Grizzly Man & Bad News Bears

In Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog has found another crazy man to make a movie about. Typical Herzog. I did laugh when he said that he was familiar with insane actors and directors though. Because he worked with Klaus Kinski and Herzog himself is an insane man. The movie itself clearly fits well in his filmography with Fitzcarraldo (I still haven't seen it, but I know what it's about) and Aguirre. As for Tim Treadwell, well, he got exactly what was coming to him. What a sad story. Clearly at least somewhat mentally disturbed, and he probably was not the best person to spend lots of time alone in nature. I think that tends to lead to more insanity than if you were alone in the city. Because at least you're around people who will stop some of your more insane leanings. But man, Treadwell was just bat-guano insane. Fascinating movie though.

Bad News Bears was enjoyable, but I think I miss the worse cursing from the original. Stupid PG-13. PG back in the day was so much better. There could even be nudity in it. Stupid nanny police. Eh. It's an acceptable way to spend the running time, but it certainly isn't going to be remembered by me for being anything other than an unnecessary remake.

2046 (& 100th post)

2046 is quite possibly, the most depressing movie I've ever seen. Depressing in a way that is painful to anyone who has ever been in love (especially if it isn't entirely reciprocated). Or, alternately, you could take it as a non-definite sequel to In the Mood for Love, and it becomes much less depressing. However, as the direct sequel, and finishing off the trilogy including Days of Being Wild, it is typically brilliant Wong Kar-Wai about the nature of love and heartbreak. And no one can make a perfect shot like him. This one has the scenes in the cab of Tony Leung sitting either with a leading lady or alone. The final scene... well, if it were physically possible to have made me even more depressed than the scene right before... he did it. Plus, he actually gives Zhang Ziyi her best role yet, as she is, in my opinion, the Best Thing in a movie full of Best Things. Every female cast member has scenes that are outstanding, from Gong Li's reaction to the kiss to Faye Wong's dance steps while learning Japanese (and her smoking a cigarette...) to Carina Lau's smiling android, but Zhang is outstanding, especially in that second to last scene. With all of that said, and way too little time spent with Maggie Cheung, whose character's shadow dominates every nook and cranny within the film, how can people not agree that Tony Leung is one of the best actors ever? Because he is. Without a doubt.

The look of the movie is not quite as stylish as his other works, and the CGI was typically terrible as pretty much every non-American CGI production is. It's fine when it's in a cartoon (Miyazaki's use of CGI is almost imperceptible and in Kung Fu Hustle it was basically a live-action cartoon), but it was distracting here. That complaint being said, it's still visually stunning, but it doesn't scream "LOOK AT ME!!!!!!" like his messing with film grains and slow-motion and colors have in the past. Which just means that he's maturing as a filmmaker, but I missed his more overt style occasionally. And then he'd bring out those high heels on the train that lit up while the androids walked in straight lines and I'd forget about everything. As much as I prefer that women wear comfortable shoes rather than torture themselves for my pleasure... I certainly see the attraction to high heels. Or maybe it was just the high heels and cheongsams. Yeah, it was probably just that. Zhang Ziyi in high heels and cheongsams...

Oh, yes, back to the movie...

In reading a lot of reviews of the movie, which, I feel, is entirely necessary after one viewing, I did not see one that went farther than just mentioning using 2046 and 2047 as their clear origins as the years surrounding the end of the 50 year period of nominal independence of Hong Kong. This would clearly be an interesting thing to study in the context of a man who has fallen in love with one woman but has to leave and then cannot function as a human being afterwards. What that has to do with a hooker who'd go straight for the man and a gambler who wears one black glove, I'm not entirely sure. I'll have to think a little bit more about that before discovering the relevance. Or at least being able to explain said relevance with any type of accuracy. I'm not even touching upon the fact that 2046 is the place where people go to recall lost memories, and that no one has ever returned from there. At least in the context of Hong Kong, as it's pretty damn clear that Tony Leung has never returned from his lost memories of Maggie Cheung. Which, I have to say, I would probably agree with, except that it is Zhang Ziyi in a cheongsam throwing herself at me...

Anyway, the entire problem with this movie is simple. All I want to do is watch it again and again in order to get everything out of it. Like I've done with his other movies, rewatching 2046 will bring out more and more things I want to discuss. Of course, my problem with rewatching it is that it just makes me think of my unfortunate timing in meeting women.

Goodbye, Dragon Inn & The Skywalk Is Gone

Goodbye, Dragon Inn was pretty typical Ming-liang Tsai, with lots of long non-moving shots. However, for an added bonus, I also got to see my parents' bored reactions. Which was fun. Because this was 80 minutes of very little happening. I had to read reviews to keep from just giggling uncontrollably at how it was not going to make anyone who doesn't already love movies or spends too much time in movie theaters bored out of their minds. So I can see why people would hate it. I, however, did not hate it, and enjoyed almost every part. The little bits of observational humor were funny, and my only real complaint is that he pushed the viewer a little too much. While he could have done everything in the movie in about 10 minutes, he kept some scenes going way too long. And that's from someone who enjoyed the movie. My dad didn't even make it to the first lines of dialogue halfway through. Definitely a movie that rewards multitasking. Focusing too much on it might actually cause you to hate it.

The Skywalk Is Gone is apparently an epilogue to Tsai's earlier film, What Time Is It There? which I haven't seen. However, I do intend to see it at some point, and the Wayward Cloud (his followup to those two), so I felt I should see it rather than be forced to rent it again after seeing the other one. So I felt a little strange as I didn't have the full background to get at it. But it works, somewhat, as I knew the basic plot of the original, but I have a feeling that I need to see the two full-length films to make a real judgment about this. So, for now, I have to say that it was interesting, but not that interesting.

The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera was crap. I'm not sure whether it was just that the songs get on my nerves or what, but I didn't enjoy anything. Emmy Rossum clearly is very talented, but the overproduction of the music that is inherent in any Andrew Lloyd Webber musical hides her voice in too many effects. Too bombastic. The fault goes to two people: ALW (who sucks) and Joel Schumacher who never met a movie he couldn't make into a mess. Plus, it's godawful long. So long that it causes me pain. I can't believe I sat through it on the stage. At least I didn't have to see stupid CGI effects on stage. The more I hear the score of any ALW musical, the more I'm convinced that only unmusical people like his crap. The only musical of his that I like is Joseph, which has the benefit of being both his first and shortest. Plus, it has Tim Rice's lyrics, so it's not entirely ALW. But man, this movie just really sucks. And Raoul is just a poor man's Ewan McGregor. I'm also pretty sure everyone is lipsynching. Couldn't they at least have tried a little harder? Too many edits as well.

Things Change, Closer, & Steamboy

Things Change was typical Mamet, although much fluffier than his typical twisting tales. Not that there aren't enough twists in this for another movie, but it's a light movie. With Don Ameche being very enjoyable. And Ricky Jay telling a story in such a way that would only be told in a Mamet movie. I really enjoyed it, but that could just have been because I love the way that Mamet uses words and repetition.

Closer is depressing. I'd like to think that love isn't anything like that. I'd like to. Clive Owen and Natalie Portman were much better than Jude Law and Julia Roberts. Much better. I can appreciate a movie like this, but I can't say I like any of the characters much. Except for Natalie, but that's probably just because she's nowhere near as evil as the rest of them. Maybe Julia wasn't as evil as either of the two guys, but she's Julia, so she loses points for that.

Steamboy looked good, but made little to no sense. I'd really prefer that anime made more sense, because they have so many opportunities to make great stories, but this was just mumbo-jumbo about not using science to destroy. Steampunk is fun as an idea, but I don't think it's really been done effectively by anyone. At least not off the top of my head. Well, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne both did some interesting things that could be considered steampunk, but few others. The entire end of the movie was just one big long never ending action scene. Which could have lost at least 20 minutes and everyone would have gotten the same idea. Beh. Why must anime never make sense unless Studio Ghibli is involved somehow? I think all my expectations for them are too high. I keep expecting that this one will be the one that makes some sense. And they keep failing.

Eat Drink Man Woman

I started watching Eat Drink Man Woman around 6:30, and quickly realised that was a terrible idea. I had to stop it around fifteen minutes in to have dinner. And I had a lot to eat, meaning that watching people sitting around with huge amounts of amazing looking food just made me feel slightly nauseous. Which sucked because that was some amazing looking food. Even ignoring just how good the food looked, the movie was amazingly touching. I'd, for some damn fool reason, seen Tortilla Soup before this. That was a Latino version set in southern California, only worth watching for the food. But it had the same basic plot. When I started to watch this, however, I completely forgot how wretched that was, and was just entranced by how amazing everything was in this. Ang Lee needs to make more movies like this and less like the Hulk. Admittedly I haven't seen the Hulk, but if there were more movies like Eat Drink Man Woman, I think the world would be a better place. But not movies exactly like Eat Drink Man Woman, as the aforementioned Tortilla Soup was crap. Watching the brief bit about Ang Lee in Taiwan just made it clear exactly why it was so effective: it was designed to be completely universal. And it succeeded beautifully. It's weird how many of movies I'm watching now are movies I know that my parents saw and loved when I was a youngun, but I missed because I was too young to appreciate them. Did make me feel like the middle daughter though. Damnit. I think I need to get back to work so I stop thinking about things.

Spider, Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars, The Ruling Class, Under Capricorn, Bent, & Hiroshima Mon Amour

This is going to be fairly brief, since I've been pretty sick this past week, plus work sucked. And I went to NYC for an office holiday party and saw friends I hadn't seen in years. Basically I was really busy every day until today, and I'm still coughing a lot.

Spider has an amazingly good performance from Ralph Fiennes, although, really, it shouldn't be amazing. He's just that good. Depressing movie though.

Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars has terrible video quality. If that was the improved version, then... I don't know what the hell was going on in the original. Murky, bad sound, and worse, it made early 70s Bowie look bad. How was that possible? And it's not like D.A. Pennebaker doesn't know what he's doing, because he's the man responsible for Don't Look Back. Just an utter mess of a movie. Listen to the albums, it'll be much more enjoyable.

The Ruling Class has another good performance from Peter O'Toole in a way too long movie. Him as Jesus Christ was somewhat enjoyable, but it became ridiculous when they brought in the Electric God or whatever. What the hell? Before that it was full of very funny lines. After that it was a sharp satire of sanity of the rich and powerful and the House of Lords. But during that, it was just stupid.

Under Capricorn was a mess for a Hitchcock. Yeah, it kept the long takes of Rope, although it wasn't entirely made of them, but it had no real tension, and most scenes moved like molasses. The cast was wasted, and the story was boring as hell. Plus, the DVD was crap. The only thing that made it somewhat worth watching for was the head in the bed. That was quite a shock. And I even knew that was coming.

Bent has a great performance from Clive Owen as a gay German during the Holocaust. Just from that sentence, you can tell it was a happy movie. However, I'm really not sure how that movie could have possibly been rated NC-17. I don't recall any extended frontal male nudity or anything else that normally makes movies rated NC-17. What's up with that, M.P.A.Freakin'A.?

Hiroshima Mon Amour made me start crying about five minutes in, and didn't let up. I never want to see another mutilated body ever again, but I know that that's a problem with this planet: we're always going to have war. At least until we get rid of everyone. The long beginning showing the survivors of Hiroshima made me extremely uncomfortable. Not just for that, but also because I almost went to see the movie on the big screen with a date. I would have felt very uncomfortable there. I still would have loved the movie, but that would have been a good story for why I screwed up that relationship (She looks really good now too, better than when I dated her). The plot of the movie itself didn't really work all that way, although it's interesting to compare that to Hollywood films of the time, since there's no way any of it would have been made here with that adultery and unmarried sex bit. But as a look at the effects of Hiroshima, it was very effective.

Drugstore Cowboy & My Favorite Year

Drugstore Cowboy was a sort of sad movie about druggies in Oregon in 1971. But it goes to show that Gus Van Sant is not a total incompetent. Only mainly. Matt Dillon was somewhat good, but the movie never became more than its parts. Shame really, because it could have been great.

My Favorite Year was one of those madcap movies that thinks that comedy is having a character do the bug eyes and rush off to stop someone doing something funny. Unfortunately, it also has Peter O'Toole in a very good performance. Meaning that I can't completely dismiss the movie as crap. Damnit.

Syriana

Syriana was so good. Clooney acted his pants off. Not literally, because he was fat in the movie and that would have been disturbing. Well, he was 35 pounds overweight with a big beard. But he was very convincing. Damon's subplot seemed a little unnecessary, but the oil company merger subplot and the suicide bombers more than made up for that weakness. The torture scenes were extremely painful looking, and I never want to see another fingernail pulled off with pliers ever again. The merger subplot was, I think, the most important one in it, because it had Tim Blake Nelson, and his rant about why corruption is important was just amazing ("Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain't nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets. (beat) Corruption... is how we win."). This movie won't make a lot of money, because it's so damn comlicated and depressing (not just the content, but mainly what it predicts for the world), but it is a must see movie. Apparently, Gaghan made it confusing on purpose, but I found that it wasn't all that difficult to follow, although it took a while to get all the Arab characters straight. And most reviews by lay people who have said it was confusing were missing things that I saw or heard easily. So just pay attention, and it'll be fine.
After watching the movie, the Sierra Club (from whom I heard about the free preview and got the tickets) brought out their special guests, who just happened to be Bob Baer and Stephen Gaghan. Which was absolutely awesome.
Stephen was extremely funny narrating the closing credits ("These are very long", "I picked this very readable font from a menu at a restaurant I liked, and then I found out it was used on road signs", "Just wait a bit for the timpani", "This guy is responsible for us being able to continue to film in Dubai because he stood up to a general who tried to shut us down after a couple days"), and then told stories about how some of the things in the movie had happened to him, including the kidnapping to meet with Hezbollah, except that he said the leader of Hezbollah said that he loved Traffic, which was just bizarre. Apparently, he got a call within a couple minutes of stepping off the plane in Beirut, and a friend of a friend of Bob Baer's tells him he has a surprise for him but that he needed to come immediately, so Stephen decides to do it, and then gets everything taken from him and a hood put over his head, and starts to think that he's stupid because it took less than fifteen minutes in Lebanon before he got captured. He also told a great story about trying to get Richard Perle to say who they'd turn Iraq over to when they'd gotten done with the war, if Perle's preferred choice of Chalabi was rejected (as he clearly was because he hadn't lived in Iraq for years and was a puppet of both the Iranians and the US Government). So Perle steepled his hands and waits for a bit, until someone comes in and says Bibi's here. Then he says Excellent, just like Mr. Burns. Perle apparently has a dog named Reagan, and it went for Bibi's crotch, but Gaghan was pulling it off. Not the crotch, but the dog. So when Stephen was leaving, he goes out to the cab to see his Lebanese cab driver surrounded by Mossad agents with guns, and the cabbie just says, "Can we go now?" Absolutely insane. I'm telling the stories in a poor fashion, but Gaghan was absolutely mesmerizing with a microphone. I completely understand how he can pitch his movies. But he said that he has better stories he couldn't tell in the movie because no one would believe them.
Bob was a little more subdued, but much scarier because he clearly had experience and was talking about how the invasion of Iraq had set back our cause decades, and that it was only a matter of when a lot of countries in the Middle East would collapse. Very scary thought. He talked about a friend in Iraq who was completely right about what would happen after the main phase of the Iraq war, with no real fighting and then guerrilla war for a long time afterward. As an ABC reporter, Bob was trying to get into Iraq without a visa in the early days of fighting to see this friend, and, apparently, have the head of Iraqi intelligence surrender to him, and he eventually got in when the border guard was bribed with 100 goats, but about 12 hours from this guy's house in Ramadi, he heard that the Air Force had bombed the house and taken out some of Saddam's cousins who were staying there, but also took out all their wives and children as well. And he told the story like it was nothing. They also talked for a bit about how much they couldn't put in the film, due to legal issues, saying that at least one Arab country had successfully sued a movie when it was used in a derogatory fashion or something. But that Warner legal was scared of this happening to them over this firebomb of a movie. They said that the unnamed Persian Gulf state was made into an amalgam to avoid legal issues. He also explained what Syriana meant, which is fairly close to what I thought, but didn't say when he asked what we thought it meant: Syriana is a think tank term for the remade Middle East that has countries that help with the oil interests. I was going to say that it was a state of mind, that it was the idea that the Middle East could be remade. So instead of it being a state of mind it was sort of the actual Middle East.

In Good Company

In Good Company was described as a pro-corporate movie. It's actually just an anti-corporate double-speak movie. With good, but not too good, performances from the leads. But the problem with the movie is that it's a reaction to downsizing and corporations going after the profit motive. Which would be fine, if it weren't a Hollywood version of it. Which means happy ending. Beh. Plus, why does Selma Blair always get cast as the evil bitch? Is it just because she has dark hair? Can they not find better roles to give to her?

Good Night, & Good Luck., Stage Fright, Homecoming, Macbeth, & Kung Fu Hustle

Good Night, & Good Luck. has a period in the title. David Strathairn was very good, and it's an interesting story, but it just feels so superficial of an approach to the material. Doesn't make it a bad movie at all, just means that it works only as a history and a sort of evocation for the era. Plus, of course, a love letter to a time when journalists did their job and were very important. Clooney clearly loves this movie, and Murrow, and does as good a job as can be expected from a movie that was made, at least somewhat, to piss off Faux News and Bill O'Reilly. Who do deserve it, definitely.

Stage Fright contains one of Hitchcock's least favorite things, the false flashback. I'd read about it so many times, and yet when it appeared, I never once remembered that. Hitchcock was clearly a master filmmaker, and he was able to make even a typical plot of his interesting. Definitely worth seeing, even if just for Marlene Dietrich's very good performance. And the flashback, but mainly Marlene.

Homecoming was Joe Dante's entry into the Masters of Horror anthology series on Showtime. And damn if it didn't just make me more pissed off than ever that we couldn't just have zombies come back from the dead to vote out Bush. Damnit. Funny, angrifying, and infuriating. Actually, I just wanted to use angrifying. Probably most enjoyable for those of us who think that some funny business has been going on with this administration, but it's actually a well done hour long zombie film. Yeah, low budget as hell, but very enjoyable anyway. But, of course, I couldn't help thinking that the dead were supposed to vote Republican.

Macbeth is almost entirely a reaction by Polanski to the Manson family murders. The violence, the insanity, and the entire tragedy just seems to fit. Could have been a better movie, mainly by, I don't know, having a stronger Lady Macbeth, and, say, not having large amounts of fat women naked in it. But at least there was a decapitation, which makes any movie better. Not nearly as good of an adaptation as Throne of Blood, even if it had the actual lines in it. Weird that Hefner produces this actual good, if extremely nihilistic, movie, while Bob Guccione just produced the crap that was Caligula. Apparently Playboy is a lot classier than Penthouse.

Kung Fu Hustle was fun, but ultimately, it's just like every other Stephen Chow film, flashes of brilliance, along with lots of humor that just falls flat. However, he again finds a very attractive leading lady to have be a mute or have a strange physical condition, or be a prostitute. Just let them be normal, because few of those things are funny. Well, being a prostitute can be funny, like the idea that Pretty Woman was a good movie, but Chow just pushes some things too far. The huge amounts of CGI would have been distracting had I not just approached the movie as a live-action cartoon. Which, unlike Joe Dante's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, actually works as a movie. And what was with the guy who always had his pants riding low? Needed? I think not. I have this bad feeling about the gay kung fu master, if I didn't also have a competing feeling that it was done somewhat tongue in cheek. Somewhat, as Hong Kong is years behind even the US in accepting homosexuality. Which is sad. Not that there aren't great films with homosexuality (one only need to see Happy Together to realize that), but most mainstream films use gays as a punchline rather than as real people. And I, of course, loved the many film references.

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Undertow, A Raisin in the Sun, Beau Travail, & Ikiru

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was very interesting, and felt closer to the book in tone than Gene Wilder's, but the songs were better in the 70s version. Oompah, Loompa, Doopidie-do, I've got another riddle for you. Can't get better than that. It almost made me want to have some chocolate, except that I really don't get nearly as much pleasure out of plain chocolate as almost anyone else.
Undertow was a strange movie, with extended bits that kept me from thinking that Jamie Bell is English, but then I'd get a look at him and think Billy Elliot, and stop believing him as a Southerner. And then he convinces me he's a Southerner again. Great performance from him. Not sure about it otherwise though, because it dragged in parts.
A Raisin in the Sun was dated, but otherwise an interesting play. Mainly suffered from Sidney Poitier's overacting. Yeah, you heard me right, he overacted his way through this.
Beau Travail sucked. Only interesting thing was the music in the club scenes, and the attractive girls in the club scenes. So basically, if you took the club scenes and made them longer and gave them some sort of plot, I would have enjoyed it much more.
Ikiru was outstanding, and stands as probably the best anti-bureaucracy film of all time. An outstanding performance from Shimizu, but really, Kurosawa just made himself another masterpiece. So many of his films are amazing. Made me want to go out and see if I could go remove some bureaucracy from Washington, but then I realized that I probably couldn't do much unless I knew some people in power. And I don't yet.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, The Manchurian Candidate, Mysterious Skin, & Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children probably makes little sense to someone who doesn't already know these characters and the basic plot of FFVII. I also imagine that it might help to read some reviews of it to see if you can pick up the plot, since most of it doesn't really get explained. I also appreciated that Tifa had more clothes on this time. Before was sort of ridiculous. I also would have preferred that there was more Aeris, but since she's dead, I guess we can't have that. Makes me somewhat interested in seeing what they could do with new technology and FFVII. Well, I guess we can always just accept that the new games will have to keep us busy.

The Manchurian Candidate was ok, but didn't need to be made, nor did it do anything new for the story. Denzel was ok, as were Meryl and Liev, but none really did anything new. Beh to the making of this movie.

Mysterious Skin is one of those, yay for pederasts movies. Wait, it was one of those pederasts are terrible movies. Quite a few more of the latter than the former. Acting was very good from that young alien, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I was a little shocked I actually liked a Gregg Araki movie. Did not care at all for Doom Generation. If you're up for a pederast movie, and for seeing Dawn in a good role, then see this movie.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire felt like it was just trying to fit in as much plot as possible, and thus just spent lots of time on the plot and not enough on allowing characters to do much. Plus, it didn't take nearly enough advantage of Katie Leung's accent. There were actual gasps in the theater when she spoke. Is a thick Scottish accent coming out of an Asian girl that surprising? Really? I like to think that it was just the audience. So yeah, I saw the movie in a theater. Does make me want to read the book, since it appears lots of interesting things happened outside of the scope of the book. JK needs to write quickly.