Rounding Out the Oscars

It's over and done with, and a year from now most people will forget who won what. The 79th Academy Awards was safe, soft, and for the most part uninteresting. Maybe 3-5 minutes worth of water cooler talk. A couple thoughts about what went down:

The Opening: As I watched I thought, "this feels like something Errol Morris would do." Nice to know I was right. A fresh start to the show. Not as gut-funny as John Stewart's opening last year, but good. I loved the whistling of PAN'S LABYRINTH over the end.

Ellen Degeneres: Warm, safe choice for the Awards. There was a weird dichotomy playing: she kept things moving along, but towards the end I couldn't believe we were reaching the 4 hour mark. The thing at the beginning with the tambourine and gospel signers sucked. I enjoyed the Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood bits, but though the vacuum cleaner at the end was a bit much. And you probably shouldn't confuse where Penelope Cruz is from when all anyone is talking about is how diverse the nomination slate was this year. I missed the "zazz," I missed the John Stewart.

Montages: Absolutely great this year - especially the Foreign Film montage. I added about 25 films to my Netflix queue on that one alone. Getting great directors to splice the pieces together was genius.

Crazy Choir Sound Effects: One of the coolest side pieces to be featured in the Academy Awards in a long time. In fact, this would be the highlight for me if it wasn't for...

Jack Black and Will Ferrel: Oh, man that was great. What was with Will Ferrel's hair? And having John C. Reilly jump out of the crowd to join them was hysterical. This should become a yearly tradition.



The Shadow Dancers: Creepy, weird, and just plain didn't make sense at times. There seemed to be no theme as to what movies they were doing. Although I would like to know what acted as the bullet firing when they did THE DEPARTED.

The Whole Thing With the Animated Films in the Seats: This has got to stop. The stupid "Oh look, they're actually IN the theater!" shot is incredibly annoying. Especially this year. And while we're at it: no more having animated characters present awards. Stupid stupid stupid.

And now for the actual awards themselves...

The Plight of PAN'S LABYRINTH: The more I read, the more reactionary pieces I read concerning the film. And that's just too damn bad - it was my favorite movie of the year. I'm glad for the three awards it got (one less than overall winner THE DEPARTED), but not getting Best Foreign Language Film? Granted I haven't seen THE LIVES OF OTHERS, but it didn't seem to press the boundaries of what possible in film like PAN'S did. But I'm willing to accept it. But a huge WTF? goes to losing out on Best Score. That is pure insanity. I'll talk about BABEL in a bit, but no way was that score better than the lyrical beauty composed by Javier Navarette.

The LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE Phenomenon: I've taken a lot of heat for this already, but I'll say it again - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE was a really good film that had a lot of laughs. That's it. Best Picture worthy? Over CHILDREN OF MEN? Uh, no. Alan Arkin is a great character actor who hasn't been given his props. But does essentially playing the same grouchy eloquent character he plays in every movie, and in this movie for only half the film, deserve the win for Best Supporting Actor over Eddie Murphy and Djimon Hounsou? Again, I have to say "no."

Where the F--- was CHILDREN OF MEN?: My 2nd favorite film of the year gets completely shafted in the nominations this year. Oscar worthy in every sense of the word, but sadly overlooked. I weep.

HAPPY FEET over CARS for Best Animated Film: Hooray! CARS was a drag, and felt like Pixar was going by the numbers on that one. I didn't have a lot of love for any of the nominations, but was content to see CARS lose. Now let's get back on track with RATATOUILLE.

The DREAMGIRLS Conundrum: I haven't seen this yet, but all signs point to at the very least incredible performances by Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, as well as great music. So how did both Eddie and the music lose? And to a generic Melissa Etheridge song? What's going on in the world? Elsewhere, while I have no problem with Jennifer Hudson winning for Best Supporting Actress, I have to ask does anyone really think she'll do anything like that again? I don't want to knock her role (especially not having seen it), but I don't see her doing much else in that caliber again.

Whitaker is "King" and Mirren is Crazy: Best acceptance speech of the night. 2nd best would go to (in my mind) William Monahan for Best Adapted Screenplay. Helen Mirren's weirdness at the end of her acceptance speech left me bewildered and slightly put off. Every year the speeches become more and more boring, overdrawn and ridiculous. Sigh...

BABEL is Overhyped: This is my personal opinion, and I know I'm in the minority, but I wasn't impressed with BABEL. I'm going to watch it one more time and write up a larger review later on the site, but my first impression was that it was a by-the-numbers movie: great performances, but lacking focus and structure. You could see where everything was going from miles away (especially the Mexico sequence, which was outstanding in terms of acting but poor in terms of plotting), and the end in my opinion failed to tie it all up together (is the Morocco sequence with the shooter and his family resolved?). That being said, I thought the Tokyo sequence was fantastic, and the best part of the picture. Rincko Kikuchi's performance was breathtaking and heartbreaking, one of the more daring in a long times from a nominee.

The Scorsese 1-2 Knockout Punch: A lot of people are going to say that the Best Director award was given to Scorsese in a year when he maybe didn't deserve it. You know what? Screw you. How the Academy ignored this guy for so long is crap. And for my money THE DEPARTED was the best of the nominated films I saw this year, which is why it winning Best Picture was just fine in my book.

I guess a lesser Marty is still better than 95% of what else is out there.

Rounding Out the Oscars

It's over and done with, and a year from now most people will forget who won what. The 79th Academy Awards was safe, soft, and for the most part uninteresting. Maybe 3-5 minutes worth of water cooler talk. A couple thoughts about what went down:

The Opening: As I watched I thought, "this feels like something Errol Morris would do." Nice to know I was right. A fresh start to the show. Not as gut-funny as John Stewart's opening last year, but good. I loved the whistling of PAN'S LABYRINTH over the end.

Ellen Degeneres: Warm, safe choice for the Awards. There was a weird dichotomy playing: she kept things moving along, but towards the end I couldn't believe we were reaching the 4 hour mark. The thing at the beginning with the tambourine and gospel signers sucked. I enjoyed the Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood bits, but though the vacuum cleaner at the end was a bit much. And you probably shouldn't confuse where Penelope Cruz is from when all anyone is talking about is how diverse the nomination slate was this year. I missed the "zazz," I missed the John Stewart.

Montages: Absolutely great this year - especially the Foreign Film montage. I added about 25 films to my Netflix queue on that one alone. Getting great directors to splice the pieces together was genius.

Crazy Choir Sound Effects: One of the coolest side pieces to be featured in the Academy Awards in a long time. In fact, this would be the highlight for me if it wasn't for...

Jack Black and Will Ferrel: Oh, man that was great. What was with Will Ferrel's hair? And having John C. Reilly jump out of the crowd to join them was hysterical. This should become a yearly tradition.



The Shadow Dancers: Creepy, weird, and just plain didn't make sense at times. There seemed to be no theme as to what movies they were doing. Although I would like to know what acted as the bullet firing when they did THE DEPARTED.

The Whole Thing With the Animated Films in the Seats: This has got to stop. The stupid "Oh look, they're actually IN the theater!" shot is incredibly annoying. Especially this year. And while we're at it: no more having animated characters present awards. Stupid stupid stupid.

And now for the actual awards themselves...

The Plight of PAN'S LABYRINTH: The more I read, the more reactionary pieces I read concerning the film. And that's just too damn bad - it was my favorite movie of the year. I'm glad for the three awards it got (one less than overall winner THE DEPARTED), but not getting Best Foreign Language Film? Granted I haven't seen THE LIVES OF OTHERS, but it didn't seem to press the boundaries of what possible in film like PAN'S did. But I'm willing to accept it. But a huge WTF? goes to losing out on Best Score. That is pure insanity. I'll talk about BABEL in a bit, but no way was that score better than the lyrical beauty composed by Javier Navarette.

The LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE Phenomenon: I've taken a lot of heat for this already, but I'll say it again - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE was a really good film that had a lot of laughs. That's it. Best Picture worthy? Over CHILDREN OF MEN? Uh, no. Alan Arkin is a great character actor who hasn't been given his props. But does essentially playing the same grouchy eloquent character he plays in every movie, and in this movie for only half the film, deserve the win for Best Supporting Actor over Eddie Murphy and Djimon Hounsou? Again, I have to say "no."

Where the F--- was CHILDREN OF MEN?: My 2nd favorite film of the year gets completely shafted in the nominations this year. Oscar worthy in every sense of the word, but sadly overlooked. I weep.

HAPPY FEET over CARS for Best Animated Film: Hooray! CARS was a drag, and felt like Pixar was going by the numbers on that one. I didn't have a lot of love for any of the nominations, but was content to see CARS lose. Now let's get back on track with RATATOUILLE.

The DREAMGIRLS Conundrum: I haven't seen this yet, but all signs point to at the very least incredible performances by Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, as well as great music. So how did both Eddie and the music lose? And to a generic Melissa Etheridge song? What's going on in the world? Elsewhere, while I have no problem with Jennifer Hudson winning for Best Supporting Actress, I have to ask does anyone really think she'll do anything like that again? I don't want to knock her role (especially not having seen it), but I don't see her doing much else in that caliber again.

Whitaker is "King" and Mirren is Crazy: Best acceptance speech of the night. 2nd best would go to (in my mind) William Monahan for Best Adapted Screenplay. Helen Mirren's weirdness at the end of her acceptance speech left me bewildered and slightly put off. Every year the speeches become more and more boring, overdrawn and ridiculous. Sigh...

BABEL is Overhyped: This is my personal opinion, and I know I'm in the minority, but I wasn't impressed with BABEL. I'm going to watch it one more time and write up a larger review later on the site, but my first impression was that it was a by-the-numbers movie: great performances, but lacking focus and structure. You could see where everything was going from miles away (especially the Mexico sequence, which was outstanding in terms of acting but poor in terms of plotting), and the end in my opinion failed to tie it all up together (is the Morocco sequence with the shooter and his family resolved?). That being said, I thought the Tokyo sequence was fantastic, and the best part of the picture. Rincko Kikuchi's performance was breathtaking and heartbreaking, one of the more daring in a long times from a nominee.

The Scorsese 1-2 Knockout Punch: A lot of people are going to say that the Best Director award was given to Scorsese in a year when he maybe didn't deserve it. You know what? Screw you. How the Academy ignored this guy for so long is crap. And for my money THE DEPARTED was the best of the nominated films I saw this year, which is why it winning Best Picture was just fine in my book.

I guess a lesser Marty is still better than 95% of what else is out there.

Music in Movies: Setting the Mood

I'm feeling a little lazy here lately, so I thought I'd throw up an old post from the main blog that was about movies. My friends and I are list fanatics: in college one favorite way to pass the time was to grab some beers, turn up the stereo, and come up with lists about anything. 10 years later the trend continues (albeit long distance). One of our more recent lists was naming our favorites movie/music moments. The only rules were we couldn't duplicate each other, and we weren't allowed to count the film score in our choices. So the post below sums up that particular list (the original title of the post was "Sound+Vision" - hence the David Bowie comment in the beginning):

--------------------

...Which besides being a David Bowie reference, encapsulates what this list is, again originating from the mind of guest blogger Jason. From his email:
"...by which I mean best songs from movies as they appear in the film, judged by a combination of song quality, visuals, and furtherance of the plot or theme of the film. And yes, musicals count."

I think this is a little more telling of a list than the previous ones, which has me excited. So, Jason's (partial) list first, and then mine.

1. Wise Up by Aimee Mann, from Magnolia
2. Stonehenge by Spinal Tap, from This is Spinal Tap
3. Tomorrow Belongs to Me by the cast, from Cabaret
4. The Next to Last Song by Bjork, from Dancer in the Dark
5. Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, from Rocky III
6. The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel from The Graduate
7. Fight the Power by Public Enemy, from Do the Right Thing
8. Springtime for Hitler by the cast, from The Producers
9. 2 Wicky by Hooverphonic, from Stealing Beauty
10. Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Strauss from 2001: A Space Odyssey
11. "Ode to Joy" from Symphony #9 by Beethoven from A Clockwork Orange
12. When I'm Sixty-Four by the Beatles, from The World according to Garp

One of the worst things about these lists is if you're not the one who came up with the idea, you don't get to use some of your favorites. If I could use some from the above list, I would definitely have included the bits from Magnolia, Spinal Tap, Rocky, 2001...probably all of them! However, I made it my goal to not only not double any of the songs from the above, but not use any of the movies either. So, below is a rough list of 20 (I had more, but how long can this list be?) and a bonus 2 special mentions:

1. As Time Goes By by Dooley Wilson, from Casablanca
2. Dueling National Anthems by the cast, from Casablanca
3. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by Eric Idle and cast, from Monty Python's the Life of Brian
4. Tiny Dancer by Elton John and the cast, from Almost Famous
5. Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, from Manhattan
6. Canned Heat by Jamiroquai, from Napoleon Dynamite
7. Killing Me Softly by Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult, from About a Boy
8. A Quick One...While He's Away by the Who, from Rushmore
9. War by Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, from Rush Hour
10. Johnny B. Goode by Michael J. Fox, from Back to the Future
11. Blue Velvet by Dean Stockwell, from Blue Velvet
12. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by Burt Baccarach, from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
13. Man of Constant Sorrow by the Soggy Bottom Boys, from O' Brother, Where Art Thou?
14. My Favorite Things by Julie Andrews, from The Sound of Music
15. My Pretty Irish Girl by Sean Connery, from Darby O'Gill and the Little People
16. Take My Breath Away by Berlin, from Ocean's 11
17. Layla (coda) by Derek and the Dominoes, from Goodfellas
18. A Perfect Day by Lou Reed, from Trainspotting
19. I Want Your Body by Nymphomania, from True Romance
20. Make 'Em Laugh by Donald O'Connor, from Singin' in the Rain

There are two glaring omissions (in my opinion) from my list, which is why they get special mention below. One obvious, one not so obvious. Sometimes it's all the music as a whole that makes a movie, not just an individual song. So a special mention to the films PULP FICTION and GARDEN STATE - two films that would have been a lot different had it not been for the careful and excellent song selection. Huzzah!

--------------------

If anyone else reading this has some great examples, please feel free to let me know!

Music in Movies: Setting the Mood

I'm feeling a little lazy here lately, so I thought I'd throw up an old post from the main blog that was about movies. My friends and I are list fanatics: in college one favorite way to pass the time was to grab some beers, turn up the stereo, and come up with lists about anything. 10 years later the trend continues (albeit long distance). One of our more recent lists was naming our favorites movie/music moments. The only rules were we couldn't duplicate each other, and we weren't allowed to count the film score in our choices. So the post below sums up that particular list (the original title of the post was "Sound+Vision" - hence the David Bowie comment in the beginning):

--------------------

...Which besides being a David Bowie reference, encapsulates what this list is, again originating from the mind of guest blogger Jason. From his email:
"...by which I mean best songs from movies as they appear in the film, judged by a combination of song quality, visuals, and furtherance of the plot or theme of the film. And yes, musicals count."

I think this is a little more telling of a list than the previous ones, which has me excited. So, Jason's (partial) list first, and then mine.

1. Wise Up by Aimee Mann, from Magnolia
2. Stonehenge by Spinal Tap, from This is Spinal Tap
3. Tomorrow Belongs to Me by the cast, from Cabaret
4. The Next to Last Song by Bjork, from Dancer in the Dark
5. Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, from Rocky III
6. The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel from The Graduate
7. Fight the Power by Public Enemy, from Do the Right Thing
8. Springtime for Hitler by the cast, from The Producers
9. 2 Wicky by Hooverphonic, from Stealing Beauty
10. Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Strauss from 2001: A Space Odyssey
11. "Ode to Joy" from Symphony #9 by Beethoven from A Clockwork Orange
12. When I'm Sixty-Four by the Beatles, from The World according to Garp

One of the worst things about these lists is if you're not the one who came up with the idea, you don't get to use some of your favorites. If I could use some from the above list, I would definitely have included the bits from Magnolia, Spinal Tap, Rocky, 2001...probably all of them! However, I made it my goal to not only not double any of the songs from the above, but not use any of the movies either. So, below is a rough list of 20 (I had more, but how long can this list be?) and a bonus 2 special mentions:

1. As Time Goes By by Dooley Wilson, from Casablanca
2. Dueling National Anthems by the cast, from Casablanca
3. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by Eric Idle and cast, from Monty Python's the Life of Brian
4. Tiny Dancer by Elton John and the cast, from Almost Famous
5. Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, from Manhattan
6. Canned Heat by Jamiroquai, from Napoleon Dynamite
7. Killing Me Softly by Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult, from About a Boy
8. A Quick One...While He's Away by the Who, from Rushmore
9. War by Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, from Rush Hour
10. Johnny B. Goode by Michael J. Fox, from Back to the Future
11. Blue Velvet by Dean Stockwell, from Blue Velvet
12. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by Burt Baccarach, from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
13. Man of Constant Sorrow by the Soggy Bottom Boys, from O' Brother, Where Art Thou?
14. My Favorite Things by Julie Andrews, from The Sound of Music
15. My Pretty Irish Girl by Sean Connery, from Darby O'Gill and the Little People
16. Take My Breath Away by Berlin, from Ocean's 11
17. Layla (coda) by Derek and the Dominoes, from Goodfellas
18. A Perfect Day by Lou Reed, from Trainspotting
19. I Want Your Body by Nymphomania, from True Romance
20. Make 'Em Laugh by Donald O'Connor, from Singin' in the Rain

There are two glaring omissions (in my opinion) from my list, which is why they get special mention below. One obvious, one not so obvious. Sometimes it's all the music as a whole that makes a movie, not just an individual song. So a special mention to the films PULP FICTION and GARDEN STATE - two films that would have been a lot different had it not been for the careful and excellent song selection. Huzzah!

--------------------

If anyone else reading this has some great examples, please feel free to let me know!

In Which We Learn Some Self Restraint

So the goal is to write up three movies in the same amount of space I took to write about YOJIMBO. Shouldn't be too hard, especially since the three movies ranged in quality from crap to "pretty good." And instead of taking 100 still for each movie, I'll settle for a single image per movie. Not counting the poster (which I skipped for YOJIMBO - whoops!).

Okay...here goes:

CRANK (2006)

I don't get it. I like Jason Statham. He's got an easy charisma that I think translates well on screen. A big part of why I enjoyed LOCK STOCK... and SNATCH was his presence on screen (haven't seen REVOLVER, but it looked okay), and for what it was, I thought THE TRANSPORTER was a hoot and a half. But the rest? Grade-A Prime Crap. And CRANK doesn't do much to redeem him. A remake of DOA as done by people who apparently spend way too much time watching MTV and SCARFACE, Statham plays a hitman who wakes up to find he's been injected with a "Chinese cocktail" that by all rights should have him dead within minutes.

His only hope? To "crank" himself up - keeping his adrenaline going in an attempt to counteract the poison that's coursing through his system. To do this he snorts cocaine, runs non-stop, screams, plunges a hypodermic filled with an overdoes of epinephrine, and inhales bottle after bottle of nose spray. He's going to die - he knows it, but of course he can't die until he kills the stereotypical Latino gangbanger responsible. I'm all for a great action flick, but the performances by the bad guys was so over the top and so cliche I thought I was watching someone play GRAND THEFT AUTO, except I think that had a better story.

Just plain bad. Only two redeeming features: Statham is once again decent, and he and Amy Smart engage in one of the funniest sex scenes since THE TALL GUY. Decorum prevents me from going into too much detail, but it involves among other things a mailbox, a busload of Asian school girls, and a raucous crowd:


IDIOCRACY (2006)

OFFICE SPACE is one of those movies that grow on you over time. There's so many little things to catch each time you see it, and every subsequent viewing is in turn funnier and funnier. IDIOCRACY is filled with so many great ideas that it suffers from not knowing what it really wants to be. Luke Wilson, about as funny and likable as I've ever seen him, plays Joe Bowers, working as a librarian for the US Army when, because of his being average in every conceivable way, is signed up for a secret government hibernation experiment. Things go awry, and Joe wakes up (along with his partner, a hooker played by Maya Rudolph) 500 years later to a world dumbed down so much by TV and rampant commercialism he literally becomes the smartest guy on the planet.

The beginning is absolutely hysterical, as a narrator calmly demonstrates why "evolution doesn't necessarily reward intelligence" with illustrated family trees and a family that shows why sterilization may not always be a bad thing. There's a running gag that begins with an army colonel's obsession with the life of a pimp that starts okay and then slowly becomes brilliant. When Joe wakes up in future, the narration briefly continues - his attempts to speak (in perfect English) are received by the dumbed down populace as "pompous and faggy." Unfortunately soon after the movie becomes confused as to whether it wants to be a slapstick comedy or a biting satire, and as a result feels more diluted as the movie progresses (supposedly there was a lot of studio interference). There are still some fun moments here and there, and a couple quips and gags that are great (water is replaced by Gatorade, Costco is larger than New York City), but IDIOCRACY soon falls prey to the mass commercialism and mindless routine Mike Judge has skewered for so long.


THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON (2006)

If nothing else, watching THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON will probably make you want to listen to John Lennon records. If forgot how great he was after the Beatles, this will remind you. The documentary, presented by VH1 with the full cooperation of Yoko Ono means that the film will skirt over anything remotely controversial regarding the most famous Beatle, but you can argue that that's not what the documentary was about, anyway.

What it is about is the life of Lennon as a political activist, and the trials and tribulations he suffers at the hands of the evil Nixon Administration. Vietnam looms as a spectre throughout the film, and Lennon is shown as an ethereal space child, expounding on his theories of "Give Peace a Chance" while hanging out with Bobby Seale and Abbie Hoffman. His relationship with Ono figures heavily in the film, and I came away (although I imagine this was the idea) feeling that they really were of two like minds, as pure and committed to peace as they could be in a country that was constantly trying to deport them. G. Gordon Liddy comes off particularly nasty and evil, and the sections dealing with Middle America burning their Beatles records after the whole "bigger than Jesus Christ" thing is scary even almost 50 years later.

No documentary on Lennon would be complete without dealing with his murder. When THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON does get to it, it does it a way that completely shocks you and wakes you up from whatever complacency you might have fallen into during the course of the film. At the end I came away feeling like the world truly lost not only a great musician, but perhaps even more a warm, funny, human being and an agent for true change through love and peace.

Still sounds like a nice idea to me.

In Which We Learn Some Self Restraint

So the goal is to write up three movies in the same amount of space I took to write about YOJIMBO. Shouldn't be too hard, especially since the three movies ranged in quality from crap to "pretty good." And instead of taking 100 still for each movie, I'll settle for a single image per movie. Not counting the poster (which I skipped for YOJIMBO - whoops!).

Okay...here goes:

CRANK (2006)

I don't get it. I like Jason Statham. He's got an easy charisma that I think translates well on screen. A big part of why I enjoyed LOCK STOCK... and SNATCH was his presence on screen (haven't seen REVOLVER, but it looked okay), and for what it was, I thought THE TRANSPORTER was a hoot and a half. But the rest? Grade-A Prime Crap. And CRANK doesn't do much to redeem him. A remake of DOA as done by people who apparently spend way too much time watching MTV and SCARFACE, Statham plays a hitman who wakes up to find he's been injected with a "Chinese cocktail" that by all rights should have him dead within minutes.

His only hope? To "crank" himself up - keeping his adrenaline going in an attempt to counteract the poison that's coursing through his system. To do this he snorts cocaine, runs non-stop, screams, plunges a hypodermic filled with an overdoes of epinephrine, and inhales bottle after bottle of nose spray. He's going to die - he knows it, but of course he can't die until he kills the stereotypical Latino gangbanger responsible. I'm all for a great action flick, but the performances by the bad guys was so over the top and so cliche I thought I was watching someone play GRAND THEFT AUTO, except I think that had a better story.

Just plain bad. Only two redeeming features: Statham is once again decent, and he and Amy Smart engage in one of the funniest sex scenes since THE TALL GUY. Decorum prevents me from going into too much detail, but it involves among other things a mailbox, a busload of Asian school girls, and a raucous crowd:


IDIOCRACY (2006)

OFFICE SPACE is one of those movies that grow on you over time. There's so many little things to catch each time you see it, and every subsequent viewing is in turn funnier and funnier. IDIOCRACY is filled with so many great ideas that it suffers from not knowing what it really wants to be. Luke Wilson, about as funny and likable as I've ever seen him, plays Joe Bowers, working as a librarian for the US Army when, because of his being average in every conceivable way, is signed up for a secret government hibernation experiment. Things go awry, and Joe wakes up (along with his partner, a hooker played by Maya Rudolph) 500 years later to a world dumbed down so much by TV and rampant commercialism he literally becomes the smartest guy on the planet.

The beginning is absolutely hysterical, as a narrator calmly demonstrates why "evolution doesn't necessarily reward intelligence" with illustrated family trees and a family that shows why sterilization may not always be a bad thing. There's a running gag that begins with an army colonel's obsession with the life of a pimp that starts okay and then slowly becomes brilliant. When Joe wakes up in future, the narration briefly continues - his attempts to speak (in perfect English) are received by the dumbed down populace as "pompous and faggy." Unfortunately soon after the movie becomes confused as to whether it wants to be a slapstick comedy or a biting satire, and as a result feels more diluted as the movie progresses (supposedly there was a lot of studio interference). There are still some fun moments here and there, and a couple quips and gags that are great (water is replaced by Gatorade, Costco is larger than New York City), but IDIOCRACY soon falls prey to the mass commercialism and mindless routine Mike Judge has skewered for so long.


THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON (2006)

If nothing else, watching THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON will probably make you want to listen to John Lennon records. If forgot how great he was after the Beatles, this will remind you. The documentary, presented by VH1 with the full cooperation of Yoko Ono means that the film will skirt over anything remotely controversial regarding the most famous Beatle, but you can argue that that's not what the documentary was about, anyway.

What it is about is the life of Lennon as a political activist, and the trials and tribulations he suffers at the hands of the evil Nixon Administration. Vietnam looms as a spectre throughout the film, and Lennon is shown as an ethereal space child, expounding on his theories of "Give Peace a Chance" while hanging out with Bobby Seale and Abbie Hoffman. His relationship with Ono figures heavily in the film, and I came away (although I imagine this was the idea) feeling that they really were of two like minds, as pure and committed to peace as they could be in a country that was constantly trying to deport them. G. Gordon Liddy comes off particularly nasty and evil, and the sections dealing with Middle America burning their Beatles records after the whole "bigger than Jesus Christ" thing is scary even almost 50 years later.

No documentary on Lennon would be complete without dealing with his murder. When THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON does get to it, it does it a way that completely shocks you and wakes you up from whatever complacency you might have fallen into during the course of the film. At the end I came away feeling like the world truly lost not only a great musician, but perhaps even more a warm, funny, human being and an agent for true change through love and peace.

Still sounds like a nice idea to me.

So Many to Choose From

No More Marriages is an exceptional film blog I've been keeping track of for some time now, offering in creator Andy Horbal's own words, "the diary of a cinephile gradually deconstructing himself." In his most recent post he listed the 50 Best Films He's Never Seen, using as his criteria a list of the 1,000 Greatest Films according to They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

I don't recall who said that "great ideas should be used until they are no longer great." Since it's a mediocre quote at best, I'll attribute it to myself. At any rate, my own list of 25 below (the second number notes the films' ranking on the list):

1/08 - Tokyo Story (1953)
2/16 - L'Atalante (1934)
3/19 - Raging Bull (1980)
4/30 - Breathless (1959)
5/33 - Jules et Jim (1961)
6/38 - Andrei Rublev (1966)
7/41 - Ordet (1951)
8/42 - Pather Panchali (1955)
9/47 - Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
10/49 - Contempt (1963)
11/50 - Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966)
12/58 - The Conformist (1969)
13/59 - La Strada (1954)
14/60 - The Mirror (1976)
15/62 - Fanny and Alexander (1982)
16/68 - Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
17/70 - Pickpocket (1959)
18/71 - Playtime (1967)
19/72 - L'Age d'Or (1930)
20/75 - Voyage in Italy (1953)
21/77 - Viridiana (1961)
22/81 - Pierrot le fou (1965)
23/82 - The Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
24/89 - Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
25/91 - Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

Many I know about and are in my Netflix queue or on my list to track down and fine. Some I've heard of but wasn't originally planning to see. A few I'm ashamed to say I've never even heard of. And I think that's one of the things that continue to draw me to film - it's ability to be inexhaustible.

So Many to Choose From

No More Marriages is an exceptional film blog I've been keeping track of for some time now, offering in creator Andy Horbal's own words, "the diary of a cinephile gradually deconstructing himself." In his most recent post he listed the 50 Best Films He's Never Seen, using as his criteria a list of the 1,000 Greatest Films according to They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

I don't recall who said that "great ideas should be used until they are no longer great." Since it's a mediocre quote at best, I'll attribute it to myself. At any rate, my own list of 25 below (the second number notes the films' ranking on the list):

1/08 - Tokyo Story (1953)
2/16 - L'Atalante (1934)
3/19 - Raging Bull (1980)
4/30 - Breathless (1959)
5/33 - Jules et Jim (1961)
6/38 - Andrei Rublev (1966)
7/41 - Ordet (1951)
8/42 - Pather Panchali (1955)
9/47 - Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
10/49 - Contempt (1963)
11/50 - Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966)
12/58 - The Conformist (1969)
13/59 - La Strada (1954)
14/60 - The Mirror (1976)
15/62 - Fanny and Alexander (1982)
16/68 - Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
17/70 - Pickpocket (1959)
18/71 - Playtime (1967)
19/72 - L'Age d'Or (1930)
20/75 - Voyage in Italy (1953)
21/77 - Viridiana (1961)
22/81 - Pierrot le fou (1965)
23/82 - The Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
24/89 - Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
25/91 - Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

Many I know about and are in my Netflix queue or on my list to track down and fine. Some I've heard of but wasn't originally planning to see. A few I'm ashamed to say I've never even heard of. And I think that's one of the things that continue to draw me to film - it's ability to be inexhaustible.

HOT FUZZ is HOT!

Working Title Films just released an Internet-Exclusive trailer for HOT FUZZ. According to Aint It Cool News, the following should be noted:

1. It was persoanlly edited by director Edgar Wright
2. It was scored by Robert Rodriguez - yeah, THAT Robert Rodriguez
3. It is 13 layers of kickass

Come along and feel the magic. This is going to be so great.

HOT FUZZ is HOT!

Working Title Films just released an Internet-Exclusive trailer for HOT FUZZ. According to Aint It Cool News, the following should be noted:

1. It was persoanlly edited by director Edgar Wright
2. It was scored by Robert Rodriguez - yeah, THAT Robert Rodriguez
3. It is 13 layers of kickass

Come along and feel the magic. This is going to be so great.

New Look; Why Blockbuster's OK

Went for a little bit of a different look to the site. Added a graphic on top, some new colors, and hopefully a little self restraint in the future!

Any comments, feedback about the new site welcome!

--------------------

In other news, yesterday's spur-of-the-moment trip to Blockbuster paid off in spades. I am a tried and true Netflix member since 2001, but every so often I have the need for an immediate movie fix. Yesterday was just such a day. I still had two movies sitting at home, but they were reserved for "Husband+Wife" viewing; so no go there. Since it was 4:00 PM and my wife wasn't coming home until 10:30 PM, and I had no chores, I decided a little movie watching was in order.

Picked up CRANK and IDIOCRACY and managed to swipe the last copy of THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON from someone who was debating on it (ha!), and on my way out the door saw the 2 for $20 sign for all used DVDs. Feeling in a bit of a sequel mood, I picked up the 2-Disc CLERKS 2 and PIRATES 2 and headed for the checkout. Turns out when I got there the sales clerk told me my Rewards membership was running out, and did I want to renew? I was all prepared to say "yes" when she blurted out, "I tell you what, if you renew I'll make you a deal."

I was going to renew anyway; it was only $10.85. But I said, "What's the deal?"

"You can have all 3 rentals for free, and I'll throw in another used movie for the $20."

What could I do? I grabbed a used copy of INSIDE MAN (which I haven't seen yet), went home, and luxuriated in my 6.5 hour freedom.

You gotta take your perks where you can get 'em, man!

New Look; Why Blockbuster's OK

Went for a little bit of a different look to the site. Added a graphic on top, some new colors, and hopefully a little self restraint in the future!

Any comments, feedback about the new site welcome!

--------------------

In other news, yesterday's spur-of-the-moment trip to Blockbuster paid off in spades. I am a tried and true Netflix member since 2001, but every so often I have the need for an immediate movie fix. Yesterday was just such a day. I still had two movies sitting at home, but they were reserved for "Husband+Wife" viewing; so no go there. Since it was 4:00 PM and my wife wasn't coming home until 10:30 PM, and I had no chores, I decided a little movie watching was in order.

Picked up CRANK and IDIOCRACY and managed to swipe the last copy of THE U.S. VS. JOHN LENNON from someone who was debating on it (ha!), and on my way out the door saw the 2 for $20 sign for all used DVDs. Feeling in a bit of a sequel mood, I picked up the 2-Disc CLERKS 2 and PIRATES 2 and headed for the checkout. Turns out when I got there the sales clerk told me my Rewards membership was running out, and did I want to renew? I was all prepared to say "yes" when she blurted out, "I tell you what, if you renew I'll make you a deal."

I was going to renew anyway; it was only $10.85. But I said, "What's the deal?"

"You can have all 3 rentals for free, and I'll throw in another used movie for the $20."

What could I do? I grabbed a used copy of INSIDE MAN (which I haven't seen yet), went home, and luxuriated in my 6.5 hour freedom.

You gotta take your perks where you can get 'em, man!

Yojimbo (1961)

The movie opens. A lone warrior stands in the foreground, his back to the camera. The mountains in the background seem positively diminutive, telling us the man we're about walk into danger with is larger than life, and in the next 2 hours he's going to prove that perception correct. He walks with the casual stride of someone who's been places, who's lived and can handle himself without show, without dramatics. His largest concern are the fleas in his clothing, and he gait is half swagger, half twitch as he scratches for relief. The music swells with a jarring Western-driven fanfare recalling the work Ennio Morricione would later do for Sergio Leone as we follow this ronin to a fork in the road. Which direction to take? A stick tossed in the air points determines his destination, and our own.

Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO, filmed in 1961, is a changing of the guard. It's the end of the samurai as dedicated hero as seen in SEVEN SAMURAI, and the beginning of the samurai as both super- and anti-hero: a larger than life character, flawed and thriving on his own sense of justice. Toshiro Mifune stars as Sanjuro, broke, hungry, and looking to make some easy cash with his sword. The random stick toss leads him to a shabby town that appears perfectly suited to satisfy those needs - a run-down corrupt pile of loose boards and quick thieving, where the sound of caskets being made echo along the sandy strip of road running through town and dividing the factions within: Seibei, the silk merchant who runs the brothel and owns the town's mayor, and Ushitora, Seibei's former right-hand man who split off after learning he was being passed over for the old man's son.

Kurosawa encapsulates the desperation and wickedness of the town in a perfect scene: a dog, happily trotting down the street with a severed human hand in its maw:

The scene is emphasized even more by the music playing: a percussive, brassy modern piece by composer Masaru Sato that serves to reinforce the bizarre events that occur in the movie. Not enough is really said about how effective the music in YOJIMBO is - it's hard to pinpoint another Kurosawa film where the music (and sound design overall) stands out as much.

The "dog" scene is just one of dozens of great shots in the film, a film where Kurosawa breaks away from the conventions of his earlier films, employing extensive use of telephoto lenses, utilizing pan and deep-focus shots to achieve crystal clear images along with a visual palette that emphasized the stark contrasts of light and dark. Choices in wardrobe and props for his characters also reflect this "release" from the constraints of his more serious film endeavors - one of the henchman is a giant carrying not a sword but an enormous hammer. Another henchman, the diabolical Unosake (played by SEVEN SAMURAI extra Tatsuya Nakadai) wears a scarf around his neck and seems to have the cleanest robes in the town, belying the fact he's probably the most ruthless and sadistic one in the movie.

Another technique Kurosawa uses to enforce the nature of the townspeople in the beginning is to introduce them as cowering behind bars or wooden slats - the feeling of caged, vicious animals is hard to ignore:

Sanjuro settles in with the only two seemingly honest people left in the town - an old tavern keep and the even older casket maker - and proceeds to play each side off against the other until everyone who needs to die is dead - essentially the whole town, as Sanjuro explains to the tavern keep. Soon he see the one real adversary in the town isn't either of the two bosses, but the aforementioned Unosuke, who complements his modern attire with a deadly accessory: a revolver hidden inside his robes:

In the end justice - Sanjuro's own gleeful and cynical view of it - prevails. Via double-crosses worthy of a Shakespearean drama, Sanjuro plays both sides against the other, is captured and beaten, only to escape and come back to settle all scores in a fast, bloody battle to the death against one of the ugliest gangs caught on celluloid:

I swear that's the Japanese equivalent of Jaws from the James Bond movies back there.

Both Kurosawa and Mifune take pains to ensure that no matter how much Sanjuro enjoys killing, no matter how much he shakes and twitches, that his core is one of honor. He refuses the services of Seibei's geisha when he (briefly) joins their side. He saves a woman being kept as a whore for payment of a gambling debt and reunites her with her family, giving then the money he took as his own "payment." He's the lovable rascal - sure he's bad, and can cut down 10 people in 10 seconds (Mifune was supposedly exceptional with a katana, and did the whole scene where he indeed kills a person per second while holding his breath), but his violent tendencies and cold, uncaring shell is tempered by a sense of right.

Shorter, quicker paced, and more visceral than his prior films, YOJIMBO is a master director loosening his tie and having some fun at the expense of his more serious, thematic films (prior to this he did the much more somber THE BAD SLEEP WELL, a twist on Shakespeare's Hamlet). For the remainder of their partnership Kurosawa used Mifune as the towering figure seen during the opening credits - an icon rather than a character. Gone is the subtlety, and in its stead is the prototype for many the modern action stars celebrated in the 80's and 90's.

Special mention again needs to be made concerning his use of deep focus in may of his shots, where both the foreground and background are seen in sharp focus. The following shot, right before the climax, is an excellent example of this, and the one image that stuck in my mind more than any other in the film:

A great film, typically overlooked when considering the outstanding oeuvre of Akira Kurosawa, but for an incredible Toshiro Mifune performance, sly humor and bursts of gleeful action, YOJIMBO (ideally paired with its equally wonderful companion film SANJURO) makes for a great watch. The new release by Criterion is even more cleaned up than it's predecessor, and boasts a commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince and a 40-minute documentary taken from the series Akira Kurosawa: It's Wonderful to Create.

*special thanks to Matthew over at Criterion Contraption, who kindly walked me through what he uses to capture his screenshots. I know this review is picture-heavy, but when you have a new toy you play!

Yojimbo (1961)

The movie opens. A lone warrior stands in the foreground, his back to the camera. The mountains in the background seem positively diminutive, telling us the man we're about walk into danger with is larger than life, and in the next 2 hours he's going to prove that perception correct. He walks with the casual stride of someone who's been places, who's lived and can handle himself without show, without dramatics. His largest concern are the fleas in his clothing, and he gait is half swagger, half twitch as he scratches for relief. The music swells with a jarring Western-driven fanfare recalling the work Ennio Morricione would later do for Sergio Leone as we follow this ronin to a fork in the road. Which direction to take? A stick tossed in the air points determines his destination, and our own.

Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO, filmed in 1961, is a changing of the guard. It's the end of the samurai as dedicated hero as seen in SEVEN SAMURAI, and the beginning of the samurai as both super- and anti-hero: a larger than life character, flawed and thriving on his own sense of justice. Toshiro Mifune stars as Sanjuro, broke, hungry, and looking to make some easy cash with his sword. The random stick toss leads him to a shabby town that appears perfectly suited to satisfy those needs - a run-down corrupt pile of loose boards and quick thieving, where the sound of caskets being made echo along the sandy strip of road running through town and dividing the factions within: Seibei, the silk merchant who runs the brothel and owns the town's mayor, and Ushitora, Seibei's former right-hand man who split off after learning he was being passed over for the old man's son.

Kurosawa encapsulates the desperation and wickedness of the town in a perfect scene: a dog, happily trotting down the street with a severed human hand in its maw:

The scene is emphasized even more by the music playing: a percussive, brassy modern piece by composer Masaru Sato that serves to reinforce the bizarre events that occur in the movie. Not enough is really said about how effective the music in YOJIMBO is - it's hard to pinpoint another Kurosawa film where the music (and sound design overall) stands out as much.

The "dog" scene is just one of dozens of great shots in the film, a film where Kurosawa breaks away from the conventions of his earlier films, employing extensive use of telephoto lenses, utilizing pan and deep-focus shots to achieve crystal clear images along with a visual palette that emphasized the stark contrasts of light and dark. Choices in wardrobe and props for his characters also reflect this "release" from the constraints of his more serious film endeavors - one of the henchman is a giant carrying not a sword but an enormous hammer. Another henchman, the diabolical Unosake (played by SEVEN SAMURAI extra Tatsuya Nakadai) wears a scarf around his neck and seems to have the cleanest robes in the town, belying the fact he's probably the most ruthless and sadistic one in the movie.

Another technique Kurosawa uses to enforce the nature of the townspeople in the beginning is to introduce them as cowering behind bars or wooden slats - the feeling of caged, vicious animals is hard to ignore:

Sanjuro settles in with the only two seemingly honest people left in the town - an old tavern keep and the even older casket maker - and proceeds to play each side off against the other until everyone who needs to die is dead - essentially the whole town, as Sanjuro explains to the tavern keep. Soon he see the one real adversary in the town isn't either of the two bosses, but the aforementioned Unosuke, who complements his modern attire with a deadly accessory: a revolver hidden inside his robes:

In the end justice - Sanjuro's own gleeful and cynical view of it - prevails. Via double-crosses worthy of a Shakespearean drama, Sanjuro plays both sides against the other, is captured and beaten, only to escape and come back to settle all scores in a fast, bloody battle to the death against one of the ugliest gangs caught on celluloid:

I swear that's the Japanese equivalent of Jaws from the James Bond movies back there.

Both Kurosawa and Mifune take pains to ensure that no matter how much Sanjuro enjoys killing, no matter how much he shakes and twitches, that his core is one of honor. He refuses the services of Seibei's geisha when he (briefly) joins their side. He saves a woman being kept as a whore for payment of a gambling debt and reunites her with her family, giving then the money he took as his own "payment." He's the lovable rascal - sure he's bad, and can cut down 10 people in 10 seconds (Mifune was supposedly exceptional with a katana, and did the whole scene where he indeed kills a person per second while holding his breath), but his violent tendencies and cold, uncaring shell is tempered by a sense of right.

Shorter, quicker paced, and more visceral than his prior films, YOJIMBO is a master director loosening his tie and having some fun at the expense of his more serious, thematic films (prior to this he did the much more somber THE BAD SLEEP WELL, a twist on Shakespeare's Hamlet). For the remainder of their partnership Kurosawa used Mifune as the towering figure seen during the opening credits - an icon rather than a character. Gone is the subtlety, and in its stead is the prototype for many the modern action stars celebrated in the 80's and 90's.

Special mention again needs to be made concerning his use of deep focus in may of his shots, where both the foreground and background are seen in sharp focus. The following shot, right before the climax, is an excellent example of this, and the one image that stuck in my mind more than any other in the film:

A great film, typically overlooked when considering the outstanding oeuvre of Akira Kurosawa, but for an incredible Toshiro Mifune performance, sly humor and bursts of gleeful action, YOJIMBO (ideally paired with its equally wonderful companion film SANJURO) makes for a great watch. The new release by Criterion is even more cleaned up than it's predecessor, and boasts a commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince and a 40-minute documentary taken from the series Akira Kurosawa: It's Wonderful to Create.

*special thanks to Matthew over at Criterion Contraption, who kindly walked me through what he uses to capture his screenshots. I know this review is picture-heavy, but when you have a new toy you play!

The Criterion Contraption

Holy crap. This guy is living my dream.

I was surfing the web trying to find some shots from YOJIMBO for an upcoming movie review and I came across a blog called The Criterion Contraption.

It's mission? To watch and review every title from the Criterion Collection.

In order.

He's up to #64 (THE THIRD MAN), and looks to be going strong, with nice reviews of not only the films but the features included. Also has some great pictures from the films.

I unabashedly love Criterion - no other film catalog has opened my eyes up to so many wonderful works of art. Fellini, Kurosawa, Renoir. Ozu...the list is endless. I can always count on picking up a film without knowing too much about it and being amazed, entranced and, if nothing else, challenged as to what defines the conventions of film. The films aren't nearly as pricey as they used to be, and excellent outlets like Netflix contain pretty much everything in the catalog still in print, so for any new film lovers out there, it's a great place to be exposed to the beauty, passion and art of film.

In the meantime, the link for The Criterion Contraption is posted up on the right along with some of my other favorite film sites.

Cheers!

The Criterion Contraption

Holy crap. This guy is living my dream.

I was surfing the web trying to find some shots from YOJIMBO for an upcoming movie review and I came across a blog called The Criterion Contraption.

It's mission? To watch and review every title from the Criterion Collection.

In order.

He's up to #64 (THE THIRD MAN), and looks to be going strong, with nice reviews of not only the films but the features included. Also has some great pictures from the films.

I unabashedly love Criterion - no other film catalog has opened my eyes up to so many wonderful works of art. Fellini, Kurosawa, Renoir. Ozu...the list is endless. I can always count on picking up a film without knowing too much about it and being amazed, entranced and, if nothing else, challenged as to what defines the conventions of film. The films aren't nearly as pricey as they used to be, and excellent outlets like Netflix contain pretty much everything in the catalog still in print, so for any new film lovers out there, it's a great place to be exposed to the beauty, passion and art of film.

In the meantime, the link for The Criterion Contraption is posted up on the right along with some of my other favorite film sites.

Cheers!

Two to Look Forward To

1. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (click here for the trailer)

I don't think the official site's up and running yet, but Aint It Cool News posted the link to Julie Taymor's newest, ACORSS THE UNIVERSE. The first time I saw TITUS I knew that Taymor was someone to watch - visually spectacular and thematically challenging. FRIDA also proved to be an delight for the eyes, and that's without Selma Hayek doffing her clothes and kissing women. Here she tackles the 60's in all its different facets, with the music of The Beatles providing the drive to the story. It looks a little like MOULIN ROUGE with THE DREAMERS, which may or may not be a good thing. Based on the trailer, though. I'd say this will definitely turn some heads.


2. 1408 (click here for the trailer)

It's few and far between that can successfully adapt Stephen King to the screen. Frank Darabont is pulling for a trifecta with his version of THE MIST coming soon that promises to be a far departure from the more realistic, dramatic fare THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE GREEN MILE were. In the meantime, Mikael Hafstrom, who last directed the not-so-great DERAILED here in America tries his hand directing John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson in the spooky haunted hotel story 1408. I'll see John Cusack in just about anything, and the chance to watch him tackle some truly horrific material looks to be a blast here.

Two to Look Forward To

1. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (click here for the trailer)

I don't think the official site's up and running yet, but Aint It Cool News posted the link to Julie Taymor's newest, ACORSS THE UNIVERSE. The first time I saw TITUS I knew that Taymor was someone to watch - visually spectacular and thematically challenging. FRIDA also proved to be an delight for the eyes, and that's without Selma Hayek doffing her clothes and kissing women. Here she tackles the 60's in all its different facets, with the music of The Beatles providing the drive to the story. It looks a little like MOULIN ROUGE with THE DREAMERS, which may or may not be a good thing. Based on the trailer, though. I'd say this will definitely turn some heads.


2. 1408 (click here for the trailer)

It's few and far between that can successfully adapt Stephen King to the screen. Frank Darabont is pulling for a trifecta with his version of THE MIST coming soon that promises to be a far departure from the more realistic, dramatic fare THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE GREEN MILE were. In the meantime, Mikael Hafstrom, who last directed the not-so-great DERAILED here in America tries his hand directing John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson in the spooky haunted hotel story 1408. I'll see John Cusack in just about anything, and the chance to watch him tackle some truly horrific material looks to be a blast here.

February Is For Movies (NO SIGNAL)

Yesterday Turner Classic Movies began their annual 31 Days of Oscar marathon - a full month's (and then some) worth of Oscar-nominated and award winning films. This is the month where the DVR really gets a run for its money, and a chance for me to catch up on tons of films that either aren't released on DVD yet or I just haven't gotten around to seeing for whatever reason. I think I read there was going to be 91 films making their TCM premiere this month, so there's lots to get excited about...as long as the channel doesn't experience any "technical difficulties."

Last night I was dancing around like a young school-girl because one of my favorite Westerns was coming on as part of the "Oscar Nominated Directors" night to kick off the marathon. It was THE PROFESSIONALS, starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Woody Strode, and Robert Ryan, who I've recently been exposing the Missus to via some of the Film Noir series being released by Warner Bros. We've watched THE SET UP, CROSSFIRE, and the other night watched ON DANGEROUS GROUND. So when I saw THE PROFESSIONALS was on, I jumped up and down giggling and explaining to my wife why Woody Strode is one of the coolest-looking guys to ever appear in movies, and that this was a must-see.

So of course not 2 minutes into the film I get this black screen and the words NO SIGNAL flashing across the screen. I have satellite, and since yesterday was a blustery day, I thought "Okay, maybe the satellite got knocked about a bit. It'll come back in a second."

I checked around the other stations. Everything worked fine, including the HD channels which are usually the first to get knocked out in a storm.

Back over at lovely channel 256, the NO SIGNAL was still going strong.

TCM, I don't know what happened with you, but c'mon...let's get it together, man! I know I can easily pick up THE PROFESSIONALS on DVD, but you know how you'll buy a movie and never watch it until that one time it comes on at 2:30 in the afternoon and you have chores to do but you can't turn your eyes away from it?

That's how I wanted to be last night. And instead you forced me to watch ROB-B-HOOD, which was good, but it wasn't THE PROFESSIONALS good.

There's some great stuff tonight, including FUNNY FACE, which I've never seen, and BLACK NARCISSUS, which I've also never seen. Stuff like this is on all month long, so make sure to set some time aside for great movie watching.

In the meantime, I'll wistfully dream of what could have been last night, and maybe stop by the video store to see if I can snag a copy for the weekend.