Too much stuff.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The Crimson Pirate
Silly and unpretentious. I expect that today's kids would have no patience for it. There is lots of cinematic piratical goings-on, though and that is always a good thing.
Underworld
Dull. Dumb. Lots of rubber body suits and outfits with many, many buckles. Kate Beckinsale looks like she is constantly being woken from a nap. Supporting actors are consistently stiff. Design of the movie is attractive.
Children of Heaven
Charming and timeless. Assumes fairy-tale like character as movie progresses. Recommended.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Lots of action. No second act slump. Keeps things moving. The moving things are utterly pointless and loud, but it goes, goes, goes.
A Wing and a Prayer
Unabashed propaganda has solid, too, too solid performances from everyone. Not bad but very much a journeyman product.
Twilight Samurai
Simple-seeming tale reveals layers very deliberately. Finale is choreographed beautifully and realistically. Recommended.
The Razor's Edge (1946)
A different focus than the Bill Murray version, which I now think compares well to the Tyrone Power effort. A generally stiff tone runs throughout. Clifton Webb totally steals all his scenes.
V for Vendetta
Holy cats, is John Hurt a creepy Big Brother! Lots of improbable swordplay. Hugo Weaving carries the whole thing on his diction, though. Could have been utterly farcical.
Storm Over Mont Blanc
Leni Reifenstal portrays an overly-romantic university student who complicates the monk-like calm of a weatherman stationed at the top of Mont Blanc. Amazing aerial photography. There is apparently a genre of mountain movies from between the wars in which Leni is the focus apart from the mountains.
Only Angels Have Wings
Almost my new favorite movie. Howard Hawks' fantasy of manly men flying aerocraft over the Andes and their womanly women making things complicated. More personal redemption per reel than is strictly necessary.
The Forgotten
Rented as an antidote to Flightplan, this was better than I expected. It has not stayed with me however, much like an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Also owes a lot to X-Files.
The Fighting Kentuckian
John Wayne blunders into devious plot and undoes complex social balance. Coonskin cohort provide muscle, laughs, realpolitik. Based on Bizarro-worls Napoleonic / American history.
The Kentuckian
Burt Lancaster escapes from tribal troubles in his homeland Kentucky to his brother who has established himself in the merchant class among strangers. Burt's rustic ways disturb the civilised status quo but he proves himself to the bourgeois when a pair of coonskin terminators arrive with long rifles blazing. Walter Mattau outstanding as money-crazed coward. Mustache-twirling, although expected, never happened and was not missed.
Also there were minstrels.
Also there were minstrels.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Oh for crying out loud!
The GIMP unfortunately does not include standard tools to draw circles and rectangles ... "Then as of this moment, GIMP is on double secret probation!"
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Jane Wyatt Passed Away
Jane Wyatt died in her sleep on Friday. She was 96.
She came to my attention playing the part of Spock's mother. I was too young to have seen her on Father Knows Best. Much later I discovered Lost Horizon and was much taken with Jane Wyatt's performance. That movie is one of my favorites, mostly for its Utopian mysticism, but also because of the character Sondra.
She came to my attention playing the part of Spock's mother. I was too young to have seen her on Father Knows Best. Much later I discovered Lost Horizon and was much taken with Jane Wyatt's performance. That movie is one of my favorites, mostly for its Utopian mysticism, but also because of the character Sondra.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
Metronatural
Seattle's new slogan. Why, oh why, do we have to do this? "Say WA" was bad enough. I do not approve.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Frenetic, entertaining claptrap. Makes no pretense at logic, continuity or characterization. Would Kierkegaard approve?
Flightplan
Contrived, manipulative rubbish. Greatest sin? May have leeched sales away from Snakes on a Plane. Avoid!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
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