241. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Running Time: 92 minutes
Directed By: Robert Wise
Written By: Harry Bates, Edmund H. North, from the story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates
Main Cast: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe
Click here to view the trailer

WISE WEEK: PART 3

A frequent commenter here on the blog, Ray, took a shot in the dark and predicted that I wouldn't care too much for "The Day the Earth Stood Still". In fact, the shot he took wasn't that much in the dark. I haven't been silent about my dislike toward the sci-fi genre and I really didn't expect to like this one too much either. But every once in a while, a sci-fi movie surprises me and this is one of those instances.

When the film starts, many different nations around the World are tracking a unidentified flying object (UFO), that is traveling at unearthly speeds. It doesn't take too much screen time for the saucer to finally make a landing in Washington D.C. and make it clear that this is indeed an alien spacecraft. When the door's open, out steps Klaatu (Rennie), seemingly a human being, but proclaiming to be from another planet. He is shot by a trigger happy soldier and transported to Walter Reed Hospital. Later, Klaatu makes it known that he has an important message for the entire planet of Earth and that it is necessary for him to speak to the heads of every nation. He is informed, by the Chief of Staff, that his request is impossible, due to the rising tensions in the World. Klaatu eventually escapes from the hospital and takes refuge in a boarding house, populated by a handful of guests, including Helen Benson (Neal) and her young son Bobby (Gray). Klaatu and Bobby get along wonderfully and eventually Bobby leads Klaatu to Professor Barnhardt (Jaffe), whom Klaatu sees as a wise man, who might understand his important message. Eventually the message from Klaatu becomes evident: The people of Earth will eventually begin to travel to other planets and possibly inhabit them. Since the people of Earth seem to rely so heavily on war, if they travel to other planets, alien life fear for the peace that they have been able to sustain.

I think there were equal parts of good and bad in "The Day the Earth Stood Still", but that the good was good enough to make this film worthwhile, while the bad was just nitpicky stuff. The film obviously promotes a strong anti-war message, but for me there were other messages hidden within the contents of this movie. The anti-war message is obviously a good one, because lets face it - no one likes war. Anytime you can slip that message into popular culture, like movies and television and do it cleverly enough, that's a good thing. When you take that message and you spin it together with an alien story, it becomes really interesting and you suddenly have a lot of things to think about when the film ends. There's also, in my opinion, a very clear message of racial prejudices here. When Klaatu (an alien being) arrives in Washington D.C., everyone is quick to label him as a danger and fear him, simply because he's different. It kind of mimics the day to day, social prejudices that we always hear about - people fearing/disliking men of different color, religion, ethnicity or even because they have different sexual preferences. The film also took an early jab at the media and how they have a tendency to overblow certain situations and stories. Bottom line is that the film makes a lot of bold statements and at a time when bold statements weren't so cliche.

SPOILER ALERT!

Aside from the symbolism and themes of "The Day the Earth Stood Still", lets talk about the character of Klaatu and the performance of Michael Rennie. I thought Rennie was excellent, while at the same time couldn't quite get a grasp on the actual character of Klaatu. Maybe I wasn't supposed to be able to get a grasp on this guy, because he WAS an alien and maybe we just weren't supposed to be able to relate to him. In fact, none of the characters in the film are very relateable and the film really just tells us a story, without ever letting us get really close to anybody. The other downfall of the picture is the ending, which was basically non-existent. Nothing is ever really solved and Klaatu leaves Earth not really knowing if his mission was a failure or a success. I don't think the speech at the end of the film was really quite as powerful as the filmmaker's intended and it really didn't work out as a climax at all, but simply a decent little piece of dialogue. I also didn't like how the relationship between Billy and Klaatu is never really finalized and the film ends with Klaatu leaving and with Billy left hanging, never knowing if his temporary hero had good or bad intentions.

I often talk about movies being too long or certain pictures that could have said what they needed to say in half the time they took to say it. "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was one that I could have endured for double it's running time. If you had stretched the film out to epic length, fleshed out the story and the characters a little more, I think this could've really been a mind-blowing piece of sci-fi, film history. However, as it is, the story was good enough to pull me out of the slump I've been in and the cast, most notably Michael Rennie, turned in good enough performances. I enjoyed the messages that this film preached, without the film coming off as preachy or simply a vehicle to talk about how bad war is. And hey, I'm just glad they didn't venture into a side story of a romance between Helen and Klaatu. That would've been disastrous and at times, it seemed like they were flirting with it.

RATING: 7/10 Maybe that's just me being generous, but it seems fair at the moment. I'll revisit this one at RECAP time and we'll see what happens to the rating then. "Wise Week" will conclude with "The Sound of Music", but don't expect that one until at least Monday night. Expect randomness till then, if anything at all.

MOVIES WATCHED: 363
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 638

December 9, 2011 6:03pm

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412. The Haunting (1963)

Running Time: 112 minutes
Directed By: Robert Wise
Written By: Nelson Gidding, from novel by Shirley Jackson
Main Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Lois Maxwell
Click here to view the trailer

WISE WEEK: PART 2

"Do not watch this one alone!" - That is the citation, as quoted in the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" text and I couldn't disagree with it more. By all means, watch "The Haunting" alone, because it simply isn't that scary and another near dud for "Wise Week".

The title kind of says it all, as "The Haunting" is about a big, supposedly haunted mansion known as Hill House. When the film gets underway, a narration from the character of Dr. Markway (Johnson) is heard, as he tells us all the ghastly details about the tumultuous history of the very evil Hill House. The house was built in the mid/late 19th Century by Hugh Crain and ever since it's inception has wreaked havoc on most of the people who dared call it home. When we snap out of the narration and into the actual plot of the film, we meet Dr. John Markway in person and hear of his plans to inhabit Hill House for an undetermined period of time, so that he can study the supernatural elements that are supposedly at play there. In addition to himself, Dr. Markway will also require the company of a few tagalongs, people who have had experience in the supernatural and won't be quick to laught it all off. One of the people joining him will be Eleanor (Harris), a middle-aged, sheltered woman, who has spent most of her adult life taking care of her sick mother, who has recently passed away. Eleanor is ecstatic about the idea of getting away, as she lives with her sister and isn't entirely welcome there, to say the least. Also joining Dr. Markway are another female and prospective psychic Theodora (Bloom) and the man who stands to inherit Hill House one day, Luke (Tamblyn).

SPOILER ALERT!

I guess my biggest problem with "The Haunting" was the fact that nothing was ever really, fully explained. Now, I realize that this is a horror movie and in most horror movies explanations aren't at the top of the priorities list, but the biggest thing that is never explained is why the house wants Eleanor. In fact, the entire climax of the film (or at least they passed it off as a climax) hinges on the fact that this house will not let Eleanor leave and she will (and does) die before she'll exit through the gates. The character of Eleanor was an interesting one, in my opinion, as she was 100% suited for the confines of a horror movie. In fact, the story she recalls, about midway through the picture, about a storm taking place directly over her home and no one else's, kind of reminded me of "Carrie". There were a few other resemblances to "Carrie", that I picked up on, most notably the way the character seemed to be controlled, all her life, by her mother. But I'm getting sidetracked...

Eleanor WAS interesting, but her character never really went anywhere. Did she die in the end because she was the only one who intended to make Hill House her home? Did Hill House not want to have inhabitants of any kind, especially the kind that intended to take permanent residence there? This is all eluded to, but nothing is ever confirmed and these theories are much too loose to be assumed. I kept waiting for a big moment to come at the end, but it never came. The whole film just seemed like something exciting and ominous was going to be revealed at the end, but I was wrong and nothing really ever came. Visually the film was a home run, as the camera was obviously being moved by a true professional and one who knew exactly what it took to shoot a horror flick. The characters were fleshed out enough and really fantastic, except they were not only confined into an evil house, but also a sub-par film, and never really got a chance to shine. Even acting wise, Julie Harris was fantastic as Eleanor, but it was all lost in a film that simply didn't work for me.

If this journey has shown my anything, it has made me realize that I'm not much of a horror fan. Either that or I'm just very picky about the kind of horror that I'll admit to enjoying. I used to consider myself somewhat of an aficionado when it came to "fright flicks", but with films like this one, "Cat People", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" all coming up short, I'd have to rethink that train of thought. Oh and speaking of "Cat People", this picture was apparently Robert Wise's tribute to Val Lewton films, which may further explain my dislike for it. I'll end my rant there and call it a night.

RATING: 6/10 Not absolutely awful and few key scenes (like the spiral staircase scene, near the end and first instance of Eleanor and Theo hearing the pounding at their door) make it worth, at least, one viewing. But I don't think you'll be wasting the paper and ink to write home about this one. "Wise Week" continues - Next up: "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

MOVIES WATCHED: 362
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 639

December 7, 2011 1:04am

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381. West Side Story (1961)

Running Time: 151 minutes
Directed By: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
Written By: Jerome Robbins, Ernest Lehman, from play by Arthur Laurents
Main Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris
Click here to view the trailer

WISE WEEK: PART 1

Note: I wanted to watch the four films that will comprise "Wise Week" in chronological order, as I normally do for most of my dedication to director weeks. However, I accidentally moved "The Haunting" to the top of my Netflix queue and wasn't expecting another Netflix delivery until Wednesday. Since I wanted to get the ball rolling tonight, I've decided to go in random order.

Tonight was the second time in my life that I've seen "West Side Story". The first time I saw it, I was a grade school boy watching it in music appreciation class and I remember loving it. Tonight, I wasn't quite as enthralled.

The film is set in New York and centers around two rival gangs, on the streets of Manhattan. You've got the Jets, headed up by their leader Riff (Tamblyn) and the Puerto Rican Sharks and their main man Bernardo (Chakiris). The two gangs can't seem to come to terms on which one of them is the top dog on the streets, so the Jets decide to challenge the Sharks to a rumble. Riff makes plans to take his former partner and Jets co-founder, Tony (Beymer), to neutral territory, in the form of a dance, and formally challenge the Sharks. Tony is hesitant at first, but eventually decides to back up his best buddy. While at the dance, Tony meets Maria (Wood), Bernardo's sister and immediately falls for her. Later, the two gangs finally come to congress at Doc's Candy Shop and Tony convinces them to have a fair fist fight, instead of a rumble involving weapons. The gangs agree and as they prepare to fight, Tony and Maria continue to fall head over heels for one another, professing their love in the form of songs. When the big showdown finally happens, it doesn't take long for the switchblades to get pulled and for certain key characters to meet their fatal demise.

Man, you know I remember watching this movie in school like it was yesterday. I always hated school, but I remember when we were watching "West Side Story" (split up into four of five days) I actually had a reason to look forward to school for that week. It captivated me when I was younger and I loved everything about it, from the music to the plot. Today, like I said, I was less than enthralled and I can't say I was too unhappy when it ended. One big problem that was very obvious to me, was that there were far too many songs! Now, I know this is a musical and you might say, "Well, how can a musical have TOO MANY songs?". but I'll be damned if this thing wasn't jam-packed with songs! There were twelve songs that were actually sung throughout the film, not counting the parts where the orchestra was simply playing and the reprise of "Somewhere". It felt like they no more got finished singing one song, and they were gargling salt water and preparing their voices for a rendition of something else. The plot is extremely thin and is held up by the twelve legs that are the musical numbers. If you were to strip this film of all it's musical acts, it would probably last about 25 minutes and be an intoxicating little short film. And the kicker is this: The music isn't even THAT great. Sure there are a few catchy tunes (like my favorite, "Gee Officer Krupke"), but for the most part the music wasn't something that really appealed to me.

Obviously the plot is a take on Romeo & Juliet and that's kind of cool - before it was cool for movies to adapt things from Shakespeare plays and place them in modern settings. The set design, costume design and cinematography are excellent and the whole production made my eyes pop at least a dozen times, as it's really a spectacle to behold - visually speaking. I thought Richard Beymer was an awful actor and when you find out the little tidbit that he didn't even do his own singing, it's a real head scratcher as to how this guy even landed a part this big. Natalie Wood wasn't that great either and when I think of her performance here and in "Splendor in the Grass", it's my opinion that she wasn't much more than a pretty face. On the other hand, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris and Rita Moreno were all excellent casting choices, especially Tamblyn whom I thought pulled of his character perfectly.

As I've noted many times throughout my journey; my tastes - they are a changin'. "West Side Story" simply doesn't have the power to captivate me anymore, like it did when I was a youngster. No longer can a film dangle it's grandeur in front of me like a carrot. As I've grown older, I've learned to take a closer look and not give my approval out quite as easily. The bottom line on "West Side Story" isn't bad, but it's certainly not as good as it once was.

RATING: 6.5/10 Not bad, but I had high hopes for this one and it really fell short. "Wise Week", however, will continue. Next up: "The Haunting".

MOVIES WATCHED: 361
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 640

December 6, 2011 12:57am

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424. Tini zabutykh predkiv/Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)

Running Time: 97 minutes
Directed By: Sergei Parajanov
Written By: Ivan Chendej, from story by Mikhaylo Mikhaylovich Koysyubinskiy
Main Cast: Ivan Mikolajchuk, Larysa Kadochnikova, Tatyana Bestayeva, Spartak Bagashvili
Click here to view the trailer

WEEKEND, U.S.S.R. DOUBLE FEATURE

Well, the wife was feeling a little drowsy this evening and decided to take a nap, so I took the opportunity to slip in another movie and step one pace closer to my next TOP 20. Since August I've been dreading "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" - ever since I watched "The Color of Pomegranates", Sergei Parajanov's other feature in THE BOOK. Turns out, he actually improved...a little.

The film's central character is Ivan (Mikolajchuk), whom we come upon when he is a young boy. From a very young age, Ivan is forced to cope with death, as both his brother and father die, when he is just a boy. After his father's funeral, Ivan meets a young girl named Marichka (Kadochnikova), whom he immediately befriends. The two grow up together and ultimately form a romantic relationship when they reach adulthood. When Ivan ventures out to find work, he promises Marichka that he'll return before winter and asks her to wait for him. While he is gone, Marichka scales the side of a mountain, to retrieve a stray goat and falls into the river, drowning. When Ivan returns and sees the dead body of Marichka, he falls into a deep state of loneliness and melancholia. Eventually, after the passing of some time, Ivan meets another woman, Palagna (Bestayeva), whom he marries. The marriage, however, slowly falls apart when Ivan continues to obsess over Marichka and become incensed at Palagna's failure to bear him a child. Palagna eventually picks up the art of sorcery (or witchcraft) and begins to cheat on Ivan with a local sorcerer.

I remember the reason why I watched "The Color of Pomegranates" when I did, was because, while on a message board trying to evoke suggestions about the most visually striking films of all-time, someone brought it up. I remember being so disappointed with "The Color of Pomegranates" and wondering why it got showered with so much praise for it's "gorgeous" cinematography. I'm even more befuddled by that wrongful accolade today. "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", if nothing else, is a film that will absolutely make your eyes pop! Let me start off by saying that I ultimately didn't care too much for the picture, however whether you like it or not, the movie will seer images into your brain that you'll never forget. I knew it was going to be a visual delight, when at the beginning of the film, a shot of a very tall tree falling to the ground, is shot from the point of view of the top of the tree. Parajanov, like Federico Fellini, knew how to manipulate his colors and use them to their maximum advantage. I also love how Parajanov joins color and black & white, using the black & white for when the character of Ivan is at his lowest.

On the other hand, "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" doesn't have much to it's advantage, outside of it's cinematography. The film is quite boring, at least from this author's perspective and is extremely "artsy" and overly dramatic. It's something that I'd picture old Ukranian women watching, handkerchiefs in hand and bawling their eyes out and something that is not only of it's time, but behind it's time - at least from a storyline perspective. It's something that, despite it's visual achievements, leaves something to be desired on almost all other levels. It had me watching the clock and counting down the minutes until I could put this one behind me and move on in my journey, so for that reason I cannot recommend it, no matter how beautiful it looks. If you can watch a movie for visual delights alone, then by all means, watch "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", as it's probably one of the most visually striking movies you'll ever behold. If you're like me and need more than that, then give this one a pass.

RATING: 4.5/10 Well I made it through Sergei Parajanov and I didn't even get a lousy t-shirt. Until next time.

MOVIES WATCHED: 360
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 641

December 3, 2011 11:14pm

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471. Csillagosok, katonak/The Red and the White (1967)

Running Time: 91 minutes
Directed By: Miklos Jancso
Written By: Gyula Hernadi, Miklos Jancso, Luca Karall, Valeri Karen, Giorgi Mdivani
Main Cast: Jozsef Madaras, Tibor Molnar, Andras Kozak, Jacint Juhasz, Anatoli Yabbarov
Click here to view the trailer

WAR TORN

This one has been staring a whole right through me for many months, as it sat on my Netflix streaming queue and I kept putting it off, simply because it didn't look like something that was going to appeal to me. I was half right.

The film is set in 1919 and takes a look at the battle between the Communists and the Tsarists (or is it Czarists?) and the involvement of the Hungarians. The two sides battle for control of a stretch of land, near the Volga river. The film was actually very difficult to follow for me, maybe because I have absolutely no knowledge of early 20th Century Russian history or maybe because the film jumped around so much, at times following different characters and never really focusing in on one character or even a group of characters specifically. Also the subtitles were a bit wacky and there were times when the characters would speak and no subtitles would appear, but that wouldn't be the fault of the film maker's. The film goes on for ninety minutes as the balance of power continues to shift back and forth between the "Reds" (communists) and the "Whites" (tsarists). There's a lot of killing and by the time "The End" appears, the body count is very high.

This film is a prime example that everyone views every film differently. I really wouldn't say that I watched this film, but rather observed it and tried my best to listen to what it had to say. Obviously it's a very anti-war movie, as the tone is very downtrodden and the killings always seem senseless. I didn't try to understand history by watching "The Red and the White", but rather simply watched and let the images flow into my brain and tried my best to make sense of everything. I wasn't bored while watching it, but I wasn't entirely sucked in either. It wasn't a movie that made the clock seemingly stop and the ninety minutes were well used, despite the fact that I was very confused throughout.

The camerawork is sublime and I think it went a long way in simply allowing me to get lost in the artistic and aesthetic elements of the film. It was quite mesmerizing, at times, watching so much horror unfold in such a beautiful way. I feel like I'm rambling at this point, so we'll call that a review.

RATING: 5/10 I would neither recommend, nor discourage anyone from seeing this film. If you like war movies or films about world history, then it may be your cup of tea. If you just want to check out a really good looking, black and white picture, then it also may work for you. Otherwise, I can't imagine you'd find any appealing elements in "The Red and the White".

MOVIES WATCHED: 359
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 642

December 3, 2011 7:07pm

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480. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Running Time: 112 minutes
Directed By: Franklin J. Schaffner
Written By: Michael Wilson, Rod Serling, from the novel La Planete des singes by Pierre Boulle
Main Cast: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore
Click here to view the trailer

THE TWILIGHT ZONE GONE APE

With every film my personal excitement mounts, as we draw closer and closer to yet another TOP 20 list and another milestone in my journey. Next up for me was "Planet of the Apes" - a film that I had seen a couple of times prior and one that always tends to make me a fan of sci-fi, if only for a short while.

The main character is Taylor (Heston), who along with three other astronauts has engaged in an 18 month exploration in deep space. However, that's 18 months moving at light speed - in actual Earth time they've been away for thousands of years. When they are awakened from a deep, hibernation-like sleep, they find that their spacecraft is about to make a crash landing. Glancing at the control panel of the ship, Taylor notices that the year is 3978 A.D. and judging by his scientific determinations, he feels they've landed on an unknown planet in an entirely different solar system from that of Earth. Taylor, along with his two astronaut cohorts (one of them dies in the spacecraft, due to a crack in her hibernation terminal), abandons the sinking spacecraft and wanders onto the soil of, what is to be their new home planet. After a bit of walking, the three spacemen come across a group of people, all of whom don't speak and resemble cavemen and women. Soon, the sound of galloping horses breaks the peaceful setting and Taylor and crew soon realize an attack is oncoming. An attack indeed, as Taylor and crew can't believe their eyes when they realize they're being chased down by apes, on horseback and wielding shotguns! It seems that on THIS planet, apes rule and humans are the animals!

SPOILER ALERT!

When I was younger - probably somewhere in the vicinity of 17 or 18 - my brother introduced me to "The Twilight Zone". Now, I'm not talking about the 80s version or the crappy 2000s version, but rather, the classic 1950s/1960s version. I think "Planet of the Apes" appeals to me because 1) It's co-written by Rod Serling, creator of "The Twilight Zone" and 2) It's pretty much set up just like an episode of the classic TV show. It provides us with a sci-fi based premise, gives us a decent hook (three astronauts landing on an unknown planet, 2000 years after they're mission has begun) and shocks us a couple of times throughout. However, my one big problem when it comes to "Planet of the Apes" is that it lasts about ninety minutes longer than an episode of "The Twilight Zone" lasted and at times it does tend to drag. Really the points that you need to hit here, aren't many. The entire plot is basically three astronauts traveling through space and crashing in the year 3978 A.D., only to discover that this "mysterious" planet is ruled by apes and that the humans are treated as animals. Tack on the surprise ending, and that's really all the bullet points that this film needs to hit. Everything else is just filler, really. When you start talking about evolutionary theories and having Taylor befriend a couple of the apes and that those apes may or may not stand trial for heresy, you really start to bog down the whole basic plot.

Granted, I realize that you have to have something to fill in the gaps between the bullet points, but it's really a shame, because the bullet points are gold and the filler really didn't do much for me. However, it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be and I think most sci-fi nuts will easily look past (or welcome) all of the stuff that I call filler. I really can't comment too much on the cast, at least positively. Heston was decent, but the rest of the actors were busy transforming into monkeys, so their skills weren't as obvious. One has to wonder if this was originally meant to be simply a vehicle for Heston to run around half-naked and play Tarzan for a couple of hours, but I quickly brushed that notion aside. One also has to wonder about the intentions of the original writers of the story and the point that they were obviously trying to make about they way humans treat animals. I mean, they were trying to make that point weren't they? There were a lot of points in the film where it was seemingly screaming, "See, what if we were the animals, it wouldn't be so fun, would it!?".

When you get right down to it, "Planet of the Apes" is a lot of fun. For the most part it's pretty engaging, but there are a few spots where you just want to get to the ending. Speaking of the ending, it's also a film that once you've seen the ending, the film never has that same shock value again. It's also a film that will get the scientific part of your brain running a little bit and even if you're not a "sci-fi guy", I think this is a film that easily appeals to all types of audiences.

RATING: 7/10 Hey, how 'bout that Linda Harrison huh....huh! For the curious, I'll be starting my four-film salute to Robert Wise sometime next week. I have a few loose ends that I want to tie up first, so expect randomness till then.

MOVIES WATCHED: 358
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 643

December 2, 2011 11:19pm

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November 2011 Recap

Here we go...

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in November 2011
1) Daisies (1966 - Vera Chytilova) 6/10 - It still stands out as a very strange, but also very well imagined piece of artwork. Not something I'd call a favorite, but it's worth a look.
2) The Cow (1968 - Dariush Mehrjui) 5/10
3) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966 - Sergio Leone) 10/10 - Who am I to give an '8.5' to such a masterpiece? This was fantastic and one that I'm sure is a shoo-in for the next TOP 20.
4) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968 - Sergio Leone) 10/10 - Definitely the best of the three Leone films I watched. I've been replaying certain, key scenes over and over in my head since November 8th.
5) Once Upon a Time in America (1983 - Sergio Leone) 9/10 - It wasn't quite as powerful to me, on a personal level, as the Westerns were, but still packed a major punch. Also, after some thought, I just didn't like the cast choice of James Woods AT ALL. Not sure why.
6) Goldfinger (1964 - Guy Hamilton) 7.5/10
7) My Night at Maud's (1969 - Eric Rohmer) 8.5/10 - I may not have been able to identify with much of the subject matter that was expressed through the dialogue in this movie, but the characters actions spoke louder than their words and it's much more than a dialogue driven picture.
8) Point Blank (1967 - John Boorman) 6.5/10
9) The Shawshank Redemption (1994 - Frank Darabont) 10/10 - I said what I needed to say in my review.
10) Come Drink with Me (1966 - King Hu) 2.5/10
11) Deliverance (1972 - John Boorman) 8/10 - I went just a tad overboard on my original rating, but it's still a great picture!
12) A Hard Day's Night (1964 - Richard Lester) 6/10
13) A Touch of Zen (1969 - King Hu) 4/10
14) Pretty Woman (1990 - Garry Marshall) 7.5/10 - Pure fluff churned out of the Hollywood machine, but one out of ten times that actually works on me.
15) Gilda (1946 - Charles Vidor) 4.5/10

NON-1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die - As seen in November 2011
1) 8 1/2 (1963 - Federico Fellini) 4/10 - If you read my previous review for “8 1/2, that sounds very much like a man who wanted desperately to like Fellini’s “8 ½”, however, it just didn’t work for me this time around. I’ve read several different Fellini fanatics cite that you’re either a pre-8 ½ Fellini kind of person or a post-8 ½ Fellini kind of person. I guess you can mark me down as a post-8 ½ Fellini guy. Maybe the person writing that review just hadn’t seen the artist that is Fellini experiment with color films yet and had yet to be blown away with the way the artist thrived with the use of color pictures. Or maybe the person writing that review had just watched “La dolce vita” and ANYTHING that followed that up was certain to be a breath of fresh air. This time around I found “8 ½” to be mind-numbingly boring! By the time the end rolled around, I just didn’t want to be in the world of this picture any longer. Sure, there are some key scenes and certain bits of dialogue that are really well put together, but for the most part this movie about a man confused by his career, his loves and his life in general, left me wanting it to end. In some ways it’s intriguing, at times you want to unlock some of the obvious mystique of this movie, but for the most part I simply didn’t care. However, I do love and always will love the ending. The scene where Guido finally breaks down to Claudia is a great a great bit of dialogue – very heartfelt and the ending, with the characters of Guido’s life coming together for a grand finale, is just that – grand! But in the end, I was too bored and I feel that “8 ½” may have an expiration date on my DVD shelf.

2) Twilight (2008 - Catherine Hardwicke) 6.5/10 - Color me impressed! Now granted, I wasn’t too thrilled about peeping the “Twilight Saga”, but in short, it was far exceeded my expectations. There are a few things I know about modern Hollywood pictures. I know that they’re never going to push the envelope too terribly far, I know that the better looking you are the better gigs you’re going to get, I know that there’s a 99.9% chance of a happy ending and I know that if a film rakes in big bucks there’s high odds that we’ll see a sequel. I also know that when it comes to modern Hollywood, the snootiest of the film snobs will always take an artsy foreign picture over a modern teeny-bopper hit. However, I’m open-minded enough to realize that sometimes Hollywood can hit the nail on the head and churn out an impressive piece of work. Before I continue, let me make it clear that I have NOT read the “Twilight” series of books, so all of my observations are toward the film. What they’ve done here is taken two subjects that aren’t normally bundled in the same ball – vampire myth and modern high school teens – and the end product was a very interesting, very solid story. You had all the crucial elements: action, drama, a beautiful love story and heck, they even rewrote the vampire mythos and included they’re own, new, modern myths. No longer does the vampire transform into a bat and swoop in, but now he drives a Camry. No longer does the vampire dress in all black and dawn a cape, but now he leaves the top two buttons of his cool, new, Gap shirt undone and bares his chest. And no longer is the vampire a bad guy, but rather a hero. For what it is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with “Twilight”. It didn’t have to look mesmerizing, it didn’t have to have pitch-perfect dialogue and it didn’t have to be a masterpiece. It was always going to be a film that appealed to a certain demographic and in that respect, they NAILED it. Actually, they more than nailed it, because they’ve appealed to me and I don’t think I’m a member of their key demographic. The actors were all solid workers and hell, if people like Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were paired with seasoned directors, with an original, work of art type script, I think they could really shine. The story here was also solid and never, in my opinion, did it get too over the top or too hokey. Let’s call that a write-up and bottom line: “Twilight” = not bad at all.

My God - a '6.5' for "Twilight" and a '4' for "8 1/2" - I think I just heard my film buff membership card being sliced in half!

3) The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009 - Chris Weitz) 5/10 - Despite the fact that I enjoyed the first one, I was still skeptical of watching yet another “Twilight” film. My hesitations proved accurate, as this one just wasn’t nearly as good as the original and proves once again that Hollywood should leave well enough alone. Let me just go on record as saying that nine times out of ten, I hate sequels. I am a firm believer in not trying to tinker with something that works, but of course, nowadays every movie that rakes in even the slightest of profit will be immortalized in a slew of sequels. In “New Moon” the special effects come on a little strong and the acting gets a lot worse. In the original the effects were kept to a minimum and the actors seemed like they were really trying - probably because they knew if they made this thing really work, they’d have four more paydays to count on. “New Moon”, for the most part, is really the same movie as “Twilight”, just with a different male love interest. This time around Bella falls in love with her childhood friend Jacob, who is later revealed to be a werewolf. When you start adding in all these ridiculous, more outrageous elements, it just gets too be too silly and nothing more than fodder for a teenage girl. However, it wasn’t TERRIBLE and I didn’t find myself watching the clock too much and was able to, at least for the duration, mildly enjoy it. I’ll leave it at that…

4) 8MM (1999 - Joel Schumacher) To read my DVD review for "8MM" click here.

5) About a Boy (2002 - Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz) To read my DVD review for "About a Boy" click here.

6) About Adam (2000 - Gerard Stembridge) To read my DVD review for "About Adam" click here.

7) About Schmidt (2002 - Alexander Payne) To read my DVD review for "About Schmidt" click here.

8) The Accused (1988 - Jonathan Kaplan) To read my DVD review for "The Accused" click here.

NOTE: I've included a link in my profile to my ICheckMovies.com list. There you will find a complete list of every film that I've watched from the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die journey.

December 1, 2011 9:24pm

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