Movies seen in 2004 (Part 2)
Submitted by directorspen on Thu, 10/14/2004 - 04:23
Tags:
- 153) Futurama - Season 3: B+
- 152) Futurama - Season 2: A
- 151) Futurama - Season 1: B+
- 150) Say Anything...: C+...maybe I was expecting too much but I really didn't feel the vibe of the film, and even if I had, the direction and acting, minus Cusak, aren't anything but mediocre. Not bad.
- 149) The Aviator: B...Scorsese does a magnificent job, as usual, but the few awkward moments really threw the rest of the movie off to me. Most of it is just great and I highly enjoyed it. Cate Blanchette closely masters Katherine Hepburn's voice, as I'm sure everyone has pointed out before me. I saw the name on the chair when first being introduced to her and thought to myself, "Please tell me they are not goint to have a character of Katherine Hepburn for more than one scene," thankfully she did a wonderful job, as did Leo, in my opinion.
- 148) Max: C+...how carefully every pretentious piece falls together in this movie. It's just like seeing the highlights of what made Hitler what we know as Hitler. Almost to the point of rediculousness, could it all happen in such a short time? I suppose, but the way the movie presents it comes off as hokey. Though it did start to get interesting toward the end. Everyone knows what followed, though some choose to believe it never happened.
- 147) Almost Famous: A-...god, this just felt like the thing I would love to do. I love what I'm doing now, but watching this movie, it felt so awesome just watching that the kid get the chances he did (actually based on life experiences from writer/director Cameron Crowe). Within the first 1/2 hour, there are a few minutes of uncomparable magic between Penny Lane and William Miller. There are some other superb moments scattered later in the film and the rest of the body keeps up very well, a few short steps behind the power felt in those moments, though. The entire cast does a great job (minues Anna Paquin, thankfully she's not on screen for too long) and I was even surprised by Jimmy Fallon's acting in his role. The character of Larry Fellows is played by Mark Kozelek and when I saw that name, I knew I had seen it recently: he heads the amazing music group Sun Kil Moon. Great movie, I plan on watching it again soon.
- 146) Raging Bull: B...everyone's acting was right on and great but something about the story or the editing didn't work for me. The film felt like a series of nearly random events, held loosely together with the boxing matches, never really finding a solid leg to stand on, other than De Niro's La Motta character: his actions, etc. The boxing scenes are beautifully photographed with precise coreography, maybe this needs a rewatch.
- 145) Monsoon Wedding: A-...still great and vibrant a second time around but will fall (not too far, though) out of my top 100. The score by Mychael Danna is fantastic, especially the opening number entitled 'Baraat.'
- 144) Enrico IV: B+...a very interesting of the film of the play I read for my Italian Cinema class. Both were smartly written and the role of Henry the IV was amazingly portrayed (doubly, haha) by Marcello Mastroianni. Good stuff.
- 143) Swimming Pool: D...my god this movie was annoying as hell. Most of it consisted of the character Sarah Morton doing something, such as typing, then looking past her laptop, getting up and looking out her window. Or sitting at her laptop, looking past it, then opening a door. It's like the director couldn't pick something else for her to do, you know, something interesting. She rises from her desk or looks up from her cup off coffee, rips off her glasses and...looks out the window. Spoiler: Highlight to viewShe imagines another story at the French house of her publisher's daughter being much different than she was portrayed in the movie. It's like the book she wrote was the movie, but it was anticlimactic, dull and annoying. I thought I was going to get something good at the end of this, but I did not.
- 142) Waiting for Guffman: A...brilliant movie, I get a kick everytime I watch it.
- 141) Pod People: F-...it's so bad it's passed "fun to watch" and entered into a place of total darkness. Ok...it was fun to watch because this is one of the worst movies you'll see in your lifetime. Honey was bad, other movies are bad, but this movie has it's own category.
- 140) American Psycho: B...watched again because my friends still insist it's really good and I enjoyed it much more than the first viewing. Christian Bale does a great job. Last time, I commented on his poor acting but after realising the ending the first time and watching it again, he plays his character perfectly. Some of the other actors didn't do such a hot job with their characters, mostly Bale's secretary. And Bale really tops his performance when on the phone to his lawyer.Spoiler: Highlight to viewBy the closing 20 minutes or so of the film, Bale looses it and this time I was laughing (at the stray cat and going back into a building just to shoot a security guard part) instead of shaking my head.
- 139) Bowling for Columbine: B+...wanted to see this one again after having seen Fahrenheit 9/11 a few more times. It's not as well structured as Fahrenheit but is still very good with some scene cutting to make Moore's point more obvious or himself the good guy, namely the interview with Charlton Heston and what follows.
- 138) The Manchurian Candidate (1962): A...a very thrilling and interesting story complemented by Angela Lansbury's uncanny acting, John Frankenheimer's direction and Lionel Lindon's photography. I didn't like Laurence Harvey's acting, but everything else is so strong in the movie including Frank Sinatra that I wasn't bothered by it. An intense and great ending capped this fine piece of cinema
- 137) The Postman: B+...one of the better films seen in my Italian Cinema class this semester. Dressed in some good humour, this tale about the postman who only delivers to the poet Pablo Neruda is touching in quite a few ways but does stray from it's good vibes to some forced anger by Mario which is out of place. The movie falls apart like the town after Pablo leaves, it slowly pulls itself back together and finishes solid when Spoiler: Highlight to viewNeruda returns.
- 136) Three Kings: A...this is honestly one of the only movies I can watch and forget I'm watching a movie...and it happens to me every time I watch. I think I forgot to put this on my top 100 unless it's there and I don't know it. This movie is great, I love it.
- 135) Scary Movie: C...obviously not a good movie, but I still laugh at a lot of the jokes. Just a rewatch for fun.
- 134) The Incredibles: B+...this film feels much different than all of the other Pixar films I've seen so far, not to say that's a bad thing. It felt good to get away from the heavy moral-set movies like Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. (both of which I love). Though, this movie's pacing is a bit slacken, it felt like it was going to be over a few times but then went on for a good while. That didn't bother me, but the director has that to work on (but he did a great job setting the shots). I will surely see this again. I forgot to mention when I first wrote this review the amazing detail to the characters' hair (watch when they're in thye water) and also the ending credits - brilliant!)
- 133 Pi: A-...I very highly enjoyed this flick (minus the quick disturbances) and it's ideas. Very fast paced and brilliant.
- 132) Fahrenheit 9/11: A...still great. Even if you don't like Michael Moore, it's hard to avoid some of the brilliance infused in the film, if not for the sections he cut to his liking and style, then at least the scenes and videos that he did no voice over for and let the clips speak for themsleves.
- 131) Cinema Paradiso: B-...well there are some very fun parts, but does no one else notice how very choppy it is? Now, of course, one is allowed to enjoy it through it's unflowing editing and average direction but this film is very praised and I guess it's the ending that sacks everyone's feelings and makes them forget about the rest of it. There are some great moments, but as a whole, it was just above average. Ennio Morricone's score either hits or misses. In some parts it's great (namely the finale) but other times it falls very flat (like when the one boy is delivering the films back and forth to either town).
- 130) Hellboy: B...I really wasn't sure if I would enjoy this or not, but I did and a lot more than I thought. The filmmakers captured a very cool feeling for the movie, to me. It felt like it should have for the type of movie that it was. I enjoyed Ron Pearlman's Hellboy character very much, especially the first time he meets Not incredible but very enjoyable and I liked very much the mysterious character with the mask on...very eerie and that's the feel I'm sure they were going for.Spoiler: Highlight to viewthe beast in the museum. His attitude and way he speaks to it (though it probaby can't understand him) was done great.
- 129) Ringu: B...has some good moments but isn't as shocking or creepy as the American version of The Ring. That's not what my rating is based on, but I am comparing them a bit. The story in this version was definitely better and more defined. The creepiest part to me I enjoyed it and look forward to The Ring Two this coming spring.Spoiler: Highlight to viewsince I'd already seen the American remake and knew the twists, was when the main lady is going down in the well and looks up to see her ex-husband which then flashes to and old video of the dad looking down after he pushes his daughter in the well.
- 128) Trainspotting: A-...remarkable movie which I had seen most of before but didn't feel I had completed it. Some of the most brilliant moments include Fine direction by Danny Boyle and a great script.Spoiler: Highlight to viewdiving into the toilet to retrieve pills and the nightmare scene which reminded me of the way I feel when I try to sleep during a heavy illness
- 127) Se7en: C...now, I can see why people like this movie, but I still don't. The ideas they try and slide by come off as contrived to me and there is just no way around the bad acting...by everyone, especially Pitt, who not only was bad, but had bad dialogue. Spacey had the only character I enjoyed but his acting was off as well. I also know that this is a movie and I like other movies that have plot elements that would never work, but the ideas in this movie didn't work too well for me. Such as I still can see why others would like this, but I did not.Spoiler: Highlight to viewthe scrapings from the floor found in the fat man's stomach which led Freeman to pull the fridge out. He had already found where the scratchings came from, why would he move the fridge? And the fingerprints spelling "Help Me" behind the painting that the woman identified as upsidedown in the lawyer's office.
- 126) Scream: C-...this used to be my favorite film when I was 12-13 and when I used to love horror movies. The movie still has some very good ideas, some of which were parodied in various movies, the most being in Scary Movie. I think it would have worked better as a thriller, but that's not the direction it took. The acting is awful from everyone. There's not one character I felt did well in the movie and the dialogue was bad to boot. But those few ideas that I enjoyed a lot kept it out of a lower rating.
- 125) Ciao, Professore!: B...some good comedy clashes with uneven pacing and Lina Wertmuller's mediocre direction (though the best of the past three movies I've seen of hers). Some examples: many directors do this...a lot...in one movie, including Wertmuller (it's the easy way out), they will be shooting a sequence, let's say for instance: a guy dragging his kid to school, we (the audience) will see the kid being dragged in different angles, then we see a wall or the sky and the director will pan to either side or tilt the camera down to see more of the dragging. It's lazy, it's sloppy, I don't like it. Wertmuller also likes to use zooms a lot. I don't like zooms much, but they can be used effectively, unfortunately they are not, here, for the most part. In Professore! there is a scene at night where the Maestro talks with one of his female students in an alley where she's getting garlic ready to sell, after the conversation, the teacher walks off and the director zooms out a bit. It would have been much more effective to have had that been a static shot. Though there are a few shots in the movie where the zoom was used well. And the final complaint I had about the movie was the use of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. To me, to use this song is a hackneyed attempt at characater/audience realization. For the scene it was used in, I felt the feeling Wertmuller was trying to get the audience to feel, except I didn't need the song for it. Small complaints.
- 124) Kill Bill: vol. 1: B...this was the best viewing of the movie I've had. I enjoyed it more now that I've seen it multiple times and that I've also seen vol. 2. Still some incredible moments, still some that falter. But it's all good.
- 123) Metropolis: B-...I guess I don't see why this is such a hailed movie, I definitely could have missed something, but I don't feel that I did, I just think it wasn't that good to me. The special effects for its time were great, but not good enough to make me like the film.
- 122) Modern Times: A+...still beautiful and hilarious and better than it was the first time I watched it, probably because at that time, I was in my American History class in high school and as usual, none of the kids in the class wanted to see a black and white movie, much less a silent film (for the most part). Chaplin is genius, it's easy to see why everyone who watches his films love him.
- 121) The Lion King 1 1/2: B+...while the animation isn't up to par with the original Lion King, the jokes still flow very well and I enjoyed it very much, especially the way it ties in to the original. The only thing I really didn't like was the first song with all the merekats.
- 120) Honey: F...watched for the sake of watching a bad movie with a few other friends. Everything that could possibly be bad here is. I'm not just giving it an F becuase it's one of the highest movies on IMDB's bottom 100, it is that bad and while there are much worse unwatchable movies out there, this one is still pretty dreadful, especially watching the character Honey try and make a dance out of the sport of Basketball.
- 119) The Guru: C...I was pretty much left with nothing except for the great titles of the porno movies the Guru was in such as Glad-he-ate-her and I can't remember the other, but it was as good. Other than that...nothing else that interested me.
- 118) Minority Report: A+...oh, how I love this movie. How very much I love this movie...well, it's a lot, it just gets better on rewatches. There are only a few parts I dislike or thought should not have been in the film...or both, but luckily they're usually less than 5 seconds, so they dont' bother me much. It's this type of incredible writing I want to inflict on the thriller I'm trying to write. Scott Frank and Jon Cohen (though based on a Phillip K. Dick story) really tore it up here. I love how they would Also the editing was absolutely brilliant and the way it was collaborated with the actual film was flawless. John Williams' score was great and was even better because it was not overpowering like it can sometimes be and it didn't have a general theme, at least not one I heard. This movie is too good, but it's too bad I don't know too many people who liked it that much. Eh...more enjoyment for me.Spoiler: Highlight to viewinclude the lines from the murders according to the precogs, such as "Goodbye, Crow" or "Forgive me, John" which were said as one person killed another, but at the time the murder was to take place, fate changed and so those lines were said in a different manner, like when Cruise said "Goodbye, Crow" when he was about to leave the apartment instead of when he was about to kill Crow. I also love endings where it's up to the viewer to decide what is real - is everything in Cruise's mind after he gets haloed or did his wife really break him out of the jail. I'd like to think he broke out and that's the acutal ending, but it's pretty cool to think of it the other way
- 117) Aladdin: A...I'd been waiting for this to come out on DVD for some time and when I went to buy it, I looked at the cover and the art they used for the characters isn't even the art from the movie. The characters, besides the Genie, look different from how they do in the movie, which is sad...because, why couldn't they use acutal movie art? Oh well. The DVD is authored alright, nothing special and I was hoping the almost 2 hour behind the scenes feature was going to be good, but again, only medocre. Well...at least I still have the actual movie, untouched, and that's good enough for me.
- 116) Napoleon Dynamite: B+...Jon Heder's character of Napoleon really carries the film through it's quirkiness but the rest of the film is still good. I enjoyed listening to Napoleon any time he was on the screen. Not much to say, very funny stuff.
- 115) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: A+...still absolutely amazing to me. Kaufman and Gondry collaborate beautifully. I am very upset with the DVD though. First, they changed the cover from good to boring and should have stuck with at least this in the end. And Focus Features has a bad idea of putting previews before getting to the main menu, the worst part being you have to fast forward through the previews, the 'next chapter' button won't work. And their DVD cover has locks on it, as does my Lost in Translation DVD, another Focus Feature. I'm just complaining about petty stuff, still a phantasmagoric movie.
- 114) Who Framed Roger Rabbit: A...hadn't seen this in a while and Ashley really wanted to see it. I loved it like I remembered loving it, but greater. The special feature of the split screen between one of the sequences of Bob Hoskins in Toon Town and him acting against a blue screen is incredible. Too much fun.
- 113) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: B+...I enjoyed this a lot, even through Jude Law and Gwenyth Paltrow's acting. I'm sure it was meant to be in the style they acted in, but I thought they could have done better. The CG was amazing, seriously good. The story isn't incredible or very original but everything was done extremely well.
- 112) Open Doors: B...watched in my Italian Cinema class after reading the short story by Leonard Sciascia. The movie was done well but much different than the book seeing as the book was more philosophical and moral ideas about capital punishment and the movie focuses more on the courtroom trial. I also felt the movie ended prematurely but the fitting in of the man of the jury and the judge was necessary and well set.
- 111) Hero: B...unfortunately, this movie felt really empty to me. I didn't feel many emotions when I thought I should have. A few scenes were absolutely gorgeous, my two favorite being the The story, while not very complex was quite good. Not much to say, I loved the ending. Oh, and the soundtrack was very similar to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, both performed by Tan Dun and even the movie itself felt a bit like CTHD.Spoiler: Highlight to viewfight in the rain at the beginning and the fight on the water after the first half.
- 110) Boondock Saints: B...the style/feel of the movie was very cool. I loved the dark humour and Willem Dafoe's character. But the dialogue and editing needed much work. Besides that, I enjoyed it very much.
- 109) Super Size Me: B...the style the documentary was done in felt like other documentaries I've recently seen, namely Michael Moore's. Still, very informative and persuasive. The animation could have been so much better than it was but it's nice to know I'll never be eating at McDonald's again (not that I ate there more than < once a year anyway).
- 108) Swept Away (1974): F...another movie I could not stand, but had to watch for my Italian Cinema class. How much longer is the torture going to go on? I hated the constant bickering. Granted, it is her character, I wanted to shoot myself. The only time the movie reached self satisfaction for me was when Mr. Carunchio starts beating the lady for bitching so much. Then that got old and annoying. Awful.
- 107) Singin' in the Rain: A+...still amazing the second time around and I appreciated and enjoyed the somewhat drawn-out sequences much more. Still a top 20 contender.
- 106) For Richer for Poorer: D-...crap comedy that I think I remembered I wanted to see when it came out (when I was 12, I forgive me for wanting to have seen it). Only one or two chuckles, but mostly predictable, cliche, boring crap.
- 105) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York: C+...still enjoyed this one though hardly as much as I did when I was younger. Daniel Stern and Tim Curry are the leaders here and I still love the bit at the end at the Kevin's relative's place that's being renovated.
- 104) The Professional: B+...a good movie which wasn't great (it's in the top 100 on imdb) and I would have given it a bit lower of a score if it weren't for the fantastic and high tense ending.
- 103) Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls: D-...another movie I loved and (can't believe) I quoted as a kid, but on a rewatch hated very much. There were only one or two moments which made me laugh.
- 102) Saved: C/B+...the C is for the plot, the acting, 75% of the Jesus humour, and most of the dialogue. The B+ is for the other 25% of the Jesus humour and the dialogue about the rediculousness of bible thumpers, namely what Mary says to Pastor Skip at the prom. Somewhere in between the two is my overall rating.
- 101) Seven Beauties: F...absolute trash. Sick, unfunny, horrible pacing, many other reasons for me to hate this film. Maybe I lost something in the English dub, my Italian Cinema teacher even said so. But from this version, I hated it.
I saw Sky Captain. I've seen a bunch of movies from the 40's, so I felt like I knew what kind of feeling they were going for, but they missed. Our generation just can't grasp the kind of gee-whiz sense of wonder that people had back then, such that special effects didn't matter. Just the idea of space flight or aliens was enough to get their imaginations going. It was a kind of innocence that we lack that made those movies special. No amount of CGI and slick hair can make up for that.
I understand exactly what you mean, but I enjoyed the movie on its own. If I compared it to other movies from the attempted era, it may have not been as much enjoyed by me. But for what they gave me...I liked it.
When are you going to make a list of recommended Italian films?
Ha...once I see enough that I like, I guess. I'm watching Cinema Paradiso in my Italian Cinema class tonight. I really like 8 1/2, La Strada, Johnny Stecchino and what I saw of Amarcord. I haven't seen too many, but the list is growing.
I once dropped out of a feminist cinema class. That was my only brush with film school. I can't imagine what it would be like to be made to watch arty-farty films all day. Wait, that's what I'm doing to myself already. I'm using the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die as my film school. I dread the sixties. There are so many experimental films from that point on, that sound so weird. I don't know if I'm going to understand or appreciate any of them, but I plan to try.
There are definitely films that I don't want to see or that I've seen that I found disturbing or weird, but I think it's good to view all possible sides of film and what directors are doing, even if I don't like it. I started watching classics in my sophomore year in high school when my TV teacher showed my class Duck Soup. I left the room where he was showing it because I thought it started out boring (I was a dumb early teen) and then went back into the room because I found nothing else to do outside of it and my jaw dropped (I walked in on the part where Chicolini and Pinky meet Trantino in his office). I finally understood why my dad liked them (this was my first Marx Bros. film) and where the jokes in the Bugs Bunny cartoons I loved had their roots. After Duck Soup, I started watching as many films from AFI's 100 Best Movies list then moved on to IMDB's 250 and also checked whatever I thought looked good out from the library near me in Tampa. Anyway...here I am 4 1/2 years later, educated, cultured, informed of good cinema...I love it.
That's the path I'm on. I remember fighting my dad for control of the TV on Saturday afternoons when I was a kid, because he wanted to watch football, while I wanted to watch John Wayne.