Imposter's Movieology: June 2004
Submitted by Imposter on Mon, 06/07/2004 - 04:04
Tags:
- Such A Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972, dir. Francois Truffaut) - Well, I've finally seen all of Truffaut's feature films, and I finished him up with by far the weakest of them all. The liveliness of the storytelling, though, still made for a decent time. (6/10)
- The Day After Tomorrow (2004, dir. Roland Emmerich) - Why did I expect anything out of the ID4 guy? The special effects were pretty cool, the plot was interesting, but the writing was realllllllllly terrible. And why was everybody watching FOX news? (4/10)
- Bubba Ho-Tep (2002, dir. Don Coscarelli) - Well, that was......odd. Bruce Campbell was surprisingly good (to me) in his turn at playing the big E, and that performance alone makes this worth seeing. Pairing up Elvis with JFK to fight a 3000 year old Egyptian mummy is a pretty wild idea, but the inspiration seems to run out before the movie does. Kudos are deserved for bringing us the phrase "Cleopatra does the nasty" in hieroglyphics on a bathroom stall. (6/10)
- Samurai Rebellion (1967, dir. Masaki Kobayashi) - Kobayashi isn't as well-known in the west as some of his contemporaries, and that's a shame. His better-known films dealt with the individual struggling in a rigid social environment, among the best being The Human Condition I-III and the masterpiece Harakiri . Here the samurai Toshiro Mifune lives his life bending to the desires of his henpecking wife and abusive superiors. And when they push him too far, he decides to fight back. It's a slow burner for the first hour or so, then goes off like an inferno in its conclusion. (10/10)
- Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978, dir. Philip Kaufman) - (Imposter points at everybody and screams, "RAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGHHHHHH!") (9/10)
- Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself (2002, dir. Lone Scherfig) - (7/10)
- The Twilight Samurai (2002, dir. Yoji Yamada) - (9/10)
- Le Petit Soldat (1963, dir. Jean-Luc Godard) - (6/10)
- Pistol Opera (2001, dir. Seijun Suzuki) - (7/10)
- Dolls (2002, dir. Takeshi Kitano) - (8/10)
- Cure (1997, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa) - (8/10)
- Late Spring (1949, dir. Yasujiro Ozu) - (9/10)
Dang, no Samurai Rebellion on DVD! Nor Harakiri, which bums me out even more. I've never seen any Kobayashi; I'll have to add him to my list. Thanks for the tip, and I'm looking forward to seeing more on this list!
Luckily, The Human Condition trilogy and the creepy horror anthology Kwaidan are both available on DVD (and available at Netflix), and both are highly recommended. As for Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion, I've got my fingers crossed that Criterion somehow gets their hands on them. They're doing Ozu's wonderful Early Summer soon, and I can't wait to see what they do with that one.
More movies to come!
Ooo, I'm jealous! Where did you see The Twilight Samurai?
Lately I've picked up a few DVDs from SuperHappyFun that are unavailable here for whatever reasons. They sell their stuff on DVDr, so it kinda makes me wonder about the legality of it all, but I just saw The Twilight Samurai thanks to them so I won't be bugged about it too much. :-)
(Btw, they're on vacation for a couple of weeks, so don't expect much from the link there.)
Can you please explain the entire plot of The Day After Tomorrow in a spoiler so I don't have to watch it. The ending and everything, you'll be doing me a favor.
Tallyho
:?)
It goes something like this:
Bad weather happens, lots of people die, Dennis Quaid smiles at the end. And I think that covers it.
ha! thanks.
tallyho
:?)