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Memorial Day Movie Marathon

Posted on May 30th, 2006 by JTk
Posted in media, movies | No Comments »

I decided to take the opportunity of this long memorial day weekend to watch some movies that I have wanted to see and others that I wanted to see again. Since they don’t have a decent cinema in this one horse town I had to rely on Netflix and the local Movie Gallery. I don’t get the opportunity to watch a lot of movies these days so this is a real treat.

I decided to watch a mix of potentially good ( you guys that have had the debate with me about good movies know what I am talking about ) with some hopefully entertaining movies. Michael is watching the original Star Wars Trilogy over the weekend.

It all started Thursday night when I watched 2 movies that just happened to star the two best living American actors imho. The first was Ronin which I had always thought was one of De Niro’s weaker movies, and The Royal Tenenbaums which is one of Hackman’s best.

Nobody ever debates that Mr. De Niro is one of the best actors ever, but Hackman very seldom gets the credit he deserves. The story of Royal’s redemption in Tenenbaum is extremely emotional without any of the cliched baggage that most heart-stringed films carry - If you want to know how I feel about Wes Anderson’s movies in depth click on over to here. Ronin was not as bad I had remembered, in fact it features the best car chase scenes since Bullet - but De Niro’s performance was the highlight although Natascha McElhone was very good too.

Friday night I watched two really good movies, Walk The Line and Good Night and Good Luck. Walk The Line was surprisingly good, I have loved Reese Witherspoon since Election and, Legally Blog aside, I think that she is one of the most interesting mainstream actress working today. However Joaquin Phoenix is the undeniable star of this movie and gives one of the best performances I have ever seen playing an icon. Usually in movies when an actor trys to play such a luminary figure suspension of disbelief is almost impossible for me - Joaquin becomes the man in black, and it took huge balls to sing those songs….

Good Night and Good Luck was as good as advertised - I find it interesting that Clooney decided to play Fred Friendly instead of Edward R. Murrow but it was the right choice. Clooney put his ego aside so that David Strathairn could give us a transcendent performance as Murrow. If that is not the way that it all went down, I don’t want to know the truth - I felt as if I was transported back to the fifties and that it was not a simpler time as the revisionist would have you believe. This is movie making at its finest and while the creators of this movie are comparing the powers that were to the powers that be they do not hit you over the head with it. This is as good a movie as I have seen in years.

Saturday night was pure entertainment - The Longest Yard, Napoleon Dynamite ( for the 3rd or 4th time ), and Daltry Calhoun. The Longest Yard was the closest of the 3 to pure entertainment and it was enjoyable and while it was fairly true to the original the action scenes reminded me of Any Given Sunday, but the one thing that I will take away from it are Courtney Cox’s breasts in the opening scene, quite a change from the too skinny Friends era Cox.

Napoleon Dynamite was my movie of the year in 2004, and while it has taken on cult status since I find that I enjoy it as much now as I did then. It is the opposite of the stereotypical John Walters high school movie flicks, and is more of a feel good movie then any of the films that promote themselves as such. This is gonna be one of those movies that I watch many times and I am sure that I will continue to find new things that make me laugh each time.

Daltry Calhoun just didn’t do it for me, it was quirky but a little too sickly sweet and tried a little to hard to tug on my heart strings. It’s one of those movies that could have been good, and wasn’t terrible, but just didn’t quite get there.

Since HBO is making us wait a week for the the season finales of The Sopranos and Big Love I got to sneak in one more movie - A History of Violence. This is not an easy movie to watch, and I am not just talking about having to look at Viggo Mortensen for two hours. It features a great script and beautiful cinematography although I did not seem to like it quite as much as some other folks. But don’t get me wrong it is definitely worth an investment of a couple hours. Hell, it may be worth it just for the Maria Bello as cheerleader scene.


Wes Anderson vs. The Cohen Brothers

Posted on November 12th, 2005 by JTk
Posted in Fun, media, movies | 3 Comments »

Most folks that know me know that I was a Cohen Brothers freak. I say was because, as of late, their offering just haven’t been doing it for me. Do any of you really think that LadyKillers or Intolerable Cruelty are great or even good movies? No of course not. While I still watch Millers Crossing once a month or so, I have started thinking that I am enjoying Wes Anderson’s films just as much as the Cohen’s.

Time was when I wouldn’t have believed that I would ever think I could enjoy anything as much as Blood Simple, Rasing Arizona, and O Brother but I think that Bottle Rockets, Rushmore, and The Life Aquatic stack up pretty well against them.

I don’t think that Mr. Anderson has made anything that approaches the masterpiece that Millers Crossing is, but based on the quality of the last few Cohen movies I wonder if they will ever make anything of that caliber again either. The Cohen’s can create beautifully dark movies like Fargo and Blood Simple that up to now Anderson doesn’t seem interested in making.

Similarly nothing that Anderson has done is as straight up funny as Rasing Arizona, but that is not really his schtick - indeed Wes’ sense of humor is not for everyone - and while Arizona is assessable on a number of levels Anderson seems to only want to let the smart kids in on the jokes. Which is fine with me.

The Cohen’s have mad more movies and have therefore had more hits ( The Big Lebowski ) as well as misses ( Barton Fink ). While the Cohen brothers can make films similar to the style of movies that Anderson makes ( see Lebowski again ) up to this point Anderson only makes one type of movie imho ( featuring overhead camera angles, sixties soundtracks, etc. ) that share a lot of similar ideas ( not to mention cast ) but he does it very, very well. The Cohen’s have crafted decidedly different movies through the years and that is one of the things that I have loved about them.

While I suppose that I still like the older Cohen movies more then I like the first few movies from Anderson it is also true that I more highly anticipate new releases from Anderson then I do the Cohen’s.

As a post script - The Royal Tenenbaums gets allot of shit from folks, but I find the story of Royal’s redemption very emotional without any of the cliched baggage that most heart-stringed films carry - and could Hackman have been any better?


One Hundred Movies

Posted on February 2nd, 2005 by JTk
Posted in Fun, movies | No Comments »

The following is a list of one mans attempt at creatin a list of the top one hundred movies of all time.

Millers Crossing

Dr Strangelove

In Cold Blood

Unforgiven

Citizen Kane

Double Indemnity

Manchurian Candidate

The Third Man

Touch of Evil

Strangers on a Train

Rear Window

Rasing Arizona

Last Tango in Paris

The Usual Suspects

Chinatown

Fight Club

L.A. Confidential

Reservoir Dogs

Big Lebowski

Psycho

Silence of the Lambs

Vertigo

Ragin Bull

Godfather

Blood Simple

The Deer Hunter

GoodFellas

Run Lola Run

Lock Stock and Two Smokin Barrels

Apocalypse Now

Saving Private Ryan

Fargo

Godfather II

Aliens

Lawrence of Arabia

Blade Runner

French Connection

Planet of the Apes

Pulp Fiction

Giant

On The Waterfront

Taxi Driver

To Kill a Mockingbird

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

The Sting

Clockwork Orange

Space Oddesy

Cool hand Luke

Once upon a time in America

Dog Day Afternoon

Snatch

Scarface

Wizard of Oz

Gone with the Wind

Brazil

Boys of Brazil

Being John Malcovich

Army of Darkness

The Return of the King

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Fish Called Wanda

The Last Waltz

Nashville

Hard Days Night

The Fellowship of the Ring

Rock Horror Picture Show

Weekend

Bridge on the River Kwai

Bullet

The Great Escape

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Princess Bride

Deliverence

The Right Stuff

Stand by Me

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Annie Hall

The Graduate

Breathless

Midnight Cowboy

High Noon

Network

Young Frankenstien

The Shawshank Redemption

Casablanca

Schindler’s List

American Beauty

All About Eve

The Matrix

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Close Encounters

Night of the Living Dead

Rock n Roll High School

Stop Making Sense

Das Boot

Full Metal Jacket

Patton

Braveheart

Enter The Dragon

The Two Towers