My Life As a Dog

It snows a lot in Scandinavia. This makes them all completely nuts.

So dumb! YouTube silliness.

Ral Partha, mostly (c) 1979

more Djuma snaps

 
 
 
 

Bye, Djuma.

You are a good kitty.

 
 
 
 

Samurai Rebellion

A great movie. Every character is provided an exit away from being stock and is at least sketched in a little bit as plausible humans. Emotionally staggering.

Picnic At Hanging Rock

I am pretty sure that I have seen this before but I couldn't remember much about it. The unsettled mood is established with great skill. Or is it that triple-bedamned pan flute in the score? Aaagh! Otherwise compelling.

The Prophecy

Ridiculous but completely within expectations. File next to Tremors and Dr. Phibes for campy amusement. Christopher Walken walks away with all his scenes tucked under his arm. Viggo Mortenson plays Satan. He is not the weakest player in view - that honor goes to Eric Stolz.

Red Lion

I submit that only Toshiro Mifune could have put on a giant fuzzy red wig and merely seem a bit more ferocious. Anyone else would invite comparisons to Bozo the Clown. Bonus: explanation of Ee ja na kai. My previous exposure was via Pom poko and left me completely mystified.

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

A bit of a plod. Weird color transfer.

The Lower Depths

Early Kurosawa. Never tries to rise above original Gorky play. Mifune barely reined in from reducing set to splinters. I could listen to Bokuzen Hidari all day long.

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Eight nicely balanced vignettes. I especially liked the Village of the Waterwheels.

The Idiot

It may look Japanese but that is a trick played by Kurosawa. The Russian plot is evident in every frame. It takes a while to get a head of steam up but the payoff is there.

The Devil and Daniel Webster

Mannered and stagey but in a good way. Lively performances with particular praise to Walter Huston's palpably sinister turn as Mr. Scratch. See it just for his performance. See his performance just for his entrance.

THX 1138

Robert Duvall's character, because he is mildly competent, strides among his drugged and coerced fellow citizenss like Zeus among limpets. In the land of the flakey, the least zoned-out is king.
Much is made that the director is George Lucas which probably distracts from seeing its genuine qualities and indisputable flaws.

Vera Cruz

Because the role of the good guy was filled by Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster had to be the bad guy. It's almost a buddy movie, so he is also the buddy. The finale was mostly satisfying in the way that Obi Wan's victory over Anakin wasn't. There was a great deal of exotic, empire-in-the Americas business with Cesar Romero but it's not important.

Judge strikes down part of Patriot Act

Will this make it easier for future administrations to disassemble the travesty that is the Patriot Act?

Judge strikes down part of Patriot Act

Tailor of Panama

I was a bit slow apparently and did not recognize that the movie was one of those arch serio-comic tales that allow one to laugh at terrible, awful, loathsome human beings. Jesus! What a load of crap. Brendan Gleason's character is a buffoon! Ha ha! Oh, that Pierce Brosnan and his way with the ladies! Tee hee! The parody of Colonel North - you know it's funny because it's true. Except it was inept and a waste of time. Meh.

The Man from Laramie

Jimmy Stewart wreaks a rather constrained revenge for a betrayal that killed his brother. Some excellent moments, but overall a bit taxing. There is an inept Nancy Drew-like mystery that completely derails the drama.

Aragon Lives! In Texas.

No, not Viggo (although he may for all I know) the giant spider from Harry Potter.
Storm troopers: Big spider web

Residents report that they can hear the cries of massed mosquitoes trapped in the webbing.

Nixon

Oliver Stone's didacticism is really annoying but you can't look away! Sir Tony brings all Shakespearean ploys to bear. If only RHN had been a tenth as ethical as the debauched character in this movie!

The Guns of Navarone

Gregory Peck clenches his jaw to victory. Nazis implode from the gaze of his American godliness. Silly, fun fantasy.

Work hilarity

From Miscellaneous...

Bug

From Miscellaneous...

The High and the Mighty

Hotel meets Titanic in midair. John Wayne is likable, dammit! His crappy real-life politics annoy me still but he gets the job done up on the screen.
Far too many plot-threads, but that's the genre.

Killer Elite

What may have seemed cynical in the '70s seems trivial by Halliburton standards. Disjointed. Mako rocks. James Caan's dead-fish delivery works well. Robert Duvall didn't seem to be at the top of his form; seemed to be thinking about his dry-cleaning bill or something.

Steamboy

Best part was the steam monocycle.
Worst part was the weak characterizations - even for anime - weak characterizations. Better than The League of Extrardinary Gentlemen (who copped more than a few visuals) by a far piece.

I went to the zoo

I didn't take a camera because I didn't want to be distracted from the zoo itself, but I did take a few snaps with my phone.

This is the inside of a bear.


This is the outside.


Special effect of a ghost wolf provided by suboptimal phone camera optics:


Orangutan wearing a sack. I can't stand looking at the great apes, it's like staring into someone's house.

Seventh Victim

Not a mystery so much as a mash-up (as the kids say nowadays) of character-types. Add creepy lighting and solid journeyman production values and voila! Late-night TV fodder. But good fodder. Slight to moderate horror.

Island at the Top of the World

Potentially amusing Victoriana (Polar balloons! Vikings!) rendered DOA by presence of David Hartman. Mako (Mako!) completely wasted. At least there are no musical interludes with Pat Boone.