Satantango

The essay is up.

Land Of The Lost

Synchronicity is odd. A few days ago I mentioned Land Of The Lost, and yesterday I saw this trailer for a comic, spoof version of the old show:



Will Ferrell is probably the best film comedian around- less predictable than Mike Myers, and not as taken with his own humor as Jim Carrey or Robin Williams. How to take on this old show? Just make fun of it all. I may even be tempted to see this in theaters. Pretension kills. This looks like the least pretentious Hollywood flick in years.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown

I forget whether it was this film or the re-release of The Sound Of Music, which was my first movie experience in a theater. And that theater was Radio City Music Hall. On a big screen, this film was quite impressive.

In my linked post, I erred and thought this film was called You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, but the correct title is above. I recall the river rafting sequence, and, somehow, it's as if 40 years pass by in a whirr. Too, I recall Julie Andrews' mien on the big screen, but even more so than the first Christmas tv special with the Peanuts gang, this film is the definitive Charlie Brown, to me.

Here is a link to the film.

Here is the opening sequence:

Dark City Redux?

I earlier posted about this film, and rewatched it last week, in the Director's Cut edition. A great film, but I don't know if the additions, and deletion of the opening voiceover really makes the film better. Proyas, in the DVD commentary thinks so. But I think the changes are more akin to the Apocalypse Now-Apocalypse Now Redux cut- longer, but still of the same quality. Oftentimes directors are screwed, but other times it's their vanity and egos at work when they decry studio edits. Blade Runner, while no great film, is actually better in its first cut, with cheesy voiceover that leavens some of the mawkish scenes within by adding a taste of unintended POMo self-deprecation.

Here is Kiefer Sutherland doing his Peter Lorre best:



However, the most famous scene from this film made iconic the image of Jennifer Connelly at the end of a long pier.

Sleeper.

I watched the 1973 Woody Allen film Sleeper last night. It's been kind of a hectic and emotionally tiring week, so I just wanted something lite to kick back and enjoy. I remember this movie from when I was a kid and saw it on TV. It's silly-funny. Basically Woody Allen wakes up and the year is 2173, and it's always funny to see what the past anticipated the future would be like. The computers are still large and film projectors are still being used, yet the hair and styles are still from the 1970s.

Even though the movie is silly, there are still some witty lines. A list can be found here, but here are some of them:

Luna Schlosser: It's hard to believe that you haven't had sex for 200 years.
Miles Monroe: 204, if you count my marriage.

Miles Monroe: I'm not really the heroic type. I was beat up by Quakers.

Miles Monroe: When I asked my mother where babies came from, she thought I said "rabies." She said you get them from being bitten by a dog. The next week, a woman on my block gave birth to triplets... I thought she'd been bitten by a great dane.

Miles Monroe: I'm what you would call a teleological, existential atheist. I believe that there's an intelligence to the universe, with the exception of certain parts of New Jersey.

---

Luna Schlosser: I think we should have had sex, but there weren't enough people.

The trailer is really funny and worth the watch. Woody appears in it as himself:

Tearjerkers: Good Stuff

The label tearjerker has become a pejorative, because it often means sentimental to the extreme.

But there are films that are tearjerkers that are great art. In mind are film's like Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar and Theo Angelopoulos's Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow. These films are truly masterpieces of misery and sadness.

But, even Hollywood can occasionally get things right. About a decade ago. My Dog Skip was released, and it is a superb film; I would argue a great one, if but for the writing. It puts me in mind of October Sky and A River Runs Through It, films also based upon memoirs, like My Dog Skip.

Here is the film's end, and even non-animal lovers, or cat lovers (like me) can appreciate the scene below, for it is simple, not simplistic; realistic, not truthful; and never makes one want to retch. It also is a family film- another term that has become a pejorative.



I say, watch it, for it's even better than Stand By Me, long considered te king of non-Disney family films.

Doug McClure and the TV show 'Lost'

Last night, I kicked back and was switching between American Idol and Lost- two popular tv shows.

I'd seen only two full episodes of Lost before and this was the season 5 finale. What a bad show! Now the cast is stuck between times- 1977 and 2007, and there is absolutely no depth to the show. It reminded me of many of the 1970s B films of Doug McClure, where random shit is thrown in the script and the actors deal with it; or even of the old Saturday morning 1970s show, Land Of The Lost; which was actually quite superior in its writing and themes.

The thing that annoys me, though, is that this dreck is what passes for deep television. Not something like The Prisoner, but this garbage.

No character development, the dumbest possible action trope to push the plot along....yet this is billed as deep. Jeez!

At least Doug McClure is not around to see his silly B films lauded as real art!

Dr. Cyclops

One of the earliest color horror films, and one that has stayed with me for decades.



Albert Dekker is great as the Doc, but it's hard to believe this was made almost 70 years ago!

Sharon Stone

One of the things I hate most is waste, and one of the biggest wastes of acting talent around these days is Sharon Stone. Loved her in some early roles, but after her Scorsese gig in Casino, it's been all downhill- bad roles, age, medical problems, divorces, and then mouthing off stupidly as a celebrity.



Oh well, I guess even Mensans have their off decades.

Bicentennial Man

While resting up after a hard week of work, I flipped the channels and came in about five minutes after the start of this film, based on an Isaac Asimov tale, and directed by, of all people, Chris Columbus, that Ron Howard wannabe.

The first hour or so is very good, far better than Spielberg's A.I. Then the film transitions from the robot version of Andrew to a flesh and blood Robin Williams. While the film does not outright tank, it does become a 'Robin Williams' film- i.e.- a tearjerker. But, in a good sense.

The tale is strong enough to overcome the predictability of Williams' character- Andrew- in his quest for humanity and, yes, love. But, with a better script (and a different lead actor), it could have been a great film, rather than a merely good one.