When the Levees Broke, Bitter Victory, & House of Bamboo

When the Levees Broke is powerful must-see filmmaking. There is nothing more that needs to be said. If it doesn't piss you off immensely, your last name is either Bush or Cheney.

Bitter Victory has Christopher Lee in it. Huh. But it's also the film that caused Godard to say, "henceforth there is cinema, and the cinema is Nicholas Ray." Does it live up to that? Of course not. Hyperbole of that sort pisses me off. Godard is a completely silly man. Is it a good war film? Yes. Richard Burton and Curd Jürgens having a constant argument ostensibly about anything other than that they both love the same woman, and that they want to kill each other but can't for various reasons. All set in the North African desert. You have the idealistic former archaeologist and the career army man. The deeper meanings of the conflict are pretty clearly similar to Rebel without a Cause and other angry youth films of the period.

House of Bamboo is why I watched The Street with No Name. Because it's a Samuel Fuller remake of that film set in Japan, and was the first Hollywood film made there. Those two reasons were more than enough. Too bad the original was so eh. At least they didn't bother to have any whites playing Japanese. Man, that pisses me off to no end. Fuller and the cinematography are excellent. It's a shame that the movie itself is so damn weak. It's the whole documentary touches that just take you out of the film that make it worse. Still suffers from "White-guy-yells-to-make-himself-understood-in-foreign-country" that just is annoying. The movie just doesn't work, but to the extent it does, it has nothing to do with the script. Also, eyebrows are attractive to Japanese women? Interesting...

Non-movie apology & PS3!

And with that, I'm caught up. However, don't expect me to see as many films in 2007 as I did for most of 2006. I bought a PS3, and I have to play through some games I missed since I don't have a PS2. But if you ever catch me humming along to the Katamari Damacy theme, well, that's the price you pay for me getting a PS3. Plus, you know, I'm running out of movies I haven't seen. And what's up with an insane amount of hits from Europeans looking for a blog named Caseus? I think that there might be a European sex blog with a name similar to Caseus. Man, if only I had a sexblog, I'd be raking in the cash. Everyone wants to read my comments on hoohoos and penii!

October, A Touch of Zen, Fitzcarraldo, & Murder on a Sunday Morning

October was pretty good, but it's nowhere near as good as other Eisenstein films I've seen. Damn shame too, that Trotsky was edited out. Stupid totalitarians and their desire to remove all history that doesn't dovetail with the prevailing point of view. Man, totalitarians suck.

A Touch of Zen is, seriously, one of the best wuxia films I've ever seen. I clearly need to see King Hu's Dragon Inn. Interesting plot, impressive visuals, and about the only thing I can really complain about it is that the DVD kept the film in two parts, with an extra credit sequence and the fight scene that ends the first part replayed. What's up with that? If anything were different, I would not complain, but the scene was pretty long and completely unnecessary to replay. Oh, and there were, of course, some awkward subtitles, and swords that were clearly not particularly sturdy, but that's to be expected. That it was outstanding really shouldn't have been, considering it's one of the many evil eunuch films. Man, eunuchs suck.

Fitzcarraldo was long, but a fascinating look at ice-making in Latin America. Oh, wait, that was The Mosquito Coast. I mean, this was a long, fascinating look at getting a steamboat over a hill and down the rapids. To build an opera house. In the jungle. In Peru. Yeah, it's not most people's idea of a good time, but I enjoyed it. Insane, but I enjoyed it. Klaus Kinski as a part Scot? Sure! Man, moving a steamboat over a hill sucks.

Murder on a Sunday Morning is a documentary about a black 15 year old kid who gets accused by the long arm of the law of killing a white older tourist by her husband, and is clearly not given due process. The lawyer who is involved is very impressive in his investigation, especially given that he's a public defender. It's a damn shame that more lawyers aren't that good. But everyone owes it to themselves to see the film. And learn, maybe, that everyone that gets arrested by the police isn't necessarily guilty. Man, Florida sucks.

Strangers with Candy, A Dirty Shame, Layer Cake, Walk on Water, & Transamerica

Strangers with Candy was funny, but it suffered from the same problems that most TV-to-movies suffer from: it's hard to hold someone's interest for 22 minutes at a time, and then try to make that character interesting for an hour and a half. That said, if you loved the show, you'll love the movie. I found some episodes great, and others not as good. So consequently, I found some scenes hilarious, and others just fell flat. Pretty much every scene with Allison Janney and Philip Seymour Hoffman stood out, and Colbert, Dinello, and Sedaris were all very good. Just some comedy, in my mind, didn't work very well. Others will clearly have differing views.

A Dirty Shame is pretty much the correct title for a film that, while filthy, is at least better than some of the crap that gets put out and gets lower ratings. It also doesn't work as well as Waters's "cleaner" films. Pecker, Hairspray, Cry Baby, and Serial Mom are all good films, but this was just a mess. Damnit Waters, I try so hard to enjoy your films, and even then, I just can't. So I will just continue to appreciate you as a filmmaker, while still enjoying many, many, many other films much more. I do, of course, commend him for releasing an NC-17 film, because not enough of them are released nowadays (except the straight-to-video Skinemax trash, or the American Pie series (technically unrated, but you know it'd be NC-17, because only those under 18 would be interested in that crap)).

Layer Cake actually made me want to see Casino Royale. It's really impressive. Man, Daniel Craig was good in it, and why hasn't Matthew Vaughn done anything since then? Why the hell didn't he work on Casino Royale? He would know exactly what to do. Of course, I am now interested in his next film, which is based on a Neil Gaiman novel, Stardust. Layer Cake is one of the better last drug score movies I've seen. Definitely see it, especially if you like stylish films about drugs.

Walk on Water is an Israeli film about Nazi hunting, homosexuality, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli folk dancing, and the fact that apparently you can be naked on the shores of the Dead Sea. And the differences between circumcised and non-circumcised penii. An Israeli assassin (working for Mossad, but it never really is mentioned) starts to regret his career choice, but still is given a job to learn where the Nazi who killed his parents is, by leading his grandson around Israel on a tour. It works surprisingly well, considering how many ideas it tries to stick in the running time. I guess it's better for someone with an interest in all those things I said it was about, but even if you aren't interested in all of those (me!), it's not bad at all.

Transamerica is manipulative dreck. Seriously, it was all, GIMME AN OSCAR! and I WILL SHOW YOU FELICITY HUFFMAN WITH A DICK! Sorry, you need a non-cliched plot. Replace the transexual angle with just a normal deadbeat dad, and it's not noteworthy at all. Oh, sure, Felicity Huffman is "ugly" so she's a great actress! And it has a Dolly Parton song! Nevermind that the song sucks, and being ugly doesn't make you a good actress. About the only thing I really liked in it was Carrie Preston, someone I enjoy entirely because of her role in Wonderfalls as the wound-up penguin. Sorry, people who liked it. Watch more movies and you'll see many vastly better films. And you'll realize just how eh the film was.

James and the Giant Peach & Flight of the Navigator

James and the Giant Peach has bad songs, and the live action sections are full of overacting. But the stop animation work is typically brilliant Henry Selick. I probably should have seen this film years ago, but thanks Netflix.

Flight of the Navigator is another film I am pretty sure I had seen before, but I don't really remember it at all. So I watched it again, and realized that it's actually a pretty good kids film. Who knew that Disney was capable? And Sarah Jessica Parker all-80s'd up? Well, not really attractive. But I still wish that Four Weddings and a Funeral had costarred her instead of Andie MacDowell, or Jeanne Tripplehorn for that matter. Anyone other than Andie MacDowell. So bad.

The Talk of the Town, Fury, The Great McGinty, The Sea Hawk, & The Street with No Name

The Talk of the Town really doesn't quite match the title. Is anyone seriously talking about Cary Grant running from a lynch mob? And Jean Arthur and Cary Grant and Ronald Coleman are all well and good, but who eats borscht? It lost me with that, but the whole thing just seemed over the top, and not in the good screwball way. The debating scenes were just boring. Too much political diatribe, not enough comedy.

Fury is another film about a guy hiding from a lynch mob that took a very different approach. Too bad it suffered from the inability of the code to accept that a hero can be evil. Because man, I didn't want Spencer Tracy to be at all good. I wanted him to be an avenging angel, exterminating those who wanted to railroad him. I bet the original script had him painted in more shades of gray, maybe even made him evil. Because that would have made me like the film, rather than just have been bored with it. Well, not bored, because there were some good scenes, but it doesn't work as good as it should have.

The Great McGinty doesn't work as well as later Preston Sturges films, but really what does work as well as... well, any of the films he made over the next couple of years? The film has a place in any film lovers heart, because it allowed Sturges to make his later films, plus it helped to create the writer-director, which gave us such great cinematic geniuses as David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Edward Burns. Brian Donlevy is great as the corrupt beggar, voter, and politician who gets a conscience and suffers his downfall for that reason. It's still a funny film, and all, but it's short and really feels it.

The Sea Hawk is worth it just for Claude Rains as a Spaniard. Who knew? Well, the swashbuckling is a little on the eh side, not nearly as good as some of Flynn's other works, like, ummm, his prodigious sexual appetites. And the expression "In like Flynn", and being responsible for one of the good songs on Combat Rock, in a roundabout way (his son was the Sean Flynn of the song, and who attended Duke University). The film itself is a weird combination of one that goes on far too long, and doesn't do enough. Or maybe I just couldn't pay attention to the boring bits.

The Street with No Name is no good. It's a "realistic" film noir, but it doesn't work nearly as well, as other docudramas of the era, like Call Northside 777. And Mark Stevens was a stuffed shirt. The only thing at all worthwhile in the film is Richard Widmark, but he's far better in other films, like, ummm, his war or western films, or Pickup on South Street. Don't watch a bad film just because it has a good actor in it. I still haven't quite learned that lesson. And don't even get me started on those scenes at the FBI. Such a waste of time.

Inferno, The Transporter 2, & The Sea Inside

Inferno is... bad. Not nearly as good as Suspiria, which would probably have made me appreciate the film a little more if I hadn't seen it before. But I didn't care for it at all. Yeah, it's stylish, but who cares. It makes no sense.

The Transporter 2 is worse than the first. And it's not just because Qi Shu isn't in it. It's because it isn't any good. About the only thing worthwhile in the film is the scene where Frank beats the crap out of guys with the hose. Which I saw before the movie premiered on some video sharing site. But it was on HBO or something, so I DVR'd it and wasted an hour and a half.

The Sea Inside was a movie I wanted to see because it was done by Alejandro Amenabar, who did Abre Los Ojos, Thesis, and The Others. Too bad all three of those films were much better than this. Javier Bardem was good, but the movie was far too long and I just couldn't get involved.

Casino, Borat, & The Quiet American

Casino is overly long, but it's a very good film. I highly recommend it. I have no idea why I hadn't seen it before. I really don't. I mean, Goodfellas is a great frickin' film, and Scorsese doing gangsters is just good. Well, Scorsese in general is good.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is funny, but the more I think about it, the less I'm impressed with it. I enjoyed it while I was watching it, but I pretty much never have to watch it again. And I never want to watch the wrestling scene ever again.

The Quiet American actually was closer to the remake than I was expecting. Yeah, there's the expected cop-out ending, because you can't have an American being a terrorist, but it was pretty good until that point. I still have a soft spot for Audie Murphy, so I enjoyed it, but it's not really a good film overall.

Faust & Man with the Movie Camera

Faust and Man with the Movie Camera are two late-era silent films by European directors, Faust by F.W. Murnau and Man by Dziga Vertov. Murnau, of course, is a vastly talented director, while I've never heard of anything by Vertov. It's an experimental film, following a man, who just happens to have a movie camera, around the Soviet Union making the film that we're watching. It's... strange. It's interesting, but it just seems a little too out there for me. Faust is one of the classic stories, and it's a very good retelling. Well, the impressive imagery is typical of Murnau, but there are typically melodramatic touches that hurt the film. Of course, they weren't as cliched back then, but they are now. Faust is the better film, but Man with the Movie Camera is the more important film in history for it's cinematic inventiveness.

Loves of a Blonde & Closely Watched Trains

Loves of a Blonde and Closely Watched Trains are two of the best Czech New Wave films. Also both are all about sex. Well, Closely Watched Trains is also about the anti-Nazi resistance late in WWII. Loves of a Blonde is a Milos Forman film, while Jirí Menzel directed the other one. I don't think I know any of his other films. They're both about young people who are immature about love, Loves being about a factory girl who follows a pianist to Prague, and Closely Watched Trains being about a train dispatcher who loves a conductress but can't get it up. Of course, both are really about the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. It's more obvious in Closely Watched Trains, but the totalitarian society that has a factory town of 16 women to every man clearly just is depressing. Both are worth watching, but I prefer Closely Watched Trains. Only partially because of Jitka Bendová. Yeah, she's hot. But it also just feels more important of a film. Anyway, definitely see them.