
Directed By: Dariush Mehrjui
Written By: Dariush Mehrjui
Main Cast: Ezzatolah Entezami, Firouz Behjat-Mohamadi, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Parviz Fannizadeh, Jamshid Mashayekhi

BEEF...MORE THAN JUST DINNER

There are currently four movies streaming on Netflix, that I've scheduled myself to watch during this 100 movies, that I'm really dreading. The reasons why I'm dreading them are probably nonsensical, but "The Cow" was one of the four. While it wasn't anything that knocked my socks off, it certainly wasn't worth the dread.

Hassan (Entezami) is the proud owner of the only cow in his small, Iranian village. He loves the cow very much, constantly obsessing over the cow - making sure she always has plenty of water, giving her baths in a nearby stream and being very proud to be her owner. When Hassan is away, in the city, for a few days, the cow dies. It is suspected that marauders from the nearby village of Bolour are to blame for the death of the cow, but nonetheless the villagers know that when Hassan returns he will be devastated. Instead of telling him that his cow has been killed, the villagers band together and decide to go with the story that the cow simply ran away. They figure this will cause less of a blow and at least give Hassan a little hope, for the time being. The villagers dump the dead cow down a well and go so far as to tie up the village idiot, in an abandoned tool shed, so that he won't spill the beans. When Hassan returns home they tell him that the cow ran away, but he refuses to believe it, citing that the cow wouldn't do that. Hassan begins to drift into madness as the heartbreak over the loss of his prized cow washes over him.

Like "Daisies", this is another movie that I'm having a hard time making up my mind about. It wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting to be and actually did a fine job of keeping me engaged throughout. While it was quite hard for me to imagine such a bond between man and cow, that would drive this story to it's extreme lengths, I soon realized that this was a different kind of story and one that, to my knowledge, has never really been delved into. It's a unique type of story, in that, it's something you couldn't tell without using man and animal. Reality and fiction seem to be playing tug of war in my head, with reality saying that the movie was absolute nonsense because what man loves a cow as much as Hassan and what man would go into madness over the loss of that cow. On the other hand, fiction is fighting back with the facts that Hassan was the only man in the village to own a cow and with the village being a poor one, that fact allowed him to carry a certain pride.

I really think that this is a film that everyone is going to look at differently. I think you'll be on either side of the fence. Either you'll be able to empathize with Hassan and feel his heartbreaking, or you'll just call it all poppycock and wonder how any man could love a cow as much as him. Me, I haven't really decided which side I'm on yet. I'm probably more prone to the side that empathizes with Hassan. I really felt for the guy, up until the point where he went totally crazy and started acting like a cow, having to be pulled on a rope, to the hospital to get checked out. For me, that was just going a little too far and if they'd have kept everything on a more realistic rope, I could've bought into it a little more. Also a sweeter, softer score could have helped to maybe even coax a few tears out of me and maybe even a little empathy from the other characters toward Hassan. The other characters just seemed to be too cold toward Hassan and not really that understanding of his situation, thinking that he could merely snap out of it and be their "old Hassan" again.

On a final note, there was a particular scene that I want to make note of. When Hassan is first informed that his cow ran away. He doesn't quite understand what Eslam (the one who's telling him) is saying at first. He gets the news as he's taking water to the cow and when he realizes that Eslam is saying, he drops the pail and we watch as the water pours out over the dry Earth. For some reason as I watches the patch of water grow and witness the silent emotion that was playing out on the screen, it all hit me as a very powerful scene. I liked certain aspects of the film, a lot, but on the other hand, it didn't work on some levels either.

RATING: 6/10 Not great, not bad and one that I'll need to do some thinking about.

MOVIES WATCHED: 344
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 657

November 4, 2011 1:26am

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450. Sedmikrasky/Daisies (1966)

Running Time: 74 minutes
Directed By: Vera Chytilova
Written By: Vera Chytilova, Ester Krumbachova
Main Cast: Ivana Karbanova, Jitka Cerhova, Marie Ceskova, Jinna Myskova, Marcela Brezinova
Click here to view the trailer

COUNTERCULTURE

Well last night was SUPPOSED to be the start of my three film tribute to Sergio Leone, but the old VHS copy that I had, didn't have any sound and thus, I went to a backup movie - "Daisies", in a continued effort to expand my knowledge of 60s cinema.

It's going to be quite difficult for me to write a plot summary for "Daisies", but, as always, I'll give it the old college try. There really isn't any clear plot, but rather the film uses symbolism, vibrant colors and even experiments with sound effects, to tell it's story. The film centers around two young girls, both named Marie, who decide that since the world has "gone bad", then they will also go bad. Their exploits include frolicking in a meadow and picking fruit from a tree, probably symbolizing the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden, scamming old men out of free meals, dancing at a nightclub and using scissors to cut up many different objects, mostly phallic symbols. I'm just going to stop there, because any further attempt to describe the happenings of the film, will simply turn into boring blathering.

As far as my personal thoughts go, that's kind of a hard one too. I will say that from the opening scene, I was really dreading the next seventy-four minutes. However, as the film progressed, it actually had kind of a hypnotic effect on me. The mixing of colors, alternating between many different tones and using black and white for certain scenes, really seemed to lull me into this movies' submission. There are MANY absolutely gorgeous scenes and the way that they're cut together and put on display, is sometimes quite magical. There's a certain sexual arousal that comes along with the film too, as we're forced to watch two young ladies frolic around in next to nothing, barefoot and fancy free. In fact, while we're on the subject of sex, I often wondered throughout the film if these two young women were meant to be portrayed as lesbians, or simply two foot soldiers for the cause of feminism, getting across the point that men are the Devil.

On the other hand, the film, at times, seemed very pointless and nonsensical. There wasn't a plot and if you take a look on the special features of the DVD, you'll see that the Czech authorities actually used this film as an example, when citing that many of the Czech films being produced around this time were too confusing and made no sense. It's hard to disagree with them, as there really isn't a whole lot of sense to be made here...or is there? If I were able to watch "Daisies" another time or two and really get a grasp on what the message was and what Chytilova was trying to say, I think it would help me to really appreciate it a lot more and maybe....maybe even consider it a favorite. It certainly appealed to me, in some ways. It interested, engaged, hypnotized and aroused me also and that's certainly nothing to sneeze at. However, it also bored me, at times, and usually made no sense. This is a prime candidate for a film that I would have really loved to watch a second time, but I have an unwritten rule: Films that I watch for the book only get one chance to impress.

RATING: 5/10 We'll call that a review. I know it's short, but the last one was really long, so it evens out, right? I'm going to watch this again someday and I'm certainly going to keep it at the forefront of my mind. Don't be surprised if you see that rating jump two or three notches come recap time. As for now, since I can't decide, we'll slice it down the middle.

MOVIES WATCHED: 343
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 658

November 2, 2011 1:20pm

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October 2011 Recap

You know the drill. Let's get crack-a-lackin...

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in October 2011
1) The Breakfast Club (1985 - John Hughes) 8/10 - A previous, personal favorite that held up when being viewed for this journey.
2) Bonnie and Clyde (1967 - Arthur Penn) 6/10 - Certain scenes and performances worked really well, but the overall picture just isn't worthy of the accolades that it gets showered with.
3) Festen (1998 - Thomas Vinterberg) 8/10
4) Splendor in the Grass (1961 - Elia Kazan) 5.5/10 - In retrospect, this one barely gets a recognition of average. The performances are solid, but the movie itself is very forgettable.
5) The Shop on Main Street (1965 - Kadar, Klos) 9.5/10 - There's something stopping me from giving it a full out '10', but I'm not sure what. Nonetheless, I'm almost sure it will make an appearance on the next TOP 20.
6) The Evil Dead (1982 - Sam Raimi) 6.5/10
7) One-Eyed Jacks (1961 - Marlon Brando) 6/10
8) The Blair Witch Project (1999 - Myrick, Sanchez) 10/10 - Not backing down on my rating!
9) Reversal of Fortune (1990 - Barbet Schroeder) 7/10 - The type of movie you'd expect to garner Academy Award noms. Technically solid, great performances and hey, I even learned something about a landmark court case that I previously knew nothing about.
10) Scorpio Rising (1964 - Kenneth Anger) 1/10
11) David Holzman's Diary (1968 - Jim McBride) 7/10 - It stuck with me for the remainder of the month, so I had to inch it up at least a half a notch.
12) Rosemary's Baby (1968 - Roman Polanski) - 8/10
13) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 - Don Siegel) 6.5/10 - Can definitely see the appeal of the film and understand it's inclusion, it just didn't appeal to me as much as it did to others.
14) The Exorcist (1973 - William Friedkin) 7.5/10

NON-1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in October 2011
1) Everything Must Go (2010 - Dan Rush) 5/10 - I’d wanted to see this film ever since I saw the trailer for it and thought it looked really good. I was also excited to see Will Ferrell tackle a more serious role. As far as Ferrell himself goes, I would say that his go at a serious film was a partial success. It’s not that he really did a bad job, it’s just that, in my opinion, he didn’t transform enough to really get over with me as a serious actor. When I watch “Punch Drunk Love”, Adam Sandler does a good enough job to make me totally forget about “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore”. When I watch “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” or “The Truman Show”, Jim Carrey does a good enough job to make me totally forget about “Ace Ventura” or “The Cable Guy”. However, in Ferrell’s case, as I was watching “Everything Must Go”, I just couldn’t erase the images of “Anchorman” or “Elf” and therefore it just wasn’t AS enjoyable. As for the film itself, it was a little too cliché for my tastes. In fact, it was more than just a little cliché. Here we’re handed a story that we’ve all seen a thousand times before – “By gosh, this guy’s just having a rough go of things, but dammit if he’s not gonna’ grab life by the horns and make lemonade out of lemons”. It’s a story that has been committed to celluloid more times than I care to count and here we are again, traveling down the same road. Toss in the added plotlines of making the main character an alchoholic, having him befriend a kid and giving him a female interest to play off of and you’ve got yourself something that every Hollywood executive would be proud of. It wasn’t a total loss and actually for the most part it was fairly solid, but I’ll warn you, you’ve seen this film before in other incarnations.

EDIT - My original rating for "Everything Must Go" was a '6.5/10', but in retrospect, it was very forgettable and very plain.

2) Jack Goes Boating (2010 - Philip Seymour Hoffman) 6.5/10 - **SPOILER ALERT**
With not enough energy last night to devote my attention to a movie from THE BOOK, I turned to the streaming portion of Netflix to check out Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut, “Jack Goes Boating”. After watching this film, I had the thought, that if I’d seen this movie five years ago, I’d have loved it. It seems like it’s something that would’ve appealed to me back then, but with my filmic palate growing and having seen more and more movies over the years, I’m starting to get more picky and thus, “Jack Goes Boating” didn’t do THAT much for me. Sure it had it’s moments and Hoffman’s acting was fine, as usual. It just wasn’t all that structurally sound, if you ask me. In the film, Jack (Hoffman), a very mild-mannered, extrememly shy man, working for his uncle, is set up with Connie (Amy Ryan), another fairly shy person. The duo were made for each other and while walking in the winter snow of New York City, they make a future date to go boating together. In the end, Jack and Connie witness the demise of their friends’ relationship, a married man and woman, something that you’d think would turn these two emotionally void people against the idea of making a go at a relationship. There were some scenes that made me cringe. This film had trouble deciding if it wanted to be a melancholy or happy affair. The music, atmosphere and situations seemed to indicate melancholia, while certain scenes, like when Jack locks himself in the bathroom after burning the meal he was preparing and being lured out by his three singing guests, seemed far too peppy for a movie like this and really, actually made me cringe. I did like the idea of having the character of Jack be very childlike, being taken care of by his friends (the married couple). His friend Clyde (John Ortiz), was almost like a father to him (and oddly enough, we never hear of Jack’s father in the entire picture), teaching him how to swim and hooking him up with a culinary instructor. In the end, Jack is waved off, ready to face the world without being looked after by his friends, but turns to wave back at the man who has basically taken care of him in his adult life. “Jack Goes Boating” may be something I need to revisit again someday and my opinions of it seemed to be still forming even as I write this, but for now, call it a “just above average” night at the movies.

November 1, 2011 11:21pm

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